Skills

Usually I don't forward or pass on this kind of thing...but this guy is crazy, and he made me laugh so hard with his slalom skateboarding skills.

Perspective

Sometimes it just takes a good sermon to smack you on the head and help you get a little clarity. That's exactly what happened to us yesterday. One of our pastors has been doing a series called REACH, examining evangelism up close & personal. Last week was excellent, as he talked about how we're called by Christ to be fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium. This week was humbling, heavy, and convicting, as he talked about the reasons we don't take the great commission seriously, namely, preoccupation with the trivial, greed, prejudice and ethnocentrism, and a general unwillingness to care about people who are different than we are.

By the end honey and I were both in tears. It was the kind of sermon that you remember years down the road, and see the actual way your life changed because of what you heard.

Here are a few things to think about: all of us who live here in the US live an incredibly rich life, compared with the rest of the planet, thanks to the fact that we know where our next meal is coming from and have a safe place to sleep. Compassion International sites that "almost 6.5 million children under 5 die every year from hunger-related diseases. In fact, hunger-related illnesses kill 12 children every minute of every day." WHAT THE HECK? How is this happening, and all we hear on the news is Anna Nicole Smith & Britney Spears? Don't get me wrong. I feel for Anna Nicole, and her dear little girl, and I hope that Britney can get her act together... But a little awareness could make such a difference. Compassion cites that it would take $19 billion a year to meet the "basic nutritional needs of the world's poorest children," and yet the world spends $18 billion every year on MAKE-UP. So where's God's heart here? Starving kids, or make-up? Hmmm....

I'm not saying give up make-up for the starving kids, or AIDS orphans, or whatever injustice/need that you see. I'm just saying, like my pastor said Sunday, that we have to start somewhere. He cited the old joke, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time..." That means I have to figure out where I'm going to take my first bite. Me. My family. My church. We're called to it. God has a heart for the world, and we, as His children, have to reflect His heart, by defending the fatherless & the widow, by helping the poor, and by making disciples of all nations.

I know this is heavy stuff. I haven't been able to get it out of my head yet, and that's good. There's plenty of trivial junk that could take its place in my brain pretty quickly, but I don't want to let that happen. This is too important. Father, I want my heart to reflect your heart for the world. I know that I get caught up all too often in the mundane, in the ridiculous things that pull my attention away from reflecting Your glory to a broken world. So help me to grow up to look like Jesus, in all things. Help me to start today, with my neighbors, and to not be ashamed of the glorious gospel of your Son. And thank you for the gift of the Spirit, for not leaving us all to do this on our own.

Ginormous

I am Sasquatch, hear me roar...or whatever it is that sasquatches do.

Today I am tired of having giant, freakish feet. I spent 4 perfectly good hours tonight searching for shoes for N&S's wedding, which is exactly 2 weeks from tonight. Super excited about the wedding. Not so excited about finding shoes for the wedding. I went to all the right stores in town, known for having shoes for giant feet, and I had absolutely NO luck. Shoes that look adorable in a size 6 usually look like canoes in size 11 (if you can even find an 11). And not being able to look at open-toed styles narrows my options even further, unless I want to wrestle with glue-on toenails (yes, there is such a thing, and I so wish I didn't need to know that).

At least I've made peace with my feet. In high school I HATED them. Every year at disciple now, our group always had to do a foot-washing, and that was always a nightmare. In college I wasn't willing to admit that I needed 11's (but then again, all I wore were my birks & docs). Then I moved to Dallas, and I realized that size 11 "professional casual" shoes were a lot more comfortable than size 10's. SIGH.

So I'll keep trying to find the shoes...can't go barefoot to the wedding! It's in Oregon, and if my feet get frostbite they'll be freakier than they are now. And I'll keep trying to not let my freakish attitude toward feet rub off on the pumpkins. At least they aren't bothered by my lack of big toenails!

Throw Me Somethin' Mister!

Yesterday was Mardi Gras. Most of you probably know that. What you might not know is that my childhood years were spent in New Orleans, and so Mardi Gras is a fun day for my sister and me. We even had an impromptu Mardi Gras party here at the casa, complete with crappy king cake from Tom Thumb, and beads from the girls dress-up stuff. I have two favorite memories of Mardi Gras. The first is sitting in this contraption that my dad rigged up (and lots of other dads, too) that involved my sister and I sitting next to each other on top of a ladder as we watched the big truck parades. We always wound up with more beads and doubloons than we needed. Thinking back I'm amazed that our mom let us sit on that thing... The second is us playing Mardi Gras in the backyard with our friends. A few of us would perch on the monkey bars and throw beads and doubloons to our friends on the ground, then we'd pick up all the beads, and trade places. I'm sure that sounds like a weird childhood game to honey, who hails from PA, but it was so much fun.

