Sometimes It's a Boat

Hola

2012-01-28T15:04:00.000-06:00

I am barely getting school work done, let alone finding time to blog about anything. So sorry these posts are few and far between.

Malachi wanted a "Robin Cake" for his birthday. Not the bird. And not Batman. Just Robin. So that was interesting. I had to ponder that one for awhile. I finally decided to just make a round cake and have it look like Robin's face.

He was happy with it.

We also had a "milk bar" where everyone got a choice of chocolate milk, pink milk, or white milk. That was a big hit with both boys.

He, of course enjoyed opening his presents.

Those pictures just cracks me up.

In other news, the boys are both in swimming lessons right now and will be through March. They are doing really well and they like it.

Matt has been busy at work because he is chairing the search committee for a new professor to replace someone who is retiring. We are both hoping that the process is almost over, but it's hard to get people in that department to agree on anything.

My semester is already busy. Each professor is assigning about 300 pages of reading a week and I have three classes. Then I have to also find time to get my research going, which isn't going anywhere fast, unfortunately.

At Gabe's school, they have Spirit Days sprinkled throughout the year rather than a whole week. So last Friday was Dress Like a Rock Star Day. I thought he was quite handsome. :)

And then here are pictures of Christmas:

Gabe was a Star Boy for St. Lucia at church. The Star Boys help St. Lucia pass out treats and also offer everyone a star for Jesus (representing his light).

It was cute, good food and Gabe had a huge crush on our Lucia. :)

Season's Greetings!

2011-12-20T19:32:00.000-06:00

Sorry the Christmas greetings and letter are coming via the internet. I do enjoy sending cards through the mail, but time just got away from me this year. I made the newsletter and was sure to include lots of photos of the boys, but then I realized it was impossible to get them mailed in time!

If you want a full size document, click here for access in GoogleDocs.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Excited Exclamations

2011-12-13T11:40:00.002-06:00

Matt sometimes says, "Holy Mackerel," or "Holy Majolie." So now, when Chi is excited he exclaims, "Holy Mackerolie!" Just needed to share that.

Time for the BIG Talk

2011-11-28T10:31:00.001-06:00

No, not that one. The one about "is Santa real?" I have to admit, I'm surprised it lasted this long considering how observant Gabe is. I suspect he just didn't want to give it up. And it's not just that he suspects maybe. He knows Santa and I have the same handwriting. The jig is up. He knows. I know some people get sad about this moment. One only needs to troll the internet to see the amazing contortions people go through to keep convincing their children to believe in Santa. But, I'm not sad. I'm glad that Gabe gets to be in on the secret.

A few months ago, I saw this post about when the time comes to explain Santa. It was really good, so I am "borrowing" it. Meaning ripping it off mostly with just a few tweaks.

Dear Gabe,
You wanted to know, “Are you Santa?”

I know you’ve wanted the answer to this question for a long time, and I’ve had to give it careful thought to know just what to say.

The answer is no. I am not Santa. There is no one Santa.

I am the person who fills your stockings with presents, though. I also choose and wrap the presents under the tree, the same way my mom and dad did for me, and the same way their moms and dads did for them.

I imagine you will someday do this for your children, and I know you will love seeing them run down the stairs on Christmas morning. You will love seeing them sit under the tree, their small faces lit with Christmas lights.
This won’t make you Santa, though.

Santa is bigger than any person, and his work has gone on longer than any of us have lived. What he does is simple, but it is powerful. He teaches children how to have belief in something they can’t see or touch. He teaches us all about generosity and love.

It’s a big job, and it’s an important one. Throughout your life, you will need this capacity to believe: in yourself, in your friends, in your talents and in your family. You’ll also need to believe in things you can’t measure or even hold in your hand. Of course, I am talking about love, that great power that will light your life from the inside out, even during its darkest, coldest moments.

Santa is a teacher, and I have been his student, and now you know the secret of how he gets down all those chimneys on Christmas Eve: he has help from all the people whose hearts he’s filled with joy. We all get to learn about the great joy that is giving, and we realize that Christmas always was about giving and not the getting.

With full hearts, people like Daddy and me take our turns helping Santa do a job that would otherwise be impossible.

So, no. I am not Santa. Santa is love and magic and hope and happiness. I’m on his team, and now you are, too.

I love you and I always will.
Mom

Halloween

2011-11-08T09:54:00.002-06:00

Ugh. I've been so busy, I haven't posted much. Sorry. For Halloween Gabe went as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Chi went as Darth Maul. They had fun. Thankfully, it was beautiful weather and so we didn't have to bundle up.

Matt and I are rushing through our end of semester work. It's going to go by way too fast. Matt also has a conference the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we are just going to be done with things before we know it. I guess I am saying, don't expect a lot of updates right now. :)

I'm afraid I've been thinking, a dangerous pastime, I know.

2011-10-26T22:03:00.001-05:00

I've learned a lot in my classes. Much of what I've learned is a lot of what politicians and "pastors" are spouting is pretty much plagiarized from the Cold War era. I mean, they aren't even really trying to put a spin on it. Crazy.

My most eye opening class has been African Colonialism. In this class (and the others) Karl Marx keeps coming back up. In historiography, my professor pointed out that we are all Marxists to some degree because our society has been impregnated by the ideas for so long. That was interesting. Something to think about. But it was my Colonialism class that really made me understand how Marx is still relevant today (and not necessarily in a good way). I had to write an essay about cultural hegemony. What does that mean? Cultural hegemony is a Marxist concept that Gramsci elaborate which is that a culturally diverse society can be dominated by a one social class. To accomplish this they manipulate the societal culture (beliefs, perceptions, values) so that this ruling class worldview is imposed as the societal norm. This worldview is held as universally valid (status quo) and beneficial to all of society, even though it only benefits the ruling class in reality.

It's crazy to me that people claim to not understand what Occupy Wall Street is really about. This cultural hegemony is what it is about. It's not anti-capitalist, it's not class warfare (at least not begun from the bottom up), it's not just some bored loonies. It's rejecting this cultural hegemony. The values of the 1% are not beneficial to all and Occupy is rejecting that hegemony and is calling for balance. Shouldn't we all be? I don't know about you, but I'm not really excited about the idea of a revolution. But we are walking down this path, just a bit later than Marx would have thought. I hope that we can stop pretending we aren't comprehending the 99% movement and we can strive to bring balance back. Balance of earnings, balance of the greatness that occurs when government and public enterprise work appropriately together. I'm not looking forward to Marx saying, "Told you so."

First days and other happenings.

2011-10-05T09:45:00.001-05:00

Chi has been enjoying preschool. He wishes he could go more than two days a week. I like the teachers. The kids are almost all younger than Chi (most of them either just turned three in the summer or right at the beginning of the school year). So, the socializing aspect of preschool isn't taking off like gangbusters, but I'm sure it will be better by mid-year.

Gabe is doing so much better this year. His teacher is a much better match. She is challenging him and he went from saying he didn't like math much last year to saying it is his favorite subject.

I realize these are sideways. I thought they were rotated, but they aren't and now I'm being lazy.

We went to Johnson's Giant Pumpkins again this year. The boys were overjoyed to watch the pumpkin launching. We just went because we needed something to do, but we have plans to take Matt's parents, Grandma White, Mike, Kathy and their kids later this month. Gabe and Chi are so excited to show them everything. I guess the nice thing is that since they change some things each year, we've scoped it out and know where things are located. Streamline the fun - or something like that.

Matt is doing research with a couple of students and he's nervous about getting results that will finally get him grants, but he's trying to just enjoy working on it. School is going well for me, but it's busy. It's a struggle to stay on top of everything. I like it though and had a very encouraging day yesterday.

It needs to be said...

2011-09-22T14:03:00.002-05:00

Recently, I signed off my facebook saying I need to take a break. I have mostly had a break from the news, though I do check Al Jazeera English and NPR (you know, places with actual journalists) because sometimes my professors want to discuss how history is relating to current events. I have even wanted to pull back from my church. But why?

I don't really have the answer. But it's just this general sense of apathy and cynicism and even stupidity that I am just too tired to combat anymore. I am tired of watching people believe outright lies and based on those lies, making choices that go against their best interests. And if it was all altruistic, okay, then it's noble to choose against your interests for the interests of another, but I don't think the wealthy elite need that from us. Just saying.

People complain about lack of real leadership. And I agree. President Obama is one of the smartest presidents we have ever had. But that doesn't always help. Jimmy Carter was quite smart and wise to boot, but look how that turned out. We do need real leadership. But it's not just our country. Look at the world right now and show me a great leader. We have a bit of a drought going on right now.

So, obviously, I'm opposed to Republicans. I don't think I've ever hid that. I do think there is a place for conservatives in the larger debate, but I don't respect the party's current tactics or agenda, particularly as it pertains to women. Has the party been hijacked by the extreme right? Sure, but it is on every single person who claims to be a moderate of that party to stand up and do something about it and as long as they don't, it is agreement. Party politics are the loyalty far beyond the country right now. Far beyond. Will the Republicans tear down the country as we know it? Yes. The wealth divide will become greater. There will be less opportunity to move up in the class divide. And we will continue on a boom and bust cycle. Will this spell the end for the US? No. Will we maintain superpower status? Maybe not, but I'm also not sure that is such a bad thing. Countries who take this path, historically fall. But what I need to come to terms with is that I'm a small little person who no one is listening to. I can't control it. I can't even convince friends and family that supporting this new radical Republican party is bad.

I think going back to school for history is contributing. I'm up to my ears in the Cold War, and so very disappointed in our country. Mostly because we have apparently never stood up for democracy anywhere. Our country interests (monetary, authority) have always trumped our founding ideals. And that's just really depressing. Learning about colonialism shows how many of us still view things through the colonial lens, and yes, are racist without realizing. Things like "Well, it's great the Egyptians had a nonviolent revolution, but can they really manage their own affairs?" and the same comments about every other country, particularly African involved in the Arab Spring, is inherently racist. It was an idea planted by the colonial system to make it sound as if the natives, savages, needed our "civilizing" influence. It's sad that people still live with these notions. Though this undercurrent of racism is not anything new in the US. No matter the protests to the contrary, the vitriolic reaction about Obama's policy have much more to do with the man's race than anything. Where was the Tea Party outrage on government spending and overreach during Bush's years? It didn't come until now even though Bush spent like crazy and grew government much more. No President has before been disrespected in a joint session of Congress and no President has been denied the opportunity to speak to Congress. Ever. Until a black man was president. If you think race has nothing to do with it, then I'd like to move to your land of unicorns and candy coated streets. Join reality please. If people don't, then for sure nothing can be done about it.

Yes, these issues come to the forefront of my mind as I learn about history in greater detail. I think it is important to study history, but I have to figure out how to balance my disappointment with my desire to understand.

I don't know. Maybe it will help to get things off my chest this way.
-A flat tax is not fair. Think about who proposes this. It only ever comes from the wealthy. Question the motivation! Flat tax puts a heavier tax burden on those that can least afford it including the the teenager working in an ice cream shop to save for college. They claim it is fair. Really? Do you truly believe it is fair to tax the teenager, or the single mom just scraping by, at the same rate as the multi-billionaire? Don't try to rationalize. Be honest.

-Women have the moral capacity to judge for themselves what to do about their own reproductive health, including if and when to reproduce. No man can walk a mile in her shoes. Men have a history of walking out on women and their children, so why do they get a vote on it anyway? All rules, laws, etc. are not designed to help women in anyway or save unborn babies. It is a tool in the belt of subjugation. It needs to stop. Republicans left language in their budget that redefined rape, even after promising to take it out. If a man gets a woman drunk or drugs her, it is not "forcible rape" and she would be denied her right to abortion. Is that fair? It is definitely sick. The mind of those who could create this law are sick.

-Businesses would be healthier if we could trust them. Instead of trying to screw us out of money with the fine print, maybe they could just try providing great service so that we voluntarily give them money. Crazy idea, I know. I'm tired of being cynical every time I have to deal with a business or bank, but it's their fault this mistrust exists. I think it's time for them to fix it. But they beat the drum of deregulation in the name of free market. They don't want a free market! They have lobbied for a stacked deck. In a free market they would be required to provide good service or product. Don't be fooled.

-It depresses me that people have so little respect for higher education. Most people don't use Matt's title. He doesn't care, but I do. He worked hard to earn that title. My not using it, shows a lack of respect. People act like it's no big deal that I am trying to balance grad school with everything else. I always had some sense that grad school was difficult and time consuming. People act like I just told them I'm taking a workshop down at the Y. Come on.

-Tying into that, is a lack of respect for those who dedicate their lives to becoming an expert on a topic. Look at how readily they are dismissed by our punditry. Yes, punditry, that scientist does know more than you about climate change. It would be nice if the American public would take their heads out of the sand and learn from those who know more. Everyone has a more narrow view than actual reality. My classes right now are proving that.

-Don't freaking tell me to support the troops. You know what? I don't anymore. I don't support these pointless wars we are waging and a little conscientious objecting is in order. I get that troops have to follow orders for it to work, but they also are mandated to have a moral compass about what is going on. I support the general concept of what those in the military do, and know that much of it is necessary. But I don't support your choice to leave your family and go get killed to take a ridge that we have no intention of maintaining, that we are just saying hey, we are here. It's bullshit and it needs to stop. We are only there for money at this point and I don't find that a worthwhile thing to send men and women to die for, so no, I don't support that.

-Go get to know your neighbor! Have you seen the commercials for background checking every stranger you meet? Ridiculous! What's the deal with our crazy paranoia? Most people are just fine. Try getting to know people. That's the best way to combat crime and build relationships that strengthen communities. Stop constructing stockades (aka privacy fences), ignoring your neighbors, and being rude to passersby. It is acceptable to be polite and friendly.

Michigan is the land of the apathetic. It is also isolationist. They somehow think they know better than anyone how to run this. Really, when does one have to finally face all evidence to the contrary? I don't know. But we feel it even at our church. Almost every Sunday I find it pointless to go. I don't know how to fix that either.

I hope that by getting this stuff off my chest, I will be better able to shrug it all off and focus on the good. There is much good in my life right now, but I don't always feel it on a daily basis. I am easily distracted by shallowness of thought and action of those around me. I don't want to live that way. I want to live in a world where I can see good and be motivated by good.

Rainy days and Mondays...

2011-09-19T11:21:00.000-05:00

Perhaps it's the rain, perhaps it's the day, but I'm really down. The kids are home from school and although they are playing nicely at the moment, it won't last. Every 15 minutes or so they blow up at each other. I'm torn between wanting to play with them (which doesn't prevent the blow-ups, by the way) or just to try to get some work done (which is hard when they scream every so often). Ugh.

I'm just astounded by Gabe's utter lack of respect for people lately and I don't know where this comes from, but it's getting worse. I am also frustrated that he is teaching his brother all of his bad behavior. Why does no one mention that it is so much easier to have only one child? People make it sound like it is not that much more difficult to have multiple, but is a bunch of BS. Or maybe it is fine if your children get along? But there is no possibility of that. It makes me sad, but I can't change it. I've tried.

Well, something on a happier note. Chi's mispronunciations are getting fewer, but he still has some great ones. In Star Wars, Count Doku, is Dount Kookoo. He eats koc-late kips instead of chocolate chips. He drinks goose (juice).

It looks like we will have a couple of Jedi's for Halloween, but Chi may decide on being Darth Maul which always must be said in a dramatic, low voice, Daaarth Maaauuul!

We Ride!

2011-08-26T22:57:00.000-05:00

Finally, Gabe rides a bike. He resisted all summer, and we only got him to try a couple times. Although he protested, we made him try again tonight and success!

He finally got going and really felt the joy of riding.

That was all he needed. He got his friend to ride with him. And he didn't want to come in when it was bedtime. They have made plans to ride tomorrow morning. :)

Of course, Chi wanted in on the action.

Here's what's happening...

2011-08-16T20:54:00.000-05:00

Well, there is basically nothing going on in our lives other than the patio project. It's great that we got a ton of bricks for free, but it limits exactly what we can do. And digging takes forever. Ugh. I don't even really want to talk about it at this point. When it's done, I'll post the play by play at Domesticated Nomad.

Oh, I guess I'm lying. I am officially going to grad school -- next week, gulp! All registered, and hopefully not biting off more than I can chew. I hope to complete my masters in history within the next two years. Things are falling into place. I've lined up babysitting for Chi (at no cost! Trading some sitting time with a friend), and we seem to be ready to go. I need to buy my books still.

Gabe's train table functions. All wired and running now. No decoration yet, but I think I mentioned that all we've been doing right now is the patio. Gabe's been thrilled that it runs, as you can imagine.

Malachi keeps leaving things in weird places. One day I opened the fridge and found:

Darth Vadar. Just hanging out in the butter tray.

And here's the goofballs gulping water in the shower.

Squalberries, Blananas, and Playing Church

2011-08-05T12:01:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Chi had me sit on the deck facing him, and he stood with his hands like a book and then mumbled something and said, "You say Amen now." Okay. "Amen," I dutifully replied. More mumbling, but then I swear I heard something about the Republic of Naboo in there. "Say Amen." "Amen," I replied. "Okay. Good job, Mommy. Your turn!" Only I didn't really know what I was supposed to say. He told me to tell a story, so I started telling Noah and the Ark. He was satisfied, but apparently I wasn't asking him to say Amen enough. He kept interrupting to say Amen. What? Are we Baptists now? :)

Today for lunch he wanted to be sure he got enough strawberries and bananas. "Can I have more squalberries and blananas?" Awesome. Some words are just more enjoyable when they are mispronounced by a three year old.

