7 Quick Takes on Monday...

1. Only 20 days until Easter!

Get hopping already!  

2.  We've had such a cold spring, yesterday it hailed and snowed.  My daughter and I attended a Mother/Graduating Class tea at her school.   It was so cold outside, I drank three cups of hot tea just because it kept me sitting in the warm building touching a hot tea cup, I don't even like tea. My daughter found her friends and so I sat. It gave me some quiet time, time I admit, I've been craving.  It lets me think.  The tendency in grief is to keep so busy you don't think.  I have to work against that natural predisposition.

I even learned how to properly hold a tea cup.    

3.  On Friday, I got my hair done.  I didn't get the stylist I prefer, and so my hair is a monotone.  My youngest said, "Mom, your hair looks weird." and she patted it.   Others said it looked nice, but I look in the mirror, I see weird.  

4. Saturday, there was a job fair.  I went.  Getting back into the swing of things will require looking, so I went mostly to look.  Interviewing at a few schools, I found some administrators were interested.   I still have to get my GRE scores if I can so as to avoid taking a standardized test as part of the re-certification process.  Everyday I'm inching forward, but it is slow progress.  

Not yet.

5.  How's your Lent going?  I'm not sure how mine is going, I love the Lenten resolution to call my sister, I enjoy our talks, I feel closer to her, I'm grateful for it, and at the same time, what the joy of those moments reveal, is how empty the rest of the space in my life is, and how cluttered at the same time.  There are long bouts of silence, long bouts of activity, but much of it is repetitive, routine, and doesn't do anything save get us through the day.  We aren't made to just get through the day. The desert feels 360, with no tracks, and no apparent goal.  Maybe one has to get into the midst of the desert of life in Lent, to feel the sand underneath, like everything is not secure, to recognize one is lost.  Only then would a lost sheep call out, when they recognize, they are alone.  

(Thought this was a cute picture of a lost sheep, please don't read more into the photo than that).  We're supposed to get lost in the desert, and it is supposed to be uncomfortable, and it is supposed to reveal to us what God wants of us, how He wants us to be, and that's never an easy thing, even if it is right, good, true and beautiful.   The hard part is the being willing to wait and to listen.  That's why we need the desert of these 40 days, because if you're anything like me, waiting and listening, they're hard to do if there's any distraction possible whatsoever.  

6.  Bob

Part of my distraction is the nature of my life.  On Friday, my teen son came down the stairs with a twinkle in his eye, he was calling everyone Bob.  Most understood this to be a tease and ignored it, but Paul took the name change seriously and got very angry.  In a three word response, he declared under no uncertain terms, "I'M NOT BOB!"  So I congratulated my older son on getting him to talk using what teachers call an adverse technique.  "Congratulations." I said, "Now, don't do it again."


7.  We are hitting the mid point of Birthday Palosa, with a 12 year old tomorrow. She wants her ears pierced and to see Winter Soldier.  I'm handling the first part of the equation, Dad's handling the later this weekend. She's also taken to doing the dishes each night unasked.  It is a warm freely given gift, very much illustrative of the person she's becoming.   That reminds me to get some brownie mix so I can make a treat for her class tomorrow.   Happy Birthday to my dear Faith!  It's been a fast 12 years.