The Simple Wife

Calling the tooth fairy

Forgot to mention (I know...even in the rush of list mode that went on and on!) that Emma lost a tooth yesterday. She pulled it herself.

And that means it was time to call the Tooth Fairy.

The first time Audrey lost a tooth she wanted to know how the Tooth Fairy knew to come. Good question--and one I never had as a kid.

"Um. We call her," I said. And I have ever since for every tooth the kids lose.

"Hello? Is this the Tooth Fairy."

PAUSE.

"Yes, I'll hold." Turning aside to the girls. "It must be a busy day for her. I'm on hold."

PAUSE, while I tap my foot and wander around humming to the hold music.

"Hi. This is the Heim family and Emma lost a tooth today."

PAUSE.

"The one on the bottom left."

PAUSE. 

"Yes, our address is still... Yes, her room is still the one at the top of the stairs on the right. Blue carpet." 

(We always confirm our address because sometimes we're on vacation and need to let the tooth fairy know where we are.)

PAUSE.

"Special requests? Yes, she'd really like to keep her tooth so she can take it to school tomorrow to show her class."

PAUSE.

"Thanks for making an exception and understanding."

(Emma also wants me to tell the Tooth Fairy that she only wants dollars, not cents. But I think that's a little pushy, so I don't tell the Tooth Fairy that!)

PAUSE.

"Thank you very much. Have a good night!"

Random-y randomness

First, when Peter said, "What are we going to do with your hair?" and I said, "I don't know" and he said, "How about Sharon Stone short?" and I thought, "No way!" what I said was, "Been there, done that, let's just trim the ends."

So no picture to show--it pretty much looks the same. But someone else washed my hair and spent 30 minutes brushing it (with at least four different kinds of brushes) getting it dry and all I had to do was sit there with my eyes closed. It was good. The other big news? I chose orange polish for my toes.

In other news...

1. The girls are tucked in for the night in clean sheets. It's Tuesday, also known as sheets and towels day. I love getting into bed when the sheets are all clean. I don't particularly enjoy making the beds (making beds is a boy job around the Heim house), but I must admit that I do get a weird sense of satisfaction out of flinging the flat sheet up in the air and having it land all smooth and perfect--just like in a laundry detergent commercial. 

2. Toben's in Phoenix (which is where the company he works for is located), so I have been making the bed each morning, though that's not really hard since I don't really move when I sleep. It makes for a quick chore!

And speaking of Toben... He has a blog too. But he never posts pictures and I think his last post was about shooting a machine gun. I'm sure if you all go look his stats will go way up and maybe he'll start posting pictures under the pressure of more than the three readers he says he usually he has.

3. Back to school always makes me feel housewife-y. It's a chance to start again (more so than the new year for some reason) and I've been setting the breakfast table and packing lunches the night before. And I've made sure the kitchen is clean--no dishes in the drying rack, everything put away just so--before going to bed. I tell ya, it makes getting up in the morning that much easier to know the kitchen is nice and neat and there's just one button to push for that first cup of coffee.

4. I'm headed to San Antonio on Thursday morning for a Beth Moore Living Proof Live weekend and the Siesta Fiesta. (Click on that thing over there ---> for more information if you don't know what I'm talking about.) I'm so excited to meet so many of you face to face. I do need to pack tomorrow--and now that my toes are orange, I'll pack clothes to match!

The biggest question is whether to pack my computer and blog from there. Part of me wants to, the other part thinks I should leave it at home and just take lots of pictures and notes to share when I get back.

But I never travel without it and it might be kind of weird. Not sure yet.

5. I finally got to talk to my friend Terri today. It had been way too long and I've been trying to get her on the phone for days. It was great to hear her voice, but it made me really miss her. I think we could have talked for at least another hour, but it was my turn in line at Target and I just can't talk on the phone while someone is ringing me up. My mother would tell me it's rude and I agree.

