Sometimes

I have a lot of friends that have moved past the baby stage. In fact there is no one that I get together regularly with that has a baby anywhere near Lincoln's age. Which is sad for him. And a little sad for me. Deacon has quite a few friends his age and I think that is important.

So I am praying for a little friend for Lincoln and for a little boy to be a friend for Roman. Roman is always trying to keep up with Deacon and his friends and I think it would be good for him to have a friend of his own. Most of the people we know that are his age are little girls. Which is fine, but it would be nice for him to have a friend that is a boy too.

Anyway, all that wasn't the point of this post.

The other day while Noah and I were passing like two ships in the night, we split up some errands. He took Lincoln with him and I took Deacon and Roman with me. What a glorious taste of freedom! They are both in booster seats, and while I still have to click Roman in, it is just one single click and they can open the door and climb into their own seats! They can unbuckle themselves and get out themselves. I didn't have to carry anyone.

And I thought to myself, "what if I had stopped at 2? I would be living in a diaper free house, I wouldn't have to deal with naptimes. I wouldn't have to try to strong arm someone into their carseat!"

And then I came home. And Lincoln was jumping into a pile of leaves, just like his brothers.

And Lincoln was picking up leaves, 2 at a time, and putting them into the bag- just like his brothers.

And Lincoln was trying to rake with his little rake, just like his brothers.

So what if I am still changing diapers? I will change diapers for a lifetime if it means having moments like these...

Not Julie's Finest Hour

Deacon has been going to Gym and Swim at the YMCA since last January. He has been in the 3 and 4 year old class and has loved every minute of it. The 3 and 4 year olds swim first and then have gym in the Spirit, Mind and Body room. (I had to add the name of the room in...I sometimes wonder if the people who routinely use the room for Yoga complain that the 3 and 4 year olds mess up the chi of the room)

Last Tuesday we arrived for his new session and were met with the "exciting" news that since there were only 2 3&4 year olds signed up they wanted to move Deke and the other kid up to the 5 & 6 year old class. I did not think that it would be a problem.

Deacon did.

He absolutely lost it. "I am not 5 yet!" he wailed. "I want to swim first!" "They will never let me swim at all", "I want to go home!"

See, the 5 &6 year olds gym first and then swim.

Not cool.

I try to follow through on consequences.

I didn't though. I told him that if he didn't go in there and play I would take him home. He said, "take me home." And I didn't. I knew that if I could just get him in there he would have a great time and it would all be good. He loves activities and he doesn't like to just be home.

What he doesn't like is surprises.

If they had called me an hour before so I could have prepped him, he probably would have been ok. But the kid can't handle loss of control. And surprises. They kind of go hand in hand, don't they?

So I threw all of the parenting techniques, natural consequences out the window. I pleaded with him to try it, I offered bribes. I offered threats. I tried to act cheerful and like this was so exciting. I tried to act annoyed. That didn't require much acting.

And he was just beside himself. Which isn't like him.

Except when he has no control.

Finally, I told him this: "Deacon, if you don't go in there I am going to go check you into kids stuff with Lincoln (the childcare area) and take Roman out and have him come here to have class in your place. "

He said, "You can't do that."

And I said, "oh, yes I can."

And he went in.

And he had a great time.

And he finished up gym with a smiling face and went into the locker room to get ready for swim.

And I discovered that I forgot his wetsuit.

And his swimming trunks.

And I felt like crying. After all of that, he wasn't even going to be able to swim?!

But the front desk had a loaner pair (yeah YMCA!).

And he had fun.

And yesterday when I dropped him off, he said, "You can go now, Mom."

So I went upstairs to run.

And when he came up to run his 2 laps he caught up with me (yes, I did slow down. he can't beat me yet!) and slipped his little hand into mine.

And we ran together.

Austy is made out of cheese!

I think it has been established in this blog that our house is a little on the chaotic side. Trying to juggle 1 full time job, 1 part time job, 3 preschoolers, volunteerism, home remodeling projects, yard work, car repairs...well, you get the idea.

The first thing to go is always sleep.

I worked 4 out of the last 5 nights. It may have been too much.

Noah's mom talks about the times during school where he would be talking formulas and equations in his sleep. That is dreaming about what you are doing in life.

But the other night I was DOING the thing that I normally only DREAM about.

Frequently in my dreams I am trying to dial a number on the phone. And I just can't do it. I start and I don't completely push in one of the digits, or I can't remember it. So the other evening Noah comes in, says I have a message on the phone from staffing and asks if he can dial the number for me. I could not remember the number. I just remember feeling this panicky frustration as I tried to say the numbers in the right sequence and I just could not get my brain and my mouth and those 9 digits to line up! It was exactly like in my dreams. The same inadequacy. The same feelings. I had to get out of bed and walk downstairs, calm down and dial it myself to make it work. I asked Noah today if it had really happened. Apparently it did.

So this morning Roman comes flying downstairs and asks me, "what is the name of the Backyardigan's movie where Tasha, Austy an Uniqua are made out of cheese?" Deacon and I questioned him further, having never heard of such a thing in all our lives. I tried to explain that they are actually computer animation, but he would have none of it. "No, mom. There is a movie where they are made out of cheese. And the Veggietales were there. But not Bob."

