• Cleaning the office, and it feels good. Getting ready for an arty man date this evening as well. #

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• Finally kicked that cold – almost. But good enough. I’ll take it. I can taste again. #
• Listening to the brand new “Here” by Lance Odegard. Glad the glorious return of Lance Odegard has come. http://www.lanceodegard.com #

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Well, it’s been a while since the paper airplane. It was time for something new.

Today, Jack needed something with the “oa” sound in it for show and tell homework. Boat was the obvious choice.

But we don’t have a boat. (well, there IS that big one that I don’t want to lug to school …)

So, we decided to make a paper boat. Of course, following my man-mom tendencies to blend parenting with technology, we hit up Google and found a pretty cool catamaran on an origami site for kids. I felt up to the challenge.

Here is the fruit of our labors.

You can get instructions here …

http://www.origami-kids.com/paperairplanes-2-catamaran.php

I am very glad I’m allowed to play!

• wants his food to taste normal again. Why do I have a cold, and how can I get rid of it? #
• Why can’t the Church be known for doing crazy things like THIS?

  http://tinyurl.com/bbmlsf #

• Curious about: “The Dusty Cover Used Bookstore”. This is a “missional third place” with coffee and used books! ( http://www.dustycover.ca/ ) #

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Do you ever have something happen to you that makes you feel like you found a crack in the universe somewhere – like something messed up and gave you a peek behind the curtain? Or like you are onto something that is top secret? A glitch in the matrix, perhaps?

Deja-vu ranks among these moments, but I had another freaky one the other day, and I’m pretty sure there is a conspiracy involving me at the center of this.

I had just dropped off Lucie at preschool and was listening to the traffic report on the radio. They were reporting on a collision. It was right in the traffic circle I’d just driven through moments earlier. Only, I didn’t remember seeing any collision. It must have happened right after I left. Phew, that was close.

But, moments later, I came back through that same circle, and … nothing. No collision. No police blockade as the radio had reported. Perhaps they got a bad tip, but just moments later they reported it again – “still backing up traffic in the traffic circle so you’ll want to stay on the outside lane to avoid that” reported Rod Kurtz to the CBC faithful. Weird. I shrugged it off.

Until the NEXT day.

I am coming through the same traffic circle, at the same time. What do I see – the exact situation described on the radio the day before. Accident. Outside lane only in use. Police blocking the way. It is just what I would have expected to see, had it been the day before.

And no reports on this one that I remember.

So, what happened here folks?

Is this just life with the kids eating away at my rational brain? Or am I in the center of a sci-fi short story concept?

Every had a day like that?

• is heading out to his kids’ first art show with a bunch of other kids art at The Carrot. Be there from 12:30-3:30 for the fun. #

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So, it;s that time of year again. I know because we spent some time filling out those little punch-out cards with funny sayings on them like “you’re out of this world, valentine” (to be accompanied by a picture of ALF, in my day).

I do love Valentines, and I know my kids love it too. But, I have been wondering, filling out these cards, what the allure is here?

Let’s look at it objectively. You can’t just give a Valentine to people you actually LOVE or even LIKE in school. You have to give one to EVERYONE in your class.

SO, here’s what you do. You buy a big box of generic punch out cards with licenced characters on them, then write a person’s name on it – nothing but their name – and give them this ‘card’. Essentially, it means nothing, because you will of course get one back. Everyone has to waste these few dollars so that everyone else feels equally unimportant and generic. Huh? And what you are giving out is essentially (no, literally) garbage. How is it any different than just cutting a Disney Princess off of a retail toy box and handing that to a kid? Oh wait, that would include some personal effort. Perhaps that’s what we’ll do next year.

All kidding aside though, it’s fun to see the kids get in the act. And I like it, too, even if I have no idea why.

• Is getting ready for Creative Design meeting tonight – how to creatively portray prayer? How do you make something so old new? #
• Is reflecting on how well a community of diverse people can create something together. #
• Is looking for a recipe for tabouli/couscous salad. It’s Greek night tonight! #

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On the topic of “From the Mouths of Babes”, here’s one I don’t want to hear again.

My kids are having a bath and I just heard this …

“Lu, did you just go poo without even knowing it”?

Only a parent can understand how horrible that one sentence is. It is ominous my friends. Gotta go. Cleanup on aisle 3.

I get a lot of joy out of listening to my kids talk. They are trying out words and how they string together. They are testing their meanings and building vocabulary every day. And sometimes the results of their verbal exploration are hilarious.

From time to time, I’ll post some of their words here. Here are some from the past few days;

“Leaders make you say excuse me when you toot or you fart or you cough” – Jack on leadership

“P is a letter. And pee is when you go to the bathroom” – Lucie on the letter P

“Dad, I think Mag really loves me” – Jack, on the girl he is apparently going to marry

“I’m going to keep my decision” – Jack, on the same topic

More to come I am sure …