Heather and Marcy hadn’t seen each other in awhile, so they decided to meet for lunch. The talk naturally got around to their respective love lives. Marcy confided that there really wasn’t anyone special in her life.

Heather, on the other hand, was beaming about the new man she had found.

“He’s perfect. He’s handsome, and last night when we went out to dinner, he said the four little words I’ve been waiting to hear a man say to me!”

“He said ‘will you marry me’?” Marcy asked.

Heather replied, “No, he said ‘put your money away’.”

Had to share this.

1. The later you stay up, the earlier your child will wake up the next morning.

2. For a child to become clean, something else must become dirty.

3. Toys multiply to fill any space available.

4. The longer it takes you to make a meal, the less your child will like it.

5. Yours is always the only child who doesn’t behave.

6. If the shoe fits…it’s expensive.

7. The surest way to get something done is to tell a child not to do it.

8. The gooier the food, the more likely it is to end up on the carpet.

9. Backing the car out of the driveway causes your child to have to go to the bathroom.

Time to get on my soapbox now. A subject that has been on my heart for a very long time is the lack of respect I see in young people today. I firmly believe that a lot of the problems in our society today stems from this one issue.

Parents send their kids to school in hopes that the teacher will teach them, then the teachers can’t teach them because the parents haven’t taught them basic respect – respect for others, respect for elders, respect for other peoples’ things, etc. Case in point: our neighborhood has been trying to get one of our major roads fixed. It used to be an old country road, but now a well traveled road thanks to new houses and a brand new high school opening in the fall. This road hasn’t been updated in about twenty years. One of our friends was in a major accident on this road due to teens racing. She tried to avoid them from getting hit head on and flipped her car when she hit the ditch on the side of the road. One of the teens was apprehended and arrested. Our friend says that she read the arrest affidavit and guess what? The teen doesn’t care that she almost died, or that she will have ongoing health problems because of it, or that her car was destroyed. He is not remorseful whatsoever. Lack of respect. He has no respect for life, his or anyone else’s.

Our pastor gave a wonderful Father’s Day speech about fathers being a shining example for their sons. This not only applies to just fathers, but all parents. What are we showing our kids today? When I first heard about the teen above, my first thought was, “That’s a reflection on the parents.” I know there are some people that no matter what their parents do, they will still behave in such manner, but can you imagine how much better our society would be if more parents stepped up to the plate and took the time to educate their children in basic moral values and don’t leave it up to a society, that is already questionable at best, to do it for them?

Just maybe, we wouldn’t have guns in school, or fight clubs if people valued life more. Just maybe, we wouldn’t have so my home breakins and carjackings if people valued other people’s property more. I could go on and on.

I heard a story yesterday about a woman who’s car broke down on the side of the road. My friend’s dad stopped to help her. She was terrified of getting help for fear that she might be attacked or something. He was finally able to convince her that he would do her no harm by telling her to crack her window just a little bit and slid his driver’s license in to her. He told her to call a friend and give him/her his information off the license in case something happens to her. She stayed in the car while he helped her. What is happening to our world- where there is a fear of helping others and a fear of being helped because of all of the disrespectful things happening in it?

Just my two cents worth today. Take it or leave it, but think about it. What are you teaching your kids?

Well, we have a four month old puppy. Meet Mozart my black pug. I just love pugs. He is such a cutie. Isn’t he? My previous pug died last summer and it took a while before I was ready to get another. I instantly fell in love with this little fellow. However, housetraining him has been quite the challenge. I have been searching for a crate that he likes in order to properly crate train him, but have had many issues with him. I thought dogs generally don’t eliminate where they eat or sleep. Wrong! Someone gave me a crate when we got Mozart and I thought “great.” Well, I could never get him on a schedule becuase he would use the bathroom on one side then go sleep on the other. lol. It was too big. I never knew when he needed to go out and was able to establish that when I let you out, you go outside. So I bought him a smaller crate. Then he would use it an stand there and whine because he didn’t want to be in there with the “mess.” After weeks of frustration, my dog trainer gave me a new tactic to try. So far it’s proceeding, but I haven’t been able to get him to go outside consistently. On the upside, he is pretty much paper trained. I may just end up training him for paper all the time since that seems to be what he does best.

A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He didn’t want his mother to walk with him. She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence but yet know that he was safe. So she had an idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbor, Mrs. Goodnest, if she would please follow him to school in the mornings,
staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn’t notice her. Mrs. Goodnest said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed. The next school day, Mrs. Goodnest and her little girl, Marcy, set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor boy he knew. She did this for the whole week. As the boys walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy’s little friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week. Finally he said to Timmy, “Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week? Do you know her?” Timmy nonchalantly replied “Yeah, I know who she is”. The friend said, “Well, who is she?” “That’s just Shirley Goodnest”, Timmy replied, “and her daughter Marcy.” Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us”? “Well”, Timmy explained, “every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers, ‘cuz she worries about me so much. And in the Psalm, it says, ‘Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life, so I guess I’ll just have to get used to it!”

May Shirley Goodnest and Marcy be with you today, and always!