*Cheese* Or Cheesy?

In an attempt to blog more frequently, I give you 4 of the 78 takes from
our church directory photo shoot.

Scripture

I'm not very good at memorizing scripture. So, what exactly does that say about me, since I know my scotcheroo recipe by heart? Anyways, when I was a kid my parents had a record? or maybe it was a tape, that was bible verses set to music. I still remember some of them. In order to remember the verse though, I have to sing the little song in my head. Lo and behold, the lyrics are scripture and the scripture is still there.

I've searched and searched for something similar for my kids. The only albums I've been able to find are super cheesy and I can't stand to listen to them in the van for more than three minutes with out wanting to gouge my eyes out. Until now. I came across The Rizers. That's short for "memorizers". I downloaded the album on iTunes yesterday and played it over and over in my kitchen all day long.
I was blown away. How could I have forgotten the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God? I take it so lightly sometimes. I do my bible study homework or read out of the Word in the morning and then I'm off to the rest of my day. If I'm going to be honest, a mom only has so much time to sit and ponder. There isn't much meditation time without somebody little needing something or breaking something or peeing on something. My time in the Word tends to be rushed. Yesterday those songs played over and over in my kitchen and as I sang along (sometimes a little too loudly for a middle aged mom), the Holy Spirit did something. He taught me. Things started to pop out of those lyrics in new ways.

For example, I've been really wrestling through some stuff in my life lately, turning things over and over in my mind. I'm always trying to figure it out, what should I do? How should I be? What's my response? What if! What if! And I get myself all worked up and pretty soon I'm a mess. And as I listened to Philippians 4:6-7 all day long, something struck me. That verse is a pillar verse. It's quoted all over the place and I've probably heard it a couple hundred times. It's familiar. It's lost it's punch. And then the Spirit whispered to me "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." How did I miss that all this time? I'm all in a tizzy and freaking out, but Heth...be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication I should make my requests known to who? To God. And how? With thanksgiving. And He will give me His peace. And His peace will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. My heart and mind could sure use some guarding. And I wanted to fall to my knees in worship and thank God that He would give me this encouragement through His word.

And that wasn't the only verse that spoke to me in a new way. There were more. As I listened to a sermon out of Hebrews 12 this morning, Matt Chandler said something that spoke to me, especially in light of what I just experienced yesterday. Sometimes you can't find joy in your circumstances, but when we can't have joy, God gives us peace.

That peace is where I want to live.

First Day

Even though the first day of school was two weeks ago, I'm still going to post first day of school pics.

We have a new Kindergartner.

And also a 10th, 8th, 6th, 3rd, and 1st grader.

And a very sad 3 year old who really wishes he could go to school.

But it didn't take long and he was content with his new status of King Of The House While Everyone Is Away. And his other new status of Official Everly Pesterer. He's very good at both.

Frog Jumping Contest

We skimmed the paper one day last week and off of the page leapt the words "frog jumping contest". The time and place were immediately written on the calendar and we started counting down the days.



Our new house is home to all sorts of amphibians. All summer long, the same little tree frog visited the glass on our deck door every evening, feasting on insects. Two others are regulars on our downspouts at dusk. The toads come out every evening and cruise the driveway just outside out garage doors. And the window wells are home to many leopard frogs. But for this competition we called in the big guns, the bullfrogs from the pond up the road.

Nate took two giddy side kicks and his fishing pole and headed up the road. In less than a half an hour they returned with three beauties in the bottom of their five gallon bucket. We coached them, we practiced, we anticipated a trophy.


There was one kink in our plan. An hour before the competition, a certain three year old little brother set the frogs free. A search and rescue ensued but we were only able to recover one, so Nate made a last minute trip to the pond and caught more. Phew.

When we arrived on Friday night, anticipation was in the air. Kids ran around with bucket holding their green secret weapons. We all held our breath, our chance wouldn't come until heats eleven and twelve. We waited, and we watched. We eyed up the competition. We became nervous. The little leopard frogs were dominating. Bullfrogs were getting owned.

And so it was, when our two little buddies had their chance, they were sluggish out of the gate. Younger, quicker, smaller frogs showed them up. We had disappointed boys, but that disappointment fuels their fire for next year. We know which weapon to bring. We know that bigger isn't always better, but that the hunt for the frog is half of the fun.




Watch out small town, next year we will be bringing home some trophys.

Count Us, One More Time

Census 2010.

Remember this? And then this? That was just the warm up round. Pre-census if you will.

