Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Wesley...my little man





My auntie Laurie takes the best pictures. It's a good thing too cause my mom tends to lose her camera for months on end and never takes a single picture of my beautiful mug! It's a crying shame!

Monday, April 28, 2008

Crazy Weekend!

Thursday morning we hit the ground running and haven't stopped until right now. I have no food, no clean clothes, no clean dishes, no gas and no more energy to burn! Yikes! Thursday morning was Jed's 6th birthday. He's getting so old! We had cookie cake and ice cream for breakfast and opened presents before he went to school. Thursday night, Christian was in a musical at school. It was a great show complete with dancing, humor and even special effects. He kept saying he hated the idea of singing in front of people, yet, it looked like he had fun and he made it perfectly clear to me and Doug that standing between two girls made everything more bearable! = )

Friday night Emily was off to camp with Gems. She got off the bus at 4:05, got home at 4:15, left for the store(to pick up the snack mom forgot to get) and then church at 4:30 and left with the girls at 5:00pm. Actually, it was more like 5:05 because she forgot to pack her sleeping bag and I had to run home and get it...kids!

Friday night was also the piano recital for the boys. Emily was suppose to play too but chose to go to camp...which was an impossibly hard decision for her. Jed did great at his very first recital. I'm so proud! Christian also was awesome! He loves playing and even begged an extra time slot from his teacher. We played a song together...that was nerve racking! A total first...but I loved it. It was a lot of fun to sit next to him and share that time.

From the recital, we all (mom and dadx2 and uncle) went back to our house for Jed's birthday party. Birthday pie(Jed doesn't like cake...says all he eats is the top part anyhow, so why bother mom?) and ice cream for all...a couple of rounds of happy birthday and would you all please leave now, I'm tired!

Saturday was opening day for baseball...but before that I had to find baseball pants that would actually fit Christian. The ones they gave us with his uniform were WAY TOO BIG! So I was out with every other parent in New Lenox in search of a different size. Got home at 11:45 and was off to the Easter Seals Telethon. Doug was one of the on camera interviews...he's so important! He did a great job...and it was really interesting to watch how they do a live show. Went out for a quick bite to eat and off to the ball fields.

It was so windy on Saturday here...I think I still have dirt in my teeth! Christian had a great game! First time up to bat he got a good hit into right field which was an RBI. Second time up to bat he fouled two balls and then got walked....stole second, stole third and then scored. This was so great because last season we waited until the second to last game for a hit. He was super excited. He played right field for two innings(yawn!) and 1st base for one.

Saturday night Emily came home from camp late. Sunday morning, we woke up to a huge school project that was due this morning. It was one of those projects that in theory we should have had done before she went to camp, but time totally got away from us and suddenly we're stuck doing it the day before.

Well, if you've stuck it out this long thanks! Big thanks to my little Wesley who had to sit through a musical, a piano recital, a telethon and a baseball game...he did great. I'm so proud. Here are some pics from this weekend, I don't have a camera so I had to steal my father-in-laws...that's why there are some missing moments.

My big 6 year-old! He lost two teeth this week!




Wesley had to have his own candle. I thought he was gonna burn his nose!


Christian playing guitar hero.

Christian #11


Christian and Collin(his friend/cousin)

Thursday, April 17, 2008

My laptops back and your gonna be in trouble!

None of you are really in trouble, it just sounded musical to me. My laptop crashed a few weeks ago and after many failed attempts I had to enlist the help of a paid professional. I hate paying people for things that I think I should be able to do myself. But I'm so glad that I did because now I have my little heater back, my window to the world, my connection to all things American Idol...it's great!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

A Wal-mart life?

"It takes so much to be a full human being that there are very few who have the courage to pay the price." Morris L. West

Is there truth in this statement? What is the price of a self-examined life? What fuels our paralysis and keep us from accepting the best becoming "fully human"?

The fear of self-discovery. It is frightening to really look at who we are and examine why we do what we do? Just looking requires us to "pay the price" actually changing may be incomprehensible?

Accepting the "Wal-Mart life" is a much safer and far less expensive option. It's a bargain, a blue light special...it's polyester instead of cashmere. The "Wal-Mart" life is the way it's always been done; it is a life with no surprises. It is finding yourself doing what you do simply because you do it. The skeletons appear to stay in the closet and we like it that way. If you're angry you stay angry, if your sad you stay sad, accepting defeat, embracing powerlessness, romancing the stone. It's the equivalent of walking around with a bag on your head and the "christian" community accepts, embraces this way of living.

Christ came to offer us the best life, life to the fullest: to save us from a broken and sinful world. We accept this theology in our churches, we accept this theology through our creeds and speak often of how this world is in need of redemption but we are far less willing to accept or apply this to ourselves, to our families, to our relationships. It is easier to believe this gospel is for "them" that we already "got it." To accept that we still need to be redeemed would mean redeeming the way we respond to the people we love or to redeem the broken way we interpret the world. It would mean that we would have to accept our own brokenness on a much deeper level and redemption would require change.

The price of change is too high or so we believe. Change requires the risk of opening up to someone else, the risk of revealing ourselves to another. The risk of being perceived...the risk of being seen for all that we are...broken. The fear of risk blinds us to the reality that redemption leads us to a cashmere life; the life that Christ offers. Right now, right here on earth...not waiting for eternity but starting now.

Anything less than taking the risk is accepting the "Wal-Mart" life...choosing to have full shopping carts of "valuelessness" instead of holding in our hands just what is quality. We walk around wanting to believe we've got it all, wanting to believe this is the best that can be hoped for yet becoming avid fans of life's "What Not To Wear" and wishing that we too could be in the 360 degree mirror...but knowing the price would be too high....

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Hello

I want to talk. I want to write. Yet, I keep deleting everything I type. It's not a very effective way of blogging. More to come.