365 Challenge – #6 Feb ~Saved (Up)

My poor little neglected blog. How I’ve missed you!

My apologies… I started a corresponding facebook page! ~ https://www.facebook.com/Allsortsofhopecom?ref=hl

My new FB page!~ Go ahead, check it out.

Then I went  to about five trillion basketball games, a few gymnastic competitions and tried to recover from all that stuff. Having some trouble with my hands, too. Trying to keep the keyboarding/ processing to a minimum.

SAVED (UP).

In this photo, I am wearing pants that I , Hope the clothing hoarder, had SAVED from, no kidding, the early 90’s. I had also taken this photo using a Minolta lens with a Nikon adapter that a friend had recently given me that he had SAVED from years gone by.  In addition, the lovely silver necklace that I wear proudly around my neck  has a silver ribbon with the word HOPE engraved on it. It was a gift from a woman who had SAVED it for a while til she remembered to give it to me.  I waited quite a few hours to get my knuckles un-swollen enough to be able to type even just this pathetic little paragraph. So in essence you could say that  all these things had been SAVED UP for- just to make this photo.   (kinda? sort of?) .

It’s a stretch at best. But right now, I’m saving up for so many things the best thing I could think of  for “Saved up ” was my actually my new ( old) car that I finally went out and purchased after months and months of not having. However, when it came time for my car to make it’s photographic debut, it wasn’t home because my son is now driving it as his was just hit while being parked outside of our home. You see, that’s how we seem to be doing things in this house lately. One step forward, two steps back. It’s a good thing that I saved up for it, though, or we wouldn’t have anything to drive.

I’m also trying to save up every last bit of energy and strength I have. My vision is starting to play tricks on me too. I’m getting anxious. I’ve got a treatment in just 21 days! And that’s the big winner for SAVED UP, I suppose…. the strength and energy it took me just to do this whole thing. I pray no one ever truly understands what I mean by that.  Sadly, I know that there are far too many of you who do.

Day #6 of Feb- Saved Up

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The Sort of Hope Who Needs Your Votes! :D

Never thought I’d be the sort of photographer with a photo in a contest… yet here I am!

This photo has been entered into Rodposse’s  Photo Contest … 

5th RPC- 22nd Challenger- Theme : LINES.

Would love your votes! Click the link and click LIKE for Natalia and I please!

RODPOSSE PHOTO CONTEST : LINES

What’s one more click in your day of endless clicking? and hey, maybe someday, you’ll need me to click something for you… 😉  { a you click my link, I’ll click yours sort of thing!}

We thank you muchly, friends. ❤

http://rodposse.com/2013/01/30/22nd-challenger-confusing/

(if you’re more of a copy/paster  ^)

The Sort of Hope Who Has a Lovely Daughter

“Saying you don’t look good in a hat is like saying you don’t look good in shoes!” (author unknown)

The Progressive Sort of Hope

Let’s talk about Social Media.

I’m in a bit of a heated debate with someone right now about Social Media and children, specifically teens…

When I was pregnant with my now 16 year old son, I sold homepages to companies. Imagine if you will, a world not familiar with this thing called The Intenet. It was not quite 2 decades ago. These large companies I was calling to offer an internet presence to had never even heard of this thing called “The Internet”. Back then the only people with email addresses were college students, Libraries and some very large companies. I remember a collegue and close friend of mine trying to sell a home page to a very respected retailer when the CEO told her ” No one will ever buy anything over this thing called ‘the internet.” I’d imagine he would like to eat those words now. He probably didn’t have that title for very long, either.

Shortly (in relevant terms) after the Internet was born , Facebook was created. Then Twitter and things like Instagram, etc. New and fascinating pieces of Social Media are being born for this world to enjoy (or not) practically every day. Along with Social Media, come the ways to use that media. Laptops and Smart phones, iPods and iPads. I know my children, especially my daughter and her friends document practically every moment of their day with their Smartphone. Photos of her and her friends and their daily movements are plentiful. Heck, they even take pictures of their conversations!

