Monday Moment

Monday Moment:  Driving at 7:30 a.m. and cranking down the AC thinking....I hate hot flashes, then realizing the heated leather seat has been turned on!  lol  Gonna be a looonnggg week. ;-)

The Great Rhinoceros Hunt

The Great Rhinoceros Hunt

While hubby sleeps by day from working nights, my challenge is to keep 4 rambunctious kiddos quiet.  So when the sun shines, I’m thinking of places we can go do inexpensive fun things and leave Steve to sleep in peace and quiet.

Hence….The Great Rhinoceros Hunt.

We headed off to a Kansas Town that boasted some 60+ Rhinos around town. The kids “hunted” these concrete creatures, some decoratively attired to match their place of business or not.  The kiddos got in place, planted their smiles and ran on to the next one.  After 42 Rhinos found, with the Kansas sky erupting with thunder, we headed home – happy, tired and adding another memory for the books.

So I bring you our fave Rhinos:

School is OUT!

School Year 2011 – 2012 Ends today!

Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I don’t know who is happier, the kids or the parents!

I will love it when school approaches again I will be excited and eager for the routine it will bring back. Just as I love it when it lets out, like now. God creates seasons in nature and we as humans need those seasons too…..

So, to summer – let the swimming, T-ball, reading, camping, family time, playing, life begin!

Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I Love You Ritual

I need more patience….or tolerance...

 

 Every day if the timing is just so, I get to stop for a school bus on a regular route.  This doesn’t bother me EXCEPT…..the one stop is a couple of girls and it looks like this:

Mom and Dad drive both their vehicles up the SHORT driveway and sit there with the girls in the vehicles, waiting for the bus to arrive.  They don’t get out until the bus is actually at their drive way stopped.  Then each girl gets out as the parents get out of their vehicles, and respectively they go through this ritual of hugging each parent before they slowly walk across the road to get on the bus, we wait for them to be seated as the bus will then move on.  The cars line up behind watching and waiting for this ritual on a daily basis.

A couple of things that burn my hide are, if the parents KNOW the bus is coming, why don’t they start their ritual sooner so we all don’t have to painfully watch this while waiting.  Or, do it BEFORE they get in the vehicles at the house…..one gal is in 6^th grade, soon to be 7th….okay….old enough to walk up the drive, wait for the bus and just get on it when it arrives!  Seriously. Don’t the parents see us all watching and waiting to continue on our daily commutes?  No respect for that – I think they love the audience….”see how much we love our children!”  Yikes.  Drives me nuts as you can tell. 

I’m not opposed to “I Love You” rituals at all, but at the expense of others who are waiting on you every day I find this one annoying and over the top.  TIME magazine just featured a model breast feeding her 3 yr old who stands on a chair.  Yikes....disturbing photo of a ritual gone too long.  

We all have rituals we do with our children, they are healthy for children to have.  There comes a time we release some of those as our children outgrow them.  It is the journey of letting go of the apron strings…..it is hard, but we do it.  We move from blankies and bottles to cups and good night tucks. I'm talking to myself here too as Sophia still crawls into bed with me too often and it is a hard habit to break.  We all have habits.....a reminder to myself to review more of them.

I think God is working to teach me a lesson in patience that I clearly am rebelling against….because for many years now I’ve witnessed this same bus loading ritual over and over and it burns me every time.  I’m human and so are these parents who are driving me nuts.

Millers Oh Millers!

I’ve said it before, I’ll whine again…I strongly dislike (yes HATE, a word I don’t let my kids use) moths. Right now for a good two weeks the millers are migrating through Kansas – they are basically the adult stage of the army cutworm heading to the Rockies.  Kansas birds love them and in Colorado they are bear food.  Their fancy shmancy name is:  Euxoa auxiliaris.       Shooo, go away soon!

·        They flit.

·        They are too random.

·        They have this dusty stuff on them that gets on walls, fingers, etc.

·        They are ugly in my eyes.   Yes, I know I need therapy on this issue!

Sophia on the other hand, LOVES them.  Basically she loves bugs too.  We are so opposite on this issue like one end of the spectrum way different!  So, despite my dislike, I’m actually pleased and kind of proud she isn’t following my paranoid obsession with disliking insects, especially moths and spiders. To support her in her healthy curiosity I purchased a new net to catch them in  - because I wouldn’t want to touch them.  She finds her hands and little fingers work easier as she just snatches them up.  

Then a new “cage” – mesh to allow them to live and flit away from me.  A new bug inspector gadget.  She is set to play with her rollie pollies (no, not Polly Pockets!) and moth friends.

I’ve got to go now….heading to the big “W” to buy a gallon of hand washing disinfecting soap for her bathroom as we’re gonna use it all up this summer!

