Can I count on you???

Hi Bloggers,

Well here we go on the topic of dependability.  Over the last 50 years I have met a lot of people many dependable and some not so dependable.  When I was growing up all I knew was dependability.  My mother was the person who was always where she said she would be, when she said she would be.  I guess I had never really been let down.  I was kind of an only child.  I had a sister who was 20 when I was born.  She was getting married by the time I was 5 and my father had passed away so my mom and I just had each other.  My mother made sure that I was involved in many things.  She always had me to my activities on time and was there to pick me up when I was ready to leave.  You could always depend on dinner at 5:00p.m.  You could always depend on the fact that your laundry would be washed and ironed and that the house would be magically clean when I came home from school each day.  

I think that I carried many characteristics of dependability into adult life.  When I started to work I always found it easy to be on time and to finish any task at hand before leaving.  When I moved into management it was very difficult for me to understand how a person could want to have a job so bad or need one and not be dependable.  I have always picked up my kids on time, except when I forget about minimum days (lol) , yet when I was a foster parent I saw every form of undependability you can imagine.  Parents who profess that they miss their kids so much but cannot seem to make it to their visits.  I took care of children whose parents spend the grocery money on alcohol and drugs and leave their kids with cold cereal.

What I have learned from these scenarios is that much dependability is learned.  If you grow up in an environment where you have known nothing other than dependability most people then live their lives as dependable members of society.  Many of the kids that I had in foster care were very undependable.  They could not meet any type of a time line to prepare for school or any other events.  They saw no reason to turn in homework on time. They had no reason to meet friends when they said that they would.  

On the other hand my kids have done quite well.  My oldest daughter finished college on her own.  She married and had two children.  She has carried all of the dependability issues to her own family.  My oldest son gets to school on time and always to work and has been recognized for being a dependable employee. The younger ones are following in the footsteps of their older siblings.  

I also think that dependability can be somewhat learned.  Many children who lived with us and were taught how important these characteristics are changes somewhat over time.  They saw the importance of not letting others down especially when they knew how much they despised it happening to them.

Are you lying to me????

Hi Everyone,

Hope it’s been a good week for everyone.  I had a crazy hot 4 days at the route 66 car show selling my badge reels.  If any of you get time check out my new website at: monicasreelmadness.com.

Now for school work.  What does that old Billy Joel song say?

Honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue.  Honesty is hardly ever heard, but mostly what I hear from you.

I guess we are all looking for the person he is talking about.  I don’t know who he wrote the song for but if it was Christy Brinkley someone must have lied because they are divorced now.  

I actually am lucky because I have quite an honest family.  My husband and children will actually return things that they find that are not theirs.  (They do go back to see if anyone ask for the item so they can get the unclaimed stuff).  So many “honest” people think that small lies don’t count.  You can probably count me in on this level.  When my husband asks me did I go pay the water bill, I will say yes to avoid the old question why not? I just don’t feel like explaining for 10 minutes that the day was very busy and I will make sure that it gets done tomorrow.  I guess I don’t consider myself a liar because I don’t tell whoppers.  It has always amazed me when you watch court TV. how obviously one of the people is flat out lying because if both were telling the truth there would be no need for the judge.  How can that person stand face to face with the other person and swear that they are telling the truth when they are not.  I would just have to bust out laughing; I have never had a good poker face.  

What about people who steel from where they work? You were hired because someone trusted you to care for their place of business. They are keeping your families income coming but you don’t think that is enough and want more.  You take from them in place of that raise that you thought you deserved or the fact that you think they owe you lunch.

Some people find it necessary to lie about something small, but find that they need to keep lying because they have created a tangled web and can find a way to exit it without everyone finding out about their lie.

I guess the best saying to keep in mind from the start is that honesty is the best policy.  The saying has obviously been around for a long time for a good reason.

“It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.”

“It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.”

                                                                                 Unknown

Hi Bloggers,

Hope you are all staying a little cooler this week.  Well I am not at all thrilled about the topic of planning.  I am more of a spontaneous type of person who likes to fly by the seat of their pants when at all possible.  I guess there are different types of planning, some of which I should be more concerned about than I am.  

For example when our family decided we were going to be missionaries in Panama our friends all thought we were crazy.  My husband had a great job with Metro Transit in Los Angles.  We had a three story house in Lake Arrowhead that all of our friends would have died for.  We were paying into a retirement fund and had some money in the bank.  Our plans were for my husband to stick to the same job until retirement and R.V. off into the sunset when we retired.  Well so much for that plan.  We left everything, packed up and left.  Four years later we are back and trying to start our lives over like teenagers before we had our kids.  My husband is finally back to a good job with retirement but we took what we had before out to live on in Panama.  Now we are 49 and starting retirement over.  Plans???   Oh well that one did not work out the best it could.  We had planned on living in Panama for the rest of our lives but then our kids started to miss being Americans and I started to miss my lifestyle.  

Planning vacations????  I have the best time on vacation when we know what direction we are going to point the R.V. in and go from there.  Why stay on schedule when there is good fishing at the last stop.  

I guess some things we should plan like what is going to be done with our bodies and our stuff when God decides we should move in with him.  I guess as long as I have my family’s names on everything and insurance to plant myself I’m good.  

I have some good friends who are planning on the Denir hitting soon. The Denir being the Iraqi currency that is supposed to jump to $300 American dollars to 1 Denir .  I hear them every day tell me what they are planning if this does in fact occur.  House, car, boat, vacations ect……

Being a Christian I know that the bible says my life will occur in his time and not mine so I kind of have the philosophy that if my plans come about, they come about.  If they do not, I know that all I can do is live the best life that I can and it will all work out in the end.

         

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.”

Hi Friends,

Hope everyone enjoyed their 3 day weekend and found a cultural event to write about.  Well here we go with the new blog post on the topic of goals.  I think that goals should be divided into two categories to include short term goals and long term goals.  For example my short term goal was to attend some type of cultural event this weekend so that I would have material for my first essay.  Goals definitely are met in steps.  The goal of my essay includes steps like attending a function, writing a free write on my experience, then an outline and finally the finished product.  What is the old expression “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.  Well either are my essays.

Well let’s talk about some of the goals I have had throughout my life.  I have a few years on most of you all in the class so I have had many goals so far lots of which I have accomplished and some that I have lost interest in along the way and some for the future.

The first real goal I had growing up was probably not much different than many young girls.  I wanted to get married to my handsome prince, live in a castle and have many children.  Well out of that goal I did marry, have 4 wonderful children and acquire a 3 story home (my castle) in Lake Arrowhead.  I always wanted to be a business owner and over the years I have owned 4 of my own businesses (2 winners, 2 losers) oh well can’t win them all. For years I had dreamed of moving to a foreign country and living with the natives.  That goal was finally reached about 4 years ago when I moved to Boquete, Panama in Central America.  There I worked in the medical field treating the indigenous tribes of the region.  Last year when I returned to the states my new goal was to go back to school and get my R.N. license so that I could continue with that type of work in the states.   Well I am almost half way there (God willing and the creek don’t rise) as my mother would say, I will finish.  My long term goal after that is to work for 10 years and then retire back in some third world country with my experience.

I think that something important to remember about goals is that we will not always achieve all of the ones we plan on.  I believe that it is this quest that makes our lives interesting and even though we may not end up with exactly what we had planned on, we still have learned along the way and perhaps sometime in our lives we will use that knowledge.