Earlier this week I went to Kroger to pick up some essentials for our week - milk, bread, yogurt, and such. Guess what my milk's expiration date is? CHRISTMAS EVE.
Though expiration dates probably aren't exciting to an average person, I must admit that certain times of the year they're ridiculously thrilling to me. Every time this week that I get Kate a cup of milk from the fridge I see "DEC 24, 2008" stamped on the top of the gallon, instantly smile, and skip a step as I go give her the milk because I'm reminded Christmas Eve is within milk expiration range!
I do the same thing with Kate's birthday, Cody's birthday, my birthday, our wedding anniversary, days we're going to take a trip out of town, and all other fun days on my calendar every year. In addition to expiration dates on milk or bread, coupon expiration dates are equally as exciting. And I imagine sharing this detail will only make me appear even more eccentric, but there's something particularly special if the printed date is the actual date of the event not just close to it :).
What do you look forward to and/or how do you measure the progress of time? Maybe knowing other people out there mark the march of time by expiration dates would help me feel a little less odd - or I imagine there are lots of more fun ways to watch time pass that I should look into.
And, for the record: Christmas is only 2 weeks away!
I've blogged before about the study of Moses Kate and I are going through at our Wednesday morning Bible study, but here's a new story on the subject... Every day when we're driving to lunch after the study I ask Kate about what she learned in her class. I never know what she'll say, but listening to her never fails to put a smile on my face!
Here are a few of the answers she's offered me over the last few weeks:
Moses had meaty, meaty power (I think she meant MIGHTY).
Moses did not obey God. He had to get spankings and sit in time out.
Moses was very, very, very thirsty.
Moses lived with Pocahontas in a tent.
Moses likes to eat pizza with Jesus. Flat cheese pizza with birds.
I don't know where she's getting her creative flourish on these ideas, but the basic concept of most of the things she says is rooted in truth. Today when we were driving out of the church parking lot I listened to her latest Moses story and decided that at least pieces of the truth are getting in her head and heart. And then I felt convicted that I sometimes let myself walk away from the study just like Kate: I listen to the truth presented while I'm there, take parts of it, leave parts of it, and add embellishment as I fill in gaps of misunderstanding when I share it with someone else.
I don't want to be that sort of student. I want to be better than that so I can learn and grow into the person I need to become. So next time I'm in a Bible study or similar place, I'm going to try as hard as possible to consciously absorb the easy truths as well as the convicting, harder truths. I know I allow pieces of truth into my head and heart like Kate does, but I want to take it a step further than a toddler - both for my personal understanding as well as so I don't misrepresent truths to others. I don't want to think in my head that Moses camped with Pocahontas or to walk around telling people a 29 year old's equivalent of how Moses had "meaty, meaty" power!
Here are a few of the answers she's offered me over the last few weeks:
Moses had meaty, meaty power (I think she meant MIGHTY).
Moses did not obey God. He had to get spankings and sit in time out.
Moses was very, very, very thirsty.
Moses lived with Pocahontas in a tent.
Moses likes to eat pizza with Jesus. Flat cheese pizza with birds.
I don't know where she's getting her creative flourish on these ideas, but the basic concept of most of the things she says is rooted in truth. Today when we were driving out of the church parking lot I listened to her latest Moses story and decided that at least pieces of the truth are getting in her head and heart. And then I felt convicted that I sometimes let myself walk away from the study just like Kate: I listen to the truth presented while I'm there, take parts of it, leave parts of it, and add embellishment as I fill in gaps of misunderstanding when I share it with someone else.
I don't want to be that sort of student. I want to be better than that so I can learn and grow into the person I need to become. So next time I'm in a Bible study or similar place, I'm going to try as hard as possible to consciously absorb the easy truths as well as the convicting, harder truths. I know I allow pieces of truth into my head and heart like Kate does, but I want to take it a step further than a toddler - both for my personal understanding as well as so I don't misrepresent truths to others. I don't want to think in my head that Moses camped with Pocahontas or to walk around telling people a 29 year old's equivalent of how Moses had "meaty, meaty" power!
