It's Time. Come Sit Next to Me?

I think it's time for me to spill the beans.

Let them fall where they will.

During the summer this blog has been a light place...a shallow place...a blah, blah, blah place, a talk about everything and nothing place.

A blog filled with coupons

recipes

jelly

that sort of nice, neat stuff that keeps me out of trouble and my inbox less full.

A restful place.

I'll still talk about coupons and less weighty things but those who know me well know far too well that my mind and my heart are never as light and fluffy as what's been floating around these parts of the internet.

The people who know me...really know me...walk in my door and say, "So tell me all the things not on the blog."

I smile and thank God for friends.

Lots has been going on in my brain.

Lots of thoughts about life...

church...

what's important...

what's probably not

I've had so many thoughts that I was afraid to let them all fall out for you to read.

Okay, maybe "afraid" is the wrong word.

Maybe just "not ready" or "not fully baked" or "too raw to be enjoyable to anyone."

More like the thoughts were all one big ugly blob of incomprehensible pieces.

But it's time.

The thoughts are becoming more and more clear...

Clear.

I said clear...

Not right

or good

or above rethinking.

Just clearer.

Clear enough to see and describe instead of feel and cry...or smile...or laugh...or get "into it" with Aaron because I'm not handling all these new things very well.

Many changes have happened in our life over the past few months.

Most of what we knew and had known for a very long time is no longer the same.

That can send a girl into some kind of shock or something...even if the changes are overall good ones.

It's taken me a little time to process.

But now I'm ready.

I'm ready to talk about Family Integrated Church. ( New Life isn't a Family Integrated Church, but still...I want to talk about it anyway because in some ways Family Integrated Church has shaped us, and in some ways it hasn't.)

Babies and children in Church

Some big changes in our minds as a couple about ministry

Some things we're doing differently.

Some things that are the same.

All the while knowing new things can be good, or bad...they can flop and fail...but they can also be revolutionary, so we're okay with the risk.

Election

multigenerational community

Ministry happening through life instead of primarily through programs

The end of the world

Being more sustainable

Kickin' it to "The Man"

Living simpler

and oh so much more

Behind the scenes there has been a lot going on here in Hendrickville.

Many good conversations.

Many hard ones.

Many productive conversations.

Many...um...not so much.

I'm ready.

Ready to talk

listen

learn

Ready to be honest.

Will you sit with me over the next few weeks...

Will you speak?

Will you listen?

Will you learn?

Will you be honest?

I'm up for some great conversations where we talk with one another...not at each other.

Where hopefully we talk about serious things in a loving, grace-filled way, always ready to learn instead of walking in to the room ready to defend.

I'm willing to be wrong and to grow through correction, scripture and truth.

I'm excited to have my perspective changed or stretched or confirmed by all the great minds from various locations, states, countries, backgrounds and churches who visit our world through this blog. What a gift!

I'm finally ready to wrestle through these difficult, thought provoking ideas that will hopefully lead us one step closer to the truth of scripture, to the truth of the gospel and being able to live those things out better and better each day. My hope is that the things spoken here will help grow in us a love for true community and a love for the church in a "lay down our life for it" sort of way.

Hope you'll pull up a chair and join me over the next few months.

I promise to throw in some light topics in between the not so light ones.

Every brain needs a break.

A Riddle

What do you get when you cross learning how to make gumbo with watching Nacho Libre?

Gumbo Libre

Ryan is teaching me to make gumbo today, and we're making him watch Nacho Libre.

So, we're calling this day Gumbo Libre Day.

Ryan has never watched Nacho Libre.

I know. You're right.

It IS a miracle we like him.

One of my Favorite Things about Kindergarten:

Letting my little ones sprawl out on the floor next to their mother at the computer.

They relax and then tell me whatever story is in their brain.

I type so fast, I think my fingers might fly off.

I learned this activity while watching a documentary on PBS about educating boys.

Generally boys don't like to write.

So, some times it's easy to think there's nothing in their brain since nothing usually comes out on paper.

This is very different from most girls. Most girls are filling up journals, writing notes and love letters in Kindergarten while the boys blankly stare at their empty papers. It's easy to think that girls are smart and boys are cavemen.

By typing their creations for them, I have found that even little male Kindergartners have vivid stories running around in their minds, and they can describe the pictures in their imaginations with brilliant, creative vocabularies.

Oh how I love their stories!

Enjoy!

Dealing with the Issues

You're invited to learn to compost with us.
Details below!

Issue Number One:

We try every year to have a garden, and we grow a big fat pile of nothing.

E for effort?

That's nice, but I'd rather have an eggplant for my effort.

Maybe the reason why we Hendricks plant gardens but never get any food out of them is because our soil is stupid.

Maybe.

Issue Number Two:

Six people make a bunch of trash. Our family makes so much trash we pay to have two trash cans.

If you asked Aaron what his wife's hobby is, he'll tell ya...

"She loves to make trash."

I'm truly gifted at it. This is another one of those made up areas in my mind where I've won a gold medal. I personally think I should be introduced as Heather Hendrick, Trash Making Gold Medalist, but I can't get it to catch on. Maybe I shouldn't imagine myself getting a gold medal for destroying the Earth. Instead, maybe I should make a huge, red "T" and sew it on the front of all my clothes. I'm so guilty!

Any time I watch anything on TV about reducing waste...about how we're all destroying the Earth...I am overcome with not so great feelings. I want to shout back at the TV...FINE...I know...it's me. I'm singlehandedly destroying the earth with all my stinkin' trash. I want to repent and change my ways.

Solution to Both of my Issues...

LEARN TO COMPOST!!

We Hendricks are going to be composters.

We've asked Thomas Supercinski to teach our family how to compost, and thankfully he has agreed to let us learn from him.

Thomas is a Master Composter.

I'm not sure what that means, but it conjures up images of ninjas for some reason, so we like it.

I think we should all start our compost class off by bowing to Thomas, with our hands together in front of our chests and say, "Master Composter."

Not really. I'll just do that in my mind.

Thomas and his wife Rachel are super smart (in about a billion ways) but particularly in ways relating to the garden. Rachel has answered many of my questions about food...making yogurt...jelly...bread...and probably other things too that I don't remember. The Supercinski's are a wealth of information. I have been extremely grateful for all of Rachel's help.

And...I'm not even kidding when I say this...

They actually get food out of their garden each season.

I know. Get out!

Want to learn how to compost with us? We think it would be fun to have a compost class together with our friends.

THE DETAILS

Compost Class
Saturday, September 19
2:30 p.m.
The cost...FREE!

To sign up, head over to the Supercinski's blog and let them know you are coming! Let us know you're coming too...just cause we like to know those things.