So, yeah. New Orleans is in my thoughts today. It's distressing that the NOLA I read about in the paper doesn't reflect anything of the wonderful place that lives in my memories. I'm sure that mom & dad would say that there wasn't anything really all that wonderful about it...but it was a great place to be a kid.

Anyway, because yesterday was Mardi Gras, today is Ash Wednesday. We've got friends at Trinity Fellowship Church (an evangelical church that lots of DTS folks attend), and they celebrate Lent. They even have a 2007 Lent Devotional & Prayer Guide written by men in their church body (I haven't looked through it yet, but plan to). They also celebrate the Triduum, which is a 3-day Easter service that begins on Maundy Thursday, continues Good Friday, and is completed Easter morning. We've celebrated the Triduum several times, and it always prompts some great reflection. I just love this time of year! Spring seems to be springing, and Easter is on it's way. He is risen!

Losing the turf war

Our poor neighbors. We are the king & queen of lawn neglect, and it shows. BIG time. In an attempt to be good stewards, of the earth, and our children, and even the dog, we've done organic lawn care since we moved in. The only trouble we have is with stinkin' weeds. They're everywhere. In theory, the longer you do organic lawn care, the healthier and thicker your grass, and that's essentially supposed to choke out the weeds. But for some reason (laziness? a general hatred of lawn work on both our parts?) we just can't get that healthy, thick grass that we'd like to have. A new friend who also does organic lawn care was over a few weeks ago, and we got to talking about weeds. He said that the only way he's able to control them is to pull 30 of them every day when he gets home from work. UGH. I can guarantee that neither one of us lazybones is about to start pulling 30 weeds every time we pull in the driveway. So what are we to do? On one income we obviously can't pay someone to do our dirty work for us, so I'm on the verge of abandoning ship, as it were. I think I'm ready to put chemicals on the lawn. Our neighbors all do it, and their lawns look great (I know that's terrible reasoning, but it's true). I'm kinda sick of being the folks with the crappy lawn. I feel like we've given organic a fair shake (we've been here almost 5 years), and it just isn't a good fit for us. Any advice?

Seriously?

So this is probably one of those totally inappropriate things that I should keep to myself...but I'm such a goober I couldn't stop laughing. We just saw on the news that a guy today in Fort Worth held a lady hostage at the "T&A Cabaret," which is a *EHEM* gentleman's club. Seriously? T&A Cabaret? How much more obvious can it be? Boob & Bootie Barn?

Valentine's Schmalentine's

So maybe I'm a little cynical, but COME ON...the dog ate 9 of our valentine's cupcakes while we were taking the truck to the shop yet again! Yeesh. Anyway, last week the paper had a gorgeous picture of red gerbera daisies in a beautiful red glass vase, and so I circled it with a big red sharpie, and wrote "HINT, HINT" above it. Left that in a conspicuous place where honey would be sure to see it. That's what I really thought I wanted until I visited Colleen's house last week.

You have to understand that since we've been married, I've been on a quest to make perfect sweet tea. Honey's mom makes the best sweet tea in the whole entire world. I've stood and watched her make sweet tea, and written down every exact detail of the process, but I can never ever replicate it. EVER. So understand, there's almost 10 years of frustration mounting here. Anyhoo, I was at my wonderful friend Colleen's house last week, and had a GREAT glass, and asked her secret. She pointed to her Mr. Coffee iced tea maker, and the rest, as they say, is history.

So this is what I wound up getting for myself for Valentine's Day. As for the red daisies, I asked honey to surprise me with them the next time he thought I needed a happy. Oh, and he got me a box of thin mints. Yum-o. I support Ellen's reason for it being OK to eat them: "They're "THIN" mints!"

When I grow up...

For some reason that just makes me think of that idiotic skit I did in college (made infamous by mikee v's ever-hilarious interpretation), so there's a little shout out to all you crazy Tech kiddos.

