Humbled By God

I have only a few thoughts for today.

The first is that I am completely humbled by the very idea that God thought I was worthy of the job of Mom. It is, hands down, the hardest thing I've ever done in my life and the job I am most afraid of failing at. Daily, I am convicted.

The second thought, is how very thankful I am to have the ultimate parenting how-to book. It addresses every issue I've ever encountered and reminds me just how often, those "issues" are really my own flaws and not problems in my children. Most of my child raising things are about me changing who I am and not changing who my children were created to be.

That book?

The Bible.

One of my newest goals? I want to have kids that have actually opened it up and read it, not just memorized verses here and there, learned a few stories and can recite the order of the books. I'm half surprised at how many kids I meet in the teen and twenty years, that were raised in Christian homes, but have never opened up the Bible and started reading. Yeah, I know, big book, any bigger than a Harry Potter?

Come to think of it, I know a lot of Christians who, in general, haven't read their Bibles. I know a whole lot who just don't really see the need to bother. Hmm.

Crazy Woman, Aisle Three

Can I just say how much I hate feeling stupid?

I just spoke with someone on the phone. It's a very strange situation. I've been praying for her for a while now. Why? Don't know. Just feeling like I'm supposed to.

Yes, I know, sounding so very rational and grounded here.

Anyway, so today, I asked her, is there anything going on? Anything specific I should be praying about? I'm sure I sound like a crazy woman. I'm betting I just made my way to the avoid at all costs list.

Good thing I get to see her several times a week. I'm sure she's looking forward to it!

Quick! Hide me! The crazy woman's here!

Yup. Makes ya proud, doesn't it?

My Dictator Wins Today

When you wonder if they're paying attention...

Me: What game are you playing? Why is there so much yelling and killing? Knock it off!

Little Mr.: Mom, don't you know anything? We're playing dictator. There's lots of killing in that.

Littlest Mr.: We even let Little Miss have her own country. But we killed her kind.

Little Mr.: Come on, your country can't win every time!

Me: Um, in the history we're reading right now, do any of the dictators "win"?

Little Mr.: No, Mom, but we're just playing, so sometimes the dictators do get to win.

Time elapses, we eat lunch, while folding laundry I begin another conversation with The Little Mr.

Me: L.M., I need your help.

L.M.: I know, go play with Little Miss.

Me: No, I need help getting all the toys and junk off the floors. Then they need to be swept and vacuumed. I need help thinking of a reward for you and your brother if you do the job.

L.M.: That's easy Mom, we get to eat taco night tonight.

Me: You're on.

Realizing that they were having that for dinner anyway.

L.M.: Hey Mom, What if we don't do the job? What's the punishment?

Me: Leftovers

He actually ran down the stairs to get his brother's help.

Really, my leftovers aren't that bad. In fact, I had some for lunch, during the hostile take over of several countries right on my kitchen table. The dictators graciously moved aside their armed forces to make room for my bowl.

So, those kids of yours, and everyone else's kids too, they're listening. Even when they look like they aren't.

What We Have Become

A long time ago one of my friends left her kids with me for a short while. I'm sure it was just an hour or two so she could run some errands without them along. We all traded out like that all the time. It was nothing.

But, to her little girl, it made a big impression. Later, her mom mentioned to me what her daughter said about life in our house.

She said it was fun. A happy house.

At the time, I felt bad. I felt awful that she would say that to her mom as a sort of statement against her own family. But more than that, I felt bad that she had that impression of our family, because I was sure it was wrong.

That was a time that I wasn't sure we were even going to survive each other, let alone be fun and happy. I know that I did not think of us as either fun or happy.

But along the way here through space and time, something has happened, and that little girl was right.

We are fun and happy.

We have been enjoying one long weekend together. We started last Tuesday. Yeah, I know, there's a lot of you thinking it's crazy. How could we be possibly having a good time, this long, all of us together, at home, "doing nothing."

Well, part of it is that we like each other. Now, I'm not saying that we don't all have our moments when we get on another's nerves, we do. That's part of life. But for the most part, we all really, genuinely, like each other.

