preciouspeas

What ever happened to a man treating a woman with respect?  Has it been lost to belittling and degrading?

We live in an Air Force community, in which until yesterday, I believed we all were one community, there to be there for one another when spouses were deployed, being neighborly and simply taking care of what God has provided for each of us.  Now, I'm not too sure.  It's amazing how one person in a community can spoil the commraderie that was begun years before them.

We walked our dog last night, on which he normally decides to take care of business on one of our neighbor's lawn.  Being neighborly (and I've witnessed those who aren't neighborly), the girls and I picked up the poop into a bag and looked for the closest garbage can to throw it in.  Out runs the man of the home's garbage can, yelling at us in harsh tones, "What did you just put in my trash can?"  I told him I put "trash in there?"  "Well, that is totally unprofessional, come and take it out?"  Mortified, I walked back to his can, turned it to the side and removed the bag of dog feces.  All the while, he continued to berate me in front of the girls, about how unprofessional I was.   All I could say was, "I'm sorry sir, I didn't know I was doing something wrong?"  The mood home for the remainder of the walk was somber for all of us.

Did I do something wrong?  If someone was walking by with their dog and they needed to dispose of feces, I wouldn't mind if they used my trash can.  Since we don't own any of these homes, I view the trash cans as community property, but more so, I view our community as a whole and we are to make sure to do the responsible thing of picking up after our animals.  Moreover, I felt totally mortified and degraded that he asked me to remove the feces from the garbage pail, while in front of my children.  Unfortunately, my husband is TDY at the moment, otherwise he would have come to my rescue - maybe the incident would have turned out completely differently if he had been there?

Now, I ask myself, what would Jesus do in this situation.  My dear little woman  suggested we bring them a pie and once again apologize for insulting them by throwing trash in their garbage can.  I thought to myself, yeah a "poop pie" thrown right on his doorstep! No, I'm sure that is not what Jesus would have me do, so I prayed instead.  What would you do?

It is inevitable, the closer you get to paying off a car, the closer it gets to breaking down.  Car part manufacturers, today, just do not make things the way they use to.   They have to use less expensive materials now to cut costs, but these materials just do not hold up to the wear and tear that we put on our vehicles.  I can remember my mom having her car for almost 20 years and that thing just kept on keeping on.

In the last week we have gone through all new door locks (make sure your husband asks how many labor hours are involved in changing automatic locks, otherwise you'll get a HUGE surprise when they hand you the bill), factory installed CD player jamming up CD's, and a slightly new DVD player not loading DVD's.

So, in one fell swoop we were transported back in time to when I was a little girl traveling with my family in our car (ok - minus the automatic door locks that we had fixed).  It was like pandemonium in the car after the DVD player broke.  Mom, "You mean we have to look out the window and entertain OURSELVES in the car?"  "No, of course not there are so many fun games that you can play in the car, I said, "You just have to use your imagination!"  I had flash backs at that point to days long ago of my sister and I in the back seat playing with our Barbie dolls and travel Bingo cards. 

So, how do your kids entertain themselves in the car?

Did I get your attention with the title?  Now for the question -  Who taught someone the Dead, Limp, Fish Handshake, and then allowed them to pass it onto millions more?  I only ask, because I received one yesterday when meeting my daughter's swim teacher for the first time.  It was wimpy and limp and didn't leave me with a lasting impression.

I was taught by my father, many years ago, a firm handshake speaks confidence, trustworthiness and honesty.  It affects first impressions for both men and women.  What are some good characteristics of a firm handshake:  strength, vigor, duration, eye contact and completeness of grip.

There is nothing worse than meeting someone for the first time, expecting to receive a firm handshake, only to get that wimpy, dead, floppy half of a shake.  I can understand when woman to woman, the shake is a little weak, but it bothers me when men shake my hand with this handshake.  It tells me that they don't think enough of me, that somehow I'm not worthy of their respect.

If you've forgotten how to shake hands properly, watch this video for a refresher course.  Please, oh please, can we ban these dead, limp fish handshakes!

Today, the Doodler and I went to Hancock Fabrics to take advantage of their 1/2 price sale on fabric and notions. 

