Life In a Shoe

My mom is preganant! Here due date is June 20 2006 if it’s a boy the name will be
Perry Clarence Coghlan the 4th.

Deanna’s Limerick:
She flew through the air like Clark Kent
but her loft, height and grace were ill-spent;
for she did Ben no harm
and she fractured her arm
when Ben sidestepped her rapid descent.

My Limerick:

Her best friends are green, brown
and gray;
They eat in a most vulgar way:
They grab, rip and bite,
slurp guts with delight,
but they always remember to pray

Lydia does not have a limerick
so I will give the group limerick for
Deanna, Lydia and I:

Three girls from Castle Lake
There books to town to town did take
But while they were there they just
Twirled their hair,
For math made their little heads ache.

Megan’s limerick:

She smiles wherever she goes
And frequently picketh her nose
She’s smooth on her heel
But her calves are like steel
Cuz she walks on the tips of her toes

Natalie’s limerick:

She’s as tall as her sister who’s eight
Her bathroom breaks really can’t wait
She’s loud in the house
Her pet’s not a mouse
and New Year’s is her special date.

Rebecca’s (aka Becca) limerick:

She starts it without any warning,
the very first thing in the morning:
she sings to her guys;their souls they arise
with eyes full of weeping and mourning.

it delighted my Dad to see the family tradition would be carried on. Read more about the family tradition here.

Kaitlyn

Ah, Alaura, The oldest twin and bug lover, the red-headed story writer. My little aunt… Kaitlyns best friend. How shalt I begin her story? She and Briana both had guinea pigs,Alaura’s was named Alec and Briana’s was named Taffy (due to her color). But Briana’s died and Alaura gave hers away when they moved to NY . But Alaura is not bereft of pets now by any means. Now she has a pet chipmunk and a parakeet named Sunny. (Briana has two parakeets named Popeye and Felix).

I’m always amazed at what I like to call the “dirt-under-your-fingernails” wisdom found in Proverbs.

17:18 says

A man devoid of understanding shakes hands in a pledge, And becomes surety for his friend.

Ever cosign?

I found this discussion over at the “Cellar Door” blog so interesting I HAD to comment

P.S. This is a picture of our cat. He’s a real live Garfield, and he weighs 20 pounds. More to come.

Our new computer rule is that before we get on the computer, we have to do a blog post and we only have 30 minutes.
The little kids that don’t have blogs just have to send a E-mail to Dad.
Here are some links I get on:

• http://www.neopets.com/
• drop the states
• http://www.webring.com/
• http://www.inashoe.blogspot.com/
• http://www.pollys-peak.blogspot.com/
• http://homemadehouse.blogspot.com/

I guess that’s all.

I told the wife that we should write of our own “date night” practice. She gave her perspective on it here.

Where did the idea start? Probably from the necessity of having a bunch of kids and no family to watch them on a date night. We’ve been pleased with the practice and the result of it.

I realize that it is not ideal for the family with larger, more mature children in the house but when we get there we will probably modify our practice by sending the kids out to eat

What we do is go to the store and buy:

1.) all the greasy junky kind of pre-prep food that kids love and moms hate.
2.) all the expensive stuff that adults love and don’t usually buy for a week night meal.

this includes but is not limited to:

for adults:

1.)fresh salmon
2.) shark steaks
3.) fresh shrimp
4.) expensive cheeses
5.) fresh bread (that someone else made:)
6.) more expensive fresh fruits
7.) portobello mushrooms
8.) cheese cake (always)

for the kids:

1.) chicken fingers
2.) pizza rolls
3.) those little plastic bottles of kool-aid (the ones with the foil lids ) that are near the dairy cooler at most grocers
4.) pre-packed cupcakes (can you say twinkie – boys and girls I think you can)
5.) NOTE THIS ONE IS THE MOST CRITICAL PART OF THE EVENING ….at least 2 preferably 3 rented videos. 4-6 hours worth of brainless entertainment

Like I said, the dearth of baby sitters drove us to it but over time the charm of the practice grew for me because of several factors.

