Let's Go to the Movies!

Everyone remembers their first trip to the movie theater! My dad tells me his first movie in the theater was to see Davey Crockett and that he fell asleep half-way through it. My sister's first movie theater experience was Sleeping Beauty, and it's been one of her favorites ever since. I saw 101 Dalmations, and though I don't recall my emotions regarding the film, I have a few vague recollections of the experience of being in the theater. I remember the screen being big, the sound being big, and the room being big. With the walls draped in scarlet tapestries, I felt I was in a very important place and I remember feeling very honored to be there.

All this being said, I've been putting off taking Abigail to her first film in the theater for a while for two reasons. First, I wanted her to be old enough to perhaps make some memories of her first movie. Second, I've been waiting for the right movie to come along. Certainly there are hundreds of "family" movies or "kid-friendly" movies that come out every year. But I'd argue that the majority of them are full of nothing. In fact, I find that even the movies that are rated G often have subtle adult themes. Even if they are "squeaky clean" there is often no memorable plot or moral, and the kids are often bratty, rebellious, and model terrible behaviors. As a parent, I come down a little hard on movies that are made for kids. That's why it's been so hard for me to find a movie that I can trust will be of good character without having to preview it. The Disney-Pixar movies have been excellent in moral regards, but I feel they're still a little too much for Abi's sensitive heart to take in just yet (she asks me to fast-forward almost the entirety of Sid's house during Toy Story and we skip the Tom and Jerry cartoons that have the bulldog with the sharp teeth in them). I realize I'm a rather HARSH judge of today's "family" movies, and I'm okay with that. I'm not judging what others take their kids to, and goodness knows we have plenty of "twaddle" on DVD in our cupboards! But I do want Abigail's first movie in the theater to be special, and something that I don't come away from feeling icky about.

SO! I've been getting excited hearing that a new Winnie the Pooh movie will be coming out - the first "big screen Pooh adventure" in 35 years. She knows and loves all the Pooh characters and (and so do I!) so I think AT LAST I've found the right fit for my girl. The movie comes out July 15th, so we'll probably go to see it for her birthday in early August! I feel I can trust the Winnie the Pooh characters to not fall TOO far out of line :)

So I'm curious! What was your first movie in the theater and what do you remember about it?

The Quickening!

I'm about 16 1/2 weeks along in my third pregnancy. Yesterday I witnessed the miracle of what many call "the quickening" or when a mother feels the first kicks of her baby in the womb. This is my third child, but the miracle of this moment never ceases to take my breath away. I think this moment especially blessed me due to the various circumstances transpiring that day and throughout my pregnancy.

Since getting pregnant with this little precious one, I've battled a fear of miscarriage. Several close friends tragically lost their little ones just before or just after I learned of my pregnancy and my grief for them transferred into fear (and guilt) over my own pregnancy. I mourned with them, but I realized (with the help of my husband, friends, and the grace of God) that I should put my hope in the Lord and not to give up on my own baby. Since then I have spoken God's word of Truth over this pregnancy - that God's plan for us is for good, and not harm, that my hope is in the Lord, and that His ways are higher than mine.

We've also been experiencing a battle of health insurance. Without going into all the details, our insurance was dropped at the end of February, just after my first appointment and the hearing of the heartbeat. I've refrained from going to my monthly appointments because I didn't want to get billed until our insurance was stable again. We had received the worst of the news (the denial of health coverage for the family) yesterday morning. Yesterday evening God blessed me with the first kicks of my little one. As I sat there holding my little belly I thought about my God. He is the one who knits this child together, He is the one who holds his or her future, and He controls not only the time when he or she will come into the world, but also how it will be paid for. I am overwhelmed with joy thinking about the life inside me. Doubts and fears may swirl about us, but the Lord is our Rock. And our child is in the most loving hands imaginable.

Today we received good news on our insurance, so don't worry about us. :)

These are a few of my favorite things...

Both Abigail and Lucie had their Half-Birthdays in February. We don't celebrate them, but I do like to take inventory of what my kids are accomplishing, what they are liking and disliking, and what they are learning at this phase. When they're this little they're still changing by the hour, so a 6-month inventory seems a little underachieving, but well, I've tried.

