Dancing With God

The other night as I was tucking Chloe into bed, I was giving her her nightly Bible verse..."The Lord your God is with you and He is mighty to save.  He comforts you with His love.  He rejoices over you with singing and He delights in you (and so do I. "- my own little addendum).

Then she asks, "So how exactly does God sing over me?"

"Hmmm....well.  I like to think of it like this:  He loves you so much and you make him so happy just because you're you that it tickles him and he can't help but bust out with a song about you.  Or you could picture it like Morgan Freeman in "Evan Almighty".  I love that part at the end of the movie when the main character and God are talking and then end up dancing.  So you could think of God as Morgan Freeman dancing with you and smiling and completely delighting in you."

One of my constant prayers for my kids is that they really know how deeply, incredibly, unfathomably they are loved. Once they can accept that love and bask in the depth and beauty and magnitude of it, they are free to love others with equal capacity.  You have to be able to receive love before you can truly give it away.  My job as their Mom is to constantly remind them and show them how much they are loved.

Dancing with God...what a beautiful mental image.  Ahhh, be still my heart.  I couldn't stop smiling - neither could Chloe.

Thank you Morgan Freeman for showing such a beautiful image of God.

Thesaurusize This

I think we like to talk too much.  That's the only sane reason I can come up with to justify our latest "game".  Last night at dinner, we didn't solve any world problems, but we did end up playing a pretty exciting game.  It happened out of the blue.  As we were eating Chuck asks all of us who can come up with the most creative synonym for "talkative".  We each gave our earnest input and he picked the person who he thought deserved to win.  As the 'winner', you then got to pick out your own word for everyone to find a synonym for.  See...it just sort of morphed into a game...we didn't even plan it.  Now we can't stop.  We just have to keep on going.  Leaving it go Gavin to come up with a title.  On one of his turns he states, "Thesaurusize This...."  It kinda stuck.  Now we have a great go to game when conversation lags at the dinner table.  I highly suggest either bringing a thesaurus with you or your thinking cap when you join us for dinner.   We take our synonyms seriously.

A Photograph Is A Biography Of A Moment

The power of the photograph:

I Never Cease To Amaze Myself

You would think that by now I would have learned a thing or two in this little experiment called "life". Unfortunately, I am just as prone now to stick my foot in my mouth as I was at the beginning.  Take last night for example...Chloe is the last one at the table still eating (slow doesn't even begin to describe her eating style - think more like distracted eating).  We were all waiting on her before we did our fun family activity for the evening.  Out of nowhere, my mouth opens and words start coming out (if I could have one super power, it would be the ability to think before I speak), "C'mon Honey, you really need to get your 'get on' going."  I said this in all seriousness having no clue I sounded like a complete idiot until Bennett repeated said phrase back to me.  It produced a giggle fest of gigantic proportions. We all laughed until we cried.  Those deep belly laughs are so healing and healthy.  I guess I can take credit for infusing health into our dinner conversation whether through the food I prepare or otherwise.

At the same dinner time conversation another one of my skills was brought before the council.  Gavin says, "Thanks for the banana flavored sandwich and chips and granola bar in my lunch today."  I had no idea I flavored all those things with banana.  And then the reality of what he was saying hit me. Whenever you put a banana in an air tight environment, everything else around it becomes flavored with it's goodness. Things don't just smell like the banana, they taste like it too.  I don't know the scientific reasoning behind this phenomenon, but I do know it's real because this is certainly not the first time I've done this.  We were one vacation once and had packed a lunch tote to bring with us.  We had all kinds of goodies in it including everyone's favorite variety of peanut butter cookie.  Unfortunately, EVERYTHING in the tote tasted like bananas - even the cookies.  What a sad, sad waste of cookies. You would have thought I had learned my lesson after such a catastrophic event.  But no...thus is my life, learning the same lesson time and time again.

And last but not least, another confession to my oftentimes 'clueless' behavior.  I was dropping Chloe off at school like always.  I normally am pulling away and waving to her as she's walking into the building.  But the other day as I was driving off, I didn't see her and just chalked it up to she's probably just in my blind spot, or she got caught up with a group of other kids walking in.  The very first thing she asks me when I pick her up that same afternoon is, "Mom, did you see me????"

"Um.  Yes. I see you."

