Tag: bloganuary

Extra shampoo bottles… not new… just extra!

Let’s all be honest here, we’ve all done it at one time or another… you know… held on to that one bottle of shampoo holding half a tablespoon of liquid gold! I made it sound oh so valuable, thereby, softening the blow for everyone… as we know in truth, it wasn’t even that expensive of a shampoo.

I need you all to be on board with this, for me, because I don’t have too much of anything else that can be called clutter. Seriously… I don’t use make-up anymore, or any lotions or perfumes like I wore in the past. RV living, even in the best of circumstances, is not for the faint of heart! RV living should be renamed RV LIMITTED! Nothing has the freedom to be left just laying around… it’s either usable or losable! One has to choose on a daily basis, what is of value and necessary… and what has become dead weight! Space around here is limited and comes at a premium cost, so when I say use it or lose it, I really mean it!

I am certainly not wasteful, nor will I give up on a garment just because it is old or stained… some of my best hoodies have holes where my thumbs have worked their way through the seams, and are covered in coffee stains. If I am afforded the opportunity to get a new article of clothing, something has to go, to make space for the new item. With all of this in mind, consider how utterly ridiculous it is that I hoard extra bottles of shampoo, as if they were going to be the ultimate answer for world peace! Why don’t I just condense them all into one individual bottle, you may be asking yourselves? The only answer I can give, is that I’ve no earthly idea!

As I was writing my answer to the prompt, I had a question run through my brain asking, don’t I sometimes clutter my spirit with old bottles of memories and past hurts, just like I do with the extra shampoo bottles? Some bottles of shampoo, like a memory, have a specific fragrance that perhaps I don’t ever want to forget. Whether the memory was good or bad, I hesitate to put them all in the same bottle. Even if I could separate them into two different bottles… one for the good and one for the bad… have you ever caught a whiff of someone’s perfume that was so overpowering, it made you gag? 

Not all shampoos are alike, so it’s not always a good idea to mix the one for dry scalp with another kind that helps with oily skin. What if I get rid of that last bit of shampoo for dry scalp, even though my scalp doesn’t need help right now? Which memories that were bad, will be useful for good now… and visa versa?

I didn’t say that I was going to answer these questions… I just said that this is what ran through my head while I was typing! I will be busy for the next week repeatedly bringing this topic up in my Overthinkers Anonymous Group, as I’m not even sure how to answer my own questions…

Here, have a cookie…

While I could have done a rewrite, of what I will call, a Plethora of articles about my love of dogs, cats and most anything flurby… I won’t bore you.

What I will do is throw you a literary curve ball, with my love for anything Jim Henson. I grew up watching The Muppets, along with any and all of the movies to follow this show. Having and raising children gave me plenty of added years of enjoyment, under the guise of entertaining my kids… we’ve all done it!

How many folks will admit to buying Tickle Me Elmo, and never let our kids take it out of the package? While Elmo doesn’t fall into the Muppets family, per say, he is a puppet… is he not? I guarantee you, there are a large number of grown ups around the world, who sport stuffed animals from childhood across their bedspreads, or hidden under a pillow! Tell me I’m wrong…. I’m waiting…

Hey… new science idea… what if, instead of risking bites or rabies, I should fill my RV with stuffed animals, just like ANIMAL, to see if my space stays warmer during frigid temps… hmmmmmm… I could be rich and famous, while bringing warmth and comfort to the world.

Another idea would be for ANIMAL and I to sit in the doorway of the RV, offering sage advice and wisdom to those passing by… they could talk to ANIMAL about their problems, while I listen from the doorway and hand them candy… wait, I think I just turned myself into a current version of that creepy guy off of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Instead of kids, however, my RV would just fill up with exhausted parents that won’t go back home, unless they can take ANIMAL with them… uh uh, he’s mine!

Here, have a ANIMAL cookie…

I’m a writer, and as a writer I tend to write… with my fingers. My fingers are attached to my hands, which are attached to my arms, which are connected to my body at the shoulders, my body holds my noggin… which tries with all it’s might to oversee what the fingers do… write!

My writings are how I communicate with others, while in an online setting. My phone rings from only 4 sources… hubby… my chica… my longtime friend Christine… and the Doctor’s office! For the entire rest of the world out there, my fingers are the only form of communication, giving more light to the cause of why I right so darn much, these days.

In fact, the tougher life gets on me, the more I write! Did you know that while freezing my toenails off, I wrote another children’s book?! Go figure!

Online communications has actually been a Godsend for this ole girl… I used to have to write all this stuff down with a pen and paper, and quite frankly, my hands were really suffering for it. The keyboard has actually allowed me to write at a rate that seems unprecedented, compared to what I was capable of writing before modern technology intervened!

The only downside comes from mankind’s inability to create an autocorrect that functions properly… as we have all seen from some of the text massages we have all been subjected two! See how I did that… hehe!

One of my favorite things about all this online communication stuff… virtual cookies! 

Here is a cookie with zero calories… all the fun without any guilt or unhealthy side effects… perfection! I do love technology when it works in my fingers… I mean favor!

