Props to the Offspring

Here are a few things I'm feeling fiercely proud of right now:

• Sam just won 3 out of 4 matches in his first wrestling tournament of the year. He is really focused during the wrestling season and I'm glad for him to see some results.
  
• Our dishwasher is not working, and last night, when we realized the sad truth, Sara and Evan voluntarily organized a dish-washing line and worked like a couple of professionals to get the dishes washed, rinsed and dried in record time. They took it on like a project and there was this wonderful energy and sense of shared purpose. It was just dishes, but it was a seriously cool moment.
  
• My kids always help bring stuff in from the car. All I have to do is come in the house and say "A little grocery help, please," and every one of them will get their shoes on and come help me. They also help put it all away. Really.
  
• They have put up with me teaching seminary (a daily scripture study class for teenagers that meets in our home at 5:50 AM-nope, not a typo) for 6+ years. This means that I'm often tired, I always have a lesson to prepare, and the family room usually looks more like a classroom than anything else. Yet, they still help me set up the chairs and tolerate me taking 20 minute mini-naps at odd times.
• They love Christmas and I found out today that they feel a certain family pride in the fact that I collect Nativity sets and have over 30 of them displayed around the house. Today they were joking that next I'll find a way to display a nativity on the dog. Hmm, I'll have to think about that one.
  
• They will gather around me to sing Christmas songs together while I plink badly on the piano for accompaniment.

I'm feeling very, very lucky as a parent right now. These feelings have come, most ironically, after a freakishly busy week filled with a lot of frustrations and opposition. Sometimes it really is in the crucible of challenge that true character is revealed. I'm grateful for the people my kids have become. As I said in my Christmas letter this year, they show every evidence of actually surviving my continued attempts at parenting. Amazing.

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Shopping Fun

Well, I did my shopping and decided to help the economy after all. Just a little. We all have to do our part, you know. For inquiring minds, the catalog that sent me the gift card is Sundance. It was started by Robert Redford and has all sort of gorgeous stuff that makes me say, "Oh, that is so me!" All sorts of artsy and quirky and ridiculously expensive. But, when you add together a sale, a gift card, a free shipping code and shopping the clearance section, I did pretty well. It's a good feeling.

No smugness intended.

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Something fun from Simple Mom

One of my favorite daily reads is SimpleMom. Right now she is doing a very fun giveaway of some beautiful jewelry that not only puts lovely things into her readers' hands, it promotes businesses run by moms, which is cool. To enter, she asked readers to tell about family heirlooms that have been passed down. I have two beautiful knitted dresses that my grandmother made. Of course, me being a knitter, I am especially appreciative of them. My sister and I wore them when we were wee babes, and our kids have worn them. I think I can come up with photos. I'll be working on that. So, if you'd like to check out this post, enter and enjoy thinking about your family treasures.

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Reality Comes Crashing Down

Okay, so yesterday, I wrote that the economy had not yet affected my life directly. I probably sounded smug about having been steeped in the principles of provident and frugal living all my life. I didn't mean to sound smug if I did, nor did I mean to imply that Mormons have the corner on the market of sound money management. They/we surely don't.

Today though, all those statistics about the importance of the holiday shopping season to the economy have become real. The true gravity of the downturn presented itself to me in a rather shocking way yesterday. Brace yourselves.

I haven't done much internet shopping over the past few months, mostly because I have kids in college. Yesterday, my favorite drool-over-but-only-shop-the-clearance-section catalog ever sent one of those "We miss you" cards. Usually, it's a discount code. That would have been cool, but for this catalog, probably not enough to tempt me. Not this time. This catalog however, . . . w a i t f o r i t. . . in their desperation to just get me surfing their website, they sent a full-on 50 dollar gift card. No strings attached-it's not a "spend 300 get 50 off" card, it's just a big fat real one.

Bless the retailers' hearts, but this makes my day. I love the challenge of spending ONLY the gift card with no overflow. I won't be helping the economy AT ALL, but I will have fun.

Sorry if I sound smug.

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Completely Blocked

I've written and discarded at least 7 posts over the last week. They all seemed so lame. They were all about nothing, which only works if you're a writer for the Seinfeld show. Which is off the air, so that won't work. Today I'm going to keep writing and post it anyway, and maybe if I keep doing it, I'll be able to write again. Bear with me as I work past whatever is blocking me. It might not be pretty.

To add to that, photography is really frustrating lately. I either have a lens issue or a camera issue, so fully half of all the photos I'm taking have this slight, out of focus halo around every object. I have it narrowed down to a few variables, and I think it might be one of my lenses at a certain range of f-stops, but then it will happen unexpectedly at another time and mess up my data collection. I need to go talk to my guys at Penn Camera. It's good to have a little perspective on the old Photog hobby and remember that a few good pictures are good enough, and that sometimes even the fuzzy ones can tell the story. It's photos, not world peace.

The news is bad because of terror and the economy and all that, which is serious, but I really have to focus on my real life, which is so far, unaffected by most of the bad news that is dominating the airwaves. I don't mean to sound flippant, because I know many people are truly being affected, but all I can do right now is try to live by sound financial principles in my own sphere and try to be prepared. I feel fortunate to belong to a church that teaches personal preparation for the future so it is something of a way of life for many Mormons. Sometimes we are seen as being extreme in our preparations, but it is not about bunkers or predictions about the end of the world. It's called Provident Living, which simply means being able to provide for one's self and then reach out to help others. What we do have is extra food and water, and it is part of the doctrine of our church to be careful and prayerful with money so that we control it rather than it controlling us. Preparation puts any person in a position to have less fear. It also allows them to keep giving and be generous with time and money rather than hide in a corner, clutching at their own stuff. I love that the little free money management course that you can access on the above website is called "Peace in Your Hearts." How's that for the polar opposite of what the news is reporting?

Our Thanksgiving was nice-small and quiet-all the little ones are out west and gathered at other homes. This year, it was our family of 5 plus my cute Mom and Pop. We went to their house because they are getting ready to sell and retire and all that in the next couple of years, so it might have been our last Thanksgiving there. Bittersweet.

Friday was leaf raking and house-cleaning and Saturday was Christmas-tree getting and house-decorating. More photos of that later.

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