Time flies...

2011-07-26T21:04:00.000-05:00

So, summer has been CRAZY! I tell a little and show a little. For Fourth of July we went to our city's fireworks display. We went early and the boys played in the spray park and we had some snacks while they played with friends. Chi hates the loud bang of fireworks, so a friend loaned us some headphone style earplugs. It helped so much!

Matt's parents came up for a visit and we wandered through the Dow Gardens.

Then we left on our massive trip. It felt massive. We covered a lot of miles. We had a nice visit with my parents and the boys went to VBS at my parents' church and they enjoyed that.

We also visited with our friends Brent and Amy. They took us to visit our old place in Joplin. There is more of it left than most of the neighborhood, but that's not saying much.

This is Brent and Amy's lot. It's been fully cleared now and ready to be rebuilt.

Amy took me to NKOTBSB: The New Kids on the Block Backstreet Boys reunion tour. We had lots of fun.

Then we traveled to Ohio for Lake Fest. Well, on our way, we stopped at Indiana State.

In Ohio, most of Matt's family was there and we swam, watched fireworks, saw old cars, watched a parade. The kids rode some rides. Unfortunately it was so hot! None of the fair food was so fantastic because it was just too hot to enjoy eating it.

Summer, Summer, Summertime.

2011-06-22T20:40:00.000-05:00

Just some fun pictures (not best quality, but fun) of the boys so far this summer.

Slip n' Slide gave way to other playing, and I just have no words to explain Chi.

Went to a baseball game. There was dancing.

Probably

2011-06-13T15:40:00.000-05:00

Chi has begun to use the word "probably" quite liberally. "I think we should do that. Probably." "Probably he runs fast." etc. It's not that he uses the word wrong, he just overuses it really. It's hard not to laugh. It also reminds me of when Gabe said "actually" all the time.

Chi also has a thing for Star Wars. Probably because of his brother...and his dad. He prefers the Clone Wars cartoon to the regular movies. And he has assigned each of us to a character. He is Anakin, but he usually announces he is "A Jedi Knight!" Gabe is Yoda. I'm Ashoka. (Gabe wants me to be Padme, but Chi refuses to switch.) and Matt is Ovi-one Denovi. :) That's how he says Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's hilarious. It's one of those things that I think I'll be sad when he finally says it correctly. Chi never shortens it either, it's always Ovi-one Denovi, even when he is talking so fast you don't understand any other words in the sentence. Probably.

End of First

2011-06-10T14:19:00.000-05:00

Gabe is officially done with first grade. Yesterday was the last day and they had a progressive party. They went to three different houses for picnic lunch, games and snacks. Our house was the game house. That is the nice thing about have neighborhood schools; it makes walking around for something like this possible.

Today, Mrs. Gibbons, his teacher had them all come out to her house for one last picnic/party. So even though there was no school today, Gabe considers this his real last day of first grade.

Tonight he is having his first sleepover. His friend Matt is coming over here. I stocked up on some junk food (we hardly ever have in the house, but I realized that a sleepover just needs junk food!), and Matt and Gabe are at the video store picking out movies and Wii games right now. I am also planning to take them mini-golfing. Luckily we have an indoor course. I wanted to just take them to the park, but it's cold and rainy today (even though we were in the 90s early this week.) so I don't think we'll be doing anything outside.

Tiredness = Weird Thoughts

2011-06-08T21:09:00.000-05:00

Man, I am tired! You have probably already figured that out. I'm taking a break from blogging - by blogging? Hmmm. There seems to be a flaw. But, there is no one to talk to right now since Matt teaches nights right now, so I'm sort of talking to at you.

I've been working on promoting Domesticated Nomad. There are these things called Link Parties. You go to a blog and link up one of your projects and hopefully people who wouldn't have found you otherwise, come visit your blog. This brings more traffic and usually some more followers. I started small. I didn't even realize how many of these parties are out there. Over the first few months of blogging I was doing 15 parties a week (that built up slowly), and I was averaging between 60-100 pageviews a week and picking up a few followers a week.

But the bloggers who have built up faster are doing about 10 parties a DAY. So over the last few days I have been working on building up my link parties. It's been a lot of work finding the parties, linking up and then having to link back to the party on my blog. Then because of so much I have spreadsheets to keep track of what has been linked where, so all of that has to be updated. But in the last two days my pageviews have been over 160, and I'm not even done adding the extra link parties. So it's a pain, but it's working. Not so much an empire, but a little village perhaps.

Gabe's last day is tomorrow. I'll post soon about his wrap up of first grade.

Eleven years...

2011-06-05T16:14:00.000-05:00

Each year we try to do something new for our anniversary (though last year we repeated our honeymoon trip), and some years it has just been a road trip to find a new place to live in a new state which isn't terribly exciting. But we try. So, this year we went to Traverse City. We'd never been and everyone told us we had to go.

We loaded up the family, all our sinus infections be damned. Which for me meant a very painful drive because we went up in elevation and I couldn't get my ears to pop! We were supposed to take a cruise on a catamaran, but they accidentally double booked so we didn't get that (refund plus gift certificates though, so we'll try again another time.) There was a point in all this we were questioning why we were still going, but we are glad we did.

The boys kept us giggling all through lunch at the Mackinaw Brewery. The food was okay. Even I thought the fish was well done and I'm not a lake fish person. The beer was not bad for a microbrewery, but nothing to write home about. Really the highlight of lunch was being with our goofy boys.

After lunch we popped into The Cherry Republic to taste and stock up on all things cherry. We sampled lots of things, Cherry BBQ, Cherry Mustard, Cherry Salsa. And we did some wine tasting. Although I wouldn't switch from grapes on a regular basis, we settled on a bottle of 100% Cherry Wine to bring home. Oh, and dark chocolate covered cherries. Mmmm.

This was a bin full of cherry pits that the boys climbed into.

There were lots of great shops and bakeries and eateries, but we didn't think the boys were much interested so we'll have to save exploring more for another trip. We went to the beach right near down town.

The water was FREEZING! Not that we expected to really do more than stick our toes in, but wow-zah! it was like dunking toes into ice water. It was truly painful to stand in it.

But the boys really wanted to be there for the sand.

Malachi desperately wanted to build a sandcastle and put a flag in it.

I was even on this trip. There is rarely photographic evidence of my existence. We are trying to be better about that.

We wrapped up our time at the park with a ride on the mini train. It was a loud steam engine, so Malachi rode the whole time with his hands on his ears. :)

Moomers is an acclaimed ice cream place that is right on the premise of its own dairy. So we went out and tried some ice cream before heading home. Unfortunately the cows were all in the barn so we didn't get to see them. The ice cream was good. I had Cherries Moobilee because I was in cherry country, so what else. :) Matt got Spider Moo which was red and blue. It was a mix of their blue raspberry and red pop ice cream. The Red Pop ice cream really tasted like red pop. It was crazy. The boys got cookies and cream and lime sherbet, in case you are curious.

That is probably my favorite picture from the trip. It was foggy out in the bay, but you could see white sails from the boats dotting the horizon.

And Heeee's On It!

2011-05-26T19:48:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went to see Pole Day for the Indy 500. We used to follow the race the whole month of May when we lived in Indy (and quite frankly they just don't cover it properly in the national news so it's not the same outside Indy), and we went to time trials and even the race a couple times. So we met up with my parents at the track.

The weather could have been a bit better. We were under threat of rain the whole day, but thankfully it didn't rain until the end of the day. We sat right across from the start/finish line for awhile, but it was a little too loud for Chi.

Gabe claims it was his favorite part, but even he seemed to struggle with the noise a bit.

So we moved to turn four for the rest of the afternoon. Boys boys seemed more comfortable there. Plus Grandma bought them huge ice cream cones, so of course they were happy that afternoon. :)

All in all it was a nice day. We plan to show them the race on TV this weekend and see what they think of it now that they saw the track and cars in person.

P.S. Many of you know that we lived in Joplin. Thankfully our friends are safe, but unfortunately they have lost their home. The whole neighborhood we lived in is gone. It will take a long time to recover. Please help in anyway you can. ELCA Disaster Response is an excellent place to make a donation. 100% of your contribution goes to helping those effected by these destructive storms.

Little Chicks

2011-05-19T13:46:00.000-05:00

Gabe's class studied the life cycle of chickens. They got eggs and an incubator and studied the process all the way through to the chicks being about a week old. One presumes they were then taken to a farm, but I don't really know for sure. They had 12 eggs, all labeled and used candling to see inside the eggs to learn about the development. Most of the eggs actually hatched overnight so the did not see a lot of the hatching process, but as you can imagine they were so excited when the eggs hatched.

But "Baby G" did not hatch. It was the only one that did not make it. Last night Gabe was talking to me about it because he was a little sad that all the chicks were taken away yesterday (even though they knew it was coming).

Gabe said, "Some of the kids think we need to have a funeral for Baby G."
"Oh," I said, "it is a little sad that the egg didn't hatch."
Gabe replied, "Yes, but we shouldn't have a funeral. It's not right."
"Okay. Why not?"
"Because a funeral is for some one who died. How can you have a funeral if they have never lived?" he said.
I was taken aback by his wisdom. I replied that I agreed and said, "It sounds like everyone is just a little sad about Baby G not making it. It just helps to talk about it, and that's okay too."

Given the politics surrounding Planned Parenthood and other women's rights, abortion and the importance of its availability has been on my mind. What struck me so much during this conversation is that although we have never had a conversation with him about abortion, it amazed me the clarity this seven year old kid has that adults don't seem to have. The thing that is always missing on both sides of the conversation is that there is a very real difference between realized life and potential life. Until that is part of the conversation, there really isn't a conversation is there? Denial in abundance, but no real discussion. I guess this is why they say "Out of the mouths of babes..."

In a galaxy far, far away...

2011-05-15T12:11:00.000-05:00

We survived Gabe's Star Wars party! It rained! Argh! It was not quite as good as we hoped since we had 20 kids packed in the house, but it worked. Gabe liked it so that's all that counts.

Even the chalkboard wall got a little decoration.

I made lightsabers out of pool noodles (to see how, click here), and the kids loved them, but they got a little out of control with them unfortunately. But they were all very excited that they got to take them home.

We played several games. We had Jedi balance games where they had to balance on one foot on a rock to see who could stay up the longest and they had to try to stand up together, back to back with arms linked. And they tried to drop straws in a bottle and we just renamed it The Trench Run. We had them use lightsabers to get balloons in a pen and called it Nerfherding. And defend their hoop from Asteroids (bean bags). We did a relay race, but our Obstacle Course and our Deathstar game couldn't work inside, so that was a bit of a bummer.

I made Gabe a Millenium Falcon cake. Here he is getting ready to blow out the candles.

The food was fun, we did a few creative things with that (click here to read more on the food). We of course all had to get dressed up. Gabe was dressed as a Jedi (based on Obi-wan's outfit, but he decided to just be himself),

Chi had a Yoda robe, but he lost it before the party started and he didn't really care,

I was Princess Leia at the Battle of Hoth,

and Matt (whom we forgot to photograph) was a Republic Officer. He dressed in dark gray pants and shirt and then made his rank insignia out of duct tape and sharpie marker.

So, today for the official birthday, we are keeping it low key. It's still bad weather so Gabe and Chi have just been playing with all Gabe's new toys. We are taking him out for a birthday dinner tonight, but not a second cake. One elaborate cake a birthday is enough. :) Gabe is excited to seven years old. He says he feels older.

Another week gone by already?!

2011-05-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

What is it about this time of year that makes it go so fast? I don't even know where the last week went. I suppose overall it was pretty run of the mill.

The weekend, however, has been busy, busy, busy. Friday I got a call that the physics club needed a new host for the party that night because the original host got sick. With much wailing, I agreed. I had to wail a bit as I was having a heart attack thinking about how the ENTIRE house was a disaster area! Huge mess. Every room. Plus, I need to go to the grocery store because I had NOTHING to feed these people. Nothing. It's not an exaggeration. Luckily, the original host had already purchased desserts at a bakery, so that really saved me. I just had to go pick it up. The house itself took quite awhile, but it was nice to have it all picked up before the weekend started.

The party was nice. It was really more of a gathering. Not so much party-animal type happening. The boys enjoyed getting to stay up way past bedtime too.

Saturday we bought lots of stuff we needed for the great outdoors. Wood for trellises and raised vegetable beds. Ferns (Lowe's had them on sale!), we actually are putting at least one of them inside. He is very full and has a life of his own so I named him. His name is Herbert Nininger. (Fans of Curious George will laugh at that.) Spray paint for the wicker chair. Fence posts. Mulch. And a decorative metal piece for the house.

Matt made his bean trellises and he also mowed the back yard. I tore out some grass and mulched a new planting bed by the fence. It really made that area of the yard look so much better. I also spray painted the wicker chair a sunny yellow. I plan to blog about that on Domesticated Nomad once I find or make a cushion to go on it as well.

And today, we had church. Then Gabe was invited to go to a friend's brother's birthday party at the roller skating arena. Carter was allowed to have a friend his own age at the party so he wouldn't feel left out from all the big kids, so Gabe got to go along. He had fun. It was only his second time roller skating and he's doing really well. Then the DJ called for the races. So anyone 10 and under could line up for the race and Gabe tells me he's going to do it. Now the kid spends half his time on his bottom from falling, and now he plans to race? I thought this was going to end so badly! I asked if he was sure. Dangerous mother territory. You want the kid to make his own decisions and try things, but sometimes you know the failure is just not worth it. He was sure, so I let him go. He was only half way around when the winner crossed the finish line. (Gabe was skating his best ever though!) Oh, I was so worried about what he'd do. But he was determined. He just kept skating. The DJ started saying things like, "Look at him go! Way to finish strong! Give him a round of applause!" so that was cool. He really wasn't upset that he came in last. He says he'll just try again next time. I can't tell you how very proud of this kid I am!

Easter

2011-04-25T13:06:00.000-05:00

Easter turned out nice. It was a long day since we went to the early church service. The late service was having 5 baptisms which is a bit much to ask the boys to sit through. The weather was a bit chilly, but at least we were able to have the boys outside for much of it since all their toys in their baskets were outside toys. They ate way too much candy and hardly touched their dinner. Eh, what are you going to do?

It was difficult to get pictures of them in the Easter clothes. One or the other had to do something silly in each picture. :)

Egg hunt pictures:

Holy Week Reflection: 10 Commandments

2011-04-23T14:54:00.002-05:00

I said before that the Bible wasn’t just about morality. Even as a child the Ten Commandments did not set right with me, not just because they are hard to keep, but because the seemed weirdly simplistic and overly concerned about coveting. Walter Brueggemann’s lecture made this finally make more sense to me by showing that the point of the Commandments was to set up a society that reflected God and was not concerned with personal morality.

Let’s go back to Egypt, the bread basket of the ancient world. Remember that the Jews went and offered themselves as slaves because they were desperate. Egypt had food; they did not. Food becomes the weapon wielded to control others. I doubt the Jews grew up and said, “You know what I’ve always wanted to be? An Egyptian slave!” But they were left with few options. Pretty much starve or become a slave because Egypt was not running a food pantry. And it’s not like Egypt just naturally controlled the only food. They used the might of their empire to control resources.

People become anxious about not having enough. So we hustle to accumulate more and your neighbor becomes your competetor. In this race to get more, we lose our sense of compassion and justice. We are exhausted by our anxiety and can no longer have energy to worry about common good.

An empire is no different. It’s just a larger scale. Pharoah was fearful about scarcity as well. Which leads to the need to accumulate and control more and more. But the thing about the anxiety of scarcity is that the more you have, the more anxious you become. It does not really bring peace of mind. We have a greater fear of losing what we have and we never do feel like we have enough. This is the system the world offers us.

Like the Jews who had to journey through the anxiety and accept God’s plan, we too have to journey through the wilderness and trust God’s plan is greater than the need to accumulate. When we see the Commandments as our guide for a more just society we might be surprised to find the great abundance of God’s grace. Truly, it takes a great act of generosity to break the grip of anxiety.

The Commandments are not rules of morality, but rather guidelines for creating a viable and sustainable neighborhood in which people are fully engaged. A quick review:
I am the Lord your God, you will have no other gods
You should not make idols
You should not take the Lord’s name in vain.
Keep the Sabbath
Honor your mother and father.
Do not kill
Do not commit adultry.
Do not steal.
Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Do not covet your neighbor’s posessions or family.
So, here’s a different way to look at the Commandments. The 1st-3rd mean that we should not try to harness God to our pet projects. God is not “useful,” and we should not use God to make the world in our image or make God our partner. In particular makes more sense to view the 3rd commandment in this light. I don’t think God’s in the business of smiting people for swearing. I do think he is deeply disappointed when we claim our actions for personal gain are in his name.

The fourth is more important than we give credit for in modern times. Yes, we all need rest, but more than that the Sabbath applies to all because at rest everyone is equal. Because it is God’s command, you do not earn rest by being more productive, rest is granted because you are neighbor.

The 5th-9th Commandments remind us that neighbors (meaning all those with whom we live, society in general as Jesus himself defines neighbor) are Ends and Not Means, meaning they are to be honored and treated with respect. And not only that, but we are to protect one another.

The 10th commandment is really not about petty envy. It’s much more. It’s a curb against acquisitive economics and a hustle to accumulate more and more. And a curb against the aggressive actions we take to get more.

Pharoh’s system of scarcity and controlled scarcity is alive and well. Those at the top have more than enough, but yet they fear it will never be enough. So they offer a system in which we can give up more and more of what we have to try to buy some security. But this system never buys security. It is time to depart. As Christians we should be guiding people on the journey from Pharoh’s system to God’s system. We can be fed by the mystery of God’s abundance this Easter season.

