Stuffitus

It has been a lazy Sunday afternoon. We came home from church, ate “panima” cheese sandwiches (as Jenna called them), and relaxed. It was nice not to do much else.

MORE CLEANING OUT. The Jones family came in last weekend to do some more work on Pauline’s house. They went through all the stuff in the kitchen and garage. I say “they” because I was busy mowing and taking the kids to see Ben’s ball game. I think if we can get a good three day weekend in we’ll be able to finish up this job.

Vicki and I have also continued to work a lot on Aunt Mar’s garage. It looks a lot better, but there is still a lot more to do. That’s okay, we’re making slow, steady progress.

MORE BIRTHDAY. We celebrated Jenna’s birthday again while the Jones family was here. We didn’t go out, but Vicki did get her a nice cake. A neighbor of ours, Pat Johnson, recently took a cake decorating class and is starting to make cakes on the side. Jenna had a beautiful layer cake which was checker boarded on the inside and had icing that looked like a woven basket around the sides.

Jenna got several presents, but the favorite was the cell phone she inherited from Grandma Jones. Vicki called the phone as Jenna was opening the gift bag as an extra bit of fun.

STUFFITUS. I have touched on this before, but I’m going to write about it again because it is so big on my mind. Obviously cleaning out Pauline’s house has brought this to my immediate attention. To be fair to Pauline, she was not a hoarder of stuff. She had her share of memorabilia from life, but her house is not crammed full of baggage. I have been wanting to have a house cleaning for years, but this has made be look around my own house with a more critical eye. I have literally walked around and wondered if my kids were adults and Vicki and I were to be gone would they really want to go through all this stuff? And left with that job, what few things in this entire collection would be special enough for them to keep?

I wish Vicki and I could take a week off from life and clean out our house. For example, I found several boxes of old textbooks. I had kept the old college books because I had sweated long and hard over those classes. The middle and high school books I had taught from I kept when we adopted newer books. They are all out of date now so out the door they go.

I am going to start looking at things I bring into this house with a more critical eye. And for those adults with whom we exchange Christmas presents -- let’s restrict gifts to pictures or similar memorabilia. Vicki says that gift cards to restaurants are always welcome too.

BASEBALL. We’re roughly a month into Ben’s baseball season. Ben is having fun, but his team is having a bad season. They’ve only won one game. Last Saturday’s game was a blow out, however, they had a game Tuesday night that was really exciting even though they lost 12-13. If some of these boys will ever take a swing at the ball they might find they have some wins in them.

After hearing his coach and the rest of us talk about swinging at the ball Ben asked me to help him get some batting practice. I have a terrible aim. It is so bad I am lucky to throw within 10° of the intended target. I knew our batting practice was a disaster when Ben said, “Now I know why we have to wear helmets in baseball.” Thanks to Facebook and my nifty sister-in-law we now have a Zip-N-Hit which has improved my aim tremendously. Ben has really connected with the ball as we’ve practiced.

CHANGING HIS TUNE. Friday night Nate came into the living room where Vicki and I were and said, “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do.”

Vicki said, “Nate, it’s almost 9:00. It’s time to get ready for bed.”

“I don’t want to do that,” replied Nate, “I’m not tired!”

“I was upstairs in your room earlier today and it was a mess.” said Vicki. “You can go upstairs and start cleaning your room.”

Nate thought about this for a moment and then announced, “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”

Vicki replied, “That’s okay. You go on to bed and you can clean your room in the morning.”

“I don’t want to clean my room in the morning,” complained Nate. “It’s Saturday.”

Bottom line: There is never a good time for a seven year old boy to clean his room.

Joe

We Have Shade!

Leaves are coming out everywhere and we are begging to have shade in the yard again. This spring has actually been sort of rough. So far the temperatures for April have been hotter than average. This has followed a colder than average March. Where the different species of trees normally pollenate on a staggered schedule this year the weather changed this and they all pollenated at one time. Nate has suffered the most with his allergies -- especially his eyes. The poor boy looks like someone beat him up.

