Lakeside Holiday

One of my husband's clients had their annual convention at the Lake of the Ozarks. As we do every year, we packed up the car and kids- all five this year- and headed to one of the largest manmade lakes in the world for three days of relaxation at The Lodge of the 4 Seasons resort.
I brought along "The Tale of Hilltop Farm", a charming read about Beatrix Potter and my latest crocheting project called "Allegheny Moon Mobius"(I'm not kidding). A mobius is actually another word for cowl, a word I've always disliked, so I'm going with mobius from now on- except I will still have to use the word cowl to explain mobius- which defeats the purpose. I really don't think anyone will ask me if I'm wearing a cowl or a mobius so I'm safe either way. Not that any danger was looming. Not that I'm aware of.

I'm going to save all of the political intrigue and drama for my madeup, imaginary novel "The Lobbyist's Wife" which I'm planning to write sometime in the next ten years. Nobody is holding their breath.

Small Fish

Thought for the day: "We are damaged goods but God is restoring us to wholeness." -Stuart McCallister

I feel like I'm a participant in a swim competition. At first I'm the eager minnow on the platform ready to go. The starting gun goes off and I fling myself forward. I slip effortlessly into the cool water and stay under as long as I can to maximize my perfect entry. I surface and begin to hit my stride. I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Then I look around at the other swimmers. I can tell that they want to win. Really badly. I want to win too, but I start to slip as I remember that they have been trained by highly skilled Russian coaches and I have only had myself and the frogs at the pond back home. What's the use? I can't compete with this. I fall further and further behind.

I falter when I look around and compare myself to others. I may be perfectly happy with my little accomplishments and victories, but as soon as I start to look around I lose my momentum. My personal best isn't good enough. I need to remind myself that nobody's personal best is good enough. Many winners achieve the prize only to say. "So what?".

Forgive me Lord for taking my eyes off You. You are the ultimate prize. Help me to just keep swimming.

Stationary Girl

I just realized that I haven't exercised in, well, I can't remember when. That's bad, isn't it? Yikes. I was reading Camy Tang's blog,"The Writing Sensei", and she had all these great tips on how to exercise for writers who are lazy. She wasn't pointing fingers or anything, but it got me thinking. And then I started to panic. Was I mistaken in blaming perimenopause for my blahness and fog? Could it be that I just haven't gotten off my fat,lazy butt and broken a sweat? Ever since my teenage girls,Rachael and Elsa,got their licenses I have been more than happy to let them taxi the twins and Joshua to their activities. This has enabled me to stay home and crochet. Not that I don't do anything else. I also surf the net for cool yarn. And I planted a few herbs that had gotten way past spindley. I hope they make it.

Okay. I purpose in my heart to move it, move it.