Archives for 2008

As usual, my Christmas card/letter has been completed after the holiday this year. I did scale back on my snail mail list this year. For all my online friends, please enjoy here!

Love and blessings to you all.

+++++

Catching up on photos of events this fall …

Halloween outfits: knights and princess. The kids loved trick-or-treating. The amount of candy they received was positively OBSCENE.

Visiting with Great-Grandmother (Mimi’s mother). Seth, Mimi, Spencer, Great-Grandmother, Susanna.

Breakfast with Santa. This annual event is sponsored by POTATO (parents of twins club). I love it. It’s so much fun, and the kids are always thrilled to see Santa.

From the moment we got to the breakfast, the boys were yelling at Santa, “Hi, Santa!”

Please people, please. Before you leave your house to shop or do anything in public, actually, would you refrain from wearing spicy, heavy perfume and cologne? I can smell you the minute you step out your front door. And the fragrance lingers in my nose minutes after we part ways.

I just can’t take it. Really. You make me sneeze. Save the perfume for your sweetie in the bedroom, but leave it off if you’re headed to Michael’s or the Dollar Tree.

Pregnant, nauseous women; migraine sufferers; and I thank you.

Achoo.

I just have to say that my children are positively crazy right now. Their excitement over Christmas has them running in circles, telling incessant knock-knock jokes, misbehaving in restaurants, and singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” as well as “Dreidel, Dreidel” (ironic, I know) about 50 thousand times a day.

Today was Susanna’s last day (half day) of school and the boys’ Christmas program. It was just out of the ordinary enough to send them over the cliff of normalcy.

Can I make it ’til Thursday?

Yesterday, I did a little bit of Christmas shopping in actual stores while the kids were at school. Nashville’s weather yesterday was sunny and bright, upper 50’s, but windy and a bit chilly. Definitely long sleeve shirt and pants weather. And I’m hot all the time.

Coming out of one store, I noticed a woman walking back to her car. She was wearing a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, and shorts.

OK–now, that’s not terribly unusual. I’ve paired shorts with long sleeve shirts before.

But the most astonishing part was her choice of legwear to go with her mixed ensemble.

Black nylon knee-high socks with athletic shoes.

So, I’m wondering if her thought process as she was getting dressed went something like this:

Hmmmm. Let’s see. It’s sunny today. I think I’ll wear my shorts. But it’s windy and not 60 degrees so my arms may get chilly. Yes … a long sleeve shirt with a sweater will be nice. OK. What shoes? A cute flat? No. A sandal? No, my toes would get cold. I know! I’ll wear my running shoes. A nice, hefty athletic shoe will be perfect for my day of shopping. What socks? Cute little white ankle socks? Too predictable. I know! I’ll just pull out my black knee-high trouser socks that are only supposed to be worn under long winter pants. Yes! Now that’s the picture of fashion!

You know all those extra buttons that come with new clothes?

If you’re like me, you’ve saved them relentlessly, obediently. JUST IN CASE … the button pops off and you can put your hands immediately, precisely on THE VERY BUTTON that matches the others on the blouse. And then you’re poised to quickly and decisively remedy the missing button situation right then and there.

Kinda funny then, wouldn’t you say, that many of pants are being held together with safety pins?

Anyhoo… I still keep my stash of buttons in the bathroom drawer … although, I can’t remember using even one of them in a crisis button-missing situation. Not one in the 38 years that I’ve been wearing clothes. Not one.

So you would think that I didn’t have much allegiance to said buttons nor that I would care much at all about their eventual fate, right?

Well, not really. See, the psychology behind these buttons and their intended purpose is really powerful for me. “You must NOT discard the button,” I hear in my head. This mantra is akin to the one that prevents you from clipping tags off mattresses and pillows and the hair dryer cord. “Must not be removed … under penalty of law.” That’s why they give you the button. Just in case.

Last week, I was having some “time” in the bathroom and trying to concentrate intently on reading something. Never mind there was a veritable circus going on beside me. The bathroom door doesn’t really lock, so privacy for me is non-existent. The boys were shuffling through shoes and dirty clothes in the closet. Finally their attention turned to the vanity drawer. I call this “rummaging.” They love to rummage through the toothpaste tubes, deodorant bottles, and dental floss. Oh, yea, and spare buttons. Those dang spare buttons.

(Let me just insert here that I don’t ever remember as a child parking it in the bathroom while Mom and Dad went potty or took a shower or got dressed. I’m sure I did, but I don’t remember doing it. My children, however, are fascinated with this ritual.)

So, anyway, I’m concentrating and going potty and all of a sudden, I hear PLOP!!!

Plop?

“Seth… what was that?”

He managed to hit the angle just right under my magazine and between my legs to drop a beautiful red button into the potty.

“Oh!!! A button! Oh, no! Seth!”

Instinctively, I fished it out. I know. Gross, gross, GROSS!!! But, I couldn’t help it. It was one of those buttons. It was a really nice, red fabric covered button that I know I could never, ever find a matching one if one were to fall off my sweater to which it belonged.

I couldn’t flush it, could I? That would be paramount to … oh, I don’t know … treason or embezzlement or perjury or something equally heinous.

No, I would remain loyal to my button. So, quickly and oh, so gingerly, I fished it out with the tiniest square footage of the tips of my fingers AND it was only in there for less than ten seconds, so it wasn’t completely infected, right?

I then washed it and my hands super-duper well with hot, soapy water.

