Shoeboxes!

So it's National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child.  Our church's official "turn in your box" day was Sunday, so I gave it a few days to let the last of the stragglers come in, then I picked them up today (all 109 of them!) after our MOPS steering team meeting.  I dropped Joanna off at home with the babysitter before taking AJ with me to the collection site.  Prior to leaving the house, I pulled out one of the boxes that our family had packed and we prayed over it, just like last year.  Except this year I knew better than to talk about the individual things that were in it and how much fun the boy or girl who got that box would have with them.  And that was when the tears came.  Again.

Since last year, I'd collected all sorts of little things - kids meal toys, small gifts given in multiples to my kids (we kept one), a few little things left over from some random stuff given to our MOPS group (stamps, magnets, etc.), the hard candy from the kids' Halloween bag, etc.  And I'd bought a couple of things - dish sets from Ikea (plate, cup, bowl, and utensils in six colors, so there were six sets which made our goal this year to fill six boxes so that one set could go into each), and a few puzzles and the Target Dollar Spot.  We had an overflowing reusable grocery bag full of stuff to put into boxes.  And there had been JUST enough boxes left over when the church seemed to stop taking them for us to have our six (four of which I didn't even wrap - and considering that I wrapped 61 this year, that's saying something)!

On the day I set aside for us to fill our boxes, AJ did GREAT.  He was the one who did most of the packing (with a _little_ direction from Mama, but really not a whole lot).  Joanna we had to keep an eye on as emptying things is her current favorite activity, but even she didn't do too badly (it helped that they each got a Target Dollar Spot puzzle too - that I gave them as a distraction when we _started_ the packing instead of at the end like last year).  While there were a few exclamations of "I have this toy" (typically the truth - we purged a LOT of duplicates from the toy bin), there was no question of where the things needed to go, just which box to put them in.

The problem came when we needed to bring the boxes out to the car.  Because, even though he understood that the TOYS were for the children who didn't get Christmas presents, somehow AJ had determined that the BOXES needed to go under OUR Christmas tree.  RIGHT NOW.  Never mind that we don't have a tree yet.  Never mind that we'd just spent an hour filling the boxes with stuff for other kids.  No...shoe boxes went under Christmas trees.  Specifically OURS.

Once the boxes were out of sight at church with all the rest, the discussion ended (yay for "out of sight, out of mind!").  Until we filled our car with the 109 boxes that our church and MOPS group had collected (including our six).  Then AJ started talking again about how the boxes were going to go under our tree.  When I corrected him, explaining that God had blessed us so that his daddy and grandparents and I could more than take care of him this Christmas/birthday but the boys and girls who didn't have enough maybe even for food would get these shoe boxes, well, that started the waterworks.

Le sigh....maybe at "almost 5" he'll be old enough to understand true, selfless generosity.  At least this year it wasn't about the toys.  And the way to make him happiest this Christmas will be to put whatever toys he's given into a shoe box-sized package (nice that he's still mostly easy-to-please - although we've DEFINITELY heard more "I wants" this year than ever before).

But I'm still proud of my little man.  Giving away something that you want for yourself is never easy, especially when you really just don't understand why.  But he was brave and did a great job helping to carry boxes into the collection site.  And he got to go inside McDonalds with mama afterward to have lunch.  So I think that all is right again in his world.

Famous! That's me!

So I think I've talked about our love for Phil Vischer's new venture JellyTelly.com and its spin-off "What's in the Bible? With Buck Denver."

We love them.  A lot.  We haven't _quite_ camped out at the local bookstore to make sure we get ours on its release date, but we're really not far from it.

Well, a few weeks ago, they were asking for people to guest post on their blog.  I offered.  Then I never replied when their blog lady Melanie emailed me with possible dates.

Then I MET PHIL VISCHER at the MOPS convention in Orlando!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't believe me?

Ta-da!

(Now I have the "complete set" as I got a pic with Mike Nawrocki (Larry the Cucumber) at last year's MOPS convention)

Don't believe that he's Bob the Tomato?

Well he is.

Anyway, so after MOPS convention (at which I showed up to his talk 30 minutes early...because I'm a "bit" of a fan), I emailed Melanie again and asked if I could still write a guest blog.

