life lessons in the midst of a crumpled day

last week in the midst of my infamous septic tank issues

i was schooled on attitudes & complaining.

not by choice, mind you

i was sitting in my car, behind the mail carrier,

waiting for her to put the mail in my mailbox before i could pull in.

i was in a major hurry-

the septic boys were due any minute & i had to color my rapidly increasing grey roots

before they shut my water off. again.

i knew i should receive my order from jones design company at any time.

well as fate would have it, it was a heavy mail day.

then i see her pull out a cardboard mailer.

yay me. my order had arrived.

then i watch in horror as she bends and folds

said heavy thick cardboard mailer.

i am trying to put my car in park & hop out as quickly as i can.

i ripped open my mailer 

&

sure nuf, my prints were all bent up.

as she circled the culdesac, i walked over & ranted something along the lines of~

excuse me ma'am

i'm not usually this rude

but i am very frustrated at how you crammed this into my box

& ruined my purchase.

to which she replied something along the lines of~

oh i'm so sorry, it didn't have a 'dont bend' sticker so i didn't know.

oh.my.word.

i could have spit bullets.

now

looking at my image

( because i photographed the evidence for you. duh)

it doesn't look all that bad

but my two prints spent 48 hours under 758 pounds of heavy books

still to be bent up & creased

 

incidentally one of the prints features one of my favorite verses. 

the scripture is from matthew. 

jesus is speaking to his disciples in the famous sermon on the mount.

he calls them to be different.

 he gives them instructions.

&

he calls them to shine.

 

the next day i was looking at my new prints

& feeling all disappointed that they were still bent up

& not perfect.

i like life when it's all perfect.

don't you?

when everything is where it should be

no one is sad or sick

things are ironed, crisp, bleached & neatly folded.

it sure is easy to be all bright & shiny then.

when life is good.

it's much harder to be all bright & shiny

when life is not perfect.

the test results were positive

your paycheck was eaten up with repair bills

he left

the car won't start

and the laundry isn't even clean,much less crisp & ironed

but that's just it

in those times

that is when it matters.

that's when people are really watching.

what's on the inside sure does come out when life threatens to take you out.

i want to shine

not just on the rare perfect days

but all of 'em

so i decided i'll frame my crumpled image
it will be a constant reminder to me to shine.
to choose to shine
even in the midst of a crumpled day.

oh & guess what my mail looked like the next day.....

 

that's alright usps mail carrier lady person

no problem

me & my crumbled life lesson 

we're both a.o.k.

we're shining!

matthew 5.14-16

You are the light of the world. 

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 

In the same way, 

let your light shine before others, 

that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.



**addendum. 
i feel really bad. i have had a few people comment about contacting the company that i purchased the merchandise from. she is one of my favorite bloggers. i'm smitten with her creations.
i didn't want this to look bad on her part or give her any bad exposure.
my intentions were to share her shop with you and encourage you to check out all her talent!
 even though it didn't have a "don't bend" sticker on the envelope, it was mailed in a thick heavy cardboard mailer. i have never been a mail carrier but i would assume if someone packaged something in a thick heavy cardboard mailer, it would be assumed that it shouldn't be bent.
much less folded in half  to fit into an already full mailbox. 
but what do i know.
anyway....i just wanted to apologize as i never meant to give bad publicity to jones design.
& besides i would have missed my little life lesson had it arrived pristine :)

happy birthday to my favorite valentines day gift ever!!

we are celebrating my valentines day baby girl

who turned 18 today!!

savannah is in the midst of a four day celebration~

friday night was dinner at watershed & on to karaoke

with all her best girlfriends.

 

saturday evening was spent with a big group of friends.

tonight she'll celebrate her birthday & valentines with her sweetie,

but yesterday was our day.

we headed out to chow baby

to enjoy a yummy stir fry lunch after church,

a quick drive downtown, a few impromptu photos,

& then back home for gifts

 

 

 

 madison, of course, whipped her up a yummy cake

thank goodness i have my own personal martha!

 

when i was young i always hoped i'd have a daughter

maybe even four

sort of like my own little women

i knew i wanted a little girl named after one of my favorite southern cities.

i love this child of mine 

i do

i love everything about her

she is everything i dreamed of 

i'm working on a special letter for her

but every single time i begin to think what i want to say

i start to cry....

until then

happy birthday sweet child of mine!!

blog friendships & riveting septic tank answers

i was discussing a few of my favorite friends that i had met through my blog

to my daughters.

my oldest told me, mom , people think that's sorta weird.

like chat room weird when you say, "we met through my blog".

hysterical!

i'm guessing i'm preaching to the choir 

but i continue to be blessed & blown away by friends

that i have made just by logging into blogger for the last few years

& the friendships i've watched bloom of others which began the same way.

the first time i ran across melanie's blog

i was completely smitten.

i was initially drawn in by her fabulous home

but continued to be drawn in by her warm spirit

& her transparent heart.

( fabulous decorating & an open book attitude-two of my favorite qualities!)

yesterday i was so tickled to meet her

live & in person

and her precious family while they drove through atlanta.

i gave them directions to, none other than , the Varsity

"an atlanta icon", i promised her hubby.

we could have talked for hours.

each feeling as if we've known each other for years!

