the back door

yesterday i spent a couple of hours cleaning out my file drawer. i needed to sort out old stuff and make room for new. as with any kind of cleaning out project i enjoyed the treat of seeing what i had kept so long ago. in 2002-03 i was the publiciy coordinator for MOPS. i stumbled upon several newsletters i had saved. the following is something i wrote for the january 03 newsletter. i thought it seemed fitting to share at the beginning of this season.... "it amazes me how much young children can teach us as adults. while i busy myself with trying to teach mapboy his numbers, letters, how to dress himself, and how to play nicely with his toys mapboy is busy teaching me more and more about myself. Things such as how little patience i really have, how cleaning the house doesn't really matter, and that it is okay if more water ends up on the floor than in sink while doing dishes. However, mapboy taught me a big lesson this Christmas that i hope i never forget and may even c...

i don't know how many of you are following america's next great band. and honestly i wouldn't choose to watch it myself, except for the connection to denver and his band. it is truly amazing to watch them perform and say "i know them. i really do. he goes to my church (when he is home that is!)" so anyways....hubby and i are almost always home on fridays so we have been following the show. thankfully, several nasty sounding bands have made their exit. but this is what i observed this week: 1. the first judge always asks why they didn't do a different style of music. now, i have not yet heard him ask dot dot dot or the little boys to do something other than heavy rock music. i haven't heard him ask sixwire to change their sound either. hmm....so why should denver??? 2. this feeds off the second...i think it shows how incredible denver is as a musician that he can take a rolling stones song and turn it into a big band swing arrangement. i'm n...

saturday night was quite moving here at our house. after a pretty non-adventurous day we were doing bedtime. i was tucking in mapboy when all of a sudden he starts repenting for his sassy talk, bad behavior, bad attitude and tells me he understands i'm just doing my job and that his is to obey. he tells me i'm the best mom around and how thankful he is for me! wow!!!! did he really just say all of that??? i give him a big hug and kiss and head to princess... princess sings her songs and starts to pray. as she prays, and can i just say this girl covers everything in her prayers, she ends with asking Jesus to come live in her heart!! now, being a mom, i'm a little overwhelmed here. we hadn't talked about this at all with her. i mean she has heard it i'm sure and we talk about Jesus all the time. so when she says amen i ask her all sorts of questions and sure enough - she totally knows what she did and why she wanted to do it!! i come down stairs all weepy. ...

this morning i had the honor of helping in princess's preschool class. they were doing their christmas gifts. i painted atleast 35 hands bright green and never got one drop on their clothes of mine!! amazing!!!!!!!!!!

yesterday is known as black friday around the good old usa. i find it so odd that so many people get up at the crack of dawn to shop for bargains. i find it even more bizarre that people would camp out for 2 days in front of best buy??? hubby commented they are waiting to buy themselves something - most likely - not for someone else. there are several things that make me quite sad about black friday... 1. the whole camping out for 2 days. if i calculate that right, that means they spent thanksgiving sitting in front of a store being greedy. harsh, i know, but in reality isn't that what it is. i mean if you are that desperate to get the bargain of the year that you would not spend time with family and friends on a special day to give thanks for what you do have, then yes, you are being greedy. 2. on the news last night there were clips of fighting and shoving and other things that did not demonstrate holiday cheer!!! what is the fun in shopping if you are afraid of getting ...

my dear friend(in fact a roommate from college) over at mauch meanderings has been blogging about her walking plan. she bundles up all of her kiddos to walk her oldest to school. i believe she said it was a half-mile to the school which means 2 miles a day. well, i too walk my child to school. okay, so i walk him to the bus stop. but...the year before he went to kindergarten i had great plans of walking him to the neighborhood school 1/2 a mile from our house. i, too, thought it would be a great way of getting my exercise in. well, we built a new school which forced redistricting and we ended up at the new school which is more like 3 miles from my home. so now he rides a bus. princess and i enjoy the walk with him every morning. i'm too worried about weirdos to let him walk it by himself. it is only 1 1 /2 blocks, but not visible from our house. so each morning we make the treck with him and in the afternoon oscar our dog makes the treck with us for pick up. so i figur...

this past week i read through velvet elvis by rob bell. i actually started it a few months ago and it got put aside, but last weekend i picked it up and started again. i could hardly put it down!!! some of you out there have read it already, others have heard about it, and others are trying to figure out why i cared about a velvet elvis!!! this really has nothing to do with elvis...but everything to do with living for Christ. like all books i read; i take some and leave some thoughts. this one was quite a challenge. a friend of mine described it as a look at how to make christianity relative to this generation. she didn't seem to totally agree with that and although i see where she comes from, this book totally put it in perspective. bell goes to great lengths to pick apart the scriptures and explain them for that time period. phrases that i didn't really get are in there b/c it relates to the jewish customs of the days. when he would say something it clicked with them...

so while on the phone with my dear friend i was gently questioned about my lack of recent entries. i was quite shocked to hear i was letting her down...i mean come on friend, what could you possibly read on here that i haven't already told you?!? so i took the challenge she presented and turned it back on to her....what would you like me to blog about. she gave me 2 topics...so this morning i'll blog about topic 1 THE DOG vs. THE BUN okay, so you are out grocery shopping for the big cookout you are having this weekend. (a little cold maybe but pretend it is summer!) you pick up some hot dogs for the kids. you know that you will need 10 hot dogs which is perfect b/c there are 10 in a package!! great....you pick up the chips, the ketchup, the other fixins and head to the bread aisle...all you need are some buns!!! wait a minute....it can't be? well surely this pack? no, this sure is absurd? i mean why on earth??? yes, folks, each pack of buns only contains 8!!!! ...

