Bike Day

Today is Ride Your Bike to Work day... I don't own a bike, although I would really love to... anyway, I had polished my son's battery-operated John Deere Front-end Loader to drive to work today, but it was raining cats and dogs, and I'm pretty sure Hunter wouldn't want his "tracky" to get wet... AT ALL. So I had to climb into my big-ol SUV and have at it. Fortunately, I only live 8 miles from my job, so I only burned about $3.80 in gas ... but along with that, I failed to do my part to support healthy alternatives to drive-alone commutes, but rather ... contributed to traffic congestion and poor air quality.

Sorry.

In other news, Hunter almost choked last week on ... are you ready for this??? HIS PACIFIER.

Yes, he's 2yr-7mo old... and YES he still took a pacifier at nap and bed time -- so sue me. Evidently he was seriously sucking his pacifier during nap time at the day care provider's home, and bit off the very tip of it. It lodged in his throat and he began choking. Praise God she noticed, and having worked as a geriatric nurse for numerous years prior to becoming a mom, and having been a daycare provider for over 30 years, she knew what to do, acted quickly, and turned him face down on her knee and pounded him on the back two times.

The piece of pacifier dislodged, and all was well. A sleepy Hunter looked up at her, bewildered and "injured" and said (sadly with puppy-dog eyes): "Hey! You hit me!" To which she replied: "You're daggone right I hit you, and I'll hit you again if you choke on me like that again!" Needless to say, he was pretty traumatized, and didn't want to talk about it for days ... poor thing.

So, of course, being the stellar parents that we are, we decided to take advantage of this frightening situation and prey on our child's emotions by telling him that he couldn't have his pacifier any more because we loved him so much, and we didn't want him to choke again. Folks -- THAT'S effective parenting, in fact, it is parenting at its very finest... but hey -- it worked! He only asked for it a couple times over the weekend, and not much throughout the week, but trauma really does wean a child off of something you don't want them to have ... although, I don't recommend you "cause" a child to go through trauma -- just take advantage of it.

Next up: Self-combustible Pampers -- Diapers that self-combust when child urinates in them -- a new tool that aids a parent in potty training.

Trauma, I tell you -- trauma.

Finally, I'm furiously working on a special project -- a ministry that we're starting off at church, and I'm reading books, creating a blog, organizing my thoughts, coming up with a structure, starting lessons ... there's a whole lot of excitement going on over here as I begin forming my 'game plan' and God has certainly been busy sending confirmations my way! He is so good!! Now, if my wonderful sister-in-law would just break down and accept the fact that God has spoken to me about her being a co-leader ... and just GET ON WITH IT... sheesh! then we could really get rolling!

Okay -- I'm off to get busy at work (read: look busy while fiddle-f@rting around) -- oh, stop -- I know as a Christian I'm supposed to give my job my all, and when I actually have work, I do -- but right now, we don't have any work -- I'm an estimator and there are no jobs to estimate yet (June is going to be busy, though) -- so I'm fully and perfectly within an acceptable mode of operation -- internet surfing and ministry planning -- and if you really want to get right down to it, you should probably be cleaning toilets or scrubbing floors, or doing laundry instead of reading blogs-- wink, wink! -- but I'd rather have you here).

Y'all have a WONDERFUL weekend! Hugs and smooches!