Praise HIM in this Storm?

Spaced out, absent minded, brain farts, whatever you want to call it---that's me this week.

My mind has been elsewhere. Thinking about matters of great gravity has caused me to do some really silly things. Today alone, I have drove past the driveway where I needed to drop off the car-pool kids, left a diaper on my child all afternoon---(she's potty trained), and worst of all, this morning I sent my older son to school sportin' his younger brother's jeans---(they are not at all the same size) only to discover the discrepency when Chase was stepped off the bus. Oh, and I've been wearing my scarf all day, indoors. Why so distracted?

Segue to seriousness...

Our church and school community is hurting this week following the death of a little boy. His own mother spoke at his funeral and I have not been able to think about much else. Where do we find the strength when something like this happens in our lives? How is a devastated mother able to give God the glory when her son is gone? I am scared at the thought of my weakness, that my faith would not be as strong, my attitude bitter, and my will to go on extinguished. When I think about Theresa I truly want what she has--a real faith, a genuine dependence on God, and the ability to praise Him during the biggest storm one could face. How do I get from where I am to where I want to be, where God wants all of us to be? Does it have to take a tragedy or a life changing moment? Can it be just a daily journey? Jamie and I were chatting about this very thing today. I want to be a Christian that can truly say God is Good, All The Time.

do you hear what I hear?

I think I discovered how to add audio to my blog. It may take a moment to load---forever to load if you don't have a high speed connection, sorry.

Enjoy today's tune--Boston "More Than a Feeling" circa 1976

More hits to come...

Do Not Try This At Home.

Our little one learned about electricity this week---the hard way What's worse is that it happened right under my nose. Dewey has a great imagination and he was racing around little hot wheel cars on the kitchen floor. What was plugged into this outlet was the plug and cord from a baby monitor.

You do the math, or in this case the science. He was playing with a metal car and the cord and somehow thought it would be a good idea to touch the car to the prong? thingys that go into the outlet.

The result was blood curdling scream, a huge spark, and drywall dust all over the place.
I think he may have got a little shock, because he told me later that he "couldn't move when he was playing with that thing"



A lesson learned you might ask?
Not so much. Ten minutes later Dan caught him playing with the plug from the vacuum and a nearby outlet!

There is a T-shirt for sale with this printed on it.
It is probably how non-bloggers feel about us Blog-fiends.

if you can't read it, it says :

Inane, Rambling, Rarely Updated
THE BLOG
She wanted to stop reading it-But she had nothing better to do!

Produced by AVERAGE PEOPLE who SEEM to think THEIR LIVES are INTERESTING
filmed in THRILLING HTML-O-Scope with EXCITING new FONTS!!

What?? not all people think Blogging and Bloggers are witty, fascinating, and inspirational?
A waste of time??

I'm being sarcastic. sort of.

My celebrity look-alikes????

I found this website that scans your face and comes up with a personalized list of famous persons that look like you, in this case folks that look like me.

Ricki Lake? come ON!

A Mini-Van Moment of Truth

Yesterday was a typical Wednesday morning and the kids and I were driving to school. I usually have the radio on and switch back and forth from WJQ to the Fox. Amidst the Christian tunes of WJQ, my children had a rather heated discussion:

Drew "I just heard Jesus in that song!"

Joy "No, Dewey!

Drew "Don't say it, Girl!

Joy "It's MY Jesus!"

Drew "No, it's MY Jesus!"

Chase "Mom, I don't want them to say that."

Chase "Jesus is for Everyone."

Leave it to my children to actually fight over who Jesus belongs to. Leave it to a child to understand the simple truth--Jesus is for Everyone.

proud cousins

Last night Stacey was feeling the need to get out of the house. She loaded up her mini-van and came over to our place with the girls. I think it was Stacey's first outing with the girls on her own. My kids were extremely excited. Before the triplets' birth, before bedrest, long before, Stacey would often just come over and "hang" as she calls it, at my house. We figured that this was only the third time since June she has come over. Wow, how things have changed. We so enjoyed having the girls over and look forward to much "hanging" in the future.

1. Dewey talking to Olivia
2. Chase holding Sophie (who has a really bad cold)
3. Joy comforting Olivia as Drew poses for the picture.
4. Joy, the little mother and her baby.

self awareness.

I am one of those weird-0s that has to do all of my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. I also make a meal plan for what I am going to bring to each party and get-together and buy all the groceries at once. While I'm talking about unusual habits, I also have to balance my checkbook everyday. Sounds practical (crazy), right?

What seems odd to me is that I can be extremely organized and structured about certain things, but utterly disorganized and undisciplined about others. I observe that people are wired either one way or the other--clean or a slob, good with money or bad with money, healthy or unhealthy. I find myself to be a human oxymoron, so many contradicting behaviors. I fiend clean countertops but don't look inside my cupboards--ewwww! when was the last time I washed them out? I balance my checkbook daily, then why is it that I made a overdraft from the wrong account? I require that my son learn his Bible memory verse, but when was the last time I did the same? I'll will buy the cheapest and least comforting toilet paper on the market, but spend $80 bucks on pair of jeans (gasp!)

What's the deal? Does anyone else go to such extremes as I? I would like to hear about.

guess who?

name this (not so) famous blogger.

Glory Days.

Tonight Dan's parents took us out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Yes, our anniversary was in May and it's now November, I guess we are really busy people. It is a fun tradition that we have enjoyed for the last 9 years. I mentioned tonight that it is 11 years ago this month that Dan & I started dating. A blink of an eye, really. Dan always jokes about how he was "in his prime" back in 1993. I, too thought that I was pretty awesome back in the day.

You be the judge.

Dan--Seventh grade

Michelle 8th grade

Dan--in his prime

can I get a shout out for best curly hair of 1994???

Oh, the wedded bliss

past our prime??--Mexico '06

randomness

Somehow I lost all of my Halloween photos from my memory stick--WAAAHHHH! thus no pix of the kids in their costumes--I know, you'll get over it.

SO today I have this weird grievance to report. ( I smell a soapbox) About this time of year I start receiving mailers from various non-profits and charities. Most of them are simple letters with an envelope, others are not. Some organizations send you return address stickers, ok, that's handy, others send you a notepad or postcards. I have also received an actual packet of seasoning for chicken broth which I was supposed to sign and send back to the homeless shelter with my donation. But today I actually got an ink pen and Christmas cards from a particular organization. What is the point of this? Don't get me wrong, I believe in giving of our financial resources but doesn't it make more sense for them to save the extra $ spent on fancy packaging, pens, stickers, or whatever they choose to give out to thousands of people and instead use that money for their cause? I suppose I know nothing about marketing and PR, but getting a shiny new pen from some organization does not make me any more likely to donate to them, maybe even less likely.

Ok, any thoughts? Am I just a scrooge or what?