Merry Christmas!

Well, the photos of the family were shipped today and the boxes of Christmas cards are in sight. Now, it's a writing project as I refuse to send cards without personal notes inside.

I've decided to attempt to draw my family and friends into my social networks for the holiday season. So, if you were directed here or made it all by yourself, Merry Christmas! You made it and your comments are welcome. Please share with us any family blogs or sites of your own.

Here's the family report.

Gene and Regina:
Still working at Washburn (Gene finished 10 years, Regina is working on nine). We are busy parents, trying to carve out time for each other to keep our own sanity. We keep plenty busy chasing our children, attending our Church events and working.

Jacob, age 5, kindergarten
He's reading and writing and counting. He attends Randolph Elementary and his teacher is Ms. Hoyt. We've learned a lot about the school system this year. We thought it might simplify life a bit, ha ha.

Jared, age 3, preschool
Jared is now at Bright Circle Preschool, a fact Jacob finds most unfair. The building was remodeled and for a week, the kids were relocated to our church, Covenant Baptist Church. He loved going to "my church" and showing off everything to his friends. I must say it's most comforting when your preschool director is also a member of your church. Jared loves preschool and is in great hands.

The Cassells
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Just take a moment to stop and reflect on the miracle of Christmas. That the creator of the universe would humble himself into a lowly manager so that we might spend eternity in his fellowship is amazing. Whether your life is filled to the brim with people and blessings or lacking a bit of each, remember Jesus loves you, no matter what.

Happy Thanksgiving

The holiday that signals the mad dash to Christmas is almost here. Black Friday looms nearer every day. Tonight I was listening to man who called into K-love, a great Christian radio station I listen to often. Anyway, he was answering a call to hear from someone in every state about his thankfulness. As he rattled off his list, he began to get chocked up about all of his blessings.

Sometimes when I look around the world, its many problems grab prime real estate in my mind. Plenty of people are lost and hurting this holiday season.

If you are one of those, I pray you are able to find some joy and hope in knowing that the creator of the universe, not only created you in love, but longs to fill your heart until it overflows with joy, peace and thankfulness.

My blessings are many this holiday season and truthfully, my burdens are light when I share them with my Jesus.One of my favorite parts of a praise song reminds me that not only do I belong to Jesus, but he, too, belongs to me.

Sisters

My youngest sister is a temporary guest in our room. She's a college student with a relatively new boyfriend. Her life is a bit different from mine. As a mother of two married for almost 12 years, I seem to lack some of yesterdays' energy.

She's a total neat freak (yes, we all blame our mother for this). She was complaining about how dirty her socks were. Taking it as an insult toward my housekeeping abilities, I gave her my famous big sister stare/glare.

"Yesterday, I had a waffle stuck to my sock," she said. Yes, Jared does help me out by carrying his plate into the kitchen. Sometimes, he gets distracted.

And, my sister has certainly put in enough time helping me out with the constant, losing battle of tidiness at home. Still I think she maybe is being a bit too harsh, and then I remember the other incident.

As I made up the room for her arrival, the boys decided they would sleep in her bed the night before. I didn't even tuck them into the bed as they preferred to use their sleeping bags on top of the quilt. I thought they were finished with their syrup-free bedtime snack of waffles. Apparently, not.

"And don't forget," my sister continued, "the first night I stayed here, I woke up with a waffle stuck to my leg."

Bedtime

No matter which toy was touched, the tears, hitting and wailing filled the room.

She sighed. After a very early morning, she was hoping to stretch the boys' bed time in hopes of a Saturday morning sleep-in. Putting them to bed early did not appeal.

Perhaps showers will calm them down. The youngest earned the first spot by smacking his brother upside the head with a car. After screaming throughout his shower, she is quickly losing home.

Then the drama king enters the scene. A fan of hot showers at 5, the shower does in fact take away the tears. However, the shower does not stop the violence against his brother.

More tears. OK, bedtime has arrived about 45 minutes early. No complaints. No one came out of the bedroom time and time again.

Oh, dear. She should be in bed, not blogging. It's going to be an early morning … for her husband (ha ha).

Celebrations

Big celebrations this week.

1) No more pull-ups! Our accident rates are way down and we have had many accident-free days since we pulled the plug on the pull-ups about three weeks ago.

2) Jacob has learned to tie his shoes. Victory is ours. He gets lots of practice as I image all beginners do. It has been alleged that I am the only family member who ties her shoes backward. Go figure.

