Heaven

Chris has been asking a lot of deep questions about heaven and what it's going to be like. Where do you live in heaven and more importantly, what do we do in heaven. So, I explained to him that we will be praising God and singing and worshipping forever. So, he looks at me for a few seconds and then comes out with... "And then what? When do we get to play with my Wii?"

These Boots Were Made For Walking

Up until this morning, I believed that there was no other activity more disheartening to a woman than shopping for a bathing suit or a pair of jeans. Both quests can make a woman have a moment of two of body image regret... (regret eating that bowl of ice cream, regret eating that piece of cake, etc.) Today, I realized that bathing suit shopping and jean shopping are a walk in the part compared to the dreaded "boot".

I went off to Marshalls this morning for some retail therapy and I wanted to buy a pair of boots. Specifically dressy boots (AKA -- boots that have no function in bad weather, are not waterproof, but boy do they look nice!) . There are so many different types of boots out there so I grabbed a mix of them (ankle boots, calf boots, knee high boots, etc.) First up was the knee high boot. I sat down and proceeded to pull them on. I had the zipper half way up my calf when IT happened.... I couldn't close the zipper! On the top part of my calf! Are you serious??? Now, call me crazy, but my calves have not changed size. (Thighs are a different story for a blog on a different day) I have not begun a body building regime so they are not muscular and super toned, but my goodness, it took me by surprise.

So then, I am reasoning to myself, that maybe the boots were cut "thin" or "narrow". You know.. if they have a "wide" shoe, maybe this was a "narrow". So, I grabbed a few other pairs, and while able to zip some of them, they just didn't look good. AT ALL. What is a girl to do? So, I guess once you hit 40, I'm best to keep the boots either at my ankles or slightly higher... no knee high boots for this girl.... I guess I better go shopping for a bathing suit or jeans to bolster my body image. LOL

Getting Ahead of Myself

I haven't even put away the summer clothes, but I have:

-Learned the words to almost every song in Christopher's upcoming Christmas play

-Purchased several Christmas gifts

-Researched airfares for our trip to Florida in December

-Updated my Christmas Card list

-Pulled out all my Christmas CDs

-Enrolled myself in a Christmas Cookie class at Cookie Crumb Productions, owned by my pastry chef friend, Melissa.

I think I'm a little ahead of myself, but I don't like frantic Decembers... I like everything in order and ready to go so I can sit back and enjoy those weeks... well, that's the plan anyway.

Why I Don't Like First Grade

Let me just say, life was simpler in Kindergarten. Everyone loved each other, they all shared, the world was a happy place. First Grade is the ANTI-kindergarten it seems. It's such a hard age... I remember being six... you learn a lot about your world and the people who make up the world. As a mom, I wish I could shield my son and tell him that everyone will love him as much as I do, everyone is always kind and that the world is a totally loving and happy place. Is it just me, or is it torture watching your child learn to navigate their way through the world?

So far, he's learned that kids are mean (for no apparent reason), that they will throw things at you and tease you just because they feel like it. He's learning how to fight his own battles and to make friends with kids that are nice to him and stay away from those who always seem to be in the "reflection" chair. He also just realized this past weekend that not everyone goes to church! I think he was SHOCKED when he realized that not everyone loves Jesus the way he does. He is growing up and I feel like I'm reliving all those childhood growing pains once again. It just means some extra time on my knees praying each day for him.

Boy, I miss kindergarten...sigh

Addendum: After talking to my concerned father, I should note that the reason why the kids seem so miserable is because they merged two elementary schools into one... so the majority of Chris' classmates are from the other school who are now trying to adjust to this new environment. It doesn't excuse bad behavior, but I truly believe things would have been a little different if they had kept the schools separate. Just my observation.

It's Been A While

So, what have I been up to?? The first week that Chris was in school, I spent my time cleaning and organizing.. not that you would know it and we are only a few weeks into the school year. Now, I am in the throws of running my business, running our home, being the Room Parent for Chris' class, bible study, walking with friends, soccer practice, soccer games, book fairs, etc. You get the picture. It's been non-stop but it's all good.

