Durango Palmers: January 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

Tickets Please

Kale's been having fun {at least most of the time} using his new found knowledge of words and writing. It's not often he does school related anything on his own but he was having a blast writing up tickets for everyone in the family the other day. He'd write them on his pad and then tape it to the person with masking tape.

Here's Jack's blurry mugshot.

And this is what his ticket says:

You won't have to do this thing

{Kale had heard me, while changing Jack's poopy diaper that morning, say, 'If you'd just go on a potty you wouldn't have to have your diaper changed ya know...}

I'm guessing the whole sentence was just too much for Kale to fit on his small ticket. Jack wore the ticket around the house most of the evening and got upset when Mark tried to remove it.

Kale wrote one especially for Mark.

It says: Please $5 You drive too fast 5 days [to pay your fine]

Kale was very, very disappointed to learn that Mark was not going to actually pay him 5 real dollars. Oh yeah like it's that easy to get money out of us!

Sadly I don't have a picture of Kate's. She wore hers proudly as well. Her's said: Don't be a blee {bully}. Not sure she understood that he was bossing her at the time...

I don't know how I escaped this exercise. No tickets were issued to me.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Bonhoeffer, soup kitchen and museum

Golly. It's already Saturday and I had really meant to blog again this week but it slipped by!

First I want to say in regards to my last post on Bonhoeffer. I really do believe what I wrote but wanted to clarify that I don't feel this way because I don't think Mark and I are doing things right or because I feel like God is saying "do more!". He isn't. But I had this picture in my head of me seeing where Jesus was going, then putting my head down and following after Him. After a while He turns right but I keep heading straight because I know that's where He was going and because my head is still down - focused on what I'm doing - I miss that He turned. I think daily I needed to be lifting up my head so I can see when Jesus turns. Does this make sense? I want to evaluate where I'm headed and not get caught up in what I think I'm supposed to be doing. Right now I'm focused on raising my kids and homeschooling them. I am also a greeter at church on Sunday mornings and I'm leading the women's breakfasts every other month (I will be the speaker for most of the events). All of these things are wonderful. Things I believe God is asking me to do at this season of my life. But I read something in My Utmost for His Highest devotional this week that said 'If you are relying on anything else other than God then you won't know when He's gone." Gulp. I don't ever want to be relying on what He has told me in the past to determine where I'm going in the future. I hope this makes sense....

Anyway, thanks to my friend Kim and her awesome kids (who looked after my kids), my friend Jo and I got to go help serve at the soup kitchen this week. Unfortunately they are remodeling so we didn't get to actually serve food and we spent our time cleaning up after much of the remodel. It was fine though. I was thankful for the chance to go and hope to do so again in the future.

On Thursday we had a field trip to the Animas City Museum. It's an old schoolhouse that they've restored. Very neat place. I could've spent a couple hours there reading everything but as usual the kids raced through stuff. I think they really enjoyed it but for them it was only a 45 minute tour rather than the full one.

Here are a few pictures from our trip. I've given up on having high quality pictures on here (although I'm pretty sure I gave up on that a long time ago....). I just never have Mark's camera with me so I use my phone. I'm hoping that when I get my new phone in the next month or so it'll have a much better camera. Till then it's what I got.

Here's the school building. Beautiful stone isn't it?

The classroom.

This woman walked us through a typical day. It was really neat to sit there and be a part of it. At one point she shared how the school teachers would take turns staying with children and their families and help with chores and eat with them and she said, can you imagine living with your teacher?! We got a good laugh at that because yes, they can in fact imagine living with their teacher :)

My youngest pupil and our friend Hayley.

My other students.

Kale was pretty funny at one point. The teacher came over and wanted to demonstrate punishment. So she told the story of how a boy might take the cute girl's pigtails (who was sitting in front of him) and dip them in his ink {Kate was the cute girl with pigtails and Kale was the mischievous boy}. And how the teacher would take the boy up to the front of the class. She took Kale's hand and was wanting to use him to show what might happen. Kale was having none of that. He panicked and ran back to me. I told him she was pretending but it didn't matter. So we watched her "discipline" another boy.

