So, she found this and decided I was secretly an FBI agent

Yesterday after school, my 13 year old daughter came home from school with two friends and started talking to them about the fact that when she went looking through my closet - which I had asked her to the other day when I was not home to find something - that she found things that made her realize I must be an FBI agent in disguise.  She was sure that explained a lot of things about me. Her friends agreed.  So I asked her what she found.  She found a box of minted coin sets - actually gifts from her grandparents to her and her siblings - not sure why on earth that screamed secret FBI agent.  And, she found a "locked" black box that she could not open.  That would be my grandma's portable Singer sewing machine.  So, I had to let her and her friends down and explain that I am totally NOT the mom from Spy Kids even though for some reason they had amassed evidence and ascertained that I was indeed a secret FBI agent.

Look Down

Inspired by seeing people with their cell phones and the song from Les Mis

Look down, look down
Your cell phone's in your hand
Look down, look down
Yet don't see where you stand

Look down, look down, 
Don't realize you're a slave
Don't see the world
This is the price you pay

Family Memories

Family memories
that no one now remembers,
Family treasures
that are no longer treasured,
Stuffed in boxes
that once were in the attic
and now are in the closet
in the hall.
Family photos
don't know who -
they weren't labeled
Ancestors in black and white
and shades of grey.
Family memories
bits of paper, leather, rust
family treasures
slowly turning into dust.

short winter poem

This wintry day is cold and wet,
Gloomy, dull and grey.
I wish that I could stay in bed,
And sleep the day away.

Ways that our cat is like Jesus

So, when I told my husband that our cat wanted him to go pick the kids up from school, he replied that the cat had no thought about getting the kids from school and that I was projecting concepts onto the cat that he has never had, like people have projected concepts onto Jesus that He probably never would have imagined.
So, I thought it might be good to just name the cat Jesus.
Then we could yell "Jesus, get off of the kitchen table!"
And there are other ways that the cat is like Jesus.
He has more than one life.
He thinks he is God.
He is celibate.
No one really understands him.
The dogs sometimes want to eat him.  (Matt. 26:26)
He does not care what people think about what he does.
He is not a follower.

would you stop and listen?

would you stop and listen ?
or take a look around?
would you even notice
the beauty of the sound?
or are you in a hurry
in so much of a rush
that you don't even notice
lost amidst the crush
of going here and going there
with just so much to do
that life's simple beauty
has no way to get through?

one phone call

Kids just crack me up.
But there are times we should not laugh.
I subbed in ISS (In School Suspension) for one class period today in a middle school.
The assistant principal brought in a very unhappy, defiant boy.
A short time after the AP left, the boy raised his hand and told me
"I believe that legally, in the state of Texas, I am entitled to one phone call."
It was hard not to laugh or respond with what I wanted to say.
I merely told him that he would have to ask the AP when he came back.
The boy replied that the AP does not listen well.
I told him he would have to wait because I was not able to grant him a phone call.
That kid made my day.
He was hilarious.
It was so difficult not to laugh at him.
He sounded like a little lawyer wanna be.