Date Night

Some might argue it's not wise to "date" two boys at the same time, but my boys took me out on the town tonight. My regular fella had to work.

Yeah, nothing but gourmet McDonald's for me. The ambiance enhanced by those children running around like lunatics without parental supervision.

But, for our date, my boys were really good.

They managed to eat their dinner between climbing sessions. Knowing them, they probably worked off their dinner as they were eating it. Lucky fellas.

The promise of ice cream exacted a neat, scream-free retreat to the car. Oh, what a night.

Weighing In

So I skipped my Bible study last night to go to the store and bring home food for the family and to watch the VP debate. A friend of mine said my penalty was a post. I would have gotten to it sooner, but I was out buying a gigantic BOX. (another story entirely)

As I am sure most people have heard, neither one of them fell on their face. Both had good points and bad points. Sarah Palin called John McCain a maverick in the Senate about 100 times too many, so my favorite point in the debate was when Joe Biden listed in fine form all the ways and times that McCain was not in fact a maverick. He had some good points.

Palin wants to hit Obama on the surge, the war and taxes. She does not do a great job of getting their new and fresh ideas out there, if they exist.

It's always hard to pull out the "pretty talk" from the facts. If you simply pick who sounds better, there is no choice but Obama. I've yet to see McCain come close to his poise. I hated the first debate. It did not seem like either one of them said anything useful. It was a contest to see who could not answer the most questions in a straight manner. We all lost this one.

The VPs were a bit more fourthcoming, but spent too much time arguing over voting records that without the full bills in front of us are not overly useful either. Palin did a good job of trying to force Biden to agree that he has things in common with McCain. But, Biden did a good job of convincing me that McCain might look a little too much like Bush.

I am not ready to put a bumper sticker for either candidate on my car, but if the election were today . . . I would vote for Obama.

Funny faces

Building Towers

Remembering the grueling morning five days ago of picking up and restoring order to her home, she looks around somewhat dismayed.

She wonders how many toys her boys even have considering that she has pared down the toy boxes at least a dozen times this year. As she struggles to find the motivation to begin again, she thinks of her oldest son.

Aha! The frustration he feels when his little brother insists upon destroying any of his block building projects slams into focus.

Laughing, she thinks of her advice to him. "Jacob, I am sorry your brother did that to you. But just think, now you get to start over and build something new."

Exercise

Yes, I still hate it. And no, I'm not doing it. It occurred to me today as I lugged my 30-pound bag up to the third floor that I hate exercise scams. OK, so I'm just mad that I bought Turbo Jam with the highest of hopes to actually get past the first video (OK, I did that one twice and the second workout once, to be fair to myself.)

On top of that, the plan involves being online for support and planning out a new crazy menu with foods my family will simply not eat. OK, my biggest deterrent to exercise is finding the time. How is adding six things PLUS exercise going to help me out.

Seriously. It's all a racket.

Relentless

I often wonder how often I repeat blog titles. This post is very random, very end of the week, very much a post of one tired mom.

Sometimes I love typing a blog for the mere fact that it reminds of me of scenes from one of my favorite movies of all time. "You've Got Mail." I love this movie. I love the e-mails that go back and fourth. I love the story. I love the soundtrack. It's all good. I have big parts of it memorized even. Thinking of the movie makes me smile, and I need to smile more.

I'm tired. It's been a long week. A long semester, only three weeks in. How does a person who is behind EVER catch up? Can anyone answer this question? If you fall behind once in your life, are you just screwed for life? I mean does life actually deliver the lulls we say we desire?

My house is a mess. Mostly because the task of getting it organized all at once seems daunting.

I spent a good part of "my time" last night cleaning the front room. Tonight my son Jared spent a good part of "his time" reversing any progress.

I try to exercise. I start out fine, then I lapse. I usually get sick (someone says because being healthy helps your body expel all sorts of bad stuff from your body, which can make it icky in the process. -- another reason to jump on the treadmill).

Being healthy is just too damned trendy for me. I can't even buy a pair of shoes for heaven's sake. AND I AM TIRED OF BREATHING and expecting the world to just flutter into its place around me.

And money. I suck at money. I have been credit-card free for practically one year (come October). Shocking for this former addict (see former posts, geez). Wish the debt were gone. Wish a FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION did not cost so much. Wish I learned my lesson about money the first eight billion times I screwed it up.

Are you still reading this? Seriously? I need to go to bed. aauuggh.

clutter

It's everywhere.

In my home, in my office, in my schedule. aauugh!

