Christmas in June (Almost)

This makes me want to bust out the decorations. Don't worry, Dean, I won't. Enjoy! PS, if these guys ever come anywhere near Tallahassee I want to see them!

Conversations

This is the conversation I had with Tommy while we were cleaning up his Play-Dough.

Tommy: "Mommy, is that God making the thunder out there?" (we've come a long way from the Mr. Brown conversation)
Me: "Yes, honey, it is. He is watering all the plants and bathing the animals."
Tommy: "He doesn't want to hurt me though?"
Me: "No, he loves you! God loves you so much! And do you know what he wants you to do? He wants you to be obedient to Mommy and Daddy."
Tommy: "I think he just wants me to play with Play-Dough. God loves Play-Dough."

It Really IS Delicious!

I read a post by my friend Jenna a few weeks ago that had a fish recipe. I'm always game for a good recipe so last night I tried it. And oh my goodness, it was really good! Give it a try.

My Little Sponge

This past week has been nuts for me and I'm just glad to be home making my shopping list and doing laundry while Tommy sleeps. I was at the wedding of one of my good friends from high school (pictures will come when my other friend sends them to me), and it was great to have a mini reunion with a few great friends that I've had for a very long time. In fact, the bride is the one I've known for the least amount of time and that's only been since early middle school. Anyway, it was a great time, but exhausting, as I drove back to Tallahassee from Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday with Dean and Tommy and then left Sunday morning to go to Orlando for the wedding, only to turn around right afterward and go to Gainesville to stay with our friends Shane and Lindsay. I'm beat!

But one of the things that I randomly started thinking about since I've been gone and back is how to continue to teach Tommy. It's amazing to me at not even three years old how much he knows and is learning and absorbing. Sometimes things I didn't want him to absorb! But I figured this weekend that it's probably a good time to get him to begin learning Bible verses. So I looked up a couple of websites on scripture memorization for children and didn't get a whole lot of help. One had good intentions, using scriptures that go with familiar children's tunes (complete with clip art for each one), but I sang them myself and for the life of me couldn't figure out how to fit "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". So I gave up on that rather quickly. But I did find this article that at least reinforced in my mind that this certainly can (and should) be done. We'll work on it. Now I just need some verses. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Who Says There's No Wildlife in the Big City?

It may surprise you to learn that I'm not exactly a fan of reptiles. Or of any animal with creepy feet, for that matter. Anyway, since I left Fort Lauderdale almost 10 years ago, they have become inundated with iguanas. It's not unusual to see these giant lizards (some more than 3 feet long) running across the road or even sunning out by the pool. My parents frequently have them basking on the roof of their shed in the back yard. But that still didn't prepare me for what I saw when I opened the blinds in my bedroom the other day. I have to admit, I grew kinda fond of the little guy though. I named him Elliott.

Live from Fort Lauderdale

We're on our third full day in Fort Lauderdale with Mima, Papa, and Mima Pat, and so I just wanted to take some time to fill you in on some of our activities.

Tommy experienced his first trip to play in the sand at the beach (at least to his memory) and it was a great 20 minutes. Then we were rained out. But that's ok, we just got our sandy feet in the car and headed to Miami to visit the Miami Children's Museum, which was a huge hit. I think Tommy's favorite part was the Publix exhibit, where he got to put on a Publix vest (just for you, James) and play with all the plastic food. He was terrified of the giant fire truck but wound up giving the museum 2 sticky thumbs up.

We have made it a ritual to head to the "duck park" every night when we are down visiting my family. It's a great little walking park with tons of ducks (which freak me out a bit), ibis's, and coots. He has had so much fun running around chasing all the birds and playing. When he's bigger I'll tell him the story of how my friend Jamie and I were riding our bikes at that park and she wasn't paying attention and rode right into the lake. Good times.

As you may know, Tommy is completely fascinated with trains. And south Florida is full of them. So whenever we come down here he gets so excited to see "Gordon thundering by"... Gordon is one of the Thomas the Tank Engine characters, in case you aren't with it in preschool culture. So yesterday, we took him on an actual train to Islamorada Fish Company, a restaurant that's about 15 minutes from my parent's house and then back again. The whole thing took about 3 hours because we didn't realize the trains don't run very often in the middle of the day. But Tommy couldn't have been more excited.

