"Not Me!" Monday

Welcome! Are you feeling remorseful this week that you left an ugly message on your husband's voice mail after he didn't return your call? Or maybe you stuffed yourself full of pizza for the third time this week? Perhaps you just spent all of your free time vegging out in front of the TV instead of cleaning the house. No worries! "Not Me!" Monday was written just for you. It frees me up to admit my many imperfections and vent about the absolutely ridiculous things that are my everyday. Enjoy at my expense, and join in the fun by commenting below!

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Remember this cute little guy from this post? As a matter of fact, NO, he is not still on the mantle, along with his lady friend. Fall is over, and he has already spent an entire year up on that perch. I have definitely long since packed him away and redecorated the mantle with Christmas-y type things. Definitely.

Which reminds me, I am really looking forward to hosting my parents for Christmas this year! They're traveling all the way from Texas and will be staying with us for a whole week; we are so excited! Which is why, of course, our house is spotless, organized, and extravagantly decked out for Christmas. We surely have not left all of that 'til the last minute. Our house is not one big, stinking mess, our Christmas tree is not still packed away in the storage area behind our townhouse, and I am not blogging away while I should be cleaning and decorating. Not me!

This week, while I was preparing lunch and slinging an infant around in my arms, I heard water running. Water running? I wish. I did not turn to find my three-year-old turning in circles in our downstairs bathroom, urinating on every stinkin' thing except for the toilet. He in fact, did not urinate on the sink, the trash can, the magazine basket, the floor, and the wall. I did not go completely ballistic, storm upstairs, and have a good long sob, leaving my husband to clean up the mess and deal with our delinquent child. Nope. Not me!

Kyler and I were involved in our church's Christmas production every day this week. Even though rehearsals and productions lasted well past our boys' bedtimes, we certainly didn't take them along with us. Nope. We didn't stay out rehearsing or helping to finish sets until nearly 11pm each night, dumping our poor exhausted children into bed just before midnight. It's true. I did not so thoroughly mess up my infant's sleep routine that he woke three times between 1am and 8am last night, and then didn't wake until 2pm today. Not me!

This weekend, we made a concerted effort to get some cleaning and organizing done in the midst of a crazy Christmas production week. One of the things we worked on was sorting, folding, and putting away laundry. However, this clean laundry did in fact not come from a gargantuan pile that overflowed the three basket-fulls, like, seven loads ago. The piles were certainly not so tall that they completely consumed our two toddlers, who were playing in them. And since you asked, NO, I did not allow them roll around in the clean clothing as if they were in a huge pile of leaves.

Speaking of laundry, I did not wash the same basic load of laundry like three times this week, rather than spending the time to sort, organize, and wash all of the other dirty clothes in the house. Nope, I did not just dump a jumbled assortment of jeans, kids' and baby clothes, underwear, and Kyler's dress clothes for the production all into the same load. Like three times. That would be lazy. You know, the opposite of me this week. 

Our son Callan was also in the Christmas production this week. He played baby Jesus, and did such a great job! He handled being passed from person to person backstage in between all of the scenes he was in with ease, and hardly made a peep for two solid hours. Carried on stage and sung to by our pastor, he cooperated well, and even cooed and "sung" along with him. This Momma was so proud; my baby was adorable and perfect in his role.

So it definitely wasn't me who (in addition to beaming, also) absolutely cringed inside when both friends and strangers approached me after the show with comments of, "He is so perfect!" "I can't believe how quiet and calm he was!" and "Is he that good at home? He is such an easy baby!"  

Nope. Not me. Dying inside for validation that what I do is hard, I did not want to scream, "I can't believe it either!!! He is never this good, OR this quiet! In fact, the last 3-1/2 months have likely been the hardest of my life, what with all of the inconsolable screaming, hours and hours of carrying and bouncing him around in my arms, and endless nights of rocking! So PLEASE don't tell me how easy he is, because I can hardly believe it myself!"***

(***Aside: Thankfully, I was able to control my tongue, thank each person, and sometimes mention how grateful we are that his reflux meds finally seem to be doing the trick and our hopes that this is the beginning of a "new" Callan. Sigh.)  

And finally, knowing that my husband and I were equally tired this morning, after a week of long production rehearsals and performances, and knowing that he has heaps of work to get done, I did not beg him to take the boys and let me sleep in this morning. In fact, although it was he who, after a long day and our last performance, spent nearly four hours at the hospital last night (with one of our church's teens, who injured her foot in the last scene of last night's show) I did not totally take advantage of his kindness and sleep in not one, but three hours this morning. Nope. Not me!

