schooled

[Shoot. I only had 8 days left in February and I blew it. I didn't post last night. I'll try posting twice today but...it's just not the same. ]

You meet all types of people. Believers who are just realizing that there is a great commission, folks who have been sending people for 30 years, God takes all kinds. Most of our partners are somewhere in between. But hardly any of them do missions as their main focus. It isn't their main thing - God is. Their church is. And that is the way it should be most of the time. Their lives are happening all around them and if I can bring missions to the front of their mind more often than not, I am communicating successfully.

I think I need to back up a step to explain my mind in regards to mobilizing for missions. Just as a church planter sees the people in their village as his or her flock (or constituents) I, as a mobilizer, see U.S. Christians as my focus. A church planter will ask their partners to pray for individuals and organizations in that village/region; I ask my partners to pray for individuals and organizations in the U.S. to become mobilized (I like to say on fire for missions, but that's just my wording.) The church planter wants you involved through prayer and financial support because it's God's plan and it's good for folks in the village; I want you involved through prayer and financial support because it's God's plan and it's good for you and for our existence as Christians in this country.

So I went into the event on Saturday with certain expectations. Our organization, like many faith-based, nonprofit organizations is feeling the economy crunch. (The exception there is we don't solicit or fund raise.) We just got a new national director. The world of missions is changing. We just released an excellent video series with Perspectives. So I kind of went into it with the attitude that "people will be changed by us knowledgeable experts." This attitude was reflected in my prayer request the night before, that "many people there will be led to respond to God's call on their lives in regards to missions and specifically to East Asia with [us]." It was going to be a learning event ... I just wouldn't be doing the learning, everyone else would. (/arrogance)

God totally schooled me. Though all those things I mentioned above are crucial and were pushed to the forefront of the evening, the real value of the event for me was hearing my friend's story and current walk in missions; about their church's take on missions, and how it's effecting their family -- both for the positive and the negative. I had forgotten (or God-forbid, ignored) this part of the equation. Behind every partner there is a network of others. Those others (and our partner) are believers and are seeking his face independently of us. If they are seeking his face, they will eventually come into an understanding of the great commission on their own. Missions is part of the DNA of a christian life. God can teach me about the great commission through you, just as much as you can learn from anything I've got to say. It is a work we are doing together, and it is often an equal exchange of peers, rather than teach to student.

an ordinary day

Our lives have been so chaotic these days that a "normal" day is confusing. Normal just doesn't happen for us. We get a day off maybe every 2 weeks. Today was a normal day. Tobo appeared at our bedside at 7a and crawled into bed "because he was still tired." We all snuggled up until someone's stomach gurgled and it was deemed breakfast time. Tobo and I got up and proceeded to the couch to talk about cars and other things. Eventually I got him over to the table for breakfast, which consisted of half a banana and half a two-bite cinnamon roll. I finished my breakfast and coffee while Tobo wandered off to play with stuff in the tv room. Paul slept.

Tobo and I did some painting at the kitchen table to present Dad "with all this purple" when he got up. Afterward we read a new High Five and cut out the matching game in the back. We played through it a few times and then I backed off and he played a round himself. Paul in the meantime was going through all our old floppy disks and transferring the old photos we had there onto some kind of modern media. By 11 I realized we were not going to get to the park, so we watched an episode of All About John Deere Tractors, (which as a side note, mentions Berrien Springs and St Joesph, MI, which are both around where I was born) while I answered work email and generally played silly Fb games.

Tobo was turning into a whiny tired puddle after the show, so we gathered to eat lunch. He perked right up after half a baloney sandwich and a bowl of potato chips. He was not buying the "cucumbers are yummy bit". We got a call from Grandma and Papa in Michigan. Tobo talked and sang and ate some tomatoes. He also showed off his Tyrannosaurus Rex Stomp, which is a loose rendition of the Yeti Stomp from The Backyardians.

