Of Ponies and Pillows

In a seemingly obscure book in the Bible, there is a little verse that caught my attention today. "The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy." Zephaniah 3:17.

It's interesting. One of my favorite songs is based on that verse. What caught me today is that God rejoices over us with shouts of joy.

Shouts of joy.

SHOUTS of joy!

Cool! Then it hit me.

I'm not so good about that with my own children lately! Ponygirl was sitting right next to me, and plain as day, I heard God tell me that just as He entered into our world to pursue us, I need to enter into Ponygirl's world and pursue her.

*sigh*

Those who know me know that I am not fond of horses. I don't dislike them, I mean I like to ride, but I'm not in love crazy about them. Not like Ponygirl, anyway...

Well, God told me to learn all the names of her model horses.

*sigh, again*

I told hubby about it quietly, and so he decided to join in my misery with me and try to memorize all her horses' names. Now, you have to understand how many she has. She only got a small sampling of horses (to make it easier on me), and it took me an hour and a half to go through all of them.

Hubby fell asleep.

But I'm proud to report that I made it through. Not sure if I remember them all, but it's a start. I want to pursue her with an intensity that reveals to her that:

She is my daughter, I love her. She pleases me.

Even if she does like horses...

Of Feasting and Shopping

I am absolutely stuffed to the gills with food.

Once a year, Americans glorify gluttony and I apparently joined the group this time around. I haven't always gotten stuffed. I mean I grew up with the starving people in Ethiopia, so I have to feel guilty about consuming a huge amount of food, right?

Well, actually, this time I didn't feel guilty. I have seen all the stats that say if I own a car, have a TV, have access to a computer, etc. etc. then I am richer than 90% of the people in the world. This is supposed to make me eat all of my food or something like that. I have often said, when I was a child, that the Ethipoians could have it, if they came and got it. Besides, other than the fact that we can't get half eaten food to Ethiopia before it rots, it doesn't go to waste here. We eat it. Maybe it is too much for one night, but we eat it all over time.

We have leftover turkey and stuffing, turkey sandwiches, stuffing omelets, turkey smoothies, and other sundry leftovers until we are blue in the face. But the food does get eaten. That probably explains why we can only do this once a year. After a month of turkey, we can't even look at a live one without feeling a little nauseous.

Ah, yes, American traditions: turkey, football and shopping the day after. That is, however, one tradition of which I shall not partake thereof: The getting up at 4 in the morning to go shop in the mall. What are these people thinking?!!

What gets me is that for the most part, these are the very people who just spent all day yesterday on their feet preparing food, cleaning the dishes, getting to bed late, just to be at the mall by 5 am. This to me does not sound like a good idea.

Maybe it's some sort of penance for being gluttonous the day before. I'm sorry, but no sale is worth that!!

Maybe it's just the Tryptophan, but I'd rather sleep in tomorrow. Now, how do you get four balls of kinetic energy to sleep in???

God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving,
Brandie

The Saga of Playdates

We just had a play date today, and I have to tell you, play dates are an interesting thing.

I think the modern play date is a recent invention to make mothers feel very inadequate. Think about it. You make a date on your calendar to get together with someone you don't get to see very often so your kids can get together and play, while you get to sit and chat. The point is really for them to entertain themselves so that you can have an adult conversation with another member of the human race.

Sounds great in theory. But needless to say, it never happens that way.

You stick two (or more) children together that haven't been around each other for a while and then expect them to behave as if they were adults, on their best behavior, and entertaining each other. One child always wants to play with one thing, or a different child than the first, and fighting, crying and general chaos result.

So, either I need to never have play dates with people I don't see everyday, or I need to relax my standards a bit!! I may never get to have a conversation with someone in the near future that does not include crayons, hair pulling, or watching TV, but I get to be with my friend.

So I suppose that parenting never goes on hold, even during play dates, but I get to do it with someone, rather than by myself, and that is the "date" part of play date...

Keeping it real,
Brandie

It was in the Stars

Wow! I just watched a fascinating movie about whether or not the start of Bethlehem was real, and if so, what was it!. Here is the trailer to watch.



Go here to see the evidence and other information, as well as how to order the movie. In Atlanta, Atlas Piers is giving the movie away for free.

Tales of Trouble Makers

My two middles are only 19 months apart from each other in age. Let's just say that supreme powers above were at work here, because having two children so close together was not my idea! But God certainly does have a sense of humor, and many times I think He has a lot of fun laughing at me.

Superhero is the older one at five years and, I might add, the combustion behind the engine. His little sister, Princess is right behind him in age, height and ability for destruction.

I call them my middles, but many times I think of them as the trouble makers. Now, I'm not saying that my other two don't get into hot water, but these two must have contests on who can make the most messes.

Take yesterday for example: I am sweeping the floor after an adventurous lunch. Next thing I know, I hear the two middles exclaim (in a whisper) "here she comes!" This is my clue to start sweating.

