SuperHubby Forgot to Tell Me ...

That he is expecting. But apparently he remembered to tell the folks at Nestle Good Start.

Today, he received in the mail a very nice thick packet of formula coupons and helpful tips for dealing with newborns. Here's how the cover letter read:

"Dear Mr. SuperHubby,
We know that you've never been busier, so we've designed this package to help. Look inside to...
Save $12.00 on Nestle Good Start Supreme Infant Formula.

That's just the beginning of your savings!
Save 50% on the PLAYSKOOL TUMMY TIME TOGETHER GYM toy
Save 10% on the baby-size Snug Tub at RIGHT START stores

When you deliver, ask the nurse for your FREE very best baby BACKPACK!
An $89 value, it's the bag with features that experienced mom's prefer.

Apparently, the marketing people at Nestle think my husband is this guy. Although he has many child-rearing related superpowers, SuperHubby does not yet have the ability to give birth. Although, come to think of it, maybe I will delegate that responsibility the next time around ...

These folks at Nestle may be on to something.

Nah.

Jesus in My Enemy

This morning's post is about torture, ladies. I don't often attempt political posts - one, because I am never sure I am as well-versed in a subject as I need to be to open myself up to flaming - and two, because this is first and foremost a mommy blog. I welcome open and vigorous discussion on this topic, but flaming will be deleted.

But this morning I was listening to yet another segment on NPR about our current policy of torturing prisoners-of-war. NPR has done a fairly balanced job of presenting both sides of the argument, but it breaks my heart that my country has stooped to this. I understand the need for interrogation. I understand the need to take prisoners. But torturing them in the name of "greater good" is unconscionable. Torture is vengeance, and God is pretty clear on who has the right to exact vengeance.

Tip: it ain't us.

This is Romans 12:18-20:

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

Really, it doesn't get much clearer than that. The fact that the US government has kidnapped the small children (ages 7 and 9)of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and is threatening to harm them as leverage to get their father to talk should stop us all in our tracks. This is wrong.

This is not how we, as Christians, are called to behave. And the fact that we ourselves are not actively torturing people does not excuse us. Our complacency has gotten us to this point. We have given the people in power carte blanche to do whatever they deem necessary to "protect" us. And they have taken that power and gone too far.

Just because our enemy does not believe in the same God that we believe in does not make him any less of a child of that God. If we believe, as most of us (Christians, that is) profess to, that God is the one creator, then that means He created Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his cronies, too. That means that we are called to treat him with love, even though we despise his actions and his life.

Jesus addresses this in Matthew 25:

34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Look closely at those last three verses. Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.

What are we doing in the name of justice for our Lord, and are you a part of it, by your complacency?

Wrangling Tupperware

In my first foray into the Works for Me Wednesday world, I offer my tip for keeping your "tupperware" drawer or shelf neat and organized.

I don't know about you, but I think my plastic storage containers breed when I'm not looking. To keep my them neat, I remove all the lids and store them in a gallon-sized freezer bag. Then I simply nest all of the "bottoms" in whatever way fits well into the drawer. It is always a snap to find a container and a lid, and by nesting them, the containers take up much less space. It works for me!

The First Clip

I am lazy. I have pictures upon pictures from my trip to Arizona, and I haven't posted any of them because I haven't had two minutes to come up with some quality posts. So instead of quality, I give you quantity! Lots of pictures, few words. Think of it as practicing for reading a picture book to a preschooler.

While I was in Arizona, I took Tom to have his first official haircut at the barber at on base. They did a great job, but Tom wasn't too sure what he thought about the whole thing.



The woman who cut his hair was really good - I guess she'd done a lot of kids before. She let him touch the clippers and explained the whole process to him.



We didn't have any tears, but I think he really didn't know what to think.



That's me, with my haircut, and wearing my DYM t-shirt. I know you can't see the front, but that's it, I tell you.



Clearly the best part of the experience was getting to suck on a wrapped up Tootsie Pop. I am trying to limit Tom's sugar intake, so my sister came up with the brilliant idea of letting him suck on a lollipop with the wrapper still on. Tom was happy and still, and mom was happy because he didn't get a mouthful of sugar.

Zipp-a-dee-do-dah ...

Happy happy happy happy. I woke up in a great mood today. I think it may have something to do with staying up ridiculously late just chilling and chatting with Super-Hubby last night. He is a fun guy, but we both get so busy sometimes I think we forget how much fun it is just to be together.