After the call, we wandered back into our bedroom to do "quiet time". This is our alternative to nap time, since that has just not been working out. I put him into the bed and grabbed my book and ignored him. About a chapter in, I looked over and he was out. So we read and he slept. I eventually poked him awake at 3:30p. And found out he was really hot. Fever. (Oh, that's why he went to sleep!) We go downstairs and Tobo informed me that he would rather have drops in his eyes or a shot than take his temperature under the arm. After a little explaining and a little wrestling I got a reading. I ended up canceling the babysitter when I took his temperature of 103 degrees. Paul stayed home while I went to the event. Before I go, Tobo and I play with his duck puppet who "is a little bit sick" and "has one (1) fever." They had an early night, I have a good time catching up with folks. Home now, facing another post (there is always another post when you are doing nablopomo. ) which I apparently have just completed.

discreet? Meet frank.

Blogging is complicated. Back in the day, I had a few friends that believed that you should blog everything. Not just every truth but every lie, every action, all of it, good and bad--the point being that you were honestly out there, for all to see. Ok given these folks were writers by trade so maybe honesty in type was kind of a big deal. I have struggled over the last few years because I don't always feel I can share my honest (and usually short-lived) reaction to stuff and then take the repercussions right in the face.

Some of that has to do with I don't own all of the secret, i.e. it involves someone else and I have not been given permission to share what I know no matter what my personal opinion is about the subject. I am unlike Paul. I have to work to keep secrets. I am not the black hole of knowledge; sucking in all information around me and compressing it to the point that even light can't escape the depths of my discretion. He has regularly not told me about a pregnancy or a engagement if he was told ahead of time until it is announced publicly. Like for months. It use to make me mad. Now... I can respect that I have a respectable husband.

The new twist is now we are a family of missionaries. Living out there with all our bumps and bruises for all to see. Sometimes it is really good to be honest and open about what I am struggling with but sometimes, its touchy. If I was out in the public forum under my own power, I would be watching my words vigilantly, waiting for the misstep. Fortunately, I am out here in the open not because I want to be but because God has lead me out here. I am constantly thanking God that I am following him, as he steers me around pitfalls and washed out bridges, and oh, volcanoes. And I just have to say, "Man, am I glad I was honest today. I'm glad I didn't take the low road, or take the cheap shot, Didn't act the small petty individual I can be at times. Because this could have completely derailed us." It's kind of a lightheaded feeling as you skate disaster. I would like to remind you that I have no formal bible training. I graduated from what is probably the anti-Moody. My vision for missions is basically "I will go where the pillar of smoke leads." If I happen to help the start of an indigenous biblical church movement of self-replicating churches on the way, all the better.

I'm slowly reading and watching dvds about how to connect with people. Mobilizing what I can only call my base is on my mind a lot, especially this week. And blogging about how I plan to mobilize my supporters (most of who read my blog) just feels kind of well ... meta. Like I'm plotting and scheming here in my dark corner of the interwebs instead of being a forthright child of God. I am often thinking and praying for individuals who are praying and thinking of me because I can't help it. Some of that stuff that I am praying about is personal and was given to me in private. Some folks are highly on my mind but I can't share it with anyone but Jesus. At times that is frustrating but most of the time it turns into a teaching opportunity about prayer. In the same way writing and talking about our partnership development isn't going to be for public consumption.

Some day I may get back to all honesty all the time. And maybe I will let the meta out the bag a bit more than I do with some forgiving souls who will take it with a grain of salt, but for now I think I need to continue to walk the line between frankness and discretion.

The secret internal terrier of consumerism is let off the leash.

So about a week ago, Paul approached me about shopping in bulk, since we now have the space to stock pile. I hemmed and hawed a bit and basically landed on: as long as we don't have more stuff than we can get rid of in a year we can do it. We are hoping to be leave the country next year to finally get started on our work in Singapore. (God willing) But I do understand that it is cheaper to buy in bulk and so I agreed we should get a membership somewhere. Paul tried to go this weekend, but failed to find the store. If you knew the mall it is located in, you'd understand how easy that is to do. So today I made a second attempt and eventually found Costco.

