New Name

A new name for a new year. Psalm 145:3 is now Journals of a Stay At Home Mom. I needed a little makeover to get myself back into blogging mode. The new name I chose describes what I hope this blog will be about--the failures, accomplishments, successes and everyday occurances in my life as a novice homemaker. As I record what goes on in my little world, my hope is that it will challenge me to think through my own goals as well as be a helpful resource to others who are in this same stage of life. By the way, the helpfulness goes both ways, hence the "post comment" application at the bottom of these posts. I'm totally open to feedback--encouragement, admonishment, advice, or just a "hey, here's what I did in that situation." And, just because I took the Scripture verse out of the title doesn't mean that I'm trying to do away with it. It is my prayer that the overarching theme of this blog and more importantly, my life, will be that God is Great--beyond human conceivability--and deserves ALL praise.
"Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable." Psalm 145:3

Not Wrong, Just Different

The small group that Chris and I are part of recently did a 4-month series on Emerson Eggerich's book Love & Respect. One of the main points Eggerich drives in his book is that couples' contrasting and sometimes quirky preoccupations or opinions are not necessarily wrong, they're just different. With that in mind, and in honor of our 5^th anniversary which Chris and I are celebrating today, I put together a fun little list of some of the differing opinions that exist in this marriage and keep it interesting. I think it'll be quite obvious which one is "his" list and which one is "her" list. Here goes . . .

Salty . . . . . Sweet

Chips . . . . . Chocolate

Weird Al . . . . . Charlotte Church

24 . . . . . Jon & Kate + 8

"I'll stay up till 3 AM if I have to" . . . . . "I think I'll just finish this tomorrow—or maybe next week"

"I'll just have a sandwich again today" . . . . . "Let's try some alu makai tikki * "

"I gotta win!" . . . . . "I just play to have fun"

Math . . . . . English

Chemistry . . . . . Botany

John Grisham . . . . . Jane Austen

Golf . . . . . Bike Trails

Night Owl . . . . . Early Bird

Airplanes . . . . . Road Trips

Holiday Inn . . . . . KOA

Cheerios (of course!) . . . . . Oatmeal

Subway . . . . . Olive Garden

Flight Similator . . . . . Facebook

*Indian corn and potato cake

Chorpening Reunion!

I’m still smiling at the memory of the first ever Chorpening family reunion. Yes, now that we have multiplied and reproduced ourselves enough to become our own clan, I guess we get to have our own reunions. Getting together is hard. Me and my oldest sister, who lives about half an hour from me, see each other about once a week, but trying to get our hubbies there at the same time doesn’t happen often. Then add our parents who are a 2 hour drive away and another sister and family who live more than 1000 miles away, and you can see why this is the first time we’ve all been at the same place at the same time. What finally made it happen was my parents’ upcoming 40-year anniversary. That and an invitation my bro-in-law got for a preaching engagement over in our region of the world made it possible for us to all be together for a day last week. It made this chiqua so happy to be with both of her sisses at the same time, to see our hubbies harassing each other (and enjoying it as only men can), and to watch our kiddos play and form those special cousin bonds. Our time together was short, but there are some sweet, sweet memories. Hopefully Chorpening reunion #2 won’t be too far down the road!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

Okay, technically his birthday was two days ago, but we were too busy celebrating that day for me to get this post together.

Dr. Seuss was not a part of our home library when I was growing up, so when my own kids came along, I was a bit unprepared for the reading pleasures ahead of me. Five years ago, I would have associated Seuss with The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, but was ignorant of some of his other titles that would soon become favorites in our household, such as The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, Horton Hears a Who, Oh The Places You'll Go, and On Beyond Zebra. I'll have to admit, I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the books right at the get-go. I had to get past Seuss' weird, sometimes freakish illustrations of anemic, balding children and snaggle-fanged, pig/wolf-snouted house pets. Honestly, I still cringe whenever I get to the picture of the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz in his ABC Book. There's just something about that pink-eyed monster that's still too gross and bizarre for me. But the writings are what made me jump aboard the Seuss wagon and become a full-fledged fan. I haven't read any other children's writer who can stretch, twist, and turn a word inside out quite the way Seuss did. The cadence of his rhymes make them so much fun to read, and the made-up words and sounds that he throws in are so whacky and hilarious, yet so descriptive that you think, "Why, this really should become an addition to Webster's next edition." So, in honor of Dr. Theodor Geisel's 105^th birthday, I'm pulling out some of my favorite rhymes and tongue-twisters from his books. Here they are (note--they're much more fun when read aloud):

From Oh Say Can You Say?

