COME AND GET IT!!!

"Good Humor ice cream!  Cold soda, yogurt, froze fruit, candy and bubblegum!  Good Humor! Over 80 different kinds of ice cream!"  Then the bells again and then, "COME AND GET IT!!!"

I have no idea what his name was, where he was from or where he is now, but the "Good Humor Man" is probably one of my favorite childhood memories.  I had the privilege of spending my summers on Long Beach Island (that would be the Jersey Shore) and I don't remember a year without the familiar sound of the bell and the voice.

The shore would be littered with brightly colored umbrellas and hard working folks from the tri-state area and beyond who were looking for a little break from monotony of their everyday.  The ice cream men would come throughout the day and ring their bells from the top of the street.  Most of them carried a bell that was made up of many bells and they had a more annoying chattering sound when shaken.  Some of them would holler at the sandy folks and others would simply expect their bells to do the work for them.  Not him.

He was much older, and weathered.  The white hair that he had made a ring around his head leaving the top at the mercy of the sun.  I don't remember him having any facial hair, maybe a mustache.  Never clean shaven.  He wore a white ribbed tank top and cut off blue jean shorts.  His socks would pull up to mid shin and his loafers kept his feet safe from the sun warmed sand. He carried a cigar in one hand and the bell in the other.  You could hear him walking from the road.  He carried one bell.  Similar to the kind in a hand bell choir, but one that worked much harder...or was harder worked rather.  As he found his footing in the sand the bell would ring in time with his steps.  We all knew it was him.  You could heads look up and toward the street, checking, was this the guy?  Then he'd begin ringing it....ring a ding a ding a ding a...then the mantra, "Good Humor ice cream!  Cold soda yogurt, froze fruit, candy and bubblegum!  Good Humor! Over eighty different kinds of ice cream!" Then there would be a ringing interlude, if you will, and then, "COME AND GET IT!"  Boy would we.  We'd all grab our dollars with our sea wet hands and scramble to get in line for what seemed to be the best ice cream ever!

As you approached the truck you could hear him talking with all of the kids that had rallied around to choose their memory.  Mine?  A snowcone.  Almost every time.  It seemed to last the longest.  He'd say things like, "And for you sweetie?"  He had a heavy accent, one that was so wonderful to me.  It was rough and gentle.  Spending my school months in GA made me enjoy listening to accents that didn't start with "y'all."  He was kind...he was the Good Humor man. 

Our school year just finished and for the end of the year "party" we decided to have an ice cream man come to the church where we meet (my kids are homeschooled, it was the last day of Classical Conversations or homeschooling group that we meet with once a week).  We didn't tell the kids and they went nuts!  Imagine getting to "order" what you want from the ice cream man.  This man looked nothing like my "man" but he was good...and we all recounted our ice cream truck memories.  This made me think of another call to "COME AND GET IT!" that is found in Isaiah 55

1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. 4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor."

Everytime I hear this verse I think of those scattering and scampering up to that truck.  Buzzing with excitement.  We waited on him.  We recognized his voice.  We wanted what he was selling.

Are you thirsty?  Are you broke and hungry?  I want to invite you to come and drink of the water that will satisfy.  Come, buy and eat...that your soul may live.  Jesus is certainly more precious and valuable than any ice cream man, but this summer when you hear the music and your kids start clammoring for his wares...indulge them and then while their smiles are fresh and they are dripping with memories...share this with them.  The One who calls us out of our poverty and into His splendor...satisfying us to the end of the age with His unfailing love.

COME AND GET IT!!!

A New Language

When people find out that our son is taking a Latin class, they inevitably ask, "Why Latin?" It is a very common question, and doesn't bother us, but we always answer the same, "Because Latin is the foundation for practically every other language." Anson even asked one time why he was taking a Latin class. He came to the conclusion that he could be a missionary to "Latin America!" Now that is just plain funny!