While Abigail at 3 1/2 isn't boasting of brown paper packages or wild geese that fly with a moon on their wings, she does have a capacity to relate to you her favorite things. In an intimate chat with her a few weeks ago while walking around Lake Harriet, I was able to gather these details of her personhood.


Favorite color: Pink. No surprise. (although she specifies that she prefers light pink over dark) Favorite song: Mighty to Save (from Hillsong). I hope this tops her charts for a while.
Favorite TV show: Sid the Science Kid on PBS. She even has her own microphone and magnifying glass and she explores and investigates just like him. I love it!
Favorite movie: Beauty and the Beast. She's starting to get into the princess thing - I think Belle happens to be a nice role model.
Favorite food: Mac N Cheese. Again, no surprise. I'm hoping her tastes will mature as she does. Favorite game: Chutes & Ladders: Princess Edition. But this is because the playing pieces are little plastic princesses and she likes to take them out of the box and play pretend with them.
Favorite subject: Math. She likes "letters" also, but she must feel more confident in her math skills. Go for it, girl! She also loves science (for reasons mentioned above).
Favorite book: When asked this question she looked at me quizzically and stated matter-of-factly, "ALL the books, Mom!" I looked through our books to see if I could spot a book that is more loved than the others, but after scanning over 100 children's book titles in our little collection (yes, easily more than 100) I came to the same conclusion. She really loves all the books! They all get equal amounts of reading time and she could probably recite them all to you word for word. She recently has been interested in reciting nursery rhymes to Lucie.
Favorite animal: Is this even a question? Goats. Goats are her favorite animal. Which will clue you into the fact that yes, B the Goat is still very much a part of her life!

And now for Lucie. At a year and a half, she can't relate to me what her favorites are. But it's pretty easy to tell where her obsessions lie!

Favorite color: Actually, she hasn't shown a preference yet. I tell her it's purple because purple is awesome.
Favorite song: She loves Twinkle Twinkle, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABCs, and the VeggieTales theme song. She'll dance and wave her arms and sing along with anything that has any semblance of a melody. She carries a tune quite well; from a musical standpoint, I'd say she hits her intervals better than any 18-month-old I've ever heard.
Favorite TV show: She watches whatever Abi is watching, but like any almost-two-year-old, she especially enjoys Elmo's World.
Favorite movie: She doesn't really sit through movies yet, but she is pretty crazy about VeggieTales. At least the theme song part :)
Favorite food: It was one of her first words: CRACKER. Graham crackers, soda crackers, cheesy crackers, really anything crunchy. She would also eat all the cheese in my kitchen if I allowed her.
Favorite game: Peek-a-Boo, chasing, and playing catch. Definitely more kinetic than her extremely focused sister.
Favorite book: Five Little Ducks and the Curious George Anthology.
Favorite animal: Ducks (and all related foul: chickens, songbirds, geese, etc. They're all called "Quack-Quacks") and monkeys. But mostly dogs. DOGS DOGS DOGS.
Favorite octave: Super-sonic. Especially when she doesn't get her own way. We're working on correcting that.

So there's my girls in a nutshell. And although they have plenty of differences, the two are starting to play more and get along like sisters do (best friends one minute and worst enemies the next!) I pray their relationship deepens as the years go on!

The Mouths of Babes...

Here is a smattering of some of the funny stuff that's been coming out of our kids the past few months. (Disclaimer: many of these stories concern only Abigail. She's the one that says stuff so far.) Enjoy :)

Abi: (while driving her car) "You wanna drive the car, daddy?"
Daddy: "I'm too big for that car!"
Abi: "You drive a big car. Daddy drives the blue car. Abi drives the little car. Maybe when you a big girl, you can drive the little car, too, daddy!"


Abi: "Don't step in the puddles, daddy. Only jump in them!"

The story of Jonah, according to Abigail: "Once upon a time, there was a man named Jonah and Jonah talked to God and God said GO TO NIVENAH. But Jonah didn't want to go to Nivenah so God sent a BIG FISH who swallowed him up *HOMP* And Jonah stayed inside for TWO WEEKS. And then the whale turned Jonah INTO A FUZZBALL!"

