The building and demolishing within 24 hours.....

Today was a great day.  I worked on many holiday projects, even finished a few of them,

all while doing wash and listening to Steven R. Covey's

The 7 Habits of HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

I have really enjoyed it over the past month or so.  I gave this set of cd's to Kev way back when.  I came across them a while ago and thought I would give it a go.

I don't like having the t.v. on in the day, but I really like listening while I putter 

around the house and do my work.

I just finished going through the 13 cd's for the first time (minus the first 5, they were lost in Kev's truck....until today.....I just dug them out...whooohooo!)

I am going to start over now.

I learned a great deal the first go round....and that was starting in the middle....so this will be a real treat.

I already like so much that I am familiar with the terms he is using...

ex - Paradigms - the lens in which we see the world.

I have mini notes all over my planner of little nuggets of knowledge I would like to retain.

One of the habits that I am really working on is sincere listening.  

Listen without my own agenda in mind.

Listen to understand.....not to reply.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Empathy = Understanding

.....now you know.

OK, on to the post.....

Last week we had a sweet time making ginger bread houses w/ a few good buddies.

Vanessa pulled it together.

We all had a lovely time making our ammeter candy cottages.

Although.....some people took it WAY more serious than others.

ie - the bottom two photos.

These people were in it to win it.

Focused they were.

 The rest of us were more like Kevin here,

mostly in it for the candy.

Ours is that bad boy down on the left side.

Scrumpsh.

 Who wouldn't want to live there???

Well, the idea behind these houses was that we would make them and then go give them away.

You know....spread the cheer.

The kids were a bit down on that idea....because in the true spirit of Giving,

they really wanted to give it to themselves to eat.

I was like...you would eat that thing??

That is super disgusting....I mauled all that candy.....it was handled on numerous occasions,

by a number of children and adults.

Well, after some thought and a sweet invitation from our good friends, 

the Tolands, to come and enjoy 

the Sunday night Christmas devotional at their place, we knew where we would 

be placing our delectable gift.

Let me just say it was well received.

The kids tore into it.

I was amazed, and our kids were thrilled.

They really made a dent in the embellishments.

The devotional was wonderful, and we enjoyed each others company.

Great night had by all!

The next morning I was going around doing my house work, vacuuming and 

reminiscing about the lovely evening before....and the sweet placement of the house.

How happy every thing was......when I came up to our garbage can at the curb.

I was stumped.

I was really befuddled.  

I was so confused, because if my eyes did not deceive me,

 it seemed like I was looking at our ginger bread house

 stuffed in our garbage can.

huh?

How is that even possible?

I flipped the lid.

YES...that is our house.

The house I know we left at the Tolands.

Kev happened to be home at the time....I went racing into the house...

"Kevin.......!!!   why is our ginger bread house
stuffed in the garbage can??"

He had to drive his truck over last night, so left just after us.

He said that when he was about to drive off Stacey came running out of the house carrying it....

She insisted he take it...."we don't want it here".

at first I was like....

?

...but truthfully as a mom, I do get it.

I know exactly how it was....she did not want to have the candy sitting around for 

her kids to eat non-stop, and thought ours might be able to continue to enjoy it.
Well, K made an executive decision on that one....
yeah, one I would have to agree with.
That little house had been loved enough.
I was exasperated at first because I thought some how K brought it back home by accident....
luckily my Paradigm changed once I heard the explanation.
How do you like that????
Pretty sweet use of my new lingo!