A Trip Back to Childhood

It seems like everything goes through a cycle. I've even noticed that toys do that. Several of my favorite toys as a child have come back for the girls' generation. Oh, the hours I spent on my Big Wheel... The girls each have one at Meme's (got them last summer) that they learned to enjoy as well. There was nothing better than that tick-tick-tick sound it made as I rode! I also had a Strawberry Shortcake doll that blew strawberry-scented air when you squeezed her stomach. Strangely enough, that's a toy that I've seen in the past couple years as well. I was also a big "Benji" fan when I was little. I had a Benji stuffed animal, Benji books, and even named one of our dogs Benji at one point. I vaguely remember seeing the movie, but since I was only 4-5 years old at the time, not much of it stuck with me. The girls recently brought home my old Benji book and loved looking through it and having it read to them. They're big into dogs right now. Anyway... I was at Wal-Mart this morning wasting time waiting for a prescription and found, in the $5.00 movies no less, not one, but FOUR Benji movies all in one package. I thought I had quite a deal and knew the girls would love it. I kept it a surprise until after we had eaten lunch and finished their schoolwork. We opened it up 30 minutes ago. I haven't heard a peep out of Boo & Hanny since they put in the first movie. It's been a long time since they've been so totally captivated by a movie. I think this one's a keeper!

Monday Morning Update

My prayers were answered. The drop-off today went off without so much as a whimper, a whine, or a teary eye. I thought I'd fall over when I walked out of the school an not even one of us was in tears. Yes, I was close, but not because it had been difficult. I was close to tears because I was so very thankful for answered prayers. What a way to start the morning! :)

Wish Me Luck...

So it's the girls' first day back at school in 3 weeks. To say that I'm dreading it and fully expecting the water-works would be putting it very mildly. Boo had already started in with the "But I will miss you, Mama..." last night. I don't enjoy these drop-offs that turn into them crying and me feeling like I'm sending the lambs to the slaughter (yes, I know that's putting it a little strongly, but you try peeling three little teared-up, trying-to-be-strong angels off your leg and explain to them that it's just for a little while and it'll be fun). It's not a fun experience. And I'm such an emotional sap anyway. They do enjoy it when they're there. I think. I hope. Needless to say, there are lots of prayers for strength (for all of us), patience (for me), and comfort (again, for all of us) being sent toward heaven this morning. Please say a little prayer for us that we all make it through without tears.

Sunday

It's COLD out there! To go from 65 degrees yesterday to 25 today is the pits! It does make me really appreciate the nice days this time of the year. Obviously we're staying in today as we have no desire to be ice cubes any time soon.

We tried out the Easy Bake Oven yesterday. I know. I even went online to find a recipe for a "from-scratch" cake to make in it. It was pink, sort of. It actually said it was a pink cake, but since it was made with red sugar, it turned out relatively red. I then let Doodle & Hanny (Boo was at Meme's for a couple hours) frost and decorate their cakes. If you haven't had the joy of using an E.B.O., let me fill you in. First, you preheat the 100 watt light bulb-powered oven for 15 minutes. It took almost that long to stir up the cup of batter, so that was no big deal. Our cake made two layers, since we had to feed at least three people. The pans hold approximately 4 tablespoons of batter. Yeah, they're HUGE! We could only bake one cake at a time, for 13 minutes a pop. By the time we had them both baked, we have invested almost an hour into these miniscule little treats. Yes, it was probably worth it. It probably would have been more impressive had these girls never been involved in the real kitchen with the real oven. They're pretty involved in the baking activities around here. They love stirring up and baking cookies, making noodles, etc. It just kept gnawing at me that in the same time that it took to create this tiny morsel of goodness I could have made a full-size cake that would have fed all of us more than once. On the plus side, I didn't get any cake. I didn't need it anyway!

Cafe Chat

Today's question on Cafe Chat was:
What is the most important truth/lesson you feel God taught you in 2008? How will that truth change your life in 2009?

I honestly can't even begin to imagine how many very important lessons God has attempted to teach me in the past year. Sometimes I'm just not aware of the lessons/truths until much later...I'm slow, I know! :) One lesson I have learned this year (and am trying to improve upon) is that God doesn't expect me to handle things alone. He expects me to give my fears and anxieties to Him. I've always felt as though I "should" be able to handle everything and felt like a failure when I fell apart because I couldn't handle things on my own. I now know that I have to give it to God. Max Lucado made an amazing analogy in his book Traveling Light that really stuck with me. I can't relay it to you as artfully as he did, but I'll give it a shot. Imagine you're in an airport with your child. She is attempting to carry the family suitcase on her own. Seeing this, I'm sure I would tell her to put it down and let me carry it. This is what God thinks of us trying to carry our fears, anxieties, guilt, etc. It's all big baggage that he doesn't expect us to carry on our own. We're the children, after all. This really made an impact on me. So now I am making every attempt to give it to God to handle. I'm improving but still catch myself freaking out from time to time. In 2009 I will continue my journey to allow my Heavenly Father to carry this child's baggage. I have a feeling it might take a little time before I'm able to really let it all go. Eventually, though, I have faith that I will learn.

Faith Out

One of the devotions I read for today was focused on "faithing out" instead of freaking out. It's a lesson I need to be reminded of often. I am very much a freak out kind of person who is making a concerted effort to be more of a "faith out" kind of person. Granted, my initial reaction is still to freak out when fear and anxiety rear their ugly heads, but just being aware of the futility of freaking out helps me to give it to God. I'm a work in progress, but I'm at least moving in the right direction.

One other thing that really stuck with me about this this morning was a comment that "10% of our life is what happens to us, 90% is how we respond to it." I am a HUGE believer in this. Sometimes I respond poorly, I admit. Mostly it's when fear or anxiety are involved. Choices are big. I choose (as does everyone) how I'm going to respond to any given situation. Therefore, I choose whether or not I have a good day. It's a choice. Everything is a choice. Yes, bad things might happen, but I control how I respond to them. I'm going to learn to faith out.

Playing School with Dad

The girls are up and going this morning. They're currently playing school with Dad, providing me with oodles of funny fodder. Hanny is the teacher, from what I gather, as she seems to be the bossiest of the three. Gary just gave her a playful little smack on the rump as she walked away to which Hanny responded, "Dad, remember... You don't smack a teacher on the hiney!" Definitely something to keep in mind! She then moved in to color with him and sat on his lap. We told her that it probably wasn't very nice for the teacher to sit on the students. She thought that was pretty funny! Doodle is playing with their new laptop toy. Boo is gathering coloring books in preparation for a marathon coloring session. Me? I'm sitting here pondering which Christmas decoration is going to come down first.

The big plan (the girls' plan, not mine so much) is to get out the Easy-Bake Oven after we get the Christmas decorations put away. I'm not sure if I'm really ready to undertake three little chefs with their own "oven" in the kitchen. I'm sure they'll love it, though, so I'll have to get out the camera and hope for good results! :)