Tuesday, March 31, 2009

It's a Birthday Bonanza!

The Little Man is now three and three quarters. Besides being his mother, I would know that because he tells me and everyone else at least a few times a day.

"I'm a big boy. I am not just three, you know, I am three and three quarters."

With this new age milestone has come a realization that his birthday is coming closer. He is DYING for his own birthday. I know that most kids can hardly wait for their birthdays. Heck, I remember my own countdown several years in a row for my birthday. I am telling you, this is OUT OF CONTROL.

Everyday, he looks at the calendar. One day he announced, "I can't believe it, Mommy! Only nine days until my birthday!" When I told him that wasn't the case, he wanted me to prove it to him. He got very angry when I showed him on the calendar what day it was that day, and then what day his birthday actually was. He then wanted to know exactly how many days that was. So we counted.

Bad idea.

When we got to May he declared, "I hate this calendar. It's mean."

Besides knowing how many days exactly it is until his birthday, we also have been planning the big party. He has about 2 or 15 different parties planned. We are having a Hot Wheels party, a Darth Vader party, a Transformer party, a Cars party, a Toy Story party and a Bad Guys party (besides his own birthday, his other obsession is Bad Guys).

Ya, I think that covers it.

Some of his parties are at Chuck E Cheeses others are at the pool. One party he has planned at his Cousin's house. I thought that was the best idea I had heard in a long time. When I told Auntie, she didn't really agree. Something about cleaning/hosting/paying for a party that isn't even for your own child...blah, blah, blah.

Whatever.

Based off of what happened with the calendar, I won't be telling him anytime soon that I had just planned on getting the family together at the park for a small cook out and play time.

It could be an emotional day.

Until then, we'll just keep counting down the days.

Monday, March 30, 2009

It Just Gets My Blood Pumping

Unfortunately, Spring Break is over. We had a good time, but I didn't start feeling the "break" in Spring Break until Friday, so I still have a longing for about one more week. So, back to the grind we go. No more breaks (with the exception of conferences) until Summer Break.

Ahhh, Summer Break.

The daily grind isn't such a bad thing. Especially since we (and by "we" I mean "I") celebrated my birthday pretty much ALL week with all kinds of eating out and special treats. It was so bad, I was actually begging for the gym yesterday...I couldn't even make it to today. It will take about three weeks to undo what one bad week has done.

Oh well.

This is actually not the topic of this post. I was actually going to share with you a poem that I have fallen in love with. I know that I have mentioned that a Bible Study I am participating in this Spring is the one by Priscilla Shirer, Beth Moore, and Kay Arthur called Anointed, Transformed, and Redeemed. It has been a really good study. There is a poem that Priscilla recited during the first lesson (author is unknown) that just gave me the chills. I nearly forgot about it, until yesterday when, getting back to the "Daily Grind", caught me up on some of my favorite blogs.

I love what one of the writers on that blog says, "If this doesn't light your fire, then your wood must be wet."

Here you go:

He is the First and Last,
The Beginning and the End!
He is the keeper of Creation and the Creator of all!
He is the Architect of the universe and the Manager of all times.
He always was,
He always is, and He always will be...
Unmoved, Unchanged, Undefeated, and never Undone!

He was bruised and brought healing!
He was pierced and eased pain!
He was persecuted and brought freedom!
He was dead and brought life!
He is risen and brings power!
He reigns and brings Peace!

The world can't understand him,
The armies can't defeat Him,
The schools can't explain Him,
and The leaders can't ignore Him.

Herod couldn't kill Him,
The Pharisees couldn't confuse Him,
and The people couldn't hold Him!

Nero couldn't crush Him,
Hitler couldn't silence Him,
The New Age can't replace Him,
and Oprah can't explain Him away!
He is light, love, longevity, and Lord.
He is goodness, Kindness, Gentleness, and God.
He is Holy, Righteous, mighty, powerful, and pure.

His ways are right,
His word is eternal,
His will is unchanging,
and His mind is on me.

He is my Savior,
He is my guide, and
He is my peace!
He is my Joy,
He is my comfort,
He is my Lord, and
He rules my life!

I serve Him because
His bond is love,
His burden is light,
and His goal for me is abundant life.

I follow Him because
He is the wisdom of the wise,
the power of the powerful,
the ancient of days,
the ruler of rulers,
the leader of leaders,
the overseer of the overcomers,
and is to come.
And if that seems impressive to you,
try this on for size.

