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Dear man-who ordered the venti vanilla latte breve, decaf;


We are extremely sorry that you picked up my husband's venti vanilla latte breve-quad shot by mistake.
And as you were lying awake at 3 a.m. wondering if all of Starbucks had laughed at you as you walked outside oblivious to your mistake, I would like to assure you that is was only a small 1/4 of the cafe that laughed. It was really more of a sympathy-snicker, really. Everyone felt really bad for you, it was not done on purpose. You were in too much of a hurry for anyone to realize the sad truth until your order showed up at the counter.

I don't know if this will console you, as you frantically dig out the cup from your trash can at 3 a.m. and confirm the clearly marked "4" written on the side of the cup, or only fan the flames of resentment in your agitated/very awake-being, but it was really your own fault. Don't be in such a hurry next time.
As Juan Valdez himself, would probably tell you, -a true connoisseur of coffee savors his drink and does not rush. The first really will be last. It's a cosmic thing, don't you know.

I was blessed to attend a memorial service for a brother in the Lord. There is so much to say about the service and about a life lived to satisfy God, I wouldn't even know where to begin. My thoughts today center on a Bible verse from a list of verses he loved, in fact one verse- Romans 8:37 graced the front page of the program we were given. Later that evening I spent time reading this verse and the footnotes that accompany it in my Bible. I thought I would share:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, "For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we have been accounted as sheep for slaughter." But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers Nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:35-39

here are the footnotes...
vs37-Because of God's unchanging love for us and the fact that Christ has accomplished everything on our behalf, neither tribulation nor persecution can suppress or defeat us; rather , in all these things we more than overcome and conquer through Him who loved us.
vs.39-The love of God is the source of His eternal salvation. This love is in Christ and has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (5:5). Nothing can separate us from this love of God (vv.38-39). In God's salvation this love to us has become the love of Christ (vs.35), which does many marvelous things for us through the grace of Christ until God's complete salvation is accomplished in us. These marvelous things provoke God's enemy to attack us with all kinds of sufferings and calamities (vv.35-36). However, because of our response to the love of God in Christ, these attacks have become benefits to us (v.28). Hence, we more than conquer in all our afflictions and calamities (v.37).

This brother in the Lord fought against cancer for about a year, and I thought his choice of scriptures to proclaim spoke volumes, paticularly against the backdrop of his life. He gave up much in worldly standards, to come and serve the Lord.
He wrote-"only His satisfaction can issue in our satisfaction."

Amen

Labels: devotional

Molting...with flair! We took our hen, Dapples, to see the expensive bird Dr. this week. The verdict-she's not sick, just molting-excessively. As in-she's nearly naked and we have feathers all over the yard. Just really bad karma for Dapples that she happened to be in a molting cycle when our weather went from crisp fall weather to 90 degrees in one day.

The Dr. said it is a hormonal thing and that we shouldn't be surprised if we end up with all 5 hens wearing much less. Fine, fine, blame it all on hormones...why not. Actually, I was really impressed with the bird Dr. He was training a veterinarian student that day and all the knowledge he was passing along regarding fowl vs. exotic birds was pretty impressive.

Found out the bird is anemic right now, making new feathers is hard work...so I came right home and made her some scrambled eggs with broccoli. It looked like a pretty good lunch. I'm also busy making them lots of beans. My childhood memories involve a lot of good home-cooking my mom did...for her parrots...seems you can always go home again, or something like that. I guess I will be calling up my mom for some good bird cuisine recipes.
Who knew???

Orchestra rehearsal today- I bravely left Meg at orchestra today while I went to meet hubby for breakfast. The last few rehearsals I stuck pretty close to her and helped her find the right measure, things like that. Last week went really well, she didn't need me at all-so I felt pretty safe about leaving her. Kind of, I always have to worry about something or carry some kind of mom guilt around. When I returned, a little early to scope out how things were going; first thing I notice as I walk in is a pile of crumpled kleenex under and around her chair. I'm thinking, oh no...what happened? Did she get singled out for playing during a rest or something?? I found out a few minutes later that she just had a really runny nose and was fine.

Library score this week: Library A - 20 books checked out, $3.00 in fines
Library B- 37 books checked out, $3.60 in fines

seems my superpowers have failed me this week. I was doing so well with the whole library thing the last few months. I am at Library B every Tues. while we go to art lessons, so I don't know what my excuse is.

must be hormones. Nothing a few Advil and some chocolate won't fix. preferably dark, bittersweet...