Truth

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion--

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

Isaiah 60:1-4 (NIV)
My friend, hear the truth God wants you to hear.

Sleeping Rockstar

Breathing

Silence creeps over her house as she has sent its occupants to bed. A mile a work looms before her, but focus will not come.

The day's frustrations along with an unyielding schedule and various life crises seem to circle her mind like a vulture looking for its victim, finding only her mind.

Slipping away, she thinks of her boys and her husband. Tries to count her many blessings.

Taking a deep breath, she reaches for her Bible study. Work will wait. God knows what she needs.

Internet

It's a vast and often unforgiving expanse. It has literally changed the culture we live in. It has brought the world closer, given access to millions and put the market at anyone's fingertips.

For all its pearls, there lurks within it a powerful potential for downfall. From online predators to rampant victims of the pornography market, even simple online friendships can lead down paths undesired.

Like anything else, the online world should be approached with caution and respect, lest you fall into its snare.

"Three Cups of Tea"

I've assigned my feature writing class to read this book, and I am rereading it along with the class to assemble assignments along the way. Even going back over the intro to chapter five, I am immediately pulled into and amazed by this book all over again.

You see, I've always believed in education, fiercely in fact. But, if anything, education merely points out one's ignorance in the larger world. There is no "done." There is no graduation from learning.

Just when you think you have put it all aside or arrived at your final world view destination, in comes something that the mind simply cannot erase.

Read this book. Expect to be changed.

F#$%! Insert Expletive Here

Can I just tell you that I HATE, HATE, HATE the freakin' computers at work? HATE them.

I try to encourage my sons not to use the word "HATE," but I HATE going to work every day with the reasonable expectation of accomplishing something only to be denied by the lunatics who think it's a good idea to put Macs on the network that clearly does not plaly well with actual programs we need and use. OK, so Adobe is also a big old pain in the ass.

Bright, shiny computers should not take five minutes to load a Web page. Some of my students cannot log into machines. They are working on the problem. Big flipping deal. Do they realize that I get roughly 30 class sessions to teach basic design theory and orient the students to software some of them cannot even access? Do they stand at the front of the classroom looking like a total dumbass when something does not work. Nope. Insert me for that role. I am angry.

And, NEVER use questions in writing unless you are super pissed!!!! Yes, multiple !!! are annoying and taboo also. I no longer care.

I could totally become a kick boxer or something because I'd like to kick the crap out of something.

One of my dear, dear friends from college used to delight me (and scare me a bit as well) by her famous fury when driving. She put the "rage in road rage" - -to keep up with my trite and ridiculous attempt to break as many rules as possible. No clichés if you can't keep up. (awww, that wasn't nice either. hmm, still don't care!) I fear I am going to turn in crazy girl every time I log into my wuad account.

On a totally unrelated note. I have a friend who has a good reason to be angry, but is showing more grace than anger. Normally, I support this tactic, but not today.

However, I was thinking of her when I saw this quote in the Barnes and Noble Bookstore (ahh, happy, happy place. Love the bookstore).

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes, it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" Or so says Mary Anne Radmacher, who incidentally is a writer/artist who does not believe in capitalization.

By the way, a few Web types display this quote without giving any credit. Jerks! Yeah, we've swithced back to angry. Anyway, I should go back to my room and do my Bible study and give this nasty anger straight up to God. I might have to preface that step with a prayer that goes something like this. "Father, God. I am mad. I am mad. I am mad. Please place in me a desire to let go of this anger in your prescriptive manner. Amen."

Blah, blah, blah

There is much noise in the world today. Long lists of things to do and little time to play.


Choices steal moments away as she wonders whether to blog or actually write in her journal. Perhaps her Bible study requires her attention. Lists of things are not much fun.

Her boys tucked away in bed, her husband out on the softball field. Heavy eyelids, but laundry calls. If her house were clean, maybe this would not be such a sad song.

Garage sales, schedules and other things

I am having a garage sale. Thursday and Friday. I don't want to do it Saturday, but I just might.

So far, I am negative $4. I paid $29 for my classified and then sold my two car seats for $25. Yeah.

It's hard not to look around and see "STUFF" that you would like to banish from your life. It's hard to imagine the variety of people one needs to attract to a garage sale in order to sell all your stuff.

And, my schedule sucks. Or rather, I suck at my schedule. Or I can't manage to schedule myself. Whatever it is, it SUCKS.

Other: I HATE TOADS. Am desperately afraid of them actually. And, twice this month I have seen one in my yard. In TOWN. Completely unacceptable. I already hate being outside, now who will protect me from the scary toad? Gene already grows weary of the post.