My kids, who live in the same house, saying goodnight to each other. Natalia kept a screen shot of their conversation.

To that end, it is my contention that Social Media is here to stay. I take the stance that rather than deny kids access to things like the Internet  and it ‘s offerings ie: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc , it is our job as parents/adults to teach them how to handle such things. We need to teach them how to deal with the ramifications of their behavior on said sites and how to use them wisely.  It is our responsibility to teach them that whatever is posted today, will be there in their tomorrows.

I have come to learn that not everyone shares these views and some people close to me believe that it is better to shelter the children from these things. Lock them away, if you will. Deny them the right to use them. I fear that doing so will only harm the kids and make it worse for them once they reach the age that we are no longer in control of their actions. I feel as though behavior like that is as antiquated as the dial phone.  

Social media is a part of everything we do these days. We can order our dinners, select our new clothes, even turn on our lights, start our cars and control the environment of our homes all in an instant and all within one or two clicks of a mouse or swipe of a finger. I think that we are foolish to think that our children should not be involved in that world.

If someone bullies my child in the Social Media world, rather than yank my child from that world to shelter and protect them,  it should be my job to teach my child how to handle it. To give my child confidence and strength. To teach them what to do about it and provide them with the valuable lesson that bullying is never ok, whether it’s a spoken or a written word.

A big part of being a teen is pushing and testing limits. When we were teens I am fairly certain ( if failing memory serves) we cursed, we complained and we teased. The difference being,  it was probably in our best friend’s basement or in the school yard. It wasn’t visible for the world to see. Now, it’s available  for all of our “friends” to see AND to comment on 24/7.  (Friending- a whole other blog I can’t wait to write…) I suppose that’s the incredibly big difference. We could shut the world off and go to sleep, safe in the comfort of our homes and away from the constant drama.  But our children can’t . It never goes away for them and it is up to us as parents to set their limits and to educate these children how to balance real/tangible life *and* their Social Medial lives that they live “in” their Smartphones.

How can we expect our children to evolve into successful adults unless we provide them with the experiences and tools that allow them to grow, to succeed and yes, to feel hurt and also to fail?  (The real world is not always a positive place, as much as we wish it were so.) Maybe once upon a time those experiences happened on a playground, but now those life lessons sometime happen in a laptop or on a Smartphone. These devices are every bit as much a part of their world now, too. Rather than shelter them from it, I want to allow my children every opportunity to learn from these new worlds that I can.  And just as their world around them is changing so,  I believe, are the roles of  their parents.

I feel as though denying our children access to these amazing ever evolving things like Social Media and Smartphones would be denying them , as well as ourselves access to the  future and I for one , am too excited about the future to do that.

Your thoughts?

This pics from May of 09. Couldn’t find any other pics of me or the children on the computer. Best I could do. I need to take some random pics for this blogging thing, it would seem.

The Sort of Hope Who “Benefit”-ed .

^ A collage I made of some of  favorite moments from my first 10 day Inpatient Ketamine Infusions, April 2010.  As luck would have it, my little (though much bigger) brother was in Philadelphia at the same time on business- got to see him for the first time in yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrs. Didn’t remember it too much sadly 😦  Two AMAZINGLY generous , selfless women ( who also both have RSD!)  Heather and Susie  flew in from their respective states, Rhode Island and Texas at their own expenses to help me through my infusions. Susie took the first week, Heather took the second. My first friend in this life- Scotty also lives in Philly and I got to spend some time with him ! My mom and dad were with me off and on. Mom mostly on, dad mostly off. My sisters stopped in and my family (bottom center) stopped in over Natalia’s sectional weekend which I got to watch via webcam- the gym skyped me in ( got special permission) because I wasn’t allowed to be there during treatment and it broke my heart. I had never missed any of her competitions prior to that.  My husband and my children were not with me during my 10 day. I only saw them that day and again at the end of my infusions. We did skype several times during my treatments when I was lucid enough for conversations. Though Natalia will tell a completely different story.

