It's not about the apples.

I was standing in the produce section at Wal*Mart when it slapped me in the face struck me.

Just a few hours earlier I'd been at home reading Katie Davis's blog. The Mister and I were looking at a picture of some children carrying plastic sacks on their heads, and I was telling him how the kids who came to Amazima while we were there would literally fight over unripened mangos as they knocked them out of the trees with a giant stick. They would scurry around, scooping up the hard, green fruit, filling their little torn, dirty plastic bags, then guarding them like a prize. The younger kids often lost their treasure to the older ones.



Because they're hungry. Truly hungry. The kind of hunger my kids and I have never known.

And there I stood in Wal*Mart, passing over one apple after another after another. Because this one had a broken spot in the peel, and that one had a yellow place on one side, and another had a small bruise. And as I stood there, the picture of the children at Amazima came back to me. And I hung my head, wondering if everyone else around me was shaking their head at my pickiness. I sighed and quickly scooped a couple of apples into my sack.

Most of the time I’m overwhelmed with trying to figure out how I can afford to buy groceries while avoiding the BPAs in canned foods, the pesticides in fresh foods, the nitrates and nitrites in lunch meat, the hormones in milk, and on and on (and on). And just this week I read this post about how the chocolate I buy is most likely produced by child slaves. Oh. My. Word. (I did skip the Hershey’s cocoa at the store. Haven’t quite figured out what I’m gonna do about that yet.)

All the way home from the store I thought about this. God is messing with my heart, and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about it. Does this mean I’m supposed to choose the worse-looking fruit at Wal*Mart? Am I supposed to skip the luxury of fruit altogether? Is it wrong for me to spend more for organic? Should we be eating beans and rice every day because that’s all some of these children in Uganda get?



I can’t quite talk about the chocolate issue yet, but here’s what I think about the fruit. I don’t think it’s really about the fruit. Or about buying organic, or eating rice and beans every day. I think it’s about......hold on......wait for it......our hearts.

And that doesn't just mean how we feel about those who have less, but the action we're willing to take.

The issue is, what are we DOING about the children who eat nothing but rice and beans every day (if they even get to eat every day) while we eat a vast array of perfect, fresh, organic fruit and every other kind of food we could possibly ever dream of? (And obviously, this analogy could be applied to any number of different scenarios.) Are we ignoring them? Looking the other way? Shaking our heads and saying “how sad” while we go about life as usual? Because if we are, that’s when something’s wrong.

It's not about feeling guilty for what we have. God is the One who decided where we would be born, where we would live, and (though open to debate) what jobs we would have. But while I don't think we’re supposed to go through life feeling guilty, I think we ARE supposed to take the blessings we’ve been given and use them for the good of others. God didn’t give us all this stuff just so we could sit in our luxury and satisfy our own insatiable desires. He has given us what we have so that we can give and share and help others.

Every blessing we have been given – every gift, every talent, every ability, every financial gain – is given to us for the purpose of serving others.

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10 (emphasis mine)
"Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." James 2:15-17
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ Then the King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Matt. 25:37-40
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48
What I think God was saying to me in the produce section at Wal*Mart was not, “Don’t be so picky about your apples,” but simply “Remember”.

• Remember that the vast majority of people in the world don’t have the luxury of being picky with their fruit (or anything else they eat, for that matter).


• Remember that I have been blessed to be a blessing. It’s not just a pretty cliché, it’s TRUTH.


• Remember that I am among the wealthiest people in the world - when compared to the rest of the world – and with that wealth comes great responsibility.


• Remember that saying, “I felt sad for them” isn’t going to be the right answer when Jesus asks me what I did about the people I saw all around me in dire need.

Please know that I am so very, very far from doing this right. But I'm trying to learn. I want to make a difference. I want to BE different.

Oh Jesus, change my heart. Lord, I’m so selfish and me-focused. I hurry through life only looking out for myself and my own family. Continue to break my heart for the things that break Yours, and then give me the COURAGE to step out of my comfort zone and do something about it. Make me know Your ways, Oh Lord, teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me. (Ps. 25:4-5)

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." Phil. 2:3-4
I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. ~Edward Everett Hale

Uganda, here I come.....again!

Hey friends! I just wanted to jump on here real quick to let you know about the first fundraiser I’m doing for my return trip to Uganda next summer! Yay!



