Productivity

It's 9:24 Monday morning, and I have already been super productive.

It was a great weekend. We had dinner with some new friends on Friday night. It was a fabulous evening of connection, time both Mike and I needed!

Saturday night was the big surprise party for my friend JoAnna. Another great opportunity for Mike and I to connect with others. We even stayed to listen to Dick Dale, surf guitarist, for a bit before heading home.

We pulled into our house that night, tired and ready to fall into bed, when I opened the back door and heard this strange beeping noise.

Hmmm.

I walked down the hallway and soon realized it was the washer. I had never heard this odd insistent beeping noise it was emitting.

I opened the laundry closet door, or tried to open it, when I realized the door to our front loader was ajar, and being held partially closed by the closet door. I reached in and tried to shut it but there were clothes spilling out and I really had to push.

I finally got the washer door closed enough to open the closet door, and that is when I realized there was water EVERYWHERE!

Apparently, the locking mechanism on our washer door decided that in the middle of a wash cycle was a good time to stop, well, locking.

So instead of going to bed we were cleaning up water. The funny thing is that the washer is still acting like it is locking, and doesn't seem to think it has a problem, so I have no idea how long this has been going on.

That was my first order of business this morning. I called those Whirlpool guys and made an appointment for Thursday afternoon. This family of 6 will have to take our chances on the locking door, because a week without laundry isn't going to work here :)

Also, this morning I sent an email to the local Magnet Arts and Tech. high school, to see if they are willing to accept a part time student. Faith is very interested in attending part time in the fall, and I would love some help with some of these subjects that aren't in my skill subset.

While all of that was happening, I was making sure all the kids were started on their assignments for the day, figuring out dinner for tonight, and answering neglected email from the weekend!

If only I can be this productive the rest of the day :)

Kristen

What Does Your T-Shirt Say?

Once again, school is overtaking everything!

Love my classes this semester. Lots of art, literature, and philosophical analysis and interpretation. I am enjoying it, and trying to get everything I can out of it. After these classes just two more next semester and I graduate!

Kids are doing great in school.

Faith started using Video Text Interactive this year for Pre-Algebra and Algebra. We are really loving it and can't recommend it enough! Bit pricey, but really well worth the price, so far. Going to find out in the next month or so, what our options are for Faith going to high school part time. Pretty sure I don't want it to be a full day, and neither does she, but would like the access to activities offered there. We shall see.

Great things at the Orchard. Awesome to be involved in a place that cares about the community. One that realizes that it is all about unconditional love for people and not love with an agenda. Loved the song from this weekend Mike did "T-Shirts" by Derek Webb . The lyrics say it all:

they'll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
they'll know us by the way we point and stare
at anyone whose sin looks worse than ours
who cannot hide the scars of this curse that we all bare

they’ll know us by our picket lines and signs
they’ll know us by the pride we hide behind
like anyone on earth is living right
and isn’t that why Jesus died
not to make us think we’re right

chorus
when love, love, love
is what we should be known for
love, love, love
it’s the how and it’s the why
we live and breathe and we die

they’ll know us by reasons we divide
and how we can’t seem to unify
because we’ve gotta sing songs a certain style
or we’ll walk right down that aisle
and just leave ‘em all behind

they’ll know us by the billboards that we make
just turning God’s words to cheap clichés
says “what part of murder don’t you understand?”
but we hate our fellow man
and point a finger at his grave

chorus
they'll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
they'll know us by the way we point and stare
telling ‘em their sins are worse than ours
thinking we can hide our scars
beneath these t-shirts that we wear

What a sad commentary about the christian community. Love that the Orchard is all about letting people know what we stand for, instead of what we stand against. Jesus loved the people, hung with the sinners, and criticized the religious community. So if we want to be true Christ-followers we should be loving people where they are at and showing them the love they need, not telling them all the things they do wrong, as if we ourselves are blameless.

Okay, that's it for now.

Kristen

Tagged- 6 Random Things

My brother-in-law tagged me.

1. Post these rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of you post (I’m making this optional to relieve any guilt, including my own for continuing this).
4. If you get tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag.
5. If you don’t do it, I will be crushed emotionally and will probably never recover from the rejection. Okay, maybe I will.

So here it goes. Six random things about myself.