Each Sunday, most of us going to church relive the great drama of abundance in the Eucharist. Just as Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples, so God takes our life, blesses it, breaks it open and gives it back multiplied.

We do not need to fear leaving the system of scarcity. God is with us. The abundance he provides is enough for all. It should bind the community together rather than isolate us. The truth is we will never feel like we have enough and will forever want more. There is no obvious time where we will feel like we have enough and can break from the cycle. The invitation is to take the step we can, to keep taking the next step. God’s people in the Old Testament were willing to dispute with worldly powers and even God on behalf of the neighbor. We, the church, need more of this.

Holy Week Reflection: God and the economy

2011-04-23T14:53:00.003-05:00

With Easter approaching, I can’t help but think what would Jesus say to us right now? I can’t help but feel like he’d be pretty disappointed in us. When he rode into Jerusalem, it was a challenge to the empire, just not quite what people thought, but it was a challenge in life as well as in his death. I often hear that as Christians we are not to be “of this world.” Usually people take that to mean that they can close themselves off from society and that somehow they have risen above. But I don’t think that’s what it means. We have to be both in this world and apart. God is clearly interested in working with and within humanity. So why would Christians need to pull away from the rest of humanity? I think the confusion happens when we see the Bible strictly as a book of morality. It’s not. Well, not just that. It is a book about identity. But, perhaps, most importantly, the Bible contains God’s vision for community. Unfortunately, it’s this part that is most often ignored. But this ignored vision is exactly why Jesus rode into Jerusalem before that fateful Passover.

We live in a society dominated by the belief that more is better and the ends justify the means. This leads to extravagant greed and selfishness. It’s not the first time in history. Isaiah was dealing with the same problem. Even King Hezakiah had the same “what-do-I-care-about-the-long-term-consequences-of-my-actions-because-I’ll-be-dead-before-we-have-to-face-that” attitude that is so prevalent in our leaders today. So what can be learned from Isaiah?

God tells us that what he is offering is more reliable than the failed vision of our society. He tells us not to be afraid because he is with us. Empires rule by fear because frightened people will not take initiative. But God says to us we can refuse the fear of the empire. When we refuse to despair we can maintain the energy to do something to help our greater neighborhood. So Jesus stands up to the Roman Empire; he shows that the we do not have to live by fear of the empire and that God has a better plan. Our society has been described as military consumerism. We have to maintain a large and expensive military to protect our desire to consume more and more. And really the implication is that we have to have military because we are consuming more than what is rightly ours. Most of our worldly military conflicts are directly related to a desire to take; we have just become very good at rationalizing our role in various conflicts. But truly, when was the last time worship of military consumerism has made you safe? Has made you happy? And make no mistake, when we have gone beyond simple pride of nation to belief in exceptionalism, we have begun to worship something other than God.

So just as Isaiah told the Jews, we must also hear again that we can depart (not physically, metaphorically) from the empire, give up our fear, and relinquish that which keeps us most anxious. “We can depart from the myth that more is better.” (Walter Brueggemann) But we must be careful to understand that this departure does not mean seclusion. Seclusion and faith as only a personal endeavor does not require full engagement. And, although, the empire promotes ways of distracting us from full engagement (most notably social media and television, which I enjoy but not without remembering the inherent dangers), God wants us to engage. God placed us in a society of many, not of the individual. Our calling as Christians is to be the mediator of need and resource to make connections. Israel had forgotten its call to be a light to all nations, we learn in Isaiah. But we also learn that reconstruction is possible.

The book of Isaiah presents the debate on how to create a humane society. First is discussed who belongs. (We still discuss this today.) The only requirements are to participate in the public economy (not individual) and keep the Sabbath. In reality, the boundaries of community are broken open. But what are we saying by public economy? We are not saying that everything is pooled together and everyone has the exact same. But we are talking about an understanding of the overall health of a society, village or neighborhood. Israel was expected to embrace the neighborhood in compassion and generosity. Some people would say that if you DO, you get to know God or if you know God, you DO, but perhaps what God wants us to understand is that in the action is the knowing. God is the connection between the people who have bread and the people who need bread. (And read bread as literal bread, and as a metaphor for more.) We are cautioned against putting on a face of piety in worship all the while engaged in actions that are killing our neighbors. Isaiah 61 proposes that the economy be organized not to serve the market, but to serve the neighbor. It reads: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Isaiah 61 is interesting because it both looks forward to Luke 4 and backwards to Leviticus 25. (Although, backwards may be a stretch since Leviticus and Isaiah were probably written around the same time.) Leviticus 25 is where we find the Jubilee Year, also called Year of the Lord and Year of the Lord’s Favor, which is when at the end of fifty years, all debts are canceled. It’s like an economic blank slate. This idea undermines all conventional notions of economies so therefore, sadly, you rarely ever hear it preached in church. When we look forward to Luke 4, we see that Jesus is the enactment of Jubilee (he reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and proclaims it fulfilled. And lest you think I am jumping to economic conclusions, read Mary’s Magnificat, it’s there too:

And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me--holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants for ever, even as he said to our fathers."

Isaiah 61 is a center point for the Bible’s most dangerous teachings because it undermines all notions of power. It undermines the notion that the economy should be for the sake of the market and wealth. God always had a different plan and we need not fear to live it.

To not be of this world, we need to disengage with the gods of the economy represented in greed and selfishness. But we remain in this world by fully engaging in God’s plan, an arrangement that looks toward care of neighbor because Jesus’ resurrection did not negate our responsibility in this world, but rather it reminds us that we are set free to live out our calling to be the connection for all people.

[This is a reflection on a workshop with Walter Brueggemann, and written based on my notes from that session. If I have mistakenly quoted Brueggemann without proper credit, my sincerest apologies. ]

One of those days...

2011-04-14T09:25:00.000-05:00

I keep having those days where I love being a mother and I wouldn't trade my kids, but I'd sure like to give them away for a few days. They have been so moody. So then I'm moody which I'm sure is creating a vicious cycle. Gabe has been particularly moody and I never know what I'm going to get. One minute he's laughing, then next he's dissolved into tears over something small like a broken cracker, and then next he's being mouthy and yelling at us.

I'm trying to get too many things done in too few hours. I get exhausted and give myself a break, and then the stress cycle starts again because I slacked off. Mostly because I'm basically going into business, but I hate thinking about business. I'll explain that more in a minute.

First, I am not applying to the art therapy program. At least not this year. I have been able to talk to someone who is in that program and she let me know that the things that I saw as red flags were truly something to worry about. She's been doing this "3 year program" for 4.5 years. So that also bothers me. And it's not just her; her whole cohort is having these same problems. In fact the head of the Michigan Art Therapy Association cautioned me against this program, so it just doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

But I'm in a bit of catch 22; I think I am more suited to working outside the home. Seriously, more power to the women who want to stay home. No judgements here, I'm only talking about me. But no one needs a youth director around here and my degree, not having been used, this far out of date, is pretty much useless. So, I have applied to the MA in History program at Central Michigan University. Technically, I have the number of hours in history or history related field, so I hope I will be accepted, but since the majority of my history course work was in art, and it being 10 years ago, I just don't know. With a loaded schedule, it would take 2 years to complete and then I would be able to do things like adjunct/lecture at a community college or even university. I think I would enjoy that. So, I've sent everything in and we will see where that goes.

I will be opening an Etsy shop. That's an online mecca for all things handcraft and art. I'd have my own little shop in which I could sell my art and the tee shirts I've been painting shirts with bleach, using it like watercolor (which I'd never seen anyone do, but suddenly the blogosphere is filled with knock-offs of my work. I'm trying to be flattered, but they aren't giving credit where credit is due so my feelings aren't exactly charitable right now. Plus mine are way better.) I will let you know when the shop is officially open. I keep putting it off because I want more product ready and because I'm nervous and don't want to deal with financial end of things. I'll have to get over it.

The other sort of business-y thing going on is my other blog, Domesticated Nomad. You may have noticed that I put the Google AdSense on there. The trouble with it is that you make next to nothing on it unless people click on your ads, which I'm not allowed to solicit clicking for clicking's sake or click them myself. And I only make a penny for every 40 something views. I have A LOT of page views, but my traffic alone isn't enough to make money. Also, if I don't get to $100 in three months, they can just drop me and I don't get paid. I have to have earned $100 to actually see a cent. They don't tell you any of this until you are in and I've seen no blogger fess up to what it's like. So there it is. Now you know. I can't be sure if telling you that much breaks the contract, and I really don't care. So, I have begun to solicit sponsors (the only real way to make money from a blog) but back to the whole worrying about finances when it's not really my thing. I never really expected the blog to take off like this, and I still don't know if it will make "beer and pizza" money. I'm not looking for a full on income. But I figure I'm already doing projects, so why not try.

How can you help? So glad you asked. :) Since I can't ask you to click on ads just to click on them, I will ask you to be sure to click if it appeals to you and not just go directly to the advertisers website another time. And I know you check it out, but please consider becoming a "follower" of the blog. The more followers I have, the more likely I can get sponsors. Following requires no actual commitment from you, no money, and next to no information. It's not really a big deal; it's like a public bookmark.

Matt's car isn't running again, so I have to go take him to work now. I sound down. I know I do. I'm actually really excited about things, and content with life right now. It's just that I'm tired. And a bit stressed.

I say it's my birthday

2011-04-08T22:26:00.000-05:00

It was a good day. The boys took me to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. It was Gabe and Chi's first time. They liked it. Chi was really tired so he was grouchy at first, but then he got his bowl of rice and he pronounced it "good." He refused all the food except for the rice though. Part of the meal was a choice of green tea ice cream or sherbet at the end. Matt and I choose the ice cream and the boys choose the sherbet, no real surprise. The green tea ice cream was very good and boys liked it better than the sherbet and they both wound up taking over our ice cream, the turkeys!

They got me a guide for Photoshop Elements because I was struggling to remember how to do things and getting stumped when something was different from my memory of Photoshop. So, I'm excited to get somewhere on some projects. Gabe also picked a pair of earrings for me. They are very nice, but it's almost just nicer to see his pride in picking out something he thought I'd like.

This week we had International Night with Gabe's class. The kids all had to learn about a country and present their country (Gabe did Italy) and we brought food from our country to taste. We made Italian style pizza. But surprisingly people did not eat as much as we expected so we have lots of pizza leftover. Oh, well. It's in the freezer, and it's good. Perhaps I don't say it enough, but Gabe is a good kid. :)

Chi was silly today. He wanted to use his little flashlight to look in my mouth and up my nose and in my ears. Then he started shining it on himself. Mouth, nose, ears, hands...and then down his pants. "Chi, you don't need to do that," I said. "No, Mom. It's dark," he informed me. Oh, of course. It's dark inside your pants. Duh? :) Just exploring, I supposed.

I was happy just to have a nice day with all my boys. And thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. They were much appreciated.

Let's get this party started!

2011-04-02T21:36:00.000-05:00

The boys have begun building the model train railroad. I thought you'd enjoy seeing the progress.

They began laying it out so that they could cut the board to the proper size.

They diligently checked the book.

Chi got in on the action. He was uber helpful as you can imagine.

So, that's day one.

Obey the Fortune Cookie

2011-03-28T21:26:00.000-05:00

Our local Chinese restaurant has an awesome family special so we went out to dinner tonight. The boys actually did great. Their antics were mild and received smiles and chuckles and not "those stares." They even attempted chopsticks, which lead to some skewering on Chi's part and flipped rice on Gabe's part.

Here are our fortunes:
Gabe's: Someone thinks you are wonderfully mysterious.
So many girls fawn over him so this is hilarious to us; not so much to him.

Chi's: People are naturally attracted to you.
Um, duh.

Mine: You are accurate in your thinking and have the ability to convince others of your viewpoint.
See? I've been telling you. ;)

Matt's: Keep your feet on the ground even though your friends flatter you.
Matt's reaction, "That's not a fortune! That's just advice. I got an advice cookie."

I told him that maybe he must follow the advice to receive good fortune. That and his last three fortune cookies have been advice cookies. I think the cookies are trying to tell him something. :)

Goof Balls

2011-03-27T21:23:00.000-05:00

Okay, I first have to tell you that Chi, you know the kid who just turned 3, is now in 4T clothes. It's a bit crazy. Gabe is growing too, but slowly. I predict that Chi is going to over take Gabe by this time next year. We all expected it, but I figured Chi would be in school by the time it happened. I hope Gabe takes it well. Laundry is going to get confusing.

Matt believes Chi has begun to use his cuteness as a weapon. He will flash a smile, look at you with doe eyes or say something (usually something normal, but he'll finally say it correctly so that you just want to cheer him on) and then we melt. Oh, Lord, this boy is going to undo us! He still has no has no modesty. We had company over for dinner. Chi comes out of the bathroom, naked from the waist down carrying his underwear. "I went to the bathroom," he tells us. Well, yes, we can see that. :)

Gabe has decided to go into business. He has been drawing birthday pictures (sort of cards, but full size pages, no folds) and he wants to sell them. I don't know how well this will go over, but he's determined....for now. He sometimes has the attention span of a gnat, so we'll see. But he has been drawing very nice, detailed pictures. He'll be on Spring Break this week, so we will have to come up with things to do. Unfortunately it will not be warm enough to go to the parks. We do have a butterfly display at the gardens this month, so one day I'm sure we will go check that out.

Clinkal, clinkal

2011-03-21T09:51:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I know we have to start correcting Chi's pronunciation a bit more. (Sometimes it's just laziness that makes him say things wrong, and we need to stop that. Not trying to be mean or anything, but it might be cute at 3, it won't be cute for much longer.) That kid is hilarious though. He has started singing more and often gets the lyrics a bit mixed up. Like, "Old McDonald had farm. e-i-e-i-o. Old McDonald had a pig. Oink, oink, here. oink, oink, here. oink, oink, oink, oink, had a farm."

But my favorite, "Clinkal, clinkal little s-car. Wonder what are. Up above (mumble, mumble) high. Clinkal, clinkal little s-car." Love it!

Last weekend

2011-03-19T17:06:00.000-05:00

So we had fun in Frankenmuth as mentioned. I thought I should toss up the few pictures I took.

The kids had to have a picture in front of the giant cheese...though we couldn't get them all there at once.

The day had the feeling of herding cats...

Sylvie as a Bavarian Maid...

Sienna did not want help. She felt she could get high enough on her own. :)

And Gabe in lederhosen.

I love his winter hat peeking around his face. It really adds something. Haha. It was a bit chilly and it's hard to use my cell phone camera with gloves. I just didn't manage to snap many, but at least these are cute.

Marching in like a lion

2011-03-13T16:06:00.000-05:00

What a week. Chi was the last of us to get the flu and his turned into another ear infection. We had to go to urgent care on Tuesday, but I set up a follow up with his doctor on Friday. It's a new doctor. First, the urgent care doctor gave him a stronger prescription, so everyone thinks this will really work. But, it tastes terrible and gives Chi diarrhea, and that means getting him to take it is very difficult. We have to psych ourselves up to even deal with giving it to him it's so bad, but we have no choice. We still have most of this week to that. :( I don't know how I feel about our new doctor. I told Matt I really just want to drive him back to Iowa because I just don't like doctors here. But, obviously, no matter how much I want to, it's not going to happen. What bugs me is that the doctor didn't seem much concerned about an underlying cause. Apparently, it's not strange to have so many ear infections start so late. But I don't know. I wonder if doctors just didn't take the time to figure out in each case why it would set on later. He offered us the option of going to an ENT about tubes, but one winter of ear infections and nobody cares why, but I'm going to send him into surgery? I don't think so. I'm considering seeking out an allergist for a second opinion on whether the underlying cause might be an allergy (because he's had so much mucus). I want to trust the doctor, but I live with my child. I know what's normal or not for him. I want the doctor to trust me too. You know?

Gabe went to the dentist. I actually really love our dentist office, so that's good. Everybody thought Gabe was the cutest thing ever. :) (If they only knew...) Ha. He was very excited to learn he has no cavities, but not so happy to learn that his permanent teeth are still not quite pushing the baby teeth out of the way. It's still going to be awhile before he loses any teeth. Poor kid, most of his friends are almost done losing teeth and he hasn't lost one. I have a sneaking suspicion that he doesn't believe in the tooth fairy, but he doesn't want to admit it so that he doesn't miss out on the money. :)

Mike, Kathy, Sienna and Sylvie came to visit this weekend. It was a nice visit, but I do wish the weather had cooperated a bit more. We walked around Frankenmuth because they hadn't been there before and also went to Bronners. It was kind of funny at the candy store because they loaded up with candy and I just bought a couple treats for us, but I can easily go back and get more, so I didn't think I needed to stock up. My puny little bag next to their large bag was a silly looking comparison. The kids had fun playing, and we all had a nice visit. Though the cat hid out for so long, we did start to get a bit worried. She's never shied away from people like that. But the kids were running around and loud, so I guess she just played it safe.

This is the title that can't be clever

2011-03-07T22:43:00.000-06:00

So, I know some of you just want to hear about the family and would rather not hear my opinions on things. But it's my blog, I can do what I want to. Nah Nah. KIDDING. Sorry, couldn't resist. In all seriousness, I do want to use this blog to address anything that I feel is important. I reach friends who do want to read the opinion stuff, so that's why it's there. You won't hurt my feelings if you want to skip that post. You won't hurt my feelings if you disagree. You may make my day if you toss me an Amen, sister!

