E & K's First Soccer Practice

Fairy-tale in our Front Yard

It was "dress up as a fairy-tale character" day at preschool today.

The Golden Stars

Emily and Kaylee started T-ball/Soccer season tonight. They are on the U-6 Gold team. The first order of business for the team was picking a name. One kid suggested "The Golden Snowballs." Urinary allusions lost out and new names continued to be fielded. Emily suggested "The Golden Cinderellas." The coach and the three boys on the team refused to be Cinderellas. Then one kid suggested Golden Stars and all the kids jumped on it ... except Emily. She stood in front, smiled and stated firmly, "No. The Golden Cinderellas." Then she turned toward the coach with a bigger smile and a twinkle in her eye and pleaded, "the Golden Cinderellas?" She lost out. But she recovered quickly.

After some warm-up chase-the-coach and simon-says-stretching-games, T-ball began. T-ball for four to six year olds involves the ball randomly being thrown around the field, blind batting as the too-big helmet droops over kids faces, children running toward whatever base they feel like, fielders throwing toward home (or a tree, or mom, or straight up in the air) and mid-game spontaneous sand castle building in the red-rock of the infield.

It is way more entertaining to watch than real baseball.















*** In the photos, Emily is in purple pants, Kaylee is in blue. Click 'em to see full size pics. ***

How to Fix a Hole in the Chest with a Stoner Story

I've been busy. And stressed. STRESSED. Rationally, I know everything is Ok & will eventually become even more Ok. But for the past couple of months, due to a confluence of time, money and life-force-consuming difficulties on the personal, financial, business and professional fronts, I have ended up in a perpetual state of stress.

I have two very simple diagnostics that usually tell me I'm near my top-stress level:

*
1. I feel an "absence" in the middle of my chest. An uncomfortable hollowness in the centre of my physical being. It ebbs and flows a bit ... but never fully leaves me. Last week it was omnipresent. This week it's just popped up intermittently.







2. I don't blog when I'm stressed. I blog when I have time. I even blog a little when I'm busy. But when I'm busy and stressed I simply don't blog (as evidenced by the two month gap in entries in this blog). Stress sucks up creative resources, personal reflections and other layers of being that add to life's abundance. These layers are the things that inspire me to blog, and they get sucked dry by stress.

And yet, here I sit, chest-hole free and blogging my fingers raw. What gives? My little bro and his fiance gave: In this case they gave Stacey and I 20 hours of baby-sitting and a night in Canmore. Phewwww, Awwwwww, Yehawww etc.

And so, with four hours left in this day away, I leave you with two insights that have been meaningful stress-relievers to me:

1. When everything is laid bare, I realize that my stress is largely over "stuff." And "stuff" shouldn't be my concern. God provides enough "stuff" to live and care for my family. My personal status as provider is over-inflated and illusionary (See Jesus' take on birds and lilies and numb-skulls like me).

2. I honestly believe the gratitude, peace and hilarity of the following substance-induced story is possible even after the ganja's been swapped for a moment of solitary-confinement with the divine: Thankful Craigslist Pizza Stoner.


I think I'll buy my three girls flowers and order pizza tonight.



* Lego image from my friend Avi's wonder-filled blog Dark Roasted Blend.