Sometimes I Write

Benny and I watched this movie Wednesday night and it was awesome! It is a documentary about the five missionary families that moved to Ecuador to bring God’s message to the Waodoni people (formerly known as the Aucas). In 1956, Jim Elliott, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Ed McCully were speared to death on a beach while trying to bring peace and God’s message to this savage tribe of people. The story is amazing, sad, full of hope and peace, and new beginnings. It’s a story of great courage and greater forgiveness. The wives stayed and successfully ministered to the very men who had killed their husbands. Steve Saint was a small boy when his father was killed, but one of his father’s killers, Mincaye, is now a surrogate grandfather of sorts to his children. Steven Curtis Chapman’s album DECLARATION features Mincaye singing/chanting on the song No Greater Love. SCC also attempted to tell Mincaye’s story in the song God Follower and he dedicated it to the Waodoni people. God can do amazing things with those who are willing to follow Him – even to their deaths. I can’t say enough about this movie, yet I don’t know how to shorten my thoughts down into a single blog post. Just trust me and RENT IT.

On January 20th, the movie The End of the Spear will be released. It is going to be good, but it will be even better because I watched Beyond the Gates of Splendor first.

I leave you with the words sung by Steven Curtis Chapman and Mincaye:

No Greater Love

God, creating from nothing, has made all the things around us.
While our hearts are beating and we are alive, let’s all believe.
Believe without being afraid.
I also to God’s place am going.
We believers are going to God’s place.
Let us all believe that.
How can it be that we will go?
If we are clean in our hearts, then let’s be out of here.
We, the believing ones, shall go up to God’s place.
All of us believers who are still living, we will be saying to ourselves,
“We want to go up to God’s place.”

Monday – Weighed in at Dr. Zack’s and I’ve lost 4 pounds since the first of the year. YEAH! I can’t do a cartwheel yet, but I feel 4 pounds lighter! 😉 Rearranged Homeschooling area. Cleaned -FUN! :{

Tuesday – DB staff meeting. Learned some new stuff – always do. Showed off the new tat to my friends since I wasn’t at pool night last Thursday. Talked on the phone…A LOT.

Wednesday – Started the day at Dr. Zack’s with the family, then to Starbucks for some chai. YUM! My health has improved greatly since receiving regular chiropractic care. We love Dr. Zack! He’s done wonders for our family. First day back to school since the month and a half long sabbatical for the holidays. Kids were antsy, but glad to be doing their work again. I guess the long break was more for me…go figure. Benny and I watched a movie – Beyond the Gates of Splendor – AMAZING -more details in tomorrow’s post. Stayed up late doing my BSF homework (at the last minute – I never learn).

Thursday – Pete’s first day of BSF, he did great! Had to explain the whole food allergy thing to his teachers and bring in his own snacks for snacktime. :{ Max was thrilled to be back, and the drama queen pitched a fit because she wanted to go to the Children’s Museum instead. (good grief!) Once again I felt a little odd in my group, but I really like my leader and I was glad to be back too. Spent the evening with three children in a nice, new Laundromat washing a King Size quilt with baby peepee on it. :{ Yeah, yuk, I know. If anyone would like to buy me a quadruple loader washer for my birthday, I wouldn’t object at all. It would make laundry for 5 people a cinch, and I never know when these little laundry emergencies will occur.

Friday – (The BEST day of this whole week!) Spent the day as a family. Tried to go to the Children’s Museum, but they had a small fire on the outside of the building two nights before so they were closed for a few days. (I don’t watch the news) We went to the Denver Aquarium instead. VERY expensive, but it was worth it for a special family date. We saw fish in all shapes, sizes, and colors. And there were sharks-big ones, sea horses, jellyfish, Nemo & Dory, a giant turtle, and many other creatures. We even fed some reys. It was a bit scary at first, but it was SO cool! Then we ate at a great authentic Mexican restaurant. Ran errands and took naps in the afternoon. We were greatly blessed through the mail by some out of town friends. But the best part was attending the baptism of one of the former streetkids. She said she was excited to see our van pull into the church parking lot, and she told Benny he was part of her decision. What an awesome compliment.

Saturday – (Today) Mommy/ Zoe date all morning shopping at thrift stores. Humor me and my frugalness for a minute here. Some of my gems of the day? A fuzzy pink bathrobe for the drama queen (1.50), two pairs of blue jean overalls for Petey (1.50 each), A Vtech Crazy Legs Learning Bug (.75)(retails for 17.99) :), Roper cowboy boots for Max (3.50), a bag consisting of 3 babies, clothes, and other “necessities” for their care (3.00),and a lovely lunch with my daughter complete with Lemon Creme Cake and two forks. (So much for my 4 pounds). I love a bargain, and I’m teaching my daughter to do the same…I hope. She definitely likes the shopping part. 😉

I’m off to watch some weight training videos with Benny. We start our weight training program at the gym on Monday. HooRah! I can do this! The videos are bad, but the techniques are great, so I’ll put up with the guy’s ego so he can teach me what he knows. Pretty soon I’ll be able to snatch the pebble from his hand…

I’ve been posting on Supermom about a few of my kids favorite bedtime stalling techniques. I affectionately titled one post Another Zoe Zinger. The girl is a quick thinker and she always has an answer for everything, or atleast a good comeback. I’m one of those types that thinks of the clever thing to say about five minutes too late, so she must get this from her Popa! She’s only three years old, but she continually cracks me up and sometimes exasperates me as you’ll see in the following paragraph.

