Mom’s Day- Real

OK, so I forgot they always serve fru-fru at the brunch.  The quiche and broccoli-ham popovers were delicious, but I could’ve eaten 3 or 4 more.

So, we swung by Kroger and picked up some of my favorites for tomorrow:  Chilled shrimp.  Fried shrimp.  I made crab salad this afternoon. (What can I say?  I grew up on the ocean.)  Swiss Cake Rolls (don’t tell the kids I’ve already opened the package!), fried chicken, diet Coke, and a fresh pot of hazelnut (thanks, Rootie!) coffee.  A light movie (Fantastic 4) and the Sunday paper.

I might not get out of bed for days!

Happy Mother’s Day, ya’ll.  You deserve it. 

Oh, Glorious Chauvinism!

Tomorrow is the Annual Brunch at church.  Men older than 10 will don black slacks and white shirts, stand by the door to offer their arm to every female who enters, and escort us to a lovely flower-festooned room where they will cheerfully supply all the strawberries, juice, quiche, coffee, muffins, and melon we can consume. 

Then they will wash all the dishes and stand at attention at the back of the sanctuary, where we ladies will graciously applaud our thanks and sit on pews that have had Dove chocolates strewn across the freshly-cleaned seats.  Two older moms will share their funniest moments and heart-felt advice, and several of the men will entertain with classical piano, violin and guitar performances.

The girls and I revel in the attention each year.   The girls count the days with more enthusiasm than they approach Christmas: planning and re-planning what to wear, with what bon mot to accept an escort’s arm, and dreaming what the decorations will be like.

It’s gonna be great!

Two-Word Meme

Via Bloggin-Daz (see link at right). 

I’m tagging MagistraMater, Because It Really Is Personal, Northern Girl, MillerMessenger, and CrazyTrace, with full permission to take the rest of the day off from housework to post their own meme! 

1. Where is your cell phone? my purse
2. Where is your significant other? driving home

 

3. Your hair? Polish (messy!)
4. Your mother? phoned ME!
5. Your father? missing him
6. Your favorite thing? God, kids
7. Your dream last night? Six Flags!
8. Your favorite drink? iced coffee
9. Your dream/goal? PhD. Antiquities
10. The room you’re in? luxuriously renovated
11. Your hobby? reading, organizing
12. Your fear? Van Breakdowns!!!!!
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Caribbean cruise
14. Where were you last night? AWANA -church
15. What you’re not? sympathetic, athletic
16. Muffins? chocolate chip
17. One of your wish list items? Cicero’s “Somnium”
18. Where you grew up? Grew up???
19. The last thing you did? rented “Hobbit”
20. What are you wearing? blue, capris
21. Your TV? yuck!  degrading!!
22. Your pets? Mousetrap, hubby
23. Your computer? Laptop Dreamin’

24. Your life? busy, content
25. Your mood? where’s beef?
26. Missing someone? Mr Wonderful
27. Your car? trash-filled
28. Something you’re not wearing? make-up, jewelry
29. Favorite store? mood-related
30. Your summer? VBS, camp
31. Like someone? VBS volunteers!
32. Your favorite color? glittery gold
33. When is the last time you laughed? Iron Man
34. Last time you cried? Repentance; reconciliation

Oh, Those Summer Foods!

It’s getting into the 80s here, so I’ve put some new foods on the month’s rotation.  LOTS more sandwiches, since I don’t have to turn on the oven to make a sandwich.  The crock pot is getting a workout, and since I can make a decent soup in 20 minutes, we’re having a different soup 3 times a week.

But, oh! The things I WISH I could add to the menu!!  The kiddos are picking wild blackberries around our place.  How about fresh blackberry cheesecake every Friday night for dessert? 

We’re making Hawaiian Toast on Sunday mornings (10 minutes in the oven, as opposed to the ousted French Toast Casserole, which cooked at 350 for 45 minutes!), wouldn’t pineapple-laced ambrosia or Fruit Cocktail be nice every week?  We did find a special on Peach Yogurt quarts, which is just enough to freeze for breakfast for our whole family and a mid-morning snack for #1.  Frozen yogurt- joy in a cup!

Don’t even get me started on grilling.  :) 

It’s gonna be a good summer, I think.  What’s on the menu at your place?

Oooh, Look at the Pretty Eggshells!

Mr wonderful and I have not been the best stewards of our finances.  For anyone not fluent in Christianese, that means we make dumb decisions about buying things we can’t afford.

Spring is always a prime example.  Mr Wonderful contends that this house is an “investment”, so we should hang onto it for dear life.  I contend that it’s too big for us, that the upkeep of the 2 acres out back is something we have never been able to afford.

