Sheesh!

Ever have a day when you drop a lot of stuff? Not in a metaphorical or spiritual sense - but in an actual, physical, butter-fingery sense.

It's not so surprising, really. I mean, I do have quite a klutzy history. But today seems messier than most.

So far this morning I have...

- spilled water all over the kitchen trying to fill up Janie's water bottle.

- run over my own toe with a shopping cart. Ouch. Plus it ruined the at-home pedicure I gave myself last night. (Janie offered to kiss it and make it better - but I thought it would look weird for my child to be kissing my foot in the middle of the grocery store.)

- dropped a container of alfredo sauce while putting away groceries. It broke. And it was a big mess.

- pulled a pan out of the cupboard to make mac & cheese for lunch. The lid fell off the pan. It dropped into the bowl of cat food in the corner. Cat food and bowl pieces flew around the kitchen. It was another big mess.

That's it for now. But it is, after all, only 1:00 in the afternoon. There's still plenty of time for me to break something else! To protect my carpet, I'll be using my grown-up sippy-cup for the rest of the day!

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Four things

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. For most of my teenage years I was a professional babysitter
2. I eventually moved up to jewelery salesperson at a local department store
3. My perfect summer job during college was Quality Control clerk at a local cannery
4. And my most favorite job of all - full-time mama

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Pride & Prejudice - the way long A&E version
2. Sliding Doors
3. Anne of Green Gables
4. Elizabeth

Four places I have lived:
1. Valparaiso, Indiana
2. Glenview, Illinois
3. San Luis Obispo, California - my most favorite place to be in the whole wide world
4. Modesto, California - home of several national scandals

Four TV shows that I watch:
1. Mad Men - my new, most favorite show
2. Friday Night Lights - if you're not watching this show, you really should
3. Assorted reality shows - The Amazing Race, Project Runway, Top Chef, etc.
4. The Closer

Four places I have been:
1. Maui, Hawaii
2. Tijuana, Mexico
3. Pismo Beach, California
4. Catalina Island, California

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Carbs - all types
2. Sparkling apple cider
3. Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate
4. Zucchini squash- I'm suddenly very into this delicious vegetable

Four things I am looking forward to this summer:
1. Vacation with hubs & kiddo
2. Hanging with my college roomies at the beach
3. Getting a flip flop tan
4. After dinner walks around the lake

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The good stuff

Recently, during a play group, one of the other moms started singing a song that took me right back to 1982 (give or take a few years).

If you were part of a children's program in any church in the 80's - then you'll recognize these lyrics...

Have patience, have patience
Don't be in such a hurry
When you get impatient
You only start to worry
Remember, remember
That God is patient, too
And think of all the
Times when others
Have to wait for you

You may even have memories of some poor volunteer dressed up like a big blue hymnal named Psalty.

Well, after hearing my friend singing this childhood favorite, I couldn't get the song out of my head! I had to find it! It was no where to be found on iTunes, but I did track down a copy of the CD on sale for $3.



It arrived today and we listened to it during dinner. It was every bit as fabulous as I remember. I admit that some parts and a little goofy - and I'm not a fan of listening to the dialogue from the acting part of the musical between the songs.

But each song brought back memories. It's really amazing, that 25 (or so) years later, I can still remember the words to almost every song.

Which makes me think, of course, about what Janie is busy memorizing and I'm wondering if knowing the words to the Little Einsteins theme song is going to help her make good spiritual choices as a young adult.

I don't know if Janie will ever be in a musical with a giant blue hymnal, but I do know that I want to be more intentional about filling up her mind with the good stuff.

It's hard, because so much of Christian children's entertainment is either ridiculously lame or really annoying or sometimes both. So if anyone (all three of you who read this blog) have any good ideas about CDs and DVDs of the non-lame, non-annoying variety, please let me know!

In the meantime, I'm off to search the web for more childhood churchy memories (that have been transfered from audio cassette to CD) to share with my kiddo!

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Overheard

Rob:
"Janie, what do you think? Should we have a new baby in our house? Would you like a new baby brother or sister?"

Jane:
"No. No babies. No brothers. No sisters. Just Jane."

*Disclosure: Nope, not pregnant.

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My favorite job

The other morning I had to go into the office for a meeting. Thankfully, Rob was able to work out his schedule so that he could be with Janie while I was participating in actual-office-y stuff for an hour.

Side note: I quit working full time when Janie was born, and at the time I wondered if I would miss being a Working Woman with my little cubicle and dressy shoes and lunch meetings and big projects.

As I walked up those long stairs toward my old office today, I saw a couple of folks scurrying about with that all-too-familiar freaked-out I've-got-a-huge-deadline look in their eyes. And I realized...

I. don't. miss. this. at. all.

Well, I miss the paychecks. But all the politics and stress and the inflated sense of urgency about every little thing... I can say with certainty that I'm happy to be in my new line of work.

Anyway.

After my meeting, I headed over to one of Rob and Janie's favorite hang out spots - Chuck E Cheese. I found them having snack and enjoying the stage show.

Soon Janie was showing me all of her new gaming skills and running from ride to ride to show me all of her favorites.

She completely schooled me at the water gun game.

And stuck a pose with her buddy Chuck.

As I followed her around with our little cup full of tokens, she had a bright smile and kept up a steady stream of commentary.

And I realized, not for the first time, that when I quit that office job for my new mommy job, I was trading up.

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Can I get an amen?

This morning, I happened to attend one of the later services at our church. Normally, I'm at the 9:00 service. But Janie slept late and I didn't feel like waking her up because she's been a little sick for the last couple of days and I figured she needed the sleep. So we had a bit of a lazy morning and made it in time for the 10:45 service.

It was during this service that I experienced the funniest church moment of all my 33 years of church attendance.

The pastor was continuing in his series about the fruits of the spirit. Today's fruit: patience.

One of his main points was that the opposite of patience is anger. He spent a lot of time talking about the havoc we create when anger goes unchecked and some steps to take to deal with and overcome anger.

But he did pause to point out that sometimes anger is a good thing and gave examples of righteous anger from the Bible. Then to bring the point home, he mentioned a local political action committee that was working with the city to correct something happening in our public libraries.

Pastor: "Did you know that our local libraries do not have p*rn filters on their computers?"

Man in church (very loudly): "Yes! Amen!" Clap, clap, clap, clap. "Thank you Jesus!" More clapping.

Everyone else in church: Awkward silence.

Pastor: "Umm, actually... they don't have the filters yet."

Man: "Oh. Uh. I thought you said..."

Everyone else in church: Hysterical, tears-in-your-eyes laughter for several minutes.

Man's wife: "If the rapture could happen right now that would be great." (I don't know if she really said - I'm just guessing on that part.)

After a minute or two, we all managed to quiet down and the pastor was able to continue his sermon.

At the very end of the service, the man ran up to stand next to the pastor and asked if he could say a few words.

Man: "I'm really proud of the political action committee. They do really great work. And I also think it's really important to have filters on the library computers. And really I just want to say that the committee is doing a great job. And the library is really great and I hope that they do get filters. I mean, I just want to support..."

Pastor: "Thank you sir. You're a good sport. It was an honest mistake."

Everyone else in church: Clapping and laughing.

Pastor (with a big grin): "Friends, this is why you should always listen very carefully to what your pastor is saying."

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Future WNBA Superstar!

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