Now we considered Sam's Club, but I've been a member before and I didn't really feel it was anything special. And everyone I know out here does Costco. [Expect for the folks doing amazon direct mail order shopping, another good option if you like to have more than one kind of cereal.] So I went in and got the card; got the AMEX card since they apparently don't except any other credit card and the service representative was dubious about my credit union debt card; got my picture taken; got the membership. I'm not overjoyed about taking out another line of credit, but we are pretty good about keeping on top of that sort of thing so I went forward.

Then I got into the store. I can tell you now, my secret internal terrier of consumerism was ready to shop. I could have easily gotten out of there with 2 cartloads. And I tried to just buy the non-perishables like TP or Kleenex but how did that Toblerone candy bar six pack get in my cart? What am I going to do with 5 lbs of dried apricots? I totally overestimated what I could get into our little freezer, so we'll be serving a few things to friends in the next few days. I'm not even sure if I saved money. But I've got 48 cans of V8 which should keep at least into the summer to prove...well I've forgot what but I will never wish I had had a V8 for the rest of the winter.

But - Costco was missing items that we use. This is a bummer since it means I will still need to make a run to the regular store at some point. What I gain in savings, I loose the convenience of one stop shopping. Also, who knows what Paul is going to bring back with him, once he gets his card. We may have to make furniture out of cans.

logic problem

These days I feel like most of my life is a logic problem. I am in the middle of trying to plan a partnership trip to da'Burgh, while coordinating all the stuff that is life here in CO. If I'm not careful I get a bit overwhelmed. If it was just these things I could cope, but I kind of have to work on it in pockets, as time allows. I often feel like I am forgetting something.This all started because I agreed to helo help with an event in Lancaster, PA. I am so fortunate to have someone else planning that end of it.

I am excited about sharing the 6 ways's series with our friends. I am also hopeful that God is leading a number of different groups towards ministry partnership with us on our way to Singapore. I could of course be mistaken, but there have been entirely too many coincidences going on in the last week to ignore it. The good news is this trip basically came up out of the blue and all the pieces are falling into place, mostly without me having to do anything about them. Of course the vestry at our old haunt just went on a missions retreat and are all fired-up about mission work. Obviously my friends just rented a 6 person van and will just happen to be driving through Baltimore, MD the day I need a ride back to Pittsburgh with their family. Well, yeah. It's been stuff like that. When events happen like this, I find myself battling against my two natural tendencies of worrying and procrastination. If I don't rely on God to sort it all out, I become completely freaked or completely lazy, sometimes at the same time.

I did put today aside to work on some of this and while I did make headway, I still only got about half way down my list of tasks. Also, I want to figure out a better way to communicate our immediate needs and plans to our partners. It seems that if I dare to put off writing a prayer letter, it comes back to get me the next month. Like now, I have not really had a chance to share about our lives from January, but now it is urgent for me to be talking about this March trip, both from a prayer and logistical stand point.

So maybe more like a weekly email update? Or would that be over kill? How often do you like to hear from missionaries you have close ties to?

I've got your stuff

So I probably have your stuff. You probably lent it too my over a year ago or more and I put it in a box to return to you and being the gut-following relational reserved decision-maker that I am, it is now completely off my radar. I mean I already remembered to put it in a box right? That counts the same as handing it to you with a thank you note, right? I think the longest standing item is a book for a friend of ours from about 10 years ago. It just resurfaced with our most recent move. We don't really know where he lives now, but I think I just saw him on LinkedIn. (We're getting to it!) The newest thing is a wedding present that I purchased and than promptly forgot to give to the happy couple. So not only did I have "buy gift" on my to do list. Now I have to have "give gift" as well. Yikes!

What's so sad about it is that Paul and I are good caretakers of books and videos. We both have had some archival experience, so we are really nice to books. If I borrow from you, I try not to crack the binding when I read your book. It rarely will travel with me. I don't eat while reading it. Throwing books is a time out offense at our house. You will only see us bend back the cover if it is truly a horrible book that should be destroyed for the good of all mankind. So we are careful...we're just not that timely.

