Loving Media, Hating Traffic...

First of all, yes, I do have a headache...but it's not a migraine, it is from where I hit my head on the way down, down, down off the chair yesterday. It's sore! Advil is great, though, it takes care of a lot of what ails you. (According to my hosts on FamilyNet TV yesterday, so does Preparation H... but I digress, back to that in a minute...

I should have had my camera out of my purse yesterday while I was driving to the studio, I could have taken a picture of some real traffic, along with the car fire. I am sure I must have been breaking a law when I took this picture while driving to the studio this morning. I left extra early in case there were more mishaps, but there was only "normal" traffic.

I stopped at McD's for breakfast and had a victory! How can you eat healthy at fast food? Well, it really isn't that hard, except I couldn't find the Egg McMuffin on the menu. Of course, I was looking at the dollar menu board (frugalmeister that I am) and it wasn't there. Why couldn't I find the Egg McMuffin? I didn't want a Biscuit with Sausage...I was looking and looking and finally a guy said to me, "It's hard to decide isn't it?" but I answered that I was just looking for the Egg McMuffin and just planned on eating the egg. "There, it's right there on the left side of the main menu." I attributed not being able to see it to brain cells that died when I hit my head falling off the chair at the restaurant last night...

So anyway, just normal city traffic, so no surprises there...
But I did have a surprise when I got to the studio. This morning was radio, on FamilyNet radio. It's radio, right? So I went in a cute, but sleeveless top (my upper arms are still a bit less defined-meaning more jiggly- than I would like) NO makeup, and blue jeans. Well, here's a first, this radio show also broadcasts on TV.
Surprise! Radio on TV! Thank goodness they have a make up artist. So they fixed me up, and I was only visible from the waist up so my blue jeans were out of sight...and great jewelry will make up for lots of things.

So yesterday it was TV and I knew it was TV. I also knew they had a makeup artist, because she fixed up my eyes. My mascara had exploded (reminds me of a story I have about a copier tube of toner exploding one time...do you have any idea how messy that stuff is? It is black powder...) so my eyes got lost, but she fixed me up in that department too. So here I am with the guest who was the cook. Boy, did she make a yummy meal. I am going to have to go back and get the link for the show archive so you can check out the recipe. Chicken with pecorino and pine nuts and a salsa with tomatoes, olives and raisins to die for. And heart healthy, too, because it was made with olive oil. I wanted to take her home with me so she could be my personal chef (which reminds me, why would Sara Palin give up her personal chef? I just don't understand...)


And then here is a larger view of the set. The show began with a bit of banter and now I am going to get back to the Preparation H story. Apparently they had a contest in which they asked for viewers to call in with sunburn remedies. Now you would think being married to a dermatologist and being the mother of two redheads I would be familiar with this, but I was not. Apparently Preparation H is a great salve to ease the pain of sunburn, with its anesthetic properties. And another trick...you can also use it as eye cream to get rid of some of the wrinkles, but only if you use the cream, not the gel. Imagine that!

So anyway, I love doing media, and have one more TV and one more radio gig today. I did get a call last evening from the host of the radio interview I will be taping later, John Young, and had a hilarious conversation with him. We have been having some difficulty connecting, so by the time we actually spoke, it seemed like we were long lost friends.

I am hoping to stop by Andy Stanley's church on the way out of town (North Point Community Church) and am then heading south to Montezuma, GA to attend a traditional Mennonite wedding. I am sure I will stick out...I am so honored to have been invited, though, and can't wait to see a couple of really dear, wonderful friends there in addition to the bride.

I am having a wonderful time. Miss my family, but am glad Howie will take the girls to the football game tonight.

Peace!

My Day, Migraines and Clunking on the Ground...

OK, so originally I was going to post photos from my TV gig this morning (lots of fun, I will post pictures tomorrow) and a host of other thoughts, like being directionally challenged driving last night and going in the wrong direction , mascara exploding in my purse, hitting more traffic on the way to the TV studio this morning (a car fire that closed down two lanes...)or a conversation I had with the radio host I will interview with tomorrow night which was hysterical. All worthy of discussion.

