Wednesday, February 23, 2011

It's not about me.

Today there are no cute kid pictures or funny stories to report... just me and my attitude that needed (still needs??) a little (ok, A LOT) adjusting. In the future I'm going to try really hard to be transparent and share more about what God has been stirring up in my heart lately. But for now, I wanted to share this inspiring piece that I just read (no, I don't read... only for Bible Study... and only because it's naptime... but I had a hard time concentrating even then because there's laundry to fold) from Joanna Weaver's book Having a Mary Spirit:

"The world has had enough of the up-and-comers, the pushers and the shovers, the proud and the confident who would sooner walk over someone than help them up. What the world needs, what the world is looking for, is authentic Christianity. The heart of a Savior, willing to lay down His life to save the world... exemplified by a humble and generous people who are willing to lay down their own agendas in order to love the world back to God."

"When we willingly bend and bow, when we embrace God's breaking as our making, when we make ourselves of no reputation, something beautiful happens. The life of Christ is released in us. And the fragrance... well, it is intoxicatingly attractive. But it only comes through brokenness, though the genuine beauty of true humility."

She finishes the chapter with the words I needed to hear today:

"There is only one God."

"And it isn't me."

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Thank you, God.

I don't remember how it got started, but my boys got to talking about their buddy Ian as we all sat at the dinner table this week. I love how the Lord brings good friends to our minds randomly. :) Anyway, it was a quick conversation about how funny Ian is, and about what makes him laugh, and about how they had this awesome guitar jam session (Tyler included!) the last time Ian was at our house...

Thank you, God, for bringing very special friends into our lives.

"I thank my God every time I remember you." - Philippians 1:3 (NIV)

Or, the words we might use...

"Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart." - Philippians 1:3 (The Message)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The follow-up to my LEGO followers...

Blogs have all different kinds of identities. In the "serious" blogging world, some would say that every blog needs a theme if it's ever going to become anything. There are fabulous cooking blogs, how-to craft blogs, blogs on families' adoption journeys, how to manage your money blogs, political blogs, home improvement blogs... plus everything else in between. Something that pulls readers in and keeps them coming back for more.

Here we have no theme or topic that keeps you on the edge of your seats. Good thing we never planned on becoming anything. Heh. But one time we did mention our slight obsession with LEGOS, and we made all sorts of new friends! I think I feel our rise to fame coming on. :)

Anyway, we got all sorts of questions after that post. So for Mitchell and all of you other LEGO fanatics out there, this post is for you... Q: Where do you store your LEGO sets once they're built?

A: Tyler built these wooden shelves in Trey and Chase's room a few years ago (imagine desk tops on each side underneath the shelves, which Tyler hopes to complete when life slows down a bit... hahahahaha). We got the idea from a Pottery Barn magazine, and I had lovely design dreams of color-coordinated decorations and cute little labeled bins placed neatly on each shelf. But boys don't care about that sorta stuff. They want Husky toolboxes filled with LEGOS in their rooms instead. So this is one of the main places where they store their LEGOS that they want to keep as sets.

Other storage spaces? Every square inch of my house.

Q: Do your boys keep their LEGO sets intact to play with them, or do they tear them up after they build them?

A: They actually do a little of both! Sets always get built according to the directions, and they leave them intact for at least a couple of months. If it is a particularly large set, or one of their favorites, they leave it built for longer than that.

Take this Hogwarts Castle. It's not getting torn up any time soon. We do, however, try to encourage the boys to break up a lot of their sets after they've enjoyed them for a time. We feel like part of the fun and skill building happens when they build their own creations from their imaginations. We have sets all over like this one below:

This is Jack's latest creation, straight from his own head... a Ninja Training Station. I wish you could see all of the detail in there, like the weapons storage area, the security cameras, and the cafeteria ('cause Ninjas have to eat, you know). He'll build a set like this, then will keep going back to it for a couple of weeks straight, making small changes to it as he comes up with new ideas. Then he'll bring it downstairs, pin me in a corner, and talk about every itty bitty detail for what seems like days. :)

It's interesting to see each boy's personality come out as they play with their LEGOS. Jack's favorite part is definitely coming up with his own creations. Trey likes to build sets according to the directions, because it's a means to an end for him to play with the final product. Chase is what I like to call our builder-in-training. It's been fun to challenge Jack to spend time teaching Chase simple little ways he can build using his imagination. We've totally seen Chase's confidence skyrocket, and he and Jack have had some great LEGO bonding moments.