When I was working full time and Mr W was home with the kids, he got all his plants from gardenweb.com, a plant-trading site.  He told himself his budget for landscaping was $0, and spent about $20 per summer (not bad) on plants.

Yesterday the credit card showed a $65 charge to the local nursery.  Matched by the $35 both times (yes, a total of $70) I encouraged us to eat out so I wouldn’t have to cook.

Oh, yeah, we both make dumb mistakes.  (BTW, does anyone out there make smart mistakes?)

Another couple at Home Group also tends toward overspending- they tell of trips to a local resort and new clothes.  So when the 2 other (I suppose wise-choosing) men held the floor Sunday night regading tithing, I had to wonder:  was my discomfort a result of my own conscience niggling at me, or were they really ranting to the point of pushing away the young resort-lovers?

Our assignment for next week’s Home Group is to collect verses from the Bible about what God has to say about tithing.  One of the wise-choosing couples says 10% is the minimum of our gross income that we should be giving to God.

Me, I think we should be giving to God, but I don’t see God as setting a minimum.  I’m open to hearing the supporting verses next week, and will bring along the study I did on giving when I was a new Christian.

I wonder if the resort-loving couple will show.  I wonder if it is subtly their lack of education that makes the other 2 guys lecture this couple.  I wonder if it’s the habit of being the oldest brother in the family that had these two fellows speaking so insistently.  Or maybe, like I said, it’s my own sin that’s making me oversensitive.

I’m not mad at anybody.  I’m tempted to gently confront the guys who, I feel, lectured, and ask them if they feel they were teaching, ministering, or just stomping on perceived stubbornness.  As you may remember from a recent post, the verse that keeps coming to mind these days is “A bent reed He did not break”.

Yes, people need to be taught to follow what God says, not what selfishness, upbringing, or pop culture says.  Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ need to hold each other accountable.  (Non-Christianese: Be a bit confrontational to rescue other Christians from sinful habits, as if recommending healthier eating habits.) 

It just felt like this couple was getting stomped.  I’ll be praying about that, and we’ll see what happens.

#3 Jumping Out at Rootie

Deep Breaths

Mr W got called in for an audition a coupla months ago.  The person mentioned that they needed more clowns, so he called a couple of clowns he knows to come audition.  The company called here twice, looking for contact info on one of the other clowns -a wonderful lady who is the epitome of kindness, common sense, and helpfulness.  I gave them the contact info, and emailled the clown herself to let her know they were looking for her.

Because the company got her contact info, and her name at all, from Mr W, they listed Mr W as her agent.  They mentioned that he would get 25% of the pay, which is a little higher than what I’ve heard is standard, but I’m usually pretty out of the loop when it comes to clowning.

Somewhere along the line, I must’ve fouled up pretty big, though, because the lady is very angry with Mr W these days.  Somehow it got communicated to her that he was accepting billing as her agent for the gig, which she says is wrong, since she’s been a clown much longer than he has.  She tells us that she listed an agency she has used in the past as her agent on the audition form.  She agreed to let Mr W keep 10% of the payment, and we sent her the rest.

I’m guessing sending her the other 10% might help rectify things a bit, but it’s just a guess.  I’m sure it would be catty (although tempting) to send the 10% to the agency she’s used in the past, since I suspect she would like to have the entire payment herself, and there is little/no chance the older agency, once they have a check in hand, would pass it along to her. 

Yes, I’ll do the right thing, after I vent a bit here.

I must be getting old- emotional issues are draining.  I remember discovering, at age 17, that I could twist my once-staunchly-convicted mom around my little finger by just threatening to move out of the house and never speak to her again.  Lord, please help me to hold onto You, and Your will, over every human’s attempt to manipulate me.

This upset clown friend comes hard on the heels of my sister’s, um, dramatic reaction to the news that we wouldn’t be housing Mysterious Stranger here.  She claimed that we were his last chance, that we couldn’t be Christians and make that decision, and that we had thereby ruined his life.  We had already been asking some bachelor friends if they had room for him, and let her know both our kids’ safety and his convenience (we’re 6 miles from transportation to his potential airport job, and he has no car to get to other jobs/interviews) were primary considerations, but she simply hung up and he (she?) emailled that “no further assistance will be needed”.

My poor mom is in the middle again, which doesn’t speak volumes for Christianity, since both my sister and I claim to be Christians.  I guess I had better phone my sister and try to reconcile, both to please our Lord and to be a good witness to mom.

And I will phone both women, but for the next 10 minutes, I’m going to wallow in self-pity and think, “When is the last time somebody showed the maturity to try to reconcile with us, if they even suspected we were upset with them?”  Sh*t, am I the only person left on the planet who’s read Matthew 28 and who is obedient enough to the Lord I love to practice it, painful though it is?