1) I like mayonnaise on my french fries not ketchup.

2) I love to read but have no patience for unimportant details in a book and will skip pages to avoid them.

3) If I am going to wear open toed shoes my toe nails must be painted. No chips or cracks!

4) I love the smell of my little boys when they have been playing outside.

5) I joined the tennis team in high school not because I was good at it (because I really, really wasn't) but because I really liked the little tennis skirts.

6) Since taking typing in high school, I type constantly. Like when I am watching a movie, I will type lines over and over again on my leg. OCD? Maybe.

And one more just because I like the number seven more than 6. (That fact kind of makes it eight though doesn't it?)

7) I love to throw things away. It actually gives me pleasure. Sometimes I get in trouble for accidentally throwing away important stuff, like car titles. OOPS!!!

Let's see I need to try and tag people that I have not seen this on their blogs, okay how about, Mike, Mandy D., Mandy C., Leeanne, Jen b, and I would love to tag Renee but she did it only a bit ago so I won't make her do it again.

Kristen

Stuff Christians Like

This is just too hilarious. If you don't read this guys stuff you are seriously missing out. He is so funny.

But as I was browsing his blog today, I came across this and I laughed so hard. If you aren't a regular reader go and read #368 part 1 and 2.

Enjoy!

Kristen

Age Old Problem

If you are a parent of children, who can talk, I am sure you can relate to what I am about to write.

Today, after we had finished up our school time I was having everyone do a quick tidy when I came into my little office space and found my new trash can filled. I got a bag and began dumping it when I noticed that there were pencil shavings in my trash can. Now, this may seem like a small thing to you but I can't tell you how much I despise pencil shavings. And when I bought my new little trash can for my office space I asked the kids individually to please not put their pencil shavings in my trash can, they can dump them in the big trash can in the kitchen.

So, I was a little annoyed that this had happened. It now needed to be cleaned out. I called the kids together and asked who had done it.

Nobody.

Of course. I could have told you that was who did it before they said it.

Do you ever just get so tired of this "nobody". I know it is nothing new. I remember being a kid. I remember reading the family circus cartoons and the ghost "nobody" did everything.

But I'd had it with nobody this time. I was pretty sure I knew who the culprit was but wanted him to admit it. So I told them they were all grounded until the person who did, admits to it.

I thought I was pretty sly here. I knew the one who I suspected wouldn't be able to stand for this and would come forward. Or so I thought.

The next thing I hear is Joshi's little voice say,"Mommy, I did it." (yeah I am about 99% positive it wasn't him)

Oh no.

As they all stood around staring at me waiting to see what I would do I told him he was now the only one grounded for the day. He would have to go to his room and sit there.

This sucks. I know he didn't do it. Someone talked him into taking the fall and now he is being punished. This went totally wrong.

He is sitting in his room upstairs, crying. All because I tried to beat nobody.

Now what? Is this "Nobody" unbeatable?

Kristen

Tagged

My friend Joni tagged me. So here it goes.


10 years ago I was:
The mother to a 2 year old and a one week old.
Tired
Busy
Alone a lot. Mike was in school full time and working at Motorola full time.
Serving and teaching at a halfway house every Sunday with Mike and a group of friends.

Five things to do today:
Do math lessons with all kids. (done)
Go on nature scavenger hunt for science at the nature preserve. (done)
Lay by pool while kids swim. (done)
Water veggie plants. (not yet)
Make dinner. (almost done- chicken cooking for enchilada casserole)

Snack I enjoy:
Salty stuff. Then sweet. Then back to salty.

Things I would do if a Millionaire:
Pay off Orchard's mortgage.
Pay off our mortgage.
Pay off cars and debt.
Adopt baby from another country.
Have a vacation place in Jamaica.

Places I have lived:

Chula Vista, California

Tempe, Arizona

Flagstaff, Arizona

Mesa, Arizona

Gilbert, Arizona

Troutman, North Carolina

Naperville, Illinois

Running With Scissors

So yesterday I had a near fatal, near accident.

See, I had finished with cleaning all the carpets, and I was doing some repair work on this one pesky area rug that insists on curling at the corners. I had read that if you tape cardboard triangles to the corners it will stop them from curling. (in case your interested the corners now stay down but the sides are curling up, go figure.)

