Mutts

Are you familiar with the comic strip, Mutts? It is a Fortin family favorite. I thought the May 13 strip was really cute, especially given what I find myself wasting time doing lately.

http://muttscomics.com/strip.aspx

If you go to this page today, you will see the strip to which I refer. If you want to see another day, or go to the page and don't see that strip, you can choose what day's strip you want to see. (There is ~ a two week delay)

Have a groovy day!!

Peanut Butter Paradise

This is what over 600 jars of peanut butter look like (plus some flash cards and other random items). Pretty cool, eh?



These are just some of the empty bags folks used to bring said jars to church for our peanut butter drive.

What is cool is that over 720 pounds of peanut butter is headed down to Haiti to feed kids. What is awesome and inspiring is that the Sunday we collected the peanut butter, we had over 2,400 at church. Can you imagine if every person brought a jar??!!! How awesome would that be??

"'...Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it" Malachi 3:10

I am dreaming big of the day we have so much our little storeroom cannot contain it and we have jars of peanut butter rolling down the aisles of the sanctuary!

Head Gear

I was grabbing a binder off the lower shelf of a co-worker's bookshelf the other day and when I straightened up, this is what I saw:



I found it totally hilarious, not to mention unexpected. (Somewhere in our office is a headless Dwight. Haven't come across that yet. It is probably in the kitchen hiding with the coffee creamer)

New toy!!

A few years ago, I received an mp3 player from my dad and Suzanna for Christmas. It is a great player and holds a ton of stuff. Right now it has a whole bucket load of songs, 4 or 5 full length movies, around 20 short home movies, and a bajillion pictures. But it is a little clunky.

About a month ago, I misplaced my earbuds. Can't find 'em anywhere and have had to resort to back-up, back-up earbuds. I have tiny little ears and these are mongo earbuds that don't fit in my ears, so I have to set them on my ears and hold really still and put them back on my ears every minute or so when they fall out until it just isn't worth it any more.

So tonight, fed up, I went to Best Buy to get new earbuds. And left with...a new mp3 player!!!! Yee hah! Have wanted one for awhile and decided to just jump and do it. I am really excited. It is nice and slim and will be much easier to carry around. Check out the size difference:

Now I just have to recreate all those playlists.........

Kaylie Story of the Day

I was laying in bed nursing a headache and Kaylie goes nonchalantly strutting through my room, carrying a book and wearing only her underwear.

"Hi, Mom" she says as she walks by the bed on the way into my bathroom.
"Hi, Naked" I answer
"What?!?", she responds, "we are going to have a shower." (Therefore I am supposed to accept it as perfectly normal that she is trotting through my room mostly naked)

She goes in the bathroom and closes the door.

A number of minutes pass. Suddenly the bathroom door whips open and there is Kaylie, now standing there totally naked. "Mom! This spiders book is really scary!"

She started telling me about a picture of a tarantula or something, but I couldn't hear. I was cracking up too hard. Did I mention it hurts to laugh when you have a migraine?

This may not be as funny to you as it was to me; I can't say you had to be there, because that would be inappropriate, but trust me, it was great.

Heff's new hangout??

We were in the car on the way to my grandmother's on Mother's Day. Here is a snippet of the conversation:

K: Where are we going?
Me: New Castle.
K: (With disdain) New Castle?!?!?! Isn't that place for grownups only?
Me: *trying not to crack up* (she has just made my dad's hometown sound like an adult superstore)
H: No, Kaylie, that's White Castle.


True Story.

Officially an adult

So I really have to grow up now. Our wills have been drafted and I got them in the mail yesterday. As a notary and having worked in financial institutions and with financial folks for years, I have seen many a will and ancillary document, but it was very freaky seeing my own.

I feel so grown up and responsible now. Totally misguided, because unlike the clients I work with daily, beyond my two most prized "possessions" (Hannah and Kaylie), I really have nothing much to leave to anyone. But it still feels so responsible and mature, anyway. Can't really describe it, but it is weird. I am officially an adult now.

Next step: get them executed and then I have a HUGE to-do I can check off my list!!! Hurrah!! It will be such a relief!

Learning to Explain Why

We had an awesome visit at work today from Nancy Fitzgerald with Anchors Away ministry! Nancy spoke like she has been reading my mind for almost twenty years. I came home with her book, "What God?", which I can't wait to read and I am excited to learn more about this ministry and how I can start equipping my kids NOW. More to come as I read and learn more, but for now, you can check out the website (www.anchorsawayonline.org) and here is my synopsis.

