a random mix of faith, family, and the many things that fill my mind
Strange words being spoken by the ‘tween living in my house:
Mad Skillz, as in “That guy has mad skillz on the bike.”Suh-WEET, as in, well, “Suh-weet!”
Kype, as in “If a kid brought a whole pizza on the bus, someone would definitely kype it.”
It’s official: the slang of modern youth is infiltrating my house. What other words can I expect to hear?
Guess I better start researching if I expect to keep up with this language mutation.
Fo’ shizzle.
So.
I’ve been sick.
A cold struck me last Tuesday and has refused to let go. Not one of those mild, “I’m a little sniffly” kind of colds. No, this is of the sinus-throbbing, no-sleeping, no-breathing, everything-aching, “You look terrible” variety.
Yuck.
I totally blame all the hand-shaking at church for my misery. Every Sunday we are asked to “greet those around us.” But really, from September through May, I’m thinking there has to be a better way. I suppose we could just NOT be friendly and welcoming during those months.
Or, instead of shaking hands with those nearby, maybe the pastor could encourage us to wave to those seated across the sanctuary from us. Waving typically involves very little transmission of germs.
Usually, after the hand-shaking, I whip out my miniature container of hand sanitizer and put it to good use. But I didn’t do it last week because I thought the people behind me, whose hands I had just shaken, might be offended by my actions. Look where that got me.
Anyway, I fortunately had some pre-written blog posts ready to go, so I just scheduled them and spent most of the week trying to nap or wallowing in my sinus pain. (I did miss a blog tour / book giveaway — oops! — but am trying to make up for that today.)
Today? I think I might be turning a corner. The cold medicine has actually been effective the last day or two, which is always a nice thing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
In the meantime, I’m WAY behind in visiting Fall Into Reading participants. But people keep signing up. As I type this, 233 people have added their name to the Mr. Linky. And there are an amazing 41 book reviews already completed by some very ambitious readers.
I’ve managed to visit the first 125 or so reading challenge people and I promise I’ll keep plugging away. If I haven’t gotten to you yet, I will…eventually!
Another result of my sickness is that my email Inbox grew to out-of-control proportions. I’m talking 20 emails sitting there all un-dealt with. I know that to some of you, 20 emails is nothing, but we’ve already established that I have some Inbox issues. I dealt with many of them yesterday (the emails, not my issues) and am now down to a respectable 5 emails that I need to reply to or act on. That makes me feel better.
One final impact of the Head Cold from The Pit is that I let L. (2) watch pretty much all the TV he wanted to last week. He now feels that the TV needs to be on for all of his 12 waking hours. And not only that but it needs to be tuned in to something he wants to watch RIGHT NOW. Sesame Street at 5:30 p.m., Mickey Mouse at 7:00 a.m. — whatever he decrees. Sigh. I’m going to have to remedy this situation, and it’s not going to be pretty.
Of course, he started showing signs of Stuffiness and Grouchiness and Runny-Nose-edness today, so perhaps that battle will have to wait until we both have sufficient strength to really decide who the boss is.
I already told him I’m going to win, but he doesn’t seem to believe me.
Mark Sanborn, author of acclaimed business/motivational book The Fred Factor, has a new book out: The Encore Effect. Read on to learn more and to find out how you can win a copy.
Everyone wants to make a difference in the world, but most have no idea how to maximize their impact. In The Encore Effect, best-selling author and leadership expert Mark Sanborn provides the answer. He leads readers in six practices that will move them beyond excellence to distinction and from mundane to memorable. These principles guide readers to draw on their passion and devote themselves to preparation, practice, presentation, polishing, and finally, avoiding pitfalls. When readers follow these principles they will find that people are attracted to them. More importantly, they’ll find that they now have an influence over others that can impact lives for eternity.
By following the six principles of The Encore Effect, readers can:
This special edition, distributed by Water Brook Press, includes unique content specifically for Christian readers, such as supporting Scripture verses, biblical illustrations, and discussion questions.
My thoughts: I have to confess that since I was sick all last week, I was not able to finish this book. (In fact, I was supposed to do this giveaway last week and completely forgot. That’s what foggy-headed stuffiness will do to you.) However, I did read the first several chapters, so I have a few thoughts to share.
First, this is a short, very readable book. Packed with anecdotes, sprinkled with practical bullet points, it gives you clear and easily remembered take-aways as you go along.
