As I'm typing this I'm sitting in the kitchen. From here I can smell the pumpkin bread baking in the oven, I can feel the clutter of Christmas wrappings, and I can see Thom and Kara sitting at the dining room table showing Thom's grandmother all of the latest sites on the Internet. She's now had Lessons in Facebook, LinkedIn, Hulu.com, Twitter and Webkinz world. Thom is as gentle with her as if he were teaching a small child and she's soaking it all in and asking good question. It's very sweet, but not the first sweet moment of today.
Just a few minutes ago Kara and I were sitting together in our new "big chair" in the living room. It's the kind of chair that a grown-up can sit in and a kid can sit across you resting their legs on the big, round arms of the chair. Kara and I were having a very serious conversation. Over the years Kara has often inquired the answer to the question "are we poor?" For a while this was based on our residence in an apartment rather than a house. Sometimes this related to some random comment about whether or not we could afford something, sometimes it just seemed the question itself was random. Either way it has been a recurrent theme for her. So, today we were again revisiting this question. She had a wonderful Christmas, but overheard a bit of conversation that concerned her, so we were having a serious Mommy-Daughter talk. I remembered that although I had talked with quite a few adults about my recent feelings on staying steadfast in trusting in the Lord, I had not really talked with Kara about this. Here was my chance. We talked about the challenges this year had presented. We talked about James Chapter 1 and we talked about what it means to be steadfast in our trust of the Lord for all things. The conversation concluded with me saying I was not planning on losing hope in God and as long as we had hope in God, we would not ever be truly poor. So, I asked her, are you planning on losing hope in God? And she answered me with the look of a true believer and said "would I ever do that?" and hopped off my lap secure in her hope in the Lord.
Ok, one more sweet Christmas story. For weeks now the only Christmas wish from Caleb has been for a vacuum cleaner. And not just any vacuum cleaner. He wanted the toy Hoover Windtunnel Upright with attachments. To the best of my knowledge it hasn't been in a store since 2006 and only one has been on eBay in the last two months. Look it up -- it's over $100 on Amazon and that's if they have one. So, first we tried to convince him any vacuum would do just fine. He didn't buy that. One night, about three weeks ago, we were sitting at the dinner table talking with Caleb about Jesus and Santa -- who was real, who do we worship, etc. So, I asked Caleb -- "What has Jesus done for you?" -- of course I was hoping for the words "He died on the cross for my sins." -- nope, I get "Jesus has a vacuum cleaner?" It was all Thom and I could do to keep from laughing ! After this we began seriously thinking --- we need to find this boy the vacuum of his dreams! So, we sent a note out on Twitter -- to the whole free world and some of the not-so-free world. We got back one response -- from very close friends at our church!!! Sure enough Jesus had a vacuum cleaner for Caleb -- it just happened to visit our friend's house for a few years first.
Fast forward to last night. It's 10pm and the little guy COULD not fall asleep. Armed with a green crayon and a piece of paper he snatched from his sister, he wanted to write a letter to Santa. Evidently the voices of his friends and teachers are just as loud as Mommy & Daddy and Santa-lore lives on. Ok, we'll write him a letter. After some scribbly attempts on his own, I offered to take dicatation. He told me line by line : "Dear Santa, I want a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. Mommy and Daddy love you. Grandma and Papa love you. I love my friends Ben and Greyson." He paused and looked at me.
"Mommy, what about Jesus?" he asked.
"What about Jesus, Caleb?"
"We forgot Jesus." he said.
"What did we forget about Jesus, Caleb?"
"We forgot to write Jesus."
"Do you want me to write something about Jesus."
"We need to write Jesus."
"Caleb, do you want this letter to GO to Jesus."
"Yes, Mommy!!"
"Ok, can we cross out Santa and write Jesus instead."
"Oh, yes, Mommy!"
So, I drew a big green X through Santa and wrote Jesus up above. And re-read the letter.
"Dear Jesus, I want a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. Mommy and Daddy love you. Grandma and Papa love you. I love my friends Ben and Greyson. I love you, too. Caleb."