We enjoyed the rest of the museum, including a small one-room cabin that they have on the property. I'm thankful for being a part of this group and having opportunities to see things we may not otherwise see.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Bonhoeffer's influence

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had just gotten done reading Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. A really long and really good book. If you haven't heard of this man or what he did (I hadn't a clue who he was before I started the book) let me give you a brief recap.

He was a pastor in Germany during the time that Hitler was elected. He was one of the first people to publicly speak out about Hitler and this was before the horrible things Hitler did began. Bonhoeffer eventually began to learn of Hitler's atrocities and came to a crisis of faith. Does he turn the other way and essentially ignore the fact that millions of Jews were being killed or does he join up with a few fellow Germans and work secretly to assassinate Hitler? Neither option was "right" but Bonhoeffer knew he couldn't ignore what was happening to God's chosen people. He risked everything and eventually was murdered by the Nazis, to spy on and be part of a plan to kill Hitler (which failed by the way). Many German Christians at the time were fooled by Hitler and then by the time they found out what was going on were most likely overwhelmed and not sure what to do. Some helped the Jewish people but a great number of others did nothing.

Reading about his life and the questions he had as he became part of this plot really spoke to me personally. Bonhoeffer said in one of his writings that we tend to concentrate on being good rather than being obedient to God. Being obedient to God was the most important thing to him, no matter the cost.

It started me thinking about the world I live in today. I began wondering if I was a German Christian. One who is surrounded by people in need but doing nothing. I do, often times, feel overwhelmed by the amount of pain and suffering in this world. I wonder if there really is anything I could possibly do to help. I'm sure Bonhoeffer felt that way. But it didn't stop him from trying. He just knew that ignoring it wasn't going to change anything. And once he knew his part he didn't turn back. Not even once. And it cost him his life. He was murdered by the Nazis just 2 weeks before Hitler committed suicide and 3 weeks before they surrendered to the allies. Some may read about his life and wonder why he gave up everything to be a part of the plot to kill Hitler when that plot failed. He might even be considered a failure. But he wasn't.

He was successful because he didn't ignore what God was asking of him. He was successful because he was radically obedient. He was successful because he didn't let fear or excuses stop him. He was successful because he cared and loved people that God cares for and loves. He was successful even in death and his story is being told today because of his response to the call of Christ.

I desire that my life would be counted for something. Not for the praise of men or to have a book written about me but to love the people God loves and to know that I was obedient to the call - being the hands and feet of Christ- when He asked me to go, to love, to speak for....

My family is praying about who we are to be advocates for. We know to love and show love to everyone but I feel like there is a special people that God is calling our family, specifically, to love, to defend, to sacrifice for. And I'm excited to see what God is going to do in our hearts as we turn our thoughts towards Him. As we stop turning away from the hurt and pain but turn towards the Healer and Giver of life. I want to spend this life being radically obedient.

Thank you Lord for your stirring of my heart. I pray now for the courage to be radically obedient.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Can't forget

I wanted to add some pictures before I forgot.

My awesome, sweet, beautiful sister Meghan is pregnant and over our Christmas vacation we were able to go to her baby shower. She's having a girl, due the end of March, named Lilah Kelly. Isn't that such a sweet name?!

Anyway, I took a lot of pictures from the shower but am only posting a few.

Here's the adorable mommy with her new Lilah step stool.

Cousin Kate had to help Aunt Meghan open cousin Lilah's new blankets (from us - hence the reason for posting them).

And of course a camo one. I mean Lilah's dad is a bow hunter. Not sure what you blend into if you wear pink camo...makes a cute blanket though!

And I love this picture of us girls. I think it was a good one of all of us.

