Playing

How come I'm so bad at playing? I just wish I was better at playing with the girls. I'm not creative and I get so bored. I also have a lot of trouble shutting off the "what I need to get done" in my head so I can just play.

Ending Hunger? Really?

I had to laugh today after I heated up my chicken pot pie for lunch and noticed the RED PUSH-PIN GRAPHIC on the front of the box.

 

Now let me say this....I get advertising. Shoot. I have a degree in it. I am no expert by any means but I get it. I get the way companies try to sell more products. I get the lengths they will go to develop brand recognition. I get the emotional factor they try to create in the public about their company. Most companies don't just do things. They do things for a reason/motive. There is a motive behind everything they do...or a goal behind everything they do.

 

The problem: I think they created the wrong emotional attachment to their company from Stacey Niessner today. Yeah, and I guess I'm only one person but that's all that matters to me. lol!

 

Let me explain.

 



That red push-pin graphic says "CHILD HUNGER ends here." Below that it says "enter now. 1 CODE = 1 MEAL" Then it has the Feeding America logo and in small print says "See back for code and details. Program ends 8/28/14."

All I could think was... REALLY?!?!?! Really Marie Calendar's?! REALLY?!?!
So if I go to a website and enter some code, you will give a meal to a child. This is your effort to end child hunger?! So you can't just donate meals to children who are STARVING! You need me to enter a code for you to do that. You are probably a multi-million dollar company and the only way you are going to be considerate enough to help hungry children is for me to take initiative or perform an action. I did perform an action. I bought your chicken pot pie! How about you be truly humanitarian and donate a meal for every meal purchased!?! Does't that make more sense? But you wouldn't want to give too much to children who are starving. It would be better to just wait until I push a button since you can guarantee most people will not do that so you won't have to give away too many meals.

Am I the only one who sees it that way? It's called good will. It's called charity. If they really wanted me to look favorably upon their company wouldn't they just donate the meals and then label their boxes with a big ole' "1 MILLION CHILDREN FED in effort to stop child hunger."

I'm not sure why this angered me so much. It just did.

The thing is I was still going to go to the website to enter the code (and see if there was a place I could voice my opinion...not that my little ol' opinion means much but sometimes I just get in the mood to do that.) But I got in a flurry of things going on in my office and threw the box away and the janitors emptied my trash can already. So I guess one kid will go on starving because I didn't enter my code. That's awful. That's horrible to even think about.

Anyway....*steps down off the soap box.*

Critical-holics anonymous

I need serious help. I'm so critical! And I don't know that I'm am when I am and I don't know that I am until way after I am...if at all.

I really don't know what to do about it. This sounds like a funny post but I am being very serious. I have a tell problem and I need a real solution as impossible as it sounds to have a solution to something you barely recognize.

One issue: I usually think I'm just critical of myself because I tend to expect a lot of me. So I think I'm just hard on myself and others don't get the same from me or I don't have as high expectations of others. In reality that just isn't true.

Maybe if I reduce how hard I am on me, I will in effect ease up those around me....because what I wish people knew about me is I don't want to be critical of other people. I would prefer to hold myself to high standards. I do not prefer to hooks others to that. But maybe it all morphs together and I can't tell the difference.

Random...

1. I'm very frustrated every time I go inside my food cabinets to get something because I haven't decided how I want to organize them....and there are zero brainstorms happening about it. I guess I need to get "pinteresting" about it...

Matt, my counselor, would say I'm probably way over-thinking this.

2. It's really sad that I often know todays date because of what the "Use By" dates are on my food in the fridge. That's called OCD. I should probably say "Thanks Dad!" for that one. Lol!

If that is confusing to you...I mean, I knew today was March 26 because the hot sausage in my fridge had the date of 3/26 on it so I knew on Wed I needed to either cook my hot sausage or freeze it. Now no lectures about how that date isn't the exact date for it to go bad but I try to use that date for my own brain or I would accidentally let it go way past that date and then it would get stinky and I would have to throw it away.

Yeah, ok....Matt would probably say I definitely need an extra session on over-thinking now! Lol!

I miss baking

I love baking.....
It's one of the things I'm realizing that I have missed doing lately.

It's not always easy to do in someone else's kitchen or maybe I should say easy to enjoy. And even when I lived in Philippi...I guess I just never got to a place where I enjoyed baking again. Well, and probably after driving so much all the time because I lived so far away, I just didn't feel like it and I had too many other things to do.

Anyway, I'm excited to get used to my new place and start doing some of those things that I enjoy again. I just like baking....well, and cooking. I do enjoy cooking too. I made dinner last night and it was just stuff I threw together to make my own pasta dish and it was delicious! It's probably because I'm the only one who will be eating it. The girls won't eat the same thing I do...I made them a deconstructed version before I started mixing things together and seasoning them. I have spent the past couple years cookign for some very, VERY, VERY picky eaters. So cooking with freedom when it's only for me....delicious!

Late post...

I didn't realize I hadn't published this post. I put these pictures in and saved it as a draft back when we first moved in or new place in March. I took the girls to ride their bikes in the church parking lot near us. It was a nice day and my girls love having their pictures taken. So, better late than never...

We're in!

We've moved into our new house! Here's a quick picture we took with our new address in the background!

The IKEA experience

I feel so proud today. Like a proud parent.

I took my Mom and Bob to their first trip to IKEA. Well that's all Bob thought it was. A trip to just another store. Until halfway through the store, when we stopped for lunch...we had already been there for about 2 hours.

I really hadn't briefed anyone beforehand regarding what they were in for. Mainly because I didn't realize neither of them had ever been there. Anyway... lunch... Lunch was a pitstop....a quick break to rest our feet and get some food and drink for renewed energy. Haha! Talk at lunch was how surprised they were that some things were nicely made (from a contractors perspective, apparently), how cheap some things were, and how they had no idea what they were in for...they thought it was just a store. My response...nope, IKEA is an experience.

I have never been to IKEA for less than 3 hours. Andy and I planned babysitters before so we could spend hours in IKEA. I'm sure if we lived closer to IKEA our trips could be quicker. I wouldn't even know what a 1/2 hr stop there would look like! How would you decide where to start, how would just choose what to look at, how would choose what NOT to look at?! These sound like really difficult decisions. So for me, I prefer my 3 hour plus IKEA excursions. I just know I can't go there without my ADHD medication!! Lol!