Merry Christmas!

A glance at the date of my last post tells me this is the longest stretch I've gone without posting in a while. It's been pretty crazy around here, with Christmas preparations, a couple of illnesses, and various other stuff.
This will most likely be my last post until after the holidays, so I just want to wish everyone who reads this a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2008.

Teacher Gifts

Today we made Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Mix for the girls' teachers.

Pictured above are the finished products.

What you see below is the fallout. Although you can't really grasp the scale of the mess, since I didn't get the floor in the photo.

Attention Blog Gurus

I have a technical question for other bloggers.

Can I save my blog archives to CD without saving them to my hard drive first?
I've had a growing sense of urgency to backup my blog for a while now, but I really don't know how, and I have this fear of these written memories of my kids getting lost forever.

So if anyone has done this....someone who has written a BOOK containing much of their blog content, perhaps, could you give me some technical advice on saving my blog? In nontechnical, easy-to-understand language?

Thanks.

Whew!

Well we did it...but not without much wailing and gnashing of teeth. After I calmed down, it went much more smoothly. It wasn't so much the making of the costume, as the trying to think of an idea for the costume that took so much time. The hula hoop idea was a bust....so we ended up with posterboard rings, decorated by Peanut with markers and colored seashells. The planet itself was also posterboard and Peanut had this avant-garde checkerboard thing going, then I think she got tired of coloring. The poster was put together at the last minute , after she wrote down some facts she had learned about Saturn.

When she presented her poster/report to the class, the teacher asked her if Saturn was a terrestrial planet or a gaseous planet, to which she replied, "I have no idea what you're talking about".
That's my girl!
Sissy also had to do a poster and report-- on Earth's natural resources. Also a bear. A slightly smaller bear, but still.....

She's Supposed to Be a What?!?!

My blogging time will be spotty if not nonexistent for the next few days, as I'll be spending all my free time helping Peanut come up with a costume for dress-up day in Astronomy class. Dress-up day is Tuesday and she's going as the planet Saturn.

THE PLANET SATURN!!!!!

I don't know what we're going to do. We've got a hula hoop. I was thinking maybe attaching some fishing line to it for straps to go over her shoulders..... I don't know what else to do for rings.... not to mention how to make her look orb-shaped!!!

I don't remember exactly but I'm thinking this was one of the top five reasons we decided to HOMEschool. Frantic, last minute costume design is NOT my forte.

Wish me luck.

So What Exactly Is Your Persuasion On the Big Man?

.....asks the hobo of Hero-Boy (The Polar Express).

That hobo had some great lines. His character could have been so cool, but they had to go and make him all weird and supernatural. And he was definitely NOT in the book.


The Big Man.......Santa Claus.... for such a good-natured, child-loving guy, he sure does put a conservative Christian in a quandary doesn't he?


Well I'm here to make a confession. We're not anti-Santa in this house.

We ARE against Santa taking the spotlight away from Jesus. For that reason, we don't give Santa a lot of hype. In fact, the adults in the house don't even bring him up. But when the girls do, which is actually not very often, we play along. Sometimes this puts us in a tough spot, like this year.

We're thinking this year, the girls may find a note from Santa, letting them know that he GOT that they wanted a Polly Pocket Race to the Mall playset, but that all the reviews at Amazon.com had called it a piece of junk, and that the elves were going to have to go back to the drawing board. I wonder how it'll go over.

No, really. As long as Santa stays in the background, we're OK with him. What we're NOT OK with, and it always happens anyway, is the fixation the kids' have on what gifts they'll get. Not necessarily from Santa. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and grown cousins all buy for them, and it's very hard to get them to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

But we try. It's just that we don't think being upfront with them about the big Mr. C. is going to help the situation, because, like I said, they rarely bring him up. Instead they bring up grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. with much excitement.

So what's the answer there? Tell the family to stop buying them gifts? Probably. But we're not going there either.

So we do the best we can. This year for the first time, we're decorating a Jesse tree and reading related scriptures at night. One year we did an Advent wreath and candles with related devotions but the girls were so little then, that they only distracted from it. Still, my husband and son and I were blessed in doing it and we may do it again next year.

We try to keep the focus on Jesus around here. We're not always successful, but it's not Santa's fault. We fill our already loaded schedules with shopping, baking, Christmas parties, play practice, and so many other things that are not BAD things. They just subtly swindle from us the time that we need to be giving Jesus.

Many Christians "don't do Santa Claus", and I can see why. But it's not Santa Claus that fills up our calendars until Jesus is lucky to get an honorable mention. It's Satan and his subtlety.