That first round of infusions was made possible by the kindness of my facebook friends, friends in this incredible community , people from my churches ( old and new ) and yes, even strangers.  The money from those fundraisers carried me through to this year. I turned a few special treatments away. But basically, we made it work. And I am so very grateful.

Hope for Hope basket bingo was held yesterday. I can’t even begin to describe the emotions that go along with being on the receiving end of something like that-a charity event of that magnitude. How do you even begin to thank the people involved in helping to keep you “in the game” for the next year or two ?  for the countless hours of work involved in organizing something like that? The blood, the sweat and yes, the tears. (though  most of the tears were mine!)

To my delight, my event was like a long overdue high school reunion. Most of the people who came out to support me were friends from my high school days, some old friends from church and family of course, and some friends of my parents that I hadn’t seen in quite a number of years. It was like “going home”.

I was overwhelmed with the generosity of local merchants and especially my baseball family, Berkshire Baseball who went above and beyond for myself and my family.

I am still trying to digest it all.

The organizers of my event, Trinity’s Helping Hands, were even generous enough to allow me to save the leftover beverages and non perishables to take to the event that I help out with in a few weeks called “The Cups of Compassion” for the homeless people in the city of Reading ( I blogged about that previously.)

Though I still have mixed feelings about having allowed my father to have spearheaded this for me, I felt a little bit better after remembering something I read rather recently. I shared it as a status on my facebook yesterday. It’s from a book that a friend of mine wrote. His name is Dan Clouser. Dan is the president of Berkshire Baseball and one of the most generous people I have had the good fortune to meet in this lifetime. Mr C is a neat man. He is generally quiet and very unassuming. But his smile and laughter are so contagious.  His book is called ” The Beauty of A Diamond ~ Through the Eyes of a Coach.”  It is a must read for parents, coaches, players, heck, for human beings in general. 

Anyway, it goes something like this ~ “The important thing to understand is that everyone in this world has been helped by someone along the way. No one here can simply go it alone. We may try from time to time, but we all depend on someone along the way. The sooner we all understand that, the world will be a much better place.” ~ Dan Clouser  The Beauty of a Diamond , through the eyes of a coach

Yesterday was a very long day, physically and emotionally. As I (literally) crawled into my bed, I fluffed my pillows and got distracted by a lovely bright red ladybug. I always seem to find them on “special” days….. Or, perhaps, they find me.  ❤

The Awarded Sort of Hope

Thomas Wigington, http://astrangertoheavenandearth.com/,  has nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. I am honored for the nomination and I accept. Thank you,  Mr Wigington poet, essayist, fellow blogger for this generous nomination. Please take a moment to check out his site!

The rules for this award are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you
2. Post the award image to your page
3. Tell seven things about yourself
4. Nominate up to 15 other bloggers and let them know

Imagine my surprise at seeing this nomination in my email! Heck, I’ve only been blogging for less than 2 months. Wow, has it been 2 months already? Time really flies when you’re doing laundry. I am very grateful to Mr Wigington for reading my blog, (clarification, I’m grateful to *anyone* who reads my blog!) let alone nominating me for this lovely Beautiful Blogger award.

The ‘Share Seven Things about Yourself” reminds me of the “16 things about you” that went around back in the beginning of my days on Facebook.  It always gives me pause. I can’t help but wonder what 7 things about me other people would actually find interesting, “normal”,  ‘you can write about them publicly’ things. I mean, everyone has quirky interesting things, right? But PG13 ?

