What I Learned From Day 2 of Our Roadtrip

1. It is hilarious to pee on mommy...twice

2. Forget Obamacare, Micah thinks corndogs are outright unconstitutional
   
3. Rumblestrips sound like farts to toddlers
   
4. Crying because you want your sister to stop crying will yield cookies
   
5. It is entirely possible for a 2 year old to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for 30+ minutes, including at least a dozen different arrangements
   
6. No matter how hard I try to fight it, everytime I pull up to my parents house after a long time away I get teary
   

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Near Misses

The kids and I, along with my dad, set off today for our roadtrip to my hometown of Seward, NE. Unfortunately, my husband has to stay home because he is teaching summer school.

I'll spare you any boringdetails of pit stops and how soon it took for one of the kids to ask "are we there yet?"

I do want to share how much we appreciate your prayers of safety and how thankful I am for God's perfect timing and protection.
  
The trip was relatively uneventful until we stopped for dinner in Cross Lanes, WV, a small community west of Charleston. As soon as we ordered our food and sat down a storm rolled in. It got super dark outside and the lights in the restaurant kept going out. Normally I don't mind storms. In fact, I kind of dig them. Ever since I was a kid, storms have reminded me of God's awesone power. 

When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. Jeremiah 51:16 NIV

However, I have a tendency to feed off of other people's energy and emotions--a characteristic of a classic extrovert. As the storm got stronger other diners began to voice concern. The family sitting next to us grabbed their food and hurried to their car, an older couple started speculating that it was a tornado, and a young girl started to whimper. This started to make me nervous but I did what I could to keep myself and the kids calm.

As we started to munch on our tacos I asked Dad if he thought we should leave. He assured me that staying put was much safer. I pulled out my phone and checked the weather. There was only a severe storm warning, no tornado.

About a minute later there was a huge bang on the window behind me. As I looked outside, white chunks of something were falling down. At first I thought it was hail, but then someone in the restaurant said that the sign broke. I assumed it was a sign on the side of the resataurant and we went back to eating. 

Twenty minutes later the storm passed and we decided to hit the road again. As we walked to the car we discovered what actually hit the building. It was the sign from the gas station nextdoor. In it's original form I guess it was a 10-foot square and likely made of plexiglass. It was mounted roughy 100' feet off the ground so I guess a strong enough wind just popped it out of it's mounting.  

Once we were seated in the car we looked at the restaurant and saw the damage the sign had created. It tore up the roof directly above where we were sitting. Looking at the damage, Dad estimated that the sign was 250-300 pounds. If it had hit just 8-10 feet lower it would have broken through the window we were sitting against. I hate to think of what injuries it could have caused.

But God is sovereign, he is so good, and his timing is perfect.  We had contemplated stopping later for dinner but then we would have been caught in the storm while driving. He made that gust of wind strong enough to carry the sign a few feet higher. He made it possible for my dad to join us on this trip. He also made RainX possible and gave my husband the skills of masterfully applying to my windshield.

This bit of excitement in our trip makes me wonder about all the near misses and storms God has kept me sheltered from that I have been oblivious to. I'm a little embarrassed that it took a literal storm to make me take pause and praise him.

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An Exercise in Upcycling

I’ve been purging items from my closet that I don’t wear any longer. Not to make room for new clothes, but to get rid of clutter. As Van the minivan said while driving through Radiator Springs in Cars, “We have too much surplus.”

During my most recent closet clean-out I came across this sundress. Aside from the fabric being stunning, I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought it. The cut is all wrong for me. But because I love the fabric I didn’t want to just toss the dress in the donate pile. I decided to turn it into a maxi skirt instead.

Since it is lined I first basted the 2 layers together just under the bust line. Then I cut off the top portion. I suppose I could have done something dainty with that but I’m not that daring. Next, I simply sewed a casing or tunnel for the elastic, threaded the elastic through, and closed up the casing. Viola—Maxi Skirt! (Photo of the finished product is at bottom.)

But wait, I wanted more! The skirt only took 30 minutes to make. What else can I upcycle?

I also had purged a dark purple t-shirt that I no longer wear. It was comfy but it was just a solid t-shirt and I’m not a solid t-shirt kind of girl. I want a little design or style to it. A recent pin I made on Pinterest popped into my mind where someone had taken a bleach pen to t-shirts. I sat down with a notebook and pen and tried to conjure some sort of sketch I could use. Regrettably, I have never been a good sketcher. I can’t even doodle. My notebooks in school were always pristine and unpenned. So I went back to Pinterest and followed the pin to sketchvon.blogspot.com. I loved her peacock design and decided to mimic it.