After completing my tape job I took the tape and scissors into the laundry room to put them up on the shelf, but I was moving quickly and ran into the carpet cleaner that I had left in the middle of the laundry room. Stubbing my toe and beginning to fall forward I remembered the scissors in my hand and began to worry that I was going to stab myself in the eye. It plays back in my mind in slow motion. It goes kind of like this- walking quickly, trip on vacuum, beginning to fall, scissors!, catch myself at the last minute from falling on scissors.

I didn't fall on the scissors. But it got me to thinking. How safe is the "safety position" when carrying scissors. My mom taught me and in turn I taught my children this position, you know the hold-the-scissors-by-the-sharp-part-position. But really why is that safer than holding them by the handle while walking? And why do they have to be at your side with the handle pointing down? Would holding them over your head be that much more dangerous? And who thought of this position? And did they do experiments to see if it was, in deed, safer than carrying them over your head?

I got to thinking that maybe it would be better to teach your children to drop the scissors in case of a fall. I think that would be much safer. You may hit a toe but your vital organs would be safe.

I can see it now, we could even think up a song. You know like the stop, drop, and roll chant in case you catch on fire. But maybe it could be stop, drop the scissors before you fall.

We really would need someone to do some experimenting and see which way is safer.

Anybody?

Kristen

A Tale of Two Walmarts

The Walmart in Glasgow, Kentucky is different in a lot of ways. But here is a brief dramatization to explain the major difference. For your own enjoyment you may want to do a thick southern accent for the Walmart employee in Ky.

Walmart Chicago suburbs today-

Chicago Walmart employee- "Hi, How are you today?"

Me- "Good thank you."

silence while doing her job.

Chicago Walmart employee- "That will be $27.89."

Chicago Walmart employee- "Thanks have a nice day."

Me- "You too!"

I leave.

Walmart Glasgow, Ky last week-

Glasgow Walmart employee - "Hi There! How is the weather outside today?"

Me- "It's nice."

Glasgow Walmart employee- "OH MY GAWD!!! This Peach has my name on it!! Can you believe this peach has my name on it???!!! Can I have the stick'a off a your peach?"

Me- "Sure."

Walmart employee removing tag off my peach and sticking it on her name tag- "My name is Zimmer, ya just don't see my name on peaches!!"

Me- "No, I'm sure you don't."

Glasgow Walmart employee Zimmer- "Oh artichokes, you know these things have little spikes on them, so be careful. You would be surprised at the people who don't know they have spikes. How do you eat your artichokes?"

Me- "Oh, usually with butter or mayonnaise."

Glasgow Walmart employee Zimmer- (with a dreamy look) "I wonda what they would taste like friiiiiied?"

(Just a note here, you have the zucchini, mushroom, potato, okra, pickle, green bean and even the twinkie can we just go ahead and leave the poor artichoke unfried?)

Glasgow Walmart employee Zimmer- "Okay that will be $20.56....Oh My GAWD she looks just like that girl, that one actress. Ya know that one actress?"

Me- "No."

Walmart employee Zimmer- "The one lady, from Joan of Arc, she looks just like her but miniature ya know?"

Me- "Okay, thanks bye now."

Walmart employee Zimmer- "Okay bye now, have a good day." (speaking to the next customer) "So how's the weather outside?"

Kristen

Random Thoughts

Leaving on Friday. Mom Jones is doing better and should be home from the hospital today.

Mike's got busy couple of weeks coming up. Pray for him. The single-working-Dad-with-two- little-boys-adventure should be interesting. (But he rocks so he will do great!)

The kids are finishing up with the Roman Empire and reading Acts this week.

Home made split Pea soup for dinner with hot bread. Yes, it feels like winter again. Glad I didn't plant the veg. plants yet.

The pools open. No we won't be going yet.

Just added an 8-minute ab workout that is killing me.

Jasmine got her toenails painted pink yesterday.

Watched first two hours of Ben-Hur yesterday with the kids. Part two today.

Must finish 400+ pages of book I am reading, before I leave, because it is due while I am gone and I can't renew it.

The week after we return from Kentucky I am taking Faith and her best friend Sarah to Wicked for Faith's birthday.

Three days later the kids leave for AZ for two weeks.

That is everything in my brain right now.

Kristen

PUKE

Do you remember the first time you threw up in public?

