11.22.2007

A History Lesson

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Abraham Lincoln

11.13.2007

Parenting attempts

There are things I thought I would never do if I ever had kids. Those things that I couldn't even comprehend BK (before kids). And somehow, those things change AK.

For example, I never could get why people couldn't get their kids to be quiet in a store. In my mind, you just told them to be quiet, and if you were a good parent, the kids were quiet. Then I had children. It's not that easy. I once stood in line in my least favorite, WalMart, for 10 minutes with Natalie screaming so loud I couldn't hear the people's kind comments around me. By the end, I could hardly hear anything. Bribing with M&M's? I like to think of it as encouragement.

I never understood all the sticker charts & reward systems. Can't you just explain to your children what is expected of them? Ha! Ella pottytrained in about a day. "Ella, if you want to go to preschool, you'll need to go potty on the potty." "Ok." Done. Natalie knows what she's supposed to do. She will occasionally do it. But her stubbornness prevents her from making the complete switch. "Natalie, do you need to sit on the potty?" "NO!!" "Natalie, if you need to poop, go on the potty." "NO! I want the changing table." So today I made a sticker chart for the potty. We'll see what happens.

We have also not been having very good listening lately. I will make a request of them like, it's time for lunch, come to the table. "But first I have to finish this book." Or "I not hungry, I want to play." Or today it was, "It's time to put your socks and shoes on," to which Natalie replied, "No. I being cute." So I'll be darned if I didn't make little listening jars today. We're going to have listening tokens. Given for listening the first time I ask them to do something. Redeemable for treats/prizes. I can't believe it. Again, we'll see what happens.

One thing I have learned for certain, I cannot hold to much of anything I thought BK, because in life AK, all bets are off.

11.12.2007

It's a ricey little game...

Got this site from another blog I read. It's a vocabulary game, and for every word you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations. It turns into a really addicting game, and it keeps track of your vocabulary score up to 50. The donations come from the advertisers on the bottom of the screen. Give it a try.
http://www.freerice.com

11.09.2007

Giving Thanks

I love Thanksgiving, but I sort of feel bad for it. It's totally overshadowed by Christmas, and it's become all about the food and football (which is not to say I don't enjoy the food). So in anticipation of Thanksgiving, I'm starting the journal that a friend of mine gave me called "A Journal of Gratitude." It's just a list of all the things, great & small I'm thankful for. Then when the gloom of winter has fully kicked in, I can look back through it and focus on those things. Perhaps cozied under a blanket, with a hot cup of tea, and a miraculously quiet house. Hopefully my attitude will become less whiney (brr, it's so cold, MN stinks), and more grateful (gee, I'm so glad I'm not preparing my sod house for the long & harsh winter now that I'm done doing the harvest by hand, having stopped only long enough to birth my 8th baby).

Psalm 100
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

11.05.2007

Chicken Little

Disclaimer: I am aware that I live in Minnesota. I am also aware that it is November, and these things may happen.

I saw white stuff coming from the sky today. I am more inclined to believe the sky is falling than to accept it for what it is. I'm just not ready yet.

On a side note, today Natalie was reading a Winnie the Pooh book when she yelled, "Mom!! Look!! It's Christmasfor Robin!" I had to stop what I was doing and go give her a little hug. That made my day.

10.29.2007

Ahh, the memories.

Today I got to help Ella carve a pumpkin at preschool. Now, I have four memories of preschool. I remember playing in a sandtable that was kind of like Mr. Rogers'. I remember picking out Christmas presents for our parents. I remember going to my classmate's horse farm (I guess it was a ranch, but I don't really think of MN as having ranches), and seeing the puppies (although I'm sure we were supposed to be looking at horses). One of those puppies later went to work at the nursing home my mom worked at, and ended up living with us. Best dog ever -- Snickers.

And I remember carving a pumpkin. My dad came to help me, which was pretty cool in itself. I remember sitting on the floor, over squares of Pope County Tribune newspaper. And I remember thinking it was really, really cool that we were using my dad's newspaper (as in he made the newspaper, rather than just reading it). After we were done, we cleaned the seeds and baked them at the school. I don't remember if I liked them then, but I love them now.

So today, I dug out pumpkin guts with my little girl. A little girl who, frankly, was not very interested in participating in the carving. Too slimey. Which I remembered from last year, so I brought a smaller pumpkin this year. And I bagged up the seeds, brought them home and roasted them (for the first time). I think I went a little too heavy on the vegetable oil spray, but all in all, they're good. Ella won't even try one, which is not surprising. Luckily, I'm thinking it's the time together that is remembered over the actual pumpkin or seeds. After all, I remember sitting down with Dad to carve it, but I have no idea what it looked like when we were done.

10.28.2007

I should have written this yesterday, but...