I guess I should start out by thanking my dear son, who has decided, finally, to sleep through the night. Last night I put him down around 8:15, and he slept until 5:30 this morning. I cannot complain about that. (Last night was the third night in a row he had performed this miraculous feat. I am hoping that I have not jinxed it by blogging about it. Fingers crossed. Say a prayer, please. Momma needs her grown up time.)

Then, I checked out America's Got Talent, which I fully expected to be completely stupid. But I really enjoyed it. I would watch that show every day if it was on. Terrible, pathetic, but true.

And after being throughly entertained for two hours, Super-Hubby and I snuggled up and chatted about life and family and so forth. Super-Hubby comes from a very large family (his father is one of 17 children) and I absolutely adore them all. We were having fun playing the "name the aunts and uncles game" which is sort of like trying to name all the states from memory - you always forget one, then spend 20 minutes trying to figure out which one. I think we got them all, eventually, but as it was nearing 2 am, I'm not really sure anymore.

We talked about our memories of visiting our grandparents, of the peculiar smell (which we decided was probably moth balls) that pervaded the homes of our respective maternal grandparents. Of the joys of visiting grandparents who lived in the country and getting to run and play and climb to our hearts' content. Remembering the exact way a grandmother had her kitchen and dining room arranged, and remembering how much she loved to look out the window and watch the cardinals and wild turkeys and deer crisscrossing the yard.

Remembering how exciting it was to have a young aunt - only maybe a dozen years your senior - encourage your imaginative play, when you decided to be the Most Powerful Man in the Universe.

Ah. Life is, and has been, good to us.

Just call him Harry Potter

The boy does love his broom. My sister kept this outside the tent so we could sweep the mat and keep things a little cleaner. The only problem was that Tom held on to the broom tighter than Charlton Heston holds on to his rifle. Sweeping, by anyone other than him was out of the question.

I hope this love of cleaning equipment lasts well into his teenage years.

Memorial Day Pirates

It has been so long since I updated on what I have been doing, that I have to start way back at the beginning, over Memorial Day weekend.

We spent the weekend at the home of our friends, Samantha and Matt. They were expecting their first child (he was born June 3) and I had agreed to paint a mural in his room. We decided on a pirate theme, to go with the verse from Matthew 6:19-21.

I still have to go back and do some other mini-murals with fish and coral and other sea life, but here's what I've done so far.





















I wish I could figure out a way to do this professionally, but I don't even know where to start. It sure was fun painting again, though.

ARRRGH

Ok, for some reason blogger is not publishing my entire blog. So I hope it is not all lost forever! My links and other sidebar items have all disappeared. I'll keep working on getting them back.

Arrgh!

Absent

I haven't spent a weekend in my own home in more than a month. Which can be a good thing, and in part, has been, but I'm ready to go home.

The past couple of weeks have been so busy, I haven't even had a minute to sit at the computer and compose my thoughts. I am ok, though. Not to worry.

I'll be heading home from Arizona tomorrow, and I hope to have some time to update you all on my fantastic adventures (they are LEGION) on Sunday. Fingers crossed, I'll have time.

Now I have to call the peditrician and see what I can give Tommy for our flight home. He has a nasty cold. Yippee.

Drumroll Please

Super-Hubby indeed lived up to his reputation with the birthday gifts this year. Inside huge box number one was a whole lot of peanuts and tissue paper. Buried at the very bottom of the box was a teeny, weeny Swiss Army knife, the kind that can be attached to a keychain. It was a gift I had asked for, since my old Swiss Army knife bit it just before Easter. In that box he also included a new sharpening steel to help me keep my kitchen knives in good condition. Since I love to cook, sharp knives are a must. These two gifts alone would have been more than enough.

But wait, there's more! What was in box number two, you ask?

A five-disc CD changer. Our old one started eating CDs nearly a year ago; we'd been putting up with it and uttering magic chants and prayers whenever we wanted to extract our CDs from its insides. Finally we realized that all the holy water in the world wouldn't fix the darn thing, so we got rid of it. And I missed it sorely.

So it was a big surprise when I got a new one for my birthday!

I hope you all have a great weekend. We are off to celebrate the ordination of a friend, so I will see you Monday or thereabouts!