I like to be around my kids and husband. I like the people they are, and the people they're becoming. I like that we have fun together. I love that we make each other laugh.

Today's lunch is a prime example. If we were a milk drinking family, this would have been a milk shooting out of your nose sort of lunch.

In the middle of bologna and cheese and ketchup-- the champion lunch of all little boys, and the I can't believe there's still turkey left salads, The Littlest Mr. jumped up from his chair. He let out a loud scream, flexed his muscles and ripped off his Superman shirt to reveal his Hulk impression. From there, we quickly degenerated into a squealing group of brain stormers ripping off superhero names a quickly as we could. There were some really funny ones. Anyone with boys will understand Super Stench Man and Wennie Waggler without any explanations.

There just is no way to recount it here and do it justice. We were definitely on the verge of liquids shooting from nostrils though when we got to one of us saying, "Stop it, or I'm going to be Pee In My Pants Boy!"

The Day Before Thanksgiving

So what did you do the day before Thanksgiving?

We had school. A very light day, but it never hurts to insist on a math and grammar lesson. Besides, piano lessons and Tae Kwon Do were still on.

We ate leftovers in a futile attempt to make room in the fridge for today's gluttony.

I recovered the dining room. No longer is it buried beneath loads of school stuff, instead it gleams with emptiness. The family room on the other hand...

My evening was perfect. By 8:30 my children, all freshly washed were sleeping. The fire was burning just so, the dog curled by our feet, a little cocktail in hand and just a glance out the window would show, snow. I'd love to say it was falling gently and making a pretty snow globe setting, but it wasn't. In fact it was whipping around rather furiously.

This morning we woke up early. Someone has to get the turkey going after all, and found that we were covered in snow. More than an inch blankets the out doors. And, seeing as that it's a holiday, the kids were up really early. They were really excited and rambunctious. And, they were outside in the snow by 7:30. I'm sure the neighbors were amused at the least.

It's pretty hard to resist the first snow of the season, and when it falls on Thanksgiving day, it's even harder.

Our peaceful morning will soon be replaced with a house bustling with family, food and football. Go Pack!

And Happy Thanksgiving.

Hide And Go Boo!

It's a wild, silly, loud game they play around here.

Who? The Mr. and all 3 kids.

And how exactly does one play hide and go boo?

Well, first turn out all the lights on the first floor. Then start running around the loop, ducking behind corners and into rooms, so that when the next person comes around the corner or opens the door to hide you can jump out and say "Boo!" It's all very silly. There is lots of laughing and squealing.

My rule for this game?

If you scare someone enough that they pee on themselves or the floor, you have to help with the clean up!

Let's Talk Turkey This Week

I realized something this weekend.

I was grocery shopping, yet again. I hauled out the cart filled to the top with groceries and The Little Miss to The Mr.'s car. I opened the trunk and found it full.

That was when I found myself grumbling, about the full trunk. After I rearranged all the life jackets and stuffed in all the groceries, I began to think. For about 10 years now, I've been opening the back of all different assorted vehicles and finding it full on grocery day.

The funny part is, there are only two things that fill our trunks around here. Life jackets, because you just never know when you'll be able to get on a boat, and strollers.

That was when it hit me. I've had a stroller in the trunk of my car for 10 years now.

And in the spirit of Thanksgiving week, I'm indeed thankful for that full trunk, and for having a trunk and for having the "problem" of where to put the groceries. I'm thankful for the traffic on the way home and the high price of gas, and the money The Mr. makes so I can fill the tank. I'm thankful for the kids that protest the grocery shopping chore and the multitude of choices in the aisles that they whine over.

I had one other thought while I was jamming food into the trunk of the car and struggling to lift the turkey. It was about the holiday. See, I've been the holiday hostess for a while now, I think since 1998. Some years I've looked forward to every second of it. Some years I just wanted to get it done.

While in the grocery store, I was struck by how many older and truly elderly couples were in the store gathering the goodies to make the Thanksgiving meal. Clearly the relative that hosts the event. It made me wonder, what will it be like for me one day. Will I be the hostess into my old age? Will my grown children return with their children to my house for the meal? Will that be the tradition?

