ECC - Daddy's Night at The Circus!

Tonight was The Early Childhood Center's
Daddy's Circus Night for the Three's Class.

It was a costumed event.

Here's a Schantz Family Fun Fact for you...
One of Isaac's quirkier traits is that he's OBSESSED with peanuts.
-Always has been...since he was about two.

I haven't really figured this one out about him but
a couple of noteworthy peanut-isms about Isaac are:

His favorite joke is to respond "Peanuts" whenever
you ask him what he wants to eat.

He thinks "Peanuts" is generally a really funny word
and sometimes says it to himself just to giggle for awhile.

It's his favorite comic strip. (Really? You don't get it?
Just laugh...trust us, it's funny.)

There are others but we'll stop SO anyways when
we had to decide what, oh, WHAT would we
dress up as for circus night...Peanuts came up, yet again.
The above picture depicts well where we landed on the
costume issue.

Peeeea-NUTS...getcha hot peeee-NUTS, right here...
The Elephants at the circus really like peanuts.

Birthday Ramblings...

MMMmmnnn...good birthday this year and
I'll tell you why. BECAUSE it wasn't defined
by some contrived celebration with some
fluffy cake. It wasn't defined by what I got or
what others did for me (although that was nice).
I defined it. Me. It wasn't just a momentary
pause in all the normal days of the calendar year
or an evening to go out
to dinner and have an excuse to eat dessert.
It was more of an internal event,
a day to stop and think... deep.

Ah, thoughts...
38...I'm liking it. I have the TREMENDOUS
blessing of liking myself, more, the older I get.
I can't explain why. I'm not sure I know.
BUT, 38 is feeling like it fits well. I'm more comfortable
in my own skin than I've been in a while and that's
a peaceful place to be. The house is a mess and
the laundry is always behind but that's not driving me
completely crazy like it normally would...there's
some kind of weird balance that I've found between
the great workouts we've been getting and the
regular bible-study I've been blessed with.

The boys are bright and healthy and growing.
Matt has steady work.
We've got a solid roof over our heads and
food in the pantry and each other.
We love our church, family and friends.
The dog...THE DOG...keeps us
real by dragging in mud and leaves and other things that
I'm not likely to admit.

HUGE TANGENT ALERT!
(I was telling a friend just today that I thought
it was REALLY important to be real and let others
SEE it. SO MANY people with facades putting
out whatever they think is safe or pretty or good
for others to see instead of what life REALLY
looks like for them. SO few who realize that
part of the beauty of life is the struggle...
the overcoming and becoming better.
Hmmnnn...how do we be more authentic, more genuine?)

There's good books...
ooohhh...and new birthday books as well as
boxing gloves for the gym since we're starting
to utilize the bags more. Forgive my...gee, I dunno...
aggressive streak, but beating whatever stress I've
got out on some bags, is awesome.

Anyways..life is full and GOOD and
God is with us and we can do his work and love
him and each other. And lately, I'm enjoying my
confidence in the fact that this place is but a stop
on our way home and all the stuff that I get so crazy about
so often will indeed dissolve and fade away
but God, His Word, and how we love others...THAT remains.

A really intelligent, Spirit-filled lady shared something so
true the other day...she said, "Only a few things are
forever, Holy God, His Word and His People...nothing
else really matters." Kinda clears up what to invest
your time in, huh?

Anyway...38...THIRTY-EIGHT...feels blessed.
I'm trying to invest in what really matters...
taking care of His "temple" so I can do His work,
staying in His Word so I can hear when He tells me what
work He'd have me do, and making intimate connections with
His People so that we can share and worship Him together,
starting with my husband our boys and our folks...from there
we just gotta work to shine that light out...

Whew...well, there you go...there's my big,
birthday, brain-dump and what's been rolling around
in my old, aged brain lately... :)

I'm entitled, on my birthday, to have one extended rambling, right?
Yeah, I sure am. Thanks for putting up with me.
I'll put my soap box back in the corner now under
the potato basket where it belongs...

HEY...happy birthday to you this year whenever
it is and I hope you like yours as much as I liked mine.

mR. ted E. bEar from ECC came to our house to play...

Isaac's big excitement this week was that HE
was selected to bring home his class's special
friend Mr. Ted E. Bear. So, we had a house
guest this week. He went where we went and
ate and slept and rode in the car with us.
He was Isaac's constant companion except for the
one night when we all ended up playing musical
beds and Daddy ended up sleeping with Ted E. in
Eli's bed (or was it Isaac's...I can't remember).
Ted E. matches Isaac's blue eyes EXACTLY so
I couldn't resist the photo series below.
Sorry...you'll just HAVE to cut me some slack...

Purdue Math Bowl Competition

Eli had the honor to participate in Purdue's
Area Math Bowl Competition this year representing
his school, Oak Trace Elementary.

After trying-out for the team and making it,
followed by weeks of early morning practice sessions,
it was time for the team's big night.

They did well and when Eli was "up to bat",
his squad answered the
questions correctly! He was so relieved.

