Flashback Friday: Music and other lessons

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Mocha With Linda has begun a new weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site.

The question for today is:

If you have a child in your life, your calendar for April and May is probably quickly filling up with end-of-year activities – performances, recitals, etc. Did you take lessons as a child? Piano or another instrument? Gymnastics or dance? Other types of lessons? Were they weekly? How much were you required to practice between lessons? Did you participate in recitals? If so, do any of them stand out in your memory? Did they foster a love or a hate for that activity? Did you want to take lessons in a certain thing that you never got to? And if you have kids now, how did your experiences with taking lessons like these impact the activities you had/have them do?

Sadly, no, I never took any lessons of any kind as a child or teen until driver’s training. When I was in about the 3rd or 4th grade, there was an assembly discussing violin lessons, and I really, really wanted to take them. But money was always tight and I just assumed we wouldn’t have money for such a thing. I kick myself now, of course, for not asking about it, at least.

I did take one semester of piano in college and enjoyed it, but as it took me five years to finish a four-year course as it was, I didn’t see how I could fit any more lessons (and especially the practice times) in. I know I could learn now, but I have no desire to play before other people, and the amount of time it would take to learn to play well enough for it to be enjoyable and not frustrating is just not something I have right now, at least not in light of all the other things I want to do. There are still times, however, when I long to just sit down at the piano and play something, to be able to express myself in that way.

I did take a few crafty type lessons as a young wife. We lived near a Christian college where the Home Economic Education girls had to take a class called Teaching Home Economics, and one requirement of that class was to teach a course having to do with cooking, sewing, or crafts over a few weeks. The classes were free and open to the community. I took cake decorating (but sadly, did not take to it. I didn’t have a natural knack for it and didn’t want to put the time into practice on something that was just going to be eaten up), quilting, and a few others.

The only other lessons I have considered taking are voice lessons, but I am too self-conscious to sing alone in front of a teacher. 🙂 Plus I don’t need to add the nervousness of stress of performing in public to my life.

As far as other lessons — gymnastics, karate, etc. — that just wasn’t done much when I was a kid, at least in our circles. We mainly just rode bikes and played outside. 🙂

When my kids came along, I did want them to take piano, if nothing else. I felt that was foundational to any other instrument they might want to learn, plus it would help the if they were ever in a choir. Though not prodigies, they all did fairly well (could have done better, if they had practiced more. 🙂 ) They all wanted to quit by high school age, and I didn’t let the first two: I had heard so many people say they regretted that their mothers let them quit, plus one person we knew who was greatly skilled at it shared that he had wanted to quit when he was younger, too. So the older boys took piano through high school. By the third one, though, I was just tired of dealing with the resistance, so we did let him stop taking lessons this year. He says he just wants to take a one-year break and then come back to it…but I doubt he will. 😦

My middle son tells me he asked repeatedly to take some kind of martial arts and that I kept putting him off by saying we should wait a while and see if he was really interested. I don’t remember that at all. I do remember thinking about it and being afraid of the Eastern religious influence. I know now that, depending on the teacher, the skills and principles can be taught without getting into the religious aspect, and I wish we had checked into it at the time. (Sorry Jason!)

I don’t remember that we really got into other lessons. They all played sports at various times, and were all in choirs at various times. We wanted to balance giving them opportunities we never had with not overloading their schedules so they (and the rest of the family) never had any down time. Besides the martial arts, I don’t remember them asking for any other lessons…except that when Jeremy was in about 4th or 5th grade, they had someone come and talk to them about playing strings, and he wanted interested in the double bass. The only problem was that they only gave the lessons during recess, and at that time he only had one recess, and one of them each week was taken up with piano lessons. I felt he needed both the physicality and the social interaction of recess more, so we didn’t sign up, and I have regretted it ever since. He tells me not to worry about it, that he hasn’t been pining away for it all these years, but I do still regret it. I think I would have signed him up if they had had an after-school program.

