My Brother and other relation
took a trip but not a vacation
They loaded a rig
for a goodwill gig
and they called it the Haitian Sensation

Just after the earthquake in Haiti, my brother e-mailed with a heartfelt desire to go to Haiti. He wanted to help and knowing my connection with BGM and their ministry there he was hoping I would have an "in" for his passion. I responded with my own ideas and between the two of us we hatched a bit of a plan. He expanded on that plan and carried it out. This morning he is in Nashville along with my cousin Tobey and a friend, Mat. These three are in an 18 wheeler loaded with boxes of supplies, pallets, a generator and a bit more from generous folks from all over southwest Michigan, and in just a few minutes will begin loading more of the same out of the BGM warehouses until the trailer is full. They will be transporting these items to Florida today and unloading them with a man who has offered to ship them for free into Haiti.

I have my three boys with me and we are going to carry a few food supplies for the road trip along with a small birthday cake for Tobey who is celebrating his big day on the road. We will help as much as we can but I suppose I won't be much use with my three little guys along.

Keep them in your prayers today and tomorrow as they travel, as well as the young families they are missing these few days away.

That title means...we're still at home. I have not left our house, other than to play in the yard, since bringing Owen home from school on Thursday. The snow came on Friday morning and has stayed in the yard ever since. It's been lovely and I am such a home-body anyway...it doesn't bother me much to be stuck. Today the roads are much better, though very wet, and we may drag our pasty selves to the church for open gym day.

Sunday was a little odd. Church was canceled. I haven't stayed home from church with my entire family...ever. I considered inviting the neighbors over but there was a list of small reasons we didn't do that. Kris and I sat in the living room with the boys and they brought down their little percussion instruments so we could sing together. Kris told them a Bible story and Ivan's wide eyed amazement at the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was truly worth the snow day. We did have our neighbor come over and play cards in the afternoon. Had a great time chatting and snacking and laughing together.

I had a productive day yesterday. Got some four loads of laundry done and the kitchen cleaned up with a little help from my friends (Owen and Ivan). I made bread in the afternoon, I've been trying to get back into that. I get discouraged when things don't go like I think they should. My bread recipe is my mom's recipe and it's full of variables and things that can go wrong. I hadn't made any in a long time and then decided I should try again. Even when it isn't perfect, it's good, I just want perfect. I want it to be just like mom's was...and she isn't here to coach me on what I may be doing wrong. Talk about an exercise in futility.

I decided yesterday to just make it for the joy of making it, not for the end result and I really had fun. I was, once again, letting my ideals get in the way of the fun of practice and missing the point of all of it. I've made many loaves of bread...most of them were even edible...in my adult years, but few of them were fun for me because I am so result driven. I will be making bread with a different heart in the future and I don't really care if the texture isn't perfect or the crust is a little too thick. I am just going to enjoy the smell, the process, the waiting and the wonder of watching my little chefs enjoy it with me.

Even my picture here is of the process...not the result. The bread is rising in the pan before placing it in the oven. See...I had fun! I also decided to experiment a bit with freezing it. Mom's recipe makes four loaves. I've had better luck dividing the recipe to make two loaves for some reason. So...I froze one of the loaves and will try thawing and baking it today to see how it turns out.

I am enjoying my morning. I have had so much trouble getting up lately. I think it's the cold, but I am typically a pretty early riser and have little trouble waking up to my day. Since Christmas though, I have not done so well. The boys are their usual bright and bushy tailed selves so the combination isn't good. My days have been upside down because I haven't been able to start before they do. So...I did something today that I rarely do. I set an alarm. It helped. I feel like I have a much better handle on life in general when I am prepared to meet my charges with my eyes unglued.

God put some great stuff in front of me in my brief quiet time this morning too. It's so good to find His grace in the midst of a troubled world. He is not impressed with anything the world throws at me...so steady is His hand and so faithful is His heart toward me...and you too, in case you were wonderin'.

I'm so on this today!

A stout man by name of Lamar
had a difficult time with his car
it's mechanically sound
but it sinks to the ground
with his weight it just will not go far

I didn't even need an alarm. But did you notice that if you switch the letters of the name Lamar around you can spell alarm? I didn't notice until after the limerick was already complete.

Whoa.

It's a snow day here in Middle Tennessee. There isn't any snow yet, but the schools here are not taking chances and we have closed down preemptively in order to avoid scenarios where children are stranded on roadways trying to get home. I have become used to the way of things here. I've stopped laughing at the fear, stopped ridiculing the caution and begun to settle into a comfort with the nonsense of it all. Yes, things were different, and still are, where I came from. Yes, this forecast would be met with little attention from the folks of Southern Michigan, but there is a drift between the understanding of these two areas that will probably never be shoveled through. And no matter how much of the same ideals, parallel practice or common interests they share, they are much more apt to enjoy talking about their differences.

I have become much more quiet there, it hasn't always been that way, but I find myself much more pulled toward the parts of where I am that made me feel at home, the hunters and fishermen, the country roads and open fields, the guitars and mandolins and love of music, the congregations, families and hymns of faith. There is so much the same we just tend to recognize little of it at first. I suppose it is in adapting that I realize how little it takes to change and how insignificant those changes are.

