Things that make me laugh but shouldn't

This is so wrong, but I laugh every time I think about it. There is a marquee I pass everyday on my way to Purdue that is in front of a botanical warehouse. The other day it read, "Rest in Peace, Carlos. We will always remember you." Not more than a few days later they changed the sign to read "Wanted, Spanish speaking telemarketer". Please. Does anyone else find this funny, or am I just evil?

TV UPDATE #1

Well folks, I'm sure you all are dying to know. . .How did it go? I can sum it up in one word. Beautifully. They were all in shock the first day. Millie kept coming in the living room and looking around. Like maybe it was hidden somewhere. This is a hoot as any of you know who have been in my house. My living room is about 12x15 with one couch, one chair, one piano, and one cedar chest in it. That's all. Nothing else. Nothing on the walls. No stupid knick-knacks. Nowhere to hide a huge freakin TV. I have to be honest. I worry about that girl sometimes. She continues to walk around saying things like "Mom, I miss our TV. The one that played my kid shows." As if she needed to clarify that she wasn't talking about the one that didn't happen to play her kid shows.

My other three kids made it in the house before me, and this is what I heard. "MOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!" They were panicked~asked a thousand questions~Madeline just kept giving me the evil eye. Then they declared that I will just have to wait until Daddy got home because he will set things right. He will march right down into that basement and bring up the TV. "Daddy is not going to tolerate this." (I don't know where they heard that before).

Well, Daddy did get home. And if I have to be perfectly honest with you, I really wasn't sure what he would do. He very well could have marched into the basement to retrieve the beloved TV. He is the man of the house. But he didn't. He didn't say a word about it. Shocker.

So it's been four full days of no television. Ben finished putting all the trim up in the living room. He painted the living room. I managed to organize my paperwork (this is a whole other blog post), I helped Madeline bake an apple pie, and I played football with the kids. Yes. That is what I said. I'll say it again. I PLAYED FOOTBALL WITH THE KIDS. And I liked it. Ben, however, did not play football with us. He was inside, and I'm pretty sure he was pouting because he couldn't watch football. In fact, that's how the whole football playing thing got started in the first place. He was crabbing about it and I said "You can't watch football, but we can PLAY football" in my best cheerleader voice. Yah, he didn't buy it, but by that time the kids were like "Oh my gosh, mom said she would play football with us. Mom, are you REALLY going to play football with us?" What choice did I have? Well, I'll tell you. I did have a choice. For a split second I thought "You (Ben) are being such a big jerky. Fine. We won't do anything. We'll just sit here and look at each other." But then I thought, OK, he's a bit miffed about not being able to watch football. I totally understand. But if I want a change to happen in the family then I need to make a change. With or without him. I need to be the good example here.

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change.

Dude, Michael Jackson wasn't always nutty.

BE GONE FROM ME YOU STINKIN TV

My family is in for a rude awakening Wednesday. When they arrive home from school and work we will no longer have a television in our living room. It will be safe and sound in our lovely basement storage room. And they will be steaming mad.

Whatever. They will get over it.

The thing is. . .I love my family. I really do. And as you can tell from my last post my life is not what it should be. I might not be able to live in the country or have a bluegrass band, but WE CAN make delicious food while LISTENING to bluegrass, and there is no reason we cannot bust out a sweet beat on some homemade instruments.

I think the biggest problem that I can identify is we our not living intentionally and we are not living simply. We are simply not living at all as far as I'm concerned. We (meaning them) have been sucked dry of life by the TV MAN. Hours are lost. Hours that my husband and I could be spent enjoying our children or each other or OUR GOD. I can't remember the last time we prayed together or read together, and we call ourselves a Christian family. What is setting us apart?

So I can keep complaining, or I can do something about it. I'm choosing to do something about it. For 40 days (God accomplishes a lot in this amount of time) we will not have television as a part of our lives. We might have a Christmas movie marathon if I think we can handle it, but we'll see.

I am expecting wonderful things, and I am expecting some withdrawal symptoms. I'm just going the trust the Lord with it.

My perfect world

OK. I almost did it again. I almost deleted my one post. Silly. I know.

So here I am. It's been a long time. I remember I started to blog back when I was a home school mom. I went back and forth and back and forth about sending the kids to school. We finally made the decision to go ahead and send them. Now my husband is on the school board and I spend my life driving them back and forth and attending meetings all the time. I also went back to college because we quickly realized that sending four kids to private school is crazy expensive and I need to get a job soon. . . like tomorrow.


I'll tell you. It isn't what I thought it would be. But then again, it wasn't what I thought it would be when I was homeschooling either.

Do you ever feel like this life is just not the life you are supposed to be living? Here is my life in my perfect world.

First of all, I wouldn't be living in NW Indiana. I would be living in the country somewhere in a yurt. As in a Mongolian living structure. But I would have plumbing and electricity. We would drink milk from our neighbor's cow that had not yet been pasteurize and I would have a huge community garden with lots of great friends, and every fall we would have a harvest party and drink hot cider and talk about how wonderful Jesus is. My husband would be a woodworker, not a project manager for a steal fabrication company. He would make beautiful things and be very happy. He would write a book.



I would sew funky aprons and wear red lipstick every day. I would home school again, and my children would form a bluegrass band just for me. If we got tired of bluegrass we would form a drum circle and all our neighbors could come to see what the noise was and we would share the gospel with all of them. They would repent and believe and pick up a drum and have a grand ol' time. They would invite us to ride on their horse drawn sleigh after the first snow and roast chestnuts on an open fire. We would be great friends.

In my perfect world my daughter and I would get along all the time and never argue. All my children would get along also. We would laugh all the time. We would chop wood for our wood burning stove in our yurt. We would make our own bread and can something delicious. During the summer I would teach them to walk a high wire and swing on a trapeze. . . just for fun.

My husband and I would be in love all the time. We would go on long walks and pick flowers or fall leaves. We would talk about very important things. . . .

In my perfect world we would go to a church where everyone loved Jesus, and actually talked about him. Nobody at this church would be stuffy and rigid. They would just love the Lord and each other. They would laugh and smile. They would sing bluegrass praise and hymns and help each other out.

This is not my life. It isn't even close. Can you miss a life you never had?