new home

I am switching homes... I'm now posting at:
locust-street.blogspot.com

(The same person took locuststreet and locustst and she has literally NOTHING on her blog! annoying!!)

I am getting excited about crafting again! After starting journals for refest... spending too much time on etsy and seeing a friend's paintings I'm ready to lock myself in a hobby lobby for a month and go to town.

I was talking to painting-friend tonight about how we get in the art mode and don't want to be distracted by anything... (especially the kids who only took a three hour nap... what's wrong with them.. couldn't they squeeze in a few more minutes!) But it is nice to have things in your life that you enjoy doing and can't get enough of. Life would be pretty boring if the only thing we enjoyed doing was playing with the kids...whoa that came out wrong. Draw your own conclusion. I have to get to sleep.

oh oh oh... I'm really excited about a shadow box painting-friend gave me tonight!! I was just going to do something artsy with it and then I counted the squares... twenty five!!! I could somehow try to make it into an advent calendar!!

A friend was telling me how she used to have Amish friends.

"Do you talk to them much anymore?"

"No...they're pretty hard to get a hold of."

































....maybe you had to be there....

great summer

Enter Uncle Stanley-- black and white little farm kitten.
Grand Ole Days-- great parade. walked basically the entire grand ave. good lair time.
Worship Night-- went well. praying for it to continue.
Z's first real swim lessons-- a week of screams. a week of fun.
First trip to ER with Z-- two staples from a fall in the library. dangerous place.
4th of July-- super fun. family times. regular events.
Twins game (free and we won!) and more Lair time
Road trip to Colorado Worship Gathering-- Continuing to see God a little clearer through the scales.
Starting to plan Momtime. Using the gifts God's giving me along side wonderful women who bare necessary gifts I certainly don't have.
Grandma's 92nd birthday. At one point she cried out that she didn't know who she was... but she hangs on.
Camping for the first time with the kids. leaky tent. s'mores.
Church membership class. Good discussions. Better understanding of our church's inner-workings.
Brainerd trip-- beautiful lake. private little cabin. ben still dreaming about the fishing there. sad to see old camp turned into high priced real estate "up north cabin community"
Great bible study with women who are completely real with one another. Love laying hands on them and praying. My desire for a small group with that openness. Praying that God will bring the right people and allow me to share in it.
Fair-- weirdos. greasy food. kates excitement for the animals...giggle evoking.
Steele county fair next week? Maybe Lanesboro? zoo next weekend? zachariah's first school conference the following week. And momtime kickoff the same day. z's first day of school. cbs starts. momtime starts. making journals for refest. Plan halloween costumes. Both baby's birthdays. Sara Groves concert?? Christmas. Lovely, busy, christmas. and the calendar is just going to fill and fill and fill.

I am excited and blessed.

This morning I was making breakfast in the kitchen and Zachariah kept asking me something from the dining room.. I couldn't hear him.. but got a little annoyed.. "WHAT Zachariah!?!" I asked for the third time... going into the dining room to hear him...

"How was your meeting?" He asked shyly.

Who is this 43 year old man in a three year old's body?

My meeting last night went well. I'm a little anxious to see what will come out of this little worship night we've been working on. There's only a few of us doing it.. so I am going to play a hand drum. Hopefully won't screw that up too much.

And Colorado is on for sure.. I think.

In other news. We got a new kitten and it is nothing short of a miracle that he's not dead yet. The kids are pretty rough with him... and yet he never really runs away from them.

My exchange student leaves tomorrow which ends my stint as a coordinator. And today I saw a lady I was supposed to call a few weeks ago now.. so that's off my mind. Lightening the load of "stuff." My capacity for "stuff" right now is minimal.

Sat down to watch a few minutes of Martha while I ate my blicky pad thai that took way longer than a lunch for one should take to make. I never get to watch anymore.. but of course she was doing something uninteresting... giving a tutorial of garden tools. Where's the fun guests making the cakes? She was talking about how she always finds her dirt rakes laying around her garden with the pointy side pointing to the sky and how that makes her "so pissed." I would hate to work for Martha.

Today I finally felt a little more on top of life than I have been the last few weeks. So of course it should be no surprise that I get a phone call tonight asking if I would be interested in doing something that I have no interest in. Or had no interest in. Now I have a week to pray about it. So I have to find out if this is one of those instances where God is going to change my heart (like he did with China) or if this is a lesson in saying "no".

Highlights from my anniversary night away.

Wearing new clothes! When's the last time I had a completely new outfit?? Don't remember. Feel guilty about money spent on it.

Leaving an hour and a half after planned. Is it really that hard to pack the family for ONE night away??

Driving up to the cities without getting in a fight!YEA!

Driving around in circles looking for a good parking ramp. In fear of how much we'd end up having to pay for it.

Hotel is a block away from everything we wanted to do. We're able to walk everywhere nice.

Going to a movie... when's the last time we did that? Saw Adventureland. Didn't know anything about it. Very distracted by bad actress Kirsten Stewart.

The girl at the concession stand who took ten minutes to put the lid on our pop. Couldn't hold in a giggle. Gave me an idea for a screenplay.

Realize that my feet have probably grown since pregnancy... cute shoes are ripping my feet apart. Downtrotten from wasted money on new shoes and the realization that I now truely have amazon woman feet and will have to buy shoes online from now on.

Ate at Glueks. A tribute to the first time I was there in August for the GLS concert.

Listened to a Canadian hit on the waitress. Listen to how she was depressed about being a felon... driving drunk it sounded like.

Went back to the hotel because I couldn't walk anymore due to aforementioned shoes.

Pefect timing.. caught "steve-o demise and rise" on tv which I had wanted to see. Totally bewildered at how someone would want to live that lifestyle. Watched some SNL. Exahusted from the cold I have. Went to sleep.

Woke up too early from cold. Read Minneapolis travel magazines for an hour. Learned best places to eat million dollar steaks. Went back to sleep.

Woke up and realized I had to get up or we'd be late. Mind half out of it from cold.

Had the BEST shower of my life. Understood why the Westin advertises their showers. Put it on my "if I were rich" list of things I'd waste my billions on.

Had an akward breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Felt out of place and didn't really know what was going on. Had small fight about homework.

Went to church with tracy and bryan. Surprised to find it was in a church building I'd been to in college. church had died and they had given it to Hope Community. Refreshing to hear of churches doing that.

Sermon on 1 Corinthians. About the body of christ being God's temple. Very fitting because Nikky had mentioned that as a possible name for our worship night last week but we wanted to get a better understanding of the word. Funny how God does that.

Got car from parking ramp by hotel. Only $5! awesome!

Ate at Buca's. Emma "ruined" mother's day and our anniversary by screaming most of the time. Next time we are going to get the ravioli and something else.. NOT the stuffed shells.

Told the server it was Ben's birthday that week. He had the whole restaurant sing "happy birthday". Loved watching the faces of the strangers at other tables singing. They were so genuinely joyful to sing to a stranger. It was another "movie" moment. It made me love humanity a little more.

We were hoping for the chocolate cake... but got the old frozen tasteless "christmas" birthday cake.

Went to Whole Foods and got some new "natural" products that don't contain nasties. Feeling like I'm turning a little more "granola".

Walked around Grand looking for the perfect mother's day gift. In vain. Very stressful.

Drove home. No fighting. But not understanding how someone could not like the current.

Back to reality.