My mom, Kate and I, sisters Kelly, Meghan and Katie.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Change me on the Inside

I was driving into church last Sunday humming a worship song, listening to my kids in the backseat, and of course driving when I felt like God spoke clearly to me. It had to have been the song I was humming mixed with the prayers I've been praying that prompted this Holy Spirit visit {although He really doesn't really need prompting - basically my heart was finally ready to hear what He was going to speak}.

This is what I heard:
{and when I say heard I don't mean an audible voice, it's more like a thought that I know is definitely not mine -- the Bible talks about how His sheep will know His voice - the more I get to know God the easier it is to figure out when He's speaking to me. That's not to say that I don't miss it when He speaks. I still do that. A lot. But this day I don't think I missed it.}

You pray for other people - which is not a bad thing - however, many times you pray for them to change. What about your own heart? Why aren't you praying for your heart to change towards them? You are missing out on the work I want to do in your heart by focusing on others.

Bam! Like a gentle smack in the head (honestly I love it when God does that). I really want to change. I don't want to be the same old me. One who is judgmental, prideful, selfish...I want to love others like He wants me to love. I want to think of others before myself. I want to be like Him. I realized that I did pray for others to change. I think it was so I didn't have to. Or didn't have to deal with the thing I didn't like. I don't completely know my motive - can't quite pinpoint it - but I do know that many times I had selfish motives for sure.

Has God spoken this to me before? Most definitely. Unfortunately I can be like a car out of alignment sometimes and start to drift off course. That's when I need a gentle ~~smack on the head~~ tug on my wheel to get me back on track. So thankful for those smacks!

Lord, Change me on the inside!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Making Mittens

The kids have been going a little crazy over the past week or so {ok I'll admit it...I have too}. Stir crazy I believe. So I've hit up numerous websites/blogs/~~support groups~~ looking for ideas to keep us all ~~sane~~ happy and working well together.

One cute project I found was mitten making :) So Sunday night our little family sat around our kitchen table making mittens. Each of their mittens tells their individual story. You can imagine the stories....

Jack lasted about two seconds. And those 2 seconds consisted of Mark holding his hand on the file folder and tracing the outline of his mitten. As soon as he was set free he left to play cars and trains. Which, of course, left Mark and I to make, cut out and put the yarn on his adorable little set of mittens. (I really wish the pictures turned out better!)

Kate needed some help but at least stayed till the end of her project. She sat while I traced her hand. I cut them out and then she told me how to put the yarn on. Totally my daughter. Pink of course.

And Kale? Well he was able to trace and cut out and put his own yarn on his mittens. As for any kind of pattern? Not so much. He pretty much mushed on the colors of yarn that he wanted.

And in the end it was Mark

and I

with our mittens, kid scissors, stick glue and yarn taking a few creative moments to ourselves and finishing up our elementary art projects while the kids ran around playing. Aaaaaaaah craft night at the Palmer's...

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Not much and a lot

Not much and a lot. That would be the answer if the question you asked me was what did you do this weekend. Yes I know that it doesn't make sense. And I would say to you that not much in my life makes perfect sense :)

We had a chiropractic appointment Friday morning, I went and gave blood while Mark took the kids home (I laughed when I told the woman I had 3 kids aged 2,4 &6 and she asked why I didn't bring them in while I donate...obviously she doesn't have small children of her own {I don't mean that disrespectfully, the lady was super nice. Maybe I should clarify and say she doesn't have my small children...}), then I went grocery shopping, then came home to unload groceries, eat lunch, pay bills (or try to...), cook dinner and go to our small group (game night! love it!).

Saturday we had hoped to sleep in since we'd been up late on Friday but alas Jack's diaper was not going to hold the apparently massive amounts of water he had drunk the night before so we were woken up to a screaming Jack-a-bo who needed a diaper and clothes change. Mark got up and let me sleep (I need to document this so the next time I think he never does it I can go back and see that yes, in fact, he has done it....once) although I use the term sleeping loosely. Basically I laid in bed lazily while listening to the tremendous amounts of noise that my family was making (this is where a bigger house would come in handy....) while eating breakfast.

