If you read my bio you would have read that both Tim and Leah have ADD (the jury is still out on Daniel) and that my home is saturated with it. I titled this post as I did for many reasons, but mostly because ADD adds color to my life and most days I wouldn't want my home any other way. ADD is NOT a negative "disorder", but rather a very advantageous attribute of a person when looked upon with enthusiasm and humor.
This is one look into a day of my life with ADD...I'm still laughing...(hysterically laughing)
My morning started with my husband sneaking through our room into Daniel's room (our house is a maze). I assumed he was getting his coat from the closet in the room. To prevent a premature waking of the baby, I quickly sat up and whispered, "Tim, your coat is in the living room." At this point the door between our rooms was already opened. "I'm not getting my coat, I'm getting my pen and pencil," Tim confidently responded , as if his explanation for going into a sleeping baby's room was completely reasonable. Tim had left the pen and pencil in the pocket of the coat he had worn the previous day. I should note that my husband (unlike me, but I know like many other people out there) has the pen and pencil that he must always use or else "it just doesn't feel right". Well, as you might have already figured out, Daniel woke up. Tim stood in the doorway for a few seconds as he realized in that moment (a moment too late) what he had just done. I laid back down, trying to be understanding of my husband's quirk and not annoyed knowing that Daniel would've probably slept for another hour and a half. So that was the beginning of my day....
Fast forward to the end of the day....
As Tim was in the bathroom getting ready for bed, I teased him about his wake up call earlier in the morning. As I giggled at his expense, I told him, "I'm not sure if I would label that as ADD or OCD." He chuckled at himself, since he DID realize his folly. I then proceeded to take my shower. As I started to get the shampoo I realized that the bottle of shampoo no longer had the sticker label on it. Important point- the bottle of conditioner is an identical bottle and it too had a missing sticker label. I flashed back to this morning, when I noticed that the stickers were in the bathroom waste basket, at which point I had thought to myself, "Well, I guess Leah got bored this morning in the shower." Leah is our shower hog, she loves taking showers, singing in the shower, writing notes or Hang Man games (with her brother's bath crayons) on the shower walls for us. So, back to me trying to shampoo my hair....I poured a small amount of from each bottle into my hand trying to discern between shampoo and conditioner. I was fairly certain the substance that was somewhat pearlescent was the shampoo, but I wasn't confident. Tim was still in the bathroom so I asked his opinion. He pointed to the bottle on the right and said, "That's where the shampoo has been." I explained he was correct, but in addition to being de-labelfied, I believed, the bottles had switched sides of the shelf too. Once Tim realized the absent-mindedness that had taken place in the shower he said with a tinge of annoyance, "Leah! Why did she do that?!" I was giggling at this point...and quickly pointed out, "It's kinda like going into a sleeping baby's room to get a pen and pencil, don't ya think?" His tone quickly changed as he smiled and chuckled. I couldn't hardly finish my shower without giggling the entire time, as I thought about my life with these two and how much more interesting they make it. In that moment I thanked God for giving us the gift of laughter and giving me a sense of humor for days like today.
Disclaimer: Tim is aware of everything I write in my posts and laughs alongside me.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
So God Had an Idea...
Well, I'm not off to a great start. I meant to write this last week. I'm a newbie to this whole blog world. This is the post Tim really was hoping for two Sundays ago.
So, God had an idea that recently had a great impact on my family. It all started with cookies. Yes, cookies.
Our friends Randy and Candice Wagenleinter are in the process of adopting two siblings from Ethiopia. They are raising a significant amount of money and have a limited amount of time to do so, as with many adoption scenarios. Obviously this amount of money is pocket-change to God, that is...if he had pockets. Our family had a strong prompting to help them. We don't have extra disposable income to contribute, but we knew contributing was what God was asking us to do. So, praying and asking for a creative solution was what we did.
