What Jobie Learned This Weekend

I can talk with my eyes closed!

That.
Is.
Amazing!

This boy is going to go far.

Fingerprint Friday

Ready for color.
Ready for spring.
Ready for flowers.A God Who could create such beauty needs to be praised.In fact, demands to be praised.Psalm 147:1
Praise the LORD.
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise Him!

Psalm 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Prasie the LORD.

Each week Beki at therustedchain hosts Fingerprint Friday and uses a song by Steven Curtis Chapman as a springboard. Join in. It's a great way to be reminded of God's presence.

Does This Happen at Your House?

So I was unloading my clothes washer
when I noticed that the cookies
I had made for the kids' class at church tonight
had fallen to the floor and some were broken.
Don't laugh
The laundry room is the perfect place to hide things.
My kids never want to go in there.
They might get put to work.
I had put the bag of cookies on the dryer earlier in the day.
To hide them.
(the kids are always hungry when they get home from school)
Then when I ran the dryer
they got shaken off.
I took them into the kitchen.
Replaced the broken ones.
Thinking I was lucky to have a enough left to do that.
Then decided to take them out to the van.
So I wouldn't forget them.
I have a tendency to do things like that.
Forget things.

While I was at van
I got disgusted by all the junk in it.
A winter's worth of junk.
Playing cards.
Books.
Pages of books.
Gloves.
Shoes.
Toy.
After toy.
After toy.
So I cleaned it out a little.
Brought all the junk in.
Found a home for everything.
Walked back thru the laundry room.
Only to see the washer lid still open.
With the wet clothes still in it.
I am on top of it.

Forgotten jobs.
Please tell me I'm not the only one.
Does this happen at your house?

While I was cleaning out the van,
I found this little guy:Tigger is a mystery to me.
I never see anyone play with him.
Yet he turns up all over the house.
All the time.
He will be in the living room.
Pick him up; put him away.
Next thing I know he is in the hallway.
Pick him up; put him away.
Then back in the living room.
He's never in the family room.
Or the little boys bedroom.
The two rooms where most toys are.
Now he's in the van?

So I set him on the living room couch.
Snapped a picture of him.
And left him there.
I'm going to see how long he stays there.
And where he shows up next.

Roaming toy that never gets played with.
Does this happen at your house?"

Just wondering...

Thinking

I picked a Bible passage for 2011.
Romans 12:9-13.

But for a long time,
I wasn't able to get past
the first sentence of verse nine.
Love must be sincere.

Sincere means earnest; genuine; real.

Love must be earnest; genuine; real.

At first I was thinking only about my earthly relationships.
With Ryan.
With my kids.
With my extended family.
(on both sides)
With my friends.

I was saying over and over to myself:
Love must be sincere.
Getting asked to do something I really didn't want to do:
Love must be sincere.
Wiping up spilled milk for the umpteenth time:
Love must be sincere.
Cooking supper for the family:
Love must be sincere.
The list could go on.
And on.
And on.

Grit my teeth and say it:
Love must be sincere.
Which really doesn't make it so sincere, huh?

But then, God said:
What about Me?
Is your love for Me sincere?

Oh, dear.

The rest of verse nine:
Hate what is evil;
cling to what is good.

The best way to cling to good:
Love God sincerely.
Love God earnestly.
Love God genuinely.
Really love God.

Sincere love for God =
Sincere love for others.

This and That

I swept the floor this morning.
Then Jobe sat at the bar for lunch.
After he ate, he looked down at the floor and said:
Mommy, it's still dirty.
Hmmmm.
Thanks, son.

Today the kids got out at 1:00.
This happens about 4 times a year.
I always have lots of extra munchkins at the house on these days.
Jobe and I baked before the herd got home.Hope we made enough.I created a new station on Pandora today.
I'm listening to it right now.
80's.
Can't Buy Me Love must have brought it on.
The first song.
Tone-Loc Funky Cold Medina.
Wow.
The song is nasty.
Did I not pay attention to the lyrics?
Or was I just naive?
Yuck.
It's been fun to listen to some of the others though.
Don Henley, The Cars, Survivor, Tears for Fears, OMD...

Jobe and I have been walking to school to get Ezzie.
It's been gorgeous here.
Nearly a 100 degree difference from last Thursday morning.
Crazy.
I let him take my little point and shoot.
And he snaps picture after picture.
He is usually behind me.
And apparently he is just the right height.
To get great pictures of my tush.
Nice.
Most people get to watch their kids grow in pictures.
I get to watch my tushy grow.
Scary.

Hope your weekend is fabulous.
We have fun plans.
A play with the little boys.
Prom dress shopping with the girls.
Church.
PF Changs date night with friends.

