You know that whenever your spouse says, “Do you know what your son just did?” something hasn’t gone quite right. This morning, I was laying in bed nursing A, and Jason said those words. I didn’t answer, because I knew he was dying to tell me. Sure enough, the answer followed almost immediately. “He put Magic Butt Cream in his hair.” For those of you who don’t know, Magic Butt Cream is the diaper cream that we get from our doctor for a diaper rash that isn’t controlled by the regular over the counter stuff. A few weeks ago, K and Jason had a talk about how we don’t eat the Magic Butt Cream. It’s only for sore butts. It’s not for eating. Well, he didn’t try eating it again. This time, he took about 1/2 of what was left, and he smeared it in his hair. Ugh.

Unfortunately for me, Jason was on his way out the door and on his way to work. I was lucky enough to take over the emergency bath. In addition to having a head full of grease, K did not want to take a bath, and he had a poopy diaper! I managed to talk him into the bath. Then, I started in on his hair with Dawn. Dawn cuts grease, right? I figured that was my best chance at getting some of that stuff out of his hair. He was patient enough to let me lather and rinse his hair twice. THen, he lost patience, so I took him out of the bath, and he spent the rest of the day with the wet look.

Tonight at supper, he continued on with the hair experiment and decided to try applesauce in his hair. I told Jason that it was his turn to work on K’s hair. He did the 2nd bath of the day with both boys. While they were in the bathroom, I checked the internet and found that some people suggested using cornstarch for getting Vasaline out of hair, so we tried it. K thought it was pretty funny, and I figured it couldn’t hurt. I didn’t get a chance to see his hair after it dried, so I’m not sure if the cornstarch solved our problem or not. I’ll be interested to see how it looks tomorrow.

We are! Members of Minnesota Public Radio that is. When our TV took a turn for the worse last month, we found that there was significantly more time to listen to the radio. Neither Jason nor I are hooked on one type of music. We both have pretty eclectic tastes. Because of that, we find it hard to find a station that satisfies all of our tastes. We end up using iTunes or our iPods for getting our fix of music. When we’re listening to the radio though, we are usually listening to MPR.

Jason started listening to MPR a while back. I resisted, because at the time I was hard-cord Republican, and I felt like there was too much lefty liberal stuff on there. I’m not sure if that was true or if I just heard what I wanted to hear. I’m guessing it was more likely the latter. As time went on, I noticed that I was more and more interested in what I heard while he was listening to MPR, and I noticed that less and less of what I heard was political. It was just interesting stuff.

Off the top of my head, I can think of several programs that we regularly listen to. Instead of TiVo’ing the latest TV shows, we are often downloading the latest podcasts of our favorite programs. My favorites are Midmorning with Kerry Miller, Midday with Gary Eichten, Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett, and the Sunday Morning Puzzler. Some of Jason’s favorites are Science Friday and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!

One of the things that I like about listening to MPR is how I feel after I’ve listened to it. I feel like I used my time wisely. I feel smarter. I feel more interesting myself. I like the fact the variety of topics and perspectives I get. It took me a while to believe Jason when he told me about it, but now that I’m listening regularly, I’m hooked! Lots of other kids can sing the lyrics of songs they hear on the radio in the car, what will my kids take away from our time in the car? I can only imagine!

Some of you may (or may not) have noticed that my blog has been a little quiet for the past week. This is primarily due to the fact that I was not around from Thursday to Sunday. I had the opportunity to attend the MOPS International 2008 Convention.

The weekend was filled with speakers, authors, artists, and time to get to know others from my local group. Because our local group has helped us with fundraising for leadership training like this, one of the other women who attended and I are going to be giving a little recap of our weekend tomorrow at our meeting. When I got to thinking about what I wanted to say, I had a list that was far too long for the time I’ll be given. I am trying to whittle down two and a half days of information into about two and a half minutes.

The final general session that we attended was where it all came together for me. All weekend, we had been asked to wear buttons that said SDWSC on them. People had all sorts of guesses what that could mean, and on Saturday afternoon, we finally learned. It meant, “she did what she could.” Elisa Morgan, the CEO of MOPS, was speaking that afternoon. She talked about Mary bringing perfume to Jesus and seemingly wasting it in an elaborate gesture of pouring it over his head (Mark 14). Then, she elaborated on the sentence “She did what she could.” Mary gave what she had. She did what God had asked of her. She didn’t look around to see what others were doing. She didn’t trade her perfume for something more useful. She didn’t sit around wishing that she knew how to sing a beautiful song or write a breathtaking poem. She did what she could. That right there was the Big Idea for me.

