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.

a day in the life.

I finally figured out why it was EXCRUSIATINGLY hard to get ANYTHING done this week!...it's the weather! Cloudy and chilly. I'm starting to wonder if I'm a true daughter of Minnesota. Perhaps California put me up for adoption.

After a stressful day of grocery shopping with two toddlers and panicing to get a heavily anticipated by the husband trout supper cooked only to not have to done on time which caused a wonderful fight... the kids wouldn't eat their steamed brocoli and baked potatoes. So we ended up eating bowls of Cap'n Crunch. (Which I haven't had in YEARS.. this is not a usually affair. Don't call social services.) The trout is packed away for reheating at a later hour. And now I have a disaster of a kitchen. Kids that won't stop whining...okay.. they just stopped whining.. they are so hopped up on sugar that they are terrorizing the upstairs...is that water running I hear?... And the cat snuck out of the house and is playing with the wild neighborhood rabbits. There's a dirty diaper to change. And I can't even run away because I don't have a car.

Atleast the sun is shining as it sets.

Now they're back to whining.

I kept forgetting that I had to make a cheesecake tonight. So it didn't get started until... after nine pm. crust is in the oven and I remember... NO SUGAR!! Rush out to my local Kwik Trip. Find the four pound bag on the bottom shelf amoung the other "shoot we're out of..." items. I reach for the bag and notice... "$4.88" WHAT!?! Do I take the extra time and energy to head over to my local grocer? The crust is almost done. I contemplate it.. do the math... I have to.. this isn't a small village in the middle of a third world country... I can NOT pay five dollars for a bag of off brand sugar. Ten minutes later I am the newest owner of a $1.88 bag of sugar. That's more like it.

Fear not... for I am with you.

Last night I put Zachariah to bed... for a second time. He claimed that he had a bad dream about a monster. I knew that he hadn't even fallen asleep yet.. he had been playing. But I suspect that he didn't try to sleep because of an early "scary monster" dream.

So I told him that mommy couldn't take the monster dreams away... only Jesus
could..and that we needed to pray.

So I did.

The first thing he says when he wakes up this morning...


"I didn't have a monster dream! Jesus took the monster away!! I won't be afraid in my room anymore!"

Then we talked about how faithful and good Jesus is.

“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

I have a meeting with a few ladies from my church this afternoon about some things we'd like to start at our church. I'm so excited.. I know they are too. I pray the Lord will work in awesome ways.

And on a non-God note. I am thinking about changing Kate's name to "olive"... I can't help that she looks like an "olive".

Do you know what I just made? No I'm not going all flowers in the attic. I made enough laundry detergent for 64 loads of laundry for like... a dollar... if that. I'm jazzed.

And a few weeks ago... a sea of homemade fruit leather.

With all the money I'm saving the family we're going to buy a new van... or ice cream...