Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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It's about time!
Okay, I know I wrote about the famous AWANA cars, but I never included pictures. Here they are for those of you who are interested. Abbie won 2nd place for design. Her bunny lost to a cute mouse atop swiss cheese. Grace won 1st place for design in the Sparks division & Noah won1st place for design in the open class. Phil said he felt bad that we dominated the competition, but I know that inside he was beaming with pride. And I laughed at him when he told me, as he always done after all the work has been done, that NEXT year he will just let the kids paint their block of wood. I always know that by the time NEXT year rolls around again, he will have been bitten by the bug & will spend countless hours & sleepless nights designing exquisite cars in hope of winning the trophy for design. (Oh, and by the way, we know that the honeybee doesn't have antenna; there's a size limit & that would have exceeded it.)
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
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Okay...time to get back in the game!
There's something motivating about the stress of a packed schedule & preparing for a trip. Or maybe it has to do with the warmer weather & the sunshine. At any rate, I can't sit & mope for much longer. It's time to get up & be happy! ;)
So...where do I start? It seems like the last several days have flown by with a flurry of activity - from volunteering for school functions, to small group activities, and church obligations. Phil was in a meeting last night, I have one tonight & we both have one tomorrow. We've also entered a new phase in our family - the realm of extra curricular activities. We put it off for as long as we could. Grace loved soccer last Fall, so we signed her up again for this Spring. Abbie has her first piano lesson after Spring break. We had been trying to teach her on our own, but we are terribly inconsistent & unfortunately, it never was high our list of priorities. So she's looking forward to actually learning something!
I've had the itch to simplify & get organized, so I have been going through clothes & closets, getting rid of things I haven't used in the 5 years we've lived here, and rearranging everything else. It's amazing the things you find that you forgot you had! Not having much storage space has been a mixed blessing. Though it's a challenge to make room for everything in the house, I'm thankful that I'm forced to let go of things I would otherwise hang on to. Now to tackle the filing cabinet & 10 years worth of paperwork!
We're looking forward to a fun week of vacation with family. We'll be @ Phil's parent's for several days & the kids are excited about seeing their cousins. Then we're off to Omaha to visit my cousin & her family.
Thursday, 28 February 2008
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Trusting three year old
I'm not sure that if I were three I would trust my 4 year old brother to guide me through the house with my eyes shut.
It reminds me of Abbie's first body piercing. When she was around 3 or 4 she was dancing around the living room. She tripped over a chair she had set down in the middle of the room & fell so hard, her top teeth bit through her bottom lip, and much blood & sobbing ensued. After things died down, and we determined that an ER visit wasn't necessary, we tried to get the details of what had happened. We were perplexed as to how she could trip over a chair sitting in the middle of the room, until she explained that she was dancing with her eyes shut! -
Did you know?
Noah: "Did you know the biggest number in the whole world? It's a hundred and fifty-nine. It is." -
Matters of the heart
Yesterday was Grace's 1st grade chapel. Each class is doing a chapel on one of the beatitudes & they focused on "Blessed are the pure in heart". Grace did the opening introduction. She told me the day before that she didn't need to practice her lines like the other kids because she knew it perfect already. Last night she informed me that she did the best because her words were really loud and clear and everyone could understand her. She may be shy, but she makes up for it with an abundance of self-confidence.
Each kid had drawn a picture & written a story about kids that had pure hearts and kids that had dirty hearts. On either side of the stage were two kids holding giant hearts with a clear center. For each "pure in heart" story, the kids would place a clear sheet in the pure heart and for each "impure heart" story, they would place a brown or black piece of paper in the dirty heart. Grace wrote & read the following story:
"Tommy's Mom said, "You can go to the candy shop with your friends, but you need to clean up your room." Tommy wanted to go to the candy shop first. So Tommy cleaned up his room as fast as he could so he could go to the candy shop. Soon his room was clean. Now he could go to the candy shop."
After she read her story, she placed a black paper in the dirty heart. That sort of threw me for a loop. What did Tommy do wrong? Why was his heart dirty? He obeyed his mom & cleaned his room before he went to the candy shop. I was confused. But soon chapel was done & kids were headed back to class, so my questions had to wait. We got the answers we were seeking at the supper table. Apparently, unbeknownst to us, Tommy's motivation for cleaning up his room was wrong. He didn't just clean his room because his Mom asked him to, he only cleaned it up fast (and he didn't do a very good job) because he wanted to go to the candy shop.
We gave a collective, "Oh!" and then Phil & I looked at one another with an "Oh, dear." We should have known, but didn't realize what a deep thinker Grace is. She's so often quiet, except for when she's singing her praises :), and it's hard to decipher what whirls around that cute head. Now we know...sort of.
Friday, 22 February 2008
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Creative Writing
Abbie is at the age where she is writing paragraphs for English class & it's fun to read her papers. I would keep this one, except that it is in her teacher's handwriting. She hasn't done much writing since she fractured her arm 2 weeks ago.
3 point - Inform: "There are 3 important things you should do when you break your arm. You should go to the Dr. as soon as you can, and be careful when you are doing any activities that could hurt it, and always, always be careful when dressing and taking a bath. The first thing you should do if you hurt your arm is go to the Dr. as soon as you can because you might need to have an x-ray. Be careful when you are doing something that could make you fall because you could make it more severe by falling on it again. Also be careful when you are getting dressed or bathing because you might twist it or stretch a muscle. All of these things are important to do when you break your arm."
