I like Ira

In my recent endeavors to learn more about the homeless community of Wichita, I met a man named Ira. He does not mind me talking about him to anyone who will listen.  In fact, he likes to know his story is being shared.  He believes that it is his "job" to share his experiences as a homeless man to those who want to help and to those who need help.  He is a member of a local advocacy group who call themselves "Advocates to End Chronic Homelessness."  He is formerly homeless and the voice of reality to this group of wonderful volunteers who have great passion for doing something good for this community.

Last week there was a long and thoughtful discussion about how to help people who are homeless do laundry during an upcoming upheaval in their current system of resources. Ira listened for a bit and then started waiving his hand to say something.  And then I heard him say, "look, if you have enough money to transport people and pay for them to wash anything they want to wash as often as they want, I will tell you that your money can be used for something way better. You know that we tend to gather as much stuff as we can. As soon as you announce that we can wash it on your dime.........well, lets just say..... you are going to spend a LOT of money!  I am going to find stuff to wash just because you are paying for me to wash it.  Please hear me now. Take your money and put it to better use."

The sky parted and the angels sang.

If you know me and how much I love Ruby Paynes thoughts on the Rules of Poverty, you know just how happy this man made me!

At tonight's meeting he told us that we could find money and pool resources to train him for two years on a marketable skill, but if we can't convince people to hire him at the end of that two years, we have wasted time and money. He does not need a work training program, he needs someone to hire him.

I think maybe I love Ira!

Blogging on my mind

I started this blog with the intent to talk about things that are important to me. I have lots of things I want to talk about, but am always fearful that some of it would offend readers or just be boring. Maybe I should blog more about the day to day stuff I tend to post as status updates on facebook. I could give my blog its very own facebook page so those who want to read it can and those who don't can avoid it. Or I could just blog and not advertise it anywhere. Those who want to read it know where it is. It is not fancy and I don't have any words of wisdom or guidance to impart. I don't have advertisement space.  And I have never read another person's blog and thought to myself.....this is tooo _______ or not enough _______.  I just read them and enjoy them.  If I don't enjoy them, I stop reading them.

Maybe I should just do what the heck I want to do since it is MY blog ..... 

That is the advice I would give anyone else wondering what their blog should be.  It should be what the author wants it to be.  It really is that simple.  So to my fellow bloggers who have recently been contemplating changing things up to make everyone else happy. Stop. Do what makes you happy. Be happy, peeps!!  Happy is good!

I LOVE Winter!

Finally! Snow has arrived and winter is here!  I have been stalking the weather channel for weeks. WEEKS! 

I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and winter was just "less hot" than the rest of the year.  We saw snow in the mountains of Colorado on annual family vacations.  Maybe that is why I love it so much. I have memories attached to it.  It takes me back to places I love. Happy places.

And when the snow is gone, I will be happy to see green grass, leaves, and flowers.  And then I will celebrate summer so my kids can swim and swim and swim. And I will celebrate fall (my other favorite) when the leaves are changing and I can start anticipating snow again.

Change is good.......

Now What?

Happy New Year!  Have you spent the last several days resolving to make changes? Resolving to not make changes?   If for only one day a year we think about where we are in our lives, and have even small thoughts about how we love that place or how we would like to be in a different place, what is the harm in that?  Personal reflection is good. If it also happens to motivate us to make changes, even better! Please don't lecture me on how resolutions are stupid and you have no faith in people following through on them. You focus on what you need to do in your life and I will focus on what I need to do in my life. I will celebrate your successes with you and offer a shoulder and an ear if you need to reflect on why it did not happen the way you planned it. Either way - it is YOUR life and you have the power to make it what it will be. It is your journey. Every success and failure are equally important on the path.

Even thoughI do not consider my journey to be on a 12 month schedule, I posted this blog on myspace on January 5th, 2007: I am dedicating 2007 to finding Elainne. There! I said it!!! Let it be.......

