Stayin' Alive

For those of you questioning my choice of header photo.... I am "Stayin' Alive". Sometimes at this time of year, when winter fun is long over and spring fun wanes here and there some days, but not others, a little music and dancing is all one needs to get the family laughing.

Project Day

Thanks to Randi for the pattern, I have finished a gift for a friend's sister, the one who adopted the little guy a few weeks ago. His dark hair will look great with the bright green, don't you think? I managed to figure out the toes only having to pull it out 3 times. I'll bring it to knitting club Thursday, they'll be so impressed :)



We have a scrapbook that I do 1 page in every year, so it's compact information!! I want to have 50 years of pages in there when I'm done. Well today I finished the last 3 years!! What have I been doing the last 3 years that it never got done? It's one page!! See why I don't scrapbook?! You can't remember as many good details when I don't do it right away, but now I am back on track. I skipped my prayer group this morning because I felt the need to do nothing. The past 3 years have been a little busy, ever since I went back to school! So glad I have turned over a new leaf to not working much and staying home more! Not that I was working tonnes, but just getting re-established you know.

And just when I was going to tell you how good Ditto has been lately, I walk into the family room and he's staring at me through the FRONT window. Hmmm.. new escape route? So I know what I'm doing now. He's figured out how to open the side gate, rotten, too smart for his own good, dog!

Pizza Pops

Monday probably isn't the best day to blog, since it is after all Monday. I was woken up this morning by the phone at 5:14, which is the common time they phone when they want me to come into work on short call. I said no, but then couldn't get back to sleep until the last I checked it was 6:18. Bummer. At least it didn't wake the boys which occasionally happens. I knew they were short staffed today but forgot to turn off the ringer.

So in my attempts to have a better idea what goes at middle school and be a better, more involved parent, I spent 2 1/2 hours in the "Snack Shack" at lunch microwaving pizza pops, making slushies, selling chocolate bars, and just generally watching the goings on in the cafeteria. I was pleasantly surprised by how many thank yous I received and how many kids I knew that said hi to me, and how many of my soccer girls asked me if I was coaching again this year (the answer is NO by the way). We will both be pouring heart and soul into the boys' team rather than attempting to do both like last year. Actually I will just assist Kevin since I know very little about the sport, except cheering and crowd control.

I don't know if I want to spend time and energy on something I probably mostly disagree with (feeding large quantities of sugar and crap to our kids and encouraging them to spend needless money), but it is about the only place a mom can get involved at the school and be around a bit to see what goes on to be better able to relate to this generation. So my dilemna to pizza pop or not......

I feel at a point in my spiritual life where things are sort of staying the same, which isn't necessarily a good place, but also just wanting to be in relationship with regular people in the regular world more than I am, so maybe pizza popping is a good place to be even though it is very boring. I can't always be stimulated and exposed to new and interesting things now can I? Hey wait, isn't that what middle school kids want? Maybe I should hang out with them.

Oh it drags on...

I know I cannot complain to you who live in Alberta, but waking up to snow today just about made me crawl back into bed. The thought of the newly painted downstairs bathroom, needing some finishing touches gave me a little momentum to get up. Also knowing that I only had to pack 1 lunch today because I get to have my girl home for the afternoon made the day seem much more bearable. We are declining the public school board's attempt at educating my children about sexuality and "family life". Don't even get me started on what they feel is necessary for a 12 year old to know!! And so I pray Lord give me patience. I did see some tulips and crocuses poking out yesterday, and I am eager for more of that!! I guess change is very slow, especially for us humans (I think even more so when it comes to weight loss)

Sweeping off the Driveway

Playing a little hockey and basketball today on the newly swept area! Both boys are getting over some 101 degree fevers the last few days. I felt so bad I was scheduled to work the one day and NOT be home to look after them- looking after some strangers instead. Kevin said they'd be fine. They were, I wasn't. So it's a good day to see them out running around :) The girls remain virus-free for the moment!

Happy March! No leap year celebrations around here. I'm already married so I can't Sadie Hawkins anyone.

Does Jesus Do Math?

I have been thinking for some time about this question. Not in the manner, that I can picture HIM sitting down with a pen and paper and doing some math worksheets like the kids do, but does HE do math in HIS day? Not that I work a lot of math into my day on purpose, but there is a lot of it there just because it has to be. It has to be there to make things function, mostly my bank account, but also measuring something I sew, counting something I cook, calculating something at work. But for the sheer joy of math..... does Jesus take sheer joy in it? I don't know that I find sheer joy in math, but there is something amazing about its order. I like orderliness. I loved math in school. I loved the fact that it's right or it's wrong. There are not many gray areas. You either get it or you don't. Sometimes there are a few ways at solving the same problem, but the answer is always the same. I wish life were sometimes more like that, although maybe I'd be getting too many things wrong, rather than just them allowed to be gray, like in writing where it is an expression of a thought or idea. I have a fairly analytical/mathematical type brain for a female, but I more often think in words or pictures or ideas than numbers. It is easy to read and relate to emotion or formulate ideas in words, books or Scripture because I enjoy reading and finding the way around the words. I see math everywhere in creation. The way the planets were created to spin and gravitate and orbit, I'm quite sure has some amazingly long mathematical equation. And what of biology? The human body never ceases to amaze me, the intricate design and chemistry involved boggles my mind on a daily basis (well maybe once or twice a week). Just looking out into my garden, which may being to show signs of life any day now, must involve some kind of amazing creative analytical math. But all of it sort of just wraps itself in the amazement and beauty of science. HIS math would be like a sweep of a mighty hand and the numbers and equations would drape past the universe and fall into the patterns and worlds they create and hold in order. Order is a good thing (Yes Martha it is).

So this is where the question stems from: my husband, who does not like to read; he does enjoy words, but few and succinct ones. He always beats me at Scrabble, but it's more of a mathematical thing to him rearranging the tiles, rather than building words, he can see the combinations in a numerical sense. He posed a different question to me, not about Jesus doing math, but how does a person grow in faith when most of our cultural religion has been built around words and reading? Reading books about spiritual growth, reading the Bible, listening to sermons that are spoken, poetry which demands a certain type of individual to fully enjoy. Do you think that one can grow in their faith without these things? Can you do math with Jesus instead? Can the very act of doing math be a stepping stone of faith instead of the use of word and or written language. My first inkling of response has got to be yes because that is how HE hard-wired some, so why would HE make it more difficult for mathematicians to be spiritual beings or in tune with the Creator? Don't they in their amazing minds see things that we other ordinary folks maybe never do? They understand the complexity in a more real way and can be in awe at a deeper level. I have always believed that one of the greatest forms of worship is camping--- well being out in nature. Closer to what HE breathed life into. But can you grow just out of sheer worship? And amazement of the amazing mathematical miracles that are displayed in each small, extraordinary creation around us? Or do we NEED words to express ourselves and move beyond where we are now?

I suppose I could ask, can you get to know God more without a Bible? What about the illiterate? What about those in other countries who have no written Word? Are they doomed to failure? So those are my thoughts on doing math with Jesus. Because I like math, I think it could be a pleasant afternoon activity to do that with HIM. I can think of better things I would rather, like a walk through HIS garden. I think any afternoon with just a glimpse of Jesus would make me care not one tittle what we did. The Presence whether numerical or literary would overwhelm me.

What are your thoughts? At least I have accomplished one thing by sitting quietly in the semi-darkness typing and that is getting a sick boy to nap long before bedtime :)

Some of Kevin's Latest that I Like

To see the world through his eyes...