Who Has a Mini Trampoline?
Do you have a mini trampoline I can borrow for a week?
Sure, they remind me of 1987, leg warmers, and bigger hair, but I’ve kind of been wanting one lately. I have it in my head that if I had a mini trampoline, I might actually bounce on it and therefore get a little exercise on a regular basis. These baby belly rolls are beginning to get a little too comfortable.
The truth is, I probably wouldn’t use a mini tramp if I had one. It would effectively hold down the carpet in one corner of our living room, taunting and mocking me as I sit on the couch eating ice cream and watching The Biggest Loser.
I always have some big plan on what will help me to exercise, but my serious lack of discipline always seems to overcomes the “big plan.” So, in an effort to not spend money on something I won’t use, I’m going with the borrow method to prove or disprove my sincerity. I figure that if I have this item in my house, and I don’t touch it more than twice the first week, then I’ll never use it if it stays in my house permanently and I can move onto my next “big plan.”
So, with that being said….does anyone have a mini trampoline I can borrow for a week? I promise to give it back, potentially unused.
What’s Your Favorite Ice Cream?
In all the groups I’ve participated in, I think I’ve heard “What is your favorite ice cream?” used as one of the ice breaker questions 80% of the time. That’s because everybody likes to talk about two things: themselves and ice cream. Well, perhaps the latter is merely a parameter for the former. Who really likes to sit around and talk about ice cream?
Speaking of me…I love ice cream. I like most everything from Green Tea Ice Cream to plain old Vanilla. My favorites right now are 1. Breyers Triple Chocolate: three luscious stripes of milk, dark, and white chocolate. Rich and full and simple. 2. Sweet Necessities of Enumclaw’s Toasted Coconut: deliciously creamy with authentic warm coconut flavor. They make this ice cream locally, I understand, and it is like frozen heaven.
Paul loves Rocky Road…with a revolving second favorite. Second favorites include Mint Chocolate Chip, Cookies & Cream, Strawberry…and sometimes Vanilla with chocolate sauce. Oooo…or Vanilla with berries. Or Vanilla with Rocky Road. Delicious.
Gracie is more of a purist. She insists on the freshest, unprocessed and unadulterated lait maternel. None of this cheap frozen sugar dressed up like dairy for her! …in time, I’m sure, she’ll have a change of heart.
But enough about us…let’s talk about you! What’s your favorite ice cream?
The Check-Up.
Gracie had her 6-month check up today and all looks good! My little horse weighs 16 lbs. 11 oz. and is about 26 inches long.
Healthy lungs too, as evidenced by the ginormous melt-down she had at the end of our appointment. The clinic was running a tad behind schedule, and so we were still in the doctor’s office well past what is usually the beginning of naptime.
I’ll say this much: Gracie is a trooper. I sometimes push her pretty hard and she really does hold it together as long as she can. I don’t blame her one bit for getting fussy on a day like today. By the time we got home, she was half way to zonkerland. She put up a little fight as I lay her in the crib, just for show and then…out.
Sweet dreams, little horse. Sweet dreams.
Happy Six Months to Me!
Happy six months to me! Happy six months to me!
Grace is shocking us every day with new tricks. She’s working on sitting up on her own and today went 20 quick seconds (Mom counts a little on the fast side) sitting up on the floor without any support.
We are in love.
Prayer & Privilege.
Paul & I recently decided to support a child through Compassion. Her name is Asha and she lives with her family in Tanzania.
Compassion provides a card for the sponsor to use to share some information about themselves with “their child.” So today I finally got around to taping our little family picture into the card, filling out our names and birthdates, and then began writing a brief message for Asha.
“Hello Asha! We are so happy to be your sponsor. We can’t wait to hear from you and learn more about you! We are praying for you and your family…”
And usually at this point I would say, “May the Lord….” and then write some specific things that I’m praying for the person. I started to write “May the Lord bless you and your family,” but then I started wondering what I meant by that.
Here in the United States, we live in what looks like perpetual “blessing.” We have houses and cars and health and beauty and tons of food…and the means to get what we want if we happen to be lacking on one of these areas. If we are homeless and food-less, we live in a country with so many rich people (and I’m referring to the middle and lower classes here) that we have a fairly good chance of finding someone who will share a little with us.
When I pray for blessing, I’m often asking God to make a way for me to have the bigger house. Or to enable me to put more money into savings this year. Sometimes I’m asking for something that looks less selfish: I ask for God to give me another child. I ask for God to give my brother-in-law a better job with a kinder boss.
And it is good for me to ask my Heavenly Daddy for these things. If I have a need or a want, 1. He already knows and 2. He wants to hear from me about these things. About everything!
So, I’m not saying “poo poo on me…I’m bad and privileged!” But I am noting the difference in what blessing looks like between two girls a planet apart. And I’m recognizing the enormous pile of blessings I swim in everyday without considering them or being thankful for them.
Asha will be considered blessed if she learns to read and if her mother doesn’t die of AIDS this year.
Thank you Lord for our health. For our healthy growing daughter. For our home and food. For our clean water. For protection from preventable diseases. For a (relatively) safe community and the ability to protect our family. For clean clothes. Electricity and bathes. Toothbrushes and dentists. Our hospital. For accessibility. For our education.
And most of all, thank you for your gift of salvation. All we have and all our privilege, all our health and family, our very lives are nothing without You. Thank you for your grace and mercy; for Jesus and his atoning death on the horrible beautiful cross. You have saved us from our sins.
And this privilege is available to all.
I Must Have My Puffs.
Awhile back we did a post discussing brand name items that are better than their generic counterparts. Well, I have another one to add to our list: Puffs tissues. With lotion.
