a sHouT ouT: tO The waY iT ouGht tO Be, To cOffEe, anD tO JeSus

this could take on the form of a rambling mess, but i have got 4 months to catch up on, so it's fine. anyways, the longer i live, the more i realize why the Bible is so full of truth and tidbits which some look at as limiting in nature, but in reality are quite the opposite, they are freeing and good. the Law, which God has laid out, is there for a purpose, and it is not to make us miserable. true, only in Christ is our salvation, however, what it takes time (i think) to realize, is that in living in obedience to His law (and of course trusting Him to enable us to fulfill it), our lives will, quite simply, run much more smoothly. He has given us His law because He loves us, and He knows that in living according to it, it is only going to benefit us. this has been a learning process for me, but its truth is blatant right now in one very specific area of my life. and that would be family. God created family as a good thing, as the right thing. He knew that it took a mom and a dad to successfully maneuver the multi-faceted task of raising children and essentially, just living life. when both of those components are not there, as God designed, it just makes things a heck of alot more complicated. and this is a truth which i can personally attest to. never would i throw out the woe is me, i'm a single parent card, yet i will throw out that God did not design family to be this way, and it is hard, really really hard. God was/is gracious to me, even in the transition into single parenting. He enabled me to be able to work from home and stay with Joey until i was finished with school and he entered kindergarten. when i started working away from home, i realized even more fully why it is not a task for one person. my time, my energy, everything seems to be completely drained. the details are irrelevant, i only state the circumstances to point out: God's law is Good, and it should be obeyed. for His glory. and for our good. that being said, i have also learned much about the sustenance of God. a) He's provided coffee. this is not a joke, if i did not have this in my life, i would be in bad shape. this is a gift that helps first thing in the morning, and sometimes in the mid-afternoon where i just want to fall down on my face and not move. but even more importantly b) He's given me Jesus. God knew we'd be unable to keep His beneficial law, and in His beautiful plan, He provided everything we'd need in those circumstances through His Son. first and foremost, forgiviness. but then grace. wherever we may need in our lives. i've seen Him over and over in this latest journey of mine, and He shows up, each and every time. i really don't know how anyone in this situation could do it without a Savior. He provides, He comforts, He sustains, He gives hope, He picks me up and helps me start again each time i stumble. i need Him and i am thankful for His unveiling my eyes to realize that i need Him. while this journey of single-parenting is not over, God will and has provided in ways un-imaginable. and so, i leave you (perhaps again for awhile) with this...Do it God's way, but when you mess that up, Jesus is there.

sOo...

i should post again. i'll get on that soon....

liFe iS goOD

today is just one of those days where even though there is still badness all around you in the world, there's a deep sense that there is a greater power who will and does and is turning all to good. that's a good thing all the time, but even better when it feels real in a tangible kind of way. and today, it just does.

..aNd i WaiT

apparently this is the time in my life where i'm supposed to master the art of waiting, or at least become better at it. i'm not gonna lie, it's rather dull and frustrating. there are several areas in my life where i feel like God has placed me in the midst of some long, ongoing situation that has no overnight, quick-fix answer. and apparently He's insisting i merely wait in the midst of each of them. the biggest seems to be the whole job search thing. i naively thought, after finishing school in august, that the whole finding a job thing would be a piece of cake. it's not. i mean, i heard all the advice i'd been given, not one person alluding to the illusion that it would be an easy task, yet my optimistic outlook hoped for the best. im still hopeful that the right job, or even any job, at this point, will come around and know in my heart that it will, but i sit, at the moment, in the in-between, with no prospective opportunities on the table and the frustrating reality that it's nearly impossible to even get a call back after applying anywhere. and its ok, i mean deep down its ok, but i'd prefer not to be in the midst of the whole waiting lesson. ive been in this go-go-go mentality for, really, the last 4 or 5 years. i seem to thrive when i have not enough time to get everything done and so the shift from zero extra time to way too much extra time has been unnerving. i know that there will again be a time where i look back and question why the heck i was so frustrated at having ample time on my hands, but at the moment, i don't like it. and thus, i wait....

sOmeThinG's wRong...

when you see gas for this price and actually get excited about it. however, i state the obvious...

cOuRagE

Stand but your ground, your ghostly foes will fly --
Hell trembles at a heaven directed eye;
Choose rather to defend than to assail --
Self confidence will in the conflict fail:
When you are challenged you may dangers meet --
True courage is a fixed, not sudden heat;
Is always humble, lives in self distrust,
And will itself into no danger thrust.
Devote yourself to God, and you will find
God fights the battles of a will resigned.
Love Jesus! love will no base fear endure --
Love Jesus! and of conquest rest secure.