Where I am not taking a Latin class, I am learning a foreign language. It's a language of Empires and Storm Troopers. It's a language of long ago in a galaxy far, far away. Guess what it is? Star Wars!!! Lego has been kind enough to develop building sets and websites for movies that make boys crazy! For a few years he's been building Y-wing fighters and collecting Anakin minifigures. It was probably a few months ago he was showing me a "Boba Fatt" guy and some weird talking alien and I thought, "I can't understand a word coming out of his mouth. I've got to get this language." So, I told Mike I needed to be trained. I would be his "Padawan." If you will.

We started small. Mike decided that Anson would watch the movies in chronological order, not the order that the movies were made. For those of you who don't know, the old movies (the ones that came out when we were kids) are actually the last 3 installments. The new movies (that came out at the end of the 90's and early 2000's) are of the beginning...you see who Darth Vader is and why he chose the Dark Side of The Force. So, that's where we started. Mike was going to watch these first, and then decide when and if Anson could watch them. That was fine with me. Until I couldn't talk to my boy. So, we watched the first one about a month ago. I enjoyed it, but wasn't crazy about it. Then a night or two later, we watched the second one and I took notes! A few of my notes, "Anakin has a lot of potential, but it's not harnessed. He is unwise. Why is Queen Amidala now a senator? Is Dooku a bad guy? Anger and fear lead to the Dark Side." Anson was quite impressed. I enjoyed the second one. So, then we were up for the third one. Anson will not be watching this one, and I will say of the 4 I've seen so far, this is the hardest to watch. It broke my heart. So much evil was present and almost all of it was for personal gain. So, last night we finished the 4th (we started it a few nights ago and I fell asleep). I enjoyed it and look forward to watching the 5th soon. So, why?

We request that our children listen to us. We request (demand) that they do what we say and do it sooner than later. When they are younger it's all about training and then when they get older, something happens. They develop interests that we may or may not care about. We enjoy the time alone while they are lost in their world for hours at a time and count ourselves lucky. Then, they grow up a bit more and they don't want to talk to us about those things that really matter. How did that happen? We were doing so well. There was peace and everyone was happy. Right? I think we lose our kids when we check out on those things that interest them. We have to earn the right to speak into their lives. They don't just hand that over. I'm watching Star Wars and talking about light sabers and siths because I want to talk about dating and marriage. I'm re-watching pod-races because I want to talk about finances. I'm going somewhere with this. It's not because I want to know why Lego has priced the Death Star at $139.00 (although that does interest me) it's that when there are matters of life and death, I want to be able to reach my son. The only way he's going to care about what I have to say later, is if I care about what he has to say now.

It's no small task raising children. We must be vigilant and engaged. We must do what it takes, no matter what that might be in order to stay involved in the lives of our children. The Dark Side beckons...may the Force be with us.

Not so Pinterested.

You're in!

I'm excited to invite you to join Pinterest, a social catalog. I can't wait to have you join our little community.

To create your Pinterest account, click the link below and push the blue "FB Connect" button. You can also join with Twitter.

http://pinterest.com/invited/?email=aliwessner@yahoo.com&invite=1c983258
Pinterest Etiquette: Try to...

Be Nice!
Be Creative. The best pinboards mix products, art, recipes and images from all across the web. Try not to pin everything from a single source.
Give Credit. If you blog about an item you found on Pinterest, it's nice to credit your fellow pinners by linking back to the original pin.
If you have any questions, we'd love to hear from you. Email us at hi@pinterest.com or follow us on twitter @pinterest. We also have an iPhone app.

Happy pinning!