6. I got to have coffee with a new friend this morning. I was standing in line at Starbucks, contemplating the fact that I had no idea what she looked like, when I felt a tug on my jeans and looked down to see the cutest little boy with the longest eyelashes ever look up at me and say, "Are you Miss Joanne?" 

By the end of our time together, Jonah was sitting up in my lap and playing with my charm bracelet, asking me about each one and learning all about sea otters and how they eat abalone while floating on their backs (that one is from the Monterey Bay Aquarium). He even invited me to come to his house and see his fishing pole. And when it was time to go, he said, "Excuse me. Do you love me?" Absolutely. And I loved his mama too!

7. In case that whole "boy job" thing made you wonder, we have very definite boy jobs and girl jobs around our house--and have since we got married. For example, boy jobs include putting gas in the cars, taking out the trash, mowing the lawn, making the bed, cleaning up after dinner, and trimming the cat's toenails. Girl jobs include cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, trimming the dog's toenails, and grocery shopping.

8. Okay, now I'm just babbling. Time to go pray the evening office and go to sleep. (I just read Robert Benson's new book, In Constant Prayer. As always when it comes to his books, I loved it and was challenged in so many ways. If you're looking for something to read, go get one of his books. Or come borrow one of mine. But you have to return it because I read them again and again.)

  

It's time for my annual haircut

Well, I did get it cut last December, so it's not quite been a year. More like eight months. And since I go so infrequently, Toben splurges to send me someplace nice. Someplace where there's a guy whose only job is to wash hair. I love having my hair washed. It just might be my love language.

The last time I got my hair cut there (well, the only time other than tomorrow, really) two people dried my hair. One on each side, each with his own blowdryer. How cool is that?! It takes at least 25 minutes to get my hair dry (and that's with the super-duper, high wattage hairdryer of doom), so to have someone else do it saves my arms from getting tired and falling off.

I have no idea what I want. Part of me wants to tell Peter to do whatever he wants--after all, he's worked on Linda Evangelista and other models and famous people--but I'm a little chicken. Make that a lot chicken. I'd love to go for an Angelina Jolie, Stacey London, Miley Cyrus kind of a long hair thing, but I cannot stand having my hair in my face or in my way. 

I'd also love to do a sassy short hair thing, but I know that I'd hate it and then spend the next two years complaining and waiting for it to grow. (I know that because I did cut it short about three or four years ago and just stopped complaining in the past year and a half.)

Which means I'll probably tell Peter to do whatever he wants as long as it's still long enough to pull back in a boring ponytail out of my face. And that means that no one will really be able to tell that I've had it cut.

But I'll be all mellow and happy because someone else will wash my hair and take about half an hour to do it. And that's really why I go get my hair cut anyway! 

I'll let you know how it turns out...

It's Monday and I've actually posted the next ABC of Living Simply

I know you can't believe it, but school has begun and I need to get back in the habit of getting these up. After all, we're up to the letter V and getting close to the end of the alphabet.

And I have a really cool bloggy thing I'm so excited about, but I can't do it until these ABCs are done.

So click on over there (--->) on the ABCs button and you can download "V is for value story."

Ceasing on the Sabbath

I don't know why, but I think it's easier to start with the "do nots" when it comes to understanding the Sabbath. Just some weird way I'm wired, I suppose. I want a clear list of what I can't and should do--and that way I can check off all the little boxes and we'll all be just fine.

But the Sabbath isn't really like that, I'm learning. So much of it is about motive. What honors the Sabbath for you may not honor the Sabbath for me. Which means it's something we each have to discover and pray and seek God's guidance in for ourselves.

And isn't that the point, really?

I mentioned Lynne Baab's book, Keeping the Sabbath, a couple of weeks ago. One of the things I appreciated was questions to help wrestle through what it means to keep the Sabbath for me and my family.