I wasn't feeling all that hot but couldn't quite pinpoint what the problem was. I was just achy and run down. No cold or flu symptoms. Just achy. We finally took down our Christmas stuff and that felt like a huge accomplishment. And then I laid on the couch...for the next 7 hours or so. I seriously didn't want to move!

I slept pretty good except for the slapping of my arm repeatedly at about 4 this morning. Smack, smack, smack. I startled awake to see my secret, stealthy, ninja daughter staring at me. Apparently she was frustrated that I hadn't heard her come in (she's so quiet!). So she smacked me awake so I could help her blow her nose. *sigh*. Did that then sent her off to bed. 20 minutes later she came back. Helped her again. 10 minutes later she came back. I got a box of kleenex and told her to stay in her room and wipe her own nose! 4:50am.

5:00am Mark's alarm went off. Joy joy. I was able to doze while he was getting ready but it wasn't good sleep. I had prayed last night that God would make it easy for me to the make the choice about whether or not to go to church. If I was still feeling crummy I didn't want to go spreading it around. On the other hand staying home stuck on the couch with 3 kids running around wasn't so appealing either. Thankfully I felt much better today so I popped out of bed {ha! like I ever pop out of bed. Only if I hear throwing up and know if I don't hurry I'll be cleaning up a huge mess. Plus if God wanted us to pop out of bed He'd have us sleep in toasters...} and got myself and the littles ready for church.

I greeted, offered {took offering} and taught the 4 and 5 year old Sunday school class. All of it I love to do but let me tell you that I was ready for a nap at 10:30! So I'm heading for that nap in about 2 minutes as soon as I wrap this rant up. Kale is about to go in the room for his quiet time which helps me to have mine :)

So there's my weekend where we didn't do much but we did a lot. Hmmmmmm.

**********Update************

Apparently I really was desperate for a nap. Slept for 3 hours! That never happens! And by the way, my husband is the best in the world. Not only did he let me sleep in on Saturday but he took over kid duty, dinner duty, and bedtime duty Saturday night. And he kept the kids occupied this afternoon so I could keep on sleeping. I love him ;)

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Profound Wisdom

Many of you may remember a while back I blogged about my sister-in-law Alisha's mom. She was in a terrible car accident just over 2 years ago. She had a severe brain injury. Thankfully she is alive and doing much, much better, but there is still a long road ahead. She, and her husband, have spent that last 2 years relearning pretty much everything. She has been learning how to walk, talk, take care of herself and many other things we all take for granted. They have been through a trial that I can't even fathom. Their faith has been shaken, made stronger, shaken and made stronger again. They have had to rely on Him like they never had before, as well as friends and family. It's been an enormous challenge. And through it all they have shared tidbits on their blog.

Just a couple days ago she shared another story that made me stop in my tracks and really think. It was so powerful - especially coming from her. I wanted to pass it along so you could all be encouraged as I was. I found a similar story online so I copied and pasted it rather than try and remember it.

A man found the cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon. One day a small opening appeared, and he sat and watched for several hours as the moth struggled to force its body through that little hole.

Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. It just seemed to be stuck. Then the man, in his kindness, decided to help the moth, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily.

But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the moth because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Freedom and flight would only come after the struggle. By depriving the moth of struggle, he deprived the moth of health.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in life. If God allowed us to go through life without any obstacles, He would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we might have been.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Oh yes we did!

We did the WWE haircut last night. The mullet/boy band/unloved child hair-do is gone. Although no matter what kinda hair this kid has I can't help but think he's stinkin' adorable (clearly an objective opinion :) )

Here's the before. In this shot all he knew was that he got candy (yes we bribe). By the time we were done he'd had M&Ms, singing, dancing, Diego on the iPod and lots of begging. Seriously. Mark is the entertainer and I'm the fast-as-I-possibly-can-head shaver. I think both of us have difficult jobs. The outcome of mine is just more obvious. Ya know, stray long hairs that kinda twang out to the side or straight up. Yes he has some but overall he'll live...and so will we.