"Noooo.  Did you seeeee me?!"

"Ummmm....well, I guess not, why?"

"So you're saying you didn't see me slip and fall on the ice after you dropped me off this morning?  I hurt my elbow and knee really bad."

"Did you cry?"

"Well.  No.  But I did go to the nurse to get ice for it."

"I'm so sorry honey!  I looked back but couldn't see you so I thought you were in my blind spot."

"No!  I was on the ground!"

Great!  Just great!  I wonder how many parents witnessed my cold-hearted mothering techniques as I drove away from my little girl as she's sprawled out on the icy sidewalk, unable to get up because of the load of bags in her arms.  I'm just smiling and waving as she's over there wondering why I don't stop, jump out of the car and rescue her.

I have no excuse, answer or justification unfortunately.  Just another clueless day for me, I guess.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Even though my kids aren't 3 any more, they still say adorable things sometimes.  Take this morning for instance.  Gavin has a choir concert tonight.  This means he has to go to school dressed up in dress pants and shirt and a tie.  He comes up after getting ready and looks like he slept in his dress clothes.  I told him he would have to go back down and iron his pants (I was hoping for the shirt as well but he said it was supposed to look that way, that it has a 'rough' look.  Pick your battles, right?).  He must have known that was coming cuz he didn't even bat an eyelash, he just obediently went back downstairs to set up the ironing board.  He comes back up asking for assistance in ironing his pants. Since he's never ironed pants before, a little tutorial was in order.

He had them lying on the ironing board the wrong way.  So the first thing I did was lay the pants in a way that you would get a great crease along the front of the leg.  He was watching my every move and commenting.  This is exactly what he said to me, "I knew you were supposed to have a line down the front but I just didn't know how to summon the crease."  To which I immediately responded, "Watch and learn my friend, this is how you summon a crease."

His brain cracks me up!

Then as we're eating breakfast this morning Chloe asks me, very seriously, "Mommy, is it vain to write your name a lot?"

"No Sweetie, it's not vain at all.  It's just a very girly thing to do.  I used to write my name on every and anything when I was your age.  It's called doodling."

"Oh good, cuz I like to practice writing it everywhere."

So sweet.

It's How We Roll

It's late Monday night the week of March Madness.  Isn't this what every American family is doing? Filling out our brackets....that is the fun family activity for this evening.

Chloe makes her decisions based on which team sounds the coolest or if she's ever heard of them before.  Bennett's selection process is a little more scientific.  He's choosing based on what the kids at school are saying as well as drawing from his extensive knowledge of teams from having watched at least all the 10 college basketball games during the season. Gavin, well...he's our wild card.  He really hates to do things he knows nothing about (and hates anything related to sports in particular).  I suggested he make this one huge mathematical problem to which he declined.  He opted instead to go with the schools with the weirdest sounding names.  He has Villanova going all the way to the Championship but has labeled them the "Villian" school.  Plus, we bribed him to participate.  We told him that whoever wins the bracket gets a dozen donuts.  That right there was enough to sway his powers of reasoning.  Chloe drew the picture of the type of donut she wants on the back of her bracket as an incentive.

You would be proud of me.  I actually downloaded a whole section about March Madness onto my phone so I could research.  Chuck was actually impressed and used my said download to actually help compile his list.  That is what he is studying so intently in the picture.  I used two separate articles to help me put together the winning bracket.  But to be honest, I went more with my intuition than anything else.  This is absolute madness!  No one can predict who will win cuz this is college basketball and that's the beauty of the game - anyone can win!

Mr. Driver

Where did it go?  Time, I mean.  Why is it slipping through our fingers like water?  How does your kid go from riding his trike around (with that hilarious helmet) to driving a car seemingly overnight?  I think it's some cruel joke, this thing called time.  No one warned me that it speeds up as you get older.

Gavin had his very first behind the wheel lesson with Daddy yesterday.  Chloe, Bennett and I are in back as moral support and to video the whole episode on his ipad.  We headed up to the high school parking lot where every kid gets this same right of passage.  We weren't the only ones there, much to Gavin's dismay.  But the other newbie chose to practice in a different lot than the one we were in thankfully.  