I came prepared for the south. Some folks were willing to accept my northern accent simply because my middle name was usable. (No, I'm not kidding.) And when I explain that the whole of Michigan is a far cry from the image of Detroit, I am met with surprise and a new appreciation for the folks I introduce to them in my stories of home. People in Michigan drive trucks, because they are practical. They wave at people when they pass them on the road, they farm and garden and share produce with their friends. People in Michigan are available to their neighbors and shovel each other's sidewalks, they love their families and are faithful to their promises. They give, even when they need and they act even when they're tired. It's not so different here.

As I finish these paragraphs I realize the snow has begun to fall, right on schedule I might add, and I'm so glad there's no school. When you only get snow a few times a year...you learn to appreciate it a little more. Nah, snow days for flurries aren't such a bad thing after all.

Tennessee: Y'all, we're fixin' to get some ice later on, so you might could think about stayin' indoors.

Michigan: Oh my stars, I never seen so many people freaked out by some snow flakes.

It's all good.

I think I've spent too much time on facebook. It always compels me to update something and simultaneously convinces me that what I have to share can be shared in 420 words or less. Thereby causing me to shave down my flowery sentences and thoughtful ramblings in order to more concisely communicate the prevalent question of what's on my mind.

This practice in itself is something I've learned to do readily in the past when communicating with my husband. He, being a headline sort of guy, will glaze over and shut down if I don't quickly sum up what it is I'm trying to say. I, being a fine print sort of gal, have learned to allow my heartfelt meanderings to be splayed first on paper or screen where I am allowed detail, rabbit trails, and other wandering of thought that in my own mind gives a much more complete picture of the feelings and facts associated with the information. Surely...you want the WHOLE truth when you ask me how I'm doing. This ability to express, whether it be in journal or at the mercy of my public blogging audience, is a bit of an emotional release for me. A girl has to talk see. We just can't help it. We're wired for communication and we are lit up with things to say.

So...when Headline Man comes home from a long day of meetings and smoothing wrinkles in cranky suits he is being nice when he asks, how was your day?...but the answer he really wants is for me to just give him an adjective. It can be anything...from "great!" to "lousy!" or even "mordant," but just the headline please. He and I can leave it at that for a little while. Then, after he has loosened his collar and changed into blue jeans, he can either read about my roller coaster day on this blog, or he can join me in the kitchen and ask questions. I, of course prefer the join me in the kitchen for questions sessions more, but some days the suits are crankier than others and I just have to let the decompression happen at it's own pace.

There are also days when I don't get my own communication escape. Those are dangerous days. My ability to ramble to him once he has opened the fully pressured valve is pretty impressive. I am still learning how to handle this. There have been days when I know I'm going to explode on him if he so much as loosens the spigot. I go read to the kids when I think that's going to happen.

It's good therapy.

I love children's books.

Ramble, ramble.

Facebook has been a nice outlet for me and gives me more headline opportunities. It's sort of fun to say something in a brief sentence and try to communicate three paragraphs of thought and feeling at the same time. However, it doesn't ease my fine print pain. What it does do is cause me to think less of my details before I've expressed them. They suddenly look like the crumbs and scraps that sit under my table after the kids eat lunch. They were at one time an important part of the meal, I wouldn't have chosen any of them to pick off or leave out at first, but now that the meal has been consumed and they were deemed unneeded by the recipient, they look different to me. Once they're on the floor, I just can't use them again.

My frustration level increases when I don't blog. My creative writing mojo is diminished by my confined expression and it's all the fault of facebook. However, I feel pretty good today.

It was Friday all day yesterday and I completely forgot to write a limerick. It's too late now. Saturday Limerick just doesn't have the same ring. Next week will have to be soon enough.

I just got back from a trip to Greenbrier to pick up some beef. Becky took a quick trip to Michigan and brought a cooler full of ground beef back for me from dad's house. They are heading out of town this morning once again, so I wanted to get up there and get it before they left. Aron joined me and sang his way up the interstate. At one point he stopped singing and said, "mom, I was singing like a daddy. Now I'm going to sing like an Aron." But he never did sing like an Aron for me. I was curious what the difference would be.

Kris said that the two older boys played really well while I was gone. That was part of the reason I made sure to take one of them with me. I've found that two of them playing is pretty peaceful but adding the third boy (no matter which one of them it is) causes strife. Not sure why exactly but I have my theories.

There are a couple of errands yet to run, which Kris is planning to do I believe, I have some cleaning to accomplish and then we'll have guests this afternoon. It's always nice to be able to invite people over early on a Saturday. They are coming around 4 and then we'll have visiting time before dinner as well as a little after and still be able to get to bed at a timely hour. That's important when you leave for church at 7:00 a.m. on Sundays.

We also had guests on Thursday night. A family from church that lives in our area but we hadn't really known them until they visited our Sunday school class. They have since become members of the class and we enjoy hanging out with them.

Well, my coffee cup is empty and breakfast is eaten, so I'm going to leave my roost here and keep myself busy for a while so that I have more to write about. I think my boys need some encouragement cleaning their play room too.

Oh...one last thing for you. After picking Owen up from school on Thursday I saw a road block ahead and joined the other cars in the left lane and even into the turning lane to avoid three little calves that were scared and congregating closely on the right side. Aw. I know this picture is terrible, but in the interest of keeping traffic moving I didn't want to slow down enough to actually take a good picture. My phone reached my hand quicker than my little camera so this is all I got. I wish you could see the expression on the officer's face. The most sincere look of annoyance I think I've ever witnessed...do you think it was because I was taking a picture? Priceless.