1)When I was a little girl, I wanted to be President. Not first lady, I didn’t want to assist anyone. I wanted to run the world. And if I couldn’t run it, I wanted to save it. My mother has always told me that from the time I was about 3, I thought I could save the world. Over the course of my life I have tried to save so very many things. Causes, people, expired relationships, animals, old clothing, struggling businesses… you name it. I’ll try to save it. There has to be some sort of disorder name for this. And I don’t mean in the hoarder sort of way , I mean in the “rescue it” sort of way. I spent a rather grueling  heat wave week once trying to get a kitten to trust me enough to come out of some arbovitae trees and allow me to care for it. I moved a few feet/ inches closer to her every day, every hour. I even slept outside next to those trees, fearing that some mean creature of the night would eat it. I succeeded in my efforts and was ultimately left with a kitten that I couldn’t take in , as my son is allergic. Called all the local shelters and no one would take her as there was apparently some heat wave rush of feral cats, so I convinced my parents to drive the kitten to Maine to live with my brother. Yes, I am that bad.

2)Much to the dismay of my family, I celebrate everything. EVERYTHING. Got an A on a test?  Let’s celebrate! Great season? Celebrate. Successful treatment for me? Let’s celebrate. I believe that birthdays should be celebrated for at the very least a week. Minimum. I decorate our entire house for the Birthday-ee’s occasion. Balloons, signs, streamers, the person gets to pick a menu for a week with all of their favorites. With so much bad in the world, why not find as much joy as you can in the simple things, right? Last night we celebrated the end of Natalia’s first HS Cheer season and Nick’s Showcase Season.. and some other stuff I’m not at liberty to talk about yet. Kids in general should be celebrated. They are such a privilege and a joy.

3)In my life I have seen people very close to me overcome some of life’s greatest challenges. My big sister, my parents’, my best friend, my husband’s best friend, scores of RSD pals, each of whom have been dealt some of the worst of what life has to offer and have somehow held out with amazing grace , heads held high and have gone on to inspire myself and countless others. These people are heroes ( heroines) to me. Not the NFL/NBA or actors & actress who get paid millions of dollars to do what they do. I’m talking real life people living life struggles and living large living hard. I wish we glorified that more for our children. *Values*

4)Nicholas Michael and Natalia Marie are by far the greatest accomplishments of my life. Yet they continue to be works in progress. I pray every day I get to continue to see them grow up. I am so thankful that I have made it this far. So thankful that they have turned out as good as they have. Having a parent with a chronic condition is sooo difficult for children. They could’ve gone to the complete opposite end of the scale. Somehow, I got lucky and they didn’t. They are over achievers, honor students, good friends, amazing athletes, and more importantly good people and wonderful children. Yet sadly, growing up far too quickly.

5) Our universe baffles me. Though I , too, was an honor student,  space baffles me.  I am over 40 and I still cannot understand how we can see stars that are no longer there. Do not try to explain it to me, I will never ‘get it’.

6) In case you’ve missed it, I’m a redhead. I’ve always been a redhead. If it hasn’t been one shade of red, it’s been another.  Of course, I have a little more help now. My daughter was born with the most gorgeous shade of red hair and I was completely jealous. I have recently decided that it is no longer worth trying to make my red hair look natural , so it is currently the brightest most vibrant shade we can make it.  Why not, right?  I’ve threatened to go brunette, but my family says that they’d never be able to find me anywhere. One time at a gymnastic competition, my daughter shouted to me ” What’s that mom ? I can’t hear you over your hair!”~ well, you get the idea… 

7) Six degrees of separation was something I never heard of until Facebook. Yet Six degrees of separation affects my life almost daily. Almost always in a good way, thankfully.  It is also mainly responsible for my blogging experience. I am blogging because of a man I will call Joe. I didn’t know Joe, but my husband did. Joe is another kind of American hero, Mr Joe is a teacher. He encouraged me to try my hand ( or keyboard) at blogging. Stubborn gal that I am, it took me a year, but I eventually listened.  I tried to thank Mr Joe  but he was too humble to be thanked.  I just want him to know how much I appreciate him.

And I appreciate you, too. You being anyone who takes the time to read what I write, or look at the photos I post. ~ There! I didn’t even get into my addiction to scarves, my weird food habits, the fact that I am left handed but do almost everything with both, my bizarre little ‘envy’, my shoe collection, my penchant for taking pictures of anything and everything, my daily need for cappuccinos,  or all those other bizarre Hope facts!  However,  I really am thankful Mr Wigington!

