inventory

in addition to a new place to live:

1. couch
2. chairs
3. kitchen table and chairs
4. coffee table/end table
5. lamp
6. bar stools
7. coffee maker
8. spice rack
9. silverware
10. utensils/hot pads
11. dish towels
12. wine glasses
13. cutting board
14. coffee mugs
15. toaster
16. coffee bean grinder
17. pots and pans
18. trash cans
19. portable fireplace
20. comforters, bedskirts, sheets
21. color scheme
22. coat rack
23. shower curtain
24. towels
25. decorative items
26. throw pillows
27. area rug
28. throw rugs
29. the bose!
30. cable provider
31. cell phone provider
32. car
33. laundry basket
34. wreaths/spotlight for the one on the door
35. Christmas tree and ornaments
36. nativity scene

these are the tangible things i have changed since my husband left me. i needed to start fresh. and, boy, did i EVER.

these are the intangible things i have changed (and.....funny how tangible the intangible things are):

 37. me and Christ
 38. me and how i treat you 
 39. me

i needed to start fresh.


and boy........did i EVER.


:)


 
 

wise up.

a fellow catholic said yesterday that it sure is nuts how most of us are more afraid of going to confession than we are of sinning.

ain't that the crazy truth.

halfa what we do is nuts:

we open the stores on thanksgiving.

we say a prayer to God before eating the turkey and then knock over anybody who's in our way at best buy.

we can't be thankful without watching football.

we bypass God and pass laws that don't work to fix the damage we caused by bypassing God.

we drink caffeine in the morning instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour at night.

we complain if it's hot and we complain if it's cold.

we drag ourselves to work every day with a scowl on our face and think it's the boss's fault we hate our job.

we drink wine to take the edge off.

confession takes the edge off. 

liar, liar, pants on fire

if truth is relative and there is no such thing as THE TRUTH but rather, truths that work for you or maybe for you or maybe for this guy but not necessarily for that guy, then fine.......let those truths prevail.

in other words, what you're saying is, your untruth is, well.......THE TRUTH. but if there isn't any such thing as THE TRUTH, then how can yours be IT?


Jesus said that He is the truth. and that those who believe that will have eternal life.

who knows? maybe Jesus was a liar or a lunatic and your truth will turn out to be THE TRUTH.


pack your shorts!

be grateful for gratitude!

i heard a guy on the radio this morning talking about modern-day Christian martyrs and he reflected on how incredibly blessed most of us are with the lives that we lead. he said, "sheesh......the closest i ever came to "carrying the cross" was eating fish sticks and mac and cheese on fridays during lent."

he is so right.

and then, later today, one of my colleagues remarked that we have such good lives (she was speaking in particular of the contrast between our lives and the lives of most of our clients - which, in general, are such a hot mess you could get a tan just talking to them).

she is so right.

and then, on the drive home, i heard a guy on the radio say that he thinks that the thing all of us should be most grateful for is the ability (the God-given ability) to be grateful. without the ability to be grateful.......well, doesn't it make you shudder just thinking about it?

he is so right.

and yet......most of us (on a daily, ordinary basis anyway) squander the gift of gratitude. we kavetch from the minute we wake up till the minute we fall asleep.....or......if we don't, we at least fail to realize that everything ......everybody.....is something/someone for which/whom we should be grateful.(do i have to be grateful for proper english? sheesh!)

or, as someone (i believe it was mother teresa) said, "it's not a problem....it's a gift."


she (or whoever said that) is so right.

(or is it whomever?)


i am so grateful for the who/whom "gift", which drives me (gratefully) crazy every time i have to figure out which one to use.

gives me a (grateful) headache.


think i'm gonna go lie (lay?) down. and be grateful for my bed.

what church does santa claus go to?

abby was talking to the kids yesterday about st. nicholas vs. santa claus and apparently charlie's little brain made the connection between st. nicholas and st. mary (my church) because he asked abby if santa claus goes to my church.

and after i stopped laughing, i thought about it for a minute. and i realized that, just as little virginia was told by the new york sun that yes, there is a santa claus, so, too, does santa attend my church.

what is santa claus, really, except for the embodiment of everything that a good church teaches.......love. i personally have never liked those nativity scenes which show santa claus kneeling at the crib of the baby Jesus. but, on one hand........it does make some sense. in a way, santa is Jesus. other than over-indulge in food, what does santa do that Christ wouldn't want him to do?

santa spends the whole year focused on somebody else. well, and not just somebody else......everybody else! and then, on Christmas eve, when the rest of us are sipping hot cocoa by the fire and sharing the love, what's he doing???? he's flyin' around like a crazy man in the cold and the dark (and the heat and the jungle and the mountains and the valleys and the tiniest places that none of us - except he - except He - has ever heard of).......just so everyone will be happy.

just so everyone will be happy.


so yes, virginia, there is a santa claus.


and yes, charlie, he does go to my church.


and to your church, too.