Moving on. There is next to nothing to tell you about the family except that we have been doing absolutely nothing except trying to recover from the bubonic plague, also known as the flu. Catching Gabe up on all that school work has been fun (that was sarcastic). On the plus side, his school carnival was this Friday and we got to miss it since we weren't healthy enough. It's not a fun event. It's too crowded and hot and it's March in Michigan so you can't just have it outside. Glad to have had an excuse to miss that.

Chi has become a chatterbox. He's still content to sit quietly. But he likes to tell you everything on his mind right now. Explaining everything that is going on right in front of us. But here's a fun sample conversation:
-How are you?
-I'm Malachi.
-Are you 3?
-I'm Malachi.
-Do you want a banana?
-No. I'm Malachi.
-Yes, but do you want a banana?
-No. I'm--oh, yes.

Trouble with faith

2011-03-07T10:44:00.001-06:00

Over the years, I have had lots of concerns about what is going on with Christianity. Recently, some one misinterpreted what I said, not maliciously, but bent it into a narrative that they had already developed. This is not a response to that person, but just an attempt to explain why it is so hard to deal with these issues, no matter how you try to go about it.

It bothers me when people try to disguise their message by not admitting who they are. "Conservative Evangelicals" as there is now no other name because rather than confront why some people shy away from the types of denominations these churches sprang from, they called themselves "nondenominational." This makes it sound nice; like there is room for everyone. But their real motive was to drive a particular message, without regard to what the Holy Spirit may be moving in another person. Fit into the narrative or be condemned is where the outcome wound up going. Maybe it wasn't by intention. If you know there is something about your message that pushes people away from God, maybe the problem is your understanding of God's message and the way we are called to witness.

To confuse matters, you can't just say all nondenominationals are conservatives because springing out of that mess is the emergent evangelical movement. Emergents focus more on God's grace and love. In some areas they don't go as far as more progressive denominations, but they are getting closer and closer. The conservative evangelicals call the emergent evangelicals heretics. Yeah. Really.

My first brush in life with conservative evangelicals (CEs from now on, my own abbreviation, no one else will know what you mean) was in college. I was walking alone across campus on a Saturday morning. All of a sudden a group of people with high tech camera equipment descend on me and yelled, "Do you know who Jesus is?!" It was morning and I'm a smart ass so I replied, "Yeah, I might have heard of him," and kept walking. They kept blocking my path (I'm not a morning person so this was really ticking me off.) "Don't you know who Jesus is?" They pushed again. The tone was really condescending which is part of the reason I have never forgotten this encounter. I responded with the usually litany about who Jesus is and confirmed I believed. Without knowing me at all, they assumed I was not Christian. That always bothered me. Why would you open a conversation that way? Why would you spend your whole life assuming you knew more than those around you? They asked a series of questions, feeling more like an Inquisition than anything else. Get these right or we won't let you leave! it seemed. Finally they wanted to know how I witness the gospel. "Through actions and love and not by attacking people with video equipment. Good-bye." And I pushed my way out of the little circle and went on my way.

I have so many problems with this. CEs have all these Biblical arguments for acting the way that they act. Unfortunately it is all utterly simplistic and formulaic. Do this. Say this. Believe this and presto - you are saved. It's a heck of a lot of me needing to do something in order that God will then do something. And while I think this is totally off base, the truth is it is wicked easy! I get to have control over the whole process. Woo hoo. It doesn't demand an critical thinking or moral reasoning skills at all. So, I get why this is so appealing to American Christians. We are, after all, lazy thinkers.

The trouble is, God makes it clear (if you read cover to cover, story to story and not just pick random verses from the Bible) that you can't do any of it yourself. You can't make a decision. You can't do good works. You can't save souls. We can't find a way to go up to God, God always comes down to us. God does it all through grace and nothing I can do will change that. The Bible even points out that the ability to have faith in the first place is a gift of God. I can't "decide" to have faith. This is why I am not going to judge God's plans. I don't know what happens when we die, but I doubt I am "saved" and Gandhi is not. If that's the way God works, I think I'd have to tell God to let me trade places with Gandhi because he deserves heaven more than I do. But CEs limit God. Gandhi didn't believe in Jesus, so too bad for him, done deal. Really? He lived a life that was the epitome of what Jesus called for but some would claim he knew nothing of God. It's ridiculous. It requires effort to not think to believe that.

Religious thinkers (and lay people) used to understand that the Bible was simply a tool for learning about God and having a greater understanding of how we should attempt to live our lives. No one ever thought the thing was literal. Every single reading of the Bible is an interpretation. And the Bible itself intentionally holds interpretations because there is not supposed to be one simple, formulaic answer. And that's what the CEs don't get. But they also put up walls, calling anyone who puts care and love above dogmatic rule, heretics. It is exactly why most people believe all Christians are highly judgmental. It's why there is so much religious strife. They are so convinced they are "right" they don't need to hear from anyone else. And if we used our own moral reasoning skills (which I think are God-given in the first place) CEs may be overly concerned about getting something wrong. Gasp. The horror. As if trying to be overly extreme on Biblical teaching hasn't lead to wrong thinking either. I was actually once told that it takes more faith to see all the scientific evidence of when and how the earth has developed and the life on the earth has developed and still take Genesis literally. I don't think so. I think it takes more faith to realize we don't get to have all the answers neatly summed up and still believe there is a higher power. Because if Genesis isn't true, that persons faith pulls apart at the seams. Mine doesn't. That person cannot engage with anyone who presents differing views because they cannot handle questioning their faith. It tends to lead to attacks on people.

I think we only get it completely wrong when we don't think or engage, when we think God is easy or simple to understand, and worst of all, when we harness God for our own objectives. Religion should be what sets you free, free of your fears and shortcomings, to do what God needs done on earth - the free and unconditional expression of love. Being a voice for the voiceless. Standing with the outcast. Caring for the forgotten. If your religion is based on strict dogmatic thinking as the point, then that religion has already failed in its purpose. Even the Pharisees eventually got it right. (You won't find it in the Bible. They held to dogmatic thinking above all else and Jesus said they were wrong. But I recently learned about their history after the fall of the temple. They actually became protectors of the same message Jesus preached. Though, not of his divinity, they remained Jews.) Right thinking or even right living isn't the point. Care of others, thinking beyond yourself, is more of the point. Of course, I could be wrong... but I'm okay with that.

Caution: sick house

2011-03-05T10:04:00.001-06:00

I have nothing to report except that I am sick. Matt is sick. Gabe is sick. Chi is sick. Gabe came down with the flu Sunday and missed the whole week of school. Actually his fever had been down and he was doing better Thursday morning so we sent him, and he was sent home early because his chills and fever came back. So he stayed home Friday. He looks better today and hasn't had a fever since Thursday, but I really didn't expect that last relapse, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Matt has been sick most of the week, but has been taking it in stride. Still working and trying to take care of the rest of us. Normally when he's sick he is so cranky I feel like quarantining him on a count of that alone, so this is great. Though I am worried it will mean a longer recovery time for him.

I have not felt this bad in a long time. On Wednesday, Matt had an extra long day at work and I had both boys, and searing joint pain. I could barely move. I'm slowly recovering, but still have headaches due to the congestion.

Chi, we hoped was coming through unscathed. But Thursday night he woke up with a fever and threw up. He was so awful yesterday, but today he seems to have really bounced back. Probably because he kept sucking down juice all day yesterday and all night long. He really got fluids. He's not totally healthy, but he's probably recovering faster than the rest of us.

So, now all I want to do is air out the house and Lysol like crazy, but it's snowing again. I hate winter. It's just not sanitary to live in a shut up house for this long. I feel like it's Narnia and the Snow Queen is making it winter forever, and I really have no love for Narnia anyway. I really don't want it in real life.

Another week

2011-02-25T13:28:00.000-06:00

So, I am trying my best to enjoy life, but the politicians are pissing me off. It's hard to focus on other things, especially when I am home all day and can so easily find out about things. By the way, McDonald's response to my letters was, "sorry we don't take any suggestions from outside the company." Which just points a finger to what is wrong with this place lately. No one listen to anything outside their insular group. Growing up I was so freaking patriotic, I teared up every time I heard the National Anthem, and I even embroidered 4th of July shorts and shirts for myself to wear. I loved history from a young age. I never thought I would witness anything like this. I'm supposed to have lunch with a friend tomorrow and I'm torn. She's leaving for China soon so I want to keep the lunch date, but I feel like I need to go protest. Will of the people, my a&#.

So, what is good? Chi keeps wanting to eat his "Quitos" which is fun. He means Cheetos. He has also taken to copying Gabe. This is funny, but annoying because because Gabe has spent the week mouthing off. So, Gabe gets mouthy and then you hear his little parrot repeating everything and sticking his bottom lip out.

Sometimes I find it strange that Chi is so protective of Gabe. He doesn't like it when we send Gabe to his room or anything. He goes with Gabe or places himself between Gabe and us. But Gabe does not do these things for Chi. He's not exactly the nurturing type.

Gabe has officially started chores to earn an allowance. We tried to start this once before but we wound up picking chores that were just not easy to have Gabe maintain. So we decided we had to regroup and come up with stuff that is easy for him to do, easy to have him do (meaning not actually making life harder by having him do it), and easy to remember. So, he has to make his bed before school, sweep the kitchen floor after dinner, and clean the bathroom (just sink and toilet) on the weekend. The only one he doesn't like is making his bed. This list is good because quite frankly, I don't really care if his bed is made or not, I just want him to take some responsibility for his room. The floor needs swept all the time, so even if he doesn't do it well, it's better than nothing. And, the bathroom is not too hard and easy enough to go over if I need to when I clean the tub. It's definitely not creating any more work for me, and maybe it will be a little less.

Snacolypse 2011

2011-02-21T07:13:00.001-06:00

So, I voted that winter should be canceled on account of blizzard for Groundhog's Day, but poor Phil. They pulled him out anyway. We took pictures (not of Phil, of our blizzard), but I forgot to post them. Now, I am reminded though because following our spring like weather (which melted our many inches of snow) we have another snow that brought 8 more inches of snow. The names for these storms crack me up, but I invented my own: sna (short a) - co (long o) - lypse. The snow made me lazy; I just shortened the pronunciation on Snowpocalypse (the favored name around these parts).

The snow was pretty deep. But before it came down, I had Matt knock down our gigantic icicles. We wondered how long they would get, but they were impressively long when we decided they had to come down.

There was blowing so none of our doors were very usable, including the garage. We had to push out there to get started.

We put Chi to work, you know, it can't all be fun and games. He has to earn his keep. ;)

The boys liked it, but they also got stuck a lot, so I don't know how much "fun" it really was.

It was nice of our neighbor to lend us a snowblower. Check out Matt's beard though.

Gabe by the door, after shoveling, for scale.

Dave, Dan, Sam and Fred

2011-02-19T18:51:00.000-06:00

What a day! Productivity has been the name of the game. Last night we finally finished painting the kitchen. I know! It's been forever, but we ran out of time for the refrigerator wall back when we started and we just never got around to doing it. It's amazing how much better I like the kitchen now even though it was a wall I hardly looked at. I also started my burlap wall, which I can say I'm going to love, but it's been hard to get done. Trickery than I had hoped. I'll post the whole project over at Domesticated Nomad once I figure it all out.

So, then today started with a trip to the train store. We could only afford some of the track we still need, but we know that next month we'll finally have all the track and be ready to start construction. Gabe is super excited.

Chi needs to have a twin bed now and not a toddler bed. So, we decided Chi should have Gabe's bed and Gabe should get a full size bed so that when we have company, they can use that bed. Nice of us, right? Well, buying a bed turned out to be a big pain in the butt. We started looking for the second time today because everybody is having President's Day Sale. But these sales were not so great. Okay, it's only $400 now, but I don't want to pay that much anyway. It's a kid's bed. He's going to jump on it. So, we decided to swing through Sam's Club. We don't go there much since it's out of the way, but it was on the way back from the train store. No luck. Mucho dinero required at Sam's. But now it's lunch time and we were far from home. Famous Dave's to the rescue. Mmmm. Not the best barbeque in the world, but still gets the job done.

We decide to check Dan Dan the Mattress Man again (weren't happy with their prices a few weeks ago, but it's a big sale weekend, so...). But, as much as l would like to like Dan and his cool name ;) the prices were just not good. Plus it turns out they had clearance that they held out on us last time, so I am not happy with Dan.

Cruised Craigslist again, but not a lot of full size beds come up in our area. But lots of dealers plug their stuff, like Fred's Unique Furniture. So, back in the car and go to Gladwin and score! A factory reject Serta set. Nothing wrong but a little scuffing. Plus Fred's had a ton of cool stuff, it's a combo resale and liquidation store. Little bit of a drive, but we will probably go back.

Sam - thumbs down, Dave - thumbs up, Dan - so disappointed, Fred - love ya, baby! And that was our day.

Dear McDonald's

2011-02-16T10:29:00.002-06:00

Dear McDonald's,

I have been a lifetime consumer of your product. While you don't provide the best food in the industry, you provide consistency better than anyone else. Wherever I am, I know what I am getting when I enter a McDonald's. And so I go. I support your company regularly, especially now that I have kids.

But now that I have given you so much, I feel it is okay for me to ask one thing of you. My Congressional Representatives and even my President are telling me that significant budget cuts are the ONLY way to pay for our government to run. I can agree that some cuts may be necessary and might even be wise, but when I hear what is being cut, I have to question their wisdom.

Interestingly, another option for fixing the budget is to collect taxes that should have been paid in the first place. Did you know that in Britain they figured out that the amount of budget cuts recommended almost exactly fit the amount of taxes dodged by companies? It's happening here too. If companies paid their taxes rather than searching out legal loopholes (and paying for lobbyists to have Congress create these loopholes), we might not need these difficult cuts at all.

My children love PBS children's programming. In fact, it is all they watch. I can trust the content and I am amazed that they actually learn from the programs too. You must feel the same way because McDonald's is a proud sponsor of some of these shows. That's great. Thanks for doing that.

It's too bad that my kids may not get to watch these favorite shows since the Republicans have presented a budget that cuts all funding for Public Broadcasting. Perhaps now would be a good time to stand up for what your commercials say you believe in. The US Government Accountability Office notes that McDonald's is among the worst offenders of exploiting tax havens. So, it is possible that if you paid your taxes, like the rest of the citizenry, we may not be facing this budget crisis. And you do utilize services such as police and fire fighters, and you use roads and other infrastructure to name a few things that are paid for through taxation. Why shouldn't you shoulder your share when I am expected to and do shoulder mine?

You have a few actions you can take: 1. Publicly stand up for Public Broadcasting. Stand with the programming you claim to support 2. Stop dodging your taxes. This country made it possible for your company to flourish, why do you not feel a responsibility towards it? Be a vocal role model. 3. Should this budget pass, use your resources to pay to keep NPR and PBS stations on air.

I am sure I can count on you, just as you have counted on my support all these years.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Vannette

To sleep or not to sleep

2011-02-10T11:39:00.000-06:00

Chi believes whatever state of being he is currently in is the best one. If he's awake, he wants to stay awake. If he's asleep, he wants to stay asleep. But lately he is adamently opposed to napping (unless of course he's already asleep).

"No, I can't take a nap! It's sunny!" he yells. "It's not moony!" He has suddenly decided he can only sleep when it is "moony."

A prayer for us all

2011-02-08T12:04:00.002-06:00

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

-Franciscan Benediction

The post in which I discuss abortion, rape, life, and democracy

2011-02-04T10:22:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure how to begin this. I am angry, frustrated, sad, disappointed and flat out sick. I don't recognize the country of my youth. Once democracy was a shining beacon wherein the participants of the democracy understood an inherent need to protect minorities in all forms. Historically, this country has not done that perfectly, but historically we have moved in a general forward direction. We are going backwards now. We will continue to do so as long as people react out of misdirected fear, need for power, need for "being right," and laziness.

Those who purport to disdain large government (and really, do they even believe themselves anymore?) and who purport to worship the Bill of Rights, are doing everything in their power to enlarge our government. That alone should make a real Republican against the legislative efforts of our current GOP, but real Republicans are all but extinct.

I am sure you have all heard of the move for legislation that will deny tax payer funding for abortion except in the incidents of "forcible rape." If you haven't, I redirect your attention to the laziness comment above. (Sorry, but I'm in no mood to be nice.) Perhaps you have even heard that Texas governor Rick Perry is trying for legislation that will force women to have an ultrasound and listen to the heartbeat before having an abortion. We will get into why this moves are so bad, but first, I want to make clear that all efforts to limit abortions disproportionately affect the poor. (And another conservative group made a video full of blatant lies to try to undermine Planned Parenthood. Let's make it harder for poor women to seek help, and then let's eliminate the only place they can go. Great plan!) Instead of our responsibility to help those in a minority (or any kind, not just racial), we are allowing our Congress to create an even harder life for them. A blogger said this is using democracy as a bully. Majority rules so screw you, minority! No wonder we freak when Egypt wants democracy. We view from a skewed and bastardized version of democracy. Real democracy is nothing to be feared. Wow. How does the USA not know this?

I know I am getting a little off focus. I'm sorry. These things are all interconnected and upsetting. I'll try to stay on task. Abortion. Controversy from the start. Did you know Roe v. Wade was decided by 7-2? I didn't know that. It has been presented my entire life as if it were a close decision; could have gone either way. Not a lot of Supreme Court decisions are decided by a wide margin and in the history of Supreme Court decisions, 7-2 is about as decisive as possible. Constitutionally women should have the right to seek an abortion. Slam dunk. So, why hasn't it been treated that way?