I couldn't take an after picture last night because by the time we were done he was so wound up and mad at us (and also had a touch of a sugar rush) he wouldn't look at or smile at the camera. Today was slightly easier but you'll notice he still wouldn't look at me.

Before we went to the Chiropractor this morning Kate was playing with my iPod. Jack just had to get a closer look....

We finished up school this morning (at least the bulk of it) and I sent them out for recess. That's why I have a minute to blog then I'm headed to make lunch. I go from teacher to lunch lady in a matter of moments.

Oh we also went to Walmart yesterday to get a preschool school book for Kate and also some art projects for all our sanity. We came home with a clay art project. Tried it this morning. Jack tried eating it, Kate rolled it and played dolls with it, and Kale tried to make every animal on the box. He did pretty good.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

A bit more rambling...

Some day soon I will get it {whatever "it" is} together and share a thoughtful, captivating post. But until then here's another ramble....By the way, if I were to blog what was really and truly on my mind during these challenging past 2 days, you may never read my blog again! And it's not because I'd say anything bad about anyone, it's just I feel like a mental case and I'd rather organize my thoughts rather than just puke them on you all at the same time - that gets rather messy....

So! on that note....

I made some de-licious! green chili this weekend. I'm addicted to it and trying to find as many things as possible to eat it on. Pizza, eggs, burritos, enchiladas.....It's fabulous! Sadly the kids don't agree but that just means more for me and Mark :)

Here's a picture of our feet (Kate's and mine). I bought some pink slippers while we were up in Denver and she thought they were so much like her fuzzy pink crocs that she asked for a picture. Blurry but it's now a memory we share. Pink shoes that is.

I forgot to mention about our drive home from you know where. Mark got a speeding ticket, Kate peed on her pants during a desperate-pull-over-on-the-side-of-the-road-it's-stinking-freezing-cold-I-can't-believe-you-have-to-pull-down-your-pants-are-you-sure-you-can't-hold-it-a-little-bit-longer-potty stop, and we drove through a terrible ground blizzard. One of the worst I'd ever seen in my 15+ years of driving to Denver and back. You'd be chugging along and then out of nowhere, WIND!, that would blow your car over. And the wind brought tons of snow. So much snow you couldn't see 1 foot in front of your car. So much we were going from 55 to 5mph in about 5 seconds out of fear of hitting someone in the white out. I took a picture just to share with everyone our view out our windshield. This lasted off and on for about 25 miles or so. And yes it was a gorgeous sunny day with blue sky. Not one flake of this snow came from above. It was already on the ground....just rearranging itself.

My laundry (I'm looking for some sympathy here obviously). I just kept unloading the dryer and dumping it on my couch. Then spent an episode and a half of Psych folding it after the kids were in bed.

When it's folded it looses some of the drama....

And because I figured you'd need a picture of my crazy youngest ---- the pirate! This was our first picture attempt.

And our second. And like I posted before, he totally has the boy band hair going on. It's starting to get in his eyes and really bug me. *sigh* Time for WWE haircut. {ya know, World Wrestling Entertainment, and not because of how it will look after we're done it's because of what we will go through to get it done}

It's also been freezing cold down here. It was below zero this morning. But that does not stop my children from eating snow. Here's a shot I took yesterday of Kate and Jack sharing, quite nicely, a hunk of snow. What is it about kids and eating snow?!

That's all for now. My moment to catch up is gone!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Back in the Saddle and Rambling on

Here I am. Back in the saddle. I don't have everything organized yet so this post will most likely ramble on in an attempt to catch up a bit. Hopefully it'll be interesting.