She said, "Sure!  Have it to me by Monday!"

And here it is!

Review: Out of the Spin Cycle

So really, this hasn't become an "all review all the time" kind of blog, I've just had a couple of reviews that were due at certain times (like this one) and haven't posted much in between.  I'm getting back to where I think I'll start posting again soon, really.

But back to the book.  This is this year's MOPS devotional book (which is included as part of the mentor mom membership!) - Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load by Jen Hatmaker.  It's a 175-pg devotional book (40 devotions total) that again was given to me (for free!) by Revell (the publisher) so that I'd review it here sometime this week.  Its sticker price is $11.99, but Amazon has it for $8.63 (again, affiliate links).

This is not a "let me expound on this Scripture passage" type of devotional.  It's a "let me tell you a funny/poignant story (usually about my kids) and relate it somehow to God/the Bible" kind of devotional.  The stories, thankfully, are never trite although it touches on familiar themes like worry and not being/doing enough.  It's written from the perspective of a married woman, so there are many "married" examples that may not be specifically applicable to single moms, but I think there are plenty of useful "generic mom" devotions for everyone.

At the end of each devotion there are a couple of questions relating to the text, followed by a task (or two) to help you "Step Out of the Spin Cycle."  As moms, we wear many hats and are pulled in many, many directions.  The spin cycle is a very apt analogy, both in terms of the "over and over and over again" of dishes and laundry and always-dirty kids, but also in terms of life seeming to be completely out of our control.  I really like the practical (and usually quick) ideas for how to step away at least from that mentality, even if life stays busy.

Each devotional is just a few pages long, so I was usually able to read them in the few moments I had between waking up myself and letting the kids get up.  Occasionally I was even able to concentrate on one or two when AJ was awake and snuggling in bed with me.  They're not too long that they take lots of time that you already don't have, but they're long enough that the actually _say_ something every single time.  There was not a single devotional that I walked away from without having something to think about.  They're also short enough that they could be used at a MOPS or MOPS steering team meeting.  And since they're each stand-alone devotionals (instead of building off of each other), you could find one that applies to the topic at hand and just read that one.

Were there any devotionals that blew my mind and changed my life?  Eh...not really.  But they were all good, practical, and timely.  Definitely a book I'd recommend!

Review - Momology: A Mom's Guide to Shaping Great Kids

So this year MOPS sent me their "theme" book again to review (for free!!  LOVE IT!).  And like last year, it was well worth the read.  This year's theme is "Momology: The Art and Science of Mothering," so it makes very good sense for the theme book to be called "Momology: A Mom's Guide to Shaping Great Kids."  It was written by Shelly Radic, the Chief of Staff for MOPS, International with a foreword by Naomi Cramer Overton, the president of MOPS.  It's published by Revell (the actual ones responsible for sending me my free copy), is just over 200 pgs long, and normally retails for $13.99 (Amazon has it for $10.07).  It is available here.  (This is an affiliate link, so I get like $0.02 if you buy the book through that link.)

So now for the review.  I'll start with what I didn't like about it (not a whole lot and mostly picky, stupid things), then move on to what I _did_ like.

Didn't like:
- In an effort to make it look like the insets were actually sticky notes, the book is printed with two colors - black and sticky-note yellow.  It's not a big deal for the notes themselves, but for some (stupid) reason, it bothers me in the header.  Like I said, stupid.
- There are statistics quoted in various insets that I frankly just don't believe.  Now, I'm pretty sure these were unscientific polls taken from a subset of the population (probably mostly made up of MOPS moms who are proactive enough to fill out a survey), but to say that 71.4% of people "know the God-given purpose for their life?"  (That's on pg 196.)  Isn't that supposed to be the biggest problem that most people have?  In the introduction it says that the stats were from surveys taken of 1800 moms, but I just don't believe that one in particular.  Maybe that's just me though!
- Last year, MOPS, International was rolling out a new steering team position - Service/Outreach.  That was right up my alley, so not only did I take on that role, but I also REALLY appreciated that one of the main aspects of the theme last year centered on serving others.  This year, serving others accounts for like half a paragraph, buried in the middle of a chapter/section on something else.  It seems to me like serving others should be a large part of the "recipe" that makes up being a mom, but I recognize that not everyone is the same in that regard.