So we are sorry for being so slow. We have every intention of returning it. We know you want it back some day before the second coming. We're working on it.

nebby

So we've met our neighbors. (In a good way.) We moved in to our new place so quickly that we really didn't get a chance to investigate where we were moving. We just came hurtling in right before Christmas. But I knew it wasn't a neighborhood you had to worry about. In fact it is probably one of the safest places we've ever lived. It's a cul-de-sac, so we don't get a lot of traffic here. There are some middle-schoolers (or freshmen, I'm not sure, they have no car) who live further in, and we have two houses on either side of us and really nobody across the street. We obviously all share one of those postal box blocks but I never see anyone going to get mail or find anyone getting mail while I'm there. At first I watched on trash day to guess when to put out our recycling vs regular trash, but that is a bit misleading since I think only two other houses use the "covenant approved" garbage collector. Actually the fact that you don't see anyone, _ever_ underlines the shared social illusion of absolute privacy on this street. These houses are so close that it has the potential to be very nebby (Pittsburgheze for neighborly, i.e. nosy and noisy) but it is not. In Pittsburgh, this would open it up to "porch" theater (winter: yelling stuff off your porch and summer: throwing stuff off your porch.) but not so here. The most you see is someone running or walking their dog, which is a very CO thing to do, btw.

But now that we are here, I'm beginning to notice that my beige house on my beige lawn on my beige street is not surrounded by "beige" neighbors. The neighbors to our right are a nice chinese couple. There is at least one african american family living further down as well as another asian ethnicity family also, at least if I can guess based on those middle schoolers walking by my house each day. It's not so much that I need to have a rainbow of people around me to make me feel all mutlicultural, but it is great to see something other than pockets (or frankly ghettos) of ethnically similar people living together for protection more than a sense community, like in other places we've lived. I mean don't get me wrong. This place is still pretty beige, but I'm glad to not be living some place where we had to debate about if ecru and eggshell are the same color as taupe. Yes I'm totally just throwing color names around now. For what it matters, the beige neighbors have been pretty friendly too. For instance, we left the garage door open as we left for the Christmas travel in December, and someone out there called the sheriff, who came over to make sure it wasn't a break in. No I have no concerns about this neighborhood at all.

So back to meeting our neighbors. Remember I mentioned my friend's car? The nice couple next door wants to know if it's ours or if it should be towed. We fessed up to being terribly ineffective at this whole suburbia living thing, and there were apologies all around. (Paul and I were confused by the door bell for one thing and left them out on our door stoop too long.) So we promised to get it moved and were able to wish them a Happy New Year. Suppose I should start digging out our house more so next time I can invite them in for a cup of tea or something. How does one do neighborhoods in the burbs?

friday brain dump

There are a number of benefits of being on the design team at a missions organization. For instance, I often know about events before they are publicly advertised. It's a benefit to you too because I rarely keep good things to myself. Currently there is are two prayer summits in Fort Collins, CO and Burnsville, MN coming up this month, followed closely by Following God's Call Events to be followed by a Heart For Asia Conference, all of which I found out about because they artwork for these came across my desk.

From what I saw, all of these are going to be really interesting to attend. Though I am more quiet, I do enjoy going to these to hear the stories and pray together, but I needed to take a weekend off to do things like find my desk at home, figure out what is actually going on the weekend of March 5, and try and finish some of my long outstanding thank-yous from December. Maybe I'll even return my friend's car which I borrowed on Monday. (terrible, isn't it?)

I also get the benefit of working on a number of prayer cards for missionaries. A lot of them. Some in very creative access countries which you have to be kind of careful about what you say. I've started wondering what our printer thinks about them. Or rather if the guy running the press reads them. If he (or she) can start understanding some of our story from looking at what we send out and want to get involved. Crazier things have happened.

PA trip and MB thoughts

[Oops, missed posting by 3 minutes! So pretend you are reading this 3 minute ago...]

I am getting excited. It looks like we'll get a chance to travel to PA next month to participate in the Following Gods Call Together event. It's going to mean more traveling and more work, but the chance to really get out there and visit with folks we haven't seen in over a year sounds great. I feel we've been out of touch too long. We're not even really sure how it's all going to work out, but hopefully we get a few chances to eat meals with folks, share where God has been taking us over the last year, how that all ties in to our move Singapore and hear what's been going on with everyone else. We totally get that we are not the only game in town when it comes to missions and or God moving among his people.