I'm on the down side of my vacation hangover. I don't know about you but when I get home from a trip I kinda feel like I'm in a fog for a while. This hangover is quite a doozy. I spent the first day back (Thursday) doing endless loads of laundry and attempting to organize the new gifts. At the end of the day I was worn out but my house was still a big mess. Much more digging out to do. The house is slowing coming back into order...just in time to get back into school (which I still need to do a post on - homeschooling Kale is a whole other blog!).

I got new pots and pans for Christmas (I'm not sure exactly when I got so excited for sensible gifts but I love all my new kitchen stuff) and I've been using them the past week. I never realized how old my old ones were until I cooked scrambled eggs in my new skillet and didn't have to soak and scrub the pan afterwards. Sad isn't it?

We got Just Dance 2 for the Wii for Christmas and we've been having a blast dancing up a storm. Very fun game FYI.

We did the Quiet Times for Kids Advent study and it was wonderful. We didn't do it every single day which I figured would happen but we did do quite a few and had some neat discussions about it. I'm excited to do it again and again and each year see how the kids grow in the knowledge of their Savior. It was a sweet time.

I haven't had much time to blog as you can tell. I decided to break while on vacation and I've also been reading a book for book club - Bonhoeffer. This is one serious book. About 543 pages of seriousness. Difficult reading but actually very good. What a life this man had and what he gave up in his obedience to Christ. Great biography.

I crocheted another blanket for our living room. I've been cozying up with the red one I made last Christmas and Mark was getting jealous. He asked for one for himself. It's black and gray and I think it's pretty sweet. Mark does too.

Our Christmas decorations are still up. You've got to be joking if you seriously thought I had one inkling of time to take anything down this past weekend. And as much as I love all Christmas happiness there does come a time when it just needs to come down. That time is coming soon.

We've been to the chiropractor twice since we've been home and we're going again in the morning. We're doing our 3 times a week for 2 months stint. I realized (yes I'm a bit delayed sometimes) that we'll be spending an extra 3 hours a week in the car driving to and from our appointments. So I went to the library and figured out how to download some MP3 books for the iPod to help pass the time. The kids usually like audiobooks so here's hoping it helps pass the time and keeps the kids motivated to spend that much time in the car.

Jack is hilarious and his hair is long. Neither Mark nor I have wanted to attempt to strap that kid down for a haircut just yet. So he's sporting the long locks for now. Kinda cute and big kid looking right now. And I think it makes him an inch taller.... He's desiring to be naked more and more. I've found him stripped down - including diaper - numerous times. He loves his freedom! He also loves his candy. We've found him shut in a room several times over the past couple weeks with a mouth and fist full of candy, the little sneak. He totally knows he's wrong but he's happy with his sugar rush!

Kate got 3 adorable skirts - twirly skirts - for Christmas. She's all dolled out and stinkin cute. Being gone for 10 days was tough for her (and us). No routine, many more parents, more sugar and attention and not quite as good sleep all led to come challenging moments. But overall she did good. She got some beading kits for Christmas also so I'm sure she and her friends will have new bracelets and necklaces soon.

Kale is the Lego maniac. He got a Lego watch and Star Wars Legos for Christmas and has been in heaven. He's very engineer minded and loves putting things together. He's also at the age where he's trying to figure out how to be the bigger kid and is bummed that he's still little. He tries to joke around more and interact with adults and is learning what that looks like - which is still a tad awkward for him. I realized that a ton of parenting, besides character building and school stuff, is social skills. Yup. We're there.

We saw Under the Sea 3D at the IMAX while we were up in Denver. It was really cool. Jack fell asleep. Not sure how he did that. I'm guessing it was because he kept taking his glasses off and the screen was blurry so he was bored. The 3D part was really neat. Sea snakes slithering toward your face, seals kissing your nose, jellyfish floating near you. Definitely worth seeing.

I think that's about all for now. Told you it was random. Still have stuff to share as well as pictures but that'll come later. I gotta get you reading the blog again!

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