Date a girl who reads...

I cannot even begin to express how much I love this:

Especially the last line. This was written in my love language!

Agirlyoushoulddate

I have a few more things to add:
The entire piece is true. But, if she also likes non-fiction she will know how to do things; practical things, beautiful things.
She will understand history, current times, and maybe even what's to come.
She will always have something to talk about, and I'd bet it's interesting.
She will surprise you with what she knows. Car engines? Farming? Political history? Medicinal information? You never can tell....
She is less likely to be swayed to and fro. She is more likely to be steady. ...Even if she does get emotional about a book or chapter or two.

I hope to impart a love of reading to ALL my kids - the three girls and my boy. Cause frankly, I wouldn't want to be with an unread man, and someday, neither will his future girlfriend.

I pray rap, yo

I don't know where you are in your belief system on this, but I believe in speaking in tongues - or what I call my 'prayer language'.

This is in fact, in the Bible. It is real. And it is powerful. It is a way for us to pray to God when we don't have the English words. A sweet communion with Him. A perfect prayer.

Here's the thing. I only like to use it in three situations.
1. An emergency. When I'm freaking out. When I have nothing else in my head but "Help God!" It helps me pray through it.

2. In the shower. I don't know why.

3. Listening to music. (mostly in the car)

So I will pray this way (if you don't know what I'm talking about - my prayer language is nonsense, just short sounds - like an African baby/toddler.) haha!~ I mean no irreverance, but I don't know how to describe it to you. It's not something you make up - it is something God gives you. Some people sound so melodic when they pray this way. I wouldn't say I do though.

I mean, I pray this way listening to all kinds of music in the car. Classical. Christian. Pop. Country.

Two days ago I 'borrowed' a LeCrae album Rebel. It is hardcore Christian rap.

OH MY GOSH.

I pray RAP! My prayer language is rap!! Can you believe it???!?!? :)
This little white girl can't even TALK that fast. I have some rhythm, but I can't pull off rap - that is, not until I start praying in tongues, yo!!!

I throw the music on and it all just comes flowing out. Beat bop beepin' -it just flows. God has a sense of humor.

He doesn't change

God that is. He doesn't change. And I love that about Him.

It makes reading the Bible that much more exciting. He sent an angel to people - like literally - they saw and talked to angels. He can do that still.

He made a donkey talk. You think He can't do that nowadays? ;) Yeah, right.  Keep your eyes and ears open!

He healed people. HE STILL DOES THIS! Did you know I had a chronic disease as a child that was crippling me? I don't have it anymore! God did that. It was only He who could save me and He did!!

God used imperfect people. A prostitute. A shepherd. A widow. People who weren't anything amazing in and of themselves. And I like that. He still does that too, just in case you were wondering.

And, my current favorite:

Dreams. God gave dreams to people. God gives me dreams too. Not, like, visions for your future that you 'think' of when you are awake. No, I mean, actual while-you-were-sleeping dreams.

There are several instances of people who have had dreams from God in the Bible. To warn them, to inform them, or prepare them. Whatever.

I have been spoken to in dreams. I can definitely tell a difference from one of these dreams and just regular sleep dreams. God still speaks in dreams! What a cool God we serve!! I love how consistent He is, yet, so... unpredictable. It is a fascinating and intoxicating combination! You just never know what God is up to. You never know what He will pull out for you next. It may knock you off your socks in a good way, or throw you for a loop. But in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.

This fall I had a series of dreams that confused me. I was sure they were dreams from Him. They were, right??  I began to doubt. Was I making this up? Am I crazy? Losing my mind? Are these from God? If so, why? What is He trying to say?

Reading the Bible this week in Matthew and Luke about Jesus' birth, I was struck by two things. The recurring theme of believing, and that God spoke in dreams in that story too. My heart was touched. I just need to believe. Trust. Go along for the ride. Treasure what's in my heart, store it up and wait for the appropriate time for it to come to pass or be revealed.

Trust God in your life today. Believe. Believe that God is working on your behalf. That He is still doing crazy unpredictable things with your good in mind! Trust that He will use you - the average person! And keep your eyes open for something crazy to happen - that is just soooo like Him! ;)

There's a first time for everything

I wasn't kidding when I said I lived in the 18th century.  This is the first time I have ever done this:

(hanging laundry out in the snow)

But you have to admit, it sure does look extra Christmasy - green sheets, red towels, and the snow. It isn't a horrible thing to see outside. But my neighbors probably think I'm nuts!!! (If they only knew!)

Our house was the first house built in the division, and though there are other older homes with quirks of their own, some houses are just recently built. I can't help it that I have to do laundry the way I do. ;)

Being a wimpy girl really stinks!

