B.B.B.B. Bad!

If you follow along with me on Facebook, you may have noticed a post my dear daughter, Mandy, put up there on Sunday. She reminded me -and a whole bunch of FB friends too -that this is my "Birthday Week." Yeah -like I really needed the reminder huh that come Friday I will add another year to my age.

Actually, I'm pretty happy about the fact that I'll be another year older cause in my book, it beats the Hell out of the alternative, ya know. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I will have had 66 years on the face of this earth, had so many wonderful, excellent experiences too -that I have a family of three children who are the best, three grandchildren who are beautiful beyond compare and extended family of cousins and more cousins and even adding more in that line all the time too.

And I have family I've never seen in person in all corners of the world, who I most likely will never come even remotely close too meeting -ever -either, and many of those folks communicate with me from time to time via this medium called blogging and often, their words come at just the right moment in time to keep my spirits from dragging, to keep me lifted up and moving ahead!

I just finished clearing out my reader this morning -all 101 posts that were there waiting for me to come by and read them -and one of those posts today (actually two in particular) really spoke to me, loud and clearly! So because of that, I'm gonna give you a heads up, a pointer in this direction and tell you to go read these posts today if you don't do anything else and see if it doesn't help you put a very positive spin on things today -maybe for the rest of the week and heck, who knows, maybe even for the rest of your life too!

I'm recommending these for your reading pleasure - Suldog is one of my favorite bloggers and, if you've never read his posts but you read this one, I think you'll share my enthusiasm for his "stuff" too. And my other recommendation for today is this one from Kat at Seeking Sanity. Tell me if you don't find a good bit of inspiration in the words both of them have in these posts, please!

Now on to a few other things in my life of late.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned over the weekend in my posts that I had a little problem on Saturday with my trusty little old jeep -in that it wouldn't fire up and run for me Saturday evening. Thanks to my good neighbor across the street and his jump-starter thing-a-ma-jig, we got it up and running and my son had listened to me explain what happened and figured that the buggy probably needed a new battery but if that didn't cure the problem then it might be in need of an alternator. Daughter Mandy went out Saturday night and brought home a new battery for my jeep -my birthday present, just a few days early. Sunday the battery was put in, jeep was running okay -or so we thought (or hoped, anyway.)

Monday a.m., I had an appointment at the Cancer Center for my weekly bloodwork and got a big disappointment though when I hopped into the jeep and turned the key to get -nothing! Hmmm. Back into the house to tell Mandy I wasn't going to be getting over for my blood work just yet. So she hurried and got shoes and socks on Kurtis -who was already dressed and ready for school because he had his weekly play therapy appointment later that morning. And off we went then in her car and I got to Clearfield only about 10 minutes late for my blood work but got it done, all the same.

After that -with an hour between then and Kurt's appointment, we decided to have breakfast at Arby's so Mandy and I could feast on their breakfast bar buffet. Not that it is a gourmet treat but for a fast -food place, they did a fairly decent job on the fluffy scrambled eggs and home fries that had grilled onions cooked in with them too, just the way I like 'em but lots of places manage to screw them up. So I was happy. But what really made my day was that they had biscuits -nice big biscuits and some really good sausage gravy to pour over those biscuits too!

Now I love biscuits and sausage gravy! I've kind of been dreaming of eating that treat for sometime now but kept putting off making the sausage gravy because the kids won't touch it with a ten-foot pole, ya know. Sometimes, I do believe these two have no tastebuds at all -leastways not for any of the good stuff that I love anyway! So I did -I confess -make a bit of a pig of myself as I went back for seconds on the biscuit and gravy thing and yeah, did sort of feel the rest of the day that I was toting a bit of a small rock in the pit of my stomach but no heartburn, no indigestion and I satisfied that craving so what's a little rocky feeling then? Nothing in the grand scheme of things in my book.

After our dining experience, we set off to take Kurt to his therapy appointment. One nice thing about riding in Mandy's car is that she has a radio in her car that actually works as opposed to the radio, cd player, etc., in my jeep that won't play a single thing these days. And she had a station on that was playing pretty much rock stuff -which is fine with me as long as it isn't the Heavy metal or rap stuff. And this song came on the radio - Bad to the Bone -which ended up causing us both to crack up laughing.

Why? Well because half-way through the song we heard Kurtis in the back seat singing away to the music. What really had us howling was his version - B B B B Bad bone! Yep! Just too doggone cute for words, reallyit was!

Last night was the monthly meeting of the Women's Group (WELCA -Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) at our church and I had to be there because our President just left town a day or two ago for a big vacation trip to Russia and, since I am Vice President, I had to be there to well, preside, ya know. Probably wasn't one of the most organized meetings the group has ever seen but we got a few things done, planned for, etc.

One of the things we got done though was that we completed putting together Health Kits which will be distributed to people around the world who have virtually nothing in the way of material possessions.

As we were putting these kits together -which consist of a small hand towel, a wash cloth, bar of soap, comb, nail clippers or nail file, toothbrush and six bandaid wrapped within a rubber band -the plight of whoever would be the recipient of this little health kit.

Comparing my own needs and wants and properties I have within my reach at any given time to being someone who would be receiving one of the Health Kits really put my life in a completely different perspective.

No matter how gray or dark any given day in my lifetime -of almost 66 years now -may have seemed to me at any point in time, never, ever have I been in want, in need, of the simple basics of life, of existence! And to think that so many people do not have even these things that seem to me -probably to you too -to be basics of life so easy to reach for and use -well, it sure gave me a whole lot more appreciation for the things I do have at all times too, within my house!

That, plus thinking about this small group of women from our church who gather to plan and coordinate and serve the parish in so many ways -giving of time, giving of money, giving of food, giving of simple things like prayers for family and friends of members who are ailing and the comfort that those things provide within our community and beyond -makes me so grateful to be a part of this sisterhood. Because of the group having aided me when Mandy and I went to Pittsburgh for my surgery, I had looked for a thank you card to give the group and the one I selected, initially I thought maybe it really was inappropriate because it was one of those musical cards ya know and I thought perhaps the group wouldn't follow my thought process with this particular card. It was pretty simple actually -just a big "thank you" and a message about "sisterhood" with the song "We are family" playing. But that is how I've always felt about my church, about my fellow members of this parish and particularly since I got involved in the Women's Group that they are "my Family!"

This morning now, Mandy woke me up as she was taking Maya to the bus stop because as soon as she got back home she was leaving to take her car to the garage where her uncle works as a mechanic to get her gas tank repaired. I needed to be up and awake then to watch over Kurtis, need to hurry and finish writing this now too so I can find his shoes and socks and get them on him, get his jacket -throw some clothes on myself too (besides my jammies) so I can take him out to get him on his van when it arrives to pick him up and take him to his school.

And, he's been very good for me -watching his programs that he likes on the tv and I thought I'd see too if I could wheedle him into maybe eating a little something too.

So, I offered him what I figured would be a good item -a nice treat to his tastebuds -in the form of a toasted blueberry bagel complete with cream cheese and butter on it too! He was excited about the bagel -sure he was. Until I put it in front of him and then he took his index finger and proceeded to slick off all the cream cheese, squeeze the bagel to kind of mangle it up a good bit and walk away and leave that then on the plate on the table.

With last night's meeting still in my mind, those health kits, thinking of people with nothing ya know, it was more than I could bear to then trash the remainder of that bagel.

No -I didn't need those calories -for sure -but also, I couldn't bear the thought of wasting them either.