His goal is a relationship with ME!
He will never leave me,
never forsake me,
never mislead me,
never forget me,
never overlook me,
and never cancel my appointment in His
appointment book!

When I fall, He lifts me up!
When I fail, He forgives!
When I am weak, He is strong!
When I am lost, He is the way!

When I am afraid, He is my courage!
When I stumble, He steadies me!
When I am hurt, He heals me!
When I am broken, He mends me!
When I am blind, He leads me!
When I am hungry, He feeds me!

When I face trials, He is with me!
When I face persecution, He shields me!
When I face problems, He comforts me!
When I face loss, He provides for me!
When I face Death, He carries me Home!

He is everything for everybody everywhere, every time, and every way.
He is God, He is faithful.
I am His, and He is mine!
My Father in heaven can whip the father of this world.
So, if you're wondering why I feel so secure, understand this...

He said it and that settles it.
God is in control,
I am on His side,
and that means all is well with my soul.
Everyday is a blessing for GOD Is!

Let that sink in for a bit...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Unsupervised Play

I am just going to flat out admit it. My kids have gotten to an age that close supervision 24/7 is not necessary. I guess what I am confessing is that I allow my kids to be alone in another room without me being there watching their every move. They are six and almost four. I feel like if I need to take a shower, I can and not worry that they are getting into trouble. Sometimes, I will even squeeze in a little treadmill time AND a shower. That means while they are on the main level of the home, I am in the basement and in my room. I hope you all don't turn me in. I am still in the house with them.

And they totally have a babysitter.

Her name is Dora.

Have you met?

Oh, I kid.

(Only half way).

All that to say, yesterday, was one of those days where I needed to hit the treadmill and the shower. I set the kids up with some Sesame Street(another sitter, that is available for a whole hour), and quickly worked out and showered. As I was getting ready, I heard this conversation:

d: come on, Bro. It won't hurt. I promise.
p: NO. I don't want to. It will hurt. I promise.
d: No it won't. Just do it.
p: NO, NO, NO!
d: Bro! Come on...Come over here. It will just take a second.
p: No! You're going to hurt me.

That's when I intervened. Of course, The Girl said that NOTHING was going on. They were just "playing".

I completely believed her.

Again, I kid.

I made her stop what she was doing so she could come up to me and explain what they were playing.

me: Now, tell me what you are playing because I heard Bro tell you that he thought he was going to get hurt.
d: He wasn't getting hurt.
me: I know he isn't hurt now, but he thought what you were going to do was going to hurt him. Now why would he think that? What exactly are you wanting him to do.
d: He won't get hurt. I just want him to do some chemical testing on his skin.

Sesame Street is TOTALLY fired.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Can I Get a Woot Woot!

It is SPRING BREAK!! S-P-R-I-N-G BREAK! Yippee!

I have high hopes for Spring Break this year since this is the first Spring Break that my kids have had while in school full time. I really don't care what the weather does because I want to do NOTHING! Doesn't that sound grand? I know, as a child, if my mom said, "Yippee it's Spring Break, and guess what? we're doing NOTHING!" I would have been so disappointed. I hope that isn't the case for my kids.

However, if it is, I don't have plans to change our plans of Nothingness.

All that to say, we still have stuff planned pretty much everyday this week.

While I don't want to have anything written in stone, I do want to do something. It just feels good to say we have nothing planned and then go do something that I have been thinking about doing.

If we want.

Or not.

Am I making any sense what-so-ever?

Good.

Basically, I don't want to feel scheduled, but I do want to do fun things.

I want to be free to do and go as I please.

You know, with two kids in tow.

That have their own ideas of how the day should run.

And they need snacks.

And naps.

Don't forget potty breaks.

Now that I think about it, a week really isn't long enough.

How many days until Summer Vacation?

Friday, March 20, 2009

It's Like a 2x4 Right Betweeen the Eyes

How is it already Friday? The week was crazy, AGAIN. It is way too early to be this busy. I mean, I am used to this kind of crazy in like, May, but March?

Also, March is still too close to the holiday season in which I ran around like mad as well.

Maybe this is just life, and I need to get a grip.

Thank goodness for Spring Break next week.

I will say, that it has been a great week of study in a Bible study I have been doing. I have learned, amongst the busyness, some important lessons.