Have I mentioned I'm a procrastinator? I probably hadn't thought to do that yet. Yesterday we had fall pictures done for Ella & Natalie. Been meaning to do them since late August. I think it went relatively well, but since I waited til the last second it was in the 40s. Brrr. I plan to order almost immediately. Last year I never got pictures ordered. Seriously. Just ask my family, who all enjoy giving me endless flack about it.

Today I went out in search of a pumpkin (at 5 p.m.), because we have to carve them at Ella's school tomorrow morning. Even at the SuperWal there were about six pumpkins left, all looking like the pumpkin version of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. I found a smallish one, decently round, but it has no stem. That was the best I could do at this late date.

I often read my Bible study book in the car on the way there. When I was running the monthly high school newspaper for the 22 high schools in the
Iron Range, I'd put most of it together in about two days. Wrote most college papers the night before they were due. Why do you think my blogging is so infrequent? I have no deadline. Til Amy starts asking for posts.

Oh, and I seem to now be a minimum of 5 to 10 minutes late to anything.

In other news, I have lost my voice. I think it might be allergy induced from yesterday's jaunt through the woods.

10.25.2007

Crunch, crunch

The leaves are finally crunching again! After a week of rain, gloom and sog, fall is back where it's supposed to be. Fall is my favorite season, and I'm stealing my friend Jersey's blog technique --
5 things I love about Fall
1. The crunch of colorful leaves under my feet (makes me feel like I should be at Fall Retreat again).
2. Honeycrisp apples (have you tried these??? YUM)
3. I can drink hot tea again. I'm mostly into the red teas these days. No caffeine, no bitter taste, but a lot of flavor.
4. Clothing options. I love that I can wear a skirt, jeans, long sleeves, short sleeves, jacket, sweater, flats, heels, socks, no socks... We're past the heat of summer, but not into parka weather yet and there's no ice to slip on.
5. Pumpkins! Pumpkin pie is my favorite of all the pies, with cherry coming in second. I love pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bars, pumpkin candles. I think I would love the pumpkin spice shake at Culvers if I could get myself past the calories (I am by no means a calorie nut, but the small shakes are over 750 calories, which is a little outrageous when you're trying to stay in the 1400-1600 range in a day).

I'd love to hear your favorite fall thing. I mean, you know fall's special -- it's the only season with two names.

9.24.2007

What's important

Now, I don't LOVE forwards, but I got this one from a friend, and I just loved this illustration. I've been thinking more and more lately about how to prioritize my life, and what things really do matter, and this one came on just the right day for that.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One day, a professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large, empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.

Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things -- your God, family, children, your health, friends, and favorite passions. If everything else was gone from your life ...

but these things still remained ... your life would still be full."

The professor continued, "The pebbles are the other things that matter ... like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else -- the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he said, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you."

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18 holes. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal."

"Take care of the golf balls first ... the things that really matter.

Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been feeling lately like sometimes I fill my jar with sand & pebbles before the golf balls, and he's absolutely right, if you do that, you can't fit the golf balls in. I really want to work on determining what is actually a golf ball, and what may be a pebble or sand. I'd also like to start getting a little coffee in my jar.

9.12.2007

Fresh Starts

I don't care what they say about Spring and fresh starts, Fall will always be the fresh start for me. We live in a school year calendar society, and Fall means a new year (and new pencils!!*). The chaos of summer is over, and the order of Fall has arrived. It's Ella's first day at school today, in her second year of preschool. She may have been a little hesitant last year, but this year I couldn't get her to stop and take a picture because she wanted to go. NOW.

Natalie has adjusted well I think. Much better than Mommy. She has played everything there is to play, and really seems to enjoy having it all to herself. I am hoping these times of Ella at school lessen the amount of fighting we have during the day. Perhaps all that was needed was a little alone time.

I, on the other hand, was not prepared. In the future I will need to be much more caught up with work the night before a preschool day, because Natalie alone is far more high maintenance. Her attention span when playing alone is about 30 seconds, which means I haven't gotten a whole lot done today. And yet, in the time I have found, I am doing this. Priorities?

In other fresh starts, Ella started dance this week! I have a tiny dancer! It took a little convincing for Daddy, but in the end it came down to Ella enjoying it. Imagine my distress when she then informed Daddy that she didn't want to go to dance class. Hush!!! She did seem to have fun, although parents have to wait in the hall so we're not distracting, so I couldn't see if she did. When I asked her she said, "I don't want to talk about it, I'll tell you next week." 4 or 14? Later she showed us how she makes an X, so it must have been at least a little fun. If you're looking for a home for outgrown leotards & skirts, we're happy to help out with that.

* I don't think I can properly convey my excitement over school supplies. I love them. New pencils, notebooks, folders, crayons. I was thrilled this year that we needed to get some supplies for Ella. She needed a pack of glue sticks, I bought 5. They were 20¢. She needed a pack of jumbo crayons, I bought 2. They were 80¢. For only 50¢ you can get a fresh start in the form of a pen. Love it. Thank you, Jesus, for back to school shopping. It's the little things, isn't it?