But all of those thoughts got trumped by the fact that I passed out, yes, fainted, while eating dinner tonight by myself at a restaurant and went clunk, right off the chair and apparently hit my head on a ledge on the way down. I don't know, I don't remember.

I could tell it was coming, and I hate that. I get migraines, but they aren't typical migraines. I don't really get the headache part, but I sure do get the aura. My head gets all stuffy, and its like time goes into slow motion. And I can't hear. It's like my head is inside a balloon. I could see people talking around me, but their mouths were just moving; I couldn't hear a thing. I knew I was headed for trouble...I start to sweat, get more and more stuffy and then my vision starts to go. The last time I had one of these wonderful episodes was about two years ago when I was still working at my travelling job and I totally freaked out my co-worker I was having dinner with. I didn't pass out that time, but almost. She wanted to take me to the ER. I told her no way.

But tonight I was by myself and how embarrassing, a complete stranger helped pick me up off the ground. A teen Christian rock band (the Oswald Brothers, very good, I am going to go check them out on myspace.com and get back to you) had just finished playing and they came running over too, along with their mom. How embarrassing...I was sooooooo embarrassed. I tried to convince them I was OK probably just a tad before I really was OK, but then it passes as suddenly as it comes on, and I'm OK; but it stinks. I do have an appointment with my primary care doc next week, so I guess I will be communicating my health issues with the same honesty that I insisted my mother do so at her appointment.

Now I'll probably get a headache from where I hit my head; there is a bit of an egg.

Tomorrow I have an early morning; radio first thing, a TV taping in the afternoon, and another radio interview tomorrow night. So I am going to go put ice on my head and curl up and go to sleep.

Sweet Dreams!

Swimming in the Susquehanna

Nicole and her friend Cassie braved the Susquehanna River yesterday. I was ready to give her Cipro before she went in, I haven't been encouraged by what I have heard about the cleanliness of the river, but they had a ball. And I absolutely am suffering from fourth child syndrome.

We picnicked at a campsite along the river and ate delicious food...(back to that nasty topic) but I'm kind of with you on the eat small, satisfying morsels of what is really, really good. And that was what I did. I managed to go for a walk and have a pretty low key day.

But I made up for it today. I am just beat. A doctor's appointment with my mom, several errands, getting Matt psyched and out the door for school and a long walk followed by some door to door Sheetz coupon selling for a fundraiser for Nicole...

And tomorrow I am leaving for Atlanta till Sunday and haven't packed a thing and have to take my mom to another appointment tomorrow...and still work out some logistics for getting my dad to several appointments while I am away. I am definitely feeling the squeeze of the sandwich.

Once I land tomorrow, I promise to give more entertaining and contemplative observations about what it is like to take a non-compliant but complaining mother to the doctor...but for now I am hitting the sack minus the Ben and Jerry's. No, I do not need it!

Ben and Jerry's and Midnight Snacks...

Pathetic. There is Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream front and center. I am not tempted by the Italian Ice or Frozen Yogurt, just the Ice Cream. This must be one of temptations that is "common to man" (or at least woman). I have a real problem with ice cream, chocolate ice cream in particular. Especially late at night. It all started when I couldn't get to sleep (again). Maybe too much coffee? If I want to develop a healthy lifestyle, I need to cut out some of that too. Too much caffeine. Ouch. More painful than nixxing the ice cream. And it continued when I had to go potty (because I have been faithful drinking lots of water). Well, the girls were sleeping downstairs and the TV was still on, so I went down to piddle and turn off the TV, and well, the freezer just acted like a magnet. The ice cream practically jumped out of the freezer and into my hands. The spoon was even there.

So I didn't just slam the freezer door, I went right ahead and my "one little taste" turned into at least a serving, and since this flavor is "Everything But the Kitchen Sink" it has over 300 calories a serving. Sitting right there next to all those healthy veggies...

