The Best Wife I’ve Ever Had

CrazyMom is by far the best wife I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, this compliment is lost on her. She is so quick to point out that she is the only wife I have ever had and then she acts all put off and stuff.

Now, this brings up something I just don’t get about women. Women have this intuition thing going that is almost like omniscience. One time I brought a poinsettia into the house and presented it to CrazyMom. “Who gave you that?” she asked. “I got it for you,” I replied. “No really, who gave you that?” she asked again. How did she know that someone at work just gave it to me? I just don’t get how women can do this.

But how can CrazyMom intuitively know everything except that when I say, “You are the best wife I’ve ever had” that I am really complimenting her because of something she just did. I guess women have selective intuition. It must be something like when CrazyMom says I have selective hearing.

Today’s reason that CrazyMom is the best wife I’ve ever had is because of this. I left directly from church to go work at a rental trying to get it ready to rent while CrazyMom took the crew of seven kids home to feed them lunch. While I was chain sawing limbs, painting, and building screen frames CrazyMom was playing soccer in the yard with the kids. I got home 15 minutes before I had to leave again to take two kids to get their team soccer photos taken. Deciding a hot shower would be more rewarding than supper, I headed upstairs. As I was finishing getting dressed, CrazyMom came in the bathroom with a plate of food which I ate as I walked downstairs to get the keys. I grabbed the keys and as I was walking out the door CrazyMom handed me a glass of lemonade to drink on the way. When I emerged from the house I saw both kids dressed in their uniforms standing by the car waiting for me.

I thought, “Man, CrazyMom is the best wife I’ve ever had.”

P.S. On a different note – I should say something about how dumb-smart I am. There was a split tree at the rental and standing on the back of the truck I could not reach quite high enough. So I cut off what I could, but there were still several feet of this good-sized limb hanging from the tree. If I was dumb, I would have just left it hanging there and in a year or two it would have fallen on somebody or something. If I was smart, I would have brought a ladder back with me next time I came to the rental and cut it down. Since I am dumb-smart, I figured if I backed my truck up just right, I could stand on the roof and hold the chainsaw over my head with my left hand while pushing the hanging piece of limb with my right hand so that when it fell it would not land on the truck. It worked great – I did not fall, I did not cut myself, and the limb did not land on the truck. Oh, one more thing. When the one end of the limb fell onto the ground the other end then hit the side of the truck and put a big dent in the door. Now that is what I call dumb-smart.

P.S.S. While I was writing this post, CrazyMom brought me some warm homemade apple crisp with milk poured over it – just like I like it. I’m telling you, she is the best wife I’ve ever had!

And the lights come on

We have been without power for the last three days in our house as a result of the remnants of hurricane Ike passing through town. There is so much I could tell, but here are a few random happenings.

We lost our favorite tree in the front yard and it took out a large section of our second favorite tree on the way down. The sense of loss that I felt over the trees was mixed with a real sense of appreciation that I was 1200 miles from where Ike came ashore. The Ike/Texas photos that I had so quickly passed over in the paper from earlier days I now found myself lingering over and feeling a bit more compassion for those affected by the hurricane.

There is nothing like a day off school for the kids with perfect weather. The kids had a grand time cutting off branches from the downed tree, hauling it all to the back yard, and then making a fort. You can’t plan any better fun than that.




Necessity is the mother of invention. CrazyMom was bummed because the power went off before she could cook the homemade lasagna that she had thawed out. We ended up grilling it. We put it on the grill with a pan beneath it and then regulated the temperature just like an oven. It worked great.

It is hard to wait for the sun to come up to start your day. This morning I got up, retrieved the paper, warmed some coffee on the gas stove, and then settled back into bed to read the paper to try to find out how long it would be until we got power. CrazyMom thought it was pretty funny and took a picture of me with my four candles and lantern. Who knew that those monks who lit a ton of candles in their monasteries actually needed them all to see well enough to read?



So after three days of no power, we returned from a soccer game to find all of our lights on. Now it is back to the same old routine of hollering at the kids all of the time to turn the lights off.

And the numbness fades away . . .