Liked:
- This too, is relatively stupid, but I LOVE well-edited books.  There's nothing more annoying to me than an inset placed such that there's no natural pause in the text for the reader to read the inset.  There are a _LOT_ of insets in this book (just flipping through, it's probably something close to 50% of the pages).  I think I remember ONE time that I had to flip back to read the inset.  That's some DARN good editing/formatting.
- I also appreciated the "scientific" chapter/section notation (i.e., 3.2.1 Neighbors, etc.).
- I like that they're trying very hard to make this an interactive experience, opening up moms to more opportunities for community.  Often throughout the text or in a "Practicum," examples will be given for some strategies to use in a given situation and the reader is encouraged to go to mom-ology.org to add their own strategies or discuss dilemmas they are having.
- While I wasn't quoted this year, I enjoy the "Voices" sections where they quote actual moms as they discuss the topic at hand.
- I also enjoyed the "Field Study" and "Practicum" sections of the text.  The Field Studies are insets where one mom tells her story (that relates to the subject at hand) and the Practicums are either specific tasks the reader can do to put that subject matter into practice or they are questions for discussion/thought.
- One other structural aspect of the book was how short each section was.  It was handy for frequent interruptions.  The sections flowed well enough into each other that it was never a problem to continue on to the next section if I was able, but it was also always very easy to quickly finish the section I was on and put the book down to tend to whatever emergency was at hand!
- Now, as for the subject matter, while it seemed at times to stay on the surface of some of the topics, I think it went through a good range of topics that are issues with almost all moms.  Occasionally there was something that would be unique to a married mom, but I think that's to be expected.    Topics range from body issues to discipline to dealing with family to figuring out your purpose in life, and are centered around four ideas:

• "Knowing who we are: building a healthy, resilient mom CORE
• Knowing what we're capable of: developing FINESSE in the ways we daily interact with our kids
• Knowing who we can count on: interacting within a CIRCLE of relationships that support us and our kids
• Knowing who God is: engaging with him in his GRANDSCAPE"

(quoted from the Introduction on pg 12)

All in all I enjoyed this book and definitely look forward to another great year in MOPS!

MOPS Partnership with the Laurel Pregnancy Center

Another ongoing project that our MOPS group has is a partnership with the Laurel Pregnancy Center. You can find more about them and their ministry by checking out their website here, but suffice it to say that they offer all of their services for free and those services include pregnancy tests, options education, viability ultrasounds, parenting classes, post-abortion counseling, and many more. But since their mission is really to work with women and men _during_ a crisis pregnancy, there's not much they do (other than offer mentoring) for those parents once the baby has been born.

That's where MOPS comes in. Instead of just saying, "Good job on making the hard choice to choose life for your baby! Now that s/he's born though, you're on your own!" by partnering with us, they can point the moms to a group of other moms who can come alongside them in what we all recognize is a difficult time in anyone's life - the infant, toddler, and preschool years. The moms not only then get to have the support of other moms, but they also get to continue getting that support through a para-church organization. Neither the LPC or MOPS wants to take the place of a local body, but we can sure help folks out while (or if) they're looking for one.

So how does this really manifest itself? Well...I go to the last one of their Lifeworks (parenting) classes each semester and encourage the ladies to join a community of other moms since motherhood is hard enough without trying to do it all themselves, and if they'd like, they're welcome at our MOPS group (although since many of their clients are from all over the area, I usually just point them to MOPS.org to find a group in their area and/or that meets at a time when they're available).

We also participate as a MOPS group in their annual "Baby Bottle" Campaign. We give each of our moms a baby bottle which they take home for a month or so and fill with their loose change. That change is then turned over to the pregnancy center where it is used to help _change_ the lives of their clients.

They have an annual "Walk/Run for Life" that we support as well. There is frequently a group of MOPS moms who walks (last year, I did my best at running the 5k), and those that don't have the opportunity to sponsor those that do. We have also had an informational table the last couple of years at the fair that they have the day of the walk.

