Meet my daughter....

(Except replace "DAD" with "MOM".)
True story...

These are the days...

I'm cleaning in the middle of the night, now; not wanting to fight with my little people over mopping and towels and such.  It's much more peaceful to put everyone to bed, even the dogs, then swab everything down. We have friends coming tomorrow, from Missouri AND Colorado, and that's part of the reason for the midnight mopping....I know it will still look shabby in the morning, but also clean, and that's good enough!  You see, we have friends with good hearts, who are happy with our hugs and steak, not concerned with our polish.  ( At least I hope they are...)

So, a little bit ago I went into the "guest/kids" bathroom to evaluate, then clean....
It's grim.
There are pirates and mermaids, cowboys and Barbies.
Rust stains threaten to overtake the tub, no matter what I souse on it or how hard I scrub.
The towels are clean, but well worn....we haven't invested in new ones since our wedding, in 1998.
And I felt very, very tired.

But, as I have been mopping on the kitchen, I've been thinking....
(This happens occasionally; don't expect big things, okay?)

These are the days of pirates and mermaids.
Of toads, lost in the toy room, then found again, with crows of delight!
These are the times of LEGOS underfoot, of lollipops half-shlurped stuck to the carpet in the closet. 
This is when the kittens wear dresses.
When the prize in the cereal box is all-consuming. 
When Superman jammies are left in the hall because the outdoors is calling so loudly.
These times are crayons in pockets and little footprints through the kitchen, looking for snacks.
Popsicle faces and Chicka-chicka-boom-boom.
Tears over broken trucks and mean sisters, giggles about farts.
And the most awful "knock-knock" jokes known to man-kind.

In the blink of an eye, we'll be in the world of Nike and IPods, so I don't want to miss this!

Today was sort of hard, for all of us....at least those of us who spend the day in this little home and yard.  We tried hard, but things didn't turn out the way we'd hoped. 
And that's okay.
Because tomorrow, our friends will be here!
Hugs! BIG hugs!  and catching up, and showing of life....CLEAN pirates and mermaids!
Hot dogs and marshmallows and "tell me about how you are, dear"s!
And more hugs!

I'm writing this so I don't forget that the little things are the big things.

The little things are the big things.

Now, where did I leave the darned mop bucket....!?!?
:)

Scary stuff!

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Do one thing every day that scares you."

I love that.

Now,
you might be thinking, "She's a house/ranch wife...how many scary things could there BE in her world?"

Obviously, you've not looked into the terrifying depths of the back of my refrigerator.

I don't believe Eleanor was speaking of scary things, really; more along the order of things that cause us to stretch beyond our comfy day-to-day routines.

Sometimes it might mean making a hard phone call...one that you've been dreading, making an appointment that you really don't want to go to. Like the dentist, say...(I almost need a sedative.  Truly.)

Perhaps it's delving into a filing project that is intimidating because of its magnitude.

It could be helping your husband move bulls.  (Honestly, that really and truly IS scary.)

Have you ever written a letter that you're scared to death to mail, because you don't know how it will be received?
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Last week, I presented a workshop to a bunch of business professionals at a conference and it scared me to pieces.  The topic of the workshop was that of being a right brain dominant person in a left brain dominant job.  In case you don't know what in the world that means and mightily question my claim of being in my right brain, let me just put up a Mercedes Benz graphic that I think illustrates the difference brilliantly.  (Oh, yes...I swiped it for the workshop!  I HAD to.)

I know you can't read the writing, but basically it says that right brain dominant people are creative, easily distracted, unorganized, big picture people who also tend to be quite passionate and visual. We ask "why?" questions.  The left brain dominant people are organized, like lists, are big into details, focused, more verbal, and they hang their pictures straight.  They ask "How?" questions.

Right brain-talks with their hands.
Left brain-ducks.  :)

Right brain-doodles on workshop notes and make little foil sculptures from the candy wrappers on the table.
Left brain- annoyed with the sculptures because they make the table look messy and THEIR notes are in wonderful, hierarchical order. (We right brain people usually end up copying their notes because we missed the point, making the sculpture.)