I do.

Yesterday brought it all back. Poor Luke.

We went to lunch with the Mitchell family after church and Luke was looking a little weak.

He complained of his stomach and like good adults we told him to suck it up and he would be fine.

He wasn't.

Poor Luke.

I won't go into the details but we ended lunch early and went home.

Then I remembered. Second grade. I told the teacher I didn't feel good. She told me I was fine. I sat down at my desk to do my health worksheet on FOOD.

Oh yeah, I looked at about two pictures of food items and lost it. I ran but by that time it was too late. All over everything.

It is one of those things you never forget. So glad we were part of Lukey's.

Kristen

Won't You Be My Neighbor

Sorry folks this is going to be long.

Had a bad dog/kid/ neighbor experience this week, but was still too upset to write about it until today. Thanks, Joni for helping me to be able to laugh at it all a little.

So Jazzy is a great dog. We lover her very much. She is great with the kids, low maintenance, very protective of her house, super gentle with people that come over. She is a good dog. But she really, really, really loves to run. And be chased.

When we first moved here we had the kids taking her out on a leash because of our lack of a fence. She is pretty smart though, and realized that if Kylee took her out she could give one good yank and be out of here. This caused numerous problems but the biggest was with my dog HATING neighbor. We quickly put up a fence to avoid anymore problems but that also irritated my neighbor.

After the fence a whole new problem came about. We had to somehow teach the kids that if they were going to go out the front door the dog had to be in the yard. So the fence did cut down the running away, but it has not eliminated it.

(This is where any of you who train dogs, and would like to chime in and help a girl out, should feel free.)

So Jazzy runs away a couple times a year. Also, I have to say here that she doesn't love the cold so living here is to my advantage because as long as there is snow on the ground she pretty much stays home where it is warm.

But it is spring now.

So last week Joshi was outside riding his bike with his brother and sisters. And as the good mother that I am I had no idea that they were riding bikes out front. I did know they were outside. I also didn't know that my neighbor had just had her drive way seal coated. I am in the house Josh opens the door the wind blows the door all the way open and out goes Jaz. I run out right after her, but she is gone! I mean gone. Then I hear the yelling.

I look over and there is my neighbor. Yelling at me. Yes, yelling. She is very angry and shouting something about my son, and how he ran his bike over her newly seal coated driveway. Oh my gosh. Of all the things. Of all the people. I look at Josh, who is standing by his bike and say, "Joshi we told you not to go in OTHER people's drive ways." Okay really, we have just told him not to go in her drive way.

But she is not appeased. Joshi is saying something about how he didn't drive in her driveway and she is screaming that he did and she saw him. And she is very upset because his bike got some tar on her bricks that line her drive way.

I apologized. But she just continued on, then got on her cell phone and began yelling at who ever is on the phone about the damage.

Meanwhile, I am upset and really mad at the dog. That is when she says it. "I really hope your dog doesn't come back and run all over my driveway too!"

Okay I can't remain calm any more. I was nice. I said I was sorry. At this point I was afraid to go over there because I didn't know if I could maintain my Christ-follower attitude. So I walked in the house to get my keys to go and look for the dog.

When I walked in I heard my very angry neighbor speed away in her car. I walked back out and went to look at the damage. Okay folks, here is what happened. Joshi was riding down the sidewalk and being a five year old on two wheels probably lost control right around the corner of my neighbors driveway and swerved a little. There was, literally, a twelve inch tire mark on her driveway. A tiny bit of tar on the brick.

I was pretty mad at this point. This is where I would like to stop and apologize to some of my unfortunate friends who happened to call during this time. Terri, Mike, Paula, I would like to say I am sorry for the things I said.

Okay, I feel better.

So I got in the car and drove around looking for Jaz. After two rounds of the neighborhood, and my friend up the street deciding she was going to go and look too, here comes Jaz up the street on a leash with Seth and some little girls.

Seth had found her three entire neighborhoods over and these girls had helped him get her on a leash and walk her home.

I have to say the hardest part had to be the kids witnessing the whole thing and me maintaining composure and teaching through it. I just kept telling them that we needed to be kind to this lady and understand that she must have a lot of unhappiness in her life to get so upset. We talked about loving our neighbors, even the ones who hate us. This was all very hard especially when I was so upset that day, but I also know that the kids pick up on my anger and would mimic it if I wasn't careful.

