Breakfast with Barabbas

For whatever reason, I am reading about the crucifixion this morning while I drink my coffee. Damon isn't up yet, Carrie's popped her head in on her way to the basement to be alone with her computer, and I am reading through Luke.

I read the part about Barabbas being a murderer and a leader of an insurrection and remembered a video clip I'd seen in church a few months ago. I have a feeling it was shown on or around Easter, which makes sense, but I wanted to see it again. I found it here on YouTube. It's by Judah Smith, whom I know nothing about. Put your distractions aside, make sure your sound is turned on, and listen with your heart. I think it's powerful. Let it be powerful.

It's easy to "play church games", as he says, at Christmas and Easter. Someone else coined "the poinsettia and lily club", which makes me giggle, but it's sad if you stop to think about it. Here we have this amazing Creator who is waiting for us to invite Him in so that we don't have to do this wild and crazy life alone, and we often don't bother to ask. We're tired and stressed out and turning to the wrong things to help get ourselves through. We're bitter and snippy and short, and we blame it on things like "not getting enough sleep","having too much to do" or "not having enough coffee", some of my special phrases to fall back on. Really, I'm just not full of Jesus. That's what it boils down to. I'm trying to do it, whatever the "it" is, myself.

So give up 8 minutes of your day to give the video a chance to soak into your heart. It's probably the total time of the commercial breaks in your must-see-TV. Let Jesus be Jesus on more than just Easter and Christmas. At the very least, realize that you're not supposed to be doing all this alone, and that He can do a better job at all of it than you can by yourself. And to quote someone else famous, "that's all I have to say about that."

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Things One and Three are enjoying VBS this week. I may have mentioned we've had the CD of the music for weeks now, and they all have their favorites. I can hardly get my bum into the driver's seat before they're starting with their "play number 6, please" and "do number one!"

Last night they made paper plate and streamer quail as their crafts. It probably sounds ridiculous, but they are actually adorable. There's a folded paper plate as the body with another piece of plate cut out as the neck and head. Perpendicular to the body is a drinking straw with streamers attached, and there's another straw poking out of the bottom to be the stand or the legs or whatever. So cute! You should have seen a room full of 75 or so fluttering streamered quail last night. It's been raining for days, off and on, so a LOT of high energy was squished into the big room at the church. Contagious.

And as far as I've seen from Facebook, Thing Two is having a good time at camp. I don't suppose the campers have any dry laundry left and that everything is smelling of worms, but that's why God made washing machines. I imagine they've been dodging storms like we have, and I haven't heard if they've all ended up in the dining hall basement yet, but it wouldn't surprise me any. Wouldn't be camp if you weren't down there, singing songs, waiting out the vengeful storm clouds.

Dada had fish and chips for dinner in London last night. His meetings aren't going quite as well as he'd like, but he's hanging in there. He got to see Big Ben and the Queen's guard and a 15-foot blue rooster. Yes, you read that right.

The garbage trucks are out and about now, so I suppose a small boy will be joining me shortly. He had a great appointment with Dr. Jon yesterday, who declared him to be looking great. He weighed in at 42 pounds 13 ounces and is 42 3/4 inches tall. And he has huge, stinky feet. And two days ago he ate an entire pack of sugarfree gum. But he's cute when he's sleeping, and when he's sucking his thumb and Dr. Jon reminds him, "germs!" and he pops that thumb back out to look suspiciously at it. He had me in tears during the appointment because of his back-and-forth with Dr. Jon. They're hysterically funny together. Especially when Dr. Jon is examining his abdoment and the kid is squirming and thrashing all over the table because he's so ticklish. I love that!

He got his one shot for measles-mumps-rubella-chicken pox and he didn't fuss at all. Nurse Tonya used Carrie's favorite tool, the pain blocker pad, which is a plastic piece that's flat and covered in little teeth. You press it onto your skin and it feels pokey, so you don't notice the needle going in also as your brain can only process so many things at once. It's a great trick. Tonya pushed that pad onto him, he yelped a second, she said, "tell me when you're ready", she stabbed that needle in, he said, "I'm weady" and she said, "I'm done!" It was great. He got a Daffy Duck bandaid, turned down a treat from Dr. Jon's personal chocolate stash (to MUCH amusement from the rest of the nurses) and declared, "I have a big wowwipop in da caw". Which he did. I'd bought him a huge one from the dollar store two days ago and we'd brought it with us in case of a shot.

Have a great over the hump day!

And those of you who haven't clicked that YouTube link because you wanted to read this whole post first, now you're done. Go click it. =)

Oy vey... a tale of a wellness checkup

So our big boy is 4 now, and that means it's time for a wellness checkup at Dr. Jon's. Surprisingly enough, what with h1n1 and colds and flu and allergies and all the rampant germs that are around, Liam is healthy for this appointment! He weighed in at 35 pounds and 40 1/4 inches which puts him at the 50th percentile for both height and weight. That's my solid, dependable kid.

My solid, dependable kid also had one perfectly clear ear, and one with a perfectly clear bead in it!

Yep, that's what I said. Dr. Jon claimed it was a potato, but quickly realized once he tried to get it out that it wasn't as pliable as a potato would have been and almost gave up. Liam sounded like he was being drawn and quartered. But Dr. Jon persisted and rescued a clear bead with a tiny, threading hole in it from Liam's right ear. Liam claims he has no idea how it got in there, where he got it from, or when he put it in there. Can I get an "oy vey"?

And that was only the beginning. The poor kid then got the flu mist (which otherwise would have been an additional shot) and two shots. One was for the chicken pox and the other was MMR; thankfully those are his last ones for those. At least for awhile... The nurse was awesome and she recruited another one to help so they could stab simultaneously and get outta there. He got Bugs Bunny bandaids and an orange lollipop.

We got him home, lollipop still intact, which rarely happens, popped in two bubblegum chewable children's tylenol and he's curled up watching Noggin. What a traumatic morning!

Crazy kid. I guess I'm thankful we didn't have to spend time in ER or at the ENT doctor- that would have been the next step. All I could think of was the time Hinrew swallowed the Mousetrap ball. I guess since this is the worst medical scrape he's had, I'm going to go count my blessings! Thank you God, for our brilliant, funny, crazy, healthy 4 year old boy! =)

Care Bear stats

I know, I know. I'm behind once again. I do have more to post, but since I'm already getting barraged with craziness from Carrie, I'll just give you her 6 year old physical stats:

She's 37 pounds. She's 44 and a half inches tall. She asked Dr. Jon when she could ride in the car with no car seat and he had the hardest time keeping a straight face as he told her, "Well, Carrie, you're what we call petite. Now, the law says, the law says, you have to be four years old and forty pounds. You're not there yet. And then the recommendation is to be in a booster seat until you're eight. But the law says you have to be in a car seat until you're 4 years old and forty pounds."

She interjects, "but I ride the school bus and there are no seat belts on the bus."

Poor guy. He starts, stops himself, and starts again with a laugh, "Carrie, Ohio is backwards."

Then he told her she'd need a shot and she wasn't pleased. But nurse Kim is awesome, stabbed her fast with her first Hep A round (the next one happens anytime after 6 months from now and within a year) and did her up with a Daffy Duck bandaid. Add lollipop and life goes on...