If You Say So....Luke 5:4-7 (NASB)

     Many years ago, newly pregnant, sick, and with two toddlers in the back seat, I drove to town to pick up 8 year-old Camille from art lessons. Only, the parking spaces were blocked off, a crowd of people had gathered, and I was promptly informed by a brusque police officer that I was illegally parked and needed to move immediately.      "But Officer, my daughter will be coming out into a crowd of strangers looking for me, and she won't find me. There's no place to park and I'm worried about her safety."      "You should have come earlier. Now move right now, ma'am, or I will write you a ticket."      "But Officer, what do I do about my daughter about to enter a crowd of strangers all alone? It'll take me quite awhile to find a spot, and I have little ones in the back of the car."      "You should have gotten here a little earlier. I'm going to write you a ticket right now, ma'am," the officer sa...

     I don't even know where I'm going with this post. I have been overwhelmed with helping Leanne and her friend, "C" work on their History Day LA poster with "C"'s mom for the last few weeks. S*t*r*e*s*s*f*u*l. The big day was last Saturday,  March 12th. I'm relieved and happy to be done with it.It was a helpful learning experience for Leanne. She was disappointed she didn't make the team to represent Los Angeles County in San Jose in May. "Oh well. You win some, you lose some," I told her. She got over it pretty quickly.      I haven't been very inspired to write about much on this little blog of mine. Spring weather has been marvelous lately. I've been planting some flowers and bulbs recently. We'll see what comes up. I'm hopeful. Spring Break is coming up in mid-April for us. I'm planning some day trips here and there. Really, though, life is rather "ho-hum."      And then temptation begins to sneak ...

     So, here's a puzzling fact I've discovered. Since realizing a couple of months back that I could check my "stats" with Google Blogger, I've been very intrigued to observe a couple of trends. I've discovered that, as of yet, there are three posts on my main blog, the one you are reading now, that are the most viewed. After clicking  a button, I stopped tracking times when I would re-read a post. So, the current numbers reflect other people who have read those posts. I'm entirely aware that some of those page views might have occurred accidentally and that people who clicked on the post might not have actually read it. Still, the numbers are interesting. When I looked at the traffic sources I see mostly facebook and google leads. Not very revealing. To date, my three most popular blog posts are http://halfdozengirls.blogspot.com/2010/07/ responsibility-and-restitution-part-2 .html, http://halfdo...

     Long wait in the ER.      Suspected broken ankle.      Finally put in a room. Only to wait some more...      And some more....      Overheard in the next room over:      "Do you know what time the surgery will be scheduled tomorrow?"      "No, I don't. Probably in the early afternoon."      "We have a huge birthday party planned for him."      "I would cancel it. He really needs this surgery."      More muffled talking and then sobs and whimpering cries from a young boy.      "I'm sorry. I can't make your social plans for you. I have patients to see. You know, I have patients..."      Yeah, my daughter!      "He's really afraid of having blood drawn."      I look back at my 13 year-old daughter lying...

    Note: this is a rambling post of disjointed ideas. Bear with me if you dare.... cute, creative, FREE seed pots This style of house is appealing to me. Go figure! I grew up in a Craftsman style house.        Since Julia was born I mysteriously lost all interest in television watching and movie viewing. A couple of movies look interesting, but I won't commit the 1 1/2+ hours to watching the entire thing. I can't explain why this is so. On the upside, I've developed a voracious interests in all sorts of unrelated random subjects. For example, I'm interested in learning about residential architecture (particularly Mid-Century Modern homes), jewelry making, vegetable and flower gardening using free supplies (think eggshells and 2 liter bottle mini greenhouses), baking bread with freshly ground wheat, homeopathic personal care items (if I smell funny, please tell me!), the facts regarding lawsuits and obst...

Around 6:00 am on Christmas morning in my backyard      I have a love-hate relationship with the early morning hours of the day. When I was a lazy, self-indulgent teenager, I  loved sleeping in till like, noon . I shudder at the thought now. I remember warm summer mornings where I was unpleasantly awoken by those *&^%$green parrots that escaped from the pet store fire like 30 years ago. They have managed to successfully reproduce and love chomping bites out of my persimmons. They find me wherever I go! Of course, all of you in the Los Angeles area know about these obnoxiously LOUD parrots. You've heard them, too, huh?      Then there were the years when Tim and I were married without children yet. We'd groggily open one eye on a late Saturday morning and say to one another, "Enjoy these weekends of sleeping in, smoochkins (yes, that was the corny name we had for one another back then). After the kiddos come we'll be up early enough." ...

     Late last week my neighbor appeared at my door with two wooden, red-handled children's brooms. This neighbor, I'll call him "Cookie Cal" (to protect the innocent), is in his late 60's and is an upstanding member of our community. He was Citizen of the Year back in the 90's,  is our neighborhood block captain, and has recently retired from a very successful business. His first two wives have passed away, and his third wife is a lovely, svelte, jewel of a woman who, in addition to her front yard gardening projects, really enjoys the new Mercedes he bought her for her birthday awhile back. "You know, I'm a millionaire ..."  he has told me on several occasions. Okey-dokey.       He's also a leftover hippie from the 60's, with a long, sometimes braided white beard and a propensity for "amusing" off-color jokes and expletives thrown into the conversation every so often. He had knee replacement surgery awhile back and so I hadn...