Circuit boards and two year olds

We've had Adalai Deale here on and off over the last week and today at lunch Gabe was convinced it was his personal mission to make sure she understood circuit boards. Yes, circuit boards. With all the seriousness in the whole world, he kept trying over and over to think of how he could explain it to her. Things like: "See, Adalai, it's like a complete circle of electricity." (she just smiles) Frustrated, he tries again: "Ok, let me think of how I can explain it to you. See it's like if you had a bunch of strings and you sewed them together." To which Adalai replies, "Silly Gabe." Completely undaunted, he says "No! It's not silly! See you can understand because it is so important!!" No matter how hard I tried to tell him that even the best explanation just wasn't going to work, he kept trying until lunch time was over. He keeps insisting that if Adalai understood circuit boards she would just love them, too! Do we have a little aspiring teacher? :-)

Stress is Cheap, Fudgehead

Yes, it has been forever since I have blogged. I haven't really had much to say that was worth blogging....until just now.

Set the scene: We, the Maiberger family, were sitting down for one of our too few family dinners talking about the different names that our kids call their grandparents. Matt's parents are Nana and Papa and mine are Grammy and Grandpa. Well, he was Grandpa until Zoe renamed him "Pepaw" at Thanksgiving. It has just kinda stuck. And then we mentioned that Evy's grandparents were something like Nani and Boppa (am I close, Mindy?) I turned to Gabe to ask him his thoughts and the conversation went something like this:

"So Gabe, what do you think your kids will call me when I am a grandparent?"

And without missing a beat he replied,

"Fudgehead"


Later at night, Matt and I were having a discussion about babysitting this coming Sunday. Which would be cheaper, to A) take two cars so matt could leave early to go to a meeting before the meeting that I would be joining him for and spend the double gas money or B) have the babysitter come an hour earlier allowing us to drive one car and thus pay her more. After careful deductions we established that is was cheaper to drive the extra car than to pay the babysitter, but what in the world were we squabbling over? A mere two dollars? And in the end, it is much less stressful to have the babysitter come early and only have to drive one car. Therefore, we came to this conclusion. Stress is cheap. Think about it. The things in life that are more stressful are cheaper. You need a new car? You can buy the cheap one that is used and will need lots of repairs sooner than later or you can spend a lot more money and buy the new car. The old car is cheaper, but much more stressful. Stress is cheap. You need a good night's sleep when you are traveling so you go to pick a hotel. You can choose anything from a run-down shack of a motel to the Ritz Carlton. The cheaper ya go, the more stressful it gets. You have had a REALLY long day and the LAST thing you want to do is go through the ordeal of cooking a meal. So you decide to go out, or at least order out, or get pizza. Much less stressful, but way more expensive. And just food in general. Why is it that the food that is the WORST for your body is the cheapest? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, stress is cheap. So right now while the budget is a little tighter, it just may be a little more stressful. However, thanks be to God that in the midst of my stress, I have a peace that runs deep.

Philippians 4:6-8

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.