FGHart

I love South Beach Miami. It’s a beautiful spot. Fun people. Great weather. The beaches are fabulous! The people are beautiful, exotic, sexy.What’s not to like about a place so grand? A place so peaceful and serene….. These are the scenes I’ll be keeping in mind. We’re back on the South Beach Diet Lifestyle. The first 2 weeks are a strict regimen of no carbs, no fruit, no alcohol. Because we were off to a bumpy start, the marvelous chef I married has decided we should live a hybrid version this week (where he and youngest are not strict) and we’ll begin in earnest this coming Monday. When all is said and done, I’ll have tee totaled for 3 weeks. Tomorrow ends week 1.

I’d kinda been looking forward to playing with the new WII games – dual player enabled with 2nd remote. Yesterday was our first Thursday at home after the 2 week holiday. But, Loving Hubby plays with your church’s music team and they are now going to have practices on Thursday, starting yesterday. And yesterday we heard from C that she would be returning to college early and wanted to have ice cream with her brother before she headed out of town.

So, for the most part, I was home alone last night. I did, however, invite C over for dinner this weekend…and she accepted. Something to look forward to.

And, we need to find a new night for family night. In spite of any angst I might voice with respect to my own brood, I firmly believe in family, but more than that – we have clear direction: “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. ” (1 Timothy 5:8)

Discernment involves finding the right balance between obedience and “enablement without boundaries.” What I’m trying to provide consistently, wholly, without restraint is LOVE. Whether or not it is accepted and/or welcome, it is there. It flows. That’s the best any of us can offer.

There are some families (besides my own) that remain in my prayers:

Pare Family
Schutz Family
Davies Family
Holahan Family

God, our Father, hear our chorus of harmonious prayers for healing. Bless us with Your grace and mercy. Let all recognize the miracle of Your healing presence. Let us be witnesses to all that You do.

Praise God,

Sorry to disappoint those who are actively interested in the life and times of the Hart Guppies, but today my guppy update is not about guppies. It’s about the “why” of it all. My sister and I were recently chatting about my affinity for the guppy soap opera posts. It occurs to me that some may read my post and wonder “Why, oh why, does this woman care so much about her guppies? They’re fish! Does she not realize that fish are boring?” Or whatever may cross their bewildered minds.

What I can tell you is…guppies are not my teenagers and sometimes my teenagers MAKE ME CRAZY(er).

I read a number of blogs by very articulate, well spoken women who have pre-teens and younger at home. I envy these women. Their children are cute and witty and say precious quotable quips and are, in general, quite precocious. I even know of at least one who has teens, but her home-schooling efforts yielded an idyllic harmonious household and well balanced young adults. I struggle with feelings of envy whenever I read about her lovely family. I remind myself: “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.” (Proverbs 14:30) I do not want rotten bones, so I put my trust in the LORD.

Because if I don’t, my teenagers, on occasion, MAKE ME CRAZY(er).

Guppies, while living out their own little melodramas of love, romance, and death from overdoing “it,” are not my teenagers. They are relatively peaceful in the confinement of their tank. I don’t have to worry about where they are going, who they will be with, what they will be doing. They don’t fail classes they could easily pass. They don’t have to be trusted on a daily basis when they are out of my sight, out of range of my loving, neurotic, overprotective gaze. I’ve been dealing with my teens for ~10 years and there are only ~5 more years to go. For the most part, I resist the temptation to use this site to rant about my angst directly but sometimes it spills over. Mostly I try to focus on the positive. Express my faith. My love. And sometimes, just for fun, I talk about fish.

I actually have a tank full of very peaceful tetras, but the few guppies in there are the most entertaining. Because they eat their young? Maybe. I kinda understand how that could happen.

Peace,

Although we cranked through a couple of 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles over the holidays, I noticed this last puzzle is going verrrry slowwwly. It finally occurred to me that this is because I’M THE ONLY PERSON WORKING ON IT! At least for the most part. Certainly that’s the way it seems lately. I have enough hobbies and a mile-long “to do” list. Whose idea was this puzzle thing anyway? It seems to me hubby was the one going crazy buying puzzles.

I need to remember a) the puzzle is centrally located and it allows me to be in proximity for conversations with T about school/life/whatever or near the hubby when he’s cooking, etc. and b) when I’m working on the puzzle I’m more interactive/open than when my nose is buried in a book or I’m surfing the internet or blogging.

Meanwhile, we have about 10 more puzzles queued up and waiting. Hopefully once we’re past this really tricky one, we can knock out some of the rest of these a little more quickly. Or…maybe the puzzle table has become a permanent feature in our living room. I think I’m okay with that. No need to rush the puzzles, just enjoy the process. What do you think?

Yesterday I was blessed several times, in several ways, but for the sake of brevity I will only mention those blessings that are relevant. First, in compliance with my Obsessive/Compulsive ways I checked my blog first thing in the morning to see if any of the world’s blog-fairies had stopped by and left a comment. Lo and behold, I had been blessed. Cha Cha, a lady I truly admire for her positive and resilient attitude, had not only commented, but left me “a little something” at her blog.

THE SUPERIOR SCRIBBLER AWARD
LOVE YOUR BLOG AWARD

I am so honored … I was rendered speechless. I had to run to get ready for Church but I was sailing on high spirits.

My next blessing was at Church. During announcements our priest asked me stand up and he told the congregation about my Guidepost article. I blushed to my roots and my spirit soared. The double-whammy of recognition. The irony is that I’m blessed all over and I know it. Top to bottom, side to side.