A second booklet came in the mail this spring and I filled it out, same as I did last fall. They couldn't possibly call again could they? They wouldn't, would they?

Fast forward to this evening. I'm in panicked rush, trying to get Rice Krispie treats made for the VBS program that the kids need to be at in twenty minutes. I was mid text and my cell phone did that super fun and friendly thing it does when someone calls while I'm texting. It automatically answers the call whether I want it to or not. Guess who was on the other line?

The Government.

They just had a few questions about my census form.

Of course they did.

So I answered them, again. I stood over by the door that leads to the deck, because that's where the best recpetion is, second only to being out on the deck. But it was downpouring.

"Did Nathan J. Laundrypile live anywhere other than your residence on the months of March and April, 2010?" No.
"Did Nathan J. Laundrypile serve in the military and live away from your residence during the months of March and April, 2010?" No
"Did Nathan J. Laundrypile have temporary residence somewhere else part of the time during the months of March and April, 2010?" No
"Did Nathan J. Laundrypile travel for work and stay away from your residence for an extended period of time during the months of March and April, 2010?" No
"Would you eat them here or there, would you eat them any where? Would you eat them with a fox, would you eat them in a box?" No No No.

I said the word "no" not less then seventy five times, I swear. Then they moved on to the kids. The kids' whose names they can't pronounce. Which is fine, we named them weird names, I know that. I just felt bad for the poor lady. And I think in her job description, it specified that she had to read every single question in it's entireity for every single one of the kids. But we finished and I think she was satisfied with my answers.

And then I remembered the marshmallows and butter, melting on the stove.

I'm convinced that Caesar Augustus had the better idea, making everyone return to their home town to register. Much simpler. "See my family? Here we all are. We really exist, I'm not making all these kids up."


I've decided to change my bumper sticker from:

"Big families. Stumping the government, one file at a time."
"The U.S. government. Burning whole batches of Rice Krispie, treats one phone call at a time."

New House, Toby Vision

Locked

Locked

Locked

Moving

We are on the home stretch, packing packing packing.

I've got no blog posts.

The pile of packed boxes is getting bigger than the pile of empty boxes.

And yes, I let my baby girl eat cheerios off of the floor. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Go Green

I overheard from the next room "Hurry! She's gonna be MAD!"

And this is what I found:

I wasn't mad, because I'm not the one with the Hulk Eyes.

"Don't make me angry, you won't like me when I'm angry...."

Mother's Day

Last week one of my kids had a "secret assignment" they were working on at school. The week before Mother's Day? What could it be? He needed a few photos of just him and mom. I was stumped. As I dug through my hard drive, I had all sorts of photos of the kid and a lot less of me, but almost none together. And that inspired my one request for Mother's Day. I didn't care if I got dinner out, or flowers or anything else. All I wanted was a photo with me and my crew and individual shots with each of them one on one. Nate humored me.

But I also got pancakes. Heavenly.

Intentional Living. In List Form

I'm trying more and more to live in the moment. Not always looking to "the next big thing" but loving right where I am. Here are some thoughts from today.

• Everly sits in the middle of the room. She can't quite crawl, if you consider forward motion to be crawling. Scooting backwards until she is wedged into a corner or under the couch doesn't count. I'm enjoying the babble that is almost "mamamama" and the fact that she mostly stays where I put her. I'm enjoying how her face lights up when I enter the room. Her smile is almost too much for her little face.
• I'm enjoying the last few weeks of having Gemma home during the day without the big kids. Next fall it's backpacks and new pencils and off to kindergarten.
  
• I'm savoring these last couple of weeks in this little house. Breathing deeply of all the flowers I have tended to over ten years here. Making a few more memories in these walls before we are off to a new adventure just a few miles away.
• I'm loving the sunshine this afternoon. Cloudy days make the sunny ones so much sweeter.
• I'm trying to talk myself into enjoying the fact that Toby is still in diapers. The end result of potty training is glorious, the interim, not so great. So I'm enjoying the calm before the storm.
• Early morning temperatures have been absolutely perfect for running. 50 degrees means shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt. In a few weeks it will be tank tops and ponytails drenched in sweat, even at 5:30 am.

Souvenirs

This year our school district finally gave us a real, true, Spring Break. A whole entire week off. None of this three day weekend business like we've had the last....forever. We had big plans for the big kids. Tyler, Caedmon, and Jack were flying out with Nate's mom to visit their cousins on the east coast. Noelle and Cam were joining Aunt Mariah and heading up to visit Aunt Holly in the Twin Cities. That left Nate and I with just the three littlest ones. It was a really different week, like stepping back in time ten years to when Tyler, Noelle, and Camryn were little. Very surreal.

