Too Amazing for Words...

The weather here went from this last Monday and Tuesday:

 To this on Thursday:

And, in addition to the weather becoming suddenly glorious with temperatures in the 70's, we did all of this:

John turned 12!

David

Anna and David went to their first formal!

Anna

And, in case that wasn't enough fun, the whole family went to a Twins game on Saturday, where the glorious weather continued and the Twins even won!

There was a cowboy hat giveaway, so now we have 7 of those!

Today the weather is so nice that we are having a bonfire tonight for Daniel's 10th birthday.  I was even inspired to clean the six months' worth of grime from the screened porch, where I am sitting now, enjoying, guess what? The glorious weather! 

Happy Birthday Daniel!

And if that isn't really enough about how great our last few days have been around here, I have also taken two outside runs.  I've left the squishy safety of the treadmill and have managed well so far on the hard asphalt, 3 miles each time.  This is a big milestone and I am so excited!

Someone needs a tan!

That's all for now!  Life is Different Here this week, and I am so thankful!

An Open Letter to My Tibia:

Get it together, please.  I know I mistreated you.  I should have realized you were broken before running that half-marathon; I know that now.  And I am very, very sorry.  But really, you've had enough time in the spotlight.

A 10 week vacation is more than sufficient, don't you think?  I'm willing to throw in a few more weeks just to get you strong again.  But just because you are the great weight-bearer on the right side does not mean you should have as much time off as you please.  And, wow! do my arms have a bone to pick with you.  They were not designed to carry the whole load like you were, and they are ready to "hand" the job back over to you.  So quit your whining and aching, and get to work repairing yourself.  I know you have osteoblasts and plenty of calcium, vitamin D and the whole bit.

Listen, tibia, and take me seriously.  Dr. Sports Medicine and Dr. Orthopedic Surgeon have a back-up plan if you don't get it together pretty soon, and I am sure you will not like it.  Do the whole body a favor and fix yourself while you still can. 

Thanks in advance,
Me

The Plunge: A Pictoral Review

My Life in Status Updates

Status updates are about all the writing I have had time for lately!  One day I will take some time to write a real blog post, but for now, here's what has been going on in our lives from the Facebook point of view!

1/28: Made it to the State Lego Tournament with everything but the camera! Go Cavemen!

1/28: Cavemen win!

 1/28: Hooray for the Cavemen! First Lego League Minnesota state champions!

1/30: I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD. (Psalm 104:33-34 ESV)

1/30: Have you heard that Edwin will be taking the PolarBear Plunge on March 3? If you would like to sponsor him, message me! Support the Special Olympics! Or come to Lake Calhoun and watch!

 
1/31: So thankful for the gift of a mild January in Minnesota! I really needed that after last winter!

1/31: I'm looking for some upbeat praise & worship music with theologically-sound lyrics, especially with lyrics straight from the Bible...Any suggestions?

Sports Photography

It's been a while and my blog is once again neglected.  I have not even gotten the Christmas pictures off of the camera yet, so it's that bad.  But I think I need to post something here, and my talented children, David and John, are coming to the rescue.  They took photos and videos of our ski trip last week and they are pretty good - at skiing, snowboarding, and catching it on "film."

We need a snowmaker for the backyard this year!

Community Living

Since it seems I am always writing about food these days, I will start this post by saying that for dinner last night we enjoyed six free pizzas from Punch Pizza, thanks to their Pre-Easter Feaster coupons.  As you might imagine, there were quite a few folks there for free pizzas, so the kids and I waited in line (some of the time in the chilly rain) for nearly an hour.  At least the day had improved from a morning that looked like this:

Standing in long lines at neighborhood restaurants and events is actually kind of fun for me, and it is just the thing for analyzing a cross-section of the people living around us (or at least the ones who are in the know about free food deals).  The pizza-fest last night was very similar to Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day, which we never miss for obvious reasons.  It seems the entire town is there, and it is really just a big social event.  And it is one of the few times that Minnesotans just stand around and have a chat with total strangers.

