If life’s a game of monopoly, I want to be the shoe

What is life?  That’s The $64,000 Question.

Edwin Arlington Robinson said, “Life is the game that must be played.”

So if that’s true, then here’s how I see it.

First in the game of Life, a certain Sequence is followed, and lo and behold, we are born!  We spend some time in the Cribbage, thinking we have quite the Monopoly because the world appears to revolve around our little selves.

Just about the time we believe life is a proverbial Candy Land,  we are sent off to school where some of us finally start using our Cranium and some of us just think the whole idea is Balderdash.  Usually those of us who think school is just a Pit end up getting in Trouble more often than not.

But if you separate yourself from the rest of the Barrel of Monkeys, you might find you Go to the Head of the Class. Instead of being Sorry that you didn’t have a Clue what to do with yourself, those who do well in school can climb up Chutes and Ladders of success.

Realizing studying is not just Trivial Pursuit, we venture out in search of jobs that will give us a good Pay Day.  Some of us spin the Wheel of Fortune.   We buy a car, a house, and other stuff just because The Price Is Right.

After a while, we get weary of being Uno and aren’t crazy about ending up as an Old Maid so we take the Risk of finding our soul mate to marry.  For some people, searching for a spouse in the Dating Game may feel like Go Fish, for others it might seem like a Mouse Trap, but when you find the right person, you won’t even Flinch.

A perfect Match Game has been found and you’re off to the Newlywed Game.  Married life is quite an Operation.  At times if feels like Battleship, and you may Scrabble often with each other.   But after a time, you and your spouse will see things like Apples to Apples.

Children are added to the mix and you may become a family of Connect Four or even Crazy Eights.   Sometimes life seems like a great big Family Feud.  At times you think you’re going Bunco, but at other times, life seems near Perfection. Often as your kids are growing up, your life is like Twister, so busy and mixed up, but before you know it, they become adults, move out and your family becomes Scattergories.

At this point, you have the time to ponder and Imaginiff your life were different.  You’ve worked hard and you’ve loved even harder and all of a sudden that Taboo thought comes into your head – you’re getting old!

At some point you’re going to reach Phase 10, and when you do, Your Number’s Up.

“You play the hand you’re dealt with.  I think the game’s worthwhile.” ~ C.S. Lewis

And you believe that’s true, the game of life is definitely worth the effort,  you wouldn’t Skip-Bo any of it!

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com

I’ve got the time, but all I can do is rhyme

Image via unknown source

I’ve got the blahs,

There’s no use in lyin’.

I’m cranky and blue,

And I’m not even tryin’!

I’ve got lots of ideas

Scribbled down on a pad,

But no motivation to write

Like inspiration’s been had.

I could blame it on weather

Or that old empty nest.

But the truth of the matter

Is I’m stuck on “just rest.”

My get up and go

Has vacated the place.

I’d come in dead last

If writing blogs were a race.

My mind wants a break,

My body wants sleep.

When I come home from work

Written words I can’t reap.

So tonight I’m signing off

At least for this time.

It seems all I can write

Is this silly little rhyme.

And besides….

I need to go watch Hines.  (Dancing With the Stars elimination show is on shortly!  Go Hines Ward!!)

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com

Waiting for spring

Zapped crocus

The sun shines brightly, but oh, the bitterly cold wind nips at my ears and bites through my jacket making me shiver and pull up my hood!

Frost sparkled across our yard this morning when, shortly after awakening, I peered out my window for a “look see” at the day.

That frost zapped my lovely yellow, purple and white crocuses and now they’ve wilted and seem to have the saddest look to them.

View out my window

Today I would have to agree.  We’re very close to flipping over the calendar to April, but at 20 degrees this morning, it still feels like winter.

The scene outside my kitchen window unfolds in all its brownness.  Drab, depressing, lifeless brown.

I step out onto my deck to snap a few photos, pull my winter jacket tight around me and brace for the cold even though I can feel the contradictory warmth of the sun shining on my face.

Transition to green

And that’s when I notice not all is clothed in hues of tan and russet.   Shades of green make themselves visible in my yard.