Can you tell that my Christmas tree is sporting a bare midriff? I can. The un-twinkling light section in the middle of my tree is almost as offensive to me as seeing the belly button and mid-section of someone while shopping in the good ole Super Target. In Kate's favorite slang: "Eww, gross."
Last year when I was setting up, fluffing out, and preparing our pre-lit Christmas Tree so we could decorate it, I noticed that there was a strand of lights that wouldn't light. We've had our tree for several years, but I still was disappointed. My sweet husband spent literally hours last year trying to fix the problem for me. He changed out every single bulb on the strand, tried new fuses, and did a variety of other smart electrical engineering tasks that are beyond my limited English degree understanding of electronics - but nothing he did made the strand function again. Because I was determined not to buy another tree over a silly light strand, we got another set of white lights to put over the area on the tree where the lights weren't lighting, went ahead with adding the ornaments, and just left it at that.
This year when I was getting the tree ready for decorating I was pleasantly surprised when I plugged all the sections together and found that all the strands of lights were twinkling just as they should!
With excitement I called for Cody to come see what I confidently pronounced a Christmas MIR-acle (or as the less excited say, "miracle"):
Cody rolled his eyes at my adolescent excitement...
which is typical when I'm melodramatic -
and honestly, that's usually pretty often.
But nevertheless, it was a CHRISTMAS MIR-ACLE to me.
And MIR-acles are worth emotion!
We've turned the tree on and off countless times since we set it up - especially since Kate is old enough to understand how to stand on the foot button to do it herself - and every time all the lights sprung back into action... (insert ominous music here) until last night.
Kate was in her bed, Cody and I were sitting on the couch watching TV, and there was a storm full of lightening and thunder rolling in outside. Following an amazing flash and a big boom our electricity went off for a few seconds. The television, our computers, the lamps, and everything else in the house sprung back to life without hesitation - but when I glanced over at our tree I saw that the MIR-acle light strand hadn't been resurrected from the electric hiccup.
My. Mouth. Hung. Open.
I just gasped and pointed at the tree.
Cody looked over, saw what I was gesturing about, and laughed.
Typical boy reaction to minor girl horror.
I acknowledge I'm hopelessly melodramatic at times, but I was very sad my Christmas MIR-acle was now past tense. Since I've been able to recover from my dramatic shock, I've definitely come to the realization that a silly string of lights not lighting up is without question no big deal in comparison to all that's going on in the world right now - yet the sequence of events still left me feeling reflective.
Some miracles we're blessed with for eternity, some for a little while, and some just for a moment. I want to not take any gift in my life for granted - especially not when those gifts are relationships! While I'm 100% thankful for the blessings in my life no matter how long they're intended to last, the challenge of a blessing for me is the fact I usually don't know its exact duration.
When I first started turning the tree on after we set it up, I took time to look and see if all the lights came back on. After they did several times, I stopped looking and just assumed it would always be that way. And when the circumstances changed last night I realized there were things I should have done when all the lights were on (like taking Kate's Christmas picture in front of it and such) - and I would have done that if I realized this particular small Christmas MIRacle wasn't going to last through Christmas.
I know that sounds trivial - AND IT IS - but there are many other situations in my life where that truth isn't trivial. I don't want to take people or blessings in my life for granted! Just because someone is there 99 times in a row I don't want to put off doing or saying things I should because I assume there will be a 100th time. And when a miracle is fresh in my life I look at it often and give thanks for it like I did those first few times the lights came back on, but after a while I stopped looking for the miracle lights just as after almost three years with Kate I'm no longer as conscious of and overwhelmingly in awe of the gift she is in our lives. I never want to stop taking the time to see and be thankful for the miracles in my life!
Maybe that lesson is one of the reasons my MIR-acle Christmas light strand didn't spring back to life last night. I think instead of getting that spare set of lights out of the garage so my tree can be fully dressed like I'd planned on doing later tonight, I'll let it keep its bare midriff this year so when I see that chunk of un-lit lights I'll remember to not take for granted the small or the big miracles in my daily life - not to mention the Christmas miracles all around.
Cheers for Christmas tree midriffs!
