Love Her

Tina Fey's book comes out in April and I am a little too excited about it.

There is something about Liz Lemon that makes me relate to her and want to be her all at the same time. Can't wait to read her memoir!

Pre order on Amazon

Playing Hooky (and landing on the moon)

"Can't we just play hooky today," were my first words spoken this morning. For various reasons, mornings have not be my most energetic time of day. Caeden was up a few time during the night last night with a sore throat, and since I didn't want to get out of bed, playing hooky seemed like a great decision.

Next thing I know, he comes bounding into the room, asking to get to school early.

Bummer.

On Wednesdays Owen and I usually attend Bible Study. I was getting ready to leave the house, but due to my "ditch the schedule" mood already, it didn't take much for me to find a reason to stay home.

Owen loves to play, in fact he never wants to do anything else, but he especially loves when Mom and Dad take time to role play with him. Dressing up and playing the part is pretty easy with his imagination, especially since he tells me exactly what to do.

Staying home to play astronauts today was quite a treat for the both of us.

And when C got home from school, he made a jet pack too and joined in the fun.

At the time, I didn't even realize the lessons Owen was learning about recycling until I heard him tell his brother, "we turned old things into something new." The jet packs were made out of used cereal boxes & caps found from the recycle bin then covered in tin foil.

My house is still trashed with remnants of forts turned into rocket ships and a whole mess of toys.

Making memories with the boys is usually messy, but always well worth it.

Playing hooky has never been this much fun.

Boyhood Tradition

When C was a little tike, we weren't allowed to close his bedroom door at night until we heard him say, "I love you, and good night."

Since moving to our new home, a second phrase has been added. Don't ask me how exactly, but now both boys echo:

"I love you and good night........I want a big breakfast."

Like clock work every night before we close their bedroom door this phrase is uttered by both of them. It is tender, yet hilarious and it suits them well.

I really love these two!

and tomorrow, they will get cinnamon rolls for breakfast, just because.

10 things I am loving right now

1) The Color Purple---my favorite color (not the movie)

Mike is known for getting me practical as opposed to romantical gifts for Valentine's.

These purple running shoes are my V-day gift and I wouldn't have wanted anything more.

2) and I guess I love the color red too, since I love my Toms shoes

Check our their website, if your not familiar.

What a great idea for a business: with every pair of shoes you purchase, Toms will give a new pair of shoes to a child in need.

3) Tim Keller Podcasts

Tim Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC and the author of several incredible books. The only one that I have read so far is "Reason for God". It has been so encouraging, enjoyable to listen to his sermons on my long commutes for work. They are free downloads on Itunes. You can click on the link below to find them. I love how the Gospel is interwoven into every message he preaches. It's truth, and I am loving it.

4) Reading & Learning

The Book of Isaiah & Bible Study Fellowship

Isaiah is not a book of the Bible I knew much about. I have been blown away by the truths of the Gospel message in this book. Learning more and more about the character of God and his rich love for us. He is the ONLY TRUE GOD, there is no other.

and I Just finished reading The Secret Life of Bees. SO good.

5) Hot tea, so refreshing, and i don't need to spend money at Starbucks to enjoy it.

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea."

Bernard-Paul Heroux

1900's Basque philosopher

6) Our kids

lately we fill our cold winter days with super heroes, dance parties, UNO, library books, legos, and hot wheels. It has been such a treat to listen to Caeden read books to us also.

7) Words with Friends

it's a really addicting scrabble game on the iphone. my best score yet is 128 points on one word. However, I never can seem to beat Mike.

8) My hubby

we are being stretched as individuals and as a couple. In some ways our roles have reversed since Mike is the "stay at home dad" during the two days a week that I am working. I am so blessed to spend my life with a man who loves me, takes care of me, encourages me, and laughs with me. I am so proud of him and how passionately he is following God's calling on his life.

9) LC

at 35 yrs of age, I can now successfully drive a stick shift.

Many attempts and continual stalls are behind me, I am now free to cruise the town-hills, lights, and all. First gear was my nemesis. But, this Lovely Lady, "LC" as we call her, has stuck with me and is now my friend. (p.s. Caeden snapped this photo of me).

10) The perfect yoga panty from Victorias Secret. Love 'em.

Bittersweet

While I love being a PT and am so thankful for my new job, this is what I miss.

Mike sent me a txt with this picture. The boys built themselves a spaceship out of wood and Owen was the driver. How I adore them and their creativity. It makes me sad that I missed out on this fun while I was driving all over the county seeing home health patients today.

These two bring me JOY!

Class project

The school where C attends has a big fundraising auction every other year. It's a big deal and they try to get everyone involved. Each class is responsible for donating a "class gift" to be auctioned off for big money. The auction isn't until March, but the room-mom and I have been working on the Kindegarten class project since August. Our idea was to create a family rules board. They have been really popular lately and I pine for some of the ones found on Etsy. The walls in my dining room are bare, in hopes that one day I will make our own rules board. The class project is finally complete and honestly I would rather see the artwork hanging in my house.

Caeden's teacher sat down with each child individually and had them answer a few questions about God's rules/family rules/what the have learned in Kindegarten. Each child had 3 or 4 answers and we chose the best ones to place on the board. Caeden's says, "be thankful for what your mom makes for dinner." In order to make it more personal, we chose to place each child's first name and last initial in small gray print by their quote. Then at the bottom we added "Love God Love Others" and the teachers name and year it was completed.