It was serious stuff. -Think area spelling bee only
with math. We were very proud...especially
his dad. Gosh...Matt was eating it up during
the competition trying to answer the questions
to beat the clock right along with the kids.

Gus and I were BORED but held on to support our Eli.

Good Job Bub!

See if you can pick him out in the pics below!
Kinda like Where's Waldo only it'd be EliDO. :)

OH, yes, YES, I most certainly did...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by
MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what
she and everyone else have not been doing this week.



SO...my mother-in-law sends me this nice birthday card
with a nice little check and says, "send me a picture
of what you do with the money."

WELL...Jan, here's your picture. It is not absolute
proof that when I went for the pedicure that I
DESPERATELY needed with Isaac in tow, he picked
out his color, plopped his little feet up for the nail-tech
and got his done too.


He did not proceed for the next two to three days
to strip his socks and shoes off EVERY time we
encountered someone who had not seen his cool,
sparkly, "Shrek" green, still boy toes.
He does not still exclaim daily that he
wants to go to the "toe store" every day.


It is not my technology addicted husband and I who have
inadvertently spawned children who have their own
technological addiction issues.
Everyone say "sproutonline.com"

Double Digits

McMama's blog had this poem on it today and
it helped me overlook my trashed house and
my consequent discouragement from it and look
to tomorrow when we will celebrate our Eli's 10 birthday.

-Hard to believe...our first 10 years have been so very good
and I'm really looking forward to the next 10 even if all the changes
that will take place in the next decade will work to move
him into adulthood and away from the physical
shelter of our family home.

It's going to continue to be an amazing journey...
Thanks, Eli...being your mom is one of the best things
that has EVER happened to me.

SO...I'll gladly take the messy house and not
care too much since it means that I'm spending my
time with you and Isaac.

LOVE your guts...Bub!


Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Road to Recovery

I thought our blog readers would like to see that we're
feeling better. Pink eyes are almost healed and ears aren't
hurting anymore. Thank God!

Not Me Monday - Double Whammy!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by
MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what
she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It WAS NOT ME who did not post her "Not Me Monday" last week because everyone in the whole house was getting sick.

It IS NOT ME who is gonna post a huge one, right now, that will most certainly count for two weeks.

It WAS NOT ME who was at various Drs. Offices Tuesday through Thursday sometimes multiple times a day. It is not my entire family who is on some form of antibiotic. The picture below is not proof.


It WAS NOT ME who managed to keep track of everyone else's various medications only to over-medicated myself on Zyrtec TWICE. (Okay, listen...we had two ear-infections, one sinus infection, pink-eye and a ruptured ear drum JUST last week. I was a bit addled.)

It WAS NOT ME who offered EVERYTHING short of women and liquor to my 4 year-old if he would just be still and relax while I squirted antibiotic eye-ointment into his lower eyelid. The bribe list did not include coke, chips, gummy bears, TV shows, presents and unlimited access to his brother's toys. It was also not me who got fairly adept at pinning his little screaming body down while pulling open his tightly shut eyelids and squirting a 1/4 inch strip of the damn ointment in his eye while he was hollering bloody murder and then give him the agreed upon bribe anyways. It was not me who vehemently thought that someone should be around to BRIBE ME to put the medicine in. It WOULD NOT BE ME who would TOTALLY accept bribes for that.

It WAS NOT ME who plotted various forms of torture for doctors and pharmacologists who develop such medications that have to be administered to small children in such ridiculously difficult ways. It was also not me who was immediately repentant and overwhelmingly thankful for medication and easy access to it only to start the hate/love process all over again during the next wrestling match to get the eye-ointment in yet again. THREE TIMES A DAY!!!!

It WAS NOT ME who got hopelessly behind on laundry with everyone's ears and noses and eyes leaking contaminate goo.

It WAS NOT ME who was silly enough to take a picture of the size of my new jeans from the consignment store just to help myself believe it was actually true.


It WAS NOT ME who cleaned out the freezer and then proceeded to concoct a bizarre cake from freezer contents that did not get tossed out. It was not my husband and children who happily, greedily, gobbled down weird cake affectionately dubbed "glop cake" since in order to get into the jeans pictured above, I don't bake anything lately.


It WAS NOT ME who didn't realize that the evite invitation that I received for a celebratory kegger from someone I didn't know was not, in fact, generated FROM my evite account. It was not me who in a horrified impetus called the host of the kegger and left her a message to get her own freakin' account because mine was for ministry purposes and I couldn't have kegger invitations sent to the parents receiving respite from our ministry at church. It was not me who then REALIZED that it was an inadvertant invitation NOT generated from my account. It was not me who then left kegger host another message apologizing profusely about the mix up and my haste. It was not me who got a call back from seriously amused kegger host further explaining the mistaken invitation. It was not me who realized that kegger host was a friend of a friend who would no doubt soon know about my lunacy. It was not me who then seriously wished that I was really invited to said kegger after the stupid, STUPID week I'd had.

Lord help me! I'm CRAZY!