Rice Crispy Treats

WELCOME

Welcome to our blog. Life is busy, but it is fun to share the stories of our craziness and it is kind of like therapy to have a place write it all down. Enjoy.

Please don't use our first names when posting comments

The princess is SG (for sunshine girl)
Mr independant is CB (b/c that is what we call him)
Tubby T is Tman (or Tbone)
The little bit of fish bait is Squiggles (or most affectionately the Wild Child)

If, as you read, you wonder whether I'm laughing or complaining--just assume I'm laughing...and chuckle along.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Homework

He's Lucky He's So Cute...

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

I'm fixated on this idea of the Prince of Peace

this Christmas Season 2009.

When we sang this song a couple weeks ago,

the words seemed to reverberate through my soul.

Perhaps, like me,

you've heard this song since your were a child--

Stop a moment and read the words...

And celebrate this child

Who came

and

Thank God

Will Come Again!!!

It came upon the midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth,

To touch their harps of gold:

"Peace on earth, goodwill to men

From heavens all gracious King!"

The world in solemn stillness lay

To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,

With peaceful wings unfurled;

And still their heavenly music floats

O'er all the weary world;

Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on hovering wing,

And ever o'er its Babel sounds

The blessed angels sing.

O ye beneath life's crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow;

Look now, for glad and golden hours

Come swiftly on the wing;

Oh rest beside the weary road

And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,

By prophets seen of old,

When with the ever-circling years

Shall come the time foretold,

When the new heaven and earth shall own

The Prince of Peace, their King,

And the whole world send back the song

Which now the angels sing.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Yesterday...Today

Yesterday's Top Ten Moments:

With 4 minutes to take-off (2 hours early so we could make the trek through the remnants of the previous evening's snowstorm to grandma's then the Dr's office...two places on opposite ends of "our little world") I walked into the kitchen to find that the Wild Child must not have gotten enough juice from the cup I'd just handed him and he was in the middle of carrying the (no longer) full 2 quarts of juice from the fridge ("To where?" You ask.--Mostly the floor--I guess).
The Tbone's Dr. (with that serious Dr. face) told me that we need to be doing his physical therapy DAILY!!! (Where we will fit that in the routine I do not know...we are still working on getting teeth brushed on a regular basis.)
While wearing ONLY my underclothes in the Kohl's dressing room I saw the Tbone flash me a grin and slide under the door.
Arriving home 8 hours after the juice incident, I discovered the Sunshine Girl had failed to heed my instructions to CLOSE the back door tightly after everyone was out, meaning she hadn't bothered to close it at all. (Our furnace running at full tilt may be the reason the weather warmed up so nicely by mid afternoon.)
I stepped into the living room to find that the Wild Child had somehow stolen what is a normally carefully guarded PERMANENT ink marker and was recreating a map of a squiggly road city on the carpet. (Thank goodness for ChemDry.)
After changing the Tbone's disgusting diaper I settled myself on the floor because I'd remembered the Dr's suggestion that we do therapy after each diaper change -- only to feel a dampness on the back of my leg. Yep, I sat on that nasty diaper, which was of the squishy variety...if you catch my drift.
It was a brief moment later that CB (when I wasn't looking) handcuffed himself to the post of the bunk bed and tried to swing himself off the bed. As you can imagine the swinging motion was brought to an abrupt halt by a jerk on his arm...and then his reverse swinging motion (I'm sure there is a physics term for it) was slowed down quite quickly when his face smashed against the bed post. Thankfully he didn't get any teeth knocked out...and he didn't break his wrist. The handcuffs however were not so fortunate, which to a tired 4 year old felt like a disaster of monumental proportions.
When the dad~ster got home around 8:30, the leetle boyz were NOT TIRED and had missed seeing him all day. So we permitted (as if we were really in control at the moment) them to get up (translated: right before they revolted and hurtled themselves down the steps to see him, we said "hey guys come on down".) They were up till 10.
Just as I was getting relaxed enough to drift off to sleep the dad~ster started trying to calculate the current temperature, the wind chill probability, and the degrees at which the fluids in his truck engine would remain liquid and turn to ice. He (obsessed) muttered about this until I heard him declare something about "just going to take care of it, 'cause he wouldn't be able to sleep". So after lying there for a few minutes thinking I hoped he didn't freeze...I hauled myself out to into the freaking cold night to hold the flashlight for him (thinking if the roles were reversed it would be lonely to be stuck out there all by myself).
Somewhere as I was drifting off to sleep I realized that really...this was not a particularly noteworthy day...it was just our Normal. The details today are different...but by the end of the day if someone says, "how was your day?"...I'll probably have a similar string of stories to share. And this craziness (in conjunction with the craziness that pervades in our world, our nation, our church, and my mind) makes me most grateful for the hope we can have in Christ who came that first Christmas...Christ...The Prince of Peace. I'm learning to let His Peace reign in my heart.

