Steele (the Day)

"Not me!" Monday

// December 29th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // Uncategorized

I did not scrub my face with a Scotch-brite pad yesterday morning, because there was simply nothing else that would do. And nothing screams smo-o-o-oth like my favorite All-Clad non-stick skillet.

I did not make my paranoid 83 year-old mother think she was getting a computer for Christmas by dropping every hint imaginable, even wrapping her much-needed/wanted hassock in a huge Dell computer box. She absolutely refuses to have anything to do with anything electronic other than her “off the rack” cell phone which she doesn’t know how to use. She has threatened to disown the entire family if they place a computer in her presence. Personally, i think she’d dominate the Hawkeye Nation chat rooms and would have 3487590 Facebook friends.

1. Become fit and trim with arms like Felicity Huffman by May 16th. The “flesh flags” may be an obstacle.
2. Find a way to pony-up and update the ol’ wardrobe. Seriously folks, I’m a fashion disaster. I haven’t purchased anything new to wear in over two years. Hadn’t been to the mall in about that long, and only went there last week to buy the obligatory underoos for Ron Burgundy’s Christmas present. They had the nerve to rearrange the store while I was gone!
3. Get up just a bit earlier every day (which may entail going to bed earlier the night before). Need more quiet God time.
4. Get caught up on my “Bible in a Year.” According to that, it’s only December 5 today.
5. Teach Ron Burgundy how to cook. And budget. LOL. ROFLOL. I can dream, can’t I?
6. Learn Adobe Premiere Pro so I can edit my own videos. Independently. (This will be a trade-off for #5)
7. Maintain my LDL in the 70′s. So far, so good, but it’s not yet even January.

If I can’t do 6 things in 12 months, then there’s always next year.

I did not use this purrfectly feline fur ball as an excuse to not take down the Christmas tree this weekend. She owns that tree. Don’t mess with her.

Tea today: Chinese flower

Be Still Sunday

// December 28th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

TSMSS: Came to My Rescue

// December 27th, 2008 // 7 Comments » // Uncategorized

Yes, He always answers when we call.

Tea today: Genmaicha

The Curious Case of Ron Burgundy

// December 26th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // Uncategorized

Coming down after Christmas. Emotionally, I mean.

It’s a grieving process, of sorts. After the catecholamine surge of getting the dinner on the table hot and steamy, seating people so nobodys feelings are hurt, going through the exhaustion that follows a 4 day meal prep (which is eaten in 20 minutes), shaking off the tryptophan tiredness, and the aftermath of an empty house…let’s just say it was a bit anticlimactic.

It gives me pause to remember why we celebrate all of this, anyway. Oh yea. Him. The Gift. The One who made all of this possible, the up and the down. The way He’d always planned it.

Now I feel better. No really, I do.

Rather than a season of good buys, this was a season of good byes for me.

Good bye to shopping – I did next-to-none other than a few gifts online. I didn’t try to out-do anybody, knowing full well He already had. Who can compete with that??

Good bye as the kids, one by one, return to their respective lives.

Good bye to LuckyPuppy, though despite the denial by everyone but me that he’s actually dying, his next Christmas will be from the Bridge.

Good bye to my laptop, dying a slow death as I type from an attached USB keyboard, all of which requires balance and coordination which said good bye many years ago.

Good bye to a year of hard work and some “uncomfortableness” which means simply bringing in another one of the same, yet not saying good bye to the faith and strength that has so graciously allowed me to perservere. The faith that allows me to firmly trust that I am enslaved to no one or nothing as long as I choose to follow Jesus with a servant’s heart, knowing this plan of His is unfolding in my life and I may as well submit or be dead. That’s a hard pill for a control freak to swallow. But I have learned so many lessons along the way.

Good bye to the BHTC. It was nice knowing you for over 15 years and I miss you and the friendships it provided. Even though I promised to stay in touch, I didn’t. Keep me in mind for Rudy’s on Wednesday. I’ll make it eventually. I know everyone was dying to receive my White Elephant gift this year. My laptop wallpaper even got the boot.

So as I feel the years creeping in and the tooth getting long, I gaze out the window this afternoon to see this:

Yes, that’s Ron Burgundy next to what appears to be a snowman.

And he’s talking to himself (Ron, not the snowman). It’s my guess he’s talking to the Great Snowmaker and He must also be the Great Multitasker because He’s listening to me at the same time.

And when the snowman’s done, he comes in to share his boyish joy (yes, one can be a “boy” at 58) and happily obliges me a photo op. This fully-grown man has taken time to relive the simple joy of recreating a childhood memory.

All. By. Himself. Sorta.

He took his sadness of the post-holiday empty-nest mood and purposefully, intentionally, cast it to the winter wind, smashed it into a snowball. And another. And another.

And stuck a carrot in it for good measure.
He needed very little earthly “stuff” to get this job done. Just the heaven-sent snow, random rocks, oh, and perhaps Christmas lights for a mouth?

It would serve us all well to go back to the simple things that can bring us happy thoughts. Safe thoughts. Peaceful thoughts.

It’s my guess that it wasn’t about the snowman, but the thoughts God placed on his heart this afternoon to create it.

Tea today: Green Ginger

Baby, it’s cold outside!

// December 23rd, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized

This was my car thermometer this morning as I left for work. Yes, that’s minus 14 degrees.In the wind. With this huge “in-case-I-get-stuck-on-the-side-of-the-road” coat that makes me feel like a Sumo wrestler.