Fall just crept up on me and it's hard to believe it's time again to haul out the winter clothes. I hope with the Fall will come some more opportunities just to be home and to catch you all up on my life and blog a little about all that's happening in our little neck of the woods.

Got to close for now -- hosting 5 girlfriends at my house for coffee and some goodies. Promise to be back soon!

Kid Funny

Christopher is fascinated with all things number related: time, counting, adding, etc. So, I shouldn't have been surprised while exiting church on Sunday he hit me with, "How much do you weigh, Mom?" So, I did what any mother would have done in my shoes... turn the question around as quickly as possible. "Well, how much do you weigh?" He proudly announced that he was a whopping 48 pounds. "Wow," I said "Well, I can safely tell you that I weigh at least 10 more pounds than you do." "Ohhhh... cool" Hopefully that will satisfy him for a while.. LOL Let's just hope he doesn't ask me to get on the scale... better go hide it now

5th Grader

"Mom, are you stronger than a 5th grader?"

(Insert silence as I try to figure out where that came from)

"Um... what do you mean, honey?"

"Well... there is this game show called "Are you Stronger than a 5th Grader" on TV"

"Oh... you mean the show, "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader... Not Stronger"

"Well... are you smarter or stronger?"

"I'm going to say both"

"I think you are definitely stronger, Mom"

Thanks for the vote of confidence....

The Doughnut Creed

"As you ramble through Life, Brother,
Whatever be your goal.
Keep your eye upon the doughnut,
And not upon the hole."

What a great reminder to be thankful for what you have and not what's missing!

Quote of the Day

My husband, Steve, walked into the house last night only to receive this greeting from our 6 year old...

"Hey Mom... your husband is home!"

Too funny!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Do you hear that sound? You don't??? Get closer to your computer... closer...closer... Ok.. I'm messing with you.. There is no sound! (Did you seriously bend in closer? I bet you did!)

Anyway, the point is... there is NO sound in my house. Just my fingers clicking away on the keyboard. (My piano teacher would have a royal FIT if she saw how long my fingernails are!) Chris is at school... 2 weeks into his new school year.... 2 weeks into him being gone from 8:40 am until 4:00 pm. That's a L-O-N-G time for him to be gone and a L-O-N-G time for me to be home without the endless questions, the requests for food or drinks and to wear my hat as activities director. Don't get me wrong, I miss him.. it's too quiet. Although, I must say, my house is looking much tidier and, dare I say it ... I have some time to myself. For those of you who have endured the perils of having a child in 1/2 day kindergarten, you will sympathize with me on how brutal that was... 3 lousy hours was all you had. I was so FRAZZLED! I could barely go food shopping, unpack the groceries or clean a couple of rooms before I had to race to pick him up. It was rough. This year is a little easier. I can exercise (Not that I actually have yet, but I can when the spirit moves me) I can meet friends for lunch, I can browse in stores without someone tugging on me to look at the toy department.

Honestly, I think I am most grateful for the quiet time with God... it's not sandwiched in between brushing my teeth and putting breakfast on the table. It's actually quiet... and I can take my time... reflect and pray. What a concept!

Anyway, if nothing else I'm learning to be content in whatever season in life I am in. I was just telling my husband the other day that I really want to treasure each day we have together. Oftentimes the days just roll into each other and before you know it, our son will be in college. I just want to savor every joyous moment we have together as a family.... and while he's in school and my house is a little more quiet, I know that God will help me in using this time to not only better take care of our home and spend time working my business, but in using me for whatever purpose he has for me. So, whether you are still in the "frazzled" season of life with you kids, or are finally enjoying a little more "silence" during the day, take a deep breath and enjoy the day..whatever it may bring.

Nightmare

Chris woke up at 5 am crying... he had nightmare. He rarely gets them, so when he does, it's a big deal. Lots of crying, wailing, weeping, gnashing of teeth.. you get the idea. It only made me feel worse when I realized that I caused the nightmare.. .you see, I like to read books to Chris before bed. I pick one and he picks one. He reads one to me, and I read a bigger chapter book to him. So, last night he picked some Star Wars Clone thingy, and I read several pages about Droids, clones, light sabers, weird separatists nations, etc. He came into our room exclaiming, "It was so bad and loud..even my Star Wars Lego guys were scared!"