- Ben & the Pinterest Team


How exciting is that!!! I'm in! They like me. They'll have me...there is just ONE itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny problem...no Facebook for me. You have to have a Facebook account to join, and I'm not going to join Facebook in order to join Pinterest. Are they BFF's? I suppose that since so many people are "connected" that it's their business and what not...so it's not all sad. I can still check out pins, just can't create a pinboard. Oh well. I'll just look things up, or maybe I'll just not jump into that black hole of time, because even without an account I can really get sucked in. Mike can too! So, that's how all that went down, for those of you who were waiting, hoping, and praying that I'd get in...I did...1 point for the average, run of the mill Mama...but 1 point for the super big social networking world that is taking over the for real world. Well, at least I got invited.

You've got to be kidding me!!!

So,I finally decide that I'll join a social site...maybe it's social...and I've been put on a flippin' waiting list. Waiting for an invitation. I'm sorry is it 6th grade again and the cool kids are gathering at the cool kid house and I'm waiting, hoping, holding my breath that I'll get invited. Good grief. All I wanted to do was "pin" two things. I wanted to pin the AMAZING curl your hair with a headband and...no I guess that was it. Just create my own personal pin board, for fun, before I worked on our budget. Instead I get this super nice e-mail, here you read it...
Hi!

Thanks for joining the Pinterest waiting list. We'll be sure to send you an invite soon.

In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. You can also explore a few pins.

We're excited to get you pinning soon!

- Ben and the Pinterest Team

Yeah, Ben, and the Pinterest Team...what am I waiting for? Are you checking my cool points...looking me up on Facebook? You won't find me there...this is the first site I've decided to join, but now I don't know. Maybe I won't...maybe I'll boycot you like I boycot Facebook, i-phones and cable! Maybe that'll show you how us normal average folks feel about a waiting list. Maybe you can pin this!

Off to do my budget...no waiting list there. No, standing room only...just me and my trusty pen and paper telling my money where to go. For real style. Nothing virtual about that. Just full on, real live work. Thanks for the diversion, Pinterest, thanks.

Just a thought

Today on the way home from church I had the girls and Mike had the boy. We don't typically take two cars, but I had to get some hair done and Mike needed to teach, so we followed behind. Anyway...on the way home we pulled up next to a car that was clearly LOVIN' the music. She was dancin' and singin' and so I sort of whispered to myself (I don't have a quiet whisper), "Let's see what she's listenen' to." I rolled the window down (what should we call that now that we don't actually "roll" the window down? Shall we call it, what, buttoning it down?) Julia heard me and she giggled and we listened. We couldn't quite get the words but we loved the beat. We even decided that we'd use it to memorize our next Catechism question (Westminster Shorter question number 20) but now we can't remember it. It was, however, super in the moment.

So, here's my thought. Do people want to hear my music? Not my for real music, although Andrew Peterson and JJ Heller are easy on the ears and let's NOT forget about John Denver. I mean the music of my life. Do people see me dancing and singing and wonder what I'm listening to? Do they wonder what makes me move and live and have my being? Do they want what I want? Do they button their window down to hear my music? I don't know. I hope so. I'll be aware of it. And...I'll play it louder so they hear the words, "There is but ONE name under heaven, whereby we must be saved." Now if that isn't freedom rock I don't know what is! Turn it up, friends!

A Little Child Will Lead Them

"Mom, at the last minute I put dollars in the bag." Julia softly and carefully shared her act of bold love from the back seat. "You did?" "Yup. I put a 10, a 5, and a 1...that's, let's see, 16 dollars." So it was her all along.

Our director issued a lost change challenge to help with the cost of our dear friend's adoption. Our whole Classical Conversations community brought in loose change to contribute. At the end of the day we were counting it, and folks were commenting on the dollars in our bag. I wasn't paying much attention to much and had no idea where the dollars came from, but knew it wasn't me. I brought change. It was a competition so we were all laughing that someone broke the rules. Our community raised a whopping $339.00 to bring little Zoe Amaris home and I certainly think that's nothing to sneeze at. That was, predominately change! Then the dollars.