Our kids have to learn about composting in school this year. Got to love any opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Actually we're killing three birds (solving our soil issue, garbage issue and school issue). That's a lot of dead birds. Can you throw dead birds in your compost pile? If so, we're already well on our way.

Thanks Supercinskis! We Hendricks are excited to learn from you in a few weeks!

Because Today Is Wednesday

And the new season of Man Vs. Wild has begun.

So far this season we've noticed that in addition to branching out and trying all sorts of new feces, Bear seems to also be getting naked a lot these days.

He did naked push ups last week. Grossed me out as much as when he slept inside a dead camel.

Last week he ate deer poo. He goes on to explain himself (as if he could)..."Deers don't digest a lot of their food, so you can eat their dookie because what came out the back end is very similar to what went in the front end." Okay, those are my words...but what Bear said was similar to that, and he said it in a British accent. British people can say words like dookie and it sounds so brilliant you feel like you should be taking notes.

To this, my smart brother said, "Well if the deer poop is a lot like what the deer was eating to begin with, why doesn't he just eat some grass instead?"

Right...

Why doesn't he?

Instead of eating a foragers poop, why not just forage?

And instead of eating the apple out of a bear's poop, why doesn't he just look around for the apple tree?

Sheesh.

Below is something I wrote a couple years ago.

You know what the Hendrick boys (and their grossed out mother) will be doing tonight before bed.

Alrighty.

It's time to talk about this fella.

Oh yep.

Have you seen this show?

Man vs. Wild?

If not, here's what happens:

This man, Bear Grylls jumps out of a helicopter and lands in the middle of nowhere.

He has to get back to safety using only a few survival tools.

Usually those few survival tools consist of a flint, a shoelace and a water canteen.

I have seen this man smack a live fish with a piece of wood, hold up that fish and say, "This will make a tasty meal."

"That's nice," I think. It will. Fish is good. It's low in cholesterol. I'm glad this dirty man is going to get to eat.

But then he says, "Making a fire will be too much trouble, so I'm just going to eat it raw...right here...in front of you."

And then he does.

And then I gag.

Too much trouble to make a fire?

Too much TROUBLE?

It's more trouble to make a fire than to eat a fish RAW?

I would need a million years to wrap my brain around that logic.

Holding the stunned, flopping fish he says, like it's no big deal..."You take one big bite, then stick your hand in the hole, and rip all it's guts right out."

No. No you don't.

No. I want him to stop that.

My family begs me to watch this show with them.

At a rate of about three times per show this happens in our living room:

Bear does something so nasty that my boys start DANCING around the room, high-fiving each other, beating their chests, so proud of their hero and that they have the same boy parts that he has.

I on the other hand almost vomit into the cushions on the couch.

Here are some highlights of his shows that have sent me running out of the room or made me start beating the couch saying, "No! No! No! God please, No!"

He held up a cute little tree frog and said, "There are no poisonous tree frogs in the swamps of Louisiana."

"That's nice, I think."

And then he ate the frog.

And then Bear called that frog, "protein."

No. That was a frog, fool.

It was alive.

If that wasn't bad enough, he said, "You have to kill it on the first bite, or it wiggles all the way down your throat."

I almost gagged when I typed that.

Really.

I've seen him walk up to a dead animal and:

A. shew away the vultures and then start EATING the raw meat right off the bone. I'm not making this up. It was a zebra. And Bear almost threw up. I was practically crying, it was so traumatic.

B. talk about how the meat is too old and so he can't eat it or he would get a disease or something..."Whew!" I think..."I'm so glad he's not going to eat that, because that would be disgusting." But wait...hold the flint...that's when he starts eating the maggots.

The maggots.

He ate them.

Maggots.

I can't get over it.

I've seen this man pee on his shirt while saying, "Man my pee is stinky because I'm so dehydrated." "Gross," I thought. But not gross enough, obviously, because then he took that stinky pee shirt and WRAPPED IT AROUND HIS HEAD.

He wrapped his head with pee.

Stinky pee.

And the shirt was wrapped around his mouth.

Pee.

On his mouth.

And then he talked about how great it felt.

That's when I think, "I want to punch this man." I want to hit him with a stick, while sobbing and screaming, "Stop it! Just stop this! Please, I need you to stop doing these things!"

I've seen him eat LIVE snakes.

And then last night, I almost DIED when he ate a sheep's eye.

I had to type that sentence with my eyes SHUT, and now I am straining very hard to keep from looking up at the above sentence with said eye nasty in it.

I'm sure the point of this show is to do more than just make little boys, their dad, and sometimes Ryan, raise their hands and cheer when Bear does something so repulsive, you want to pretend it's a stunt...a magic trick, or an illusion.

I'm sure the point is to teach the audience how to survive if they were ever stranded in some far away, harsh environment.

But this show has not done that for me. Not at all. Instead, while watching it, I have actually said, out loud, unashamedly, "I hate nature."

It's true. God made it, but Bear makes me hate it. When I see all those mountains, and the snow and him eating maggots, it makes me glad to be on my couch; with my blanket; holding my Sonic cup full of clean, non-buggy water; in my house; in the city.

He has not made me excited about survival. My boys love it. They talk about Bear Grylls like he's a super hero. They would wear, WWBD bracelets. They make lean-to forts called, "shelters" in the back yard, in their bed room, and in the school room. If they are hungry and we're out running errands, they will talk FOREVER in the back seat about all the nasty things they could eat that they see on the side of the road, or in the floor at Target. I've heard Hayden say, "Man Versus Wild Man would eat this." I can say, "Put that down" without even looking back to see what he has. I know it's gross without turning around.

Before watching this show regularly, if you would have asked me if I would survive in the wilderness I would have given you an unsure, "I don't know. Probably."

Not anymore. Instead of honing my survival skills, Bear has taught me that if stranded in the middle of nowhere, I would do one thing:

DIE

I would die.

No question about it.

First I would cry.

And cry.

And cry.

And if a bug even touched me, much less got into my mouth, that would be the end of me.

If someone said, "Now make a fire, with no matches or lighter," I would laugh so hard, I would pee on MY shirt, but not on purpose, and I would certainly NOT wrap my head with it.

No. I would cry that my shirt had pee on it, and I couldn't change my shirt, because I only had a flint and a water canteen, neither of them sufficient for shirt replacing.

I would sit on the ground, after wrapping myself in my coat and cry...and then a bear would eat me.

Bear Grylls has taught me to stay home. He has taught me not to venture far from a highway.

Bear Grylls has taught me to never pack light. And where do you buy a flint? I'm getting one sewn onto my leg or something.

And what about his camera man?

How does camera man not at least GROAN when he sees Bear squeeze a big Elephant Poo into his mouth, so he can "rehydrate" on the pachyderm's poopy liquid?

