Today I need to tell you about our squeaky Christmas.

Now that the kids are back in school, I finally have a moment to catch up on the blog. We had a pretty quiet Christmas outside of one very squeaky night. Yes, I meant to write squeaky and no things were NOT squeaky clean!

You see it all started with our traditional trip to view Christmas lights. Each year we like to go to Starbucks, get our favorite Christmas drinks (I like the peppermint white mocha myself), and drive around our subdivision looking at all of the beautiful Christmas lights. We told the kids to get ready to go and soon my son walked into the kitchen with his travel backpack. At the time it seemed perfectly normal. He said that he wanted to bring the backpack because he had packed some toys for the car. OK, I'll admit it- I thought to myself "what a great thing for him to do- taking responsibility for himself". Oh, yes, pride does come before a fall.

We situated my son in the car and my daughter came running with her backpack. Also filled with "toys". The kids were whispering and laughing with each other quite a bit. You would have thought that at this point my mom radar would have been alerted but it wasn't. I thought that there were just really excited to look at Christmas lights (do you know any kids THAT excited to drive around on a sight-seeing trip???) Hey don't be too hard on me, our kids do seem to get along pretty well so all of the chumminess wasn't too out of the ordinary (really). We drove to Starbucks and were in the process of ordering our drinks when it happened.

My husband was speaking to the kind teenager manning the drive thru speaker when suddenly I heard this strange squeak. Um, wait a minute, it wasn't a strange sounding squeak- it was a rather familiar sounding squeak. And then I heard it again! This time is was a little more like a squeal. Suddenly it dawned on me and I turned around to ask with incredulity "DO YOU HAVE THE GUINEA PIGS IN THE CAR????" I'm not quite sure what the teenager in the drive thru thought hearing that statement in the middle of our order but to be honest, I didn't really care. My petrified daughter responded "yes". That is right, all of the whispering, laughing, sharing of secrets was due to the secret each child held in their own backpacks- a guinea pig.

My thoughts ran wild: what if they get out? is there a small hole they can get through? would they drop onto the road and get run over? how are we supposed to explain another dead guinea pig? Now I know these things wouldn't really happen but I never expected that my children would take the guinea pigs for a ride to happen either. We talked about how this was not the wisest decision and the possible (OK, not likely but possible) consequences. We removed the guinea pig from my 5 year old son's lap and put them both together in my daughter's bag; we returned them home; we then went on our traditional viewing of Christmas lights- without the guinea pigs.

I think sometimes we hide things in our bags too. My kids never thought through any of the consequences of bringing the guinea pigs into a car in just backpacks. They were not trying to do something wrong, but they weren't making wise decisions either. Sometimes I do unwise things myself (like sharing my opinions when it really isn't necessary, watching something on TV that wasn't the best choice for me to spend my time thinking about, or just being short with my family not thinking about how it would affect their feelings). When I get tired, I don't want to think about making the wisest choices, but that is what God wants. It is time for me to think about the unintended consequences of my actions and make the wise choice. How about you?

Today my son has a sore neck.

Last night my husband and I found our son sleeping in a Rubbermaid box. Yup, my son really is showing his genius now, isn't he? This happens to be the box that we keep all of his stuffed animals in- at least it was comfy right??? To be honest, this isn't the first time we have found him sleeping in unusual places.

Naturally, we have found him in the hallway when he didn't want to miss out on anything going on downstairs. We have also found him in the bathtub, his sister's bed, and under our pillow shams. Thankfully, we have never found him completely stripped down sleeping in his closet like we used to frequently find our daughter (that one still alludes me).

Now my son is a little bit of fun to play with when he is sleeping. Come on, I know you all play tricks on your kids too. Don't tell me you never gave them a lemon when they were babies just to see their faces. It wasn't just us right??? Playing with our son when he is asleep is really hilarious. You see, he talks in his sleep- a lot. We can usually get him to answer just about any question like "did you enjoy the hot dog in your bed or How was the red lollipop stuck to your nose?" All interesting answers to be sure.