I wasn't sure what to say. I felt like she had been so kind and selfless. It's not like she gets money everyday, we're certainly not handing it out! "What made you want to put dollars in at the last minute, Jules?" She was gazing out the window and almost whispered, "Well, I put some change in, and it wasn't that much and something just didn't feel right." In my minds eye I can see her reaching into her little wallet, her little savings to participate in a cause that she believes in. Bringing a little one home. Where did she get that sort of generosity? I didn't even feel like I could be proud...because I didn't do anything. I felt humbled that I get to be a part of her life. Honestly, I felt like I had to give her money back or repay her or something. But, wouldn't that totally undo the work that God began? Doesn't He say that all the believers came together and gave all that they had so that no one was without. She commented that when we meet Zoe for the first time she'll know that she played a part in bringing her home. Imagine that day. When that entire family is united for the first time and all of the people that will rally around so full of love because we've been talking about her, calling her by name...loving her before we even laid eyes on her. And Julia just wanted to be a part of that. How about you?

This weekend we were part of a Trot to Adopt fundraiser and I totally dropped the ball and neglected to get sponsors and while I was standing in this crowd of excited families I thought, "I robbed folks." There are bigger things going on around us. Bigger than my piles of laundry and my little broken and dirty world. There are families to be put together...children to be brought home. Chairs to be filled and beds to be "tucked in." So, for those of you who would like to contribute to the Wilkerson's, please head over via the link below and chip in. Maybe all you have is change...it adds up. Maybe you have some dollars...those add up too. They have been on this journey for a long time and have asked a lot of people. So, I'm asking you. Maybe you would rather give to someone that you know, so that you can,like Julia see the little one and share in their life knowing that you played a small part. I just want to encourage you to share. Jesus will certainly make up the difference.

This is the the link, I was told that the donation part will be up for a week.

This is a link to Audrey's blog with a sweet little video with the big brothers hoping to bring their sister home...SOON!
Have a great day!!!

He loves me.

I remember when I realized that he loved me better than I loved him and when I finally found rest in that fact. I knew that he would love me like Jesus loved the Church. Selfless and beautiful even though my heart was wounded and incomplete. My heart was still tangled with another love. A young love that was strong and real. He loved me knowing that he wasn't my first love. He loved me knowing that the ghosts in this town sometimes bump into my life, catching me off guard and throwing me off kilter. Then there was the breakthrough. The confession that set me free and changed my view of marriage. I shared that I had been, for 5 years, silently mourning the loss of my best friend. The relationship that God called me to lay down and never pick up again broke my heart. He listened to me cry and pulled me even closer. How bold is his love? How is that possible? Since that time we have welcomed more babies and more adventures and still he loves me better. He is kinder and gentler and more generous when he scoops ice cream. He is tender when I am bruised and firm when I am doubtful. He laughs with me and trusts me. So, today when the dog rolled in poop...AGAIN, I thought, "I'll let Mike deal with that when he comes home." It caught me. Really? He's been gone all day, I'm going to dinner with friends and I'm going to leave him with the 4 kids and a poopy dog? After all he has done to love me well? So, I will bathe the dog and something else...everyday he eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and for the most part he makes that himself. He doesn't love packing his own lunch. Neither do I. Couldn't I do that, though? Couldn't that small act of kindness show the man of my life that I'm thinking of him. When he comes home and finds his sandwich made and ready, would that bless his heart? More importantly, would that lead to greater acts of kindness that would preserve my marriage and our love for one another? I bet it could. I bet it will. So, along with other random resolutions I will make one in particular. I will pack his lunch. I will not let go first when he stops me in the kitchen to hug me and tell me that he loves me. I will not believe that anything is more important that the institution of marriage. I will receive his sweet and unconditional love. Have you seen marriages crumble around you? I have. Have you seen the enemy's attach on the Church in this area? We are hardly different than the rest of the world. How about you? Any small acts of kindness that will communicate how thankful you are for the man God gave you? The world is watching us. Waiting to see a difference. Let's give it something to talk about!