This morning we loaded up Kate's "back-a-pack-a" (backpack), stopped by the "Chick-n-Lay" (Chick-Fil-A) for a quick breakfast, and headed to NorthPark Mall to see the train exhibit with friend Luke. As you can see, the kids had a great time wearing their conductor hats and looking at the trains together. After we finished at the exhibit we checked out one of the puppet shows in the mall and since NorthPark doesn't have a kids play area we burned some energy on some impromptu "slides" we found. In the pictures you can see the extreme concentration on Kate & Luke's faces as they climbed up and then the joy that came from sliding down... here's a 6 second video of the fun process:It's amazing how the simplest things are usually the most fun things for kids - like a cardboard box or the wrapping of a gift instead of the gift itself. Who needs a big fancy mall playground when you can crawl up the side of a planter?!? We definitely enjoyed getting to spend time with friend Luke and see the trains together, but I think that Kate loved sliding on that planter as much as she liked the trains - and the sliding was free! As I try to make this Christmas meaningful for Kate and to go out of my way to make things special for our family, I need to keep in mind that usually the best things in life are the simple things. A simple Christmas sure sounds great to me!
As usual this morning when we woke up Kate immediately asked me for a "diamond", but for the first time EVER she corrected herself after she said it by clearly asking again but saying the word "vitamin" very clearly. When I was dressing her, she wanted to wear her "sprinkley" shoes (glitter) to church. After we got there and she was playing with her friends, she asked me where her friend Dylan was because she wanted to "wiggle" (tickle) him in the bounce house. And when we were sitting at the table eating lunch after church, Cody handed me an envelope and Kate was very excited about seeing a "little clipper" (paper clip) attached to it.
There's no doubt Kate always knows exactly what she's saying, but sometimes I have to be her interpreter in public. The problem isn't her enunciation, her communication problem with other people is her odd choice of words - even when I know she knows exactly what the right word to use! I can usually make sense of it eventually, but sometimes she even throws me for a loop.
One of her funniest word substitutions that I'm hearing daily is for a Christmas song. I know this is going to sound pathetic, but I confess: I have a CD from the 2003 Singing Christmas Tree show our church back in Lubbock performed and there are a few songs on that CD I still love listening to during the Christmas season. My favorite song on the CD is "The End of the Beginning" sang by Mickey Henderson (the minister of music at the church in 2003) - and Kate has learned to love it as much or more than I do.
Here comes the particularly pathetic part of my story: we listen to it at least twice every time we're in the car during the holidays. We've made up hand motions to some of the words and belt it out horridly off-key at the top of our lungs as we cruise down the road in the Civic. We also have several other fun Christmas CDs - and this year I even bought Kate the Cedermont Kids Christmas CD set so she'll have kid Christmas music to enjoy - but that old recording of the Singing Christmas Tree track 9 is still Kate's favorite song. Last year I broke down and let her listen to it a few times in January, but by February whenever I finally decided we had to let the Christmas music go Kate literally cried and cried when I told her we couldn't listen to it until next Christmas.
When Cody and I listen to the song those first few times each season, we frequently talk about what a great singer Mickey is - we've never heard anyone else able to sing that song like he can. Kate must have overheard us talking because last year because she started requesting the song by begging for "The Mickey Mouse Song" (the only Mickey in her two year old world!). That title was cute last year and made us smile every time she said it, but this year since she's older I decided to teach her how to ask for her beloved song correctly. I told her over and over the actual title of the song and tried my best to get her to call it "The End of the Beginning" - words that she sings in the song and definitely can understand as well as say. But she kept calling it "The Mickey Mouse Song" by default. My last effort to amend the title in her mind was to tell her Mickey Mouse did NOT sing the song. With a very concerned and confused look on her face, she immediately wanted to know was who sang the song. So I told her Mickey HENDERSON sang "The End of the Beginning". She repeated "Mickey Henderson" methodically to be sure she was saying each syllable correctly. I saw the light breaking through in her mind and got so excited for fleeting moment until she so sweetly said: "Okay, Momma - can we listen to the Mickey Hen-der-son song?"
