Yesterday I had to go to Joann’s Fabrics to try and find some fabric to hang from the gym poles for the Project: Ghana dinner. Until yesterday, I hadn’t been to a fabric store since I was with my mom when I was a little girl. I am not too crafty and sadly if I need to find something I usually just buy it already made instead of figuring out how to make it….although I am sure making things would be much more fun and less expensive! Anyways, as we drove to the store I reached back into my memory of what I could expect in a fabric store, and the first thought that came to mind was that they are always very quiet, and there are never enough workers to help the long lines of people waiting for fabric to be cut. As we walked in, I realized my memory was quite accurate! Not bad for a 20 year gap. I began browsing through all the fabric options…
All right. Let’s see. Oooh, tulle is 40% off which makes it $.089 per yard! Perfect! I grabbed some and went to the fabric cutting counter. While I waited for a clerk to help me, I realized that JJ & Jayla were very wound up. I’m not talking about ‘I-don’t-wanna-sit-in-this-cart-or-stand-still-by-the-counter’ wound up. I’m talking about ‘I’m-bored-and-hungry-and-thirsty-and-antsy-and-so-I-will-poke-my-little-sister-and-scream-at-the-top-of-my-little-girl-lungs’ wound up. Time to put my distraction skills to use. (Luckily by this time it was my turn to be helped by the clerk, so I thought it wouldn’t be too much longer until we were out of there)
Distraction time. First I tried food. Half a zip lock bag left of cheez–its in my purse. Perfect. And, normally a distraction and life saver if the cart is moving. But, not when standing still. The cheez-its were downed in toddler and big brother fashion within one minute.
Whining, crying, screaming ensues (yes, Jayla screams now – for fun). I look over at the sales clerk who had carefully measured out 3 yards of fabric. Oh good, only 77 more yards to go (I needed 80 yards!).
I ran down my mommy distraction list (MDL). Next up, 5 little monkeys swinging from a tree. This song brightened the spirits until we got to 3 monkeys left and then the hype was over.
Big brother pestering of defenseless, yet opinionated, little sister continues on. Okay, next up on MDL is the exciting game of looking around and naming what we see. “JJ, tell me what colors you see.” JJ walks over to the boards of fabric, names off a few colors and then digs his face into a sheer piece of fabric leaving a gooey drool of leftover cheez-it slobber on the fabric. OK, name the color game is officially over.
I looked around to see what else we could do. Ah-hah, a coupon magazine was laying on the counter. We flipped through the pictures and talked about the Halloween costumes. The pictures captivated them and emotions were finally under control.
The sales clerk began measuring out the next board of tulle (only 40 yards to go!), and with the accomplishment of two distracted kiddos I started asking her about what she recommended for the adhesive to attach the tulle to the poles. With my back slightly turned from the cart, we chatted about double sided tape. And then, out of the corner of my eye I saw it…the flimsy shopping cart tipping to the side .5 seconds away from crashing to the ground. I’ll pause to give you the details that JJ had tried to climb up on the side of the cart – normally okay with the bigger sized shopping carts – not Joann’s Fabric ones. Jayla was standing in the back of the cart at the time….so the cart began to tip sideways and fall to the ground with my precious red-haired cargo inside and outside of it. As I saw this out of my periph I broke into my old ‘highschool softball pitcher quick reaction mode’ (you know, the quick reaction time you gain as a pitcher when 90mph line drives are hit right back at your head). And, somehow I caught the cart just before it crashed to the ground. I looked up to see a crowd of ladies watching the entire scene unfold, and from the look on their faces they were not going to hand over the ‘good catch’ award, but instead the ‘your life is out of control’ award!
Once I got the kids calmed down from their scare it was finally time to check out! Only one more line to go! By now I was trying to keep hold of Jayla as she was desperately trying to wriggle out of my arms, and JJ was tugging at my waist pleading to leave. I was still one person away from paying, so I had to resort to my last and final item on the MDL – TURN ‘EM LOOSE! And, that I did. I set Jayla down, and she and JJ took off…..running through the aisles, giggling and screaming with delight. Finally I paid and was soothed by the satisfaction of a 40% fabric discount. By this time my kids were at the back of the store. I couldn’t see them. But I could hear them. I chased them through the aisles (fast lil boogers!) and finally snatched them up and we were out the door, in my opinion never to return. That was until today when I realized the accent table covers I had purchased at the party time store are too small. And, I’ve come up with the bright idea to try something crafty, and make some table runners. With fabric. So, I am going back tomorrow. :)
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Jake's Thought for the Week
Each Monday I will be posting Jake's Thought for the Week which he sends out to all the parents of the players in his Kingdom Hoops program. Here it is for this week:
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
The thought for this week is the following post from the blog: http://www.therebelution.com/blog/
I’m Just Not A Shower Person
I still remember my first shower. It was a horrible experience. I was eight years old and all I had ever known was baths. Baths were neat and tidy ordeals where the water flowed in from below my head and – provided I didn’t splash too much – stayed below my head.
