Daddy Needs AA???

Tonight we took the kids out for ice-cream after supper as a treat. The ice-cream shop doubles as a video store, so as we looked for a video to rent, Isabella started chatting with another customer.

Here is what she said:

Isabella: Guess what? We're going to eat some ice-cream. I like frenchy vanilla.
Lady: Mmm-hmm.
Isabella: And know what else?
Lady: What's that?
Isabella: My daddy loves SCOTCH!!!

Hee hee

We'll have to explain the difference between scotch and butterscotch ice cream before her teachers call the authorities about her father's drinking problem!

New Information...

As part of my job, I am helping create a program that links pre-schoolers (and their moms) with youth volunteers. It takes place in a gym so that both the moms and their little ones reap the benifits of physical activity.

It has been great fun. Whenever we get to the part with the parachute, the gym begins to sound alot like Disneyland...there are shrieks and squeals of delight from many little girls and boys.

Yesterday during the parent portion of the program, our guest speaker was the school division's phys. ed consultant for early years. She spoke on ways to get pre-schoolers active, what the government's recommendations were etc. Very interesting stuff.

Here is the new information I found interesting. She suggested that between ages 3 and 5 (my kid's ages) that parents do NOT put their kids in baseball or t-ball but rather choose soccer.
Here's why:
At that age, children can't really comprehend the game of baseball so its not very fun for them, and most of the time is spent standing in the outfield or standing waiting to bat. However, with soccer, even if they don't have a clue what is going on, they are still running around, chasing the ball or other kids or whatever. (aside from those one or two picking dandelions at the side).

Here's the kicker. We just signed Rebecca up for T-ball because she didn't want to play soccer. However there were not enough kids for t-ball so it was cancelled and we got our cheque back. So now I'm looking around for a summer program for her to participate in, I was hoping there might be a six week dance program or something like that for her to take.
I'll keep looking!

Best Job...

Of all the jobs, positions, or titles I've ever held or currently hold, being a mommy is the very best one.

Living at Disneyland...

This week was very much like an amusement park.

Sunday and Monday was sunny and mundane...coincidence? I think not.
It was relaxing like the ferris wheel at a summertime fair. I was warmed by the sun in Kansas City, and Monday was spent in the quiet of the car watching the countryside flash by on the trek back to Canada, listening to music and chatting with my sister about life and stuff.

Monday was followed by Tuesday. This often happens in my life.
Tuesday after a Monday, it happens. The result is usually the same, I pay the ticket for a ride that gets my adrenaline pumping and then leaves me nauseous and exhausted.

Tuesday to Friday is the lightening fast ride that makes a person unsure if the bolts will hold the roller coaster car on the track as it careens down that track at 200 miles per hour. Will the car hold together? Will the track let go of it's cargo? Will this tiny piece of fabric that it holding me to the seat keep me from sailing off into space?

Its been another roller coaster kinda week. Work, work, clean, clean, work, raise children, get frustrated with children, shout at children, apologize to children, work, clean, fall into bed asking God to grant more patience yet again.

Interestingly enough, if I visit amusement parks, I always avoid the roller coasters, and go towards the slower, more relaxing rides like the ferris wheel. I must learn again how to put a ferris wheel pace into a life that requires roller coaster speed.

*Aside* - that metaphore works very well for my musing about doing too much and being tired, but I also really like bumper cars...so what does that mean? Any analytical minds out there?

Birthday Party...

Today we celebrated the birth of my older sister.
We celebrated what a blessing she has been to our family for all the 29 years she has been on the earth.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG SISTER!

I love you!!!!

Trip to Narnia...

My sister and I are on an adventure fleeing the reign of the white witch and going to places where Aslaan is on the move!!!
hee hee

We are in Kansas City at the International House of Prayer. As we went south from Winnipeg, we watched the grass turn from dead brown, to a mix of brown and grey with specks of green, to more green than grey and then finally to a lucious, lively vibrant green that makes my heart rejoice!