:)

who ya gonna call? BUBBLE BUSTERS!

i woke up this morning and discovered that the floor register in the master bath had been removed from its hole and placed about 12" from the hole.

what the????

as i was standing there trying to figure out what happened(and i confidently ruled out my dog pretty quickly - for a number of good reasons), my cell phone automatically started dialing the woman who cuts my hair! 

WHAT THE????

i disconnected the call and no sooner did i do that than my phone automatically started dialing my boss!

WHAT THE????

and then, no lie, my phone started dialing a third person (i d/c'd that before i even saw who the potential callee was)!

WHAT THE????



when i got to work, i gave my co-workers the bad news: my house is haunted. suddenly, inexpicably, overnight haunted. it's pretty rude to haunt someone's house without giving her fair warning!

as i told the story of what happened, one of my colleagues, devorah, said, "i don't think your house is haunted. i think you did it, nancy. i think you were sleepwalking and you pulled the register out of the floor." 

WHAT THE HOLY SHUT THE FRONT DOOR??????????!!!!!!!!



as we talked, though, it began to make a lot of sense. a lot more sense than any other scenario we could come up with and so devorah, a former champion sleepwalker herself, told me what to do..............get bubble wrap.

what the????

yes, she said, bubble wrap. put it on the floor next to your bed. one of three things will happen......either you'll sleepwalk and hopefully hear the pop of the bubbles as you get out of bed or you'll sleepwalk and you won't hear the bubbles pop but when you get up the next morning, you'll see the bubbles that have been flattened. or.......you won't sleepwalk and you can just pop the bubbles to your heart's content with your fingers - not your feet!(course, i gotta do this several nights for several weeks - maybe months - before i know "for sure" and therefore, i may have to wait a good, long while before i can indulge in the deliciousness of said popping with said fingers and not said feet.....how rude to make someone wait even just one moment to pop the bubbles on bubble wrap!).

the consensus seemed to be that i would likely discover that devorah is right - that i have indeed taken up the potentially dangerous habit of sleepwalking. which scares me - especially since i live alone.

however, what's even scarier is......what if i don't sleepwalk? who the flip took my register out of the floor if it wasn't me????

WHAT THE????

as for my phone, the consensus is......you guessed it.......


WHAT THE????

give me an onion ring, not a diamond ring!

in this month of being thankful, one of the things i am thankful for is that unlike most of you, i love to go to the grocery store. LOVE!

going to the grocery store has never felt like a chore to me. ok, so maybe not never (you sticklers for the truth), but almost practically 100%....... never. i love the grocery store!

first of all, even the stuff that costs too much doesn't cost that much. as compared to, say, the stuff that's in a jewelry store. or at the car dealership. you gotta love $3.99 versus $3,999.00 or $39,999.00 any. day. of. the. year.

the other thing is, it's no fun cleaning jewelry. not exactly a blast washing the car, either. but running the carrots through the faucet? please. piece. of. cake.

speaking of cake.......you can't get that at tiffany's. breakfast, maybe, but cake?

never.

:)

the real treat in trick-or-treat

for those who look down on halloween because they believe that the holiday is about devil worship, first of all, i don't think it's about devil worship - i think it's about candy - but for those of you who are concerned about it, here's a flip side to the issue: it's one helluva teachable moment.

when else is having your parents coaching you to say "thank you" so much fun? when else is waiting your turn so much fun? when else is your parents telling you not to say, "yuck, i don't like nerds" so much fun? never, that's when.

when else can your parents talk to you about how it's fun for you to wear a mask at halloween but what about all the people out there who feel like they have to wear one everyday? and how maybe we ought to reach out to folks like that and help them.

what better time than halloween to talk about violence? and how walking around with a pretend knife stuck through your pretend skull may not be the best choice in costumes?

and how violence is, for so many people, as daily in their lives as laughter is in yours.

what about talking to your kids about diet and obesity and moderation? you don't have to go all fargo, north dakota postal on the kids and hand out scolding letters to the parents of fat trick-or-treaters, but you can say, "look - there are a few times and occasions every year when we can indulge a little. and halloween is one of them. but the rest of the year, we have to act half-way sane."

what about simply pointing out that no matter what the other kids' costumes are, i expect you to be complimentary of them. none of this insulting, "what the heck are you supposed to be????" crap.

what about just standing there on the sidewalk, in the cold or the rain (or the 70 mph wind, as the case may be in ohio), and beaming with pride as you gently coax your munchkin to go on, go ahead, just say "trick or treat.it's ok."

what about that? what about how you standing there on the sidewalk is such an example of how you are going to be standing there their whole lives through?

what about that?

what about, yes, the devil does exist. and so does God. and His goodness will prevail. and me standing here telling you to be a nice kid - and insisting that you are - is your first lesson in grasping that.