Tidbit #291 That I've Learned from Sparkle

Did you know that all of the stickers on Rubik's Cube squares are white? Yeah. The colors are actually translucent stickers on top of white stickers.

Sparkle's nickname may become "Destructo".

Trusting...Trusting...Trusting...

OK. Pictures of samples sent. Quotes sent.

Breathing....

Two In a Row, Huh?

After I finished reading The Shack, I read another book that my mom had. This book is called Redeeming Love. It's the story of the book of Hosea set during the California gold rush.

My first reaction was, That's nice. What's the book of Hosea about? As you may or may not know, in the book of Hosea, Hosea is led by God to marry a prostitute. Hilarity ensues. Just kidding.

In Redeeming Love, Michael Hosea is in the same predicament. The girl doesn't feel worthy of his unconditional love and Michael has several conversations with God along the lines of "Are you nuts?" and "Why are you doing this to me?" She leaves, he goes back and gets her. More than once. It's a pretty interesting read (I read it in 3 days). But what struck me most was that it's another "trust God and stop worrying; you aren't in control anyway" book.

Internal monolog: "Hm. Two in a row. I don't feel like I have many situations in my life that I try to wrest control from God. My life is pretty calm and uncomplicated. I'll try to remember these books should the situation ever present itself. Now, I need to figure out what I'm going to do about that request I received for a quote on tags."

You see, a week ago I received an email. It was from a person who has a shop on etsy who makes clothes and accessories. In the email she tells me that she works at a boutique in Houston that wholesales to over 80 stores across the US. She would like me to give a quote for making 1000 - 3000 small aluminum tags for them.

"Gulp. Not possible. I can't cut that much aluminum. Where do I get that much aluminum. Can I stamp that much? No way. Great opportunity. Scary opportunity."

I have been searching high and low on the internet to find aluminum that can be cut, pre cut tags the size they want. It's driving me nuts. Mr Swizzle helps me realize that they expect me to be the one to tell them what will look good, if it can be done, etc.

I seem to go straight into freak out mode when presented with things like this. Hey wait, could this be one of those "trust God" moments? Duh.

So last night I emailed her a couple of options since the size tag they want doesn't exist and the letters wouldn't fit on that size anyway.

We shall see. If she likes the option that I hope she likes, I'll then have to boldly come up with a quote without selling myself short. Putting a number out there and hoping they don't balk. I think. Do I want to do it? AAAAAH.

Oh, wait. Trust God. Right.....

The Shack

Have you read it?

If you have, what did you think?

If you haven't, check it out.

I don't usually flock to the books that "everyone is talking about". I happened into a store with a prominent display of the book, and decided to go ahead and give it a read. I'm visiting my parents, so I have a little bit more time to read than usual.

I think this book has life changing potential. I like it when authors present a different way of looking at something you've seen all your life. C. S. Lewis has always been a favorite. I may have mentioned before that his version of the salvation story seems to stir me more than the one in the Bible. I don't know what that says about me. Maybe I'll figure that out one day. His description of heaven in The Great Divorce is fascinating.

This book struck me the same way. I finished it yesterday and I'm hungry for more. Hungry for ways to apply some of the ideas to my own life. I think I'm going to read it again when I don't have as many distractions.

I can see this book becoming well worn and creased from reading over and over.

Tell me what you think if you've read it too. I'm curious.

Thoughts?

This just kinda hit me as...odd? funny? disturbing?

Regarding Miss California and her same sex marriage beliefs and her nudie pics online:

The pageant would "never want to take away a girl's beliefs or her voice," he said. "We try to make these women capable of being free thinkers."

"But when you wear the title that says 'I represent everyone,' you can't then polarize the people you represent," he said.

"Girls"? "MAKE theses women CAPABLE of being free thinkers"? That little phrase just muddles my brain.

Does anyone really feel "represented" by their respective Miss USA contestant?

How odd is this whole "incident"?