There’s a slow transition working its way through our lawn as the grass commences to green up.

I glance at the flower bed adjacent to the deck.  The plants that burst forth into bold color throughout spring and summer and long into fall now appear as dead as can be.

But then I observe bright spots of greenery poking through the cold, hard ground.   The plants are slowly coming back to life.

Out front, I mourn the loss of the crocuses but note the daffodils have pushed their way above the surface and there….my favorite hyacinths are gradually beginning their journey upwards.

Color, glorious color, patiently waits to unveil itself and I also must be patient to wait for it.  Because spring will come.  The flock of red-breasted robins scouring the yard for tasty worms tells me so.  One season does follow another and spring’s time is near.

“Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.” ~ Virgil A. Kraft

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com

Content as a calico cat on a couch

Sometimes I envy my calico cat.

Often when I glance at her while she sleeps, I think she epitomizes the picture of contentment.

She may be curled up in a ball or stretched out all over the place,  but she sleeps soundly and peacefully with no stress or worries in her itty bitty kitty brain.

Her daily needs and requirements are met:

• Crunchy fishy food? Check
• Bowl of fresh water? Check
• Warm spot to sleep? Check
• People to love? Check
• Toys to play with? Check
• Occasional jaunt to the outside world? Check
• Place for doing business?   Check

If there’s something missing in her estimation, be it food or attention, she’ll definitely let us know.  But really, kitty doesn’t ask for much.

She’s content as can be in her little world.  She doesn’t want the newest kitty toy on the market or a cute little bed in which to sleep.  She doesn’t care if she gets Fancy Feast cat food or good old reliable Meow Mix.

How vastly different we humans are.  We may have enough food and drink, a warm place to call home and people to love us, but we never seem to be content.  We’re gluttonous to satisfy ourselves in all things.

We never seem to have enough food (Supersize it!); we never think we have a nice enough house (Move to a better neighborhood!);  and we never think we have enough money. (Get a better paying job!)

We never think we have enough stuff (Charge it!); we’re never satisfied with our cars (Buy a new one with all the bells and whistles!),  or electronics, vacations, clothes, hairstyles….  (And the list goes on!)  We’re not even content with our bodies. (Have plastic surgery!)

When is enough enough? Why do we always want more?

If you look up the definition of content in the dictionary, you’ll discover it means “satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.”   Contentment is the state of being content, being satisfied, having ease of mind.   It really does not describe our society today, does it?

In our fallen world, we’ve bought into the lie that we never have enough.  We accumulate stuff, we spend money we don’t really have, and still the desire for more, more, more possesses us.  I think it’s as hideously ugly as cancer cells rapidly spreading their way through a human body consuming it.

We will always struggle with being satisfied until we fill up that cavernous hole inside of us with something that will fulfill us to the point of not wanting anything else.  I truly believe the only thing that can quench our insatiable thirst for more is a personal relationship with Jesus.

When we come to know Him, really know Him as Lord and Savior, He fills us up.  The Apostle Paul explained this in Philippians 4:11-13 when he wrote:  “…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.”

He also gave us wise advice on this subject in 1 Timothy 6:6-7:  “But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.  People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

Likewise, scripture tells us in Hebrews 13:5-6:  “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,    ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’ ”

At the end of this life, it won’t matter what we have, what will matter is how we allowed Jesus to fill our empty cups to overflowing.  When we make Him Lord of our lives, we literally exude Him to others.

What have we done to further God’s Kingdom?  Do we reach out to those in need (financial, physical, emotional or spiritual) or think only of ourselves?

Do we share our Source (Jesus Christ) of contentment with those who don’t know Him or not want to step out of our comfort zones?  Do we use what earthly gain we may have been granted to help others or use it to satisfy ourselves?

Do we follow the two greatest commandments Jesus gave us in Matthew 22:37: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

That’s what I desire in my book of Opportunity, Chapter 3, Page 26 – to follow Jesus’ commandments until my cup overflows.   I want to be as content as a calico calmly cat-napping on a couch.  How about you?