Mom: "Abi, do you know what this is called?"
Abi: "It's the tower in Paris, where Madeline lives!"
Mom: "That's right!! Do you remember what it's called?"
Abi: "Um...the...Awful Tower!"


Driving by an office building Abi noticed how seamless the windows were around the building. "That building has no doors!" she exclaimed. "How do people get out?" Jon asked her. "Through the windows," was her reply. Naturally, Jon then asked, "How do the people get in?" Abi threw her hands up in the air in her best Superman impression and shouted, "WITH THEIR CAPES!"

Daddy: "Abi, what are you doing?"
Abi: "I'm hiding!"
Daddy: "Hiding, eh? Where are you hiding?"
Abi: "Right here!"


We were discussing how to give and receive compliments one day. I told her that when you compliment someone you say something nice about them, like how kind they are, or that you like their eyes or hair. At dinner that night, Abigail practiced giving compliments to us. "Mama, you have pretty eyes," she told me. "What a nice compliment, thank you Abi!" I responded. Then she turned to Jon and said, "Daddy you have nice h..." I watched the gears turn in her head for a second before she blurted out "HEAD!"

Abi: (looking in the mirror making faces) "Look at my eyebrows! They're getting sad!"

Abigail writes a poem about Lucie:
She don't wants a barrette,
She wants a headband.
She don't wants a headband,
She wants hair!


Abi to Lucie: "Look at your big tummy! You have a baby sister in there! And look at your big bottom! You have a baby brother in there!"

Abi to Uncle Jay: "You're squeezing me like a juice box!"

Abi: (holding a remote to her ear) "Oh hi, Uncle Matt! Can we come over to your house this weekend? Oh your house fell down? Well, I guess we can't come over..."

Abi: "Will I be 3 again after I'm 4, Daddy?"
Daddy: "No, you'll never be 3 again. You'll be 4, then 5, then 6..."
Abi: "And then 7, and then 8, and then 9, and THEN I'll be 20!!"
Daddy: "Yes, I'm sure that's how it will go..."


Mommy to Lucie: "Lulu, you little stinker! You took your mittens off!"
Abi: (quite indignant) "No, Mama, she's not a stinker; she's a precious girl!"

As we returned home one day from running errands, Abigail became more and more excited to see her little goat lovey "B." She even started to call to him from the hallway. "I'm home, B! I missed you! Where are you?" We were all taking off our coats and shoes in the entryway when Lucie shot off into the house still wearing all her winter gear. "Lucie, come back! We have to take off your coat!" we called after her. A few moments later she returned holding B! She proudly presented it to her big sister who thanked her with a big hug :) I live for moments like this!

Lucie was attempting to put her blocks in the shape sorter. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get the star to fit into the square hole. She looked at the box for a second, then simply took off the lid and placed the block inside the container! I think that's what you'd call thinking outside the box and inside the box at the same time :)

One day in the hallway, our neighbor Gladys gave the girls each a dollar. Later on I told Abi we could go to the store and pick out a toy to buy with her dollar. "Or mom," she said, "I can give it to someone who doesn't have any moneys or a car or a house." "That would make God very happy," I told her.

Abi rearranged all the letters in an alphabet puzzle, so I decided to sing Lucie the newly arranged "C, X, I's." She looked at me funny at first as I began, "C, X, I, M, L, Q, J..." Then half-way through the mixed-up alphabet she began protesting, "Noooo! NOOOOOOO!" violently shaking her head. Apparently, this is TOO much outside the box...


Abigail was playing with her Angelina Ballerina mouse who came with real clothes. I noticed she wasn't wearing her little ballet slippers, so I asked Abi about them. She replied, "Well, one of them is lost. I can't find it. And the other one is missing." HA! (We did eventually find both shoes.)