Then we had to draw a picture of the vacuum cleaner on the back and Caleb slept holding this piece of paper.
6:45 AM -- Caleb is up the stairs and heading to the presents. When he saw the vacuum cleaner, his mouth fell open and he announced "What in the world?! It's a vacuum cleaner!!"
About two hours later we were sitting eating breakfast in the kitchen. Caleb leaned over to me and said:
"Mommy, I'm yucky."
"No, you're not Caleb. You're yummy."
"No, Mommy, I'm yucky."
"Caleb, what part of you is yucky?"
"No, Mommy, I'm yuck-y" He said slowly and I got it!
"Oh, Caleb, do you mean you're Lucky?!"
"Yes, Mommy. I'm yucky."
"Why are you lucky Caleb?"
He hopped up from the table and ran from the room. A minute or two later he came back in holding his letter to Jesus. "See Mommy. I'm yucky."
I was astounded. How many three year olds do you know who feel fortunate or blessed or lucky? It seems in this day and age, most kids feel entitled, sometimes even disappointed. I feel lucky that my little guy feels lucky today. I pray that all of our prayers could be answered as simply as Caleb's little vacuum cleaner. And if not, I pray that all of us could have Kara's confidence that she will never have a time in her life where she would give up on trusting in God.
Remember to enjoy the Gift of Christmas every day of your life. Christmas is supposed to be a Holy-Day, not just a holiday and it is here to remind us that the truth of Jesus is true every day. May 2009 be a blessing in your life!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
So, what's been going on...
It used to seem easy to just hop online and write up a new post for the family blog. It was like grabbing the journal or diary on my nightstand and jotting down the events of the day, but lately it's been more like climbing Mount Everest.
When we started this blog our life was a 1,000 -- a million -- miles away from what it is now. In 2005 we wrote more than 250 posts, more than in all the years since then. And it's not that our lives have gotten less interesting, if anything it's exactly the opposite -- our lives are so full, we forget to take time to jot anything down. When Kara was a new baby I had completed two full journals about her life by the time she was three -- with Caleb, I'm still on the same journal as the week he was born!
So, why am I writing this? Well, it IS NOT to say that we're giving up on the blog. If anything, it's more like a New Year's Resolution. On the other hand, for those of you on Facebook, you're more likely to get a Twitter-length note from me than a the well-thought-out post on here.
So... here's a little time-capsule sort of update for what is going on Dec. 2008-- before any more time passes....
Since I usually save myself for last or forget to write anything about me at all, I'll start with me--- I've been very consistant with my writing this year. I've written five biographical articles each month this year, except for July -- due to my Grandmother's illness and passing. I have learned and forgotten more biographical facts about individuals whose names I know cannot remember than I ever thought possible. I am WAY, WAY behind in my scrapbooking -- my scrapbooks don't even know that the world made it to 2008, but I'm hoping to get a little more caught up in the New Year -- again with the pseudo-resolutions. For those of you who haven't seen me in a while, my hair has gotten seriously long, down to the middle of my back. For those of you who see me all the time -- that's how long it is when I take it down out of the clips I usually wear! :-) Again with the resolutions -- I've put on a few unwelcome pounds this year and I'm planning on losing them regardless of the date on the calendar. I just need to do that for me. My parents have gifted us their stationary bike and I plan on making the most of that, as soon as the garage is cleaner and the site of it doesn't give me heart palpatations and shortness of breath. Enough about me.
Thom is plugging along through the job hunt. As I'm pretty sure everyone knows, he has been home since being let go from Thomas Nelson on November 12. The official word was - lay-offs. He got some severance, some COBRA coverage and help from an outplacement services firm that helps corporate types plan out their job hunt. So far so good. Thom has become a networking guru! He signed up on LinkedIn and appears to be pretty well linked. He's got some great references and has seen a bit of forward movement on three possible job leads. The most promising one may pan out in the first month or so of the new year. It would be an excellent opportunity for him to use his past contacts through Gordon-Conwell and his work in publishing to help a publishing house expand their evangelical author base. We are quite hopeful that this is the plan God has for us. Until then he is keeping busy with freelance proofing projects from Thomas Nelson. He is also getting a much better understanding of why I often have called him toward the end of the day wondering how soon he'll be home! -- the kids can drive you crazy sometimes just being kids.
