Popcorn on a Stick

Boredom is contagious; however, so is enthusiasm. A lot of the activities I do with my kids are simple ones, but a lot of their enthusiasm for an activity has to do with my attitude about it. For instance, visiting the dentist.

At this point in my young life, my mouth is more bionic than original. But I want my children to go to the dentist and have the opportunity to manage their oral care better than I have. So my attitude in having them go to the dentist is critical. If I flinch, they’re going to flinch. So I don’t flinch.Much.

Of course, for some activities, my lack of enthusiasm doesn’t seem to dampen theirs. Like getting caught in the rain. The whole “colds/pneumonia/influenza can’t happen to me” mentality is still very much intact for them. We were at the Dairy Freeze one Tuesday, eating our $1 junior ice cream cones, when a sudden downpour began.

The fact Emily was wearing fabric shoes didn’t stop her from jumping into the little puddles that cropped up near our table. Megan, the three-year-old, just took her shoes off. She didn’t want to get her rubbery Croc sandals wet as she stuck most of her body into the steady stream of rainwater coming off the tin roof.
In a break in the storm, we dashed to the truck. We didn’t dash enough.

In our somewhat bedraggled state, we made our way to the grocery store to pick up some necessities, like frozen pizza. As we were turning into the Five Lakes Centre parking lot, I noticed some rather soggy farmers selling their wares at the market. And there was my catch of the day.

At Ken Simmering’s table was something I hadn’t seen before. Popping corn. Seriously, I hadn’t seen it this way before. It was still on the cob. Logically, yes, popcorn has to come from somewhere, but I don’t believe I’ve spent much time pondering its origins. Ken gave me information on how to prepare the corn—put the whole cob in a brown bag, put it in the microwave and hit the “popcorn” button. For us, one ear of corn took about 2:10 to cook in a 1000 watt microwave. It was so cool!

We made it that night as our family watched “America’s Got Talent,” a fairly family-friendly show. A little butter, a little salt. Voila! Happiness in a bowl.

I think Ken has something here. I think he should put his dried corn on a stick and sell it at the Great Minnesota Get-together…popcorn on a stick. If he has any left when we go back to the farmer’s market, I’m getting more. I think this is a great novelty and several siblings and cousins are getting this for Christmas!

Simple? Yes. Exciting? Definitely! Man, I’m so easy to please.

Megan eating the rest of the popcorn on the cob

Some other fun family activities this summer...Kids Bowl Free afternoons

You gotta just love these thigh-highs Em chose to wear on a hot summer day...

The county fair--complete with bounce castle and slide

Leave it up to the 3-year-old to decide to go down head first...

The family photo with "Bumblebee" from Transformers. Pretty much any yellow vehicle is Bumblebee, really, to my kids. We've even seen a Bumblebee motorcycle and firetruck. However, yellow buses are not bumblebee. Notice Emily's pose (you can click the picture to enlarge it)

Can you tell pork is really big down here in Southern Minnesota? Shameless promotion right here.

Waiting on the Lord

Today I read about one woman's struggle that resonated with me.

When we had the cafe, the finances were always in the red. Because Dan and I felt that God had called us to open the cafe, I naively believed that financial worries would be nil. I'm still not sure what lessons I was supposed to learn. I can only hope I learned what God wanted to teach me so I don't have to go through the same lessons again!

Laura MacCorkle in the story on crosswalk.com said:
I’ve been struggling with an ongoing life situation that has got me journaling and praying and reading and discussing up a storm. I don’t understand what God is doing, and I want answers and a flowchart of how this will all be worked out. Right now.

I want to plan my course and make something happen—move the situation along, if I can, and get the results that I think should be had and on my time schedule.

I can relate to that. How many times did I pray during the most stressful times that God would help me learn my lesson faster so the stress would be over?! And yet, I think the one lesson I most needed to learn was to trust in Him.

Amazingly, when the cafe got an eviction notice, someone came through with the money to pay the back rent--in five figures. Several times we got shut-off notices from the utility company. I even got to know the guy by first name--and he would call us first that morning to let us know he was on his way. He did that so we could get to the bank, make a payment and then show him the receipt when he got there, and he could leave our electricity on.