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com

Here we go a-waffling

Image source unknown

To Facebook or not to Facebook?  I waffle back and forth on using that social networking media because at times I enjoy it and other times, I just can’t stand it.

But this morning when I opened up my Facebook account expecting to see the usual – status updates, pictures, postings of friends’ blogs –  this announcement jumped off my home page – It’s International Waffle Day!

Yes, today on Page 25, Chapter 3, in my book called Opportunity, it’s a day to celebrate waffles!

Apparently this holiday began in Sweden both as a celebration of the beginning of spring and also the Feast of the Annunciation, a Christian belief which falls on this day to commemorate when the archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary with the message that she had been chosen to bear the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

For some reason, the Swedes celebrate by making waffles and it has become a custom for every March 25.   So last night, there may have been countless people exclaiming like Donkey in Shrek: “And in the mornin’, I’m makin’ waffles!”

Our family loves waffles whether they are the fast-serving Eggo toaster waffles or the deliciously tasty homemade waffles my hubby makes when the kids come back to fill up the empty nest for a visit.  Waffles serve as one of our favorite breakfast foods, topped with maple syrup or fruit.

We don’t usually consider them dessert like some do with huge Belgian waffles topped with ice cream or fruit and whipped cream, but the idea does sound delectable.   When I think of a waffle dessert, I usually picture a waffle ice cream cone filled with chocolate chip mint ice cream…mmm, mmm, good.

So drag out that waffle iron, search out some delicious waffle recipes because today is a good day to enjoy some waffles.  And I’m not waffling!

As Professor G.H. Dorr said in the movie The Ladykillers to the waitress at Waffle House: “Madam, we must have waffles! We must all have waffles forthwith! We must all think, and we must all have waffles, and think each and every one of us to the very best of his ability…”

Okay, I’m off to convince hubby to make us waffles for dinner….either that, or I’m off to find an IHOP because today, I’ve got a hankering for waffles!

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com

The good, the bad and the yummy

Image via Wikipedia

I thought perhaps opportunity really was knocking at my door today on Page 24, Chapter 3, in my book of Opportunity.

Turns out the opportunity I thought I might find didn’t materialize, but another one appeared in its place.

The long and short of it can be described in three ways:

• The Good: I got to spend the entire day with three of my favorite co-workers at a job related meeting in the city.  It was fun traveling with them and we had a great idea for lunch at a restaurant two of us had never eaten at before.   There were some great snacks at the meeting including the roasted red pepper hummus with pita chips and fresh strawberries we brought.

• The Bad:   For me, the meeting was a bust.  I thought I would learn something new and different there that I could use in my work, something to jazz things up a little or at least a new resource.  But no, that opportunity did not happen.  It was just business as usual, nothing to get excited about or even want to take home.    Plus sitting on a folding chair for a good three hours without a break made me squirm uncomfortably in my seat while my back let me know it was not a happy camper!

• The Yummy:  Even though we saw the eatery we wanted to visit, and drove right past it, parking in that area of the city is at a premium.  We couldn’t find a place to park and ended up on a route taking us out of the city – the wrong way.  But we stopped at a familiar place that serves sandwiches famous to our city.  I don’t know if it was because it was so late in the afternoon and I was starving or whether the sandwich was just that good, but I ate the entire thing! Usually, I take half of it home to eat at a later time.

Two out of three.  Not bad.  The opportunity to spend the day with friends and a yummy lunch to boot – priceless.

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com

The secret’s out

Dancing dog via graphicshunt.com

I nervously glance at the clock.

Make sure I’ve done the potty break.  Stake out my position.  Got a glass of ice water on the end table beside me.

Cell phone within reaching distance.  Remote control firmly in hand.  Like clock-work, I complete this ritual-like routine every Monday night.

Yes, I will admit to a secret that only my family and a couple of friends at work know.  I am addicted to the television show Dancing With the Stars.

Don’t ask me to attend anything on Monday nights from 8-10 p.m. because I’ll turn down your invitation.  My hubby knows he must watch TV elsewhere if another show interests him because I will not budge from the family room set.

