Just Because It Was Cute...

Allie just ran in here and said to me,

 "Mommy wook!  My wegs are getting weally wong!"

Just too cute.

Seeing the Big Picture

I am slowly making my way through Philip Yancey's book, Where Is God When It Hurts.  This is a real mulling-over book, because much as we would all like it, there are no easy answers about pain and its role in the lives of so many we know.  Pain is not always a consequence for wrongdoing or some great cosmic joke, and many times we don't know the reason for it or the many reasons are complex.  A trite, holy answer will almost never suffice.

Our response to the difficulties in our lives seem to really determine our success in managing them.  In the midst of pain and problems, it's often hard to see His purpose.  I found this quote to be a real encouragement to be patient and wait to see how He will use hardship:

"The symphony he is composing includes minor chords, disonance, and tiresome fugal passages.  But those of us who follow his conducting through early movements will, with renewed strength, someday burst into song."

God does love us immensely, but His purposes are not the same as ours.  Yancey earlier in the book made the point that we often view God as a sort of benevolent grandfather rather than a heavenly father.  Seeing my parents and in-laws as grandparents, and being a parent myself, that was a very vivid illustration for me.  We often feel sorry that God isn't giving us more and more good things and pleasure, but He knows us like no other.  He'd rather give us the best things--whether it be through good times or bad--than let us settle for the comforts of ease all the time.

After A Rough Winter...

Just about everyone I know has had a brutal winter, and it's been the same here in Cincinnati.  This morning's springly snowfall reminded me of Cara's reaction to the heavier snowfall and subzero temperatures we experienced on the first few days of spring.

She woke up as normal, peeked out the curtains of our living room, saw the snow, rolled her eyes, sighed in a magnificently dramatic fashion and said,

"Ugh!  If this is spring, I'm ready for summer!"

What a perfect description of everyone's feelings.  When she's right, she's right.

More Words of Wisdom...

(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/12453_394106454029751_1787159943_n.jpg)

I could have sworn this was a Jane Austen quote...

Yikes! How true is this?

"I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction.  The world will have a generation of idiots."

--Albert Einstein

Do you ever pass a day without seeing someone 'talk' while staring at their phone?  I miss eye contact.  What a lost art that simple form of respect is!

What Odd Things We Moms Say Calmly...

"Okay, stop sawing your sister's head off now."  Ah, the joys of having a five-year-old boy.

Agatha Christie's View on Raising Children...

Yes, I'm still working my way through Agatha Christie's autobiography.  The slowness of my reading has nothing to do with the book and everything to do with my energy level right now.  It is still incredibly interesting.  Here's a snippet I ran across today; Agatha Christie's favorite part of motherhood is the sense of discovery.

"There is nothing more thrilling in this world, I think, than having a child that is yours, and yet is mysteriously a stranger.  You are the gate through which it came into the world, and you will be allowed to have charge of it for a period; after that it will leave you and blossom out into its own free life--and there it is, for you to watch, living its life in freedom.  It is like a strange plant which you have brought home, planted, and can hardly wait to see how it will turn out."

I sometimes feel this way.  Although there is much that a parent does to shape the character and direction of a child, the essential being is God-given.  It seems like every year is a new discovery about what each of your blessings will eventually become.

A Quote by Coco, not about Cocoa Products, for a change...

"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different."

--Coco Chanel

Hmmm...I think I've got that 'different' thing down to a science!  Good to know no one could take my place.

Feeling Weird Today?

Here's what Dr. Seuss has to say about it...

"We are all a little weird, and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."


I have to say I've never thought of love in that way before!

To My Hubby:  I'm so glad we're both weird in the same sort of way!

My New Cooking Philosophy

This may seem totally unrelated to my usual topics on this blog, but it was a great quote that really shows my new cooking philosophy.

"Recipes are just road maps, they're not contracts."


--Chef Michael Voltaggio


That is so true...at least after you figure out what you're doing.  For baking, there really is nothing like following a recipe, but I find that with everything else, I use recipes for inspiration, then throw them to the side.  I guess that's when you start to write a food blog!

Good comeback!

Lady Astor to Winston Churchill: ''Winston, if you were my husband I would flavor your coffee with poison.'' 

Churchill: ''Madam, if I were your husband, I should drink it.''

Unselfishness...

"Mom, when I grow up, I'm going to work really hard so Daddy doesn't have to..."


Scott said this to me today.  It's one of those proud, sweet moments that make me think we're doing something right.  What an unselfish little man!

A quote that made me feel like a dummy...

"Wow!  You're really striking out, Mom!"


<<sigh>>  This one was said to me the other day by my four-year-old, Scott.  We were playing the game Huskerdu...it's a memory/matching game...not pretty.  Did I mention that he beat me in all of the four rounds we played before slamming me with this comment.  'Beat me' is a nice way of putting it, too.  If I remember correctly, the trend was right around ten matches for him, two for me, but maybe my memory is a little foggy.  That's the whole problem...

A Romantic Thought From Dr. Suess

I like Dr. Suess as much as anyone else, but I never would have associated him with romance.  I ran across this quote from him recently, though, that I thought was utterly charming.  Here it is:

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

--Dr. Suess

Awww!  I often feel that way!  Sometimes when I'm talking to my hubby, other times when I'm savoring a truffle.  L'amour...

Wise wise man...

''Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.''

—President Abraham Lincoln


Why is this principle so hard to put into action?

So naiive!

Scott's monster truck sped up and ordered Rapunzel to "get to work and do your chores!".  It was in his growling tough-man voice.  Rapunzel refused, then Cara explained with this classic:

"Scott...once you get married and become a Mommy and Daddy you don't have to do any more chores!"


Rapunzel had had yet another wedding this morning.

If she only knew...if she only knew...

Becoming a Mommy is when the REAL work begins!

Motivation for today...

Here's a quote by a guy who really knew how to sacrifice for his country!

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

Sir Winston Churchill

That's a great reminder for us parents!  So much of love is giving to others!

Protecting the Girls

I thought this was a cute an interesting quote that happened this morning from my little guy.  He and Cara were quietly coloring when I came out, so I decided to grab a quick bath before the action started.  I told them where I'd be and Scott said,

"Don't worry, Mom.  I'll watch out the window and if any bad guys come, I'll lock up the door and won't let them in to get you."


Interesting.  To be honest, I was a little taken aback by this one.  We don't talk much about bad guys or watch anything with bad guys in it.  For him to be thinking that way first thing in the morning was a little shocking to my delicate morning sensibilities, but then children often do shock me in the morning.  It did delight me, however, that he wants to use his toughness in a good way.  It's making me wonder if he thinks every time Daddy leaves to go to work, he has to protect those three helpless girls.  It's a lot of responsibility for a four-year -old!

An interesting political philosophy

''Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.''

—Groucho Marx

General Stonewall Jackson on Politeness...

"Good breeding or true politeness is the art of showing men by external signs the internal regard we have for them.  It arises from good sense improved by good company."

Am I mistaken or is true politeness a lost art?