We also encourage moms to bring in donations for the center. Maybe they've seen an awesome deal on wipes or diapers and can afford to pick up a few more than they need. Maybe they have an outfit that they just never got around to taking the tags off of before baby grew out of it. Maybe baby outgrew size 1 diapers before they opened that last box. Whatever the case may be, as a group we collect donations of material goods that they give away (for free) to their clients.

How can you help with this one? Well, the material donations are the best way (diapers, wipes, etc.), although you're welcome to sponsor me in the walk and/or save up your own loose change (or just send them a donation). You can also help by helping me come up with other ways that we can partner with them!

MOPS New Mom Bags

So here's one of the on-going projects that I'm currently involved with. Our MOPS group collects items, puts them in gift bags, and delivers them to our local hospital to be given to ladies who give birth there. The things we put in the bags are the following:

• HomeLife or MomSense magazine
• handmade knitted baby hat or "no-sew" fleece blanket/snuggly
• Coupon for a free meal at our local Chick-fil-a
• Card with information about MOPS and our meetings
• Whatever else we have on hand to give them (samples of baby things, coupons for baby things, anything else that comes to mind)

We're trying to do this for as little money as possible, so one of our biggest needs right now is gift bags. We need medium-sized ones - big enough to fit a magazine, but not the ginormous ones like you'd put a diaper pail in or something. Typically we use "baby" looking ones, but anything generic would be fine.

We're also running a little low right now on the handmade items. We've got a stock of fleece from which to make some blankets and one of our mentors makes the caps in her spare time, but after that we'll need more fleece and/or more caps (or something else handmade). Just nothing too big.

If you're interested in helping out, just let me know!

MOPS Blog Tour - "Intimate Conversations: Devotions to Nurture a Woman's Soul"

So MOPS sent me another book to read - "Intimate Conversations: Devotions to Nurture a Woman's Soul" by Alicia Britt Chole. This time it's this year's theme devotional book. I'm not really sure how it goes with the theme exactly (Together on Planet Mom), but it was a great devotional book - I just wish I'd had more time to read it so that I could do just one a day instead of having to power through all of them to get done in time to post my review. (Disclaimer: they give me the books for free, but they want an honest review of them...it's just that so far all the books have been really good!)

The book contains 52 different devotions, divided into 12 different categories. When I was counting them initially to see how many I needed to do per day, I thought - "huh...52...so I guess you could do one a week for a year...wonder why some are groups of 4 and some are groups of 5." It wasn't until just now that I counted the sections. Duh...12 months...52 weeks...

I'm a rocket scientist.

Anyway...the devotions are pretty short - usually 1.5-2 pgs, plus a little discussion or reflective journaling section of questions to think about and/or respond to. The sections don't really match up to the Planet Mom theme book sections, but you might be able to pick one per meeting that matched that month's meeting theme. Alternately, if you've got a women's Sunday School class or small group, this would be a great way to open your time together. They're not _BAD_ devotionals for mixed company, it's just all written from a woman's perspective using women as the examples.

As with all devotionals, some of the entries struck me more than others, but my favorite section (or rather the section that spoke to me the most) was one entitled "Dear God...why do I feel so unproductive?" The devotions in that section spoke of women who have chosen family over career (which I sort of have...the job is only part-time and isn't exactly way up there on the priority list, especially now that we're that much closer to being able to get by just on VNB's salary), and women who have gone through times of spiritual "winter."

It's not that I feel like God was ever far away or anything, but the first two years of marriage (which include AJ's pregnancy and the first year or so of his life) are a bit of a blur to me. And I'd stepped back from so many things at church that it's taken a while to really feel like myself again. Lately I seem to have found my footing again in terms of my "place" and it really seems like things are bearing fruit and expanding (for lack of a better term). So to have the analogy of a winter season where you just lie low for a while...well, it really made sense to me, especially given this new "spring" that I seem to be encountering.

Anyway, I plan on keeping these in my pump bag and reading one every time I pump, giving myself ample time to really think through the devotion and the reflection questions. I'm also looking forward to the next book MOPS sends me!

And the required stuff:
Available September 2009 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General

Ok...so I'm not really, but that song is running through my head as I scamper about keeping balls in the air.

