My latest obsession

I've mentioned before that I have a "thing" about knowing the time and temperature at all times (and temperatures). For some reason, it's nice to be able to tell my Florida-living parents, "Hey, it was six degrees here when I woke up this morning." (To which they usually respond, "Hey, it was 80 degrees and sunny here today.")

My latest weather-related obsession comes in the form of precipitation. When we visited with some friends a few months ago, it was raining, and they had a digital wireless rain gauge that they checked periodically to find out how much rain we were getting (knowing that the rain fills our cistern).

I've had a rain gauge for years, but it wasn't digital and it wasn't wireless. I had to go outside to check it. (I know--tragic.) And I tended to forget about emptying it which caused the water to freeze and crack it during the winter months, thus disabling it from further use and causing me (or my parents who gifted me one every so often) to need to buy another one. So, when I saw my friend's, I decided I needed one of those to add to my weather station so that I could accurately and easily keep track of how much water was falling from the sky, running off our roof into the gutters, and entering our cistern and, thus, how much water we had to do laundry, dishes, etc.

And so, when my sister asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I suggested she get me a digital wireless rain gauge. And then I didn't suggest anything else so that I could be sure she would, in fact, get me what I asked for (I'm so sneaky that way).

And, sure enough, when we exchanged Christmas gifts this year, good sister that she is, she gave me what I'd suggested she give me. As a bonus, it's also self-emptying.

The receiver -- the actual gauge is outside 

When we returned from our visit to Florida, I set up my new rain gauge. Alas, however, we've been relatively rain-free these past few weeks and I haven't been able to test its efficacy. Until yesterday, when according to my new gauge, we got 1.26 inches of rain, which yields about 600 gallons of water (1 inch of rain falling on 1,000 square feet yields 600 gallons of water). Which means I shouldn't have called the water-hauling guy on Saturday and asked him to bring us a load of water, which he did yesterday. Now, I just need a gauge that predicts the future . . . .

N/O

 We've been having fun keeping up with school and therapies since returning from Florida a few weeks ago. Tomorrow begins letter P week and Kieran gets to wear his pajamas to school on Friday.

 

He took a nickle for show-and-tell during N week (along with every other boy in the class, it appeared -- the girls all brought necklaces).

 

And last Friday, he took an octopus puzzle piece for O week show-and-tell. (And got blue paint all over himself while painting an "ocean" at school.)

 

20 months

He's 20 months old this month and, apparently, none too thrilled to have his picture taken.

He loves playing with stickers, much more than Kieran ever did (or does), and especially likes putting them on various parts of his body.

He's also amazingly fearless and adventurous. He would have wandered further out into our creek the other day (when it was warmer than the 16 degrees it was today!) if I hadn't stopped him. I guess frigid running water seeping into his shoes isn't a deterrent to him.

Just four more months until he's two years old!

Christmas Cards

My parents are people of prayer. They fervently believe that the Creator of the universe hears and answers the prayers of His people. And they talk to Him a lot. One day, a few years ago, a skunk had gotten into their garage. So they opened the garage door and sat in their car parked outside of the garage, waiting until the skunk came out and they could close the door behind it. In the hour or so they were waiting on the skunk to make its move, they prayed together--about their family, about their jobs, and about whatever else the Lord brought to their minds.

 

And they pray very specifically. For example, they've told me how they often pray for Kieran--that the Lord would bring the right teachers and people into his path who can help him reach his full potential. And for Cael, well, they pray that the Lord would give him many guardian angels to keep him safe (the kid has no fear of anything).

 

When we were growing up and came to them with questions about the appropriateness of something (an activity, for example), they would point us to the Bible and then say, "Have you prayed about it?" They encouraged us a willingness and desire to hear and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And when we didn't, they reminded us that the battle was between us and God, not between us and them.

 

Over the past few years, they've been keeping the Christmas cards sent to them in a basket, drawing out one each evening at dinner, and praying for that family. They rotate through the cards several times over the year.

 

I've been thinking lately that I want to cultivate broader and deeper coversations with God and expose the boys to prayer beyond "Heavenly Falgery [Kieran's words], thanks for loving us and for the food" and bed-time prayer. I decided that this example from my parents was one way to begin doing that.

 

So, a few weeks ago, after we returned from Florida, I put all the Christmas cards we'd received into a basket. I added the missionary prayer cards that were taking up space on our fridge door and also some 3x5 cards with the names of a few more people who have asked for prayer recently.

 

In the morning, during breakfast with the boys, I read a chapter from the Bible -- in between trying to get them to eat and trying to keep them quiet while I read -- and then pull out a card from the basket. While the boys look at the pictures, I explain who the people are and any particulars that we need to pray about. And then I pray for the people who sent the card (in between trying to get them to stay quiet and eat their breakfast). We're only a few weeks into this new practice, but I'm hoping I'll be able to keep it up.

So, tell me please, what practical ways have you incoporated prayer into your life and the lives of your kids?