Today we got up and went on a "sapari" to Lion Country Safari. It was really great! It rained, which actually made the animals more active. Basically the animals run loose in their designated habitats and you get to drive through the middle of them for 4 miles. It's pretty incredible and scary at times. Today we had a 3,000 pound rhinocerous running next to our car and then decide to cross the road right in front of us. We all had our blood pressure rise as we realized that he could have easily gotten spooked or angry and flipped our car. Or at least rammed into it. A few minutes later, we had to swerve to miss a zebra in the middle of the road. Very cool. And Tommy even got to ride Britney Spears-style in Dean's lap in the front seat. Not too shabby!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

As I look up at the clock on my computer, it's 2:54. Tommy and I are leaving for Ft. Lauderdale tonight and we need to leave the house by 4:00. He's sleeping, I haven't packed, and I'm sitting here blogging with my towel still on my head from my shower. If Dean were home he'd tell me to blog later and go get ready now. But he's not (love you, babe). What's going on in Fort Lauderdale, you might ask? Well, if you recall, my family lives down there and so we'll be there for a few days. I had visions of going to the beach and the park down the street at least twice a day... until my mom informed me this morning that it's supposed to rain all week. So gotta come up with a new plan. I do know that one of the items on the agenda is to go see Dean's great Aunt Toni and cousins Cheryl and Emily and learn to make "Noni's famous ravioli's". These raviolis are no joke. It's an Inserra family recipe that was passed down from Dean's great grandmother, who used to make them and bring them to the local Italian restaurant to sell. Those raviolis put her daughter, Louise, through college. And now the recipe will be handed to me. No pressure or anything! I'll keep you posted on our trip. And if you're nice I might even make you some raviolis when I get back. Gotta go pack!

Mr. Brown Makes Thunder

Tommy frequently reads the book "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" and one of the pages states "Mr. Brown is a wonder. Mr. Brown makes thunder." Now Tommy is thoroughly convinced that there is a man with a brown coat and a little brown hat making all that thunder in the sky. So today, there happened to be a small monsoon here in good ol' Tallahassee. I had to leave for church with Tommy in the middle of the downpour, and so we braced ourselves and headed out the door. Poor kid, he kept nervously saying "Mr. Brown's not going to come over here, right Mommy?"

I had to balance the huge umbrella in my arm while I quickly carried Tommy through the (sideways) rain. I quickly opened the car door and fumbled with trying to get Tommy in the car seat. As I plopped him in his car seat, a gust of wind picked up my umbrella and flung it down the street. I screamed and ran around to get in the driver's seat, as I watched my umbrella tumble into the distance. That was 5 hours ago. My shirt just now is dry. Awesome.

Church tonight was great. We moved to a different location for the summer, Covenant Presbyterian Church, and it made for a very homey feel. It was awesome to have Dean's Uncle Richard on the stool for "4 questions" and Dean's message was great. I'm really looking forward to going through Romans 7, 8, and 9 and the discussions that will undoubtedly result. I'll keep you posted.

Can't Make Up Your Mind?

Today Tommy and I joined some other friends at the Tallahassee "Zoo". It's pretty good for a little Tallahassee place but the animals weren't active at all today. Anyway, I digress. We had a full morning watching the panthers, cows, sheep, and otters (quite the mix, no?) and after we ate lunch, I told Tommy it was time to go home. He complied but as soon as we got in the car he started crying. I gave him his paci, which usually quiets him down. But instead, he was so tired that he just kept whining.

Here was our conversation the whole way: "Mommy, I don't wanna go home! I want to go to the bookstore and play with Thomas!" (our free form of Thomas entertainment). Then in the very next breath he started crying, "Mommy I want to go home! I'm tired! I don't want to go to the bookstore!"

I responded by telling him "Ok, we're going to be home soon and then we can get ready for bed."

His response? "No! I want to go to the bookstore!"

Good grief!

My Life Today

There's been a bit of a blogging shortage, and for that I apologize to all four of my readers. I guess you could say the last few days have been slightly hectic. As you may remember, we were at a funeral in South Florida (which was sooooooo sad) and came back at about lunch time on Mother's Day. Dean left for church shortly thereafter and I followed with Tommy in tow just in time for the service to start. After church we had a Mother's Day dinner with the fam (which I was late to) and then I had to leave early to get my sleepy boy home. Aside from the short time, dinner was fabulous.