Life is finally settling back down to our normal crazy busy schedule. I like crazy busy. I may be running all of the time, but I can still get all of the important stuff done. I don't like super crazy busy. Super crazy busy is when I am standing in a hallway at work later than I should be with CrazyMom on the cell phone reminding me that I am missing dinner with the family, with someone at the end of the hall waiting to meet with me, and with my own stuff not done. I stand there with a knot in my stomach knowing that it is my privilege today to be a second rate father, a second rate husband, and a second rate employee.

But then Dory from Finding Nemo reminds me what to do. "Just keep swimming."

So I swim, stuff gets done, life improves and the numbness fades away . . .

But in the end I am not sure that it is the busyness of my schedule that leads me into or out of numbness. Rather it seems that is has to do with whether or not I am nurturing my relationship with God who brings my soul to life. When life gets super crazy busy my natural instinct is to burn the candle at both ends to get it all done rather than to rest in God. Maybe next time I will remember that which I have learned so many times in the past.

It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
(Psalm 127:2, NASB)

Numbed by Life

I printed off our monthly calendar the other day and after it rolled off the printer a second page came out. The second page listed all of the overflow items that did not fit into the tidy squares on the calendar. Needless to say, life is really busy right now.

There is me trying to get ready for teaching school and CrazyMom trying to get ready for teaching home school. There is having our kids on five different soccer teams. I am turning over a rental and teaching Sunday school. Then there is the impending family trip over Labor Day.

All of it has just left me numb. I smile on the outside, but life is joyless on the inside.

I admit that I have a full life and I am often operating at maximum capacity. Usually it is OK but then I hit a stretch of a week or two when it is just too much. There is nobody to blame but myself. Philosophically, I know God only gives me enough to fill my plate and it is me who adds the other stuff to make it too full. I just have a hard time knowing what things to say no to.

As I mechanically go through my days I have not lost hope because my calendar shows me things will ease in about two weeks. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

This makes me reflect on those who have real problems. Problems that suffocate you for which there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Problems that numb you to the core and make life a hopeless blur. As Ethiopia’s food crisis continues in the very region our children are from, faces come to my mind - faces of mothers trying to find food for their children in a dry and weary land.

My numbing stretch will pass in a matter of weeks. Their numbing stretch will last much longer. And when it does pass, will it be too late for their children?

Visiting GrandpaR and GrandmaR

Every summer we travel to visit grandparents. While Anna has already met GrandpaR and GrandmaR, this was her first visit to their house in the country. Splitting wood, hunting toads, and making applesauce were all new activities to watch or participate in. Being a highly social child, Anna also enjoyed meeting new uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Here are a few photos of the trip.




Ed playing in the wood pile.


Anna finally agreed to hold her first toad. "He tickle me!" she said.


GrandpaR will split wood by himself so he made a hydraulic lift for the back of his tractor so he can drop the big logs in the perfect spot to split them. Here you can see him backing a log into the splitter.


CrazyMom discovered Buddy and Miss Bookworm in the yard one day reading. They had hauled chairs and a table to a shady reading spot. They also had their bucket of baby toads close by in case the toads would need anything.


GrandmaR showing Anna some photos.


We spent one of the afternoons playing all sorts of water stuff in the yard. We had some water balloon slingshots that we soon discovered could send the projectiles farther than were were expecting.



Here I am demonstrating that you don't really need three people to operate the slingshot.



Buddy wants you to think he drank a little too much water during the event, but he actually was filling water balloons with a hose.

An Imminent Teenager

CrazyMom and I are about to enter a new stage in life - parenting a teen. It is hard for us to believe that Miss Bookworm will be thirteen before the year is out. With life swirling around us there just never seems to be enough time to sit down with Miss Bookworm and talk about the next stage of life.

Well, one thing CrazyMom and I know about ourselves is that if it is on the calendar, it gets done. This led us to put an overnight getaway for just CrazyMom and Miss Bookworm on the calendar. They went on their trip a few days ago and had a grand time. It was a great for them to be able to spend some time having fun together as well as to think through the teenage years. They came back excited about the trip causing every other kid in our home to now look forward to turning thirteen so they can go on a trip with just mom or just dad.

Here are a few photos of them hiking together (anybody know what kind of bird that feather is from?) and the place they stayed.