So, this year for us we have no piano recitals and no concerts as Jesse is not in choir this year, either. As much as I chafed at having all these programs to attend in years past, I have to admit I do kind of miss them. Not enough to go watch the other kids, though. 🙂

The Hidden Flame

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Barbara Harper

The Hidden Flame by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn is the second in the Acts of Faith series set during the time of the early church in Acts. The first book, The Centurion’s Wife (reviewed here) took place just after the death and resurrection of Christ. The Hidden Flame picks up right where the action left off in the earlier book, but then there is a two-year gap before we see the early disciples in their new patterns of life.

The main character of this book is Abigail, a friend of Leah’s from the previous book. Abigail thought she had lost her entire family, but discovered her brother alive at the end of the first book. Now they have become integrated with the disciples, and despite Abigail’s previous injuries from a cauldron of boiling water spilling onto her, she is an active member, busy ministering in the kitchens and in distributing food to the poor. Two men are after her hand: one an older, wealthy Jewish merchant, the other a young Roman soldier. The problem, though, is that neither of them are believers, which is something she strongly desires in a mate, but women in that day had little say about whom they were given to in marriage.

I mentioned in my review of the first book that I approach Biblical fiction somewhat warily as too often the author’s imagination can take off and obscure or even supersede the facts. But David Bunn and Janette Oke are as careful as I think they can be. The reader has to understand that the characters who are developed a little more than the Bible gives us information about are products of the author’s imagination and therefore not entirely Biblical, but I think the authors do a good job of fleshing out what they think the Biblical characters might have been like.

The main events from the book of Acts here are the way the church dealt with the persecuted or displaced early believers, the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, the naming of the first deacons, and the stoning of Stephen. I especially appreciated the way the situation with Ananias and Sapphira was handled. We tend to breeze right through that passage on the way to the next, but this caused me to think for the first time how the incident must have impacted both the community and the believers, who I imagine would have been very shaken. As the different believers in the story wrestle with what has happened and discuss it with each other, we hear varying views of possible reasons the Lord handled the situation in just that way without a one dogmatic, overriding view.

I am assuming there will be more books in the series: there were no loose ends at the conclusion, but there was a feel that there was more of the story to come. I look forward to it.

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Tax Funnies

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Barbara Harper

This is the day in America in which all income tax returns are due in. Before electronic filing, I remember when the post offices would stay open til midnight on April 15 so taxpayers could get their returns in. I remember one year when we were in line at the post office late the evening of April 15 to turn ours in! We only did that once!

To ease the pain of taxes a bit, here are some jokes about them:

1040 EZiest TAX FORM
___________________

1. How much money did you make? $____________

2. Send it to us.

U.S. Gov’t. Form 8765309
____________________________________________________

* The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. ~ Mark Twain

* Income tax time is drawing near. Did you ever notice that if you take the two words – “The” and “IRS” it spells “Theirs”?

* Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. ~ Ronald Reagan

* The IRS looks at every taxpayer as having what it takes.

* A political promise today means another tax tomorrow.

* We wonder why they call them tax returns when so little of it does.

* April is always a difficult month for Americans. Even if your ship comes in, the IRS is right there to help you unload it.

* IRS agent to taxpayer: “I’m afraid we can’t allow you to deduct last year’s tax as a bad investment.”

* If you think nobody knows you’re alive…try filing your income tax late!

* The ideal situation, of course, is for the government to live within its means and without yours.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The stockbroker received notice from the IRS that he was being audited. He showed up at the appointed time and place with all his financial records, then sat for what seemed like hours as the accountant poured over them.

Finally the IRS agent looked up and commented, “You must have been a tremendous fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”

“Why would you say that?” wondered the broker.

“Because you’ve made more brilliant deductions on your last three returns than Sherlock Holmes made in his entire career.”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

A businessman on his deathbed called his friend and said, “Bill, I want you to promise me that when I die you will have my remains cremated.”

“And what,” his friend asked, “Do you want me to do with your ashes?”

The businessman said, “Just put them in an envelope and mail them to the Internal Revenue Service and write on the envelope, “Now you have everything.”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

A nervous taxpayer was unhappily conversing with the IRS Tax auditor who had come to review his records. At one point the auditor exclaimed, “Mr. Carr, we feel it is a great privilege to be allowed to live and work in the USA. As a citizen you have an obligation to pay taxes, and we expect you to eagerly pay them with a smile.”

