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:

To have a very happy, very prosperous New Year!

But this year, it did! We had ourselves a White Christmas yesterday evening!

these kids are enjoying it before it's gone.

They're everywhere. And they're weirder than I imagined they'd be.

Grief.  It's such an ass-kicker. I know, I know, I used a bad word, but "butt-kicker" doesn't really DO IT for me there.

This month has been all about grief. I'm struggling to put it all in perspective. December 7th would have been my Mema's birthday. My mother and us kids lived with her from the time I was 12 til I graduated high school. She was one of my parents in a very real way. I miss her, not in the gut-wrenching way I used to, though, because she had a really crappy life and I'm mostly just so glad she's in heaven.

We all know about Connecticut. I have cycled in and out of grief for the loss of such young life. I've cried, and had to make myself do other things to just not think about it anymore because it overwhelms me. I hear it, I bring it home as though it's my grief.

Yesterday, I found out that a woman I had been speaking with for the last year and a half or more and helping with a difficult situation, died. I have no answers, I don't know how, I don't know why, I don't know anything. Just that she was here in my office with me a lot. I've seen her happy, I've seen her sad, I knew all about her life, and now it's over. I don't know what to do with that. My brain cannot wrap itself around the fact that she's just not here anymore.

When I think about what to do for someone who has lost a loved one, I think of Job. Job 2:11 reads:
Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him.
I once heard a sermon where the pastor said that what those friends did was simply go and sit with him. They didn't have to give him words, gifts, or other things. They just went to him in his time of grief and sat with him.  So simple, yet so profound.

Don't you think leaving someone a kind word on their blog is like the internet/Xanga way of going to sit with them? I do. I found out this morning that my dear friend Judi's mother died. Judi is a wonderful woman who lives here in the town I live in. She is the executive director of a transitional living homeless shelter. As you can imagine, I met her through work and we have lots in common.  She's not on xanga much, but I thought it would be sweet if a couple people could pop in and giver her their condolences. An online version of going to sit with her in her time of grief. So if you get a chance, pop on over to emmashuman and leave a kind word. I don't know how long it will be before she sees it, but it would be nice, I think.