Jeep or trampoline?

I need opinions. E&Z will be 3 next month, and we're debating what to get them. I want them to have an outside toy that they will spend a lot of time on. (We're talking 1 big-ticket item to share.) They've ridden/driven the little motorized jeep at our neighbor's house quite a bit and they love that. Zachary is a big-time car man. And we could cut "trails" in the tall grass in our back back yard. They also love to jump on trampolines. That's the first thing they go for at Janota's and Aunt Cindy's. They would get a lot more exercise jumping than driving. If we do that I would get a net with it. Please vote!

One more confession

This bag of chocolate chips survived unopened in my kitchen for 3 weeks.

Confessions of a Flybaby

I'm a packrat. I grew up saving EVERYTHING. I married a packrat. I save things because I get emotionally attached to stuff; he saves things because we might need them someday. When we lived in Tulsa, Gene's grandmother died and we bought her house. We inherited most of her furniture (including beautiful dining set), a lot of cookware, and a ton of stuff. We already had a houseful of stuff we had accumulated on our own. The house in Tulsa, even after a couple of garage sales, was packed to the gills. It was about 2200 square feet. When we moved to Ada, we bought a much smaller house--1600 square feet. No dining room. That beautiful dining set? It's in a closet. So this house was crammed, and that was before two babies and their quota of stuff.
There's also the added factor that I like things clean but didn't ever get around to cleaning until someone was coming over or the dirt was at crisis level. When I did clean I resented Gene for not helping. My resentment was unfounded because he was doing ALL of the cooking, but that's a whole other story. Our house was usually a complete wreck.
So the kicker was last summer (4th of July, maybe? I don't remember) we were at my in-laws celebrating a holiday and Zachary locked himself in the jeep. Both sets of keys were in the jeep where Gene and I had stupidly left them. We got him to push on the lock/unlock button, but he never would push it the right direction. (He's learned a lot since then--now he can put the key in the ignition and start her up.) We finally decided that we were going to have to go to my house and find the extra key. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law, both really with-it women whose homes are always spotless, went with me. Well we had been in a hurry that morning and the house was even worse than usual. I cringe still when I think of it. I was so embarassed. My sister-in-law was sympathetic; my mother-in-law couldn't stand to be in the house. She waited outside while I looked for the key, which I couldn't find because it could have been just about anywhere in that mess.
Zachary did finally make it out of the jeep, and was apparently not too traumatized since he still hops in the driver's seat any chance he gets. But I had had it with myself. My full-time job was to take care of my family and my home and I couldn't even keep my house presentable? I had always had good grades/successful career to draw my confidence from. Now this was my career and I sucked at it!
Well God must have heard my gritchin' and he spoke to me--through Dear Abby. Seriously, I can't believe I'm confessing this to the world! There was a Dear Abby article about this website that helps SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) get it together. So I checked out the website (It's flylady.net) I signed up. This was in July or August, and I'm still with it. I wrote down morning and evening routines and I do them every day and check them off. I spend 15 minutes every day decluttering my stuff. I set up a basic weekly schedule for cleaning (weekly home blessing hour--just the name changes my attitude), grocery shopping, etc. These are things that somehow my friends seem to know but I had to have somebody hold my hand and walk me through it. I plan meals ahead of time and cook just about every night. This is big, since Gene has always cooked. He would work 12 hours a day and still have to cook dinner. Now anyone can show up at my house anytime and I can welcome them with open arms. There's still a white trash look going on in the backyard, but I'm tackling that 15 minutes at a time. I had Thanksgiving at my house and when my cousin Beth (who has seen me at my worst) walked in she said, "your home is so peaceful." So my goofy Flybaby self is going to keep at it and ya'll come over anytime.

I'll Fly Away

My grandmother (Nonnie, my mom's mom) passed away 3 years ago. I've really been missing her lately. I'm finding that I'm a lot like her and I never realized that when she was living. Maybe it's motherhood that has changed me and I'm just now identifying with her. Anyway, in December 2001 I was just a couple of months pregnant and she was in the nursing home and not doing well. I woke up in the middle of the night with the hymn "I'll Fly Away" ringing in my head. Over and over. Beautiful. Early the next morning my mom called to tell me Nonnie had died, in the middle of the night, right about the time I was hearing that music.

Yesterday I was at a worship service and the closing hymn was "I'll Fly Away". Thank you God.

what I love about blogging

I can vent (love my family, but EZ too little and G too stressed to hear my gritchin')

I can tell cute stories about my kids--if you care, you read it. If you don't, you go on. I don't end up boring everybody.

I can change the color for my mood (thanks Kiah) red for ANGRY, blue for sad, yellow for mellow, purple for motivated and obsessive.

I can keep up with what's going on with my friends (no wonder I've felt so out of the loop-I wasn't reading your blogs!)

It's like a great party where you can roam around and get involved in conversations that interest you, without worrying about missing another great conversation on the other side of the room--you can catch that one later!

I can confess my sins (nothing worse to confess than what I've already said in SUNDAY SCHOOL-whoops!) and my hopes and dreams. I'm a lay-it-all out there person.

I can participate in a little adult banter anytime Barney has me down.

cranky

I'm feeling very cranky and selfish today. I got online earlier while EZ were absorbed in a video. I was trying to read some of my girlfriends' blogs (especially Jeri--I wanted to live vicariously through her and pretend I'm skiing too.) Of course it was just minutes before the kids abadoned Woody and smothered me. It's just one of those days when I need some space and I don't want anybody to touch me for a while.

I just finished The Time Traveler's Wife and the ending is contributing to my melancholy mood. Sorry Kelly. I really did like it and I won't dissect it until book club.

So now the kids are down for a nap (after a struggle) and I'm going to get some Rocky Road and get lost in blogland. I'll try to keep my comments positive but if they come out sounding icky now you gals know why.

the Word

back to the Intelligent design thing (yes I'm still thinking about this), one of the big arguments Strobel gives for God creating us is DNA. DNA is a 4 letter code, double-helix, incredible amount of information inside every single cell, blah blah blah. He's talking about how virtually impossible it is for random chance to account for all that information. Think of the example of having a chimp draw out scrabble letters and the unlikelihood of him writing Hamlet by chance. The information requirements for DNA are on a much larger scale than even Shakespeare. Thus, some kind of intelligent mind had to have produced it (GOD.) So this morning I'm reading John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Well DUH! Jump down to verse 4 and 5 and tell me what that means.

Yesterday I had to keep Zachary home from school because he'd been running a fever. But it was class picture day, and I couldn't not have him in the picture, now could I? No definite time for the pictures, just as they got the kids in there. So Zachary and I hung out at the church waiting. This kid was in heaven (ha!) He got to explore all the nooks and crannies he's been wanting to explore. He found the stairs to the balcony in the sanctuary and I followed him up and down again and again. Finally his class is in the fellowship hall for pictures. Every other child is sitting on the floor minding Janota and Denise--except my son. He was Buzz Lightyear yesterday, and kept trying to liberate the toys from behind the curtain. Running in circles and yelling. Trying to get his picture taken more than his fair share of times. I asked Janota if this performance was for my benefit. She told me he was likely to be that way if I wasn't there. Is my child hyperactive? He can sit still--if he wants to. He can focus on something if he wants to. Most of the time he just doesn't want to. He'll just go ahead and do what he wants and deal with the consequences later--if you can catch him...