Butter Side Down

As Ben and I were eating breakfast the other day, I noticed that he was eating his toast with the butter side down and toward his tongue. I was going to correct him but stopped.

I asked myself, "Self, why don't you eat your toast butter side down? When you make a sandwich, do you not put the condiments you want to taste toward the bottom so you can taste them better? Why not eat the toast butter side down so you can fully taste the butter and the nuances of the bread that the butter brings out?"

I had no good answer for myself other than my parents corrected me when I was small and since there was no danger of the butter falling off the toast in its upside down position (as might happen with jelly, preserves, or apple butter) there's no good reason not to eat the toast butter side down.

But, then something else struck me, what other bread am I not tasting fully?

32 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

34 "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

John 6:32-40 (NIV)

So, remembering Jesus, the bread of life, who gave His life for me, I joyfully turned my toast butter side down and took a big bite, savoring the melted goodness of the butter within the nooks and crannies.

"Taste and see that the LORD is good;" Psalm 34:8a (NIV)

Face Time w/McCain and Palin

This Labor Day weekend, we traveled to Pittsburgh for a regional gathering which I used to attend regularly. While we were about an hour away from the hotel, Dad (for both he and Robert were going to be there) called to tell me that a certain political candidate and his running mate were staying in hotel. At first, I thought Obama since I knew he was supposed to be in the area. I was relatively happy with this thought for we could finally give an awesome birthday present (a picture of Ben with Obama) to my father-in-law who is impossible to shop for and an Obama supporter. When Dad said it was McCain, I was ecstatic. Just that morning I had watched McCain's announcement of Palin as his running mate and I immediately liked her.

At noon on Saturday, the Straight Talk Express buses pulled up to the hotel after touring Pittsburgh. Some others from our group were waiting at the end of the hall and Ben and I were able to sneak to the front because Ben is cute and short. He tried to run out into the main hall and was stopped by Secret Service. As you can tell by his face, he wasn't really interested in waiting for McCain. He wanted to return to the game room and finish the game he was playing with Papa Mark. McCain came in and addressed the group front right in front of me. When I couldn't get Ben to come out from behind my legs, I stood up to shake McCain's hand. As I was shaking his hand, Palin came in. He asked if I'd met Palin and introduced her to me. I shook her hand. I believe that McCain's curiosity was picqued by a glimpse of the crayon drawn Presidential symbol on Ben's shirt and he asked what it said. Ben was wearing his "Future Leader...I can do all things through Jesus" t-shirt. Palin asked if Ben was in school yet and tried to get Ben to come out and meet Piper, who was just adorable during her Mom's speech at the convention...you can't script that stuff.

Generally, the group tends to be liberal and athesists. They were already unhappy with McCain before his comings and goings disrupted our gathering. He gave them something else to harp on by asking that that we pray for him and Palin, especially over the next couple of days. A few of them took great pleasure in saying, "Can you BELIEVE he asked us to PRAY for him?" On Sunday, I got tired of hearing it over and over and came out in defense of McCain letting everyone know that he had asked about Ben's shirt, what the shirt said, my cross necklace, and that he probably felt safe in asking for prayer based on his interactions with me because when you're in a group of Christians it's okay to ask for prayer. After that, they either didn't bring it up again or, at least, didn't bring it up around me.

Well, that was my face time with McCain and Palin. All in all, I found them nice and real people. I've loved what they've had to say since and I will be watching all the upcoming debates.

I've Been Published!

Many months ago I was approached regarding a picture of a Pepsi truck I had taken during an Opening Day Parade. They wished to use it in a book that they were working on. I gave them permission and was promised a copy of the book when it was published.

I had almost forgotten about it until the UPS truck pulled up and dropped off a package at my door. I opened the package to find it contained a copy of Cincinnati: Bridges to the Future. My Pepsi truck picture is on page 70. A wonderful skyline from a fellow photographer I had met at the Cincy Museum's 75th Anniversary fireworks spreads across pages 16 and 17.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's marching band season!

I had arrived early to pickup Ben from YMCA Day Camp so as I passed the time sitting in my car listening to the 3rd Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book I heard a familiar click-click-click. Across the street from the Y on the local high school's practice field, I saw the marching band working through their formations. Oh, how it took me back!

One time, at band camp... :)

One Thing Leads to Another

With Mike in traveling for work, it's my first morning flying solo in a couple months. Ben was kind and slept in until 7 AM, played nicely in his room until 7:30, and continued to play nicely while I took a much needed shower. I used the last of the spray sunscreen this morning getting Ben ready for day camp. Note to self: Buy more spray sunscreen.

