Questions about moms...

A friend sent this list of questions today, and the kids and I had a lot of fun answering them together.  They were each questioned separately, so nobody was copycatting.  Just thought I'd share.

1. What is something mom always says to you?

     "Coffee...?"

   "You're my favorite."

     "Love you best."

     "I love you best...and....Joseph, time to do the dishes!"

     "I love you best."

     "I love you."

2. What makes mom happy?

       "Coffee." 

      "A clean house that she didn't have to do."

     "Coffee."

       "Umm..family and friends."

      "When I do work without her asking me."

       "Cause, umm...she's just happy!"


3. What makes mom sad?

      "No coffee." 

      "A really messy house and everyone is watching tv and around the computer not doing school."

    "No coffee."

       "What DOES make you sad Momma?...ummm...Daddy not here?"

     "When she's missing stuff...like a missing playing card."

      "People not listening?"

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

       "I don't know that there's one way in particular.  Uhh...funny stuff off the intenet?  Just talking.

      "I don't know...she asks silly questions?" 

    "When she complains and laughs about wanting coffee."

      "So far, she hasn't made me laugh in a long time, but she's made me happy.  Tickling me...but she hasn't done that in a long time."

     "She tickles me."

       "Say I love you!"

5. What was your mom like as a child?

       "I don't know...?  INSIDE the box." 

     "Spoiled."

     "Naughty."

      "Happy."

     "Me!"
     "Ummm...she just do?"

6.How old is mom?

    "40."

   "I think you're 40, though 39 came to my mind first.  You're never going to turn 40 ever!"

   "40, I think...are you?"

     "40...9...smirk."

    "Uhh...40!"

     "Um...I don't know."

7. How tall is your mom?

       "Five nine?" 

      "Less than six feet, but more than five." 

    "I don't know."

      "About five feet?"

     "I don't know about that question....ummm...7 feet."

      "Umm..an inch tall...or half."

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

       "Talk to her imaginary friends on the internet...and hanging out with us, her family."

      "Be alone." 

    "Play on the computer, write email, and being with us."

      "I don't know.  Sleep?"

     "Hmm...to do internet."

      "Play on the computer."

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

        "How am I supposed to know????!!!  I GUESS internet and enjoy the peace and quiet." 

       "Uhh...be alone?"

       "Recharge and rest."

         "Work...a little."

       "Usually cleans the kitchen...if it's dirty."

       "Sad."

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

        "Her writing." 

      "I never thought about that!  Umm...I guess maybe being the best mom in the world."

      "...her food and her good kids."

       "Her teaching...actually her skinniness."

       "Hmmm...you'd be the president!"

       ?????

11. What is your mom really good at?

         "Settlers of Catan and Writing."

       "typing." 

     "teaching and Spades."

       "Making me happy, but not laugh."

      "typing on the internet really fast, like you are right now."

       "typing."

12. What is your mom not very good at?

       "Taking risks she doesn't deem necessary for life."

       "taking unnecessary risks." 

     "bike riding."

       "Making me stop work."

      "Driving the truck in the mountains."

      "Driving."

13. What does your mom do for her job?

        "Raise us."

       "Ummm...which one?  She's got a whole bunch of jobs.  Teaching, being a mom, doctor, missionaries wife, and a bunch more." 

      "Be a mom."

         "Missionary work. Or, right now learning the language."

       "I don't know anything about that.  Type on the internet?"

        "Work and stuff...work, just working cleaning the house."

14. What is your mom's favorite food?

       "Ham and cheese omelette with the cheese squeezed out and browned."

       "Chocolate." 

      "Chocolate."

        "Chocolate."

       "Pumpkin casserole."

        "Spaghetti."

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

       "Her tenacity and perseverance"

      "That she can do what she does." 

     "Everything."

       "Herself."

     "God made you for me to love you and for you to love me."

      "Cause, I love you."

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

      "Mr. Monk."

      "The only one that comes to mind is Bambi's mom."   

     "I don't know any cartoons."

       "Just plain momma.  Plain, any type of school plain Momma."

     "Uh, let me think, a bride."

       "Sam."

17. What do you and your mom do together?

        "Take walks and talk."

       "She asks questions and I have to answer them." 

      "Laugh and have fun."

         "School, eat at the table, every month or two laugh together."

       "Bake a cake."

       "Play, but right now we are talking about stuff."

18. How are you and your mom the same?

        "We want it to be "even."

       "In which way?  Well, our initials are the same." 

      "So many ways I can't think of them all."

        "She birthed me and her last name is the same as mine."

       "We are NOT the same."

       "I don't know."

19. How are you and your mom different?

        "Adrenaline threshold."

       "I have aLOT bigger feet than she does."  

       "...hmmm...that's a lot harder...maybe I'm more     adventurous than she is."

        "She's a girl and I'm not."

       "Mom stays clean, wears glasses, and has dark hair."

        "Playing with toys."