I found showers to be an entirely different beast. The water, rather than flowing as a solid stream that was easily visible and avoidable, sprayed out as nearly invisible and unavoidable droplets that seemed to have a magnetic attraction to my eyes.
I did not ask to be promoted from Junior Bath Taker to Junior Shower Taker, but my parents had set the date for my graduation and protesting made little difference. It didn’t help that my twin brother Alex loved showers and had taken one earlier that week.
Before I could draft my formal petition, let alone get anyone to sign it, I found myself staring up at the dreadful shower head just as a brave soul stares down the barrel of his executioner’s gun.
However, once the trigger was pulled and the shower head began rumbling and hissing, my courage melted away, and I was screaming before the first drop hit me.
You see, in my mind there was no moral difference between making your child take a shower and stripping that same child naked and locking him out of the house during a thunderstorm. It was abandonment. I wasn’t a Water Nymph. I wasn’t a shower person. I was a bath person and I was happy that way.
The funny thing is that this morning, nearly ten years later, I took a shower and didn’t think twice about it. I even purposefully let the water spray on my face! It is incredible that what then seemed to be an impossible hurdle is now part of my everyday routines.
We’ve All Had “First Shower” Experiences
You probably can remember something in your own life that at the time seemed entirely beyond you. Maybe it was something as simple as tying your shoes or riding a bike without trainings wheels. Maybe it was learning to read or solving basic math problems in 2nd grade. These are things that are easy for you now, but were enormous challenges at the time.
My question for you is: What has changed? What is the difference between the enormous challenges of a child and the enormous challenges of a young adult?
What’s the difference between a difficult 2nd grade math problem for a seven-year-old and a difficult Algebra problem for a 15-year-old? Though an algebraic equation operates on a higher plateau than a double-digit multiplication problem that is compensated for by the fact that a teenager operates on a higher plateau than a child.
What’s the difference between my 12-year-old brother curling 15 pounds and me (at 17 years old) curling 35 pounds? Is it not likely that we would be equally challenged by our respective weights due to our different levels of strength?
Compare learning to dance with learning to walk. When you contrast the motor skills of baby with those of a young child you should conclude that though dancing is more complex, it is not necessarily more difficult.
As a musician I can attest to the fact that my difficult piano pieces in Level 9 were no more arduous than my difficult pieces in Level 3. The only variance was my level of skill and tolerance for practice. It is just as difficult for a seven-year-old beginner to practice “Chopsticks” for 30-minutes as it is for a music major in college to practice Lizst’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” for three hours.
If A Baby Can Do It, Why Can’t We?
With those examples in mind, I return to my question: What has changed? What is the difference between the enormous challenges of your childhood and the enormous challenges of your young adulthood?
And perhaps a more important question: What is the difference between the way you responded to those challenges as a child and how you respond to them now?
I constantly hear fellow young adults say things like, “You know, I did Algebra 1/2, but I’m just not a math person,” or “I’m a terrible speller, my brain just doesn’t work that way.” I’ve had other teens tell me, “I’m just a quiet person. I don’t like communicating much,” and “I’m such a compulsive shopper. If I see something I like I can’t help but buy it.” Or what about, “I’m just such a blonde!”
While I don’t doubt that many teens find math, spelling, communication, self-control and intelligence incredibly difficult, I find it very hard to accept that these difficulties should begin to define their personhood.
We would think it was crazy if a toddler said, “You know, I tried to get potty-trained, but I’m just not a toilet person.” But we sympathize with a fellow teenager who says that he’s “just not a people person.”
If a young child said, “I tried tying my own shoes, but my brain just doesn’t work that way,” we wouldn’t say, “That’s alright Johnny, we’ll just have someone else do it for you for the rest of your life.” But if we have trouble spelling we say, “It’s alright, I’ll just make sure I always use the spell checker.”
Low Expectations Strike Again
The fact is that as we get older we begin defining our limitations as what comes easily to us – and our rate of growth in competence and character slows and falters.
When we were children our limitations were not defined by difficulty. Our limitations were not defined by failure – even repeated failure. So what has changed? Why do babies, with inferior motor skills, reasoning ability, and general physical and mental strength, why do they have a nearly 100% success rate in overcoming their big challenges, while teenagers often falter and fail before theirs?