BUSY WITH NORMAL. I didn’t mean to wait this long to write. As I look back over the last 12 days we’ve been busy almost every night with church, baseball, or scouts. We’ve been taking advantage of the pleasant weather to clean out Aunt Mar’s garage. Yes, I know we are crazy when we already have one house to clean out, but they have enjoyed our company. So far I have hauled off three truck loads of stuff to be trashed, recycled, or donated. There’s actually more room to park the cars now. This has brought Aunt Mar no end of pleasure.

EARLY BIRTHDAY. While Jenna’s birthday is this coming Sunday, she celebrated a bit last weekend by inviting her friend, Mackenzie, over to spend the night. Last Friday we ate out at Pizza Hut and then went to see How to Train Your Dragon. We really enjoyed this movie. It you don’t catch it in the theater put it on your movies to rent list.

At some point during our night on the town peppermint flavored gum was offered for anyone who wanted it. When it was offered to Nate he said, “I thought that flavor was only for women!” After we corrected Nate on this Jenna and Ben confessed that they thought Activa yogurt was only for women. I have naive children.

FAKE MUSCLE. We were at one of Ben’s ballgames when Nate decided to show off his muscle to Vicki. He did this because Ben was showing off his muscles earlier. Having a little fun Vicki showed Nate how to sneak his other hand up to the muscle he was showing off and push it up to make it look bigger. When Ben’s game was over Nate showed him his muscle using Vicki’s trick to bump up the muscle. He did a really good job of hiding his other hand because Ben was so convinced his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

Joe

Happy Easter!

Isn’t it marvelous we have a Reason to celebrate Easter? May we never forget that God loves us unconditionally!

EASTER ACTIVITIES. Crown of Life was the title of our Easter musical this year. Vicki and Jenna added their soprano voices once again. They performed last Saturday night and last Sunday morning and did a great job. The Maundy Thursday service was held at Cross Plains Methodist this year. Vicki was asked to read Psalm 69 for this service.

The Good Friday service was at Mt. Carmel. We have a large cross we sometimes use on stage. Yesterday the cross had nails partially driven into one side. At the beginning of the service people were asked to write things they wanted to take to the cross on index cards. Later they brought their cards to the cross and punched them over the nails. It was a very powerful part of the service.

Yesterday we had our two egg hunts. It was a beautiful day. This year we partnered with Cross Plains Methodist. The hunt for kids from pre-k to grade 2 was at 1:00 while the hunt for kids in older kids was at 7:00 (we played games until it was dark enough to hunt with flashlights). We had a great turn out and had a blast.

We had a big crowd at church this morning. The sanctuary was full. There were so many kids Vicki, Jenna, and I wound up working in the nursery. After church we took lunch to Mom and Aunt Mar’s and spent the afternoon with them.

PLAY BALL! Ben played in his first baseball game this week. They won 10-3 mainly through stolen bases. Ben played right field. None of the outfielders saw any action during this game. Ben was up at bat three times in the game. He only hit the ball once which was a foul ball. I am proud he kept his confidence up and kept trying. Vicki thinks he looks very handsome in his Cubs uniform.

HIKING. Vicki and Jenna had eye appointments Friday afternoon. Jenna discovered she is slightly nearsighted and will need glasses. They should be ready in time for her birthday.

The boys and I rode along to Springfield with Vicki and Jenna and were dropped off at Travis Price Park. I asked them if they wanted to play a bit or go hiking. Hiking won out so we took off to Garner Street Park by the Springfield Greenway. It was a pleasant day for the 2.25 mile walk. When we got to the Garner Street Park the boys played on the playground there for about an hour. By that time Vicki and Jenna were just about done with their eye exams so we walked an additional mile up to the Square to meet them. I had two tired boys on my hands when we finally stopped. We decided to eat at The Depot before coming home.

I now know what it takes to wear my boys out. They were almost falling asleep at the table.

Joe