Last night, we had a praise gathering at church and Rick had sent out an e-mail earlier in the week asking for song requests. It was cool because one of our members is currently deployed to Afghanistan and he sent Rick a request via e-mail. Rick records the assemblies onto DVD and sends them to Jeff, so he knew Jeff would get to hear his request.

I was so moved when we sang the song he requested. The first line says, "Over all the earth, You reign on high." I started to wonder if this brother is able to see God reigning in Afghanistan right now.

I've been to a lot of places in this country, and in the world, where you could look out over the creation and know that God reigns. You'd be blind not to see that at Niagara Falls, or looking over the Swiss Alps, in the sun setting over the Black Sea or in the waves crashing onto some of the beautiful, undisturbed beaches of South Carolina. I've known God reigned when I watched medical professionals serve the underserved at free medical clinics in Arkansas and here in South Carolina and I've known God reigned when I've seen men sweating over building homes for people who've lost theirs in a storm. I have felt like I've almost seen the very face of God in my newborn babies and in watching some amazing women of God showing comfort to each other. Creation and the work of God-loving people testify to the reign of God.

I believe the words of Psalm 48 and I know in faith that God reigns over all of the earth. But I can imagine it is really hard for people to see that in some areas of the world right now.

Psalm 48:7 "God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne."

A day in the life...

So, Katie has been partnered up with a 4th grader (a "real, live 4th grader", she calls him) who's name is Ben (or so we thought) for these first few weeks of school who reads to her when they have "book buddy" time. This has happened 3 or 4 times already and she has talked at length about Ben.

So tonight we were going over her day as I was tucking her in, she mentions that they had book buddies today. So I say, "Oh, how is Ben?"

She says, "By the way mom, his name is not Ben."

I say, "Oh. Okay. What is his name."

"I don't really know. But it sure isn't Ben." (I'd have liked to see how she figured that out, since she's been calling him Ben for a month. She gets that from Rick.)

I say, "Are you sure it is the same guy you have been reading with all along?"

She says, "Yeah. It's okay. He never remembers my name either. I keep telling him, 'I'm Katie. Katie. Katie.' But he never remembers. So I started telling him my name is Lindsay!"

Maybe Ben, or whoever he is, could pick up a few tips from Katie, or whoever she is!

What are they teaching them these days...

So, Rick took a birthday snack to Katie's class this week. It was our first glimpse into her little world since she started school. He said it was pretty crazy - a lot of little bodies in a little room - but that she was having a great time and the other kids seemed pretty nice (with a couple exceptions.) Since he had to take the snack at 1:00 (yeah, they eat lunch at 9:50 am!) and pickup line starts forming around 2:00, I suggested he stay for the rest of the afternoon and ask the teachers if they had anything he could do...

...which is how he ended up in the teacher work room stapling number books together! Go little Ricky!

Anyway, he said the most entertaining/unusual part of his adventures in kindergarten was when Mrs. Pearson announced that everyone needed to finish their snack because it was time to go out for recess. Rick said that "recess" was barely out of her mouth when 5 (no exaggeration) kids asked Katie if they could be her cat! And 1 asked to be her dog?

What is up with that?

We still have no clue why her classmates are campaigning to be her pet. She was tired to the point of tears last night so I forgot to ask. I think we will be needing to have a little chat tonight.

2

It's official, though I've known it for a while now! His favorite word is "no", he wants to do everything himself and he follows me around like a shadow! But I love him! I almost can't remember life without him, back when we got enough sleep and didn't have any baby gates or baby locks in the house and when no one threw fits and everyone ate neatly. But really, I can barely remember that!

Random Memory

I was thinking back the other day to something that happened 13 years ago! I can't remember what triggered that memory. I must be getting old since I have significant memory of something that far back. Anyway, Rick and I were dating and were at the mall. In that foggy, lovey phase, we stepped into a jewelry store in the mall to look at engagement rings. We weren't really ready to buy anything (meaning, our student loan money hadn't come in so we were still broke) but we wanted to look (and I wanted to be able to tell my girlfriends that I'd been engagement-ring shopping!)

Anyway, the sales lady, when she figured out that we weren't planning to buy anything immediately, told us that we shouldn't wait too long to buy a diamond because THE DIAMOND SUPPLY IN THE WORLD WAS ALMOST DEPLETED! She actually told us that in the near future, everyone was going to have "champagne" diamonds (translation - ugly brown diamonds) because they had almost finished mining all of the earth's clear white diamonds. We actually got a little worried about that.

Funny how things end up. Rick is 12 years into a career in jewelry, and still having no trouble buying white diamonds,(and with new diamond mines still being discovered) and we hadn't thought of that trip to the mall in over 10 years. I wonder if the sales lady really believed what she told us or if she flat out lied to us. Our worry over what she said goes to show how easily we can have the wool pulled over our eyes when we are in the vulnerable position of not knowing something. Obviously, no one can know about everything (even people who act like they do!), so we are all in the position at times.

I am not sure why I thought of that, but to set your mind at ease, I don't think that in this century the world will run out of nice diamonds. Although, if you are worried, we can hook you up with a big one today, just in case!

The Theory of Relativity

I can't remember exactly what the actual, scientific theory of relativity means, but here is what that term means to me today...

Kids and Time - there is a relativity that is not understood by kids. For example, a friend of mine's delightful 5 year old heard someone say "Jesus is coming soon" so she asked her mom how it would be when Jesus came. Her mom explained the trumpets and the thunder and all that. Like 5 minutes later, a truck rumbled by and the child hollers "It's Jesus - I hear him!" There is just no concept of the relativity of time. You can't blame them - we say, "It will be bedtime soon." and "Soon it will be fall and you can wear blue jeans again. " and "Jesus is coming soon." There should be more specific terms.

6 Inches - When you are talking about the distance between earth and the sun, 6 inches is relatively insignificant. When you are trying to see how far it is from here to there on a map, again, relatively insignificant. When you are moving a piano, still not that big of a deal. When you are discussing the difference between a full-size bed and a queen-size bed, it doesn't sound very significant. YET, when 2 of you are trying to sleep in a full-size bed, instead of a queen-size bed, those missing 6 inches will kill ya! So if we seem a little grumpy over the next few weeks, just know that it is all relative to those 6 inches of missing bed (all 6 of which I think were taken off of my side since Rick seems to not be noticing the difference.)

Teeth - since you have 16 or 20 of them in your mouth, you would think that missing one is relatively minor. Yet, Katie can't seem to talk without spitting these days. I guess that having a 3 mm gap in the front is making all the difference in her ability to keep her slobber in while she talks! Here's hoping they don't all fall out at once. We'll have to wear rain slickers just to chat with her!

So those are the theories of relativity in this house!

There is less of Katie to love...

Yet another milestone! After 3 months of wiggling, it came out in the tub! Now the tooth fairy has to run somewhere to get a dollar? Or should it be $5? A quarter? What is the going tooth-fairy rate these days?