Encouragement

I received this in my email inbox today:

Our children are beautiful, unique diamonds in the rough, full of potential yet requiring time and effort to reveal their full brilliance. Building character is a multifaceted task which takes time, patience, love, skill, and determination.  The process of building character is something that can't be rushed.  It requires balance and a well rounded approach.  Each individual facet or character trait is an important part of the whole.  Building character is not an easy task, but the reward is worth the time, patience, and effort.

Rene Sundberg

I've been a bit discouraged lately; I think part of it is the summer laziness and lack of direction I have had ~ although it's not for lack of trying!   My husband deals with people all the time who are full grown adults and they never had anyone help build their character... or they ditched whatever character they did have in some dark back alley right before they mugged an unsuspecting citizen at gunpoint.

Like I mentioned in my last post, I have great hope that my children will not turn into crap adults.  This quote was really encouraging to me; growing up adults who contribute meaningfully to their communities with ~ gasp ~ character takes time and patience.  It doesn't happen overnight.

"Who shot him?"

We went to the pediatrician this week.  Dallas got some vaccines, which were uncomfortable but didn't phase him too much; Charlotte sobbed and sobbed as she watched.  Oh dear.

The big excitement came as we were exiting from the hospital section of the medical complex.  As we were walking out, I noticed a big hullabaloo brewing.  One of the candy stripers (is it still pc to say that?) was running out the door as another shoeless woman was not far behind her.  They were both headed toward a screaming woman (a mom? auntie? grandma?) who was saying "They said he got shot. Where is he? Where IS he? Where'd he get shot?" (In the arm and the side, evidently) "Who shot him? Is he dead?"

It was the briefest of scenes but it was so jolting to me.  Thankfully the five year old was not in tow, as he would have picked up on what was going on.  Charlotte was blissfully unaware.

In the loading zone out front were two parked police cars, one with lights still flashing.

You are never going to believe this ~ oh wait, my readers in general hear it all so you probably ARE going to believe this ~ I just looked up the crime log for that day and the shooting happened on a street that borders the medical complex.  Right there.  RIGHT THERE!

Anyway, as I said, it was rather jarring for me.  I'm still thinking about it.  I hear all the baloney those cops out there on the front lines deal with on a regular basis.  I hear it with a jaded, bitter slant from one of those cops himself.  But there is nothing like seeing the look on a mom's face that says "Is my child dead or alive?"

I don't care what kind of crap adults my children turn out to be (although I pray they do not actually turn out to be crap adults); I will always, always, always have that look of "Is my child dead or alive?" on my face when I hear something terrible has happened to him or her.  That's the kind of heart I have as I hear the stories my husband brings home to me on a regular basis.  The heart that thinks, "At one time, that person was a child..."

hi everybody

Whatcha up to, folks?  Just sort of floating here... Hence the lack of anything very truly interesting being posted here for a while.  If you follow me on twitter (@HandcuffedHeart) you know I'm bellyaching about the horrible news media.  I'm sure you can all relate.  This week husband worked a weird schedule, and I got sucked in to reading stuff online about the police which even *I* know is completely untrue, and I don't feel like all that much of an insider.  I got so riled up I literally slammed shut the laptop and vowed to stop reading.  The piles and piles of ineptitude displayed by the media, and the ignorance of the public that spews additional, well, ignorance.... it's just too much for me.  And it feels personal.  I think I take everything a little too personally (don't ask my husband, he will laugh hysterically that I actually admitted that).

/end rant

Ok, so other than the ranting, I'm just trying to keep us all safe and sane over the summer holiday.  Planning for school coming up, and planning my dream vacation where we find a house to buy and a job for DH all in two weeks or less.  HA!  Don't everyone laugh at once.  I'm just trying to prep myself in advance.

I'm really not "happy" about moving but I will suck it up and be cheerful about it, more or less.  When my almost-6-year-old son, cries about it, however, I will totally lose it.  This day is far off, I'm sure, as nothing in our family ever gets decided quickly or easily but I'm just preparing myself now.  I'm slow to embrace change.  Don't have to like that about myself, but at least I know it about myself.

What are you doing this summer to stay safe and keep sane?  Especially if you have little ones running around?  Share your super-smart ideas with me, please!!

Hair's The Ingredient List! ;)

If you like eating duck feathers or human hair, here's a list of foods you should eat:

• Noah's New York Bagels
• Dunkin Donut's cake-style donuts
• Oscar Meyer Lunchables
• Zatarain's products (cajun food)
• cigarettes
• Emergen-C

Of course, don't look for "duck feathers" or "human hair" on the ingredient list.  It will be listed as L-Cysteine.  It is used as a reducing agent in bakery products to:

1. Reduce the mixing time of the flour dough.
2. Stop shrinking of pizza crust after it is flattened.
3. Help move the dough through various bakery processing equipments or dough conditioners.

Gross, grosser, and grossest.  I read this first at (and took this information from) Zsuzsana's Blog.   I may not agree with her all the time but she often includes very interesting information on her blog like this.  Wow!

Who's hiring?

I've finally caved. 

I'm willing to move.

I have not wanted to do the moving thing.  I'm happy here.  I have friends here.  I have history.  I know the checkers at my grocery store.  I know all the streets in the town.  I've lived here for about half of my life (and as I'm not a fresh 20-something that's sayin' something).

But I don't like our living situation, and, well... it's complicated.  The husband is unhappy.  I'm thinking long term this doesn't need to be the place for us.

I'm weary.

So, folks... Who's hiring?  I heard recently about a department that advertised for a few weeks for a few openings and received over 1,000 applications.  DH's department recently hired a few 20+ year veterans from other departments who had been laid off.  He also tells me there are two or three ride alongs from other agencies every day this week who have (or will be) laid off and are looking for a job.  This is not the time to be looking for a job.

The obvious thing is for him to stick in law enforcement, although he has skills in many other areas.  Staying in law enforcement could be tricky if we cross state lines and he needs to go to a sort of "make up" academy.  However, both of us are going to start looking for work and see if anything comes up for one of us first.  I'd like to look at states on the west coast or states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana.  Other states which don't seem too palatable but might be OK are Alaska, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nevada.  Don't ask me why, that's just how it is in my world right now.

So if you have any good suggestions or leads, please leave them in comments.  Feel free to leave them anonymously if you are concerned about your identity and location being out in the cyberworld.  Or email me!  handcuffed.heart@gmail.com

Thanks, friends!   

Update: Nasty & Noxious Style

You may remember how surprised I was by the nasty and noxious lady at my local coffee shop recently.  I should have known better... but evidently she is an institution there.  So when I went there again today, well... there she was.  I shouldn't have been surprised, but... I was terrified.  :O

I ran into a former neighbor who was on his break from working at said coffee shop, and asked him about her. Is she generally not too nice?  He confirmed that he thinks maybe something's not quite right with her.  She's had run-ins with other customers in the past, evidently.  Whew!  I'm glad it's not me.

And he confirmed, they DO mop the floors every night so it really wasn't that big of a deal.  Whew!