The Gratitude Campaign

I received this from my mom, and thought it was wonderful. Check it out!

The Gratitude Campaign

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I am not a big "giver of awe" to celebrities. I think the combination of working in a family business that occasionally served the Hollywood elite, recognizing their right to privacy and enjoyable family outings coupled with my own unwillingness to see them as anything more than human has kept me from becoming smitten with any one personality. Mind you, I enjoy several actors in their profession, novelists, teachers, etc. but I have never spent idle minutes (dare I say hours for some) pining at the possibility of becoming personal friends, or intimates with them. I don't search out their private lives in magazines. I don't read tabloids, legitimate (People) or not (Star). And while I readily admit that I enjoyed Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous most of my fascination with the program was Robin Leach's unique voice rather than the famous in the spotlight.

BUT...

I thoroughly enjoy a bible study teacher named Beth Moore. I had the blessing of hearing her in person during a women's bible conference in San Francisco. From everything I have witnessed, she is bright, funny, and very down to earth. I found, somewhat by accident, that she writes a blog along with her two adult daughters. I am tickled. And, for your own edification, I linked to it in my sidebar. She is human, but I would readily sit down for afternoon lunch with this wonderful woman. *grin*

Spanish

One of the many things Christopher and I want to incorporate into our homeschool is foreign language. In today's world culture having a second language is becoming incredibly relevant, and Spanish is an obvious choice for Californians. Because of all this we told the kids some time ago that we were investigating a foreign language program which could teach them (and us) Spanish. The girls were very excited, but Bethany in particular thought this idea really wonderful. I think it had to do with the fact that she would have an "official" curriculum, like her older sister. After much research we settled on Rosetta Stone, Spanish (Latin America). The course is costly, but we found the homeschool edition for Spanish 1, 2, and 3 bundled together while at our homeschool convention earlier this month, and couldn't refuse the price. We bought it, and told the girls that night. They were thrilled! Immediately they wanted to know when we planned to install the program, and allow them to begin learning their new language. We had to explain that we needed to wait until the product actually shipped, but that we would not wait until the beginning of the new school year to begin their lessons. They could both start once we received our package, and loaded the application. Well, some 10 days later our box finally arrived. As is always the case when a little person is waiting expectantly for an event we happened to have out of town guests along with a host of appointments which kept us from immediately installing our Spanish. Each day Bethany inquired if THIS was the day she could start learning her new language, and each day I explained that it just wasn't going to happen until later. In the meantime, she talked often about how much she looked forward to learning Spanish. I think much of her enthusiasm stems from legitimizing a favorite game she plays where she translates phrases of our choice into and out of her own made up language. Like kids that wore a  bended paperclip in school to act like they had a real retainer, Rosetta Stone would give Bethany the real retainer after settling for so long with the paper clip. Her eagerness finally bubbled over a few night ago as she read aloud Psalm 1 in order to work on her reading skills. She struggled through words like "wicked", "chaff", and finally "righteous."

How do you say this, r-i-g-h-t-e-o-u-s?

Let's sound it out.

Rrr - iiii - g.

No, start with this: what does l-i-g-h-t say? You remember we talked about g-h-t in other words. 

Hmmm... it says, (long pause) light?

That's right. So if l-i-g-h-t says light, what does r-i-g-h-t say? 

Ummm... it says, (long pause) right?

Exactly! Good job. Right is the first part of our word. Now what does o-u-s say?

But there is an "e" in it.

Yes, but we are only concerned with the o-u-s right now. (Bethany was beginning to get flustered, and after several verses already pronounced and worked through I could tell she just wanted me to "know". She was tired of learning. She sighed.)

I can tell this would be a lot easier in Spanish.

I've Been Tagged

My girlfriend, Julie, who writes a blog as well (see it over on the sidebar... Watercolor Ponies) tagged me. So now I am "it". I have to share 7 little known facts about myself. Here goes:

#1 I have an obsession with hooks. If I can hang it from a hook, all the better. I have hooks for my bathroom towels, rather than towel bars. I have a whole row of hooks next to the front door for the kids' jackets. I have hooks for pot-holders, aprons, backpacks, towels, and if I could I would have more. Just wait until we own a home, and I can hook to my heart's delight.

