Jan 26, 2012

Unsent Letters, Volume 5

written by katrina · 6 Comments

Dear Elliptical Machine,

Hello, friend. It is okay if I call you “friend,” isn’t it? After all, we’ve been hanging out together for about a month now, spending “quality time” together most days of the week. And even though, at the beginning, I could only stand to be near you for ten minutes at a time, I’ve gradually found it easier to spend longer and longer sessions with you. Now when we get together, it’s for nearly half an hour. So yes, I think we could consider ourselves friends.

Anyway, here’s the thing. Spending time with you has been good for my heart. My heartrate no longer soars to perviously unknown heights and ridiculously high numbers as soon as I begin to move, and that’s good. But still, when I’m done, my legs are all jello-y, I can hardly breathe, and I feel like immediately falling upon the couch and taking a nap. So could you take it a little easy on me? Or at least say something encouraging while I’m working out? Things would be a lot easier if you said things like, “Good job,” “Keep it up,” or even better, “Katrina — you totally rock!” while I’m exercising.

So, um, work on that, okay? Thanks.

Your friend,
Katrina the Jello-Legged

***

Dear Trader Joe’s,

You do realize that you threaten to counteract all the hard work I’m doing with my dear friend, the elliptical machine, right? With your aisles of yummy trail mixes, cookies, chocolate covered coffee beans, peanut-butter-filled pretzels, and other such goodies…well, it’s hard to visit you and then consistently uphold good health practices.

And yes, I know the food you offer is, in many cases, healthier than the stuff I would buy at Ye Old Standard Grocery Store. But still. If I eat your offerings in enormous amounts, it’s going to cause a problem.

So: you should hereafter sell more vegetables and fewer yummy snacks. Sound good? Good.

Sincerely,
A Very Tempted Shopper

***

Dear poor, neglected boxes in the garage,

I know. I’ve been ignoring you. You moved here with us, from our old house, last October. And while I dealt with many, many (many) of your fellow boxes — unpacking, arranging, storing, putting away — a few of you were left behind. I didn’t abandon you purposely. It’s just…the holidays came, and things got busy, and well…there you are. Faithfully waiting for me, against a wall of our garage.

But perhaps you’ve noticed that I’m back at it. I’m back to unpacking, finally. My goal is to be done unpacking before we’ve lived here 4 months. And that’s coming up quickly. So take heart! You are on the agenda. You will be neglected no longer!

Affectionately,
A fairly rotten unpacker who should probably never move again

Filed Under: Unsent Letters 6 Comments
Jan 25, 2012

Would you like some tartar sauce with your vitamin?

written by katrina · 8 Comments

My older son, C., has been swallowing pills for a while. As a kid plagued with headaches, he had to learn some time ago to take an Advil or an Aleve, if he wanted to get rid of the pounding misery that occasionally attacks him.

But recently, his pediatrician advised him to start taking some multi-vitamins that are, shall we say, sizable.

They’re not the biggest pills I’ve ever seen or taken, but they are substantially larger than your standard fever-reducer or sinus-decongester.

C. was not impressed.

Despite my urgings, he claimed that water and other liquids just wouldn’t do the trick. The big pills were being difficult. So one day, I plopped the vitamin into a yogurt he was about to eat and — voila! — a solution to large pills was born.

Now, I’m fine with him gulping down a pill with a spoonful of yogurt, or even some applesauce. But C. has not been content to stop with these standard mushy food items.

Instead, I regularly find him searching through the refrigerator for the next, latest & greatest, vitamin-swallowing helper.

To date, he has taken his vitamins with:

  • Bleu cheese salad dressing
  • Straight BBQ sauce
  • Jello
  • Tartar sauce
  • Chocolate syrup (Suggested by my husband, and to which C. replied, “I’m sure my doctor would love to know that I’m taking my vitamins with chocolate syrup.” But of course, he didn’t turn it down.)
  • Pickle relish
  • Sour cream
  • Ketchup (yes, just a spoonful of ketchup)

There might be more. But honestly, I’ve stopped looking. I just give him the big blue pill and trust that, one way or another, it will make its way down.

If you ask me, I think he could probably swallow the things with a swig of milk. After all, chocolate syrup is mostly liquid, so if it goes down with that, it should go down with milk. Or juice. Or water.

But what fun would that be for C.? After all, with his current approach, he gets to play with condiments and drive his mother a little crazy. A little bright spot in every day.

It’s okay though. I love this kid — vitamin-taking quirks and all!

Filed Under: Family 8 Comments
Jan 24, 2012

Proof that I’m raising my kids right

written by katrina · 17 Comments

The other day, L.(5) was musing about a recent kids’ movie. We haven’t seen the movie, but he has seen the merchandise, the themed fruit snacks, etc. and is well aware of it. I overheard the following conversation between L. and my teen, C.(13).

And let me tell you, it just warmed my heart.

**

L.: I think we should go see that movie.

C.: Well, I’m not sure that movie would be appropriate for a 5-year-old.

L.: Why not? Are there some really scary parts in it?

