Don't Flush the Toilet Paper!

"Don't forget to NOT flush the toilet paper!!" was a yelled reminder during the last half of the week that my family was visiting. (You can read about their visit here.) I think it was Thursday morning while we were all trying to get left for different destinations that Sam came upstairs and calmly told his mom (Gail), "Mom, the washer is flooding the basement." I think Gail questioned him, not quite believing it, and I ran down to look. And yes, the washer was definitely flooding the basement!! I had started the laundry earlier in the morning and it was trying to drain, but was instead gushing up and out of the wall box in which the washer hook-ups and drain are located. There was water once again running under the wall, out the door, and into the utility room. 

A similar event had just happened a week prior, except that time the water was coming up from the sewer line and out from under the toilet. Only slightly gross, right? After several phone calls for that specific incident, a plumber came out, augered out the sewer line, couldn't find any real cause, ran lots of water down the drains for a while, and we thought it was fixed. The plumber did admonish me to not flush anything more than toilet paper down the toilet. Flushable wipes, flushable toilet bowl cleaning wipes, and anything that is marketed as flushable really isn't flushable aside from toilet paper, he said. 

Unbeknownst to the plumber, I had gotten that speech before. The very first house that Jason and I rented had sewer issues and, after the landlord got it fixed, the rules were: don't flush anything but toilet paper. Nothing else. I mentioned to the plumber, at our current house and situation, that I just couldn't figure out what would have clogged it unless Little Miss Pumpkin had started flushing foreign objects down the toilet

Everybody Needs a Head-Smacker

Everybody needs a head-smacker. That one friend, or it could be a family member, that will literally whack you up-side the head when you do something stupid. Or when you say something you shouldn't. It is these friendships that are golden, I believe, and I think that everyone should have at least one of them.

Every now and then something will happen that causes me to remember the time I literally got smacked up-side the head by a friend. It was definitely not one of my proudest moments in life! A few years ago, Jason and I were out climbing with friends one day. While climbing, Jason asked me a question about how I had done the climb and I, without thinking, answered the question very bluntly. In just a few seconds Brittany came up beside me, smacked me on the back of the head, and reprimanded me. (Trust me, I deserved it even though I didn't understand why at the time.) There have been at least a few other times when Brittany has verbally smacked me up-side the head, although she probably would have been justified to literally smack me, too. Most every single time that I can recall has been because I spoke without thinking, or taking into account that I am not the authority on whatever it was I was speaking about. I'm actually not sure why Brittany hasn't dis-owned me over my lack of thinking before I speak. But, that is part of why I believe having a "head-smacker" for a friend is quite valuable.

There have been other friends that have put me in my place or verbally smacked me up-side the head in other instances. It is almost always because I speak without thinking, but occasionally because I did something I shouldn't have. Not one of those instances has been a pleasant, easy reprimand to receive - I usually feel about the size of an inch-worm afterwards. But, after mulling over the instance, and the reprimand, I have usually understood how I was wrong. I would like to think that I have learned something from those instances over the years, but I would venture to

Alone vs. Lonely

I'm sitting here, alone, eating graham crackers with peanut butter and chocolate. Jason had to go out of town for work this week. And, since I couldn't take the entire week off of work, Little Pumpkin went to her grandparents for two days. So, I am all by myself. I have never really thought about the difference between feeling alone and feeling lonely before. In fact, I probably didn't really think that there was much difference in those feelings. One goes with the other, right? Well, earlier this year I discovered that there is a difference between feeling alone and feeling lonely. It was actually a bit of a relief to learn the difference for reasons I'm not sure I know how to explain yet.

If you read my post, Fake It 'Til You Make It, you'll know that after we moved to Kansas last spring I kind of crashed. In addition to what I wrote about in that post, I pretty much withdrew from everything, and everyone, and became a hermit. I even told people that I had become a professional hermit. I did not want to be around people, did not want to meet people, and did not want to talk to people. For the first few months, I actually ordered a lot of my groceries online and had them shipped to my door just to avoid going to the store and being around people. Pretty much the only people infested places that I somewhat willingly drug myself to was church and Little Pumpkin's doctor appointments.