I got a chance to hear a pretty cool presentation on Missional Business today at our organization. Basically there is a real need for javascript/php software engineers to review code for businesses that are set up overseas in areas that would be unreachable if the gospel wasn't going in with the business model. Language would be helpful but really they need skilled workers. The work can even be done back in the U.S. without even leaving the states. (fyi - if I just described you, and a small still voice is paging you on your internal intercom system, please email me and I will get you to the appropriate people). I love that God works through gifts. Not all of us are church planters, you know?

sleep journal

So the sleep front is getting a little more systematic for Tobo, if not acutally better. We have tweaked a number of things about his schedule and eating opportunities such as:

• shorten nap to 1.5 hours on busy days, even at daycare.
  
• skip nap all together on stuck-in-the-house snow days.
  
• only water and goldfish (next to his bed) after lights out.
• milk and cheese right before bed are fine.
• later dinner (6p) that runs right into bath or run around fun time.
• running around time segues into floor play (puzzles or trains, etc.)
  
• which segues into bedtime story time around 8:30p.
• Lights out by 9p
  
• Door stopper put on door. new rule, door closing stops at bed time.
  

And it is here that I still ended up negotiating for half an hour with the boy about going to bed. I actually had to do a threat. Threats are things we try not to use as a rule. Do not threaten, do. Threat is now. (I totally got that from a science fiction book, btw) But tonight I basically used it as a summary tool: "Remember all the bad stuff that happened the last time you did this? I can do that again OR you can quit the silliness and not suffer the penalty...but you have to comply right now." It turned into some kind of hard sell. And it worked! Like for more than 30 minutes.

The good news is we are no longer having the door-slamming, yelling, feet-dragging, runner bed time routine. I am really thankful for that because I found that really infuriating. He was still up a couple of times last night (the first night we really tried the new stuff all together) but he didn't get up, he just cried in bed. (At one point he was too a sleep to find his stuffed animal who had fallen out of the bed.) So it was still a lot of awake-ness during a time when were suppose to be asleep...but better than the alternative.

Because of Tobo was rested, he was really able to get with the program in the morning. We were still late getting going, mainly because we all overslept by an hour due to being up 3 times during the night. I just figure we were on a Hoemke 30 minute snow delay. These are the days were I think if it takes this much effort for one, what ever would we do with two?

What do you do for fun?

This was the question my cousin asked me over the holidays. We had met up at while we were in town and were trying to catch up on 10 years' worth of life that had happened to each of us. It completely stumped me. I'm sure I have fun somewhere. I mean I do, but the most I goof around on these days is 20 minutes of Farmville on Facebook. There just isn't time for any other leisure activity. Well, maybe that is a bit of an extreme view, but it sure does feel that way. If I ever could find a day off, this is what I would do:

1. Take another pottery class. - I would get myself back into a pottery class lickety split. I had so much fun making stuff last year, I'm bummed that I don't have a few hours to work on this stuff.
2. Join an ensemble. - I did at one time play viola and I know there is a group locally that does pops type music but I've never had enough time to work on an audition piece to see if I could get in. There is also late night rehearsals and what not that I'm not quite ready to dedicate myself to but I really enjoyed playing with the group I was in back in Pittsburgh. Right now the viola case is just gathering dust.
   
3. Read a good book. I read a lot of junk right now, but I have also have a good stack of "good books", ie not watered down dreak that I do want to read sometime. I'm a slower reader when it comes to nonfiction but these books are still important and I think I will enjoy them.
   
4. Finish a knitted project. - I only have 2 projects going at this time, but really that is plenty when you only get a few hours of knitting time a month.
   
5. Watch a movie. - Back when I was watching Tobo more often than not, my special time away was a movie on a Saturday by myself. 2 hours of no one asking me to do anything. Since he's been at daycare more this is just not as necessary for my sanity. Now I want to spend as much time with him as I can as limited by my hit or miss parenting style.
   
