Candles, Children and Waxing Sentimental

I guess I am on a bit of a roll here this morning -"waxing" sentimental in a lot of ways.

Reading others blogs on my "links I like to read" list, along with the forward I received in my e-mail from my cousin - as mentioned in my earlier posting - has me thinking now about lots of things.

It's actually fairly peaceful here right now. The baby is sleeping and that's great; Maya has been very good, thus far today, and that's a bonus too - for sure! So far she's been watching some cartoons sporadically, looking at some of her books, which I regard as a wonderful thing and hope that aspect continues with her forever, and now - she's busy with a little whisk type broom and dust pan, doing her thing "cleaning." (Hmmm - sometimes I think my Mom's genes with respect to cleaning which totally skipped over me, a few landed in my kids but they've come home to rest in my three-year-old granddaughter! Also, not a bad thing I must add there!)

Reading others posts got me to thinking too a bit about the upcoming holiday and the true meaning of it. The last link on my favorites list on my blog is written by a lady who is also a pastor and it her latest post, she mentions one of my favorite passages from the Bible as well as a hymn I, like her, very much love too. Check it out - Pastorette Ponderings - for some very good words regardless of your beliefs to interject into your life.

As usual, I got a lot of smirks and smiles, giggles and out loud laughs this morning as I read the first two links on my blog - "Letters I Wish I'd Written" and "Meloncutters Musings." They covered things today from SPAM (and not the e-mail variety) to Mongolian Crotch Crickets - whatever the heck they are! Caribou Ponderer is a bit more on the staid, quiet and sweet side but today, she was talking about filling in forms (Pension forms, in her case) and she brought up some good points I bet we've all been a tad irritated about from time to time. "East of Oregon" pointed me to a new blog she found which I liked a lot and will be adding shortly to my favorites group. I was a bit disconcerted when I clicked into Mike's place and saw no new posting as yet but then I remembered he had said yesterday he was returning to work this morning after a hiatus of almost four months due to surgery and the recuperation period. Hurry home from work Mike and get back to work on posting to your blog!

No new stuff in some of the others on my list there and that's probably just as well for right now as I need to spend more time doing things here instead of reading blogs and posting comments all morning and half of the afternoon anyway. But since I like what they have to say I just have to remember to check back there later, maybe they're running a tad late today.

I see my "writing buddy" (Linda Rucker) is quiet today. Her blog is titled "Linda's Laments" and she often puts in some good rants. We don't always agree on a few things here and there, but as a general rule, most of the things she has to say make me believe she thinks about things, regards life itself, very much along the same lines as I do so I do enjoy her postings.

Boy, I just had a scare too here! My daughter had made arrangements yesterday for us to have fuel oil delivered today. The tank was getting low, temps are dropping and I know winter - the real thing - is really but a heartbeat away from dropping its white, cold, wet, often very icy bombs on us and the last thing we needed was to run out of oil at the same time we might be run completely out of money too! She told me the guy would be coming to deliver oil this morning and I had promised I would cover the costs today for 100 gallons of fuel. But, when I saw the truck pull up and went to dig out my checkbook for the account I planned to use to pay for this, be darned if I could find it! I was about in a panic knowing full well I had ordered more checks from the bank not too long ago (the first book of checks I had ordered quite some time back had mysteriously disappeared from the rubble on my desk and I rather think some little one had snagged it in one of her "cleaning" modes and dumped it in the trash!). Well, I hunted and hunted - finally found one check left in the book I had somewhat hidded (from my view) in my purse so I got the delivery guy paid off ok. Then I went back to resume my search for the newest book of checks and virtually ripped the top of my computer desk apart, searching through what seems to be a never-ending pile of medical bills for this checkbook.

Thank goodness, I did finally find it so now, I don't have to call the bank and order another book of checks after all. Yes, I had it neatly tucked away, safe from sticky little fingers that belong to Miss Maya and always seem geared to locate the very things I don't want HER to find - just me!

Boy, nice relief there and now, maybe I can return to the peaceful mode, even the somewhat sentimental one, I've been leaning towards today!

And, maybe I'll even go one step further too now this morning - thinking along the lines of what my blogging minister friend was saying and light a candle of my own here, thinking of Advent and what that means to all of us really, but especially me this morning.

Light just one little candle to erase some of the darkness perhaps that often seems to permeate life. Next week will be St. Lucia Day - a day meant for many candles to be lit to show us the Way - and a day that is especially meaningful to those who, like me, have a bit of the Swedish in our ancestry.

Lighting the way now - time to do that!