PS:  To all my "Miller" friends this post is NOT about you...sorry you share a moth name though! :-)

D.A.R.E. 2012

Today was D.A.R.E.graduation for our 6th grader.

I was proud of her.  She wasn't a special speech speaker.  She didn't do anything but blend with the class.....but I know how hard this class was for her....forcing her to deal with the demons of the past and experiences I'd wager not many in her class have lived, but one never knows.  She could have written a "wow" speech, but hers was more text book...hiding those feelings/experiences she doesn't want anyone to know about.

SOOO.....I'm very proud of her and I've told her so.

Yup.  See the smile....says it all.

My Man With Wise Eyes

 

My man with wise eyes    

Tells me no lies

He is faithful and true

Even when life paints blue.

My man with wise eyes 

Holds me when my soul cries

He is my strong hold

Who allows me to live bold.

  

My man with wise eyes 

Loves his sweet potato fries

He is charming and funny

I love it when he calls me “Honey.”

 

My man with wise eyes.

 

Happy Easter! ~2012~

Easter bunny - The rabbit, or hare, was a symbol of abundant new life in ancient times, and reminds us of spring and new life.

Easter eggs & baby chicks- Eggs and chicks symbolize new life. Eggs have been a symbol of spring since ancient times. An egg also is a symbol of the rock tomb out of which Christ emerged when he arose again. The chick, hatching out of the egg, symbolizes new life or re-birth. 

 

May you have a year ahead of new life in Him!

Bubble Gum Car Wash

When Sophia was little she was scared when we’d go through a car wash, we’d have to give her a stuffed animal to hold, hold her hand and talk her through it…..dark tunnel, loud noises and splashes of water against the windows can really be a little frightening.

 Now at a ripe old 4.5  yrs old – she BEGS to go to the car wash, she LOVES the wax treatment of two colors that blend into one and the kids say “Mom it smells so good….like bubble gum!”  So – every now and then I indulge in an overpriced car wash to “entertain” the kids and save my arm from the cheaper wand wielding version I can get in town with a slew of quarters.

Recently was just such a day – I sprung for the expensive one only to have it rain the next day…..wish that van washing trick worked to bring rain in the summer when we are hitting day 23 of 100 degree weather in a row without a whisper of moisture in the air!

The frugal part of me gets annoyed that I didn’t believe the weatherman at the chance of rain and more that I “wasted” my money on the car wash when I won’t get to enjoy a clean vehicle as long as I’d like. 

Does God feel that way about us – annoyed that we didn’t listen to his forecast like the people of old when he told them he was sending his son and they didn’t accept that miracle son when he did come?  When I’m worrying about wasting my money, do I relish in the joy of a 4 year old laughing at the car wash enjoying the water washing our van clean.  Am I able to see Jesus washing away my sins like the dirt from my van?  I answer “yes” what do you answer today? 

So, instead of a Starbucks moment….I think I’ll save on the expensive Mocha Fraps I like and take in a few more car washes this year….Blub Blub

 ¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
   blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
   and cleanse me from my sin.   Psalm 51:1-2

Earth's Colors Unfold

I’m a sucker for earth colors created naturally by erosion or whatever…..isn’t this cool? 

 This is along a popular highway locally that I travel once in a while.  It has always intrigued me.  I’m not any earth scientist or anything so it makes me ponder more about how come this is happening in this one spot?  All the layers exposed like that just keep going downhill and nothing grows here….no Kansas cedars taking over or anything.  Cattle are sometimes in here.  I’m sure each layer has a nice scientific name. 

We have to be careful in life that when we expose our layers we don’t go “downhill” as well.  When anger, jealously or other negatives creep into our life nothing good can grow in us either.  The deterioration keeps taking a person down.  We’ve recently been accepted to a table to talk with hopes of reconciliation involving one of our children from an incident years ago that continued to grow and fester and deteriorate like this land…..soo much so that both my husband and I denied communion when it was last held in church because we knew things weren’t right….it has seeped into other people around us too and we feel great pain in the experience over something that should never have grown as large as it did.  So….pray for us as we’ve requested numerous times to meet in peace and I pray for open hearts and ears to allow healing to begin, and now God is saying the timing is right.  

 Post:  I wrote this right before we found out the meeting was cancelled....with great sadness, we will find the courage to put this behind us and move forward....   People run from doing hard things in life all the time - this wouldn't have been easy for us either - but it was the right thing to do.  I see my children run from difficulty - it is human nature....no one enjoys conflict resolution.  Saying "I'm sorry" is a life long lesson in humility and growth.  So I'll continue to try to teach my kiddos by example the hard path isn't smooth sailing but the rewards are so much greater on the path less traveled.  **Sigh** it has been a long week.