"What?" my southern friends may be saying, "doesn't that happen every time you wait in any line for any thing?"  Nope, not really up here.  Now it may not be hard for you to guess that I often initiate conversation with strangers in line at the grocery store, because that's just me.  But, as I've mentioned, I do not always fit in so well here.

This brings me to my point, however, and that is this: I am starting to feel like we belong here.  After all this time, I have begun to understand Minnesotans better, I have gotten to know some of them personally, and I have become a part of this place.  The cashier at the grocery store knows me.  The tall guy at Chipotle recognizes our Tuesday lunch group and knows we order salads.  We know and love our neighbors.  We always go to the big concert with fireworks near July 4th, and we see people we know there.  And this is good.

This same sense of community is a bit wider-spread when it comes to the beloved Minnesota Twins, the hometown team.  Our family went to this season's home opener at Target Field, and it was such a fun thing to be a part of.  (We even saw someone we know there!)  It felt like the whole state was paying attention.  Everywhere we went that day almost everyone was wearing Twins shirts, hats, jackets, you name it.  And that continues on a somewhat smaller scale every single game day, even though the Twins are struggling a bit.  Even in the pizza line last night we were not the only ones following the game on the cell phone.

It does seem that some of the things that really did not matter as much to me when we were still in the moving around mode have started to matter more.  We have always enjoyed the close-knit community of our church family, and are so very thankful for that.  But it is gratifying to enjoy the larger community as well.  If only some of these nice folks could do something about the winter weather!

Back to food:  One of the bits of conversation I had last night was about cooking over a camp fire, a piece of Minnesota life that we really do enjoy around here.  A lady told me how to fry doughnuts in a coffee can, and I can not wait to try it!  She was somewhat surprised that we had never done it, though the kids piped up that we had roasted powder sugared mini doughnuts on a stick over the fire, so that made her feel better.  If anyone out there has actually fried doughnuts in a coffee can, I would love to hear about it!

Psalm 16:5-6:
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Happy Music

Here I sit, at the library, in a too-small chair in front of a computer in the children's area.  My i-pod is playing happy music in my ears and I am content.  We are here because it is drippy and nasty outside, and my children are easily cheered by the chance to sit at the computer and play games for an hour - something that never happens at home (especially all five of them at the same time!).

I guess I am a very simple person.  I downloaded some new music last night and I can hardly sit still or keep from smiling (dancing in my mind) while sitting here listening to it for the first time.  It's the new, improved "happy music."  I have always enjoyed having a moment to listen to my happy music.  When I was a pharmacist in Florida I had an especially stress-inducing partner, and I soaked up the happy music on the drive to and from work every day.  It stuck in my head and really helped.  At that time it was a mish-mash of praise music that played on the Christian radio station.  Now there is still some of that, but a better description would be a little bit of everything!

Another use for happy music is filling time during super-long drives on family vacations.  Each year we make some new mix cds for the big drive, and it's very fun to learn the songs together and sing to the top of our lungs.  Last summer we even impressed (?) the relatives with a big singing/dancing moment (some of which was recorded on video, unfortunately), and we were all inroduced to some music that was a bit out of our normal listening range. Hello Black Eyed Peas!

These days my life is not usually stressful, and there is no commute.  Now the happy music fills time as I run miles on the treadmill or pedal miles on the exercise bike.  I did enjoy listening to music when I ran outside in the summer, but I almost could not live without it during the boring monotony of the treadmill.  The songs motivate me. "Just don't look at the control panel till this song is over," runs through my mind a lot, as well as a few very useful Bible verses I've memorized.  I have been amazed at the sheer will-power it takes to run on that treadmill, but so far I am usually glad I did it once it is over.  So I will continue to listen to the happy music until, and probably even after, spring comes. 

Then, like always, will come a new time and place for some new happy music.


Psalm 40:1-3
 I waited patiently for the LORD;
   he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
   out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
   making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
   a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
   and put their trust in the LORD.

Gigantor Lives!