Thomas Ken (Bishop), 1637-1710-11.

(note: i have really just wanted to post this picture for awhile and though i understand it may not be completely applicable to the poem, just go with it...)

JesUs...

first of all, props to the fact that this is my second post in a mere 48 hours. what is up with that? actually it probably has everything to do with the fact that i should be working on my resume but have found something much less productive to spend my time doing. thats just the way i roll. however i do feel the compulsion to share the hope that continues to overflow (albeit in waves but nevertheless tonight) and so, i share....i just got back from Celebrate REcovery. celebrate recovery is a Christian 12 step program that i have been attending for almost a year and a half. and its a very beautiful thing. it is a program that based itself on the 12 steps from AA yet placed its foundation solely on Christ. i go to it every thursday night and while at first was skeptical to even admit this to anyone, my perspective has been transformed into the realization that each and every Christian might benefit from attending a program such as this. and this is why....no matter our struggles as Christians, we each have the tendency to be drawn to something other than Jesus with which to feel good about ourselves or to deal with the struggles that this life and sin and brokenness brings. for some of us, it may look good on the outside, perhaps even down right "CHristian" but if we are honest, truly honest, we can realize that at times we all struggle to embrace Christ only as our Savior. this group, for me and for my life, has provided a beautiful picture of grace. it is a refuge where sinful, broken people can come and admit freely their sin and their brokenness. the size of the sin doesn't matter (even though we as humans are quick to categorize the degree of sin in our own minds). neither does the length of time the sin has been struggled with. all that matters in this group is the awareness of sin and how it is impossible for any of us to fix it by relying on our own devices. and this is where the beauty is portrayed each and every week. Jesus is lifted up and acknowledged as not only Savior and Provider but as Healer and Forgiver. this is what life, at its core, is about. Jesus. thats it. its simple yet profound. He's beautiful and yet the beauty of His love and sacrifice can only be found as we, as I, live out of the brokenness that is myself when I attempt to live without Him. when i first started going to this group, i felt like i was just one of those people who had hard core sin issues that needed a place like this for support. yet as i've grown in my realizations about Christ and life, i feel like this is where all of us should be living as Christians. not that we all have to go out and be a part of some type of 12 step Christian group (although it wouldn't hurt anything, in my opinion) but we do need to live out of this brokenness. i have felt and seen the power and healing that comes from admitting sin and handing it over to Christ each and every thursday night that i have attended these meetings. and even in the growth that has resulted in my life, I feel an even greater need to stay in this group. not for some chance that i will be healed of my sin once and for all by the attendance of some meeting, but for the mere fact that i need not ever forget my utter brokenness nor the beauty of Christ's love for us, for sinners. it is raw and it is painful to dig deep and admit my powerlessness to control my tendencies towards sin, yet its rewards are amazingly clear... Jesus is power and love and healing and this, my friends, is a very good thing....

mY bAby, nO mOrE??

tuesday marked yet another transition in the elliott household. kindergarten. it was extremely bittersweet. im not gonna lie, most days this summer were spent with me yearning for the first day of school to hurry itself up. it was probably the combination of joey being older and therefore super bored as well as being basically homebound with the kids that i babysit, but whatever the reason, summer days just seemed to drag on and on. he was bored, i was bored, it was just kinda boring and i knew he needed more stimulation than i was capable of providing. last week, he turned six. i didn't think this would be a big deal yet as i went to pray for him after he had fallen asleep that night, i just started weeping. i don't typically use that word, weep, but it seems appropriate for this scenario as thats what it was, a weep-fest. i found myself mourning that we'd hit this new life stage and while it is exciting and necessary and welcomed, it is also the end of lazy mornings at home, summer days spent at the pool, and life as a stay-at-home mom as i know it. and it is sad. i only perpetuated the situation by pulling out all his baby pictures and crying (weeping) some more. anyways, this past tuesday officially marked the first day of kindergarten. i didn't cry as i dropped him off, like some of the moms did. i actually didn't even think i was going to cry at all, but as i came home to a quiet, empty house, reality hit. all that i have yearned for the last few years is quiet-ness. i love it, i adore silence and it isn't, ever, quiet with joey around. yet as i came and sat down in the quietness, the tears came again. its a good quiet as it symbolizes that he's healthy and growing and doing things that 6 year olds do, like going to school. but a sad quiet as the reality of life as we've known it will look different from now on. this probably sounds like a eulogy or something and thats silly because there is so much to be thankful and excited for. but its a transition no less which is usually marked with both happy and sad. anyways, yay for kindergarten:)

