My List

I am a task oriented, list person with a short attention span. Problem is I'm 44 years old and I have just figured this out.

I think maybe it has something to do with all the things I want to accomplish in one day. Tony gets so exasperated with me. "Pick one thing and finish it!" he blusters. It drives him crazy... I tell him that Oprah calls it multi-tasking. He doesn't care what Oprah calls it.

I love my daily "to-do" list and there is nothing like the thrill of adding another checkmark to that list. (Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.) My goal (usually unattainable) is to have everything checked off that day. The problem is that if it doesn't get on the list it's not going to happen. Tony thought he'd be funny and added his own ideas to my list one day.... things like "breathe" and "blink" were on the bottom. Very funny.

I've come by this habit quite honestly. My mother has lists everywhere, usually on little yellow post-it notes stuck in obvious, make-sure-I-don't-forget places. My father has kept a coil notebook for his lists for as long as I can remember.

I don't understand how people can function without a list. I've tried it and it's not pretty. Usually I end up somewhere, like Safeway, wandering aimlessly.

So what is my point in my Blog today? I'm not sure, but now I can put a check mark in front of "Write in blog" on my list.

"Thanks God... I Found it!"

Have you ever thought that there are just too many wonderful things in this world for you to absorb? That God made this world with so many hidden gems & secrets just for you to find?

I have. I think that all the time, every day.

Yesterday Tony and I went geo-caching in a little known park north of Campbell Valley Park and the moment we stepped off the road onto the trail I was in awe of the beauty around me. The trees were dripping with bright green moss and huge ferns grew all around. It was like stepping onto a green painter's palette. I never knew this little park existed and I've lived in Langley for almost 40 years! Can you imagine what else is out there for us to find?


Like I said, we were geo-caching - one the hottest new hobbies to take hold of people these days. In a nutshell this is what you do.... you use your GPS unit to locate a box with specific co-ordinates. The box (or geo-cache) has been hidden somewhere on the planet. They are hidden everywhere, (that's me pulling a cache out of a tree) with little trinkets and a logbook inside. There are thousands just in the lower mainland. It's so addictive, the moment you say the words, "found it!!" you are ready to find the next one.

Why is it that we don't treat God's hidden wonders the same way? I truly believe that God made all this just for our enjoyment. And what do we do? We race by, going 120 on the freeway because we have to "get there." One of the greatest lessons I learned from my parents was that the holiday, the adventure, your day-to-day life, begins the moment you leave the driveway, not when you arrive at your destination. God must truly puzzle over the way we race around His planet, trying to keep up, missing everything.


Thank you God for Your creation. Please help me appreciate what a gift it truly is.

Everything I Learned From Washing Dishes

For the past three Thursdays Tony & I have been washing the dishes for the Marriage Course Dinner at our Church. I told him, "It will be fun" and he agreed to it, though he wasn't too sure about the "fun" part.

After three weeks this is what I know for sure:

• Our church dishwasher rocks - I want one just like it.
• My husband is a much better cleaner than he has let on.
• Apricot stuffed ham is so yummy.
• The care groups in our church are simply amazing... I've never seen so many happy, willing people in the kitchen.
• Serving others is so good for your heart.
• We're signed up for next time.

I'm supposed to be working....

I'm supposed to be working. Shhhhh...

But here I am blogging in the church office and technically this is work since I am in charge of our soon-to-be Blog website and all our new bloggers. I am very excited about this new ministry that we're undertaking and all the people who have agreed to "blog" are so talented, I'm sure everyone will enjoy what they have written so far.

I've got to say that it's exciting to be here at this job - to be able to see and hear all around this place. The upstairs is busy with running little feet at the Preschool, the parents busily coming and going. I hear the laughter coming from the fireside room as the women have their Monday Morning Bible Study, Jennifer is huffing at her computer (though she does her job with a joyful heart I'm sure) and Wes was just in here chatting with us both.

There's a feeling of excitement around here. Of things past and wonderful things to come. I know I am right where God wants me to be. And now I'd better get back to work.

Time Flies....

Tomorrow is a special day for my husband and me. Tomorrow it will be exactly 26 years ago that he proposed. How can that be? I remember when my parents celebrated their "Silver Wedding." They were old.

How on earth did time slip away so quickly? How can it be that I have a child who is 23?

I don't feel old. Honestly, I feel like I'm still 18. I enjoy so many things and I feel like there is so much I still want to do. So many places left to explore. I wish that I could just hold on to time and make it stand still for a little bit.

I guess there really is some truth to the adage: "Time flies when you're having fun." It has been an amazing, thrilling, wonderful ride with just a few unexpected bumps along the way.

Welcome & Let Me Explain.

I know, I know.... the first thing you're wondering is "Why on earth did she name her blog "Have We Got Any Peanuts?" Well.... here's the story.

This sentence describes me and my husband and our relationship to a T.

We were sitting watching a movie (a chick flick he would say) and the moment was intense, the climactic ending to a heart-wrenching story. I am weeping with emotion, not a few tears mind you, but weeping, into my soggy tissue, when my dear, dear, completely-devoid-of-any-sentiment husband turns to me and says... "Have we got any peanuts?" I looked at him like "Are you kidding me? Are you watching the same movie as me?" and he looked at me like "What?"

That moment has become the defining moment of our marriage. It happened years ago and we still laugh about it and talk about it. It has become his sentence of choice when I am sad... he uses it whenever he can see that I am becoming overcome with emotion. It lightens the moment. Because, you see, I am the most sentimental, weepy person on the planet. To quote Dolly Parton... "No one cries alone in my presence." That's me. I cry during movies, I cry at commercials, I cry when someone wins a car on the Price Is Right. In the past 25 years he has had to learn to deal with me and my emotions... this man who could be Grizzly Adams the second. I on the other hand have learned to be a little tougher and a little less sentimental. It's funny, but we both think that the other has been the one to change.

So that's it in a nutshell (pardon the pun). One sentence that reminds me to lighten up. One sentence that reminds him to tread softly. One sentence that tells the both of us to not take life too seriously.... we're only visiting this planet.

Welcome to my Blog.