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"Not Me!" Monday is an incredibly fun blogging carnival started by MckMama. In a nutshell, it's where we all can be open about the ridiculous things that happen in our everyday lives. Head on over to her blog, where you can read heaps of other great "Not Me!" stories. Or, join in the "Not Me!" fun and leave a comment about all of the things you didn't do this week! 
            

Showers

     
Last weekend, we enjoyed the showers.

Both of them.

The snow shower started around 9am.

I just love falling snow in all its delicate beauty.

The baby shower

(for my sister-in-law and her newborn daughter)

began at 1pm.

 

In between the two, there was a lot going on.

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There was baking,
(the recipe for these Red-Velvet Raspberry Squares is here)

cheesecake thawing,

 

balloon filling,

 table arranging,

and rearranging,

piano playing,

coffee and tea brewing,

pretend singing,

fruit plattering (plating?)

ravenous small child wrangling,

(see Cam looking to see if I'm watching?

This is undoubtedly before he launched a fist
onto that platter of fruit...)

 

beanbag chilling,

(or rather, chilling in beanbags...for all of about three minutes)

and running around like headless chickens.

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Once the shower began, we had a delightful time.

There was lots of laughing, baby-story sharing, and gift opening.

 

 

 

There was visiting with friends,

 

baby passing,

 

and of course, there was lots of picture taking.

 

 

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 All in all, I'd say it was a success.

Even MaryJane gave me two thumbs up.

Red Velvet-Raspberry Squares

   

Fancy, aren't they?

I'm no pastry chef, that's for sure. But when I was planning my sister-in-law's baby shower, I ran across this Duncan Hines dessert recipe in my mother-in-law's copy of Southern Living and decided to give it a go. I thought they turned out deliciously yummy, so I'm sharing the recipe with you!

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1 pkg. red velvet cake mix
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
1 (16oz.) container cream cheese frosting

Preheat oven to 350*F. Prepare cake batter as directed. Pour batter into a greased and floured 13x9in. pan.

Bake @ 350*F for 28-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely, about one hour.

Invert cake onto a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut off the rounded top of the cake. Also trim the edges.

Cut cake into 24 squares. Cut each square in half horizontally, and remove the tops.


Stir jam in a small bowl until smooth and spreadable. Spread jam onto each bottom half of cake. Replace the top halves and transfer to a serving platter or cake pedestal.

Remove lid and foil from frosting. Microwave frosting on high 20 seconds, stirring after 10 seconds. Stir until smooth and spreadable. Spoon frosting to a zip-top plastic bag. Snip a tiny corner off of the bag to make a small hole. Pipe frosting onto the top of each square in whatever pattern you desire, allowing it to drip down the sides.

Voila! Pretty, fancy, yummy dessert.
      

Say "Cheese!"

    

Like his mother, Cam has a love for photography.

He's always searching for the perfect shot,

or just waiting to happen upon a fun candid.

 

 He loves it all:

Nature photography

 

Animal Photography

 

And even, umm....

Animated photography

 

 

 You may be next!

Say "Cheese!"

 

      

"Not Me!" Monday

Welcome! Are you feeling embarrassed this week that your house was a total disaster when your husband's grandmother dropped in for a visit? Or maybe you opened the washer to find you had washed a Pull-Up along with all of the kids' clothing? Perhaps you're just totally frustrated that your kids never fail to totally soil their bedsheets right after you wash them. No worries! "Not Me!" Monday was written just for you. It frees me up to admit my many imperfections and vent about the absolutely ridiculous things that are my everyday. Enjoy at my expense, and join in the fun by commenting below!

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Do you ever have a week that is so completely ape-baloney that your house looks something like the picture below?

No? Well, thank goodness.

Me neither.

This is a picture of...ahem...someone else's house. Even if my house did look like this, I certainly wouldn't post it on my blog, knowing that my mother and a bunch of folks from church would see it. Geez, I'm smarter than that.

We've visited the concept of healthy eating several times in the past few weeks, so rest assured I have internalized it all. My kids and I eat healthy foods 100% of the time. So when we returned home from four days at my in-laws for Thanksgiving to find the refrigerator empty and the milk spoiled, I loaded everyone up in the car and went grocery shopping immediately, stopping to feed my children a healthy breakfast on the way. I certainly didn't just give up and feed everyone Craisins and animal crackers for breakfast. Nope. Not me!
 
