Aaarrrgggh...I'm An Ogre!

I waited until today to tell the children that Halloween was coming. We hadn't decided if we were going to join in on anything 'Halloween' this year. We decided to participate, including some activities we haven't adopted in other years. Here's how our day played out...

We prayed throughout the day for our thoughts to turn towards Him today.

We prayed for the families in our community that would be participating.

We handed out candy.

We carved a pumpkin - from our garden.

We dressed up.

We went trick or treating with the children saying, "Aaarrrgh...I'm an ogre!" at every stop.

Here's a true story for you...

Dwayne and his friend, Dennis, went on a business trip to the city. It happened to fall on the same weekend as the snowmobile expo.

Coincidence? Maybe.

Some of their other friends had gone to the expo - including my brother and Mr. Journey. The guys stopped by the expo. When my brother and Mr. Journey found out that Dwayne & Dennis were spending the night in the city, they offered to share their hotel room.

"It's a large hotel - about 32 floors. Our room is really big - 2 rooms, extra beds."

That sounded good. They gave Dwayne and Dennis the key and the room number and said they'd meet them there later.

When they got to the hotel, the key card wouldn't work in the elevator. Stupid things never seem to work properly. They stood in the elevator watching other people swipe their cards. Maybe they were doing it too fast or too slow. Some of the others looked at them like they were about to jump them strangely.

(Those guys sure exaggerated. The hotel isn't 32 floors - it was only 20 floors.)

They decided there was something wrong with the key. They went to the reception and said it wasn't working. Could they get a new one?

The receptionist wanted ID, but Dwayne's was out in the truck. "It's room 1308 and it's under Mr. Journey's name."

The guy checked his computer and gave them another key.

The key worked in the elevator and the room. Bonus!

(Those guys really exaggerated. The room was one room - not two - and it was tiny with only one bed. Where were they going to sleep?)

They looked around a bit more and noticed a Chinese newspaper. What?!?!

Dwayne looked in Mr. Journey's backpack, which was laying there. Chinese writing in there, too.

Uh, oh.

"Let's get outta here. We're in the wrong room."

Turns out it was the same hotel chain, different hotel.

The blessing? The real room owners didn't come back just as Dwayne & Dennis were leaving. Would I have been the choice for his one allowable telephone call?

You Know, Those Skin-Coloured Things With The Cracks

Dylan (6) has found a new love for math worksheets. With him being a boy, loving to move, I had spent a great deal of effort to do math in 'real' ways with him. I didn't want pages and pages of laborious writing to bog him down.

We played games, we used 30-sided dice, we used counting bears, coloured tiles, an abacus, dominoes, measurements, a math scale...you know, the fun stuff.

One day he saw a math worksheet somewhere. I didn't think anything of it - I mean, how exciting could that be after all the 'real-life' math we'd been doing. Very, apparently. He's hooked. Can't get enough math worksheets! So much for me rescuing him from the drudgery.

With the math worksheets, I gave Dylan his abacus and his counting bears. At first he used them but then he decided that it was much easier to do it in his head.

I watched him do 8 + 9. He had a look of concentration on his face and then wrote down 17.

Me: "How did you do that in your head?"

Dylan: "Well, there are these skin-coloured balls with cracks in them and red-hot lava coming out. I see them in my brain and then count them."

Me: "Why are they skin-coloured balls?"

Dylan: "I don't know. That's just how they are." Duh.

A couple of equations later...

Dylan: "And you know what else?"

Me: "What?"

Dylan: "I noticed something strange. When you add 10 plus another number all you have to do is write a 1 and then the other number. That's strange. Those are the easiest ones in the world, except for 0 + 0."

Oh, I want to just crawl right into his brain so I can see exactly what he sees. It fascinates me.

My New 'Do

Before...

After...

It even makes my makeup look better. Love that new 'do!

Because You Loved Me

I heard the song Because You Loved Me yesterday. It brought back a couple of strong memories.

The first one...

The Christmas I was pregnant with Dylan (6) I told Dwayne about a CD that I would like for Christmas. It was Women In Music - various songs sung by women. There was another CD that was similar. It was called Women & Songs. I liked both but really wanted Women In Music.

While I was telling Dwayne, he seemed distracted. To make sure he knew which one I really wanted, I said, "The first song on it has Because You Loved Me by Celin Dion." I had my doubts that he even heard me.

Fast forward to Christmas morning...

I'm digging in my stocking and pull out a CD. It's the wrong one. It was Woman & Songs. I'm instantly mad. Not because of the dumb CD, but because he hadn't been listening at all when I had been talking about it.

I went on and on whining about how he never listens to me. I was crying and the whole bit (those darned pregnancy hormones). Imagine a sitcom where the nagging, pain-in-the-rear wife is just chewing her husband out, while sobbing. Not a pretty picture. Not the way I want my husband to see me. But there I was in all my glory.

After I wiped my tears and calmed down, I continued digging in my stocking. What was at the very bottom? You guessed it - the CD that I had wanted.

Gulp.

Not only had he been listening, he said that he knew I liked one more than the other but he wanted to get both for me.

Gulp.

I've got to say that if that would have been him throwing a tantrum being ungrateful, I would have marched back to the store with both of them, gotten my money back, and bought something for myself.

I'm glad he's much more gracious than that.


Second story...

As I said, I got the CD when I was pregnant with Dylan (6). The song Because You Loved Me was the first song on the CD. Whenever I hopped into my truck, the CD would automatically start at the beginning, so I heard that song everytime I got in. I had no other children yet and I loved to crank my music. I listened to that song loudly for the second half of my pregnancy.

