They're so FUNNY!

Riley has forsaken baseball this year to give soccer a try. And is LOVING it! I think he enjoys the pace of soccer over baseball, but the running hither and yon is still a bit difficult. The first game was a couple of weeks ago. The temperature was reasonably cool, but the wind was blowing, literally, about 30 mph leaving a wind chill in the lower 40's somewhere.

When we first got to the field and were waiting on the rest of his team to show up so that he could warm up, he was trying to coax Troy and me to stand a little closer together to form a sufficient wind block. In his best romantic radio-announcer voice, he said, "Come on, you two, don't you feel the love?" as he pushed us together. Troy tossed over his shoulder, "Careful, dude. That's how you came to be in the first place." Over Ashley's theatrical "Ewwwwww"s and covering her ears with her hands, Riley tossed back, in mock horror, "On a soccer field???" A little too wise for 10...

And today was THE day. The BIG day. Every student, 3rd-12th grade in Texas, has some sort of ginormous test today. It's the (cue horror music): TAKS test!!! (pronounced 'tax') Passages to read, problems to solve, bubbles to bubble. All very important stuff. Students have practiced ad nauseum. Teachers have sworn their life away (Ashley understands that if you get peanut butter on your test booklet it goes STRAIGHT to the oval office for George W. Bush to deal with!!) and parents are doing what little they can in putting the punkin's to bed on time (wonder if I should make mine take a shower now?) and feeding them some sort of glorious power breakfast. Oh, and us yahoos that teach non-TAKS grades simply do all we can to steer our babies around the moon and back before we allow them to walk within 50 feet of a door that has a 'TESTING' sign on it.

So, today I woke Riley up by sitting on the edge of his bed and whispering, "Do you know what today is?" Without opening his eyes he whispered back, "It's Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills day." Then he struggled to sit up, all the while asking, "Do they have MAKS in Mississippi? Did you have LAKS in Louisiana when you grew up? Do all of those 'W' states have WAKS?" I just shook my head repeating, "I don't know." I'm pretty sure he'll do okay -- at least on the vocabulary portion!

The coffee group is on the road again this week! If you're in the D/FW area, join us and some ladies from Alta Mesa for a rockin' good time!

Stealing from Others....

Since I don't have 30-45 minutes to sit down here and update this, I will point you to some other things I have really pondered on of late that I have ripped off of this blog.

Riley and I had a discussion yesterday of doing all that you do "as working for the Lord" (Colossians 3:23) and how using whatever gifts God has given us: our brains, our talents, our creative abilities, to the best of our ability in order to honor God. So today I got this from said blog:

The story is told of a king who went into his garden one morning and found everything withered and dying. He asked the oak tree that stood near the gate what the trouble was. The old oak replied that he was sick of life and was determined to die, because he was not tall and beautiful like the pine. The pine was all out of heart because it could not bear grapes like the vine. The vine was going to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and have as fine fruit as the peach tree; and so on through the garden.

Coming to a little purple violet, the king found its bright face lifted as cheery as ever. 'Well, violet, I'm glad amidst all this discouragement to find one brave little flower. You do not seem to be the least disheartened.''No. I'm really not an important flower, but I believe that if you wanted an oak or a pine or a peach tree or a lilac, you would have planted one; but since I know you wanted a violet, I am determined to be the best violet I can be.'

They who are God's without reserve are in every situation content, for they will do only what He wills and desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do and be. They strip themselves of everything and in this nakedness find all things restored one hundred fold.

-Charles Spurgeon

Maybe if the stars line up, I will steal something else from that blog tomorrow, but for now, go be the best violet you can be!

At Least We're Clear...

If you have read here very long you a)are close friends or family since few people can stand the sporadic nature of my writing and b)you have realized that not much gets past Riley. He is a maze of constant questions as he doesn't let unfamiliar words or ideas just hover about him: he must get to the bottom of who, what, why, and how. He wears me out, in a fun, inquisitive kind of way.

Yesterday we were leaving for school when he said, "Mom, the light in the laundry room is broken."

"No, it's just burned out. Be sure to tell Dad."

"Why do I tell Dad?"

"Because light bulbs are his department." (Basically anything more than 6' off the floor are his department because there's the whole find the stool, possibly a screwdriver, yada, yada).

"What's your department? Everything else?"

PRE-cisely.

Just What I Need

I traveled to College Station with my peeps, the Coffee Group, this weekend. We had an amazing time! So amazing, in fact, we decided to launch a new place for gals to respond to our time with them. I confess this is an idea that the Coffee Group -- the rest of them -- have been trying to get off the ground, and I wasn't going for it. I already have one blog I don't write on, why have another?

But another is what we have! Later we're going to 'pretty it up' but for now, we have a spot. Interestingly, names and URL's associated with 'coffee group' are used up so we are at espressohislove.blogspot.com. Check us out!

I'm still trying to recover, still feeling amazingly blessed in my day, and still chuckling about my friends.