08.08.08
for my mom
The other day Toby wanted to know if Ellie’s baby doll with sugar in it* could come to the store with her.
*Pinky: the cherished, pink baby doll I had when I was little; half-filled with some sort of sand-like pellets
dating guru? who knew.
Someone recently found my page with this search item:
how do you help a girl along the way to liking you.
Should I start listing my personal dating advice? OK.
Dating Tip #1: Be honest already. Yes, about everything. Sorry, even that. Don’t pretend to like The Indigo Girls if you don’t. Or start wearing stripey sweaters just because he likes them (but you think they make you look fat.) If s/he asks you a question, don’t second guess what your date might want you to say: just give your honest answer. No one wants to date the pretend version of you.
Looking for a church?
If you live in Cloverdale, Coatesville, Greencastle, Fillmore, Brazil, Bainbridge, Roachdale or Stilesville, check out Wellspring Christian Church.
07.25.08
Onomatopoetically
As a lover of words and their sounds, this site is clever and cool. Suggest a word!
07.23.08
Where in the World is Toby Edwardago?
Last night I couldn’t find Tobyin his room when I went to check on him before I went to bed. Know where I found him? Not in his bed, or even under it (where he likes to hide). Nope. He was fast asleep on TOP of his dresser. Yup..the five-drawer dresser that is shoulder-high on me.
When asked about it he explained that he couldn’t get hurt if he fell off because 1) he had a blanket at the bottom of the dresser and 2) he’s a big boy.
We are in for some hard times and even harder lessons.
07.22.08
yes yes yes yes yes
Swiped from mdog’s site, who swiped it from an anonymous poster elsewhere. Too beautiful to not pass on:
I want to be who I was born to be. I want to be a woman– full of piss and vinegar and sweetness and light and tenderness and fury and joy and anger and sadness and exhilaration. I want to be a woman who is passionately in love with Jesus. I want to be a woman is self-sufficient and independent, but who can accept help from others instead of trying to do it all myself and becoming jaded by life. I want to be a woman who is strong but not hard, gentle but not subdued, loud but not strident. I want to fall in love and I want to argue and I want to snuggle and wrestle and hug. I want to give foot rubs and Dutch ovens. I want to memorize scripture and I want to talk dirty to my husband. I want to teach my kids how to love Jesus and how to fart with their armpits and why the sky is blue.
[found on the occasional truth via an anonymous poster.
7,505 people
That’s how many people were without power at the height of last night’s storm here. To you big city folks, that might seem like small peanuts, but remember we live in a town of 10,000.
I have never been in a situation where I have seen so many large trees ripped in half, toppled and torn from the ground. According to the local newspaper 75-mile, straight-line winds ripped through our area and made for an entire days worth of clean-up for local crews and home-owners. 
Our God was merciful and though we lost some large limbs, neither of our large trees fell on our house or our vehicles. Many in our area could not say the same.
Even better, there were no reports of injury, though I did hear at work (where we had no lighting save for God’s sun) that a neighboring farmer lost one pregnant cow due to shock overnight. Next door to the residential facility where I work a propane structure caught fire after being struck with lightening.
The fire neccesitated a mid-night evacuation of the sleeping boys at the residential facility giving the overnight staff more action than they usually see. Needless to say, today, with its shocking imagery and its weird stand-around-and-survey-the-damage beginnings, was odd.
07.09.08
Loving the Lake
We returned from a delightful time up at the lake, a trip that has happened each summer for years. These last years have been especially interesting/fun with the kids. Toby is proving his kinship with fish, jumping fearlessly from the raft into 30ft deep water (with a floatation-equipped suit, of course). Some other fun moments:
Scene: in the boat watching Daddy ski, and he’s slalom skiing (way to go Brian!)
Caleb: (trying to wave me down) We’ve got to stop! He lost one of his water skis!
Scene: on the tree swing with Ellie, talking about the turtle the neighbor caught for us
Ellie: Can we have turtle pizza?
Caleb, who will turn 5 in a few weeks, wore his new bicycle helmet the entire car ride home and cried when we said he couldn’t wear it to bed. Thanks Maggie and Pops. He loves it.
06.16.08
trying to hold it together
Some of you have had the opportunity to meet some of the neighborhood girls. Next door are two cute girls who invade our backyard/driveway/front porch the minute we step outside. One is 6, the other is 4. Miss 6 is polite, fairly quiet, and loves Ellie. Miss 4 is rude, pouty, and a liar.
OK.
Today I asked Miss 6 what she wanted to be when she grew up.
Miss 6: (smiling shyly and tucking her hair behind an ear) A dolphin trainer.
Me: Ah! That’s great! (of course it is! I wanted to be a marine biologist myself for YEARS)(turning to Miss 4) What about you? What do you want to be when you get bigger?
Miss 4: (nonchalantly, while blowing bubbles) A witch.
Me: (sucking in my cheeks to avoid smiling/laughing/responding inappropriately;basically trying to hold it together) Oh. Are you sure?
Miss 4: Yeah. **
** Here is where the anti-Harry Potter people step up onto their box.
Harmony
This past weekend I was up in Chicago for Harmony Inc. Area 4 contest for women’s barbershop quartets and choruses.
The group of which I am a part–Covered Bridge Country– got second place! We also qualified to participate in International Competition (held in oh-so-international Appleton, WI).
The best part about this group..well, one of several great parts…is the ladies with whom I sing. I joined because of the serious void of female relationships I had here when we first moved to Indiana. Now thanks to our new church I have many…but these gals are still close to my heart. Weekends like the one I just had with them knit us closer together and I learn deeper, richer truths about their characters and lives.
I advocate for retreats like this for women, men, couples, families, churches. There is nothing short of a disaster that can draw people into a situation that breeds vulnerability and laughter like a retreat.