Favorite Fotoz

Cleaning Up Popsicle drips

Is it me, or has this summer flown by? I seems like just yesterday we were eating Popsicles by the pool. Oh, I guess that was yesterday. I was just settling into a routine and all of a sudden it's time to hit the stores for school supplies! I'm not really the shopping type. I don't mind going alone, maybe with a Cafe Mocha in hand as I browse, but I have to have a list, a mission a purpose. I don't like to go shopping for the sake of shopping. School starts on Monday so I unavoidably had to head to the stores with the kids. Yes, I took the whole circus to shop for school clothes and supplies! We bought clothes, shoes, backpacks, lunch boxes, notebooks and other miscellaneous school supplies. My daughter likes to pick out her own clothes and most of the time we'll both like the same things. Every once in a while, what I thought looked darling on her, would make her eyes roll back in her head and she'd dash back into the dressing room as if I'd asked her to parade around in a clown costume. My youngest, the inventor, was yet another challenge. Everything bought for him had to be red. It sounds simple but nearly impossible to do. My oldest, and you'd think he would be a little help but he 's not (he has Down Syndrome & Autism), was busy picking things off of the shelves and adding them to the pile of clutter in the basket while my back was turned, causing me to have to go through every item at the checkout counter to make sure it was meant to be purchased. What's more incredible about his antics was that he was in a wheelchair. Yes, it seems he can reach any store shelf with ease, darn those wheelchair accessible engineers. This wheelchair has really been a lifesaver, it folds up and I can toss it into the back of the car. He likes it too, and he rides around in style, sipping on refreshments and snacking on what ever I've packed for him. After a long day shopping, he's the only one who's not dog tired. We got it for him, not because he couldn't walk, but because he could easily wander off from us in public while my back was turned. He also had this bad habit of sitting down where ever he was when he was tired of walking. That was fine when he was little, I'd just pick him up and carry him, but I can't manage 100+ pounds on my hip now. We are now officially ready for school to start. I am finished with the shopping and ready to move on to other intellectually stimulating activities, like cleaning the Popsicle drippings from the inside of my freezer. I hate leaving summer behind, it was really fun.

The Inventor

When asked, "what do you want to be when you grow up?", my youngest child will say "an Inventor". He loves to rig up things in his room, and he has motion detectors, electric eye/laser alarms and all kinds of fun stuff he likes to tinker with. I have to be careful when I go in there, I might set off a booby trap, stumble over a tripwire, or set off an alarm of some kind. He says he has to protect his stuff from his big sister, but there's not a thing in his room that she would be interested in. If I can't find the scissors, tape or string, I go to his room and rummage around. He has his own tool box, with real tools. He's built a motorized bug (with a photoelectric sensor so that he can control it with a flashlight), he's built a motor with magnets and batteries, and he uses all of the paper out of my printer to draw up plans for his inventions, which at the moment happens to be a robot. Once when he was 3, he took apart the bathroom scales, because he wanted to see how it worked. I could not figure out how to get it back together, so I just threw it away.

We're Hot!

It's just plain hot. It's so hot around here leaves are falling off of the one tree we have in the backyard. It's really crazy to have to rake leaves in the summer. That's a fall chore, not a summer chore. If I don't get the leaves picked up, they'll all end up in the pool. I've been so fed up with the leaf problem at our house (and so tired of raking them), that yesterday I went to battle against the leaves. I brought out the "big guns". I got out the leaf blower and blew all of the leaves in to a big, huge pile and then I mowed 'em down with the lawn mower. When I was done, there was nothing left but pulverized, mulched, specks of what used to be leaves. I dusted my hands off and put away the mower, I had won. I'm looking outside right now, and low and behold, its as if the tree is mocking me! There are more leaves out there this morning. I guess I should just be thankful for the shade, who cares if the yard looks like no one lives here. In honor of the triple digit temperatures today, I am decreeing no hot meals, just ice cream. Ya think the kids will go for that?

It's good to be home

I'd really like the beach a lot more if it weren't so hot and humid. I went to Corpus Christi this past weekend on a Girl Scout trip with my daughter and her friends. We spent two days at the beach and one of those nights we slept on board the USS Lexington. The accommodations on board the ship were more comfortable that I expected, that is if you don't mind sleeping in steel bunks the size of coffins. Which I didn't mind, because the mattress was very comfortable. Later, I found out that a casket company was responsible for making those comfy mattresses. Had I know that earlier, it would have been a little creepy. We did get at taste of what it was like living on an aircraft carrier, and while we were there, the ship was closed to the general public. We were taken on a guided tour as well as given the opportunity to explore the whole ship. Before lights out, the crew gathered the "live aboards" together and told us the Lexington ghost stories. As you can imagine, none of the girls could go to sleep after that.

For many years before it was decommissioned, the USS Lexington was used for training purposes. Young pilots from all over, would come to the Lexington to learn how to take off and land on a moving aircraft carrier. One of the stories that stuck with me, was the story of a young pilot who had come on board for training purposes. On her second day, she went up to the flight deck, and at the same time a jet was landing. The jet lost control, flipped over and landed on her. It's a tragic story and one that reminds me of the verse:

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for alittle while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. " James 4:14,15 (NIV)

We should make the most of each day that the Lord gives us, we don't know what will happen tomorrow, but we should not be afraid of tomorrow, what ever tomorrow brings.

"For I know the plans I have for you, " declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

He called a child

It's summer time and the ice cream flows freely around our house, especially on hot afternoon's like today. I've just finished dishing out the cold creamy stuff to my three. My oldest, however was not interested in joining us for "Cream". He was dancing around outside of the laundry room door ( I keep it locked, lol, and that's another story), because he wanted the DVD player inside, which is in time out at the moment. He was very grumpy, because he wasn't getting what he wanted, and he was on the brink of an all out melt down about this DVD thing. After I had the bowls of ice cream ready, I told my other two at the table to sing the favorite song...(that would be the Happy Birthday song). I knew if they sang it, my little "Grumpy Gus" would break out in a big smile and run to where the singing was going on, because he knows that ice cream or cake is being served. Sure enough, we hadn't gotten a few words into the familiar tune, when here he came, happy as could be, with all of his frustrations and grumpiness forgotten, running at full tilt towards his bowl of ice cream. It reminded my of how Jesus told his disciples (Matt. 18:1-4) that unless they changed, and became like little children, they could not enter the kingdom of heaven.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?". He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18: 1-4.

I wonder if they knew what he was talking about at the time. The first time I read it, I did not have children, and it's full meaning was lost on me, until I experienced motherhood. My oldest, was born with Down Syndrome & Autism, so even though he is a teenager (14) he is very much a child and will always be...and that's how God created him. He gets frustrated, grumpy, angry, stubborn and pitches a fit when he doesn't get his way, but he has the heart of a child. He forgives, he forgets his troubles and moves on. He will never get puffed up on his own accomplishments, self righteous or any of the stuff that trips the rest of us up. He doesn't get bogged down in grown up worries. He is happy to be who he is, loving, laughing, trusting his parents to take care of him, just like we should trust our Heavenly Father to take care of us. Wouldn't it be great if the Happy Birthday song brought us running with a smile on our face to our Heavenly Father, knowing he has something special for us, maybe cake, maybe ice cream, maybe heaven!