Go Ahead...Ask Me About Today...Here's a Hint at one of the Main Topics:

CB is celebrating because The Wild Child had just been noisy and successful...boyzies are so funny about potty stuff.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Peace?

Ruth 2:20

"...Blessed be the Lord God who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead..."

So I've been studying the book of Ruth and finding a lot to be comforted and convicted by as I think about the ideas of REST and KINDNESS as they've been presented. Funny thing about learning new things in Bible Study is you usually get a chance to choose whether or not you are going to practice them or keep on going the same way as you did in the past. I wish I was better at choosing the right way on the first try. But in this game of life, I'm getting plenty of chances to learn...twin two-ness and blab-biddity-blab-biddity four-ness and sensitive six-ness all squish together to present me with plenty of chances to ponder selfishness or stupidity...so if I didn't get it right the first time ... I can try again. (Hoping these little clay pots I get to work with have shorter, rather than longer, memories when it comes to their mother's weaknesses.)

Look Grandma -- No Cribs...

It is slow going, but we are learning to stay in bed...so far we are going to sleep in under 3 hours...it is so much fun to jump on each other, and play peek-a-boo behind the bookcase...and then we get tired and have to cry and cry and cry because we "deed yuw mama" to come and hug us...this is transition that is not for the faint of heart.

Look Grandma -- no gates. Our momma finally figured out that the only person being slowed down by the baby gates was -- her. The Wild Child devised a scheme where he saunters up to any baby gate that is in his way...grabs it with both hands...gives two or three solid tugs...steps aside as it clatters to the ground and walks over it to his intended target -- all in 2.3 seconds. Momma got tired of tripping over the gates this week...we knew she would given enough time. We have since discovered that there is a spectacular circle from the living room through the dining room...then a quick turn through the kitchen and back hall...and ta-da...back to the living room. It is SPECTACULAR!!! And we can go fast!!!

So we go into the Christmas Season with no restraints to hold back the wild and untamed forces of twin two-ness...

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), 1867)

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

How I can Laugh

Sometimes I’m surprised when someone tells me they’ve been reading our blog. I tease the dad~ster that there must not be much on TV these days.

For awhile now I’ve been wishing there was some way I could share the reason I can laugh on even the craziest days. I suppose it is in part because I’m a little weird, but most of all it is because of GRACE. God’s grace has transformed me from what I could be (a perfectionist who is not perfect and is driven mad by her own imperfections, an idealist who lacks patience with the “short people” in my life who always seem to have a different agenda than me, an insecure chubby lady who often forgets that I am loved) into one who realizes that I have a big God who patiently loves me. It is God’s grace that is transforming me from what I could be (a suicidal alcoholic) to what He’d have me to be…and in the process He gives me the ability to look at life and LAUGH.

So when I read the following from Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel I decided to take some time and share it with you…because if all I ever did was make ya laugh without telling you about the One whose care makes the laughing possible…well…all the laughs would be wasted.

From page 167-171 in Grace Base Parenting
“The Bible says, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (I Peter 5:7). It’s amazing how inclusive the word all is. It doesn’t say that we are to cast only our legitimate cares on Him. Frankly, I wouldn’t begrudge God if He had said that. Although He’s a busy God with a lot on His plate, He’s also on omnipotent God, so He’s never too busy….He knows we often lack perspective, but that doesn’t stop Him from inviting us closer to His heart.