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

        "She says so."

      "She shows it all the time. And little things." 

     "Cause she says it all the time."

      "She says so."

     "Because she sometimes says so."

      "Cause she just loves me."

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

       "Home."

       "Wherever Daddy goes." 

      "Home."

       "America or bed...either one."

      "America!"

      "To Sam's house."

New Look

Yes, my blog now has a new look.  My sweet husband started a new blog yesterday and chose the identical template I had been using.  I was getting VERY confused going back and forth between our sites, sooooo...I chose a new template.  Pretty techno savvy don't you think?

Speaking of techno savvy, this past weekend I joined the world of facebook.  I'm having a good time reconnecting with a bunch of folks I'd kinda lost touch with.  Pretty fun place to "hang out." 

This week I want to figure out how to post a link to this blog from my facebook account.  I've spent several long moments just staring at my profile page there, KNOWING it is possible...yet not quite being willing to start clicking here and there.  Leave it to me to cause facebook to completely crash worldwide.  (Keep your eye out on FoxNews for the story!)

Anyway...enjoy the new look!

Pictures, pictures!

Oh, I'm going to have FUN now that I'm finally learning how to share our photos!  This is the birthday boy.  Notice the loose change in the photo?  He's learning to count AMERICAN money.  We had quite a challenge finding enough coins for him to work with.


Now here is one of the whole Avrit clan.  For those of you who have a hard time keeping all of us straight:  from left to right...Christopher, Seth, Elizabeth, Hosanna, Jonathan (who USUALLY smiles), Miriam, Joseph, Mary Katherine (no, she's NOT standing on her tippie toes), and Michael.

The Castle

Playing around tonight to see if I can enter the world of those who can actually post PICTURES to their blog. No telling WHERE this picture is actually going to show up for you to see, though.

Anyway...this is a picture of the house we are hoping to rent in Thailand. We've told the owners we would like to rent it, and they've said, "Yes." No papers have been signed yet, however, so it's not a done deal.

"It's worth it!"

My son, Seth, has a birthday tomorrow.  He'll be nine.  This is one fun kid!  

He's spent the last 10 minutes combing his hair this way and that, trying to make it look "just so."  After much combing, he informed me that he wants a haircut...TONIGHT! 

This is the same child who, though born into a bluejeans and t-shirt kind of family is happiest with dress pants and a button down shirt.  We still claim him though!

This child also climbs walls with his toenails.  Can't figure how for the life of me how he does that.  I haven't seen anything like it since I was a kid and chased my cat with a running vacuum cleaner. He may become a navy seal when he grows up...if it's not too tame for him.

Lately, Seth has accompanied me on my afternoon walks.  Our route takes us past several large piles of dirt.  Seeing as I'm an adult, I simply walk past the piles.  Not Seth.  He must run up and down each dirt pile.  It's impossible for him to skip one.  As he reaches the top of each hill, he grins down at me and says the same thing every time, "It's WORTH it!!!!"

I love that kid.

Happy birthday Seth.

Waiting

Waiting.  Been doing a lot of that this last year.  Waiting to see what the next step is going to be. Waiting.  Wondering.

Soon we will be moving back to Thailand.  Folks ask me when that will happen.  Ummm...I don't know when.  We're waiting.

Some days I'm better at waiting than others.  Lately, THANKFULLY, I'm pretty peaceful about the waiting process.

Today during my quiet time, I came across some waiting that I had never noticed before.  In Jeremiah 42, the "remnant" that was left behind after Nebuchadnessar came and hauled off the people of Israel are wanting to know what they should do next. They are waiting.  They ask Jeremiah to "Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do."  Jeremiah says, "I will ask God."  So...Jeremiah inquires of the Lord.  Then they wait. 

They wait one day.  No word.  They wait two days.  Still nothing.  Day three comes,  and Jeremiah still has no message for them.  What?  I thought Jeremiah was God's prophet.  Why doesn't he know anything?  More days pass.  A week.  Nine days.  FINALLY, after ten days, Jeremiah hears from the Lord.

My question is, WHY DID IT TAKE TEN DAYS FOR GOD TO GET BACK WITH JEREMIAH?! Was God tied up at the office?  Swamped with too many things on His to do list?  On vacation? Distracted?  Uninterested?  No.  None of these things.  

It doesn't say, though.  We don't find out WHY God waited ten days to give the message to Jeremiah.  But we do know that He waited.  He COULD have given Jeremiah the message immediately, but He didn't.  God is God, and He doesn't work on our timetable.  He often doesn't give us the answers as soon as we ask the questions.  And that's okay.  We trust that He has a plan.  We trust that it is a good plan.  We wait.  

The story gets a little fuzzy for me as I read on.  It looks like the remnant didn't obey the instructions that they received from the Lord, and they missed out on great blessing.  Ah, may we wait, and THEN be obediant to whatever He directs.  

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."  Proverbs 3:5-6