Life Lesson Monday

Lesson: Don't overlook the little things in life. You might find something that brightens your day.

I sat down at the table, passed out the foam plates, and began preparing my hamburger.
Hurriedly (I was hungry), I squirted some ketchup onto my burger.
Most of the time I don't even eat ketchup.
sploourt.
"Hey!" I thought, "That kinda looks like a happy face! And I didn't even do it on purpose! ... Hm. I'm too hungry to be noticing the shape of my ketchup splat. Whatever. More ketchup."
sploourt.
"HEY!" I thought, "Now there's a nose in my ketchup face! And I didn't even do it on purpose! I thought I was going to mess the face up and forget all about it. But now it looks even more like a face!"
So instead of ignoring it, I showed Laura. And Mama. And it was an awful cute accidental ketchup face.
Sadly, I don't have a picture. I wish I'd have been a little more patient and taken a picture to brighten up this blog post, but I was awfully hungry. :)

Anyways, here's what I like to think: God was sending me a little reminder to be happy, and I ignored it. So you know what he did? He put a nose on it, and made me notice it again.
And if you don't think God does little things like that, that's fine. But keep your eyes open, because I promise He does, and it will certainly brighten your day when you take the time to notice. :)

Life Lesson Monday

Marshmallow lessons:

If the recipe says to use a stand mixer, they know what they're talking about. It might seem noble to be the stand mixer, but it gets really old once you've been standing for 10 minutes.

If you make homemade marshmallows, substituting yourself for a stand mixer, be prepared to stand there, mixing, for about half an hour. You will probably look like a jar of marshmallow creme exploded on you when you're done.

Try not to be too upset when your beautiful, tasty marshmallows turn back into sloppy sludge the next day.

Marshmallows are way more gratifying if you pronounce them "smarshmallows" or even "schmarshmallows."

A cup of cocoa and schmarshmallows is very comforting in the evening.

Blackened marshmallows will give you cancer. Or at least that's what I heard. lol

If you catch your marshmallows on fire, don't fling them around to put out the flame.

For reasons unbeknownst unto me, marshmallows toast better, and taste better, when you have the perfect roasting stick.

It's okay to eat 15 marshmallows in one sitting.

... Have you ever played chubby bunny? I just realized I haven't played that in a long time.

Life Lesson Monday

This one is in a little different format from the others, mostly because I can't think of anything story length. :)

Lessons Learned in Recent Days

From my S.S. class Christmas ice skating outing:

• Pointy heeled shoes leave funny little holes behind you when you walk in the grass. (aerating?)
• If you eat at the Olive Garden with a bunch of your friends, everyone had better be prepared to share. (hey, um... can I taste that?)
• Don't wear high heeled boots to choir practice if the leader is going to make you stand the whole time. (not that I knew ahead)
• Counting and talking simultaneously results in errors. (if you're crocheting, you'll probably end up having to pull out a couple rounds.)
• Provided with the right sort of company, you can still have fun if your ice skating party doesn't include ice skating. (and especially if it includes starbucks)

And one from preschool:

• Even cute dinosaurs can become scary in the hands of small children. (mostly 2 year old boys)

So. That was the best I could come up with for now. **sigh**

It's better than nothing, right? :D At least you know I've been having fun!

Updating

I feel terrible for not actually doing much life updating lately. You wouldn't believe how neglected my real journal is. I haven't even opened it in the past month because I don't want to see when the last entry is dated. Helpful, huh?

But I thought while I'm on checking Etsy stuff before I go to bed, I'd let you all know that I haven't died of that stupid cold yet. It still hasn't gone away. It's making me grumpy and uber tired. Yet I keep doing stuff. I went caroling yesterday. With a screechy voice. lol. But I hate to miss all the Christmas fun because I have a cold!! Of course, I think with all this activity and little rest, I'm prolonging it... ah well.

Here's a random picture for a little visual interest. I just dicovered Picnik.

An apology is in order for the neglect of Life Lesson Mondays. This sounds like a lame excuse, but I can't think of any good life lessons. I keep wishing something mildly bad and laughably funny would happen to me. No such luck. And the recesses of my memory aren't serving me well lately, either. I want to continue the series, but if there are no Life Lessons, there can't be a Life Lesson Monday. Unless I sway from my theme of obvious-yet-hilarious, or whatever.

In other news, I followed my better judgement over my heart and did NOT buy one of the adorable budgies on sale at PetSmart. (Vincent would have been SO mad.) My mother, on the other hand, gave into abouding cuteness and purchased the sweetest little red guinea pig. His name is Gimli. Thanks to me. **bows elegantly** We were tossing around names, and Abby went into Lord of the Rings characters. I told her if we were picking a name from LotR, Gimli would be the best guinea pig name. And it kinda fits his smallness and redness. Awesome.

Shopping for my preschoolers was fun. I raided the dollar store. I'm so glad they're all boys. I got dinosaurs, candy, and sugar donuts for everyone.Woo Hoo! And I got a collection of dinosaurs for my classroom. There are two in there now, but they're mean, ugly dinosaurs. I got cute ones. lol I'll have to show you some time. Remind me.

Random Bullets:

• We had a gingerbread house decorating party on Monday. It went really well.


• I went to the orthodontist today, and the Dr. said everything was going perfect, and I don't have to have any teefs pulled!


• Then I went to starbucks and when I ordered, I said my name was Caiti (I always say Caitlin...), and asked for carmel (I always say caramel). Just because I wanted to do something different.


• My eyes are bothering me right now.


• Two of my left contact lenses have ripped for no reason, and so now I don't have the same number of left ones as right one left. **Grumpy face**


• I still need to buy christmas presents for my brothers.