In addition to our general sessions, we also had smaller sessions throughout the day on Friday. My first session was geared toward raising children with a concern about the world, the environment, and how our actions affect others. The speaker, Tracey Bianchi, talked about teaching your children to love something and become passionate about it. Then, once they love it, whatever that it is, they will be more likely to protect it and try to save it. The “it” might be a certain population of people, a type of animal, an aspect of the environment, or something else entirely. Although she gave many ideas, I didn’t leave her session feeling overwhelmed, I felt motivated. I want my kids and my family to be socially aware. I want us to make a positive impact on the world. This includes the environment and, as much as possible, people on the other side of the world, too. I also had two other great sessions. I have a couple many new books on my to be read list. There is so much I could say tomorrow about this conference, but what really sticks out is that she did what she could. That’s what God expects of me. That’s what I should expect of myself. I don’t need to do everything, but I do need to do what I can when I can.

Well, like I said last month, I don’t have a nightstand. There’s one on Jason’s side of the bed, but we don’t have books on that one either. I just have my books all over the house. There are a couple in our room, a couple on the back of the couch, one behind the couch, one in my purse, one on my end table, and tons downstairs on our bookshelves.

Last month, I was reading The Breastfeeding Answer Book, Reclaiming Nick, and Happiness Sold Separately. I have made some good progress in the Breastfeeding Answer Book. I read Reclaiming Nick and the two other books in the series, Taming Rafe and Finding Stephanie. I did not finish Happiness Sold Separately. It fell behind our couch, and I sort of forgot about it. Whoops. I did start it, though, and it’s pretty good from what I remember.

In the last month, I also discovered PaperBackSwap and BookMooch. I wouldn’t say that I am obsessed with them, but they are so fun! I put 20 of my books on the sites (10 on each) and so far, I’ve received 4 books with a 5th on the way. I also thought I would try a swap with anyone on here who wants a book that I’ve read, but so far no one has taken me up on my offer. Since I wrote the post, I have decided, I will just give those books away, so if you want one, let me know. If you have any you’d like to swap, I’m open to offers, but I guess it’s now a giveaway!

I have a trip coming up in about 1 1/2 weeks, so my reading list is a bit more ambitious this month. I have some high hopes that I will be able to read a lot on my trip. So, here is my list for October:

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper (from PaperBackSwap)- I was looking through available books on PaperBackSwap, and I saw this one. I hadn’t heard anything about it, but if it’s John Piper, I figured there’s a pretty good chance it’s got quality content.

Breaking Free by Beth Moore (from PaperBackSwap)- My friend from college purchased this study, and she has done it several times. I love Beth Moore, so I figured if my friend can do the study 5+ times and find it valuable, I would probably enjoy the book.

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian (from BookMooch)- This is a book I had heard about, but I’m not quite sure what I will think of it. It’s a subject I have pretty strong feelings on (midwives and homebirths). I suppose it could really go either way.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards (from BookMooch)- I was in Target wandering around one night after a stressful evening trying to put A to sleep. I picked up this book and read the back of it. I had actually forgotten about it for quite a while, but when I was trading away my books, I decided to look it up.

Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson (received from Monica’s giveaway on her site Paper Bridges)- I actually found this giveaway last month when checking out others’ lists.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (borrowing it from the library)- After hearing about this one for so long, I decided to find out what all the talk is about.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (don’t have it yet, but will be getting it from the library and hope to be a part of October Book Club on 5minutesforbooks.com)- I have heard about this book, but I don’t know anything about it. Maybe it’s time I start learning what the classics are all about!

The Problem with Breastfeeding by James Akre (borrowed from a friend)- She said this book is a must read. I guess I’ll find out.

Don’t forget to check out www.5minutesforbooks.com for a list of people who have shared what they are reading this month!

K and A, that is. I just love watching them as they experience something new for the first time or as they learn to do something. Lately, A has been practicing standing up without holding on to anything. He will crawl up to me, Jason, or a piece of furniture (yes, I just compared myself and my husband to furniture!), stand there for a moment, and then let go. When he does, he gets a huge grin on his face and plops down on his butt. He is so proud of himself for doing that on his own. It’s so amazing to watch him. K has been experimenting with language and words lately. He has started singing along with us when we sing a few of his favorite songs. He is also using new words on a daily basis. Recently, he has started using “both” and “either.”

I have a friend, who I respect a lot, that said something once that really got me thinking. She said that she had read somewhere that every time you do something for a child, you take away his opportunity to learn it for himself. Now, there are something I obviously want to be a part of my child learning, but other things I want to stand back and let him discover the world on his own. The other thing that she had said that got me thinking was so often we as adults tell kids how to play with particular toys. Sometimes, we tend to get too caught up in the right way to play with something that we forget about letting the child decide what is the right way to play. For example, we have this little duck key chain that Jason’s friend, Harry, gave us. K played with it for a while, and then he got bored with it. That was until he found a new use for it. The duck isn’t just a duck. It has a little button on the side, and when you push it, a light turns on and it quacks. Well, of course, in the mind of a 2 year old, the duck became a camera! As someone who likes rules and likes to do things the “right” way, I never would have thought to tell him it could be used as a camera. He figured that out on his own, and he loves taking our pictures with his duck camera. Maybe he takes after his aunts who are photographers.