Cut the Crap Update

I’m not the world’s worst blogger, but I really should be better about regular entries, shouldn't I?  I’m not going to promise to be better.  I’ll do what I can.  Life has a way of leaving you a little breathless at times, and only now have I gotten the chance to breathe, let alone write.

I've changed jobs, so I've been busy.  However, I thought I needed to cut the crap and get out of a stressful situation while also growing my career.  It was needed.  It was time to move on.  One of the best reasons to change jobs is to gain a broader knowledge base.  I’m doing pretty much what I was doing before, only now I’m getting paid more.  AND I’m not dealing with as much uncertainty.  I’m also learning a lot about the hosting industry right at a time when cloud management is on the rise (ahem, it HAS been on the rise if anyone has been paying attention).  I wouldn't have learned this at my last job, so I’m thankful to be on the cutting edge. 

On the home front, we are still trying to simplify our lives.  It isn't more complicated since last I wrote, but it is more full.  My son will start homeschooling with his sister this summer.  We bought chickens and intend to go completely organic with our egg consumption (I’ll keep you posted on that).  We’re sifting through our old junk and hope to get rid of it one yard sale at a time.  We are having our house painted by an independent contractor.  He came highly recommended, but we chose him in part because we wanted to stimulate the local economy. 

So… we are making conscious choices to cut the crap and make a difference in small ways.  I’ll chronicle what I can, when I can.  Stay tuned…  

A few things you should know about me

Okay, Everyone, here are a few things I think you need to know about me.  I don’t fit neatly into any little box, politically speaking or otherwise, and I’d wager that many of you blur the lines as well.  Let’s look at our fellow world citizens as HUMAN BEINGS and stop labeling people. 

I am a Christ Follower, but I believe in religious freedom.  I’m not a bigot, and I’m not going to beat you over the head with my faith.  I love you – no matter who or what you are – because I’m trying to follow Jesus’ example.  

In my faith, Jesus is perfect.  I am not, nor do I pretend to be, so cut me some slack when I blow it. 

 

And you know what?  I’m not going to apologize for my faith, just as you shouldn’t apologize for what you believe.  “Faith”, in and of itself, is NOT offensive.    

   

I support the 2^nd Amendment, but I believe that any citizen who owns a firearm should prove he is properly trained to use one… OH and that he’s not a freaking psycho.  I believe that violent crimes can be and are committed by any means necessary (baseball bats, automobiles, bare hands, etc.)  by the idiots that perpetrate them… not just people who possess (legally or illegally) firearms.  Getting rid of firearms is not the answer.  It’s merely treating a symptom of a MUCH larger problem.  

I believe that abortion solely as a means of birth control is wrong, but I fully support the use of birth control and all the education that should go along with that.  Numbers show that the more access women have to birth control, the less likely they are to get an abortion.  Ladies, educate yourselves and your daughters! If you’ve had an abortion or you support abortion, I love you.  I don’t hate you, and I’m not going to tell you what to do with your body… just like you shouldn’t be telling people like Michelle Duggar what she should be doing with hers. 

 

I believe we should take care of our planet.  It is a gift and should be treated as such.  

I believe LOVE should make the world go ‘round, not money.  Unfortunately, the latter is true.  We should love our fellow humans despite this, though, because Corporations are not going to.

I firmly believe we should give people a hand up, not a hand out, when they need it.  Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day.  Teach him to fish, and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.  I think education is the number one way to accomplish this.  

I think if you have the means, you should give something back to your fellow man.  If we all did this, no one would be screaming about the “2%”, because we’d all be taking care of each other.  HUH.  What a novel idea!

Life is too short to hold a grudge.  Let it go.

If someone disagrees with me, so be it.  I welcome healthy, civil debate.  Our thoughts and ideas help shape who we are, and if we can’t see past our own views, then we might be missing out on something great.  I’m not saying you should compromise your beliefs.  I’m saying present them with intelligence, and then respectfully consider another person’s view before dismissing it.  While you’re doing this, don’t be afraid to admit you might be wrong.  Just sayin’… 

I’m still learning.  We all are.  If I stumble a bit on my quest for knowledge, please help me up.  I’ll do the same for you.  

Okay.  So there they are, those few things about me.  I’m not going to apologize for anything, but I do welcome your thoughts.  Bring it on!

Domestic Production is Making a Comeback! Cut out the imported Crap!