The Definition of Passive Aggressive

For those of you who live in Minnesota, you may not need a definition. For those of you outside our state, you may not know it, but being passive aggressive runs in our blood, just like blond hair, blue eyes, and skin that burns even in the winter time. People often associate passive aggressiveness as "Minnesota Nice." We aren't going to come right out and tell you you're a pain in the butt, but we will ignore your phone calls and purposefully not invite you to the potluck. If you are also passive aggressive, you will pick up on these hints and stop being a pain in the butt. HOWEVER, if you are not passive aggressive, you will not pick up on these hints, and the tension will mount and mount until...until you have a story like this one:

Once upon a time a rural Minnesota girl who was your typical Minnesota-Nice, passive-aggressive type fell in love with an atypical "just tell me how it is and quit beating around the bush" Twin Cities boy. They got married and all was well for a while. The girl vowed to try to be more assertive and the boy promised to try to pick up on her signals. But one can't change how they were raised to deal with problems overnight. Or even in 4 years.

One day Minnesota Girl was fixin' breakfast for her curly-haired daughters and herself (who was not quite great-with-child). They happened to run out of FOUR boxes of cereal at the same time! Girl thought, "I can't put all these boxes in the garbage at the same time! My husband is so faithful to empty the trash, he will be upset that it is full already this morning. When he wakes up and tries to empty his coffee grounds into the garbage with his eyes shut, the grounds will spill all over his feet and he will be very put out." So Girl placed the boxes neatly on the counter as a silent reminder for him to take them out with the next full garbage bag. And Twin Cities Boy certainly did wake, empty his coffee grounds and fix his breakfast with his eyes closed and didn't see the boxes sitting there through his eyelids.


Days passed. The boxes remained. The garbage was taken out several times and still the boxes remained. Girl found this curious. "Maybe he has grown accustomed to seeing them on the counter here and has adapted to their presence. I will put them somewhere he will see them and surely he will take them out with the garbage." So Girl took the bags out of the boxes and scattered the boxes on the floor. "There! He will step on them and take notice!" She nodded and went on her way.


But alas, when she came into the kitchen later on, the garbage had been emptied, but the boxes were kicked neatly under the cupboard overhangs to clear a path.


Girl inwardly seethed. "How can he not see these boxes? I have done everything to bring them to his attention outside of actually telling him about them! Drastic measures must be taken."

On their day of rest, Girl collected the boxes and coolly stacked them on Boy's office chair while he sat in it. Boy looked at Girl incredulously. "What is this?" he asked, clearly offended. "These are the empty boxes that have been waiting to be taken out with the trash for over a week. Maybe now that they are on your chair, you will remember to take them out."

Boy, in his great wisdom, said nothing to Girl, but requested a bag for them and placed them in the hallway for near-instant removal. This act of love on his part brought her to realize her lack of assertiveness. She repented of her passive aggressiveness. But we'll never really know what Boy's thought process was when he kicked the boxes under the cupboard overhangs.

The End.

NEW Adventures in the Life of Brenda #13: My Trip to Aldi's

I noticed I had this post drafted but never published. So I finished it for your reading enjoyment. So, yeah...enjoy :)

After 3 days of scraping by without milk, bread, fruit, eggs, noodles, meat, or (most devastating) MAC N CHEESE, I finally wrote up a grocery list and committed myself to getting groceries no matter the cost. We were in Chanhassen for the morning & early afternoon visiting with family so I decided that when Abigail woke from her nap we'd leave and I'd pick up groceries on the way home. Thus begins my tale of woe.

It can be a long 20 minute drive back to Minneapolis from Chanhassen, especially if your baby decides to serenade you with her rendition of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (which is what I might assume a cat on a hot tin roof would sound like). It is excruciatingly slow if your baby is screaming as you creep along the Crosstown at a snail's pace in the midst of an endless snake of brake lights. As I inched through Edina passing exit after exit, I began to plan out alternate routes to Cub - anything to get off the highway. I got off on Penn and while waiting at the stop light, I had an epiphany. I looked to my right and there, in stately majesty, was a Lund's. I sighed. I knew I would probably spend ten to twenty bucks more by stopping here than at Cub, but Lund's was HERE and Cub was not. So I turned toward the overpriced (but at least they bag your groceries for you) grocery store. As I was driving toward it, I saw that just south of it was an Aldi's. Hmm, I thought, I've been meaning to check out an Aldi's and see what all the fuss is about. And by fuss, I mean my Aunt Marie lecturing me in her kitchen while she waved a green pepper and a paring knife around in my face. It was also the store we were told to recommend to the refugees when I volunteered with World Relief. So I pulled into the Aldi's parking lot and took in my first impression of the place. It looked smaller than I was expecting, and didn't look very organized. But that makes sense; organization and flashy signs cost money. This is one way to keep the costs down. So I unbuckled Abi and lifted Lucie's carseat out of the carrier and we walked to the store.