How does one keep silent when witnessing someone squeeze Elephant poo juice into their mouth?

How?

How does the camera man not say, "Dude...seriously. I'm going to hit you if you do something like that again."

And what about his wife?

If Aaron came home from being stranded in some awful place, but told me he wrapped his head in pee and then ate maggots to survive, I would stand far away from him, tell him I loved him in sign language, blow him a kiss, but then demand that he go swim in a pool of gasoline, set himself on fire and then get his teeth ripped out at the dentist.

Welcome home, honey!

Incredible

Aaron's mom sent this to us. If you have kids, I think they will be as fascinated by this as mine were.

Last night I called the boys downstairs to watch the video while I finished up the last 10 minutes of dinner.

My plan was to be dishing out the soup into bowls and finishing setting the table while they watched the movie Grandma sent.

Forget the soup.

This was amazing.

From Aaron's mom:

"It shows a young sand-painter...Her subject is World War II -- young love, separation caused by war, death, and memories of the past. The piece begins with the radio announcement of German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 and ends with the words 'You are always near us.' "

The boys and I were in awe. Art moves this family.

I was in tears, even though I know nothing of war. Aaron and I watched a movie not long ago about young Russian soldiers yanked up and thrown into war without any training. Tragic and painful to watch.

Right in the middle of the movie Grandma sent us, Aaron rounds the corner, looks at the computer screen for a minute and then says, "What is this? Jerusalem's Got Talent?"

Way to break the beauty of the moment Honey.

And no. But you're close.

Ukraine's Got Talent.

He can be so annoyingly funny some times.

You'll look at your sandbox outside differently after you watch the movie.

Hopefully our kids will too!

Trying Something New

This summer I learned to do about a million and one cool things...like make yogurt, jelly, bread, can salsa...that kind of neat-o stuff.

I feel like I'm getting the hang of all these new things I'm doing and this new way of life where the food is healthier but takes a little more effort.

I'm wondering if I'll be able to keep up with all this once school is going and blowing. So, I'm reworking my schedule. During the summer, with no teaching or structured learning going on I could make my yogurt any ol' time I wanted.

Not now with my whole morning filled with schooling my kids.

I've enlisted the help of some college girls to come help me sporadically when I bake a bunch of bread or do any of the other tons of things I've been doing this summer in the kitchen. Those girls seem to be excited about jumping in with me on these new projects. I'm excited about getting to know them better as we stir bowls of dough right next to one other.

Besides getting school done on Mondays, I have two goals...

Bake a bunch of junk to eat off of all week. I'm making 6 loaves of bread today, one loaf of banana bread and a pan of banana muffins. We'll eat the bread with dinner and it will be a healthier snack for my kids in the afternoon. Homemade bread with homemade jelly on it...um...that will make you happy, and maybe fat. The banana bread and muffins can be for snacks too, but more so for breakfast.

My other goal on Mondays....

Make a huge pot of soup for supper. That way, we can eat off of it for lunch most of the week. Snacks and lunch are still the two areas where we're not eating as healthy as I want to be eating in this house. Lynsey and Kirby gave me the soup and baking day ideas.

School is done today. We had a few glitches, but overall it went beautifully. Either God is really merciful even over the details of our lives and totally in control of Hudson's sleep schedule and personality or I just have the happiest, sweetest baby ever. All of those things are probably true.

Today as I was walking out of the library, I saw myself in this huge big glass near the entrance to the building. There I was...

Wearing my peasant skirt.

Brown glasses.

With my four kids.

One of those is a cute brown baby.

I had my huge tub of library books on my hip...

And I was on my way home to finish homeschooling my kids and start making yogurt.

WHO THE HECK AM I?

I'm a full blown hippy.

I used to make fun of people like me.

As of right now I haven't smoked pot but let's admit it...at the rate I'm going I probably will. Kidding...maybe.

Hope you still want to be my friend!

By the way....my house smells really great right now.

If I get as big as a house, you'll all know why...it's the homemade bread.

Hope your first day of school was as sweet as my house smells right now.

First Day of School

School starts today! If you're new here, we home educate our kids. If you want to know why we homeschool, I wrote about our choice here in an earlier post.

Our public school friends are headed back to the classroom. Aaron's school job started bright and early this morning as he filmed all the public schoolers on their first day today.

Hendrick Academy started promptly at 8 a.m.

For those interested, here's a look at what life will be like in the Hendrick Hizz-ouse this semester.

DAILY SCHEDULE

We finally landed on a daily schedule.

6:00 Mom wakes up, reads her Bible, gets dressed.

7:00 Wake up the boys. They get dressed and read their Bibles.

7:30 A real life breakfast while Aaron teaches us a little somethin' somethin' from God's Word

8:00 Start school

This year is my first year to teach three grades. I was a little sick to my stomach about this until I sat down last month and lesson planned our year. Now that everything is written down on paper and there's a plan I'm feeling better about this year. Teaching three grades always makes me think of Little House on the Prairie with the one room schoolroom. Never in a million years did I think this was going to be my life, but it is...and it's kind of cool.

It will still be a lot of work teaching three grades, because homeschooling is a lot of work...but at least I don't feel nauseous now. Every time I add a new grade to teach, it just becomes more and more obvious that I have to be more and more disciplined with my time. There's always room for growth, and I'm beginning to look forward to this year and what it will bring for the boy's brains and what I'll learn about using my time more efficiently. All this from the girl who used to hate any sort of structure or discipline...hmm...I guess it's not all that bad.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

For you fellow homeschoolers or soon to be homeschoolers, here's a look what we're doing and learning this year. I'm trying more of a block format for a couple subjects, so we'll see how that goes. This will bore some of you. But if you're nosy like me, I always enjoy finding out what everyone else's schedules look like.

Mondays

Read Bibles
Math (All of our boys use Math U See)
2 sections of LA (We use these books)
Spelling (We use these books)
Handwriting (Anson uses the cursive book from A Beka, the other boys write their spelling words in their best handwriting on handwriting tablets.)
Reading (the boys read to me, and I read to them)
Unit (this is whatever science or history we're studying from the curriculum we use.)

Tuesdays

Read Bibles
Math
Sayings (we learn common sayings and illustrate a book with them all year. An example..."When it Rains It Pours")
Reading
Unit
Spelling
Write sentences with half of the spelling words

Jenn had a great idea that I'm using this year. The boys have to write sentences with all their spelling words each week. On Fridays, I go over all their sentences with them and correct any spelling or grammatical errors. Then, they rewrite the sentences that needed some work. Even though I know my boys know that all sentences start with capital letters, etc. they get lazy and don't always do what they know, or proofread their work. This year on Fridays when I check their work they each have a list of things I'm checking each sentence for each week. These lists vary according to their age. For every sentence that is 100% correct (according to their own grading system for their age) they get 5 minutes of video game time on Saturdays. They can earn up to 1 hour. That's an incentive that will work for my boys! I'm excited about the pretty sentences I'll see on Fridays.