After a breakfast of Kixs and a banana, I got some dishes put in the dishwasher and started them before leaving to drop Ben off at day camp. When I got back home, I remembered that I meant to make banana bread yesterday and the bananas were about to flip from being perfectly overripe to needing to be thrown away. In the process of making the banana bread, I decided to use straight up sugar versus the Splenda brown sugar blend I've been using recently. When I went for the flour, I realized that we were out of "normal" flour and all that was left was the organic stone-ground whole wheat flour. Ben refuses to eat pancakes made from this flour. All in all, the bread turned out okay. It tastes more of the wheat flour than bananas. Hopefully, Ben will eat these, but I'm not sure. Note to self: If using the organic stone-ground whole wheat flour again, either try less flour, more banana, more sugar, or some combination of such.

Somehow between stopping at McD's to pick up lunch and actually picking Ben up from day camp, my rear passenger tire went flat. This was 10 minutes before I was supposed to pick Ben up and they had threatened in literature sent home to charge a dollar per minute that you were late picking your child up. I immediately called them to let them know what had happened, where I was, my cell phone number, and if I didn't get this fixed quickly that Ben could go home with the other Ben from his nursery school that was thankfully attending day camp this week. Of course, I had committed the other mom to this without clearing it with her but she's wonderful and I knew it wouldn't be a problem. I knew it would take AAA an hour to get there to change my tire and that was not acceptable. I turned into SuperMom. I pulled that full-sized spare out of the trunk, jacked the car up, and got the hubcap off the tire in no time flat. It was then that I met my nemesis, Rusty Lugnuts. Pleased that I had made it that far, I called AAA to get help with the lug nuts and was told it could be up to an hour before anyone got there and they'd ring my cell phone 5 minutes prior to arrival. I was about to call the day camp with a progress report when God sent a gentleman returning to his office asking if I needed some help. Yeah God! He had a little bit of difficulty with Rusty but was able to get all the lug nuts off, pull the tire, and put the other on. I put the flat in the trunk while he tightened the lug nuts in a clockwise fashion and not in a star pattern. I told the man thank you, let the jack down, threw everything in the trunk, called the day camp to let them know I was coming, and was only 10 minutes late in picking up Ben. Pam, as awesome as she is, was ready to take Ben with her and Ben but waited because I had called. Note to self: Unless you plan on hitting the gym and working on that upper body strength, do not attempt to change your own tire. Or, at the very least, start by calling AAA so that a driver might be coming during the time you spend getting the spare out and the car jacked up.

Since we were already in the area and I don't like the idea of having a flat spare tire because heaven forbid I blow another one and then what, we headed over to the Toyota dealership to get the flat fixed. I went to the dealership because I have road hazard insurance on my tires and the last time I had a flat it cost around $10 for a brand new tire. With no appointment and being short staffed, they were still able to get me in. After watching the last little bits of Jakers! and Full House, some Ace of Cakes, the previous night's Reds game, and the ending of Animal Cops, and shelling out $20, my tire was plugged and back in the trunk. I haven't checked yet if they put everything away neatly or not. Note to self: If you plan on making an overtired and overstimulated 4 year old wait patiently in a car dealership customer waiting area just so you feel better about having a good spare, don't forget to bring in some toys from the car.

After leaving the dealership, we ran into backed-up traffic on the highway. I detoured around where I thought the problem was only to realize that the back-up on the first highway was caused by an accident on the second and I had plopped myself into said accident traffic without any way of getting out other than to crawl at a snail's pace around it. After passing the accident, we had no problems getting home. Note to self: Listen when the little voice in your head when it tells you to take the longer detour instead of the normal detour.

It was 3 PM before Ben got into his bed for nap time (2 hours later than normal) and another hour before he finally calmed down enough for his overtired and overstimulated body to drift off to sleep. We weren't able to make the cheap day showing of Horton Hears a Who at the cheap theater as we had planned. Instead, some friends stopped over to borrow Ben's pirate costume for pirate day tomorrow at their day camp. We had a really nice visit with them before and after Ben woke up from his nap. After they'd left, we ate last night's leftover pizza while we watched the classic animated versions of Horton Hears a Who and How the Grinch Stole Christmas which was on the How the Grinch Stole Christmas DVD I'd received for Christmas years ago. Note to self: Don't stress when things don't go as planned...you never know what other amusing diversion might present itself.

Throughout today while all this stuff was happening, people asked me how my day had been going and I said fine. Note to self: Unless you share all the exciting details of your day as a stay-at-home mom, people are going to think that you have a really boring life.