In my mind I'm going to Carolina...

I can NOT believe the summer is over.   That my calendar is reading September 6th definitely seems a little hard to grasp.  The summer was an amazing one.  My kids are both at that priceless, precious age.  They are both still so excited by so much of what they see around them, still easily pleased.  There is NOTHING sweeter to me than looking in my rearview mirror in the van and seeing two kids who are sound asleep because they were just exhausted by a long day at the beach.  Their still wet, salty hair clingy to their cheeks which are still rosy from the sun and exertion.  The end of the summer was especially special.  August 14th my sister flew in from Nashville and we headed down to Ocean City, NJ to spend time at "Grammy's beach house".  Timmy took a long weekend and I stayed down for almost a week.  It was so incredible.  If  you have read any of my blog you know how special Nonni is to Kaity.  Well the week at the shore showed that the fascination was not lost on Rodney either.  "Nonni" is now one of the words that he says...and often.   Just today he was in the crib at my parents house trying to fall asleep and talking to himself and quite often one of the words you heard him say was "nonni".  Too cute.  I also realized that my daughter shares my love and passion for the ocean.  She would be at the ocean every chance she was given, and in the water when she was in the ocean as much as she possibly could be.  She would go in by  herself with her boogie board and ride the waves, or be 'just like grammy' and put her beach chair right at the edge where the water could lap over her sit there.  

  Well I drove back from Ocean City Wed. Aug.  20th-spent the 21st doing laundry and re-packing everything because August 22nd we piled the whole family in the car and headed for the Outer Banks for North Carolina.   ON the way down we stopped in Salisbury, MD for the night to break the trip up.   We got a hotel with a pool so that the vacation memories could start right away.   The next day we figured that we had about 3 to 3 1/2 hours until we got to our vacation destination.  We WOULD have been right except that we had completely underestimated the traffic getting off and on the island.  THe last 13 miles of our trip took us a little over 3 hours!! BUt we finally arrived.   

  The vacation was amazing.  The house was beautiful.  We had a private pool and hot tub in the back yard.  Everything was new construction.  From the deck looking one way you saw the ocean and looking the other way you saw the bay.   On Sunday TIm's sister and her family arrived to share the house with them.  We hadn't seen the whole family in a long time and it was the first time we had a chance to spend a significant amount of time with them.   They were awesome.  Kaity was in cousin heaven!   The ocean was beautiful.  I got to go ocean kayaking one day which was so much fun.  Something that I really MUST try to make a habit of when given the chance.  

  One day when I went down the water was as rough as I have ever seen the ocean.  Ironically, I can't tell you when I have ever felt more at peace than standing in water that as deep as my calves had the power to knock me over.   I was overwhelmed by the scriptures that just flooded my mind standing there staring at this huge, swelling,  churning  mass of water.   I thought about the disciples on the boat when Jesus calmed the storm.  I thought of Heb 6:19  "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul firm and secure" (ok i couldn't have told you the reference at that exact moment but the verse was there. ) I thought of Christ as our strong tower that we can run to.  Psalm 107: 29b  "the waves of the sea were hushed".   I mean seriously looking at that ocean (thanks to Gustav).  And thinking of God 'hushing' that.  It was awe-inspiring.  I don't nearly  have the literary talent to put what that moment was into words.  You could NOT miss the realization of how small you were in God's creation but how in control HE was, and if  He could hush the waves with a word how much more is HE capable of calming the storms that come up in my life? Internally or from outside forces? 

   The week was over too soon, and reality is always waiting isn't it?   I came back to a house that looked like a vacation bomb had exploded--which had ignited a clothing bomb--which all exploded over what was left after a dog hair bomb had gone off!!!  I came back to spiritual battles,  ministry demands, family conflicts, life requirements.  Even political concerns.   It's all still here.  But you know what?   That moment on the beach between me and my All-Powerful God---that's still with me.  He knew what strength I was going to need to face the good, and the rough from this fall and coming year and I think that maybe He knew that I needed word from HIm to let me know that He was going to be there and ready and able to calm the storms if they ever got too rough for me to handle.  