Oh, the carts are outside. I'm going to have to wear gloves to push this thing! It's freezing out here! I thought to myself as I plopped Lucie's bucket seat into the front basket. I pulled on the handle only to rattle and disturb my entire row of carts. It was then that I realized that the carts were locked together, and the only way to unlock your cart was to pay 25 cents. This might not seem like a big deal, but for someone who pays for every purchase with plastic (yes, even to buy stamps!) it's hard to find actual money in my wallet. In fact I could find no moneys in my wallet.

I unlatched Lucie from the basket and herded Abi back to the car. Thoughts ran through my mind of just packing them up and leaving, but I was here, I should at least dig through the car for a quarter. Lo and behold we found one under the driver's seat. Who's judging my messy car now?! I inserted my quarter, unlocked my cart, and took my brood inside where we were at least flooded with a wave of warmth.

Now whenever a person visits a new grocery store, they must allow time for the search. Because you're not going to know where anything is. But at least you usually know what you're watching for. Noodles = green Creamette boxes, Mac N Cheese = blue Kraft boxes, etc, or if you're into the generics, you'll at least know your Market Pantry box of spaghetti will be next to the green Creamette box. However, I was unaware that Aldi's brands were ALL ALDI'S BRANDS. There were no green or blue boxes to guide me. I had to read every. Single. Label. And there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the layout of the store. Let's see, I'm looking for pork n beans. This aisle has mops, tortillas, hula hoops, canned soups, dish towels, and fruit juice in it. I guess it could be in this aisle...

Then it turned out that they didn't even have everything I needed! You mean I'm still going to have to go to Cub so I can get taco seasoning?! I was starting to get at tad peeved. I stood there in line, my peevishness in its infancy stages as I waited to check out. Then I noticed something. That lady just put all her food back in the cart after checking out. She's going to have a tough time getting all that food in and out of her car! I puzzled to myself. Then it hit me: there were no bags for the groceries.

WHAT KIND OF KANGAROO OUTFIT ARE THEY RUNNING HERE?!?!?!

Peevishness maturing...into adolescent stage...I searched for a logical explanation. Of course, well, it makes...sense...to cut cost a company should charge the consumer for ones bags...but it seems so...so...COMMUNIST.

Then it was my turn to check out. I lowered my pride and paid for 6 bags for my groceries. I have failed to mention that aiding in the escalation of my emotions was my infant who was probably cooked to medium-rare in her car seat (mostly red with anger) and my toddler who closed up shop on obedience for the day somewhere in the hand soap and cookie aisle. Who could blame them?! I had just spent an hour in the grocery store moving at a snail's pace at their cranky "I WANT DINNER!" hour.

But Aldi's wasn't done. There was one last surprise that they were holding out on. One final straw for this camel's back.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," the man said as he handed me back my Visa. "We don't take credit cards."

I stared at the man blankly. In a moment, my mind screamed, "You don't take credit cards? Where are we?! The Turkish Bazaar? Even booths at the State Fair let me use a credit card! Heck! I paid for Girl Scout cookies with plastic! You mean to tell me that a chain grocery store in the 21st Century does NOT take credit cards?!?!?!" But the moment passed and my face remained blank as my little heart surrendered, waving a tiny white flag before the cashier. Of course they wouldn't accept credit cards. Of course they wouldn't.

I almost dragged my children dejectedly out of the grocery store sans groceries after an hour of shopping, but then - AHA! I remembered. By a miracle of God and because of his supreme mercy (no joke, I would have melted into a pile of goo if God had not shown His mercy on me in that moment) I reached into my diaper bag and what should I find but a dust-covered, cobweb-filled check book. Do I ever carry my checkbook with me? Never. How did it get in my diaper bag? I'll never know. But it was there nonetheless, almost glowing with an aura of victory.