Not surprisingly, everything went super smooth.  He got the gist of the braking and accelerating and how to turn a corner and even how to park in a parking space, with no else around.  We even tried reverse a few times.  Getting that permit after drivers ed is just a few weeks away.  I'm sure we'll be enjoying many more Sunday afternoons up at the high school having Gavin drive us around.

What an exciting time of life it is around here!

To Think On

"Well done is better than well said."

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember.  Involve me and I learn."

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

Thank you Mr. Franklin.  You just gave me excellent material for today's napkin notes.

80's Hair

Chloe has officially been educated in 80's hairstyles.  I don't know why, but it is all she talks about lately.  I can't even remember how we ever got on the topic or if she saw a picture of it or if this is the latest gossip going around the girls in the 4th grade class at school.  But 80's hair is the IT topic.  She was even drawing a picture of me the other day in what she thought was my 80's hair-do.  She's been begging for details like, why would you do that? how did you make it stand up so high? did it have to be curly too?

Oh the hard work involved in 80's hair.  I must confess though, my bout with 80's hair led well into the 90's.  Big bangs, lots of hairspray, hot rollers all over my head every morning, perfecting the tease, begging for a perm for every birthday.  Oh ya, it was intense.  I literally asked for a perm for at least 3 birthdays that I can remember.  They cost $60!  How in the world was I supposed to get a perm if not for a gift?!  How else was someone with my limp, thin, baby fine, paper straight hair supposed to achieve the heights of poofy hair without the magical perm?

Here is my 10th grade picture. Yes, 1988 friends.  I couldn't even try to duplicate this look for an 80's party now-a-days because we just don't cut our hair the same way. Our bangs were actually cut in a V shape.  Hard to explain, just trust me...it all helped in elevating the curl.  It was an art, maybe even a science that allowed me to achieve such naturally looking poofy hair.  And that is what enabled my future husband to fall in love with me, I'm pretty sure of it.

Modern Study Habits

I know I won't win any awards for this lovely photo, it's all wrong, too much back lighting, no detail in the foreground, yadayadayada...but it still helps tell the story.  I quickly went in Chloe's room and took this photo without her knowedge.  Everyday when she gets home from school I find her set up with her ipad either on her bed or at her desk doing homework with her friend.  They facetime each other and work through their homework together.  They are quick to explain things to one another but are adamant about not giving each other the answer.  On this fine day they are practicing their music homework together.  I hear both Katie and Chloe playing their (very out of tune) dulcimers together.   Although you can't see Katie on the ipad screen, she's there...I hear her sweet little voice every day. What an ingenuitive way to study now-a-days.  I like seeing positive ways of using technology.

My Goal For Today

....is to not hit a police officer.  Let me explain:

Since it was -16 degrees out yesterday, I offered to drive each of the kids to school so they don't have to wait for the bus in sub zero temperatures.  It was the least I could do.  And because we've had such an intensely cold winter with LOTS of snow, the roads aren't as clear as they normally are.  The main roads are fine,  you can mostly drive on dry road with only patches of ice here and there.  But the neighborhood roads are still, at best, treacherous.  Since it doesn't warm up enough to melt all the previous snow/ice before the next snow strikes, it's just one massive ice rink out there.  Normally, the salt trucks come by and leave a nice coating on all the neighborhood streets.  Apparently we're running low on salt because I haven't seen a lick of it except for maybe on our hill, which would be impossible to drive up if it wasn't for the salt.

With all that said, you can imagine my predicament.  I'm on my way back from dropping off my last school goer.  I'm dressed fashionably in the Michelin Snow Tire Man look.  I'm on day two of a horrible migraine, meaning, I'm having a terrible time concentrating on anything since my brain doesn't really want to function at the moment.  I feel like taking my snow tire man self and curling up in a dark cave.  That's the only thing I'm thinking about.  Apparently, I should have been thinking about stopping at stop signs too.

I have been driving on this snow/ice combo for 3 years now.  I've got the hang of it.  I've learned how to drive carefully and slow, how to stop way before you need to, how to get enough momentum to go up an incline (hill), how to tap my brakes to stop, how to just be plain extra cautious.  It just goes to show that migraines mess with my stopping abilities (that's the only conclusion I can draw from all this).

