Easter – A Declaration of Independence

Its Easter Morning. 

  Last night I had insomnia and didn’t sleep all night.  After realizing that I wasn’t going to sleep I spent most of the night with Della cruising the information highway, reading news and other inspiring blogs. Then I watched  Huckabee, CSI NY and Madagascar (My kids call it “mad at a gas car”.)  let the cat in and out, did a load of laundry, made breakfast for the Mister, loaded the dishwasher and baked cinnamon rolls for the kids to eat for breakfast.  I feel like that old Army commercial where they say “We do more before 8:00am than most people do all day.”  Only, I don’t think it counts unless you actually go to bed and then get up to do all of those things.  Finally, around 6:15 my batteries were running low and I climbed into bed and drifted off to sleep listening to the soothing sounds of the thunderstorm in the distance.   As the night turned into day I settled in to a deep sleep.    It was cool outside so my bedroom window was open.  This morning’s alarm clock was the sound of church bells ringing behind my house.   They don’t normally ring the bell on Sundays but today is Easter – the most sacred of days for Christians around the world.  It was a welcomed sound of joy and I could hear the words ringing in my heart

He’s alive!  He’s Alive! He’s Alive!

For Christians this is our declaration of independence, our very own special 4th of July.  Jesus sacrificed his life for us.  He took our place, our punishment for our sins, so we could be re-united with God who created us.  No longer separated from Him.  Set free and forgiven from any sin, no matter how great.  They beat him beyond recognition, crucified him by nailing him to a cross and then mocked him while they waited for him to die.  BUT THEN…on the third day…THIS DAY that we celebrate HE AROSE FROM THE GRAVE.   He said He would and He did.  Neither Buddha nor Mohamed can offer this.  And because of this -  WE ARE FORGIVEN FROM EVERY SIN – AS IF THEY NEVER HAPPENED, and all we have to do is ask.  Its FREE for all who ask.  This is our day of rejoicing, OUR DAY OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Another song comes to mind: Free at Last!  Free at Last!  Thank God Almighty! We are free at last!

Enjoy your Easter celebrations but remember what it is really all about.  Jesus is alive and he lives in my heart today.

For more information about forgiveness and why you need Jesus.  Or, if you need answers to life's tough questions:

http://www.iamsecond.com/

http://www.needhim.org

http://nothingstoohardforgod.org/

Do the Hokey-Pokey

We all know that childhood song where you put your right foot in and out and shake it all about.  Eventually,by the end of the song, you end up dizzy and breathless on the floor.  In the ProlificMom house we have our own version, and it made my life and my marriage a little bit easier.

Going way back…First, Gary Smalley wrote a book Keyes to Loving Relationships. 

  It  explains that an important key to a good marriage is good communication, and every person has their own communication style and language.  Its difficult to have a meaningful discussion with someone who doesn’t speak the same language.   Its even more  challenging  if you’re trying to communicate what you want someone else to do.  You need to make sure that you are speaking their language or they are not going to get it.  In marriage there are often many (mis)communication challenges that usually end with someone saying “you just don’t listen to me” or “you just don’t get it.”  Once I understood the communication gap I started figuring out how to get what I wanted by using an entirely new set of tools.  ( I wish they would have taught me about this important piece of information in college.)

Marriage – Year Five:  So, the Mister and I were finding it ‘stressful’ to discuss the laundry.  Actually, I would call the Mister from work and ask him to take the clothes out of the dryer.  And just like I asked, he would take the clothes out of the dryer and that was all.   I was constantly infuriated because he didn’t take the clothes out of the wash and put them in the dryer after taking the clothes out of the dryer, then take dirty laundry and start the wash.  Why wasn’t he listening to me?!!!  We had been arguing about this for years and he still didn’t get it that when I asked for him to “take the clothes out of the dryer” I wanted him to do the full laundry cycle.   Why did I have to explain the full cycle of laundry every time I wanted his help?

ProlificMom said:  “Take the clothes out of the dryer – interpretation: Do the full laundry cycle.

What the Mister heard: “Take the clothes out of the dryer. – interpretation: Take the clothes out of the dryer.

