Vacuuming Legos

We love LEGO. I grew up receiving huge boxes of them as a kid when they were first created! My mom still possesses the remainder of what my brother and I cherished. We built everything you can imagine including Alcatraz (yes we grew up watching whatever whenever!:0) and a candy keeper (I grew up right down the road from a Suwanee Swifty and change from lunch always in my pocket). I never understood what all the fuss was about when I was a kid.

Now, as the mother of three boys I have, at times, been put on restrictions from buying any more legos. It's not very much fun when you see a great set on sale for half price and you have to pass it by! But as of today more than ever, I understand the fuss my mother made over those darn legos that her MIL sent to us every year.

MM wanted to dust out his computer (Why do we call it that and not de-dust?, you can answer that in the comments section!) so he dragged the vacuum out and plugged it in. Everything was set including the hose and it's attachment, perfect for computer cleaning! Then he threw the switch to the on position and quick as he could back off again! The squeal pierced my ear. "What was that?" I exclaimed from the boys' room where I had been reading to them. I leaped from my abode hoping against hope that my 11 yo vacuum had bit the dust! Could today be the day that I get to fork over a modest car payment for a dirt picker-upper? I really do want a new vacuum!

Backtrack a little here. Some say that boys need to tear stuff apart to find out how it works. I tend to agree with them. Just a few days before L was looking for some broken tool/toy/article to dismantle in hopes of repairing with the tools he received for his last birthday. I have always wanted to be a flexible home school mom who went with the flow of things, and I am right brained. Now was my chance to fulfill both of our desires.

All three boys followed me down stairs,

one with tools(L), one with a camera (M)and

one with himself (S) (he's too little to carry things down a flight of stairs!). As we got started I said a prayer. I wanted L to experience all the thoughts that I go through when I'm fixing something around the house. Step by step we walked through the journey of dismantling the vacuum. M was busily pressing the button and making us paw-oo-say (French for pause!) for specific poses if he missed the good picture. He was really good at it.

Before it was all over and I had gotten to the motor (that's the business part of the whole contraption) we found ourselves looking at a propeller with some strange object lodged between it and the housing. Not wanting to really get into the motor, I stopped and had L take a gander. Could this be the culprit? Would my vacuum last a few more years? Oh, I hope so. With screwdriver in hand we pried the wayward lego out of its prison. It was a sad day in LEGOland, this brick would no longer click!

The moral of the story: In order to get a new vacuum, imprison more LEGO...

Filler. Ignore this. Whatever you do, don't comment!

Just a post to get the screaming off the top of my blog.


I have a story to share about vacuums and legos.


I even have pictures.


But you'll have to wait.

Tagged. I'm it.

1. I don't like being tagged.
2. I force myself to fold laundry.
3. I don't have 6 friends to torture, but I have one I'm going to... Well, like my pa always said, if you don't want it known to all the world, don't write it down.
4. Having my own cup instead of sharing with MM might be a good thing. We've shared for nearly every dinner the past 13 years!
5. Turning the TV off at dinner time allows real conversation to take place.
6. Lasagna is not a one pot meal. Wanna see a picture...? Nah.

There. I don't have a friend that won't maim me for tagging them.

Power Principles

Yeah, I know, it's a catchy title. It' has nothing to do with Karate, business management, or personal peace (google it and that's what you'll find...)

If I were a good writer I'd input a catchy introduction paragraph right here that would mention the power requirements of my van, my mobile phone and myself. Since I'm not, you'll have to be sated with what I have put here.