Second, though this book does seem to be targeted at (and of particular use to) those wanting to improve their performance and impact in the business world, the principles are broad and timeless, applying just as easily to stay-at-home moms. It wasn’t a stretch for me to see that my “performance” as a wife and mother would definitely be improved if I were to deliberately cultivate my passion and purpose in those areas and discipline my self to do the daily actions that really matter. I’m guilty of often “just doing my job” around here, rather than attempting to do a remarkable job as I support and love my family. The author encourages all readers to pursue excellence.
If you’d like to win a copy of this book — either for yourself, or to give as a gift to someone else — just leave a comment on this post. I’ll close comments Wednesday evening and announce the winner Thursday, along with my regular weekly book giveaway. Please be sure your comment includes an easy way for me to contact you. U.S. & Canada mailing addresses only. Thanks!
The winner of the case of Dial Complete is….
Commenter #29: Stacy at Exceedingly Mundane.
Congratulations, Stacy! May germs stay far away from you this fall and winter.
Way back in June, BooMama issued a challenge for all of us who needed to do a few things around the house…some accountability for a few things that, perhaps, I we had been procrastinating about.
At that time, we had just “finished” turning half of our basement from a concrete-walled cellar into some much-appreciated living and playing space. And I put “finished” in quotes because it was not quite. Finished, that is. The painting was not yet complete. Some molding was missing (and, as a matter of fact, it still is). And there were five or six other things that we had just run out of steam on… But we were very, very close.
For BooMama’s Before & After challenge, I decided to list some of the little things that would move the basement project closer to Finished and further from “finished.” You can see my original post here.
Though my Before & After pictures are neither dramatic nor colorful nor exciting, they still make me happy. They really are little things, but now they are permanently checked off on the Basement To-Do List. And that’s a good thing.
So without further ado, here are the goals and their accompanying pictures. I fully intended to write “before” and “after” on the pictures, but I confess: I’ve run out of picture-modifying energy. And so, the before is always on the left and the after is always on the right.
1. Choose and acquire a mirror for the bathroom. It’s a simple mirror, but the frame coordinates with the vanity and completes the bathroom. (Though if you look closely, you’ll see one of our still-uncompleted items — we need to install a handle on vanity’s bottom drawer. Oops!)
2. Touch up paint around the main room. There were many similar little splotches of wrong-colored paint, but I just chose one representative sample for you. You’ll have to trust that I took care of the other touch-ups, too. You’ll also have to trust that my pathetic ability to take matching Before & After shots is something I’m aware of, but did not have the patience to fix.
3. Fill nail holes in bathroom and paint over them. Again, the entire bathroom molding was “decorated” with lovely nail holes, but they are all now nicely covered. I’m just showing you a portion of the baseboards that were particularly hole-y. Also, let me apologize again for my photography. Some pictures were taken during the day, some in the evening, and I am clearly not a professional photographer, or else they wouldn’t all have wonky color-cast issues.
4. Paint the bathroom door. Here, you only get an after picture. When I took the before picture, the door was already primed, and the contrast in pictures just wasn’t enough to show the difference. I can assure you, though, that the door looks far better with two coats of paint on it than it did before.
5. Put some kind of window covering on the single window in the basement. I ended up just going with a sheer blind. As you can see in the before picture, when you look out our basement window, you see the lovely walls of a window well. In fact, the primary reason we had a window put in was for safety/code reasons — to provide an exit from the basement, which previously had none. However, we are quite happy with the amount of light the window lets in…just not the view. A sheer blind seems to do the trick — we get all the light, while softening the appearance of the window well to almost-unnoticeable. And since this part of the room is the play area, I decided to keep things simple so that small children are less likely to destroy any lovely curtains. As time goes on, I may decide to do something different with the window, but I’m pleased with it for now.
6. Paint above the shower. Um….oops? Totally forgot that I put this one on my list, until I was writing up this post. I’m just about out of white paint, so I’ll have to go get some more and do this project. Eventually…
There you have it — a few little things that make our basement feel more finished, more comfortable, more done. [Special thanks to Chad, my husband, for hanging both the mirror and the blind. If it weren't for him, those items would have been purchased and left leaning against a wall somewhere.]
Visit BooMama to find out how everyone else’s Before & After projects turned out. You’re sure to find more beautiful and exciting pictures there.
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