& would you believe, she was not an ax murderer. thank goodness. 

when dan was asking, now which one is melanie

i promptly listed off her stats.

you know melanie, the one whose home i covet in a healthy way

who painted the painting after pop pop passed

the one who sent me the package of bulbs

the one who made the 'reve' pillow on our bed

& the #6 pillow on our porch

the one who has a sister named leslie who loves seaside

you know, melanie!

sweet melanie

i pray your beautiful family has a safe wonderful trip

& enjoy my favorite beach!!

i think i've probably put everyone on a septic tank in a bit of a tizzy

worrying about their own status.

for those of ya'll interested i will explain the situation.

everyone else,

have a fantastic valentines weekend.

i am shocked

but apparently my baby girl turns 18 monday!

ok

hopefully i will answer all your questions~

our contract had us listed as sewer

we assumed we were paying for sewer service all these years.

we had no weird pre-crisis signs that things were going bad.

our downstairs toilet overflowed on it's own.

& if you know me,

 my four daughters & hubby & golden retriever

are followed closely in importance by my hardwoods.

( teasin.sorta)

so the fear of water damage stressed me out.

the situation occurred on a friday night

we find out we're actually on septic saturday

& told to not use any water until the situation is resolved.

we farm out the girls.

monday the septic boys come & can't find the tank

i breakdown

dan drives to the health department & gets the survey 

septic boys paint a very bleak potential major financial outcome

rumor has it, caroline wanted to do a little fund raiser at her school.

something along the lines of  " would you like to donate to our new septic tank"

older sister told her "we don't do that"

tuesday septic tank is found under brick walkway

no big deal especially since they had predicted it's location was under our bricked in porch.

tank was pumped for the first time in 30 years.

damage was extensive to the concrete portion of the tank

we opted against the massive re-do of our entire plumbing system/trash the yard/lose our sprinkler system/be out of the house for more days/re-landscape our yard/major financial decision

& opted instead to repair the old.

i asked the guy where we fell on the continuum of 'how bad is it'

we were on the 80% severe end

due to neglect.

supposedly if you pump it every 3 years you should not have any problems.

we're out a little over $3,000

but now we know

& yes, we will follow up with our water service 

and the agent that sold me ( i was single when i bought) the house

so yes ma'am

we're all repaired

& i will never take the luxury of peeing in my own home for granted again.

signed,

owner of the world's smallest bladder

a recipe & treats from a friend

image 28.365

wanted to share my favorite granola recipe

i can't remember where i found it,

but if it's yours , please let me know ...

combine:

2 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 c almonds ( whole or sliced would work great)

1c pecan halves ( i chopped mine )

1 c brown sugar

1/4 c sunflower seeds

 

whisk & drizzle over combined ingredients:

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick melted butter

1/4 c honey

1 Tbl vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

line baking sheet with parchment paper

& bake at 300 

for 40 minutes

stirring a couple of times

little bit loves to add chocolate chips to hers before mixing in with yogurt :)

also wanted to give a shout out to my new friend Kat.
she showed up monday night, mere moments after my little breakdown,
with treats for our family
including all the fixings for icecream sandwiches & rootbeer floats.
thank you friend
what a huge blessing!!

i hired kat a few weeks ago to whip up a few dishmats for me.
i chose some fabrics from amy butler's new release
& am so pleased with the final result.
thank you again friend!

today

i'm still trying to figure out the best schedule for my 365 images.

while i'm keeping up with posting them on facebook, 

i've not quite figured out a system for posting them on my photo blog.

i'm actually totally loving this project. mainly because i'm allowing myself to either take a new picture each day OR edit one with some post processing that was previously taken.

i love playing around with photos everyday so this gives me the freedom to do just that combined with some accountability.

i've updated my photo blog & would love for you to swing by~ just click on the button.

if you are also participating in a photo challenge, i would love to hear how you're doing.

have you found a system that's working well for you? if so, i'm all ears.

on a different note,

i wanted to thank you.

if you haven't noticed, i process stress by talking.

i work through things by venting.

honestly, i'm about as open book as you can get.

that probably deserves an apology!

let's put it this way, you never need to guess what's going on in my little world.

anyway

thank you for your encouragement the last few days.

while i know that septic issues are far from life shattering, 

the fears of water damage 

being displaced from our home for days

& the financial uncertainty 

was most definitely overwhelming for me.

update for now

we all slept under our own roof last night

& showered in our own bathrooms!

the boys should be here first thing this morning 

to continue the repairs.

our estimated cost somewhere around $3,000.

when this is all said & done , i'll share details 

in hopes to save someone else from the problems we've had

:)

frustration & some family photo shoots

yesterday i had a breakdown.

after showing up 6 hours later than we thought,

the septic tank couldn't be located.

i won't go into details now,

i'll save that for another riveting post.

but the bottom line is we are no closer to closure on this issue

than we were 5 days ago when it began.

it's overwhelming, frustrating, scarey and probably going to be quite expensive.

if i start rambling i'll probably resume crying

so

i'm switching gears today~

 

i wanted to share some images 

i took back in the fall.

the two moms are best of friends

as are the youngest boys.

caroline goes to school with them & they are two of her favorite

'boy' friends :)

the day we shot we super chilly & quite blustery.

but they were quite the troopers.

cathy & kathy

i want to thank you two.

ya'll are two of the most encouraging friends i know

whether i'm running or taking photos

you always have an encouraging word for me.

i hope to be that kind of friend right back to you!

your friendship is a blessing~

 

 

 

 

 

i had just pressed the publish button 

when dan emailed me the following verse~

figured i'd come back & share it with you too

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass

through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the

fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am

the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." Isaiah 43:2-3