Can you believe it’s time to start fundraising already?? Next summer we are flying a different airline than we did this year, and because of that we will have to purchase our plane tickets by this December. So….the fundraising must begin! :)



Just in time for fall planting, I’m selling spring-blooming FLOWER BULBS! They are so beautiful, and there are 24 varieties to choose from: tulips, irises, crocuses, hyacinths, daffodils, allium, anemone, and lilies. If you’re lacking the green-thumb gene like I am, there are even Paperwhite Narcissus that can be grown indoors in a vase with only water. :)



If you’re interesting in looking, you can CLICK HERE to see the brochure. I'm sorry there is no online ordering, but if you're interested in anything you can leave a comment or send me an email and I will add you to the order! Prices start at just $6.50 (plus shipping), and 50% goes toward my trip!



I will be turning in my order on Monday, so don’t delay! You’ll be so happy next spring when your flower beds (or flower pots) burst into bloom all on their own! :)

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Jacob has really been loving all kinds of "tricks" lately....magic tricks, plays on words, optical illusions, riddles. Yesterday he asked me for a pen, and wrote this on a piece of paper:

PEAR

The following conversation ensued.

Jacob: "What's this word?"
Me: "Pear."
Jacob: "I can make that pear disappear."
Me: "Really? Show me."

He takes back the paper, writes something else, then shows me the paper with his PEAR made into DISAPPEAR.

J: "See? Disappear! Get it?"
Me: Appropriate laughter. :) "Aahhh, that was sneaky!"
J: "Dis.Ap.Pear. That's one word. Three syllables, one word."
Me: "Yep."
J: "Good thing I didn't write Kiss a Pear. That would be two words. (yes, he said two) Disappear is one word, but kiss a pear is two words."
The Mister: "Well, if disappear is one word, and kiss a pear is two words, what about Kickapoo? What's that?"

J: "Now that's just nasty!"

Bahahahaha!!

Hello Bloggy World!

I'm so glad to be back! Man, I can't believe it's been almost a MONTH since I posted!

What's that?

What do you mean you didn't realize I'd been gone? Wow, you must be even busier than I am! ;)

Well, here's the low down. A while back (apparently about a month ago), my laptop had a nervous breakdown and freaked out with the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH...not once, but THREE times! It finally freaked ME out enough that I took it to the laptop hospital (aka, Best Buy). After a restful stay in laptop ICU, the nice man at Best Buy was able to fix my little laptop friend and send it home.

Sadly, once my little friend came home we discovered that his (her?) main source of fruitfulness and entertainment (i.e., internet service) was also out of business. For THREE. WEEKS. After hemming and hawing and ranting and raving, we finally switched carriers and just got back up and running again last weekend.

WHEW!

And now here we are! (And by the way, we are LOVING our new internet provider. SOO much faster, and...guess what Jen? we can actually watch an entire movie on Netfl*x without it retrieving half a dozen times! LOVE.)

I've missed you guys so much! Actually, I've been secretly stalking all of you, I just haven't been keeping up my end of the conversation flow. A lot has happened in the last month. And, there were a lot of things I had on the tip of my bloggy tongue just before all the fiasco started, so I've got lots of pent-up words to spill. Hopefully I can find some time to get them all out. I wish we could all just grab a cup of coffee and have a conference call to get caught up. Chatting on the phone is so much more time efficient. :)

Since I last talked to you, Kloe has started middle school (that's been an adventure!) and also band, I've received a (semi) update from SixtyFeet, Jacob has played half a season of soccer and joined Cub Scouts, I saw this amazing woman in person, we remembered and honored a tragic day in our nation's history, we pulled up all the tile in our bathroom (and have yet to put down the new), I attended my very first photography class, we babysat an awesome new vehicle for 24 hours (and then took it back because it was out of our price range), and The Mister and I went to see this incredible, amazing, outstanding movie on opening night. (Have you seen it yet? You must. You MUST.)

What I didn't get to tell you about before The Great Computer Crash of 2011 was Kloe's very fun 11th birthday party and our very fun summer vacation road trip. I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the update. ;) Actually, it's more for my own future-memory benefit that I want to get all of that posted, but maybe you'll come along for the ride?

Put on the coffee and I'll call you in a few minutes.

Speechless.

Tonight I am alternately jumping up and down screaming (oh yes I am)....and sitting with my hands over my mouth saying over and over, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"

SIXTY FEET IS COMING!!!!

And here's the amazing part....we DIDN'T finish in the top 3!! (we were #4) But here's what they said in their announcement of the winners:

We know we said only the top 3, but we also said we like enthusiasm and there were some serious enthusiastic voters. Valerie, we’re coming to see you!

Oh yes they did....they said they're coming to see ME! Can you believe it? :)

THANK YOU for voting!!