Typically, when you move to a new place, you purposely try to meet people for the purpose of making acquaintances and, potentially, friends. I did none of that. And, I wanted nothing to do with that sort of thing. After Gunther returned to live with us, I started taking he and Pumpkin for walks, but I tried to do it when I thought there was the least possibility of being seen. I wasn't very successful, but I managed quite well to ignore

100 Squats a Day

A few months ago, my sister, Katie, asked me if I wanted to do 100 squats a day for 30 days. She had seen video online and wanted to try it to see what would happen. I said sure, but wasn't that committed. And, I never really heard anything more about it from her. Several weeks later, I asked her how the 100 squats a day program was going, and she said that she had started it, but never followed through long-term. We talked about it a bit, agreed to be each other's accountability partner, and decided to start May 1st. And that is how our "100 Squats a Day for the Month of May" began!

I've never really done squats, and I'm not sure Katie has either. Neither one of us are experts on the correct form and method. I knew that I should try and keep my back straight, though. And, I thought I was supposed to hold my arms straight out in front of me. Also, the slower, more controlled the squat, the more of a muscle workout. At least, that was my theory and method. I'm not sure what Katie's method/theory was- we never actually talked about how to do squats when planning this. We did end up inviting the Facebook public to join us on this squatting adventure, but I believe only one person did: another sister, Sally.

For the first week, I think Katie and I both did pretty well at keeping up with our 100 squats each day. And, I know that Sally was doing them whenever she had a spare moment - even in the library bathroom as she was waiting on her kids piano lessons to finish! The first several days, even though I tried to break up the 100 into sets of 20 or 25, my legs felt like jelly after each set. I felt a bit like an out of shape weakling working muscles that I've never really worked on before. I never heard Katie or Sally mention any jelly legs; they probably have better muscles going than I. I also found that my upper back would start to ache while doing squats. I figured that I was doing something wrong, or else needed to work on some

Fake It 'Til You Make It

.....or should you? I think everyone, at some point in their life, fakes it in the hopes of making it to whatever it is they are trying to accomplish. I know I have- in school, in work, and in life. The most common fake "thing" that I believe we see every single day is the all-to-common question: "How are you?" Really now, how often do you answer that question honestly? Probably not that often, I would guess.

A few years ago, I had decided that being fake was just.....dumb, for lack of a better word. I was tired of feeling like everyone was trying to keep up a certain façade, and just wanted to be real. Not just for me to be real, but for everybody to be real. Without going to the extreme, I did try to be real. And, I tried to engage other people that I knew fairly well into being real with me. I had more than one conversation, I think, with a few folks about why can't we just be real; to talk about the hard things, to acknowledge when life is tough, and to not pretend like everything is ok. I know I didn't succeed at being one hundred percent real, or maybe honest is a better term, all of the time but, I was a lot more aware of when I was faking it then I used to be. I think the year that I was pregnant with Little Pumpkin the being real, or honest, idea was even more prevalent in my mind.

During that year, I recall meeting and conversing with a lady that just always came across as faking it. And, it really irritated me. Especially when I knew that life was tough for her at various times, and yet, she was always happy, super sweet, and appeared as though life was peachy-keen. I had a conversation with someone about "why can't we just be real," and brought up this lady's perceived "fakeness" as an example. They, too, knew this lady, and gave me their perspective and insight into her personality, as well as some words of....wisdom, I guess. My biggest complaint at that time was that I just wanted people to be real; to know that other people's lives aren't perfect, that other people have struggles or hard times, and to share them with others. One of my points was that if we never share the real-ness of our lives, than we can never share in how to get through the

Transitioning to Finding Normal

It seems as though we (Jason and I) are unable to stay in one station, season, time, or whatever it's called, of life very long. And, I feel like we are frequently transitioning from one "station" in life to another "station," or spot, or season, or whatever. Because of that, it seems that we never really have a "normal," although "normal" is very subjective and different for everyone. For the most part, I think transitions and changes are by choice; choices we make with our jobs, in how we live, and in what we choose to do. But is there ever a "normal" that stays? Are we too "transient," for lack of a better word, to ever have "normal?" Or, have we just not accepted the "normal" that is our life?

When Jason and I were first married, he was working full-time, and in the Army Reserves. I was working full-time, a Monday-Friday job, with an hour commute. Jason worked Friday-Sunday, and was gone for the Army a lot that first year; about 6-8 months, collectively. At the end of 2013, he took a night-shift position that was Monday-Thursday, and I tried working closer to home, but had to work at least every other weekend. Jason was still gone a lot for the Army, though not as much as the previous year. (My friends joked that Jason was just a figment of my imagination, as he was always gone, and some folks didn't meet him until after we'd been married for 2-ish years!)  I also decided to go back to school and get my Bachelor's degree through an online program. After about 6 months, I was fortunate to get a full-time, Monday-Friday job with set hours, and continued school full-time. Later that same year, Jason got a day-shift position that wasn't on weekends, and for the first time, we were able to go to church together. (As such, we got to go church shopping. But that's a completely different topic.)