I was hit hardest by these two things:

"What the Lord calls, He establishes. That is: He brings into existence and assures the ability for the outcome to fulfill His purposes and plans. When God establishes a person for a specific purpose, He secures, equips, and fortifies the person called so that he or she is fully capable of performing the task at hand. My personal tendency to feel ill-equipped and insufficient is in direct correlation to my lack of belief that I have been established and equipped by God to accomplish the task."

I cannot count how many times I have felt, or even said out loud, "I cannot handle this situation.", or "I won't be able to do this task because I am not a strong enough person emotionally." Sometimes that actually sounds like, "I don't think I can deal," or "This is just too much."

When I trust in my own capabilities to handle the tasks at hand, then I SHOULD be fearful and intimidated, but if I rest in God's work in me, then my outlook is changed. Believing God has called and established me is fundamental for me to live with a valid sense of worth and the ability to fulfill God's purpose in my life.

As if that wasn't enough, this lesson also struck me rather hard:

"The Father loves people not programs. Any program He initiates and or assignment he commissions you to do always has this as its main goal: turning people to a relationship with Himself. Mothering is not the ultimate goal of being a mom, revealing Christ to the children is. The position of leader in the career or ministry is not the goal, those in your sphere of influence seeing God's love reflected in you is."

"Now when He works through us, anointing us for divine purposes, His intention is not the task but that He might be more clearly seen."

I knew when I read this, it was BIG, and that I really needed to change my perspective. Most of the time though, when I think about this type of stuff, I think about what I think are bigger callings in life to serve Him, or I think, "Well this will better equip me when I am in a different season of life when I can devote more time to furthering the Kingdom. Then Priscilla said this:

"I've often noticed that I tend to lean toward the programming over the people involved. I can tell this because when I'm cooking dinner for my family or folding their laundry, I can easily become irritated when my children or husband interrupt me and need my attention....When I let the task override the relationship for which I was doing it."

OUCH

"Each person in your life has been strategically placed in your life so that your obedience to God's call can cause them to see Christ more fully and personally. This is your goal."

That means my goal isn't to finish the task. It's not about the program. It isn't about my schedule, and all the things on it. It's about helping the people placed in my life see and experience God more fully.

Even the little people in my life.

(And by little people, I mean short)

((And by short, I mean my kids))

I don't need to wait for a different season in life to get started. I can get started right now with the little people in my life...who don't allow me to finish a task.

Have I heard all of this before?

Yes.

But in this week of busyness, I needed another reminder that God has equipped me for this season in life. I can and am able to handle or "deal" with this time of life through Him. Also, as much as I seem to make it this way, it isn't about all the programs and activities I'm involved in, it's about the people and relationships that these programs and activities are for.

So what if I am a little late?

Monday, March 16, 2009

Confessions

Sometimes it just feels good to get things out in the open. Get them off your chest. Not that I would admit to anything torrid or too embarrassing here, but nonetheless:

1. I have been enjoying our "mild" winter very much. I am sure that comes to no surprise to anyone, but I have to admit, I would love to have a huge blizzard. One that socks us in for a couple of days. Of course, I would like to have fair warning of said blizzard so that I have all the essentials (read: comfort food) in stock. The thought of watching it come down from the comfort of the warm house, baking, watching TV, staying in your cozy jammies, and having to clear the calendar because you don't have any other choice, sounds divine in my world. I would prefer that it happens in the middle of the week, so we have a snow day from school, or two.

Also, if all the snow that came down could ALL melt in about 2-3 days, and we could have our 70 degree temperatures back, that would be nice too.

Thanks.

2. Since it is warm, and we don't have any impending blizzards, I have been doing some "spring cleaning" in the yard. I have already "prepped" my garden, and today, I went ahead and pruned back all the bushes, roses, perennial flowers, and ornamental grasses.

The confession part? Well, I loved every minute of it. Please don't let these words lead you astray, I am not a gardener nor to I have a green thumb of any kind, but I do enjoy working with plants and gardens. I have no clue what I am doing, but I just do what looks like it might work, or might help the plant out. That makes the surprise all the sweeter when something actually happens in the garden/flower bed come summer time.

Also, I love the way everything looks all pruned back. It's like they all got a good hair cut, and it just screams spring to me.

3. While I was in this "Spring Cleaning" mode, I decided to wash the dog's blanket.

For the first time all winter.

Don't judge.

4. Even though it seems as though The Little Man had a 24 hour tummy bug, I am still scarred from The Girl's last experience with the "Bug". I have been waiting and waiting for the second wave to hit. If he makes it a week, I will say we are all clear.