“Thank goodness,” returned Mr. Carr, with a giant grin on his face from ear to ear. “I thought you were going to want me to pay with cash.”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

There was a man who computed his taxes for 1998 and found that he owed $3,407. He packaged up his payment and included this letter:

Dear IRS:
Enclosed is my 1998 Tax Return & payment. Please take note of the attached article from the USA Today newspaper. In the article, you will see that the Pentagon is paying $171.50 for hammers and NASA has paid $600.00 for a toilet seat.

Please find enclosed four toilet seats (value $2,400) and six hammers (value $1,029).
This brings my total payment to $3,429.00. Please note the overpayment of $22.00 and apply it to the ‘Presidential Election Fund,’ as noted on my return.
It has been a pleasure to pay my tax bill this year, and I look forward to paying it again next year.

Sincerely,
Tax Payer
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

And a serious quote or two:

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. ~ Winston Churchill

The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away. ~ John S. Coleman

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. ~ George Bernard Shaw

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free. ~ P.J. O’Rourke

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. ~ Gerald Ford

A Kitchen Meme

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Whew! Yesterday was super-busy getting ready for the ladies’ meeting last night, where we worked on favors for the upcoming ladies’ luncheon. I am going to wait to show them, though. 🙂 Traditionally, for some reason, we have fewer ladies come out to the type of meeting where we’re doing anything hands-on than when we have a speaker (I would have thought maybe some were wary putting together anything crafty, but even when we do something like wrap missionary Christmas presents, we have fewer.) But I really enjoy the fellowship over whatever we’re working on plus the creativity of the other ladies. We got quite a few favors put together.

I only had time for a quick drive-by of some posts yesterday, but I hope to catch up with everyone today.

I saw this over at Mama Bear‘s and thought it looked like fun.

1. Do you have magnets on your fridge? Yes. I did a post on them once. I have so many I had to take some down and store them in a drawer. This is one of my favorites:

2. Do you have a calendar in your kitchen, if so, what’s the theme of it? Yes. It’s the Faithful Moments 2010 calendar illustrated by Lisa Blowers. It has homey drawings with Scripture verses. Here is this month’s page:

3. What is your favorite kitchen gadget? My wire whisk. I could never make gravy well until I got one. I don’t know how my mom managed without one. Now I use it on white sauces, cream of wheat — anything that needs to be smooth and lump-free.

4. Are you lucky enough to have a pantry of some kind? No, and I miss having one.

5.What is your favorite appliance? I probably should say microwave, as much as we use it, but I’ll say toaster oven (assuming, of course, that whoever made this up meant smaller appliances. I’d have a hard time going without the stove and refrigerator.)

6. Do you have an eat in kitchen (table in it)? I guess you would say so. It’s all in the same room but separated by cabinets and the stove. We do not have a separate dining room.

7. Do you have a bread box? Yes.

8. Do you have a picture of your kids on the fridge? No. They’re in the hallway. 🙂

9. Do you ever cook breakfast in your PJs? On weekends.

10. Do you have a favorite cookbook that you use? Yes, an old Betty Crocker one and my church cookbook.

11. Are you lucky enough to have recipes that were passed down from your mom or grandma? I make some of the same dishes my mom did, but I don’t have her recipes written down. I do have a couple from one grandmother but I have never tried them.

12. What’s your favorite food? It would be too hard to choose one overall favorite — I like many things, and what I prefer each day varies.

13. What’s your favorite thing to cook? For dinner, something with chicken tenderloins. I like that you can take them straight from the freezer and have a meal made in 30 minutes or less. Chicken Enchilada Bake is one family favorite using them.

14. Is your coffee pot electric or stove top? Electric. I grew up with a stove-top percolator but didn’t think anyone used them any more.

15. Do you ever make your own bread? No. Well, banana and pumpkin bread, but not sandwich bread. I tried a few times in early marriage but it always came out really heavy in texture.

16. Name one thing that you have hanging on your wall in your kitchen: A pegged shelf with little heart ornaments accumulated from various places we’ve visited.