iT's OFficiaLLy oFfiCiaL

im done. a couple of hours ago i submitted my last final which signified the conclusion of my somewhat long, extensive undergraduate career, if you can call it that. its been a very non-traditional journey yet i am learning that the majority of my life can not be categorized under anything carrying the label of traditional. its taken 3 schools and 9 years (though not all of them was i in school) but its done. i guess im excited, although its kinda surreal. its a phase of life i was quite sure id never reach the end of and so even though i have, it probably won't feel like it for awhile. at times, its been a great escape as the pressures of life have sometimes been able to be suppressed by the pressures of deadlines and papers and such. at other times ive felt like ive been drowning because of the combination of life's pressures and deadlines and papers and such. so graduation is a good thing. an uncertain thing as i dont know exactly "whats next" is going to look like. but good all the same. perhaps ill find more time to blog. but probably not...

jUsT bEcaUse i liKe iT

"A broken heart love’s cradle is...
Jesus our Lord is crucified"
(from Oh Come and Mourn With Me Awhile by Jars of Clay)

iNflAtioN

to be completely honest, any discussions, speculations, insights, and the like regarding the economy, utterly bore me. the economic realm sparks zero interest in me and i usually tune out convo's of this type fairly soon after they have started. the whole watching the stock market and stressing out about things that i have absolutely no control over just seems like a complete anxiety- provoking waste of time. thus, i tend to ignore this facet of society. however, during the past couple of months, perhaps a bit longer, all this talk of a bad economy has hit a little closer to home. i know that it is bad, in my tiny world, when i see big increases in my budget in the realms of gas and groceries. its become personal, not that this will lend me to paying any more attention to economy-talk, but i get it, its bad. and yet, its become even worse then i realized, as whatever the forces are that drive prices up have proven effective in yet another arena of life...teeth. be it inflation or just a bad economy or whatever, tooth fairies around the world, or at least around my part of the world have seen a major hike with regards to the fair market price of a tooth. and just to clarify, we're not even talking molars here. joey informed me a couple weeks past, after the thrilling event of losing his first tooth, that the going rate was five bucks. five bucks??? for a tooth?? i mean, im only 27, so we're talking what, 20 or so years ago, i got like 50 cents, perhaps a dollar, ok, so i dont remember exactly. but for sure, the going rate was certainly no where near that which it is now. how did this happen? somebody needs to run the figures and see if the inflation of the price of teeth is in any way correlated with that of the cost of living. from my naive and ignorant perspective, it surely can't be. inflation has hit home..

a HorRibLe haPpeNinG

so, im not one to write entertainment reviews as my personal opinion is that everyone has a personal opinion which makes no one right or wrong, just personally opinionated. therefore, reviews in and of themselves are subjective and may or may not have any bearing on whether you like or dislike whatever i liked or disliked. thus, my reasonings for not sharing my critiques on all this what not. yet, i have to make an exception in this case. because i am a little concerned that perhaps i am missing something huge that someone can fill me in on. and if i am not missing something huge, then i look at this blog entry as a forewarning to you not to waste your money on the newest m. knight shyamalan flick. it is horrible, in almost every aspect. now, in all fairness, im sure that based on his history of making films, i had my hopes up. i did not see his last (Lady in the Water) and heard it was rather sub-par but thought that surely it was just a fluke as his other films were pretty much fantastic in my book. yet as i sat and watched this film, i kept waiting for things to start getting better. it never happened and actually the exact opposite took place, it kept getting worse and worse. it was bad...the acting, the story, the ending. everything. it was actually laughably bad at parts. and the thing is, it would have been bad no matter who wrote it. that is what was so incredible as i thought about it later. like, ok, watching that movie would have been a bad experience no matter whose film it was, but being that it was m. knights' it made it so much worse. i don't really know why he even wanted his name on this one. perhaps im being harsh, and yet i think not. personally opinion-ate this movie and let me know if ive gone wrong on this one, but do yourself a favor and save some money by waiting until you can rent it:)

i wAsn'T aWaRE...

