Let it Snow!

It finally snowed last night - a real snow, that sticks!!  As the snow continued to blanket the landscape, I commented to my husband that one of my favourite things about snow is that when I look outside at night, it's so bright out still.  All the lights and the stars and moonlight reflect off the snow and make it just beautifully bright.

Bearing that in mind...

Our youngest woke up at 12:11 last night.  He came out of his room and into ours and said, "I looked at my clock and it says that it's the middle of the night."  His voice was incredulous and he must have been certain that someone had messed with his clock.

My hubby and I stifled a giggle and he said, "It is the middle of the night."

There was a beat before the boy dejectedly walked himself back to his room.  It was so bright out that he was certain it was morning. 

Christmas funnies

Coinciding with my simpler way of doing things, I often choose to clean with vinegar.  My kids clean the bathroom with vinegar.  So I wasn't surprised to hear this from my daughter...


Me (reading jokes):  What does Santa clean his sleigh with?

Daughter: Vinegar!

Me (laughing): Well, actually it says "Comet".  You know...  Like the reindeer.  But I like your answer better!

Green Grandma (who wrote Vinegar Fridays) would be proud of my little girl!

Singing, Dancing, I can't help myself!

I don't typically plug products that I like on here, but I cannot help myself.  This is too important for me to not write about it here...

I recently downloaded an album that I had been looking forward to having.  I only have one other album from this artist (who has six as a solo artist).  I "previewed" the songs on YouTube and decided that I just had to have this album.  It's not my typical music, as I usually go for Christian worship music.  But oh...  I'm so glad I did! 

As I listen to this album, I dance, I raise my hands up in joy and worship, I'm brought to tears, I laugh at the silliness, and my heart breaks for what must have inspired a song.  It is socially and theologically amazing (although not all at once.)  And it mentions God very little.

I played this album at my seven year old's birthday party.  One of the young party-goers heard a song and said "Oh, I this is my favourite!  Turn it up!"  He'd never heard the song before but it was catchy and sounded like fun Top 40 Billboard music.  (Admittedly, this album did hit #1 on Billboard the week that it debuted, something done by a "Christian" album only two other times.)

If you've heard of the album, you probably know that I'm writing about tobyMac's "Eye On It".  There are only one or two songs on here that I could do without.  TobyMac sings about keeping a family together (brings me to tears), speaking words of life to the broken-hearted (tears, again), and a few love songs/I can't live without you songs, which are directed at God (oh, I love singing those songs with Toby!) but can easily pass for traditionally romantic songs.  His song for his wife "Made For Me" just makes my heart happy.  What a sweet way to honour his life-time partner!  His son makes another appearance, this time rapping the clever and punny words "I want a Mac, Daddy" going so far as to offering to braid his sister's hair to earn money to get it.  I laugh more every time I hear it.  And my kids love that Jamie Grace (my girl's favourite artist!) makes an appearance on the catchy and very singable "Favourite Song."

Borrow it from a friend (or look it up on YouTube)...  Listen to it...  Love it.  Buy it! 

Chop sticks

My seven year old has been suffering from chapped lips lately.  I've told him to get lip balm from the corner table any time he needs it.

In the middle of eating his spaghetti, he jumped up and ran into the kitchen saying, "I need chop sticks!"  Aaron and I looked at each other, wondering why he wanted chop sticks for his spaghetti.  When I questioned him, he was reaching for the lip balm and said, "It's for my chapped lips!  You said I could use it..."

After uncontrollably laughing, I corrected him, "It's not chop sticks, it's CHAP stick!  You know, 'cause it's for chapped lips."

10,000 Reasons

I am so incredibly blessed! I regularly think about how blessed I am. Lately, as I think about it, I honestly feel overwhelmed at the thought of it. And all I can do about it is thank God for His abundant and lavish blessings, and try to pass the blessing on to others.

I have a house to live in.

I have heat in the winter.

I have air-conditioning in the summer.

I have a phone and can call people who are not within shouting distance.

I have the internet which I can access through many devices.

I have a variety of delicious and healthy foods to eat.
I have a store that I can walk to so that I can buy food.

