Winter

When we told everyone we were moving to Minnesota, many people were more or less shocked.  Not so much that we were moving, but where we were moving to.  When you think of Minnesota, you think of cold, snow, below-freezing temperatures, heavy jackets, and more cold.  Honestly, the cold was a wee-bit intimidating for me.  I was very apprehensive about it.  Everyone who knows me knows that I am practically a sun worshipper.  I need the sun!  I love the heat!  I'm a Texan.  This was going to be a major change in climate.  Would I be able to do it?  I feared maybe I wouldn't.

I hadn't realized how scared I was until winter actually descended upon us.  Thank God, in his mercy, he gave Minnesota an extremely mild winter this year.  So much so that we are even having a snow drought.  But even mild here is colder than I'm used to. I've never worn long underwear in my life.  Now I can't go a day without them.  Staying warm is the name of the game.

The first time the temperature fell below freezing I was so scared.  But I gave my fear over to God and asked Him to carry me through this.  I know that sounds corny to many, but it was a real fear for me.  He not only carried me, but He made it one of the most beautiful days I've had since we've lived here.  The birds were even chirping.  I didn't even know there were still birds left here that hadn't already migrated south.  That little bird song brought the biggest smile to my face.

I've learned more in winter than I ever would have learned had I not lived in the depths of it.  I see winter in a whole new light.   Not just the yearly season, but also how we can experience winter in the cycles of our lives.  Many times I'm in a place where I don't "feel" God or love or acceptance.  Many times I have to go through a very tough time and wonder where God is in all of it.

And then I'm reminded of winter.  We HAVE to experience winter.  We can't grow without it.  It's part of the beautiful cycle of life.  If we didn't have this season of dormancy, we would never advance to the next season of growth.  When things (read feelings) seem 'dead' around you, rejoice - because it is when the growth is going on inside of you, in your heart.  Spring is just around the corner.  And then the glorious season of summer where you get to relish and enjoy the growth that Spring brought on only because you experienced winter.  We can't feel or see growth happening in winter.  That is where faith is.  That is when you continue on.  Keep trusting.  Keep living.

I've come to love winter!  I love the beauty I see in the 'dead' and dormancy all around me.  Sometimes the beauty takes my breath away.  I get to experience and see life in a whole new way.  And I'm humbled.  I'm full of gratitude.  I'm awed.  I thank God again and again that He allowed me to walk through the winter with a heart of thanks because now I will appreciate the spring and the summer more than I ever dreamed possible.  I won't take seasons of growth for granted any longer.  I'll live fully in each season, for I believe that's exactly the meaning of carpe diem.  But more importantly, it's the meaning of faith.

English Inconsistencies

I think I'm going to help Gavin start carrying the torch about the absurdity of the English language. I've taught it to my children (by default and educationally) all their lives and never really took a good hard look at it.  When it's your own language, you just accept the nuances as 'normal' and teach them as such.  You know how to speak and read it, so you don't really care when certain words don't follow the rules.  But now that I'm teaching English to non-English speakers, I see our language in a whole new light.  I'm trying to walk in their shoes and see the world through their eyes...its a humbling, awesome experience.

I'm also reading a book titled Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (fantastic by the way!) in which one of the characters also just happens to have a beef with the phonics of English.  He felt that we should only spell phonetically, thus eradicating many, if not all of the inconsistencies in our language.  He wanted to write a book titled: Ghoti Out Of Water.  The 'gh' is pronounced as an 'f' as in 'enough'.  The 'o' is pronounced like an 'i' as in 'women'.  The 'ti' is pronounced as 'sh' as in 'nation'.   I love it!

I rest my case.

Chloe's Love Horn

Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I thought now would be a good time to bring up the topic of Chloe's Love Horn.  Her description, not mine.  You see, this lovely winter hat was bestowed upon her for Christmas.  She loved it like no other.  It is a unicorn, as you can clearly see.  It has a lovely stuffed horn perched up on top.  Her favorite thing to do is come poke you with her love horn.  She calls it giving us a love transfer.  She has also given the actual unicorn a name, "Uni".  Bennett has too, "Spike".  Chuck has too, but we'll keep that to ourselves.  You may read into this blog whatever you like because this is really, really funny.  And she is so, so innocent.

*By the way, this gift was originally given as a white elephant gift to an anonymous extended family member who in turn gave it to Chloe.

Sharing Joy

Bennett decided to go out back to go bird watching today.  He was armed with his binoculars, his bird Identiflyer and snow boots (although we only have mud right now, no snow).  It was a crisp, sunny day, perfect for roaming the woods and listening for birds.