It was my tradition until 1998. Almost always, we went to my grandma's house. All my relatives came and that was that. Generally no one missed it, and when someone did, there were almost always some tears shed over it. Every year there was conversation about the green log dish. There was cheese and crackers, drinks and cards. There were men asleep in front of the TV and fireplace. There were dogs and kids.

Two houses and two kids later, it is still happening at my house. There have been some glitches, to be sure. I'm kind of a young hostess and with kids underfoot, but there are still kids and dogs. There are still men in front of the TV and fireplace. No one has talked of the green dish in years. Sometimes the menu has been radically different to accommodate my kids diet. Sometimes that affected the guest list. Oh well. A tradition is not built in a year, but in a lifetime and in a family.

Broken Glass

I have had very few mornings as of late to begin here. It's been busy. A good busy. I know, I say that often, but it's so true and it should be repeated. Busy can be good.

Our busy includes lots of life and people and living, not just running to each slotted activity. Even in the activity vein, there is plenty of time for the extra added, most important part, the relationships with the people we see.

We've been blessed lately, with broken glass. Huh? Well, see, it goes like this. First there was the lamp in the family room. I'm not sure exactly which kid or animal knocked it over. They were all appropriately sorry for it. The glass shattered away from all of them, and clean up was pretty easy. All in all, no blood or injury, just an ugly lamp. I can live with that.

Then last night as The Mr. was getting a late dinner, we noticed a broken dish in the cupboard. A bowl with a chip. A chip the size of baseball. We spent a few minutes looking around and wondering where the piece was. It was late and we were looking forward to a quiet moment and so very quickly gave up the search. It's not like I would have glued the piece back on anyway. A broken dish just means it matches all the others in the cupboard.

So we sat down and started to chat. Then we heard it. The distinct sound of smashing glass. We looked at the other lamp in the family room. No, still standing. Kids and dog are sleeping. I looked outside. I looked upstairs. I went through the living room and family room again. I checked the kitchen, even though I was sitting there when I heard it. Then I opened the basement stairs.

Ah, there's my glass. It seems a globe fell off the ceiling light. Not so bad, except our basement has a tile floor. There was glass everywhere. The good news is that our kids were sleeping and not downstairs playing. They weren't under it when it fell, or near the Foosball table or the fireplace. They weren't in the playroom which took some of the glass, but very little. We didn't have our high school kids down there or our dog. So, it was good. I'll admit, it wasn't on my plan to clean my basement floors last night when I really wanted to be having a snack and getting into my pj's, but no one was dangerously underfoot either.

Blessed By Teens?

Today will be a big day. I'm quite certain that nothing momentous will happen. Just for the record, that would be perfect.

We are off this morning to a meeting of sorts. Case workers, birth parents and of course, us. Foster Parents. Hmm.

We seem to be doing the biggest job in this picture and yet we are in most ways the least important. And so it should be. The birth parents are trying to get it all together. The case workers are trying to figure out what is best for this family. The judges have to try to make sense of this fledgling life. The baby is busy about the business of being a baby. We're sort of glorified baby-sitters.

I'm curious and apprehensive about this morning. I've met the birth parents before. I fully expect this morning to be filled with the unexpected. It's a funny feeling.

On another note, I love my high schoolers! Who knew? I really sort of landed backwards into this high school small group thing. That is a pattern in my life, stumbling into something backwards. I really have always thought of myself as more of a college student kind of person, but I must say these kids are growing on me in a most delightful way. They amuse me, challenge me, keep me on my toes. They make me smile and laugh, they struggle to keep me current with all that goes on in the world of pop culture. They are stretching my heart. Each week one of them touches me in an unexpected way and I find myself in prayer over them all each week.

I love when God surprises me with delight. That's what these kids are, a delight that blesses me each week.

Pil-Sung, I Can Do It!

It's been a while, and a very busy while at that. I can't even remember all the different things I've done since last Tuesday, but I can tell you that life around here is an adventure every moment.

On Saturday, my Little Mr.'s competed in their first Tae Kwon Do tournament. I had my first experience of watching my kids really compete for something.

