Time to open your eyes...

There is a thin veil that separates heaven and hell.

Our spirit leaves God the Father passes through hell and becomes a person

born with an original sin.

Christ took it upon himself to leave the Father, live as us to pass through hell and come back alive and unblemished, to become our mediator.

We are made in the likeness of Christ - body, mind and spirit.

We are chosen to die with Christ, put to death the original sin, 
and live to become half-brothers/sisters with him, 
to share in his inheritance when our time is finished here on earth.

Those that see this must act like co-heirs; 

we cannot just look the part, 

we must act the part,

with the grace and mercy of Christ Jesus.  

Each of us that holds Christ's light (His Love) in us 
will illuminate the world.  
The veil that separates will be no longer seen 
but seen through 
and the whole world will know 
the Lord's power, wisdom, might and glory.

Light bulb!... among other things

This is how I came upon an AWESOME inspiration....

- What we see in the mirror is just the "tent" we wear...

- A hug/hold from my Dad was a force field from ANYTHING that may be happening at that point in time.

- My children are being taught to be teachers, soldiers, and followers of Christ, and my littlest bear is going to
   be my protector and guardian.

- A friend dropping off a simple gift, unprompted, at the absolute perfect time.





All this prompted a really good joyful cry in my car, imaging myself being 
DOWN-SHOWERED with all of God's rich graces, mercy and gifts.  


So that as it slowed, I find myself kneeling
under a TONNAGE of ....joy.

You better not mess with me, my Father rules the world.

Apart from finding myself somewhat insane, I really don't matter in raising my children.  I really don't.  They have been created by Someone so much more adept and creative at making people do what He wants them to do.  He does it to make us better than we ever hoped.  It may not be our idea of a perfect life.  I tell that to my children.  I WANT them to be happy.  If I see in the future what they would like, I show then what to do now.  They know what they want.  They just want it NOW!  God is the same way.  He knows what would make us happy.  Trust in HIM and listen.

I have come to know these things...

My children are in my care only for a while.  They are here to make myself feel better about how I was raised.  I remember thinking and I think saying, "If I was my mom, I'd do this better."  Well, here's my chance.

They should be raised to do something life changing.  Whether it is be to rule their own life ( in some cases, this is an absolute feat)  or to rule the world.  Raise them to be generous, kind, understanding, worldly and ever mindful they will be judged and tested at the end.  Raise them as you would royalty.

Gianna Jessen

Psalm 127
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children [1] of one's youth.
5 Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.  

Luke 12:22-27

Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. Luke 12:22-27

a city built on a hill...

is built with the knowledge of the attention and many obstacles.

Camping in 2010

First cast of the year

back in the kayak again

Old enough to learn

What are we catching again?

Getting the big one..

Catch and release

Tent sweet tent

spearing pole

Standing guard

Terrace view

pretty posies

8 foot sunflower growing out of my compost

white gladiola

Dahlia

Morning Glory

I planted this flower as a blub and I have no clue what it is.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It only blooms for a day.

Red Gladiola

Nastursium

Pink Lily

Score ten for the American team

So my littlest one is in training phase...he knows exactly where that porcelain throne is and does a neat trick... 

His hips are exactly the height of the toilet, he throws his leg up over the back edge of the toilet seat like he's about to ride a gluttonous grandfather buffalo and sits there like he's sitting on a balance beam. 

I almost think one of these times he's going to throw his hands up and arch his back and declare himself gold metal winner of the toilet straddling event.   

His reward?  Being able to wear his brother's superhero underoos over his training pants.  Small victories... but for who?

May we remember...

I have 80 acres of woods through inheritance.  I have 5 acres of river property.  I have a house with a corner lot which contains gardens, a play structure, sidewalks, and the chance to fly any type of flag I want. 


I have chosen to fly the American flag.  I don't agree with most of the issues of our president.  However, I am grateful we can vote again for another president to clean up his messes like every other president before him. 

We have a military who is dispersed to protect our rights as Americans and for that I am able to forget 363 days of the year what it is like not to be an American. 

I thank my cousins


I thank my nephews


I thank my friends


I thank my uncles


I thank countless others who have served, lived, lost, sacrificed both their lives and time from their family to protect me.

GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!

an ongoing birthday present

SUCKER!!

5 times.  And it's my bunny Thing 3 who has had a culmination combination of all of the the bad -isms Thing 1 and Thing 2 never had.  I'll just stick with one of them:

Thing 1 never had a problem with staying in her bed.

Thing 2 stayed in his bed after he woke up; his naps usually lasted 3-4 hours!

Thing 3 doesn't have time to sleep.  It's an inconvenience and completely unnecessary.  Then he has a very inconvenient blow out that would shatter Mike Tyson's worst day into the next decade. 

Then my little bear decides he needs loving.  Bats his ribbon long eyelashes, puts his perfect little head on my lap and says, "mama, uppy?"

We crumple on the floor together while he kisses my nose, cheek and eyelids and I giggle.  

"Thank you Lord for giving me the cutest kids in the world.  I'll talk to you in 10 minutes when this starts all over again."

Riddle me this?

Mountain Man and I are looking for a more kid friendly vehicle.  The one we have was bought for delivering exercise equipment only.  I'm using it because the day after we got it... the gas prices went through the roof. 