So this year, without any more attention paid to the fact that she definitely knows the correct name of the song she loves to sing, the moment we get in the car she starts begging to hear "The Mickey HENDERSON Song". I've finally relented to that being the song's title to Kate from now on - but I'll keep working on the sprinkles, wiggles, little clippers, and all the other word switching as she gets older. They're definitely a precious part of being two - and it always keeps us laughing hearing which words she'll switch - but I don't want her to be 42 and still talking about swallowing diamonds every morning!!
And Mickey, if by any chance you're out there in cyberspace reading this, I want you to know my little girl's favorite Christmas song for two of her three Christmases is sung by you - and if there are any 2003 Singing Christmas Tree of FBC Lubbock choir members out there reading this, thanks for all your hard work on that CD! Who knew that 5 years later a tiny two year old little girl would be requesting that song over and over and over again?!?
There's no doubt Kate always knows exactly what she's saying, but sometimes I have to be her interpreter in public. The problem isn't her enunciation, her communication problem with other people is her odd choice of words - even when I know she knows exactly what the right word to use! I can usually make sense of it eventually, but sometimes she even throws me for a loop.
One of her funniest word substitutions that I'm hearing daily is for a Christmas song. I know this is going to sound pathetic, but I confess: I have a CD from the 2003 Singing Christmas Tree show our church back in Lubbock performed and there are a few songs on that CD I still love listening to during the Christmas season. My favorite song on the CD is "The End of the Beginning" sang by Mickey Henderson (the minister of music at the church in 2003) - and Kate has learned to love it as much or more than I do.
Here comes the particularly pathetic part of my story: we listen to it at least twice every time we're in the car during the holidays. We've made up hand motions to some of the words and belt it out horridly off-key at the top of our lungs as we cruise down the road in the Civic. We also have several other fun Christmas CDs - and this year I even bought Kate the Cedermont Kids Christmas CD set so she'll have kid Christmas music to enjoy - but that old recording of the Singing Christmas Tree track 9 is still Kate's favorite song. Last year I broke down and let her listen to it a few times in January, but by February whenever I finally decided we had to let the Christmas music go Kate literally cried and cried when I told her we couldn't listen to it until next Christmas.
When Cody and I listen to the song those first few times each season, we frequently talk about what a great singer Mickey is - we've never heard anyone else able to sing that song like he can. Kate must have overheard us talking because last year because she started requesting the song by begging for "The Mickey Mouse Song" (the only Mickey in her two year old world!). That title was cute last year and made us smile every time she said it, but this year since she's older I decided to teach her how to ask for her beloved song correctly. I told her over and over the actual title of the song and tried my best to get her to call it "The End of the Beginning" - words that she sings in the song and definitely can understand as well as say. But she kept calling it "The Mickey Mouse Song" by default. My last effort to amend the title in her mind was to tell her Mickey Mouse did NOT sing the song. With a very concerned and confused look on her face, she immediately wanted to know was who sang the song. So I told her Mickey HENDERSON sang "The End of the Beginning". She repeated "Mickey Henderson" methodically to be sure she was saying each syllable correctly. I saw the light breaking through in her mind and got so excited for fleeting moment until she so sweetly said: "Okay, Momma - can we listen to the Mickey Hen-der-son song?"
So this year, without any more attention paid to the fact that she definitely knows the correct name of the song she loves to sing, the moment we get in the car she starts begging to hear "The Mickey HENDERSON Song". I've finally relented to that being the song's title to Kate from now on - but I'll keep working on the sprinkles, wiggles, little clippers, and all the other word switching as she gets older. They're definitely a precious part of being two - and it always keeps us laughing hearing which words she'll switch - but I don't want her to be 42 and still talking about swallowing diamonds every morning!!
And Mickey, if by any chance you're out there in cyberspace reading this, I want you to know my little girl's favorite Christmas song for two of her three Christmases is sung by you - and if there are any 2003 Singing Christmas Tree of FBC Lubbock choir members out there reading this, thanks for all your hard work on that CD! Who knew that 5 years later a tiny two year old little girl would be requesting that song over and over and over again?!?
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