I was tempted beyond what I could bear, and I suppose the way out was not to buy it in the first place. I knew I couldn't resist...but it was at the Surplus Outlet for only $1.50 pint. Less than half price! Better than when we lived in Vermont years ago and could get it cheap cheap at the store (they sold factory seconds because there was too much air whipped in...).

I was smarter the last time. I satisfied my bargain shopper by buying it and then I left it all in Chris' freezer.

Contrary to what I may want to believe, chocolate is not a food group and fat laden ice cream is not an appropriate source of calcium. I am taking the rest to Chris' today, and putting the broccoli front and center. I doubt I will bother with that at 11:30 at night.

Generous Living...

"Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share" (1 Timothy 6:18)

Generosity is:

• Nice when you are on the receiving end.
• Particularly nice when your kids are involved, either on the giving or receiving end.
• Something that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when you hear these great stories of other people who are generous.
• Not always so easy to incorporate into our daily lifestyle.
• Totally necessary to incorporate into our daily lifestyle.

It's way too easy to fall into the first three; the latter two are more challenging. But not optional, especially if we call ourselves Christians.

Generous living was the message this morning at church, and the sermon followed a presentation of Shane Claiborne's that he gave at a youth event earlier this summer. This guy (Shane) in my opinion, has it right. He is a phenomenal storyteller and is always up to something related to radical love and living out his faith in the way of Jesus. He has worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, in Baghdad during the 2003 bombing and has been to court in Philly charged with feeding the homeless. Pretty cool, huh?

So after seeing this great film (you can search "Shane Claiborne" on You Tube and see for yourself) we had this great message on generous living which I hope challenged all of us. We can all do better in this department.

How do we do at generous living? I love the definition of poverty our pastor gave in his message. He described poverty in the following way: "Anyone who needs something I have is poor in that area of their life". So for people just tip toeing into sharing who are still clutching their wallets thinking, OH NO, they want my money...there are probably many, many other things they can start with. But a caution, it is just a start, because loving money and loving God are on a collision course with each other. But if we start with the smaller things, gradually we move to being generous with more and more.

The sad thing is, as I think about all the junk I sorted through in Honduras (see my blog post Junk for Jesus) I imagine there were plenty of people who thought they were being generous, but worn out stuff is not sacrificial or even slightly uncomfortable giving. In my mind it doesn't qualify. True generosity carries with it an element of sacrifice whether in time, stuff, money, comfort, giving up having the last word, and the list could go on for a long time.

So how can you start? Well, you can start with the excess to gently work your way in...

Here are a few ideas. This would qualify as generosity 101. Hoarders may have a problem with this.

• How much hotel soap and shampoo do you have sitting around? Find someone who doesn't have any and share it. It doesn't even have to be overseas. There are plenty of people in need, probably right in your community.
• How many pairs of shoes do you really need? (OK,I have a weakness for Birkenstocks,although I do get most of them on EBay). Rather than try and resell on EBay or even at a yard sale, give them away. We only have two feet after all, and some people go barefoot.
• Does your sixth grader really need a cell phone? How much food could that money buy for a family who really is starving? I have met these families first hand, and it is too difficult to distance yourself from it when there are real faces.
• Share your time. Listen. Care. Love.
• Share your talents. Do you have a gift for encouragement? Use it.

OK, you get the idea.

After you master Generosity 101 there are several advanced courses to choose from.

There are plenty of needs. But hey, that's great news. Because it means that we have countless opportunities to live generously.

At the end of September our church will be engaged in a Faith in Action weekend, where we will be serving in our community. I pray that the people involved will discover their generous spirits and will be able to reach people in our community. We all have something to give; love, hope, prayer, a hot meal, a helping hand. And there are many, many in need. Let's be the hands and feet of Jesus. After all, he did all of those things and then some, so why not use him as the model.

Peace.