We Expect More of Babies Than We Do of Teens
The truth is that we are incredibly susceptible to cultural expectations and once we have satisfied our culture’s meager requirements we stop pushing ourselves.
Why does every healthy baby learn to walk while very few teenagers are sophisticated enough to have mastered the Waltz? One is expected, the other is not.
Why does every normal baby overcome communication barriers by learning to talk while very few teenagers overcome barriers between themselves and their parents by learning to communicate? One is expected, the other is not.
And why do we sympathize with the poor “non-math” teenager while we admonish the “non-toilet” six-year-old? Because using the toilet is a basic skill that is necessary for life, but unless they plan on becoming an engineer, most people never use Algebra.
We live in a culture that expects the basics, but nothing more. We live in a culture that expects for you to get by (i.e. be potty-trained), but not to thrive.
The Rebelution’s challenge to you is this: Have you really found your limits or have you merely reached a point where our culture’s expectations no longer demand that you succeed?
We Are Capable of Much More Than Is Expected
If you were abandoned in a foreign country with citizens who spoke no English, you would pick up the native dialect. And if your high school required everyone to complete Advanced Calculus in order to graduate you would find a way to do it.
Both necessity and expectations have incredible power to require much of us and make us strong, or to require little of us and make us weak. We live in a culture where few people do more than is required, yet that is the secret of effectiveness in the Lord’s service.
The application of this post goes far beyond math and language, dancing and speaking; those are simply a few helpful examples. The important question we must ask ourselves is: “Am I unable to do certain things, or am I simply unwilling to invest the time and effort necessary to succeed?”
This Is A Serious Issue
Classifying yourself as “this-kind-of-person” or “that-kind-of-person” is one of the quickest ways to greatly increase or majorly hamper your potential. Adults who at one time decided they “just weren’t computer people” are missing out on all the convenience and power of technology.
A person who decides early in life that he is “just not a public speaker,” and then stops striving for excellence in the area of public communication, has no doubt lost dozens of opportunities to impact the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people.
History is jammed full of examples of “extremely shy people” who not only overcame their fear of people, but also became famous leaders and communicators. Calvin Coolidge, the United States’ 30th President, is just one such example.
One of the most devastating classifications that can be made is when a person classifies themselves spiritually as “not really one of those extreme Christians.”
Millions of young people, even Christian young people, live through years of spiritual weakness and build up loads of regret simply because they found their identity in being a rebel.
Closing Thoughts
I wasn’t a “shower person” when I was eight, and I’m not sure if I’m a “campaign person” at 17, but by God’s grace and through His strength I can do anything. And so can you.
Nearly a decade after my first shower, one of the great challenges of my childhood, I find myself working long hours on four statewide races for the Alabama Supreme Court. When I find myself thinking that this current challenge is going to kill me, I just remember that I thought the same thing about my first shower. Then I smile, and keep on pushing.
Have a great week!!
Jake
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
The thought for this week is the following post from the blog: http://www.therebelution.com/blog/
I’m Just Not A Shower Person
I still remember my first shower. It was a horrible experience. I was eight years old and all I had ever known was baths. Baths were neat and tidy ordeals where the water flowed in from below my head and – provided I didn’t splash too much – stayed below my head.
I found showers to be an entirely different beast. The water, rather than flowing as a solid stream that was easily visible and avoidable, sprayed out as nearly invisible and unavoidable droplets that seemed to have a magnetic attraction to my eyes.
I did not ask to be promoted from Junior Bath Taker to Junior Shower Taker, but my parents had set the date for my graduation and protesting made little difference. It didn’t help that my twin brother Alex loved showers and had taken one earlier that week.
Before I could draft my formal petition, let alone get anyone to sign it, I found myself staring up at the dreadful shower head just as a brave soul stares down the barrel of his executioner’s gun.
However, once the trigger was pulled and the shower head began rumbling and hissing, my courage melted away, and I was screaming before the first drop hit me.
You see, in my mind there was no moral difference between making your child take a shower and stripping that same child naked and locking him out of the house during a thunderstorm. It was abandonment. I wasn’t a Water Nymph. I wasn’t a shower person. I was a bath person and I was happy that way.
The funny thing is that this morning, nearly ten years later, I took a shower and didn’t think twice about it. I even purposefully let the water spray on my face! It is incredible that what then seemed to be an impossible hurdle is now part of my everyday routines.
We’ve All Had “First Shower” Experiences
You probably can remember something in your own life that at the time seemed entirely beyond you. Maybe it was something as simple as tying your shoes or riding a bike without trainings wheels. Maybe it was learning to read or solving basic math problems in 2nd grade. These are things that are easy for you now, but were enormous challenges at the time.