I will continue on my journey, but as of right this minute, I do not know what that means.  What can I do today/this week/this month/this year that will make my life better? I can make a list of things, but I have to be honest and say that I do not know how many of them I am willing or even ready to tackle. And I am ok with that. I don't need a "grand plan." As long as I hold strong in knowing that I am in control of my life, whatever it is, this is what works for me. On the other hand, I must also accept the consequences for my lack of action.  No regrets.  This is the hard part. I cannot justify beating  myself up for how things are if I have done nothing to change them. January 1st, 2012 will come whether or not I make any changes in my life. It is up to me!

So, now what?

Holiday Traditions......

I started this blog post on Nov 19th.....

Since we have had kids, I have tortured myself with creating traditions that they will look back on and remember with a happy heart.  I have memories like that and I want it very bad for them.  The problem is that we travel for holidays so often that it has been impossible to create those traditions. I don't want our tradition to be that we were never home for Christmas.  Although, it will be interesting to hear how they feel when they realize what we had to do to get those HUGE christmas gifts to Nana and Granny's houses for so many years!!

Big Daddy and I have talked about this often and we know what has to happen.  We need to stay home and create our own traditions.  I want to bake holiday treats and decorate the house and go to every Christmas related activity we can squeeze in. We will search for the best neighborhoods for light displays. And we will anticipate Santa with every ounce of holiday spirit.

This is how it really worked out........

We stayed home.

We saw Santa's Christmas Clown at The Crown Uptown.

The kids decorated the Christmas tree and I did not re-arrange even one thing!

We did not drive around to look at lights, but we noticed them and oooohed and ahhhhhhhed while we were driving around doing other things.

We listened to Christmas music every time we were in the car and a little bit in the house.

We made gingerbread houses, fudge, and baked a cake.

We did a very speedy "Santa" visit at the mall.

The kids anticipated Santa with a greater gusto than ever before.

Christmas morning was magical and everyone was happy.

Here is what I learned:

Relax............I try too hard to force traditions and memories on us. If we live our lives and do things that make us happy every day, those are the things that matter.  I cannot re-create "my" memories in my kids heads.  And I know for 100% sure that I do not want their memory to be that I  forced them to do stupid stuff nobody cared about and then cried when they were not interested.  That would be crazy :)

Moving on to the New Year!

Tis the Season - To Be Thankful

I am thankful for Big Daddy

I am thankful for Amanda, Samantha, Zachary, and Cooper

I am thankful for my dad, mom, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, and a very large extended  family. 

I am thankful for a large home, 3 working vehicles, and two incomes.

I am thankful for friends.

I am thankful for all of the experiences in my life. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I am thankful for Sammy dog, and that I did not break my neck when I tripped over Sadie dog.

I am thankful for Pumpkin Spice coffee and Cheesecake

I am thankful for healthy children who laugh and love

I am thankful for my laptop and my baby lappy

I am thankful for Nicole and that she has Marcus and Raylee

I am thankful for cool crisp temperatures

I am thankful for C-Pap

I am thankful that soon it will be the season to be jolly!!!

The missing blogs.....

Even though I have no formal event or thought process I want to blog about right now, I felt a need to acknowledge that I have not blogged in a while.  There have been plenty of blog-worthy events in my life, I have just not had the energy to put them in grammatically correct blog format. Instead, I will leave you with random thoughts that I would blog about if I had the energy. Enjoy!

If you are going to have friends in your life, know what that means to you. And know what it means to them.  

I love Miche bags, Pampered Chef, Scentsy, and C-PAP!

I found Cooper half asleep peeing in the dog food.  I am still laughing about it. Poor lil guy. Gotta love him!

I hate back pain, tooth pain, when people I love are struggling, and that my children are growing way faster than I can accept. 

Walter's Pumpkin Patch is a fabulous place to make memories with your children and friends.

Graduate school is no joke and I am SO glad I decided to go part-time.

That's all folks!