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, domestic production is making a comeback!  This is great news for families here in the US. 

I haven't always been one to check labels to see where things are made, mostly because I shop at places like Walmart.  Don't hate me.  My family is on a budget, and I'm doing the best I can.  Lately, however, I've been a little more conscious of what I'm putting in my grocery basket.  Why?  Because I'm learning that cheaper isn't better.  It's usually just cheap. 

Before the holidays, I started shopping online with Melaleuca.  They have concentrated cleaners/detergents/etc that are not only better for the environment, they're better for my house.  They have more natural ingredients than many cleaners out there, and they don't cost an arm and a leg.  In fact, I'm getting better quality stuff for about what I pay at Walmart. 

Why do I bring this up, you ask?  Because these products are American made!  The only thing imported is the Melalueca (tea tree) oils.  These come from New Zealand and Melaleuca (a US company) owns the farms there.  So, the bottom line stays here in The States!  Good stuff! 

All of this is to tell you to start looking at labels.  One of the BEST ways to boost our economy and help reduce the crazy debt our country is in (Fiscal Cliff, Anyone?) is to buy domestic to increase our GNP (Gross National Product... I think).  You CAN get quality goods made right here in the US!

2013. Here I go again.

I at first thought I was the worst blogger ever.  I've been gone since August, and when I came back to look at this, I cringed.  Then I realized that there are MANY other bloggers our there that take breaks.  Maybe they don't do it as frequently as I do... or for as long, but that's okay. 

Here I go again. 

2013.  It's a new year.  It's time to start afresh.  Time for resolutions, goals, hopes... Losing weight is always at the top of our lists.  After that we want to save more and spend less, spend more time with our kids, live life to the fullest, and so on and so forth.  And in three months very few of us will be doing them any longer. We lose steam.  Give up.  Spend our money on other things. In fact, did you know that only 8% of the people who make resolutions actually accomplish them?  Where do they get this stuff?  Apparently, someone actually collects that info. Check it out.  Interesting stuff.

So this year I'm cutting the crap.  I'm not going to make any resolutions I won't keep... except one:  LIVE.  If life is what we make it, then I'm going to make it great! 

So talk to me, People.  What are your new year's resolutions? 

How to Destroy Your Productivity @ Work

http://www.visualnews.com/2012/08/04/how-to-destroy-your-productivity-at-work/

Well here’s something I needed to read!  I’d like to point out that I was “working” when I read this article.  I do that.  Between tasks I “cleanse the palate” so to speak with news stories and quick looks at Facebook.  Actually, I should be moving on to my next task.  I might actually get more accomplished during the day. 

This article listed 7 ways to destroy your productivity at work. 

1.      Check your email every two minutes

2.      Keep your desk cluttered

3.      Be as un-ergonomical as possible

4.      Make sure to multitask

5.      Notify the hell out of your life

6.      Allow others to bug you

7.      Create an impossibly long to-do list

Guilty as charged on all 7 counts.  Which is my biggest offense, you ask?  #7.  So after I read this article I literally purged my to-do list.  I had SOOOO many overdue items that nearly 75% of my list was RED.  After cutting that crap, you know what?  I feel BETTER.  I’m not kidding!!!  Now my pledge is to keep that to-do list at a reasonable level. 

I think multitasking is over-rated, but I get caught in that trap on a daily basis. From now on I’m going to focus on one thing at a time and get each one done in a timely manner.  I have alerts set up for everything.  I’ll delete 50% of those after the writing of this blog post.  I check my email all the time. That I can’t help.  I depend on email at work.  Checking that regularly is kind of a no-brainer.

And then I cleanse my palate. 

Yeah. 

Let’s get back to that.

I read articles like this one, and I check Facebook.  Truth be told, I check Facebook more frequently than I do email.  Starting today, that’s going to change.  No longer will I be a slave to this Book of Face.  I’m taking back my productivity, Mr. Zuckerberg! 

I WILL complete the items on my to-do list!     

We helped these refrigerators find new homes!