BED SPREADER

Bed Spreaders spread spreads on beds.

Bread Spreaders spread butters on breads.

And that Bed Spreader better

Watch out how he's spreading . . .

Or that Bread Spreader's

Sure going to butter his bedding.

FRITZ FOOD/FRED FOOD

Fritz needs Fred and Fred needs Fritz.

Fritz feeds Fred and Fred feed Fritz.

Fred feeds Fritz with ritzy Fred food.

Fritz feeds Fred with ritzy Fritz food.

And Fritz, when fed, has often said,

"I'm a Fred-fed Fritz.

Fred's a Fritz-fed Fred."

From Fox in Socks

When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles

And the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles

They call this a muddle puddle tweedle poodle

Beetle noodle bottle paddle battle . . .

FROM Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book

A moose is asleep.

He is dreaming of moose drinks.

A goose is asleep.

He is dreaming of goose drinks.

That's well and good when a moose dreams of moose juice.

And nothing goes wrong when a goose dreams of goose juice.

But it isn't too good when a moose and a goose

Start dreaming they're drinking the other one's juice.

Moose juice, not goose juice, is juice for a moose

And goose juice, not moose juice, is juice for a goose.

So, when goose gets a mouthful of juices of moose's

And moose gets a mouthful of juices of goose's,

They always fall out of their beds screaming screams,

SO . . .

I'm warning you, now! Never drink in your dreams.

The Bible According to Eliana

When I was a kid, our family acquired some felt Bible story visuals to use in our missionary work. There were hundreds of pieces--people, animals, scenery, buildings. I remember playing with these visuals for hours, retelling Bible stories or just making up my own. To my great delight, my mother recently passed these visuals on to my sister and I to use with our children. It was like seeing old friends agian, and I was excited that Eliana seemed to have the same enthusiasm I had for retelling stories and creating her own imanginative recountings. Far from accurate, I love listening to her tales and often laugh out loud at her combination of Bible characters and settings. Here's a snippet of a story I heard while watching her play with her "felt stuff" one day: Along came Sarai and she wanted to pay money cuz she didn't have any children. Along came an angel and siad, "What are you doing in my temple? Oh, okay, maybe I'll go back to Sarah's house." Along came the praying guy, praying for her to have children. Here comes along Abram. Know what? There were trees in the garden. Know what? The evil one put the trees on there and then there was one tree. Then the temple came on the rock. Abram and Sarah were talking to each other in the temple. Along came Elijah and he wanted to talk to them too. And there's Elijah's wife Sarai. God told Noah to build a big boat and Noah said, "No." So Jonah prayed to God and went inside Nineveh. And the angel went inside Nineveh too. The angel's name is God, not Gabriel. Then Sarah came inside Nineveh. Then Abram came and they all played around in Nineveh until it was time to go to sleep on the good grass. About this time Chris came into the room and gave an attempt to bring more depth and accuracy to her story. "Eliana, what was the temple for?" "For two people." "What did they do in the temple?" "Just played games." As you can see, we have a long way to go in the Old Testament History department!

More Travels

It turns out that once or twice a year, Chris gets to bring the family along on one of his work trips. If his destination is close enough to make a reasonable road trip out of, it's actually less expensive for him to drive than to fly even if it means an extra night or two in a hotel. And the kids and I love going with him. He was scheduled for work trips to Cedar Rapids and West Chicago at the beginning of the month and decided that this would be a good trip for us to come along on. We were schduled to leave just 5 days after we got back from Spokane. Those were a weird 5 days. I didn't really feel like I was home. I was packing and unpacking at the same time, trying to have some kind of a routine but knowing that schedules wouldn't exist in a few days anyways. Blur would be a good word to describe those in-between days. But it was so nice to have this second trip to look forward to. It decreased that "let down" feeling of just leaving my sister. This was the longest trip we'd ever accompanied Chris on. We stayed in Cedar Rapids for a full week before driving to the Chicago area for a couple of days. I thoroughly enjoyed so much time to relax and just hang out with the kids. Also, since my extended family hub is in the Cedar Rapids area, I got to spend a lot of time with cousins and Aunts and Uncles. And, of course, my grandma. We had lunch with Grandma Katie one afternoon and so enjoyed her generosity, prayers for us, and sharing sweet time together. I was really impressed that she remembered us visiting her the year before, and she even knew that Seth had been in his infant carseat that time. She had a picture book that she showed the kids and enjoyed singing songs with them. I also got to visit with my cousins Aroea, Gloria, Marcy, and Karissa as well as have dinners at my Uncle Jonas' and Aunt Sarah's houses. It was great to spend time with relatives and catch up a bit. The kids couldn't wait to see who we were going to visit or which new cousins they were going to meet that day. We also frequented the nearby library which had a great little play area and some fabulous story times and craft times for the kids. The kids' activity coordinator, Miss Alicia, gained Eliana's adoration almost immediatesly. "Mom, are we going to go see Miss Alicia with the long blonde hair today?" When our week in Cedar Rapids was up, we made the 4-hour drive to West Chicago. We were far enough outside the city that we didn't take the time to do any sight-seeing in downtown Chicago, but we did get to go to the Billy Graham museum at Wheaton College. I have such fond memories of working at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association before they relocated to North Carolina so this was a very special venture for me. The kids weren't too thrilled about it, but I told them this was mommy's special time. The middle picture is of the kids and me inside the museum, and the bottom picture is of Eliana and Seth on the steps of the museum. We were only in the Chicago area for two days before heading back home. It was quite a bit warmer down there. It got up to a whoppin' 60 degrees the day we left. Dontcha know this Southern-bred lass was loving that! We had a beautiful trip home. I love road trips and thoroughly enjoyed the Illinois farmland and Wisconsin dells that we got to see coming back. It is good to be home, though I'm still making my way out of piles of laundry and trying to get routines reestablished!