She had something to say that makes sense to me about figuring out the "ceasing" part first:

Remember, we are striving to obey the spirit of the sabbath law. We are not trying to make rules or create new burdens. We are ceasing from some activities to make space for resting in God and enjoying the gifts he's given us.

I need to cease from some things in order to make space for what I will do on the Sabbath. If I add without subtracting first, then it's all too easy to get overwhelmed because the day is just too full. I have to clean house, as it were, before I bring in something new. Otherwise it's just clutter.

Here are just a couple of the questions she asks in her chapter, "A Day Without a 'To Do' List":

What do you need to cease from?

What aspect of your life might be losing its value because of overuse?

Your answers to those questions will probably be different than mine. But as I think about it, I need to cease from work, from chores, from my never-ending to do list. I need to cease from the hustle and bustle of the outside world--shopping, running errands. I need to cease from the noise of everyday life.

The second question is a little harder for me. When I think of overuse, I think of the computer. I love my MacBook, but I spend LOTS of time on it--particularly when I'm in the middle of a writing project. Even just reading blogs, surfing the net, and responding to email takes up big chunks of my day.

I am a reader--and always have been. And when I'm on a reading tear, the world could stop and I wouldn't notice! I do read lots of nonfiction, but when I read for fun, I read for fun. Nothing too heady, nothing on Oprah's book club, just total escape into the world of spies and adventure. 

I say a reading tear, because I can easily ignore my family for hours on end and escape to the underwater world of Dirk Pitt and Clive Cussler novels. I overdo it easily.

For my children, overuse makes me think of the television, the computer. It's changing now that school has begun (we do not turn the television on Monday-Thursday), but as I look back on the summer, it seemed that the TV was on and someone was playing on Webkinz or Littlest Pet Shop or American Girl or Build a Bear every moment.

As I've thought about my answers to those questions, a couple of things have come out of it:

• No computer for me or the girls on Sundays.
• No television (with the exception of watching movie as a family) on Sundays.
• No homework for the girls on Sundays.
• No chores on Sundays.
• No shopping or errands on Sundays.
• No fiction for me on Sundays.
• Nothing on Sundays that doesn't include the whole family--that means an automatic "no" to any birthday parties on a Sunday afternoon, Girl Scout activities, or playdates.

That's an awful lot of NO as I look at the list. But the cool thing is that some of it feels like a relief--no grocery shopping, no cleaning the house, no laundry! 

But like Baab said in her book, all those "no"s create space for the things we will do on Sundays.

This is getting entirely too long and I have to go take Audrey to her final vision therapy evaluation, so more on the YES stuff soon! You deserve a cookie if you've read through this whole thing--and maybe a cup of tea to go with it. Go treat yourself!

Anticipating Sabbath

It's still raining here--I just love it! We've had a wonderful indoor day. Breakfast all together, followed by the me and the girls hanging out in the basement being crafty and sewing.

But I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's Sabbath.

We've been gone the past two Sundays on vacation, and I'm excited to go to church tomorrow and do our Sabbath routine.

For me, the idea of Sabbath and service are closely linked. And as I've thought about what we could do to serve as a family, one of the things that has come up is our Compassion children. We have four Compassion daughters--two for each girl, sharing birthday months and years with Audrey and Emma. 

I must confess that we've been terrible about writing to them.

So as I've thought about new ways we could serve, God kept bringing our girls to mind. That we have children to serve--and we could serve them much better than we do. It's not time to add something new until we're doing what we're already doing well.

So on Sundays, we come home and have Sunday dinner, then we sit down and write to our girls--one each week, so they each receive a letter each month. We've been in the routine since school got out and it's working really well.

We read any updates from the girl whose week it is, write a letter together, and Audrey and Emma usually draw pictures and write little notes. We dig through the sticker drawer and look for fun things to send along with the letters. Audrey and Emma love it. 

And while we pray for Lucia and Denys, for Gita and Josiane at bedtime most nights, I'd like to start praying more specifically for them as a family on Sunday afternoons.