The GOP has enshrined the Constitution and Bill of Rights lately (although, they get it all screwed up a lot, but let's assume their hearts are in the right places). In this country I am free to worship or not worship as I so choose and cannot be persecuted for my faith or lack thereof. This freedom of religion has ultimately been good for both religion and for government itself. But the lines are blurring more and more. One thing is certain, you still cannot legislate your religious morality onto another citizen. This is being eroded more and more. But why would we want that? People claim to fear Sharia law could reign in this country (which is laughable if you know anything at all about Islam), but we don't need Sharia law to keep women in their place, now do we? We can bastardize Christianity to that for us just as well. And conservatives are working on it, particularly in the case of women. Make no mistake.

I respect that some people do not feel like abortion is right. Heck, I don't like it. But I do believe that sometimes it is necessary. We argue about abortion as if it is a black and white issue, but it's not. There is not a single part of it that is black and white. It's time to stop pretending. I see bumper stickers on both sides all the time, but the one that asks the right question says: If you don't trust me with a choice, why would you trust me with a child? It's a good question. You see, what anti-choice people are saying is that they do not trust the moral capacity of a woman to make the "right" decision. Obviously, to the anti-choice crowd, there is only one right choice. Obviously, that is an falsehood because it is not black and white. But women, whether they agree with abortion or not, should be outraged that their moral capacity is called into question. Look at the male-dominated leadership of the world and I ask you with the kind of historical moral track record of men are we really wanting to go there? Do women make bad decisions? Yes, of course. But any moral decisions are between that woman and God. It is not for us to judge. We should be too busy with the log in our own eye.

By the way, I often hear that God is opposed to killing babies. Really? Have you ever read your Bible? If God is so "pro-life" then I think he has some explaining to do.

As to Rick Perry, I saw an ultrasound (because it was regularly scheduled) the day I found out I had a lump in breast that may be cancerous. See, I wanted my child. I planned for my child-to-be. But as I sat there, waiting for the verdict, listening to my options if it is cancer, having seen the ultrasound did make it harder. Of course that is what Perry wants. But, it's not black and white. Having seen the ultrasound was causing me more pain and sorrow in an already painful and sorrowful circumstance. Had I been raped, how much extra suffering are we going to add? (And I would like to point out to the We-claim-to-be-opposed-to-large-government Crowd, then stay out of my vagina! Seriously. How much larger and invasive can we get?) But I had to face the reality that I was alive and could fight for that life in order to be there for the child I already had. The child-to-be forming in my womb, was a chance at life. I'm sorry, but a fetus is very much a parasite, it cannot survive on it's own, so it's not yet an autonomous life, a child, a baby. It is simply a chance of new life. Sometimes, as in my case, a desperately wanted chance, but every mother waits for the cry at birth because she knows in her heart of hearts that the baby is not really her baby until she hears that cry and knows he or she is alive.

Are there women who view abortion as an acceptable form of "birth control"? Yes, but they are the few. What about the woman who has too many children and cannot support another one? Or the woman who gets pregnant while in college and has to drop out? Will the government provide aid and not scorn her? That is a big criticism I have of the anti-choice crowd. The GOP scorns anyone who needs aid, and tries to strip it away, but they don't want to see that being anti-choice will put more women in need of aid, the same aid they are trying to get rid of. They want to pretend like they can just make the problems go away by denying the problems. Life doesn't actually work that way. Make no mistake, it is anti-choice, not "pro-life." A person who is pro-life will look at the person's whole life and realize that it is not black and white. If you can't face the problems that eliminating abortion will create, then you are not pro-life.

The fact is that men (in a universal, not necessarily individual sense) are jealous of a woman's ability to give birth. Maybe they don't see it that way, but it is a power that woman has that man does not. Go back through history and you can see that man's desire to control woman goes back to this one amazing ability that woman has that he cannot control. Yes, I realize that woman cannot do it on her own, but man's contribution is small compared to woman's. You also cannot escape the fact that men have a history of walking away from their responsibilities as a parent. It is easier because their contribution to creating that life is smaller. The fact is, eliminating abortions will create more single mothers, something everyone agrees is worth avoiding because of the difficult life those single mothers face. Oh, and let's not forget that men don't really want a world in which women, other than wives, would not ever have sex with them. No matter how much our leaders espouse the virtues and sanctity of marriage, that has never been respected in all of human history. Should we make sex special? Of course, but we also should live in reality. People are going to have sex outside marriage. Stop pretending otherwise.

Let's go back to the GOP's new legislation. People are most afraid of the redefinition of rape, and rightly so. The definition of rape is lack of consent. Period. It matters not if a weapon was used or if the woman was beaten. If she did not consent, it is rape. If drugs or alcohol were used so as to get around consent, it is rape. Statutory rape would also not count under the new law, but I'm sorry, a child cannot consent. I suspect that a wife who is raped by her husband would no longer count as we are headed back to an era where women have no voice but her husbands. Lack of consent is rape! There is no other definition. This law, again, would disproportionately affect the poor. People who already feel as if they have no voice would be, in fact, told you have no voice.

I hope you can see that when you try to legislate against a woman's right to choose, you are just legislating against women period. These new laws are a clear step to returning women to a status of second-class citizen. Many of our lovely GOP Congressmen have outright stated that they would like to return to "the good old days" and feel women should stay home with the kids. Each woman has to be trusted to have moral capacity. Not just because the Constitution says so, but because it is true and right.

I know that God created a world in which men and women were meant to be partners. Here's a crazy idea: let's do that. Let's stop trying to hold back women. That is of this world. If we are of God's world, we would not want to return the vision of the world that anti-choice and GOP Congressmen want. I was not born into a world where women were slaughtered because they could not, for whatever reason, have a legal abortion. Or left to die because of complications with the pregnancy. I don't want to ever experience that world. I hope you don't either.

P.S. You spent two tenths of a cent of your paid taxes on abortions for rape, incest and circumstances of endangered health last year. I know that that two tenths of a cent is astronomical and you should be outraged at that. Yeah.

Salvador Dali's mind

2011-01-30T08:38:00.000-06:00

Life with kids. Gabe had to stop and tell us something between every piece of clothing he was supposed to be putting on. Getting dressed is quite the process. He hops away singing, "Kick off your shoes and your socks because you know that Belgium rocks!" (If you watch Martha Speaks, you should know this.) Then we hear him from down the hallway talking to Chi. "Is the monkey playing the piano?"

Matt said, "Having kids is like living in Salvador Dali's mind."

Yes, yes it is.

Chi-isms

2011-01-29T14:36:00.002-06:00

Probably one of my favorite things about young children is the way they mix up language. Chi is no exception.

"I carry you." He says this as he tries to get you to pick him up. He's just repeating the pronouns the way we say it to him. Pronoun confusion is hard to sort out. "No, you mean I will carry you." "Yes, I carry you." and round we go. :)

"Sit in my lap." When he wants to sit in your lap. Again for the humor of pronoun confusion.

"Please! Listen me!" He says every time he's not getting his own way.

I asked him if he had brushed his teeth (he usually does this with Matt, so I'm out of the loop), and he said with a big smile, "I brush my toothpaste." Which, I decided meant that he brushed with toothpaste.

R2-22 2 is what we call R2-D2 around these parts. Part of me hopes he never gets that right even though I know he will.

Instead of upside-down he says : up-i-di-di-down.

He also collects pemmies. That would be pennies to you or I. Actually, no, now to me they are pemmies. I suppose you could also have pemmies from heaben. This Christmas there were no Christmas wars for Chi because he sang, "jingle bells, jingles bells and glory to Gob in heaben!"

And of course the traditional lisp-y things like bafftime, and ss-anks you.

On being a foodie

2011-01-25T12:45:00.000-06:00

A friend of ours calls us "Foodies." Both Matt and I have laughed that off. What is a foodie anyway? Usually some one with either some food expertise or at least a food snob comes to mind for me. I can't say I'm either. My love of fast food burgers takes me out of the snob category, I think. But really my friend was talking about how Matt and I can be very passionate about food, and our desire to make food from scratch, and to, where we purchase packaged/premade foods, to have them as unmodified as we can afford. Meaning we avoid things like high fructose corn syrup.

The funny thing is, we grate our cheese (for example) ourselves rather than buy shredded because it is cheaper by far to do it. Cheese isn't cheap. We like to save our pennies where we can, but I'm happy that the side benefit is that it tastes better. It hasn't been coated in corn starch to keep it from sticking which means a more robust flavor when you grate it yourself.

We make food like spaghetti sauce or beans or any number of prepared foods that can be bought from scratch or from basics (like canned tomato sauce) because it saves money. Most foods I can make in a half hour or under. If not, it's something saved for special occasions. Flour tortillas from scratch are so much tastier!

But it's a little more than being cheap. We've never had a lot of money. But we have been able to travel a bit and live in different places. We discovered most places have some dish or cuisine that they are especially proud of. Food is such a simple pleasure. When you sit down to savor food, and not just eat because you need to for survival, the food becomes a whole experience. And an experience that can be quite affordable. Food can tell you so much about a place. Understanding what people eat and the way people eat can tell you a lot about a culture. And eating hits up all the senses. Really, I don't understand how this makes me a foodie, and why others would not view food this way. It's sad to me to eat just to eat.

The only trouble I have is that I keep falling in love with food that I can't get where I am now. I miss so many foods...

This one's for Gabe

2011-01-14T13:37:00.001-06:00

Gabe is taking swim lessons now at the community center since the summer parks and rec lessons were a complete waste of time. He's doing better with it. This also provides a break from gymnastics, mostly because my wallet wanted a break, but also, I don't want him to get bored. He can't advance to the next level until he's seven.

We are working with him on memorizing math facts using trusty ole flashcards. He's doing well. He already reached his 100 AR books goal so he's had his lunch with his teacher. Obviously we still read, but there is no more pressure to read only AR books.

He drew a great picture of birds and bugs and worms and things. He is already showing a grasp on the concept of perspective. That's exciting to see because I haven't "taught" him drawing technique. But while he was drawing he kept saying callepitter instead of caterpillar. :) Hilarious.

Chi is 3!

2011-01-10T12:46:00.005-06:00

Our little baby is now three! We had pizza for his birthday dinner and he asked for chocolate cherry cake. Were he gets these things, I don't know. But then he wanted yellow cake, so he had a yellow cake filled with cherries and frosted with chocolate. It was a Lightening McQueen cake too. It was fun to make.

He blew out all his candles. He also sang "Happy Birthday" along with us. He hasn't quite figured out that it's a song people sing FOR the birthday person. But, hey, if he's enjoying himself, it's all good.

He loved opening presents. For the first time he really got into the concept of opening gift after gift.

We started out a bit rocky. He was really cranky and I was worried his ear infection was back, but I guess it was really just a funk because he improved throughout the day, and I think, had a good time.

Weather

2011-01-04T14:03:00.003-06:00

I've decided to become a weather person (well, perhaps a weatherman, it just sounds better. Can't man just be universal like in mankind?). Apparently there is no need to be right about anything going on at all in the atmosphere around here, so why not? I don't really mind the snow, but the amount of snow and how fast it came down, and exactly when clearly caught everyone by surprise. So, I figure weatherman is on the list of jobs that I could probably do. At least in Michigan.

What I've really done is to start a new blog about my various projects and their progress and process (how's that alliteration!) It's called Domesticated Nomad, since we've finally settled down from our wandering ways. You can find it over at www.domesticatednomad.blogspot.com. I figure I'm so good at keeping up on my blog posts over here (hee.hee.) why not have another one? Actually, I just like to talk about the project stuff, but I know most of my readers are really here to get updates on the family.

Auld Lang Syne

2010-12-30T14:05:00.002-06:00

The end of the year is upon us. I have no idea what they will do for the New Year's glasses at Times Square this year. 2011 doesn't have two eye holes, so yet another tradition gone (or perhaps a new one involving cyclops?). But I digress. Auld Lang Syne. It's from a poem and from the Scottish would literally be "old long since." More idiomatically, it's "days gone by" or "old times." So for auld lang syne loosely means for the sake of old times. So for the sake of old times, let's do a year in review (everybody else including the whole blogging universe is doing it, so why not?).

January: we began the hunt for houses, pinning our hopes on Frankenmuth, but it was one bust after another. Malachi turned two.
February: even after expanding our housing search, we were still at loose ends.
March: we took a break from looking at houses because we were getting nowhere fast.
April: I had another birthday and we finally found a house, just around the corner from our old one. It was a bit of stress to get things done in time to get the tax credit.
May: Gabe's birthday came and with it our first whole class party. The science themed party was quite a success. The new house got a new roof and we were still awaiting our closing date.
June: we became home owners. Painting and packing consumed the month. We started a garden. Matt and I celebrated ten years of marriage.
July: Matt's grandpa passed away. We were officially out of the old house and in the new.
August: Matt I finally took our anniversary trip to New Orleans, where we had our honeymoon. We also took the boys to Crane Lake for the first time and to three of five Great Lakes.
September: Gabe became a first grader. Chi went off to daycare. Matt was no longer a first year professor. :)
October: tried to figure out all sorts of ways to get to Washington D.C. for the Rally to Restore Sanity, but realized we were being insane to try to do it and stayed home to watch on TV. Gabe was Han Solo and Chi was the Cat in the Hat for Halloween.
November: Gabe was the Pizza Man for his Thanksgiving day program. Went to see Mom and Dad and much of the family for Thanksgiving.
December: finally got to Wicked. Gabe helped lead worship with the children's choir for Christmas Eve. Santa came. We also saw much of Matt's family after Christmas.

What will 2011 hold for us? Eh, who can tell. Hopefully we'll have a lot of fun along the way.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T08:25:00.002-06:00

Santa's a bit behind this year, but I have confidence his elf will finish everything up today. Cards went out, but late. You might receive one in the Christmas season. Or just consider it an Epiphany card. :)

The boys are bouncing off the walls, but it is being tempered by relatively good behavior right now. Funny Malachi story: yesterday he wanted a banana, but he didn't want help so he took it and ran off. Then I hear, "Aw man! It's locked!" So I helped him "unlock" his banana and then he took over.

Tonight, the worship service involves the kids. At our church the early Christmas Eve service is Christmas program/worship. So the boys have been practicing their singing. I don't think Chi is going to go up front though. He wouldn't stay during practice, so we'll see. This year the kids don't have speaking parts or any real dramatic performing; they just sing songs/carols in between parts of telling the story. So, they will just wear their Christmas sweaters and look handsome.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-21T09:50:00.004-06:00

December activities for the family included the Luminary Walk at Dow Gardens and a visit to the Santa House. The whole garden path was lit with luminaries and the conservatory boasted a huge display of pointsettas. It was lovely. The pictures can't capture it. The Santa House is Santa's home away from home during December. It is filled with all things magical and Christmas-y. It was a long wait, but the boys got to climb into Santa's sleigh, and tell Santa what they want for Christmas. When we went back outside, they got to see Comet and Cupid. They had real reindeer in a pen outside. Just two at a time for visits though.

Love and dying

2010-12-15T08:55:00.003-06:00

Gabe got sick at school last Friday. It was the first time he threw up in a long time. I was trying to remember, and I think it's been about three years since it last happened. So, of course, he doesn't remember it. He really keeps things in perspective though. As he lay on the bathroom floor, he whined, "I'm dying!"
"No, you're not dying," I said, "but I know it doesn't feel very good right now."
"No. I really am dying! I know it! You just don't want to tell me."
Hmm. Seriously. Drama, much? I am happy to report the 24-hour stomach flu bug that went away with only a bit of puke (though clearly much emotional pain, I'm sure) did not, in fact, kill him. He is alive and well.

On a happier note, Chi said to me for the first time, "Love you, Mom." Kind of caught my breath a bit. I was tucking him into bed. I've just gotten so used to him not saying a lot of things that it never occurred to me before then that I had never heard him say that. I knew he loved us, of course, but it makes a mom kind of weepy to hear it sometimes.

Gingerbread Houses - A How-to

2010-12-13T15:32:00.014-06:00

One thing that is so much fun to make with kids around the holidays is a gingerbread house because they just love the piles of candy to choose from. But who has the time and patience to make an actual gingerbread structure that will hold up to young kids' hands? So cheat. I had Gabe bring home four milk cartons from school. Milk cartons are harder to come by now-a-days, but a school will give them to you if you go in and ask at lunchtime, as long as you are prepared to dig them out of the trash yourself. Me, I let my kid do the dirty work. Crafty, I know.

After washing them and letting them dry. I hot glued them shut and then glued two together so I had one long ridge line on the roof.

Then I hot glued graham crackers to the milk cartons. You heard me, hot glue them. For mine I used half a graham cracker that I had to trim a bit with a knife to make it fit on the short end. I glued those on first.

Then one full size graham across the long side. There was a bit of a gap from the edge of the graham to the top edge of the wall, but this will be covered by the roof, so don't sweat it.

Next, the ends need triangles. This is a little trickier, but not hard. I took half a graham, laid it on my cutting board, and used the house itself as my template. I laid it on top and used a knife to cut it to size, and then hot glued it in place.

Last, the roof, each side needs a full size graham. The cracker is slightly larger than the roof itself, allowing for a little overhang like a real roof. When you glue them on, make them meet on the ridge line.

Now you need glue. Here's a good stiff frosting recipe that makes great glue:
Cast of Characters:

2 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tsp. water
Beat until frothy.

Slowly add 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition until you achieve something inbetween soft and stiff peaks. It will be thick and pasty. Perfect for strong glue.

Now the fun part. Use whatever candies you desire. (I rotated this picture, but it didn't want to stay and I give up. You get the point.)