As for the kids --- Caleb is FULL OF HIMSELF lately! Since trying to munch on the light bulb he has gotten in trouble for trying to clean the bathtub with Comet -- a project he took on while Daddy and I were downstairs cleaning up Kara's room for no more than ten minutes. He's also had the less than stellar experience of biting another child and drawing blood -- this happened at school. AND, he's developing a talent for altering the truth. This last one he's really not so good at. He tells the truth until he gets in trouble and then suddenly and, quite dramatically, he announces that no, in fact, the opposite is true. An example of this came up when the full story of the biting came out. Apparently the other child had brought a panda to school for Share Time (show & tell) when I called Caleb down particularly for not taking someone else's Share toy he listened long enough to figure out that was the problem and then stretched out both arms for emphasis and announced "It was not a share toy." Busted! Now he had biten a boy AND lied. We're working on that! On the more positive side, he loves to perform. He needs a stage -- a blanket, a chair, whatever works. Oh yeah, and he needs a microphone, but not a tiny little Lego-built microphone -- "That one's too small." Once it's all set he usually makes it about four words into the song before dejectedly wandering off-stage dissappointed in his own performance. Soon after, he'll return, only to leave again after the same four words.
Kara is an eight-year-old enigma. She is doing great in school, but acts like she hates homework, but then wants to stay up late practicing her spelling words. She hates hearing people scream about anything, but can't seem to get her personal volume control set lower than the SCREECH setting. She reacts to a stubbed toe like she's Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween. She doesn't want to get her good school sneakers dirty so she never wears them anywhere except school, but I'm perpetually having to remind her to pull up the back of her pants. Some days she'll eat everything on her plate like she's never seen food before and other days I'm not sure how she grows. She loves Legos, and baby dolls, and Star Wars, and Barbie Dolls, and Star Wars Legos, and Pollypockets and Webkinz and computer games, but when you ask her what she wants for Christmas she doesn't know. She's a mostly happy girl, I think, she is compliant about her braces and enjoys picking out new colors for her bracket holders, but if you ask her if she likes going to the dentist she gives you a vague look like "seriously?" She has glasses, we know this because we find them on every flat surface in the house except for her face. But if she leaves them at home, she'll go to the school office and call to have me bring them to her. A friend once said that eight-year old girls go through some sort of early round of hormones -- I'm thinking she was right!
Well, this is our life. If you get our Christmas letter, it'll read a little prettier, but this isn't a Christmas letter, just blog -- web-log, diary entry, Star Date December 16, 2008. --- that's for any fellow closet Trekkies out there.
When we started this blog our life was a 1,000 -- a million -- miles away from what it is now. In 2005 we wrote more than 250 posts, more than in all the years since then. And it's not that our lives have gotten less interesting, if anything it's exactly the opposite -- our lives are so full, we forget to take time to jot anything down. When Kara was a new baby I had completed two full journals about her life by the time she was three -- with Caleb, I'm still on the same journal as the week he was born!
So, why am I writing this? Well, it IS NOT to say that we're giving up on the blog. If anything, it's more like a New Year's Resolution. On the other hand, for those of you on Facebook, you're more likely to get a Twitter-length note from me than a the well-thought-out post on here.
So... here's a little time-capsule sort of update for what is going on Dec. 2008-- before any more time passes....