Labels: hens

I was tagged by Becca at And Together we learn for this meme. So, here goes...

We had a full weekend...Demi had his last day of T-ball Friday night, Meg had orchestra Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon I took all 4 kids to sears to buy clothes and shoes. It went really well, Demi and Amie were a little squirelly, but behaved. The deal was they endured the clothes shopping and then I would buy them each a cookie and we would look at the alligator infront of Rainforest cafe.

My little adventure at the cookie shop- I was waited on by a little old lady/grandmother- type/enterprising owner of store type-and somehow I ended up walking away with I don't know how many cookies, 12$ later. I really don't think well under pressure. You know this kind of pressure...you are trying to keep your flock together, suddenly it seems there are 10 kids, not just 4-and they are blocking all the other customers from getting to the counter. The two little ones are climbing the display case and putting their hands all over the glass, all four keep changing their minds as you are trying to order the cookies and you can see the person helping you losing patience. So amidst all this, the enterprising grandma-type person high pressures me with something like buy 3 more and get one free. I honestly only wanted 4 cookies and a diet coke! Well, I predict this little lady will one day own all of Orange County.

Lord's day we had company for lunch, I made tortellini chicken soup and green-tea muffins. The green tea muffins because one of the bible college girls mentioned she loves baked goods with this ingredient added. So, I saw a mix at Trader Joe's..they came out really green. Good tasting, but really disturbingly green. I decided they would be good for next St. Patrick's day.

Evening we had the Bible college brothers over, we made carni asada. We had a really sweet time. We sung the hymn by Mdme. Guyon again (from another post here) and a few others that were set to 60's tunes (those wild bible college students...) I thought it really funny that they did not know the original tunes, made me feel old!

One of our chickens might be sick, we are going to take her to the expensive bird Dr. today. Expensive as in-it's cheaper to take my kids to the pediatrician...She (the chicken) is losing feathers like crazy and I don't think she has laid an egg in a week. I am worried she might be egg-bound. She is doing normal chicken things, which is a good sign. She is the smartest chicken of the flock and has the most personality, we don't want to take any chances of her getting really sick.

And to the person who found my blog by googling the words "bobbing for apples, germs", I'm pleased to know I am not the only person who obsesses about these things...I never would have thought to research it however, just worry...
pass me a wet-wipe...
my post on that subject is here. Have fun and talk amongst yourselves...

Qualtiy time with my two elder daughters
Or, me scouting out the other moms in the "O.C."

I took the girls on Friday afternoon to a book signing by Gail Carson Levine. She is the author of Ella Enchanted, Dave at night, and several other great books. We traveled to near-by Newport Beach to see her and while there I thought I would notice what the cool moms in Newport Beach were wearing this season. Um, it wasn't what I was wearing...I am reporting that most of the moms sported expensive looking jeans with various styles of shirts and flip-flops. And tans, they were all tanned...

Gail Carson Levine was wonderful to all of the kids, all girls-actually. She was warm, encouraging, real and very open. She shared with us a rejection letter from a publisher she had kept (for 9 years, if I recall correctly) and read it out loud to us. She spent the majority of her time fielding questions from the girls, and moms alike. She discussed her feelings on the Ella Enchanted movie, (she liked it-so did I, ) what project she is working on next and read to us a portion of her newest book-"Fairest". She also read a few excerpts from her book on writing called "Writing Magic: Creating stories that fly". She was so encouraging to the girls about writing.

If you haven't read "Ella Enchanted", it is a great book, very much different than the movie-which was good if you don't try to confuse the two, they were almost different stories. I am reading "Fairest" right now, and it is a page turner...I am enjoying it thoroughly. Brought it home last night, and I am already half-way through it!

All in all, we had a wonderful mother/daughter time and I was so pleased at how wonderful Gail Levine was and how warm and encouraging she was with her admirers. I think it was a really good experience for my girls, I am so glad we took the time to go.

Labels: book review, reading basket

found this fun site over at Welcome to Parenting. I had to share, especially after my google stint...

That was actually for my first and last name, my first name came up with the number of 1,397,854. I was not surprised, I always had at least one other Jennifer in class at school, more often it was 3 or 4 in a class.

If you get the chance, go on over to Welcome to Parenthood to see the Dove campaign for real beauty video, it was stunning and something you should show your daughters.

I thought I would weigh-in on the news story regarding the California teenager questioned by secret service agents for threats she made on Myspace. Read the story here.