So here I am coming to a stop at a 4 way stop in our neighborhood on flat ground.  I'm driving sllloooowww.  But not slow enough to stop on a sheet of ice apparently.  As I approach the intersection I see a police cruiser going through at a T to me.  If I don't stop I will most definitely hit him smack dab in the middle of his car.  I start to panic.  I start to sweat.  The only thing I can think of doing is laying on my horn to warn this innocent police man that my wheels are not stopping.  So I do.  I start honking like both our lives depend on it.  Who honks at a police officer???  I just knew I was going to get in trouble.  If for nothing else, than for honking at him.  There has to be a law against that somewhere.

Miracles never cease my friend, I am proof.  A mere 2 seconds before I brace for impact, his car passes and I continue sliding into the middle of the intersection, my foot firmly planted on my brake.  Thank God there were no other cars around, parked or moving.  Once I came to a stop, I laid my pounding head on the steering wheel, shut my eyes and tried to regain a regular breathing pattern.  I peeked out of the corner of my eye to see if the cop pulled over and was coming to give me a lecture.  He was nowhere in sight.

Later that day, I threw all the mail in the trash.  No reason, I just did cuz my brain was under attack from the barometric pressure demons.  To say I can't function with a migraine is an understatement.  I didn't know I threw the mail in the trash until Chuck got home from work and started filling the dumpsters for trash pick-up day.  He found many important pieces of mail in there.  He was shocked that it was me and not one of the kids who was the culprit.  So I guess I really have two goals for today, don't hit any police cars and don't throw the mail away (especially if there are bills in there or stuff we ordered from Amazon).  Thank God my brain is free and clear today.

If you see me driving around (during winter) and I honk at you, please know that I am not saying "hi", I'm encouraging you to move away from me as quickly as you can so I don't accidently hurt you.

Making the Bed

I used to be a stickler for the kids making their bed 'the right way'.  Now, I could care less.  If I was a stickler I'd be missing out on beautiful scenes such as these every day:

This was taken during a snow day the kids had off school.  Notice Chloe's animals lining the window sill looking longingly outside waiting for a chance to play in all that white, fluffy goodness.

Each day Chloe describes to me the scene taking place on her bed.  So much thought and preparation goes into this.  This takes much more time than just pulling up your covers.  

Chloe LOVES to do things her own way.  If she can finagle it, she will.  If we are dead set on her doing something a specific way, we spell out in exact detail what we expect of her and tell her she has no choice in the matter.  But for most things we give the kids the freedom to choose how and when certain tasks get done, that way they 'own' it.  Chloe loves to own it.  She thrives in an environment where she can be creative and 'buck the system' (must have gotten that from her mother).  Technically, she did make her bed and I would be missing out on getting to see life through her precious little 9 year old eyes if I insisted on my way.

Gavin on the other hand does things the exact same way, the exact same time EVERY DAY!  He recently told us, "Mom, I realized something about myself, I love routine but not repetition." He feels safe inside his pre-determined schedule and order of things.  When that order is gone, he is very anxious.  I just love that he knows himself so well that he can express this statement, I couldn't have done that at his age.  I have seen this in him since infanthood.  As a child, he absolutely hated doing something over and over again - such as math or writing his letters.  In his mind, once he learned it, BAM, it was done, no need to harp on the same 'ol, same 'ol, let's move on to more interesting things. Who wants to write their A's a million times when you already know how to write it?!  Perfect logic - at least to him.  This explains alot when you look at his handwriting.  I remember when he was 3 and 4 and we would be writing letters on paper and his letters wouldn't look exactly like the letter, but close enough he would say, "Dat ok mom, right?  Dat ok." I love it because he does the same thing now, 12 years later. 

The older I get, the more lax I become as a parent.  Part of that is good and part of that is bad.  It makes me regret how anal or restrictive I was when the kids were younger.  But when they are younger they needed closer boundaries than they need now.  It's always such a delicate balancing act, isn't it?!  As the kids are getting older I seem to desperately want to cling to their childhoods.  I want to see things through their eyes better and not insist that my eyes are the only way of seeing things.  I want to treasure the innocence of a child like mind more.  I don't want them to rush into the next phase, even though I know I'll treasure that one just as much.  Childhood just seems so fleeting right now.  I never imagined at be at this stage so quickly.  I'm thankful for the new, relaxed perspective God has given me during this time.