Don’t call me during that time unless it’s an emergency, and really you should be dialing 911 instead anyway!  If you text me, I can handle that, but you better be texting opinions about the show, otherwise you will get one word answers from me.  I even shut down my lap-top on Monday nights! (gasp!)

Yep, it’s that serious.  I love that show.  I know people scoff at it and think it’s stupid.  I don’t care.  Watching it just makes me smile.   Even when I don’t know who the heck some of the “star” competitors are, I watch anyway.

I love the fact that the show is live.  I love the music.  I love the costumes.  It reminds me of watching musical variety TV shows when I was a kid and somehow that floats my boat.  I have vivid memories of “dancing” along with those shows in my parents’ living room when no one else was watching.

Inside of this subdued empty nest Mama is a crazy dancer living vicariously via Dancing With the Stars.  This out-of-shape body couldn’t dance like the stars if I tried and everyone knows you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

But viewing the couples glide across the stage in an elegant Viennese waltz or a lively quick step makes me want to glide along with them.  Watching the fiery Latin dances, the paso doble or Argentine tango, entices me to stamp my feet like a flamenco dancer.

The sassy cha-cha, rumba or samba invite me to get up and shake my booty, although I subdue that impulse because it wouldn’t be a pretty picture! But if 60-year-old not so willowy Kirstie Alley can shake her groove thang all over national television, I guess I could succumb to a little hip action in the privacy of my own home.

And when the dancers do the jive?  The yen to jump up and frolic around the room is as intense as the grin –  so wide it hurts my cheeks –  on my face.  To me, that’s entertainment!

It’s pretty safe to proclaim that I have watched every season of DWTS.  And in most seasons, I vote for my favorites and vote and vote and vote.  I hit the redial on my cell phone for as many votes as possible then switch to my land-line phone and even my hubby’s cell if it’s handy.

This season will be no exception; even though the new season just premiered last night, I’ve already got my favorite pegged – NFL Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward.  That man’s smile would light up the darkest man cave.

He’s ‘in it to win it’ no matter what he does, on the football field or off.  I like his work ethic and the fact that no matter what happens, he flashes his pearly whites.

Last night, he looked a tad nervous at first but once he commenced moving and grooving, I could tell he was putting it all out there.  Go Ward!  You’re off to a great start!

I’ll be voting and grinning right back at you.  I might even wave my…..terrible towel! (You thought I was going to say groove thing, didn’t you?!)

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com

Supermoon: country sky

The Supermoon was spectacular last night.  Hubby and I viewed it from the front porch of our country home.  I’ll let my pictures speak for themselves.

“The moon, like a flower

In heaven’s high bower,

With silent delight

Sits and smiles on the night.” ~ From Night by William Blake, English poet

“Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon.”

From Silver by Walter de La Mare, English poet, short story writer and novelist

“Fly me to the moon

Let me play among the stars

Let me see what spring is like

On Jupiter and Mars.”

From Fly Me to the Moon, song lyrics by Bart Howard (written the year I was born)

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com

Leave no stone unturned

Every year around this time in March we have a stone-pickin’ party at our house.

You read that correctly, a stone-pickin’ party.  It’s not much of a celebration and it usually involves just hubby and me because as you know, Mama’s nest is empty.

You urban dwellers or suburbanites, sometimes I envy your paved driveways.  Out here in the country, we possess a 150-foot long unpaved drive consisting of limestone gravel.

Winter’s snows require hubby to plow it open with our trusty John Deere lawn tractor or if the snow’s really deep, the monstrous snow blower comes roaring out of its corner in the garage.  Either way, gravel gets shoved or flung wildly into the yard willy-nilly.

So every spring, we pick up stones, literally.  When the weather warms up, passers-by will notice us raking stones back into our driveway or hunkered down picking them out of the grass and depositing them back onto the drive.   After a winter of many deep snows, we’ve even utilized the shop-vac  to suck up the gravel.  Yeah, we vacuum our yard.  This all seems crazy I know, but there are good practical reasons for doing so:

1.     Before mowing season begins, the yard must be free of stones.  One violent fling of a stone thrown from the tractor can cause some serious damage to person, place or thing near-by.

