I Need Help!

Ty is very interested in engineering. He wants to design cars. He has maintained that desire for quite a while now. He's been telling me since he was 7 that he wants to be an engineer, he just didn't know what kind. After thinking on it and studying a bit, he stuck on mechanical engineering. Then we watched a great Nova special on PBS titled The Great Robot Race. So now he's interested in robotic cars.

I think that he is absolutely smart enough and creative enough to do it. His biggest problem is his totally clueless mother. I don't even know enough about it to know where to look for books at the library. Any advice on how to cultivate this passion he has? Anything.

He loves Kinex and Lego's. He's done a study on electricity, so he has a smidge of understanding. He knows circuits, conductors, etc. My Dad is an electrician, so there's that in his favor. But I don't even know where to start with the car design and the robotics. So if you have any advice or ideas, please, please, please let me know. Books, videos, people, whatever. I'll take it!

Irony

The other night as I was cooking supper, steaming broccoli to be precise, I opened the upper cabinet beside the stove. This cabinet is where we keep certain medicines, band-aids, and all our appliance and electronics paperwork (i.e. manuals, warranty cards, etc). Anyway, when I opened the cabinet to get Maggie a band-aid, a small booklet fell out and slid right into the flame of the stove burner. Scary! I snatched it before it caught flame.

What was the name of said booklet?

"Gas Appliance Safety Tips."

Weight Loss Update

Some of you have emailed me to ask how my weight loss journey was going. I know that I haven't talked about it much. Sorry.

As of tonight, I have lost a total of 32 pounds. I am now over half way to my goal. My BMI has gone from 34 to 29. Anything over 30 is considered obese! My goal is to get my BMI down to 25 or below.

To track your own BMI go to http://www.weightwatchers.com/health/asm/calc_bmi.aspx

And if your BMI is high, don't be discouraged or disgusted. Just do what God shows you to do, step by step, minute by minute. He is able. He has shown me so much of my sin through this journey. I honestly didn't think that I over-ate that much. But I did. Weight Watchers has been a source of sanctification for me. I have seen the law. I have seen grace. And I have been given hope. But my hope is not in a program or a system but in my Redeemer who uses all things to draw me to Himself.

Anyway... I just wanted to update you. Thank you for your prayers and constant encouragement. Oh, and the compliments. Yeah, I like those too.

Pictures of D.C.

Yeah!!! I just remembered that I had pictures on my cell phone! I'm so happy.

This a picture of Gracie on the subway. This is not a pose. We were riding along and she looked down, saw the paper, picked it up and started reading it. It looked so funny to me that I had to take a picture! When I showed it to Grace, she said "Wow! Look how strong my legs look."

This is a very dim picture of the Archives building. The Declaration of Independance is at the far right of this picture.

This is Union Station. On Wednesday, we took the subway from New Carrollton all the way to here and then walked one block to Jeff Sessions office for our tour of the Capitol. Union Station is so beautiful. And very, very busy! After our tour, we came back to Union Station for lunch. Yum.

This is R2D2, as I'm sure you well know. At the very far left you can see C3PO's hand. We saw them at the Smithsonian. Brody kept saying, "I'm going to go up there and push his buttons and make him talk." To which I replied, "No you're not."

And last but not least, Brody is riding a dragon! And Gracie is riding the horse beside him. The building behind them is the Museum of Arts and Industries. Very fun way to take a break!

Maybe I can post some more pictures another day. The pictures from the wedding are the disc that Margaret has. Hope you like these.

I had made up my mind that I was going to post a picture since I finally figured out how. I was making it waayyyyy too hard. Anyway, I was all excited until I remembered that Margaret (my mom-in-law) still has my disc with all the pictures of the trip on it. Aaahhhhh!!!!

So... here is a picture of a really cool Lotus we saw at Publix. Neat huh?

Very Quickly

I have 5 minutes to post something. It might be a couple of days before I can get back to it again. Or it could be tonight. Who knows?

Our trip... in short... 1800+ miles. 7 states. 7 nights and 8 days. Lots to see. Lots to do.

Virginia. Maryland. DC. Pennsylvania. West Virginia. Tennessee. Georgia.

We spent 3 days in D.C. We saw the White House, Ford's Theater, the Capitol building, the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the monuments and memorials. Oh and the SUBWAY! That was the kids' favorite thing. :o)

Well mu 5 minutes is up... I'll try again when I have a chance.

Funny Lists Found On The Net

These made me laugh. They're pretty absurd, but funny. The 'men' list applies more to my kids than Chris. And obviously the 'women' list doesn't apply to me at all.

Enjoy!



New evening classes for men

Note: due to the complexity and level of difficulty of their contents, each course will accept a maximum of eight participants each.

How to fill ice-cube trays. Step by step with slide presentation.

Lavatory paper rolls: do they grow on the holders? Round-table discussion.

Differences between the laundry basket and the floor. Pictures and explanatory graphics.

The after-dinner dishes and silverware: can they levitate and fly into the kitchen sink?
Examples on video.

