That’s like Going Rogue, in case you were wondering.

*As I pulled out of the driveway to take the kids to school today, I saw that I still have my Christmas Bell Wreath on the front door. Oh well.

*I worked out today. At an actual gym. It was my first time. I liked it. I wore my shirt with the Superman S on it for inspiration.

*Speaking of my first time, I pulled out a gray hair for the first time yesterday. Yikes.

*I’ve heard a song on the radio three times now that I love and as of yet I cannot find it in itunes. That makes me sad.

*Tomorrow is sibling preregistration at the preschool Isaac goes to. Oliver’s birthday is past the enrollment date so next year, for the first time in like 6 years, we won’t have a child at that preschool. I’m kind of sad about that. I love those people.

*I made two dozen lemon cupcakes yesterday evening.  At this time they are more than half gone.

Have you ever heard that saying about kids who are growing fast, “You should put a brick on his head!”? I have nothing really to say about it, it just popped in my head as I was looking at Alex this morning. He had a dentist appointment so we spent some time together hanging out.  I looked over at him in the passenger seat and thought, that kid is huge!  He’s not a “little” boy anymore.

His dentist appointment was fine, if you were wondering.

Yesterday the boys were playing outside. They were fighting. They call it “training”. Basically this means they just tussle around in what they perceive to be an athletic fashion. If you’re up for a chuckle, it’s just the thing.  Especially when they’re wearing a getup like this:

Apparently tucking tshirts into windpants makes me laugh. A lot. He had no idea I was taking this picture because I thought that was funny. Poor kid. You may have noticed he’s wearing a Jurassic park shirt. He got that for Christmas. He went to put it on right after he realized the paperback copy of Jurassic Park arrived  in the mail. He promptly read 3 chapters, then changed into this shirt and went out to “train” with his brother.

On the way to school Alex asked me if it was possible to “train too much”. I said, “First of all, what are you training for?? I have no idea how to answer that question.”  I imagine this training involves something very Napoleon Dynamiteish. Apparently that wasn’t the right answer because he just changed the subject. Kids are funny.

Tomorrow, my sweet little ray of sunshine, Isaac, will turn 5. Yes, 5!  Maybe it’s just the season for nostalgia in my house or something but I can’t believe this little Birthday is upon us! There was a period of time when we thought he would be our last baby. We believed it so much we just called him “baby” half the time and when we found out we were expecting again we had to break everyone of calling him “baby Isaac”.  Even his brothers had taken to it.

He is a little ray of Sunshine. In fact, I often call him that, my little Sunshine. He’s a happy boy, he loves school. He can read. He goes to preschool two days a week and has the job schedule there memorized. He can tell you what his job will be today and what it  will be the next time he goes and what everyone else’s job in his class is. He’s a smart little cookie.

Let’s be honest, I work a lot of hours outside the home, and we’ve got a lot of stuff and people inside the home, so in a very real way, ALL the birthdays sneak up on me. I tend to be a last minute planner. There’s not a lot of elaborate parties (who has the money for that anyway??) with lots of invitees and so on. I hope that one day, the gifts we gave and the cake we had as a family will be just as fun for them as any big ol’ party would have been.

I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since I was bringing little baby Isaac to work with me. The blondie of the family. The once-baby of the family but now middler. The boy who loves cookies so much he could eat them nonstop forever. The little sunshine.

It was Christmas morning, the year was 1999. Steven and I had gone to my Mom’s house for the holiday. I was late. Not to my mom’s house, you know, for my “special monthly visitor”. (TMI?? Sorry!) I had already taken a test a couple weeks earlier and it was negative. They always say you should take the test first thing in the morning, so on Christmas Eve, Steven and I drove around looking for some place OPEN so we could buy one. Finally, we found a Walgreens. I woke up first on Christmas morning, hopped off to the bathroom to do my business and saw the positive result. I went back over to Steven and shook him. “Hey, hey, I’m pregnant!!!”  He rolled over and mumbled to himself, “Congratulations”.  Then I heard his snoring. A few minutes later he sat up and said, “Wait, did you say you were pregnant?!”   I’ll never forget it. We didn’t have cell phones and texting like we do now so I went off in search of someone to tell. I found my sister, Amy. I showed her the stick, and with her being 7 years younger than me she just looked at it and said, what is that? What does it mean? I’m pregnant!!  It’s funny how you remember stuff like that.

That Christmas was 13 years ago. Later this year my baby will be a teenager. Yikes. I can’t believe what seems sort of like last year has been that long ago. I know I’ll feel that way again at the other milestones. It’s just crazy to think about.

