BUSY DAY

Shew. We did some laundry this a.m.

We went to “The Rink” with Debby and her boys. The kids skated and did two rounds of lazer tag. What a hoot! Zander was high scorer. He shot way, way, way more rounds than anyone else. The first time no one wanted him on their team. The second round they all wanted him. After playing we went to Ci-Ci’s – a pizza/salad buffet joint. We said goodbye to Debby and the boys. I ran the boys up to the base to cash checks at the BX. We had one hour before meeting Mike. I took all the kids in to play their free bowling game of the day. The base has a program where they can get free shoes and one game every day of summer. We picked up Mike. We took our Chaplain Candidate out to dinner and visited. We came home and finished packing the boys. We are going to bed…they leave at 6:00 a.m.

FISH WOES

I”LL SPARE YOU THE PICTURE!

We were given three fish: a catfish, an algae eater and some other silver fish. These fish ate the fish in our tank. We woke up this a.m. and the catfish and silver fish were floating belly up. Zander had fed them. I never KNEW FISH WOULD EAT UNTIL THEY DIED. UGH. SO….we’re packing, playing AND trying to clean out a fish tank.

Not sure WHAT IS UP WITH MY keyboard…..it really needs To bE thrown out….but the new one isn’t working quite right yet.

TAXI

My life today felt like a re-run from the old show TAXI. Not only was I running back and forth on short trips…but strange things seemed to occur at every turn.

I made a trip out to Robert Lee again. This is becoming a bi-weekly event. I drive out on Monday and leave the van. I drive back on Friday and pick the van up. Josiah drove out for me this a.m. and I got some zzzzzz. Yes, I’m still tired. Zander was up at 3 a.m. This hasn’t happened in weeks. I’m thinking he once again overdosed on whole-grain, honey filled cookies. He wasn’t bad – he was just awake. Stacia woke at 5 a.m. Two of her teeth are in and two more are nearly in…..

I took Josiah and Jamin to get their hair cut and I shopped for things they need for their upcoming trip. Raincoats are NOT something that are in high demand in W TX this time of year. :::snort::: We found everything else. Dayton has promised to let the boys use his fishing gear.

I came home and switched out kids. I then took Arielle and Jared to get their hair cut. We refuse to let hair be an issue in our family. There are so many other really big things to fixate about as parents. Our 12 yo WAS getting shaggier and shaggier and testing our resolve. We’d had many talks with him and understood his thoughts. We asked only that he keep his hair clean. Today he came out of the barbers with a CAESAR cut….really short. He mentioned that now that we are hanging out with the students he’d better get a different cut. This actually brought a smile to my face….because I knew that the whole hair thing went deeper – it’s hard to find your identity when your dad is not only a pastor but active duty military and all around you have short, short hair…..I think he is making his peace with the Air Force environment.

Dinner was Encore Presentations. I did get apples going. I didn’t get bread made. Mike and Josiah are working late tonight….I’m hoping my two little ones will be really tired and go down within 30 minutes….then maybe I can go down too.

OH – the hair dresser told me today, while cutting Jared’s hair that my hair is so damaged she’d be afraid to touch up the roots or do anything…it would probably BREAK OFF. She gave me some samples to try to speed the restoration process. I think it is near hopeless. In a few months it may be long enough for me to cut it REALLY short and start all over…remember Susan Powter? Mike’s worst nightmare….

BATHING BEAUTY

We have a darling picture of her blowing a kiss but I edited it and it's not a PSF and so blogger won't upload it...I don't how to edit it and keep it a jpg.

*Woman First, Family Always* by Kathryn Sansone
“real-life wisdom from a mother of ten”

This book caught my eye at Sam’s club and I put it on my PBS wish list. It arrived on Saturday. I don’t think I would have requested it, if I’d looked at it closer at Sam’s Club. I had hoped to find lots of practical ideas…but really there was nothing new here. It did cause me to drool over her home court which includes basketball, hockey and weights in her basement home gym. {bg}

The book is arranged around 3 main sections with 30 1 – ½ page essays on each topic. The sections are “your self”, “your marriage” and “your family and kids”. She lost me right in the beginning with such a focus on keeping touch with yourself and not loosing yourself. This flew in the face of Scripture which tells me that I gain my life when I loose it. I should think of the interests of others at least as much and often more than I think of my own personal interests. I’m to deny self. I think I “get” what she was saying…but this book was a bit to “pop culture” for my tastes. She states it is important for us to get in touch with our spirit – and our spiritual core. Then she goes on to say that this core can be different things for different people for her it is her religion. She gives a list of what it may be for others – with all choices seeming to be as valid as any other. This also lost me.

As for practical advice…all very common sense…nothing new or enlightening.

I guess she’s a big Oprah fan and been on Oprah. If I knew that Oprah highly endorsed her and this book, I’d not have picked it up. I find Oprah’s book choices to be depressing and her focus on “pop culture/religion” to be maddening. I find it even more frustrating that so many Christian women turn to Oprah more often than they turn to the Word to find answers for their daily lives. This is not a book I’d recommend. If someone wanted a book on parenting I’d recommend many others over this one. If someone wanted a book on life management, I can think of two or three I’d recommend over this one.

The great thing is that I re-listed this book last night and someone has already requested it. I’ll mail it out today and hopefully soon have more credits for more books. {G}

wooHOO

Church/Chapel was great tonight. I so enjoy this worship band…it is loud and they do rock…but they are real, live, excited and it’s great. Mike has officially taken over the service this week as both their chaplains have pcs’d (moved to a new assignment). Mike added a bit more structure and preaching time and with that and the music…..as Jared says “it’s right on”. There were even students responding by leaving to talk with Mike at the end of the service (sort of an altar call….shhh….don’t call it THAT). AND at the end of the service they dismissed everyone (a few left) and THEN worship continued on for another TWENTY minutes until the keyboard player said "I HAVE to go study". Mike preached on dry bones tonight….and I must say I felt like dry ground soaking it up. A song they sang a lot tonight was Amazing Grace…but the old/new way….the one that has the line “Grace falls down like rain”…..it felt like rain…spiritual rain and it was FUN. FUN – at the CHAPEL! Too cool!

It sort of chokes me up when I think that all these young folks have volunteered for the military – and most are students in INTEL for the various services….but what better for our intel community than young folks on fire for God?

Cookie Dough Monster....now WHO put the Bosch on the floor????? And why does she have her LEG up on the bowl????