Oh, Peter Gabriel In Your Eyes just came on.
Love that song!
Maybe I will require that we listen to 80's music on our date night.
It's fun!
867-5309.
(Hope it's stuck in your head now.
Bwahahaha.)

Two Days Later

Heart day was busy.It began with a trip to Wal-mart and Dillons.
I needed to get some gifts for the kids and my guy.
I like to plan ahead.

I got them each two things they love.
Ryan: lime tostitos and ding dongs.
Lara: soda water and oreos.
Brookie: a big jar of pickles and good n' plenty.
Jakie: slim jims and mt. dew.
Ezzie: 3 really big apples and fruit snacks.
Jobie: a big bag of dumdums and fruit snacks.

I came home and cleaned the bathrooms.
That's a fun valentine's day project.

Made a fancy dinner of Totinos pizza rolls.
And pb&j for the little boys.

Then I needed to get ready for the evening.
You're thinking hot date, right?
Ha.
Our school district took care of that for us.
A free date.
To a middle school band and orchestra concert.
How did they know that was exactly what we wanted to do?
So nice of them.
Both sets of grandparents came too.
So I had everyone over for dessert after.Put instant vanilla pudding to the dessert shells.Melt 1/2 bag or so of semi-sweet chips in 1 cup heavy whipping cream.
Pour over the shells.We topped it with freshly whipped cream and mixed berries.

We finished watching KU stink it up on the court.
All the kids finally went to bed.
Then Ryan brought this out for me.
Oh boy was it yummy.
(He also had surprised the kids with little treats.)

To finish off the evening,
we relived our high school days by watching Can't Buy Me Love.
Except it really wasn't anything like our high school days.
Other than the fashions.
And the fact that I'm the one that made Ryan cool.
Hahaha.
I make myself laugh.

LOVE

Enough said.
(except I just showed Jobie the picture
and he went: Ewwww!)

Fingerprint Friday

A cubic foot of snow can contain roughly one billion crystals.
This is according to some scientist in Japan.
Who has been studying snowflakes for 15 years.

God didn't have to study it for 15 years.
There's no counting snowflakes.
1...2...3...4...
No fancy calculations.
He just knows.
Without even thinking about it.
God created each snowflake.

Mind-boggling.
Beauty for us to enjoy.
(and be thankful when it's gone
and warmer weather returns)

Deuteronomy 3:24
O Sovereign LORD,
You have begun to show to your servant
Your greatness and
Your strong hand.
For what god is there
in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds
and mighty works You do?

Each week Beki at therustedchain hosts Fingerprint Friday and uses a song by Steven Curtis Chapman as a springboard. Join in. It's a great way to be reminded of God's presence.

Yesterday and Today

So, I survived the snow day yesterday.I made the kids clean their rooms.
And they got to fold 4 BIG loads of laundry.
They thought it was punishment of the worst kind.
On a snow day?Ezra had a dentist appointment in the afternoon.
There is a reason I don't get out in these messes.
I'm the first to admit I'm not good with ice and snow.

I got stuck.
It took three men to push me out.
Not embarrassing.
At all.
Good thing I was rocking a cute little hat.
Ha.Seemed like I was cooking all day.
Waffles for breakfast.
(I tried a different recipe than my usual.
One from the cookbook I mentioned yesterday.
I will be making that one from now on.)
Reuben sandwiches for lunch.
Homemade pizza for supper.
It takes a whole lot of food to feed 7 people all day.This afternoon I went out and shoveled a bunch of snow.
Apparently delicate me can't handle too much.
I am shot.
My muscles all feel like jello.
And I think I could sleep for days.
Oh, yeah.
I'm rough and tough.Now, the kids are all in bed.
Even the 17 year old.
Ryan is playing some basketball.
I'm eating Cool Ranch Doritos.
Drinking root beer.
And getting ready to
answer some questions
for a Sunday School party on Saturday.
Here's a few examples:

What unusual fact do most people not know about you?
(That doesn't have the potential to get scary at all.)

Describe yourself in 4 words.
(I really hate those kinds of questions.
But since they asked
talented, beautiful, intelligent and humble are mine.)

What is one dream in life you've had fulfilled?
(I could go with the standard sappy answer and say:
Marrying Ryan.
I might have just thrown-up a little.)

Wow.
It's dangerous to start a post in the afternoon.
And then finish it in the evening.
It ends up completely different
than you originally imagined.

