A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

At the end of August I signed up to be a Blog Book Reviewer for Thomas Nelson Publishers so from time to time I'll be reviewing books on my blog. This is the first book I reviewed, which actually comes out today.

Nelson Publishers was kind enough to send me an extra copy of this one, so the first person that reads my review and comments will be mailed a copy.

A Million Miles In A Thousand Years by Donald Miller

In his most recent book, Miller, while helping to write the screenplay for a movie, is working through the idea of his (and everyone else’s) life being a story. He talks about the different parts of a story in relation to real life, and how we have control over editing and propelling certain parts of our own story.

I have to admit that I had a hard time getting into the book. Miller rambles about things that seem extremely unimportant. The beginning was rough, and I was tempted to put it down. But I kept reading and it got better, and then I would even say that it got good.

The book challenged me to really look at my own “story” and make sure that I’m being proactive in making things happen, rather than just watching life go by. And I like that one of the things Miller addresses is our skewed view of completeness this side of Heaven.

Even with the rough beginning I would recommend this book. Miller jumps around, tells lots of different stories and talk about lots of different things, but he makes it work. It was definitely a quick and interesting read.

Here's an excerpt from the book.

A Million Miles In A Thousand Years by Donald Miller

Sibling Love

Here are a couple of short videos of Thomas and Mae playing together. As always, the quality is dismal.

Coldstone

We love free stuff! Last night Coldstone Creamery had a free 3 oz. ice cream if you made a donation. So we did. And it was good!

 

 

Future Photog?

Thomas LOVES taking pictures with our little digital camera. We discovered that he was doing this when we turned it on one day and there were about 100 pictures of his feet. Well, since then we've let him take a few pictures here and there. Here are some samples.

 

Coats, Scarves and Hats

 

 

 

We're always looking for things to do around here. Well the other day we put on our winter wear. Why, do you ask, do we have these warm things, since it's almost never cold enough to actually use them? Well, I suppose for boring summer and fall days. :)

Funnies

Kim: Thomas! Why did you write on the wall? We don't write on the wall. We only write on paper.
Thomas: But, Mommy. I couldn't find any paper.

 

Thomas has some new funny phrases he says. They're mostly just funny because he's three. One is, "Do you mind?" like, "Pops, do you mind if I take out my ear plugs so I can hear what my mom has to say?"

He has also started to ask us: "Mommy, have you noticed that I was born?"

Thomas has this new magnetic calendar for the fridge. It is British, so it only has four holidays to choose from. I showed Thomas each of the holiday magnets and told him which holiday they were for. When I pointed to the eggs and said it was for Easter he said. "Oh! That's the day I get on my monkey costume and go look for eggs!"

 

Old Costumes

 

We're going to visit Aunt Sally, Uncle Carlos and Joaquin in South Carolina on Monday. One of the things we're passing on to Joaquin is Thomas's old Halloween costumes. They were out and I asked Thomas if he wanted to put on his monkey costume. He did and had SO MUCH fun. We put an old lion costume on Mae, and she did better than I expected. This kept them occupied for a good 25 minutes.

Helper

I keep a bow in Mae's hair pretty much all the time. I REALLY don't like for her hair to be in her face, and so I pull it back. Well, so far we only have one of the bows that really stay, so at home a lot of times she wears some that we have that don't stay the greatest. The other day her bow had fallen out and I noticed Thomas pick it up. He walked over and very carefully put it back in her hair. :) Such a great helper!

 

 

Funnies

Thomas in the car after playing Frisbee with Brax at a rest stop: Dad, when are we going to stop and play Crispy again?

Thomas in the car after 11 hours: Where is my big comfy bed?

After Thomas came down the stairs completely naked, about thirty minutes after he had been put to bed.
Brax: Thomas? Did you need to go to the bathroom?
Thomas: No. Mom, do you know where my toothbrush is?
Kim: We'll get it in the morning.
Brax: Why don't you have your pajamas on?
Thomas: I don't know.