17. Is there a clock in your kitchen? Yes, one in the microwave, one on the “dry sink.”

18. Do you have a bowl of fruit sitting on your table or counter? No, all fruit except bananas are in the refrigerator. I like them cold. And I don’t like fruit flies.

19. What type of canisters do you have? An old Tupperware set, the kind with the accordion-pleated lids.

20. Does your kitchen have a theme? Hearts and pink roses.

21. What’s for supper tonight? Good question! 🙂

22. Do you have enough cabinet space? No. Some of the bigger stuff is in the living room closet.

23. Does your family use paper plates? Frequently for snacks and lunches, occasionally for dinner if we’re having something like hamburgers. We use them for Sunday morning breakfast so as not to have to wash plates again before dinner.

24. Do you have a good set of china? No. Just my Tea Rose Pfaltzgraf, which I love. There is no room for a china cabinet, anyway.

25. Do you wear an apron to work in your kitchen? No. Some of the ones I see these days are really cute, but I just don’t like to bother.

26. Name one thing, if anything, that you would like to change about your kitchen. More cabinet and counter space, a pantry, and more room around the table. Sorry, that’s three. 🙂 But we can’t do any of that without knocking out a wall, and that’s too expensive.

Feel free to borrow this as well. Let me know if you do!

The Week In Words

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Melissa at Breath of Life hosts a weekly carnival called The Week In Words,which involves sharing something from your reading that inspires you, causes you to laugh, cry, or dream, or just resonates with you in some way.

Though I’ve read several things that spoke to me this week, the one I’ve spent the most thought on came from the devotional book I am going through with my youngest son, Quiet Moments with God Devotional Journal For Teens.* In this reading from April 10, an unnamed modern potter is quoted as saying:

Both my hands shaped this pot. And the place where it actually forms is a place of tension between the pressure applied from the outside and the pressure of the hand on the inside. That’s the way my life has been. Sadness and death and misfortune and the love of friends and all the things that happened to me that I didn’t even choose. All of that influenced my life. But, there are things I believe in about myself, my faith in God, and the love of some friends that worked on the inside of me. My life, like this pot, is the result of what happened on the outside and what was going on inside of me. Life, like this pot, comes to be in places of tension.

In all the sermon illustrations and object lessons I have heard and read concerning potters, somehow I have never gotten that point, that when pressure from the outside pushes against God’s sustenance and strength on the inside (if we know Him and are being sustained through His Word and His Holy Spirit), not only does His strength keep us from caving in, but the tension between the two sources of pressure actually forms us.

That point may have been made before, and I’ve experienced it, but I never quite got it in quite that way before, and it has given me much food for thought.

The base verse for that day’s reading was II Corinthians 4:16: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day,” and the lesson, of course, was on the need to stay in close touch with God and feed on His Word so we have His resources to meet the needs of the day. Another quote I posted years ago was on “conditions for receiving strength” from a Bible study Rosalind Goforth had done, but I’ll just leave the link rather than requoting it here for the sake of space.

As I mentioned, there are multitudes of spiritual object lessons about potters and pottery: God’s ownership of His vessels and His right to form them as he will (Jeremiah 18:1-6, Romans 9:20-21), the need to be yielded to the potter’s hand, the problem a potter has when there is a resistant lump in the clay, or when the clay is not malleable and the potter has to take it off and knead it or take the lumps out or add water or clay to get it to the right texture before trying to rework it. But once when at our church we saw a demonstration of a Christian potter who actually brought his potter’s wheel and “threw” a pot, bringing out all the spiritual lessons, one thing stood out to me then: he brought out the intimacy of it, how the vessel he was working on was almost in his lap, how he was bent over it, arms around it, looking at it from all sides. That picture has stayed with me since then, of a God who is not aloof and insensitive, but rather bent over us, intensely interested and caring, actively and lovingly forming us.

(* Though I don’t want to take away from the precious truth here, I do feel compelled to say I cannot endorse this book completely. I’ll say more when I review it after we get back around to where we started in it, but though there are great nuggets in it, there are also places where the lesson either has nothing to do with the verse it is supposed to be taken from or is grossly misapplied.)