I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law this week. It was not six weeks after her baby was born, and I wasn't running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the better part of a week preparing. It also did not start snowing like crazy the morning of the shower, and I did not get phone call after phone call from folks backing out of coming. This did not really frustrate me, and I was not a bit grumpy because of it all. Not me!

One of the desserts I made for the baby shower were these cute little red velvet-raspberry squares. They were fun to make, but for a fact it wasn't me who was just a little disturbed by the red velvet cake batter. And it's not my kitchen that still hasn't been cleaned up from the baking extravaganza. And because of all of that red velvet cake batter it most definitely does not look like a bloody chicken ran through my kitchen. Just so you know.

As we were frantically packing up the car (in the wet, sloppy, slippery snow) my dear husband was asking which things I needed to take. He was exceedingly helpful, carrying boxes of desserts and asking which serving trays to bring. So when we were finally ready and loading the last things out of the fridge and he asked, "Do we need the chicken?" I surely didn't respond with a sarcastic, "YES, Kyler, it's a desserts and CHICKEN baby shower." Not me!

The baby shower was at 1pm, so our guests could head over after they ate lunch. The problem for our family however, was that we were rushing around preparing things for the shower until 1pm. And I'd been so busy doing things that morning (nursing the baby, feeding the boys, baking desserts, nursing the baby, packing the car, nursing the baby...) that I'd skipped breakfast, too. By the time guests started arriving for the shower, I was not so totally consumed with guarding the table of food from my ravenous children that I still hadn't eaten lunch. And an hour later, after feeding the kids, my first meal of the day most assuredly was not a plate full of desserts.  

Nope. Not me!

I sang on the worship team yesterday at church. Despite my exhaustion from a crazy, busy week, I was mentally totally on top of things. So when it came time for the "meet and greet," I was enjoying myself, walking around greeting friends and giving hugs. After about five minutes, I wondered what the hold-up was. Why hadn't the announcements started? I wandered around a bit longer, waiting for whoever it was to get their act together and get up on the stage. Another two minutes passed, and I approached our worship pastor to ask. Don't worry, when he checked our "same page" to find out, we discovered it wasn't me who was supposed to be on stage five minutes ago to begin the announcements. Thank goodness. I was so tired that morning, if I'd been responsible, I might have forgotten.

As I've said, this week was busy. Super busy. So I guess I'm fortunate that I'm such an incredible manager of time and toddlers, and lucky that my baby understands that when it's time for us to leave for Christmas production rehearsal, he needs to buckle down and drink up. Otherwise, I might find myself in situations where we're heading out the door in a rush, and I discover that the bathroom floor where my three-year-old so efficiently and independently used the bathroom is covered in a huge puddle of urine. Or predicaments like my baby refusing to nurse, so that I'm forced to drive to rehearsal and pump at the same time. Yep. So glad that wasn't me.   

Isn't it funny how your ideas of what is acceptable (as opposed to what is revoltingly disgusting) change when you become a parent? This week while I was checking my e-mail and my husband was holding our baby, I did not hear him exclaim, "DUDE, Callan! Oh....it's just a bunch of spit up. I thought it was poop."

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"Not Me!" Monday is an incredibly fun, blogging carnival started by MckMama. In a nutshell, it's where we all can be open about the ridiculous things that happen in our lives. Join in the "Not Me!" fun and leave a comment about all of the things you didn't do this week!      

Thirsty

Our worship team at church is working on raising $3000 to support the building of a well through Blood:Water Mission. To help raise funds to donate, we've recorded a CD. Our amazing worship pastor donated all of the studio time, as well as the ka-jillion hours he spent mixing/mastering the thing. (Plus, he wrote the last song, and I really like it.) As of now, our initial 200 copies have already sold or been reserved; what a huge praise! We've ordered another 100, and are hoping to sell those and earn more to donate.

Recording my parts for this CD was a little adventure. Since Kyler was out of town on a "Wilderness Weekend" camping trip with the teen guys from church, our worship team pastor's wife graciously offered to watch the big boys while I recorded in their home studio. Oddly enough, recording has never been a simple thing for me. If you've read Cameron's birth story, you know that I recorded parts of our last worship team CD while I was in (what turned out to be) the early stages of labor. Singing and having contractions was...interesting, but the songs turned out well, all things considered.

