Saturday afternoon, we arrived home to a relatively clean house, a stack of mail, and seven voice mails. The very first one was from Sr. Mary Ann, my grandfather’s sister and the woman who taught me to play checkers on that same vacation in 1980 that I shared pictures of a few days ago. She…
Read MoreAll articles filed in attitude
Listening…
Staring Down the Season
It was the first Sunday of Advent—a time, if there ever was one, to make my whirling brain shut up and listen to the readings at church. Unfortunately, I also had a four-year-old asking me to read The Clown of God. So I was running through the words in a whisper, trying to listen, when…
Read MoreThanksgiving Day: A Gratitude List
For the last two weeks, I’ve kept waiting for things to turn around, scrabbling at the roots of positive attitude as I try to keep from tumbling over the cliff into negativity. It’s been a rough two weeks, no doubt about it, but I realize that the lesson to be learned now is gratitude despite…
Read MoreWorks for Me Wednesday–Confessions of a Recovering Gripe-r
It is so easy to get into a negative funk. Sometimes it’s justified…more often it’s not. That’s why I signed on to Ann Voskamp’s “One Thousand Gifts”—to give me a reason to turn around my natural tendency to gripe. I know I’m not the only one who has this problem. (I’ll start. Hello, my name…
Read MoreYes, but…
This is shaping up to be one of those weeks. The busy factor is stratospheric this week, with the addition of small faith group leader training (why did I volunteer to lead? Because I’m a sucker), auditions for the national anthem, and a garage sale this weekend. Mid-week, and virtually no spouse time, because at…
Read MoreFamily
Families. They’re a source of comfort and joy, support and unconditional love. They can also be a headache and a half. Right, everyone? We love ’em, but they drive us crazy. (And they feel the same way about us.) Who gets what holiday, who helped with the dishes and who didn’t, who spent the whole…
Read MoreDrive-Thru Lessons
Working drive-thru is not a particularly fulfilling experience. In college, “Beavis & Butthead” was all the rage. In my limited and accidental exposure to their crassness, the only thing that I ever thought was funny was their skit about working drive thru, which had me ROTFLMAO, frankly, because they nailed it. When you work drive,…
Read MoreBirthday or Bust
My birthday and I have a very checkered history. On the plus side, it usually fell during summer vacation—a time when every girl did dishes every day in my house, unless it was her birthday. On the down side, I never got to celebrate my birthday in the classroom. (Not once. Ever. Not that I’m…
Read MoreCounting My Blessings
At the end of a couple gripey, negative weeks, it seems appropriate to shift my attitude and focus on the blessings in my life, instead of complaining. I’m thankful for my husband, God’s gift to me—the partner, best friend and helpmate that I once thought I would never find…who, despite leaving the same light on…
Read MoreYou Can Do More Than You Think You Can
I don’t know about you, but I am essentially lazy. Now, that’s not a universal truth. I’m rarely lazy about writing, for instance. And every late winter, I get the gardening/landscaping bug, and vow that this year is going to be different. This year, I’m going to really stay on top of the garden! But…
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Kathleen M. Basi 