First I turned the t-shirt inside out and stuffed a large cutting board inside. I drew the design on the t-shirt with chalk. I took me about 5 tries to get it to look like a peacock and not a sick pigeon. I traced my chalk lines with the bleach, let it sit for about 10 minutes, thoroughly rinsed the bleach out, and washed the shirt. 

I am pretty pleased with the end result and can’t wait to try it again. I probably was a little too heavy handed with the bleach pen—I used up a whole pen (oops). The t-shirt also was a cotton/rayon/spandex blend so I think the bleach bled a bit more than if it was 100% cotton.

So here is the end result of both projects. (Photo courtesy of my 4 year old.) The skirt and shirt might not go together great but I’ll call it “boho” and rock it anyway.

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Puddle Jumping

It rained this evening. I mean really RAINED! My drive home took me twice as long due to flash flooded roads on my normal route. But when I got home, the down pour was just a light rain and the sun was breaking through the clouds. 

I walked in the front door, my husband and I exchanged a quick kiss as he left to teach class, and I went to the bedroom to change. Normally I would proceed to the kitchen to start dinner but not tonight. I told the kids to put on their shoes, fitted the dog with his leash, and headed outside.

We stepped off our front steps and Micah and Lucy exclaimed in unison “Mom, it’s raining!” Yes children, it is and we are going to enjoy it. I started down our walk as they stayed on our stoop, hand in hand, with puzzled looks on their faces. “C’mon kiddos,” I urged. Micah protested, “But mom, we’ll get wet.” “Exactly son, that is my plan.”

They cautiously stepped off our stoop and followed me down our walk until I stopped at a puddle about the size of a placemat. “Jump!” Lucy gingerly hopped into the puddle. Micah kept walking, probably not hearing me over the inner dialog I’m sure he always has going on in his head. “Micah, come jump in the puddle.” He twirled around, raised one eyebrow at me as if to ask "have you lost your mind?" His expression then changed into a determined grin as he bounded in to the puddle yielding a hearty splash. 

The three of us (four of us if you count the reluctant dog) proceeded to jump in puddles around our neighborhood for the next 30 minutes. I could say I did it for the kids but I had just as much fun as they did. The rain, the splashes, the giggles—I could have leaped and splashed until it dark. However, the kids were getting tired, the dog had enough, and Lucy’s pants were falling down because of the weight of the water that soaked in to them and her lack of a tush. 

I haven’t puddle jumped in probably 25 years. I remember running up and down the curb and gutter of our street with my brothers and the other neighbor kids after a heavy rain. It pooled at the bottom of the hill in a neighbor’s driveway so we simulated swimming in the 1- to 2-inches of standing water. I can only imagine the variety of filth we were wading in but as far as I know, we all grew up into happy, healthy adults. 

I guess that was my goal with tonight’s activity—raising happy, healthy children into happy, healthy adults. After showers, dinner, snuggles, and two sound asleep kiddos, I feel that I met that goal tonight.

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That moment you realize you put your underwear on inside out!

Admit it. It’s happened to you. Maybe you got dressed in the dark so your spouse could sleep in, or you woke up late and got dressed in a hurry, or you were so blasted tired that you pretty much dressed yourself while sleep walking. Nonetheless, you made it the first couple hours in the day, went to the restroom and discovered it…you put your underwear on inside out!

This morning, this has happened to me yet again. I haven’t tracked the frequency but I would guess I do this at least twice a month. More often than not it is because I’m still asleep while I get ready in the morning.

When I discover my bimonthly wardrobe malfunction I always giggle to myself. It is a gentle reminder that no matter how well I think I’ve got it together, I have something going on that is completely backwards. And you know what? I’m okay with that. It’s okay because I know don’t have to be perfect. I am completely incapable of being perfect. But I have a savior who is perfect for me. He is the only person ever to have been perfect, blameless, or sinless, and he gave up his life for me, for you, for anyone who chooses to follow him.

It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. Hebrews 10:14 (MSG)

I will never win mother-, wife-, sister-, daughter-, friend-, or employee-of-the-year but I’m doing the best I can—most of the time. I still strive for perfection, though. It’s what my kids, husband, brothers, parents, friends, and employer deserve from me. More importantly, it is what God deserves from me. But when I fall short, I know His love covers me. It gives me strength to take a breath, put on my big girl panties—right side out—and try again.

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