I know, of course, that the opinion of a 30-something, conservative, christian, homeschool mom is cutting edge stuff...(if that came out a little snarky, well-I am having a small mid-life crisis after googling my name and finding another Jennifer in a different state who is apparently much more interesting than I am. But, I digress, that is fodder for another post...)

I'm going to address the main parts of this story that bothered me. I think the underlying hint of Secret Service-bashing which leads to hinted Bush bashing is misguided and overplayed. The media stories focus on the mean secret service agents and the little girl with a heart on her backpack.

The totally missed point in all of this is the lack of rights of the parents and their children while the children are in the custody of the school. I wonder while reading news articles on this story how this point is so overlooked. In most states parents do not have the right to be notified of interviews with law enforcement, social workers, counselors, secret service agents, whoever...I'm sad that as a society we just rolled over and let the school systems take parental rights away because, well, they are the professionals and must know what they are doing. Here in California a past Governor vetoed a bill that would have ensured parents be notified before such interviews and this year our legislature killed language in a bill that would have ensured the same.

The assistant principle of the high school involved in this story had this to say... "Parents usually interfere with an investigation, so we usually don't notify them until it's done," The Sacramento Bee reported that 'Sacramento City Unified School District policy calls for parents to be notified but doesn't say whether it should happen before or after a student is interviewed. State law doesn't require parental notification.' Read the whole story here-U.S. Agents question teen by Laurel Rosenhall and Ryan Lillis. (the quotes were taken from this article) er, the bold part is my doing...

I'm sad that parents in this story were so shocked and surprised. I'm bothered that they would take the opportunity to blame everyone else to the media, but not bring to the nation's attention this very wrong attitude in our public schools. The attitude that parents interfere...that children have no rights once on school grounds, that parents are nuisances that should be kept in the dark regarding the material being taught or presented because they just cause so much trouble.

I think the icing on the cake for me had to be the fact the parents knew nothing about their daughter's death threat to the President-over a year ago-on MySpace until the secret service knocked on their door. Add to that their excusing of her behavior, the attitude of -it was wrong, but they took it way out of proportion...This attitude that is played out over an over again by parents at little league games and public schools. This attitude that prompts parents to hire attorneys instead of apologizing for their kids awful behavior. This attitude contributes to the overall bad experience public school can be.

o.k. that was my .2 cents and some change...going to step off my soap box now, and resume trying to look/be more interesting... I googled both my maiden name and married name, and two people came up with my name, more interesting then me! I'm nursing a complex here..

Edited to add: sorry about the links, if you put teenage girl, secret service, threats into google search, it will bring you a link for Sac bee that will take you to the story, for some reason if I copy the link it converts to the page you need to register...if you want to read the whole story, try the google search. Edited again to remove excessive "snarkiness", I hate sarcasm directed towards me...I don't want to come across less then gentle...so I "fixed" my post alittle.

Wordless Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at 5 minutes for mom, go on over to see more.

He done his momma right proud...

Sunday night when we had the bible college students over, the first one walked in and after looking around commented, "you really have been cleaning house this week!" *Just so you all know, on record for all of blogdom to know: I clean house every Sunday before they all come over...
At least, I thought I cleaned it...When he dropped this comment, I could see (in my mind) a little smiley face with the hair standing on end with a big 'o' for a mouth! I was alittle horrified that apparently he hadn't thought it was all that clean before. And, I was thinking-"goodness, what would he think if he saw it on Friday before I cleaned it??" I had a good laugh with Sky about it later that night, but I thought-wouldn't his momma's ears be burning over such a statement! Sounds like something my boy would say to someone.


Welcome to Jenny's world, come on in!...

Friday I went to visit my mom with the kids, she lives about 1 hour away, at least she used to live there...

I was driving along the highway, thinking- "wow, everything has changed so much!" I got off on the wrong off-ramp because it all looked different. On the long road up to her house I was marvelling at all of the changes, "that shopping center is new!" wondering in my mind how long had it been since I was at her house, I thought it had been about 6 months...Took the kids through the McD's drive-thru and then headed over to her house. One block away, Larissa says "mom, they don't live here anymore, do they?"

I had forgotten, somehow- they had moved to a new house near my sister, about a year and a half ago!! Away, as in a half-hour away, ...in another city, a completely different house, so different you shouldn't be able to confuse the two..

I had to call someone for directions from her old house to the new, I tried to call my sister, because I am thinking that you don't call my mom for directions somewhere...it would be like calling me for directions...

