I Love #82

If I had a shirt that said just that, I'd wear it proudly.

Tonight my son plays in his first 7th grade football game. I am seriously so excited about this football season, particularly since this is his first "school ball" game and he gets to play at the high school. Mostly I'm excited because I am so in love with this kid. (And his brothers)

He's #82. And when I watch the team practice, I stare at him. Amazed. In awe that a person so wonderful, so treasured, belongs to me. He's a little extenstion of my heart running around in those big bulky pads. And to say anything bad about him would be to invite a fisticuffs with his momma. (I just wanted to use that word. I'm not really that tough.)

Then another thought occurs to me.

If God had a football team and I was on it, I bet he'd be saying the same thing about me. I can see him...wearing a button with my picture, waving his big foam finger when I score (and even especially when I miss the pass!), and maybe a big posterboard that declares his love and faithfulness to me no matter what! My biggest fan.

I call to Him, "Keep me as the apple of your eye." Psalm 17:18
And He answers, "...I have loved you with an everlasting love..." Jeremiah 31:3

I'll remember this tonight when Kid One takes the field and the Invisible Me cheers wildly for him as if he is the master of the turf, despite all the other moms around who feel the same way. I'll remember I have a Father who is cheering me on, too. Because I belong to Him.

We may not have a huge fan club on this earth, but one thing is for sure, our God is for us!

What's That On Your Shoulder?

Kid Two had a friend spend the night tonight. I drove them to get a movie. A PG movie is nearly all that is allowed for age 10 in our house. Kid Two's friend made it perfectly clear he was allowed to watch almost anything. I made it perfectly clear our boundaries are sometimes a little different and it may seem weird but it works for us.

Surprisingly (this time) Kid Two didn't begin his exhausting argument about how "everyone else...fill in the blank..." Maybe he is beginning to see the effects of "garbage in, garbage out" on some of his friends. Maybe the truth of the Word is penetrating his heart deeper and deeper.

What he did say made the Invisible Me jump in the passenger seat to hug and squeeze his precious little face.

"[Friend], my mom's not out to spoil my fun. She's just there to flick the devil off my shoulder sometimes." Then he gave me a genuine "thanks for looking out for me" wink.

I've said it before... What's in the well will come up in the bucket.

Sincerely,
Kim Heinecke, a.k.a. Devil Flicker
(It's not really the title I'd pick for myself but a mom's got to do what a mom's got to do...)

I wish my obsessions were this simple

I love toddlers.

They have a mind of their own.

Kid Three has been borderline obsessed with two things lately.

1. pockets

2. pretend goggles from his pretend tool set

Pockets - He wants to wear a jacket with pockets, or jeans with pockets, or a sweatshirt with a front pocket. He will not hold your hand because he is (and I quote) "wuhkin my pockets." Work it, baby. Work it.

Goggles - These stay on his head. Rarely on his eyes -- and that's probably because they are too smudged from snot... or cereal... or banana... or butter from his toast... or whatever else can be found on a toddler's hands! He keeps them on his forehead and protests when you try to take them off, despite the deep red marks they are beginning to leave above his eyes. He even wore them to the doctor's office today. And yes, during nap.

I wish my obsessions were this simple.

Hidden Treasure

For some of you, this will be a lame trick.
For others, you'll try it and call me brilliant next fall.

Does anyone other than me get a rush from sticking your hand into a coat pocket and finding a $5 bill you didn't know you had? Sheer bliss. Free coffee. The expensive kind.
I love that feeling. When I find a buck or two in a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a while I am totally consumed with how to spend it. It's not allocated to any part of my budget. No one can ask for it and I don't have to share it.

New lipgloss? 5 items from the Dollar Tree? A combination burrito from Taco Bueno? The possibilities are endless.

To make life more fun I plan my own surprises. (You know what's coming) As the weather gets warmer I tuck a couple of bucks in a coat pocket, or a fall purse or maybe a warm hoodie pocket that I know I'll use again at the first sign of fall. Conveniently I manage to forget about it. And trust me, when I'm over the dog days of summer and I finally get to reach for my favorite jacket, I am soooooooooo excited to find a crisp $5 bill.