Just plan on extra for eating. For the boys, especially Chi, it was easier to just cover a side at a time with frosting and let him go nuts adding whatever he wanted. If you wanted to be more sophisticated about it, you could just put the frosting where you wanted glue something on. But that's all there is to it. Fun and simple.
(Obviously, don't eat the graham crackers now that they have glue, but you can pick at the rest.)

Dot, dot, dot

2010-12-05T13:44:00.004-06:00

Church was interesting today. Chi serenaded everyone with high pitched screaming which led to his banishment to the nursery, where in desperation for quiet, calm children, "A Goofy Movie" was enjoyed.

During the prayers I had a moment. I guess we were praying for all the things that sustain life like water and such, and I heard "the hair that encircles the earth." Hair? or maybe that was hare; there are a lot of bunnies. Oohh, AIR. That makes more sense. Pretty much giggled the rest of the way through.

During the Great Thanksgiving, the bulletin shows the start of the sentence, then ..., followed by the closing of the prayer. Gabe groaned, "Not the dot, dot, dot. That takes forever!"

Yeah, church was interesting.

Lo and behold

2010-11-29T09:40:00.002-06:00

Matt actually came up with a Christmas gift idea for himself if you are looking (or I guess birthday): http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=VWC-113-837-219-AM
He would like two of these VW key blanks.

Praise the cheese

2010-11-19T09:00:00.002-06:00

Gabe and Chi are in choir at church. This is just okay for Gabe, but for Chi it is the best thing in the world! It's the only activity he's old enough for, the only thing that the poor thing doesn't have the door shut in face as big brother goes off for the fun on the other side of that dang door. So, Chi sings all the time. Only his pronunciation is slightly off.

See if you can figure out what he's really singing when he sings, "Hi-gouda. Hi-gouda. Hi-gouda. Amen." Ah, bless his heart. People don't often sing the praises of cheese (I mean literally sing the the praises.)

He also switches it up and yells, I mean sings, Beck. "Where it's at! I got two turntables and a microphone!"

I'm just tearing up...I see Grammy's in our future. ;)

Sharpies and whatnot

2010-11-18T12:43:00.002-06:00

I still can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here. A couple weeks ago, it felt like a couple weeks was a nice amount of time, but now I'm "what? where'd the time go?" Mostly the only stress that causes is with school, just making sure I get all my assignments done on time.

Today I am bouncing around between projects. I am on a mission to add texture to my home. At first I was just thrilled to paint color on the walls, but after living with that awhile, I realize that it doesn't do much more for me than rental white walls. So, in the long hallway I am drawing pattern on one wall with sharpie markers. Although it kills the sharpie fast, it's still a bit easier than messing with paint or stencils.

I am also working on painting. I am sticking with watercolor right now. I'm a bit surprised with myself, but I don't know. I guess I'm just feeling the medium right now. But I have to take lots of breaks because I have to wait for things to dry. It's not exactly a speedy medium.

Basement update: we have picked carpet and had the measurements done. There isn't enough in stock, so it has to be order so it will be at least another week (plus some because of the holiday) and we will have carpet. I am so excited to be able to use the basement!

Not much

2010-11-08T08:39:00.002-06:00

There is really not much to share from the home front. I did discover this week, after all the rhetoric from the various Republican victors that I am not really an American because they know what ALL Americans think. Since what they say is not what I think, I guess I'm not American. Interesting. Explains a lot, I think. Oh, well. It's not the first time I was called out on my lack of American-ness. So, I voted, and the chips did not fall my way, and I do truly believe America is going to have one hell of a hang over from this vote, but I can't change it. So, I'm mostly (not completely) ignoring it all now.

Chi decided all day Friday and Saturday to pee wherever he happened to be standing. Annoying as he never has accidents at daycare. So after throwing lots of clothes in the laundry, I put him back in diapers. Maybe bad parenting choice, but it was a choice for self-preservation. Actually, strike that, it was a choice for child-preservation. I was really getting mad. Then, for no apparent reason all day Sunday he had zero accidents, and ran in and used the toilet all by himself several times. When we did know he was going, he kicked us out so he could do it himself. Hey, I'll take it. Actually, not having to physically take him to the bathroom and remind him all the time is awesome.

The basement remodel is coming along, but it's a big headache. I think (fingers-crossed) all the painting will be done today. This week we will go pick out the carpet. I'd love it to be installed before Thanksgiving, but we'll see. The built-in bookcases, cabinets/entertainment center will not be done before Christmas, but once we get the carpet down, the space will be usable again. Really, that is all I'm going for with my low expectations right now. On the up side, we really like the wall color and the drop ceiling looks ten times better with just the addition of a fresh coat of white. Part of the reason I am impatient is because I know what I want to do with some other projects now, but I am not going to spend any money on other things until I know what the finally tally on the basement is. Some other stuff may have to wait.

Halloween and other happenings

2010-11-02T09:08:00.002-05:00

Halloween was fun. Gabe was Han Solo (and I am quite proud of myself for figuring out how to make the boots and the holster out of pleather), and Chi was the Cat in the Hat, but he refused to wear his red bow tie. Oh, well. They did not trick or treat long because they were cold and because my kids felt like 2/3 full buckets were plenty full. I love that they don't feel like they need mounds of candy. We are very socialist with candy and treats around here; they were automatically going to combine it all into the candy/treat jar for everyone, but, partly because they ought to enjoy their own loot, and partly because it wouldn't have fit in the jar, I had them keep their buckets separate for now.

Gabe picked an elaborate Star Wars plan for his pumpkin, so I had to carve his, but for the first year Gabe did carve a pumpkin himself. We bought extra this year for decoration, so he was able to have his Star Wars, and still have one with a simple face he could try. He did alright. Chi just got to choose the shapes for his pumpkins face. Neither of my kids like pumpkin guts so Matt had a lot of scooping to do since I was busy drawing and carving.

I was accepted into a juried art show (juried means a judge decides if you get into the show or not, so it's more prestigious than an open call). It's at an art center here in town. The theme was Crystals and Wonder: the Art and Science of Snow, so I did a watercolor of a single snowflake. It's a microscopic view that is semi-abstract, meaning it looks like a snowflake, but it's simplified down to it's essence. Now, we will see if it sells. Part of me would like it to because I have never sold any art work (I give it away usually), but I don't have great shots of it for my portfolio so part of me hopes it doesn't so I can get better pictures. But that doesn't really matter. I am just proud of myself for get out there with my artwork. It's hard to risk the rejection.

And an update on school for Gabe: we've talked (and talked) with his teacher and principal and I think things are going to get better. They are finally addressing the advanced readers with a separate reading group and Gabe likes that so far. They are also address the math with an advanced group that does do extensions now instead of just working fast and sitting around. I'm still doing spelling and flash cards at home, but Gabe really likes doing it and now it doesn't feel like I have so much extra to do. The important thing is that they are taking it seriously now, and they aren't annoyed with us yet. I do feel like everyone is wanting what is best for Gabe.

Christmas Lists

2010-10-22T10:10:00.005-05:00

Okay, for train stuff, see the earlier post on Gabe's Christmas List.

Both or either:

Toy Story 2 DVD
Toy Story 3 DVD (set to release Nov. 2)
Princess and the Frog DVD
Curious George Christmas DVD
Zhu Zhu pets (these are fake hamsters, if one gets one, they both need to get one)
Pillow pets
Imaginext aircraft carrier

Chi:

Buzz Lightyear action figure (it's about 12 inches tall or so, and has all the bells and whistles like the "real" Buzz Lightyear.
Mobigo games (this is a made by vtech and can be found at any toy store, Walmart, Target, etc. He has the Toy Story game)
Magneatos or other magnetic building toys
Geotrax, especially the ramp pack, but any of the track or set add-ons, including the Cars sets
Imaginext Batman accessories, we already have the Batcave
underwear 2T/3T size
Chi wears 3T clothes right now.

Gabe:

DS games (he only has Lego Star Wars)
Anything Star Wars: toys, Legos, dress-up...
Legos, especially the boxes of legos, or wheels, or other pieces of interest rather than the sets
Easy bake oven mixes
kid's cookbook (colorful, something to actually make a real meal with help for our budding chef)
easy bake oven cookbooks - "Baking with Mommy Cookbook: Recipes for Kid-sized Ovens" and "Easy Bake Gourmet" (The first is more practical but it's really just desserts and the second is probably a bit out of Gabe's league, quail eggs?, but I still think he'd get a kick out of it because he loves Iron Chef, Top Chef, etc. Who knows, he might even want to try new things if he made them himself in his little oven. Both available on Amazon)
Gabe wears Boys size 5 or 6. He's sort of in-between right now. All pants must have elastic either all the way around like sweats or the hidden extend tabs like jeans. The boy is so skinny, they won't fit without it!
Easy chapter books such Magic Tree House (anything above book #6), Jigsaw Jones, Pee Wee Scouts or Nate the Great or Easy Reader books level 2 or 3

Becoming one of "those" parents

2010-10-20T13:47:00.002-05:00

Someday Gabe will forgive us. I hope someday he may even thank us. But we are becoming "those" parents. You know, the ones who are forever ostracized because they rock the boat. Who won't just sit down, say "our school is the best ever!" and otherwise shut up, and who give generously. You see Matt and I have this crazy notion that schools should be in the business of educating. Crazy, I know. As much as I strongly believe in arts, foreign language and gym classes for all students, I also want my child to actually learn the basics. While some schools in our nation are fighting for an art class, we have to fight for a math class.

Alright, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. Let's start with math because I brought it up. Math has been ridiculously easy for Gabe so he's bored. He told me math wasn't any fun. So, I talked to his teacher. Now he is in an "advanced group." But all that has amounted to is that they go and do the worksheet faster than the rest of the group and then read a book. Now, they did a lot on patterns. That's fine. Patterns are important, but instead of going to read, why couldn't the teacher extend the learning? Why not look for number patterns, or patterns in the world? Or at least play a math game. So far, this has not improved. We have begun to teach math facts at home. Schools seem to have gone away from memorization and we think it's important, so that's one thing we are now teaching at home.

He was never tested on his reading level and was started significantly lower than his level. We have gone back and forth and all around on this. You see, they read Accelerated Reader books and take comprehension tests. Okay. fine. But the teacher has set a goal of 100 AR books. If a student achieves this goal she takes the student out to lunch and buys them a book. So, if you are reading this, you likely know Gabe. How well do you think he'd take it if I just said, no, you aren't going to reach that goal? It's not that he can't read 100 books, he just can't read 100 chapter books before the end of the school year. That means that he has to read far below his level to reach the goal. Now, the only time in class that they are getting to practice reading on their reading level is with the AR books. Are you seeing the problem? Quantity over quality, apparently. So, now he's being actively held back, but there is nothing I can do about that without taking away the chance of the lunch with his teacher. So, now I have to get him through the easy books and then challenge him with harder books myself. That's okay, but now I'm up to two things I have to do completely at home.

Rather than having spelling and grammar instruction, it will just be modeled for them during reading and writing time. Eventually they will pick it up. New levels of ridiculousness courtesy of our public schools. Three things I have to teach at home.

(Interestingly, Gabe doesn't mind the extra math work at home, but he's mad about the spelling tests. I need to come up with a good reward for those. Any ideas?)
About the only thing that seems to be going well is science.

They also do lots of cheesy projects that don't have much educational value, but I guess I am okay with that too. I don't think that they shouldn't have any fun. I just think the focus should be on fun because they are learning. And learning while being engaged in meaningful work rather than busy work.

So we've tried talking to the teacher, who is now hurt that we don't trust her. To that I was just a bit dumbfounded. She has only given lip service to the issues. She has a bright, inquisitive kid who has a great thirst for knowledge. That should be a blessing to her, but I constantly feel like she treats it as a large burden. We will be talking again. But we are also meeting with the principal next week. I wish I was able to have more faith in this working out, but I don't.

So, in the meantime we become "those" parents. Who will forever more be labeled as difficult, and that label will follow us the rest of the way through this elementary school. Gabe will be unfairly judged by it, but that is what happens. I know it's a fight I won't win, but I guess when it's a fight worth fighting, winning isn't what's important. Not giving in is what's important. So, in the meantime, you can find us over here in Crazyland, where we expect more than just advancement through the grades, but actual education. I know, I know. Still wasting our time with that critical thinking nonsense...

Autumn perfection

2010-10-11T11:14:00.003-05:00

We had a really nice weekend. Matt's parents came up to visit. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so it made for a great trip to the pumpkin patch. We went to Johnson's Giant Pumpkins again this year. They have a really nice variety of activities, but the big draw is the trebuchet. We watched a 74 lb. pumpkin fly almost a 1000 ft. Gabe and I ran down to check the spot where it impacted. There was nothing but some bits of shell and a mushy crater. It was pretty awesome.

The boys took a ride on the mini train and got to see some birds. I think they saw geese, but lately Chi insists every large bird is a duck, so according to him, that is what they saw. We came home loaded down with pumpkins and gourds. Slowly, but surely, we are starting to get the home decorated for Halloween.

Chi's costume is pretty much ready to go. He is going to be the Cat in the Hat. I still have a bit of work to do on Gabe's, but it's about half ready. He is going to be Han Solo. Really it was all about weapon choice this year for Gabe. He wanted to be a storm trooper so he could have a blaster. I pointed out that it would be easier to make a Han Solo costume and he had a cooler blaster, so that worked for Gabe.

Yesterday was also a nice day, but we were tired out. While Matt and Chi napped, I had on the Colts game. Gabe looked at the score and asked, "Is that how many tackledowns they have?" Oh, yeah. We've educated him well in sports. I tried to explain touchdowns and field goals, but every time some one got tackled, he said, "Yea! A tackledown! How many points, Mommy?" I think we are going to have to work on that. :)

What Gabe wants for Christmas

2010-10-02T12:45:00.003-05:00

I am starting my shopping early so I can spread the cost out and make it more enjoyable for me to do the shopping. I thought others might be doing the same, and since what Gabe wants is so specific, I thought I would start his list on here now.

What Gabe wants the most for Christmas is a great start on his train table. We are doing an HO scale set. We haven't selected buildings yet, but we are thinking Northeast scenery. If you prefer things like trees and such, evergreens or deciduous would be appropriate. We are planning on Autumn for the season. So, here's stuff that he needs to create our layout.
Track pieces (Atlas True-Track):
4 460 18" curves (pkg 4)
3 450 9" straight (pkg 4)
1 452 3" straight (pkg 4)
2 478 left-hand turnouts
2 479 right-hand turnouts
2 465 terminal joiners (pkg 2)
Girder bridge (Atlas 885)

Since he only needs the amount of track I have listed here, please put a comment up here if you buy it so that others can see that it has already been purchased. We have a lot of scenery to fill so it's okay if you guys go nuts on the trees or flock or whatever catches your fancy, but just give a heads up to all the family if you happen to buy some of the track. And if you really have no desire to go to a train hobby store, I will put up a list of other stuff sometime in the next few days for both boys.

Ladies' Man

2010-09-21T09:41:00.004-05:00

Gabe has a new girlfriend. Well, he'll tell you he has two girlfriends because he still has Larsen too.

We went to Amanda and Mike's (or as we call him, CA, which is short for Commander Awesome) wedding this weekend. Gabe is still so excited that he went to Canada. Gabe was Ring Bearer (or Ring Master, as Sienna kept saying). So, through the course of his duties he met the Matron of Honor, Kim. He really liked Kim. He danced with her many times. Actually he also danced with Cindy, the other Bridesmaid and his cousins. He really didn't want to leave any girl on the sides. But he only had eyes for Kim. He was very proud that she told him her husband would be jealous of the handsome little man who was so attentive to her. :) Alas, it will have to be a long distance relationship since she lives in Virginia.

The kids were very cute that day. Here's a picture of the cousins: Chi, Sienna, James, Gabe and Sylvie.

Seeing Red

2010-09-13T18:49:00.002-05:00

I am taking deep breaths. I have counted to ten enough time to reach a million (well, maybe...) I love my kids. Really I do, but sometimes they drive me so crazy I just want to scream. I would love to escape to a sound proof room so that I don't have to hear, "Mom!"..."Mom!"..."Mom!" when they know they are supposed to be sleeping.

What is it with kids? It is like they know exactly when you don't feel your best no matter how carefully you hide it and that's when they pounce. That's when they decide even though they've fallen to sleep with no trouble many nights in a row, the night you need it the most, is the night they refuse.

I really have stuff to do that is impossible because of them. I also just really want to lay down and rest, but that's not going to happen either.

I love my kids...but grrr!

Crane Lake

2010-09-10T08:12:00.003-05:00

Some pictures from the summer, at Crane Lake.

I'm awake

2010-09-06T20:10:00.002-05:00

We had a busy long weekend. A football game, a play date for Gabe, a dinner with friends that went much later than expected, and a get together with another family. Chi crashed on the couch before dinner tonight. But he didn't stay asleep. He woke up at bedtime. So a warm bath, a story and to bed. It worked...for about an hour.

He walks out with his arms outstretched gesturing for us to keep our seats and said, "I'm awake. I'm awake." I couldn't help giggling. So he curled up with us and watched the end of the movie we were watching. But then I said bedtime. And he said, "No bedtime. I want Graump (meaning Grandpa)." He accepted that Grandpa had to be at his house and we had to be at ours. But it got me wondering how much he wriggled out of bedtime during his week at Mom and Dad's. :)

I Have a Dream Anniversary

2010-08-27T19:04:00.003-05:00

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³

(Not so) Lazy, (but definitely) Crazy, Hazy Days of Summer

2010-08-23T17:54:00.003-05:00

Hello? Anybody still out there? It's been awhile. I haven't been home much this month, and up until this week, when I was home, I was taking classes three days a week. It's been a tiring marathon of a summer.