This time around, the baby was in my arms, not in my belly. It was a little comical, trying to sing and bounce Callan in my arms to keep him quiet long enough to record parts and pieces of a track. Never a dull moment with these kiddos.

To my knowledge, Blogger won't let me upload and embed an audio track in a blog post, so I threw together a little video and posted it on YouTube so I could share my contribution to the CD with you. I included some pertinent information and photos from the blood:water mission website about providing water in sub-Saharan Africa and the work they are doing there.

The song I recorded is one of my favorites: "Beauty of the Lord" (Desperation Band, 2004). I blogged about part of it here. Please afford me a little grace with the video; I'm not terribly video savvy, and I definitely don't have the cutting edge programs for this sort of thing. Hope you enjoy it anyway! I'll be sure to update you on how we do with our worship team's goal to raise enough to build a well and change lives across the world.

(Don't forget, you'll need to pause the audio playlist at the top of the blog before you play the video.)

You Can't Take It With You

      

The other day while we were out for a walk, Cam became quite enamored with a lamppost.

A little odd, I know, but he was smitten.

You have to admit, it's a lovely lamppost, kinda reminiscent of the one in Narnia. Of course, Cameron doesn't know about Narnia - yet - so he didn't even know he could pretend it was magical.

Anyway.

Cam liked the lamppost so much that when it was time for us to head home, he decided he'd like to take the lamppost with him.

I felt for the kid, I did. It was a cool lamppost. But still a lamppost. So, I very sweetly explained to him that he couldn't take it with him. It was much too heavy for him to carry on his own, and besides, he had no need for it at home.

At first, he didn't believe me.

He pushed on it.

He pulled on it.

I think he even tried to will it out of the ground with his best stare.

But as admirable as his determination was, that lamppost wasn't going anywhere.

He couldn't take it with him.

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As with most things we learn as toddlers, we as adults tend to forget the simple lessons. Why we tend to be so driven to attain more and more stuff is baffling to me. Stuff, stuff, stuff. Enormous houses, fancy cars, designer clothes (and shoes and bags and jewelry), status, position, and of course, money.

Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty too. There are plenty of things I want and convince myself I need for whatever ridiculous reason. Sometimes I buy things just because they're on a good sale, never mind whether or not I can actually use them (or...ahem...afford them). And now that I'm a Mommy, I'm worst about buying and "collecting" things for the boys. For example, I think we have about 692 more toys than we actually need (or play with on a regular basis).

Now, I'm not saying that having goals and aspirations, aiming for promotions, or buying things are wrong or that we shouldn't desire them. That's ridiculous. But it's also ridiculous to pursue these things with the expectation that we can somehow take them with us.

And the thing is, the more emphasis we place on attaining things just for the sake of having them, or the more we convince ourselves that we need them (for whatever reason), the greater a burden we carry. We become stuck within a self-imposed expectation to perpetually attain the same level, if not more, of what we already have. The stress and pressure can only continue to grow in a system like this; the burden is huge and heavy.

I do this too, even though as a believer in Christ, I know I can't take it with me.

¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and rust destroy,

and where thieves break in and steal.

²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where moth and rust do not destroy,

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." 

Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

When I die, I'm not going to load up a wagon and schlep it all to heaven. And why would I want to? Given the choice between the things of this earth and the treasures in heaven, it's not a difficult decision. Pretty much a no-brainer, isn't it? The things of heaven are beautiful, perfect, and eternal. Earthly things are trash by comparison. All the same, though it's not a difficult decision, we are human after all. Something is often lost between decision and implementation. And there I am, back to collecting earthly treasures as if I can take them all with me.

What foolishness this all is!

At some point, if I believe in Christ and His Word, I have to realize and accept that this world is not my home. Heaven is my home, and I cannot take the things of this world home. Besides, how convicting is it to realize that if I am stuck on the things of this world, so is my heart? (Matt. 6:21) Wow. That, I believe, is the primary point of the whole set of verses, minding the condition of my heart. I want my heart set on heavenly things, not earthly things. Perfect things, not imperfect things. Eternal things, not temporal things. Don't you?

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In the end, Cameron did realize and accept that he couldn't take the lamppost home. And that, of course, turned out to be just fine. He forgot all about it as we journeyed home. It would have been a huge burden anyway.

Name That Photo

Kayden took this photo during a recent extended family photo shoot, and oh my soul, I just can't stop laughing. Are you looking closely? I couldn't have shot it better if I planned it!

  

 

    

What do you think? Can you name this photo?