Chatting and Coupons

I had nine people at my house last night for my first Coupon Chat meeting. It was a blast. I did a full presentation - Powerpoint and all! Wow. 15 minutes before kick-off time I about threw-up as reality hit me "What in the world am I doing? I'm not ready for this!! I can't speak in front of people. What will they think of me?? What if they think I'm not knowledgeable enough? What if they think I act like I know-it-all? blah, blah, blah . . . " on and on. And then the doorbell rang . . . and it was a very good friend of mine. RELIEF!! I didn't even know she was coming, and I was instantly filled with joy and a sense of confidence. Thank you, Lord!!

It was a good time. They are coming back next week for session two. I am only planning for two sessions at this time - just to see how it goes. But I am possibly thinking that if there is enough interest, we might turn it into a monthly meeting.

It was really cool because one of the women brought a friend with her that I had never met before. New friends are awesome. AND, one of my neighbors who came, said that she invited another neighbor, and even though she couldn't come last night, she would be interested in the future.

What is the language of love?

I find that I'm always ready for the new season whenever it's about to begin. I feel that is just as the Lord planned it. Perfect timing. Today I look outside and it's shaping up to be a beautiful, sunny fall day that started off rather brisk and breezy but will warm up with the sunshine. Tonight it will go back to it's brisk drop in temperature - just perfect for September and Ohio. I love it.

We have been reading "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. It's what our small group (aka "marriage enrichment") is studying. We took the "official test" a few weeks ago and I found out that my "love language" is QUALITY TIME. If you haven't read this book, all I know so far is that it means the most to me when I spend good, quality time with people - this shows love to me. OF course, the book is geared towards showing love to our spouses, but I have carried it further in my mind to include all peeps. :-) My spouse's "love language" is WORDS OF AFFIRMATION. I already knew this would be his . . . and I already know that I fail miserably at showing this to him. So I have my work cut out for me!! :-) I also found out (at least according to this so-called TEST) is that he doesn't actually care about RECEIVING GIFTS (another love language). You can see my cynicism creeping through about the test, I guess. It's not that I don't believe it has identified our true love languages, but I'm unsure about the secondary things it has brought to our attention. Maybe we should ignore those for now. Perhaps that is the real answer!?

In true LOVE LANGUAGE form, we have learned that whatever our love language is, usually we are showing what ours is to the other person already. For example, since my husband's is WORDS OF AFFIRMATION, he gives me compliments and/or nice emails and builds me up. However, since it is not MY love language, I do not really give much thought to those words . . . they are nice and all, but I can't say that I cherish them AS MUCH as he would cherish them if he heard them from me. The problem is, he does not hear them from me as much as he would like to. Sooooo, time for me to change!

Mine is QUALITY TIME . . . it's not that he doesn't like to spend time with ME . . . but his definition of "quality time" and my definition is probably a little bit obscure right now. Also, he is a very, very busy person. I am a stay-at-home mom. Of course I am going to desire a lot of his eye-to-eye time when he is home, but so do our two kids. Everyone wants Dad! It's a difficult balance.

So, we are in a learning curve right now. It's good . . . it can be muddy! But I wanted to share. I do say I need a place to "keep it real!"

He just got done mowing the lawn for the past 2 hours . . . time for some words of affirmation . . . wink.

WARNING: There's a 2 year old in my house

It was a crazy evening yesterday. The start of piano lessons for the year is off to a great start. I'm glad to have those students back in my life. I enjoy a summer break, but I think this year I've made the decision that it was too long of a break and next year I will incorporate some kind of summer session. It is hard to juggle family vacations (theirs and mine), and my own family's needs, but for sake of music, we must continue!!

After lessons, I went to a meeting at my local library - to learn more about couponing. A subject close to my heart! It was nice to get together with others who like the same thing. I think that's my passion. I'm thinking about starting a group at church. I don't even know what we'll do - except talk about deals. But there has to be an idea that getting together to fellowship and help people save money . . . sharing . . . hhmmm . . . I don't want it to be a "hen meeting" though. LOL

Well there is a big noise in our neighborhood today. Not sure what it is exactly, but I think our neighbors are getting a new driveway . . . perhaps they are digging up the old concrete and then maybe having new concrete put down. YIKES, it's loud. And my 2 year old is being awfully quiet, so I better go check that out. This is what happened the last time he was too quiet:




At least he was trying to clean up the eggs!! (and yes, I grabbed the camera to remember the "CAUGHT YA" moment!)

Drifting Dune, I Love Ye Not

I'm so tired! I painted one of the rooms in the house (the piano room, specifically) two days ago, and my legs hurt so bad! I guess I didn't anticipate the squatting issues involved! YEEOUCH. Last night we went to my brother's high school football game, and going up the stadium stairs wasn't too much of a problem, but when we descended, I thought I was going to D-I-E. I was whining at each and every step. Today I am still moaning. Yeah, I'm a real joy to be around. The real clincher is that I totally don't even like the paint color! I picked it out, and I went through the 8 hours of work . . . am going through day TWO of pain . . . and am not in love with the color. It will grow on me, and the bright side is that it looks a lot better than the flat painted-white walls that were the former owner's selection :-) I know that flat paint is cheaper . . . but come on, people! Especially when you have children in the house - go with semi-gloss for cleaning purposes. OK, I'm done moaning.

The brighter side of things, also, is that I can now hang a picture of my two boys that I have had for quite some time. I've been delaying it because I needed to repair the walls in the room, paint the room, and now . . . . VOILA, we are ready!

I hope you all have a good LABOR day! We're having family in, and I'm so looking forward to it because we don't get to see these folks very much. One of my favorite things in the world is "shooting the breeze". Where did that phrase come from? :-)

Hard Knocks

One week into Kindergarten for Big J. He's having a super time. But yesterday he came home and said "I didn't have such a great day." OH NO. I asked why. He said "There is a boy in my class who kicked me." Oh dear . . . . so we had a conversation, and as best as I can tell, the boy wanted some attention from my son who was talking to someone else at the time, and instead of getting his attention through normal means, he just kicked him instead. Of course, my son told the teacher, who made the boy move somewhere else in the class. (not sure on this, as my son's descriptions aren't always the best!) Well, bless his heart, that wasn't the end of the "not such a great day" story. Also, at recess, I guess some older kids came over to him on the swings and told him to get off! UGH. My heart dropped into my stomach. I want to go beat them up right now! We asked him what he did. He said "I got off the swings." Good boy. (I think?) But he said he looked for the teacher at recess, and couldn't find her. Another icky thing. The hard knocks of life are starting for our son and I have to pray!!