Van: "You'll need to get gas on the way into work." says MM on the way home yesterday. Upon ignoring his encouragement (why do I give it but not receive it?) I arrived at work. I drove to the bank. I drove to pick up S. I drove to the Indian Grocery across town, sort of. As I drove up the hill before Tallahassee Mall the van didn't accelerate properly. Knowing this wasn't good I pulled into the nearest business, a gas station ("How Convenient" said the church lady). I parked and left the engine running. I checked to make sure the tires were fine. Then I listened, the engine sputtered. [I really am an Engineer!]. I walked back to the driver's seat and it dawned on me... I need gas. I laughed all the way to the pump. The employee on break outside saw me laugh and must have wondered what I thought was so funny... Now you wonder... I was thinking how funny it was that I pulled into the gas station instead of the old CompUSA building or the Steakhouse...


Mobile Phone: Always charge your phone at home. That way you don't need your car charger... Unless you are me, then you know that you always have your charger in your vehicle (which always has gas...). I wonder why it is that every time I think I have something, I don't... I talked and talked this morning to my friend. I took my phone (on all the time) into work and used it as necessary. I E.T.d (phoned home) and let L start a pot of water to boil. MM was busy and couldn't tend to it. I turned off my phone (then pulled into the gas station). I tended to the van and proceeded to the Indian Grocery. I turned on the phone to place a call. I reached MM who wondered what was up with the boiling water and why I wasn't just bringing dinner home... (another story). I turned off my phone... You get the point? I couldn't tap into the source of power (BTW, my phone is charging as I type).

Me: Do you ever feel like falling apart? I mean, really. Not the "Too much is going on because I over-committed myself." kind of falling apart. But rather the kind to which you respond "I'm depressed." Well, I realized today that for far too long I've been running on empty. I haven't been tapped into the source of power. Sure I've called upon the Lord for his help, but I've also been hiding in the cave (funny that I should read that story to M tonight!). This depression that overcomes me at times is much more than the blues; it's a self-pitying act that is used to draw attention to myself, not my saviour. I've grown all too familiar with this pattern. Today, however, is different. Today, I shall glory in Him alone. He hath shown me what is good and what He requires of me. Do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him.

If I were a good writer, I'd put in a summary paragraph here and you could read the first (skip the subtitle) and last paragraph to find out that God is awesome. He loves me and cares about my every need, right down to the last drop of fuel in my van. But, since I'm just a ________, you'll have to go in peace and write your own story of His goodness!

PS. the blank may be filled in with any of the following:
stay at home mom
homeschool mom
(an) Engineer
wife with three boys
woman

If you throw in a self depricating adjective such as:
low down, good for n...

Well, let's not go there. I'm off to a good nights rest (after just one more chore...)

Ladies and Gentlemen....

I am taking a moment from my blog to bring you the following prayer requests from Kenya.

Some of you may have heard about John and Eloise who were attacked last month in their home. Well, this month is an another attack was, well, please read below. Please pray for these missionaries. Please pray for Clea and Isaac Wootton. Please support them on the front lines. We haven't heard any update on John and Eloise.

Sincerely,

Kahlua Keeping Koala

Kenya Prayer Requests Aug.1

1. Another violent attack against missionaries- this time in Kakamega, about 1 hour from Kitale, against a Dutch Youth Missions Team, 3 young women and 7 young men attacked by 17 armed men who raped the girls, beat the young men violently and robbed everything they had. Please pray for their healing and against a spirit of discouragement among all the missionaries in the country.

2. Isaac Wootton is traveling to Uganda this week to look for a house and prepare for their move to Fort Portal, Uganda. Pray for a safe journey and for divine leading of the Holy Spirit.

3. Pray for student John doing the Chuck Smith Bible recordings for radio broadcast on the Book of John this week.

4. Pray for effective discipleship for the student Pastors on Mt. Elgon. They met for class sitting under trees on stones, but are preparing to build benches.

5. Pray for the Kipsongo Slum outreach this week and for wisdom for the leaders to deal with the Income Generating Projects in peace without rioting behavior from those slum dwellers who will have to wait for their turn to begin some small business training.

6.Pray for Pastor Makanis' wife, Helen, who is teaching women in Eldoret all week and for them to have sufficient means to continue feeding the orphans at the Bread of Life Feeding Station. Their sponsorship fund will be cut in half this month.