   I didn't mean to turn this into a discussion part of my spiritual journey.  I was really just going to talk about my vacation but my  mind always takes me back to that day when I think of what was significant about that trip.  

    Were back now, I have vacuumed up the dog hair, washed and put away most of the clothes, cleaned the house--and now we are excited to face what the fall and the coming year hold for us!! 

Oswald Chambers writes "We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail.  Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God's appointed order.  Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere."  

What $15 Million Dollars gets you.

Have you guys heard about the waterfalls in NYC?  You can read all about it.  It involves four "waterfalls" in lower Manhattan at the cost of $15 million dollars.  I had heard about it when the project was first introduced and thought it was a neat concept.  So when plans for my mom's birthday involved a trip around Manhattan via the Hudson on a boat I was very excited that I was going to get a chance to see them.  

   Well the boat ride around Manhattan was AWESOME.  

Lots of beautiful things to see,                                                     GREAT way to see Manhattan.  

The waterfalls on the other hand?  Somewhat disappointing.  I would have to go so far as the say cheesy.  I mean it's scaffolding with water pipes spewing water out the top.  When they talk about the project they say things about it being quintessential New York because scaffolding is such a part of the city.  (??) So is pigeon poop.  I think it's their way of saying that they had a cool concept but couldn't come up with a better way of implementing it.  

Kaity's first haircut.

Yes I finally acquiesced and allowed Kaity to have her hair cut.  Probably not surprising the event was far more traumatizing for me than it was for her!  Especially, since she was FAR more concerned about gettingto the promised ice cream than about what was coming off her head!!  Rodney was just wondering why ice-cream hadn't been a part of the THREE times that he has had his hair cut already.  

Kaity-isms

There are times when we hear ourselves in our children and think "oh..how sweet", then there are other times when we hear ourselves in our children and grimace.  Then there are those perfect times when we hear no one but our children in our children. I thought I would share some of each. 

  About a week ago I was cleaning my basement because we had company coming for the 4th of July.  I enlisted Kaity's help as they are mostly her toys that make the basement look like Toys R' Us exploded down there.  She was a GREAT helper putting all her toys into their toy box without complaining or anything.  Well quickly the toy boxes were filling up so I started putting toys into a milk crate we have down there.  Kaity sees what I am doing puts her hand on  her hip and with a VERY disapproving/reprimanding voice says "Mom, I am trying to put my toys in the toy box is THAT  (gesturing at the milk crate full of toys) helping?".    

   They say kids don't GET sarcasm....HA! kids can get anything if they start getting taught it early enough.  

 So that was the grimace.  However, a day or so after that we were eating dinner with my dad at Boston Market.   Grampy had gone over go get soda and when he came back told Kaity that they could share.  SO Kaity looks at me and says "mom Grampy got us soda", I said "oh that was so nice of him Kaity"  Kaity leans over and squeezes Grampy's arm.  "He's a good man" she says.  

  That was the proud smile (he IS a good man).   Then there was the 3 1/2 year old.  Daddy was getting her in the car outside of Panera and Kaity leans over and picks something up from the ground that had fallen off the tree. 

Kaity:  "What is this daddy" 

Tim:  "Bark" 

Kaity shoots a questioning look '??" 

Tim:  I know it sounds strange but  what comes off of a tree has the same word as the sound a dog makes. Weird huh?

 So Kaity gets up in the van with her possession.  We drive along for a little bit and Kaity says "Oh no mom I dropped my....."  I turned around to look at her as she starts to say "What's it called again.. (the light goes on..you know she's remembered) .oh yeah.  Mom I dropped my woof."  

  True story.   You can't make this stuff up. 

Nostalgia Aint What It Used to Be

Just for fun I thought that I would share with you some interesting numbers.

