Minnesota Math

It takes...
12hrs 1min driving time
over 700 miles
10 tollbooths
$10.30 in tolls
$74.29 in fuel
6 stops for the bathroom
18 "Are we there yet"s
21 wet wipes
80oz coffee
24oz diet coke
20oz coke
6 juice boxes
4 nutty bars...or "waffle brownies" as Grace calls them
2 DVDs (totaling 3hrs)

= 2 Exhausted parents and 3 children with more energy pent up than a jackrabbit on crack

...and we do this twice a year

A 2 Pronged Praise

One year ago today, I was admitted to the hospital...I had a breakdown. It's hard to believe it has been a year. I was so frightened...afraid I had lost myself...afraid that everything that I valued about myself was false...afraid that the joy in my life was going to be medicated out of me. A good part of this year has been a slow crawl back to function...back to believing in myself again. Many of you who read this were a part of that recovery and are now a part of the joy I do indeed retain in my life (despite the pharmaceutical obstacles).

I thank God for you all
I thank God for my illness...it has brought me to this place
I thank God for my recovery

I suppose that's 3 prongs...and to add another...I was asked to become a permanent staff member at my job today!!

The Middleman

So I'm taking my 3year old potty the other day. This activity comprises substantial amounts of my time these days. I realize that with all this frequency, I'm not always paying close attention. On this particular occasion as she slid off the toilet I reminded her, as I often do...

"Use the toliet paper, Sweetie"

Now at this point in the game I usually look away, I guess trying to instill some sense of privacy that I can only hope she will one day desire. This time I do look away but turn my head back toward her just in time to see her neatly ball up a hand full of toilet paper from the roll and place it directly into the toilet.

"Just gonna eliminate the middleman there Sweetie??"

Am impish grin breaks across her round little face. In that moment, I know she knows.
You know it would be so much easier to reprimand the child if she wasn't so stinkin cute.
But this time, a burst of laughter on my part and a scarcely firm,

"Do it right, Pinky!"

is the best I can do.

As it turns out, God has a sense of humor...

So I had chinese food with some friends a couple of weeks ago and as usual I can't resist reading my fortune. It's usually something general like "you are easily influenced by cookies containing small pieces of paper". However, this time my fortune was this:

"You have an unusally magnetic personality. Be mindful of your polarity"

Which is funny for me given that I was diagnosed as being bipolar last year. It made me laugh.
So folks, if you can remember, tell me about the best fortune you ever received.

La-azy

So I have been feeling laaaaaaazy lately and have moved from a posting mode to a blog-monitoring mode. I am actively searching for an inspirational blog topic...any ideas?????

Little Debbie Strikes Again!

So...yesterday I particpated in the 12hr fast in preparation for Newsong's Community Celebration of Praise. I seemed to be doing well all day - too busy to really pay attention to how hungry I was fast becoming. Truth be told, I was feeling a little guilty since my busy day had not given me much opportunity to pray.

As I was rounding the 5th of the sixth flights of stairs that would take me to my car, I spotted a half-eaten Nutty Bar covered with dirt and surrounded by some rather ominous looking stains in the corner of the stairwell.....I gotta admit...I thought about it...not for more than a second, but it definately entered my my mind. Now if ever there was an occasion for an earnest prayer, this was it!

So my question to you, my faithful readership, is this...How hungry have you been???

I was once so hungry I...

Little Debbie Strikes Again!

Frustration...Inspiration

As many of you know, I have a very special little baby in my life, Immanuel James. Now while Manny certainly has some special needs, he also has some very special gifts. One of my favorites is that he teaches his Mommy to slow down and open her eyes to greater truths that lie right in front of me...it is one of those that I will share today.

Manny has both a physical therapist and an occupational therapist working with him to help him reach some of his motor milestones. Now, Manny is doing extraordinarily well for a Down syndome child however he is a bit behind the curve by normal standards. I have always commented on what a calm and contended baby Manny has been and remains and as it turns out, that works against him in some ways. His physical therapist explained to me that babies begin moving forward, crawling and walking because they want more, they need more...they get frustrated. Manny, God love him, is just so darn happy that it doesn't automatically occur to him that there might be something better or more fulfilling for him out there. So now, one of my most important jobs is to find ways to frustrate him and that in turn inspires him to move forward (currently inspiration = a pippin hot cup of coffee just out of reach...he has just a bit of Sam in him)

I think about this all, and it makes me smile. I realize that out of the the times of my greatest frustrations comes the inspirations for moving forward. God knows me well and sad but true...sometimes he has to tic me off to get me going. It's all about love...that I know for sure.