I'm very disappointed in myself.  :(
Hmph.

I don't like feeling helpless. I would like to think I'm scrappy, resourceful, and strong, and can handle just about anything given the time to build up the courage and/or mentally come up with a solution.

But this morning, I have realized I'm not all that amazing. (little reminders like that are good, but this time I wish I could have fixed my own problem)

All I have is a stupid flat tire. Not flat as in 'low'. No, flat to the rim. I'm not dumb enough to drive it on the snow and ice like that to have it fixed. So it has to remain in my driveway until the new tire is on.

My 'driveway' is gravel, and has three inches of snow on it. Hmmm.. What to do, what to do! Can you jack it up on icy rocks? (in fact you can, but even the guy who helped me said he was afraid the jack would slip.)

I'm such a nerd. I am reading this book, How to build a fire and other things your Grandpa knew how to do - and one of the chapters is about changing a tire. So I look that up. (ironically, I read that chapter last week.)

Okay. I go out to the car. I put a rock under the opposite diagonal tire,

and clear out the 'trunk' to find the jack and lower the tire down from  under the car. Check. (Oh, did I mention the temp is like, -6???) My hands are frozen. And the back hatch keeps shutting on my head. The hydraulics are out apparently. I hope just because of the cold, because if the back hatch is broken now, that would be frustrating.

Anyway, there it is, the handle in the back carpet - all I have to do is pull on that handle to lift the back flap to reveal the jack and the lever for the crank to lower the tire.

I'm so embarrassed saying this, but I can't even get the dang handle to open!!! Grrr!! I try it with my ski gloves on. I take them off and try it with bare frozen fingers. Still can't get it. I try to push on the lever of the handle with the ice scraper. (leverage, ya know?) Still nothing.

Good gosh. I'm glad I'm not alone!! (I mean, I am right now, but help will be coming to the house eventually) Please tell me the handle that is flush to the floorboard of the truck is frozen. Cause if I am just so helpless that I can't even do that, I'm in trouble! Well, the service guy shows up, and, (sigh of relief), the handle on the floorboard WAS frozen. It took him, a prying tool, and a small grunt to get it unstuck. Whew. Less embarrassing. ;)

Half way through talking me through the process, (I told him I wanted to stay and watch and learn) he starts laughing. He is sliding the jack under the car, so I didn't see what was so funny. "What?" I said.
He was laughing that I said I was so embarrassed. He said, "If you were 6'2", 260 pounds and you still couldn't change your tire, that would be embarrassing."

So, since I don't fit that description at all.... I guess I shouldn't feel too bad. Like Jason (the guy who changed the tire) said, too bad it wasn't 80 degrees out - the whole process would have been easier. But, I sure did learn a lot. Oh! And he asked me as he was doing the lug nuts if I knew about the star pattern. I was quite proud of my self when I said, "Yep, I sure do." (smile) Small proud moment in a morning of almost zero personal accomplishment! ;)

Can I borrow your chapstick??

This weekend were expecting company for dinner. Company we have never had to our home. So, to break this down for ya, it basically means I was cleaning the house ALL day while making very little progress due the fact I have four kids 8 and under constantly messing up my work.

The three girls share a room, and it was a mess!! It was clean the day before. But they cheated when they 'cleaned' it, and just hid stuff in every nook and cranny of the room. Being the mom I am, this morning I threw it all in one big pile in the middle of the room.

Talia (2), takes an afternoon nap. That room clearly wouldn't be available, as I could see it would take the older two girls quite some time to clean up their mess. So, I set up a pack-n'play (portable crib) in my room. ahem... my room was already clean, thank you very much!

I did this yesterday too, and realized I had an escape artist on my hands. Talia climbed out of the crib, but I put her back in and she fell asleep for two hours. All's good. She seemed to learn her lesson about climbing out of the crib. ... yeah.... that was yesterday.

Today she escaped again. So I followed 'procedure'. She was quite upset. I put her back into the 'crib', and left the room. I even got her a couple of books to read as she lulled herself to sleep. (awww.. what a good mommy.. right?)

I went to go back to cleaning. Two HOURS later, I notice our bedroom door is ajar.

Hmmmm. I tip-toe in quietly. I see a bundle of covers in the crib. Is she all wrapped up in those??? She looks awfully small. I glance around the room. I don't see her or hear her. I touch the bundle of covers.

I'VE BEEN FOILED!!!

She is not there!! I then notice that the bathroom door is cracked and the light is on. I walk over and open the door.

Talia is standing there STARK naked with her pajamas and open dirty diaper on the floor beside her.
In her hand is my chapstick and she is rubbing it on her nipple. Yes. You read that right. I don't even want to think about what other body parts she may have rubbed it on.

