Follow up to story of my surprise weekend

My sister Betsy has posted the pictures of my return home to discover my birthday surprise, with my account of my reaction. Because Betsy set up the blog to be "a story of the weekend," the final pictures are all at the end.

Once again, it was an absolutely awesome weekend - thanks to EVERYONE for all your hard work!

When I was doing one of the exercise classes at The Marsh, one of the songs played immediately struck me as a great theme song to adopt for this new stage of my life. I really think its advice about how to live an ideal life was incredibly timely, and I plan to take these words to heart as I start my next decade.

This truly lovely song is by a Christian group called "Point of Grace," and it's available on iTunes.

How You Live (Turn Up The Music)

Wake up to the sunlight
With your windows open
Don't hold in your anger or leave things unspoken
Wear your red dress
Use your good dishes
Make a big mess and make lots of wishes
Have what you want
But want what you have
And don't spend your life lookin' back

Chorus:
Turn up the music
Turn it up loud
Take a few chances
Let it all out
You won't regret it
Lookin' back from where you have been
Cuz it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you live

So go to the ballgames
And go to the ballet
And go see your folks more than just on the holidays
Kiss all your children
Dance with your wife
Tell your husband you love him every night
Don't run from the truth
'Cause you can't get away
Just face it and you'll be okay

Chorus:

Oh wherever you are and wherever you've been
Now is the time to begin

So give to the needy
And pray for the grieving
E'en when you don't think that you can
'Cause all that you do is bound to come back to you
So think of your fellow man
Make peace with God and make peace with yourself
'Cause in the end there's nobody else

Chorus

'Cause it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you live

MyCharityWater Campaign Report:

$5,000 CAMPAIGN GOAL
$991 RAISED SO FAR (Wow! Within striking distance of $1000!)
49 people served
27 donations
64 days left

We've reached $1000 on my MyCharity:Water campaign!

Hurray!

Earth Day 2010 is coming up. How are you going to celebrate? Here is a list of the activities and events related to this day.

What are you doing to celebrate? Here are some ideas of what you can do:

in your community
at school
at work
with your kids

Leave a comment to let me know.

(Would you consider cross-posting a mention of my MyCharity:Water campaign in your own journal? Yes, I'm an opportunist. We've helped 50 people so far, and I'd love to help still more. If you do post a mention, please let me know. Thank you!)

My husband the frugal....

A telephone call:

Rob: (outraged) Where's the hamburger that was in the refrigerator?!

Peg: (who knew this call would probably be coming) I threw it away. Yes, I know, I know. I'll reimburse you the $8.00.

[explanatory note: Rob does the grocery shopping. It's my job to then separate the big chunk of hamburger into little 4 oz chunks and throw 'em in the freezer. Yeah, I didn't get to this one in time.]

Rob: (even more outraged) You threw it away!?

Peg: It was gray. It was three days past its freeze by date and it wasn't safe to eat. [Unspoken: I'm sorry. I was at a spa weekend getaway and didn't get around to doing it.]

Rob: (in the voice of someone starving) Then what am I supposed to eat for lunch?

Peg: You could make a peanut butter sandwich. You could make some bratwurst.

Rob: (a crie de coeur) But I wanted hamburger!

Peg: (highly amused) Well...I suppose you'll just have to make due with leftover flank steak, then.

Rob: [pause] Left over flank steak?

Peg: Mmm hmm. In the long tupperware. The leftover cheesey potatoes are in the container on top of it. Do you think you could endure having that instead?

Rob: [long pause, and then in the voice of someone who is attempting to channel deep umbrage but actually really really wants some flank steak, now that its presence has been pointed out] Well...I suppose.

( What I did today to make the world a better place )