The government says that the tax burden will be $2.6 trillion in 2008.  But counting the "deadweight" loss from damage done by taxes to the private economy, the real tax burden is twice that-roughly$ 5.2 trillion.  

  On the spending side, a study by the Office of Management and Budget showed that government programs on average fall 39% short of meeting their goals.  THus, in 2008 , government will spend $2.7 trillion to provide $1.65  trillion of benefit.  $5.2 trillion tax burden for  $1.65 trillion benefit?  

  In 2008 American will spend more on taxes than they will spend on food, clothing and housing COMBINED.

Everyone has been complaining about gas prices lately and Obama wants to put a tax on the 'windfall profits' that the oil companies are making, while McCain wants to 'investigate'  the speculation that goes on and how that impacts the gas prices.   Well there are some interesting numbers there too.  The governments makes a MINIMUM of 13% on every tank of gas sold.  That is higher in some places like California  and does NOT include the INCOME taxes they make off the oil companies.  The oil companies make 8.3% on every tank of gas sold.  

  Other interesting numbers on this topic...How many new refineries have been built in this country in the last 30 years-0.   Not to mention that they won't let us drill for oil domestically which would greatly eliminate our dependance on foreign oil but to be fair they have their reasons I think the "American Thinker" put it best 1) Such drilling might enrich the evil oil companies who exploit us by providing cheap, abundant fuel at profit; 2) such drilling might harm the environment in mystical ways immune to scientific inquiry ;3) Actually finding oil might stop the artificially induced conservation efforts  of Leftist by allowing middle class American to drive as if they were limousine liberals.  

Hillary and Obama  are both looking to take the oil companies profits.  The problem is a large portion of those profits largely belong to the American people.  40% of Americans are heavily invested in big oil.  And the real figure is probably much higher than that.  If you have mutual funds, stock market funds, or if you have a pension fund, a 401-K or and IRA or even a bank account, you are invested in the big oil companies because these companies have had the greatest return on investments. 

    Obama's spending strategy is this: he wants to spend $150 billion on a green-energy plan.  He want to establish an infrastructure investment bank to the tune of $60 billion.  He wants to expand health care by roughly $65billion.  He wants to "reopen" trade deals (i.e. raise the barriers to free trade).   He intends to regulate the profits for drug companies, health insurers and energy firms.  He wants to establish a mortgage-interest tax credit.  He wants to double the number of workers receiving the earned-income tax credit and triple the benefit for minimum wage workers.  The WSJ's Steve Moore has done the math on Obama's tax plan.  It is going to cost about $800 billion.  It is going to add up to 39.6 % personal income tax, a 52.2% combined income and payroll tax, a 28% capital gains tax , a 39.6% dividends tax and a 55% estate tax.   

 

That might be enough numbers for now, especially because so many people really seem to be OK with the idea of redistributing wealth, and have bought into the concept of making big companies pay.  I think I shall end with a thought from President Ford. 

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." 

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden."

-Abraham Cowley, The Garden, 1666

I think that I have finally, mostly, finished my planting in my garden this year.  It was a fairly larger project than other years because this year as part of what we did we built a retaining wall around the garden and down the side of the house.  Now I am just trying to convince Timmy that we need to redo the lawn in FRONT of the garden.   

I  know there are those of you laughing at me for calling my 2'x10' space  a garden.  I understand that it is basically a really large flower box...but I love it. There is truly something undeniably just perfect about digging in the dirt, planting things and then having the pleasure of watching them grow.  

God Almighty first planted a garden: and, indeed it is the purest of human pleasure. 

-Francis Bacon

So  now when the dishes REALLY need to get done ...I go outside and weed...or when the laundry is piling up so that we have no clean clothes to wear...I go outside and water.  I think there really is something to the saying that "God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done.".    Blast those rainy days...of course the rain doesn't touch my hanging plants and flower boxes..so I do still have to take some time for those! ;-)