You may recall that I've taken on yet another project... painting our kitchen cabinets. This is a much bigger job than I realized, but I'm still going strong. After I removed all the cabinet hardware, sanded everything, and primed with an oil based primer that has probably left some residual damage due to the fumes, I proceeded to paint the cabinets white. Yesterday I did coat number 2. I have a set painting attire that has lots of fun colors from the various paint jobs I've done in our house over the last four years. I had every drawer and cabinet door open, Dorsi was out, the house was a mess from the weekend being gone, and Tommy was asleep. Just then, Dorsi started barking like crazy and I realized that I had two make-up piano lessons that I had forgotten about. I slipped on the pair of sparkly shoes that was near the door, tried to brush the paint out of my hair, shoved the dog in her house, and casually let them in. Loads of fun, I tell you. The lessons themselves were great, but I can't believe I just forgot about them. It must have been that pesky primer!

Today Tommy had water day at school. Basically, what that meant was that when I picked him up, he was outside near the kiddie pool with the other kids, no shirt, one shoe, almost completely dry, but having a blast. He was incredibly grumpy once he got home, but I guess that's the price you pay. He's still sleeping, which makes me happy.

And now I have to get ready for piano lessons. It's crunch time this week... the recital is this Saturday at 10:30 (Matthew, you still good to emcee it? Forgot to remind you!) Let's hope those kidddos practiced!!

Aaahhhh...

Dean, Tommy, and I are in Boca for a funeral. Of course that's never fun, but it's great to be down here and see family. Today we drove the 7 hour drive packed into his parents' car, checked into the hotel, and headed to Dean's aunt's house for dinner and to go over the service tomorrow. Through it all, Tommy was so well behaved. Now, we're back at the hotel, Dean's parents are in the room with Tommy (who's fast asleep), and Dean and I just got to relax in the hottub by the pool. Just what I needed after a long and slightly stressful day.

Confessions of a Do-It-Herself-er

I have my own toolbox.

I look forward to projects that I can do while Tommy's sleeping. I think it makes me feel like Santa's elves because he wakes up and says something like "Ooooooh, mommy! The kitchen's green! It's so pretty!"

I love Home Depot and Lowes. Who knew there were so many different varieties of doorknobs!? And you gotta love a place where you can get Windex and a window all at the same time.

I'll admit it. I can be cheap. I prefer to call it resourceful, though. I once covered a gaping hole in the wall with the side of a Kleenex box and painted over it (it was too big for basic spackle). Add a framed picture on top and it looks great!

I paint more often than some people change their oil.

But I don't know how to change my oil. I can change a tire though!

I'm great at starting projects but not so great at finishing them. We still don't have a mirror up on our bathroom wall from when I repainted last year. And the paint was crappy so I need to paint over it (downside of being cheap).

I'm getting giddy over the fact that I'll be painting our cupboards white in the next few days.

When I have free time at home, I examine every inch of the house, trying to figure out what needs to be done next. It's slightly overwhelming, but for some reason I enjoy it.

Intentional

Dean just got back from a great conference late Thursday night called Q. I still don't know why it's called that, but it looks like it was awesome. He came back with a bag (reusable of course- not those dreaded plastic bags) full of great books and even a pound of coffee. Of course this was a coffee drinking crowd, so I'm sure that went over well. Anyway, as I was looking through his stuff and reading different articles that the presenters had written, there was one common thread: Intentionality. Everyone from the guy who founded TOMS Shoes, to the guy who began the movement "To Write Love On Her Arms", and even one of the leaders on the forefront of eradicating nuclear weapons from the world. It was quite the diverse group, I can imagine.

As I sit here and look at my bag of coffee from Rwanda (and it's really delicious) and see that each bag I purchase sends $3 to the widows of the village that harvests the beans, it makes me okay with the fact that I don't have a coupon for Land of a Thousand Hills coffee. And I might even buy some TOMS shoes so that a pair of shoes will be donated to someone who needs it (they're not on sale, I have no coupon). And who doesn't want a world without nuclear weapons?!? Sign me up for that one! Not sure how to do that yet, but I'll let the experts figure that one out.

All of these humanitarian endeavors are wonderful things that Christians should be engaged in without question. But the problem comes when we think that these efforts are to solve the world's problems. Dean and I have had this discussion many times: we can feed and clothe the world's widows and orphans (which we're commanded to do biblically), rid the world of nuclear weapons, and spread peace, love, and harmony, but if people don't have Jesus, they're still going to hell. They'll just be happier on the way there. As Christians, we can't just stop with being humanitarian. Be intentional, not just with the causes you support, but also with the name you proclaim.