Loss of identity: losing the remote to your significant other. Helpline and support groups.

Learning how to find things, starting with looking in the right place instead of turning the house upside down while screaming. Open forum.

Health watch: bringing her flowers is not harmful to your health. Graphics and audiotape.

Real men ask for directions when lost. Real-life testimonials.

Is it genetically impossible to sit quietly as she parallel parks? Driving simulation.

Learning to live: basic differences between mother and wife. Online class and role-playing.

How to be the ideal shopping companion. Relaxation exercises,meditation and breathing techniques.

How to fight cerebral atrophy: remembering birthdays, anniversaries, other important dates and calling when you are going to be late. Cerebral shock therapy sessions and full lobotomies offered.



Classes for women

Training courses are now available for women on the following subjects:

Silence, the Final Frontier: Where No Woman Has Gone Before

The Undiscovered Side of Banking: Making Deposits, Step by step with slide presentation.

Parties: Going Without New Outfits. Helpline and support groups.

Man Management: Minor Household Chores Can Wait Till After The Game. Real life testimonials

Bathroom Etiquette I: Men Need Space in the Bathroom Cabinet Too

Bathroom Etiquette II: His Razor is His

Communication Skills I: Tears - The Last Resort, not the First

Communication Skills II : Thinking Before Speaking. Live demonstrations and open forum.

Communication Skills III: Getting What you Want Without Nagging

Driving a Car Safely: A Skill You CAN Acquire

Telephone Skills: How to Hang Up. Video presentation.

Introduction to Parking

Advanced Parking: Backing Into a Space

Water Retention: Fact or Fat

Cooking: Bringing Back Bacon, Eggs and Butter. Live demonstration.

Cooking II: Bran and Tofu are Not for Human Consumption

Cooking III: How not to Inflict Your Diets on Other People

Compliments: Accepting Them Gracefully. Open forum.

PMS: Your Problem, Not His

Dancing: Why Men Don't Like To

Classic Footwear: Wearing Shoes You Already Have. Relaxation exercises and breathing techniques.

Household Dust: A Harmless Natural Occurrence Only Women Notice

Integrating Your Laundry: Washing It All Together. Round table discussion.

Oil and Gas: Your Car Needs Both

It's late but I can't stay away. I must blog again.

First off, before I forget... Happy Birthday Terri!

Just some things on my mind. Brilliant things. Lovely things. Tired things. (come on G, you can come up with some clever things to say now.)

I've made a new, somewhat unlikely, friend. Unlikely on the surface level of things. Have you ever had someone want to be your friend and you don't know why? Someone shy and pretty and obviously smart. Why me? Some things are just blessings. No other way to explain them really. Which is amazing. You can never tell who will be your friend. Or who will want to be your friend. And those unexpected friendships are the most wonderful because you find yourself feeling blessed just by a thought or smile or inside shared joke. That said... Thank you Jessica for being my friend.

Maybe I should write a post about each of my friends. Not tonight obviously. I'm very, very tired. (I just heard G again - saying something clever)

Hatchets, Lunatics and The Purpose Driven Life

Personally, I think that the title of this post is possibly my best title ever. I will in no way attempt to tie all three things together. In reality, I have three random thoughts that I decided to combine into one post.

Hatchet:
Brody has weird little names for objects. Mostly, he calls things the actions that they do or the sounds that they make. For instance, he calls a hatchet a 'hit tree'. Cats are 'Meow Meows'. A gun is a 'shooting'. A bicycle horn is a 'honking'. Very cute but somewhat strange.

Lunatic:
I was thinking last night on the way home about how different I am now than about 7 years ago. I was trying to listen to a particular violin piece on the radio and Brody would not stop talking. Now when Maggie and Ty were really little, I probably would have yelled at them. But I didn't with Brody. Why? Well you see, I was a bit of a lunatic when I had two little kids. Really I was. I think that it's because it was still so new to me. I was completely unaccustomed to the noise and chaos of having little kids with me all the time. Now I have four of them it bothers me so much less because its what I'm used to. It took me years to adjust. And that's what must be done... I adjust to them, not the other way around. It's a dying to self. Sort of like faith.

The Purpose Driven Life:
Let me preface this with the comment that I've never actually read this book. But I heard a comment that included this saying and it got me thinking. I realized that the things that I've learned that made a lasting impact on me have always been spiritual truths. The formulas and strategies that I've always been so drawn to have never caused a permanent change in my person. The true changes have always been a result of the Spirit revealing a truth to me and them working it into my soul, like a baker kneading bread dough. When I really think on this... I feel... relief.

Now, is it possible to somehow tie these three random posts into one thought? Well, let me think for a minute and see if I can....

....
....

The Purpose Driven Life of a Lunatic usually involves a Hatchet. :o)

OR

The reason that I'm not so much of a Lunatic anymore and can actually enjoy my Hatchet-wielding three year old has nothing to do with reading books like The Purpose Driven Life and everything to do with the work of the Holy Spirit in my inner being.

How's that?