Do you remember the commercials Puffs used to do with the little tot who thought there was “potion” in the tissues? Well, I think there is potion in the tissues…because they are the only tissues my nose wants when I’m suffering the “yellow cold” (as my friend Kirsten calls it).
So soft and gentle, especially after I’ve rubbed my nose raw with napkins and toilet paper and whatever semi-soft pieces of paper I could find until my dear sweet husband returned from the store with the Puffs.
The Yellow Cold is going around. I’ve had it, Paul’s got it…you may be next. You’d better run to the store now, though, because I’ll share with you my cold, but not my Puffs.
Beware Jezebel.
One of the things Paul and I were really looking forward to during our D.C. trip was attending a Sunday morning service at Capital Hill Baptist Church where Dr. Mark Dever preaches. While visiting about the upcoming sermon over some delicious Thai food Thursday evening, Paul mentioned how he would love to see Pastor Dever’s office/library. He apparently has quite the collection.
“Oh, I wish you’d mentioned it a couple weeks ago!” I exclaimed. “I could have tried to arrange a viewing and then surprised you with it.”
Oh well. I’d have to remember for next time I suppose. We finished our eggplant and headed to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
The next day I nervously dialed the church office’s number. Now, just a note about me: I don’t have big hollywood celebrity crushes. I really think I could carry a casual conversation with Brad Pitt and not feel anxious. But put me within 50 feet of a Reformed preaching pastor and I’m a nervous wreck. I just try not to talk…after all, I never know when something horrendously Simpson-like is going to fly out of my starstruck mouth.
So, as I was saying, I’m nervous as I dial up Capital Hill Baptist Church. I’ve got all these thoughts racing through my head as I listen to the phone ringing…”I don’t have a chance…this is so last minute…Mark Dever is way too busy for this sort of thing…I am the coolest wife EVER…” And then, “Hello. Capital Hill Baptist Church.”
Just a few minutes later I had successfully scheduled my husband to meet Pastor Dever and view his fabled library/office later in the day!
I could barely wait to surprise Paul with the news. When he called to check in at lunchtime I revealed my secret; and, to my bliss, he sounded so pleased and excited!
As I hung up the phone, I was high as a kite. I did GOOD. Feeling perhaps a bit too cocky about my status as “coolest wife EVER,” I thought to myself “If there’s something my husband wants, I’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen.”
“You know, Ahab’s wife felt the same way,” the Holy Spirit whispered.
And my eyes went wide as I realized the path my heart had taken. It’s one thing to desire to please your husband, but it is another to set him and pleasing him as your ultimate goal. It is idolatry. Christ and pleasing Christ is my ultimate goal. And pleasing my husband will please God, when it is submitted under my affection for and comes through my affection for Christ. I always love Paul better when I love Christ most.
We enjoyed visiting Dr. Dever’s library together. And I enjoyed my husband’s excitement and happiness about my surprise for him. And I can be confident that I will continue to enjoy Paul if I continue to enjoy the Lord first and foremost.
Beware idolatry. Beware Jezebel.
Majack, Party of Three.
We had a great time in Washington, D.C. Paul had to work Thursday and Friday, but we got the evenings together and then all day Saturday and Sunday morning to play as a family. Paul has been to D.C. before, but for Grace and me it was a first. It was amazing and fun and miracle of miracles: the weather was great.
The Majacks visit the Capital Building. Gracie takes a nap. She napped through several monuments, actually, but I don’t think she missed too much.
Grace got new wheels just for the trip. It’s a tad bit short for her somewhat tall parents, but it was very easy to travel with, lightweight and compact. Just right for what we needed.
Time to take a break and play with Dad. It’s hard work exploring this big new city! Gracie was such a trooper. Being away from home and a bit out of routine, she was as flexible and cooperative as you could possibly expect from a 6 month old.
Alright, we’ve had a rest and a delicious meal…We feel happy all over and we’re ready to go again! There’s too much to see to stay here all day!
Our hotel was only two blocks from the White House which made everything so accessible. Even so, after a long day running around the city, Gracie needed a bath and some detox time with Mommy and Daddy before going to bed.
What I Got in D.C.
Though I would have preferred to bring home the three-for-$10 t-shirt featuring our President Obama in superman pose pulling his shirt open to reveal the presidential seal emblazoned on his chest, I came home with a sweet combination of infections instead. I won’t go into the gruesome details, but my head feels like it’s filled with wet cotton.
I will say this, though: the Neti Pot is indeed a magical little invention. I first heard about the Neti from Erin who claimed it was great. I was skeptical. Though I have a healthy sized nose, I have sort of smaller nostrils and have always preferred my nose to be a one way passage. The idea of liquid traveling up one nostril and exiting the other is sort of horrifying. But my husband uses one and insists that Erin is right.
So, last night after our arrival home, Paul gave me my first ever interactive tutorial on the Neti Pot. Paul says to me something like, “Close off the passage to your mouth so that the liquid stays in your nasal cavity.” I ask, “Can you give me an example of a time when I might do that naturally?” I was suddenly hit with the fact that we can do lots of various maneuvers with the muscles and openings and tissues inside our nose/throat/mouth, but when asked to do one action specifically it’s hard to intentionally make your body do what it does out of impulse during the normal course of our everyday lives. But I digress…
I’m still trying to get the hang of it, but I now agree with Erin and I’ll soon be able to bathe my nasal cavity with the best of them. It’s a nifty little Neti Pot. And though I really would have rather had the t-shirt, I can battle my capital cold with a little more nasal comfort, thanks to Erin, Paul & Neti.