Let's see....the in-laws (of both sides) will be glad to know that VNB found our camera last night, so pictures will abound as much as ever again. Woohoo! (Really, I promise - at the very least we can actually _take_ them again, even if I don't manage to post them ever.)

But even other than that amazing find, the world is a little topsy-turvy for me right now - nothing at all bad, just lots and lots to do and keep track of. Once next week is over, things "should" settle down again...but then I think I've been saying that since June.

So this Sunday starts the collection of clothes for our "first annual" (that means that it's the first time we've done it and theoretically we want to do it again, but let's see how this first one goes first, mmm'kay?) clothing swap. So people will drop off their "gently-used" clothing at the church Sunday, Oct 4 - Friday, Oct 9th. My small group (and hopefully some others) will sort the clothes and they'll be given out to church members on Friday night (Oct 9th) and the community on Saturday (Oct 10th). We'll take canned food donations at the door, but they're not required. Just please don't take all of our clothes in order to sell them at your own yard sale. That would be kinda rude. Click here for directions.

So theoretically, by Friday we'll have everything sorted out and people will come and take what they need. That may or may not happen though because the room that we've been assigned (which is probably too small anyway) isn't free until after MOPS on Thursday. So Wednesday we'll be seeing what's there and doing what we can out in the hallway and maybe on the front of the stage, then Thursday after MOPS we'll really start the mad sorting.

But wait...there's more...so I'm supposed to sing on Sunday morning with the praise team which means rehearsal Wednesday night...and since I'm there anyway, I might as well stay a little later to help set up for MOPS the next day.

And in MOPS the next day I'm in charge of the "creative activity" which this month is wrapping Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. Last year we had like 50 boxes to wrap and I think we managed to wrap about 25 at the actual meeting, but ended up at about 100 boxes total...most of which I wrapped myself. So there's probably going to be a shoebox wrapping station at the welcome desk (or whatever) for the clothing swap....because we're supposed to have them all wrapped and ready to be handed out on Sunday the 11th.

But wait...there's more! So Sunday at church we'll also have Christian artist Shaun Groves at the church to sing and talk about the work of Compassion, International. He'll be in the services on Sunday morning, but will also be doing a concert on Sunday night. We've been working on this concert since um....May, I think....but only got firm confirmation that he was coming last Friday (lots and lots of reasons for that, not the least of which is my own penchant for procrastination) and only got the contract in hand yesterday. Which means that all the advertising that I've been putting off needs to be done YESTERDAY!!!! So the church is printing posters and I'll pick them up tonight to start posting in various places. Announcements (for both the concert and the clothing swap) went out in the Fall Festival bags last weekend and there's been stuff in the bulletin, but I just posted stuff to local radio station events pages today.

And I'm also tying up loose ends at work for lots of stuff as we come down to the wire for this spacecraft that I'm working on.

And my power adaptor for my laptop stopped being recognized by my system so I'm having to track down a new one of those and tech support doesn't believe that I know the difference between a power adaptor failure and a battery failure.

So I just feel like I've got 500 balls in the air. I've got lots of help with most of them, but there are so many things vying for my attention right now that it's hard to focus on anything. Especially with random VeggieTales songs (or Gilbert & Sullivan, as the case may be) stuck in my head.

Ok...but I'm at work now, so I should focus on work. And stop blogging about all I have to do that I need to focus on...

Oh, and did I mention that I've had several people now ask if Joanna knows how to talk? It would appear that she can answer yes/no questions. And might possibly know how to say "Cat." The Cat part is pretty normal...and saying "yes" or "no" isn't too far from normal...but actually answering questions? That's something that AJ still can't do reliably. And he's no dummy. But that would be like scary advanced - not only understanding the words in the question, but the form of question/answer itself AND being able to correctly respond, depending on the question. It's really a lot, if you think about it.

Ok....but to work....for real....no more distractions...got stuff I need to do....

Oh yeah...I've got to write a review of the latest MOPS book they sent me!!! When is that due....

