Shameless Contest Entry Post

What Oh Amanda Means to Me

On a day covered in hoary frost, when the roads outside are slicker than kid snot on a cold brass doorknob, I have found an oasis in the midst of the world wide web. That oasis is Oh Amanda. Sometimes I laugh out loud. Sometimes I just nod knowingly. Sometimes I get so behind on my blog reading that I miss entire months of posts, but that doesn’t matter; she’s always there with her archives ready to enable my unhealthy need to snoop into other people’s bidness. Particularly when that snooping is done instead of boring stuff like laundry and mopping. Especially mopping. It’s amazing, really, the lengths to which I will go in order to avoid the hateful task of mopping. Which is odd since a freshly-mopped floor is one of the things I love best in the world.

Speaking of things I love best, Oh Amanda is one of my MOST DEF FAVE Twitter People, or Tweople, or for those of you down wit’ dat, Tweeps. Though we’ve never met in real life, I’m sure we could while away several hours in the comfy chairs at Starbucks, laughing our fool heads off over kids and life in general.

So, here I am at just over 200 words. The challenge was to write 400 words on What Oh Amanda Means To Me. I’m just in it to win a sling from Raspberry Baby, one of many too-too-cute Etsy shops about which I would have known nothing had it not been for Amanda’s tweet which sent me to her blog which inspired me to enter her contest and try to get as many entries as possible. As a bonus, I am sitting here looking all busy and efficient, when, in reality, I am avoiding all manner of actual productive endeavors. I wonder if most efficient-looking folks are actually just creative procrastinators? I wouldn’t be surprised. I usually feel a driving need to organize the files when I’m supposed to be packing to go on vacation.

To summarize, Oh Amanda means smiles and the studious avoidance of stuff resembling work. Not that I was going to work in the first place. Especially not today.

What’s today, you ask? Well, let me tell you: Today, Tuesday, January 27, 2009, I am celebrating another successful trip around the sun. My forty-first trip in a row, for those of you keeping score at home.

PS: Love giveaways? Go HERE

I will now resume my not-blogging for your not-reading pleasure. That is all.

Since I'm All About Education

I need to be getting myself ready to take the older girls on a field trip to the Federal Courthouse. But first, I really need to show you something. You're never far from my thoughts, Dear Readers, and when I watch this video (which I do--daily), I wonder if the rest of my virtual loved ones (that's YOU) are equipped to defend themselves should the need arise. And so, without further ado, I bring you Diamond Dave's Ninjy Trainin' School:

Please view the video and be prepared to discuss the finer points tomorrow.

Yours for Trailer Park Safety,

Dana

You Never Know WHAT Will Show Up In Your Reader

Hello? Anybody here?

MAN, is it ever dusty!

I have so much I want to write, so many things to ask you guys and a zillion reasons why this little corner of Blogdom has been dark. Maybe I'll get around to that stuff sometime. For now, I want to pop in, say hey (Hey!!) and ramble. Sound good? I thought so.

Tonight, it's just me, Dan, Hannah and Jesse, since my dear friend took the three middle kids to church with their family tonight. This makes me WAY undermotivated to put on my Magic Chef hat, know what I mean? I'm thinking it'll be sandwiches and soup for dinner, unless I can talk Dan into taking us to the Chinese Buffet that just opened. Here's hopin'.

I just looked out the window, and the sunset tonight is peachy-pink. So pretty.

Jesse's taking an impressively long nap, and I'm afraid that if I actually start something productive, he'll wake up. My philosophy of baby naps is this: the length of the nap is inversely proportional to the complexity of what I'm doing. If I'm cleaning out a closet or explaining the difference between volume and mass, that little stinker sleeps about 15 minutes. Surfing the 'net for Maxine cartoons? Sleeps for 3 hours.

Oh, Internets (I'd like to publicly thank Sophie for coining this wonderful term of endearment), there's so much for us to discuss, I hardly know where to start. And, guess what? Jesse's awake, so we'll all have to wait until my next blog post, which I PROMISE will be on or before Labor Day!

Find Us Faithful

I found out this afternoon that Steve Green, one of my favorite musicians, was doing a show at a church in town at 6pm. Dan and I loaded Jesse into the car and drove to the church, arriving about 20 minutes into the program. I last saw Steve Green in concert about 20 years ago and I've loved his music ever since. His song "Cherish the Treasure" was the highlight of our wedding. Well, that and, you know, the whole covenant marriage for life thing. That was pretty cool. Scary, but cool.

Anyhoo, I was very excited to see him perform again, and he did not disappoint. After the intermission, he did a few of his songs from early in his career, and one of them absolutely scorched my heart. I've loved this song since the first time I heard it on the DiscMan in my then-boyfriend's 1986 Honda Accord (music! on a shiny silver circle-y thing! that you don't have to rewind! it's a revolution!). The song is "Find Us Faithful" and tears streamed down my cheeks as I was reminded of the privilege and responsibility of living Biblically. The last stanza and the chorus are particularly meaningful to me:

After all our hopes and dreams

have come and gone

And our children sift through all we've left behind

May the clues that they discover

and the memories they uncover

Become the light that leads them

to the road we each must find

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful!

May the fire of our devotion light their way.

May the footprints that we leave

lead them to believe

And the lives we live inspire them to obey.

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful!

Indeed. May all who come behind me find me faithful.

For My Next Trick...

...I will compose a post, of the bloggy persuasion. I KNOW, right? It's a Christmas miracle!



First, a some late acknowledgments. Maggie at Life With Boys pronounced my blog fabulous, for which I thank her very much even as I apologize for the conspicuous paucity of fabulocity. Maggie is a lot of fun to read, and the Cutie-Pie Factor over there is off the charts! Check her out, why dontcha?

I'm passing this award along to my FIRL (Friend in Real Life) Tracy at Too Blessed to Be Stressed. She and her blog are, in a word, Fabulous!




Next, the totally cool and bloggily bodacious Heather of The Extraordinary Ordinary declared my blog brilliante! Didja see that? Brilliant-with-an-e? Pretty cool, yeah? Thanks, Heather!

Know who else is Brilliant-with-an-e? Barbie at Just Barbie. She is brave and kind and generous. Most of all, she's real and I think she's brilliant. With an 'e'.

I have so many things I want to write about. I have pictures and everything. I'm half afraid that if I start, it will all just come out in a great big slobbery jumble, resulting in a bloggy version of Jabba the Hut. The thing that's occupying most of my heart and mind today is that a sweet family I am acquainted with is grieving the death of their wife and mother. She was 39 and her death last Tuesday morning was unexpected. Dan and I attended her funeral this afternoon. I squeezed my children until their cream fillin' came out for the rest of the day. As happens so often, my resolve to be the mom my kids deserve was deepened. Because only God knows the number of my days.

I have a lot of things to tell you about, and I promise to be more diligent in updating the blog. I need to admit that I have a little problem, though. I can't seem to quit doing this:

Odd Things

This was my bedtime snack: German chocolate cake, vitamins and milk. Look for my new diet book at a fine retailer near you. NOT.

Also, is it weird that before I could eat this little gourmet delight, I felt I had to locate the camera and photograph it? That I thought Blog People from The Internet would want to see my weirdness for themselves?

Lastly, don't you love the pattern on that plate? Those are the paper plates we had our Thanksgiving Part Deux dinner on this afternoon, and I think they are so pretty!

Photohunt: Metal

Here's my contribution to Photohunt. I love this view of Olivia through the strings of her harp. The metal actions in the neck of the harp are moving parts that allow the harpist to play sharps and flats.

For more interpretations of this week's theme, go here.