Chuck and Poo

Let's just say Sunday and Monday of this week held very interesting events for me. It all began on the way to church at about 9:25am. We've been attending Forest Hill for the last few months to allow some time to 'take a break' from leadership, since Chris came off staff at St. Giles at the end of 2008. As we approached the church grounds we heard Kayna burp - but to a mother's ear, it was not a normal burp. She did it again and Chris turned around to discover that she had up-chucked all over herself and the carseat. I had never dealt with her throw up before, and let me say, its quite different from baby spit up. Needless to say, we were not prepared to tackle the situation so I suggested pulling onto the nearest street, that happed to be Steve and Jane's street (our pastor and his wife at St. Giles). We pulled up to their house and I knocked on the door. Jane answered the door looking very surprised to find me on her doorstep at 9:25 on a Sunday morning. I explained to her the situation and that we didn't even have 1 napkin, wipe, nothing. Jane was so gracious and let me use warm towels, her youngest son's clothes, wipes and whatever else we needed in that moment. Jane went on to explain that she thought I showed up to pray for her since they were making the announcement that morning that Steve was resigning from the church, to be a chaplain with NASCAR. I had no idea. I offered to pray though :) We had a sweet moment and I was so thankful that we got to hear the news directly from them, despite the up-chuck from Kayna.
Jane went onto church with her children and graciously let us stay to finish cleaning up. As I sat down on the Keller's couch to warm Kayna up I looked at the red leather foot-stool and noticed that there was poo in the exact spot that I had my foot resting a moment earlier. Gross. Somehow I stepped in poo on the way from the car to their front door and proceeded to track it into their house!! "Crap", I thought, then chuckled at the pun. "Chris!? I need the can of lysol that you found - there's poop in here!" After cleaning up the poo we decided to head back home. We took a 2 mile walk down Fullwood Lane. On the walk we heard what sounded like a huge tree fall just ahead in the woods. Sure enough, a large old Pine tree had split at the base and fallen to the ground. Very strange. On the way back, we saw flashing lights from a police car and ambulance. While we were walking, a car had driven off the road towards the wooded sidewalk we were on, and stopped just short of the line of trees. Who knows what happend? The driver went completely across both lanes and was facing the opposite way of the oncoming traffic. Strange again. We made it home safely and had a calm afternoon. Whew!
Monday started and Kayna and I headed to the boys' house. I watch 3 boys (1yr - 4yrs) each Monday for a friend. When Kayna had to use the restroom, I helped her get onto the toilet. Noticing that the previous potty-goer didn't flush, I proceeded to flush, as Kayna was getting situated on the seat. The water did not go down. Kayna had to poo and there was no stopping her. "Crap" - I thought, haha, again. When she finished, I hurried off to find a plunger. Upon returning, with plunger in hand, I found their large black lab lapping water out of the toilet!!! OH NO! With his snout covered in nastiness, I got him into the office and closed the door. I found the disinfectant and sprayed it on every drip from the toilet to the office. Somehow the toilet began working and I was able to flush away the remaining nastiness.
Moments later, the youngest boy woke up from his morning nap. Upon entering his room I could instantly tell that he would need a diaper change right away. Boy was I right. There was poo from his chest to his upper back. "Crap" - it wasn't really funny anymore. Poor little guy!! I debated on whether or not to give him a bath. I settled on using about 65 wipes after role-playing in my mind what might happen if one of the children downstairs let the lab out of the office. After we got everything sorted out and sanitized we all enjoyed playing in the backyard, out in the open, fresh air. Of course, Kayna was sure to find some dog poo in the grass... "CRAP!"

