Posts from — April 2008

Mom:”Shea, why did you write on the wall?”

Shea: “‘Cause that’s why I write on wall.”

Mom: “Why did you hit your brother?”

Shea:  “mmmmm…….’cause that’s why I hit my brother.”

Mom:  “Why are you throwing your blocks across the room?”

Shea:  “‘Cause that’s why I throw my blocks across room.”

Reverse scenario:

Shea: “Mom, what you doin’?”

Mom: “I’m cooking dinner.”

Shea:  “Why you cooking dinner, Mommy?”

Mom:  “So we don’t starve.”

Shea:  “Why?”

Mom:  “Because if we don’t eat we will starve.”

Shea:  “Why?”

Mom:  “Because our bodies have to have food to live.”

Shea:  “Why, Mom?”

Mom:  “Because that’s why we have to eat.”

Shea:  “Oh.”  Walks away satisfied with the answer.  Works both ways apparently.

The boys and I have been enjoying the weather these past few weeks. It’s been a great incentive for Gage to finish school by 12. We’ve been to the Botanical Gardens, Tower Grove Park, and Forest Park. Gage has art at Tower Grove, so we’ve been making an afternoon of it the past couple of weeks. And, we’ve discovered the perfect place for him to skateboard. The wading pool/fountain isn’t turned on yet at Tower Grove. Makes an awesome place for him to practice his newest obsession! Here are some of my favorite pictures. I have enjoyed Spring this year more than ever and it may have something to do with my new contact lens prescription. I didn’t realize how many details I was missing!

He had help from his brother for the face shield, but the toilet paper, all his idea.

No, not our house. We don’t own one. Our friends, Radez and Elizabeth are selling their house in Greenville, NC. So, if you’re looking for a home in Greenville, you should check this one out! Go here and see for yourself!

Our church gave my friend, Emily, a baby shower this weekend.  It has been so fun to watch her go through this pregnancy, especially after all of the waiting and praying we all did before she became pregnant!  My boys can’t wait to meet the little guy and have he and his mom join us on our little outings in St. Louis.  It’s going to be so awesome to see Matt and Emily as parents!

Emily is super excited about this wipe warmer!  And, Becky and April are cracking me up here!

I realize that my blog posts have been pretty sporadic lately.  I think that life has been so hectic that I haven’t really known what to write.  So, I just don’t.  I read other blogs rather than write on my own.  I did realize the other day when I journaled that it had been a year since I last journaled.  I think this blog has had something to do with that.  As I finished pouring my heart out on paper, I began to see just how important journaling is for me.  I think this blog has been a poor substitute for journaling.  Let’s face it, I’m not going to just write and write, with no concern over how my words sound when I post a blog.  In fact, my concern over how things sound is a big part of why I don’t blog more often.  I also have some weird, unrealistic thought that my blog is supposed to share with the world exactly who I am and what is going on in my crazy life.  I need to realize that it is absolutely not possible to completely and accurately represent myself in a blog.  I’ve definitely come to the conclusion that real journaling needs to be a part of my life in a big way.  It just helps me when emotions are circling around in me and I don’t know what to do with them.  I spit them out on the paper, and somehow, it all makes sense after that.  I see things more clearly and know more about myself in the end.   I highly advocate journaling,  and hopefully, I’ll start using this tool more often.  Is anyone else out there a journaler?

The boys and I went on a bike ride/nature walk today, exploring a new area.  Gage had been, but I had not, and so we made our way over to a neat little area with grassy fields, a pond, creek, and horses in the distance.  What else could you ask for, right?  It was gorgeous, but I had a hard time completely enjoying our time because a good portion of our outing was spent trying to rein Gage back in.  He had all kinds of ideas of what we should do.  Most of his ideas included maneuvering through heavy brush and steep, jagged hills overlooking the creek.  This would have been fine with me, had we not been toting along Shea (he’s 2).  When Gage gets an idea in his head, it is extremely hard to turn his mind.  He becomes frantic, running around in circles, eyes spinning, trying to find a way to make his idea come to fruition.  In many situations, he figures out a way, but in this one, I was not going to back down.  As a result, what could have been an extremely enjoyable outing  exploring on a Spring day, turned into a half-way pleasant outing in which I came home with a tense neck and the beginning of  a headache.  Later, as I left him here to finish his schoolwork while I ran to Wal-Mart (Jared was here in his office and Shea was napping) I told him to finish his work and completely clean off the table.  This is what I found when I came home:

And the table was cleaned off completely.

For those of you familiar with the area, this is a picture of the shed beside the retreat center on campus.  Gage drew this for his nature notebook after our little outing today.

This kid’s intensity can be wearing, but his sweetness and uniqueness make it all worth it.

I’m watching American Idol and my heart skipped a beat as I heard Ryan Seacrest announce that the contestants would be singing “Shout to the Lord”.  First of all, I was shocked that this was the choice of song.  Amazing!  I mean, here are these people on stage singing the words, “My Jesus, my Savior, Lord there is none like you.  All of my days, I want to praise, the wonders of your mighty love…………”  This song means so much to me, and always brings back a flood of memories, along with tears.  When I went to Pakistan in 1999, we ministered to numerous people through miming (signing……whatever you want to call it) this song.  At one point, we “performed” this song in front of a group of Hindus in a Hindu temple.  I guess if God can pull the strings to allow something like that, He can most definitely move the producers of “Idol” to choose this song, lifting His name in the presence of millions.

Gage came inside today to inform me there was a dead guy in our hallway.  And, he is wearing Gage’s shoe!   (Yes, I have a very creative son.)