5. As I post this, Hubs is watching Dancing with the Stars...

Oh, I guess that's a confession HE should make.

Sorry, hon.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Competitive? Anyone?

It seems as though The Girl has been pretty stressed out at school. She is a very high energy child, a perfectionist, and a people-pleaser. At home we see the energy all the time, and some of the time that energy and perfectionism collide and we have the DRAMA. At school, the DRAMA seems to be all the time. She takes school very seriously, and always wants to please her teacher. I appreciate that, but I want her to enjoy school as well.

Also, I would like it very much if my six year old didn't have an ulcer.

We thought maybe we should do more of the fun things that the school has to offer to show her school is a fun place too, not just a place of business. Tonight, they had Family Bingo Night with an Ice Cream Social.

First, YUM.

Second, let's play some BINGO.

The first game was going swimmingly. She totally got the hang of the game and was having a great time marking off all her spots as they were called. Then someone yelled, "BINGO," and the mood shifted a bit. Also, when I told her we had to throw our cards out and start on the next set of cards for the next game, she was a little ticked that there wouldn't be a second place. I quickly distracted her with the fact that we get to play again!

Happiness returned.

Then someone else called out, "BINGO!"

The tears rolled.

Quickly, I told her that we had more games to play which meant we had more chances to win. She wiped away the tears and tried to focus. This time she was visibly more grumpy.

After five games there was an intermission. This intermission was DESPERATELY needed. Thank heavens for ice cream. All was well again.

To make a long story short, we never won. I tried to take the focus off of the winning part (or lack there of) and tried to help her see that we got to come to her school, see some of her friends outside of class, and have fun tonight as a family. She responded with, "All that would have been just great except that it was TOTALLY RUINED because we got the STUPIDEST Bingo cards in the whole place!"

So, my plan to have fun and lighten the mood with school went just the way I planned.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

More Conversations With the Kids

Let me just give you a little background on this conversation, The Little Man is in love with Transformers. Why? I have no idea, except that he is a little boy. He has never seen any type of show or movie with the Transformers in them. He does not own any Transformer toys, and up until today, does not have any Transformer books. For some reason, sometime last summer, he saw a Transformer picture and fell in love.

IN LOVE, I tell you!

When I saw that the Scholastic Book order form, that got sent home from school, had a Transformer book in it, I thought, "The Little Man is going to LOVE this."

Well, I was right on the money. He squealed and howled and squealed some more. He actually looked through it so many times, between receiving it and me actually reading it, that he ripped out one of the pages. So today, we sat down with our Transformers book and started to read. Afterwords, we had this little conversation:

me: Hmmm...lets go back and look at the page that has the picture on it of all the Transformers and try to figure out their names.
p: Ya!
me: I think this one is Optimus Prime
p: No, that one is a Transformer
me: Ya, I know it's a Transformer, but I think his name is Optimus Prime.
p: NO MOMMY! He is a TRANSFORMER!
me: I know, honey, but he is a Transformer that has a name, and his name is Optimus Prime.
p: I know mommy, I am TRYING TO TELL YOU he is a Transformer, so TRANSFORMER is his LAST NAME. You know, Optimus Prime Transformer.
me: Ya, I am sure that is what you were trying to tell me.

This little convo happened later tonight while I was blow-drying The Girl's hair after a shower:

d: Why do you always take a shower, like everyday?
me: Because, it's good to take a shower everyday. You're supposed to.
d: I don't think you HAVE to take a shower everyday.
me: Well, I guess you don't HAVE to.
d: Ya, it isn't in the Ten Commandments you know.
me: I suppose since it isn't a Ten Commandment we could probably skip a day here and there.

If you smell something funny next time you're around...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Traps, Tracks Whatever!

An excerpt from a conversation in the car:

p: Mommy, when we get home, the first thing I am going to do is set up a whole bunch of booby traps.
me: What?
p: I am going home and setting up a bunch of booby traps.
me: Booby traps?
p: Ya, and after I set them up, I am going to sneak away really quietly so no one knows who did it.
me: What?
p: Booby traps, Mom!
me: Are you saying Booby Traps?
p: YES, BOOBY TRAPS! I am going to set booby traps all over the yard...in the snow.
me: How are you going to do this?
p: When we get home!
me: OK, when we get home you are going to set booby traps in the snow. How?
p: I am just going to walk around in my boots in the snow and leave traps everywhere.
me: Are you trying to say you are going to leave tracks?
p: YES! I am going to leave booby tracks all over the yard!

