Baby Quincy and Stella

Ahh, those first years with Quincy and Stella.. Stella was about 2 here and Quincy 1.. Their relationship is similar today :)

On theft, being poor, and hobby lobby

I had a new experience today, when my new Sequoia was broken into while I was inside Hobby Lobby with the kids. This was revolutionary in a few ways. 1) I realized that I was driving a car that someone thought was valuable enough to have valuables. This in itself is quite strange for me, for anyone who has seen my previous vehicle would understand. I never even locked the doors to my van before.. the appearance was obviously enough of a theft deterrent :) Even my house before this one.. the one we rented from our dear landlord Mohammed... that house was the worst one on the street. Not to mention, it was probably the worst neighborhood for at least 15 miles. I would lock the doors when we were home, but was not afraid to leave them unlocked when we were gone. If someone was that desperate, that they would break into MY house in Tallowood, then they had problems beyond a lack of material goods. But such has been my creed for so long.. "No one would ever want to break into my house/car when there are so many other better ones all around.." I really got comfortable in this thinking. It made me lazy. And trusting! There are many benefits of being the worst house in a good neighborhood, and many disadvantages of being the best in a bad one. So today, when I left my purse in the passenger seat, in plain view of passersby, I was violently shaken from my former motto and forced to realize the truth: We aren't that poor anymore! We have stealable things! So despite the annoyance of having a vehicle vandalized, it was kind of complimenting :)
Moving on the #2 I realized what a sociological/moral lesson this was for my kids. Of course, they know stealing is wrong (Linden was even loudly quoting the commandment for others to hear.. just in case they have never heard that one) but I think that this is something kids never think about until it happens. And what I noticed most about the situation was how they looked at me and just waited to see how I would handle it... how I would react. And of course that constructive mother in me outweighed all other parts that may want to get mad.. and honestly, I really don't care about the car that much.. I do love it, but it's just a car. Just more so the inconvenience.. So when Judah started about how a bad guy did this, and that he wanted to 'beat up the bad guy' and so on, I decided to be as happy as I possibly could (for someone loaded down with bags, waiting in the lobby of a store with 4 kids for 20 minutes, for a police officer :) I told Judah that maybe this guy wasn't bad, but just desperate. Maybe he's had a really bad life. And shouldn't we be glad for all that we have? Now I'm not this optimistic and caring, but these are influenceable minds.. and I could see a memory forming in their little brains. So they kept trying to freak out about it, and I kept telling them to chill out, that everything was fine.. We swept the glass out of the seat, cleaned out the window and went home and played with blocks. But not before we said a prayer for the guy that did this to our car; that he may have his heart softened.. and change his life and repent and choose the right. (and that our car wouldn't cost a ton to fix:) All in all, it was a good lesson on forgiveness and gratitude. I mean, at least we have stealable things, right? Now that IS something to be thankful for :)

Things my dog does not deserve...

I have quite a strange relationship with my once sweet and lovable, now smelly and manipulative, chocolate lab. I have had him his whole life (almost 4 yrs) and his behavior has gone from bad to worse.. in other words, what once was typical exuberant puppy behavior has progressed in those few years, to full blown idiocy. I'm sure this is completely my fault; a dog is like a child, needing proper training and consistency.. but I have real children, and thought that a dog would be a nice accessory to our family. Not the bane of my existence. Here is a run down of Griffen life: He is an inside dog, and as he is obsessed with me, will follow an inch behind me ALL day. He rarely goes to the bathroom outside because he is too worried to be out of my sight. When he is obedient enough to do this, he keeps eye contact with me the whole time, and if I go in before he does, he bolts in the door after me. Most likely not even finishing his business. That he saves for when I leave. I can let him outside 20 times a day, but when I leave for 20 minutes, he poops on the floor of whatever room he is in. He is even so sneaky, that when Eli leaves for work at 6:00, Griffen won't go to the bathroom for him. He uses that 1 1/2 hour window to go on the floor, before I wake up. When you punish him for this, he shivers and cowers and acts like he has endured a life times worth of beatings, but then as soon as he is freed from his confinement, he won't think twice of hoisting up on the counter to look for sticks of butter to eat. Whole. With the paper on. That's another thing; he devours the trash at any chance he gets and spreads it ALL over the house. His favorite find is dirty diapers, which he partially eats and partially spreads all over the carpet. As I do not have any children in diapers, Griffen considers himself very lucky to find a diaper left by visitors in the trash. When I confront him and yell at him, he shivers and cowers and acts pathetic.. but it's all an act! He is such a needy, disloyal dog. And to top off all this bad behavior, he has skin problems so he looks frightful, stinks horribly and scratches himself constantly, rubbing up against furniture and shaking all over the place, in a cloud of skin flakes. So I go to the vet to see whats up with his itching/ hair loss/ smell. She tells me it's a food allergy and that this dear dog needs a special, expensive, diet. Like the stuff you can only buy at the vet that's like $40 a bag. So giving me a print out of all the "special" needs, I see that there are many recipes for homemade dog food. This I like, as I try to make everything for us homemade anyway. And I do love Griffen. In a wayward child kind of way. So I have been brewing him up a special mix for weeks now. Mainly its an oatmeal/brown rice/salmon/broccoli/cod liver oil mix. It's very inconvenient. And I have to store it in the fridge and its in a huge bowl and it smells horribly. And I have only seen slight improvements to his appearance and smell. But isn't that just why we have pets? Because they bring so much joy to our lives, enriching our lives with their sweet, cuddly presence?