How Deep the Father’s Love

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Barbara Harper

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory.

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished.
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom,
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer.
But this I know with all my heart,
His wounds have paid my ransom.

Though I found many copies of these lyrics online and many recorded versions, I can’t seem to find who originally wrote it. This version is from the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team‘s CD Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All.

What would you do?

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Some months ago I bought two items at Michael’s, a Cricut cartridge that was on sale and a package of little storage jars. I had a 50% off coupon to apply to the jars, because Michael’s coupons always stipulate they can’t be used on Cricut products. If I remember correctly, I think when the clerk first rang up the purchase, it didn’t show the cartridge as being on sale, so I had to show him where it was and that it was on sale. Then when he rang it up again, somehow it didn’t register as a Cricut product, and the computer in the register applied the coupon to it (it always applies to the highest-priced item). I tried to tell the clerk at that point that the coupon should not have applied to the cartridge, but he was very new and did not understand. I didn’t want to hold up the other people waiting, so I left, but my conscience still bothered me. If I did the math right, this netted me $15 in savings more than I should have had, and if it had been a $15 error in their favor, I would certainly have talked to the manager and gotten it straightened out. I felt I was obligated to do the same even if the error was in my favor.

I determined to go back in the next few days, ask to speak to the manager, and explain the situation. Even though in many cases like that the manager will say, “Don’t worry about it” rather than untangle it all, I still feel like at that point I have done everything I could.

But I felt awkward about it all, and with my tendency to procrastinate especially in regard to awkward things, I put it off until I forgot all about it and left the bag in my sewing room.

I rediscovered the bag yesterday just as I had left it. It feels even more awkward now.

What I’d like to do is just send them a check for $15 with a note telling them I was undercharged by that amount. But I don’t know if that would cause them more difficulty, if they’d have a way to ring something up to come out to $15. I could still bring the whole thing in and try to explain it, but it would be even more awkward and they’d be more likely to say to just forget about it. I am thinking, maybe wrongly, that they might be even a little irritated about having to deal with it.

Another solution that came to mind would be not to use the coupons Michael’s publishes nearly every week, paying full price rather than the 40-50% off, until I’ve “paid back” the $15 that way.

What do you think? (Well, besides thinking I am crazy….)

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details, and you can visit Susanne to see the list of others’ favorites or to join in.

My favorites from the past week or so:

1. Easter! We were out of town and attended a wonderful church service, and then we traveled home, missing our usual Easter festivities. But my son and daughter-in-law surprised us with an Easter dinner and goodies when we got home. I wrote more about it earlier here.

2. Rain. I mentioned yesterday I was hoping it would rain and wash some (actually a lot!) of the pollen away, and it did! Plus the rain cooled things off considerably.

3. Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuits! Had one just this morning.

4. Friends who pray. I had a personal prayer request which I could not make public, but contacted just a few friends about it. Their responses and their faithfulness to pray were such a blessing to me.

5. An impromptu family night. We wanted something a little different for dinner last night, so we went out to a little local Italian place, and called Jason and Mittu to see if they had eaten yet and wanted to come. They came, and they had been planning to return the DVD they had rented of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs after dinner, but they brought it by the house and watched it with us first. Fun times!

Bonus:

I don’t usually go into TV shows much here, but this past week’s episode of Lost was one of my favorites, both because we got a little crack in the door understanding of what might be going on, but especially because the episode centered on Desmond, one of my favorites. And we got to see Daniel again! (Lost fans will understand. 🙂 ) Though I think it is right for the show to be coming to a definite end — dragging it out would kill it — I am really going to miss it when it is done!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Flashback Friday: Birthdays

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Mocha With Linda has begun a new weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site.

The flashback question this week is:

What were birthdays like when you were growing up? Were they a big deal or understated? Did you have parties? Get to choose what or where the family ate for dinner? Are there any particular birthday traditions that you remember? Is there any birthday that stands out (good OR bad!), either due to the events surrounding it or due to the particular present(s) you received?