Meeting "Larry"

So the end of last week was an exciting time for me. I was at the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) convention with most of the rest of our steering team (and 4000 other women). Operation Christmas Child sponsors MOPS and VeggieTales' new Christmas DVD is about the joy of giving, so they're partnering with OCC too. Plus, Matthew West was scheduled to give a concert at one of the general sessions and he wrote (and sang) the song that goes over the closing credits for the new VeggieTales.

All of that combined together so that VeggieTales and OCC sponsored "VeggOut Nite" the first night of the MOPS convention at which they debuted their new DVD. Beforehand, a guy from OCC, Matthew West (Christian singer mentioned above), and Mike Nawrocki (co-creator of VeggieTales and the voice of "Larry the Cucumber") all got a chance to say a little something about their partnership and the new movie, then we watched the movie.

Afterwards, I got to "squee" a little bit as I asked Mike if I could get a picture:

I thanked him for making DVDs that don't make me crazy.

AJ, however is _FAR_ more impressed with THIS picture:

Are you sure it isn't Monday?

So this morning I did something I only rarely do - I set the alarm. You see, my kids' internal clocks are magical. They wake up between 7:15 and 7:30 on days that we have no where to go and mama is super tired (wait...is there a day when I'm _not_ super tired? I don't remember one...), but on days that I need them to wake up exactly at 8 so that we can get to were we need to be, they sleep until 9:30...and so do I because they're my usual alarm clock...and what I said about always being tired? Yeah, very true. Joanna's "only" waking up 2-3 times per night now...

So this morning I set the alarm for 7. You see, we had to be at our first MOPS meeting of the year at 9, which means we had to leave the house at 8:30-ish, which means that they needed to have breakfast the moment they woke up (at 8, theoretically) so that I could get them dressed and out the door on time. But since I was going to work straight from MOPS, and then our small group was coming over, I also had to have the house "company ready" before I left. Fortunately, it was already relatively close and these are people who come over on a weekly basis, so as the weeks go on, my standards slip bit-by-bit. Anyway, so I got up a "few" minutes after the alarm went off the first time (or was it the 5th?), gathered up the non-toy clutter, ran a load of dishes, then fed the baby breakfast.

As I was putting something or other away in his room, AJ woke up, saw me, and immediately stretched his arms wide, indicating that he wanted a great big hug. Melt my heart...

Anyway, so Joanna tried "mixed cereal" for the first time this morning. She had her 4-oz jar of applesauce with pomegranate juice (yum! Why don't they make flavors like that for adults?!), then most of another 4-oz jar of "mixed cereal" with applesauce and bananas. I gathered up everything I needed, got everyone dressed, brought all the stuff out to the car, came back, turned out lights, grabbed babies, and then got all of the people out the door.

As AJ was mosey-ing up the steps, I started strapping Joanna (adorably dressed in a "we're seeing Mama's 'mommy friends'" outfit) into her car seat when she proceeded to add another "first" to things that she's done - empty the entire contents of her stomach full of "solid" food (almost two 4-oz jars!). All over her cute outfit. All over the car seat. Completely freaked her out.

So, I unstrapped her from her carseat, and held her at arms' length (I was dressed in "work" clothes) while I found the keys, yelled for AJ to come back inside, unlocked the door, and got her de-stickied, re-dressed, and somewhat calmed down. We went back outside (where AJ was still mosey-ing, not having apparently received the message that I yelled for him to come back inside - but at least he was still on the side walk and not playing in the parking lot or something), mostly cleaned up the car seat, strapped her back down (she isn't a huge fan of that at any time, but certainly not shortly after such a traumatic event in said carseat), strapped AJ in, and got to MOPS before the meeting started, if not quite when the leadership team was supposed to be there.

It was quite the morning. And they tell me it's Thursday. Feels more like a Monday to me!

Making Work at Home Work

So y'all have heard me talk about MOPS before. It's a great group for moms of preschoolers. We started a local chapter at my church in January of '08 and have been enjoying it ever since. Well, a few months back I took a survey for something or other for MOPS and at the end it asked if I had a blog and, if so, would I be interested in reviewing books for them on it. Let's see...asking Leia if she wants free books? Hrm...what will she say? Um...."Heck, yeah!"