So this weekend we cut the crap by selling 10, yes you read that right, 10 refrigerators.  Why on earth did we have so many refrigerators?  Well, let me tell you…

A close friend is in the appliance delivery business… as in, he owns the business and delivers, installs, and removes appliances all over the front range and into the mountains.  My hubby helps out from time to time as he can.  Last week our friend got a job removing refrigerators from a recently remodeled building.  This particular building had suffered fire damage in one section.  As part of the insurance agreement, he and my hubby replaced 11 refrigerators… even in the units that had not burned.  When asked what to do with the “old” refrigerators (they were only 6 years old and were in perfect working order), our friend and my hubby were told to “get rid of them”.  That was it.  Get rid of them. 

Our friend’s initial thought was to take them to the scrap yard and get about $150 for the metal.  Total.  For all 11 fridges.  My hubby pointed out that they were in perfect working order.  That would be a waste!  So, my hubby volunteered to thoroughly clean out the fridges and place an ad on Craigslist.  Our friend agreed. 

So, we washed them up and dried them out.  Not only did we put an ad on Craigslist, but we put some of the fridges out on the curb with "For Sale" signs on them.  We sold half of them that way!  My daughter even got in on the action!  She helped us clean the insides and made a little extra cash.  I'm hoping this will be a long lasting lesson for many obvious reasons, but she has decided to save the money she earned so she can buy her own iPod Touch.  

Within 4 days, we sold 10 and kept one for our garage.  Not only did we keep perfectly working fridges out of the landfill (at least the parts the scrap metal guy wouldn’t want), but we sold them to people who will continue to use them.  We made a little money, too!  That’s a win win!  I’d say we cut the crap on that one!  

 

We Are Aurora, Colorado

Like many people this weekend, you were probably checking newsfeeds for more updates about the Century 16 Massacre.  You were horrified, sickened, heart-sick.  We were, too.   We live in Aurora.

When we woke up Friday morning, we saw the reports.  We took many calls, instant messages, emails from friends and family asking if we were okay… or making sure we weren’t at that movie premiere.  Of course we weren’t there, but 33 people from our church (Calvary Chapel Aurora) were… a few people from my job were there… So even if we weren’t there, we were NOT okay.  We were worried.  

As we sat at our kitchen table listening to our children play blissfully unaware, my husband and I were overcome with a myriad of emotions.  Our hearts ached for the victims, for their families, for the first responders.  We vacillated between anger and disbelief that this happened in our city, in a theater in which we had seen movies, too.  We repeatedly looked at our children, thanking God for them when we knew that at least one family had lost a 6-year-old.  Our neighbors and friends felt the same way.  We talked about how crazy it all was.  How awful.  

Our church pastoral staff was already mobilizing to help the victims.  They were at hospitals.  They were helping the people that had gathered at Gateway High School to learn the fate of their missing loved ones.  Our church was already preparing for funerals and readying the staff for grief counseling.  Our pastor broke into regular programming on 89.7 Grace FM to take calls from anyone affected so they would have an outlet and could get prayer if they wanted it. 

Our church was not the only one doing this.  All the area churches were.  Hospitals, charities, businesses.  Our community was moving.  It was trying to put a bandage on the gaping wound that was the Century 16 Theater.   

      

As the day unfolded we learned more and more.   Thankfully, all the people from our church escaped unscathed.  When I say unscathed, I mean it in the physical sense.  They are forever changed by the events in that theater, as we all are.  We learned that my co-workers were wounded, but were alive.  We learned that our friends in the medical field were exhausted but had carried on valiantly. 

We listened to the dispatch recording of the first responders.  They were on the scene within 90 seconds and had apprehended the suspect in under 5 minutes.  Police took him without a shot, by the way.  They shouted out locations, gave stats on victims, secured the area, transported victims when ambulances couldn’t get there fast enough.  They were the real heroes.   

That night, we tried to go about our lives as normally as possible.  We sought out the fellowship of some dear friends and broke bread with them.  We tried to laugh.  We tried to lift each other up.  We talked about how we could help with our church’s efforts and made plans to attend the vigil on Sunday.  We watched our children laughing and giggling, full of life, and we were so thankful for them.   

My husband and his friend went to the vigil on Sunday.  He said it was beautiful and reflective.  He also said that our wonderful Aurora PD put the crazy Westboro Baptist folks SO FAR out of the way that the vigil attendees didn’t even know they were there.  Our heroes yet again.  

The overwhelming mantra was “We Will Remember”.  And we will.  We will carry on.  We will come alongside the survivors and help them heal.  We will minister to the families of those that lost loved ones.  We are Aurora, Colorado.