Just...

According to Merriam-Webster, the adjective "just" means:

1. Having a basis in or conforming to fact or reason;
2. Faithful to an original;
3. Acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good;
4. Being what is merited;
5. Legally correct.

I have been thinking about this word for the last few days, and how we have distorted the meaning in colloquial English to indicate almost the opposite. "I am just an at home wife and mother." "I am just an office manager."  "It is just a dog."  "He is just a child."  "They are just a fill in the blank."   Dismissive.  Oppressive.  Demeaning.  Hardly fits the original meaning of the word.

Father's Day....

On this day each year, I think of my father.  He was a wonderful father, and although we had too few years, he packed a lot of living into the time we had together.  My memories of him are both big and small, but it is small things I am remembering today, the 43rd anniversary of the day he died.

A million tiny pieces....

Have you ever opened a jigsaw puzzle and dumped the pieces out onto the table in a heap?  There is no pattern, no rhyme or reason to them.  You can't make out what anything is, much less the bigger picture, because there is just too much confusion.  Pieces are every which way - upside down, right side up, falling on the floor, scattered in a wide circle.  You have to bring out a light, start looking for the framework, sort things into piles, and bring some order to the disorder before you can really do the work of putting the puzzle back together.

It's a dog's life....

If you have ever wondered what life is like with a Jack Russell Terrier, well... it goes something like this.

My husband is out of town, and he calls in the evening.

Peace...

We live in a fast paced world, where we are inundated with information 24/7.  There is no off button any more, it seems, as we receive updates on social media and news on our smart phones without even asking for it.  There are syndromes in which people believe they are receiving vibrations from their phone when it isn't ringing (gives a whole new meaning to Good Vibrations, but I don't think that is what the Beach Boys were going on about,) and carpal tunnel from texting too much.  It is all too much.