Renovation

In November we decided to take the plunge and rip up our terrible old country-blue carpet and put down hardwoods. We moved in with our gracious friends Taylor and Lacy for what was supposed to be 1 week. I went around Matthews and Charlotte looking for the perfect/best color and wood for our home and by the time I laid out all the samples, we could have just put them together to form our new flooring! We settled on raw hardwood (White Oak Common #2, 4" planks to be exact) and we had it stained a walnut color. Our goals were simple: no red undertones and wider than standard boards. After the floors were installed we decided to paint, to make the house feel more complete and 'us'. That turned into fixing a hole in the ceiling (from the house settling over time), to removing the popcorn from the ceilings, to replacing can lights above the fireplace, to tiling the guest bathroom!!

I've been hesitant to post pictures since we don't have the finishing touches complete yet (new hardware, a rug, i'm dreaming of a pair of vintage upholstered 'club chairs' to go on either side of the fireplace, and we don't have window treatments/accents yet)....but - its so much better than what it was before, I will go ahead and show you the Houston's mini-extreme makeover.

A special thanks to Taylor and Lacy for letting us live with them for 4 weeks (even encompassing Thanksgiving!)!!!

BEFORE (From warm):

AFTER (to cool):

How to ward off the winter blues...

I've recently noticed that my love for warm weather is a stronger desire than I realized. For the past two weeks, I don't think a day has gone by without me uttering 1 or more of the following words: Beach, sand, palm trees, shorts, bathing suit, summertime, warm weather, water sports, sunshine...and the list goes on. I am trying to be thankful for this season, as we have had 2 wonderful snows that we fully enjoyed, but I'm finding it difficult when the temperature does not get above the 30's during the day with a windchill of 15. Definitely not bathing suit weather!!

Here's a remedy I came up with last week when I had a no-napper on my hands. Its amazing what a little swim at 3 in the afternoon can do to lift your spirits.

Mama and Kayna trying to stay warm to enjoy the first snow!

Loaded

As i'm preparing my lunch today (leftover potatoes and red lentil curry soup), I am reminded of 3rd grade and my favorite weekly cafeteria lunch experience. I went to a small private school in Florida and Friday's were designated as 'Loaded Baked Potato Day'. I LOVED purchasing my lunch on Friday's, a special treat in my eyes as I mainly brought my lunch to school everyday. I would behold the largest baked potato i'd ever seen, slice it open and slather on butter, sour cream, cheese and...the best part...bacon! I enjoyed every minute of lunch break on those days. I can taste the loaded potato now! Today though, i'll settle for a small amount of butter and some salt and pepper....seeing as I no longer have the metabolism of a 7 year old.

Just for good measure, here's a picture of what I looked like during this time period. Mullet and all.

Gasses

So, I had my 7 year old niece over today for a play date with Kayna. I pulled out all the tricks to be a 'cool aunt'. We made cookies, smoothies, a fort, and I even let her try on my old cheerleading uniform. Oh yeah! - Major points there.

Towards the end of our time together she asked why I had a few banana peels stacked on top of a bucket in the kitchen. Before I could even answer her question she said, "do you have a compost?" I told her that I did but that i'm not very diligent at taking the bucket out to the corner of the yard where the actual compost 'house' is. Especially in the snow/ice/rain/and the backed up water from the beaver dam (scroll to older posts for pictures!). Anyways, I was very impressed that she knew about composting - most importantly ;) how the worms eat, digest and poop out good earth. Kayna then asked if there were worms in my bucket that I leave under the sink. A perfectly good question, now thinking back on the fact that she's 2.5 and simply observing our conversation.

All this to say, if you currently do not have a compost, I would highly suggest starting one. Its very simple and a MAJOR benefit is that we're separating natural waste from man-made waste so not as many bad gasses get released into the atmosphere.