Then, one day, I realized that we had a communication gap.  He couldn’t read my mind and I didn’t like having have the patience to explain the process in detail every time I wanted it done.  Four years after watching the video series (I’m a little bit slow on the uptake.) the light bulb came on!  We weren’t speaking the same language.  This occurred to me at work after calling the Mister at home to once again ask argue about the laundry.  I just couldn’t stand the thought of wasting my energy on something so small or stupid.  That was the a-hah! moment.  I needed to find a word that I could use to define the entire process.  So, I called the Mister and told him that I didn’t ever want us to argue about the laundry again, and I was going to think of a word that we could use to define the entire laundry process.  Any time one of us used the word the other one would know exactly what to do. Then I had to figure out what the word would be.  An hour later I had it – the perfect word to describe the process – DO THE HOKEY POKEY! 

Eleven years later, (marriage year 16) everyone in my house knows what this term means and we also use it to define loading and unloading the dishwasher.  To differentiate we say “do the hokey pokey in the kitchen”.

This is only one small victory in the communication battleground of marriage, but a victory for sure.

(I Am) Smarter than a 5th Grader

I love the internet!

To whoever created the internet – I THANK YOU.  Its a most helpful tool when trying prove that you are  (I am) not an idiot. 

For instance, when the Misters insists there is another Baldwin brother named Adam. I can sit on the couch next to him, swiftly type ask.com, and voilla! prove that I do actually know what I’m talking about. 

Adam Baldwin is an actor currently appearing in Chuck on the peacock channel and he is in no way related to the famous Baldwin Brothers.  

Then, there is his assertion that it NEVER rains in LA. 

According to Ask Weather they receive 11.3 inches (as apposed to 33.9 inches in Dallas) of precipitation (rain/snow) per year.   While they only get 1/3 of the precip, its still more than NEVER.  And finally IMDB to the rescue – Scott Bacula or Richard Dean Anderson is MacGyver?      For the big ‘I told you so’ finish:

By the Way the above screen captures were created by Della with her snazzy  “snipping tool” as I created this  posting using Windows Live Writer.  I love this new computer and I love the internet!

Snazzy!

Victory is mine! I yelled as I opened the door to greet the FedEx man on Thursday.  My brand new ruby red Dell Inspiron laptop had finally arrived.  She is so pretty I’m going to name her Della.  I’m sure we’ll spend many countless days and nights together cruising the information super-highway as well as many well spent hours blogging.  She has all of the bells and whistles – fully equipped with the latest business software from Microsoft, Windows Vista (which isn't bad at all – Yeah! Vista) and a built in video camera  which I just used to take this photo.  Great camera but the model needs a little bit of work.

Oh, happy day!  And if my children even think about touching it….. :-)

Back Blogged

I've been all blogged up for the last few weeks. Oh the stories I could have been telling. They often visit me in the middle of the night, or when I'm in the shower, or when I'm driving. But when I sat down at my computer there was nothing. So, here is a truncated version of what I've been up to for the last few weeks.

I just spent the last 5 DAYS working on my laptop trying to resurrect it from the near dead. Can you say VIRUSES!!! Not just one. This was me defragging at about 11:00pm last night. After several days of worry, praying, pleading, groaning, more prayer, more tears, deleting programs, installing and running new anti-virus software, scanning, scanning, rescanning, rebooting about 500 times, crying, praying and pleading with God to save my laptop and one final defrag followed by one final complete scan - I THINK ITS GOING TO BE OK.

I'm very careful about what I open or download, so you ask - how does something like this happen to someone like me. I HAVE FIVE CHILDREN - enough said.

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Audrey turns 10. These are her birthday shoes. They are really cute for about a week and then they start to fade like crazy. By the way, Hannah Montana is no longer cool. I think its all about Demi Lavato now.

Notice the "fire starter in the lower corner of the photo. This is a "childproof" device (adult-proof incendiary device commonly used by five-year-olds to start fires in closets)

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Jeremey turns 13 - and he likes a girl!

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The Mister has a birthday. Not saying how old he is but next year he will be 40. Here he is blowing out the imaginary candles on his birthday cake.

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All girls weekend road trip to San Antonio to start spring break.

A favorite niece has a baby shower. I only have two nieces and they are both my favorites.

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Cousins - self portrait by Natalie.

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Me and Natalie at the Alamo.

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Caught having fun during Spring Break - 52 degrees outside but they just had to "swim".

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And best of all SPRING HAS SPRUNG :-)