Classes went well. I took Psychology of Human Development and Intro to Watercolor Painting. I needed them so I can go to grad school next year. This fall I am taking Ceramics and then completing my portfolio and applying.

The first weekend of August we went to Crane Lake, MN. We stayed with my grandma in the same cabin she rents every summer since longer than I've been alive. My aunt, uncle and cousin also were there. It was a good trip. The boys liked the boat rides (though Chi kept falling asleep on the boat), Gabe went fishing and managed to sacrifice his rod to the fish (in other words, he dropped his pole and it sunk), and we saw bears. We went to a wild bear preserve and got to see about 40 bears just sitting around eating. The cubs were perched up in the trees. Oh, and Grandma, Aunt Jeryl, and I all did Jello shots...mostly just because they were there and Chase told us to.

On our way back home, through the Upper Peninsula, we stopped off and played on the Lake Superior shore (clear, beautiful, amazing water!) and the Lake Michigan shore as well. It was kind of fun to be in both great lakes within a few hours of each other.

After a whirlwind final weeks of classes for me, we loaded up the car again and drove to Springfield to drop the boys off with Mom and Dad. Then Matt and I drove on to New Orleans to (belatedly) celebrate our 10th Anniversary in the city where we spent our honeymoon.

We had a nice trip. The French Quarter is now dirty, stinky and not very well maintained. That part was sad and disappointing. But we plowed our way through the city, one forkful at a time. Really, NOLA is all about the food. People think of Bourbon Street and the drinking, but it's the food that makes the city sing. We had an amazing meal at Domenica and even met the chef. I still dream of that desert... Muffaleta's from Central Grocery (twice!), beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde, red beans and rice and crawfish etouffe at Coop's, cheeses and preserves at the art museum... oh, I'm hungry just thinking about it all.

And that's not to say there was no drinking. We had great fun at Pat O'Brien's, where Earl kept the drinks flowing and we met Pat and Lucy who ran around with us for the night. (They were old enough to be our parents, and we were the ones to throw in the towel, how sad!) I sat at Carousel Bar and chatted with a local (of all places to find one!) which was cool because the bar really is a carousel that moves slowly around. And we popped into other places, including a jazz club. One of the best parts of the trip was the day we went to the Museum of Art and the City Park. It was beautiful up there. The museum was great and the sculpture garden was worth the visit.

Now we are home. We have traveled enough miles this summer to have crossed the country and started back. The car is tired and beginning to protest. We are happy to be home. We do have Amanda's wedding next month, but other than that we are refusing to travel for awhile. We need the break! School starts for Gabe after Labor Day. Matt has started working this week and he starts teaching next week. Chi's great adventure will be part time day care. I think it's still going to be busier than I'd really like, but at least we are about to have a routine again.

It's hard to say goodbye

2010-07-15T23:03:00.002-05:00

Last week Matt's Grandpa White passed away. He had fought a long, hard battle with cancer. This weekend, along with many others, we will attend his funeral. He was very well respected in his community, and not just because he was a good coach, but because he was a good man. He lived a life that is a worthy example to all. He was patient, concerned about the welfare of others, and willing to help people in any way that he could. He respected others for the simple fact that they were people. How many of us can always say the same? He told Matt that he wasn't afraid of dying because he had never been afraid to live. I hope that I can live to the fullest, without fear. Grandpa will be missed.
If you should wish to make a contribution in honor of Dean White, there are two different memorial funds.

To support cancer research: Jerad Foundation 900 Havemann Rd. Ste. B Celina, OH 45822, jeradcenter.com.

To support hospice care: Community Health Professionals 816 Pro Dr. Celina, OH 45822, comhealthpro.org.

Trials and Tribulations

2010-07-12T07:54:00.003-05:00

Chi wants underwear, specifically "Cars" underwear. But he's not had much success with using the toilet. He is interested and "tries" at least once a day, but it's usually after he's already gone. So, we decided to promote this desire for the underwear because we are sick of diapers. (I secretly think that's the real reason any kid potty trains. The parents hit a wall.) So, it's going to messy. Chi is pretty lazy about things too, but physically I believe he's capable. We've geared up. Fun underwear so he's excited to wear it, a new Thomas toilet training seat, and even an extra step stool so we don't have to move our one from the sink to the toilet and back. The only thing I can't find is rubber pants. I'd really like those for when we go out.

This morning he wanted to put on the underwear, but he wasn't letting anyone help him. He was upset because he couldn't get them on. Finally, Matt made him accept help and pulled them up. Chi was more upset. Lightening McQueen was emblazoned on Chi's butt. Gabe casually looked over and said, "Chi, Lightening McQueen doesn't want you to poop."

After Matt and I had our fits of laughter, Chi was indicating the problem was HE couldn't SEE Lightening McQueen. It's not good enough to know he's there, I guess. (Or that he can't see the front once he has pants on anyway.) He also was mad when Matt offered to put him in a diaper. So right now he's been running around naked. Sigh.

Home Sweet Home

2010-06-25T12:24:00.003-05:00

We've been in the house for a little over a week, and it feels so much like home that it's hard to think of the other house as ever having been home. I have painted the living room and half the kitchen. I like both colors (living-yellow, kitchen-green), but I'm wondering if I need to make a change. I think the colors next to each other remind me a bit of a gender-neutral baby room. I'll have to live with it a while, but the paint guy at Lowe's and I may be getting pretty chummy. Gabe's room was already a blue we liked, so that was good. Chi's room is now the color of mac and cheese, and being his favorite food, that seems appropriate.

We have vegetable growing out back. Matt is so excited about our tomatoes. We have three varieties: beefsteak, Roma, and Mr. Stripey. How could we resist a plant called Mr. Stripey? How could anyone, for that matter? He also has bell peppers, jalapenos, zucchini, radishes, beans, cucumber, and (the one he's most excited about) cantaloupe. We also have containers full of various herbs.

The boys now have a giant trampoline. I worry a bit about them getting carried away and hurting themselves or each other, but I like this. It's a good energy-burner and it's something they won't quickly outgrow, like a traditional playset.

We have more work to do, particularly in the basement (which is right now just a pile of boxes), the garage (which is right now just a pile of empty boxes), and some additions to make outside, but it's coming along and it can't all happen overnight.

Homemaking

2010-06-13T19:05:00.002-05:00

We've been busy at the house. We have the living room, hall, and Chi's room painted. I still have to paint Chi's closet doors and the kitchen. I don't know if the kitchen is going to be done before we move in or not. It's a lot of work and one of has to stay with the boys while one paints so it's taking awhile.

We did yard work today. Matt put the vegetables in and we planted some marigolds. Gabe picked those. Sometimes I feel tired and just see all the work that needs to be done, but days like today, it starts to feel like home. We'll start moving furniture soon. We hope to be sleeping over there by next weekend.

And as to the new layout. Blogger offered new choices, so I was messing around and then it turns out they don't offer the old one anymore. So, it is likely to be different. I may mess around some more to see what I like. But feel free to leave your opinion of it in the comments.

Entering the ranks of homeowners

2010-06-10T13:49:00.004-05:00

It's official. We own a house, or as Matt likes to say, we own a mortgage, which is a bit more honest. Closing wasn't too bad. It actually took under an hour. And signing wasn't so bad, but I did tell Matt I should have had him take my last name instead when we got married because signing Jennifer Jones would have been much faster and easier than Jennifer Vannette. It's a lot of n's to make. :)

We went over and settled on paint colors and let the boys run around and think about how their rooms should look. Chi mostly just ran around and enjoyed the echo since it was empty.

I think Matt and I are mostly just exhausted right now because all the stress is leaving us. I'm happy, but I mostly just want a nap right now. :)

10 years

2010-06-04T06:50:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was our ten year anniversary. We celebrated small this time, but we'll take our anniversary trip later in the summer.

I said, "We've been married ten years; that's a third of our lives."

Matt replied, "I know. Will you stay married to me for ten more years?"

I laugh, "Well, yeah. Now that you have a real job, you're the gravy train."

Matt, "I'm not so much a sugar daddy as a high fructose corn syrup daddy."

Rollercoaster

2010-05-26T12:58:00.002-05:00

Things are cruising right along with the house. The new roof is on and it looks good. I'd been stressing because I did not just choose to replace the roof with the same color that was there. Sure, there were sample boards, but those are only so big and any color en masse is different. But it came out great. The FHA appraisal happened yesterday and so far we have not been contacted about any red flags, so we are taking the stance: no news is good news. We are scheduled to close on June 9th. So that's all good and we are looking forward to moving to the new house. It's tough waiting though.

We wondered if we should really invest in staying in Michigan though, but finally decided we should do it. Now we are on the hook with the house. So of course the other shoe drops. (I wonder where that expression even comes from? Anyways.) The state has decided to slash education to make up for its budget woes. I still can't understand why this is always an acceptable option to legislators. So they want to immediate cut salaries by 5% and then freeze salaries for three years for all teachers Kindergarten through college. To do this they actually have to amend the constitution and they know it won't be popular so they just made it public yesterday and they are pushing to vote by Friday.

So, we are kind of screwed if this goes through. We've notified our senator about our position, the teacher's unions are fighting, but the way politics roll nowadays, I have no confidence. For our kids, it means they are going to drive good teachers away from the state thereby hurting education. For Matt, well, it's going to hurt. It means all the plans we've laid our for the next five years are scraped and that I can't go back to school. Chi was going to start part-time day care so that I can work on my portfolio and get back to painting in general. That won't happen. I'm sad right now because it should be a happy time for us to have our own house, but now it feels more like an albatross.

Look

2010-05-19T15:06:00.002-05:00

Chi has been saying a word a lot lately, but I've had no idea what he was really saying other than it wasn't what it sounded like. He's been saying "look" but he started the word with an F sound. I knew he didn't really have a dirty mouth, but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out! What a relief; now I can properly correct him.

Am I longer?

2010-05-19T08:12:00.002-05:00

I forgot to post this story. On Saturday, after the festivities, I was hugging Gabe on my lap and I was talking about how great it was that he was six now. Then he said, "I think I must be longer now." And he stretched out (still on my lap) stiff as a board and asked me to check. I love that goofball. Longer. It's funny; he never quite says things the way you'd expect.

How to do a Science Party

2010-05-18T19:20:00.005-05:00

Well, I'd like to offer the world the cure to a horrible disease, or end poverty, or something, but those are not the skills I was endowed with. So, I offer a post about Gabe's Science Party. So many people have given us positive feedback on the party, so I thought I would share the details so others could create the party for their kids or friends or whoever.

There are science party ideas out there, but they focus strongly on images of chemistry or biology. Being married to a physicist, I, of course, scoffed at this. But really what is a common physics image? So for Gabe's invites I focused on the number 6 (since that's how old he was turning). I simply made a postcard featuring the number six in orange and using a "tech" font and a simpler font wrote: Gabe is turning six, he's having a science party, and you're invited. Then I included the details of when and where. I used blue text. On the boarder I wrote in green: It's an Experimentation Celebration! I printed them on an inkjet printer on glossy photo paper (4 to a sheet), cut them apart and passed them out at school. But you could actually send them through US Post as a postcard, just fill out the addresses and stamp on the back side.

We did the baking soda and vinegar "volcanoes" as the kids arrived. We also did "Milky Fireworks" which is just whole milk with drops of food coloring on a plate. If you take a Q-tip dipped in dish soap and touch it to the center of the food coloring it bursts out like a firework. Once the kids had arrived, we gathered them together and Matt did some science demos. Things with fire, and shooting, you know, stuff we wouldn't want the kids to actually do themselves yet.

The next part of the party was set up in centers that they rotate between in small groups. One station was "Toothpick Towers." They were given toothpicks, cheese balls, gummi bears, and mini marshmallows and had to experiment with what worked best to build the tallest, most stable tower that they could build. The second station was all about balance, specifically "Throw Your Weight Around" which was about how we adjust our bodies to move without realizing it. They stood with one side pressed against a wall and had to try to pick up the outside leg. And go try it; you won't be able to because to pick up your leg you have to be able to shift your weight. They also did "Balancing Sticks" where they had to predict which was easier to balance, a short stick or a long one. Then they had to test it out to discover the long stick gives more time to make adjustments.

Then they went to "Super Slime" and made slime using the borax-glue recipe. This slime was then bagged up and put into their goody bags so they could take it home. Next was "Float My Boat" where they had a 6 in. square piece of aluminum foil that they had to form into a boat and predict how many pennies their boat could hold before sinking. After making predictions, they tried out their boats by adding pennies and counting up until it sank. They got to take home their boats in their goody bags too.

The last station was "Potato Launchers." With this station they had a lever that was marked in increments. They chose which number to place the fulcrum under. Placed a potato on one end and stomped on the other to see how far the potato would fly. As they took turns they were able to discover that when the fulcrum was farther from the potato, the potato flew farther. This was a big hit, but you have to be careful with it because it can get out of control easier. If you do this with kids, make sure you have a strong adult leader to keep everyone safe.

After that we had cake and other food. There are different science cake ideas. Cakes shaped like beakers, volcanoes, bugs. But again with the lean towards physics, so we opted to shape Gabe's cake into a number six. He wanted an ice cream cake anyway. So, I drew my six on a piece of sturdy cardboard, cut it out with an Xacto knife and covered it with foil. Then I molded foil walls, several inches high all around the number form. I used tape on the outside to keep them in place. I bought one of the big tubs of vanilla ice cream and left it out until it softened. Meanwhile I crushed a box of Graham crackers and mixed it with melted butter. I pressed this into the form to make the crust. Then I drizzled it with hot fudge. I didn't completely coat the crust.Then I crushed 8 mini Butterfingers. When the ice cream was soft, I used a large bowl and mixed in the Butterfinger. This was spread evenly on the fudge-drizzled crust. At this point, I had to put the cake into the freezer (and adjusted the freezer to coldest setting) for several hours. When the cake was solid, I pulled off the sides, situated the six on a larger platter and frosted it with thawed Cool Whip (Cool Whip is happy to be frozen and thawed, so it's a good frosting choice for ice cream cakes), and sprinkled with more Butterfinger. Then I popped it back into the freezer until the party. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone took a picture, so you'll have to use your imagination.

In the goody bags along with the slime and boats they made, they each got a Science booklet that detailed the experiments and why things worked the way they did. I included a list of science websites for kids on the back page. Then I included a pencil and a packet of Pop Rocks (because that is a "sciencey" sort of candy.

All in all we had a good time. Those who came had a good time. We were told by one parent that we had set the bar for birthday parties. But, you know what? Most people rent out places that do parties for you, and I can see the convenience in that, but we spent a lot less on our party. It only takes a little planning to throw a creative party.

Brick walls

2010-05-13T22:56:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure why I even try. I want to be a person who stands up for what is right, who tries to make a positive impact on the world, who doesn't let things that are blatantly wrong go unchecked. But really, does it matter? Trying to get through to people anymore is like talking to brick walls. There doesn't seem to be much room for rational conversation anymore. If a person doesn't agree with you, they just refuse to speak to you. We don't have a free exchange of ideas anymore.

To top it off, so many people are trying to dig in and promote hatred in an effort to protect their own bigotry. It's all too much. We have become a society of selfish, self-absorbed, greedy, anti-intellectual brats. No one can step up and take responsibility for anything. And on top of that, we can't even count on a sane voice of reason from the religious groups because people are bastardizing everything Christianity is supposed to teach us. How is it possible that God is on the side of the people that say, "Get the &**%$ out of my way, I've got mine so screw you, I'll trash the hell out of this place because I won't be here when it's time to pay, if you are different than me, you must be bad"? And yet they convince themselves that they get to be this way because God blessed them.

It's really all too much. I don't know why I keep trying. It just makes me so angry and sad. But God help me, I still keep talking to brick walls...

Life with the boys

2010-05-07T09:24:00.003-05:00

Chi says yes and nope a lot right now. If he really is upset he says "Noooooo!" It's never a simple no. If it is a simple no he says "nope." He also says "but" a lot. In the book Curious George there is a page where it ends with "George was curious. It looked easy. But -" then you turn the page. "Oh, what happened!..." So now, we don't know for sure what he means by it, but he says "but" all the time, seemingly in connection to some action taking place or something he wants to have happen. It's kind of funny. It reminds me of when Gabe was two and said "actually" all the time.

I also find it hilarious that Gabe thinks his PhD holding physicist dad is cool just because he once worked for Wendy's. See, to a five year old, fast food is something to aspire to. He also told me I was "magnificent" when I threw a double (the simplest toss) with my rifle the other day. With Gabe, it's the little things that impress him. I'm glad he doesn't set the bar too high.

A House!

2010-04-30T17:48:00.002-05:00

We are under contract -- we are buying a house! It's in the neighborhood we live in, so it will be an easy move, and Gabe gets to stay at his school. At the bank, officially applying for the mortgage (we've been pre-approved so there shouldn't be any problems), Malachi saw us signing lots of papers, and wanted one. Matt gave him a blank piece and a pen. Chi scribbled a bit on it and then slide it across the desk to the loan officer and pointed to the pile of papers. Apparently, he had signed his name and it belonged in the pile. We find it very funny that Chi helped apply for the mortgage. Other than that, he sat and watched "Curious George" on the portable DVD player. Thank God for technology!