Here are some things that you can start composting (from epa.gov):

GOOD

Animal manure
Cardboard rolls
Clean paper
Coffee grounds and filters
Cotton rags
Dryer and vacuum cleaner lint
Eggshells
Fireplace ashes
Fruits and vegetables
Grass clippings
Hair and fur
Hay and straw
Houseplants
Leaves
Nut shells
Sawdust
Shredded newspaper
Tea bags
Wood chips
Wool rags
Yard trimmings

Leave Out/Reason Why

BAD

Black walnut tree leaves or twigs - Releases substances that might be harmful to plants
Coal or charcoal ash - Might contain substances harmful to plants
Dairy products (e.g., butter, egg yolks, milk, sour cream, yogurt) - Create odor problems and attract pests such as rodents and flies
Diseased or insect-ridden plants - Diseases or insects might survive and be transferred back to other plants
Fats, grease, lard, or oils - Create odor problems and attract pests such as rodents and flies
Meat or fish bones and scraps -Create odor problems and attract pests such as rodents and flies
Pet wastes (e.g., dog or cat feces, soiled cat litter) - Might contain parasites, bacteria, germs, pathogens, and viruses harmful to humans
Yard trimmings treated with chemical pesticides - Might kill beneficial composting organisms

Happy composting!

Baby Steps: Light Green

I just received an email (fwd) from my dad talking about being more mindful of what we purchase in relation to where things are made. The email outlined several common items that we purchase: GE light bulbs, Crest toothpaste, Bounce dryer sheets and Hershey's chocolate. This person just happened to read the labels on these items and saw that they were each made in Mexico, with the exception of the dryer sheets, which were made in Canada. The shopper decided to purchase the less-costly off-brand items that were comparable and those were actually made in the USA. I realize that sometimes there is just no comparison (IE: Hershey's vs. store brand) but for those items that we really don't realize the difference (IE: fragrance free dryer sheets, crushed tomatoes, light bulbs) I'd say its worth putting aside brand-power and picking up the items made here, in the USA. Why not? They're generally less expensive anyways.
Also, another forward came from my sister about getting $100 worth of groceries for $0.25. Here's the link with a clip from the Today Show if you're interested in finding out how:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/34724242#34724242

If you're wondering how the subject ties in, I guess its because I feel like these are very small steps to becoming more conscientious of how we live and effect the world around us. Some people call such a movement "going green". I do not consider myself 'green' but I do care about the resources God gave us and I'm learning to be a better steward....hence, baby steps, and light green.

Happy New Year!

Well, I haven't been great about updating this blog but I'm resolving to not feel guilty. Speaking of resolving...here are a few things I've been thinking about applying to 2010 (in case you were wondering :) ).

1 - To be intentional about family-fun-time/devotionals.
-While we were away on our small group retreat, we left Kayna with a wonderful family (the family who's 3 boys I watch every Monday). Upon returning, Roz (the mom) informed me that Kayna LOVED 'family time'. This is a time where the Brown's gather their kids, sing praise songs (with each child playing an instrument), read a bible story, then each person prays for something/someone. Thursday is usually 'family night' at the Brown's but Kayna had a special request to do it again on Saturday night...so they did. This was an inspiration to me so we implemented our first Houston 'family night' on Wednesday night. Kayna's special request was that both mama and daddy played their guitars! Its been a while, and now that I have tender fingers from strumming 'Hosanna' all night, this blog is truly a sacrifice as I type in pain.

2 - To waste less (mostly food).
- I recently heard a sermon that pointed out several things that the Bible mentions as it points in the direction of the end times. One of the facts (and I'm bound to butcher the exact scripture/reference) states that we will give in to waste and plenty and be frivolous with what we're given. The pastor referenced America's restaurants and their portion sizes and how much good food is wasted and thrown out due to over-indulgence and frivolousness. I was convicted for the lack of accountability I have in my own home and the items I buy, make and throw away the excess. This year, I will resolve to waste less food and be wiser in what I buy and make. Also, I resolve to turn the lights off when they're not needed, and use less water when brushing my teeth or washing the dishes (not compromising the clean factor, of course! :) ).

These are the 2 resolutions I thought I could stick to in 2010. I hope this year is filled with joy, peace and giving hearts as we bring focus back to what's important: Jesus, family and relationships.

What are your resolutions for 2010?