When he came in from his adventure, he couldn't wait to share his joy with me.  A smile was permanently etched into his face.  He proclaimed, "Mom, this is the BEST DAY EVER!"

I agreed with him by reminiscing over his basketball team's first win of the season earlier in the day.  He quickly said, "Oh, that was great...but this was even better!  Mom, it was just so beautiful out there, you have no idea.  I was just walking around in the woods pressing the calls for different birds when out of nowhere they'd come flying towards me when they heard their call.  I stood still for a while and kept pressing the button for the call of the Chickadee.  Pretty soon all the Chickadees in Minnesota were surrounding me.  Mom...I was so happy I cried!  I've cried because I've been sad before, but never because I've been so happy.  It was really cool!"

His eyes were tearing up as he was telling me.  So were mine.  That my boy was overjoyed with the presence of these precious little creatures touched my soul deeply.  And he wanted to share it with me.  He couldn't wait to share it with me.  I'm honored to enter that hallowed place in his heart, that place where he holds things so dear, they spill out with emotion and touch all those around him.

We were on a walk as he was sharing all this with me.  He talked and talked and talked while I kept telling myself, Drink it all in, Cori, enjoy this exact moment, this heart to heart connection while looking at him, all smiles.  He apologetically said, "I'm sorry for talking so much about birds...I don't mean to force them on you."

"Oh not at all Honey!  I love your passion. It's because of you I've learned to have a much greater appreciation for birds, their songs, the way they move and look.  Thank you for teaching me.  Your excitement for birds is contagious!"

It's the simple things in life....

* He blogged about it as well.  You can read his experience in his own words here.

Living On The Edge....Of The Bunny Slope

Last week, for my 39th birthday, Chuck proudly handed me a homemade coupon for a special date day - at the local ski hill.  I was super excited since I had no clue what to expect (yet).  Plus, it was a whole day with my beloved - how could that not be fun?!

And then as the icing on the cake, he handed me the best gift he's EVER given me - thermal foot warmers!  I did not know these existed.  They are my new best friend to survive the Minnesota winters with.  I will now stick them all over my body, not just my feet.  I screamed with joy upon receiving these miraculous inventions.  They stay HOT for 9 hours!  All you do is stick them to the bottom of your sock and voila - hot feet.  This is huge for a person who's feet and hands go numb within 30 minutes of being exposed to the elements (even with gloves and 3 layers of socks on).  I can now enjoy the beauty of the snow and frigid temperatures with the rest of humanity.  My life is now complete.

But I digress...back to my ski hill story.  So, the coupon was actually for snowboarding, something neither of us have ever done.  We're obviously not getting any younger.  If we don't start now, I see the probability of starting decreasing with each new year.  Seize the day, right!  Oh, we seized that and more!

We were both giddy with excitement.  We're layered up in multiple layers of clothing as well as all our snow gear on top of that.  We look like some middle aged michelin men.  Not quite the look I'm going for on a date with my husband - but at least we look the same and can laugh with each other.


I then ask Chuck, "So, what time are our lessons?"

"Lessons?  Who needs those.  We're going to figure this out on our own.  It can't be that hard.  John said just to watch a how-to video on youtube."

"Seriously?!?" Nervousness is starting to set in.  I quickly google "how to snowboard".  I wish I'd googled "how to attach yourself and unattach yourself to the snowboard" first.  There was not enough time for more than one "lesson".


It took us a good 45 minutes to figure out how to get the snowboarding boots on and attached to the snowboard.  There were no instructions...you just do it.  And you don't dare look like you have no clue cuz there are little kids sitting right next to you who know exactly what they're doing.

Humility was the word of the day.  We would be watching those same kids all day long and wondering how in the world they stay up on their boards and go down the hill with such ease.  But right now, priority number one was figuring out how to look "natural" and "nonchalant" and try to blend in with everyone around us all while having a clueless look on our faces.  But hey, we were together and this was going to be fun, right.

We manage to make it out of the ski chalet and found the closest little hump of a hill so we could "practice".  We inched closer and closer to a guy giving a little kid a lesson and tried to glean any pertinent information from our contraband lesson.  We learned how to unattach one foot and "walk" with your snowboard still attached with your other foot.  No small feat!  And we learned how to scoot really well.  We spent more time scooting over the snow than actually going down the hill.  It was the best core workout I'd ever done.  We scooted to the moving sidewalk (which brought us up the bunny slope).  We scooted out of other people's way.  We scooted to get unstuck (which was a lot).  You get the idea - we got really good at scooting.