It's like most things in life, you really don't understand it until you live it. I always thought I understood about parents watching their kids competing, but really, I didn't. I can tell you, I cried right along with the mom of the little girl up for the grand champion of black belts in her division.

There were hundreds of kids there at this competition. There were also tons of older teen and adult competitors too. My kids were in the forms and breaking competitions for their age group and belt rank. Between them, they took 1st, 3rd and two 4th place rankings. I have some very proud little men running around over here.

And they should be. As much as these were little kids, it was real competition. Unlike a lot of our politically correct sports these days, not everyone won.

We stayed after they finished to watch the adult black belt board breaking competition. First, it was just plain incredible to see what these people could do. The years of training and discipline that go into being a black belt yield some unbelievable athletes. Second, it was a huge investment in my kids to take the time to let them see their teachers compete...and loose. There were some awesome lessons learned there on Saturday.

We also stayed for a while to see some sparing. This isn't a sport for wimps, or for mom's who are wimps.

I saw enough to change my view of this sport. I'm even more behind it now. To see so many kids and adults going absolutely full out to do the very best they are able to do was incredible. To see them compete and persist in spite of injury, pain and wounded pride was something I couldn't teach at home alone.

I Didn't Mean It Mom!

I ran yesterday.

Not in the vein of exercise or health though. It was the running you do when you hear a crash in another part of the house.

It was a big crash. I knew before I got to the bottom of the stairs what was broken. It took about 20 minutes to feel like I'd gotten all the glass cleaned up.

As we drove to our next thing, I wondered, why exactly a parent ever buys two matching pieces of furniture. Especially knowing, that A. the broken part can't be replaced--read cheap stuff here, and B. knowing that the box mart where you bought the cheap item will not be carrying that anymore. Now you will either decorate your living room with a pair of lamps, one broken and one not, or a rather unusual mixed pair of lamps, the second and newer one again purchased cheap from the box mart.

Oh well, no one was hurt. It's only a lamp. Or, it was.

Um, When Do You...?

Well, my world is righting itself as it so often does. It keeps on spinning right around whether or not I'm ready to go.

It's been a busy time around here since I've last posted.

We happily finished our first quarter of the school year and celebrated with The Cousins. Yes, that's what they're called in our house. The Cousins. The whole bustling group of kids, animals and adults are called The Cousins.

We all study the same history in a similar way and try to wind up each unit at the same time. This is the first time we've all made it to the same spot at the same time. Hurrah for the teachers!!

For the kids, it meant a celebration. Or more accurately, a big field trip. And The Cousins. We went to a wonderful museum park. There were beautiful gardens, tanks, an historic mansion to tour, tanks, a large history museum, tanks, a playground and picnic area park and lots of tanks. The highlight for my little group was clearly, the tanks. Not only could you see them up close, you could climb on them. A little boys delight.

The museum itself was really great and the house quite impressive. The grounds were beautiful, even in fall. This is a shot of the grounds outside the museum.

We also attended our church's family fall festival night. It was a ton of fun for the kids and pretty easy for the adults to endure. It of course ended with car full of crazy, jacked up kids, balloons and bags of candy.

This week has been full. We've been to the library. Not such a small task with three kids and a long list. We only had about 30 books to return and for a nice change, no fines. Just try to picture us at the library, go ahead, try. We had a nice long chat with the Tae Kwon Do folks. They've invited the kids to join the Black Belt Club. Hmm. Looks good, but I think we'll wait a little while for that one. Of course there were music lessons, baby visits, and Tae Kwon Do practice. There will also be swim lessons and basketball tryouts. Of course, there was trick-or-treating. There have been lots of temporary tattoos and tons of phone calls.

I sort of wish I could say that we'll be having a relaxing weekend to regroup and begin again on Monday, but that would be silly. We will continue to do a million things this weekend, all next week and through next weekend. Here's where you repeat the mantra, then it will all slow down and go back to normal.

Wake up buttercup, this is your normal. You are a busy family! As exhausting as it can be, it's so worth it. We enjoy our activities and all our "special events." I wouldn't trade them. Even the one's I really didn't plan on. It's all too good.