Unlike Susan, Edmund, Lucy and Peter...we did NOT encounter an trouble along our way. There was no secret police (that we know of ) and we did not encounter any talking beavers. Although one gopher looked at me funny and I thought he might be trying to communicate with me.

I have enjoyed being in the prayer room, Encounter God Service, and more prayer room. Then we took in some shopping, swam in a heated, outdoor pool and I layed in the sun.

So basically, I'm in paradise.
Tonight we are going to a special service and then going to try out some Kansas City BBQ, but in the meantime I shall walk along and "drink in the blossoms" of the blooming trees.
(Does copyright law allow me to write "drink in blossoms" or do I have pay Lucy Maud Montgomery's children some money now?)

A BIG PS...My sister read my blog and noted to me that I might have offended EVERYONE in Winnipeg in this post, by suggesting that the white witch is reigning in Winnipeg. Just to be clear...that reference to Narnia referred to the lack of green in the city (physically) NOT the spiritual climate...so I do NOT think that satan is running Winnipeg, and if you got that impression, I apologize.

Peoples is Peoples...

Today I had a fantastic experience in a Kentucky Fried Chicken! (unrelated to the addictive drug the colonel puts in his chicken to make people crave it fort-nightly!)

I took Bella out for lunch and as I was sitting in KFC I witnessed a big old cat fat among some Hutterite women!
It didn't go to fist-to-cuffs or anything like that (they are non-violent people) but they were mad and yelling at each other. Now I don't speak German but I know that whatever they were saying, it wasn't nice!
Eventually three of the ladies moved across the restaurant from the one who was "in the wrong" and ignored (shunned?) her!
(I put "in the wrong" in quotes because how do I know she was really the one who was wrong? I don't want to make assumptions based on the majority! Perhaps she was right but not conforming to the accepted wrong...but let's not go there right now.)

So why am I so excited! Do I find shunning and angry Hutterites thrilling?
No! (I'm not crazy!!!)

While I witnessed the scene, I thought,

Wow! In the middle of this culture that is based on unity and conformity and community, they still have fights and rocky communication. That is so great! I have been raised in North American culture which is based on the individual, rather than a communal way of thinking. If the Hutterites can't get it all right, what the hell am I doing thinking that I can get all my relationships right???? For many years, I've beat myself up for all the times I've screwed up in relationships or failed at communicating. I assumed that where friendships are messed up, its all my fault and I need to work harder (be more gracious, more forgiving, more understanding, more door-matty) to work out all my relationships!

And here all along, NOBODY has all the relationships perfectly in tune. If the Hutterites can't get it right all the time, why should I expect a churched-up WASP like myself to figure it all out?
So the next time I mess up in a relationship, all I can do is ask for forgivenness from God and from friends and from myself...because if they can't get it right with all the effort they put into it....Lord have mercy on me and all my friends!!!

So, there is my happy news of the day. Relationships are hard for everyone, and I am no exception (neither are the Hutterites) so I can just hop off my perfection pedestal and ask for mercy.

Back in Winnipeg...

My little family and I just returned from 3 days in Regina, SK. We spent time at a prophetic conference at a church there. It was quite the experience. This brought much perspective to my life and circumstances.

I really enjoyed my kids! They are amazing little people, I love the way they dance, and sing.
I envy their freedom. I love the way they pray...without any pretense or high fallooting mumbo jumbo, just honesty.

The kids slept on the way there so my husband and I had time to talk. We spent time as a family at the church, at the park, in restaurants and my cousin's house. No working or school or rushing around, just talking and enjoying each other's company. It was very restful.

On the way back, we chatted and listened to my girl's give their perspective on God, the angels, worship and prayer. I learned a lot and taught a little.
Children are a blessing!

Unwarranted Fears...

There are lots of things that do not frighten me, not because I'm brave but because some things that I could fear, never occur to me. This morning was a good example of this scenario.