Over the course of the cafe's six years, I always had cafe stresses, but I ended up stressing less over them. My trust in God's sovereignty grew. I still have bills. I still wish they would be paid now (that instant gratification thing), but I'm s l o w l y learning to take more joy in the journey. Sometimes I have to be reminded, and that's what this devotional and the Bible passage from Psalms did for me. So this is my version of "one generation will commend your works to another." And my way of reminding myself of God's greatness and how worthy He is to be praised.


Psalm 145:3-7
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
His greatness no one can fathom.
One generation will commend your works to another;
They will tell of your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

Kid Quotes

Two quick kid stories to share:

Lauren and Emily love the fatty parts of meat. We discourage it as much as we can, but there's a limit to how much Dan and I can do. What's really bad is that Lauren will sometimes only eat the fat and neglect the meat. After one particular episode, Annika said, "It was like a palace of disgusting meat" in describing the mound of roast Lauren had chewed and then regurgitated back onto her plate. Yeah, I know--TMI.

And we're working on training our children to not eat dinner before a)we pray and b)Dan and I are also seated at the table. Believe it or not, it's working better on the younger children. A few weeks ago, I had this conversation with Megan:

Megan: Mom, can we eat yet since we haven't prayed?
Mom: No, not yet.
Megan then spit out a mouthful of cole slaw onto her plate.

And a pic of Megan's latest musical instrument. If you ask her, I'm sure she'll tell you she's pretty good...

In case you're wondering, it's a teapot.

Summer Lovin'

This summer, we did have a blast, and this time I took notes so I could remember some of the fun we had.

When we went to the "cabinet" on the lake, we created a lot of memories by taking things slowly and not rushing.

We got to:

• watch a turtle bury her eggs
• hear Minnesota's state birds, the "balloons"
• go fishing for the first time for most of the girls and catch keepers!
• see a butterfly land on a rock
• be in a boat parade
• watch a blue heron
• watch seagulls
• notice a birdhouse designed like a cabin (apparently even our fowl friends need a getaway)
• run into a classmate of mine from Minnetonka High School who I hadn't seen in 21 years--her son was attending the same camp as Annika
• go tubing behind a speed boat
• dangle our feet in the water
• sleep on a top bunk--without railings!
• have Meg sleep in a twin bed
• see a wall that looked like a cow
• drive around Camp Ripley which has entrance gates like a castle--really cool! to which Emily replied, "If we go in there, will we go in the dungeon?"
• see ALL of our cousins on both my side and Dan's
• celebrate Dan's grandma's 97th birthday party
• watch "dance" (ants)
• have deep theological discussions

For instance, one conversation I had with Lauren went this way:
Lauren: I can't hear Jesus, but I can see him.
Mom: How can you see him?
Lauren: I have super vision because I'm a fairy, you know.

 deer tracks

 Meg at Camp Ripley--what a contrast. "Pearls" and a tank...

We also tried to spend money at mom-n-pop shops in Little Falls, but they were all closed. We ended up at the Pizza Ranch.

Lost in Translation

Before I became a mother, I remember listening to youngsters only to look at their parents with that lost look on my face. I was being attentive, yet I had no idea what the youngun had just said to me.

Now, as a parent, I've become the translator. What's funny is that even though you can understand every word my three-year-old is saying, you still may not have any idea what Megan just said.

For example:
Mom: What shoes are you going, to wear?
Megan: My beautiful shoes.
Mom: I don't think those will work so well for the water park.
Megan: I'll get my tapping shoes.

And the tapping shoes will work just fine for the water. Why? Because these are not necessarily straight descriptions of these shoes; these seem to be the actual names for these shoes. These shoes are always described exactly the same way. What's great about being able to spend so much time with my girls is that I know exactly what Megan is talking about. Not that I'm not driven to madness (in more than one way), but being a Mom is great fun.

the beautiful shoes

the tapping shoes (because of their sound when walking)

the coconut shoes 
(so named by Emily because she misheard the words 'polka dot' shoes)