The Change

No, not that change… I’m not old enough to be experiencing “personal summers”! I’m changing the blog.

Okay, I’m still pretty new to the blogosphere, and I may not have fully found my niche yet. But I know this.

I’m not here to:

• Sound off on current events
• Tell everyone how to behave
• Warn you all about the dangers of ball pits, aspartame, wealthy Nigerians who need your help moving millions of dollars from their homeland, or Formosan Subterranean Termites in your bark mulch. Snopes has definitely got the corner on that market!
• I’m especially not here to subject you to introspective, self-obsessed, navel-gazing, ramblings.

That said, here’s a little peek into my head, about why I’m moving the blog.

Homes Cooler.

(Homes Cool. Home’s cool. Homes-Cool. Homes Cooler. Home’s cooler. Homes-Cooler.)

Yes, it is. Exactly. But not unique enough. I tried at least four or five times to get a configuration that wasn’t already in use, just on blogspot alone. So, maybe that’s my ego peeping through (who knew?!) but I would like to have a name that is a bit more unique.

Also, yes – we are one year into homeschooling – but that does not sum up who we are. That is not our whole identity! Our identity is in Jesus.

The blog is really for our friends and family. If you’re not our friends and family, go ahead and have a look. :0) Leave a comment and say ‘hi’, if you’re so inclined. But if you are our family and friends, (of if you’re lost, and you’re interested), our further adventures can be found over at Herding Grasshoppers.

I’ll try to keep a link from one blog to the other in an obvious place, because if there’s a way to easily move the ‘old’ posts to the ‘new’ blog, I am not tech-savvy enough to know it.

And I’m okay with that.

It's All About Me

My friend, Mel-Beth, sent this to me yesterday. I'll post my answers here, and maybe see if the boys will put up theirs later. Might have to change a couple categories for them, to make it more interesting.

So, just for fun...


Two names you are called:
1. Mama
2. Zena, Queen of the Testosterzone

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Jeans
2. My "holeys" - the boys' name for 'crocs' (the rubber clogs with holes in them)

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship:
1. Backbone-of-steel commitment to God and each other
2. HUMOR

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. Vacation with my family
2. Read

Two things you want badly at the moment:
1. Tate's hearing to be miraculously restored
2. The body I had when I was about 20 (sigh!)

Two books you're reading:
1. The Bible (duh)
2. "Family Driven Faith" (Voddie Baucham)

Two things I did last night:
1. Slept
2. Laundry (ah, it's an exciting life)

Two things you ate today:
1. Mongolian Grill (veggies, beef, and noodles)
2. PBJ

Two people you last talked with:
1. Kerry
2. Boys (well THAT was predictable!)

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. Taking Wyatt to the orthodontist (I can see our 'economic stimulus check' waving bye bye)
2. Homeschool

Two longest road-trips:
1. Pacific Northwest to L.A.
2. Fourteen days through the Australian outback

Two favorite holidays:
1. Christmas
2. Thanksgiving

Two favorite beverages:
1. Vanilla coke (yes, I know how unhealthy it is)
2. Iced Tea (sweetened)

Two things about me you may not have known:
1. Lived a year in Australia
2. Sailed from Portland to Hawaii

Two jobs I have had in my life:
1. Wilderness guide
2. Adventure Camp leader

Two places I have lived in the U.S. (besides current home)
1. Three Lakes, Wisconsin
2. Lahaina, Maui

Two of my favorite foods:
1. Fresh PNW strawberries (not those tasteless California imitations!)
2. Fresh raspberry pie

Was it just Mother's Day?

I think it must’ve been, given that my sister hosted the fam for lunch, and not only cooked a ham, but also served my favorite (my recipe!) berry pie for dessert! So that was just grand. Thanks, Tami. :0)

I’m not the girly-girl type, and don’t have any little girls of my own, so Mother’s Day doesn’t conjure up any frilly images of High Tea, wearing silly hats, or having spa treatments. And given that Mother’s Day is supposed to be a day for mothers to relax, guess who is in charge of planning the event?