1.) On a fixed budget with lots of little mouths to feed I prefer to take the WHOLE family out to a good restaurant to enjoy meals. Call it a father’s pride but I love walking into a quiet restaurant with my ladies before me, all quiet and behaved and dressed to the nines. It’s great …me bringing up the rear meeting all the looks and stares with confidence as the people look on with amazment. Besides we practice a modified form of the rejoicing tithe (more on that in a later post) and as such our trips out need to be a familial celebration.

2.) I DON’T LIKE LEAVING MY KIDS..see, I’m crazy about them

3.) but my wife still needs to be pampered.

so

4.) where better to serve HER than in HER kitchen? Where day in and day out she serves us…see this is the ultimate foot washing within marriage exercise.

What makes you the bigger hero?

Taking her somewhere and flipping out the check book OR (I forgot to mention that I do the shopping for all of this) getting the stuff for an amazing feast of delicacies and serving your wife for several hours with your hands in a quiet warm comfortable environment where you can kick off your shoes and snuggle on the couch when you are done with your feasting?

I know what works for me. Besides, we fellowship and talk about real meaty things more surrounded by the little reminders of our daily life that our house holds. For us there is real romance and affection that comes out of talking about and working through the little issues of life while we cook.

SEVERAL BIG NOTES TO THE MEN READING THIS :

The whole plan falls apart when you get YOUR FAVORITE stuff – in my house she likes salmon I HATE salmon. When we do this I ALWAYS make sure we have fresh salmon to bake or grill.

Think outside the box: don’t just do one thing. Take the opportunity to try several things. Buy dishes that you both like: even though we have salmon it doesn’t mean I have to choke the hated fish down – other small portion entrees that we routinely indulge in are:

a.) jumbo shrinp
b.) bacon wrapped fillets
c.) boneless grilled chicken
d.) smoked turkey

Her contribution to the whole thing should be to make sure the kids are fed and that they are ready for banishment when you get home (at least on weeknights) so that you can get started early.

Finally, we try and keep it limited to good but very low prep food: salads, grilled meats and fish, sliced fresh vegetables and fruits, breads, “boughten” desserts…

We usually are able to eat for about 50 bucks what would cost us around 150-200 at a restaurant AND we don’t have a drive home or a sitter to mess with.

File it in your FWIW file.

IF you claim to be a Christian and IF you think you can marry your faith with evolution on any level you should repent. There are many people who are better equipped that I to argue the technical proof in favor of a young earth.

I just want to rant about one fact that I never considered until I heard Doug Phillips address it. When I heard it I felt like a little dim light bulb was trying to light up over my head…it was so obvious to me in terms of its implications for the faith.

It’s the topic of death before Adam.

For the household of God we must say with Paul let God be true and every man a liar!

Gen chapters 1-3 teach that until the fall there was no sin in creation and Romans 5:12 says that AFTER the first sin death entered the world – and that BECAUSE death entered the world through sin that is was necessary for a redeemer to come and save us from that death. (verse 16 chapter 5)

What’s the point of all this?

The point is that young earth (read uncompromising) creationism and evolution are mutually exclusive propositions, if for no other reason than their view of death in creation.

Evolution wants us to accept that there was a large portion of time BEFORE any man ever evolved, in which whole types of animals lived, evolved and DIED.

God says that

1.) Adam was the first man – created from dirt and given life ex nihilo by God
2.) No animal died before Adam sinned —- PERIOD

Also if death is a NORMATIVE part of creation, what’s all this Redeemer/Saviour business anyway?

You see you can’t believe that there were hundreds or thousands or millions of years of death before Adam AND believe the biblical/literal reading of genesis.

Remember “through one man sin entered the world and death THROUGH sin.”

For more info check out the book Refuting Compromise by Jonathan Sarfati (Vision Forum has it on sale for seven bucks

click here for a much more exhaustive treatment of the topic by James Stambaugh, M.DIV over at ICR.

She’s been giving me a hard time for years about saying “pop” instead of calling all soda “coke” like a good Texan should

Now there’s demographic info to back her up click here for the map

Thanks to Texas Confederate for the link

I told her you can’t spend 15 years (THANKS DAD) wandering in the Yankee wilderness (eastern Ohio – where some know God but few know the Cowboys) and come back unscathed.

I have taken to calling it “sodie water” after I heard a few old timers in Yancy, TX use the term.