Spokane Vacation

I got the best Christmas gift I could have wanted from my husband this past year--a trip to Spokane, Washington to see my sister, Valencia, and her family. I hadn't seen Valencia since my wedding almost 5 years ago, so we were long overdue for a trip out West. We left on Thursday, January 22, very early in the morning. Getting us Damsgards up and out of the house by 6 AM is a great accomplishment, and we succeeded! We even made it to the airport and through security with 2 hours to spare. I wasn't sure how the flight would be. Three hours is a long time for 2 little kids to be stuck in a seat with almost 0 squirm space, but they did great! Seth sat on my lap, but Eliana is old enough now that she gets to have her own chair. The kids kept busy with coloring books, a Veggie Tale movie, and a box of Teddy Grahams. I was actually surprised at how smooth the trip went. To top it off, we loitered in the plane after landing until all the other passengers gotten off and then asked the pilot if we could take the kids into the cockpit. He was very kind and obliging and even let us take a few pictures. The kids were fascinated by all the switches and buttons. Unfortunately, the pictures turned out dark, but they'll still serve as good memories of Seth's first plane ride. Spokane was beautiful. Ken and Valencia live in a valley surrounded by gorgeous snow-capped mountains. The scenery reminded me very much of Chris's and my honeymoon in Oregon, espcially on one road that we often drove on that paralleled a river on one side and shouldered a mountain ridge on the other. Here is a picture of the Peters family with Eliana and Seth. We teased Ken and Valencia that this is what their family would really look like in a few years since they are expecting their 3rd child in June and would like to have at least one more. After 8 years of not having a baby in the house, our kids were a good reminder of what it's like to have toddlers around. Our first afternoon and evening in Spokane were spent getting acquainted with Ken and the kids. Ken and Chris had never met each other and our kids had never met, so there was a lot of "getting to know you" going on. Chris and Ken hit it off almost immediately and found that they had a lot of interests in common--college basketball, bowling (the wii version), and talking theology to name a few. They spent a lot of time playing virtual sports and video games and doing some "shoulder-to-shoulder" bonding (as Emmerson Eggerich calls it in his book Love and Respect) while tracking the stock market on their laptops.

Valencia had been at a conference in Texas and didn't fly in until late Thursday night. It was great to see my sis again, but we didn't chat too much that night. We were both exhausted from traveling and adjusting to a new time zone.

On Friday, the men drove across the border into Idaho and did some skiing, while the rest of us ran some errands and visited an indoor kiddie playground. Valencia and I got to do a lot of sister catch-up and chatting while the kids played and got to know each other better. Eliana adored her big cousins and got such special treatment from Karis whose main focus the whole time we were there was to entertain Eliana and do whatever she could to make her happy. She read stories to Eliana, dressed her up in all kinds of costumes, and shared her elaborate My Littlest Pet Shop village. She will make a wonderful big sister!

On Satuday, most of the day was spent watching Micah and Karis at their Upwards games. Upwards is a national Christian sports organization for kids who want to play basketball and soccer. They also have cheerleading for the girls. It is intended to be an outreach for the community, and they have someone share testimony during each half time. Micah and Karis have been in Upwards for a few years. Micah plays basketball, and Ken coaches his team, and Karis does cheerleading. I was bummed that I didn't get any good pictures of Micah while he was playing. The setting on my camera got messed up, so all the basketball pictures turned out blurry. I did get some cute ones of the Karis cheerleading, though.