That stiff-looking figure to the right of the 14 could be have been me. Frozen solid.

This same coat forced me to go from a compact car many years ago to an SUV (I couldn’t fit in that Tercel with that coat)!

And the same coat, yes, that on a whirlwind trip to Tar-jay this evening, caught the end of a DVD display stand and dumped every single DVD to the floor. Santa Clause, I & II, Clark Griswold, Buddy the Elf, Ralphie…all fell victim to the coat.

And by the time I got back to my car, I was sweating like crazy. But by then it was 5 degrees above zero. Almost 20 degrees warmer than when I had started my morning at 0500.

Tea tonight: Chinese flower

You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!!!

// December 21st, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Uncategorized

Tea today: Republic of Tea Beginner’s Mind

Bustin’ out on a Saturday night

// December 21st, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized

What kind of woman with a dead cell phone and a sick dog goes out into the minus 21 degree wind chill facing 2-3 ft drifts to drive 6 miles to church on a Saturday night alone?

A woman with her tree decorated.

A desperate woman with a really big truck.

A drift-bustin’ truck.

And in the silence of prayer, in the midst of an beautiful sermon about “listening” and a handful of church-goers…

there was a really loud God.

Tea tonight: Chinese flower

Procrastinating

// December 20th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Uncategorized

I really need to be getting ready for Christmas. For some things, it’s almost too late.

Like baking cookies. Thanks, Mom, you got me covered. Check.

Like shopping. Don’t know what to get most of my kids and can’t find the stuff on the list for the one who actually gave me ideas. Uncheck.

I’m using Ron Burgundy’s computer that has fingerprints on the monitors and food in the keyboard and it takes me twice as long to type anything. Check.

Oh yea, my laptop died and I need to take it in for diagnostics. Now. Uncheck.

I got the Chex Mix made. There’s one thing done for the holidays. Chex.

Tea today: Bigelow green with pomegranate. Check.

32 and holding

// December 16th, 2008 // 5 Comments » // Uncategorized

On this day, 32 years ago, we had a “Bicentennial Baby” – our first. It gave me a new perspective on Advent, and I’ll never forget it. Looking back, I think this was about the time I started regularly crying in church – out of sheer emotion. He was bald, beautiful, and perfect in our eyes and of course, in the eyes of God. None of that has changed.

We brought him home on Christmas Eve. Things were different back then – he was a little jaundiced and all nursing mothers got to stay if their babies needed to stay. So I stayed in the nursery as much as I could since “rooming in” was just a new concept, and you could only have your baby in your room for an hour at a time.

The first thing I did when I got him home? Put him in a cloth diaper. That’s all he ever knew. I would still do that today.

Because nothing says love like a soft white diaper on a little pink butt.

Tea today: Republic of Tea Sip for the Cure

"Not me!" Monday

// December 15th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized

Ben, very serious, enunciating every word to every song, not getting a single one wrong, with a slight lisp and a shower of spit, looking for approval and grateful for Mom and Dad in the audience with their thumbs up. Not a hair out of place. Some things never change.

Katie-kins, meticulously hand-sewn clothes perfectly suited for the occasion, shyly smiling, and singing about every third word correctly (“Joy to the Girl….,” “All I want for Christmas is my two front feet…”), and flopping her long gorgeous hair diva-style on the annoyed boy behind her. I never did tell Ron Burgundy I spent $80 on a luscious forest green velvet and imported white eyelet to make her dress the year she was 3. Sorry dear. But you’re the one who thought she needed the “fur” coat. Can we call it even?

Luke, squirming, not singing, but screaming words of his own choice, hands over his ears, eyes darting to make sure everyone’s watching, elbowing the person next to him, and rolling his eyes back as if to say “I am Luke and you’re not.” And giving Sweet Baby Jesus a kick in the manger on the way off stage. Our baby, the only child to ever be banned from the church nursery before he was 2.

It just wouldn’t be a Christmas program without some family providing the riff-raff, would it? And there were not lots of parents there with video cameras, just like Ron Burgundy always was. Those videos will be awesome to watch from our rocking chairs.

I was not tired back in those days. And I couldn’t even blog about it. Neither the word “blog” or the home computer were invented. I am, however, not still tired.

This post would not be complete without an out-take of an old Christmas card photo, circa 1983.Nope, I did not cry for days gone by. Tears of emotion and love, not sadness.

I did not give up the idea of Christmas cookies, and order them from a local baker last night. Who would be so unambitious? Not me, with no tree up yet. Or shopping….no, wait!

I did not do the first of my Christmas shopping! From my lazy-boy. Online. Two down, dozens to go….

My oldest baby boy does not turn 32 on Tuesday. Not mine. I’m only 39 (again), so it’s simply not possible. And every year at Advent I don’t think about that restless baby I had in my belly accompanying me to Advent services (he was supposed to arrive mid-November, and has been late ever since), and think about Mary – her full and faithful heart. She was most certainly a better woman than I. I whined about being overdue, and certainly wasn’t traveling by camel.

I did not open the pantry Saturday to find the milk on the shelf. This has not happened once before, only with the cereal to be found in the fridge shortly thereafter. This time the milk was simply. In. The. Pantry. I did not do it, and Ron Burgundy drinks milk all the time. Yeah, right.

Tea today: Young hyson