So the priest was right

Mike and I got married over 17 years ago. I still remember the message the priest, Fr. T, gave us in his homily. He said that the key to a successful marriage is "communication, communication, communication."

Well, he said a lot more than that, but it all boiled down to "communication, communication, communication," which he repeated several times. Good strategy because I still remember it after all these years. Remembering it and practicing it, however, are two very different things.

Over the course of our marriage, there have been times when we've been very good about talking to each other. And there have been times when the opposite has been true...including somewhat recently.

I'm pretty sure if we'd followed Fr. T's "communication, communication, communication" admonition, we might have known what the other was doing. And we might not have ended up ordering 20 boxes of Girl Scout cookies!

(This is only about half of our purchases.)

Friday Fragments: Better Late than Never

So it's 9:32pm on Friday and I'm just deciding to play the Friday Fragments game with Mrs. 4444s. I'm sure she won't mind I'm so late to the party. She's cool like that.

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Darn you, Girl Scouts, and your too-hard-to-pass-up-especially-when-frozen Thin Mints. Really, curses to you.

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I gave up internet Scrabble and Diet Coke for Lent. No wonder I'm in bed at 9:30pm. What the heck else am I supposed to do?

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I need to find something to wear for the Go Red for Women luncheon on Friday. I think I want something v-necked and curvy. Definitely not a red cardigan and white turtleneck, which is my default. And absolutely not black pants. Gaaaahhhh! I am sick to death of black pants. Though, that does beg the question, what the heck else is there to wear?

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I'm totally skewing the "average time on site" stats for the Homemade Serenity blog. That's because I LOVE her playlist. So I go to her site and keep it open in the background just so I can hear the songs. It feeds my inner granola girl.

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Do you ever know you should be doing something, but you don't want to because the fact that you should be just irritates you? So you don't do it, and then when you feel all crappy because you aren't doing what you should be doing, you get more irritated? Yeah. Me, too.

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That "God Wants You to Know" application on Facebook is freakishly on target. So much so that I'm beginning to think that God really is behind it. I bet He never has to call tech support.

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Think that's all I've got for now. Hope it's a great weekend in your neck of the woods.

Random Acts of Kindness

February 15 - 21 is Random Acts of Kindness Week. On my work blog, we're encouraging folks to bestow some kindness on a senior citizen. (Check it out here.)

I am so lucky, however, to have very punctual friends who have heaped kindness on me today. Perhaps that makes them pre-punctual? At any rate, I wanted to share the two very sweet things these ladies did for me because both things really made me feel loved.

First, my neighbor Cathy came by with her daughter to deliver my Girl Scout cookies (for my conversation with my trainer about THAT, click here). While she was visiting -- ok, waiting for me to find where I'd put my purse! -- Cathy told me that she's been reading my blog. Woohoo! While that would have been kindness enough, there's more.

Cathy mentioned that in reading some of the things I've written about our struggles with Robbie, it reminded her of her own sister who raised a son with autism at a time when autism was not as well-known or understood as it is know. Cathy's sister Julie wrote a book about her experience. And while Robbie's diagnosis is not autism, Cathy thought I would be able to relate to some of her sister's experiences and might get something out of the book, so she brought me my own copy. It's that sweet? (The book is Just Be His Mommy by Julie Conner.)

The second kindness that was shown to me today was by my friend Ellen, who also lives in my neighborhood. If you think I'm becoming a gym rat, you should talk to Ellen who has lost 40 pounds since October and who takes a spin class almost every day. I dropped by Ellen's house to pick up a circle punch to make Lego birthday party invitations for Robbie. She'd asked me previously if I would be interested in some of the clothes that she can no longer wear. When I said yes, I assumed we were talking a couple pairs of pants and tops. Ellen greeted me with two very large, very full bags of clothes! "Keep what you like, give the rest to Goodwill," she said.

To paraphrase Blanch DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire, "I have always relied on the kindness of neighbors."

Thanks Cathy and Ellen. You ladies are awesome. I definitely plan to pay your kindness forward next week during Random Acts of Kindness Week!