Saturday, August 17, 2013

Ponderings That Are Amusing

A friend:  What if vampires, werewolves, fae, etc. were real?

My response:  They've gotten a hell of an image consultant and press team.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Ponderings........

Once a very long time ago, I heard a story about Odysseus being reincarnated and the life that he chose for that reincarnation.  The story I remember is that he chose to be a farmer.  When I looked online I found the Myth of Er which merely says that he chose the life of a private man but no further information.  In the story I remember others were present and questioned his choice, wondering why he would chose to be a lowly farmer when he had been such a rich and powerful king.  Which then segues into a telling of the tale of Odysseus' life.

Ever since then that scenario has stuck in my brain.  If we were reincarnated into new lives, what new lives would we chose and why?  If we are indeed reincarnated, and we get to chose the next life, why did I chose this one?  Why did my son chose the one he did?  What lessons were we hoping to learn?  Or, what life occurrences were we hoping to avoid?  Or alternatively, if a higher power chose these lives, why?  What lessons are we to learn from this lifetime?

I wonder about what I would say to myself in regards to this life after it was over and I remembered all my prior lives?  What would I be happy that I learned?  What had I failed to learn?  What had I done that would make me truly ashamed?  What had I learned that I had wanted to learn?  And what learning surprises had appeared on the way through this lifetime?  Who had I helped in a good way?  Who had I harmed?  Who had I known before?  Who was new?  Why were things successful?  Why did things fail?  Or if I had to face a higher power, how would I feel about my actions, deeds, thoughts?

Could I hold my head up and know that I had treated others in ways that I could be happy with?  Could I hold me head up and know that I had aided those who needed it whether it be by my deeds for them, or to protect them?

Sometimes when I ask myself those questions I am quietly satisfied with my private answers.  Once or twice in my life, I've been ashamed.  I don't hold myself to anyone else's standards. I have my own private deeply held beliefs that I try to live by.  I'm glad that most of the time I can be satisfied.  And as I ponder tonight it's a mixed bag.  But mostly I'm satisfied.  And again, curious, what were those other lives like?  What did I want to learn in this one?

I know that an answer will not magically appear.  But I can ponder it.  And occasionally wish that somewhere in the balance for this life a big lottery winning will appear.  ;-)  Or even better, a complete and harmless cure for autism.  :-)

Life is okay tonight and I'm just pondering.  What would your answers to the questions be?


Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Improvements

Things are slowly improving around here.  And I'm grateful for the improvements.

Munchkin is getting over the latest eye infection.  And as of yesterday he is no longer photosensitive.  His eyeglasses are once again on his face, where they belong.  The icepacks, both homemade and purchased, are all back in the freezer ready for the next time. 

The ice maker is up and running at full speed now that I found the problem and fixed it.  Part of a plastic veggie back had gotten caught in the "teeth".  I thought I had gotten it all out months ago but apparently there was a section that I missed.  It took several loads of ice cubes before it became visible enough that I realized it was there and got it out.  And then the production of ice exploded.  I don't know that I'll leave it running since we really don't use that much ice normally but for now it's going.  Munchkin is very curious about ice and where it comes from since he's been using so many ice packs over the last few days.

My van is in the shop still.  It turns out that the problem which caused it to stall out and stop running is connected to the slow oil leak that it has had since we got it.  Per the mechanic, the exhaust system had been backing up slightly and causing pressure in the engine.  The result was the slow oil leak and the lack of power in the engine.  The lack of power which I thought was just me needing to get used to having a V6 rather than a V8.  Although the amount of gas it uses still confuses me.  Anyways, getting back on track, the exhaust issue was apparently that the catalytic converter was slowly collapsing.  Then I drove into water ~1 foot deep trying to get to my folk's house in order to take care of animals.  Apparently that was the last straw and the catalytic converter finished it's collapse the other day when I was running errands.  Due to the shop being busy at the moment it took two days to find this out.  Now Dad is on a hunt to see if we can find a way to do it/get it done at a better price. (>$450)  We've just had too may big money hits in both households through the last month.  And we've got those once a year bills that just happen to be due in the next month.  So I will wait without complaining because this is what happens in life occasionally.  (And yes, I am truly at peace with this.)

