Why a blog?

Why not?  Honestly that is the best answer to that question for all of us, but I do have a few reasons.  First, I love to write and this blog will help me(force me) to sit still for a little bit and write.  Second, I have too many friends who have no idea how much is within their grasp on the internet.  This is best captured by the expression on their faces when I say that I have started a blog.  A what? The internet has made our worlds so much more accessible.  When I read blogs and tweets I realize how small and how big our world is.  The reading and commenting I have done on blogs and twitter has made my view of the world a little wider, and I hope it will for some of you, too.  Third, I do have some knowledge to pass on.  My knowledge base has three areas I am going to focus on in this blog.  I understand young people.  I love them.  One of my gifts is that I am able to relate to young people and I am so grateful.  I am not forever young and the young people that I know do not think I am forever cool (on the contrary, they grasp my geekiness) but they do know that I understand where they are.  I hope that I can shed some light on young people and their world.  My next knowledge center is about nurturing community.  We all want to belong somewhere.  For some of us that place is our family, our church, our friends, our work, and some of us don't know where we belong.  I LOVE thinking about and examining the ways we relate in community. Last my knowledge is of the nerdy variety, particularly pop culture.  If you are ever in the Cash Cab you want me with you.  I have a wealth of knowledge that is only applicable in the trivia section!  Plus, since I love trivia I find all kinds of interesting things online- movie & book reviews, commentaries on current events and life, and my very favorite, how to save money!
I know I am going to enjoy this and I hope you will too.  For those whom this is their first blog experience, there is a button at the top that says follow. Clicking on that will keep you updated about what is going on here.  I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Who Are You?

I am a child of God, a woman, a wife, a mother,a daughter, a sister, a friend, a mentor, a volunteer and a geek.  I have found I am most comfortable in my jeans and a T-shirt wearing ratty old flip flops.  I do have a pair of black flip flops that are my "church flip flops" that remain in good condition, mainly because they are only worn on Sundays.  I am a mom like all others that would like to be able to do it all, but I have thoroughly accepted that I cannot.  I have spent years as an advisor to middle and high school aged young people but am still completely unprepared for my own children to be adolescents.  I think that so much in life could be solved by responding and acting with love, and I think I need to take my own advice.  I am very good at creating and encouraging community.  Long ago I helped my husband lead recreation at several Presbyterian youth events and we have continued to serve in leadership roles at youth events.  I work two days a week at a local toy store where my job title is elf.  No joke, elf.  Things I love: laughing, Disney, music, games of all kinds, the beach, the mountains, encouraging other people.

baby, it's cold outside

Wilmington, NC made the Weather Channel's news item for having the coldest start to the year on record. We are by no means the coldest place, but we are not prepared for this kind of cold.  I have watched the birds and squirrels fighting over the food from our feeders and slide across the unexpected coat of ice on our birdbath.  I have been so worried about our porch cat.  We have two indoor cats (Lilo and Stitch) and one wild corgi (Sandy) and one cat that shows up every so often on our porch.  Porch cat appears to be feral.  It has one ear tipped and seems to be fixed(no one has been crazy enough to try to get close enough to know.)  Porch cat only shows up when the weather is bad.  We won't see porch cat all summer long then cool weather will come and there it sits.  When I drive off to take the kids to school, Porch is sitting at the front door, staring at it.  If we see the cat we will bring it a can of food.  We won't leave any food out on the front porch unattended because we have too many other critters here.  A couple of weeks ago, before the cold snap, Porch showed up painfully thin.  I was worried that it might be sick and didn't want to expose kids or pets to anything funky.  Fortunately Porch just needed some food.  We have figured out that Porch is sleeping in the roof of my husband's workshop and wandering around to the front of the house a couple of times a day for food.  This crazy cat that used to run away from us now greets us as soon as we open the door.  We were afraid that Porch might not survive the cold weather, too many people and pets lose their lives due to extreme weather.  Thankfully the weather has started to warm up.  Now the question is how long will Porch be around?