I have white plastic dishpans that I sort the kid’s clothes into as I fold them, then it’s their job to put them away. (They’re decorated all cutesy for each child and their favorite things – thanks Family Fun magazine!) Even Pete at two years old knows how to put his clothes in his dresser. The other day I called the kids into the T.V. room to get their tubs. Zoe immediately told me she has too many clothes to put them all away by herself, as she dramatically flung herself onto the couch. I smiled and said, “I tell you what, I’ll give you a drink of my Pepsi if you put them away all by yourself”. She didn’t miss a beat. “I tell you what” she said to me. “I’ll give you a thousand bucks if you put them away all by yourself“. I was shocked and all I could do was burst out laughing! The nerve of that girl!!! Since when did I start bargaining with her for her chores? How did I fall into that little trap in the first place? The story ended with me carrying her tub to her dresser and her doing the job alone. No Pepsi shared. The thousand bucks would have been nice though.

For the past year I’ve really been into Flylady and getting my home and family organized. We’ve been decluttering like crazy since moving to Colorado. When you move and have to leave stuff by the dumpster because you don’t have room for it in the moving truck, you have too much stuff! Well, I’ve gotten my kids in on the act of decluttering too. I pay them a set amount of change for every toy, book, or piece of clothing they decide to “bless” someone else with. We were cleaning up their rooms the other day and I commented about the number of toys all over the floor and that maybe we needed to declutter their rooms again and give some away. My lazy little stinkers readily agreed and starting bringing me toys to take to DAV so they wouldn’t have to put them away! WHY do I spend money on toys for them??? Granted they’re usually from yard sales and such, but they don’t need all of that STUFF!

Petey likes us to repeat ourselves. I’ll tell him something and he’ll look at me questioningly and say, “What?” I’ll repeat myself and he’ll say “What?” again. The third time I just say, “You heard me” after which he laughs…hard. It’s hilarious to him. So today at naptime I told him to lay down so I could cover him up with his blanket. He said, “What?” and before I could say anything he looked at me and said, “You stutter?” Then I laughed. Benny must say “I didn’t stutter” instead of my “You heard me”. Little stinker! 😉

I find myself in a picture sort of mood today after changing my profile picture lastnight. I took the profile picture myself. These were done by a really great lady at Wallyworld. Benny and I make beautiful babies! 😉

I’ve enjoyed the comments about my new tattoo. Benny’s was especially funny! LOL He always knows how to make me laugh. A few of my regular commenters haven’t weighed in yet and I’m pretty curious what they’re thinking. It’s possible that they don’t approve of tattoos, which is o.k. as long as they don’t totally give up on me because of this. It’s also possible they haven’t been reading here much lately. I know I’ve had a hard time getting into the swing of things since Christmas. Either way I thought I’d share a few thoughts that have been racing through my mind regarding my tattoo. (Don’t be alarmed – all of my thoughts race.)

There are many people in my life that have a problem with tattoos. Most of them don’t read my blog so I’m not throwing it in their face. Benny’s mom comes to mind instantly. She loves me very much and we’re very close, but I’m not rushing to her in my excitement about my new body art. I know it makes her uncomfortable and I’d love to know why, but I don’t push it. I hope to have that discussion some day. She didn’t like Benny’s bald head when he first shaved it either, but now it has grown on her (bad pun – sorry). She’s also had ten years to get used to it! 🙂

A year ago I was right where most of my friends who’ve commented are at. I couldn’t imagine asking someone to inflict pain on me with a tiny needle. It sounds insane! But then Benny got his tattoo and I loved it. Somewhere in the back of my mind it became a possibility. I talked to Benny about it and told him I would never do it unless it was uniquely mine (like his is unique to him) and it had to be something of great meaning to me. I have never found anything I would want on my body for the rest of my life until now. I’m glad so many people like it, and I hope it is a tool for me to share Jesus with people. I did it for me, and secondly for those whose ears would be open because of it.

I’m not sure why there are so many in the religious community who have a problem with body art. While I was growing up, tattooed and pierced people were looked down upon by “good folk”. It was a sign of fast living and bad choices made. I know there are many, many, people who are decorated for less than honorable reasons and with very “worldly” pictures and symbols. But like a lot of other things in this world (like holidays, stories, etc.) we can take what may have originally been meant for worldly means and claim them for Christ. For example:

Benny and I attended a Youth Specialties Youth Workers Convention in St. Louis in 2003. Jay Bakker (son of Jim & Tammy Faye) was one of the speakers that year and he had quite a following of youth workers there. These youth ministers and volunteers looked as Goth as some of the outcasts you know in your neighborhoods and local schools. I have never seen so many piercings and tattoos on Christians before, and it was clearly obvious to everyone around them that they loved Jesus and they loved teens. They were reaching out to a different crowd of teens than those that line your church pews on Sundays. My guess is that their looks got their feet in the door with the kids that don’t fit the church mold. It was not an act or a show. They were comfortable in their skin, and if I can teach you anything about teens, hear this: They can spot a fake a mile away.

This is Benny’s tattoo. It’s on the inside of his wrist and it’s a little smaller than a half dollar. The symbol is the Japanese kanji for “Oak” which is what God has been telling Benny his name is, and who he is becoming. He is strong with deep roots, and he is to be a place where people find shade and rest. The four dots are me and the kids, with room to add more when we adopt.:)

Body art tells the story of the one wearing it. Pay attention. Like me, the tattooed person may be waiting to explain why they chose the designs they did. People like to tell their story. We all have that deep need to be heard or known, or atleast be able to express ourselves. That’s one of the reasons there are now over 50 million blogs on the web written by people from all over the world.