This weekend, Alex went to his Grandparent’s house for the weekend and when he came home he just LOOKED taller. You know, how kids do that sometimes. They just look BIGGER than the last time you saw them even if it was just a day ago.  So we went to the wall where we do our height measuring to check it out. Sure enough, he was taller than I am. I’m only 5ft and 1/2 inches tall, so it’s not like it’s a major achievement. For us though, it was a milestone. A part of me will always see him as my little Alex. The only Christmas present I even remember from 1999.

Around our house, there is no lack of imagination. I’m not sure how it started or exactly how we fostered it in our children, but our kids do a lot of playing “in their heads”. Don’t get me wrong, we still have probably too much t.v., video game, computer, and ds time, but there’s also a good bit of time where good old fashioned sticks or light sabers are utilized. Climbing out back, playing with the dog, running around doing who knows what are all common sights to see.

When our oldest son, Alex was little, he would go off to his room and pretend. His speech was barely discernible at the time, but his sound affects came out loud and clear. BAM! SWISH! PSHAW!  When the bad guys took a hit, everyone in a 3 room radius knew it. My mother in law started calling it “swishing” because he would literally SWISH by you.  He didn’t care if you saw it or heard it as long as you stayed out of his way and let him play. All of the boys do it in their own way, a couple of them now do it more than the others. If you ask them what they’re doing they’ll just say, “Oh I’m making up a story.” or something like that.

The other night I looked around and realized 3 of the boys were “swishing” all totally independent of the others. Oliver is only 2 and yet he gets up and goes and swishes because the bigger boys are doing it too. It was kind of loud, actually, the whole scene. At the same time, it was cozy. I liked that they were right in front of me doing it. I didn’t mind that whatever they were imagining cut a path right in front of what I was watching on t.v. I realized one day they’ll be too old for it or they’ll be moved out. There won’t be any swishing in the other room or down the hall. The house will be quiet.

I think I’d rather not think about when the swishing stops. It’s one of my very favorite things.

Steven has taught me many things in our years together. How to argue really loudly, the value of procrastination, how to laugh more, how not to take myself so seriously, how to play D&D, (yeah, I said that) I could go on. He’s pretty good at theology too. I’ve learned a ton from his studying, which is really the way to go, in case you’re wondering. Have someone else study stuff and then they can teach it to you. One of the things that he’s always saying is in reference to us talking about a situation others are going through. I have this habit of deciding that I know what someone elses intentions are. For example they will have said something and I interpret it in some kind of negative way. I’m not gonna lie, I’m usually right. (snicker) He’ll say, “That’s not really putting the best construction on it.” And of course, I’m like, what a party pooper you are! In all fairness, I’ve heard him stop what he was saying and say, well, “I’m not putting the best construction on that.” 

It comes from Luther’s Small Catechism. Luther states in his explanation of the 8th commandment:
(Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor) we “should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.”

This is pretty dadgum good advice. It also takes not bearing false witness against your neighbor up a notch. It’s a little bit harder to put a good construction on something your neighbor said or did than is to simply not lie about them.

(Does anyone else mentally picture a neighbor as someone who lives next door? No? Just me? I can’t help it, my mind takes it very literally)

Anyway, it’s just bouncing around in my head lately. After much thought I’ve decided that this is pretty much the same thing as “attitude is everything” which was my high school band motto. Seriously, it was. Our practice tshirts said that on the back. Your attitude about people and situations often determines what you do about them. If you think supportively and positively about people and situations, you act accordingly. However, when you think negatively about something you also act in accordance.

Maybe my goal for the year could be to put the best construction on 2013. You know, think positively about the people and situations that show up. 

Let’s practice. In the picture below I could say, this is right before I snapped my finger in the mousetrap John was trying to tell me how to set while I was blindfolded and he could not help me. OR I could say, this is the time I learned how to set mousetraps and now I can set any mousetrap anytime, no problem.

Ha. You get the point. Also I got to use a picture that really had nothing to do with this post.

Spends an inordinate amount of time wiping pee off the toilet seat.

In time, Begins to think poop jokes are funny.

Buys a lot of groceries.

Has folded many a pair of superhero underwear

Realizes that for a season, we really can’t have nice things laying around the house. And mostly, she’s okay with that.

Doesn’t ask anyone at home what they think of her outfit. They tell the truth.

Knows how to “wrastle”.

Knows when the “wrastling” has to stop.