Sewing use to be a less expensive way to obtain new clothes, but not anymore.  The cost of fabric can run you the same amount as a shopping spree with all sale items.  At least with the shopping spree you can wear the items right away, but not so with sewing.  BUT, for me sewing isn't about saving money, it's about maintaining modesty in our culture today.  Gone are all the cute, frilly outfits for my little girls; they've been replaced by this modernized pop culture trend in clothing.  To me, it's nothing more than advertising on a shirt.  And we all know what the clothes want us to advertise!

Anyway, to get back to my original thought; we went in because I had a flyer in hand with a 40% coupon and great deals on fabrics.  We found all the fabrics we needed to make a pair of pj's for her and Rubber, and a dress for Little Bear, as well as slips and pantaloons for each of them.  We get up to the counter where we encounter 2 older ladies fussing over how much their purchases are costing and whether or not the cashier has rung every possible discount known to man up for them.  It took us 30 minutes to check out of line after these ladies made the cashier re-ring their purchases because she had missed a discount on an item.

How much is too much?  Are we in a sense stealing from the company when we try to milk every coupon for all its worth?  Were these ladies going overboard by asking that every item be discounted in some way?   It was just a thought I had while watching these two older ladies squabble over their $100 purchases. 

What do you think?

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise

A saying of Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanack

How early is early?  Lately, I've been trying to beat the sun up to get things done that I need quiet time to do, but I'm pondering that I might have my priorities backwards. 

Every morning I get up with the alarm clock at the insane time of 5 a.m.  I do so to exercise for one, and secondly, to get some quiet computer time.  Here's where my problem begins - even though I'm getting up earlier, I'm still going to bed later and later each night - somewhere between 10 and 11 p.m.  NOW, add to that a 7 month old, Little Bear who still loves to get up 2 or 3 times each night to nurse with her momma, (Side note - we live in an extremely tight knit house where the slightest sound can be heard throughout the house - therefore, the cry-it-out method would cause all the children to be awake) and voila, you have one extremely tired momma!

I am realizing for this time period in my life, perhaps following Ben Franklin's saying would be a wise choice.  If I go to bed earlier, say after the last child is in bed then, it would make rising early beneficial.  BUT, this means allowing some things to not get done that I do in the evenings (for instance, my sewing and crafting) which I really enjoy and I would have to move my devotion time earlier or to the morning.  Can anyone really balance this pull for free time versus sleep? 

How early is early for you?

With summer approaching, I've had this nagging feeling that my girls are simply going to plop in front of the tv and watch stare with a glazed over look at the screen.  They normally play well together, but lately I've been watching them pair up and leave the littlest one out.  The other occurance that has been happening is that either one or all will get bored too quickly.  This leads to migration towards the tv. 

With the gas prices escalating, we will be hard pressed to be able to go anywhere, which means finding things to do around the house. I've already informed them that once we are done with school for our summer break, they will only be allowed 1 hour of tv time per day.   Is this too much, am I being too reasonable?  We have toyed with getting rid of the cable, but my dear husband enjoys his shows too much to make the big plunge.  So, onto other ways to curb the appeal to the tv monster.

How do you all handle tv watching during the long, hot summer days?

How to keep your floors clean?

As I was mopping yesterday, which is my least favorite chore EVER, I was pondering how others clean their floors.  I will be the first to admit that my floors are not as clean as they should be.  We vacuum far more than we sweep and mop, but that's due to a lot of dog hair on the carpet. 

I first sweep, then mop.  Yesterday, for some reason, I began wondering if I was really cleaning the floor or more or less moving the dirt around the room.  I guess I was looking for an epiphany to occur.  I use a regular mop and bucket and as I stared into the bucket water that was getting browner by the moment, I just couldn't help but think that I was putting the dirt and gunk back on the floor each time I wrung out the mop! 

I've tried doing it on my hands and knees, but we have too big of a kitchen/dining area to do that.  I've tried the swifer sweeper, but those got expensive and we are on a tight budget.  What else is there?

What do you ladies use to clean your floors?  HELP - Please share your thoughts and the products you use to clean your kitchen floors.  If you have a maid, I don't want to know, and if your husband is one who loves to mop, could you please send him my way.