most of you know that 2007 has proven to be a year of interesting twists and turns for my little family. just when it seems like things are back in the flow and heading on the right path, God does something we never expected. this weekend proved to be yet another such time.. as i was reflecting today, somewhat downhearted, a bible verse popped into my mind...for all you cedarville grads, those bible verses elenor taylor taught us do come back when you least expect it. anyways...they seem quite qualified to sum up 2007 in our world.... proverbs 16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. proverbs 20:24 A man's steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand his own way??? i have to say that there are still some things i just don't understand. and even though we seek God whole heartedly we still don't always hear His voice so He answers a little more dramatically....needless to say, God is still so good and i love Him dear...

a few days ago i had to say goodbye to one of my most beloved possessions. it was temporary, or atleast i hope so! for my first birthday my oldest brother bought me a red clifford dog. i loved that dog. i slept with it, i have a picture of me in the crib with it even. i would tie a jump rope around his neck and drag it around. i made up stories with it. it was my most beloved possession. silly, i know. when mapboy was born i was quick to head home and retrieve that dog and share it with my child. it has since been in his bed. after 31 years it was looking a little tired, but still greatly loved by my kiddos. on halloween my dear sister called. she teaches first grade and is going to read the clifford books to her class. she wanted to borrow my clifford to have in the room with her. with great reluctance i offered to send him to her. she assured me that she would keep him safe and the kids would only look. on wednesday, my parents came to take him. we had a few long momen...

i'm a huge idol fan!! love the show!!! this fall they are doing the next greatest band....well, i didn't intend to watch until i found out denver and the mile high orchestra had been chosen!! some of you out there have heard of them, others have not.... here's what i know!! denver attended high school with me and is most known for swinging across our stage as tarzan in our band show. he was an awesome trumpet player that told us all he would one day have a band! sure.... so off he goes to tennessee and starts to form a band..... enter adam....kid in the youth group at our church. trumpet player...just graduated...not really sure what he wants to do. decides to go join denver.... now they have denver and the mile high orchestra. a christian swing band that has toured to many places and done the kluv cruise. they just can't quite the big break, but are really quite good!! they offer a different flavor to music... so we tune in to the show and have to suffer thro...

so on friday night mapboy's school had the anticipated fun fair!! this is a family event where you buy tickets to play silly games to win tickets to change over for plastic prizes! you know...all those things mom's love to find around the house and one by one toss in the trash!! mapboy and all the other students had spent the month earning "dunn dollars". they were given these for good behavior and a variety of other things. mapboy came home with 45 and he was excited to bid on something at the children's silent auction. now, most of you have kids and most of you have probably done a silent auction as an adult. can you imagine 150 kids 1-4 grade getting the silent auction concept? but, hey, i'm a willing participant. so we head in there to place our bids...thinking he has enough to bid on several things we start bidding. then we are told we can only win one item. since the place is INSANE!!!! we place all 45 on an item he wants and go back to the g...

well, last night we were out with some friends and i was told that i had better get busy and post something on here...actually we got to laughing at how my hubby and i both have a blog and how far this world has come. while playing a game one even commented that the diary of anne frank would now be the blog of anne frank. i don't really have much to say, but since i was asked to post i will write a few of my rambling words to appease this much loved friend!!! last night i took hubby out with our friends to get out of town....it was election day of course and a most difficult one for him. if you read this or know us you understand that. needless to say the results were not what we had hoped for, but we will make the best of the situation. God has definitely worked on hubby's heart and i'm very proud of how he handled himself!! although he did have some good zingers last night! i've been trying to think about what has been going on that i haven't had a desire to ...

in the summers of 95 and 96 i was blessed to work at an awesome christian summer camp, Spring Hill Camps in Evart, Michigan. I arrived during week one of camp b/c of when my college ended and getting the job late in the spring. i was assigned to the teepee girls so that i would be working with another experienced counselor. these girls were 8 years old and we had 10 of them.... oh, maybe i should mention i didn't really like the outdoors and i had never been to camp before. so i head out to the teepees crazy nervous and thinking to myself i'm going to have this counselor that is so awesome and makes me feel so silly! well, i did have an awesome co-counselor and at times i did feel silly - the good kind of silly!!! it was apparent from the first few minutes together that i had found a great friend!!! our names were pretty much the same (just add a few letters to hers) we were both blondes and really although college students acted like our 8 year old teepee girls!!! tha...

each year, our kids enjoy dressing up and going trick or treating. our downtown does a small costume parade through town and then the merchants provide treats. this is always on a saturday afternoon and we always have more than enough candy when we are done. this works out great b/c our kids love to hand candy out to all the people who come to our house. we live on the main street through town so we have more than enough trick or treaters. this year....we were gone for the downtown event. i had purposely not mentioned it to the kids so that they wouldn't try to sweet talk grandparents into braving the crowd. i knew that we would be sure to take them on the 31st! mapboy is most definitely growing up and starting to make connections i was praying he'd never really get. (atleast not yet!) but, one grandma spilled the beans about missing downtown. well, ever-thinking mapboy was quick to realize our typical visit to the 3 closest neighbors, one aunt and 2 grandparents was no...