home and away

i spent the week here with dear friends and co-workers...

(breckenridge, colorado)

you may ask if it was business or pleasure. in our work, on staff with campus crusade for christ, the two are often one and the same.

this is not a black and white photo, the weather was just that dreary on our last day...

but now i am back home with these dear ones and co-habs...

who add color to my life in every way.

they are anything but dreary!

lunch date

this is my lunch date every day...

sometimes she waits patiently for her lunch...

sometimes not...

but she always prays before her meal...

it goes like this "dear jesus, amen." we're working on the in betweens.

she loves her pb&j...

and so does her beast...

B happy

it was a good week filled with "happies" such as bubbles...

buddies...

bouncing...

barefeet...

and my "babies"...

Now onto a weekend that will B busy!

lighten up, miss

my kids always want to use my camera, but when they ask i usually tell them "no". and when i actually unbunch my panties and let them use it i can often be quoted as saying "be careful...it's a $500 dollar camera." over and over again.

you know what i need to do? listen to my own advice. because i tell my kids "the more special something is, the more it should be shared with others." another classic example of do as i say, right? so i am officially loosening my grip on my camera for several reasons...

1) it brings my children joy to use it

2) it was a gift to me, who am i to hoard it?

3) my children are worth WAY more than $500. this is a little way for me to show i value them.

4) i want to trust them, not control them

5) when i give them the camera, i may end up with pictures like this...

i'm embracing the camera today with the anderson crew (who just welcomed home their

elsa from ethiopia!)

connecting the dots

i intended to participate in "one day without shoes" today. i was thinking it would actually be "a partial day without shoes" with my kids after school. truth is, there would have been a good chance i would have forgotten all about it. but i had a little reminder this morning. i let lulu into our fenced back yard. i turned away for 10 seconds before heading out and she was opening the gate in the back and headed the direction of the busiest street in our neighborhood. it didn't bother me to run across the crunchy grass barefoot to snatch her because i was focused on getting to her before she got anywhere near the street (and before i got in view of the neighbors in my jammies). but on the way back when i was saying "ouch. ouch. ouch", i remembered that it is one day without shoes. and i was whining about one minute without shoes. i also remembered, once again, the simple things that i take for granted every day are not such simple things to those in need.

there is another thing i take for granted: freedom. PLEASE take a minute to go to fallingwhistles.com and watch the 2 minute video to learn how you can help the people of the congo. if you don't have two minutes to spare, take 30 seconds to sign a petition asking for free and fair elections for the people of the congo.

i spend my days doing a lot of seemingly mundane things. though they have great purpose, it can be hard some days for me to connect the dots to their significance. but to take a couple of minutes to help the people of a country ravished by war as i sit at my computer sipping coffee? there are not dots to connect, the answer is clear.

today i may not be wearing shoes, but i want to wear a whistle. (i just ordered mine. get yours here to help the children of the congo). as i do, i am reminded (and reminding my children) that i am a citizen of the world. and even if i am only doing a little to make the world a better place, i hope i am making me a better me. i think those are dots that are meant to be connected...

food for thought

my april fool's lunch was a success.

jack got a pretty good laugh out of it.

tate said he was smiling all through lunch about it.

and emmie rolled her eyes and said "where's my lunch?".

as for any retaliation, it wasn't too bad.

just my pillowcase stuffed with bunched up aluminum foil.

nice one, em.

if she had been awake when i discovered it,

i would have rolled my eyes and said "where's my pillow?"

last week was a good week and not just because of the fun of april fool's day.

i had a menu plan...

i went to the grocery store, so my fridge looked like this...

and my pantry looked like this...

stocked.

and thanks to sam's club and some friends who gave us 17 pounds of ground beef, even the freezer in the garage is full.

after i unloaded everything, i sighed a little sigh of happiness as i stared into my cupboards of plenty. i was happy because i could rest easy regarding the needs of my family. but my happiness only stayed for about a minute, because then it hit me that there are mom's all over the world, and right around the corner, who don't have any clue about this feeling. they don't know how they will feed the ones they love.

they know not the abundance of overflowing, but instead the ache of hunger.

my stomach may not be growling, but my heart hurts.

so let my hands take action...

http://www.fh.org/

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/pray_for_japan/

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Giving/gift_catalog/

http://www.feedingchildreneverywhere.com/about-us/our-mission/

when i live merely for my cabinets and my full fridge,

my life is so very small.

which means that, though i may be well-fed,

i will be anything but satisfied.

i guess it's kinda like a lunch bag with fake food on april fool's.

full, but actually very empty.

"bloody proud of yourself, aren't ya?"

i know bloody is a bad word. but i live in america, not england, so i'm hoping i do not offend. bill and i like to quote the title of this post, a line from the movie "patriot games" (which gave me an ulcer the first time i saw it). it is among my repertoire of things i can say with an accent. here is the complete list:

"bloody proud of yourself, aren't ya?" (irish)

"no...not" (british) mark darcy at the end of bridget jones diary

"craig ferguson" (scottish)

i know, the list is neither extensive nor impressive. but it's all i got. clearly, accents are not my thing. but i digress. this post is about how bloody proud of myself i am that i pulled off what i consider to be a perfectly good april fool's joke on my kids. and what i mean by perfectly good is that it requires little money and little effort. here's what i did...i filled their lunch bags with lulu's fake food. a plastic pizza slice, fabric carrots, strawberries, cake and ice cream. i even gave jack a little doll bottle. then i added a little note that says "get hot lunch. april fool's!"

such little effort, but i can't stop smiling about it. i'll be smiling until they choose to retaliate when they get home. i better hide the saran wrap. it's a pretty good april fool's day. we are laughing around here...

for now.