Is it a mum or a MUM!

It is fall. I love fall. The weather gets cooler in the morning and, if you're lucky enough to live in the south, it warms to the 70's during the day. The sky and clouds just seem crisper in the fall. When we lived in California, fall meant that I would buy potted chrysanthemums to have on our porch. The mums previously planted in our yard would be at full bloom announcing the end of summer. But that was California......

Now I am in Texas. It is fall and there are mums, but mums here have a different and a literally HUGE meaning. A mum in Texas is hard to describe except that it is a very large corsage of sorts made up of a large fake chrysanthemum, a bear, ribbon, glitter, and pretty much anything else you want to add to it. It is a Texas tradition for homecoming. Boy asks girl. Girl accepts. Boy's mom makes a monstrous mum. If the boy's mom has lived in California in her entire life....boy's mom panics.

Not being one to back down from a challenge, I headed off with son in tow to the craft store. Which, since we are in Texas, is equally huge. We find the "mum" section and soon realize we are in way over our heads and leave with only a few ribbons. I then remember a friend who talked about a "mum making" group - I called her and she invited me to join and even "mentor" me in the fine art of mum making. For those of you who aren't from Texas, I thought it would be fun to chronicle my mum making experience...

DAY ONE.

The mum group has grown to the point that they are now renting a room in a rec center for participants to drop by and make mums. It is filled with tables, ribbon and bins and boxes of embellishments. I realize it is like scrap booking but on ribbon - I am already feeling more relaxed. The women are wonderfully helpful and encouraging to a novice from California and assure me they will help me make a mum that will not be an embarrassment to my son, his date, or give any hint it was made by a Californian. I am skeptical but begin grabbing ribbon, glue and letters are am off. Here is what I have accomplished by day one...

"Hold onto the Good"

A phrase and theme has been resonating with me lately. I have been reading through Thessalonians in my Bible reading and came across a passage I just love 2:Thessalonians 5:12-24. One sentence just jumped out at me "Hold onto the good."

In the past month I have seen the good and the bad, and not necessarily in that order.
Fleeing from a hurricane - Bad
Finding your family and dog are pretty good at evacuating - Good
Seeing the devastation of Ike - Bad
Feeling overly blessed how unscathed our home was - Good
Having all our fences knocked down - Bad
Getting to meet neighbors who lived behind us - Good
Finding out your insurance won't cover your damages - Bad
Realizing you get to pay for it all yourself - Good?????


Sometimes bad and good flip order. A few weeks back I passed my Real Estate Exam - Good. Then in the afternoon a child (who shall remain nameless) ran into our remaining "iron" fence with our truck - Bad
Fence undamaged - Good
Truck - not so good
Celebratory dinner plans postponed - Bad
Learning to make a new kind of pizza with what we had in the house - Good
Having to the insurance company again for the 3rd time since May - Bad
Finding our deductible was lower than we thought - Good

So I have determined to "hold onto the good". It is VERY easy to sit down and dwell with the bad. I want to look for the good in situations and events and more importantly "hold on" to the ultimate good "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."

Seeing our minuscule retirement go down by 25% and counting - Bad
Clinging to God as my ultimate retirement plan - Good

Timing

Last night we were completing our school parent function trifecta. The sophomore parent meeting - not to be confused with the senior parent meeting or open house which was earlier this week. (Oh and I didn't mention the college meeting on Saturday) We psyched ourselves up to attend and were impressed at how easy parking was. As we walked in the counselors greeted us and said they wished we could be given a prize for being first. As we sat there alone in the auditorium, I at first commented that I hoped this didn't mean the turn out would be poor. It then dawned on me that perhaps, just perhaps, I had the time wrong. I went and talked to one of the very eager counselors and was told indeed we had shown up 40 minutes early! Open House was at 6:30 - this event was at 7 p.m. Ugh!

Woody Allen said that 80% of success is just showing up. If you show up too early does that make you MORE successful?

Fall memories

It is October which means I pull out my Fall/Halloween box and begin to decorate the house. We have some traditions in our home. One is putting up (or in the case of my children - putting up with) decorations that were made in school many years ago. As I hung our large pumpkin paintings this year, I was amazed to realize that they are over 10 years old! I can still remember when these were carried home - almost the size of the child who painted them. Those budding artists have grown very tall now and yet looking at the artwork can transport us all back in time a bit. Each can still identify which skeleton is theirs, can recite a poem they learned or remembered writing their Halloween hiaku. Each decoration is a little time capsule of wonderful memories. Sometimes I wonder if I enjoy the decorations - or the thoughts and images they remind me of more.

Conversations Overheard....that I wish I hadn't

I pride myself on not eavesdropping, or sticking my nose into other's business. It is amazing though how much people are willing to share rather audibly in a public place. So I will add another installment to my continuing "things overheard series". Yesterday I was privileged to overhear two such conversations....

1. A doctor's office with my daughter for a dermatology appointment. Pretty routine. However the gentlemen standing behind us in the waiting room decided to respond to a question that I'm assuming was "how are you doing?" from another patient in rather graphic detail. Let's just say I now know more about open wounds and sores than I cared to ever know. Ewwwwww

2. Sitting at a meeting at a high school waiting for it to start. A group sits behind us with once again a simple question "how are you doing?" being asked. I now know the details of this woman's gall bladder and upcoming surgery AND prep work than necessary. Mercifully the meeting started before it became more graphic.

Note to the public: When someone asks you how you're doing, I'm gonna guess that 95% don't want to know the exact graphic details of everything (the other 5% being your doctor). Also, when you share, remember that there are people around you that can overhear EVERYTHING - please be discreet.

Signs

Another day another trip to the orthodontist and then taking another child to the doctor's later on. I have realized that I have been to the orthodontist 5 times in the last two weeks - another appointment next week. Sigh!

In the midst of all of this I am studying to take my Real Estate License Exam on Friday. Each appointment I trek my books to highlight and study; trying to cram so much information into my brain in the hope that some sticks. This has not been an easy task 1. because I am old of brain and 2. because I keep hearing reports about how bad the economy is and how real estate is going down into a black hole (perhaps I exaggerate). It is times like that when I wonder what in the world I am doing going for my license! It's when I hit those moments I remember what I saw the other day.

As I was coming home from being fingerprinted (another task on the way to licensing), I passed a business who had a sign that simply stated "Keep the Faith". As I smiled at the sign I noticed I just passed a corner with the sign "Wisdom Street". I need to remind myself that the trek I am on is because of an open door God allowed - I need to keep the faith and focus on God's wisdom and NOT the local news or economy forecasts.