I don’t have to think back too far, as we are still living in an RV, living like nomads wherever we go, and for however long we stay. We don’t really have any home left, here on actual earth, so we rumble along on this road trip, taking safe harbor wherever it can be found. 

If you think about it, everyone is on a road trip of sorts, and I would imagine that we all feel like it’s quite memorable. I appreciate the prompts use of the word most, while referring to the road trip, as they could have used best, worst, happiest or saddest… but they chose most memorable. Life IS most memorable, wouldn’t you say?! 

Don’t we always say things like, it’s a wild ride, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride, it’s a crazy ride, or Baby, what a ride? So I don’t need to think hard on why my thoughts drifted this way, once I began reading the prompt question.

Life is most definitely a journey, or road trip if you will!

It would take us all a very long time, to write down all of what we’ve seen, felt and experienced, along each of our personal highways… oh wait… that’s what I’ve already been doing, right here on WordPress… you’re welcome!

Here, have a cookie…

Of all the things someone might want to ask me… in a prompt of all places… as a way to elicit my desire to … oh, I don’t know… WRITE!

When given the opportunity to ask something that might bring people out of their boxes and bubbles of solitary writing… all you can come up with is to ask what I want to snack on at this very moment?????

Have I simply lost my mind, or did a bunch of I’s and Q’s just walk off the job, at where ever these questions are coming from?

If it’s an AI generated system, well then, I am confident that we have nothing to worry about with computers taking over the world! Please tell me that there isn’t some think group being employed to come up with these prompts, and they all happened to be hungry at the time of writing the days questions for us. 

I suppose we can just wait til tomorrow and see if the next question is, “What do you like to drink after eating too many saltine crackers at one time?”

Maybe this question was meant to be directed at kids… the last I checked, the big thing was eating dry ramen out of the package… go figure!

I suppose if the question was being directed at us, by a physician or nutritionist, I might have a bit more patience in my answer.

The greatest feat they accomplished in this prompt was to place the word Would… not could, not can, not will nor want… but what snack would you eat right now…

Would I eat my snack in my chair or in my bed… would I share my snack with the people in my head… would I want my snack in a bag or in a bowl… would I use a fork or just eat it whole… would I like my snack or would it be bad… what if it were the only snack I really had… would I eat it or set it on the table beside me… trading it for a coffee with creamer is where you would find me!

How’s that for a snappy comeback?

Have a cookie…

You pick out your pet… We help you find it… No more middle man!

Have you ever dreamt of your favorite pet, but either cannot afford the breeders fee or fear getting something you weren’t prepared to care for? Well not anymore! Here at UPPAA we aim to please any and all who employ our services. 

Other agencies only offer the service of inviting you in to view and adopt a pet with all the cleaning, caring, treating and rehabilitating that someone else did for you… no no no… that is considered false advertising around our offices!

Instead of having you come to the nearest breeder or pet shelter, we here at UPPAA employ only the most qualified representatives to collect you, equip you and then, back you up, while you find the nearest stray animal in your area. Upon locating said adoptee, our representatives will then assess whether or not you desire to, or are capable of continuing on in said venture. From your response comes the next part of the package we offer. Here is where we will simply wait in the car, as you approach and retrieve the pet you have selected. 

**Stipulations are in place here that you must adhere to, in order for the completion of our services. Not only must it be very clear that these pets do not belong to some one else, but the pet must actually need your assistance. We will not, under an circumstances, be a part of nor participate in the willful theft of the fluffy white puppy living in your neighbors back yard! (this had to be added to our contract for a specific reason)**

Once you’ve selected and retrieved your new pet, following our rules and regulations, we will then deliver you safely home to begin your new life together. There is no need to come back to the office, as you’ve already signed all of the paperwork that enlisted and guaranteed our services, as well as paying all agreed fees, so you’re all good to go!

All of our fees, being quite reasonable, come with a money back guarantee! If, after a full 15 days of care, cleaning, feeding and rehabilitating your chosen pet, you are dissatisfied… we will be happy to come pick you up, return you to the adoption site so that you can put the animal back where you found it. We will also return your fee, minus the fuel. 

Our goal, here at UPPAA, is to ensure that you find just the right pet that you deserve, in the most real way possible, so that you truly appreciate who the animal is, where it came from, and what it might possibly be like from here on out! We are able to keep costs down here, by never having to hear why you didn’t know what you were getting into, or that this pet is nothing like what we advertised! We boast a perfect track record of no rehoming pets returned for the third time.

We have representatives standing by right now, waiting for your call at 1-888-PIC-APET. Our first 10 customers will get a complimentary catch pole.

**We are not responsible for lost or stolen common sense, nor are we obligated to provide first aid, physical assistance nor the picking up of poop… welcome to pet parenthood!**

As a girl of only eleven, I had already discovered the item I was most fond of… my survival, or in words to answer the prompt, my Life! 

Life has a way of sometimes being reduced to nothing more than a thing… an item to be played with, bartered, or thrown out when it’s usefulness has been expended!

