A Bit of Mindless Chatter

 

After a long holiday weekend, I spent the morning putting my house back together. Now, I'm sitting down to enjoy the lovely, clean space and the gorgeous sunshine and I thought I might chat with you a bit. We woke up to a dusting of snow this morning, but it has all disappeared and the sun is shining cheerily. Winter in Ohio is often very grey, so I drink up these kind of days! 

We had a quiet Thanksgiving. Chris's folks joined us for lunch and the afternoon. 

Charles went home with grandpa's for the night and spent the day there Friday, while the rest of us helped with the Tire Shop's biggest day of the year. Every year, they do a Black Friday sale and have a contest between their company's stores. Chris and his salesman are quite the competitive team, and this year their hard work paid off with more sales than they've ever made before! Friday was a once in a lifetime adventure and a lot of hard work. It included a ton of organization ahead of time and the willingness to crawl out of bed at 3 a.m. 

Rows of tires, ready to go, lined up by order of appointments...

The girls and I joined the force at 8. Jasmine worked in the bay (and had the black hands and clothes at the end of the day to prove it), Jennifer took care of the snack table, I helped in the office checking in customers who had appointments (with my trusty little cheat sheet of questions), and Lillian ran errands and took videos. They put on a whopping 207 tires on Friday (as opposed to 55 on an average day), besides selling 157 tires that will be put on at a later date. 

I am not a competitive person by nature, and will never quite understand the thrill some people get out of this kind of thing, but it was fun to be a part of the big day. I also think it might be a good idea for every wife to take a front row seat in their husband's world for a day. Friday certainly gave me a new appreciation for what Chris does on a daily basis!

The rest of the weekend was much more chill, with no big plans and lots of games, naps and relaxation. 

It's hard to believe tomorrow is December, with all the flurry of Christmas and it's activities right around the corner. Somehow it doesn't seem so very long ago that we were nearing the end of 2020 and now here we are already, a whole year later. 

The sun streaming through the windows is warming my toes. I have laundry to take care of and lunch to eat and an afternoon to do list to tackle. I'll end this mindless chatter with a few links to things either my children or I have been enjoying...

Me: Growing up, we often had music playing in our house. Since I'm home alone a lot, I find myself getting back into that habit and I love it. As you know, I have an endless supply of old cassettes for entertainment but I've been enjoying the music from Sounds Like Reign and also piano playlists from Kaleb Brasee. 

My Children: These are a few videos my children have watched and enjoyed over and over The Great Children's Bake Off (The Gesslers are a great, family friendly YouTube channel!) 

Mark Rober is another fantastic YouTube channel. His mind is a wealth of scientific information and his creativity is unbelievable. He has lots of fascinating videos but these are some favorites -- Squirrel Maze 1.0 and Squirrel Maze 2.0 and also World's Largest Jello Pool. 

And now I must stop. 

Happy post-Thanksgiving Tuesday to you all!

Oh Hi, It's Me

 Oh hi, it's me. 

What? You mean you don't eat chai tea and plain pie crust for lunch? Well, here's a news flash: there's probably a lot of other things you don't know about me too.

Like the fact that cooking large amounts of food terrifies me but somehow making pies is no big deal. When I got married, I knew embarrassingly little about cooking but for whatever reason, I knew how to make pie crust. 

Also, the fact that this picture, taken this very week, is basically my life in a nutshell. I can be super productive and knock out a whole list of work if I need to, but little things like bringing the hummingbird feeder in at the end of the season? I put those things off until kingdom come. 

Another fact? I value authenticity to a fault. But also, I am a peace keeper who doesn't ever want to make anybody feel bad. Hmm. Is it any wonder I struggle with relationships?

Strange fact: I follow people on Instagram who I don't know in real life but I rarely, if ever, like or comment on their posts. I don't know why either. 

Fun fact: I still basically use the same dress pattern that I had when I got married (plus an inch or so at the waist). No credit to me, honestly. It's called getting my father's genes, I believe. 

I like this man.

And these children. 

Just thought I'd  throw that in there. 

Random fact: Growing up, if we deep cleaned a room in our house, we rearranged it. I still tend to do that. 

At forty-two, I still do silly things like change my dress and sweater three times before going on an outing or go into great angst on Sunday morning about how short boots and leggings look with a skirt. I know. Y'all never thought I was that ridiculous, but there it is. 

Also. At forty-two, I feel like I know less about God and Faith and Christianity than I ever have in my life. It's not a comfortable place to live in but that is the one thing I have learned: God is not all that concerned about my comfort. 

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I haven't been writing, because I haven't had words (also, that last fact in the list there...) Tell me what you'd like to hear, and I might get inspired. Maybe. Ask me questions in the comments or throw out your ideas, it might be interesting! My email is christopherbethany@juno.com if you'd rather message me that way. 

PS. If you're dying to know more things about me, I wrote a post once called "39 Things". Those are all still true.