Right brain-all fascinated with how the peas look, mixed with the carrots.
Left brain-no food touches unrelated foods.  Gravy almost freaks them out, because it's food ON food.  AND it runs all over the place.  This will give left brain people a moment of panic, when the gravy gets a little out of control.

Right brain-it's about color and form...
Left brain- it's about straight lines and neatness.

Right brain people need to travel with left brain people because we never wear watches and are no good with directions.  Left brain people sleep in their watches and snap! snap!  get to the destination efficiently, with the original, verbal directions. (I know. It baffles me, too!)

You get the idea.

You also can perhaps see how those poor people in the workshop felt when I started talking.
(It WAS discussed, prior to me actually presenting, that instead of candy, we should be allowed to hand out little individual serving bottles of wine.  Do you think they had a foreboding of how my workshop was going to run?)

Anyway...

The workshop scared me all over the place.
I had never used PowerPoint.  Ever.
I really wanted to just use a flannel-graph board, but that's frowned on at professional conferences.

I was worried that I didn't have enough usable information.
I was worried that I had too much.

What if more than 3 people showed up?
What if I had a wardrobe malfunction...say, by falling off my 4 inch take-charge-of-this-situation-girlfriend shoes?

Is this even APPLICABLE?
Am I the only right brain dominant person in the room?

Did I bring enough chocolate, for heaven's sake?

And WHY did I say I would do this in the first place?

Terrifying stuff.

But guess what?
I lived!  And no business officials were harmed in the production of the workshop!
There WERE more than 3 people, but everyone in the room was very kind and generous with tolerance for my babbling.
I had plenty of chocolate.  Too much chocolate.
And I have no idea if the workshop was a waste of time for them or not, but it was a GOOD thing for ME.
I learned so much....not the least of which was the importance of doing something that scares me, every day, because it really IS important to keep stretching oneself.

This week, I learned....

• there's no such thing as having too many friends.  
• there IS such a thing as having too many glasses of chardonnay.
• the anticipation and dread of public speaking is much worse than actually doing it.
• I'm definitely a better speaker in 4 inch heels. (I don't know why altitude should affect attitude, but it sure does.)
• Power Point stinks.  End of THAT discussion.
• there's no Kinko's in Helena, MT.
• if one of my "friends" asks me to go running at a track and casually explains the sprint training we'll be doing, it's gonna hurt for three days. Seriously. 
• golf is really just a giant geometry problem and I've always been much better at algebra.
• a Moon Pie can be a very satisfying breakfast! 
• being a part of the Mosby family is really more fun than I can describe here.
• winning a crazy 4 wheeler race through the Missouri River breaks, down on the river, is ALSO more fun than I can describe here. 
• the onion rings at the Lewistown Dash Inn are truly brilliant.
• the hamburgers, sadly, are NOT. 
• the navigation feature on my Droid may save my right-brain-dominant-distance/number/time- impaired life someday. 
• it's not possible to hug a Droid without screwing up a setting. 
• my settings are seriously screwed up if I don't get hugs from real live loved ones, frequently and sincerely.
• my Aunt Betty and Uncle Marvin are the only other people in the world who make coffee as strong as I do. 
• being part of the Pluhar family is ALSO pretty fun, except that they eat weird Czech food and there are about 300 more of them than there are Mosbys.  True story.  
• sprint training consists of a 1 mile warm-up run, two 400 yard sprints, separated by 100 yard walks, two 300 yard sprints, separated by 100 yard walks, two 200 yard sprints, separated by 100 yard walks, two 100 yard sprints, followed by 100 yard walks, ended with a half mile cool down run; does that sound like a "friend" to you?  See?  
• THE best place  for an omelette and sheer visual interest in Helena is the No Sweat Cafe. I may have swooned....

And this is the short list of life lessons I experienced this week!