Speaking of the moving sidewalk.  It was going up the hill at a steady incline.  This bunny slope was of mammoth proportions in my eyes.  Not what I envisioned a bunny slope looking like.  So, about an hour after getting to BuckHill, we finally arrived at the top of the bunny slope.  I ask Chuck, "So, how do we get down there?" pointing to all the small, ant-like figures at the bottom of the "hill".  I will never forget his response, "How about I just push you?"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!  I'm trying to be a good sport about this Babe, but seriously.  You think taking your wife who is deathly afraid of heights, to the top of a hill on a fast moving object, that she hasn't had any lessons in steering or stopping on, and suggesting you just push her down the hill is really going to work with me?  Do you even know me at all?"

And then I start doing the only thing I know to do...I scoot down the hill.  But suddenly, it's not flat anymore and I'm actually going fast.  And then I realize I have no clue how to stop, steer or even fall.  I pray I don't hit anyone.  And then I see Chuck zoom past me and fall violently.  All of his falls were like that - violent, like he hit a tree and just fell backward and rolled a few times.  The one bit of advice he gave me that I actually took to heart was, "If you feel like you're going to fall, just sit down."  Ok.  Can't hurt.  So, whenever I got going too fast, I'd just sit down.  Speeding down a hill isn't my favorite activity, even though that's what we were there to do.  But the only problem with sitting down in the middle of the hill is that you have to get back up again and start scooting again so that you can start speeding again.  It was an endless cycle.

I did so many up-hill sit-ups.  I couldn't stop laughing the entire time.  Laughing at myself, laughing at Chuck. Laughing at the madness of what we were doing and calling it "fun".  It really was the perfect day.

At one point I "snowboarded" (if that's what you want to call what I was doing) into two trash barrels (since I couldn't steer).  I could not get away from them.  Once I fell, I couldn't get up, I taught myself how to crawl out of trash cans with a board stuck to your feet.  I'm still pretty proud of that one.  And my feet were still warm.  That's really all the matters.

A week later and Chuck is still not 'back to normal'.  Remember those violent falls?  Too bad I didn't get one of video.  But he fell on his elbow somehow.  He thought he broke a rib.  Turns out he strained the muscles around his ribs and is still hobbling around and taking shallow breaths. Or maybe that happened the time he fell off the moving side-walk.  Either way, he's in pain.  I still have bruises up and down my legs (even as padded as they were) from "sitting" on the hill so abruptly so many times and landing more on my boots than the soft, cushy snow.  But don't worry...we'll both make it.  And I'm sure this won't be the last time.  But next time, we will definitely get lessons.  But you will NEVER see me riding the ski lift.  Those things go even higher than the bunny hill!  Sometimes you just gotta put your foot down...even in the snow.

Live Life Fully

"Wherever you are, be all there."

                                                                  -   Jim Elliot

The Simple Life

Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus.

                                                                        -  Ann Voskamp

Welcome to Winter

The Tubing Hill

The ride back up to the top

Me...contemplating whether or not I should take another run
down the hill or run back to the warming hut so I can get feeling
back in my numb toes and fingers.  Hmmm...what to do.

The abominable tubers, able to play outside for two hours 

in sub-freezing temperatures all in the name of fun!

But oh was it worth it!  

Spy House

One of my children, who shall be kept anonymous to hide his identity, has a 'thing' for anything spy related.  Always has.  He even has books on how to be a spy.  A series of books actually. He has read them 5 times over.  He takes this business with the utmost of seriousness. In a moment of weakness, he let me in on a secret.  He can actually disguise himself in under a minute.  All he has to do, he reveals, is to just take off his glasses and mess up his hair and put his shirt on backwards and bam! no-one would recognize him.  I will leave my comments to myself on this one so as not to burst any spy bubbles.

This whole spy business is the natural progression of growing up a super hero.  He's had an alter ego ever since he could talk.  It comes as no surprise that we would replace the childish superhero with the more mature spy.  I especially like all the gear that comes with being a spy.  This particular child goes nowhere without his trusty dusty whistle/compass/magnifier/flashlight necklace combo zipped securely in the inner pocket of his winter coat.  There's that and his phone that has a built in GPS that we won't let him use because then we'd have to activate a data plan and that's just not happening so that we can be more spy-like.  Spys have budgets you know.