Why tornados and the media are not a good mix

Last week, the "media" (yes, I do train aspiring young journalists as part of my job in higher education, but let's not stray from the point here). OK, so "the media" goes on and on all day long about a storm to end all storms. Everything is in place for one heck of a tornado. Whatever a storm needs to be a BIG concern, well as far as the media was concerned it was all there.

And, what happened, exactly? NOTHING! I'm all for advanced warning, but not the all-day, play-by-play weather. As if sports are not already out of control in our society, we are now turning our weather casting into a sporting-like event. Yuck. We get the before the event, the event and then the wrap-up of why the before the event stuff was WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

I have to think God gets a good laugh out of the the people on the media's weather team, especially ones who work for TV.

So then a few days go by and a serious storm pops into Kansas again. Not so much hoopla, but I guess the storm got the last word after all.

Freedom!

To do what I want and when I want. Ha. Like such luxuries actually exist.

I want to enjoy a 3-day pleasure trip where I have nothing to do hanging over my head. Hanging over and sucking the very life from my body.

Clearly, it's time for a Coke : )

Jury Duty

So, I've finally been summoned for jury duty in my 34th year of life. So far, this has meant having my schedule held hostage. Trials for Monday and Tuesday have all settled out of court, leaving me to check the schedule come 5 p.m. today.

I would rather know, yes I am serving or no, I am done with this. I have things to schedule.

Oh, well. I would love to tell you what my week looks like, but I do not know. I do know that I had better finish up a project I have been putting off.

Cheerio.

My fellas

Bubbles

June 2, 2008

I am sitting here in my office looking out my big windows. It's a dark day in the capital city, storms a coming. The lights have flickered. Some counties have reported baseball-sized hail. A good way to start the week, eh?

Well, it's been awhile, dear friends. Give me some love if you read this : )

Yesterday our pastor shared with us a 14-day challenge. Our goal is to live with these three truths in mind.

1) Each second of each day is a precious gift from God.
2) All of my abilities and talents are from God.
3) Everything I own belongs to God. I am the manager, not the owner.

Well, this manager likes to blog. And it makes her happy. And God has given her the talent to blog, and so she must.

My poor, neglected blog

I miss you, dear blog. Perhaps we can reunite in May?

A Servant's Heart

In the middle of any crisis friends can fall into a variety of categories. First there is the one, typically like myself, who care deeply yet stand around not really knowing what to do and often, not always, end up doing nothing. Then there are friends who completely vanish until your life is back on "track."

Finally comes the friend who rolls up the proverbial sleeves and comes to work. Suddenly, it's like Jesus himself is ministering to your needs in a very tangible way. I love the idea of being Jesus to someone. Now, not to confuse the issue. Jesus is always King, Lord and God. There is no equal, but He does share his glory with those who choose to plug into his life code.

I have been having a horrible few months. Emotionally I am battle weary and my heart has been broken. There have been times when I needed a confrontation, and I have received it. Times I just needed a listening ear and I got that, too. This week though, I really needed something I can't even name.

Tonight I got it and I feel like I glow with blessing. My troubles are far from over and my life is just a bit messy right now. But, I have a wonderful friend with a servant's heart. And, oh, what a difference that makes.

Experiment

This past Sunday my husband and I decided to "fast" from the television for one whole week.

The ban was family-wide, and we had explained to Jacob that sometimes God asks us to do things and we have to be obedient to him. I told him we wanted to spend more time as a family, thinking of our blessings and what God has planned for us. He was agreeable and has not asked to watch TV all week.

We began this journey Monday, not knowing Wednesday would bring a snow day and a day home in the middle of the week. Instead of watching movies, we constructed blanket forts in the living room.

On Friday night we had some friends come over for dinner. Jacob was eager to greet our guests, so he yelled "Hi!" from the front porch. And then, "We can't watch TV because we are thinking about God."

I love my son so much, and I realized that if you ever really want to keep a promise you've made, tell a preschooler because there is no going back.

1,000 Words

My husband, my hero

It is 12:15 a.m. and my husband is at work. No, tonight it's not sports-related. My husband is at work because I managed to jam the copier pretty badly at work or I was rather the unfortunate soul who happened to be making copies during the copier's meltdown.

And, because I have class at 8 a.m. and am generally freaking out about the whole thing, Gene took my copies to his office to copy.