And that is SO much more dangerous than Santa Claus.

First Christmas Ornaments

OK a quick check of my past few posts tells me I'm wandering ever farther from the point of this blog......my kids, my... butterflies, as it were. So I thought I'd post photos of their first Christmas ornaments. The kids love to hang their own first ornaments. Even Brother gets a kick out of seeing his now 19 year - ld ceramic baby bootie every year.

A much-loved aunt got it for him. The baby blue rosebuds have faded to almost white, but it's still the most priceless ornament we have. First baby's first ornament...it doesn't get sweeter than that.


Sissy's was given as part of a gift from friends. It had a little block on the wagon that has come off. I need to glue it back on. I'm terrible with stuff like that.


I got Peanut's rocking horse, thinking I'd paint her name on the rocker opposite the one in the picture. Still haven't done it. But she KNOWS it's hers, and she is the queen of voice inflection when she says, "Awwwwwww, my BABY ornament! Isn't it cute?"

The kids have other special ornaments too. When Brother was little I was really good about getting him one every year.... but I have dropped the ball with the girls. There have been a couple of years when by the time I remembered to shop for them, there was nothing left in the stores worth getting.

They always got personalized ornaments from the Pre-School department at church too, which are just as precious.

My husband is working unusually late tonight, which is why I'm posting this so late*.On the rare occasions he's gone at night, I have a hard time going to sleep. I have to wait until I'm so sleepy I can't hold my eyes open any more, before I go to bed. I think I'm just about there so I'm going to try it.
* I'm posting this at 12:30am. I STARTED this post at 2:50pm. In case anybody cares.

Fun Theology Quiz

I found this quiz on Mama Archer's blog. I'm not surprised that my highest score was Luther, but what really tickled me was my second highest. I KNEW I had some Calvinist in me ;)

But I have to be honest. I answered questions I didn't even understand .....so I guess that makes my score null and void. Oh well, something tells me a true Calvinist would have understood all the questions anyway. Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Martin Luther The daddy of the Reformation. You are opposed to any Catholic ideas of works-salvation and see the scriptures as being primarily authoritative. Martin Luther 87% John Calvin 80% Jonathan Edwards 67% Charles Finney 67% Anselm 67% Karl Barth 60% Friedrich Schleiermacher 40% Jürgen Moltmann 40% Paul Tillich 40% Augustine 33%

So what kind of theologian are you? See for yourself....... http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=7092N

Statcounter Induced Madness

I'm not one who lives and breathes by the statcounter. At first I was, but I've come a long way since my Sixteenth Post, and while knowing others read my blog occasionally is wonderful and motivating, it's not the reason I do what I do here.

Still.....it's nice to be able to go to statcounter and see where my readers are coming from, or why I may have more traffic on any one day than another. Allison linked me after I passed her the Blogging Friend Award, which explains why I've received some hits that came from her blog readers.

It's also fun and amusing to see what Google search phrases have led people to my blog. The most frequent one has been some variation of "children sitting quietly in church", which relates to a post I made awhile back on the topic. Other searches have nothing to do with anything on my blog, such as "control freak in old age" and "butterflies in church". I bet THEY didn't hang around long:o)

If one has visited my blog more than a few times, I can usually figure out who they are, IF they've ever left a comment, When I see hits from Yuma, Arizona I know Sallie's been here. The ISP in Maine has got to be Marie, and if Montgomery, Alabama pops up, it means Kathy came by today. I know where Hadias is too, but she doesn't disclose that info on her blog, for safety reasons, so I respect that.

What's maddening is figuring out everybody else. I don't mean one-hit wonders fromTawain, or Australia. I mean people I know in person, who have told me in person that they visit my blog, but have never left a comment so I don't know exactly when they visited.

It drives me crazy to see my hometown on the statcounter , and NOT know who it is. Is it Donna from church? Lisa? No, not Lisa... I think she reads me from work because her company name shows up sometimes on the stats. Mom? No, wrong ISP. My pastor? He TELLS me he reads me, and I guess I have to believe him, but he lives in a neighboring town, which I have NEVER seen on my statcounter. On the other hand, it will sometimes show a visit from my Mom as coming from New York, New York! What's up with that?

And who are you Spartanburg, South Carolina???? And I know you've been here Winter Park Florida! Why don't you guys come out and introduce yourselves ?? It's keeping me awake at night.

OK, not really. But I WOULD like to know because......well.....just because.