6. Write an adventure. - A while ago I said I would write an adventure so a bunch of my friends could play changeling. Two years later I'm still reviewing the rules. Just don't have time to write myself into a corner so I can write myself out.
   

I am sure there are others, but those are the major fun tasks I have on my to do list of leisure. Some day I might even get to do some of these again.

life after

Returning through Dallas this afternoon, it was all Packers all the time. All the kiosks had switch from "Steelers vs Packers" t-shirts and pins to "Packers win!" trinkets. Most of the talk on the airline from the seat behind me was about the cost of tickets (up to $1000 from the original $150 price by the scalpers) and how they eventually gave up getting their seats and went to a bar. Had a number of very large football type men on board too so coach was a little cramped.

I made it home in time to go visit some friends we normally see on Monday nights, so off I went in my borrowed car since tobo was with a babysitter anyway. I thought we missed the snow but by the time Paul and I were headed home, we had white out conditions. Especially exciting in two vehicles. But we made it back none the worse for wear.

A lot of the trips back to Florida have been to check up on my folks, specifically my mom. My mom had a pretty startling health event at the end of November and is just now recovering from it. She actually was in the hospital and then moved to a rehab place to regain her strength. Part of why I think Paul and I had this nice house drop into our laps is because almost immediately after we moved my mom got sick.

Right now she is doing well. Not 100% but getting stronger every day. She is done with nurses, occupational therapists and physical therapists. She has been released from the rehab place and is home. I've asked her if I can write about it and she's given me permission. That's why it has taken so long for me to mention it publicly.

I feel a bit like we are entering into uncharted territory as we enter life after. Life after nana, life after my mom's retirement, life after her medical event, after. We are all moving forward but for the first time in a long while we are not in the middle of a crisis. We were able to interview with a home help service that they may need in the future during this trip, but they don't need now. We talked about trying to make it easier for them in their condo, but that is very different than the red alert mode we've been living in for the last year. I can only hope that we can do this with our eyes open. I hope we can plan and write out what they want so I can honor that. But really we are all still trying to find our footing so its two steps forward, one step back at times. At least we are making some progress.

super bowls of the past

It's my 6 day of writing and I have hit writer's block. So now here is my list of where I was for the last few super bowls for your enjoyment.

Superbowl XL (2006) Pittsburgh vs Seahawks
Fricking awesome game! The end of the Cowher coaching era. The Bus retired. Lots of crazy gadget plays. Randell El is still with the steelers. After this game I vowed to buy myself a jersey. I think this might have been the year we were the annoying steeler fans in a room full of very sad bronco fans while watching one of the play off games. We still were very loud.

Superbowl XLI (2007) Colts vs Bears
Ah who cares? The steelers weren't playing. I think this might have been when we watch it at the Dougherty's house in the middle of the afternoon. It was really weird to have it all over in time for dinner.

Superbowl XLII (2008) New England vs NY Giants
I think we were at the Thompson's trying not to make derogatory comments about east coast teams. We failed.

Superbowl XLIII (2009) Steelers vs Cardinals
No memory. Must have been lack of sleep due to kiddo.

Superbowl XLIV (2010) Saints vs Colts
I spent the evening with the senior high folks at our church in CO, managing my almost 2 year old in a dark noisy room. Was there a football game on? Was kind of disappointed in the lack of yelling back at the screen which would be normal practice in any normal steeler game.

Superbowl XLV (2011) Pittsburgh vs Green Bay
I watched the entire super bowl with my folks in Florida. Everyone stayed awake. I spent part of the time watching comments on twitter as friend of mine literally around the world also watched the game.

Four Things

Today I flew out to visit my folks in Florida. Here are 4 awesome things that happened on the way:

Thing One: Here we go steelers!
By sheer accident, I went to the hosting city of the superbowl today. I had completely missed it was going to be hosted in Dallas this year. I happen to be flying through on a connection and was shocked to see so many Pittsburgh jerseys outside Da'Burgh. I had a dejavu moment. Forgot where I was. But that could also be because I was tired. The day started around 4am and I'm now somewhere in central time zone so, a long day.