So, needless to say, there must be a reason why they haven't come out with a Star Wars Bed Time edition or Lullaby. IT IS NOT NIGHTTIME MATERIAL. I was firmly instructed by Christopher (and his Dad) that all Star Wars reading material must be completed way before sundown.

That's it... back to VeggieTales tonight.

Most Wondeful Time of the Year

Hope you enjoy this commercial as much as I do... it's from a few years ago, by Staples.

Waiting & an Answer

This is a follow up to my last post about Chris' prayer request... here he is waiting on the Lord so to speak...























Here he is immediately following the answer to his prayer (thanks to his Titi Shirley)

A Whisper & Prayer

This morning Chris walked into my bedroom and announced that on Sunday he learned that if we need something, all we have to do is pray to God and he'll answer the prayer. "Yes, that's right", I replied and then he dashed out of my room and into his. I peeked around the corner and saw him kneeling by his bed and whispering a prayer.

I ducked back into my room and moments later, Chris walked in with a big smile. "Mom, I prayed to God that he would give me a Lego set because that would make me really happy." "Aren't I so cute?" (and yes, he is)

Great", I replied. "Did your teacher also tell you what three responses God answers with?"

He looked puzzled, so I explained," Sometimes God says yes, sometimes God says no, and sometimes God says wait." "So, what do you think God's answer is going to be?"

"Definitely, yes", replied Chris.

Now there's some faith!!

??

Last night I posted on Facebook that my son asks questions... LOTS of questions. He was a late talker so we didn't get a whole lot of the Why? What? Where? How Much? etc. questions until he was older. Now that he is six and very verbal, my days are consumed with answering questions. If I don't answer, he just asks again LOL So, my throat is tired and my mind is ready to explode.

Today we are heading into NYC to take our friends to a cruise ship... would be nice to hop on board with them! Oh well.. maybe someday. Then we are spending the day in the city and hopefully taking Chris to the Central Park Zoo and the huge Toys R Us in Times Square. I'm sure good food is on the agenda too. Will try to remember to take a few pictures for you.

Tomorrow I have to finish my preparations for my dad's upcoming visit. He'll be with us about two weeks so we are very excited to have him come stay with us. I have lots of fun things planned for while he is here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

He's Got A Plan!

My son's new favorite TV show is WipeOut, where contestants are put through a demanding physical challenge in the form of various obstacles, designed to trip them up and land them in mud or water. He just loves watching these people attempt to go through the obstacles.

So, for the last week or so, he's mentioned to me that he wants to be a contestant. I told him he was too young, but that wasn't good enough. He wanted me to find out more information. So, I looked it up and here are the qualifications that I read to him just a few minutes ago:

* You must be at least 18 years old
* You must be a legal U.S. resident
* You must be able to swim
* You must be a California resident
* You must be fun, strong-willed, outgoing, and have a great sense of humor

"So, Chris, you only meet two out of the five requirements because you are not 18, you are still learning to swim and we don't live in California."

"That's okay, Mom, after we live in Florida (because he is determined for us to go back there someday and live right next door to my sister (and more importantly, her pool)), we can move to California! Ok.. so Florida, Mom, and then California."

He's got it all planned out... I hate to be the one to tell him that there is no way I'm moving to California just to establish residency for him to be a contestant on a show that will likely be off the air by then anyway.

Amazing Grace

Just posting a wonderful worship song... a nice spin on a classic hymn. Have a great day everyone!

Today's Chuckle

Chris was invited to a birthday party today at Chuck E Cheese's... my former pastor used to joke that the concept of Chuck E. Cheese came from the pit of hell -- a room of screaming kids where all you do is watch them go insane for a few hours and willingly give them money to do so. Anyway, Chris was so young the last time we went there, that he didn't remember any of it so he was really looking forward to going today.