A Recipe and Plenty of Jabber

I make this recipe A LOT.
It's simple.
Only uses one bowl.
It's chocolatey.
My mom made them for us when we were kids.
It's from one of my favorite cookbooks.
An old Holdeman Mennonite cookbook.
Good stuff in there.I timed how long it took me to throw it together.
15 minutes.
Probably would have been 10 minutes.
Except I had a phone call in the middle of it.
Poofed flour all over myself.
Then added 1/2 cup too much flour.
Had to try to scoop it out without getting other ingredients.
Then I forgot to spray the bottom of the pan.
I'm a mess.
Oh, and I was also a little short on cocoa.
So these aren't quite as chocolatey as usual.
What a pity.
And that is also how cooking usually goes at my house.
It's rarely a smooth event.
I almost always double this.
My kids don't appreciate nuts.
So those are typically left out.

I love the corners and edges.
The corners are the best.
I get that from my dad.I was taking care of a precious little girlie.
She didn't want any.
I asked her what kind of a girl doesn't like chocolate.
She didn't answer.
She's only 1.

I'm pretty sure her mommy has been telling her it's yucky.
Hording it all for herself.
That's a really smart thing to do, huh?
It's too late for me.
But maybe there's a young mom or two
out there who could give this a whirl.
Just tell them chocolate is yucky.
Then you can have it all.
Without having to hide it.
In the freezer.
Or the back of the tallest cupboard
where you have to climb onto the counter
to reach it.

That might happen at my house.

Snowhenge

First it was a snowman.Imagine a little grunt with each roll.A pretty cute snowman.But by knocking the first one over.And building a tower-like snowman.Next to the fallen one.It becomes Snowhenge.It's snowing like crazy here again.
I am not looking forward to my kids coming home.
Wet, snowy feet.
Dumping all their coats and winter paraphernalia.
ALL over the living room.
Begging for hot cocoa.
And a snack.
I sound selfish.I've got one more hour to enjoy my nice quiet house.
With one super cute little boy.
Then...
The noise.
Oh the noise, noise, noise, noise.
And I'm guessing there will be plenty of it.
Since chances are we will have a snow day tomorrow.

Hope I don't become too Grinchy.

Chores.
Must think of lots of chores.
For the kids.
I have a couple good books to read.

Super Birthday

Yesterday was Ryan's bday.
And Super Bowl Sunday.
Ryan thought it was so nice of everyone
to celebrate his birthday.
A national party in his honor.
Pretty cool.

We had some friends over.
I let him pick the menu.
Buffalo wings.
Brats.
That was pretty much all he said.
My guy the carnivore.

So I added to it.
Chips, pretzels and dips.
Veggies.
Desserts.
Can you believe it.
He wasn't worried about the dessert at all.
I was.

I made three pies.
And my sis-in-law made one.
Key lime.
Peanut butter chocolate.
Vanilla cheese.
Chocolate.
Yummy stuff.

But actually, this post is not about that.
It's about me.
Just kidding.
Kinda.
It's really about his present.

I wanted to make him something this year.
I've mentioned that I'm not the craftiest person in the world.
So this is always a big deal for me.
But I got a little idea in my head.
And it morphed into this:Helvetica is one of his favorite documentaries.
He's a geek.
I know.
In his defense, it's really not too bad.

So I spelled out "Helvetica" in that font.
Would have been funny if I would have used another font.
I almost had to.
Who knew our computers didn't have it?
Quick call to my mom at work:
Please tell me you have helvetica on your computer.
(I didn't put this off at all)
Mom saves the day again!Then I trimmed the letters all down.
And clothspinned them to cork board
that had also been trimmed down to size.This morning I threw some twine at Ryan.
And sent him off to work with his present.
In a Braums paper sack.
We are fancy people.
A few hours later he sent this from his phone:I think I'm going to use
this idea to do something for the little boys' room.
I've got some ideas rolling around
in this empty old head of mine.
We'll see how they turn out.

My Happy

Just looking thru some old photos.
This picture makes me happy.My family.
My happy.

What Not to Call Your Mom

A little advice for my daughter.1. Girlfriend.
As in:
You know that's right, girlfriend!

Right now, I am your mom.
Someday I hope to be your momfriend.
That's the name I just made up for my mom.
She's pretty much my best friend.
But she's still my mom.
She's always the one I call when I'm sick.
I don't need to let all my other friends know when I'm barfing.
But my mom needs to know.
She's my momfriend.2. Dude
First of all, I usually associate dude with a guy.
Second of all, according to you kids,
the official definition of dude is:
an infected hair on an elephant's rear.
Since I am neither of these two,
I would prefer not to be called by that name.3. Mom Dog.
You tried this one on me just the other day.
I believe my response was:
Excuse me?
To which you just laughed.

You are not Randy Jackson.
And I am most definitely not a contestant on American Idol.

Keep trying, sweetie.
You'll eventually hit one I like.
Here's a couple suggestions:
Mombeautiful.
Mommaliscious.
Just thinking off the top of my head here...