Wednesdays

Read Bible
Math
2 sections of LA
Spelling
Handwriting
Reading
Unit

Thursdays

Read Bible
Math
Poetry
Spelling
Write the rest of their Spelling sentences
Reading
Unit

Friday

Read Bible
Creative Writing and Drawing using this book. I bought one for each of the boys this year.
Spelling Test
Correct Spelling sentences
Reading
Catch-all (time to finish up anything we didn't finish Monday-Thursday)
Unit

FUN EXTRAS

Something else I'm excited about...

We're adding our own Hendrick Version of Music Appreciation.

Aaron and I have come up with some themes...

50's music
20's music
Michael Jackson
60's music
80's music
Beetles

Six themes, broken up by six week studies.

During each theme, we're loading up their MP3 players with songs from that era or theme.

They will listen to them during the day when they have free time.

At the end of the six weeks, they will take a test where they have to name that tune, or name that artist, or sing parts of the lyrics. We want to make it fun. We're still trying to think of a creative reward to give them for their music tests.

What I really want to do...host a SOCK HOP! I want to teach a bunch of kids how to jitterbug and then host a big stinkin' sock hop. Aaron and his peeps can be the band. Wouldn't that be fun? Poodle skirts and leather jackets...this sock hop is already happening in my brain.

Anson and Ashton are playing soccer.

I'm signing Hayden up for hip hop dancing this week at Suzanne's.

They have Truth and Grace (a scripture memorization program through our church).

I think it's going to be a great semester filled with learning, new friends, new relationships, and new ways of learning to think and see the world.

If this is your first week back to school, I pray it's a good one! I'm also praying for lots of opportunities this semester to really share the gospel and for opportunities to tell people about the Lord. No matter what our semesters look like, or how they differ I pray we're all looking for intentional ways to share the love of Christ with everyone God puts into our lives this semester!

A Moment On the Couch

Hayden comes to me and says, "Ashton is upstairs saying he's the dumbest person ever."

"What? Why?" I said.

"Because he can't draw as well as I can."

"Well," I said..."Were you saying you were a better drawer than him?"

"No. I was just drawing. I wasn't saying anything."

Called the little brother downstairs.

In an all boy household, there's a lot of competition up in here.

It's real.

It's rough.

It's a part of life.

Do you know how many times a day I say, "Hey you guys...we're about to (insert just about anything right here) and before we start I want you to know...this is not a race."

I wish I knew how to handle this intense need for competition well, but it's so multifaceted that it seems like we sort of handle it in sections for now, doing the best we can to figure out what to say in light of what the Bible says. Some days bring progress. Some days don't.

Ashton was sad because he can't draw "as good as Hayden."

To that cute little boy super sad on the couch I wanted to say, "Yes you can."

Instead, I chose to tell the truth. If you hold a picture up that Ashton drew next to a picture of one that Hayden drew, you'd have to lie to say they were equally great.

"No. You aren't as good of a drawer as Hayden. Do you know why?"

"No" Ashton answered.

"Because Hayden draws every spare second of the day. Do you practice drawing that much?"

"No."

"And, Hayden is better at drawing than you because he's older. Are you going to grow up one day?"

"Yes."

"Then it's pretty exciting to know that if you practice drawing as much as Hayden does, and you get a little older...you will be able to draw as well as Hayden does right now."

I reminded Ashton that God has gifted everyone differently, no one is magically good at things. Being a great (fill in the blank) takes time. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of practice. Magically morphing into something fantastic is a myth. I'm wondering with all the "positive parenting" books around filled with 1,000 ways to build your child's self-esteem (or should we call it 1,000 ways to lie to our kids) if children these days know that no one gets great at anything unless they work their be-hind off. Every time I see the auditions for American Idol I can't help but think, "Where are their parents? Why does this person think they can sing?"

I told Ashton that if he wanted to get good at drawing, he needed to go practice. If he didn't practice, he wasn't going to be great at it.

I also told all the boys that yes...with practice, you can usually get pretty good at whatever you're working on. However, sometimes you can try your hardest for a very long time and still not be as great as someone else. Thankfully we're to use our gifts to please God and bring glory and honor to Him. He's the standard. His approval is what matters. Not the approval of other people.

That's life. That's the truth.

I felt sort of like the worst mom ever in this moment. Really. I felt like the mom off Malcolm in the Middle. But I keep wondering if this social norm of convincing children they are just as good at everything as everyone else is a little ridiculous. We never want them to lose. We never want them to lose out to other more talented kids. When they do, is it just me, or instead of admitting "that other kid" was freakishly great, do we instead try to act like the judging system was flawed. I don't want to be that person.

But more than anything, I wanted them to know that this tendency in us to want things to come easy isn't good. It's not realistic. You can't even find those ideas in scripture. Want to live a holy life? Scripture says something we all hate to hear. We're to strive for holiness (Heb. 12:14). Our works don't save us, but once saved scripture uses hard verbs to describe our journey to become more like Christ. We're to diligently participate with God in our sanctification. We study. Pray. Listen. Seek out wise counsel. Growth comes through trials, something else I sort of hate. God uses great words like endurance, perseverance, diligence, training, discipline. Our sin doesn't fall off of us. Instead, scripture says to STRIP it off ourselves. It's only by God's grace we can do any of those things, but as believers He's given us everything we need to live a godly life. Nowhere does He say that will come easy. Instead, He says work hard at it.

I want to teach those things to our kids. Want to be a great artist? Work your tiny butt off. Draw till your fingers cramp. Don't leave the house without your doodle pad. Be passionate. Be focused.

We also had a great talk about jealousy in the middle of this whole ugly ordeal. This bent in us towards jealousy of other people and their gifts isn't what God wants for us either.

I truly believe it honors God more when we see someone with an amazing talent to be inspired by it, instead of jealous of it.

"Ashton, we're all prone to be jealous of others. We're all sinful that way. But, instead of looking at Hayden's pictures and being jealous or condemning yourself for not being as great of an artist right now, I wish you could look at those pictures and let Hayden's talent inspire you. I want us to pray that God will help you look at Hayden's art and think good things of Hayden and greater things about the God who put that gift inside your brother. Instead of thinking ugly things about Hayden and his art, you could even ask him to help you...to teach you."

Wouldn't it be great if we could look at every gift God gives people and instead of being jealous and yuck in our hearts, look at those things as true inspirations of how good we could get if we worked a little more diligently, and thanked God for how real and incredible His gifts are made known through normal, every day people?"

