Month: August 2009

pets

And they all lived happily ever after…

I don’t think I shared this (since I haven’t been blogging very regularly), but for Father’s Day (waaaay back in June) we got my husband a dog.

Not just any dog.

A beagle.

Have you ever seen the movie “Underdog”? Well, in the movie, underdog is a beagle. Yep. We got Underdog. A bumbling, mess-making catastrophe of a dog who means well, but is just one sandwich shy of a picnic.

We have tried for three months to housebreak this dog (well, technically, since she was born May 10th, she’s still a puppy) with no luck. We’d let her outside to play and she’d have a ball, then run to the door begging to come inside, only to find a good clean spot to squat and pee on my carpet. Every. Time.

So since I was tired of cleaning pee and poop stains, we made ready her new home outside in our fenced in yard. I worried about her because she was only three months old and I wouldn’t put a defenseless child in the yard at three months old, but hubs assured me she could take it. She is, after all, a D-O-G. (Just don’t tell her that).

I was really concerned I’d have to buy a carpet tile to lay outside for her to poop and pee on, since she obviously prefers carpet to grass. However, I am happy to report that she has had absolutely NO trouble adjusting. My training skills are obviously lacking in the potty-training capacity.

Oh, we did have some incessant bawling and squawling cries of “you don’t love me anymore!” and “why’d you put me in this hot, dark place without any human contact?” in the beginning (usually at night when our neighbors were trying to sleep), but I’m happy to report she’s now doing just fine.

And I haven’t stepped on one wet spot since we put her out. There really IS a “happily ever after” after all.

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business, children

Leaders VS. Followers

When this post originally was published (way back in October of 2006), it had more to do with business than raising children. Today, I can look back at it and see it has as much (if not more) to do with raising children as it has to do with business.

It is really my heart’s desire for my kids to see me SERVING joyfully and willingly not only my husband’s needs, but their needs as well. It is only through my example that they will learn – I can’t be a “Do as I say, not as I do” type of mom.

I truly hope to instill these following values in my children over the next few years that I am able to have them at home.

When leaders make a mistake, they say, “I was wrong.”
When followers make mistakes, they say, “It wasn’t my fault.”

A leader works harder than a follower and has more time; A follower is always “too busy” to do what is necessary.

A leader goes through a problem;
A follower goes around it and never gets past it.

A leader makes and keeps commitments;
A follower makes and forgets promises.

A leader says, “I’m good, but not as good as I ought to be;”
A follower says, “I’m not as bad as a lot of other people.”

Leaders listen;
Followers just wait until it’s their turn to talk.

Leaders respect those who are superior to them and tries to learn something from them; Followers resent those who are superior to them and try to find chinks in their armor.

Leaders feel responsible for more than their job;
Followers say, “I only work here.”

A leader says, “There ought to be a better way to do this;”
Followers say, “That’s the way it’s always been done here.”

Doesn’t that make you want to be a leader?

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me

Idioms and being 40

Keeping a blog is so much like having a conversation with an old friend. A 40-year old friend — because you’re basically talking to yourself when no one else is reading your blog. And you’re 40.

It doesn’t matter how long you go without writing, you can just pick right up where you left off like nothing has ever happened.

Of course, a lot has happened. But that’s neither here nor there.

Any one else ever grow up hearing that phrase “that’s neither here nor there” without really knowing what the heck it meant? I decided to look it up today…it’s an idiom that means “Not important; having no significance or influence on the question at hand; not related; not relevant; not germane; not pertinent.”

I’m completely embarrassed to admit I then had to look up the word “idiom”, because hello? Ninth grade was over 24 years ago and I’ve slept since then. {Not to mention I’ve had three kids — my vocabulary has been decimated by (reduced by a tenth – and no, I didn’t look that one up…I actually remembered it) twelve years of child-rearing and saying one syllable words like “no” and “wait”.}

Idiom means “A phrase characteristic of a particular language, that cannot necessarily be fully understood from the separate meanings of the individual words which form it, but instead must be learned as a whole unit of meaning.”

So basically, I’m just throwing some words at you in hopes that someone will take notice that I actually BLOGGED today.

Thank you and have a good day. Tune in tomorrow…same bat time, same bat channel. {of course, I’m not promising I’ll actually BE here…but you can tune in just the same.} 😉

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