this morning joey asked if he could do a craft. im not gonna lie, i hate doing crafts. its a bunch of work and even more cleanup and ive made the executive parental decision to leave all the craftmaking what not to the school system as they are adequately prepared to handle the spills and clutter and cleanup in a way which i apparently am not. and this reasoning has worked thus far as i simply tell joey he can do all of the crafts that he wants to do: at school. however it is not so readily accepted now that school is out. so this morning when he asked, i absent-mindedly said sure! today i had all my children (which would be joey plus the ones i babysit for) and i was busy feeding the baby when joey proceeded with his crafting. i wasnt really paying attention and about a half hour later he yelled, "mom, come look at this." after looking, i couldn't really figure out what he had spent a whole 30 minutes doing, but i have to surmise that a rather large chunk of it probably was spent gathering supplies (which, if you can't identify include: a krispy kreme donut hat, a danimals yogurt container, a clothespin, a penny, and a bottle cap all glued onto a piece of notebook paper) as well as a generous amount of time straining to use as much glue as he could possible squeeze out of the elmer's container to hold down each and every object he had chosen for his little crafty craft. after gazing upon his newest artistic concoction, i did as any good mother would do and wooed over it for awhile while then setting it proudly in the center of our table for all to see. so please, by all means, feel free to come take a peek. its pure talent that i didnt even know existed...
ohh, thought id add a little bonus pic as well...he rules first base, all 40 pounds of him. actually he thinks that he rules the entire field as no matter where the ball is hit, you can be sure that joey will be right the midst of the action, sometimes even fighting his own teammates in hopes of obtaining the right to throw the ball to the coach after the play is over. its funny in t-ball, i just hope he learns before the big leagues. go cardinals!!!
so, he's playing first. (see, i told ya so...)

jUst keEpiNg iT REaL

im not so sure what will transpire here, so just bear with me and if nothing comes together, so be it. today was a rough day for me and while there are no obligations to share that with those who may happen upon this blog, i did have this compelling urge to write about it. its a rather cathartic experience, writing, and things always feels better afterwards: thus i write. so anyways, my bad day.... the bad-ness originated as soon as my alarm clock started ringing. i knew it was going to be a rough day. i was tired and i could just tell. the details are unnecessary but suffice it to say that nothing seemed to go right today, really, nothing. these events were just the catalyst though, as i knew that really deep down, there was more then just these irritating events. and here's what i think it was: sometimes life doesn't at all look like what we'd planned it to look like. there it is, on the table... at 27, my life is not even a glimmer of what i thought or hoped it might be if id have thought about it ten or twenty years ago. and most of the time, im ok with this reality. living my life has given me perspectives, experiences, and wisdom that i obviously would never have known before. it has made my faith real and experiential and pretty exciting at times. it's been good and mostly, i am grateful for the life ive lived and am living. and then there are days like today when i look around and am like what the hell? how in the world did i end up here? while i was at the wedding this past weekend, it was hard not to look around and think that i had really screwed up somewhere. people are doing exciting things, families are doing exciting things and i guess i always dreamed of living and having those same experiences. i don't know, i could go on and on about how life should be and how its not that way. i guess everyone could maybe. and i think that this is ok. its ok to be sad about things that you wished would be but aren't. its ok to be disappointed that things aren't really at all how you thought they'd be. however, i don't think that it would be ok to dwell on these types of things either. and this is why.... God is real and He is so much bigger then any situation i may find myself drowning in at the moment. He does have a plan and im in it, thanks only to His grace. His plan is good and while it may be hard for me (today and on many others) to fathom just how all of this will transpire to goodness, it will, and it already has (on most days..:) ) and this is why im thankful for writing...you see, ive just counseled myself right through this little lull of emotions. sadness is ok to walk through, although i wish to be done with it for now. it's time again for hope...goodnight:)

sUch a SlacKeR, i Am

ive been MIA but im back. at least for tonight. we just got home from a mini vacay...wedding with friends in VA and then a quick visit with the fam in WV. both places are extraordinarily beautiful probably because i come from OH which has to be up there in rankings as far as being the flattest state in the country. any hill appears to be a mountain when from OH thus we were in the midst of what seemed like the Alps as far as im concerned. not that ive been there, but whatever. it was a great little get away and the pics are but a glimpse of the weekend's festivities. as far as the rest of life goes, i feel like im in a state of limbo, but more about that later after a good night's sleep and a hopefully resulting clear head. au revoir for now...