We are probably not doing everything right but that's where we are in this journey of dealing with gifts, ability, competition and jealousy. Anyone else dealing with this in their house? Got any great scriptures you use?

We are trying to teach the older boys about humility in place of pride and boasting.

We're trying to teach them about being hard workers, passionate and diligent.

We're trying to teach them to have a sober view of themselves instead of an inflated view of themselves (something that flies right in the face of anything secular you'll read about parenting these days).

I'm trying to study up on what it means as a believer to have a good self-esteem. In secular circles, self-esteem is a very man centered thing. What does it mean to build our kids up while pointing them away from themselves as the focus and shifting their gaze towards Christ? I really don't know the answer to that, so if someone else does...you can tell me.

Oh boys.

Leftover Books

We sold about half of our books at the book sale last Saturday.

We were glad to see so many books go to good homes, but when you have about 2,000 books if you sell half of them that means you still have a lot leftover!

When Aaron brought the books back, I couldn't believe there were so many great ones still in our possession.

We will have another book sale when it gets cooler. We'll advertise it in the paper, and hopefully get rid of the other half of these books.

Until then, if you missed the book sale and want to come look at the books in the garage you are welcome to buy them that way. Just email me and set up a time to come. I recommend coming in the evening. It can be pretty hot out there!

Why Does It Have to End?

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I love vacation.

We've gone on several mini vacations this summer.

This week we headed to Brenham to spend the week with our family.

I didn't want to leave!

That's how you know it was a great vacation.

The boys swam.

We ate farm fresh eggs every morning and grass fed something or other every night.

Kirby and Charlie came up and stayed a couple days.

We canned 88 jars of salsa.

Get out of town!

We also began the daunting task of putting dates on the calendar for the upcoming coupon class tour.

We had so much fun laughing with our friends and family.

I loved spending time with my sister-in-law.

Isn't it an extra blessing to have a sister-in-law you would choose as a close friend even if you weren't related?

I was thinking today about how much I love Lynsey. I think I would have been her roommate in college.

That says a lot, doesn't it?

She taught me so many smart things and cooked the most delicious dinners for all of our families every night we were there.

Talk about a great vacation for this mommy!

Aaron and I stayed up late every night watching Arrested Development and talking about important things like this upcoming school year, this new church we're a part of...the good parts and the hard parts (mostly for me...I wonder sometimes if anything is hard for Aaron). We talked about ways to love each other better this year, to live out some of the things God is putting in our hearts...wow...

Vacation is good for the soul.

I'm already ready for another one.

Time Away

Posts will be few and far between this week.

We're in Brenham

Laughing with friends

Making 60 jars of salsa

Loving our family

Sitting with my sister in law

Snuggling my nieces

Swimming three times a day

Watching my brother work the land from sunup till sundown

and

Feasting on larger portions of things like

land

trees

breezes

lazy afternoons

stars

space to spread out

So far I've learned that boys fall asleep faster at night when they have been outside all day.

If You're Looking for Hudson

You can usually find him in his special spot...

The kitchen drawer.

He likes to take everything out.

Then put everything back in...

Including himself.

Then he starts his very important job of "taking out, putting in" all over again.

His little personality is bursting out lately.

It cracks us up that he's exactly like the books describe the baby of a family.

Loves attention.

Can be hysterically mischievous.

Will do anything for a laugh.

Knows he can find someone in this house to do exactly what he would like done.

Someone is always a sucker for his incredible cuteness.

Just look at him.

You know you couldn't resist either.

When I walk past this precious child in his favorite spot in the kitchen I can't help but think...

I wish every house could have a baby in a drawer.

Our Little Ham

I came back here to edit this post in case you are searching for Cinderella Rock information and got sent here by dear ol' google.

The play got shut down.

I think it was a scam.

Lots of people in our town lost all their money and have not been refunded.

Email me for details if you are thinking about letting your kids audition for this play!

hendrickcrew@gmail.com



Our craziest son will be in his first ever play this weekend.

It's called Cinderella Rock.

Hayden couldn't be more excited.

It's funny how different all these little ones are in our home.

I keep hearing Anson and Ashton saying things like...

"Hayden...you know there are going to be lots of people watching you, right?"

They sound terrified. Even Hudson has looked concerned.

To their terror, Hayden responds..."Yes! I'm going to be FAMOUS."

At Life Group on Wednesday, he shared his thought process with some of us...

"Maybe the newspaper is going to be there, and I'll get to be in the newspaper."

"Maybe I'll be on TV."

During his audition he had to be alone in a room with a grown up. He sang. He danced. He said some lines.

I had no idea how this was going to go. I had no script to practice with him. They didn't really say what Hayden would be doing during the audition...we had no idea what to expect.

When they called me back into the audition room, the first thing the lady said was "Well...he's definitely not shy."

Nope.

He isn't.

I could write more at this point about all the stage moms at the audition with their daughters...

But I need to pray more or something before I do. Right now...I just want to be mean and laugh.

Maybe some other time I'll describe that scene.

Book Sale...This Saturday!

Don't forget!

The Hendricks are hosting a huge book sale:

Saturday, August 15
12-4 p.m.
828 Tanglewood
Bryan, Texas

While the book sale is going on outside, the Apels will be hosting an open house inside. Their house is for sale. People can see how cute it is on Saturday.

Here's the scoop on the books...

We have somewhere between 1-2 THOUSAND books to sell.

Most were from an elementary school in Humble.

The rest were from a local teacher here in town.

Most books will be 50 cents.

Most of those books are elementary fiction. There are some nonfiction. Lots of junior high/high school fiction. Almost all of these are hardback books.

All easy readers will be 75 cents.

Books that will be $1 include:

Classics (many of these are books listed on the Sonlight reader list)

Contemporaries (Harry Potter, etc.)

Scholastic Books (Magic Tree House, some Nate the Great, Junie B. Jones, lots of popular books)

Abeka Readers

DK Books

Magic School Bus Books

Captain Underpants

Over 400 of the books we're selling are the uber popular, $1 books. The rest are great too...but I just want to stress that we have a lot of the very popular books to buy as well.

We have enjoyed growing our library and our hope is to provide an easy, one-stop shopping place for other families (and teachers) to grow their libraries as well.

No pre-sales. If you show up early, you'll be put to work putting the books on the tables, but no one will be "rung up" until noon.

If anyone is planning on camping out the night before on the Apel's front yard...you might let them know.

Hope to see you Saturday! Please spread the word!

What Do You Do Wednesday

Even though my plan was to use the What Do You Do Wednesday posts for entirely selfish reasons (unit extras) as per request from Ricci, today's topic is...

Bread!