Do you think she has a future in blogging? :)
Monday, 18 February 2008
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A house divided
In the spirit of Valentine's Day, Phil started an all out family feud on our way home from church last night. He asked the kids, "Who loves you more...Mommy or Daddy?" There were a few answers popcorning from the backseats, but before we knew it, the competition was in full swing and things quickly spiraled out of control into all out yelling. Things were equally divided between boys and girls. "Well, Mom washes all our clothes...AND she picks up our rooms, so she loves us more." "Well, DADDY has to build HOUSES and work REALLY hard, so he loves us more." "Well, Mommy takes care of us & gets us ready for school!" "Well, Daddy wrestles with us & AND he gets really dirty when he's working!" And on it went. We felt very loved. :)
Saturday, 26 January 2008
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Oy, with the poodles already!
Well, it's official. I'm hooked on Gilmore girls - the characters, the dynamics, the humor, the satire. It's my sister-in-law's fault, really. I watch reruns M-F...and I look forward to the sarcasm & irony played out in someone else's life. I see glimpses of myself & my relationships with...others. So the secret is out. My guilty pleasure.
I could sit & analyze for you, but I'll leave that to private conversations. On another note, I have been inspired to start reading again. I bought Randy Alcorn's book Heaven, borrowed Kite Runner from the library & bought a paperback copy of Atonement for a good price. Plus I'm reading an "oldie, but goodie" - Chuck Swindoll's book, Laugh Again & finishing our Bible study book, A Beautiful Offering by Angela Thomas. I know I'm a multi-tasker and all, but I'm a little worried that juggling 5 books will be a challenge.
We had a fun day today. Our last day with Grandpa Debelak. We went to the train museum & the kids had fun exploring a dining car & caboose, watching model trains, ringing the bell on a steam engine, running around a train yard, & hearing stories from the old men that volunteer there. We had lunch at the Next Door Restaurant, a Mom & Pop joint where you call in your order from a phone at your table. We walked around the Mall & borrowed books from the Library (relocated in the Mall while the roof that caved in during a wind storm is being repaired). Then it was off to Freddy's for yummy custard & sundaes. And we ended the day @ Meadowlake Park, feeding geese & playing on the playground. I for one, am exhausted & I can't understand why my children are not! All in all, it was a fun day. After a busy week and another crazy week ahead, it was good to be out of the house.
Monday, 14 January 2008
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Um...I'd like to reconsider...this is too much work!
What ever happened to my idealistic dreams of being a "mommy", of wearing a cute apron while baking chocolate chips cookies? The day I brought our daughter home from the hospital, I woke up to discover the reality that being a mom is a LOT of work...too much work sometimes. And there are always more things to get done than there are hours in the day. Life is busy. There's no way around it.
My problem is that I believe the lie that a Mom should be able to "do it all, do it all right, and do it all right now." I juggle several balls in the air: wife, mom, laundress, cook, housekeeper, secretary, etc. And like a crazy woman, I keep adding more and more responsibilities & committees, without taking anything away. I would like to think that I can be supermom, but my overcommitment is killing me.
One of my favorite books, Real Moms, talks about this:
CAUSE/MOTIVATION: "Meeting needs makes us feel loved, important, like we matter. Another reason we struggle with overcommitment is a deep down desire for value. Doing lots of stuff makes us feel like we're worth something. Accomplishment equals value. Another reason is...we think we're supposed to. We can relate to the mom who concludes, 'We try to squeeze Martha Stewart expectations into a McDonald's time frame."
PROBLEM: "When we overcommit, we lose our balance. Just living with this tension takes its toll. We're constantly feeling tired and get angrier more quickly. We have shorter fuses. We build up resentment in ourselves and in our family members. We forget how to have fun..."
SOLUTION: "We find balance when we choose between ourselves and others (attention to our emotional & spiritual needs is important)...when we choose between good and good enough...(and) when we choose between today & tomorrow. What can we do today because it won't be there for us to do tomorrow?"
I know it is something I will struggle with on a continual basis, but I'm learning...that it's okay to say "no", reading books to my boys is more important than a clean bathroom, a mopped floor only stays clean for 2 minutes BUT washing it weekly...or monthly...or yearly is good enough, no one has a clean house unless company's coming over, using paper plates now & then will not destroy the environment, accepting help from other moms is necessary, and taking care of my spiritual & emotional needs is important.
Saturday, 12 January 2008
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What about God?
I asked Daniel this morning:
Why do you keep climbing in our bed at night? It makes mommy so tired in the morning. Can’t you just stay in your bed all night long?
But I am scared there will be thunder.
No, there wasn't any thunder…only once in a while, when we have a storm. But mommy checks on you & you’re okay. And besides, who is with you all the time, even in your bed when there’s thunder?
God...but.....is God scared of thunder?
LadyAmybug
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- Name: Amy
- Gender: Female
- Member Since: 5/30/2006
About Me
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I'm a wife, a mom, a friend, a manager, a supervisor, a counselor, and a multi-tasker...which has its down-side, as it means I'm usually doing too much at one given time!