Now…back to the award. This is the important part, so pay attention. The principle is “pay it forward.” I’m now responsible for recognizing the bloggers I read regularly and admire for their superior scribbling. I can’t give it back to Cha Cha, as much as she deserves it (such as her last post which reminds me that I too share a love of stationary and am obliged to write thank you notes).

So without further ado, or rambling or random comment (too late!) I’d like to acknowledge and reward these bloggers who (whom?) I love:

My lovely sister ADallasDiva, who prompted my initial blogging forays several years ago, then prompted me again back in September when I was whining mentioning my desire to get into the writing habit. As my younger sister she has always been mini-me so it’s great to role-reverse. I read her blog regularly, even if she posts irregularly. And, she was published before I was.

My dear friend Jeanette, Mom and advocate – she inspires many. Maybe because I’m not living with a toddler and incredibly energetic pre–schooler, I’m able to laugh and laugh at her children’s antics.

And the marvelous Barbara, who shares her knowledge, training, experience and wisdom on life and parenting (not meaning to imply they’re separate concepts, but sometimes parenting precludes life, right?).

Barbara has been educating us on Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and I’d venture to say that bestowing this award is akin to delivering each of the winners a gold star. Kudos to you, my friends. Pass this forward to those scribblers you love and let them know you care.

A long, long time ago, in a land on the south side of Lake Travis and on the North Shore of Lake Austin, there lived a young couple. Newlyweds. So proud of their independence. So proud of their first home. A mobile home. A double-wide. Sitting on almost an acre of land. They lived there for many years. Ten years, in fact. Then one day they released that their home sat in a seedy neighborhood filled will illegal aliens (50 were picked up in an INS raid) of low morals and poor hygiene. A creek bed near their home was used as their communal toilet. Their back yard was the commuter trail to the “dumping grounds”.

Their home was broken into on several occasions. Not because they had anything worth stealing, although what little they had was taken but because they had air conditioning and cable – a great place to hang out on a hot summer day.

Meanwhile, a pack of stray dogs added to the apparent threat to the safety and well being of their fair-haired children.

The compelling reasons to move compounded and so they were compelled to move. Alas, the home could not be sold at a bargain and it seemed more worthwhile to join the ranks of rental properties in the area. And it was so.

The first tenants lasted about a year, then they moved on. The 2nd tenants lasted about 11 1/2 years. Their occupancy ended with 2008.

Today, my loving hubby and I ventured out to our old stomping grounds. He’d actually gone by yesterday, but dragged me out today to photo-document the condition of our old homestead. Any flash of nostalgia was killed by the horrendous reek of cat urine. It was bazaar to see the curtains I’d sewn over a dozen years ago hanging in a home that seemed vaguely familiar but stank so badly all I wanted was OUT! The pet damage was extensive but admittedly, the home was built in the 70’s so its lasted well past its prime (mobile home, remember).

Walking the grounds, I passed the paved walkway that hubby built. I “rediscovered” the ring of rocks from the bonfire celebrating my graduation. I was delighted to see my grandmother’s irises (flowers, not creepy eye parts) have survived. My only request is that we salvage those. I know just where I’ll plant them.

I don’t mourn the pets that were buried there. I don’t mourn the memories. I celebrate our growth and maturation that has brought us from those rugged roots. Irises are a fine way to commemorate.

Peace,

November 15th brought us our first brood of fry. Being new to the whole guppy-rearing business, it is sad to note that only one of the first litter survived. He was unceremoniously released into General Population on December 6th to free up the nursery because Mama Guppy was ready to pop again. On December 7th we greeted our new batch of guppettes.

On December 20th we were preparing for our eminent departure and I wasn’t sure what to do about the young un’s. I prematurely released half of the ~30 babies. By the time we left on December 23rd, only a few of those remained. I released the remaining fry into the General Population, hoping for the best.

On January 2nd we returned. The sole survivor from Litter #1 is doing fine. There are 2 survivors from Litter #2. Mama was ready to pop *again* so into the nursery she went. As of today, there are at least 30 new guppettes occupying the nursery.

And Mama Guppy looks like she’s been rode hard and put away wet, literally. Bless her little guppy heart. No sooner than being put back in the mix with her resilient faithful hubby and her randy boyfriend but they were both back at her. It had only been a day!!! I may have to put her in a currently unused 2 gallon tank just to let her have some peace.

So, as much as I dreaded letting all of the babies loose prematurely and as anxious as I was for their safety, my fears proved fairly valid. Out of 30, only 2 survived. I hate that! I’m trying to quit being such a worrier!

The good news is a) I’m confident I know how to keep the fry alive for 3 or more weeks so they can grow big enough to survive in General Population and b) the rest of the Tetras look extremely healthy after dining on high protein snack ’ems. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with 30 guppies in my tank anyway.

I’d love to wrap up with an analogy to parenting but all I’m coming up with is…sometimes our fears are warranted but things still work out for the best.

Peace,

We are home from our family vacation (multi-generational golfing in Fla) and I am pooped! I would have gladly remained a recluse for the evening, but our youngest was persistent in his desire to watch a movie together. We settled on Wall-E. We also watched “deleted scenes” and other commentaries afterwards.

As I sit in my dark office to quickly capture a few thoughts, I’m interrupted by my young teen who wants to go to see Twilight (again) tomorrow with a friend. I mentioned chores and he thinks since we’ve been away, no chores are needed. I asked about $ and he indicated he wanted his lunch money early. Hmmmm. We have done zip with regard to unpacking, etc. And Monday, it’s back to the real world. Personally, I wish I’d just been allowed to blog quietly without being called upon to parent.