Sometimes You Have to Be Reminded that You are The Sparrow

I was mad.
Like, really mad.
Seething mad.

SOMEONE had messed with MY PLANS.

And if you know anything about me, you need to know that my PLANS should NOT be messed with.

Cooking up a big batch of righteous indignation, I sped down the street to take Nathan to school hoping I could get him dropped off in time to get my favorite Starbucks drink and get back home so I didn't miss my appointment. I thought up ways I could demonstrate to my last minute guest just how much he had REALLY messed up my day and therefore MY ENTIRE LIFE.

The plan was as follows: My unwelcome guest would arrive, I would be "on the phone" telling the person on the other end how I was so sorry that I couldn't make it to her house today after all the planning we had done. I know I said I'd be there but I had no choice. We will just have to reschedule our playdate. I know, I am so sad too. Well, I have to go I guess.

How awesome is THAT?
I am amazing.

Breaking into my Inner Rant of Grandmother Sized Guilt was a small, sweet voice, "Mommy, I want to listen to 'Glory in the Highest' after 'Everlasting God'" (our newest obsession.) I agreed to my daughters request, advanced the CD to the correct track and continued my (inner silent) tirade.

I am so mad, I am so mad.

You are the first
You go before
You are the last
Lord, You're the encore

I am so mad.

All the earth will sing Your praise
The moon and stars, the sun and rain

I am so......um, what am I?

You see it was about then that my daughters sweet voice joined in the chorus of this beautiful song and she belted our my Savior's Praise.

Glory in the highest
Glory in the highest

My anger was diffused completely within the 3.5 miles to Nathan's school. And it reminded me of something so BIG that it is tiny enough to miss: God is in the little things.

Little things like a two year old's singing voice. An unexpected hug and snuggle from a child as you say goodbye. The story of snail races. A longer naptime than expected. A peaceful walk with your family.

And while many times in our day we can take these little things and stop there, they often are to prepare for something bigger in your day. God is taking these "little things" and using them to bring your regularly unpeaceful life some peace, to allow a genuine smile to pass your normally frowning lips. He is freeing up your mind and your heart so that when it is toward the end of your day and you receive news that scatters your heart in a thousand directions you can process that news and properly deal with it.

I could have been angry with God tonight, angry that He took my lovely evening with my family and destroyed it so quickly. But this is not the case. instead, I see that He has healed my spirit. He has taken care of me. He has loved me.

Look for the little things in your life.
Cherish them.
Because you never know what they are preparing you for.

And the Winner of Vaccum Attachment of the Day Is.....

All hanging lamps, all mini blinds, all screens: clean.
Attachment with the bristley bristles and hole in the middle to suck up the things I loosen from cleaning surfaces, I love thee.

The One Where I Mess With Mother Nature

There is a reason that people aren't supposed to interfere with the process of how things live, the natural process that God established in the beginning of the world.

But God also created Mothers.
Mothers who put the word nurture in the "Nurture vs. Nature" concept.

So there I was, looking out my window at the pouring rain-the April shower that was not only bringing some serious cold to our otherwise warm April but keeping ALL MY CHILDREN INSIDE. Let me tell you, 3 kids under the age of 5 cooped up in a small house all day? THAT is NOT natural.

Outside my window, I look at our newest (albeit temporary) family members. Over a month ago, 2 Mourning Doves started their family in the outside hanging planter. The babies hatched about a week ago and I see our poor mama bird, sitting in the POURING rain protecting her babies from the cold water. My toddler-soaked heart went out to her. She's just trying to be a good mama and here she is sitting in the rain!

I couldn't let it happen. Knowing full well I'd probably temporarily scare Mama from the nest, I got David's 6-foot ladder and the big camping tarp out of the garage and carried everything outside. I waited till all the kids were down for a nap so I wouldn't add chaos to my heroic rescue.