Yeah.



The ‘highlights’ of this Mother’s Day mark it unmistakably with the fingerprints of the males in this household.



10. Indulging myself with a long shower in the morning before church (in the belief that Daddy would get the kids their breakfast, just this once) was a tactical error. My fragrant bubble burst when I arrived downstairs and found the boys in the playroom having a Lego battle, not dressed or fed, and Daddy asleep on the living room couch. Guess who got everyone ready for church while Daddy shaved?

9. No flowers. No candles. No chocolates. I received two books of cartoons! I do enjoy Calvin and Hobbes, but Zits is a bit depressing.

8. We spent the first part of the afternoon watching a movie…. Disney’s animated “Aladdin”!

7. Daddy spent the rest of the afternoon absorbed in the magazines he brought from home, while the boys…

6. Chased each other around the house with Nerf dart guns,

5. Wrestled with each other, resulting in general stinkiness and one ripped sweater,

4. Played baseball in the backyard, while we sat on the deck and visited (and some read magazines...) until one boy who-shall-remain-nameless hit a ‘foul ball’… right into Ann Marie’s eye, (I’m so so sorry!),

3. Decided baseball was dangerous, and it would be ‘better’ to amuse themselves by either throwing the balls AT each other on purpose, or to throw a ball up in the air and then quickly throw the bat in the air to try to hit the ball in the air… directly over their heads,

2. Then, on being prevented from continuing THIS little stunt, moved on to paper airplanes, a much less exciting form of entertainment,

1. So they revved up the ‘fun factor’ by throwing the airplanes (deliberately) onto Aunt Tami’s roof, so that they HAD to get out the ladder because they HAD to go up there to retrieve the airplanes. And that still wasn’t quite fun enough, so they decided that instead of coming down the ladder, they preferred to jump from the roof. Barefoot.


It’s amazing that we didn’t spend Mother’s Day in the ER!

Actually there were some sweet spots to Mother’s Day… each boy presented me with a handmade card, illustrated, with a list of things he appreciates about me. VERY sweet!

And Gunnar (finally) pulled out his second front tooth. It was about time, as the “big” teeth had actually grown in behind his baby teeth (since he was so reluctant to pull them out!) and we were teasing him that he looked like a shark!

Kerry, absorbed in “The Economist”, missed the whole thing.

But Father's Day isn't far off...

"Just" a Mom...

This has been floating around the internet for a few years, but in (belated) honor of Mother's Day, I'm posting it here.


A woman, renewing her driver's license, was asked by the woman recorder to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.

"What I mean is, " explained the recorder, "do you have a job or are you just a ...?"

"Of course I have a job," snapped the woman. "I'm a Mom."

"We don't list 'Mom' as an occupation, 'housewife' covers it," said the recorder emphatically.

I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the same situation, this time at our own Town Hall. The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised, efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like, 'Official Interrogator' or 'Town Registrar.'

"What is your occupation?" she probed.

What made me say it? I don't know. The words simply popped out.

"I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations."

The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair and looked up as though she had not heard right.

I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words. Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written, in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.

"Might I ask," said the clerk with new interest, "just what you do in your field?"

Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I heard myself reply, "I have a continuing program of research, (what mother doesn't) in the laboratory and in the field, (normally I would have said indoors and out). I'm working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family) and already have four credits (all daughters). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities, (any mother care to disagree?) and I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it). But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers and the rewards are more of a satisfaction, rather than just money."

There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.

As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants -- ages 13, 7, and 3. Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model, (a 6 month old baby) in the child development program, testing out a new vocal pattern.

I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy! And I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than "just a Mom."

Motherhood! What a glorious career!
Especially when there's a title on the door.

This would make grandmothers 'Senior Research associates in the field of Child Development and Human Relations', great grandmothers 'Executive Senior Research Associates', and aunts 'Associate Research Assistants.'

Feel better?!