seRioUsLy?

im taking this class on social problems which is ever so depressing, but this is not the point of which i seek to convey. the other day i was reading a chapter entitled: war, terrorism, and the balance of power. the following is an exerpt relating to the monetarial costs of war:

"Each dollar bill is about 6 inches long. If you laid a million of them end to end, you would just about cover the distance from Los Angeles to San Diego. A billion dollar bills would take you around the equator four times. If you laid the dollar bills of today's defense budget end to end, they would circle the earth more than 1,800 times!" (Henslin, 2008)

upon further pondering of the above information my thoughts were not on the atrocities that this paragraph contains but were instead centered around the question of who in the world has the time to come up with facts like these? i mean textbooks are drenched with datum such as this that have to take so much time just to come up with a way to frame it. who does this? is there like a paid position, perhaps entitled "fact framer" or something in which the job description is merely to come up with crazy ideas with which to relay information? i mean, who gets the final word in the above mentioned paragraph on whether to stretch the dollar bills around the earth or to the moon and bacK? and why couldn't they have painted a word picture with quarters? furthermore, if there is a specific job such as this out there, what qualifies you to attain it? do you have to have a math background? or a creative background? perhaps physics? i don't know, it just seems like a complete waste of time to me, which would equate to a complete waste of money if they are actually paying somebody to come up with this stuff. i think that if the authors of this text had simply given the defense budget's total, id have been great with that. it needed no further explanation as far as im concerned and has only led me to an incredible waste of time thinking about these things. it is however, ironic that my opinion centers on what a huge waste of time this seems to be, and yet ive found the time to blog about it...hmmm

eiGhT beLLeS

last night i experienced my first, as well as my last, spectating of the kentucky derby. although it is "the kentucky derby", its one of those things i just have never had any interest in and im never anywhere where its on and thus, ive just never seen it. watching all of the pre-race hoopla, i struggled to understand what the heck was going on. all the women were in crazy hats and they sang this song that everyone sang as if it were the national anthem with all of this patriotism and what not. i dont know, its obviously an event steeped in tradition of which i am totally ignorant. at any rate, as the race began i was just as shocked to see how quickly it ended. for all of the press this race gets, it lasts all of like 2 minutes. its very unimpressive, if you ask me. but all of these reasons have nothing to bear on why ive boycotted the kentucky derby for the remainder of my life. that decision was made because of this: as soon as the race was over, eight belles, who was the horse who came in 2nd, looked as if she tripped or something and she went down. they showed her laying on the track. it was really sad, but not nearly as sad as what happened next....so i guess they brought in all the EMT's(actually, they called it the equine ambulance on tv) for horses and found that she had broken both of her ankles and the only option was to euthenize her. like right there, on the track, only minutes after she had finished 2nd in the kentucky derby. they didnt show it or anything but it was heartbreaking. im not even like a horse fan. they're pretty and look like they are fun to ride, but that's the extent in my affection towards these equestrian beauties. yet seeing this chain of events tore at my heart. thats wierd, i know, but it did. so much so, that ive decided to boycott these festivities for the rest of my years. the horsing community is not missing out on much without my participation as, like i said, this was the first race i'd ever seen, but still. you'd think they'd have been able to do something...i guess thats enough. R.I.P eight belles....