They all had a great time, and by the end of the week, we were all reunited again. Everyone came home will stories and gifts and unique memories of Spring Break 2010. The boys, however, returned with a gift for me from Andrea. Remember when she gave me this? Well, this time she sent this heavenly creation:


Clearly she knows that my love language consists of peanut butter combined with chocolate. That only thing that could have made it better would have been if she would have brought it herself and we could have eaten it together.

Miss you Ann!

Genius

I recently came across these marvelous inventions at my local Wal-Mart. I literally gasped at the genius behind this design. Immediately, all my four-holed toothbrush holder problems were solved. No more trying to cram them all in. No more toothbrushes laying all over the bathroom counter.

And then Caedmon took it up a notch.

And Toby had to try it too.

Easters

The Easter Bunny pulled a late night hiding candy. She was a little sleep deprived, staying up ironing spring clothes she had just pulled out of bins in the basement. Fifty degrees, you will not keep us from our short sleeves and spring dresses. Anyway, here is her handiwork:






Our church put on a Passion Play that was amazing to watch. It was so neat to see so many people involved. So powerful. The man that played Jesus was incredible.


We spent the afternoon at my Grandparents' house with most of my siblings. (Missed you Gabe and Naomi!) More egg hunting ensued and much delicious food was consumed. The pineapple upsidedown cake had my name all over it. And today it's back to school after a long spring break.

The end.

'Stashed

Two things.

1. Fake mustaches are a fantastic source of entertainment for the entire family. They are a fun and cheap souvenir to bring home to the kids.



2. It's probably a good idea to actually READ the package before you purchase a souvenir for the kids. And even better idea? Don't by stuff for the kids from Spencer's Gifts. Unless you are looking to add some colorful words to their vocabulary. Words they don't learn from PBS Kids shows. Oops.

A Book I'm Reading. Or, A Book That's Reading Me

Is it a bad idea to write a book review, recommending it to others when you've only read the first 45 pages? I know you aren't supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but can you judge it by it's first three chapters?

I read non-fiction books the same way I do everything else. Completely distracted. I'm all over the place. I don't jump ahead mind you, (that would be breaking the rules) but I read a little, put it down. Then I pick it up a week later and read three pages before climbing into bed. Then I put it down. Then I take it with me to pick the kids up from school and I read two more pages. This works well enough with reading, not so much with laundry and cooking supper.

Right now I'm "reading" a book that kept popping up on my radar everywhere I looked. I figured it was a sign, so I ordered it. "Age of Opportunity" by Paul David Tripp. A biblical guide to parenting teens. Let me just say this. It's kickin' my tail. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm only on chapter three and I feel like I could already go back and re-read those first three chapters. I highlight as I read and I could probably just highlight every single word.


What I've read so far applies to all of parenting, not just teens. Before he addresses the kids, he has the reader, the parent, take a look at their own heart and their own lives. Here are some of the things that jumped off the page at me.

My mother put it this way. "There is nothing that comes out of a drunk that was not in there in the beginning." These years are hard for us because they rip back the curtain and expose us. This is why trials are so difficult, yet so useful in God's hands. We don't radically change in a moment of trial. No, trials expose what we have always been. Trials bare things to which we would have otherwise been blind. So, too, the teen years expose our self-righteousness, our impatience, our unforgiving spirit, our lack of servant love, the weakness of our faith, and our craving for comfort and ease.

Holy cannoli. Give me a minute to catch my breath. That one socked me right in the gut. But the author doesn't relent, just a few pages later he writes this.

We tend to approach parenting with a sense of ownership, that these are our children and their obedience is our right.

We begin to look at our children as our trophies rather than God's creatures.

When they fail to live up to our expectations, we find ourselves not grieving for them and fighting for them, but angry at them, fighting against them, and, in fact, grieving for ourselves and our loss.

So there it is, a teaser of sorts.

I've had to take inventory of my own heart towards my kids, my parenting, and my view of hardship. It's never pretty or easy to look inside. But oh the joy when we can line ourselves up with God and the way He intended things to be. Comfort, peace, and freedom.

We'll see what the next three chapters hold and hopefully my highlighter can live up to the challenge. I'll report back with more thoughts when I finish reading the book...hopefully by the end of 2010?

Marinating. I'm not reading, I'm marinating.