"What's the date today, and what's my total?" I asked the cashier with a look that said who has the upper hand now?! I was thinking of my savings, knowing I would have spent between $60 and $70 for this same cart of groceries at Cub. Oh the savings! I could hardly wait to hear the total...

"It's the 9th of December today, and your total is $63.75," he stated back to me in monotone. Like a robot. A robot with the upper hand for infinity.


I rolled my bought & paid for groceries out to my car, stuffed my little screamers into their car seats, returned the cart, got my quarter back and promptly stuffed it under my seat where it belonged. I looked up at the glowing sign and made a solemn oath: I will never shop at Aldi's again. Shaking my angry fist, I added just for emphasis: NEVAH!

Sabbath Holiday!

This morning we all woke to find a great surprise! The precipitation that could have either come in the form of rain or snow had chosen the latter, funner form, and it piled heavily on cars, hydrants, and tree branches like fluffy white pillows.
Looking out over our courtyard Abigail kept saying, "Let's go play in the snow, mama! I wanna make a snow man! And a snow angel!" Lucie didn't really know what to think. Afterall, she was only 7 months old when the last of the snow disappeared last spring. But she could feel the excitement!

I had decided the night before to make homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and the apartment was soon filled with the smell of baked bread and coffee. Abigail sniffed the air as she ran to the oven. "Mama! Something smells delicious, delicious, delicious!"

Lucie apparently thought so, too! She was stalking the kitchen waiting for the rolls to cool down.

She then proceeded to scarf the equivalent of two complete rolls all on her own. As soon as her bowl was empty, she held it up and signed, "please? please?" How could I refuse? Especially since the first snow of the season is kind of like a holiday!


I started to pull out jeans and sweatshirts for the girls when Jon declared the day a pajama day. So we pulled out our winter gear instead. I felt like I had prepared well. You can never predict when the first snow will be, but you can predict how a 3-year-old will act as soon as she sees the snow! It's best to have the boots, the mittens, the coat, the hat, and the snowpants ready for that day. And indeed they were. But what a pile!!

And of course, what would the first snow day be without a child falling over from the amount of padding surrounding their limbs? At least it cushions the fall...

At long last, we ventured out into the wonderland...




Jon designed the snowman with Abi. I think she is duplicating the face they decided to make for the snowman. The little boy in the background is a new friend we made. He lives down the hall and continued to create a snow people village after we left. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of him!
Abi refused to take part in this picture, but she couldn't completely escape...
After Lucie's little nose and eyebrows started to form icicles, we decided it was time to go home and defrost. We peeled off layers on layers of soggy coats and ice-crusted mittens to find our comfy pajamas still warm and dry underneath. I prepared some hot cocoa for us all (lukewarm cocoa for Lulu) and we watched Iron Will (because we just haven't had our snow fill for the day yet!) Lucie squealed and pointed every time she saw a doggie on the screen. And when there wasn't a doggie on the screen she would draw our attention to the doggie on the cover of the video with squeals and more pointing!! But eventually, everyone wore down and was tucked into their own beds.
Abigail and I went out again after naptime, and again I had to still the desire in my heart for a yard that I could just let her run in without her every move necessitating supervision. But "there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven," ~Ecclesiastes 3:1. Again, I found contentment being in the middle of God's will and HIS timing.

Even though the girls were obviously exhausted, there were no fits, no whining episodes, and no fights all day long. (WELL, I'm not counting when Abi shut Lucie's thumb in the door; they were having fun before that happened) After a nice warm bath to wash away the cocoa mustaches, the girls sleepily dragged their respective loveys to their beds. A few blissful moments passed as I listened to them giggle in the dark. Then the sleepies won them over and all was quiet. Today was one of those days where I cry with gratitude knowing what amazing gifts God has given me. Today was one of the most peaceful and restful Sabbaths we've enjoyed in quite a while. Thank you, Father for meeting with us today.