2.     It costs a small fortune for truckloads of new gravel every couple of years for such a long driveway, so we need to replace every stone we can find.  I told you I was frugal!  Plus paving a driveway as long as ours would also cost an arm and leg!

3.     Thinly spread gravel creates a muddy driveway, so filling in the bare spots is a must.  So you might say we “Leave no stone unturned” as the Greek playwright Euripides wrote.

Even though stone pickin’ causes my back and knees to complain and sometimes I do yearn for a nice, smooth paved drive, I actually enjoy the task.

Stone-pickin’ time means spring is here and I have a great excuse to go outside, soak in the warm sunshine, inhale some fresh air and enjoy the ever-present breeze. (Ok, wind tunnel in our case!)

Kneeling on gardening knee pads plucking stones offers a chance to bask in a springy day, get a smidge of much-needed exercise and do a little thinking without distractions.  I like viewing the ground close-up, noticing the sturdy stalks of grass changing from brown to green, eyeing up little three-leaved clovers, getting my hands a little muddy.

Yesterday in near 70 degree temperatures, hubby and I commenced stone-pickin’.  Humming as I worked, I realized those hunks of gravel were providing me some good fodder for my blog.

William Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It, “And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

I certainly am not a preacher so I won’t declare I found a sermon in those stones I handled.  But God did provide scripture to consider and food for thought while I was stone pickin’.

“…now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.  As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him —  you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For in Scripture it says:   ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ ” ~ 1 Peter 2:3-6 (New International Version)

Just as my driveway needs that solid foundation of limestone, my life needs a strong foundation as well.  For me that means it is built on the Living Stone, Christ Jesus.

In my mind, He is the boulder, the huge solid rock, the cornerstone, on which believers stand. (Ephesians 2:19-20)

We are the smaller pebbles but as living stones, when His Spirit is active and present in us, we are a work in progress.  I think as we build our lives on Christ, He also builds us as He molds and shapes us spiritually into His likeness.

And just as the stones from my driveway get out of line when they’re flung into my yard, we allow the world to lead us astray.  When we focus on Jesus, He brings us back in line.

Yesterday as I picked up pieces of broken stone and placed them back where they belong, it reminded me what God does for us.  He picks up the broken pieces of our lives and sets us on the right path to Him, but only when we choose to believe in Him.

So in my book of Opportunity today, on this 19^th page in Chapter 3, I have to ask you – how’s your driveway?  Is it built on the Rock?  Do you have a firm foundation laid on the One way – Jesus Christ – to God the Father?  Or is your path taking you in another direction?

If you want to know more, all you have to do is pick up God’s Word, the Bible, and start reading.  And leave no stone unturned.

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com

And I say it’s all right

All day long yesterday I just could not stop singing and I wasn’t even singing Irish songs!

Instead this Beatles tune firmly entrenched itself in my mind and I either sang or hummed it all day:

“Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,

and I say it’s all right.

Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter,

Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here,

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

and I say it’s all right.

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces,

Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here,

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

and I say it’s all right.

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting,

Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear,

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,

and I say it’s all right.

It’s all right.”

Gloriously sunny skies greeted me upon awakening and good old Mr. Sun hung around the entire day warming up our little 2 ½ acres significantly – bringing me hope that spring really IS on its way!  My mood altered and I just felt good – rejuvenated.

Signs of new life bubbled up to the surface at our country house just in the last couple of days.  Perky yellow and purple crocuses bloomed and more are popping up out of the soil today.  The day lilies are also poking their little heads up after a long winter’s nap.

With the time change last weekend, it is staying lighter each evening as our days get longer.  And I love sunshine!  I love it so much I had to shoot the picture at the top of this post showing you the beautiful sunset from my back deck last evening.

I’m feeling hopeful in Chapter 3, Page 18, of my Opportunity even though the sun’s playing hide and seek with me today resulting in overcast skies again.  But I AM hopeful spring is just around the corner.  And I say it’s all right.

“No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.” ~ Proverb from Guinea

©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com