I suspected a dream and suggested this to him. His eyes brightened an he said, "Oh yes, maybe the Backyardigans were having a dream!" He just wasn't buying it.

There is no more points to the dream stories.

I just have a couple more statements since I haven't blogged for awhile.

*I just remembered that I am supposed to bring a lovely breakfast dish for Bible Study tomorrow. Personally, I love doughnuts, but these ladies scoff at them. Can I manage to not cave under the pressure and actually just bring doughnuts without fruit?

*Our basement room passed its 1st 2 inspections. The whole inspection thing was actually kind of a letdown. One of those scenerios where you overprepare and they barely look at anything. And you know you should just keep your mouth shut, but you want to yell, "will you look at this? Will you admire this? Will you measure this and see how exactly perfect this is? Will you acknowlege that we followed the 10 pages of code exactly?"

*I have all of these projects that I want to get done before it gets cold. Why did I wait until the Indian summer in November to realize that it is now or never? Probably because it is now or never.

*Today I discovered that 1 of the tiny tootsie pops does not have enough suckability to last the whole time that it takes a mommy to vote. I did get them out of there before anyone yelled at them though.

*I think that I have eaten more calories in halloween candy today then I burned off during my 4 mile run. This.is.very.bad.

*I just painted my front door. I am taking guesses as to the color. Think backwards mullet.

Ok, I need to stop. I am now making jokes that only make sense to me in my strange little world.

I wasn't going to go all Rob Bell literary style on you, but...

Judges 10:13-14



"But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble."



This verse convicts me.



I choose and serve things other than God.



Our nation chooses and serves people and things other than God.



We don't want the consequences for our actions.



It is never our fault.



We want to be bailed out.



We want a president who is willing to go to great measures to not let us be "punished" with a baby if we make a mistake.



We want a government who will make sure that everything is "fair", even if they must take from others to do so.



We want polititicans who promise to take care of us.



We want the treasury to bail out our banks so we don't have to take responsibility for our spending.



We call out to our gods.



But they can't save us.



So we call out to God.



But how long will he be merciful?

Psalm 57:1-3

1 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
2 I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills {his purpose} for me.
3 He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me; Selah. God sends his love and his faithfulness.

Life at Home with the B'Boys

When Mom's gone and we're bach'en it. There's pizza...

And games...

Deacon and Roman would launch the cars with the little car-launcher, and then I'd catch them at the other end of the table if they made it that far without hitting something. With a little practice, they were launching them pretty straight down the table.

I like this sequence with Deacon launching and the other two's heads following the car. Roman is a little hard to spot, but he is watching.

(Actually, Julie was around. Somewhere. She must have slipped off and left us boys to our own devices.)

-N

Clean water? Sounds good...

This is not normally a political blog. It is not becoming a political blog. But politics intersects with life, so here it is. (And rest assured, I have another post in the pipeline with cute pics of the kids and some warm fuzzies for your soul.)

So the Clean Water, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage and Natural Areas Amendment sounds good and all. What's more Minnesota than clean water and wildlife? And that's all we hear about is the clean water part: lakes and streams. Maybe the wildlife part.

But arts? With an election in two days I was starting the research on the parts of the ballot that I don't hear attack ads on every second. Seriously, I tried to watch some of the news last night and for several commercial breaks, every commercial was a political attack ad. I'm sick of it.

And the ads for this amendment aren't much better. The one side is, "Who wouldn't want to pass clean water on to our kids?" And the other side is, "Don't you realize it sounds nice but will make your taxes go up?"

This all misses the point.

First, there's a sales tax increase. A Constitutional Amendment is not a place for a sales tax increase. Good grief. That's the job of the legislators we send to the capital.

Second, this isn't just about clean water. There's also clauses in here about funding money into the arts and cultural heritage. Again, I'm sorry, but a Constitutional Amendment is not the place for that. A bill on the floor of the Legislature where our elected representatives can hash it out is the right place. Putting it on a Constitutional Amendment where there's little public debate and no one is talking about anything besides clean water is low down dirty rotten.

I'm tired of the games. At this point I'm not holding anybody faultless. It's just a general comment. Things like this get me though. There's too much power; too much money.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day.

"Peace is inevitable. Why not now?"

Has anyone looked at the human condition lately? War and chaos are inevitable. Men exploiting other men is inevitable. Anything else takes a whole lot of work, cooperation, vigilance and the grace of God.

-N

Trunk-or-Treat

Last night we did Trunk-or-Treat at church, followed by a showing of The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything on the big screen in the Upper Room. Deacon actually saw the movie once in the dollar theater with Gma Pam, but still was a little freaked out in a couple of intense parts. Roman on the other hand had only seen the little clips included with the PWDDA VBS this summer. He freaked out in a couple of parts.

SPOILER

At one point later in the movie, as it's building to climax, Larry the Cucumber as Elliot gets swallowed whole by a giant mechanical dragon. Roman jumped up onto his chair, eyes wide, finger tips digging into his cheeks, "Oh NO! ELLIOT! They got Elliot!"


SPOILER

(Elliot survives.)

Okay, maybe it was a little intense. But they both did sleep fine last night.


Here are the Trunker Treaters




Link was quite impressed with "that puppy in the window."



-N