cold noses, peanuts and other stuff

It is completely freezing in my basement. The little kids Batman sleeping bag on the couch is looking really tempting right about now.

So this morning at Mom's we had a Life Coach some. She said she wouldn't really call herself a Life Planner, but more a coach. I'm not really sure what she meant, but I'm sure she knows more about the differences than I do. It would be interseting to hear what other Mom's thought about it (so if you read this, and you heard her speak, let me know what you thought!) I know a few who said that they liked the way she spoke. Really down to earth and lots of personal stories. Maybe that's why I wasn't really fond of her, I think she could've covered more in the time she had if she didn't go off a tangent with every point. But that's just me, and odd for me 'cos usually I love it when people tell personal stories. I guess I was just having a bad morning. My nose was cold.

Next week is our first of 6 sessions on Sexual Intimacy (or maybe 8, how bad is that? To be the program co-ordinator and have no idea how many sessions your doing...ugh). You won't want to miss it!

When we got home Matthias wanted to go for a bike ride. That was good. Get some more energy out of them. Then they wanted peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch. So I made them pb & jam. As I'm scooping up some peanut butter Matthias comes up and looks in the jar. "Peanut butter..." he says thoughtfully, "pea..nut butter."
"Yes, "I say. "peanut butter and jam." Totally not cluing in to his "point".
"Is there pee in there?"
"No, "I say, "just peanuts." Can you guess where this is going?
"Penis?"
"No. Pea-NUTS."
"Peanus?"
"Yeah, just nuts."
I hope we both forget this conversation and can move on with our lives.

Onto another topic I sponsor a child thru Compassion. I'm partial to them 'cos I've been on a mission trip with them, and I've seen firsthand what sponsorship can do in the lives of a child and their family. Anyways, once in awhile we get a little Compassion magazine with stories and testimonials of workers, sponsors, etc. Usually I just flip thru them, read the odd article and recycle. But today this one article caught my eye. It was titled "Compassion Works - In a country you've never known." The story is about the country of Burkina Faso in West Africa. It's just a small 3 page article, but enough to pull my heart strings. More children die there from Malaria (from infected mosquitoes) than HIV/AIDS and a mosquito net costs $3.30 or a vaccination costs a mere $0.25 and families can't afford that. Men usually have 2 or more wives with as many as 20 children to help work the fields. Or they sell them for money. A child can bring in as much as $50. For cultural and religious reasons, 3 year old females experience genital mutilation. "It is believed that a mutilated woman is not likely to seek relations outside of marriage." That's terrible! The article goes on to say that a woman will not be viewed as a "complete" woman without the procedure. That's sick! I just can't imagine a place.

I don't often push something, but I'm going to push this. For $35 a month you can get a child off the streets and into a Christian school with proper food and medication. Please check it out. You could save a child's life.