Another Update Post. Because That's All I Do Anymore.

Things we have been up to over the last couple weeks:

The junior high and highschool students at our church attended Breakaway, a big gathering of worship, teaching, and craziness. Of course Nate went, being the Pastor of Students, but I was able to go as a leader this year too, along with The Evs. She was a good little baby girl who traveled the five hour trip very agreeably and allowed the girls in my room to get some sleep. Tyler and Noelle were a part of the trip, but we tried to leave them to their friends as much as possible. Nothing is quite as lame as having your parents as chaperones.


Then we celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday. She is a graceful woman of God with a servant's heart. She has quietly and humbly established a legacy of love for God's word by example. She also loves her dachshunds. You've met her before.


Not much else going on. Just the day to day stuff. Like Toby sneaking into his brother's DS while everyone is at school and beating all the levels that a two year old can.


I'll end with this story. Last night was the elementary "Informance". The kids in K-4th grade put on a show complete with song and dance. Each grade performed in ascending order, the Kindergartners starting the show and the fourth graders closing it out. It was a packed house, so Camryn and Noelle watched from the back of the auditorium while Nate, Tyler, Gemma, and I took seats in the middle of a row in the middle of the room. You know, the seats that you have to ask about ten people to stand up and contort their bodies so that you can awkwardly slide by to get to your seat. So fun. Jack did a bang up job in between embarrassed giggles. Caedmon really rocked the "Boot Scootin' Boogie". Even though I don't have anyone in third grade, their performance of "Thriller" might have been the highlight of the night. Hilarious. The fourth graders had just finished their two songs and were moving forward to the front of the stage to do some dancing. Tyler leaned over and whispered in my ear "I lost Camryn." Uuuum. She's not in 4th grade. She was standing in the back of the room watching with Noelle.

Cracked me up. I wonder which little girl he thought was his sister that whole time.

A Story About Worms

Randall is still alive. I KNOW! Can you believe it? Nate looked up tiger salamanders and it turns out they can live up to 25 years. So Caedmon could possibly be in his 30's when old Randall finally kicks the bucket. His own kids could play with Randall. That is so weird to me.

That is if we don't kill him first. We were headed out of town last week and one of the items on my "things to do before we leave" list was to buy nightcrawlers for old Rand. We were out. He was getting hungry. Well, I forgot to buy them and on sunday night on our way home from my Grandma's birthday party, we swung into Walmart to pick up a dozen. Picture this: lady in fancy clothes and red dress coat bringing a container of nightcrawlers to the register. "Is this all for you?" Um, yeah. Just the nightcrawlers.

So we get home and Caedmon goes down to distribute the food to the starving salamander. I double checked to make sure he was fed and asked Caedmon if Randall ate the worm. "No, it fell apart in my hand." Um, WHAT? So I looked and sure enough we had dead, decomposing worms on our hands. Soooo gross. So he and I grabbed the receipt and made another trip out to Walmart. A quick peek under every lid of every nightcrawler container revealed that they weren't taking very good care of their worms. Some were covered in mold, other were just a wad of dead worms. We left empty handed. Randall would have to fast just one more meal.

Then next morning I stopped in at a local sports shop. I requested nightcrawlers, and was told that they were out. The county conservationist had just cleaned them out of worms to feed their critters. "Alrighty", I said. "I'll just take a dozen meal worms." He hooked me up with a little clear container of grub-like worms and sawdust. "YAY!" I thought. "Randall will eat well today!".

I came in the front door and unloaded all of the other things I had in my arms. I handed the small cup of meal worms to Gemma and said "Here, hold this for a second" while I hung up my purse and walked into the kitchen. About thirty seconds later Gemma walked up to me, meal worm cup in hand and reported "Toby didn't like them. He spit it out."

WHAT??!!??!!

HE WHAT??!!??!!

Oh my gosh. I died laughing. The poor kid tried to eat a meal worm. Big sister fed one to him. Apparently they aren't very yummy, at least for kids.

Randall didn't spit his out.

Fit Baby

This morning Everly was watching from her bouncy seat while Gemma played a little Wii Fit. I was in the next room and few minutes later Gemma said "Mom! Come see what Evy is doing!" One step into the next room revealed Everly, in her Bumbo, on the balance board, Wiimote in hand. So cute but not so great at Super Hula Hoop.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Laundry Pile Family.

Winter: The Real Story

Here it is, raw, unedited. Real. How our front door looks from the first snow until spring.
Kind of makes me want to cry.