This is all kind of scary, but oh, so true. Welcome to Jennyville. Sky had a good laugh over this, I knew he would appreciate it. The contrast between his logical linear mind and my...what I've got, is always good material for a laugh.

Labels: devotional

Sunday nights at our house; our house usually looks like this on Sunday nights- we have anywhere from 6 to 10 bible college students plus a family or two for dinner and fellowship. On the menu last night was Chicken Tortilla soup, (made in the crockpot, very easy) corn bread, salad and mud pie. Our bible college (called The Full time training) is a strict environment and the students live in a dorm situation with lots of rules. They like to come over to our house and just hang out. We love having them over, they are alot of fun, we get to hear what they are learning, and they are such a good example for our kids of young people who love the lord and are running after Him. Last night Jonah and Andrew shared a song out of our hymn book, but with a different melody. The words really touched me, and specially after Jonah told us it was written by Madame Guyon while she was in prison. I don't know anything about her, I guess I have more reading to do after the Fall reading challenge, but I wanted to share the words:

Labels: devotional, Jen's world

I have been tagged for a 4-word Meme by Susan at Living to tell the Story. So, here are the words- This is a word association game, I am supposed to write down the first thing that pops into my head...

Teach My dining room table, where most of our homeschooling happens. I see myself working with my son-who is just learning to read right now.

Shrill Flocks of green parrots in our front yard trees at dusk. They can be prettry shrill. But I love that they live in our neighborhood. I close my eyes and pretend we are on an exotic island somewhere...

memento Our scrapbooks, which help us remember where we have been and what we have done.

Abundance My family gathered around our table for a meal, and all the food we are blessed to have on it.

I am going to tag Becca at And Together we learn
and Mrs. Darling at Dishpan Dribble, and anyone else who would like to play...

Your four words are:

Cozy, field, dream and illuminate
have fun and if anyone else wants to join in, please do!

Well, seems I cannot be wordless....have to say that I love this goofy picture!

This is a meme hosted at 5minutes for mom, go on over to find more...

What makes a moment meaningful? How do we capture the magic in the ordinary? What makes an ordinary moment magical? These questions were put forth on this blog post at written inc. The post was about pausing to watch a train go by with his daughter, and captured my thoughts because as a mother (and a busy homeschool mother) I am constantly trying to balance my list of 'need to do' with just enjoying my kids and the many moments that make up our life together.

My magical moments of the ordinary occur when I slow down and savor the moment. A zen moment when I simply experience the moment and let the event play out, participating in it fully. To me, it is like time begins to run in slow motion- time almost stands still. Magical moments that become snapshots in my mind to take out and savor again and again.

A circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'engle is on my fall reading challenge. I began reading it this weekend and this passage spoke, I thought to this ability to capture the magic in the moment...

"...I was trying to think out loud about the concentration essential for all artists, and in the very little child I found the perfect example...In real play, which is real concentration, the child is not only outside time, he is outside himself. He has thrown himself completely into whatever it is that he is doing. A child playing a game, building a sand castle, painting a picture, is completely in what he is doing. His self-consciousness is gone; his consciousness is wholly focused outside himself...When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware;...So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play, or an artist at work, then we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we also escape our self-conscious selves."

So, I think she is saying that in capturing these moments we are using the skills of childhood. Approaching the moment with concentration (for example an 18 month old intently watching ants) and lack of self-consciousness. This results in the feeling of escaping time and escaping our selves.

These thoughts, and this homeschool blogmom set my mind today to be on the lookout for moments that could be magical. One such moment was a nature walk this afternoon in our neighborhood. Time slowed down as we stopped to really look at a butterfly bush. An ordinary plant we have seen on our own street, but this bush was big and 'bushy'. and had many butterflies hovering around it. So, we paused when I might have ordinarily moved on. We tried to smell the flowers, discussed the scent, discussed nectar, why the bush is called a butterfly bush. We enjoyed the different hues of orange of the flowers. The kids spent time gently catching the butterflies and releasing them. Really, a moment I probably would have missed. I took some pictures, we took home a few flowers to draw and label later for our nature journals.

On the walk home we discovered a cute bird house with a bird family in it, and looked at some brown-eyed susans-discussing the name and relation to the sunflowers in our yard. It was a beautiful, blue fall day. A magical ordinary moment.

As we walked up our path to the front door, discussing the wonders we had discovered on this walk, the boy wonder commented "yes, it was nice...but next time, mom, we should take the van." !!!!!