When we got home that evening, Karis dressed Eliana up in on of her old cheerleading outfits and the two of them danced around the house making up cheers and shaking their pompoms. Their favorite chant was, "Logan the tomato! Logan the tomato!" I think Eliana mostly came up with this one--a combo slogan to honor her cousin back in Minnesota and her favorite Veggie Tale hero.

Micah and Seth did some dressin up too. Here is Seth in his Cowboy had. He also got dressed up as a green M&M with a clown hat!

Micah introduced Chris and I to the sport of Speed Stacking. I'd never heard of it before, but I guess it's something that's gotten quite populare and has been highly recommended for increasing coordination, dexterity, and sport and music abilities. I can see why! It requires an incredible amount of concentration and is a great excercise for training the right and left hands to synchronize with each other. I was terribly slow and clumsy at this, even after watching the training video, but Micah and Valencia were quite the duo. In this picture they are racing to see who can do a combination of stacking sequences the fastest. I think Valencia beat this time. She's always been very quick with her hans. When we were in college we worked in a shipping department together, and she was usually on the list as one of the fastest workers.

Sunday was spent with Ken and Valencia's congregation at the church they pastor. They have a wonderful group of people that they work with, and I really enjoyed worshipping and fellowshipping with them. Ken is a very fiery and inspiring preacher. Even after sitting through both services, I felt like I learned new things in both. He really has a gift for keeping one's attention and being able to give the same message twice without seeming monotonous.

Valencia leads the singing for their services and invited me to join the worship team which I was very excited to do. Singing was one of our favorite pass times growing up. We spent hours singing with soundtracks and composing our own songs and arrangements. Valencia is a very talented singer and worship leader, and I loved getting the chance to be her backup again :)

Our last full day in Spokane found us as a children's museum. We thought it would be a good outing for the kids, but discovered that there was just as much excitement for adults. Valencia and I were thrilled to see that the museum had a special display of a Filippino village. There was a true-to-life nipa hut (very common Filippino housing), little stores, shops, and a fishing boat that the kids could go and play in. Everything was so authentic, from the canned sardines on the shelves of the store to the sungka board hanging on the wall of the hut. It was almost like going back in time.

While we reminisced about our childhood in the Philippines, the guys used their engineering minds to create a speedway on the water table. They probably worked on this for an hour, trying to see how quickly they could get the toy boats to flow downstream.

The highlight for the kids at the museum was all the outfits there were to dress up in . They dressed up as police, bikers, monkeys, Cookie Monster, and doctors. My favorite costume was the firefighter one. It fit Eliana perfectly, which was neat because she's been saying for awhile now that she wants to be a firefighter when she grows up.

And then Tuesday came, and it was time to head home. As always, it was sad to say good-bye. We had such a wonderful trip. Chris and I were both so happy we had taken the time to go out there. It's so easy to get wrapped up in our own lives and schedules, but this trip was a good reminder of the importance of staying in touch with family, even when you have small kids and live a thousand miles away and (as in Chris's case) have never even met your brother-in-law and niece and nephew.

Our flight home was turbulent most of the way, but I got used to it after the first hour. The kids did very well again, thanks to more snacks and some special airplane toys from Karis.

Thanks, Valencia and family, for hosting a wonderful vacation time for us. And thanks, Chris, for the great Christmas surprise!

Prayer for a New President

Almighty, All-Knowing God, on this day that the United States celebrates a new leader, we are reminded that our hope is in you and not in men. We pray that you will show your glory in this new president. May he be wise in leading this country. May he have courage to protect its people. May he do what is just and right. May he uphold a life of morality and fear the commandments of your Word. May the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ pierce his heart and shed its light. May his heart be changed so that he becomes a wholehearted follower of Christ. The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes. Proverbs 21:1 NASB

2008 at its Close

We ended 2008 with a visit to my parents' home. It was a fun and relaxing way to end the year, especially since we were snowed in part of the time and were forced to stay in the nice, cozy indoors eating turkey and playing rumikub. The kids enjoyed building towers with Grandpa and doing crafts with Grandma. My ever-creative mother made good use of all the snow that had fallen and came up with some very innovative "sleds." The first one pictured is a grocery box tied to a plastic tote lid. The second is a shovel that Eliana stood on as Grandma pulled her. The day we were supposed to leave, we got dumped on with about 8 inches of snow, so our travel plans were delayed for a day. It was nice to have an unexpected extra vacation day, and we took advantage of the fresh snow with some snowball fights, snow castle building, and more sledding.