Creativity was meant for survival

I have four children. Jobs, pets, music, and social life notwithstanding, four children, all by themselves, make a body tired. Any new mom knows that a single squirmy, ball of pink flesh can make you delirious in a matter of days by merely introducing sleep-deprivation into your life. All that being said I have come up with the perfect way to catch a nap and keep the two younger (most likely to get into trouble) munchkins occupied. It's amazing what some cotton balls, paint brushes and a few random hair clips can do for an afternoon's entertainment. Behold.




Now that's the kind of spa treatment I could get into!

I really am a little nuts...(make sure you have your sound on)

So in this house of two adults, four kids, two cats, and a fish, I have just accomplished the unthinkable. I convinced my incredibly fabulous husband to let us keep the puppy a friend introduced us to the other night.
Not just any puppy either. A small dog breed. I never thought I would own a small dog. I always made fun of small dog owners because I figured, if you want a small dog why not just get a cat? Dogs should be larger-than-life, able to protect, fetch, bark, bound. Small dogs don't bark, they yelp and they bounce rather than bound. In light of all this, however, our new little cocker spaniel/ terrier has completely made a fool of me. I find myself calling people to them as though I was pregnant. It really quite ridiculous. But seriously, can you blame me.

And yet silver linings abound.....

Rough week. People we love in the hospital, leaky basement, relationship messiness (not with us but around us), an unusually inconvenient blackout, and just having some blatant evidence of the ugliness mankind is capable of. Pffffft!

And yet, I am again humbled by the way people pull together, pull up their socks, and just plain love the crap away. You don't get to see that kind of stuff on a day when no one has a need. Even a simple need met is a little treasure. For instance, my friend Annie filled her wee house with an abundance of children today so I could go to a meeting and Alex could deal with the puddle in the basement. This ball of human habitation has it's blemishes, but there are definitely roses among those thorns.

Simply choatic

Today I did schoolwork with the girls, read stories, giggled, ate pie and drank hot chocolate, played in snow, made lunch, did laundry, paid bills, sang songs, coached the boy on his homework and it's not even over yet!

Now we are making dinner while Alex sings "under the sea" and Selah passes gas. Nope. Never bored. Ever.

Talking about a revolution

I am reading this book that is totally kicking my socially responsible butt. It's by this guy named Shane who lives in a ghetto with a bunch of people and takes care of his neighborhood family and lets them take care of him. He is redefining community and dissecting the truth of what it really means to believe in Christ.

Battling with the homeless situation in Cranbrook this past couple of years has knocked the wind out of me somewhat. I know I want to make a difference, but there are roadblocks and critics everywhere. Sometimes the only thing I can do to stay sane is keep it all at arms length. I define the parameters of how far I am willing to go and keep my family and children quietly buffered from the struggle and suffering I can see plainly around me. I write letters and emails to the nice people to whom I pay my taxes and diplomatically, politely even, ask them to help fix the problem our oh-so-civilized selves help to create everyday. I stay carefully within the lines of rules and regulations that are meant to protect, but so often lead to an inability to help all who need it.

So in my frustration I read this book. It makes me realize how indoctrinated I am. How lines drawn by the elite become walls to high to scale between classes of people who could otherwise learn to live in creative community sharing needs and meeting needs. So maybe it's time to get creative here. I have no idea what that means on a personal level other than I am going to start removing some of the insulators. I am sharing this here because I believe an important part of community is honesty and accountability. I am going to have my own internal revolution and find a way to break out from these lines of us and them.