C.: No, I don’t think so.

L.: Then, what? Is there bad grammar?

**

Score one for grammar geeks! (That’d be me.)

Okay, so it’s possible that when L. said “bad grammar,” he was actually thinking more, um, globally, and meant something akin to “bad words” instead of just “bad grammar.”

But still, the mere fact that those words would come out of his mouth, and that he would sound somewhat horrified at the prospect of bad grammar has to count for something.

Right?

 

Filed Under: Everyday Life, Family 17 Comments
Jan 23, 2012

The week in words

written by katrina · 4 Comments

Barbara H. hosts a weekly blog carnival called “The Week in Words,” which is, as she says on her blog, “where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us…”

It seems I’ve been fitting in lots of reading lately — and from a variety of books. Here are some things that jumped out at me this past week.

From J.I. Packer’s Knowing God, which our pastor has challenged us to read as a church during January, February, and March of this year:

Many of us [would never] naturally say that in the light of the knowledge of God which we have come to enjoy, past disappointments and present heartbreaks, as the world counts heartbreaks, don’t matter. For the plain fact is that to most of us they do matter. We live with them as our “crosses” (so we call them). Constantly we find ourselves slipping into bitterness and apathy and gloom as we reflect on them, which we frequently do. The attitude we show to the world is a sort of dried-up stoicism, miles removed from the “joy unspeakable and full of glory” which Peter took for granted that his readers were displaying (1 Pet. 1:8). “Poor souls,” our friends say of us, “how they’ve suffered.” And that is just what we feel about ourselves!

Oh this struck home with me. How I long for a deeper knowledge of God, so that the heartbreaks of this world do fade to nothing in light of the joy found in knowing Him, so that disappointments and bumps in the road don’t matter, because my perspective is more like His.

**

I’m also reading The Next Story by Tim Challies (I’m going through it with my friend Jennifer). This past week, I read Chapter 4, where Tim talks about how very much we communicate in our culture. Between emailing, texting, and social networks, we face the very real potential for communication to be nearly constant. In light of all these words, Tim says:

The caution that marks our speech must also mark our texting, our e-mailing, our commenting, our blogging, and our tweeting. The fact that we communicate at all should cause us to stop and to consider every word. The fact that we communicate so often today and do so before so great an audience should cause us to tremble. As we communicate all day, we give ourselves unending opportunities to sin with our words.

Isn’t that the truth? “Unending opportunities to sin with our words.” It’s sobering, and makes me think I should probably be much slower to “speak” (whether it’s verbally or otherwise).

**

What have you been reading this week? Did anything really stick with you?

Visit Barbara’s blog to see what words others are remembering.

Filed Under: Books/Reading 4 Comments
Jan 11, 2012

The tale of a lost gift card

written by katrina · 12 Comments

On New Year’s Eve, after returning home from an out-of-town trip, I made a quick run to the grocery store. I needed to pick up something for dinner and enough snacks to get us through a night of many boardgames and and attempt to stay up til midnight to greet the new year.

In case you have never been to the grocery store at 4:00 on New Year’s Eve, allow me to give you some advice: don’t. Because everyone and their uncle will be there. You will park far, far away from the door. And you will sigh deeply as you find aisle after aisle difficult to maneuver. And you will wait in long — very, very long — lines when you finally get to the checkout area.

Or maybe that was just me.

Anyway, let’s just say that things were rather crazy at the grocery store.

And they were so crazy that somewhere between paying for my groceries and getting out the door, I dropped or misplaced or otherwise lost a gift card for the aforementioned grocery store.

(Small bit of background, not that you asked for it: We purchase grocery store gift cards through C.’s private school and do most of our shopping with those cards. It serves as a bit of a fundraiser for the school, and gives us a percentage off tution. Win-win.)

The gift card I lost was partially drained, but there was definitey still some money on it. And by the time I realized it was missing, two days later, I didn’t even know where I might have lost it and figured it was gone for good.

First, because there was no identifying information on it.

And second, because I was pretty sure that anyone who found a gift card lying around would rejoice in their discovery and tuck it away in their wallet.

While I was bummed about the loss, I just hoped that it was found by someone who really needed it.

Imagine my shock, when, 2 days after that (4 days from the original loss), I got a call from the grocery store, asking if, perchance, I had dropped something in their store within the last four days.

Incredulous, I asked if it was a gift card. And it was.

Someone had found it lying in the store, and rather than tucking it in their wallet, had turned it in to the store’s office.

And then the manager went out of her way to track down where and when the card had last been used, and whose store discount card had been used with it… and then located my information and called me.

I was surprised, thankful, and amazed to be reunited with the gift card. And to be honest, I was a bit humbled as well. Humbled that the extra kindness — out-of-the-way, above-and-beyond kindness — of two nice people had saved me from my own flusteredness or disorganization or whatever it was that led to losing the card in the first place.

I truly appreciate their kindness, and I am officially on the lookout to pass that same kindness on to someone else.

Filed Under: Everyday Life 12 Comments
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