I got tagged again!

Well, Toni tagged me! (Thank you friend! I love those! I don't know why, except that it makes me feel like I'm not the last kid picked for the team!)

Here are the rules. 1)Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. (2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. (4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I got to sit on the front row at the Stephen Curtis Chapman concert this last week! I was so nervous about being on the front row - but it was awesome!

2. I've eaten ants too. (For those of you who were at Memorial tonight.) Lemon ants, (which we got to eat while in the Amazon in Ecuador) really are not that bad.

3. I've also ridden in a boat on a lake with piranah. (Jason actually swam in the lake.) I can't swim in general, so putting a non-ability to swim with piranah didn't seem a wise risk to take to me.

4. I imagined & shared for most of my life that I had briefly lived in Germany, despite being corrected by mom and eventually even my husband that we had only visited for about 2 weeks when I was 2 or 3.

5. I often can't remember my own age, let alone anyone elses. I can't remember dates well.

6. I love dogs. I grew up with two and since I didn't have siblings, I felt a special connection with them. Maybe in my own heart I'm the "dog whisperer."

7. I also used to visit this little monkey in the zoo in Ecuador almost weekly. I loved to take a little compact I had to him, let him hold it and look at himself in the mirror while trying to find the rest of his body behind the mirror with the other hand. A guard once let my mom and I in a cage to play with lion cubs. This tiny zoo was a real escape for me in such a huge and busy city.

8. I love fried rice. :-)

I tag: Cindy, Terry, Danna and Flee. :-)

"Everything" By Life House

My brother-in-law sent this to us. If you haven't seen it... take a minute to. It's powerful.

You can't tell me what to do....

My first random question of today:

Is it ethical to let your daughter change her stuffed kitty's name from "Whiskers" to "Nancy" for show and tell on "N" day if you are in a hurry? Eli told me it wasn't.

And what is it about us that doesn't like rules anyway?

Friday I had to have an ultrasound ... the only thing I had to do was not eat or drink anything after midnight. My appt. was at 9 am. Easy enough, I thought. Right. When told I could not eat or drink... suddenly it was all I thought about. I obsessed over it!
The irony? I was having the ultrasound because I haven't had much of an appetite for about a month!

And it's not just me! Tonight, at bedtime, Eli asks me to help him decide between two books.
"Should we read "The Runny Babbit" or "Where the Sidewalk Ends?" he asked.
"Oh honey, I don't care. You pick." I say.
"No - You pick. It's your choice mom, " he insists.
"Okay. How about 'The Runny Babbit'."
"No. I really want 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' this time." he says
"Well then why did you ask me?" I ask.
"Because I wanted you to help me make my decision."

Its funny - and I laugh, but I get it, too. If Jason asks me where I want to go eat... and I'll say I don't know. It's become an ongoing joke between us that if he makes a horrible suggestion... I'll react as if I knew all along where I wanted to go and we get there a lot more quickly.

So what is that about us that doesn't like being told what to do?

Jason shared a great message (I'm not being biased - honest) on Sunday about how biblically, peace is always associated with authority. But it's caused me to reflect more this week on our nature: though it seems most of us are pretty desperate for peace... we resist the sovereignty that brings it to us. Even knowing God has our best interest at heart (and has proved it more extensively than anyone else we have encountered)... we resist Him telling us what to do... or how to do it, sometimes. We want peace tied up and tossed at us with no strings attached... It's a silly thought, really. When our whims and desires run the show and make all our decisions... we run in circles like dogs chasing their tails. Thank goodness our God offers us direction and guidance away from such a fruitless pursuit.

"I will hear what God the Lord will say; For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones;
But let them not turn back to folly. " Psalm 85:8

He brings peace....so long as we don't stubbornly hear His words and decide we know better... or just simply don't want to be told what to do.

A hundred and one ways to sell 5 cheap chocolates for $10.00

School fundraisers are back in swing, and my kids are in on the action. We've always made them do this on their own, and honestly it's kind of fun for me to sit back and see who they work up the courage to approach. I rounded the corner at church the other night to see Terry Rush, our minister, ordering something from Eli. Since we've worked together for a few years, I knew that Terry generally didn't order from such things simply because of the great number of kids we have at church involved in so many different groups.
Surprised by his move... I asked him after Eli moved on what had made him change his mind. He laughed, and shared what Eli had said that changed his mind this time - you can read it on Terry's blog: http://terryrush.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-think-he-saw-me-coming.html

A little trip to the principal's office...

So, last week my son made a poor choice while on the playground that rightly resulted in him losing recess for a couple of days. Today was the last day of that punishment, and while missing recess, he had to sit in the principal's office.

So he decided to write a paper. Here is exactly what he wrote:

"Whats the purpois of this class? To play? No! To Succed? No!
It is to play and learn.
God wants us not to learn without break! Or play without learn! He wants both!
More then that, he wants us to prise him!
But we cant do any of them without God in our hearts! "


He was so proud and excited to show me that he had come up with all of that on his own. ("I did have to ask how to spell a couple of words though.")

Simple, and yet profound. It's amazing what we can find in our hearts when nothing is there to distract us!