I love this man for so many reasons. We've been married almost 11 years (Gene says it rounds up to 11 as we're past the 10.5 mark.

Thank you God for such an awesome spouse.

On Simplicity

For years, I have been promising myself a leaner, meaner schedule, all the while coming up with several new and better things to do.

I teach three classes this semester at work and advise two award-winning publications. My days are filled with meetings, mostly with students. We are revising our curriculum and trying to hire a new faculty member, both of which mean more meetings. I am the second vice president for the Kansas Associated Collegiate Press, which means I have to plan the conference in April. Early April. I will be in New York City for one week this March working the registration area for the national College Media Advisers group.

I am the 2008 VBS coordinator at church. Let the countdown begin. I also teach a 13-week block of Sunday school and semi-facilitate a weekly women's Bible study.

I am a member of the Shawnee County Reserve Medical Reserve Corps because I have this idea I should contribute beyond my church and work duties.

I freelance for the Topeka Capital Journal, which you can visit and search for my name if you want to see what I have written for them.

I am a wife to a man with a crazy job and we have two boys who are 4 and 2, close to being 5 and 3. Our youngest sees a wonderful speech therapist twice a month at 8 a.m. I took him to the doctor six times in a month and a half before the holidays. (Please note this list is not in order of importance, obviously)

I am also a child of God. He loves me and wants me to spend my life loving him and allowing him to love me back. He wants me to be FREE, even though this control freak (me!) is not allowed to be in control. Nope. That's God's job, too. Love him. Spend time with him and his Word daily. Love his people as myself. All people.

My friends also insist that I must give up control of certain things around my home, too. If I give a job to my husband, I thereby relinquish all rights and control of said job. As another one of my tasks is to maintain our home, I must honestly say giving up all control of any household tasks just isn't on my to-do list today. Don't I have enough to do already? Geez! : 0 )

The Naughty List

I am pretty sure my pastor does not read my blog, and that is fine by me, especially today.

I am a multi-tasker, so today as I semi-listened to his sermon intro, I began to think about my faith in Jesus and my life in Christ. Our church is on the move and believe movement happens when fellow believers start by living revolutionary lives for Christ. As he marched through his intro, I was thinking about my current Bible school lesson and my women's Bible study. On a tear of some kind, I began rewriting some of my notes.

As he approached the meat of today's sermon, I did check in and gather the highlights. In case he does read my blog, today's sermon was from Joshua 24 and pastor calls this chapter a call to rededication. Joshua is addressing Israel and imploring the people to embrace God fully — heart, mind and soul (my words, not his). He goes on to suggest that he would rather they choose God completely or at least be honest about who they will choose to serve. In other words, if they won't agree to his terms, just say so and move on. Note that this is not what he desires for them at all.

As soon as we got there, I was really excited because it matches up so closely with the various verses I am trying to memorize for my other study. So, I began writing out each of the verses in my new notebook I have placed in my Bible bag.

I finished writing them all out as I sat in the bathroom while my youngest was in the tub. He's only 2, but as I read each of these verses aloud to him after I had scribbled them down, he locked his sweet baby blue eyes on my face and gave me his complete attention each and every time. Then he would give me a big grin and continue splashing around in the tub.

Just wait until he can understand what these words mean.

Frazzled

I absolutely resolve to stop writing phone numbers down on small pieces of paper that I proceed to lose on a very regular basis. This will save me a lot of stress, I think.

Just think, I won't have to rant and rave for however long it takes to find said piece of paper how irresponsible I am. Or how much I just want to jump off a building for such irresponsibility. (Yeah, I have a small flair for drama.)

My poor husband will be spared the rantings of a lunatic as well. There's no good place to stand when cornered by a ranting lunatic, especially if you had the misfortune of marrying her.

I've asked Gene to come up with five things he wants to change or think about changing in his life this year. They do not have to be earth-shattering things, but I want to drag him along on the ride. We've been married 10 and a half years, so it's not like my behavior is all that shocking to him, I suppose. One of mine is absolutely to stop writing things on those darn pieces of paper.

I suppose if I knew where my cell phone was, I could always plug numbers into it …

Quotables

From a sign my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas: "Mothers of little boys work from son up til son down."

From my oldest son after hearing a short kids sermon on how God does not take problems from us, but he walks us through them. When asked what he learned, he says, "God lets us keep our problems."

From Jared every night as he does his breathing treatment, "Bob. Bob. Bob. Bob. Bob." We've watched the same Veggie Tale show for five days now.

From me as I realize I am going back to work tomorrow. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"