And for the record, I'm a little shocked that I got a picture of him with his shirt on.

Q: I never thought of separating and storing LEGOS by color. Why did you choose to do it this way?

A: Our hope was to encourage the boys to rebuild some old sets that they had torn up. We have a bin full of all of their instructions, so they can simply sort the pieces they need (Remember that page in the instructions that has rows of pictures of all of the pieces included in the set? Nice.) and build the set all over again. So much easier to find by color.

Q: What are your suggestions for LEGO storage with a small baby in the house?

A: Oh geesh, keeping LEGOS out of an infant's mouth (or out from under Daddy's feet) seems like an impossible task, doesn't it?! And it seems like we have always had a baby in the house. Our first strategy was a pretty obvious one: we moved all of our LEGOS upstairs. Of course pieces made their way down the steps for show, but for the most part, the baby gate kept these little choking hazards at bay. Although we found no method fool-proof, when our kids were a little younger, we used to keep all of our LEGOS on our old train table. The boys were just old enough that they had lost interest in playing with the train set every day, so this became a great way to spread LEGO pieces out and keep them in one spot. The more pieces we got, the less user-friendly it became, but it worked quite well for a while. The best part about the table was that there was no expectation to keep pieces separated and organized for any length of time.

Ok, now it's your turn!

What are your favorite LEGO "solutions" around your house? We'd love to learn some tips from you (because like it or not, it looks like these little guys are going to be around for a very long time)!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Two.

I'm struggling with this two year old lately. Good thing her big brother is around. He seems to have an abundance of patience for her when no one else does. Which is funny, because you wouldn't think his analytical, perfectionist, right-brained personality would fit well with her generally crazy, out-of-control approach to life.

When she wants to read a book, he quickly volunteers. He's always down on his knees hugging her on her level. He walks in the door from school and she runs to him and says, "I miiisssed you, Jackie." He looses all of his nine year-old pride and crawls around on the floor and plays "Dog" with her. If she cries, he's the first one there to console her. And when she's in trouble, oh my... he's a complete mess. He paces around nervously and can hardly stand it.

He just gets her. Maybe it's because he gave me a run for my money when he was a toddler too. These two are hard to crack sometimes on the exterior. But when they love... oh, how they love with such compassion and loyalty. I'm thankful for already having gone through the challenges of a "spirited" toddler once, to know that there is indeed hope when all of that intelligence and passion is channeled in the right direction.

Until then, God keeps me humble.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

An ode to snow and boys.

I know these pictures are blurry (Who messed with my camera settings anyway?? The options are almost endless!), but I'm settling on posting them anyway. I really did consider retaking them, but I'm not about to make everyone re-dress in their snow clothes to re-pose with a humble little snowman in a blizzard. Well, the blizzard that's supposed to be on it's way, anyway. Once upon a time I might have done that, but you already know how I threw my Hallmark photo-op dreams out the window. Something's gotta give, you know. Anyway, these pictures are precious to me since this is the first snowman the boys built all by themselves (with lots of help from their cousin Cade, who barely missed the photo-op). Not only that, this might be the first time that they've played in the snow when they were actually outside longer than the time it took to dress them in their snow gear. Now that's progress people. The boys are home from school today, and we're all a little hyper waiting for the blizzard to get here. I'd be a little worn out by all of their excitement if I wasn't just as bad as they are. Jack has followed the weatherman's blog with me for the past few days, and we have it all mapped out, scrutinizing how and when it all will happen. Tyler thinks I'm nuts for being a regular follower of his blog. I, however, am quite comfortable with my nerdy little contact with the outside world. That, a slight obsession with the Tipmont REMC Electric Consumer newsletter, and a daily trip to the mailbox keep me sane. :)

Although we're pumped about the snow (12+ inches coming??), I do wonder what we'll do stuck in the house with all of this boy-pent-up-energy this week. Five hours into our first snow day and I was super-gluing Jack's glasses back together. And people wonder what we moms do all day at home.

Storm chasing, and now glasses repair. It's a wild life I lead.