Mike came home and saw the "damage" and waited for the husband to come home. He has always been very reasonable.

And he was this time too. We offered to have the "damage" fixed and he assured us that the problem was not our tire mark but the bad job the seal coating company had done.

So, she was mad about the lame job the seal coaters had done and not so much about the Joshi mark. But decided to take out her anger on me and my son.

Oh, and one more thing I am also sorry that I hoped for it to rain that night. Which it did.

Kristen

Hair Dresser

I have the coolest hair dresser! She totally rocks. Not only is she completely and totally talented but she is a blast to be around.

I went yesterday to get my hair cut. She actually works in a nice salon, but does my hair out of her home on her days she is not at the salon. Paula has been having her do her hair for years and is the one who set us up.

Anyways, yesterday while she was doing my hair we were having fun and I realized that Paula and her and I need to go out and have a night out together. So I asked her to join us for some girl time and she said she would love it.

All was going fine until I was driving home and realized the implications of this.

Now follow me here. I started to think about going out and then realized that I would have to make my hair look like it does when she does it. What if I can't make it look the way she does, or I am having a bad hair day? Would she be disappointed in me if it didn't look as good as when she does it?

I mean, really, when do you ever see your hair dresser out in public? When I go see her it is usually way over do and it is up in a pony tail.

Yes, this is the kind of thing I think about.

When I tried to explain it to Mike he just looked at me with a blank expression. What does he know though, he's bald and I am his hairdresser!!

So the question is.... am I the only one who thinks this way?

Kristen

Vapor Feet

I just found a cure for night coughing that has changed my life. I got an email a couple of weeks ago from an old friend and it told of this night time cough cure.

Here it is: Rub Vicks Vapor rub on the bottom of your feet and put on socks.

Ok, I read this and I thought RIGHT!!!! My first instinct is if this is so easy why doesn't every one know about it? My second reaction was I kind of wished someone would get a cough so I could try it....

I got my wish. Joshi got a cold. Not a big deal. No fever just a little summer cold. But along with it is the most annoying cough. Every couple of minutes a dry, non productive cough followed by me telling him to cover his mouth every time he does it.

So the first night after his cough started I broke out the Vicks and rubbed it on his feet. I put a pretty good layer on them and covered them with socks. No other meds. Put him to bed and not a sound!!! Second night same thing, no coughing. Last night was our third night and I heard him cough a couple of times but no big deal.

I am sold!!! The article said that the person had tried it on an adult and that it worked so I now have the cold and I will be rubbing some vicks on my feet soon. I'll let you know.

I just really wish someone had told me this 10 years ago when Faith was little. Think of all the sleepless nights we could have avoided!!

Kristen

Bye Bye Birdie

Kylee noticed on Saturday that there were three little blue eggs in another part of the yard. Two were cracked open and one was not. We looked in the grill and the nest was empty :( But Kylee felt that if she put the one little egg back in the nest the mom would come back. So she put it back in the nest and we watched for the mom. No mom. Just some little black birds poking around.

The next day the egg was gone again. We have not seen mom return but Mike said he saw some new materials in the nest.

We talked about it and decided it was time to pull the plug. It obviously isn't a safe place for her to lay her eggs so Mike torched it and took apart the grill. I just got him a new one that I am calling his birthday present.

The kids were a little upset with the prospect of torching the nest but after the fire started they thought it was great!

I didn't watch.

Mike video taped it and I am sure it will appear on his blog soon.

Kristen

Bird Nest Barbeque

We have been noticing over the last few weeks that every time we have tried to use the grill that there have been little sticks and twigs in our grill. I assumed that the kids were playing in it and told them to stop!

Well, as I was cleaning out the backyard beds this weekend I noticed a lot of stick stuff coming out of the grill and when I opened it this is what I found.

The thing that amazes me is that we had grilled just four days earlier. This little bird did all this work in just four days!

The bird who built this filled up the ENTIRE grill with material then built a gorgeous mansion of a nest on top of the grill part.

I can't bring myself to destroy it.

So, the bottom of the grill is near rusted out and we really need a new one anyways.

For now the old one will be a safe place for a new bird parent to keep their babies.

Kristen