Domestic Adventures

The Good News On the Move team is in town for the week and working with our chapel. The team’s “desire is to encourage God’s people by reaching their neighbors and by reaching into some areas where there is no existing New Testament assembly.” They have been doing door-to-door visiting distributing free cds and books on behalf of the chapel, making contacts and inviting the neighbors to the upcoming Family Fun Day at the chapel.
We’re hosting four of them at our home and had the whole group over to meet with our college and career Bible study. It’s been very good to hear their testimonies and learn about the spiritual discussions they’ve initiated with people in the area. And of course, Emmaline and Micah are super excited to have guests here, eager to be with the guys every chance they get.

Emmaline has reached few physical milestones early, so I was quite surprised when she announced she had a loose tooth! It was a little wiggly on Sunday, quite wiggly on Monday, and fell right out Tuesday morning. Of course, she couldn’t wait to go to school and tell everyone about it. In the afternoon I listened in on her telephone conversation with Grammy. “No, Grammy. I didn’t lose my tooth. I know right where it is!”
And the idea of being visited by the tooth fairy just thrills her. We’ve been very straightforward about Santa, but she wasn’t about to let us blow off the tooth fairy. “I’m going to write her a letter!” Emmaline declared, and started dictating. I figured, as long as we’re playing along with the tooth fairy thing, we might as well play well. The tooth fairy, being a fairy, would never leave just a coin with no wrapping or note, especially when a letter has been addressed to her. A proper fairy would answer the letter, with a tiny fairy envelope and lovely fairy stationary. I’m sure Emmaline is enjoying it all just as much as I am - especially since a second tooth followed today and we’re expecting another visit tonight.

Check out Trent’s new car!
Whenever Trent does something, he does it with much research and thought. So is the case with car shopping. Some months ago, when we realized his Dodge Stealth was costing more in repairs that we wanted to deal with, Trent began his search for the ideal car. He decided on a 2006 Mazda RX-8 Shinka. We went to our favorite dealership and spoke with our favorite salesman. “Does it have to be a Shinka?” the salesman asked, doubtful he would find one. It took a couple of months, but one did come along, a lovely one with only 6000 miles on it.
It’s a beautiful car and my favorite part is the “freestyle” doors making the back seat roomy and accessible - a huge plus when carting kids around. It’s very comfortable even though it’s a small car. The Shinka edition of the RX-8 has lots of extra features that make it a nice combination of sport and luxury, and it’s also an unusual car in that it has a rotary engine instead of pistons.
So, needless to say we’re having fun with it. Zoom, zoom.

Even though that giant cardboard box filled with styrofoam peanuts looked like a great idea at the time, you may regret it when you are still finding peanuts in the living room months later. However, when you see all the happy pictures, you’ll remember how much fun it was, and regret it a little less.

Time to sit and look and draw without interruption is such a luxury. I’d forgotten how good it is to just draw in silence, taking time to think about how the lines curve and intersect.
Drawing in silence is one of major concepts in Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes. A parent from school first introduced this book to me about eight years ago, and I’ve used the MonArt method Brookes teaches in one-on-one situations and in classrooms. I’m so excited now to use it in drawing lessons with Emmaline and several friends.
According to Brookes, drawing is about learning how to see things, and she teaches how to identify the five basic elements of shape. After a while it becomes hard to look at something without seeing in terms of curved and angled lines. The budding artists first discover they can draw simple pictures like the birds above, then we move on to more complicated line drawings, and finally to still-lifes. I’m excited to see what the kids are doing already and I hope they are enjoying the lessons as much as I am.
It’s got me itching to draw and be creative myself!

Yesterday I needed to whip dinner together quickly and I didn’t have a plan. What I did have was a rotisserie chicken from Publix, some veggies and risotto. Not all that original, but I was so pleased with the result, and the best part was that Trent really loved it. When Emmaline asked what it was called, Trent told her, “Magic Chicken.” With the rest of the chicken I made a soup for a friend who’s been sick this week. I planned to bring her a big pot of soup, some biscuits, and a salad so she wouldn’t have to cook dinner herself. The soup turned out well and I was very proud of myself for making the whole thing, even the broth, from scratch (well, I let Publix cook the chicken, but other than that it was from scratch). It was late when I finished it and I wanted to let it cool a little before putting it in the fridge. Unfortunately, it was really late, and I was really tired and didn’t remember my soup was still sitting out until I woke up this morning. Arg! My lovely soup had been out all night on the counter and now sits cold and icky.
Sigh… At least part of the chicken was a success.