I was totally cracking up at all the comments people left to vote. People I don't even know were voting for my hometown, asking them to come here for ME! I sent out an email asking friends to vote, and in the email I said, "You can just say (my hometown) if you want to. Or you can say, 'My friend Valerie is a weirdo and a fanatic. Please come to (hometown) so she’ll leave me alone!'" One person - who I DON'T know - typed that exact sentence! Hahahaha!

Ok, so I know I'm acting like a tweenie who just found out Justin Bieber is coming to her house, but let me tell you - even THEY could not be more excited than I am. ;) Even before I went to Uganda this ministry completely embedded itself in my heart, and when I was there, no other place we went had such a huge impact on my life as being in the children's prisons with SixtyFeet. I can't explain it. I have no words. But this is so huge in my heart that sometimes I feel like it will totally overwhelm me.



Ever since I got back, I've been asking God what I'm supposed to do - to show me a way I can help them. When I read their blogs or see their pictures, something slams into the walls of my heart. Something more than just feeling sad for the children. It's like a longing....a desperation....for I don't even know what. A desperation to do something.



And now, they're coming here! And it's about so much more than just having the chance to meet the people who started this amazing ministry. The fact that we were #4 and they're coming anyway? The fact that they mentioned me specifically? The fact that so many people I don't even know said they were voting because of me? It was like a sweet whisper from God to my heart saying, "I see you. I hear you. I know your heart's desire. And I'm the One who's doing this in you. It's not all in your head.....it's Me."

You know when God does something He doesn't have to, just to show you He loves you? Yeah, it was like that. :)




Me and Moses. LOVE him.

[PLEASE pray with me that every aspect of their trip will be worked out in detail - the publicity, the timing, where they will stay, where the presentation will be held, and that LOTS of people will come and hear about the awesome work they are doing....and join them.]

Status.

Here are a few statuses (statusi?) you might have missed on my Facebook recently. Mainly because I didn't post them. :)

• I don't understand people who enjoy running for fun. Me, ummm, not so much. Not at all, actually.


• Almost back to my pre-Uganda weight! LOL


• "What if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life, is a revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy?" ~Blessings, by Laura Story


• Number one thing I'm going to miss while I have my braces on: tacos. Oh, and chips and salsa. And flossing the normal way. And maybe popcorn. But only when I'm at the movies.


• Finally jumped on The Help bandwagon last weekend (movie, not book). Like. But not love. And no popcorn.


• Have you guys checked out Baron Batch's blog? You should. Former TTU running back, drafted this year by the Steelers. Amazing writer, photographer, and humanitarian.


• Despicable Me = first movie in a long time (ever?) I have actually enjoyed watching over and over again with my kids. So cute!

And here's one I really did post:

• SIXTY FEET IS COMING TO TOWN!!!

Happy Friday, friends!

Five for Friday

1. Last night I decided to clean behind and under my refrigerator. Are you impressed? I wish I could say this is a regular occurrence around my house, but in reality I've probably only done it a handful of times since we've lived here. I know - you're never coming to my house again. :) I hope we can still be friends anyway.
   
   Besides it's clean now. Although not by my choice.
   
   Last night as Kloe was getting ready for bed, she said, "Mom, will you go get my earrings? I left them in my binder (she has to take them out for athletics). It's sitting on the floor by the refrigerator." So I went to get her binder, and when I picked it up it was soaking wet. What in the world?
   
   When I looked closer, it was only the bottom part of the binder that was wet. So I looked at the floor where it had been sitting, and saw that the carpet was wet. Really wet. And it was obviously coming from under the refrigerator. {Our fridge sits right at the edge of the kitchen where the tile meets the living room carpet.}
   
   And The Mister was out of town.
   
   Uggghhh.
   
   Thankfully our refrigerator rolls fairly easily. I pulled it out and saw that the hose going to the ice maker had broken and was leaking water down the back of the fridge. There was a huge puddle, and the power cord was laying in it. So like the big sissy good wife that I am, I called The Mister and he told me how to smack the plug to make sure it wasn't going to shock me, and then unplug it. And long story short....I now look like a regular spring-cleaner. ;)
   
   Here's all of Kloe's binder contents laying out to dry. So glad her homework wasn't in there! But now that I think about it....where WAS her homework??
   
   
   
   On the plus side - see that tile that's broken in the back corner? It got water under it and came loose.
   
   
   
   We've been wanting to retile our kitchen for a while now (for obvious reasons!), so I thought I'd make the most of the situation and see just how hard it would be to get the tiles up. I'm happy to report that it pulled up pretty easily (even though it broke off), and even more happy is the fact that the glue just scraped right off the concrete, easy as pie. Woohoo! New tile, here we come!
   
   All's well that ends well, I suppose.