OK, 2 minutes- #1 needs help with her US Government worksheet, so I’m out of time for anger.

Thank You, God, for these difficult situations.  Please forgive my sinful attitude toward these women.  Please make me like Jesus, who “a bent reed, He did not break”, and help me show Your unfailing, unconditional love to every human You put in my life.  Amen!!

A Jump in Logic- or was that Intuition?

#1 has terrible handwriting.  The child is 10, for crying out loud.  She doesn’t drop things or fall down, but she also has difficulty playing basketball and doing aerobics. 

I haven’t wanted to compare her to Supergirl (#2), so I’ve been putting #1’s lack of fine motor skills down to laziness/overweight.

But learning about #3’s AS makes me wonder:  Have I confused the cause for the effect?  Is there something chemically/developmentally off about #1 that makes her unable to make tiny movements with control???

A Rolling Stone

I was previewing my post and re-noticed the mossy stones on the blog header.  Reminds me of another example of the miracle that is my lasting marriage to Mr Wonderful.  You see, Mr Wonderful and I have never spoken the same language, although we both grew up with English-speaking parents on the East Coast of the good ol’ US of A.

Take the expression, “A rolling stone gathers no moss”.  In my family, it’s a benediction.  Moss is indicative of sloth, corruption, decay.  So, staying energetic, the Puritan work ethic, etc., make that saying a compliment.

In Mr Wonderful’s family, holding onto land is the only sure way to move up economically.  You may remember that Mr Wonderful’s granddad abandoned his family, and Mr Wonderful’s dad, growing up a bit wild in Horse Country, took to the racehorse circuit as a jockey at the tender age of 15. 

Having the tenacity and dedication to grow anything green over even a single season, then, is admirable in Mr Wonderful’s eyes.  The longer you stay in one location (preferably buying some land, but at least establishing a reputation over the course of years), the wiser you prove yourself to be.  Calling someone a “rolling stone” was a warning about their character.

Sigh.  All the months Mr W and I dated, all the talking and listening we did, did we uncover any of the dozens of language gaps?  Nope.  Would it have mattered if we did?  Probably not.  When we uncover another language gap tomorrow, should I throw up my hands and say, “It was a mistake ever to have married you?”  Nope.

Just keep working at communication.  Keep putting kinetic energy into the marriage, and it won’t stagnate to an odious end.  A rolling stone gathers no moss, y’know.

Never, in my wildest dreams…

would I have imagined that “someday” the kiddos and I would shop for a month’s worth of groceries groceries in this way:

I make the list.  Mr Wonderful sets the budget. (Yeah, it would make sense to do it in reverse, but somehow that never comes to pass.)  Kiddos and I get into the minivan.

#1 and #3 get carts/buggies.  I hold the list and lead.  I point to an item on the shelf, tell #2 how many we need for a month’s meals, and she loads them into one cart or the other.

Whilst we cross aisles, #2 arranges for #3 and #1 to get equal turns walking ahead of the other, for an almost-equal number of heavy objects to be in each cart, and prevents snide remarks from #3 and/or #1.

Occassionnallyy, I tell #2, “Have them pull up here and stop” (if the aisle is crowded further on), and I grab whatever is needed off the shelf and return it to #2, who takes it from there.

We check out ($2 under budget, TYVM), drive home, and put the hatchback next to the front steps.  I unload the bags onto the porch, the kiddos (after, um, “re-focusing” #3, who is much more interested in reading the mail) bring the bags into the kitchen.  I tell them all cans go into the pantry, and load a couple of bags onto the washing machine (next to the pantry).  #3 fills the pantry shelves.  #1 puts the veggies, meat and bread onto the correct freezer shelves (I like organized shelves, even in the freezer).  #2 unpacks bags onto the kitchen table.

A month’s worth of meals and snacks.  Shopped, paid, put in storage- all in 2 hours.  There were moments they complained vociferously, but I ignored it.  Afterwards, we shared the package of Swiss Rolls, and they went out to play on the Slip-n-Slide whilst I swept the floor and prepped for my student.

Srsly, if anyone had told me seven years ago that the 3 babes (who were then in diapers) would show teamwork and willingness like they did today, I would’ve laughed myself silly.  Dang, I could’ve used a good laugh then, too- Exhaustion was my middle name at that point.

If anyone had told me 3 years ago that I would blow off the whining and griping that went on today, (short thought it was) I would’ve said that’s “getting soft” and “spoiling the kids”.  Well, maybe I am.  Exhaustion hasn’t completely left my middle, after all.

So, good night and come what wild dreams may!