The room smells HEAVILY of perfume? Cologne? Lotion? And some other concoction. Lord a mercy!!!

Her body is tacky to the touch. I would bathe her, but don't have time before the guests arrive. Instead I dress her and desperately search for the aromatic culprit.  Plus, I'm afraid to wash the girl - she might explode into a mountain of bubbles - depending on what she has drenched herself in.

I look here and there. I can't find it!! It's making me go mad. What IS that smell??? I ask her to take me on a tour of my own bathroom. I put on my very best smile and cute Mommy voice. "Did you touch this????" yes. A nod. Okay, "What else did you touch??... that? Oh! How fun!And what else??"

I think you can see how this goes. She got into:
Bubble bath/shower gel
Daddy's cologne
sunscreen
my tanning oil
aloe vera gel
lotion and
(obviously chapstick)
...that I know of!

And um... I forgot to mention the HUGE pile of toilet paper on the counter. Fine, I'm not throwing it out. I will use it. Cause I'm a mom, and that is just expensive to waste.

Too bad I didn't look in the toilet for another hour or so.....

Um yeah. The toilet lid was shut, but when I opened it, it was piled to. the. top. with wet piles of toilet paper. AAAGHHH! It took me, a plunger and several tries to get it down.



Sooooo.... enough about me. How was YOUR weekend??

My amazing Avalon Joy

She is my third child. My second girl. And she is the middle of our three girls. She is a big sister AND a little sister. For someone so young, she holds many roles.

It was a day in mid March 2006. I was sooooo sleepy, and I took a nap. I mean, unusually tired. But I had a 2 year old and a baby, so who wouldn't be exhausted? I dreamt I was having a little girl and that we were to name her Avalon Grace.

I'm not saying I know what it feels like to be Mary (you know, Mary mother of Jesus), but honestly I think that name was not my own doing. It felt special and, I don't know, a little Biblical. ;) I was pregnant at the time, but just didn't know it. And I'm convinced that God gave us that name. A week later I discovered I was expecting - and I was so excited! My sister was pregnant too, and it was fun to share this with my best friend! (one of them)

We did have a girl (obviously), but Patrick didn't like the name Grace. (whoa there bud, hope God understands.... just kidding... ) :) So we named her Avalon Joy. It means Heaven's Joy. And that she is.
I had a second daughter, which meant that Vivianne could grow up with a sister.
Having a sister of my own, I wanted my daughter to experience that. Sure.... we had our fights, but mostly I remember an amazing childhood/teen years of being super close and 'glued at the hip'. Sharing clothes, fighting over fingernail polish... ahhhh, the memories.

We are big on name meanings, and have named all our kids intentionally. (I mean, hers was given to me, but it still is awesome) She really is my joy from heaven. She in just five short years has made my world immensely better. She is athletic, girlie, spunky, feisty, princess-y, smart, FUNNY, and adorable.

And she was in a hurry to get here. She was my only baby that wasn't late. In fact, she was 10 days early. The night I went into labor there was a terrible ice storm in the city. The kind where they say if you don't have to go out - don't. Well... we kinda had to go out.
The brakes on the car were frozen, literally, so Patrick drove around the block a few times while I labored in the garage. (He was trying to warm the brakes up so they'd actually work - which is a good thing) We had the freakiest drive to the hospital. Whoa. Being in labor in a car is bad enough. Driving on sheets of ice is not fun. Combine the two together and add an element of speeding 'rushing', and you are in for the ride of your life.

We had her just four hours after arriving at the hospital. Which is super fast compared to the days of agony the other children put me through. In fact, when the nurses, said, "let's try a push sweetheart, just to see if you can do it." They immediately yelled stop. (I'm a good pusher... heehee) Avalon was making an appearance in this world - without the doctor in the room. The doctor flew in and as she was suiting up everyone was telling me "don't push! Don't push!" The doctor caught Avalon just as she sat down in front of me.

Then the screaming began. Aww the baby is here. Wait. The other kids weren't so loud. Were they??? Ouch. Make it stop.

It was at that minute, I thought, "You know, I have two little kids at home. I need my rest. I've done this before. She will be just fine in the hospital nursery. I'll let them keep her for the night."

That didn't last long. They brought her back. Yes, you heard that right. They brought her back to my hospital room, back from the nursery. They said they couldn't keep her, and that she'd have to stay with us, because "she was disturbing all the other babies".

Talk about making an entrance!!

For the rest of her life, I believe she will be a mover and a shaker, because that's who she's been from the very moment she arrived on this earth. Watch out world! Avalon Joy could 'disturb' your world too - and may it be in the very best of ways!