thE aRt of QueStioN asKinG

im thinking it has to do with the fact that i field entirely too many questions in a days time, but whatever the reason, ive been speculating a lot lately on the topic of question asking. being the mother of a five year old, answering questions is a daily task of mine. im thinking joey is on the high end of the spectrum as far as the number of questions he poses in a days time, but i have no concrete data with which to compare. i did, however, decide to get a baseline idea of the number of inquiries he inquires of in a 24 hour period, so this morning i began counting as soon as his feet hit the floor, which is the exact moment the first question pops out of his mouth, i am not even kidding. however, 30 minutes into my data gathering, id already encountered 34 questions (again, im not kidding) and decided to end the technicalities of my research. conveniently, i am, as you all know, so fortunate to be partaking in a statistics class and used this accumulated knowlege to get a rough estimate of joey's average number of questions posed per day. so maybe statistics wasn't exactly the tool that i used to gauge this, but, humor me people. anyways, after some rough calculations, giving the child 12 hours for sleep and 5 hours for school, eating, and generally keeping his mouth silent (which realistically has really never been the case) i found that in the remaining 7 hours of joey's day, he may be likely to pose an average of 476 questions. you may be pondering how this indeed may be the case, but trust me, spend an hour with him, and you will see, its true. granted, many of the questions are mundane and silly (i.e. whats for dinner and then 5 minutes later, whats for dinner) there are some rather well thought out and inquisitive questions which he throws at me. don't get me wrong, i am thrilled with the fact that he is hungry for info, he should be, he's five! this is all very good, im just merely relaying how talented joey is at asking questions. anways, my speculations began as i started to think of adults and how most of us land on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as far as asking questions goes. let's face it, we mostly suck at this facet of friendship and relationship. i can carry on hours of convo, relaying facts and details about the most trivial aspects of my life yet can get off the phone without asking one question about the life of whomever i was blabbing their ear off. i dont think im wrong to conclude that we, as the adults of society, all have a tendency to be self-absorbed in relationships and to slack in asking the questions that need to be asked. at times it seems uncomfortable or inappropriate or prying yet i think each of us yearns for somebody to truly reach in and ask us those questions. i am personally grateful to have a few of those in my life who break this mold and pose the questions which lend themselves to genuine and loving relationship. and so, as im so good at doing, ive made some conclusions... we need to learn from the little people. perhaps not from the quantity of questions they pose, but from their inquisitive nature to know. we need to pursue others in hopes of knowing others and to ask about their lives, their hurts, their fears and their desires. this is relationship, and most of us aren't too great at it. there is a middle ground to be reached in the number of questions that children and adults pose. the little ones aren't gonna change, but we can. that so sounded like a sermon ending. can i get an amen? :)

So sAd...

some things in life are very cruel and although i know that God is good and has His purposes, I struggle during these harsh times to understand why He doesn't intervene, although i guess this is the point, it is not mine to understand. friends of mine have recently been plagued with the news that their daughter has a fatal genetic disease. yesterday they found out that their second child has the same syndrome. they are awesome people. good Christians. they love Jesus. they love their children and eachother. not that these things disqualify you from turmoil, but nobody should have to face this reality. and yet they received the worst news that is possible, in my opinion: both of their beautiful children will hurt more then any child should ever have to hurt. i ache for them and yet cannot even fathom the pain that they are feeling. it is hard for me to synthesize the truth that i believe with the reality that they are facing. i guess that is why God has made His truth truth regardless of the feelings that are attached at the moment. His truth remains throughout joy and sorrow, yet it can seem so far away in the midst of such sorrow

sHhh...dOn't tEll JoEy

although sweet cereal holds fond memories for me, i am not a big connesuier of the sugary variety of breakfast fare these days. growing up, saturday mornings were special days when my brother and i were allowed to enjoy any cereal we so desired. it was the designated morning that we could indulge in cartoons and the empty calories of cereal sweetness. i loved this day as a child and savored every bowl of this sugary goodness. as an adult however, ive found sweet cereal as a whole to be sub-par. it is certainly not a filling cuisine and given the choice, id rather spend the calories on the more luxurious varieties of sugar. icecream, cakes, chocolate, you get my drift. but, last night as i searched the pantry for a little snack, i ran across joey's box of lucky charms and it just appealed to me for whatever reason. although the box was more then half empty, i poured myself a bowl and sat down to reminisce on the days where such food was considered a delicacy. as i finished the bowl, i realized my palette had not been satisfied and i went for another round. yet upon going to pour another bowl-full, i realized my affinities were not towards the cereal as a whole, but only for the charms, the marshmallow bits of yummy-ness. and thus, i proceeded to pick out every last marshmallow left in that half box of lucky charms. i am not proud of this, as 15 minutes later, i was still relatively hungry and there was not a marshmallow to be found. i had eaten each and every one. while i should have just thrown the rest of the cereal away, i decided to avoid a conflict with the ever so observant child of mine who would look into the cupboard the next morning and inquire what had become of his box of lucky charms. i returned the marshmallow-less box to the shelf and am hoping to get to the store before my indulgences are discovered. i have carried on the tradition of saturday being the official sweet cereal morning and therefore have a couple of days with which to tamper with the evidence. it was a rare binge which i wouldn't recommend as it did nothing to satiate the hunger, or the taste i was looking for. ive thus concluded to keep sweet cereal as a novelty for the young. apparently ive outgrown my childhood tastebuds...