HOPE vs. HOPELESS

This topic for blog has been rolling around in my brain for a couple of weeks now. On this week when so much HOPE rolled forth from our new USA President, it seemed like a good week to speak of HOPE. Unfortunately, there are just times when you have to admit defeat and fess up to the HOPELESS item/action. However, let it be known that I am a person of HOPE (despite what you are about to read).
HOPELESS: Dishes and Laundry...the things that are never done. They are hopeless. Although, dirty dishes and dirty clothes mean we have food to eat and clothes to wear. For that I am grateful and so I've learned that HOPING for them to be forever done is not worth the effort of HOPING.

HOPE: My children have imaginations! You can line up chairs, gather a few of your favorite passagers, and you've become a bus driver or airplane pilot.

HOPELESS: The mess that is created because my children have imaginations!

(I probably should title this: "Be careful when you say 'OK' that you know EXACTLY what you are saying 'OK' to, but that's not the topic for today...)

HOPE: LOVE the vivid colors created by markers and that they are so easy to color on about any surface.

HOPELESS: When I told the children to get out of the water and go back to playing in their room and then asked if they understood me to which they said "ok" and I said "ok"...I didn't realize I was giving them permission to color on their socks with markers. Lesson learned. Really Mom? You didn't want us to color on our socks? Really! Sure, in fact.

HOPELESS? My boys' room. They had just cleaned it, when they decided to build a fort. When the fort fell down, the boys abandoned their creation leaving this. I'm not sure if having 3 boys in a room makes it possible for a consistantly clean room.

HOPE: Having 3 boys in one room does lend to plenty of bonding and learning experiences. Ones that you can't have when you share a room with yourself.

HOPELESS for sure: Hungry Hungry Hippos, a game I loved as a child, but don't really care for as an adult. Why you may ask? Marbles. They simply can't stay in the game and they are found "lost" in the carpet, after the game has been "put away." Plus, the noise of the game...is not music to my ears. Crash, crash, crash, crash, etc.

HOPE: I bought these gooey-stick letters and flowers from the dollar store. A great find! The kids will practice making words with the letters on our sliding glass door. Ah, smell the education!

HOPELESS: After a few minutes of making words, the kids discovered that the letters could stick to anything. The great accomplishment came if you could throw them high and have them land on the ceiling. (Not smelling so educational now...so as a true Mother I declared that I would NOT retrieve the letters/flowers from the ceiling. "You threw them...too bad for you.") However, when Dad decided a couple of hours later that he didn't like the new "decor," we found that the letters/flowers aren't meant for the ceiling. They left a nice colorful residue. A rainbow on our ceiling. Where's that Mr. Clean Eraser???

HOPE: Nerf Dart Guns. A ton of fun. Anyone can use them. Delightful to play as a family.

HOPELESS: Endless nerf bullets are constantly appearing in the strangest places around the house (and sometimes, right in the middle of the floor).

HOPE: I didn't vote for Obama, but I have to say I'm impressed with the man. I appreciate the message of "hope and get to work" that he gave the American people this week. I'm thrilled that barriers have been broken...for the HOPE that he gives our children...that anything is possible. It was a historic day. You couldn't help but feel that you were part of history. Where were you when 9/11 happened? Where were you when the 1st African American became President of the United States?

I was honored to be a witness. My HOPE is that the things he spoke of in his inaugural address are things that he can bring to pass or can inspire within the American people to bring to pass.

HOPELESS is the dead end.

HOPE is either the beginning or the heart of the story...endless possibilities.