In the fall of 2015, Jason decided to go back to school for his Master's degree through an online program. I changed jobs at the end of the year, right after I had graduated. Jason was still working his same position, and was studying hard for his Masters. Early in the spring of that next year,

Don't Pee on My Mustard Seed!

I was slightly miffed when that thought crossed my mind a few months ago. I wanted to defend myself, and say "Don't pee on my mustard seed!" Or, maybe you're more familiar with the expression, "Don't rain on my parade!" Both sayings are pretty close to being the same. I think the "Don't rain on my parade," relates to someone putting a damper on your proud moment. The "Don't pee on my mustard seed," well, I think that was first coined by an old family friend, Darrel, and if I understand correctly, the saying has a Biblical foundation. Amusing, right?

Anyone familiar with the time Jesus told His disciples about having faith the size of a mustard seed? (Read Matthew 17:14-22.) If I am remembering correctly, Darrel, the old family friend, was explaining how something should work out (I have no idea what), and someone pointed out flaws, or reasons why it might not work out, or some other negative response. And, Darrel came back with, "Don't pee on my mustard seed!"

After that one instance a few months ago when I wanted to tell someone, "Don't pee on my mustard seed," I have thought about how often, and the many different ways, people unintentionally (I think) bring others down. That whether we're sharing good, or bad, things with each other, we tend to feel the need to "one-up," or "one-down," each other. How many times have you shared an accomplishment with someone, and instead of being happy for you and joining you in reveling in the glory for a minute, the person responded with,

Why Do We Teach Obedience?

For a few months now, I have been pondering a Bible verse that I think has been a common quote by adults to kids. (At least, in the Christian setting.) And, I know that this verse is sometimes used as a memory verse for young kids. I will be upfront and say that this is one of the memory verses we say every night with Pumpkin after our Bible reading. The verse is Colossians 3:20. This is what I remember hearing from this verse in my previous years: "Children obey your parents." I think that is all I ever heard whenever the verse was quoted.

Brief Side Note: Something I have learned over the years, and try very hard to practice, and be conscious of, is that context is very important in learning the Scriptures. Context is very important in understanding the Scriptures. And, I think context is very important when quoting Scriptures for the purpose of making a point. Let me also say this: while context is very important, I will be the first to admit that it doesn't always make it easier to understand, or eliminate any and all questions one might be struggling with.

The first time I looked up Colossians 3:20 to start saying it with Pumpkin, I learned something new. (And, if you are prone to judging people on their lack of Bible knowledge, here is a good opportunity for you to practice not judging. Just a thought.) The entire verse says this: "Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." (Col. 3:20, NIV)

Hmm. How had I never heard, or maybe I had heard it but it didn't stick, the "...for this pleases the Lord" part? That puts a whole new spin on things.

I think for myself, I just assumed that the "Children obey your parents" teaching was simply just because you were the kid, they were the parents. End of story. Do what your parents say just because it is what the Bible says. Where's the motivation in that? Maybe for some folks, that is enough motivation. Maybe just because those four words are written in Scripture casts out any need to question the "why," or the desire to try and reason out how it does, or does not, apply in a situation. But I think we are missing out on something huge if we just leave it at that.

For what purpose are we, as kids, supposed to obey our parents? Because it "pleases the Lord." Not simply because we are the kids and they are the parents. Not just because they are the authority figure that God placed over us as we grow up. It is to honor Him - Jesus Christ; God. As I said, it puts a whole new spin on things.

When I think about how to go about instilling in my child the responsibility to obey, it seems to be a daunting task. The perception that she seems to have inherited

Stepping Out Once More

Before our Little Pumpkin was born, I had finally stepped out of  my comfort zone and started attending the women's Bible study at our old church. We had only been attending there for 2 or 3 years, so it was time, right? I was hoping to get to know some people, to learn and increase my Bible knowledge, and hopefully grow my heart knowledge and boldness in my faith. The study was on the book of John and it was a really good, in-depth study; I really enjoyed the homework and hearing from the other women when the group met. There were a few ladies in particular that I was really enjoying being around, wondering, "How do I become more like her," and was excited to spend time in the future getting to know them better.

Then I had a baby.

And then we moved.

All of my aforementioned hopes -get to know some people, learn and increase Bible knowledge, grow in heart knowledge and boldness in faith-