Yes. That I purposely hid. From myself.

My husband thinks that is nuts. I think he's just upset he can't get a skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks without dipping into his allocated weekly budget.

Am I alone on this? It's possible.

(Make a note to yourself: Always borrow clothing items from me at the beginning of a season. It'll increase your chances of a surprise.)

The Truth of Nothing

A couple of things fell off the wall when he slammed the door. It doesn't happen often but when Kid One does blow up, it's major. In the heat of "battle" he said things to me that were mean. And it hurt. But I knew he didn't mean it because I know his heart. I left him in solitude in his room until I came home from a meeting a couple of hours later.

On the way to and from that meeting I cried, prayed for him, for me as a mom, for his heart, his mind and a million other things. He was acting from a place of woundedness.

I opened the door to his room when I returned. Tears filled his "quickly-turning-into-a-young-man" eyes.
Mom, can I talk to you?
I am so. so. so. sorry for what I did.
And he was visibly repentant.

I put down my coat and purse and took my place on the end of his bed.
Son, there is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you. Nothing you can say. Nothing you can think. Nothing you can throw. Nothing you can slam. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
My unconditional love for him healed his heart. I think he slept better than he had in days.

Our heavenly father is the same with his own children. There is nothing we can do to make him stop loving us. Nothing. We can't act bad enough, miss enough church, participate in enough habitual sin, have weak enough faith, yell enough at our loved ones, or even walk far enough away from the will of God. He loves us. No getting around that.

There is nothing we can do to stop His love for us. Understanding this truth leads to a repentant heart and motivates us to run after him whole-heartedly.

Someone may need to embrace this truth today.
Let your heart be healed by His unconditional love for you.
You.

Winter be gone.

That's it.
I am breaking up with winter.
And the rain...and the "flurries"...and the "munchies." It seems they all go together. The nerve of my pants to shrink just because there is a lack of consistent sunshine!

I used to be a fan of the cold weather because you could make soups, sit by a fire, wear all your cool scarves and snuggle up to watch a movie. But my days of wearing two pair of socks just to keep the blood in my feet circulating are wearing on me.

B'bye winter. Git on out now, y'hear?

And it gives me writer's block. I guess I have run out of things to blog about.

Same Game, Different Kids

For years, when my older boys were small, I would play this little love game with them...

Me: I love you!
Kid: I love you too.
Me: I love you more...
Kid: I love YOU more...
and on and on and on until it got boring.

Funny how different kids can be.

Kid Two was challenging at times (to put it oh-so-mildly). One time after I exercised the discipline of "laying on hands" while I "trained him in the way he should go" I tried the Love Game on him. It went like this:

Me: I love you.
Kid Two: love you too
Me: I love you more...
Kid Two: (...if looks could kill...) You probably do.

Huh.

Just this week I played it with Kid Three, who is generally very agreeable and so easy going. EASY (for now, anyway.) This was his exchange after he tested the lines just a wee little bit:

Me: I love you baby.
Kid Three: I yuv you mommy
Me: I love you more, more, more!
Kid Three: (hesitant) ...Ah-wight.

Same game, different kids. I love the variety of parenting.

I Made This With My Own Two Hands

I've been looking on Craigslist and Ebay and every place else online for a while to find a mannequin. This weekend Robin emailed me a link to a mannequin tutorial. I just happened to have a little margin in my life right now so I whipped one out on Sunday.

...and by "whipped it out" I mean it only took me FOUR AND A HALF HOURS. And $40, and duct tape, an old pillow, an old blanket, quilt batting, 2 yards of muslin fabric, a glue gun, an umbrella base and a dowel rod.

I followed the tutorial listed here -- somewhat. I gave Mannie Kin some "shape" in the front so she wouldn't look like a boy. And since it is too cold to spray paint the dowel rod I decided to leave it au'natural because I couldn't wait for the weather to warm up.

Want to see her fully clothed? Check it out here. I had this new outfit waiting for her arrival.