Let me state up front that this is a long and rambling story. Sorry about that! A better writer would condense this somehow, but I am a talker, not a writer, so listen if you have time…

My Sunday morning started with an orange juice shower. No, it actually started with me making a (very large) pot of chili at 7:00 am. I have a bad habit of putting off the fellowship lunch preparation until Sunday morning. It’s a combination of being too lazy or too busy on Saturdays, but either way, it results in the family waking to strange smells. Then I headed to the shower, a real one. It was shortly after that the orange juice shower occurred. I wasn’t there to see the scope of it, and by the time I arrived on the scene it had been cleaned up, or so it appeared. Thankfully there were no church clothes involved, since a few of the kids are so short of nice clothes it would have resulted in a serious wardrobe malfunction. So I moved on to getting ready to leave.

Fast forward 20 minutes. I came back down to the kitchen, all ready to go except for my shoes. That’s when my feet stuck to the floor, and I discovered the scope and reach of the orange juice shower as well as the deficiencies of the clean-up effort. Now I have no choice but to mop the floor before church. Ok, I do now realize there were some other choices, but this was my feeling at the moment, which I know some of you can understand completely! I grabbed the two nearest boys who were fully dressed and they began to move the seven chairs and four stools out of the kitchen. One of them began to scrub o.j. off the chairs, too. I grabbed the bag of trash someone had pulled out but not really dealt with and sat it on the garage step (still not dealing with it). Then there was a flurry of super-fast aerobic sweeping and mopping. I ended up quite hot, asked another boy to get me some water, and dashed up the stairs for my shoes. We were still going to be to church on time!

Ticket to Ride

On Sunday afternoon we found ourselves with some extra time due to schedule changes at church. We had planned a trip to Duluth for Saturday and Sunday, but upon discovering that we could not spend the night on Saturday, we decided we couldn’t face six hours of car time on Sunday! Not enough recovery time from the last trip! So we had lunch on the sunny patio of Smash Burger (calorie loading) and headed over to Wayzata for a bike ride on the Dakota Rail Trail.

The Dakota Rail Trail starts in Wayzata near Lake Minnetonka and ends in St. Bonifacius. It is mostly level, crosses very few roads, and has several really scenic bridges over the lake. (If you are from the south, you’ll appreciate knowing that the new bridges smell exactly like Six Flags! Good memories!) There are shady portions that felt like heaven on that sunny but probably not much warmer than 70 day. There are also a couple of good eating spots right on the trail, including the Minnetonka Drive-In.

What He Must Be...

We have enjoyed the book, now you can win a DVD of the conference!

What He Must Be: ...If He Wants to Marry My Daughter by Voddie T. Baucham Jr. is good for parents of girls, but also ones with boys. The boys will, afterall, have to be fit to marry a nice young lady one of these days, and we have to raise them. And it's never to early to start thinking about what kind of young men and women we want our children to be!

Jasmine Baucham is the oldest daughter of the author, and blogs at http://www.joyfullyathomeblog.com/. I enjoy reading it. Click on the links to have a look around and enter the contest!

Joyfully At Home: Next Tuesday

The Story About the Tadpole, Part Two

I don't want to move the link to vote for my friend, Julie B, too far down the page!  Here it is: Progresso Souper You .  Please vote daily through April 12.

And now, back to the tadpole story...

If you haven't already seen it, you should read Part One first...

Tadpole number two arrived one day in May, and it was not 30 degrees! This one was much larger and came in a plastic bag instead of a tiny test tube. I also ordered Tadpole Bites with this one, so we were now ready to be more responsible tadpole owners. We named him Taddeous II. He swam and swam but did not grow. We watched him carefully, and he did not “slosh” over the side. After a couple of months of swimming without a single hint of leg-sprouting, I determined it was too cold in our house for a cold-blooded animal to thrive. We moved the tadpole habitat outside to the screened porch and placed him carefully where the direct sunlight would not boil him in his tiny amount of water. Lo and behold, he sprouted legs about a week later! Taddeous II thrived in his new, warmer environment and soon he had four legs and a shrinking tail. We were going to be the proud owners of a frog!