As I set the ladder up, I saw something fall off my kitchen counter. I figured the ladder had caused my giant stack of magazines to fall. I'd pick it up later. If ever. I went up the ladder and wasn't surprised to see Mama gone. I configured the tarp to hang over the gazebo the hanging planter was under and dashed back into the house.

When I got inside, the parakeets (a pair-a-whats?) we have on loan from Nathan's school were going CRAZY in their cage. I walked into the kitchen and found out why.

There was a bird in my kitchen.

Well, actually there were THREE birds in my kitchen. But only 1 of them wasn't authorized.

Somehow, in the shock of a ladder and tarp coming towards her nest, Mama bird hopped right up out of fear and instead of flying out to the big tree she usually watches me from when I am paparazzi-ing her babies, she flew INSIDE MY HOUSE.

So, there she is. Sitting on my kitchen floor.
THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU MESS WITH NATURE! A BIRD in your kitchen!

I called David who suggested opening the kitchen window so Mama could fly out. Easy enough. Uh huh. As I headed over to the window, Mama once again mistook my help as a threat and instead of waiting patiently on the floor for me to finish with the window, she took flight once again but this time she encountered something we inside creatures call a "ceiling." Poor confused bird was crashing into the ceiling, the lights and I was doing my best to not get my eyes pecked out. (A good goal to have I think.)

She landed on the curtain rod for my sliding glass door. OPEN sliding glass door. THE door that caused this problem in the first place.

I decided the best thing to do was to be still.
I sat in the chair furthest away from Mama and I was still.
I was still for about 15 minutes.
That is often my limit.

I heard my neighbor's daughter come outside to get her brother off the bus and seeing how the stillness hadn't worked in getting the bird out of my house, I decided I might as well laugh about it with someone. She couldn't believe it and we both stood there staring at the bird which didn't make her leave either.

Seeing how sitting still and staring at the bird wasn't causing her to leave, I took further action by photographing the bird with my camera phone and sending an e-mail to all my friends and family.

THAT didn't work either! She was still in my house!

So by now, my neighbor's daughter Kenna has told her mom, Kim, all about the National Geographic going on next door and Kim had to see for herself. More staring and laughing happened (with no success) and Kim says that her ex husband will be over soon to pick up her kids and seeing how he's kind of got a farm and knows animals and stuff, maybe he will know what to do.

After spending 30 minutes of quality time with this bird, I was ready to have her leave. I haven't mentioned it yet here because this is a family blog but I did have a big concern about my houseguest.

POOP!
Birds POOP!
They poop wherever they WANT to!
And if left in my house much longer I had a feeling the poop would be showing up in my house SOON!

Kim's ex husband came in, had Kim and I stand in the kitchen while he took his baseball cap off and "herded" Mama off the curtain rod. She flew a circle around the living room and tried to go back but his hat was still there and then she flew right out the front door.

It was extremely anti-climatic.
But it ceased all my poop fears.

However, the poop fears were quickly replaced by "Birds Baby Mama Hasn't Come Home Yet" fears. Hours and hours passed and our sweet baby birds (2 of them) were huddled up and all alone. It was 4 hours later before I was able to relax and feel like, in the looooooooooong run, I really HAD helped our little bird family survive the wilds of my backyard.

When retelling the story the next day to Jeff (husband of Kim, the Halloween fall-er) I told him that I was now VERY concerned for our baby birds. When it was time to teach the babies how to fly, what if they didn't get it the first time? The nest is over CONCRETE! They could fall and break their little birdie necks! Maybe I should get some crash pads so they won't get hurt!

Jeff dropped his shoulders, shook his head, looked right up at me and said:
"They are just birds! Stop mothering them!"

How Long is The Wait For a Table?

"Where are you and Daddy going on a date?"

"I think we are gong to dinner."

"I know what you should do, Mommy!"

"Oh yeah, what's that, Nate?"

"How bout you and daddy get married again and have a baby?"