Celebrating 15 Years

The other night CrazyMom and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. We shunned the traditional 15 year gift of crystal opting instead for a night out on the town. Emulating our courting days, I lined up several different activities for the evening including a movie, dinner, and viewing an exhibit of Pulitzer Prize photographs. Putt putt was also on the docket, but the evening was getting late for us. This was our 15th anniversary after all, not our 5th.

The Pulitzer Prize exhibit was powerful in the way that it testified to the depravity of man. I found myself feeling grateful to these photographers for forcing me to remember and deal with events of our past, but at the same time I am not recommending the exhibit as a part of your wedding anniversary celebration.

After dinner we strolled around a bit enjoying what was a gorgeous evening. Here is one of those arm length self portraits as we are relaxing outdoors.


Our heavenly father is one who likes us to remember – from the communion table today to the twelve stones carried from the center of the Jordan River long ago (Joshua 4) – it is important to keep in mind the ways in which God has been faithful to us. In the same way, CrazyMom and I love to play “I remember when . . .” on our anniversary where we each take turns completing the sentence by recalling some time we have shared together in the past. It is always fun to be reminded of things about which we have not thought for a long time.

With seven kids underfoot, we don’t get out alone very much. However, we are on the verge of a new era. Soon we will be able to duck out for dinner leaving Miss Bookworm as the commander-in-chief of the rest of the munchkins. What a sweet day that will be.

Readoption in the US

Anna is now our child all over again. We made a court appearance today where a US court agreed that indeed Anna was our child. Yeah!

A Family Tradition

For the last eight years our family has gone to a family camp with other families we know. You may recall last year when F.G. and K.D. got to go for the very first time and the traumatic event that happened on the way home. This year Anna got to go along for the first time. There were seven families (44 adults/children) who went making it one of the largest gatherings in the last several years.

At some point in the future I may write of the significance of this event for our family, but for now, here are a few photos from the last week. Photos in some way both represent and misrepresent the truth. These photos misrepresent the truth because I had to scour all of the photos I had to find ones where our kids were not pictured with other kids. They also seem to convey that the fun of the trip was all in the activities we did, but this is not true. Sure the activities were fun, but the real joy of the trip came from being able to be refreshed by so many kindred spirits.

A Scare

by Miss Bookworm
July 4, 2008

(Editor's Note: This is a piece of writing that Miss Bookworm wrote about when she was at a week long camp a few weeks back.)

It was about 10 or 11 o’clock at night. Our cabin was hanging out at the Pop Shop, having a good time, when our counselor called us over. Our normally cheerful and joking counselor was now grave, and she was holding a note in her hand. She said that she had received it after supper. It said to go down to the front of the dining hall. She also told us that it said “NO TALKING” in all caps. That kinda scared me. As we walked down the beaten trail around the lake to the dining hall, the dark night and looming trees set my unsure mood. When we got to the dining hall, we sat down on the porch over the lake. As we were sitting down, someone whispered in my ear that we weren’t in trouble at all, but I didn’t believe her. Why would she know and no one else? I might have believed it slightly at first, but as time wore on, I was more and more certain that it wasn’t true. My counselor told us to sit quietly until someone came. Then she told us that she thought Chuck was going to handle this, but he was busy, so Hannah, the nurse, was going to instead. I was now thoroughly freaked out. Chuck was one of the camp leaders. If he was supposed to talk to us, something really must be wrong.

When Hannah came, she sat down and said something very bad had happened. She said that someone had gotten seriously injured at swimming time, and that someone in our cabin had hurt her, but the person didn’t know who it was. It was incredibly serious and they were going to write a report about it. She pulled out an important-looking notebook as she said this. Hannah said that whoever did this should come forward - “you know who you are.” I raced frantically through my memory for what we did at swimming time. Surely I hadn’t hurt anyone seriously!! Then Hannah said “Well, if no one will come forward, we could just go inside and have a pizza party.” At first I was sure she was kidding. Then I realized it was no joke; I had been fooled. I was extremely relieved that we weren’t in trouble. The girl who had told me we weren’t in trouble had been right!! Her mom had sent in money for a pizza party for the whole cabin. I was so glad as we stepped into the light of the dining room to feast. We had a great time that night and we got very hyper as our emotions swung from worry and stress to the excitement of having a pizza party. I promise you, they’ll give you gray hair at that camp.