“Magic Chicken”
Serves 2 - 3

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 carrot sliced
1 stalk celery sliced
1/4 onion diced
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
1 cup uncooked risotto rice
3 cups chicken broth
1 -2 cups shredded cooked chicken

• Saute veggies in oil and butter.
• Add thyme and sage and saute another 30 seconds or so.
• Add rice and stir about 2 minutes.
• Stir in one cup of broth and add chicken. Continue cooking and stirring until liquid is absorbed.
• Stir in remaining broth one cup at a time, cooking and stirring until liquid is absorbed before adding next cup.
• Enjoy!

Before Micah, I didn’t know there was a difference between a front loader and a bulldozer. Seeing things through the eyes of a little boy is so different, especially a little boy obsessed with construction machinery. I can now identify excavators and road graders, and who knew there was such a thing as an articulated dump truck? Micah knows and he has a miniature one that ranks among his favorite toys. “Mommy! Mommy, where’s my ‘ticulated dump twuck?” I always keep an eye out for tractors now, and they’re much more common in our busy city than I ever realized. Our home is filled with books and movies about John Deere and big CAT machines. We read stories about how homes are built and roads are paved. The average conversation with Micah will include crawler tracks and loud motor noises.
It’s funny to see through his eyes all the interesting things that I never thought were interesting before. For instance, the other day Emmaline and I were driving without Micah. We passed through an intersection where new traffic lights were being installed. “Look, Em! Bucket trucks!” I pointed all around us.
“Yeah, four of them. Now we have something in our heads to tell Micah!” Emmaline answered excitedly.
Just another little thing that makes kids great.

I’ve heard that a person’s musical tastes are cemented around age 16, which might explain why I have such a hard time finding new music I like. None of it is as good as what I used to listen to in high school. (I sound so old don’t I?!) Occasionally I find a new album I really like, which is the case with TobyMac’s Portable Sounds - though I can’t really count him as a “new to me” artist since I used to be obsessed with a fan of dctalk. I haven’t paid much attention to him since the demise of my favorite ever group, but I’ve discovered he’s well worth listening to.
His solo albums though are very different from the music of dctalk. It took me a little while to acclimate to the new sound, but now I can’t stop playing his albums. It’s good driving music, good laundry-folding music, and the kids tolerate it for the most part. Micah particularly likes the tracks by Toby’s young son, asking for “TruDog again!” Emmaline also has picked up some phrases from the lyrics and from time to time I find her correcting Micah on how the songs go. Good thing Toby has excellent lyrics. Just as in his dctalk days, the lyrics are about walking worthy, living the Christian life, giving glory to God. I love that Toby’s love for his family shines through the lyrics in several songs. Other songs deal with lost love, God’s sustaining grace in times of tragedy, and encouraging friends, and all are great played at high volume with the windows down.

It’s a little late to be thinking about Christmas 2007 and a little early to be thinking about Christmas 2008, but I’m going to anyway. This year seemed like such a whirlwind. Many traditions got lost in hectic pace and all my grand ideas never even had a chance. I blame the school schedule, but really I think my downfall was not FLYing. For a couple of years I’ve been a FlyLady subscriber and have had two wonderfully smooth Christmases with her “cruisin’ through the holidays” plan. Well, this year, I figured I had it all under control on my own. Turns out I didn’t. Nothing got done until the last minute, and some things didn’t get done at all. Still, we had a wonderful Christmas full of goodness and family and friends, but next year…

I want to:

• Make dozens of baked goodies and share them with our neighbors (this was the first year I’ve missed since we’ve lived here!)
• Make homemade marshmallows.
• Shop early!
• Get someone to install a mantel on our beautiful rock fireplace so I can decorate it!
• Make cute little gift tags like these that Tricia made, or maybe these.
• Host a Christmas party.
• Visit a living nativity with the kids

I also like the idea of having a themed Christmas like ljc does each year. I’m thinking snow globes would make a fun theme for decorating, gift packaging, ect., as Emmaline absolutely loves snow globes and I’ve already found the cutest snow globe wrapping paper in the after Christmas sales at Target.

Merry 2008!