Since my van is not running at the moment, a wonderful friend thought of me when she had a few hours without her boys.  She offered to take us grocery shopping so that we could get the things that I buy monthly, and was out of because it was time for that monthly shopping trip.  Murphy did join us on that trip but I dealt with it.  And, fortunately, it was not anything that caused problems for her.  I am very grateful for that blessing.

Another wonderful friend thought of us and sent us surprises as well.  This friend doesn't live locally but we talk almost every day.  And she occasionally sends surprises.  In addition to that surprise, she has decided that she is sending us her old iPhone.  It had issues with phone calls that caused her to have to replace it.  But that's the only area it's having problems in.  So we are going to turn it into a communication device for Munchkin.

And I'm keeping fingers crossed that we'll manage to get a trip in to the humongous used book/media store that is about an hour from us.  A couple of other people we know want to go check it out so we may be able to carpool.  I'm hoping to stock up on basic readers for Munchkin and maybe a few movies.  I should have enough books to trade in so that I won't be spending any cash.

And lastly, I should be able to take care of all the home school fees by the end of this week.  That will allow me to get all the registrations done.  I've already gotten our curriculum materials through sales, barter and good luck.  I just have to take care of this last bit to completely sever our connections with the public school system.

Now, since a storm is coming in that is causing the power to flicker, I'm going to hop off the computer and shut it all down.  I hope you are all having a good day.


Saturday, August 3, 2013

Murphy

It seems that Murphy has come for an extended visit.  I don't know why.  It's been three weeks of things breaking down, family relationship messes, and child illnesses/issues.  I normally look for the positive side of things but it's been getting hard.  I spent quite a while last night doing meditation and praying that Murphy, and whatever triggered his presence, will now pass us by.  Forever if possible.  And that we, including my extended family, will be able to recover from the issues with peace and minimal further "damage".

From my heart and soul to those to exist above.  I hope it is so.

On the positive side - Munchkin is getting over yet another eye issue.  After speaking with his doctor we've decided to change one of his allergy medications.  There is the possibility that the medication he was on was causing his eyes to be extremely dry resulting in them not tearing up enough to handle irritants.  Hence the multiple eye issues since he's been back on his allergy medications full time and at adult dosages now.

Positive side #2, although Murphy really interfered in a lot of things yesterday, and cost us money we just didn't have to spend.  He didn't do so until we had reached the stores that we needed to in order to get things to help Munchkin with his eye issues.  And while he threw both big and little issues in our path to getting some of those things we managed to persevere and get what was needed.  And a little angel popped in for us to help with one completely impromptu idea that actually worked very well indeed.

Positive #3, friends who listen to me vent about Murphy's stunts so that I could see past the pain of the stress and move on.  And who were able to understand when I laughed about things and able to laugh with me.

Positive #4, a relatively pain free day physically despite all the stress.

Positive #5, a bountiful beautiful garden and a mostly mowed lawn.

Positive #6, a loving child.

Positive #7, that we are alive,  awake, and breathing to see the beauty of another day and move past the issues that have been plaguing us.

Positive #8 - While this is a positive, possibly, for us, I'm quite sure it wasn't a positive for my dear friend.  But she sees it as at least a partial one since it can help Munchkin.  Her iPhone has developed an issue that means she can no longer use it.  Actually it can't effectively be used as a phone anymore since it won't alert that a call is incoming.  But it can be used for other purposes and it can be protected with an Otterbox.  So she is sending it over so that we can look into setting it up as a backup communication device for Munchkin.  Or maybe as the main device since it can be protected.  And I can keep the unprotected small tablet for backup.  (That is an amazingly sturdy little tablet!)

Positive #9 - That with the assistance of dear friends and family we are once more headed into another year of homeschooling.  This allows us to leave the stress of dealing with the school system behind.  In fact, sometime today I should be getting around to getting the lesson plans into the scheduler.

Here's hoping that Murphy is not plaguing any of you and that he has been directed away from us.