My question for you is: What has changed? What is the difference between the enormous challenges of a child and the enormous challenges of a young adult?
What’s the difference between a difficult 2nd grade math problem for a seven-year-old and a difficult Algebra problem for a 15-year-old? Though an algebraic equation operates on a higher plateau than a double-digit multiplication problem that is compensated for by the fact that a teenager operates on a higher plateau than a child.
What’s the difference between my 12-year-old brother curling 15 pounds and me (at 17 years old) curling 35 pounds? Is it not likely that we would be equally challenged by our respective weights due to our different levels of strength?
Compare learning to dance with learning to walk. When you contrast the motor skills of baby with those of a young child you should conclude that though dancing is more complex, it is not necessarily more difficult.
As a musician I can attest to the fact that my difficult piano pieces in Level 9 were no more arduous than my difficult pieces in Level 3. The only variance was my level of skill and tolerance for practice. It is just as difficult for a seven-year-old beginner to practice “Chopsticks” for 30-minutes as it is for a music major in college to practice Lizst’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” for three hours.
If A Baby Can Do It, Why Can’t We?
With those examples in mind, I return to my question: What has changed? What is the difference between the enormous challenges of your childhood and the enormous challenges of your young adulthood?
And perhaps a more important question: What is the difference between the way you responded to those challenges as a child and how you respond to them now?
I constantly hear fellow young adults say things like, “You know, I did Algebra 1/2, but I’m just not a math person,” or “I’m a terrible speller, my brain just doesn’t work that way.” I’ve had other teens tell me, “I’m just a quiet person. I don’t like communicating much,” and “I’m such a compulsive shopper. If I see something I like I can’t help but buy it.” Or what about, “I’m just such a blonde!”
While I don’t doubt that many teens find math, spelling, communication, self-control and intelligence incredibly difficult, I find it very hard to accept that these difficulties should begin to define their personhood.
We would think it was crazy if a toddler said, “You know, I tried to get potty-trained, but I’m just not a toilet person.” But we sympathize with a fellow teenager who says that he’s “just not a people person.”
If a young child said, “I tried tying my own shoes, but my brain just doesn’t work that way,” we wouldn’t say, “That’s alright Johnny, we’ll just have someone else do it for you for the rest of your life.” But if we have trouble spelling we say, “It’s alright, I’ll just make sure I always use the spell checker.”
Low Expectations Strike Again
The fact is that as we get older we begin defining our limitations as what comes easily to us – and our rate of growth in competence and character slows and falters.
When we were children our limitations were not defined by difficulty. Our limitations were not defined by failure – even repeated failure. So what has changed? Why do babies, with inferior motor skills, reasoning ability, and general physical and mental strength, why do they have a nearly 100% success rate in overcoming their big challenges, while teenagers often falter and fail before theirs?
We Expect More of Babies Than We Do of Teens
The truth is that we are incredibly susceptible to cultural expectations and once we have satisfied our culture’s meager requirements we stop pushing ourselves.
Why does every healthy baby learn to walk while very few teenagers are sophisticated enough to have mastered the Waltz? One is expected, the other is not.
Why does every normal baby overcome communication barriers by learning to talk while very few teenagers overcome barriers between themselves and their parents by learning to communicate? One is expected, the other is not.
And why do we sympathize with the poor “non-math” teenager while we admonish the “non-toilet” six-year-old? Because using the toilet is a basic skill that is necessary for life, but unless they plan on becoming an engineer, most people never use Algebra.
We live in a culture that expects the basics, but nothing more. We live in a culture that expects for you to get by (i.e. be potty-trained), but not to thrive.
The Rebelution’s challenge to you is this: Have you really found your limits or have you merely reached a point where our culture’s expectations no longer demand that you succeed?
We Are Capable of Much More Than Is Expected
If you were abandoned in a foreign country with citizens who spoke no English, you would pick up the native dialect. And if your high school required everyone to complete Advanced Calculus in order to graduate you would find a way to do it.
Both necessity and expectations have incredible power to require much of us and make us strong, or to require little of us and make us weak. We live in a culture where few people do more than is required, yet that is the secret of effectiveness in the Lord’s service.
The application of this post goes far beyond math and language, dancing and speaking; those are simply a few helpful examples. The important question we must ask ourselves is: “Am I unable to do certain things, or am I simply unwilling to invest the time and effort necessary to succeed?”
This Is A Serious Issue
Classifying yourself as “this-kind-of-person” or “that-kind-of-person” is one of the quickest ways to greatly increase or majorly hamper your potential. Adults who at one time decided they “just weren’t computer people” are missing out on all the convenience and power of technology.