Since I usually save myself for last or forget to write anything about me at all, I'll start with me--- I've been very consistant with my writing this year. I've written five biographical articles each month this year, except for July -- due to my Grandmother's illness and passing. I have learned and forgotten more biographical facts about individuals whose names I know cannot remember than I ever thought possible. I am WAY, WAY behind in my scrapbooking -- my scrapbooks don't even know that the world made it to 2008, but I'm hoping to get a little more caught up in the New Year -- again with the pseudo-resolutions. For those of you who haven't seen me in a while, my hair has gotten seriously long, down to the middle of my back. For those of you who see me all the time -- that's how long it is when I take it down out of the clips I usually wear! :-) Again with the resolutions -- I've put on a few unwelcome pounds this year and I'm planning on losing them regardless of the date on the calendar. I just need to do that for me. My parents have gifted us their stationary bike and I plan on making the most of that, as soon as the garage is cleaner and the site of it doesn't give me heart palpatations and shortness of breath. Enough about me.
Thom is plugging along through the job hunt. As I'm pretty sure everyone knows, he has been home since being let go from Thomas Nelson on November 12. The official word was - lay-offs. He got some severance, some COBRA coverage and help from an outplacement services firm that helps corporate types plan out their job hunt. So far so good. Thom has become a networking guru! He signed up on LinkedIn and appears to be pretty well linked. He's got some great references and has seen a bit of forward movement on three possible job leads. The most promising one may pan out in the first month or so of the new year. It would be an excellent opportunity for him to use his past contacts through Gordon-Conwell and his work in publishing to help a publishing house expand their evangelical author base. We are quite hopeful that this is the plan God has for us. Until then he is keeping busy with freelance proofing projects from Thomas Nelson. He is also getting a much better understanding of why I often have called him toward the end of the day wondering how soon he'll be home! -- the kids can drive you crazy sometimes just being kids.
As for the kids --- Caleb is FULL OF HIMSELF lately! Since trying to munch on the light bulb he has gotten in trouble for trying to clean the bathtub with Comet -- a project he took on while Daddy and I were downstairs cleaning up Kara's room for no more than ten minutes. He's also had the less than stellar experience of biting another child and drawing blood -- this happened at school. AND, he's developing a talent for altering the truth. This last one he's really not so good at. He tells the truth until he gets in trouble and then suddenly and, quite dramatically, he announces that no, in fact, the opposite is true. An example of this came up when the full story of the biting came out. Apparently the other child had brought a panda to school for Share Time (show & tell) when I called Caleb down particularly for not taking someone else's Share toy he listened long enough to figure out that was the problem and then stretched out both arms for emphasis and announced "It was not a share toy." Busted! Now he had biten a boy AND lied. We're working on that! On the more positive side, he loves to perform. He needs a stage -- a blanket, a chair, whatever works. Oh yeah, and he needs a microphone, but not a tiny little Lego-built microphone -- "That one's too small." Once it's all set he usually makes it about four words into the song before dejectedly wandering off-stage dissappointed in his own performance. Soon after, he'll return, only to leave again after the same four words.
Kara is an eight-year-old enigma. She is doing great in school, but acts like she hates homework, but then wants to stay up late practicing her spelling words. She hates hearing people scream about anything, but can't seem to get her personal volume control set lower than the SCREECH setting. She reacts to a stubbed toe like she's Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween. She doesn't want to get her good school sneakers dirty so she never wears them anywhere except school, but I'm perpetually having to remind her to pull up the back of her pants. Some days she'll eat everything on her plate like she's never seen food before and other days I'm not sure how she grows. She loves Legos, and baby dolls, and Star Wars, and Barbie Dolls, and Star Wars Legos, and Pollypockets and Webkinz and computer games, but when you ask her what she wants for Christmas she doesn't know. She's a mostly happy girl, I think, she is compliant about her braces and enjoys picking out new colors for her bracket holders, but if you ask her if she likes going to the dentist she gives you a vague look like "seriously?" She has glasses, we know this because we find them on every flat surface in the house except for her face. But if she leaves them at home, she'll go to the school office and call to have me bring them to her. A friend once said that eight-year old girls go through some sort of early round of hormones -- I'm thinking she was right!
Well, this is our life. If you get our Christmas letter, it'll read a little prettier, but this isn't a Christmas letter, just blog -- web-log, diary entry, Star Date December 16, 2008. --- that's for any fellow closet Trekkies out there.
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