New to "What do you do Wednesday?"

Here's how it started.

So far we've covered Favorite Breakfast Ideas, Favorite Soups, Favorite Salads, Family Worship, What to do with your kids instead of letting them watch TV, Favorite Internet Sites, How to inspire creativity in kids, Laundry Solutions, favorite recipes to cook when having people over, sleepovers, fevers, an entire series on efficiently running a house, and a whole week of ideas for being frugal.

I've been trying to be a bread maker lately. I don't have a bread machine, so my bread ends up tasting great, but looking ugly. See: I made this bread a couple days ago...


That's the story for a lot of my baked goods. Yummy and ugly.

So let's talk about all things bread today.

I have several friends PASSIONATE about bread making.

What are your favorite bread recipes?

What are the benefits for making bread over buying bread?

What's your favorite bread machine?

Which ones do you despise?

One of my favorite hippy chics, Mandi has a post on her blog about capturing her own yeast. Who knew. I'm trying it soon.

Join us in the comment section and let's talk about bread...how to make it...what tools to use...favorite recipes. Does anyone buy their ingredients in bulk? I want to, but don't know where to start.

Ready, set...go.

Eating Healthier

I mentioned below my quest to learn to eat healthier and teach my kids to make healthier food choices.

Trying to educate yourself about the chemicals in foods and the effects is daunting. It's a lot of work. It can be scary.

Trying to eat healthier can also be expensive and time consuming if you are trying to abruptly go from eating mostly processed foods to eating healthier alternatives.

I have gone back and forth...some times feeling full of gusto...working hard to buy healthier foods...and then some times feeling completely overwhelmed, not knowing where to start or what to do, so I give up for a month.

If that's you...as in, you're wanting to eat healthier food, the first thing I would recommend would be talking to your spouse.

At one point in our life, Aaron was not at all on board with the whole "eating better" thing. It totally ticked him off if I came home with less food, and more money withdrawn from our bank account.

Like everything else for women who are believers, our husbands have to be okay with our new healthy eating convictions. If they aren't then I don't recommend spending additional money on things that will make your husband irritated with you. I also don't recommend feeding him a dinner filled with tofu and bean sprouts, and calling that "bringing him good" if your husband doesn't agree with you!

It has taken years of gently talking to Aaron about eating healthier to get him to share my convictions. But...Aaron has come along way! The man who used to down Jack in the Box tacos every day for lunch and drink nothing but Pepsi now eats vegetables, nuts for snacks and drinks nothing but WATER. Who is he? I never thought I would see this day!

The second thing I recommend is taking one meal at a time. Just work on transitioning one meal.

I started with breakfast.

I took out sugary cereals filled with a bunch of weird things and substituted items like oatmeal, homemade yogurt, Naturals cereal (a healthier alternative) scrambled eggs, fruit smoothies (frozen fruit, homemade yogurt, and OJ) and jelly toast (with homemade jelly).

Until we got breakfast down, I didn't move on to other things.

The next step for me was dinner.

I wanted to learn to make the foods we already ate without any boxed or highly processed foods.

It took awhile, but now we don't use anything boxed or premade for our dinners. My goal is to eat food closer to its original form...you know...the way God made it. I try to do the majority of my shopping along the edges of the store, spending lots of time in the produce section, dairy department, meat department and frozen section for things like frozen veggies (not the ready made meals).

I'm still working on lunch and snacks.

Snacks are 1/2 healthier, since the first two snacks of the day have to be fruit in our house.

Again...we're getting there. We are making better choices than we were two years ago, but we've done it slowly, so I could have time to figure out how to make this work in a livable, affordable way. I still have lots to learn, and it's still overwhelming at times since I know we're only healthy for grocery store shoppers. People who buy their food from local farmers, etc. are in a different league than we are right now...but hopefully, one day, if that's the direction we're going to head as a family, I can learn that stuff too. We still eat a lot of cheese (not the cheese slices in the little papers...instead, cheese like cheddar, mozarella, etc) but I'm still not sure what all those ingredients in there are...but one day I'll get to that.

Anyone have similar experiences?

Anyone feeling overwhelmed?

One thing I know...there is always someone who is further along down the healthy food road. As I'm learning, I could not be more thankful for the women I know who know a lot more than I do and are so willing to help me! Find one of those ladies and ask questions!

I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm passionate about women not taking things that are personal convictions and making other people feel bad for not sharing those convictions.

The principle here (when dealing with food and coupons) is...

We need to be good stewards of our finances and good stewards of our bodies.

We all need to agree on that, and seek to live out those things in our lives as believers.

Where we can vary is in our methods.

For some people, taking care of their body means eating more fruit and and veggies and working out three times a week.

For other people, taking care of their body means eating all organic and buying milk from a dairy.

Let's all encourage one another to take care of the bodies God gave us. Our bodies are wonderful resources for serving the Lord. But I pray we are not ugly about wanting everyone to share our personal convictions, or only willing to hang out with people who do. Diversity is a beautiful thing as long as we're striving to live out the principles in scripture, while experiencing freedom in the methods (the ways we actually live those principles out in our own homes and lives).

Today I Turned Old

Tonight I had the perfect opportunity to spray someone "accidentally" with the sprayer on the sink at church.

I didn't.

I really wanted to.

I wanted to see their shocked face.

I wanted to laugh.

I wanted to see all that water not in the sink.

I almost did it.

But I didn't.

I could have easily pulled the trigger, but I paused...I thought...I did not spray them.

I think this is what getting old feels like.

I don't think I like it.

Need A Second to Think

Know what I'm doing right now?

Give up?

I'm trying to figure out a way to NEVER put the boy's laundry away ever again.

I know there is a way.

Yes...I've tried making them do it, and they do.

But I'm getting more and more irritated that their clothes are upstairs and the laundry room is downstairs.

Wouldn't it be the best if I could wash clothes and then put the kid's clothes away in the laundry room?

Who said your clothes have to be in your own bedroom? Who said that? Did anyone?

I'm super sick of climbing stairs.

I'm even more sick of sending kids upstairs to their bedrooms to get dressed and then them coming downstairs looking like little funky dressed goobers.

Know how many times I say, "Only wear things you've seen me put together for you?"

About three times a day.

I'm reworking the laundry room right now figuring out how to have their clothes in there.

I can fold them.

I can put them up as I fold them.

I can also stand right there and watch them pick their clothes out. No more traveling up and down the stairs in an "outfit" just to hear their mother say, "Sorry. I don't think so."

My head hurts from what I've organized so far.

I needed a breather.

I'm going to make this work.

Uh huh.

I am.

Anyone seen this kind of set up in any house besides the Duggar's? I mean, I'm like 42 kids short of what they have, but can I still do this?