It helps to hide the Yankee taint I carry

I’m glad I’m back in the land of cotton ……

the post immediately preceding this one was a tongue in cheek answer to my wife’s post on almost running over my head (Click here for the post)

this was the second time in 13 years she almost off’ed me! I was almost over about what I refer to as “the salad dressing incident” , when she nearly runs me over with the new van!

how’s that for gratitude?

it’s all right toots ….I’m still crazy about ya

WAIT MEANS WAIT!

right?

go to google.com and type “define: wait” press enter and what results do you get?

(emphasis mine)

stay in one place and anticipate or expect something; “I had to wait on line for an hour to get the tickets”
wait before acting; “the scientists held off announcing their results until they repeated the experiment”
expect: look forward to the probable occurrence of; “We were expecting a visit from our relatives”; “She is looking to a promotion”; “he is waiting to be drafted”
delay: time during which some action is awaited; “instant replay caused too long a delay”; “he ordered a hold in the action”
the act of waiting (remaining inactive in one place while expecting something); “the wait was an ordeal for him”
serve as a waiter or waitress in a restaurant; “I’m waiting on tables at Maxim’s”

’nuff said

Kathryn, the Daring Young Mom, wants to know how I use outside help to lighten my load and make my day easier. I’m really straining for ideas here; we spent too many years with no family nearby, and our church dissolved at exactly the wrong time, forcing us to become very self-sufficient when all our children were small (can you say, “3 under 3″? Or 4, 4 and under…or 5, 6 and under… or 6, 8 and under…ok, enough pity. I’m gonna have to stretch the concept, but here’s what we use (or have used, in the past) when we need extra “help”:

• Educational videos, used sparingly, as toddler-sitters.
• Any video, used generously, as sitters when there’s a new baby in the house.
• Hot dogs as a food group.
• Aldi’s pre-fab dinners: easy, fun, and cheap enough to feed the whole family. Unfortunately, Aldi’s stores are only in certain parts of the country. I miss them!
• Educational toys, so I don’t have to feel quite so guilty about missed school time – esp. when there’s a new baby in the house…
• Extra read-alouds. Not that this idea needs any justification, but it sure helps me feel better about the days I just can’t get off the couch (like when there’s a new baby in the house…do you sense a recurring theme?)

I am so thankful for my husband, who regularly asks what he can do to make my day better/smoother/more productive, etc. I’m also thankful for my husband’s job, which allows and even encourages him to bring children to work. I love my children, and I love having them home with me or taking them places, but being able to send off a few of them occasionally makes certain things so much easier! Think: dentist, midwife, sick days…

Does anyone else have ideas to share?

just mere seconds before this shot was taken I was the delighted recipient of the very first voluntary kiss that that this adorable lass EVER bestowed upon a man!

am I a lucky guy or what?

This is one of my favorite memories of my big sis Deanna, when she broke her arm. The funny thing is how. I’m not laughing at her breaking her arm. I am laughing at how.
Well, we were “sister attacking” on my uncle Benjamin. We weren’t winning at all! But then our strongest and bravest warrior deserted us (Deanna).
After a while, he had us all tackled down. He was holding me in his right arm, and Lydia in his left. He swatted aside the other three.
But then, a spark of light! Deanna climbed up on the back of the couch. Deanna gave Dad a smirk, and she tried to Superman-leap onto Benjamin!
For a long second of glory she was suspended in mid air.
Benjamin threw me onto the couch, dropped Lydia, and sidestepped.
Sorrowfully, sadly, and most unfortunately, Deanna missed. She hit the floor with a heavy thud, hidden from view by the couch she had just vaulted over. For about 3 seconds, she was unconcious. And then she took a deep breath and started sobbing.
Dad helped her up and she told him that her wrist hurt really bad. The next day, it still hurt so we took her to the doctor, who said there was a slight break. It wasn’t very bad, so she only needed a splint.
When we got home, we were talking about what a landmark in sister attacks it would have been, if she had only hit her target!

The End

It’s here, The green note pad blog for my family’s creative writing assignments.
more to come.
Kaitlyn

Yeah! No more squished riding!!! We bought a 15 passenger van off eBay it’s white (just like our other two suburbans)
Kaitlyn.