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry 

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--

when you see the naked, to clothe him,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness will go before you,

and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;

you will cry for help, and he will say:

Here am I...

"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

and the LORD's holy day honorable, 

and if you honor it by not going your own way

and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

then you will find your joy in the LORD,

and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land

and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."

The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

(from Isaiah 58)

A joyful noise and a clean house

**ADDED A FEW MINUTES LATER** Forgot to mention that it's been raining and thundering all morning. I love that!

I just have to stop what I'm doing and say I'm having the best day. Toben's been out running errands and is now at school doing lunch duty, the girls are at school, and I have the house all to myself.

I started cleaning at 8 this morning and the whole downstairs is done. I just need to go put some rugs in the dryer before heading upstairs to tackle bedrooms, bathrooms, and the loft.

When I'm home alone cleaning, I turn the music WAY, WAY up and praise my way through mopping, dusting, and scrubbing.

Here's one of the songs I've had to listen to again, putting down the scrub brush so I can sing and dance with some reckless abandon.

The video doesn't show the whole song, but go find it if you don't have it on your playlist. Here are the lyrics:

- Nicole C. Mullen Lyrics

Are you convinced? NOTHING can separate you from the love God has for you. NOTHING! He loves you so much. Know that today.

They're looking so grown up...

The first day of school

I do have pictures on my camera, but it's in my purse in the garage and I'm sitting here at my desk in the living room and don't want to go get it. So I'll add them later! 

The first day of school was wonderful. We are so blessed to send our girls to an amazing Christian school and the first day of school never fails to make me say "Thank you, thank you, thank you" to God all day.

We got up and out the door with Audrey only changing clothes three times (she must be getting older!) despite the fact that we set out outfits the night before. We ALL go to school on the first day and it's our usual habit to pray on the way to school with the girls. So we prayed for teachers and friends and new families and our principal from last year who left to follow God's leading in a new job.

Then we walked the girls to their classrooms, said hi to everyone we saw, met new students, and headed over to chapel. The first day always begins with chapel at our school. Prayer, praise songs, and an introduction to the theme for the year--this year is the names of Jesus.

Every new student is introduced to the whole school, new parents stand up and are welcomed. It's the best and so fun to talk to new families and hear them say that the school has far, far exceeded their expectations.

School's out at noon the first day, and we headed to lunch with Audrey's BFF and her mom (a dear friend of mine) and then over to Mom and Dad's to give them the scoop on the first day. Can I just say again how much I LOVE living only a few minutes from my parents?

Toben was mentioning the other day that he only saw his grandparents a handful of times as a kid--I love that Audrey and Emma see my parents almost every day (when they're not off in the wilds of Alaska, that is!).

Lunches are packed for today, the breakfast table is set, and it's almost time to get the girls up for their first FULL day of school. They can't wait--in fact, I hear the pitter patter of feet upstairs!

My first FULL day of being home? Cleaning house!

Pictures coming, I promise.

The grand total...

$38.56

Not bad for two kids. We had to buy a gazillion spiral notebooks for Audrey and went for the expensive plastic covered ones. I know my kid and paper ones would rip by next Tuesday. 

And I bought a few things NOT on the list--like personal hand sanitizer and chapstick (what I call lippy!) for their desks. 

The other big ticket items were 12-pocket expandable plastic folders for both of the girls. They're not cheap--but so nice to have all their papers in one big folder, neatly labeled (well, for the first week anyway, after that Audrey's math papers always end up in the geography section, and her maps migrate over to grammar!). Oh, and Clorox wipes always cost more than I think they should.

So I've sharpened a million pencils (not really--50 for Emma, 20 for Audrey, plus 24 colored pencils--so that's only 94!), found a mishmash of crayons for Emma, and put names on absolutely everything.

Clothes are set out in the clothes cubby things in their closet for the two days of this school week; we're washing hair tonight. I think we may be ready for school to begin.