After reading the story of Jonah.
Thomas: I wouldn't want to go into the fish.
Kim: Really?
Thomas: But it might help me not be afraid of the storm, I guess.

Thomas was really excited about going to Gram and Pop's church, and getting to go to a new class. We had told him that we would be leaving after Pops had taken a shower since he and Thomas had been working in the yard all day. (They go to a Saturday Night Service) Pops was sitting at the counter, sweaty, with grass clipping all over him and Thomas looked at him for a minute and said: Pops, I think you look FINE to go to church! You don't need a shower!

Ten Months

Here are Mae's ten months pictures. They're a few days late, but they were actually taken on the day that she was ten months. As each month goes by it gets harder to get her to be still (as is evidenced).

She's still as sweet and cheerful as can be. She's happy about 98% of the time. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but she's shy. Or at least a lot shyer than Thomas. This was shown especially when we got to Arkansas and she wouldn't even look at Pops for the first two days he was there. However, after she warmed up to him, Pops was probably her favorite person (other than Thomas of course). She was shy around other people while we were there also. It's hilarious to watch her put her head down so she doesn't have to look at them.

She's cruising now, and every once and awhile she takes her hands off and stand for about half a second before she realizes what she's doing. She says "mamamamama," "dadadadadadadada" and "bababababababa" although she doesn't say them about anything specific.

She's wearing some 12 months clothes, but also some 18 months clothes also. She'll eat anything you put in front of her, and has started eating things from the table also. Yesterday I had a muffin, and she wouldn't eat anything on her tray because she REALLY wanted my muffin. (The oppposite of Thomas!)

She loves chasing Thomas around, and he loves chasing her around! They're going to be quite a pair!

 

 

 

Here's a link to Thomas's Ten Month pictures.

Arkansas Trip

We had a great time in Arkansas. The kids and I missed Brax while he was in Alabama, but we had a great time hanging out with Gram and Pops. We basically set aside this trip as a family only trip. It was nice to get to spend so much time together. AND of course we were glad when Brax arrived also! Brax and I even got to go on a date to the Razorback game (Brax was a fan last week, but is not a fan this week if anyone is wondering. He WILL be a Razorback fan again next week.)

(And even though there aren't any pictures of this, thanks Becky for flying here and riding with me. Couldn't have done it without you!)

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

 

I'm not going to blog about the rest of our trip to Arkansas* until I've gotten home and had time to go through the pictures. However, an event happened this morning that was blogworthy, apart from the trip.

While we've been here we've had trouble with Thomas getting out of bed more than usual. At home he rarely gets out of bed (unless we turn on a light upstairs and he hasn't fallen asleep yet). We have a light in his room that turns on when it's time for him to get up in the morning, and he really hasn't tried to get up before it comes on. Well, here at Gram and Pops's house we didn't have a timer on a light at the beginning of the week and Thomas was getting up A LOT of times in the morning, starting at times like 4:50. Yikes! We got smart and got a timer for his lamp here, and it has helped greatly. But, with the arrival of Brax, somehow Thomas forgot about the light coming on again, and has gotten up early the last couple of mornings.

This morning he came into our room at 5:57 and said that there had been a "pop!" and he wasn't sure what it was. Brax took him back to bed and laid down with him for a few minutes to help settle him back down, since he was kind of scared. Then we went back to sleep. He came in again at 6:30 and we told him to get back in bed until his light came on.

So, at 7:00 (Actually the timer here comes on a little later. Don't tell Thomas.) the four of us all got up and came downstairs. Pops was still in bed and Gram was sitting downstairs having her few quiet moments before the craziness of the day began. As we sat down in our slightly groggy state she said, "There's a mystery. Who brought in the paper?" Brax and I just kind of looked at the two papers sitting on the ottoman and Thomas spoke up, "I did." The three of us turned to look at him and asked him again. (Sometimes Thomas is willing to claim deeds he hasn't actually done.) He said again that he had gotten the papers. Gram said, "Which door did you go out of?" Thomas pointed in the direction of the front door and the garage door and said, "That one, and that one." At this point we really started to believe him, and the craziness of the situation kind of sunk in. Brax and I quickly explained that it was NOT ok for Thomas to walk around outside without an adult. And then, we told him again, just in case he hadn't gotten it the first time.