For many souls it can take an entire lifetime to figure this out, only really feeling the harsh bite of reality, as it begins to surface on or near retirement! Basically, most begin to take more notice of feeling less valuable to society, as the body begins to slow and lose the ability to carry on at the same pace they once kept.

Then there are souls like mine, who learned painfully early in life how little value they held, how they weren’t valuable enough protect and care about… never worthy enough to be saved! This was my dark alleyway of existence, wandering through the night until I found a place to sleep… doing whatever I had to do to secure food, warmth, and sleep… never safety… just sleep! This life was not much but it was mine and I valued it above everything else!

I’m 55 now and nearing the age when most are preparing for retirement and their golden years… not this runaway!

I’m just getting started, I think, as I strive to prepare and strengthen myself for something bigger, better and still yet to come.

 It has taken some considerably long years to get my life to this moment, not caring and cherishing it, as the item I valued so strongly as a child… none the less, it’s still in tact, for the most part.

If you’ve any curiosity about what has become of the item I was so attached to as a youth, you need only read the letters I have written to you all, over this last year, here on WordPress. 

As this site is really all I have to show for explaining things, it will have to suffice as my best answer! 

I don’t know about all you, but I need a cookie…

Todays prompt question gave me a great opportunity to look within the pages of this site, seeking to answer the mission or purpose of what gets published here in The Lobby!

Instead of giving some wordy explanation of what goes on in here, I began pulling up pictures of what I think that I try to do, but maybe you all see it differently. Perhaps I should be asking you what you think my mission is from your vantage?

My intent is that this site reflect how I choose to live, or my mission, if you will. We have all heard the adage, a picture is worth a thousand words, so my desire is to allow my actions to reflect what I wish to be seen as my mission. It is as follows,

To believe…

To seek…

To dream…

To give love…

To share hope…

To speak the Truth in love…

To go when called…

and to fight every battle on my knees…

I think that sums it up! While my mission fluxes and flows, often changing with the tides of forward moving time… my belief in The One Who is Unchanging will not waiver… ever!

What I think of myself and what you might think of me can be any number of things, but my hope is that you see a light in the darkness…

While I don’t think I said anything requiring a cookie to get through, I still want to give you one just because…

When I read the prompt question, my mind immediately went to a picture of a quilt, handmade, of course! The seamstress cuts and measures out each square, being sure to leave extra in the piece for sewing to all the other sections… this way the quilt is just the right size and not smaller than planned. Measurements are very precise, otherwise, it could swing the other way and we end up with a quilt that is too big.

Looking back to when the first person sewed together a blanket and then to this day, we have kept the same size measurements, for the most part. Aside from some creative twists that have brought us BlanketJammies, sharable sleeping bags and the like, we have retained a sizing standard for a bed cover… why?

What if we just started making a one size fits all family blanket, that just runs throughout the house, leaving holes for heads and arms, in whatever room you had to be in during the day… why not? Who cares that it won’t fit in the standard Washer/Dryer, or that it would require an entire Family Size bottle of detergent for each washing… we can just wait for a rainy day and drag the whole thing outside for a washing. It would be a great family activity, as it would require every able bodied member to hold it up off the ground while it rained… but wait, we also could just hug each other as hard as we wanted, without hurting anyone, because we need to squeeze all the water out before our blanket could dry.

Now I know that I’ve taken us all down a weird Rabbit Hole Idea, but it is with good reason. The scenario that I created is very unrealistic and… in truth, quite odd! My point is… so is the concept of living a longer life! God started things out giving mankind hundreds of years to their life, moving in time to limit us to only 120 years… He had a reason for it, and I fully trust it was for our own good! We screw things up in the 120 years we are given, and adding years onto this would be very useless. After all these generations we are still arguing over Racism, Equality, and Governing of the people… it does not fill me with comfort to think that they could then extend the terms of office in the White House… uh uh!!! 

There is a line from an old movie I once watched, where one of the characters uses an analogy of a skein of thread holding a tapestry together… and I like analogies! Forming a picture in our minds helps to reinforce an idea, making it easier to remember a lesson or skill we’ve taken the time to learn.

My favorite verse in the Bible comes out of where… you should all know this about me… Psalm 139! While I won’t read you the entire chapter, I will leave you with my favorite part…

My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:15,16

I’ve been woven into Gods Tapestry and He knows where both my beginning and end are… I’ve no fear because I’m surrounded by so many other threads that make up the whole of our earthly quilt! I plan on dwelling in my one day at a time plan, since that is all I am actively taking part in… there is no promise of tomorrow, that I’m aware of! Our creator is the most masterful of all Quilters, building by a design that is flawless, so I’m going with that answer, concerning, What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life…

I pray that you think on this with each bite of the cookies below!

Since we have already passed through the idea of whether to look in the past verses the future, thanks to one of last weeks prompt questions, you already know that I don’t look back but forward only… the past is done and gone.

Plus, this is Sunday and I’m listening to worship music and the song playing right now is this…

I had to share it because it answered this prompt better than I ever could… “light a match, leave the past, burn the ships and don’t you look back”…

God gave me my answer for today’s prompt so if anyone takes issue… take it up with Him!

Here, have a cookie…