Groovy Sputum

The List

Valerie and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on January 2, 2009, with very little fanfare. We did go out to eat, but that was about it. We tossed around the idea of going on a big trip together to a warm place for a week, but we decided not to in light of the fact that we would rather put the money toward finishing the house and getting moved in sooner. We did manage to get away, though, over Valentine’s Day weekend and had a combo celebration for our anniversary & my birthday.

We decided to try out the Mohican State Park Lodge and headed out on Sunday afternoon. On the way, we picked up a $5 bottle of wine & the movie Fireproof at a Wal-Mart. How could we not have a truly romantic getaway with those in tow?

One of the things I decided to do special for Valerie for this weekend was make a list of the first 99 things that popped in my head that I love about Valerie. Hey, it was an anniversary celebration. While I am not going to share all of the things on the list, I will tell you a few:

#25. That you can read a 1385 page novel in 3 ½ hours
#55. That you understand me when I talk about the non-linear relationship between pendulum arm length and oscillation period and could graph this relationship and find its derivatives
#57. That you can spell chrysanthemum and onomatopoeia
#74. That you can make a gourmet meal with Aldi ingredients
#94. Your smile

I called this list 99TILAY (Things I Love About You). I know, it was a cheesy, sappy, and desperate attempt to be romantic, but I discovered something as I compiled it: Valerie was made for me. Seriously, God said to Jesus back in 1976, “Hey, this guy, uh…Luke, he needs a wife. Here’s the specs on what he needs. I know…let’s make her be from Athens County, that would be a hoot!”

I think I have always known that Valerie was designed for me and only me, but I guess after 10 years of marriage, I had somehow relegated that fact to the back of my mind and taken it for granted. What shocked me even more as I made the list is that I didn’t even know many of the things on it when I married Valerie. The question is was she this way when we wed and I am just now seeing it, or did she become these things to me after 12 years of loving me? It’s probably a bit of both, but it really doesn’t matter. I’m just glad that God knew what I needed even before I did and brought her to Lynchburg in 1996. I wonder what my list will look like 10 years from now?

Banner Ads

I wrote a while ago about how I obsess over ideas. Well, the church web site that I have been developing is causing me to do so once again. This time, I am creating banner ads that will be in the sidebar of the web site. We plan to highlight up coming special events. This month we have two things going on: a Valentine’s day banquet and the Awana Grand Prix.

The Awana logo is available on the Awana web site and the image of the hearts is a royalty free photo from morguefile.com. Great source for free, usable photos.

The Vices Of Our Day

The flu has been making the rounds in our family this week and Valerie is not feeling too well today, so I decided to take the opportunity to change the Saturday morning routine a bit with the kids. Normally, Valerie will fix breakfast and then the morning is a mix of cartoons, grocery shopping, or playing. I decided to dive headlong into some chores promptly after breakfast. I served up “dunky” eggs & toast, with bananas and apples, by the way.

The first item of business was to tidy up the kid’s bedrooms. This consisted of throwing away diapers, picking up trash, removing who knows what from under the beds, putting dirty cloths in the hamper, and putting toys, books, and shoes in their proper places. You would have thought I was a slave driver when the kids heard me ask them to do this. “Just because mommy is sick doesn’t mean that everything has to change,” cried one kiddo. “I never do anything but clean,” cried another. I quickly asked my children if they ever played with their toys, read books, watched tv, or played games on the internet, to which they were silent. “But it will just get messy again,” objected another child. “Yes, it probably will,” I replied, “but having nice things means taking responsibly to take care of them.” I was feeling pretty confident with my calm composure and insightful responses. “If you don’t want to take care of them, I guess I can pack them up and give them to someone who will,” I said. Needless to say, a few moments later four grumpy kids were busy in their room. We managed to get the bedroom straightened up and I even swept the floors of the main living area during this chore time as well.

My mix-things-up-because-mom-is-sick plan continued after chore time by having the kids put some puzzles together and having a short story time. I read the story of St. Valentine. It was pretty nice, but I couldn’t help get a bit tired of the kids griping and complaining. They weren’t outright asking to watch tv or veg in front of the computer, but I sensed that that was their ultimate desire. Sure, they enjoyed the puzzles and the story, and I think they appreciated having a tidy home, but given the choice, they would have chosen technology time.

That’s when it hit me: things have got to change. I know that we don’t let our kids watch tv or play on the computer as much as the typical household, but my kids still craved it and felt gypped if they were denied these things. I felt kind of hurt to know that my kids would rather spend time with Dora or Club Penguin than with me. Actually, it’s not just that…it’s that they seem to enjoy those thing more than they enjoy me. Punch me in the gut a bit harder, will ya?

So, I am taking a stand. Things are going to change around here. Sure, we will still have family time in front of the tv with Andy Griffith, The Waltons, and Little House, but we are going to stop using PBS and Noggin as a childcare provider. From now on, activities in this house will require personal interaction and not just be a client-server relationship. It isn’t going to be easy, but I hope that once the addiction is broken, my kids will want to do things with me first and the technology based entertainment will be something I have to force them to engage in.

Wish me luck.