I went into the family room and lo, and behold, they have just dumped out an entire bottle of glitter. Well, I'm cleaning that up and I go back into the kitchen and the floor is messy again! And they haven't eaten anything!!!

How does this happen?

Well, I have figured out that there are secret gnomes that follow Superhero and Princess around the house knocking things over and generally making a mess. that's the only logical explanation to the constant state of general mayhem and disorder.

As I sit here and type, I have sent my oldest upstairs to spy on the middles because we both hear crashing (as if they are jumping off of furniture).

*sigh*

Next paycheck we are buying window bars too.

A Modern Day Parable

There once was a father who had a son. Like most fathers, this one loved his son very much and wanted him to grow up with good character. He has was a good father and tried to teach his son and protect him from harm.

When the son was a toddler, he started acting like most toddlers do and wanted his own way in everything. "I want this toy!" and "I want that food!!"

It was enough to drive his father crazy. But the father was patient, and tried to instill wisdom in his son.

One day, the son was doing something very dangerous. He decided to walk on a tall rickety gate. His father tried to warn him that it was dangerous, but the son wouldn't listen to him.

And alas, the son fell.

When he got up, he looked right at his father and asked, "Why did you let that happen to me?!"

His father was flabbergasted! He had tried to warn his son about the dangers he was facing, and when his son hurt himself, he blamed him.

As this son grew a bit older, he started to do more dangerous things, including playing with fire. One day, he set on fire a garbage can that belonged to the neighborhood bully. The bully came around and tried to beat up the son, but the father came to defend him.

The father tried to get his son to see the error of his ways, and the son tried to act better.

For a while.

Then back to misbehaving went the son, no matter how hard the father tried to teach him about doing justly and loving mercy.

Finally, the son decided that he was not happy at home and decided to run away. He thought that his father was being too harsh with him, and that he wanted to have "more fun." So he took some of his father's money, sneaked out the window and went to the train station. He got on the first train headed south.

From then on, the son was on his own. No longer did he have his father's protection against the bullies of the world. No longer did he have his father to love him and protect him. His father still loved him, but could not protect him because he was not at home.

The father still watches for him every day. He still hopes that he'll return. And if he does, there will be a huge party.

Until then, he waits... and hopes.

God bless,
Brandie

Eleven Score and Twelve Years Ago

politics.

*sigh*

So, when we declared independence 232 years ago (I checked- a score is 20 years), we were running from the tyranny of a King that wanted to rule us from afar.

But if you go back even further, say 401 years ago, pilgrims came to the "new world" to escape the king of the same country (though I agree with Thomas Paine that our parent country was not England but Europe in general).

Here is a link to the Declartion of Independence. It's good to read and not too long.

Our country was founded on the idea that we can do things ourselves, if left alone to do it. We were not asking for handouts, on the contrary! We limited our government to only govern the people where necessary. That is why the federal government was made to be limited. Let me say that again. The federal government was made to be limited.

*sigh*

Now, some in the government want us to go back to the European way of life, because they see a "fraternity", if you will, a group of buddies who work together to protect what they have. I think we have forgotten where we came from.

We won't mention that many of these European countries don't think very highly of us, and enjoy it when we suffer. Nor will we mention that many of these countries have been rescued by the United States at least once if not more.

Nor will I mention that their style of government has allowed the largest influx of terrorists in the world, ready to strike at a moment's notice. This population has also been allowed to infiltrate these same governments in such a way as to turn their ideology from fairness and tolerance of all views to intolerance of Jews and Christians. Just look at the news. It's on the record.

Now, before you send me hate mail, please don't. I am well aware of the "imperfections" of our own country. We spend more education money per student than anywhere else in the world, and we are still graduating high school seniors who don't know how to read. But don't you see? It's that same kind of thinking that has been leading us right to where we are.

I call it entitlement thinking. If we think we are entitled to anything, other than life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, than we get away from the root of who we are as a country. So many people, myself too I admit at times, get caught into thinking that "I am a victim who has no voice who is helpless. I have no hope."

Hence why Obama is so popular. His "hope" campaign feeds on the "pity" part of us who want something for nothing. Now, he wants to redistribute the wealth.

All that's fine and dandy, for those who have not worked hard for that money. It's another thing when you have sweated and toiled to make things work, and when they do, the government wants a third of your profit.

*sigh*

I'm sorry, I just get frustrated at the thought of turning the world's greatest country into "one of the gang." I don't mean any offense to Europe, but we were founded on a different set of principles, one that has lead to some of the best innovations in the world, and lead to the quick rise of power and leadership of the US. Why do we, then, want to go back to where we came from?

Because some in the world view our flag as a symbol of oppression? I am truly sorry if some think so, for that has never been our intention. But then, most of those that do are the very ones that want to kill all of us. Men, women, children... the more the better!

I guess I better lay off the caffeine, eh?

May God Bless the USA,
Brandie

P.S. Make sure you vote on Tuesday if you haven't already -- but only if you're voting for McCain! ;-)