The week of New Year's Eve Tim, Leah, and I were discussing how we could help them. Tim happened to be browsing Etsy.com (we have begun the process of opening an Etsy store for Tim's business, ReVive...more on that another time). We also have been brainstorming ways to use Etsy to sell goods where a portion of the proceeds would go to adoption non-profits. He found an Esty store that sells cookies, so I said, "A bake sale", which led Leah to remember the cookies at Costco (which we had just regrettably walked past without purchasing two days earlier)and she said, "We could buy the cookies at Costco and sell them for $10/dozen." Leah remembered the exact cost of the cookies at Costco and figured out how much we should sell them for in order to donate a "sweet" difference to the Wagenleitner adoption fund. We then realized that New Year's Eve was approaching and people would be purchasing treats for their parties anyhow and would OF COURSE be excited to help out our friends. Soooo... after clearing it with the Wagenleitners we turned to social networking to get the word out to all of our friends. Candice also spread the word to her facebook friends and posted the cookie sale on her blog.
The orders started flowing within the first few hours. We were so excited getting everything prepped to take orders, pick up cookies, and deliver. I got to use my nerd-love of building spreadsheets to track everything and my crafty side to design tags to adorn the cookies. Leah helped with tracking orders, while she kept a running total of donations in her head (despite that it was auto-summing in the spreadsheet ;-)) We took orders for a few days leading up to New Year's Eve. It was getting a great response. But, of course it wasn't good enough. I kept hoping more and more people would order so we would have a really large amount to give to the Wagenleinters. I was starting to get discouraged about something that was NOT discouraging at all. I was losing sight of the fact that God gave us the idea; we were just to run with it in obedience, using our time, talents, and treasures to do so. I was making it about an amount of money. God of course gently reminded me that HE had an idea, I was limiting him, and I was making this about silly cookies. WOW!
God definitely had an idea, but it wasn’t about cookies. It was about calling his people to ACT in obedience, ACT as the church, and ultimately showing HIS splendor yet again. During the course of the cookie sale God used the cookie sale as one domino to initiate many of his people to use their time, talents, and treasures to contribute to the Wagenleitner’s adoption.
As Tim put it, “He multiplied the 5 loaves and 2 fish.”
Financial blessings were provided beyond what we could have imagined to happen in a span of less than a week. Yet what impacted me more was that he provided the opportunity for my family (and I’m sure all others involved) to walk in faith and obedience, and to witness his hand in everything as our sole provider.
Once I was able to step back and see what he had done, I was humbled by my family’s specific place in his plan in light of his sovereignty.
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. –Proverbs 16:9
To be encouraged by one story of God’s sovereignty please visit Candice’s blog at: http://www.tomakehimknown.blogspot.com/
So, God had an idea that recently had a great impact on my family. It all started with cookies. Yes, cookies.
Our friends Randy and Candice Wagenleinter are in the process of adopting two siblings from Ethiopia. They are raising a significant amount of money and have a limited amount of time to do so, as with many adoption scenarios. Obviously this amount of money is pocket-change to God, that is...if he had pockets. Our family had a strong prompting to help them. We don't have extra disposable income to contribute, but we knew contributing was what God was asking us to do. So, praying and asking for a creative solution was what we did.
The week of New Year's Eve Tim, Leah, and I were discussing how we could help them. Tim happened to be browsing Etsy.com (we have begun the process of opening an Etsy store for Tim's business, ReVive...more on that another time). We also have been brainstorming ways to use Etsy to sell goods where a portion of the proceeds would go to adoption non-profits. He found an Esty store that sells cookies, so I said, "A bake sale", which led Leah to remember the cookies at Costco (which we had just regrettably walked past without purchasing two days earlier)and she said, "We could buy the cookies at Costco and sell them for $10/dozen." Leah remembered the exact cost of the cookies at Costco and figured out how much we should sell them for in order to donate a "sweet" difference to the Wagenleitner adoption fund. We then realized that New Year's Eve was approaching and people would be purchasing treats for their parties anyhow and would OF COURSE be excited to help out our friends. Soooo... after clearing it with the Wagenleitners we turned to social networking to get the word out to all of our friends. Candice also spread the word to her facebook friends and posted the cookie sale on her blog.