We toiled around with the idea of placing it on wood, but chose 24x32 in. canvas instead since we knew someone who could design it from their computer program. He designed a few different layouts, we picked our fave, then he saved it in on jpeg and put it on a disc for us. I uploaded it to Costco photos, ordered it and it arrived in about 5 days. The pictures I show doesn't do it justice, since it is all wrapped in shipping plastic.

I am really pleased with how it turned out and hope the school can make a cool mill. off of it (or at least $100).

Keep it up

One more thing that I treasure:

When the kids awoke this morning, they snuggled in bed with me for a few minutes. Then out of the blue, Caeden said, "mom don't come out of the room." Owen said, "ok I will block her with my light saber and not let her come out."

Mike is out of town. So i was a little worried about how we would get everything done this morning and make it to school on time.

I figured they were up to something so I took advantage of the time and straightened my hair & got dressed.

When they finally let me come out of the room. The two of them were sitting at the dining room table eating cereal. I walked out with my jaw dropped.

Caeden

1) made his bed

2) brushed his teeth

3) took his vitamins

4) poured cereal and milk for the both of them and brought them to the table.

5) got an extra 50 cents for his piggy bank. ( he is trying to save up for a trampoline)

Owen

1) helped :) he wanted to make sure that I knew that

2)was a fierce bouncer/blockader/jedi warrior

3) got hugs because he could care less about money in his piggy bank

This is highly unusual behavior and I would like it to continue. I never had to ask them to do anything this morning and we were able to get to school early for once.

So please boys, keep it up. Lock me in my room all day if you want, just make sure that when I finally come out the laundry and vacuuming are done. :)

A mother's treasure

It's not a good feeling when you pick up your son from school and the teacher tells you of how disruptive, disobedient, and rude he was in class. She pretty much said, "I am not sure if you have discipline at home for this type of behaviour, but something needs to be done."

Well, his discipline today was, no riding his bike (a big deal if you viewed the previous post). Then I mentioned that he should write a letter of apology to his teacher.

Right before homework time, he wrote this ........ "sre fow mi acshinz."

Then he said, "I'm done with the note to the teacher."

I was surprised, "what do you mean? you already wrote it? what did you say?"

He replied, "I wrote sorry for my actions."

This is one of those moments! The treasured motherhood moments when you receive something that you know will be kept through the ages and shown to his future wife. The kind of momento that goes right into the hope chest (if only I had one).

We wrote the letter again (3 more times acutally) and below is what he is really giving to his teacher.

Although I am sure she might appreciate the one above; it's going to be mine forever, at least until his wedding day!

Thank you, Caeden

you are my treasure!

It's happening

He's growing up.......and he still loves his bike!

Life

Mike and I have both started out the new year by diving into books. He is reading Radical by David Platt and I am reading Think by John Piper. I love that my husband said to me, "I realized that if I don't read, then I don't learn." I hope we never stop learning, together.

It's January 17, 2011 already and I am finally ready for the New Year to begin. Life has been absolutely crazy. On Dec. 31st we awoke at 3am EST to be ready in time to catch our 5:30 am plane back to California. And just to make life more interesting, Caeden decided to wake with a 101 degree fever. We were literally down and out for 2 whole weeks. All of us had Bronchitis at the same time and we all had antibiotics prescriptions for 10 days. Life came to a halt. Things are moving again, so I think I can finally say, Welcome 2011.

Since my previous post, I have been pondering on our lesson #9 of 2010 (Life is Hard). To be honest, this is something that I have never wanted to admit. It's easier for me to see life as a glass half full and then not address the difficult. Out of sight, out of mind I guess. However, the past 7 months have forced me to address a lot of things in my life that I would rather not. Sometimes, i want to go back to the comfortable, because living in the struggle is painful. But what is life, if not lived in the trenches only to be brought out by the grace and power of Almighty God? Just like reading to learn, we embrace the pain in order to live.

John Piper said, ‎ If you cannot embrace the pain of learning but must have instant gratification, you forfeit the greatest rewards of life.

Well said, so my "glass half full" view of life never brings me to my desperate need for a Savior and on my knees pouring my heart out to God; but rather brings me a false life of ease. A wonderful phrase was written into my Isaiah study, "Our gracious and powerful God is able to overturn easy lives in order to create Holy lives."

So the question lies in, what am I pursuing, Ease or Holiness?

The boys have been trying to learn a little rap song, that Mike made up in a high school play.

"Peter walked on water

when he kept his eyes on Jesus,

but when he took them off,

he was swimming with the fishes."

Hearing them rap/sing it always makes me smile and reminds me something I

read in the John Piper book.

They (the pharisees) wanted safety on the seas.

But they did not want to know Jesus for who he was...........

They loved their physical safety.

But they claimed to have too little evidence to know the Son of God.

He was too threatening to their desires.

God has purposefully brought us here in this season of life and my prayer is that we don't run from it because it may be hard.

But rather: Run to Jesus, be broken, be healed.

And let the healing transform us, renew us, and propel us into deeper

abandonment of self and a fuller life in Christ.

May the learning never stop!