A person who decides early in life that he is “just not a public speaker,” and then stops striving for excellence in the area of public communication, has no doubt lost dozens of opportunities to impact the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people.
History is jammed full of examples of “extremely shy people” who not only overcame their fear of people, but also became famous leaders and communicators. Calvin Coolidge, the United States’ 30th President, is just one such example.
One of the most devastating classifications that can be made is when a person classifies themselves spiritually as “not really one of those extreme Christians.”
Millions of young people, even Christian young people, live through years of spiritual weakness and build up loads of regret simply because they found their identity in being a rebel.
Closing Thoughts
I wasn’t a “shower person” when I was eight, and I’m not sure if I’m a “campaign person” at 17, but by God’s grace and through His strength I can do anything. And so can you.
Nearly a decade after my first shower, one of the great challenges of my childhood, I find myself working long hours on four statewide races for the Alabama Supreme Court. When I find myself thinking that this current challenge is going to kill me, I just remember that I thought the same thing about my first shower. Then I smile, and keep on pushing.
Have a great week!!
Jake
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Project:Ghana
I wanted to share some progress with you regarding the vision for the basketball academy that Jake has been working on for Ghana. I think I last left off after Jake’s trip to Ghana in February. It was during that trip that Jake was able to tour the Right to Dream Academy http://www.righttodream.com/ which is a program already set up in Ghana that helps children with a background of extreme poverty to receive an education through the medium of sport…particularly soccer (futbol).
You can read Jake’s journal from his first trip by going into my archived February posts (sidebar of blog) and finding the posts labeled with his journal entries. Looking at the journal entries on the blog will give you corresponding pictures for each day. Or, you can click on the following link which will take you to the page where you can download just the journal entries: http://www.kingdomhoops.com/foundation/project-ghana.htmlAfter spending a week with the Right to Dream staff and students, Jake came home and began putting all of his experiences, visions, information and ideas together to form a plan of how this was all going to come together. He has been researching and working on the plans and details for this all summer, and he is now ready to present it! So, introducing:
And, YOU are cordially invited to a black tie dinner at Fligg Fieldhouse celebrating the kickoff of PROJECT:GHANA and the Kingdom Hoops Scholarship Program; both initiatives of the Kingdom Hoops Foundation.October 9th, 2009
Drinks and Appetizers 6–7:30pm
Dinner 7:30 pm
Program 8:30 pm
Fligg Fieldhouse
3305 SE Delaware Ave.
Ankeny, IA 50021
Please RSVP to pete@kingdomhoops.com by Friday, October 2nd with the names and number of guests attending.
I was hoping to get the actual invitation to load on here, but I couldn't figure it out! Anyways, next Friday, October 9th, Jake will be hosting a kick-off fundraiser dinner for Project:Ghana at the Kingdom Hoops facility in Ankeny. On this night Jake will basically be laying out his entire plan for the academy. And, this event will be the official marking point of transition between formulating the vision and securing plans to starting to raise money for the project. I am posting the invitation here on the blog at Jake’s request because anyone who is interested in learning more about this project is welcome to come. Please note that you don’t have to plan on donating if you come….this is more just a presentation of the vision/plans, and a marking point to tell the world that the fundraising is now beginning for the project. You don’t need to feel obligated to donate. If you plan on attending please email the RSVP contact as soon as possible. I am hoping to post a sneak peak into the academy sometime next week, with just a few basic details of his plans. :)
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Little Ones
Little kids are so fun to watch. :) I babysat my friends' two boys last week for a few hours, and it was just funny watching 4 little kids interact and run around and chit chat. We walked down to the park for some fresh air and energy ridding before my first big attempt to get 4 kids down for a nap all at the same time!!!
JJ insisted that he and Caeden wear hats to the park, and luckily Caeden played along!
JJ insisted that he and Caeden wear hats to the park, and luckily Caeden played along!
The main attraction at the park was the sand volleyball court. I think JJ and Caeden dug, and ran, and piled sand, and buried toys, and rolled around for at least an hour!
This was the closet I could come to getting a good picture of them together...because they didn't stop moving for even a second!Ashton & Jayla were just the perfect size for eachother.
Jayla isn't used to anyone being her exact height, and speaking her exact language, so she giggled the entire time he was with us. 
Aren't they cute?!?! I remember when Caeden and JJ were this size. Here's a flashback:
But, now they are big boys who... D I G!
And, CLIMB!
And, JUMP!
Someday Jayla and Ashton will be able to keep up with their big brothers...but not yet! :)
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