American Idol and One of It's Cousins

Last year I was an Idol watcher. In previous Idol seasons I had only watched the last couple of episodes when there were only four or five contestants left, if I watched it at all. The year Carrie Underwood won, I watched only the final episode, and I gotta say, I was more impressed with Bo. Which shows how much I know, cause I guess Carrie's doing OK for herself.

But last year, I got sucked into watching the whole darn thing. I still don't understand what's so entertaining about the auditions. The talented were few and far between, and the untalented were so painful to watch, and the feedback from the judges so cruel at times, I was really disturbed by the callousness of a society that not only watches this, but watches it more than it watches anything else.

But did I turn it off? Nooooooooo.

Because there were just enough good singers that I wanted to follow their progress. Those TV guys, they know what they're doing.

Did my favorite singer win? Nope. I was devastated when she was eliminated. But I kept watching. And then my second favorite was eliminated. And I was done.

Because it wasn't about the best singer at all. It was about who was doing the voting. I certainly didn't vote......that would have meant I was taking it seriously. And while it's OK for a middle-aged woman to shake her fist and yell at the TV when Lakesha and Melinda go down, voting seems rather.....young and frivolous.

So I don't have any plans to watch the next American Idol, but I'm not signing papers to that effect , because those TV guys, they know what they're doing.

My husband made fun of my Idol addiction last year. The tables are turned now though, because what do you know, HIS favorite show this year is The Next Great American Band. Like Idol, it's an alleged talent finder , but in reality it's a popularity contest controlled by a bunch of 13 year olds with cell phones. His favorite group was eliminated Friday night, being squeezed out by a bunch of junior high kids who think they're all that.

I'm trying hard to feel his pain, but I have to stop laughing first.

Nina Loves Mud

"Here, this is for you". He dropped something on the table as he walked by.

It was a small, folded,cardboard container from Bojangle's, exactly the size and shape of a fried pie.

I opened it to find it was indeed, one of those unhealthy but oh-so-good delicacies. He had bought me a fried pie. He had thought of me. Even in the midst of all the other things he has to remember, like technical telephone and DSL stuff, the two dozen medications his elderly father takes, the names, ages, and practice nights of 85 kids who play Upward basketball, that the bathroom sink needs fixing, and the Next Great American Band comes on Friday nights at 8:00, he had THOUGHT of me.

"Ooooh, thank you". I couldn't believe he had thought of me. The pie was cold, but Bojangle's IS on the other side of town, so that was perfectly understandable.

I sniffed it and smelled only grease and pie crust. "What kind is it?", I asked.

"Guess", he said.

"Is it......" I drew in my breath. Could it be he had not only thought of me, but REMEMBERED my favorite kind of pie?? I was falling in love all over again. I was actually so giddy I bounced up and down . He had REMEMBERED an obscure fact about me.

"......is it cherry?"

"Nope".

"Oh." I stopped bouncing.
Well ok. He didn't remember my favorite kind. Still, the important thing was, he had THOUGHT of me. Anyway, most fast food pies are............

"Apple?" That was fine too. Apple is my second favorite. Standing up, I was on my way to the microwave to heat up my fried apple pie when he said, sounding quite proud of himself,

"Sweet potato!"

I stopped in my tracks and turned around.

"SWEET potato?"

"Yep, this guy at work gave it to me. He had bought two of 'em at lunch todayand only ate one. You like sweet potatoes don't you?"

There was the sound of a gigantic bubble bursting.

My man had brought me a sweet potato pie. A cold, leftover, hand-me-down, purchased-several-hours ago-and -bounced-around-in-some-guy's-utility-truck-all-day sweet potato pie.

Yeah, he really loves me.

In reality, I think it's hysterical. It's so classically "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", that you can't help but love it.

He had given me a gift. To him, the manner in which he procured the gift, and ideed the gift itself, was irrelevant. What mattered was that he had GIVEN me something.

I, however, saw the gift and immediately came to my own conclusions. My idea of romance ran away with my imagination, and I put him up there on the same pedestal as the leading romantic guys in movies and TV, that always remember little things about their ladies, and always make steady eye contact when they're women speak to them, even when the football game's on TV and UT's playing Florida, and never do anything boorish like belch, or make bathroom humor jokes, or bring home cold, sweet potato pies. And I did all that in my head in the 3.5 seconds from when he said "Here, this is for you" to when he said, "Sweet potato!".

My unrealistic expectations were hardly fair to him. Still there was some good that could come from it.

"My name's Mud on your blog now, isn't it?", he asked.

Oh , you know it Baby.