So fast forward a few months, and I get an email asking me if I'm interested in reviewing a book called "Making Work at Home Work: Successfully Growing a Business and a Family Under One Roof" by Mary M. Byers. Let's see again...free book...about working from home...being offered to Leia about the time that she's seriously considering starting her own engineering firm (from home) in order to actually get paid for something? Again, "heck, yeah!"

So fast forward again a few weeks and I get a book in the mail which I think I started reading that night. It's broken down into two sections: "Saving Your Sanity" and "Preserving Your Profit." In the first section she gives practical tips on keeping the balance between work and home. She even includes some recipes for quick and easy (but relatively healthy) dinners! In the second section, she focuses more on the business aspect, dealing with taxes, investing in your business, retirement advice, and things of a similar nature. Each chapter is pretty short (nice for a mom with littles who don't appreciate long afternoons of reading) and she punctuates them with interviews of real (and successful) work-at-home moms.

I really liked how practical this book was (both sections of it). In the sanity section, she helps step you through all of the common headaches of working at home - guilt, working more than is necessary, dealing with clients, figuring out (or remembering) your motivation, and how to deal with child care (among others). One of my most favorite aspects of this book is that she doesn't tell you (like so many do) that you have to wear something other than PJs in order to work. I don't know why that's such a sticking point with people, but I've heard over and over from work-at-home people about how people always assume that they work in their PJs, but the reality of it was that they got dressed and "went to work" like everyone else - their office was just closer. Well, I'm going to confess to you that I work from home and I do it in my PJs whenever possible. That's partly from a pragmatic standpoint though - the fewer clothes I wear, the fewer clothes I have to wash, the less laundry I have to do. See...it's really my great efficiency that causes me to laze about in my jammies all day.

I also liked that she didn't tell me (like so many do) how I _have_ to have childcare during my work times if I'm going to get any real work accomplished. I'm sure that there are people who can't produce quality work when their kids are around (and I'm sure that it depends greatly on the type of work you do). I know that I have my days of that myself...but if I'm going to send my kids to day care so that I can work from home, to me, I'm defeating the purpose of me being home in the first place. And our place is so small that even if I hired someone to watch them while I worked, we'd all be in the same room, so I'd have all of the same distractions anyway.

This book gave a great balance of practical tips alongside a healthy dose of "do what works for you, just make sure that it's actually _working_."

The second section was great for someone like me who just doesn't have much of a "business" mind. I can do what I do very well...but ask me to sell you something and you might as well be asking me to stop by Mars on my way home from the grocery store today. Or ask me to sit down and figure out the specifics of a budget and most of the time I'd pretty much rather poke my eyes out with something dull. I may still do it anyway, but that's how I feel about it. The "Protecting your Profit" section kept the information at just the right level for someone like me. It was clear, without the details that make me want to poke myself with something hot, but with enough information that it will actually be useful, should I ever decide to start that engineering firm.

Ever since I read it, I've been trying to think of something that I could say that I _didn't_ like about it. All I can think of is a story she tells at the beginning. The details aren't important so much as the fact that I think she was being too hard on herself. But really, that's it. I can't think of anything else I would have put in or anything I'd have taken out. It was short and to the point - both excellent things when you're dealing with little ones running around. It was informative without getting too detailed. It was practical without ordering people to do things in one specific way.

So anyway, "Making Work at Home Work" by Mary M. Byers. Apparently it'll be available June 9th (or so). I would assume that Amazon will have it, but I know that Christianbook.com does. They're even selling it for less than the cover price. And if you use this link, I think MOPS gets some of the money.

Next up for MOPS book reviews: the 2009-2010 MOPS theme book!

Enough

So on Saturday, I got pretty much the whole day without my darling kiddoes. It was both blissful and painful all at the same time. Blissful because I got to be an adult all day without anyone hanging off of me while attending a great training for MOPS leaders and then Amplified. And painful because not only was I without my darling, wonderful husband (who was watching our children all day, despite being called into work at the last minute) and my adorable little ones, I was also without some of the necessary pieces of my breast pump. By the end of the day, we'll just say that I was...full...