I loved my experience at Taylor University (an evangelical Christian College, if you didn't know). While originally annoyed that my mother would not allow me to go to my childhood first choice, Indiana University, I was very glad that Taylor was my college choice and I loved my time there and learned so much.

One eye opener for me, though, was the phenomenon of the Christian kid who never learned to think. Kids who grew up in Christian homes, went to church, in many cases attended Christian school and had never left the bubble of their Christian cocoon. When confronted with something contrary to what they had always been told was their worldview, their response was to do away with whatever it was. If they disagreed with it, it should be banned. There was a fear of trying to actually defend their faith, of discoursing, of existing with someone who was different and walking along side them and learning together (we can actually learn from others, just as they can learn from us). They had never learned to THINK. (similarly Christian kids go off to college every year as believers, and statistics show many of them graduate having lost their faith)

This is something that was very evident to me throughout my college years and now that I am a mother, it is one of my missions to make sure my kids learn to THINK. I have to admit, I am not exactly sure how that is done (Remember, I was attending school with people who had been attending church all their life - and in all those years of Sunday School and Bible teaching, it had not been imparted to some of these folks - and I am just a lay person!), but I am on the case, nonetheless.

This is why I was SO EXCITED to hear Nancy today, because this is her mission, too!!!!!!! Hallelujah!! And unlike me, she has actually done something about it - she developed a whole study! AnchorsAway is a curriculum for seniors to prepare them before they leave for college so they KNOW their world view, are comfortable asking and answering hard questions, and are better equipped for when they leave the safe environment created for them from their youth and really begin to go out and live out THEIR faith. (Extra super-groovy thing: AnchorsAway is working with other ministries to help equip youth pastors to disciple teens who give their lives to Christ at big events and camps across the country)

To be sure, I am not the most eloquent, but hopefully that gives you an idea and if you want to know more, I encourage you to go to the site and find out more. I will check back in when I finish the book. Would love to hear your thoughts, too!

Day of Prayer

Today many in our country observe the National Day of Prayer. This is a day that President Truman first established as a national event and President Reagan later established on the first Thursday in May. I think it is really cool that we have a National Day of Prayer. That we live in a country where we have the freedom to gather and pray - pray for our country, pray for our leaders, pray for our families, pray for our enemies, pray for whatever God has put on our hearts.

If you would like to learn more about the National Day of Prayer, visit their website: http://www.ndptf.org/home/home.html. They have a wide variety of information and resources - including today's Presidential Proclamation. An excerpt:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 7, 2009, as a National Day of Prayer. I call upon Americans to pray in thanksgiving for our freedoms and blessings and to ask for God's continued guidance, grace, and protection for this land that we love.

Agree or disagree with this man, this politician, this leader, but one cannot go wrong thanking God for His many blessings and our freedoms and asking Him to guide and protect our country. So, if you have not taken time to pray today, start there - thank God for what He has done for you; and then pray that He will continue to extend to us His eternal grace, guidance, and protection.
Rock on.

God made you special...

Every few months, the Special Needs ministry at church hosts a movie time where the kids can come and watch a movie, eat popcorn and be themselves - no being quiet or sitting still required. Just like all the functions orchestrated by this ministry, the girls just love it. They bring sleeping bags, pillows and stuffed animals and sack out - for a few minutes, then they move around some - and it is okay.

Today was movie day after church, so we brown bagged it and ate lunch at church and hung out until movie time. (Much less hectic than driving home and turning right around and coming back) The girls do this thing where they narrate what they are doing as part of some pretend game they play ("and then the girls were brushing their teeth" - said while they brush their teeth; "and then the girls were having healthy ice cream" - they really said this while eating ice cream the other day - "and the boys were..." - whatever boys do) And so they were having a conversation in this style about movie time and Special Needs...

Hannah: And then it was movie time for the girls
Kaylie: and they were in the special needs
Hannah: But they were still special
Kaylie: (drops character) I know! That is why it is called Special Needs.

How awesome is that?!?!?!

Thought for the day (courtesy of my dear friend Carole who pulled me aside this morning to remind me of exactly this (courtesy of God who put it on her heart to share it with me)): God made you special and He loves you very much.