Anyhoo, I really do have a point. I was having a conversation the other day with my amazing SIL Sha, and we were discussing how frustrated I am not knowing what I want to do when I grow up (don't get mad at me, all you stay-at-home mommies...I'm not saying I don't have a job now. I'm just thinking about days to come, that's all). We talked about why I have such a hard time making that decision, and the only reason that really sticks with me is the fact that it's such a HUGE decision, so there's tons of pressure (in my mind anyway) that comes with it. She (gently) reminded me that not 45 minutes earlier I had been talking about how, if we were to move in order for honey to get a new job, and it wound up being a bad move, we'd just learn from it and move on; and she wondered why I couldn't just apply the same principle there. I don't know that I know the answer to that yet...besides just stupid pride, and an inability to remember that I'm in the Father's hands. Proverbs 16:9 says The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs His steps. So there you have it. I guess I just want to skip the planning my way part, and just get right to the Father directing my steps. Which He is...even when I'm totally unaware of it. So I sent off for some information about digital sonography school, and I pulled out the info about getting my master's in education, and I'll keep thinking about what I want to be when I grow up. Maybe one of these days I'll actually decide something.

This pic has nothing to do with what I wrote about. I just love it. Miss MA loves to be a ballerina...all the time!

Potty Wars

What is it about toilets that make kiddos HATE to use them? My lands...maybe I'll make a million dollars by inventing a potty that doesn't freak the pumpkins out. So Miss K is definitely trained, but if it's not her idea to go (ie, we're about to leave, and I don't want her to have an accident while we're at the grocery), she fights it like crazy. Her newest protest is "DON'T BE HAPPY, MOMMA, DON'T BE HAPPY!" What? I can't rejoice when she uses the toilet instead of her pull-up? What's a momma to do? We've tried candy, and sticker charts, and tattoos...but a couple of times it's actually turned into a matter in need of shepherding, and I definitely don't want her to associate using the toilet with correction. SIGH. Any suggestions? I wonder how often I'm like that...absolutely need to obey, and finally do, but ever so reluctantly, probably after some serious shepherding. Father, give me patience with the pumpkin, and help me to be a good shepherd to her the way you are with me. Help her to obey the first time, with a happy heart...and help me to do the same.

Prince & Valentine's Day

OK, I guess they really don't go together. But did anybody see him Sunday night? It reinforced (at least in my mind) just how amazing a musician he is. Not knowing anything about using electronic devices while wet, I worried about him getting a giant shock, but I figured the super bowl people had better sense than to let that happen. Slate had an interesting article on why he didn't get electrocuted while playing Purple Rain in the pouring rain (they titled it "When Doves Fry." Ha!).

Valentine's Day is next week, and the pumpkins and I have been trying to think of ways to make it special. Food is always a winner at our house, so we're going to be making Cherry Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. What's your favorite Valentine's food idea? We're always on the lookout.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Cook's Country has a great recipe in their latest edition. I adapted it to suit us:
1 21 oz can cherry pie filling
2 cups mini chocolate chips
1 recipe white cake batter (use your favorite store-bought or homemade)
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries with stems, drained and wiped dry
Red food coloring
4 cups vanilla buttercream frosting (store bought or homemade - you may not need this much)

For the cupcakes: Drain and rinse cherry pie filling under running water. Press cherries between several layers of paper towels until very dry. Chop cherries fine, save 1/2 cup for cupcakes, and discard the rest (or save them for the frosting). Gently fold the 1/2 cup cherries and 1/2 cup chocolate chips into the cake batter. Place paper baking cups in muffin tins, and fill each 2/3 full. Bake on middle rack in 350 degree oven until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean, 15-20 minutes. Cool in tins for 10 minutes, then let cool completely on a rack.
For the cherries: Melt remaining 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and shortening in bowl. Holding stems, partially dip maraschino cherries into chocolate and place on parchment lined plate. Refrigerate until hardened, at least 10 minutes.
For the frosting: Beat 5 drops red food coloring into frosting; add more color as needed.
Generously frost cupcakes. Decorate with cherries.

Back to Reality

I'm not ready to be awake today. Truly. Not. Ready. I've been up for two and a half hours, so one would think I'd be ready, but I'm not. Staying up till 2am 2 nights in a row, and consuming more sugar, caffeine, and grease in a weekend than I have in the past 2 months can do that to a gal. But it was SO worth it. I returned from our first annual college girls weekend yesterday, and although incredibly tired, I'm refreshed & recharged, a better wife, momma, and person thanks to the precious time spent with my amazing friends. So here's a shout out to all you girls; in the midst of getting back into our routines, know that I'm thinking about you! How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you... I Thessalonians 3:9

icy creamy, ice cream...

Those of you who have ardent Barney fans in your house will recognize that title (a quick aside...I actually love Barney. His music drives me crazy, but everyone on his show is so nice! I would much rather the pumpkins be like the kids on Barney than Calliou...). Anyway, we have a new favorite in our house: Breyers Double Churned Light Ice Cream. Comes in all different flavors, but we love cookies & cream...yum-o.