Souper Contest

My dear friend, Julie B., is currently in the top three of the "Progresso Souper You" makeover contest.  The contestants who receive the top three number of votes win a trip for two to New York City!  She is almost there!

Julie is a sweet, Christian, homeschooling mom of two beautiful girls.  You can read a short bit about her on the voting site.  She would be so blessed by this time away with her husband!

Will you please click on this link and vote for her once daily through April 12?

****UPDATE!  Julie won!  She and her husband won a trip to New York City and she gets a make-over.  How fun!  I am so happy for her!  Thank you for voting!

The Story About the Tadpole, Part One

Well, it's that time of year again, spring!  There are actually buds on some trees, and there is no ice on the pond.  There is a bowl on the screened porch that has a luna moth cocoon in it, and we are cheering it on.  We thought Gigantor (some of you will remember him) {Click the link for an update on Gigantor!} would come out last summer, but, apparently, he decided to overwinter in one of my favorite bowls.  Either that or there's a dead partially-formed luna moth inside.  We will give it some time, but at some point we will cut into it to find out what is there.  At least then I can get my bowl back; that is, if I am not too disgusted to use it again.

All this possibly-failed metamorphosis reminded me of the old tadpole story, which I think deserves a spot here in my blog.  Some of you have already read this...


Once upon a time Edwin's parents gave the kids a nice tadpole, frog, and/or bug habitat for Christmas. It came with a coupon for a free tadpole. Even the folks in the warm south do not have a supply of tadpoles to ship until spring, apparently, so I filed away the coupon and waited for spring to come, at least in the warm place where they breed the tadpoles.

Fast-forward to April. Surely it must be spring somewhere! So I ordered the tadpole, free, plus $7.99 for "shipping." And then I should have gone right out to buy the food and special water for the tadpole. But I did not. I promptly forgot that I had ordered the tadpole.

Status Round-up

I spend a little time on Facebook, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. It’s quick, easy interaction with folks from the past and present, all mixed-up. I’m sure I’ll write more about Facebook another time, but for now, here’s a round-up of my most recent statuses, from yesterday backwards.


• Tracey is planning to eat everything in the freezer. Not all at once.

• Refrigerator repair, or, reason to buy a new one...we'll see!

• Next time I make a double-recipe of rice krispy treats I will use a bigger bowl.

• 59 degrees, and the warm sunshine feels heavenly!

• Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day! Ice cream for lunch!

• Why bother looking decent if I'm just staying at home? See some reasons and give your opinion at http://www.lifeisdifferenthere.blogspot.com/.

• Can anyone who has a Google blog (blogspot) tell me how to just put some of a post on the front page? It seems there is a "read more" option, but I can not make it come up for me.

Beauty is Vain

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)


I've been running behind lately. I do not like to reach lunch time without meeting the goal of taking a shower and getting dressed for the day. I know, some of you are laughing. Lunch time, really? But it's the way my schedule works. I get up early enough to drink coffee with Edwin before he leaves, grade some school work, and exercise before breakfast with the kids. Then the school day begins, and time starts running away from me. We take a break around 10:30, and I try to scramble into the shower and be dressed, dry, and made up by 11:00.

Thirty minutes seems like plenty of time, doesn't it? But somehow that 30 minutes goes by so fast I run out of time. There's no time for make up. Or maybe my hair is left to dry itself (not a good outcome!). And sometimes I do not even make it into the shower. So, school starts back at 11:00 and it is time for lunch before I know it, and there I am, still in my exercise clothes. Ugh. If Edwin gets to come home for lunch he gets his wife in no better condition than when he left in the morning.

Good Idea...

Improv Everywhere - I Love Lunch

Maybe you've heard of one of my favorite rainy day blogs, Improv Everywhere. I usually just watch their videos and skip the text, though it may be entertaining as well. I should say that not everything on their blog is acceptable to everyone, so preview before calling your kids down to watch with you! I found nothing to keep the kiddos from watching their latest installment, "I Love Lunch." Another favorite is "Food Court Musical."

I think I enjoy them so much because I would secretly love to do this myself!