Why I love Thursdays

This ...

And this ...

And this ...

And most especially, this ...

{Nifty} Thrifty Thursday

It's been a while since I've been shopping, so when the Captain and I had a day off together, I was thrilled to visit a consignment store about 35 minutes away.

Here's what I found:

Orange LOFT blouse - $4.99

Embellished jeans - $5.99

Green and navy LOFT blouse - $4.99

Black Maurices blouse - $4.99

Black Nike pants (for the 5K I'm doing Saturday with my sister) - $4.99

Total - $25.95

You won’t like me when I’m angry …

I’m a pretty chill person. Just last night, a fellow board member on the local arts council said she thinks E is such an easy-going baby because I’m a relaxed person.

I loved that compliment, particularly because I have struggled my whole life with contentment. I am learning, slowly but surely, to live and let live.

So anymore, it takes a lot to get me truly angry. The Captain is probably the only person in recent years to hear me raise my voice. (And even then I think he can count the times on one hand.)

This is my round-about way of leading up to ….

Hulk SMASH!

The backstory: Part of my job is to make posters and informational booklets for local events. We save the files from year to year, so when the committees ask for last year’s poster or program to make changes, it’s a fairly routine request.

At the end of this month, there’s a livestock show in our community. The newspaper has printed all its materials for 30-plus years and it’s been a good relationship.

So when the committee chairperson asked for PDFs of the 2010 poster and book, I had no qualms e-mailing them to her.

A few weeks later, I checked in with her. She told me the committee had decided to go with another company. OK, fine, kind of disappointing, but whatever. I responded that I wished they had let us know they were dissatisfied with the price, but to keep us in mind for next year.

Another week goes by and the chairperson sends us the poster for the current year’s show.

It’s EXACTLY THE SAME poster I e-mailed her, just with dates changed. Same goes with the book.

I was livid.

I still am livid.

It’s one thing to not go with a local business. It’s a completely different beast to steal their original work and profit from it.

And what’s especially disappointing is that I sent her those materials in good faith, never anticipating that she would be so unethical. I had liked this person, trusted her, even, but that’s done.

(Also, because a PDF can’t really be edited, the changes they made look pretty amateurish. It annoys me more than a little that people will see those posters and assume I did them.)

It reminds me how naïve I must be, to think the people in my community would behave decently.

Thinking about a simpler time …

When trips into town were weekly, not daily.

When a quarter was a big deal.

When soda was a treat for birthdays and holidays.

When brothers and sisters were your best friends and playmates.

When new clothes were homemade.

When bread was baked at home.

When the church’s school bulged at the seams with students.

When walking three miles home from school was no big deal.

When the county fair was the height of the summer.

I never lived in those simpler times. Those memories belong to other people who have been kind enough to share them with me.

I don’t necessarily want to return to those times. I enjoy my computer and air conditioning and cell phone. I luxuriate in the creature comforts that accompany modern American life.

And yet.

There’s an undeniable appeal about those past years. Reading between the lines, it’s clear that sitting down as a family for a meal was a regular occurrence, not an anomaly like it is today. And I like that.

I like the idea that your family came first, that you lived within your means, that you helped out your neighbor when they needed it.

I like that families worked together and played together, living close enough to each other to spend a Sunday afternoon visiting without involving major travel plans.

So I’m thinking, is it possible to create that sort of environment for my daughter and her future brothers and sisters to grow up in?

How do I make an old-fashioned yet modern home?

I have ideas, but I’d love to hear yours!

Hello, sweetie

Do you ever read something that speaks so perfectly to your present situation it seems the author has left a message through time and space just for you?

I love it when that happens. It's like living in an episode of "Dr. Who."

Anyway, message received, Martin Luther. Message received.

"An industrious, pious school-master or teacher, who faithfully trains and educates boys (my note: given Luther's stance on educating both sexes, I'm also going to infer girls), can never be sufficiently recompensed, and no money will pay him ... Yet the calling is shamefully despised among us, as if were nothing, and at the same time we pretend to be Christians! If I had to give up preaching and my other duties, there is no other office I would rather have than that of school-teacher. For I know that next to the ministry it is the most useful, greatest, and best; and I am not sure which of the two is to be preferred ... Therefore let it be considered one of the highest virtues on earth faithfully to train the children of others, which duty but very few parents attend to themselves."

Martin Luther, Sermon on Duty of Sending Children to School