Well, when my son "unexpectedly" began to stir as I snapped his picture with the flash... I asked him why he was in the box. Nothing... I asked again and still no answer. Boy, I was really looking forward to telling you all the insane answer he gave me while he was asleep. After several attempts, I finally changed tactics and asked "do you know why you are in the box?" "Yes" was the only response- talk about disappointing.

You know that I wouldn't give up on something this entertaining. So I asked him again this morning when his eyes were open. He responded that "he was easier next to the door". My daughter kindly translated that he wanted to be closer to the door. It was then that I realized he was toeing the line last night- literally. He knew that he wasn't allowed out of his room because it was time for bed, but he didn't want to miss out on what he thought was going on with everyone else. Truthfully, there was nothing interesting happening in our house last night, but my son thought there might be something he would miss.

Wow! How many times do I toe the line myself? How many times do I know what the right thing is, but get as close to sin as I can without actually sinning? Hmm, it seems to me that there is a word for that- perhaps, justifying? Ooh, did I hit a nerve with you too? Even though my son technically stayed in his room, his intent was not to completely obey. How many times do I technically obey but have a different intention in my heart? I pray that God will show those times to me and gently put me back in my bed and back on track.

Today I am forced to let go of my type-A personality.

Today I am going through a rather uncomfortable time. People have described me in many different ways: friendly, helpful, thrifty, pretty (OK, that last one may be a self-description but it still counts right????). But there is one word I hear a lot when people talk about me - organized! Yup, I take pride in my ability to plan ahead and maintain control of all situations. You will notice that spontaneity is not listed. Have you ever notice that I usually add new postings on Thursdays? Yeah- organized... Now I know there other words for it, but we will just stick with organized!

I was particularly thrilled with my idea of organization at the beginning of the school year. Each member of my family was given a magnetic plastic pocket that hangs on the refrigerator in which all of their items of paper remain until needed. You see this idea actually came out of desperation. I would leave some paper work on my husband's "pile" and then he would promptly return it to MY pile. This was very frustrating as I had already checked that particular thing off my to-do list. Well, the pockets have solved that problem- now it is clear that I am done with items and he needs to deal with them. Good solution right? OK, I may have taken things a bit far when I next introduced the file folders inside the pockets labeled "homework", "school info", "projects", "girl scouts"- you get the idea. And yes, I do have a label maker and no one is allowed to touch it... Hey it is good to have a plan- right???

Please don't get me wrong, I have plenty of toys, dirty dishes, clothes and candy wrappers (thanks to my son covertly stealing candy) laying around my house at any give time. Come on, I can't do everything... While I would really like a clean house, I am also a realist and understand that my hobbies are important too.

I think you are beginning to get the picture of how my mind works. Now I think you will also be able to understand the incredibly difficult situation in which I now find myself trying to function. Because of the economy, my husband has had to radically change his small business. He went from a few employees to none. Tomorrow he is moving out of his office into our home, did I mention he would be home full-time?!?! We hope he can find an office soon but we have no way to plan when that will be. Did you catch that NO WAY TO PLAN? Tomorrow he will no longer have a vehicle and we have no plan of attack for getting another one. Did you get that NO PLAN OF ATTACK? We have no long term business plan. We don't know what jobs he will get and when they will come. Again, did you notice NO LONG TERM BUSINESS PLAN? I think you are starting to get the idea that I have no control over organizing anything right now.

There is just one word that will describe what we have ahead of us- F A I T H.

I do know that God will provide (of course your prayers along those lines would be appreciated too). We have already seen God providing and I will spend some time in the near future documenting all HE has done for us. However, I think there is something else for me to learn here too. I have known for a while that my super organized schedule has kept me from ministry opportunities. I am happy to serve if I know ahead of time of the needs. Guess what? Many needs you can't plan for. Many times people need help during an emergency and I need to learn how to go with the flow, drop my plans and be there to help whenever God calls. Right now I am working on letting go of the plan. I am trying a little bit of a type-B personality on for size. Hopefully I can grow into something that God can use.

But for now, I have got to run. My kids come home in 10 minutes and I have unloading the dishwasher and a load of darks scheduled to go in the wash before they come home.... OK, I may need a little more practice with this letting go of a plan thing....