School Daze

Sophie started Kindergarten. After a week of school, her highlight seems to be.....the monkey bars. She mastered this nemesis of playground equipment.




Sophie also enjoys riding the school bus with her friends. About 50,000 kids ride the bus in our neighborhood and the sight is reminiscent of a cattle drive.

Now we enter the world of fundraisers, parent/teacher conferences, homework, and report cards. Then there are the friendships, crushes, gossip, and fashions. Oh boy.

Jennifer and I watched this movie this weekend. We really liked it. It's made by the same church in Georgia that produced "Facing the Giants". It's got such a good message and it's about as opposite of what usually comes out of Hollywood.

We absolutely recommend this movie.

Here's a video from the movie with a great song by John Waller.

Family Funnies

#1 Tim and Jennifer are alone in the kitchen after putting kids to bed. Tim looks at the counter where he sees a gas station receipt that had been in his pocket. He then dutifully announces to Jennifer, "I got gas."

With a stunned look, Jennifer says nothing.

Realizing his mistake, Tim says, "No, I filled up the car with gas. Here's the receipt."

(we track all of our expenses during the month and Jennifer enters all of our expenses into a spreadsheet)
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#2 Sophie and Cole are watching a show together. Like she often does, Sophie grabs Cole and makes him sit between her legs on the floor - like he's on her lap. Sophie jumps up runs to the bathroom to take care of some personal business. When done she runs back to the living room saying that she needed to get back to Cole because "he needs some sister time."

Cole needs more sister time like he needs another bump on the head.

Making time to connect

Picking up on yesterday's post....Ever wonder how you can live with another person and not talk with him/her? Here’s a typical evening routine in the Hanson house.

She puts a kid to bed; I clean-up the kitchen.
She picks up toys, I check my email.
She reads her email, I pack my lunch.
She makes some tea, I do something for work.
Don't forget the TV.

Notice we’re near each other, but never close. We hear the other, but no one’s talking much. I call this a rut. We’ve been in one and I know we’re not alone. It’s easy, low energy, and often ‘comfortable.’ It’s consistency in a chaotic world.

Do you know what else? It’s bland as all get-out. We've been making a lot of effort that as we are doing different things, we'll steal just a moment for a hug or kiss or "I love you." We figure it's good for the kids to see this - even if Sophie finds it funny.

This is a hot topic for me so look for more posts about it.

January

Wow....where has Tim been? Sorry, ya'll - holidays keep one busy. Add to that the new time-wasting activity of Facebook, and blogs are so 2007.

Anyway, 2009 is off to a fun start.

Why? Well, I've been enjoying exploring some romance with Jennifer in our relationship. No juicy details coming here (this is a family blog). You don't realize how after a few years you forget some of the really simple little things that make you feel connected and appreciative of each other. And then have two kids on top of that and life becomes a blur.

One fun activity we're doing is the 40 Day Love Challenge through familylife.com. I get an email each day of something to do with my spouse - Jennifer.

So take a risk and 'wow' your mate. It's fun. I'll have another post soon with ideas for the creatively-challenged.

This is the relationship fire. Ooooh, aaah. Now grab your poker and move those logs around. Stir up that fire. Nice!

Verse of the day

"As in water face reflects face, so a man's heart reveals the man." Prov. 27:19

This is special verse for Jennifer and me. It basically, says that a man's heart reveals his true nature. It get's past the superficiality and goes to a person's actions; that's his character. Something like judging based on the content of a man's character (apologies to Dr. MLK Jr.).

I have always had a mental picture of a mountain lake, like this picture, with an incredible reflection.

There are more neat stories about how this verse has been a part of our relationship from early on, but many of them are Jennifer's and I'll let her share them if she wants to :)

What a game

OSU 34, Cal 21

Thanks to my brother-in-law who scored two tickets to yesterday's game, I got to witness one of the more memorable wins in Beavers football history. What a game!!!

There's not much more to say. It is so much more amazing being there in person.

This picture is the Pick Six by Keenan Lewis that sealed the game. It happened practically right in front of us (we were in the scoreboard endzone, four rows up).