(Sigh.) No harm, no foul. I was kind of proud, actually. I had done my civic duty and rescued the button.

Except now there was one thing to contend with:

THAT BUTTON HAS BEEN IN THE TOILET. EWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

Finally, logic triumphed over my crazy psychological tendencies: I’ll NEVER need it anyway. I’ve only worn that sweater once, and it doesn’t even fit well.

I threw that horribly gross thing in the trash.

Yes, finally, reason prompted me to do the reasonable thing.

Well, OK, that and my husband’s exclamation: “Yuck! It fell in??? Why didn’t you just throw it away???”

Seth: Knock, knock.
Mom: Who’s there?
Seth: Pineapple.
Mom: Pineapple who?
Seth: JUICE!

HI-LAAARRR-I-USSS!

I have a super-duper intolerance with folks who refuse to make informed decisions. Really. The one thing that ticks me off more than anything is when people form opinions, make declarations, and take stances based on emotion or peer pressure, without research, fact-checking, or prayerful deliberation.

The election is over. I can’t help but think that ON BOTH SIDES of the camp (two major political parties), persons simply made a decision for a candidate because:

I’ve always voted (Democrat or Republican); my mom (or dad or husband or wife) told me to; my Sunday school teacher said Obama is the anti-Christ (yes… I really have heard this one said in all sincerity); Sarah Palin is an idiot; Sarah Palin is a Christian; at least the Republicans are pro-life; at least Obama is a Christian, and so on and so on.

Today I heard an interesting news report from a Christian perspective about how so-called evangelical, pro-life, pro-gun, Christian voters (many of them from the Bob Jones University group) in South Carolina voted for an extremely liberal, pro-abortion, anti-gun candidate because he was the Republican candidate for congress. Yes–the Democratic candidate was the one more closely aligned with their values and concerns. But they checked their brains at the door and voted party-line. The Democratic party even endorsed the Republican candidate (NOT the Democratic candidate). Isn’t it pitiful that “we” US citizens are so gullible, so stupid, so uneducated that we can’t even articulate and defend our so-called preferences and values. We are hard-pressed to live out the things that we SAY are the MOST IMPORTANT and NEAR AND DEAR to our hearts. We really don’t even have a clue.

This evening, I heard another pitiful example on the Glenn Beck radio show. He was taking callers to complete a “trivia quiz.” He asked them things like, “What position is Hillary Clinton being considered for?” “What will Joe Biden do on January 20th when he’s no longer a Senator?” “Can you name one of the rights included in the Bill of Rights?” “Who is the Vice-President-Elect?” NO ONE could answer 100%. On the Bill of Rights question, one person said, “the right to remain silent.” Another said that John McCain was the Vice-President-Elect. The majority of the callers I heard said they voted in the election; all said they voted for Obama. Certainly, I believe that they all have the RIGHT to vote. But, people, with RIGHTS come RESPONSIBILITIES!

I am scared and dismayed and sad and mad at all these people and their abdication of initiative, education, and involvement.

What WOULD our country look like, feel like, function like, love like if our people–regardless of the votes they cast–staked a claim in their citizenship and simply participated wholeheartedly in the process? Will we ever recover from our apathy or simply drown in it as we choke on our self-imposed ignorance?

Seth: Mom, you’re missing the point! (Often said completely randomly and out of context.)
—
Mom: You are … (trails off because I get distracted or who knows why I forget what I’m saying mid-sentence)
Spencer: driving me nuts!
—
Last week, Susanna had a substitute teacher. Her description of the sub:
“She was from Mexico. Or Atlanta. Not sure which one.”
—

For whatever reason, I feel like I’ve trudged through molasses today. It was long. It was rainy. It was boring. It was sleepy. Nothing particularly bad. Nothing particularly exciting, either.

Anyway, all this slow moving gave me the space and time to make a few observations—completely unrelated and in no particular order:

1. I’ve never rung the bell for the Salvation Army at Christmas, but I bet those bell-ringers’ arms get really tired after a few minutes. You know how your arm and hand cramp when you’ve been painting for awhile.

2. I really like ironing. Of all the tasks, I like ironing, which most people hate. But I never do iron anything unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY because it’s incredibly time-consuming and our clothes generally look fine without the ironing. Maybe that’s why I like ironing—because I never do it. I hate mopping and dusting.

3. It never takes me as long to sew on a button as I think it will.

4. I’m stunned that in this INSANELY sluggish economy, our country is sending astronauts on a space mission. And this time, we’re sending a bigger group with an extra bedroom and a brand-new bathroom with some type of recycled water system. Anyhoo… I don’t know what a space shuttle mission costs, but I’m kinda thinking that it would be cool if the NASA people said, “Hey. We’ll take a break and give all this money to other aspects of our economy.” I mean (and I acknowledge I know very little about the US space exploration program), astronauts in space have virtually no impact on my daily life. While we’re at it… couldn’t we put professional sports and big budget blockbuster films on hold? Use that money to help our economic concerns.

5. Pop-Tarts now includes one serving of whole wheat in two flavors. Finally! I can feel OK about giving my kids crap for breakfast, right?

6. I can’t decide who to be more disgusted with: Hugh Hefner or those three shameless women who prostitute themselves for him in his house.

7. My heart TOTALLY goes out to single moms.

8. The Heidelberg Catechism Question and Answer #1 gives me great hope:

Question: What is thy only comfort in life and death?
Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.