"That is cramming a lot into 3 hours, son."

You are the Everlasty God, You Do Not Faint, you Won't Grow Greary

One of David's favorite things to do with Nathan is to sit on the couch and listen to David's iPod. They each get one earbud and Nathan loves listening to "songs about God, Jesus and THE LORD."

Once Nathan is in love with a song, it is all he wants to sing. (Hmm, sounds just like his dad....AND his mom!) So on the way home from church, both kids were in David's truck and they listened to "Everlasting God" by Chris Tomlin about 15 times and when they got home, they wanted to listen to it MORE!

Let me tell you, it is the most delightful thing to hear your children singing God's praises! I snuck the camera onto the counter to capture Nathan singing along with Chris Tomlin and I had to share it with you. His lyrics are a little off but the spirit is right, wouldn't you say?

Wait, Is THAT Why I Am So Tired?

When the guy came out to evaluate and assess Nicholas and his development and looked around the house and saw Lucy, he looked back and forth between the two toddlers a few times before he asked...

"How old is she?"

"Two."

"And Nicholas?"

"Two and a half."

"So that's...."

"6 months difference, yeah."

"Wow that's.....really close."

"Yeah."

And that was all we had to say about that.

Ten on Tuesday

10. The yummy thing about the mini Resees Peanut Butter Cups is their perfect chocolate to peanut butter ratio. The bad thing is that even when you've eaten 6 of them, you still feel like eating more. (The "more" being all of the ones left in your kids' Easter Baskets.)

9. Why am I downstairs watching "Cars" and everyone is upstairs destroying the boys' room?

8. I cannot get enough of the show "Ace of Cakes" right now. I even have Mary Alice as one of my MySpace friends! You need to watch it. And then think about how YOU could TOTALLY work for Duff and his friends.

7. I think I might be getting sick. I had a chance to get some free ice cream from a friend and I completely forgot to pick it up. FORGOT. To get FREE (FREE!) ICE CREAM.

6. Tomorrow my favorite 10 year old is becoming an 11 year old and I think his mother and I aren't accepting it very well.

5. My blog-a-versary is next month. I should plan the celebration now so my blog can know how much I really do love it. Something that will be the equivalent to dressing the blog up and getting it slightly drunk on wine. Hmmm, a blog a day maybe? What do you think?

4. Man, this movie really does crack me up. I guess I can leave it on. Wait, is "Ace of Cakes" on right now? No. OK, "Cars" it is.

3. I belong to an online photographers forum for local San Diego photo-bugs like myself. I entered their monthly contest with a photo that I plan to enter this year in the Del Mar Fair and I lost by 1 vote. I am super sad about the loss but very happy that I did not stoop so low as to blog about it earlier and talk all of you into voting for me. (But I WILL stoop to publicly patting myself on the back.)

2. My latest blog obsession is this lady right here. Enjoy the Crazy. Enjoy the Purl. Yard Farts!

1. I am pleased to introduce you to the self proclaimed Butterfly King who rightfully gained his throne by grabbing the crown and wings first and running around declaring, "I'm the Butterfly King! I'm the Butterfly King!" (Or, when not interpreted for you, "I duh Buttuh-fi Ting!")



**I had some lovely comments (11 to be exact) left from a spammer so I had to republish the blog. (Are we switching to TypePad yet?) But I did link to the baby picture I referred to in the post. Check it out!**

The One With The Ham

While watching "Charlotte's Web" during dinner…...


"Mommy why did the rat say they were saving Wilbur for Christmas dinner?"

"Because some people at pigs at Christmastime."

"Oh no, Mommy. I don't eat pigs. No.




Can I have more ham for dinner?"

10 Years of Romantic Conversations

"You know, David, as part of our 10 year plan, you have the option to trade me in for a different model."

"Hmmm, I don't know, I've got all the seats worn in,
I know where all the knobs are...

...if I tap the dash just right the radio turns on."