Thing Two: Donuts and Coffee
I really like Dallas Fort Worth. Since moving out west it is really a great connector city back east -- so much nicer than Altanta or Chicago. Its about exactly half way between Denver and the Florida Panhandle, so you don't end up with a 3 hour flight followed by a 45 minute flight. (where the flight attendants throw the peanuts at you and buckle back up) It has coffee. For better or worse, it has Dunkin Donuts. I grew up around the corner from the DD, and donuts and comics on a Sunday afternoon pretty much were a regular event in our house before we moved out of the midwest. So it was just great to find fresh donuts (and galvanizing coffee) this morning across from my gate. I came up with a whole plan for world domination while drinking that coffee.

Thing Three: Multilingual
There were a large number of people on my plane speaking Spanish for some reason. It was awesome because they decided I spoke it too and asked me a couple of questions. My brain failed to return any romantic language response in time, (how do you explain "bag elevator" It's odd in English. bolsa de ascensor?) But for awhile there we were all together, experiencing the same flight.

Thing Four: Personal Pilot
As I was getting off the plane from Denver, I happened to glance at the door to the cockpit. It was open as is standard procedure at this time of the flight. Hanging on the back of the door were the two pilots' hats, kind of like this:
On the inside of one of the hats was a professional picture of a family; kid, mom, dad. I thought, "how sweet that this pilot takes a picture of his family along." Then the pilot came out: and it was the mom!

Weathering Pink Eye

Un [insert expletive] believable! Because we just didn't have enough going on right now! Not only am I leaving for Florida tomorrow to visit my folks, somehow after being isolated for 2 snow days from all other children or people, Tobo has contracted pink eye. From the air apparently. Honestly, it really could be worse and he perked up almost immediately after his first dose of eye drops (you know, torture) so he is definitely on the mend. Still got no nap today, but on these inside days, I think it is really ok to shorten or skip the nap if it helps him sleep through the night. And I didn't feel like such an ogre last night since I let him up into our bedroom for a bit. Now I can pretend that my 6th mommy sense was able to tell he was sick. In reality it was because it had been 3 hours of up and down with him and I was just worn out. What was funny was that after being upstairs for a few minutes he decided our bed was too boring and had no goldfish so he bailed. It feels like the judo version of parenting.

A lot of the advice I got was really helpful. I don't know if it will work with our kid but at least we have options. The main theme I heard though was, "yeah, this is what happens now." That in itself was a relief. Making it feel like his behavior was a tisunami or flood. Act of Nature. I'm not causing it, nor am I able to prevent it from happening. All I can do is hunker down and weather it out. Kind of like our weather in Denver, come to think of it.

t minus 2 days to February NaBloPoMo

I just encouraged friends of mine to start a blog about their adventures in New Zealand. Guess that means I should update more. Join me in the month of February in participating in the NaBloPoMo. Theme is character.

Nov 30: I made it! / Advent Thoughts

So I made it to day 30 of nablopomo. whew! I haven't written like this since I first started blogging in 2001.

This year is weird. Advent started in November. It caught me unawares, even if my subconcious was busy pulling out the calendar and getting out the tree. (I knew I would need it soon, just not *this* soon). I walked into church on sunday stressing about christmas. I hate to say that but it is true. Last year, I bent under the weight of expectations and did nothing. I said to myself, "self, this christmas thing will take care of itself, yeah. I'll just enjoy the ride." That was highly unsatisfactory. "Christmas" did not take care of itself.

This year, I could blame it on the stores that already had stuff out for christmas on Friday, the ads on tv all about how to get the prefect gift (usually a car or piece of jewelry) but really I had some kind of internal clock ticking. Get advent up. Get christmas cards out. Get baking done. Plan for parties we're invited to. Finish gift shopping. I've come to realize exactly how much my parents and especially my mom did to get advent and christmas done. Now that that is falling to me in our household to express christmas to a little one, I just wanted to say thanks mom and dad for doing it all when I was growing up.