Aren't Boys the Best?

I know I don't have any girls to compare my boys to, but it's hard for me not to wish every home had one of these crazy creatures inside it.

Tonight is Hayden's very first friend sleepover.

A few weeks ago, he spent the night for the first time ever with someone who wasn't a family member.

Jax Bacak

I want to kidnap this kid.

But we live right around the corner from his home, so I'm pretty sure his mom would find Jax really quick.

Tonight is also Jax's first non-family sleep over.

I explained to the boys tonight that they are now bonded for life because they shared each other's first over night, friend sleep over. I made a big stinkin' deal about how exciting this was...how cool it was to be each other's first friend to sleep over. Apparently, this kind of thing is not nearly as exciting for boys as it is for girls. I was expecting us all to jump around in circles together or make certificates after I made a big deal out of their first sleep overs.

Instead...they shrugged me off.

Boys

I always wanted a bunch of kids.

It wasn't until a few months ago that I realized something...

All my kids will have friends.

Sometimes that will make for lots of little boys running around our house and tooting in the back seat of my vehicle.

I know it sounds dumb, but I never thought about this idea before. When you have four boys, it feels like you already have your fair share of dirty, loud crazies in your life. Add to those crazies their own dirty, loud friends, and wow...I can't even imagine what the days ahead of me will look like.

Boys

I'd take another dozen or so.

Look at those cute indians up there. They spent all evening making their bow and arrows, deciding what tribe they were in (the Chero-tees) and fighting in the front yard. While helping them with their head dresses I also said, "Whoever is pooting the cheese needs to knock it off."

That's life with boys.

Book Update #2

We don't use Sonlight, but if you do...I just looked over most of the Sonlight reader lists and we have about 20 of the books on those lists.

They will be on the table labeled "Classics."

Just FYI

Book Update

As I go through more and more boxes, I'll try to give an update on the books I'm finding.

So far...

A BUNCH of Agatha Christie books

One big, full box of readers

and

for homeschoolers...

English Teacher's Manuals and Student Books from Rod and Staff Publishers: The Building Christian English Series

Your One Stop Book Shop

Exciting News!

We Hendricks are hosting a HUGE book sale!

(While Kirby and I are teaching women how to legally rob grocery stores, our husbands and children will be selling fantastic books on the other side of town!)

Saturday, August 15
12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
828 Tanglewood Drive
Bryan, Texas

Recently, Aaron bought between 1 and 2 THOUSAND books from an auction, and 375 books from a local teacher.

Why?

Because he's ridiculous when it comes to books.

And I love books too, so I am not a good balance for him in this department.

If Aaron said, "I spent all of our rent on Jack in the Box tacos," I'd be mad.

If Aaron said, "I spent all of our rent at Barnes and Noble," I'd say...

"OKAY!"

He did not spend our mortgage payment, but I'm just sayin'.

Humble ISD (Houston area) auctioned off the books from their elementary school library.

We could not pass them up.

We love books in a weird, we probably need counseling sort of way AND we know too many other people who do as well.

Our goal...

For book lovers, homeschooling families and teachers to be able to grow their libraries in ONE stop for really cheap.

You'll pay less than buying these from the store or online.

The only place you could buy books for cheaper than this is probably a garage sale, and to find this many good ones, it might take you five years of garage shopping.

Here's the run down of what we have in our possession...

Between 1-2 THOUSAND books from the Humble ISD library. We haven't finished counting these yet. We're working on it. That's a lot of books to count and sort, and our garage is smokin' hot right now. Prices may go up the longer I'm out there sweating my face off.

We have TONS of elementary age fiction

TONS of middle school/high school/young adult fiction

Lots of nonfiction for elementary/middle school/high school

Classics

Lots of history

Some coffee table books

Some easy readers

Most of those will be FIFTY CENTS EACH.

We have a huge box of homeschooling workbooks we might give away for free, or for almost free.

The only books that will be more than fifty cents are the three hundred books we bought from a teacher. Hers are too new and too perfect.

ALL Scholastic books, Magic Tree House, and AR readers will be ONE dollar.

Pretty Insane.

Please help me spread the word to your friends, families, new teachers and homeschooling families. The sale on August 15 will only be advertised on my blog and through local teacher and homeschool loops.

We want our friends and this community of readers to have the first chance to buy these books in one spot.

We will sell what is leftover on August 15 at another sale that will be advertised in the newspaper.

These books are fantastic, and we're excited to have grown our own home library, and just as excited to help other people grow their libraries as well.

Hooray for reading!

Please spread the word!

Chapter 7: The Rewards of Kindness

This chapter was so full of great stuff, I'm going to have to post about it in sections.

In the beginning of this chapter, Mahaney shares a story about one of her kids. Basically the child left the freezer door open in the garage. Everything in the full freezer was ruined. Carolyn explains how angry and upset she was with her child. She goes on to say...

"...if on my wedding day you had informed me that I would one day display such anger against my children, I probably would have thought you were crazy. Or if you predicted that I would occasionally struggle with bitterness toward the wonderful man I was marrying, I would have laughed at you. At the least, I would have concluded that you just didn't know me very well.

...I naturally assumed that I would treat my new husband and future children with more kindness, love and gentleness than I showed anyone else. Obviously, I was wrong. If you are a mother, I am willing to bet that you too have been shocked by the resentment or hostility you've felt (and most likely manifested) toward your own family members."

Already, I was encouraged by this older woman.

I want to be like Jesus. I want to be kind, gentle and gracious towards my family. Before knowing God, I was none of those things. So on one hand, God has done great things. He has changed me. He's conforming me, tangibly...visibly...in real obvious ways to be more like Him. On the other hand, I still struggle. I still lose it sometimes and say things to Aaron and my children I wish I could rewind and erase. There are days I'm so hurt by words I've used to say hurtful things to someone in my family that I cry out to the Lord..."Help me. Change me. I don't want ANY of this crap in my heart."

I get so sick of failing, and yet scripture warns us that we're human. We're sinful. Even in the midst of great victory over sin, we will still be tempted to sin against God and others.

I know how hurtful words can be. I've felt their sting. I know cruel words spoken by someone you trust and love seem to sit in your soul forever. Although God can give us the strength and the grace to forgive someone for inflicting those kinds of wounds, I also know that even once forgiven, there are scars. Hurtful words have a way of shaping us. They can come back to haunt us. The things we say to our children MATTER. This isn't pop psychology. Scripture attests to the harm words can do.

James 3:5-10
Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.

Proverbs 12:18
Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

The Bible goes so far as to say...

James 1:26
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

We are created as God's image bearers, to represent Him and His character. When ugly things come out of our mouthes, this is a big deal because we're lying about the character of God.