The orders started flowing within the first few hours. We were so excited getting everything prepped to take orders, pick up cookies, and deliver. I got to use my nerd-love of building spreadsheets to track everything and my crafty side to design tags to adorn the cookies. Leah helped with tracking orders, while she kept a running total of donations in her head (despite that it was auto-summing in the spreadsheet ;-)) We took orders for a few days leading up to New Year's Eve. It was getting a great response. But, of course it wasn't good enough. I kept hoping more and more people would order so we would have a really large amount to give to the Wagenleinters. I was starting to get discouraged about something that was NOT discouraging at all. I was losing sight of the fact that God gave us the idea; we were just to run with it in obedience, using our time, talents, and treasures to do so. I was making it about an amount of money. God of course gently reminded me that HE had an idea, I was limiting him, and I was making this about silly cookies. WOW!
God definitely had an idea, but it wasn’t about cookies. It was about calling his people to ACT in obedience, ACT as the church, and ultimately showing HIS splendor yet again. During the course of the cookie sale God used the cookie sale as one domino to initiate many of his people to use their time, talents, and treasures to contribute to the Wagenleitner’s adoption.
As Tim put it, “He multiplied the 5 loaves and 2 fish.”
Financial blessings were provided beyond what we could have imagined to happen in a span of less than a week. Yet what impacted me more was that he provided the opportunity for my family (and I’m sure all others involved) to walk in faith and obedience, and to witness his hand in everything as our sole provider.
Once I was able to step back and see what he had done, I was humbled by my family’s specific place in his plan in light of his sovereignty.
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. –Proverbs 16:9
To be encouraged by one story of God’s sovereignty please visit Candice’s blog at: http://www.tomakehimknown.blogspot.com/
Saturday, January 1, 2011
The Beginning
This will be my first post. Isn't it funny that my husband had to force me to write...most people write blogs because of their own motivation...not me. I write because I love my husband, who would love to write a blog, but due to his never ending thoughts would never be able to wrap up his first post. How's that for ironic, the woman who has to be forced to start a first post has a blog, but her husband who has constant "blog post material" running through his head doesn't. Well here it goes...
It's all in the name. I named my blog, "So I had an idea" due to many late night conversations with my driven, passionate husband, Tim. Most nights as we get settled into bed Tim says, "So, I had an idea." For some, these conversations happen rarely, some more frequently than others, and for us almost nightly and definitely weekly. I'm married to a man who's mind never stops trying to find a way to make a difference, make something better, tap into unrealized potential. You know the type, just think Lewis from Disney's Meet the Robinsons or Rodney from Twentieth Century Fox's, Robots. My daughter and I often joke about how these two cartoon characters ARE Tim. This blog will help me articulate what it is like being married to this "type" of man and how God uses our family through both of our unique personalities, gifts, and talents.
Well, short and sweet. That wasn't too bad. And by the way I wasn't joking when I said my husband forced me to write. When I came to bed he had the laptop set up on my side of the bed ready for me to start typing and said, "Okay, I have it all ready for you, now you can write your first post." Well, maybe "forced" is an exaggeration.
Tomorrow I will write my second post...which is really what Tim wanted me to post..."So, God had an idea."
It's all in the name. I named my blog, "So I had an idea" due to many late night conversations with my driven, passionate husband, Tim. Most nights as we get settled into bed Tim says, "So, I had an idea." For some, these conversations happen rarely, some more frequently than others, and for us almost nightly and definitely weekly. I'm married to a man who's mind never stops trying to find a way to make a difference, make something better, tap into unrealized potential. You know the type, just think Lewis from Disney's Meet the Robinsons or Rodney from Twentieth Century Fox's, Robots. My daughter and I often joke about how these two cartoon characters ARE Tim. This blog will help me articulate what it is like being married to this "type" of man and how God uses our family through both of our unique personalities, gifts, and talents.
Well, short and sweet. That wasn't too bad. And by the way I wasn't joking when I said my husband forced me to write. When I came to bed he had the laptop set up on my side of the bed ready for me to start typing and said, "Okay, I have it all ready for you, now you can write your first post." Well, maybe "forced" is an exaggeration.
Tomorrow I will write my second post...which is really what Tim wanted me to post..."So, God had an idea."
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