Welcome!

Welcome to Mrs Moss's Wonder Emporium where everyday I strive to live up to my favorite quote ever.  In the movie "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium", Mr. Magorium tells his scared, unsure-of-herself assistant, "Your life is an occasion, rise to it."   I try to make this my motto.  Somedays I gloriously succeed.  Somedays it is more of an epic fail.  But I'm always trying.

I am a forty-something mother of four amazing children - 18, 17, 13, and 9.  I currently have one child each in college, high school, middle school and elementary school.  Yes, I'm busy and crazy.  I'm also happy and loved.  In my free time I work full-time in an elementary school library.  The same school my youngest son attends, which is good 'cause I don't think I could keep track of another school schedule.  Plus, I eat lunch with my son's teacher - he doesn't get away with anything at school.  In my other spare time (because I have a lot of that!), I'm the wife of an amazing man.  We just celebrated our 21st anniversary and while our lives haven't always been perfect, I can't imagine a better way to spend the last 21 years than with him.

I live in the beautiful state of Oregon, born and raised here.  I love Oregon!  I've lived other places and traveled to many different places and this is where I want to be.

My home reflects my various loves.  I have chickens, rabbits and a cat, reflecting my love of animals.  My pantry is stuffed full of ingredients and cookbooks - reflecting my love of cooking and baking. My bookshelves are full - reflecting my love of books.  And all the bedrooms are full of children - reflecting my love of kids.

That is what this blog is going to be about - my loves and my life.  All things crazy, normal, over the top, boring, and everything in between.  And in all of that, I'm going to try to rise to the occasion that is my life. Hope you enjoy.

Thankful for . . .

Today I am thankful for bread.  Yeah, I know, bread??  But I love bread, and I especially love really good bread.  I went shopping with my friend Mary this weekend and we stopped at Grand Central Bakery and I picked up a loaf of really good bread.  I have been eating it all weekend long and I'm having a piece for an "after school snack" right now.  Yum!  Whatever caveman/woman came up with the idea to crush the wheat, combine it with water and then bake it - you rock!

Today I am thankful for extra sleep.  I have been having a hard time sleeping lately and was feeling so tired.  A good night sleep and I feel so much better.

I was thankful yesterday for my good friend Mary and the restaurant Jam!  Such a fun day shopping and eating and talking.  I needed that.

Friday, I was thankful for my job.  I love what I do.  Friday was a great day of getting things done and feeling like I had accomplished something.

I'm thankful for Diet Dr. Pepper.  I SO love Diet Dr. Pepper.

Just Write Something

A very wise co-worker and I were having a conversation the other day.  He said that in his "post-teacher" life he wanted to be a stand-up comic  To that end, he was writing down funny experiences and quotes that he came across.  I said to him that I would like to write a book some day. "I'm a really good writer," I said. "I just suck at coming up with plots."  He responded, "You don't have to come up with plots, just write small things - conversations, characters, experiences.  Just write something!"  I realized he was right.  So this is me just writing something.  

I ran 3.25 miles tonight.  All in a row.  Without stopping.  This might not sound like much of an accomplishment but it really, really is.  You see, I just turned 45 years old and I have never been a runner.  Occasionally in my life I made the attempt to run.  I'd get up to being able to run a mile or so.  I once trained for a bi-athalon (biking and running) and I made two miles - but just barely.  I just really didn't like running and I never experienced that runners high that people talk about.

Then my 45th birthday loomed on the horizon.  I realized that I was feeling old, tired, and fat.  I decided that I didn't want to turn "old" and feel it too.  So I bought myself a treadmill and a TV.  I put the treadmill in my oldest daughters now vacant bedroom and mounted the TV in front of it. I got the TV hooked up so that I can watch TV and I can watch "on demand" shows.  Then I started to run.

At first I was really bad.  My treadmill has a blinking display that shows your progress around an imaginary quarter mile track.  At first I could only make it one lap.  I'd walk a lap, then run a lap.  Then I'd walk two laps to recover. Then run one more.  And I was very, very slow.  But I figured at least I was trying.

I thought that it would be good to have a goal.  I picked a fun run a few months in the future and decided I would train for that race. I would have a deadline and a distance that I would need to be able to run by that deadline.  The run is a 5K which means that I would have to be able to run 3.1 miles in three months time.

My goal was to just run a little farther each time.  Even if it was only a few feet farther.  Pretty soon I could do two laps, then three. I was so excited the day I ran a whole mile!  Slowly I got further and further.  Until tonight when I ran 3.25 miles.  Thirteen laps.  And it felt good.

The best part is, I don't feel old at all.