Chi and Gabe have been having us play Hide-and-Seek in the back yard. When it's Chi's turn to count he goes to the tree and hides his face and says, "nine...nine...nine..." Then turns around and says "Where'd they go?" On our walk today (past our soon to be new house, we couldn't resist), Chi kept stopping at trees and counting. It was funny at first, but we have A LOT of trees in the neighborhood, so it made our walk take quite a long time.

Other than trying to get the house, I've been getting ready for Gabe's birthday party. He's very excited about turning six. We are inviting his class and having a science party. The kids will be broken into groups and they will go do experiments at different tables. Matt is going to demonstrate some stuff that wouldn't be safe for them to do as well. I think it will be fun. Instead of the usual goody bags, I'm making a book of the experiments and why they work and each kid will get to take that home along with stuff they make during their experiments (slime, a tinfoil boat), I'll through in a pencil and a piece of candy or something. Personally, I think it's much nicer than the stuff that breaks in a day anyway, so I hope the parents appreciate that.

It looks like May is gearing up to be a busy month...I guess it always is!

To Buy or Rent; That is the Question.

2010-04-19T09:57:00.003-05:00

We are stilling waiting on a response on a short-sale in Frankenmuth, but we are not very optimistic. House hunting has just not gone our way, and because of that we have had a lot of time to gain a better understanding of the local housing market and to question our motives: are we buying just to buy, without really looking at what makes the most financial sense for us right now?

Right now houses in the area are overpriced. Some are selling, but not that many. When the tax credit goes away, we (and experts around us) believe prices will plummet. So, we don't think we are going to try for the credit any more. But, prices are not gaining around here either. Even with the possibly inflated prices, those are not any higher than they were five years ago. So, we know we will want to leave the area and we were looking at a five year (or so) timeline. We can't expect our property to gain much value. We can't really have any certainty that the house will sell for enough to pay off our debt and have anything to put down on another house. In fact, it seems unlikely.

We also would prefer to live closer to the university, but all the schools over there are substandard. So we have also been wondering if we want to send Gabe to the Lutheran school anyway. In that way it wouldn't matter to us what the public schools were, except for purposes of resale. It would be crazy to buy a house in an area where no one wants the schools when I know it's not going to be long term. But, because of that logic, I can't live where I want to live. Unless...

We rent. Then I don't have to worry about the bad market or the schools. I can live where we want, send the kids to the school we want, and walk away when we want. The downside remains not having any decorating control, probably still not having pets, and although interest rates won't likely jump super high quickly, it means not taking advantage of all time low interest rates. (5.1% on 30 yr. fixed rate mortgage) Nationwide, the housing the market is expected to be shaky through at least 2011. Here in Michigan unemployment is 14% with little to no prospects of turnaround anytime soon. We don't like it here. We would probably be crazy to buy right now. I think....

What would you do? I know we have to decide for ourselves, but it would be interesting to hear some one else's perspective.

Bubbles and Dragons

2010-04-09T13:09:00.002-05:00

The boys got bubbles for Easter. Chi especially loved blowing bubbles, and amazingly, he actually managed to blow at least as many as he wound up eating in his slurping attempts to use the bubble wand. Unfortunately we have only had one nice day this week, so we haven't had any more chances with the bubbles.

The boys have been playing dragons a lot this week. They got dragons in their Happy Meals this weekend, so they have changed their dinosaur game to dragons. It mostly consists of putting their "claws" up and ROARING and then the other one shrieks and runs away. Then they switch. I imagine we'll have even more of this type of game after we see "How to Train Your Dragon" this weekend. I decided that would be a good way to celebrate my birthday. Matt is not convinced Chi is ready (and I'm not sure he is either), but we are going to attempt to make a family outing of it. Our hope is that Chi will like it, so he'll be interested, and we'll give him popcorn which will keep him content and busy for awhile.

Adjustments

2010-03-26T13:09:00.003-05:00

Spring Break for Gabe is about to begin. Matt already had his. It's too bad they didn't match up. I have no idea what we are going to do, but I'm trying to find enough activities for one thing a day. That should break up the monotony.

Gabe is reading very well. It's a bit of an adjustment. I was on the computer, reading news, and Gabe read a headline out loud and then said, "what does that mean?" It sort of startled me. I've never before had to worry about him reading something he shouldn't. (Not that it was anything bad, but I realized that I can't get away with things anymore. I can't convince him soy milk is real milk anymore, for instance.) It's a whole new world.

About that soy milk, it's my newest solution to Chi's lack of protein. I haven't figured this one out yet: he will eat salami, but not milder meats. I really have no idea why he eats some things and not others, but protein tends to have the biggest gap in his diet. For some reason, Chi loves Silk. And he doesn't think it's regular milk, he just likes it.

We have not had any luck with buying a house. We are taking a break right now. The trouble is that no one is negotiating and most prices are listed at what is the likely peak for a given neighborhood. Since we are not staying forever, it's not a good deal for us. We did make an offer on a short sale in Frankenmuth, but we are still waiting to see if the bank accepts it. We are right now debating on whether or not we will actually buy anything in this area if we don't get the short sale house. We haven't decided anything, but looking was getting so stressful that we needed to just step back for awhile and regroup.

Marriage proposals and big boy beds

2010-03-12T07:22:00.003-06:00

Some of the kids in Gabe's class were talking about getting married. Apparently a couple of them have decided to tie the knot while you have the prerequisite "ug, cooties!" crowd. Gabe told me about all of this and then told me, "I want to marry Larsen." (A girl in his class who is his closest friend so no surprise.) "But she won't talk to me about it." (Ah, Larsen, such a cold heart! ;) ) So Gabe is concerned because Larsen is the only girl he knows that he would marry and shouldn't they make plans? I reminded him that he's only five, so he has some time. He informed me that of course marriage would wait until they are old, like in college. But he still feels like it has to be decided now, and he has chosen Larsen.

Chi is in a big boy bed right now which has not been a smooth transition. We knew partly that night time went smoothly for us because he was trapped, but he's outgrown the pack n' play, so at least for trips he has to be in a bed now, so it just seemed right to try to get him into a bed. The problem is that he thinks getting up and running around is a really funny game. So bed time has lots of screaming and crying (from Chi too) and sitting guard outside the door. We are hoping he just gives up and stays in his bed soon.

Snowfest

2010-02-24T12:52:00.004-06:00

Here are the pictures of

Snowfest I promised. I don't know why Blogger is having such fits with layouts any more, but it has been an exercise in frustration to get any of these up. When we rounded the corner, the lizard was the first snow sculpture we saw. Malachi said, "Wooow, Wow!" and then "Roar!"

There were several types of competition and ice sculpting as well. The boys also enjoyed the petting zoo and the pony rides. It was a really great event. It did make winter a little more worthwhile. We plan to attend again next year.

apologies...

2010-02-13T08:41:00.002-06:00

I attempted an update with photos, and had all sorts of issues with the photos not appearing correctly. Then I got frustrated and said, "I'll fix it later." But I didn't want to deal with it, so it's been forever since I posted anything. I'll still try to get those photos up, but not today.

We are still house hunting. There is one we like but someone seems to have beat us to it. We would like to see it again and possibly make a competitive offer, but the realtors are not letting us in. I don't know what that's about. I do feel like I've lost my dream house, so it's frustrating and sad right now.

The boys are doing well. Chi is talking more, but not well. Most of the time it's just nonsense, but then he'll pull out a word like "outside" so I figure it's a matter of time before he talks. He has a brother that enjoys talking and a mother who understands his signs and nonsense so what need does he have to do it correctly? He does seem to have a bit of a lazy streak. Motor skills wise though he is leaps and bounds above his age. And quite literally leaping...he's a good jumper.

Gabe is reading now. He is one level past where he needs to be to enter Kindergarten. (Yes, you are expected read before Kindergarten now.) To give you and idea of where he's at, he can read a Dr. Seuss himself with very little trouble. And he can read some words that are harder than that. We are working on all the crazy spelling rules of English so he can understand when a vowel is a long or short sound. That is something they'd focus on more in first grade, but I don't want him to slow down with his reading. I want him steadily interested and going forward because reading opens up so much for a person. What is great is that he's not just saying the words on the page, but he's able to follow the story line and enjoy what he's reading.

Winter, we are not friends anymore.

2010-01-27T18:15:00.002-06:00

I am tired of the hours of time it takes to bundle the kids up just to do something simple like walk to school. I am tired of a two year old who begins whining the second he sees his mittens or hat. I am tired of the same two year old constantly stripping off his mittens and leaving the on the ground so that we have to go back and fetch them. I am tired of being cooped up with boys who are also tired of being cooped up. I am so done with winter.

On a happier note, we have seen a house that we liked in Frankenmuth. It needs some work so we are trying to get some more information and we'll want to see it again before we would make an offer, but it's promising.

We are going to Frankenmuth for Snowfest sometime this week/weekend. The sculpting has begun and will be judged on Saturday I think. Maybe it will be cool enough for winter and I to make up and be friends again. We'll see.

Another week gone by

2010-01-15T20:41:00.002-06:00

Long week, but it still went fast. Matt started teaching again this week, so we had to adjust to the new semester schedule. It's not so bad, but it is just different. I volunteered in the classroom twice this week because Gabe's teacher was short-handed, and those Kindergartners always wear me out. Chi had his check-up and all is fine. We had a small celebration for his birthday on Saturday, and he was clueless as to what was going on but he enjoyed it. Gabe had choir and we spent the evening with friends tonight. So all in all, a good week, but exhausting.

On my mind, like so many others, has been Haiti. Before this disaster 80% of the country lived in abject poverty, literally eating mud cakes for what little nutritional value they could give. Not only have I grieved for the people of the country, I have grieved over what a supposed religious leader of this country would say. I was horror-struck by Pat Robertson. But Jim Wallis was right when he wrote this week: "My God does not cause evil. God is not a vengeful and retributive being, waiting to strike us down; instead, God is in the very midst of this tragedy, suffering with those who are suffering. When evil strikes, it’s easy to ask, where is God? The answer is simple: God is suffering with those who are suffering."

If you want to help there are many ways. Dear to my heart is ELCA International Disaster Response which was already present in Haiti and its building survived the quakes so they were up and running immediately. There is the Red Cross, Compassion International and many other effective organizations that can use your donations. Many of which like the ELCA have all of the donations going to disaster relief and not to overhead. There is also a petition from the ONE campaign calling for debt forgiveness for the country to help in the long term economic recovery. Their debt, in the large amounts of the world economy are minimal, but to Haiti, insurmountable.

Not much to say; how about a recipe?

2010-01-04T13:01:00.003-06:00

There are dry spells in my life. Nothing interesting to report on at all. The holidays are done (and were very nice), and the kids are tired and trying to get back on schedule. So that means they are not being interesting at all, the little stinkers. But, I feel honor-bound to post something. Especially since I just included the blog address on all my holiday cards. Hello to any new readers! So, I will play to all those New Year's resolutions to lose weight and post my favorite salad recipe. A careful reader will note that it is not necessarily the most healthy, but I said it was my favorite, so there you go.

Inspired by Panera's Fuji Chicken Salad of which I can no longer purchase because I don't have Panera in Michigan. That really needs to be remedied. This is not so much a recipe as a guide.

Apple, Blue Cheese, Pecan Salad

(amounts are just to your personal liking, number of people serving, etc.)

chop some lettuce, whatever is on hand (I am often stuck with iceberg, but Romaine is very nice for this too)
chop one apple to bite size pieces, sweeter apples work better for this, I prefer to leave the skin on, sprinkle on salad
roughly chop a handful of pecans, again sprinkle on salad
sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese (I like a lot, but it would be healthier with a little)
finally, drizzle with Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette (I found it at Walmart.)

Now it's amazing as it is, but here are some other possibilities: when I have cooked chicken on hand, I toss that in too, but really that just makes it more filling, it does nothing for flavor. Also the Panera version uses an apple vinaigrette, but I have never found one in the stores. I think a white wine vinaigrette would be nice too, but again, good luck finding a commercial brand. But DO NOT, unless you are allergic, leave out the pecans. They seriously make the salad.

Christmas

2009-12-25T13:49:00.005-06:00

Gabe was the Star in the church Christmas program. When he was trying to decide what to dress up as (because the young kids just sang and were angels, animals, or the star) he said to me, "You know, Mom, the star is an important element in the story."

The mic where the older kids delivered their lines was in front of Gabe, so throughout the program, he kept popping up and around so he'd be visible. It was hilarious and cute.

Christmas morning was good. Chi did not really get the concept o

f opening gift after gift. He wanted to just play with the first thing he opened. Gabe had to help him get his presents open. Gabe has pretty much been over the moon about all his presents, both today and

last weekend. I couldn't even say what is the favorite because right now he's been spending equal time on his gifts. Who wouldn't with remote control toys, Star Wars, marble run, Legos... Chi is enjoying all the presents, but it's funny because he doesn't really know what is going on.

This is the Polar Express

2009-12-17T08:42:00.004-06:00

We have been having a good time getting ready for the holidays without going overboard. This week has been busy, but not crazy. It's good. It is how we think it should be.

Gabe has wanted a Polar Express train for several years now and this year he started saving his money so he could get one. Matt and I agreed that we would pay for half of it. Last year it cost $60, so we told him he had to save $30, and he did it. So we got. Unfortunately it

was more expensive this year, but he did such a good job that we got it anyway. He has loved it. It's Lionel, so it's very detailed and looks just like the movie, it even has Tom Hanks' voice saying "All aboard!" He's over the moon.

We have not had crazy amounts of snow, but we had enough for one snow day. So we built our first every big snowman. He is sitting in our yard in front of our picture window, so we can look at him and he can look at us.

Headlines don't sell pape's, newsies sell pape's.

2009-12-17T08:37:00.001-06:00

The joyful sounds of Christmas

2009-12-06T12:37:00.002-06:00

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse SOAP and sleigh." That's how Gabe sings it. I tried to tell him it was an open sleigh and he told me that I was making no sense at all. I told him to sing it how he wanted.

We are practicing lots of singing around here. Gabe has a Christmas program for school and he is now singing in the church choir and will have the church Christmas program as well. It is amazing how quickly kids can learn songs.

It's December.

2009-12-01T18:23:00.003-06:00

Thanksgiving was nice. We went to Matt's parents and then visited the grandparents as well. It was good to see everyone. Nice and relaxed. We went downtown Ft. Wayne for the night that they were lighting the Christmas lights. We did not make it into the Christmas village display because the line was so long, but the animated windows at the Embassy were neat and the lights were pretty. The kids also got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus.

We have decorated. We used our small tree and placed it up on a table which is limiting how much damage Chi can do. He is having trouble understanding look but don't touch. But both boys are getting into the holiday baking with me which is fun.

Right now the semester is winding down. Matt is feeling pretty good about things. I've got a test this week, a paper due next week, and then my final. Gabe is learning a Christmas program for school and for church. We have plenty going on, but I am not feeling harried. I am trying my best to keep the holiday season enjoyable and not rushed feeling or overly busy feeling.

Halloween

2009-11-03T16:31:00.004-06:00

For Halloween Gabe was Darth Vader and Chi was a monkey. Gabe had a classroom party, and then we also went down to Mike and Kathy's for a party and Trick or Treating.
Here is Gabe at his party with another Vader (the other boy is the tallest in class and Gabe is one of the shortest).Here are some from the party and Trick or Treating:

Just another Thursday

2009-10-29T13:43:00.003-05:00

Well, Halloween is finally almost here! So says Gabe. Me, I'm excited because Gabe doesn't like nuts, so I'm looking forward to all the Snickers that are coming my way. (For the bargain price of $30. It's not really free if you take into account the money you put into a costume.) Oh, well. It's fun. I'll post pictures of the boys dressed up soon. Gabe is going to be Darth Vader and Malachi is going to be a monkey. Gabe has is class party tomorrow morning and then we will go to Mike and Kathy's Halloween party on Saturday. They should have fun.

Class is going well. I got an A on my first test. That felt great. Although our paper is a reasonably fun project, it's a lot of writing. We have to watch the movie "Catch Me if You Can," and write a case formulation and diagnose the main character who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. At least he's nice to look at, since I've had to watch it many times already.

The family is all doing well. Not much to report on. Chi definitely grew some, but I think he's still growing. He is a bit tired lately.

Catapults and Ca-chow!

2009-10-18T12:35:00.002-05:00

Greetings. We've been keeping busy this October. It's funny, at the beginning of the month I made the comment that October is always so long, but then the rest of the year flies by. Spoke too soon.

We have had a bit of bad luck with weather on the weekends, but we have persevered. Last Friday, every one had the afternoon free, but it was a cold, rainy day so we went to Bronner's Christmas World. It was, of course, a bit cheesy, but fantastic too. They really focus on the ornaments and they have one for everything. We found flamingos, vegetables, including garlic, every character under the sun, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was hard to not feel like Christmas was just around the corner when you are in that store.

On Sunday, the weather was slightly improved, so we braved the chill and went to Johnson's Giant Pumpkins. They had horse rides (only $3! If you don't pay for kid's activities nowadays, let me tell you, that is a bargain.) and all sorts of activities. Malachi is fond of the goats. He just kept feeding them and petting them and in general hanging out with the goats. So, then we went and watched them launch a 80 lb. pumpkin from a giant trebuchet. All were duly impressed. The boys picked out their pumpkins (just regular size ones, but they really had giant ones for sale too) and we got a giant bag of fresh kettle corn, and took our frozen ears home.

Malachi is attempting more words. His current favorite, is from the movie Cars. Every time he see Lightening McQueen, Chi says, "Ca-chow!" It's funny. He even grabbed Gabe when he wore a Cars shirt and held him down, pointed and said, "ca-chow!" until we made him let Gabe go.