Walks around singing the theme song to Dragon Ball Z Kai.

Gets some of the sweetest hugs, ever.

Has fun buying girly things, for her nieces.

Doesn’t ever say the two forbidden words (car insurance).

This week has been weird. Events at work led me to make the Meme attached to this post. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Today after I left work I went to pick up the boys from school. Steven had been helping install some necessary software for the shelter so I was on pickup duty. While waiting in line (see second photo) the gas light came on in the Envoy. Of course.
After getting in the car the argument about who gets to use the computer when we get home begins. Good times.

Isaac has outgrown his shoes. Everyone got new shoes a couple months ago but sometimes boys just hit a growth spurt. So I took the crew to Target.
We are on a very limited budget these days, but I had a couple extra dollars so I sprung for two bags of popcorn. Don’t judge, it helps in the store! The nice lady split it up into 5 bags so each kid got their own. I suspect that it added up up more than two bags total.

We scored a sweet deal on some not too cheap looking shoes and then hit the gas station. After finally getting home, we walk in to see Steven fixing his computer speakers. They were still under warranty so when the replacement part came today he sat right down to fix it. I headed to the bedroom to change out of my work clothes only to discover the carpet was wet. Crapola. The toilet had overflown. Out of our bathroom, into the tub room, and into the other bathroom. And down the carpeted hallway. It was still flowing from the toilet. I hd the pleasure of standing in the water and plunging it. Then spending the next hour mopping up the mess and containing the carpet problem. I see a shampooing in the future.

Did I mention that my foot has been swollen to twice it’s size for the last 3 days? Apparently it’s an allergic reaction. To an unknown allergen. No bite marks or anything. Tomorrow I leave for a leadership class retreat where we will be climbing a wall and doing a ropes course. I hope the foot is smaller then!

What can I say, some days you’re the dog, and some days you’re the hydrant. I think I’ve been a little of both.

Wear More Sombreros  (That one’s for you, @ZanyZeal )

Keep a candy dish on my desk at work. It makes people trust you more. I have no proof of that but it sounds good.

Don’t let the laundry sit in the chair as long before I fold it.

Remember to wear my reading glasses at the computer and when I’m reading. They really don’t help if I don’t put them on. It’s not like owning them improves my vision.

Laugh more with the kids. Care less about the mess.

Dust more. (does this conflict with the one above it?? Probably not since I think I dusted less than 5 times last year. Don’t tell anyone.)

Hug every kid every day. (clarify: every kid that is mine, I’m not magic)

Burn myself less while cooking. That bacon grease gets me a lot.

Complain less and complement people more.

Be cool more often.

Remember that time for myself is not a bad thing. It’s okay to ask for it and take it.

Remember to walk frequently.

Do some kind of abdominal exercise. (Is it sad I have to work that in this year?)

Stretch.

Say something every day that I’m thankful for. Today, it’s my Xanga peeps.

A post for my fellow Christians

I don’t know about you, but I hear people say, “I don’t have a religion, I have a relationship” all the time. I went to a Baptist Bible College for my bachelor’s degree and that was a really popular sentiment among the hip, young, Baptists back then. Probably still is for all I know! We were told things like, Catholicism is full of idolatry and Mary-worship, and those people are just doing rote memorization instead of forming their own thoughts, etc.

Fast forward to now. I’m Lutheran. In case you don’t know, it’s a closer sister to Catholicism than most Baptists are comfortable with. Why am I Lutheran? Well, lots of reasons. It was a decision Steven and I made after years of research. I was raised Southern Baptist and he was not raised a Christian at all, in fact, he didn’t become a believer until high school. We got together at the aforementioned Baptist College.   What happened? Well, Steven was majoring in Bible, and I had many Bible classes myself in conjunction with my counseling studies. We started talking, as we are wont to do, and discovered our own personal beliefs didn’t quite mesh up with the Baptists. After a lot of time, studying, prayer, etc. we went Lutheran.

Is the Lutheran church perfect? Heck no. But neither is any church. After all, most churches, if correctly interpreting the Bible will tell you that people are not perfect.  Do the math, folks. hehe.

Anyhoo, all this to say that as a Lutheran, we do many things differently than our Baptist cousins. We baptize our babies, we have communion every week, we use the Liturgy and have Divine Services. There are lots of traditions, there’s lots of memorization, and, gasp, repetition!  What are we thinking???
Have we given up our relationship for a RELIGION??

I’d just like to point out that according to dictionary.com, religion is defined as: