Randomness with Liz

Once upon a time I kept up a regular stream of thoughts and stories here on the ol' blog.  It was sort of a daily life journal for my family's activities.  I would still like to do that.  I miss it a lot.  But as the kids have gotten older and life has gotten busier, I end up dropping a lot of that daily stuff onto Facebook.  I keep telling myself that I'm going to start archiving all those links I share on Facebook & make one big weekend post here.  But then I'm not really sure if anyone ever actually reads this blog anymore, so maybe no one would see it.

So apparently my blog has become a place for me to drop random thoughts now & then and hope that you somehow keep up (or care) about my random thoughts.

So here we go....take a seat, grab a glass of tea (or water, or whatever you prefer) and get cozy.  Let's peer into my brain for a moment, shall we?

1.  Social Dancing
All three of my kids have attended Social Dance class.  It's a local thing for 7th graders where they learn some classic dances, interact with other 7th graders in an attempt to build some social graces & manners into them, and are required to act (and dress!) like ladies and gentlemen.  At the end of the year, there is a big party where all the parents are invited to attend and watch what the kids have worked on learning all year.  At the end of the night, moms & sons and dads & daughters dance together.  It is super sweet!

Savannah did it in '08-'09.

Samuel did it last year.

 So this year, it was Sarah's turn.

 None of the kids were particularly THRILLED about attending, but in the end, they all felt like it wasn't THE WORST THING EVER.

2.  Tonight when I pulled into the driveway after going to the grocery store, I noticed that all the lights in the house were still on.  It was late (nearly 11:00) but being the weekend, I didn't think much of all the lights being on.  I just assumed that Larry and the kids were up watching TV or something.  However, as I stepped out of my van, I heard a rhythmic noise that I would recognize anywhere -- Larry's snore!  Our bedroom window, and the head of our bed, is right against the front wall of the house, so I knew that meant that he had gone to bed.  It cracked me up that I could hear it all the way out in the yard, though!!  God bless any poor soul who has to share a hotel room with Larry on a church trip & hear that!  Ha ha!!

3.  Speaking of churches---our family is about to embark on an adventure!

The kids regularly ask us about other Christian churches---other denominations within the faith.  "What does that church believe?" or "How are they different from us?"  Sometimes it's hard to put into words exactly what is different.  Other times it's simple to explain, but would really make more sense to see it in person.  So that's just what we are going to do!

Starting in April, we are going to take the kids to visit another denomination once a month.  We are NOT church shopping or looking for a new place to worship.  We are just showing the kids what other churches "look like"...how they "do church".  We would love for them to see how this church worships or how that church's pastor teaches....how this church is way more/less formal than ours...how that one is super conservative/charismatic.  It will be a cool learning experience for them and a 'safe' way for them to see what else is out there.  We can spend the day talking about things, answering questions, and just helping them understand what how other churches operate.  This weekend we are going to sit down & map out what churches we'd like to visit!

4.  When we moved into our house, the kitchen looked like this.  Certainly nothing fancy, but the house was OURS so it made me happy.

We painted the cabinets red, hung red & white checked curtains and settled in.  For nearly 10 years now, we've lived with a teeny kitchen & little storage space.  I bought this baker's rack from Target right after we moved in & set it up with all this stuff on it.

It is super full, but it serves as a little extra storage space.  Over the years, it has become more & more packed full of stuff.  My dad, who is quite a handyman, is now building me a replacement cabinet (to match all the other cabinets in the kitchen) for my baker's rack.  It will be super exciting to get a closed in cabinet with doors (!!!) to hide all this stuff.  The baker's rack has served its purpose & held up well, but it's almost time to say farewell to the baker's rack!!  Yay!!!

By the way, the kitchen now looks like this.  How's that for a before & after change?  (This pic is actually several years old, but it still looks the same.)

5.  This week, my 20 year reunion was announced on Facebook.  I've spent about 24 hours mulling it over before deciding with certainty that I would not be attending.  I know, there are those out there who will say I'm crazy but honestly, I just don't care.  ha ha!  Seriously... awkwardly attempting small talk while watching people drink to the tune of $80 for a couple of hours does not sound the least bit fun to me.  I'm in touch with everyone I went to HS with that I care about, so I'll just keep up that little reunion and skip the fancy party.

6.  My sweet boy child turns 14 today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I can hardly believe that the 9 lb baby boy I delivered in 2000 is into his 2nd year of being a teenager!  Gosh I love that kid!  Happy Birthday Samuel!

I guess that's about it for this week's randomness.  Hope you enjoyed it!  God bless!