Which makes me more “White-trash”?:
a) Loving to shop at the Wal-mart.
b) Calling it the Wal-mart.
c) Having a skull sprinkler head and pulling it into the alley so the kids can ride their bikes through it (naked).
d) Putting bubble bath in the kiddie pool and calling it a real bath.
e) Having black feet from walking outside with no shoes on all day.
f) Drilling a hole in our picnic table and placing a regular umbrella in it for shade.
g) Playing on a slip and slide in our FRONT yard.
h) Owning 1985 green aluminum folding chairs and using them in public.
i) My husband sitting in the green aluminum folding chairs in the alley with no shirt on.
j) My 4 year old son sneaking a pee in the bushes (of our home).
k) Having a fire place screen that is an adjustable baby gate.
l) Killing 14 flies inside my house in ONE day.
m) All of the above?
This list scares me a little. My life is fun and simple, but I did just check to see if my house was a double-wide and if there was a car parked in our yard.

We’re really livin’ the good life!

I am COMPLETELY out of style. I don’t know if motherhood sucks it right out of you, or if I never was in style before. But I really am out of it now. My confession is this:

Have you ever had a dream that you know is not going to happen, EVER. And you are realistic about it in your real life, but you keep thinking in the parenthesis of your mind, that it might, maybe happen. But really it won’t. I think…that Oprah will come to my house as I’m sitting on the couch while my kids are napping. She will kid nap me and take me to her Make-Over Show. Her team of highly skilled make-up and style goo-roos will transform me into the fashion model I feel I am on the inside.
That’s it. That’s the dream.

and its not even a youth event! My husband has decided recently, in the past month or so, to not only continue to “soft” snore, but to do it a little louder and now has added a clicky sound that he makes with his mouth and his throat. It’s awesome! I think the only thing that will cure it is if I tape his mouth and nose closed when he sleeps. I’m no expert, but I think this might kill him. Being 4:18 in the morning, and I have been up since 2ish, its still not such a bad idea!

I just got home from a refreshing mini-retreat in Palm Springs 120 degree heat! It really was refreshing. Not the heat when you are almost 8 months pregnant, but the time we spent there. It was a Student Ministries Staff and Spouse retreat. We do it every year and I think it is the greatest thing our church can give our youth leaders. It was so fun to feel apart of Jeff’s team and connect with the other wives (and husband ). It was also a time that the Student Ministries team was able to affirm and appreciate the spouses not only by including us, but while they did a little meeting we all went out and got manicures and pedicures and had lunch together as a gift. It was refreshing to just play together and be reminded how much we enjoy each other and to see how much our husbands love their jobs. It seems much easier now to support him (not that I didn’t before, but you know…it gets hard). It was just good to feel connected again.

How do you feel connected with your husbands job/ministry?

The other day signed my four year old son up for preschool so that he can start in the fall. I had no idea what an ordeal this was going to be. My, oh my! The doctor’s forms, the emergency forms, the behavior contract, the daily habits form…it goes on? and on. The preschool is at our church, and I knew we would get some sort of discount with my husband working full time and everything, but I didn’t know all the details. So the day all of our forms were due I made sure my husband came in with me to get all of our discount stuff squared away. So I hand in my paperwork. I ask the lady about the discount with my husband standing right next to me. She looks at my husband and says, “Can you prove that you work full time at this church?” He says “Yes.” She says in an unbelieving tone, “If I call upstairs to HR they can tell me you work here and verify your information as an employee?” “Yes.”, says Jeff. “Well, what is your name?” she asks…blah, blah, blah. We go through proving who we really are so that we can get the magnificent discount (hardly). So at the end of it all she says like a flash of lightning has hit her, “Oh, no wonder! You are just the youth pastor, I was wondering why I couldn’t figure out who you were.”
My husband was so glad he came with me that day, a real boost for his ego.
(I tell ya, the youth pastor perks are unbelievable!)

Yesterday our neighbor friend (age 8 ) came over rather early (8:45am) to see if my son (age 4) could play. Jeff and I were a little leery, and said no because we were eating breakfast anyway. But, a little later we were doing something in the garage and opened the garage door. Our dear ol’neighbor friend was waiting right outside with another buddy, again asking for Dylan to come out and play. My son overhears that he is calling for him and happily bounds outside to play with the older boys. He gathers two rackets and two balls to give to the boys so that they could all play together outside. As he approaches the boys they immediately pull out two water guns and start shooting away at my helpless target. Stunned, Dylan stops and I can tell is confused and fighting back the tears. I step in and call off the water execution of my kid. I make the kids apologize and take my wet, sad son inside. We talked a little about what happened and why that guy would be so mean, but then Dylan saw something shiney and went on with other business.

But about an hour later he came and crawled in my lap with tears in his eyes again and asked why his friend would be so mean to him. I told him that I thought the other guys probably were not trying to be mean, but just thought it was funny, even though it wasn’t very funny. And then my next piece of wisdom came directly from the Holy Spirit, I’m sure…

“Get in the car Dylan. We’re going to Target to get 4 Super Soaker Water Guns. We’ll be ready for them next time.”

It is amazing what relaxation and refreshment can be undone in a single moment.

As I came home from a morning at the beach with my family, arriving fresh from vacation last night, I lay both my sleeping children into bed for a nap while my husband went up to shower. I sat at my kitchen table to write my most inspired blog yet. As I pushed the “publish” button on my computer, I felt a trickle of water run down my back. I had to think, “Am I sweating?” Another trickle. “Did I spill something?” Another, followed quickly by another trickle. I look above me, right where my husband would be showering to see where the trickle is coming from. A huge water leak, and split in the ceiling! I run as fast as I can to stop him from showering and we come down stairs together knowing and fearing the worst. I can see both of our shoulders start to become tense and raise up, the stress of real life is hitting us smack in the face right about now!

Ahhhhh vacation. It was nice when it lasted.

In this season of my life I am not very involved in the HS ministry with Jeff. I try to be seen, but don’t lead anything and usually don’t even make it to a service except at the end with my kids. So the other day I checked my kids into child care and decided to go to the HS service with Jeff instead of “Big Church”. I got inspired and wanted to sit at a table with students to talk and lead some discussion. So I scoped out a table of students that looked like they were not connecting so well. To pump myself up I thought, “I’ve done this before, I’m good with students, I’m pretty cool, here I go…” I approached the table, introduced myself to the 4-5 girls and sat down with them. Within seconds all the girls got up and moved to a different table! So there I was, sitting alone at a big round table feeling so good about ministry. Awesome.

What do you do? Keep trying? I don’t know that I want to, or have the energy.
Sometimes it is hard to just accept that this is not my season, sometimes I’m fine with it.
Does anyone else flip-flop like me?