Now, the closest Chuck E Cheese is easily 45 minutes away (which, I have concluded, is a good thing. During the whole drive all I heard was "How far to Chuckie Jesus? How far to Chuckie Jesus?" I said Christopher, it's Chuck E Cheese.. not Chuckie Jesus.. He didn't believe me until he saw the sign. It was truly a good laugh.

Sunday

So, yesterday turned into an interesting day. We arrived home from church and I had just sat down to finish watching a movie when I noticed what looked like a dark spot on our carpet in the area between our living room and dining room. At first I thought maybe Chris had spilled something so I went over to investigate. It was about a 12 inch area that was wet. I asked Chris and he said he hadn't been over in that area... his thought was that maybe my husband's shoes were wet when he came inside. We had a ton or rain that day, but I knew that was not likely since we always take our shoes off when we come inside the house. So, as I am standing there investigating the spot, a drop of water lands on my head. That can't be good... I look up and sure enough there is a 12 inch area of water droplets on the ceiling sheetrock. We are standing directly below the bathroom. Then I notice another, smaller area in the ceiling that has water droplets on it as well.

This is the part where I become thankful... what? Thankful.. Yes, thankful. You see, I was supposed to be in Dallas, but I was home instead. My husband was home. We weren't on vacation somewhere. We had caught this early. Not only that, but God puts people in our lives for a reason. My good friend's husband is a general contractor... who happened to be home and able to come right over with his truck and tools. He was able to get the sheetrock down, and we have a plan in place for fixing the problem. (Believe it or not a neighbor had a similar problem so we have to recaulk the bathroom!) So, I was thankful - even though this is an inconvenience... God still takes care of us.

Here's a picture of what our living room/dining room looks like now. And how was your Sunday?

Picnic In the Park

We decided to go on a spur of the moment picnic on Saturday. Living here in the mountains of western New Jersey, there is no lack of State Parks to choose from. So, we made some sandwiches, grabbed some drinks, snacks, picnic basket and blanket and took off on our adventure. We had done this one other time and had a great time down by the Delaware Water Gap. This time we wanted to stay a little closer to home. So, we picked a state park that is just about 20 minutes from our home. The mountain is so beautiful... incredible views!

So, we pulled into the deserted parking lot, saw about 7 - 10 picnic tables in this little clearing and that was about it. There was a little shed which looked way too small to even be a bathroom and absolutely not another soul around other than the 3 of us. I was feeling a little uneasy for no good reason at all. Maybe it's the New Yorker... you know.. going into "foreign" territory (aka a park) puts my entire body on full alert. (If I was in a NYC subway by contrast, I probably would have been fine - go figure!). Anyway, we walk over with all our gear to the picnic tables only to be greeted with a sign that was bolted down to the corner of the table. In big bold letters it said " YOU ARE IN BEAR COUNTRY!" There were 3 or 4 sentences underneath it that I didn't even bother to read... You had me at "Bear Country". Now, this wasn't a news flash.. there have been bear sightings in my own neighborhood and one was killed by a car last week not far from where we live. But do I want to have to eat my sandwich with the fear that Yogi is going to come scampering out of the wilderness to join me? No thank you. So, Steve & I looked at each other, grabbed our things and explained to Chris that we were going to have a different kind of picnic. (Thank God I have a husband who is from the city like me who understands what my limits are!)

Back to the mini van we walked. I opened the back, readjusted the chairs so that the back row of seats folded down to a flat surface, laid out our blanket and set up our picnic... that's right.. in the minivan... with the back hatch/door closed shut. It was like being in the park without having to BE IN THE PARK. It even smelled like the park because when we arrived at the park, I had doused each of us with OFF to make sure that the mosquitoes didn't attack us. We were prepared LOL.

We enjoyed a nice lunch while watching Toy Story 2 on my son's video player. I personally had one eye on the player and one eye watching out for Yogi. Although Yogi was not spotted during our time there.. I had a feeling he was close by (I watched too many horror movies in my youth).

Not sure we'll be going on a picnic anytime soon...well.. maybe at the beach.