Thank you for your prayer support from all of us in Kitale, Kenya

Let's Make a Deal

Through a sad series of events we are storing some valuables for a dear friend of ours. Among those things there are multiple power tools and hand tools. There are old tools and very few new ones (they aren't very good anyway, are they?). Even so, there are these tubs. Big plastic 55 gallon drums, with bung ringed lids to seal them. Three of them, to be exact.

At the time of our entrance into the "storage" phase of our life it was, as I said, sad. No one was paying attention to all the details and some things were left for examination later. One of those later examinations was the storage drums.


Today, being the ambitious woman that I am, I washed all of the camp clothes (twice, to be sure, to be sure...) and I finally finished folding all the piled up laundry that had been neglected for a period measured not in days but weeks. The dishes were all caught up as we discovered, while L was gone, that M is quite capable of emptying the dishwasher all by himself and S loves to help, even if he is over zealous and shouldn't be handling glassware. So I moved on down to the basement, but not before I conquered the trip to the dump...

Digression: Please, those who live in suburbia, be thankful for your trash collection service.

I'm really going somewhere with this, please be patient... After the dump, I wandered to the real target of my day: The Basement. Ours is above ground, don't you know? It has been a shambles after the water receded from the last flood (March 2008) and really needed some attention today. I made a little progress before the rain began to fall which brought L and MM in from the garden where they had pulled up the beans and corn preparing for a late crop of corn! And S had risen from his nap in a foul mood! Great. Now I'll never get this basement even remotely organized!

Never fear, MM is here! After a moments rest he began searching for something to do that would be helpful. So he made his way to the drums. They are heavy and cumbersome but none the less, good for what they are used for. Behind bung number one, we found pinto beans, vegetable oil, rice, salt and mesquite seasoning. No problem. 105 Pounds of life sustaining food. Good enough. Behind bung #2 we found pinto beans, vegetable oil, rice, mesquite seasoning, wheat grain and brown sugar. Now for the big surprise, behind bung #3 we found pinto beans, vegetable oil, rice, mesquite seasoning, wheat grain and brown sugar.

The total number of pounds of food we found was staggering: more than 350 pounds of food.

So, we are somewhat prepared now. There's only one problem with half of this food: Those 1.25 gallon bottles of vegetable oil all three of them. One per container... They were busted. One less than the others, but all none the less busted! Yes, we now have in our basement 350 pounds of food half coated in vegetable oil.

The question I pose to you: Do you see our problem? and, what would you do with it all?

Wikki Stix (TM, I'm sure) and Oatmeal

We went to a restaurant that gave Wikki Stix to our kids instead of crayons! What a life saver. Now, I know my kids are supposed to be trained for situations like restaurants, but we don't do them often and when we do they are the kid friendly ones. Desiring to try out a new restaurant, Paulina's, that my parents recommended, we took M and S (L is away at camp) with us. Everything was fine until other people came in. Then the host brought us the stix. It was like a new world had opened to us. We had something to entertain all of us while we waited for dinner, which, by the way, was fabulous!

Onward to oatmeal. Not many people know many things about me and this is classified under the heading of "No One Cares" which makes it great fodder for blogs. I have always enjoyed a good bowl of hot oatmeal (even in the summer) ladened with brown sugar and cinnamon and butter. I always like it from the stove, microwaves just don't do right! Instant oatmeal (I was introduced to it by force while pregnant with M) is just blech! or so I thought, until today. With L gone breakfast duty falls back upon my shoulders. So this morning lacking the typical armament of cold cereals (I know they're a waste of money) I offered instant oatmeal (bought by someone else and left here for emergencies). Instead of using the typical water to make it I used milk.

S wasn't very hungry so I fed him half of it by the spoonful. The other half was eaten by me and I didn't gag on it! Here is my recommendation: If you must use the instant stuff, use milk to make it work!

Sincerely