But the best are the latest in technological advancements.  This son has his own security system taped all over his bedroom door.  You must crack the system before entry into said bedroom is allowed.  First you must pass the "eyeris scanner" (his spelling, not mine), then the voice recognition device, then the palm print match, type in a 497 digit code on the keypad, subjet yourself to the brain-scan device and then lastly have your "coolness meter" read.  Once you successfully make it past all these pieces of paper with serious drawings indicating all this real technology, then you may proceed into his room.  If you are a guest visiting us, I apologize ahead of time.  It seems that this same room is also the guest room.  You might want to start working on your "coolness factor" so that the "coolness meter" will grant you access.  Or you might be sleeping on our couch.  'If' you make it in, you can be assured of the highest quality of security while in your room.  No one has yet to break in and steal the 1999 clamshell laptop sitting in open view on his desk.  So, we're sitting pretty tight here.

The funniest part of all of this though are the random pieces of paper I have been finding taped in the oddest places around the house.  One day as I was reading on my bed, out of the corner of my eye, I happened to see a small square piece of paper with a circle hastily colored in pencil sticking out behind my mirror.  I went over to investigate.  That is exactly what I found.  Since I knew the only person who would color anything in pencil might be, I called this person into my room and interrogated him.  For all his spy prowess, he couldn't wipe that silly little grin off his face.  He finally broke down under my withering glare (obviously I'm joking) and confessed to the whole thing.  "I can't believe you found it.  It's my spy cam so I can keep an eye and ear on everyone in the house and know what's going on at all times."  Seriously?!  I grew up with this as a real threat and now I'm living with this all over again as a pseudo one?  Life definitely repeats itself.  Then Chloe comes into my room after the suspect fled and passed on some key information, "Mom.  Did you only find one?"

"What?!  There's more of these?  Where?"

"Oh yes.  Everywhere.  But I didn't tell you."

Try as I might, I could not find anymore of these 'bugs' around the house.  But every now and then  I end up coming across one months later.  Each time it makes me laugh out loud.  I see touches of my adorable little spy all over my house and it makes my heart soar.  I have already found one behind my computer and just today found one behind some picture frames in the kitchen while I was cleaning.

I just love paper with messy pencil circles on them.  It reminds me that I'm loved.  It's my little spy's love note to me.  Without even knowing it, he just made my day.

Thirteen

You’ve entered the threshold of becoming a man,

It's easy to see by how tall you now stand.

But its not just in height that you have grown,

Its also in the mature choices and character you’ve shown.

Your hands and feet have grown bigger than mine,

Seeing all these changes just blows my mind.

Because I still see the baby I brought home,

Who couldn’t do anything all on his own.

As we spent time learning and growing together,

Our hearts became entwined together forever.

You still laugh the same way you did when you were two,

It was “the howler monkey” we used to call you.

All through the years you’ve given us such joy,

Watching you grow to a man from a boy.

Your journey’s not over, you have so much life ahead,

This day marks a new phase instead.

An older, wiser, more responsible you,

Growing each day in God’s wisdom true.

Lean on Him always and He will be there,

To teach, comfort and guide you when others don’t care.

Give Him your future to hold in His hands.

Afterall, He’s the one who made you and knows the plans

He has for you in this life you live.

He knows your gifts and wants you to give

Your joy and love and knowledge away.

This will bring a smile to your heart each day.

Be thankful for hardships that come your way,

Use them to teach you how to pray.

And trust God to show you what to do,

This is what growing up will look like to you.

We will always be here to give you guidance and love,

Praying and thanking the Lord up above

For the gift He gave us in this little boy

That’s growing to a man and giving us joy!

Love, Mom

Comedy School

As I walked into the sitting room, deep in thought, Bennett asks me, "Mom, do you have a lot on your mind?"

I stop and think about it, because that's what I do.  "Hmmmm.  I guess you're right Honey.  I do have a lot on my mind.  How could you tell?"

"Women always have alot on their minds...like at least 26 things."

"That's very insightful Bennett.  How in the world did you know that?!"

"Tim Hawkins.  Everything I know I learned from him."

Uh oh.  We're in trouble. 

Lunch Lady

Today Bennett told me he felt sorry for all the kids who get school lunch.  He says, and I do not exaggerate, "Mom, I feel so bad for those kids.  They don't know how unhealthy all that food is!"  Meaning....he hears my constant monologue about needing to make healthy food choices, aka...no high fructose corn syrup, no MSG, humanely raised meat, organic fruit, veggies and milk, yadayadayada and I think some of that stuff might actually be sticking in his little brain.

Evidently his compassion on those poor souls who have to endure the measly portions of unhealthy school food day in and day out couldn't take it any longer.  He felt the need to solve this problem of epidemic proportions.  This is his solution:

"I know Mom!  How about if you get all your friends together and you guys replaced all the lunch ladies at my school.  Then I KNOW those kids would finally get to eat good, healthy food.  And maybe they'd get full at lunch too."