Life is Stupid. God is Good.

You know those Life is Good t-shirts you see just about everywhere you go?  I always thought they were really optimistic, joy-focused shirts and sometimes I get a good chuckle out of them and their simplistic, yet creative artwork.  In the middle of the night last night, I thought of a new t-shirt idea.

Saturday

I know it's technically Sunday, but I'm posting about what happened Saturday (hence the title).

Busy Week

I managed to start a post on Monday, but I feel weird posting it now because I'm not in the same mood and it's no longer Monday -- it's already Friday (night!).  It's been that kind of week.  And for those who are really squeamish, this may not be a post for you ... but for those of my readers who are mama's, maybe you can understand my need to include some details here.  It's really for my own peace of mind to write it out.

Courageous

Our church held a showing of the movie, Courageous, that was out in theaters probably some time last century.  But we don't get to the theater that often, so for us, it was a first time viewing.  For free!  Well, mostly free.  I did buy some popcorn and nachos for the kids to help out the youth group who were selling movie snacks to raise money for camp.  All for a good cause.  So if you haven't seen the movie yet because you were waiting for it on DVD, this review might be helpful for you.  If you have seen it, you can read and see if I'm a lunatic and way off base in my opinions here.  Whichever.

Field Trip: Museum of International Folk Art

I mentioned recently, taking the kids up to Santa Fe one day when I didn't have any nieces to watch (my sister had the day off to take care of some appointments).  While I normally, love taking my nieces places, too, this day was probably more suited to older kids (> 4 years) and my oldest nieces were in school -- so it was just our kids and me.

PT Followup

I've seen a few comments from my mom wondering about how Physical Therapy went, so I should really do my followup.  I'm really terrible about calling people (even my mom) and sometimes, if it weren't for this blog, family would really be out of the loop!  (Sorry, family.)

Twenty Reasons

"I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even marry you because I loved you. I married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage. And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them - it was that promise."

Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth

Tickles of Today

After battling some kind of 24-hour stomach flu that my niece, N, and I shared (but somehow and gratefully, nobody else in either family), I got back to school with the kids today after the weekend.  Yesterday, they had no schooling, unless you count my teaching example of "when you're sick, rest a lot" (Health class?).  I wasn't purposely trying to set that example, I simply had no energy beyond what was required of me to make several trips to the bathroom -- therefore, I laid around a lot.

But in getting back to school following my illness, I felt it was necessary to make up for the day off because, after all, I'd written my lesson plan in advance and once I write it down, I feel like it is then mostly compulsory.  I do try to work in some flexibility, but I struggle with that, too, because once I let some things slide, it's easy to let more slide -- more often.  So, still tired, I charged ahead and pushed everyone (and me) to the brink of exhaustion trying to catch up.

The Irony of 20

This week, C and I will be celebrating 20 years of marriage.  TWENTY.  (I know!)  The time has gone by in a blink, but also, we have experienced a lot of richness and depth in those twenty years and I often feel like I can recall specific days over the twenty years, with the clarity of yesterday.  It's really strange.

The human brain is a weird mish-mash when it comes to recollection over time, don't you think?

Here we are as a couple of teenagers in youth group (we'd already known each other five years at this point).  We've since done away with our floral pants and hair mullet, but we still have our Bible.

An Er-motional Day

So I actually got two little bursts of time at the computer today, by some strange miracle.  And while I definitely want to do posts about the museums and my P.T. (though the latter is less exciting), I couldn't help but first make a post about some of the crazy that this afternoon included.

In the words of Z, who makes me laugh with some of his misspoken words at just the right moments, "It's been an er-motional day!"

Is it Friday yet?

Why yes, yes it is.

Days of the week seem to fly by and yet, why am I still so tired?

I'll blog more about these, but wanted to highlight a trip to Santa Fe I took with the kids on Wednesday to visit the International Folk Art Museum and the Santa Fe Children's Museum.

Also, my first Physical Therapy appointment was yesterday ... crazy.  I went in feeling fine, I left feeling better than fine and last night and today, I'm in terrible pain again!  What the hey?!

Anyway, kids are all here and raring for lunch, so I'll jump off here and catch you up on things later.

Wonder Woman

We had a fantastic all-worship service tonight at church.  I even got to read a passage aloud, which was fun (Ps. 66: 2-5).  It was late when we got out, so we just went through the McDonald's drive-thru on the way home for a quick "dinner," so we could send kids to bed as soon as we got home.  Nothing fancy, but it got the job done.

Right now, the happy meal toys for boys are Green Lantern toys.  So the boys were thrilled to get these silly Green Lantern masks and they were wearing them the whole ride home, even while they ate.  Well, I guess it inspired H to start talking about comic book heroes and alter-egos (he's 12, so that's what they talk about).  He was quizzing C on the subject to see if he could remember very many.

A Sad-Happy Story

Good Friday always seems like a sad-happy day.  I can only imagine the emotions Jesus' mother, Mary, might have been going through that day.  She had to be filled with grief!  And yet, perhaps, there was hope.  She knew better than anyone how her baby came to be within her and had to have the greatest hope for his resurrection.  If any human was truly certain that Jesus was God's Son, it had to be Mary.

Thoughtful Thursday: Where's My Brain?

It's been another one of those days when I'm just running non-stop.  Managed to get 90% of J and O's schooling done this morning between bringing S and her friend to the farm, picking up the van from the repair shop and picking up my niece from preschool before heading back to the farm to pick the girls up.

While driving, it's fun to listen to the conversations between kids even when they don't involve me.  Sometimes they can be quite entertaining.

Measurements

It seemed to me that a couple of the kids have recently gone through another growth spurt (at least it's at the time of a seasonal shift, so I'd probably need to get them some new clothes anyway) and so I took measurements today.

Biggest Fool

Happy April Fool's Day, Readers.  Also, Happy Passover!  And, welcome April.

We had a good one here, today.

My sister's family was over for dinner this afternoon, like we do often on Sundays, and they got to enjoy our big April Fool's gag along with the rest of us.