Babies can hear in utero. I know this is true. Whenever Dylan was fussy in the truck and that song came on he would stop fussing and listen. He would be crying his lungs out, the song would come on, he would stop and then stare out the window like he was in love. Then the next song would come on and, without missing a beat, he'd be screaming again.

I remember one trip back home in particular. The trip was 6 1/2 hours. About half-way, he'd had enough. He started crying, loudly. For the next 3ish hours we would listen to the song, press the back key, listen to it again. Over and over and over. By the time we got there, we wanted to throw the CD out the window. We weren't sure what was worse...constant crying or enduring that song one.more.time!

Grandma's Not Coming!

Grandma was due to arrive on Thursday from California. She was staying for a week and my whole extended family was coming here to see her. My uncle had a dinner theatre planned and the whole bit.

I called yesterday to tease her about abandoning her Canadian roots - it was Thanksgiving in Canada and I doubted she'd cooked a turkey - but her husband said she wasn't there.

"We didn't really want to say anything yet, but your grandma had to spend the night in the hospital. I don't think you should say anything to your mom yet."

What?!?! You didn't want to say anything? Why is she in the hospital?

Turns out that during routine checkup her doctor decided that she had a rapid heartbeat. She was kept overnight for observation and to determine the cause. They decided her heart was not working properly and they were suprised that she hadn't had a heart attack or a stroke. They are doing more tests. (Just for the record, I haven't actually talked to her yet and all the details have come from non-medically speaking family members.)

As soon as I got off the phone from Grandma's husband, I called Mom. I know Peter said that I shouldn't tell, but some things just aren't to be kept secret. Darned, independent Grandparents. Let us worry about you if we want to! And how are we supposed to pray for you if we don't even know!?!?!

The end of the story...she's not coming. I am deeply disappointed, as I'm sure she is. I am exceptionally thankful, though, that she's going to be alright!

Now that's a Thanksgiving for you!

The Human Body

In science, we are studying the human body.

Imagine how excited I was to find a 'bag of bones' at Walmart! It would go perfectly with our study. We would dump the bones on the floor in our living room and embrace the challenge of making it into a real skeleton!

So that's what we did. Imagine my surprise, also, when I realized many important parts were missing...ribcage, spine, one foot, one hand...

We assembled it the best we could and discussed the missing parts.

The conclusion to our lesson? Thanking God that our bodies were made by Him and not by Walmart!

Finally!

This is the face we've been looking at for awhile now...

Zane has been teething since he was 2 months old. Drooling everywhere, biting on everything, fists wedged in his mouth. Finally at 10 months and 3 days old (yes, 8 whole months after it all started), he got his first tooth.

If you look closely here, you can see it peeking out...


It looks like he's going to get some relief for awhile - that is, until the next one starts to cut.

I Just Don't Know!

I have always had a need to control everything. I think Websters has a picture of me under 'control'.

Since I was little, I had a very specific plan for my life:

• go to university so I could be somebody important
• get married
• have 2 children - at least one being a girl
• have a great career

The plan did not work out quite as planned:

• I got my degree - in accounting - but no longer feel that having a degree makes anybody smart or important.
• I did get married - to my dream guy. Okay, one thing went according to plan.
• I have 3 children - all boys, all planned. I would love to have one more and it would just tickle me if it was another boy!
• Career? Does that include changing poopy bums and teaching math to a six-year-old?

Not much of The Plan turned out as planned. But you know what? I can look back and thank God that The Plan didn't stick. You see, I have realized that He has things planned for me that I could never have dreamed. And those things...those are the things that I love most about my life! Thank you, Lord!

The thing is I've always needed a plan. A clear direction of where I was going, even if it was changing along the way. I told you - Control Freak.

These days, I am being shaken to the core in The Plan department.

Dwayne has been mill manager at a mill here for 6 years. Steady paycheque, predictable hours. Three weeks ago, the mill shut down. Great employees, great markets, no wood. The mill can't run without wood. We're not sure if this is a temporary thing or if they will secure a wood source, but for now, nothing. No pay, no benefits, nothing.

Am I panicked?

Five years ago, I would have been unable to breathe.

Now? No. Really.

I know that He has great plans for us. This will help His plan in some way.

My problem? Our Plan is almost non-existent. Dwayne had been working on a new real-estate development before we knew that the mill would shut down. It is scheduled to be finished late-December. I am still homeschooling, running my online company and day-trading in the TSX (with recent economic-happenings, we all know what an adventure that is right now). Other than that...nothing. Come January 1, we don't have a plan.

So what have we been doing? Praying. Praying that He will reveal what He wants us to do. The idea of mission work keeps revisiting every time we pray.

I am not one of these people who hears God's audible voice. I am the type that will pray and pray and then need Him to hit me over the head with a baseball bat before I know what He's trying to tell me.

I feel that way this time. Is He wanting us to do some mission work? I think so, but I just don't know. We will continue to pray about it and work in that direction for now.

In light of all this, I have been corresponding with the national missions group for our church. Last night he emailed me with some possible work that he had in mind in Mexico or Bolivia. My heart beats faster just typing this. I don't know, Lord, but you're gonna have to do some work in me. Make me braver, help me trust You, because all of a sudden, it doesn't sound so exciting or adventurous. I sounds downright scary!

I realize this post has been rambling and doesn't have much flow to it. It's just coming out how I feel. I needed the chance to just ramble. My apologies to those of you who have endured the entire post! *wink*

I will think about this today...

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28 KJV).