I have a van that will protect me and taken me places when I am too lazy to walk (which is often.)

I have enough clothes to cover my body and keep me warm.

I have a change of clothes to wear so that I don't have to wear the same thing every day.

I have enough money to provide for my family's needs and so many of our wants.

I have people in my life who I can trust with anything.

I have friends on whose shoulders I can cry.

I have children.

I have children who rock.

I have a husband.

I have a husband who rocks.

I have a Bible.

I know how to read.

I understand what I read in my Bible.

I have the gift of Salvation.

I was born in a country where I am valued as a person

I live in a country where I can practice my faith without fear of persecution.

I have a doctor that I can go to when I am sick.

I can buy medicine or other treatments when I need to get well.

I have an extended family that loves and cares about each other.

I have three living grand-parents.

I have parents who are still married to each other.
I have parents-in-law who are still married to each other.

I went to (and graduated from) university.

I can talk.

I can hear.

I can taste.

I can smell.

I can feel.

I can sing.

I am so blessed.

(That list is incredibly incomplete.  I haven't written 10,000 reasons that I am blessed yet.  Please help me add to my list and tell me how you are blessed.)

To-ma-to... Po-tah-to...

While watching The Sound of Music for family movie night...

6 yr old Simon: What's a nun?
Me: Someone who spends all her life serving God in the Catholic church, choosing not to have a husband or family...
Simon:  Oh.  I thought nuns were bad guys.
Me, giggling: When are nuns bad guys?
Simon: I don't remember what the movie is...  *thinking*  Mulan!
Me, laughing even harder: Those were the HUNS!

My Super-man

This was written many moons ago, on Nov 16, 2009.  It still applies today, three years later.

My husband is stretched out in the Lazyboy right now, "watching" MNF with his eyes closed. I take him for granted very often. He's not the most romantic guy in the world and he doesn't always say what I want to hear, but I can't help loving him anyway.

Do you know that he gets up every morning at 6:15 so he can get to work on time? And he never complains about it. He doesn't even try to make noise to wake me up. He lets me sleep until 7:30 when he's heading out the door, at which point, he wakes me with a kiss, EVERY MORNING, and says good-bye. The kids, who he's been holding off until that moment, rush into our room and ask if they can get breakfast. Let me expound... He makes his own lunch each morning (a feat among husbands from what I hear), gets dressed in our dark room, and absorbs the kids while I doze for another hour and fifteen minutes.

And then, THEN! he gets his gear on (coat, hat, mitts if needed) and bike helmet on and rides his bicycle to work. In the rain. In the snow. In the extreme heat. In the cold. It is a very rare day when he accepts my offer of a ride in the morning.

He gets to work on time every day... No wait - he gets to work early every day and makes decisions on his workday based on his morals and ethics, not on what his boss is expecting or what will be easiest.

Do you know that he takes a lunch to work every day? He doesn't spend our money on such frivolous things as pizza and chips or salad and a sandwich. He would rather spend the time making his lunch in the morning. And yes, it is our money, even though I sleep in until 7:30 and the hardest thing I have to do on any given day ranges from unknotting knotted hair to deciding who gets the last blueberry yogurt.

My husband is a superhero! I could go on about how when he bikes home from work he settles in to play with the kids and gets them to clean up before dinner, or how he reads with at least one of the kids almost every night after dinner, or how he chats with me about his day and listens if I feel compelled to complain about mine. (At this point, I'm wondering what there ever was to complain about!)

No, I don't need to tell you all that. Nor do I need to go into how he patiently taught me to understand and appreciate football, or how he goes to concerts with me even though he really would rather not spend the money on the tickets and babysitter. You get the idea without me going into all that.

I am married to Superman. He may appear to be Clark Kent, but he's Superman underneath it all. I'd say that makes me Lois Lane, but I think I'm somewhere closer to Amelia Bedelia. So I just keep thanking God for blessing me with my Aaron and hoping that he doesn't realize he's sorely mis-matched.

And as I finish typing this, he wakes from his peaceful slumber, passes gas, and flashes me his smile. I giggle. I can't help it. I'm smitten.