What I didn’t hear in the nursery

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 21 May 2013 15:53

“…when you run out of hours…you wonder if anything worth doing got done.” —“One Heartbeat at a Time,” Steven Curtis Chapman

 

I thought I would spend this past Mother’s Day morning with someone else’s kids, but things don’t always work out how you plan.

I stepped into the church nursery and spent the first few minutes organizing wooden blocks and separating coloring books from picture books.

When I heard the processional music over the speaker in the wall that allows nursery workers to hear the service, I peeked out the door to see a few stragglers heading into the sanctuary.

With no kids to be seen, I turned back to take the Hot Wheels out of the plastic kitchen toys tub, and the plastic kitchen toys out of...

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Potential side effects of inhaling lazy

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 07 May 2013 14:12

“Do you smoke? ....No, but I sit.” —mt

 

As I clicked on my third movie of the weekend, I felt the twinge of guilt that comes at lazy times such as these. I convinced myself that days like this were actually designed for movies, blaming the cold drizzly weather, the quiet house all to myself.

But even so, a little whisper kept telling me to do, well, pretty much anything other than click “Play” (again). Wash something, fold, stack or wipe things. I beat my conscious and gave in to my lazy ways, but that doesn’t mean reality wouldn’t get back to me in a more roundabout way.

The third movie was “Love and Other Drugs.” It was set in the mid-nineties, which apparently was a prime time for drug reps to become rock...

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Settling in on Island of Misfit Toys

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 23 April 2013 12:42

“Quod minimum, minimum est, Sed in minimo fidelem esse, magnum est.” (What is a little thing is just a little thing. But to be faithful in a little thing is a great thing.) —St. Augustine, translation by Msgr. Charles Pope

 

Jeans either fit or they don’t. Like a lot of things. This was proven to me by a column I wrote awhile back that resulted in the most feedback I’ve received in eight years of columns.

It was about nothing more than the search to find a pair of jeans that fit. A little thing. Some­thing so basic(ally frustrating.) A simplified testimony to St. Augustine’s words. And to the apparent lack of one-size-fits-all jeans. And to the collective frustration. They’re not gloves, people.

The worst thing is...

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Yin and yang of cats and cleaning

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 09 April 2013 12:47

“Yikes! She’s a guy!” —Fly, from “A Bug’s Life”

 

quirrel!”

I am guessing that at least 90 percent of the general population imagines the same picture when seeing that word with an exclamation point. That picture would be Doug from the movie “Up.”

Now that spring is basically here, our similar phrase at home has been “fat robin.” Big-bellied birds are everywhere and it seems like anytime we are outside or driving, one of us is yelling, “fat robin.” My youngest daughter asked me if they were pregnant. I told her, sure, probably. I didn’t know actually, and after researching that, it appears I’m probably wrong.

But, no matter. As we, along with our very interested cat Casey, watched the birds from...

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