I just dropped it.

I don't even want to know.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Back In the Saddle

I have to admit, the thumb accident? it kind of had me out of sorts last week. I wasn't sleeping well on top of it all. I don't do well with sleep loss. This week though, promises to be new. I get the stitches taken out on Thursday, and the pain has pretty much subsided for now. I have been able to work out and run again (something that the pain/throbbing was prohibiting) so I feel like I can go back to being myself for now.

Just less a little thumb.

The Girl has lost FOUR TEETH now! She isn't even recognizable if you were to look at her pictures from before all the tooth loss set in. The top two came out because of the "incident", but the bottom two came out because, well, she is six. She is beyond elated and LOVES the Tooth Fairy so much she often talks about wanting to lose all her teeth right now so that the Tooth Fairy will visit her house all the time.

That, and she likes the cash involved.

One time, last week, the Tooth Fairy? she didn't make it to our house. It was too windy. If you are a small fairy that uses flight as your main mode of transportation, the wind isn't your friend. Thankfully, when she lost the second tooth last week, the winds died down just in time for her to arrive. As if remembering the Tooth Fairy thing wasn't hard enough, now we have to pay attention to the weather because The Girl is all over whether or not conditions are right for payment.

We like challenges.

The Little Man is very jealous he hasn't lost any teeth yet. He asked me today how many more days until he loses a tooth. I told him that he would need to be six. He wanted to know how many days that was. He was pretty ticked when I told him the approximate time frame he was looking at.

I just hope he doesn't take matters into his own hands like he did with his sister.

The Girl has been going to Birthday Parties like they are going out of style. I don't know what happened nine months previous to mid-February/beginning of March in 2002, but WOW! It was a fertile time. I actually had to tell her that we would have to decline the next invite if we didn't get a least a couple of weeks off.

This too has made The Little Man very jealous. He wants to go to parties too, but now that The Girl is in school, the parties are no longer for him too. As revenge, he is throwing the "bestest birthday party ever! ONLY BOYS can come...except sister." It totally breaks my heart to see him so sad. He just wants to do stuff with his sister and have fun.

And eat cake.

Lastly, here's a picture of the two I took playing in the winds we had last week. I have had this idea of a picture in my mind for about a month or so now. It didn't turn out quite the way I wanted to, so we'll have to try again soon...

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Frolicking

So, I thought about posting on how many things you use your thumb for. Even if that thumb isn't on your dominant hand. However, I changed my mind because, well, the list is LONG.

And boring.

So, instead, I thought I would show you one of our favorite toys to play with on our GORGEOUS early March days. This little gem, it has fascinated The Little Man for weeks (we got it at Christmas time), as well as The Girl.

OK, The Hubs and I have played with it too.

The rockets? they fly!



(I love that he jumped so high his head is out of the frame. He's totally serious about getting some height).






If you are wondering if there is a weird look to these photos...there is. I was having fun playing.

Monday, March 2, 2009

I'm Stocking Up on Band-Aids and Guaze

If you have a weak stomach, or don't deal well with trauma and blood check out now.

I am serious.

I do well with this stuff, and I plain LOST MY COOL.

OK, if you are still here, you can't say I didn't warn you.

Yesterday, at lunch time, I cut off the tip of my thumb.

I know, so gross.

I was cutting carrots in a hurry to make it to a lunch on time, and just flat out wasn't paying very close attention. Apparently, those knives we got brand new at Christmas, they are sharp. There was no resistance whatsoever.

I immediately started screaming, and crying, and some more screaming, and then some wailing.

Because I know how to keep my cool in emergency situations.

Thank goodness the kids were nowhere within earshot or sight. They had chosen to wait for us in the car while we quickly ran in and grabbed the salads (that I still needed to chop up a carrot for). It would have totally scarred them for life, the way their mother was carrying on.

And the blood.

And the floppy finger tip.

So, I had the tip sewn back on in the ER. The ER was a VERY busy place yesterday. We were there for almost 4 hours. Much of that time my thumb was not medicated.

I'm just sayin'.

While we waited, Hubs made good use of the time. He took my iPhone and used the whoopy cushion application to make everyone who walked by our room, or who was waiting outside our room (we were right across the hall from a single-stall bathroom), think we were disgusting human beings, with bowel issues, just having a grand ol' time in our room. I think he laughed so hard there were tears. So, someone was having fun.

Which is important.

Unfortunately, the price of admission for this fun, was the tip of my left thumb.