The two good things about it is you feel like you can run over B52 bomber and it's red.  

That's it.

Bad Gas guzzler, and you can watch how fast it guzzles too!  In pretty green florescent digital numbers!

A Kid Torture Chamber with Thing 3 being the torturer.  He's still pretty flexible so he does the splits and gets both Thing 1 and Thing 2 with a "WhupaH!!"  I get to hear the "MOOOOOOoooooOOOOMM!!"  He loves his shit-kickers, so on colder days I put Thing 1 in the front seat with the seat waaaaaay back.  She loves it.  Thing 2 still is in the back seat, but now he's the police.  "Mom!  He's throwing something out the window!"   "Mom, he's taking his shoes off!"  "Mom, he's throwing his shoes out the window!"  "Mom, he's doing SOMETHING!"   

*SIGH*

Bad thing is I can't get the new beautiful kid friendly vehicle until next tax season because... IT'S SO NICE NOT HAVING CAR PAYMENTS!!!

Life is such a riddle  or  lesson in patience.   I may just become the runner up for the Mother Theresa award.

yes... but....

So... one of my best friends live in Kazakhstan, my other best friend recently went to Aruba, my mother-in-law spent a month in Florida, my sister-in-law saw New Mexico, Mountain Man's best friend is in Florida and I'M THE ONE STUCK WITH TRAVELER'S SICKNESS!! 

WHAT . THE  .  HELL!

The good news is I am fitting into a cute little red t-shirt that I didn't think I was going to ever fit into.  

Would I rather be 15 lbs overweight and in a small villa south of France?  or would I rather be here sucking down yogurt and gallon jugs of water, 15 lbs skinnier?   

Ever had one of those days where you just want to stick your tongue out at the world, wrap up in a soft white, knitted blanket and stare out into space for the whole day?

Yeah, me too.

But I only get an hour into it after the kids have gone down for their naps

and then the phone rings, 

or the dog starts barking 

or I have to go to the bathroom.

Oh well, at least that hour told me there was more than just that cloud in the sky. 

Hello life.  Whatcha got for me today.

como park

Out of all the beautiful flowers, palms, ferns and tropical plants and fish... this magnificent creature was the best.  

A woman walked past me looking at him and said to her partner, "Let's go, this is depressing."  

Yes, but you are still walking past looking at him.  What were you expecting?  Como park takes only donations.  Enough said.

learn about the Minneapolis Como Zoo

Well now, upon a time...

Little Orley stories

After scouring the internet for down-loadable children audio books, 

I came upon this little doozy.  

My mom used to tell us these stories verbatim, 

voice inflection, accents and everything.  

Now I can pass down these priceless works of art to Thing 1 

to make her forget the awful dreams... 

which have helped by the way.  

My brave little one. 

See what????

Thing 3 was looking at something across the water.  He loves anything with a motor.  First he was looking for the plane.  

 Then he was looking for a boat... We didn't know it would be a car.

ah..... pleasures!

It's like I've been camping for the last 4 years...

We just installed a new water heater and brought the water pipes up to code.  (I don't think a rubber hose connected to the old water heater was good.)

Yesterday we were all able to take showers, run the dishwasher and I didn't have to choose which one of three light and white loads I was going run with warm water.  I could do all three!!  ... and then finish the dirty pans with hot... really hot water!!!  The plummer guys even fixed the toilet, my kitchen faucet and shined up my copper wind chime!!  And I couldn't even give them any baked goods!

Little by little, this house is starting to shine.

Rock a by baby....

Thing 1 came to bed last night and bumped Mountain Man out onto the couch.  Good thing he did because she had a HORRIFIC nightmare that she could not get out of her head.  

So I got the MP3 player with a bunch of downloaded Hans Christian Anderson stories and she listened to not one, but THREE of them.  

She's been doing so GOOD with not having nightmares or dealing with them.  I want to WRING the neck of the thing that is doing this to her.  VAMPIRES for pete's sake!  Where the heck did she find out about VAMPIRES!!!   She says school. 

That's ok.  I learned a lot of things that wasn't in the standardized curriculum.  She will also learn she has the ability to find the truth.  It may not be from me, or her dad or the teachers at her school or college.  

But like me, she WILL find the truth and she will swim in it and grow and develop and when she's 35, she will have a child like herself that she will comfort and download Hans Christian Andersen or Runyard Kipling or A.A Milne stories which her child will listen to and be comforted by.

too big for your britches...

Thing 2 was trying to stretch his wings at age 5 and testing the waters....

"Mom, when I'm 19, and I'm taller than you, I'm going to be the boss of you."

( this is coming from a 5 yr old BOY... who just told me 2 days ago, TWICE, that I'm beautiful.)  Just giving you the context of where this is coming from.

"Baby, even if you were 7 feet tall. I'd still be the boss of YOU."

Thing 2: "But, I'd be taller than you and bigger!"

"Baby, even if you were Dad's size, 7 and a half feet tall, AND the president of the United States, I'd still be the boss of you."    (At that moment, I needed to go to the kitchen to grab more milk)  

I heard as I was walking away...*sigh* "Boy, I didn't see that one coming."



I'll remember that when I think I can plan and handle my day without any help.