I hate it when I say anything cruel or ugly to my kids. My heart's desire is truly to bless them with the things that come out of my mouth, and yet I still fail sometimes. Not only do I hurt my kids, but even greater...I misrepresent God's character to the very people I'm praying come to know Him.

After reading the story about Mahaney getting upset about the freezer incident, I was encouraged.

She messes up too. She has said ugly things to her children. And yet...they love her. For those of you who follow the Girl Talk blog, you know...Mahaney's children adore their mother. They want to be with her. They go to her for advice. She is their favorite older woman to sit with and learn from. In spite of her mistakes, her children arise and call her blessed.

Isn't that encouraging? Before reading this chapter, I would have had to admit that I thought the only way my kids were going to have fond memories of their mother would be if God could get me to the point where I quit messing up. How silly. God can change me, but even in the midst of change and growth, God is still gracious enough to restore broken, messed up things.

I love how quickly Mahaney realizes her sin...her lack of self-control...her impatience. It reminds me of David. He was far from perfect, and yet his heart was quick to repent.

I was encouraged by Mahaney's examples of when she has acted foolishly towards one of her children. She asked God to forgive her. She asked her kids to forgive her, and she took very seriously her sin. Sin in the Mahaney home was always a chance to remind everyone of the gospel, of how much we need God, of how hopeless our lives are without Him, and yet how much hope there is for all of us because of the cross.

I don't want to be the mom who thinks I can act a fool to my family and a pat, "I'm sorry" should fix everything. It doesn't. "Sorry" without true repentance (an about-face...a visible change) is worthless.

I want to be a mother like Carolyn Mahaney who fails, repents, apologizes and reminds herself and her children that she's not okay with her lack of self control. I want to be faithful to remind my family I'm human. I struggle. I fail. Yet there is hope for me through the gospel. God is not finished with me yet, and I want to GROW in how I humbly submit myself to the Lord, asking Him for power and strength. I want my greatest desire in life to be pursuing the Lord, His goodness and His character. I want my kids to be comforted in the fact that I'm asking God daily to give me a clean heart...a pure heart.

I don't want to fool myself. Scripture says no one can tame the tongue. No one on their own can take control of that tiny, deadly body part. Being controlled by the Spirit, abiding in Christ and humbly asking God for help, self-control, a pure heart, and His perspective during the "hard moments" of any given day are the only remedy for what comes out of my mouth.

Carolyn Mahaney reminded me what a comfort the gospel is. What peace it brings to a home. What peace it can bring to my children's souls after I blow it, apologize and remind them of the hope the gospel brings for true change for their silly mother.

Mahhaney reminds us that kindness is a fruit of the Sprit. We can ask God to grow in us kindness. If we're believers, kindness should be a fruit that is visibly growing in our lives.

Psalm 121:1-2
I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Let's practice kindness today! How about we think of something kind (it can be small) that we can do for everyone in our home today. Maybe it's just going out of our way to say kind words to them...to build them up. Maybe it's serving them in some way. Be creative!

More later...

The Scent of a Woman

At the gym yesterday a show was on TV.

I honestly never watch TV during the day, so I'm totally out of the loop on daytime television programs. I was going to try to link to the show or the article but can't find it because I have no idea what I was watching.

The show was a combination of "news" and current trends. By "news" I do not mean the real news. By "news" I mean updates on things like Michael Jackson and high heels.

Apparently a survey was taken of a whole bunch of men.

The survey revealed that the most attractive fragrance a woman can wear is vanilla.

Why?

Because when women smell like vanilla it reminds men of baking.

Of course that drove the women nuts on the show. I laughed. No matter how far women think we've come, most men still have an attraction to this idea of a woman at home baking something.

Funny.

Last night I was telling Aaron about the survey.

I told him that the survey revealed the most sexy smell to a man is vanilla.

Of course he said, "So did you come straight home and put something vanilla on?"

No. I didn't. I told him I don't really want to smell like a cinnamon roll.

Aaron said something like, "That's fine. I would much rather you smell like bacon. That's the sexiest smell to me."

Gross!

We laughed because it was obvious a woman made up the survey. If a man had made it up bacon and gravy would have been two of the choices.

Single ladies...

Aaron is convinced you should wear bacon or gravy perfume. The boys would be chasing you down.

________________________________________

Laura linked to a great product in the comment section. I thought it was so funny, I needed to bring it up here.

Aaron...if this ends up in my stocking this Christmas, I'm going to do something mean to you in your sleep. I'm thinking a baby poo mustache. Be very afraid!

Sounds Peachy

I made 18 jars of peach jelly today.

18 jars

While pureeing a mountain of peaches, I imagined myself getting another Olympic Medal for a competition that does not exist.

I've imagined myself being awarded Olympic medals, with all the ceremony...tears in people's eyes...the works for several make believe events.

Like...

Getting to your vacation destination with four small children and realizing you did not forget ANYTHING. Nothing. I won a gold for that.

Every time I do laundry all day and every sock has a match...yep. The national anthem plays in my mind and people cry for me. I say, "every time" like it happens a lot. It doesn't. It happened once. Yes, I know it's sad, but that day ranks pretty high up on my list of favorite days.

Why can't they award Olympic medals for things that actually matter...like being able to open and shut the dryer door without the dryer ever turning off.

All the moms are cheering.

I can hear you.

After I won my medal today, and I finished imagining what the commentators were narrating over the award ceremony I started thinking about peaches.

You know how tomatoes that you buy at the store don't taste anything like tomatoes that grow in your garden?

They are so different, I have a hard time calling both of those things tomatoes.

That's how I feel about peaches.

Peaches in the store taste like dirt.

Peaches from Fairfield taste like candy.

Aaron drove all the way to Madisonville Sunday to buy me some Fairfield peaches.

He loves me.

We have eaten them until we're sick.

The entire top of my mouth has sores on it from all the acid.

I've pooed more in the past 24 hours than I have in the last 3 months.

But will I stop eating the peaches?

No. I won't even slow down.

If you've never eaten peaches...the real ones...then I bet when you hear the phrase, "sounds peachy" you think that means "sounds like hairy blah."

How sad.

When I hear, "sounds peachy" I think...

It sounds "marvelous"..."divine"... like "Jesus made it."

Fairfield peaches from Cooper Farm are worth the 45 minute drive to Madisonville.

They sell them Wednesday-Sunday at the gas station on I-45.

Check out this farm's website. If you are not from around these parts, they give a list of locations where they sell their peaches here. Yum!

I love peaches, and I love my money going to local farmers.

I also love this peach jelly, and all the frozen peaches that will go in my daily smoothie...and the peach cobbler Brooke taught me how to make.

I will also like Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream on my cobbler.

But, you already know that.