Trick or Treat!

This was the first year that our kids skipped the Harvest Carnival scene for a door to door adventure.  With a Red Hot Chili Pepper, Dwight, Smoke the Nascar Driver, and Pam 6.0 we were off and running.  (By the way, if you don’t get the Dwight and Pam 6.0 references you might want to rent the first season of The Office).  It was a great night; the weather cooperated, the stew was good, and the kids had a great time with their cousin (a peelable banana).  Oh, and I got some candy too so that was fun (I guess dressing up as a surgeon was worth a bit of candy).  Thanks to Stephanie for the gear to make it fully legit.  Oh and Karissa dressed up too but you will have to ask her what she was.  Here are some of the pictures from our first Halloween with four kiddos.

 

Here are the babies
Here are the babies
Question. Do I resemble Dwight? Yes. False. I AM Dwight.

 

A candid moment with Dwight
A candid moment with Dwight

 

Nascar Driver
Nascar Driver

 

Pam 6.0
Pam Beesly 6.0

Dreaming away…

If you were to start a church, what would it look like?  This is the question that has been rolling around in my head the last few weeks.  I don’t know if you are a fan of Mr. Bean or not, but as I was dreaming today about starting a missional community and what it would be like I could not help thinking about Mr. Bean and his church experience.  It is a long video, about 10 minutes, but pretty funny if you like Mr. Bean.  Enjoy when you have time.

Is it possible?

Is it possible that I am reading The Explosive Child by Ross Greene for wisdom on how better to parent this sweet, sleeping little boy?  What a treasure-first nap in 3 weeks for him!

Is it possible that these bags are full of my clean laundry that covered our school table this morning and I was too overwhelmed by it to do anything but stuff it in bags so it didn’t get more covered with dog hair and so that we could do school in a little bit together?

Is it possible I am in great, monumental need of some coffee this morning…or that I washed a BANANA more times already today than I’d care to admit to calm an agitated, close to out of control four year old?

It might just be…

Can we be done with this already?

Shane Claiborne, author and a founding partner of The Simple Way, a community of followers of Jesus who choose to live among and serve the poor of Philadelphia, has written a controversial book entitled “Jesus for President.”  In this book, Claiborne makes the claim that it should not matter as much who Christians vote for on Nov. 4th, but how they live their lives on Nov. 3rd and Nov. 5th.  I couldn’t agree more.  I believe it is important for followers of Jesus to be engaged in the political process but more so to be about the method and message of Jesus in their daily lives.  I personally can not wait until this election cycle is over, but I find myself being challenged by the words and life of Claiborne.  I will not, however, be writing in Jesus for President.

-Chris

We’ve been…

doing a really good job mopping the floor for mommy (why in the world did I not do this sooner, kids+water=fun)

rolling over more and more

Enjoying our library books in a large rubbermaid container while eating freshly picked apples from Kim-thank you!

Message in an apple

This lovely apple was one of many, probably 25 pounds or more, that my dear friend Kimberly gave me Sunday. Knowing my hand isn’t working well and seeing the apples on my porch, my sweet neighbor offered to peel and cut them all for me. It took her most of the afternoon and she brought back buckets of cut apples except for this one. She said she saw it and simply could not cut it up. How neat is that? I wanted you to see it Kim, thank you again.

-Karissa

Try this for fun!

Try leaving at 9 AM and heading out with four kids in the van to the emissions testing station. No line, answered prayer, we pass (good thing, tabs are about expired).

Then go to the Jiffy lube (after realizing the car is 5,000 miles overdue for an oil change, a headlight is burnt out and the wipers don’t work) to inquire “How long will this take? Can I wait in the car? I have four kids in here.” He quickly replies “It will take six hour and seven minutes and yes you can all wait in the car”. I smile at his attempt at humor and say “Really, I need to know-(my baby just blew out her diaper) we’re on borrowed time”. He promises 10 minutes, I start counting and proceed to change a diaper in the front seat of my car while listening to the banter under my hood.

“No wonder there is a light that doesn’t work, there’s peanut butter in here.”

“Can you turn the lights on/off (while changing a diaper)?” (6 times in 5 minutes)

“How many kids are in there?”

“You do the wipers…no you do it…no you do it” (I’m thinking ‘do it quick or I’ll come do it myself mister!’)

My kids giggled at these boys/men working the whole time, we were very entertained.

(Earlier today) Me calling my sister: “Is there any way I can drop off a kid or two (she suggests three) for a little while so I can run some errands? The to-do list is piling up and I feel like a nag every time I ask Christopher for help-he’s busy too!”

She graciously takes the older two and Audrey after our emissions and oil change adventure.

Kyler and I set out to conquer the list. He yells at me every time I buckle him in, “ME DO IT!” only he never does it, he just sticks his face in the seat and his bottom in my face. Nice.

We go to QFC to return rotten cantalope.

We go to Albertson’s to return a gallon of soybean oil, don’t ask.

We go to the post office to return something we ordered but was broken. Kyler pushes all the buttons on the machine I’m trying to use to get a stamp and it gets all goofed up.

We go to Central Market to get some fresh flour (I get flour all over my shirt and pants while grinding it-Kyler laughs and thinks it is hilarious).

We go to the printing store to make one copy for 11 cents to complete the application that I’ve been trying to mail for two weeks.

We mail the complete application.

I go online to renew the almost expired tabs now that we passed emissions.

Back to Danielle’s for lunch. Good times!

My favorite part? When people observe my energetic two year old darting around the store and marvel “Wow you’ve got your hands full!” And I get to reply “Yes, and I have three more at home!”.