Anyhoo...it was a beautiful day, so I got to drive with the windows down, singing along with the radio (or at times with the radio off and just in silence!!!). And it was freeing! It's so rare that I'm actually _alone_ in a car anymore. That used to be my time to sit and chat with God, and I have to say that it's one of the things I've missed most since being a mommy. Well, that's how I used to think of it anyway. But since I had probably two hours of "alone time" while driving to and fro on Saturday, I think I have come to a startling realization.

I am seriously lacking in angst in my life right now. That's totally not a bad thing to lack and I certainly don't miss it, but it gives me far less to "chat" with God about in those rare moments when we _are_ alone. Looking back, I think our "chats" used to revolve a lot around the "things" I wanted in life (pretty much just a husband and kids, back in the day), and now that I have those "things," I don't know what to talk about.

Makes me wonder exactly how self-centered my relationship with Him was in those days, constantly asking Him why I wasn't getting the things I wanted at the times that I wanted them. Heh...reminds me of a certain young man I popped out a few years back who is still learning the concept of "yes, but later."

Wow...this is totally not the blog post I expected it to be. How do I expect my 2-yr-old to understand a concept that I didn't get when I was 27? And still probably wouldn't get if there were anything I wanted RIGHT NOW. I wonder how many times _I_ got put into "time out" and had those "things" taken away because _I_ wouldn't stop pouting? Now there's a point to ponder...

Anyway...I've noticed a lot of other bloggers lately talking about the concept of "Enough." C.S. Lewis touches on it in "Perelandra" (the 2nd book in his "Space Trilogy") when Ransom eats the special fruit. He recognizes that the ample crop would allow him to eat as many of the fruits as he wanted to...but something holds him back after the first one or two. By indulging (or over-indulging), he would be taking away some of the "special-ness" of the fruit. And by waiting in between each taste of the fruit, he got to savor the memory of the last special meal and eagerly anticipate the next.

What I have now is "enough" and then some. Yes, we could stand to have more money, but we have enough for our needs right now. Yes, we could stand to have a bigger house, but we have enough for our needs right now. We could have nicer cars, a bigger TV, phones that can do everything, all the toys AJ and Joanna could ever want....but what we have right now is enough for our needs (and then some).

And now that I recognize that, I can see how shallow my interactions with God were back in the day when all I'd do was complain about what I didn't have. Now I've just gotta figure out what else there is to talk about with Him.

One thing for sure is to thank Him that He has _far_ more patience as a parent than I have. And self-control. Dude...if I had to deal with whiny me while being all powerful? Let's just say that there'd be a whole lot more lightning bolts.

Dum De Dum...

I've made it 18 days so far without forgetting to post each day. There's not really anything for me to say today, but I've gotta post something.

So there are, what? 12 days more to go?

Let's see...what can I tell you?

Um....someone posted a list of the disciplines of people they're interviewing to be astronauts to the astronaut hopefuls listserv. They're sending out requests for references in these groupings. And if the list was correct not only in its constituents, but also in its order, then my discipline is dead last (woohoo). Meaning that my references will be contacted last. Meaning that I still might have to wait a while. The initial rumor was that if we hadn't heard anything by Thanksgiving, then we didn't need to hope any longer. Now the rumor is that they might be contacting references as late as January. I'm putting more stock in the first rumor though because that one was based on multiple conversations with folks from the selection office. This second one seems to be supposition.

And I picked up our Operation Christmas Child boxes from the church today. Our MOPS group organized all the logistics for the church and wrapped most of the boxes (not to mention filling a few). When we reached our deadline for bringing in empty boxes for wrapping (early October), we had approximately 50. In the few weeks after the official deadline, we got approximately 30 more. Those have been trickling back in for the past few weeks and I picked them up today since they were overflowing in the church office. We didn't count as we packed the car, but I know there were more than we wrapped. And what didn't seem like that many the last time I checked the office completely filled the empty spaces in my Escape. The only places right now that aren't completely packed with shoe boxes are AJ's car seat and the driver's seat. We've even got most of the backseat folded down. I still have a clear line of sight out the back window, so I _suppose_ we could have packed more in, but really, not that many. VNB's going to drop them off at the collection center tomorrow since there's one near his work. Hopefully they'll count them there to see how we did. Makes me proud.

Anyway...that's enough blather for the day.