A good example of God’s grace is not only the gigantic act of grace that Jesus showed by dying on the cross for our sins, but also the little acts of grace he demonstrated in the midst of His crucifixion. I think most people—including the most ardent critic of Christianity—would agree that if there was any time in Jesus’ earthly life when He actually had the right to be a bit self-absorbed, it would be when He was hanging on the cross. Man hasn’t come up with a more horrific way to torture someone than nailing him to a cross and standing back while he endures a slow, agonizing, and lonely death. In the midst of that agony, the utter focus of pain in human’s mind would make it hard to think of anything else.

But He did. There were some people at Calvary who needed a personal touch of His grace. For most of them, they needed it because of the His crucifixion was costing them personally.
There were soldiers at Calvary who were simply following orders. They didn’t realize that they were driving nails into the hands of the One who had created them. They had no idea that the man they were executing was actually taking a divine dive for them. Because they were so used to crucifying the underbelly of the criminal community, it was standard for them to show such low regard for their victims.

A fickle crowd hovered around the foot of the cross. Some came out simply to see someone being put to death. It was the Roman equivalent of a “reality” show that few wanted to miss. There were also the duped sheep—those who didn’t know much, read much, or think much. They were part of the mob who would chant whatever you told them to.

Then there were the men who wanted Him there, who needed Him there, and who helped put Him there. These were the professional-theologians-turned-powerbrokers who had seen Jesus as bad for business around the temple. They couldn’t see the crossbars that hovered above each of their heads. They couldn’t see the thin strings that came from those crossbars that moved their arms, made them jump, and manipulated their mouths. They couldn’t see the evil hand of Satan, using them like marionettes to do his bidding.

But Jesus could. He could see the religious leaders being used, he could see the crowd being manipulated, and He could see the soldiers doing what they were ordered to do. The fact the He even bothered to notice these things tells us so much about his grace. He did notice them, and in the process He did something to give all these people a gift they desperately needed. Jesus said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). …Jesus gave grace to the vulnerable surrounding Him, even when He had bigger issues on His mind.

And what about the thieves who were crucified on either side of Him? You would think, what with the sins of the entire world on His shoulders, that He’d ignore these men. When you add to the equation that both men joined the crowd in hurling insults at Him, you would think He would have been justified to view these two condemned men as mere footnotes of history—little more than simple props hanging on either side of Him to strike a greater contrast to the magnificence of His sacrifice. But that’s not how Jesus’ heart works.

Apparently, one of the thieves figured this out. His theology was crude, and his understanding was limited, but he figured out enough in his debilitated state. He figured out that Jesus was King, just like the sign above His head read. He figured out that His kingdom wasn’t of this world. And he believed that Jesus had the power to transport him to that kingdom after they both died. It was a primitive grasp of the salvation message. He called on Jesus by name, saying, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).

This thief couldn’t have known that when they were being laid down side by side to be crucified Jesus already knew his name. Jesus could have told him how many hairs were on his head—not that he would have cared much at the moment. But Jesus already knew him that well. He could have told this thief things that no one else knew about him; things that would have demonstrated just how precious he already was to God. In the midst of His pain, His personal focus, His preoccupation with taking on the sins of the world, Jesus responded to this man’s faith: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43)

Soldiers, leaders, followers and criminals got Jesus individual attention when He had bigger tasks on His “to do” list. That’s because God’s grace notices vulnerable people. It’s in constant tune with their hearts….

…None of these people could see what Jesus could see. None of them had any grasp on the bigger picture. Their needs were the result of their myopic condition, or their naiveté, or their lack of sophistication. Jesus could have dismissed their needs because of how small t hey appeared next to the bigger task before Him. But his grace kicked in, and it will kick in for us whenever we’re feeling vulnerable. It also kicks in when we don’t even realize just how vulnerable we actually are…."