2. Ok, that was a really long #1, so I'll try to make the rest a bit shorter.
   
   Remember this? (you have to look close - there at the top)
   
   
   It seems to be an ongoing problem around here....
   
   
   Good grief. Do you think I should be worried that he keeps asking me how to make a jet pack?


3. Kloe is learning to do her own laundry, and I couldn't be more happy about it.


4. I wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you who voted for my home town to receive a visit from the SixtyFeet people!! If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out this post. I've been too nervous to look, so I have no idea how we're doing in the polls. I'll let you know as soon as I find out. And if you haven't voted yet, there's still time! Go here and scroll all the way to the bottom to leave your comment. The votes will be counted on Monday. Thanks for your help!!


5. Oh yes, and then there's this:
   
   
   
   SQUEEEAAAL!!!!

Can I ask you a favor?

Hey friends,

I have a big favor to ask you. SixtyFeet, the ministry my mission team worked with in the children's prisons in Uganda, is having a contest of sorts.

They're taking votes on their blog to determine three cities they will visit this fall in what they are calling an "awareness tour", designed to bring awareness to their ministry and the work they do. They will be showing a 30 minute video that they filmed at M1, and then discussing their ministry and ways people can get involved. Oh, I would love it so much if they came to my hometown!

Do you even KNOW how much I would love love it if they came to my hometown??

So here's where you come in. If you know me in real life - or even not in real life but you know where I live - could I ask you to go to their blog and vote for my hometown? (unless, of course, you want to vote for your own hometown!)

You can click here, then scroll down to the comments and enter your name and email (I promise they will NOT spam you). Then all you have to say is, "Please visit (insert the name of my hometown)."

That's it! Easy, right? And I would be sooooo grateful! There was a group of 9 ladies from one church who visited the prisons in July on a trip with Visiting Orphans, and I think they've gotten their whole church to vote! Hopefully we can still make it in the top 3. :)

They will be announcing the winning cities on September 6, so don't delay!

Oh, yes, and please feel free to pass this along if you feel so inclined. :)

Thanks so much, friends! I promise to send you an invitation if we win. :)

First day of school

Have your kiddos started back to school yet? Ours started last Monday (the 22nd). The day after Kloe's birthday. Poor girl, she is always the absolute youngest in her class. I always wonder if high school is going to be hard for her because of that.

My sweet Kloe is in middle school this year. MIH. DUHL. SCHOOL. (!) She had to take some pictures to school of herself growing up, so I was digging through her old school pictures and baby pictures, and I thought, "How did this happen?"

How is she 11 years old and taking classes like ATHLETICS and BAND and PRE-AP MATH? What happened to learning how to write her name and even spell the word "school"?



Beautiful girl. She hated the first 2 days of school and cried herself to sleep 2 nights in a row. She was late to every single class the first day and declared that she would NEVER be able to find all her classes on time. By the 3rd day, when one of her old 5th grade teachers (who we saw while picking up Jacob) asked her how she likes middle school, her answer was, "I love it!" :)

And she is so excited about being in band that she's beside herself. A girl after my own marching-band heart. :) They actually had instrument selection before the end of school last year, and much to her heart's delight, she will be playing....not the trumpet....


(haha - looks the the cymbal is coming out of her forehead)


....not the clarinet....





....but, the FLUTE!



She has already named her flute. Meet Frederick. I know.

And my little J-man is in 3rd grade this year. The BIG grade. The not-a-little-boy-anymore grade. The state standardized testing grade. But not quite yet the "too big to hold hands with Daddy" grade. :)



His teacher actually used to be Kloe's babysitter when Kloe was a baby. Cute, huh? :)

He was my child who was NOT excited about going back to school. Who ONLY was happy that he would get to see his friends again and have recess. But yesterday they did their reading-level testing, and he was BUSTING with excitement to tell me that he can read "all the way up to 5.3!!"

And also to tell me, "Mom, I like school." :)

Another year. Here we go. And in about 15 minutes it will be over. :)

Yesterday.....

Ok, ok, I KNOW! I really shouldn't announce when I'm going to make an annoucement, because then something usually happens and I don't. Sorry!

So, without further ado, here's the "big announcement" I fully intended to post YESTERDAY.




***




***




***




***




***




Yesterday, I got these.....


(From my sweet hubby. Aren't they gorgeous? They're even more beautiful in real life.)



.....because I got these.



***




***




***




***




***






And yes, this awful picture pretty much sums up how I was feeling about them right about then. :)

Yes, they hurt, but not too much. Except when I eat.

No, I'm not excited, but I hope to be eventually. :)

The end. :)