Reading and Reading

I'm pretty proud of the amount of reading I've been able to do this year. When Mr. S and I went on our anniversary trip in January, I read 3 books. I've been reading almost every day. Of course, most of that reading takes place between 9pm and midnight, so I guess you could say my sleep patterns have been affected.

I've read a couple Grisham books. I'm reading Angels and Demons now. I read all four of the books in the Twilight Series. Ah, to be a teenage girl again.

Now, I've picked up the books on Twinkle's summer reading list. Here's what she'll (we'll) be reading: Charlotte's Web, The Wind in the Willows, The Railway Children and Augustus Caesar's World.

The only one of these that I've read is Charlotte's Web and...it's been a while, though I do remember bawling at the end. Twinkle has seen the movie, so she won't be surprised when we get to the end.

The Railway Children was written by a woman who was a socialist and apparently quite a rabble rouser, so that ought to be fun. I think I'm actually going to read the page at the beginning that tells about the author's life to Twinkle.

One of the books (gasp) has the word "ass" in it several times (my neighbor across the street said that the year her kids read it, one of the other moms was in quite a state the first day of school).

The Caesar book seems like it could be pretty dry reading, BUT looking through it, it does look like there are some interesting parts tying together several things going on at a particular time.

So, any tips? Have you read any of these and liked or disliked them? I'm trying to figure out if we start with Caesar, or if we start with one that's more story-like.

Twinkle's last day of school is Monday. We'll be starting reading (and math review) on Tuesday. Lots of pages to digest this summer.

Hey! I'm Alive!!!

Yeah. I just haven't been motivated to post lately. I have people asking for pics from our trip on my other blog. That was only 3 months ago.

Bullet points for now? ('cept I don't know how to make actual bullet points)
- Twinkle is still ever so Twinkly...which includes sweetness and arguing and silliness and tenderness.

- Sparkle is sparkling more and more every day. She's really blossoming. More people than just myself can understand her. She's such a happy little child. AND she's trying to give up naps - not so wonderful.

- I'm feeling constantly worn down by both of them. I know that I do in fact LOVE love to be called "mom" in all its forms, BUT OMG!!!! the sound of "mom" and "mommy" REALLY grate on my nerves sometimes because they are never ending.

- Hey, guess what! I became a stereotypical soon to be 40 year old and went in for a tune up. I never thought I would do such a thing. BUT here I am with boobs that may not be able to hold a pencil under them once they're healed. They're probably a little bit better size for my small frame, too. I also got rid of a pooch of fat under my belly button that I've had since I started developing, so...Jr. High? Not gonna miss it. I was feeling quite secretive pre-op, but now that I have bruising from swelling on my arms and legs I've come out. I REALLY wanted to come up with a good story to explain the bruises...fought a bear? fell down the Grand Canyon and survived? fell down some stairs? I'm 2 weeks post op and have been told not to go nuts buying clothes or anything for about 10 more weeks.

- I've been feeling closer to my friends and family lately. The other day, I actually called my mother - gasp. Don't get me wrong, we have a wonderful relationship, we just usually email or talk on birthdays, etc. I think I'll start calling my mom more often. I've been willing to do normal ol' friend stuff with more people. Playdates, just hanging out doing nothing. I think I'm most comfortable with others when they expect nothing from me. Is that odd? I would much rather sit with friends and chat while our kids play than plan some big outing or do anything that involves a schedule.

- And finally, today while IM'ing with Mr. S about random things, he asked if I was OK. Not because of anything negative I'd said. He asked BEFORE I told him that I was going to start dinner without him by going ahead and eating some chips and queso and drinking some whiskey. Strangely, even though we've been married 20 years (or maybe because we've been married 20 years) it was the sweetest thing I'd "heard" all day. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it sounded so wonderful because MOST of the time, I'm wondering if anyone can hear the words coming out of my mouth.

OK. I think bullet points are not supposed to be long paragraphs, but these weren't real bullet points anyway. They were little dashes. And now I feel so much better because I've posted on my blog, I've gotten the therapy that I started this blog for in the first place, and I'm a little more relaxed....until the basketball that Sparkle is playing with hits the piano anyway.