This really is the first advent/christmas that Tobo will experience. He was here for the first one, but really at 9 months, what do you know? I am slightly daunted by how to explain the nativity to a 1.5 year old. I found this great block cresh, but he's more interested in the baa's and the donkey than the incarnation of christ coming into the world to save sinners. And maybe that is how it should be for now.

Nov 29: recipe friday a few days late: Squash Stew

Since I had something to say on Friday, I didn't get to do a Recipe Friday. Fortunately, I will do that now. A about a month ago I passed this recipe on to a friend who is changing to vegetarian. She liked it so much she asked if she could share it and I said no. Now I'm totally doing a 180% so, Holly can totally share this. Nablopomo has broken me.


Squash Stew (slow cooker)
Ingredients:
1 onion
spray oil
1 med garlic
1 med butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 0.5 inch cubes
1 cup baby carrots
1 can of veggie broth
0.25 tsp ciniminon
0.5 tsp ground cumin
0.5 tsp red pepper flakes
15 oz can of garbanzo beans (chick peas) rinsed
0.5 tsp of salt

1. Cook up onions and garlic in a pan for 5 minutes (optional)
2. Put everything BUT the chickpeas in the pot starting with the squash on the bottom.
3. Simmer in slow cooker for 6 hours on high
4. Add chickpeas and cook for 5 more minutes to heat them up.

We usually serve this with rolls for slopping up the broth. It also adds an interesting base for soup later on or as we call it "what's in the freezer" stew.

Nov 28:out of ideas

Well, I can't tell you what I've been doing for the last few hours because it's a secret.

I've deleted this post 5 times now. Can't seem to stay on a subject.

I sorted clothing and toys today.

I moved furniture. We put the round table in Tobo's room. now he has a great work table that is round.

I'd take my cold more seriously if I could wind down before 11pm each night.

I am thoroughly enjoying Dr. Horrible and trying to decide if my dad would find it funny or annoying.

I can't come to terms with the touchpad on my macbook Pro. On one hand I like all the funky little drag and drops you can do. On the other I'm tired of random things happening because of my sloppy mousing.

I've started to procrastinate about posting which means that Nov 30 can't get here soon enough.

Though Dec 1st could wait. The year is not suppose to go so fast.

A good friend's kid broke a leg today. It is the worse thing in the world to watch your child suffer.

I talked to my 5th grade viola partner today on fb. It is a crazy small world.

And that's about what happened on Nov 28th. What's up with you?

Nov 27: I survived black friday

So today I went and did something I never do... I shopped. I had heard that Black Friday was a good time to find a deal. In fact, many people I know reveled in it. Since last christmas was really a bust for me (and everyone I should have given gifts to) I've made it my business this year to a) think about and b) get presents for folks this year. But why do that in the most expensive way possible?

So, I did manage to get about 40% off 50% of the things I got today. The rest were discounted in some way except for a construction hard hat for Tobo. (It was $3) I spent about twice as much on other folks as I did myself. I exempted my hubby from having to get me gifts this year since apparently I already did that. :D 75% of what I got were christmas gifts. I have one person who am still shopping for but I will find something.

And I had a few more ideas but will push them off to birthdays or other holidays as they are appropriate. I have a real hard time staying within age appropriate toys with Tobo. I keep getting ahead of myself. This is why I read parenting books so I don't buy him a bottle rocket when he's 2. Cool toy but not age appropriate. I had a good time scooping up a few deals at the local learn and grow toy store. But we have St. nicholas' day coming up in a week so I needed something for Tobo's wooden shoes.

Overall it was not the mad house I expected it to be. I've always avoided it because I have about a 2 hour worth of shopping patience before I'm done done done. So I researched the stores I was going to go to the night before. Found out when stores were opening and left at about 8:45a this morning to go see what I would find. Some deals were better than others. I know I saved money but I have no urge to go to another store for a while.

In other news, I finally watched all of Dr. horrible's sing a long blog. I immediately downloaded the album because it is quite wonderfully crafted. Though I am not sad that when it came out I was raising a 4 month old baby but I am glad to finally watch it. Better late then never.

[I bet you thought I forgot to post? I made it by 4 minutes to spare. Who said I procrastinate?]