Birthdays were fairly understated when I was growing up. No one I knew then would have dreamed of having a huge bash costing hundreds of dollars for any party, child or adult. I think we got to choose what to have for dinner and then had the usual cake and ice cream. Funny, I don’t remember what I chose, but my dad always chose corned beef and cabbage for his. I don’t think we ever went to a restaurant for anyone’s birthday then, though in later years after all the kids were grown, meeting at a restaurant for a birthday became the norm.

There are only glimpses of a few birthdays that stand out in my memory:

I was thinking I had never had a surprise party, but I do remember one time we were meeting up with a bunch of people, either friends or relatives (not that relatives aren’t also friends…) or a combination at either the beach or a lake (sorry to be so inexact — you have to remember some of these memories are over 40 years old!) As preparations were being made, food packed, etc., nothing was said about my birthday, no cake was in sight, and I kept asking (probably bugging) my mom about it. I knew she hadn’t forgotten my birthday, but it didn’t look like we were doing anything for it. My mom was not usually harsh, but she must have told me in some way to stop already. So I was feeling pretty down until some time after we got there, when someone did pull out a cake after all. I have always winced at TV shows where it looks like everyone has forgotten someone’s birthday while they are actually planning a big surprise party — there must be some way of planning s surprise party without making the honoree feel really bad first.

On another birthday, I had a party with my cousins. In their family they had three girls, all one year apart, all with birthdays in August, as was mine (and when my firstborn was due in August, I empathized with my aunt being heavily pregnant in the hot humid summer three years in a row!) The middle cousin was my age, and one year we had a birthday party for all four of us. The only specific thing I remember was that my aunt set up a few little games like you’d see at a school carnival, and I remember one having to do with dropping clothespins in a jar from a certain height. Though I may have had other full-blown parties involving games and guests, this is the only one I remember, and I think it was my favorite of my childhood — not just because it was a full-blown party, though I loved it, but because all of us cousins got to celebrate together.

Updated to add: Slumber parties! I had forgotten until someone else mentioned sleepovers for her birthday, but I had several slumber parties as a teen, and I know one or two must have been for my birthday. I don’t remember if this happened on a birthday or not, but at one of them, I think we were telling ghost stories in my bedroom (I don’t know why that was a favorite pasttime right at the age we were most scared of them…) when my dad’s face showed up in my bedroom window, which was open. He was shining a flashlight up from the bottom of his face, so he looked eerie, and laughed an evil laugh, sending all of us running out the door, nearly trampling my brother, who was listening at the door for our reaction.

Overall I enjoyed birthdays (and still do!), my own and others’, as an opportunity to do a little something special or different as a way to express to the birthday honoree that we love them and are glad they’re here.

Am I the only one who…

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Barbara Harper

Wonders if having an adult dressed in a mascot costume waving at people in front of a business actually brings any more customers into a business?

Does NOT like roosters in decorating? I don’t understand that phenomenon. Ugly creatures.

Does not like flavors of one food in the texture of another? Like Taco soup. I love tacos and soup — but a soup that tastes like a taco doesn’t appeal to me.

Does not like bagels. The outside is too hard. I had one on a plane and dug out the softer innards and wondered what the appeal was.
Thinks pictures of babies with food all over them are only cute if it’s your baby?

Is tired of milk mustache ads?

Didn’t know there were boy and girl Peeps (HT to Brenda)?

I frittered away my morning with several fragments of thoughts for blog posts, but couldn’t seem to develop anything, so I decided to go with randomness. 🙂 Reading back over the list, a lot of it sounds gripy, and it isn’t meant to sound that way. It’s meant to be fun.

My primary focus this week was supposed to have been getting plans for decorations and favors for our annual ladies’ luncheon firmly in place so that we could work on them at the ladies’ meeting Monday, but I have been a little fragmented there as well. I’ve had some ideas and I’ve looked around online to see if anyone else had already done anything along the lines and found some neat stuff. I just need everything to coalesce in my brain and then make some samples and get materials ready.

I don’t know why I am feeling so fragmented and having such a hard time getting in gear this week, Maybe I am still recuperating from last week’s trip. Maybe it’s allergy brain — the pollen is the worst it has been here in a long time. This is a dark green car but looks yellow under all the pollen: