Work In Progress

Each year, Santa brings a game for our family to play.  It used to be things like RISK and Monopoly but more recently, the focus has been on fast fun that allows us to quickly connect for a laugh in between bouts of homework, chores and device worship. This year was no exception, and we are now the proud owners of Don't Spill the Beans.    The game contents include a bean pot with lid, bunch of tiny plastic beans, a playing area on which you place the bean pot, and four trays to hold your beans. The beans are divided evenly between all players. The player who receives the last bean goes first. Players take turns dropping a single bean onto the bean pot. Since the pot hangs slightly above the play area by its handles, the balance shifts with each additional bean, eventually causing a spill. When the beans fall, the player who tipped the pot adds the spilled beans to their tray. Play continues until someone runs out of beans. The player who runs out of beans fi...

It is Sunday morning and my house is full of boys.  They are all sleeping.  46,19,15,10..... Soon it will be a noisy kitchen when they all get up and  the dozen eggs, package of sausage, a loaf of bread, waffles and all the bananas are one in one fell swoop.  I will continue to be challenged with altering my shopping habits for when everyone is home! Two of my three fur babies are curled up on the couch beside me...one in her bed nearby snuggled with a teddy.  I am the only one awake and am enjoying the peace while it lasts, The Middle One will be joining us in January.  Five months shy of his 16th birthday, he has decided to move it with us.  And things will change again, as they always do.  More hands, more help, more food, more work for all of us as we define the boundaries of daily living that are not present on weekend visits or summer holidays.   A good thing?  A bad thing?  It just is, and how we navigate ...

"Let it go....let it go...." and "Shake it off...shake it off." I alternate between these two borrowed mantra for this time--- when the world seems too loud and bright. Even my clothes touching my skin is too much.  I yank off my sweater, and hop step out of my pants while walking upstairs to my room after work, finally able to breath once the edges of sleeves, cowls of turtlenecks and waistbands of tights no longer feel like burning, scratching sun burn.    My skin feels too tight as I try to keep myself together in this package that is required to carry out my daily tasks.   "This is not my circus. These are not my monkeys." "Your lack of planning is not my emergency." It is far too easy to get caught up in the drama of things that are so divisive---as you try to separate yourself by thinking it is not your problem or it is not my fault or I am better than this or I don't need anyone - when we should be connecting t...

Gifts.  We all have them.  And much like with the holiday approaching, I am reminded of the saying, "It is better to give than receive."   I used to think this referred to your karmic piggy bank....selfless acts with no thought of yourself will ensure that some day, good things will happen for you.  But more often than not, in this buy more, have more, commercial-consumer-weigh-your-value-by-how-you-outperform-others, exterior-worthiness-hustle-to-out-Facebook-everyone, world--giving "better" means you ARE "better".  Smug self-satisfaction and judgement wrapped with a bow. Somewhere, the message has been lost---or associated with the thing, when it fact, it is the energy of giving that is indeed so much better because you make, even just for a moment, the world a better place because you have extended your consciousness beyond your self to see and acknowledge someone else.   In the best situation, the love you put out there in the gesture, i...