Big and Little Things

Today marked the beginning of October, which means official fall in my book. September in these here parts is usually still pretty warm, but you can count on October to come through with some lower temps. This morning we all needed jackets as we headed out the door for school. I was a happy girl to experience a break in the record heat we have had-- now if we could just get some rain!

Today's BIG task was getting my passport. For some reason, this overwhelmed me and I kept putting it off. I left the house armed with a plan-- drop the kids at school and head straight to the post office to knock it out first thing. But what did I find when I arrived at said post office? A sign on the door saying that the Passport office did not open until 10 am. Sigh. I did the only thing I could do and went home to wait until it was open. To my credit, I did not console myself with a stop at Dunkin Donuts-- though the thought did occur to me.

When we got home, I ceremoniously turned the calendar page over to October. Doing so inspired me to pull out some of our fall decorations and spruce the place up a little. I felt so festive as I displayed a fall cookbook on my wrought iron stand (dethroning Martha, who has held court there for far too long). The house seems just a touch more homey after my little spree.

Next I tried unsuccessfully to load songs on my Ipod again. My husband took it to the Apple store this weekend, where we were assured it was in good working order. But once I got it home and loaded songs (for forty minutes, I will add) and then disconnected it, the songs were gone. This is the second time this has happened. That means that I have spent a total of eighty minutes loading the exact same songs into an Ipod that then does not hold onto those songs. Do you know how much writing I can get done in eighty minutes?!? Wasted time frustrates me to no end. So, I did the only thing I could and called my husband to let him know what happened. He was smart and did not answer the phone. So, I had no choice but to leave it on his voicemail. Which makes it much easier for him to delete and then act like he listened to me rant and rave until the machine timed me out. And so, we both feel better. Ah, one of the secrets of our marriage.

Have I mentioned how much I (used to) love my Ipod? And now, alas, it has gone to Apple heaven, it would seem. I think I might need to have a moment of silence or something. I am so hoping that the wonderful Apple store will have mercy on us and fix it or replace it. Considering we just bought it in May. I have prevailed upon my husband to go back there asap and beg/whine/plead/emphatically state that we are due a working Ipod. I will keep you posted as to what happens. I know you are riveted to find out.

By the time I did all this, it was time to head to the post office with the two year old in tow. I was hoping that having her would earn me a sympathy vote from anyone who might be in front of me in line. So taking her in that respect, I reasoned, was a good idea. I prayed before I got there that there would not be a long line. I will admit that I felt a tad foolish for praying that prayer when there is war and famine and cancer and a great many other things out there worth praying about. But I still prayed it, knowing that God cares about the big and little things of our lives. And lo and behold, when I got there, there was only one couple in front of me! We chatted about where we were going (them, Bahamas, me, Mexico). Right after they went in, several more people showed up as by now it was getting closer to lunchtime. By the time I finished, there was quite a line and I heard them making an announcement that they were about to close for lunch. The people in line were not happy. I thanked God for His favor (that's for you Shari!) and went home to have lunch. I can't tell you how good it felt to check off "get passport" on my list of to do's!

I never did explain about the cruise I won. I wanted to wait until Proverbs announced it to the rest of the staff before I put it on my blog. They had some cruises they could give away for the Girlfriend Getaway Cruise and my name was drawn! So, I am going with my friends from P31 for five days and four nights of girlfriend fun in November! The only trouble was, I didn't have a passport, so I had to get real serious about getting one asap. Now that that is checked off my to do list, I can anticipate the cruise without the dread of governmental paperwork hanging over my head. I have never been on a cruise, so this should be a lasting memory!

The rest of the day was spent working around the house some more, writing a devotion for P31 while the two year old slept, and other usual things like laundry, dishes, etc. Then it was time to head to the carpool line, then drop one child at a birthday party and head home to get dinner and evening clean up done, not to mention homework. I also stopped at the dollar store to buy some greenery and flowers to fill two urns with a fall-looking arrrangement to put on my dining room table with some scattered fall leaves I found. It made a nice arrangement, I think and I didn't have to spend a lot to achieve it. I was so proud of my limited floral arranging skills and made sure to point out how beautimous my arrangements looked to everyone in my family. Not a one of them was impressed enough, in my opinion. This made me ask twice-- still with not one reaction that I would classify as appropriately excited. "Looks nice honey," just doesn't hold a candle to "Wow! Did you like take a class? You should be doing this professionally." Surely you see the difference, right?

After Curt got home, I went for the first run I have gone on in quite some time. It was a pretty good run (albeit without the soundtrack of my Ipod happily blocking out the sounds of my wretched breathing and lumbering footsteps), and as I ran I thought of how three things I had been plugging along with quite nicely have recently gotten sidetracked by my change in schedules-- running, blogging, and reading my daily Bible. With adding CBS to the mix, I have had a bit of trouble keeping up with the daily Bible, but so far I am only a day behind. As for the blogging and running, I just got off track and lost my motivation. I am hoping that as I ease back into a routine, the commitment to both will return with a vengeance.

That's the plan at least!