#2 I have at least one clock in every room, and none of them are on the same time. My bedside clock needs to be 10 minutes fast so I get up on time (don't follow the logic, there is none); my microwave clock needs to be exactly correct for my husband, but the massive clock on the wall facing the microwave is fast by 2 minutes. And by the way, digital clocks don't count as real.

#3 I am taken by anything miniature. There is nothing like the absolute adorability of something large being shrunken down in size. I have a tiny bottle of dishwashing liquid on my drainboard that presumably serves the purpose of taking up less space than the large jug-o-soap I buy at Costco. The real reason however, is how cute it is in my kitchen. Tiny bottles, little baskets, miniature of any kind is darling to me. 

#4 I don't like taking showers (baths are even worse). I take them because I like to be clean. But if there were a way to manage hygiene without them, I would. The whole ordeal of cutting the time out of my day, washing (especially my hair), and then dealing with the blow dryer is just a headache I would rather forego.

#5 I thoroughly enjoy laundry, but only the washing, drying, and folding part; I can't stand putting it away! What a pleasure it is now that Hannah and Bethany (and sometimes even Caleb and Leah) can do it for me.

#6 My beverage of choice is plain wrap, Safeway brand, unflavored, room temperature,  aluminum canned, seltzer water. I drink roughly 4 a day.

#7 I do not know my multiplication tables past the high 6s by heart. In 3rd grade I was tested every week, for time, and never got the gold star next to my name. I am determined to learn them with Hannah!

So, what about you? What seven things would make me giggle? If you are so inclined I would love to have you comment on this post, and add your own "little known facts". 

Peek A Boo

Peek a boo... I see you.

Under The Water At Lexi's Party

I considered passing by this blog-worthy event because I feared my readership might be weary of Leah-isms. Similar to my own threshold for Knock-Knock jokes, could it be possible that you grow tired of hearing the anecdotes taken from my children's mouths? It is possible - but the fact remains that Odd is not Odd because I have one child who never reinvents my parental platitudes with their own unique bent. No, Odd is what it is because of events like the one I am about to share, and you wouldn't be reading if it weren't so... well, Odd.

As a backdrop for the following statement, you must understand something. Some 16 weeks ago (December 9th, to be exact) my children attended an indoor swim party for a friend's birthday. Leah became so enamored with the event that we have scarcely gone a single evening without her mentioning, "I went under the water at Lexi's party." It has almost replaced the mindless sayings all families use, like, "God bless you," at a sneeze or, "excuse me," when you bump someone. In our house you could simply say, "I went under the water at Lexi's party," and I seriously doubt anyone would even blink. She already knows that she wants a Lexi party for her own birthday (she doesn't separate the party's owner with the event location, and can not simply call it, say, "the pool"). Bearing all this in mind, Leah sat down next to me tonight and calmly explained the following:

I went under the water at Lexi's party (this statement no longer requires any response, being now used as a way to introduce any number of topics, and akin to "hello" in my daughter's vocabulary). I bumped my head on my arm, right here (she points to an imagined wound on her arm, which never came into any contact with her head under the water at Lexi's party or elsewhere). And now my head gave me a blood-scrape. See?

Here, she gave me one of her more fantastical looks, which are making her famous among those who have IRL (in real life) knowledge of my curly-haired imp, and trotted off to pretend obedience to the bedtime ritual.

Yo Cuz, part II

I had the unique pleasure of visiting with yet another Amish cousin last night, David. If you recall, I had the opportunity to visit with David's younger brother Michael just last year in June, so I've been on a bit of a kick getting to see my Amish cousins of late. You see, David is a pilot with Express Jet airlines, and the good Lord brought David through Monterey on one of his flights. I was blessed when I got an email from David last week and he suggested we get together. He had about a 22 hour layover, and it would give us the opportunity to have dinner together, and allow him to meet the family.

Trisha had a meeting at the church, so it was a bit crazy managing all six of the kids and hosting a small-scale dinner party. But, we had an awesome time together, catching up after 18 years of not seeing each other. It was neat to hear how God was working in David's life, and how life is treating he and his family, as well as share what God is doing in our life.

David promises to come visit again as Express Jet allows him Monterey layovers in the future. We're praying he and his wife Kathy and their children Abby and Gavin will have a chance to come and visit in the future as well!

Praise God!