rachel's continued ramblings

not entirely how all of this will go in the book, but I’ll figure it out. sunday: micah’s latest tinkertoy creation: a bow and arrows, plus a target (behind him on the stairs). in his hand is the bow, and in his “quiver” are all the arrows. monday: dave took the day off of work and had an extensive dentist appointment. we met afterward for some coffee before micah had to be picked up from school. I got a good laugh over his novacain lips. my car was parked under this totally gorgeous tree. since dave was off, we took advantage and took care of getting the oil changed in the van. this meant that we had to pick ALL the kids up from school in the toyota… they didn’t quite fit. since we had to go into town, with everyone crammed in the car, we bribed them to not argue or incessantly quote geico commercials (“guess what day it is?” “c-o-w…e-i-e-i-o”) with the promise of tcby when we got the car back (it happens to be right next to the firestone). yum! tuesday: a rare occurrence anymor...

sunday: happy birthday to my mom! monday: micah FINALLY got homework!!!! also monday: totally gorgeous fall trees. wednesday: micah’s last day to be 5. thursday: happy 6th birthday to micah!! friday: after school, layla wanted to show me how she could do the rings. saturday: crazy fog for shane’s football game. there will probably be at least one insert of pics from micah’s birthday.

monday: nothing quite so awesome as construction outside the window at the library. tuesday: a friendly cat came to visit me while waiting at layla’s soccer practice. wednesday: layla’s clay walrus. thursday: apparently this is a doggy diner. friday: because micah had no school, he had to come with me to do my library duties for layla’s class. he got to read books and play games while I shelved books and checked kids out. saturday: ready to get totally spanked by juanita. it was a brutal game. also saturday: check out the totally HUGE mushrooms growing in the woods by my parents’ house.

so, pretty much most of my 30’s has been defined by personal and/or religious crises. like really. one after the other. considering that dave and I got married when I was 28, I can only assume he is wondering what on earth happened to the girl he married and, after this much time, has all but given up hope that she will ever return. sorry, babe. that you stick with me though all of this and even remotely attempt to follow it/care, is amazing to me. at any rate. mostly my struggle has been with HOW to express my faith in daily life. being a 1 hour a week pew-warmer has never sat well with me. one of the biggest criticisms from unbelievers is that christians are a bunch of hypocrites. they dress up nice and paste a smile on their faces for an hour every sunday, and the rest of the week they’re no different than everybody else. that kind of christianity (if you can even call it christianity) is a waste of my time and I want no part of it. I want to be known as ‘devout’. as someone devot...

for most people who know me, that statement probably comes as a bit of a surprise. most people know that I’m a christian. I am a church-going type. stuff like that. I guess the assumption would be (at least among those that are also believers) that if I didn’t ‘know’ God, then I probably wouldn’t consider myself a christian OR waste my time by going to church. those who are not believers probably don’t understand what there is to ‘know’. but here’s the deal. in all honesty, I don’t really get it. I feel like I should, though. I’m like the poster child for christianity, at least the lutheran version. I was born (well, adopted) into a christian home. my parents, my grandparents (on both sides), and in most cases, further generations than that, were christians. I’ve gone to church since birth. I was baptized, I went to sunday school, I went to a parochial school, I went through confirmation class and was confirmed, I attended (and even brought friends to) youth group in high school, I w...

sunday: micah, at a school friend’s birthday party. monday: just hanging out at grandma and grandpa’s, reading a book. tuesday: “these are my duck feet!” wednesday: reading ‘bad kitty’ books together on the way to school, and laughing hysterically. thursday: micah built this sentence, and then I had him read it. the word he didn’t have trouble with: jumped. the word he did have trouble with: the. he can read, but only if he doesn’t know he’s doing it. go figure. friday: layla and friends in the lunch room. love these girls. I hope they’ll always be friends. saturday: a totally beautiful morning for soccer.

okay, serious lack of posts lately. I am currently uploading a MONTH’s worth of pictures. a whole month!!! I NEVER do that. the process of going through them all and editing, selecting, etc. is a bit daunting. HOWEVER, I have empty pages in my 2013 project life album that will NOT remain empty, so something must be done. at any rate, the lack of posts is not due to lack of anything going on in our family. quite the contrary. far too much is going on. the ability to sit down at the computer and upload, type, THINK through my fingers is a rare opportunity now. quite honestly, I hate it. I love it, but I hate it. of course, it’s all my own doing. I never wanted to be one of these families. to be excessively busy. to sit down at the table for dinner, join hands, and realize we have NO IDEA who’s turn it is to pick the prayer because we don’t even remember the last time we all sat down together! but I don’t know how to fix it. strike that, I do. I just don’t like the solution, and I...