Then, as he went outside to play with ice on the deck, as is his morning tradition, we looked at each other and laughed. When Pops came down he confirmed that he had heard Thomas downstairs earlier, but had just assumed that someone was down with them. Turns out not.

Of course this could have turned into a very dangerous situation, and thankfully it didn't, so it's funny! Yea God!

*If you didn't know that we're in Arkansas, it's not just you. We set aside this trip as a family trip because it just gets so crazy trying to see all the fun people that we love to see. So, don't worry. We'll probably catch you next time!

Just in case...

...you want to get an early start on your Christmas shopping I wanted to pass along some of my favorites. I personally know the ladies that run all four of these businesses, and their products are fabulous!

Cary Collins Designs
Cary has really fun calendars that are perfect for setting in a little nook or cranny that you see on a regular basis. Mine is on my window sill in my kitchen so I see it whenever I am at the sink. I get really excited to change to the next month (I'm weird like that). Cary also has some note cards and gift, all with her distinctive handwriting.


Hattie Rose Designs
These are GREAT bibs, that are SO cute!!! Mae has three of them. They weren't around when Thomas was a baby or he would have had them too! My personal favorites for a girl are Polly, Lulu and Mabel (plus how cute are those names?!), although I really like a lot of them!


Sincerely Yours Paper
I LOVE these products! I make and sell my own notecards and I've even bought from Sincerely Yours because everything is so cute! Plus, Amy did my wedding invitations. Not only does she have note cards and wedding invitations, but a lot of other really cute things. And seriously, the best taste of almost anyone I know!

The Addition Shop
I wear Addition Shop jewelry almost exclusively these days. I love all the jewelry, and especially the earrings! Ginny does an amazing job and I get complimented on my jewelry ALL THE TIME (I'm not exaggerating!). Plus, check out the Eliot Necklace, honoring their son Eliot. (You can read his story at http://ninetynineballoons.com/)

Funnies

I look VERY rough in the morning when I get up. Thomas came in yesterday morning when I had just gotten up and said, "You look fancy."

We were talking about J words the other day, and I mentioned that Uncle Joel's name starts with a J. Thomas said, "Joel!? That guy's my favorite!"

We were on our way home from somewhere and Thomas had been very disobedient. I told him that he was going to have to have a spanking when we got home. I could hear him in the backseat talking to himself saying. "I want to go to Mimi's house. I won't get a spanking at her house."

Thomas' newest favorite phrase is "I have an idea..." which is usually followed by something like. "You could take me home, and Miss Bobi Ann could go home, and then in a few minutes she could come pick me up and we could go to her church and play."

Policy Shift

 

There's something new around our house. A table in the kitchen. (Actually two different ones if you look closely at the pictures.) We've been planning to put a bar into our kitchen, but haven't done it yet, so a month ago Brax brought in one of our card tables. And the crazy part is, WE'VE BEEN USING IT! For those of you that know us well, you might know that we didn't really eat at the table until recently. This could be for several reasons. We were still in college when we got married, and there really wasn't room for a table in our TINY apartment, so we started off our marriage not eating at the table, and our bad habits continued for six years. Plus, since Thomas was born Brax and I have eaten after he (and now he and Mae) goes to bed. We put our kids to bed at 7, so it wasn't really that big of a deal to eat after. But we've changed that. Since moving the table in we eat there together most nights and we're loving it! Now, Brax and I don't just stand in the kitchen while Thomas eats in his booster seat. And I sit there with the kids a lot of days for lunch too! (Please excuse the yellowness of the pictures. We have an OLD light there until we get our bar and that's the color the energy saving bulbs put out...)

In addition to this being a good move for our family, it was also one of my New Years Resolutions. Apparently I need to start making mine in about July, since that's when I start to work on them. :)