I hate when I prematurely blog..

In my original entry, I forgot to write that the reason I have selected these folks is because their work moves me. They have all taken me to places I have never been. Probably will never get to see. Be it through their writing or their art or their photography. They are all artists. They enrich my life and make getting out of bed every morning just a little bit less painful each in their own unique way.

I had trouble linking one of my favorites on my first go round. I’m going to try again.

My nominees for the Beautiful Blogger Award are:

http://www.deneanmelcher.com/

http://phillanoue.com/

http://grishmanphotography.com/

http://peterknightphotography.wordpress.com/

http://pdjpix.wordpress.com/

http://rpdpod.wordpress.com/

http://www.cathykuhlmanphotography.blogspot.com/

http://krahnpix.wordpress.com/about/ ~

http://mydaysinfocus.com/

http/milnersblog.wordpress.com/

http://silentsongstudios.wordpress.com/

http://thephoblography.wordpress.com/

The Sort of Hope Who Detests Labels

*Please watch the video link at the bottom first.

 

Let’s talk about labels.

I’m not speaking of the annoying kind that they put in our clothes, although I am not a fan of those, either- they hurt! The labels I am speaking of are the even more painful kind.  The kind that mom used to tell us would never hurt us. But they do, don’t they?

” tall, short, fat, skinny, dumb, smart, rich, poor, ugly, pretty, disabled,  impatient, grumpy, gay, callous, niave, outspoken, pessimistic, pathetic, obnoxious, loud,  lazy, introverted, lustful, glum, incompetent (<–like those NFL replacement referees were called at the Seattle Seahawk game last Sunday).

Why do we insist upon labeling each other ? Calling each other names? Hurting each other? What great satisfaction do we get out of putting others down? Does it really make us feel better?

If you have never been a victim of someone else’s cruelty , count your blessings.

I was. I still am.

Therefore, I am trying to raise children who see people for who they are , and not what they are. And in doing that, I am constantly trying to make a better person of myself by paying more attention to the labels I place on others, as well. It’s not easy. Try paying attention to how many times you do it. I bet you do it and don’t even realize it. I couldn’t believe how many times I did it when I first started trying to pay attention to the amount of times a day I labeled someone.But like Jennifer says in the video, kids learn it from somewhere. I just don’t want mine to learn it from me. They can form their own opinions.

When I came across this video in the newsfeed on my FB,  I felt I had to share it.

I understand that being severly overweight comes at the expense of the person’s health. That is not what I am ‘celebrating’ here… I also believe that Jennifer does a fine job of acknowledging her issue.

However, it is not *our* job to make fun of  people who are different from us. It is not our job to make fun of people who have acne, or those who, through life’s circumstances  are less fortunate than us, or those who have different colored hair or freckles ( I personally love my freckles!) or those who are left-handed ( again, me) , or those who are just a little bit different from ‘the norm’. Who are we to determine what is really “right”. What if in determining what is “right” we are wrong, and now the joke is on us?  If we don’t end this cycle with our children, in this world of social media, when everyone is always looking at everyone else,  this constant looking at and judging is only going to get worse.

I miss the days when TV actually went off the air at 2am and then there was nothing but the national anthem followed by some static and then finally some silence.

Jennifer knows about labels, like me, I bet she’s been hearing them for quite a long time. I love her line ” Do not let your self worth be defined by bullies… the cruel words of one are nothing compared to the shouts of many… ”  ~ Jennifer Livingston 

Kudos Jennifer.

Be Well.

http://www.wfmz.com/news/News-anchor-responds-to-bully-s-letter-about-weight/-/121458/16831034/-/10dpy0k/-/index.html

 

*special thanks to my friend Kevin Brett at Soul Imagery for allowing me to alter one of the photos he did of me.

http://www.soul-imagery.com