Embracing pretentiousness (a giveaway)

Update: We have a winner! Congratulations to Lisa D. on winning the Outback gift card! And thanks to everyone who entered the "sweepstakes"! If I had lots of money or lots of companies giving me stuff to giveaway, I would do this again, but since I have neither, this will probably be a one-time deal. And, in case you were wondering, we usually stop by the Outback after we donate a pint of blood -- it's the way we "reward" ourselves for doing good.
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Since so many of you (or maybe just Marcia and Renee,) let me know that you'd still like the opportunity to win a restaurant gift certificate, pretentiousness aside, I asked my sister to reconsider her feelings on blog giveaways. Not that I need her permission on what to blog about or on whether to hold a giveaway, but I thought it might help keep the family peace to ask her to give me a piece of her mind. 

 

 My sister with Cael who is wearing the Christmas gift she gave to Kieran

After some back and forth, Kenda decided that since the prentiousness was already out there and everyone knew that I knew that they knew why blogs host giveaways, she would give me her blessing. (Although I do disagree with her somewhat on the motivation behind blog giveaways. My understanding is that many giveaways are to promote a product or promote the blog itself, not just to find out who reads the blog. But I digress.) 

And so I looked into what it would take to host a giveaway and found that there were way too many rules and regulations for such things and decided that I wouldn't do it after all.

 

And then I decided that I would not be intimidated by the FTC and would do a "sweepstakes" just this once, just for the fun of it. And so I found a gift certificate to a favorite restaurant of mine at the kiosk in Kroger, purchased it, and am now happy to be offering a $25 gift card to Outback Steakhouse to one providentially blessed winner. Aren't you excited?

 

To win, just leave your name, a way to contact you (if I don't know you personally), and a nice comment (about me or your family member or your cat or your friend or your boss) in the comment section of this post (not on Facebook because Facebook has rules against such things) and on Friday, January 18, 2013 at 10:00pm (EST), I'll randomly choose one (1) winner from those who have entered. You will not receive any extra entries if you Tweet this post or share this link on any social media platform because I'm really not doing this to publicize the blog and really am doing it just for fun. However, you will receive fake extra bonus points in my mind if you know on what occasion I usually stop by Outback Steakhouse and post that in your comment.

 

Please only enter once and please make sure you're over 18 years old and live in the U.S. Please also know that you need to purchase absolutely nothing to enter or win. All the other rules and regulations that they talk about here apply, plus any others that I'm not aware of at the moment but should be aware of so that I don't get sued by anyone or fined by the FTC. Outback Steakhouse is not in any way responsible for this post -- I purchased the gift card with my own hard-earned dollars, although it would have been nice if they just gave me a couple gift cards -- one to give away and, of course, one to keep for myself, so that I could buy some Aussie fries.

 

And now, may the best (or most random) person win!

1,000

A long, long time ago (way back on June 1, 2007, to be exact), I started a blog against my better judgment. I thought it would be a good outlet for me to write for fun (instead of for work) and a way to keep far-away family and friends up-dated on our lives. So I set up this blog and started to write.

Over the past five-and-a-half years, I've written about chiggers, chickens, Superphone, and a variety of words.

I've talked about donating blood, about the one time I mowed the lawn since moving to the Holler, about how I ask too many questions, about who not to hire if you want to install a geothermal system, about how I don't like it when inanimate objects lie to me, about how I don't like twist ties, and about how you know you live in a Holler.

I blogged every day for a year (and started to do it again but ran out of steam half-way through).

I've shared about the lives of two of our children, Kieran and Cael, and about the loss of our other baby. In more recent years, I've used the blog to work out my thoughts and feelings about having a child with special needs.

I'm glad, now, that I started this blog as it's become a journal of sorts, chronicling our lives. It's nice to be able to look back over the years and remember what we did, or find out what I was thinking on this date three years ago.

A few weeks ago, when I noticed that I was coming up on my 1,000th post, I figured I should do something big to celebrate. After all, 1,000 seems like a lot of posts, doesn't it?

At first, I thought I'd ask Seth to take me out to dinner to celebrate. But when I mentioned it to him, he said, "You have a blog?"

So then I thought, "Why not take the money you were planning on spending on yourself and use it to buy a gift certificate to a restaurant to give away?" I asked a few friends what they thought of the idea, and they were all for it. I asked my sister what she thought of the idea, and she said, "People use giveaways on their blogs to find out who their readers are." In other words, I was being pretentious. So you have her to thank for your not being able to win a gift certificate to a restaurant.

And then I thought to myself, "You know, you're probably the only person who really cares that you've posted 1,000 times. And even then, you don't really care that much about reaching 1,000. After all, it's just another post. So just say something about reaching 1,000 posts, be done with it, and move on."

So here I am saying something about reaching 1,000 posts: Happy 1,000 posts to me.

And here I am moving on to the next 1,000 . . . .

The difference a day makes

On New Year's Day, we were playing with this white stuff . . .

 and a day later we were playing with this white stuff.

We've returned from our vacation in Florida at my parents' house and are ready to jump back into life in the Holler -- snow and all.