• Etsy is driving me crazy. I love crocheting, and I love making money, but I am so ready for a break. I can't keep up!



• I got a compliment on my Etsy banner today, and was asked if I ever considered going into graphics design.
  


• I can't wait for my business cards to come!! I'm so disappointed every day when I check the mail and there is no little box for me. :(


• Dinner and skating Saturday with my SS class is going to be so much fun!

There. I'd say that's a pretty good off-the-cuff blog post. At least now you know what's going on. :)

~Me

Life Lesson Monday

Going down the side of the mountain may seem like a foolproof shortcut.

It's not.

We had been hiking a fairly gentle mountain trail, enjoying the scenery, the company, and the general pleasantness of it all. After some time, the consensus was reached that, in everyone's best interest, it was time to head back.

As the unofficial leader of our expotition (those of you unacquainted with Pooh terminology, forgive me), I brought forth a brilliant, efficient plan for getting back to camp.

Start here, walk straight down, and camp will be somewhere at the bottom.

Simple and effective.

Why bother following the long, winding trail back the way we had come?

And so, with little objection from the weary party (ha!), our plan of action was decided.

My way put us getting there a lot faster, and with a lot less energy spent.

Or it was supposed to, anyways.

It ended up costing about the same amount of time, and a lot more energy.

Worry is more wearying than hiking up hills and around bends. :P

For one, there was some brush that was harder to deal with than I thought it would be.

Another thing - I seem to be directionally challenged. I thought I knew approximately what direction we should go in. Don't ask why I was so confident. I have no idea. But a couple minutes into the journey back, and we were all completely clueless.

"Uh, Caitlin, are you sure you know where we're going?"

"Um... nope."

"Oh. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

"Um... yeah. That's what I was thinking."

"Anybody see the trail?"

"Hey, I think that's the tree we saw earlier!"

"No, I think I've seen 3 trees like that."

It's just a little unnerving to be leading a group of your friends around the side of a mountain, none of you having any idea where you are.

Yeeeah.

Fortunately, it was a very smallish sort of mountain, and we finally did stumble onto part of the path we had been on earlier, thus following it back to the beginning.

And now I know.

There are times for straying off the beaten course.

Tramping the woods on an unfamiliar mountain is not one of those times.

Life Lesson Monday

Check the roses for bugs before you go "drinking them in."

"I stopped by the barrens and picked these Mayflowers; I came through Violet-Vale; it's just a big bowlful of violets now -- the dear, sky-tinted things. Smell them, Marilla -- drink them in."

Marilla sniffed obligingly, but she was more interested in Anne than in drinking violets."

-Anne of the Island (L.M. Montgomery)

Once upon a time there was a vase of roses. We had cut them fresh from our rosebush, placed them in water, and set them on the dining room table, where they could be enjoyed. And enjoy them I did, until the incidence inspiring this life lesson.

Oh, they smelled so pretty! I paused to really focus on them, to truly appreciate their delicate scent.
Leaning forward, nose almost touching the frail, red petals, I inhaled deeply. Very deeply.
Then I ran shrieking to get a tissue.

Stupid tiny bugs.
In case you were wondering, it is a little unnerving to have a nose full of minuscule insects.
And I'm very sorry I don't have a picture of the incident.

Instead, here's a nice photo I took of a floral arrangement.

Life Lesson Monday

If you get dizzy easily, you probably shouldn't yell for the guys to spin the merry go round faster.

It's true. You might end up feeling sick for an hour or two.

Swinging on a playground swing makes me dizzy. I should have known.
But I hadn't so much as seen a merry go round for years, so instead of thinking, I climbed on. Holding tight, I waited for that feeling I remembered as a child. The exhilaration of spinning faster than you think possible, the pull of the centrifugal force,
the crazy, giddy swirl of colors and sounds.
But we weren't going fast enough. The girls just weren't cutting it.
Summons the strapping young men! I recall issuing a command to spin us faster.
And they did.
And then I remembered the feelings that come shortly after the exhilarating part.
The terrifying dread of being flung to the ground, of closing your eyes tightly,
shutting out the spinning images, and praying you won't be sick.

I believe I yelled something to the effect of, "please, stop this thing NOW or I'm going to be sick!"
It seemed to take ages for things to stop swirling, and I felt very sick and out of sorts for quite some time afterwards. I think my brain was addled. Haha...

So, now you know. And reliving the moment has made me feel yucky.
May you learn from my mistake.

Lessons from the Life of Caitlin

Monday is now Life Lessons day. (insert applause)
Every Monday, I will be sharing with you something I have learned from experience. And, please, this is Caitlinesque, don't expect anything too deep. Maybe I should start doing one serious post a week, too, or something.

But anyways, I'm not really liking my title for this weekly installment. I want it to be catchy... What do you think?

So! Life Lesson for Week #1:

~Strawberry shampoo does not taste as good as it smells~
It's true. As a matter of fact, it tastes pretty darn nasty. It just doesn't make sense for something to smell so amazing, and not be palatable.

As a small child, I loved strawberry shampoo. Oh, it smells so yummy. I knew I shouldn't taste it, because it wouldn't be good. I'd accidentally tasted soap before, and it was nasty. Then, someday when I was relatively older, quite old enough to resist the temptation (but not recently... I don't remember when), I just had to see what it did taste like. I knew it wouldn't be good. And it was nasty. Of course.

But now I know. And now you know.
No matter how good it smells, don't taste the strawberry shampoo.
And since I couldn't find a picture of Little Me taking a bubble bath, here's a picture of me looking scary in a floaty suit.

-Me