Rebecca was sitting at the kitchen table with her tea and toast, deep in thought. As her thoughts formulated into coherent concerns, she let me in on her pondering.

"Mommy, what if some people got together, like two or three of them and they started marching around our house. And what if when they were done marching around the house, they blew a trumpet and our whole house fell down! Then we would have to get a new house and we couldn't live in this one anymore because it fell down, and I don't want that to happen because I like this house..."

Hmmm...I'd never thought of that before, perhaps I should think this one over.
I think for the most part, this fear is pretty far fetched but if anyone sees the children of Israel circling the neighborhood, let me know and I'll call a realtor, just in case.

You Gotta Love Math...

As we all know, it takes 1 calorie to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree centigrade.
Translated into meaningful terms, this means that if you eat a very cold dessert (generally consisting of water in large part), the natural processes which raise the consumed dessert to body temperature during the digestive cycle literally sucks the calories out of the only available source, your body fat.

For example, a dessert served and eaten at near 0 degrees C (32.2 deg. F) will in a short time be raised to the normal body temperature of 37 degrees C (98.6 deg. F).
For each gram of dessert eaten, that process takes approximately 37 calories as stated above. The average desser tportion is 6 oz, or 168 grams.
Therefore, by operation of thermodynamic law, 6,216 calories
(1 cal./gm/deg. x 37 deg. x 168 gms) are extracted from body fat as the dessert's temperature is normalized.
Allowing for the 1,200 latent calories in the dessert, the net calorie loss is approximately 5,000 calories.
Obviously, the more cold dessert you eat,the better off you are and the faster you will lose weight, if that is your goal.

Frozen desserts, e.g., ice cream, are beneficial, since it takes 83 cal./gm to melt them (i.e., raise them to 0 deg. C) and an additional 37 cal./gm to further raise them to body temperature.

The results here are really remarkable, and it beats running hands down.

Cuddle-Mania 2006...

The other day, my little girls climbed into bed with me in the wee hours of the morning.
They were all cuddly.
So I HAD to take pictures.
They are irresistable!

I don't know how to make it appear larger.
Just click on the image and it gets bigger!

Blovoidance...

I just made up a new word.
Blovoidance.
It describes when a person blogs because they are avoiding doing work. Usually a blovoider (now its a noun!) doesn't have anything important to say. Blovoiders just type and type because then they are doing something with their hands, other than the tasks they are supposed to be working on.

Blovoidance is very versatile. Blogging can help you avoid a great number of necessary but unpleasant chores, from housework or paperwork to exercise or laundry. Whatever you are avoiding, blogging can help.

The old methods of avoidance like t.v. and reading are sooooo last year! Everybody knows that t.v. will make you fat and reading will make you blind.
Blogging is new and exciting. It hasn't been around long enough for scientist to figure out how it can kill you, important research like that takes time! So while we wait for the medical research community to tells us that blogging gives you brain damage, resulting a drooling, catatonic, vegatative state...lets live it up! Ignorance is bliss I always say!

So blog! Blog like the wind! Or blog about the wind or how the wind makes you feel or how the wind effects your life or how you passed wind....see what I did there? I just typed things. It didn't mean anything, just blogging man! Its the freedom man! Just blogging and not saying anything! I feel so alive!!!! So free!!!

But wait! There's more! Blogging can do more than just help you avoid all those nasty things like chores and duty. You can only type for so long, and then your fingers will get tired, you can't go on saying nothing forever! (I've tried it, I start to bore myself).
Once you've padded your post with all the anecdotes (in parentheses) you can think of (like now) you can still avoid work by reading other people's blogs. Its a great way to pass the time without cleaning any toilets at all or feeding your kids or doing butt crunches or...

Hey wait a minute! Here you are reading my blog!
Are in really interested in my mindless drivel or are you killing time here?
Are you a blovoider?
What are you avoiding????