Writings by Diane

A few days ago, I was watching TV with my husband. The Jimmy Dean sausage commercial came on the screen.  The Sun and his wife sitting at the breakfast table eating the fully cooked Jimmy Dean sausage patties.  When there is only one patty left, they both jab it with their forks. As a test of wills, they commence in a stare down contest. Of course, the wife conveniently forgets she is married to the Sun. When he raises his eyebrows, she is blinded by the implied rays.  At the end, he takes the last sausage patty and chastises her, “Didn't anyone ever tell you not to stare  at the sun?” At the end of the commercial, I turned to my husband and declared I didn't think her husband was very nice. I suggested that they should have added at the end, the Sun shares the sausage patty with her. Or better yet, gives her the whole sausage patty since she probably has retinal damage!  My husband replied that the whole commercial was silly because how can a person be ma...

There have been times I've been searching for a lost item—be it my car keys or my shoes—I can’t find it for the life of me. I tear the house apart, and doggedly quiz my family (Are you sure you didn't see them? Really, really?) After a fruitless search, I feel very frustrated, throw my hands up and quit looking. After a while, I retrace my steps--I do need to find these items, especially if I’m heading out the door! Inevitably, I find the item only when I search differently. For instance, when looking for my car keys, if I dug my hand through my purse, I now need to dump all of the contents out.  If I've been looking underneath the bed for my shoes from the left hand side, I switch to the right. It got me thinking how this new approach is relative to life experiences. Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in looking at a problem one way that with a fresh pair of eyes, it can be view as an opportunity. For example, a fender bender is a tragedy when it occurs. The look of the ...

One of my guilty pleasures is watching Project Runway . I find it fascinating that the designers can look at a piece of fabric and envision a sassy or an innovative dress. I get a real kick out of Tim Gunn and his signature catch phrase, “Make it work!” as he critiques the competing designers. I have often used this phrase in some of my parenting skills. A few years ago, my husband mentioned he wanted to try his hand at fly fishing, but didn't have waders. It was a few days before his birthday, so I figured Perfect! That’s what I would get him! At the time, he worked weekends; on the Saturday before his birthday, I took our son, who was seven at the time, to Sportsman’s Warehouse . This store is huge, packed tightly full of every sort of camping, hunting and fishing gear imaginable.  What I didn't know, but became painfully aware as soon as we entered, was in the middle of the store, they have on display a life-like wilderness scene. To complete this display was many taxi...