I woke one morning last week to a crisis in the making. My son, his blood coursing with the traditional man "TOLAR" very early riser genes, usually gets up between 6AM and 7AM each morning. He happily trots into my room each morning to wake me with "Mama, my get up because the sun is up!" Well, to my dismay one morning he trotted in at a little closer to 8AM. I thought to myself, "sweet he actually let me sleep in today!" Oh how wrong I was...

In my barely there morning fog, I slumped out of bed and into the bathroom with Cooper trailing along be hind me chattering about nothing. My eyes got a little more clear and I realized as he stood there in his nighttime diaper that he seemed to have something brown and red smeared all over his stomach. I began to inquire and he said, "it's fishy food Mama, they ate breakfast!" Right then, I knew I was in trouble!

I ran down the hall Cooper in tow to his bedroom to find fish food spread all over the top of his dresser with aquarium chemical bottles out in front of the aquarium and fish food sprinkled on the floor. I said a small prayer that I'd seen the worst of it until I looked in the tank. Yep, with the skill of a layered sand jar crafter most of that food actually made it INTO the tank! The worst of it was that the water was hazy like a smoke filled room because he had also dumped all the chemicals in the tank as well! I looked at Cooper and said, "what did you DO?!" He looked back and said, "My helped feed the fishies Mama and then the SMOKE MONSTER came and got them!" Yes, my friends, my toddler is an avid LOST fan. His favorite part is when the 'SMOKE MONSTER' is in an episode and pouring those chemicals into the tank, sure looked like he was recreating an episode of LOST!

I felt for sure with all those chemicals and food in the tank, those fish were heading for a 'flush funeral.' My son upset and whining, "Mama, I don't want the fishies to die," in the background I called my darling husband to tell him what happened and inquire as to what I needed to do to save the fish. His first reaction was laughter and once he had stopped he told me to stop at Petsmart and buy a few sucker fish and a crab to clean up the food. Apparently, he didn't realize how covered the bottom of the tank was and adding a few fish wasn't going to solve the problem!

So off to daycare I went, dropped Cooper off and headed to the pet store. I get into the store and the fish lady says, "get that food suctioned off the bottom right away!" I got the equipment and fauna needed. Well, since I was running late I realized I had to call my Director at work because that day was the day I was getting my review! Picture this, I'm at Petsmart on the phone getting my review, vacuum, fish, and crab in hand at the checkout! Now that's multitasking!

I get home, log into a teleconference for work and proceed to vacuum the tank and change the water out a few times. Put the fish and crab in the tank when I realize that the crab I've purchased is HUGE with big red claws that could easily snatch up a fish for a meal! I Google the kind of crab to make sure it's safe and you guessed it, NOPE, can't keep him in there or he'll eat the very fish I'm trying so hard to SAVE! Further research tells me that he's also a crab that needs to surface for air as well! UGH... A day goes by and all fish are still there Cooper decides he doesn't want the crab to eat his fish but he still wants to keep him!

We got our new CRABBIE guy out of the tank into a temporary residence and picked him up a more suitable permanent residence. That puts us up to three tanks in our house now!

Crisis complete until our next round of chaos hits!

Out of the mind and onto the table!

The other day I was talking to a college friend and we were discussing how crazy everything in our nation is right now. Our financial systems and industries are crumbling while we are in a war none the less! We've all lost amazing amounts of money in real estate and just when we think things are getting better, we are on the verge of a pandemic flu. It's doubtful at this point that there is not one business or person in our nation that hasn't been touched in some way by what's going on here. Is this really all happening at once?

Let's think about it. Do we let the news and articles we read affect how we direct our lives? If someone reports that a stock is a bad investment, would you by it? Are we all in lock-down because of the potential risk of a flu bug that's barely made a mark here yet? If other nation's (China and Japan) are quarantining Mexican Nationals, what's keeping us from shutting the border's here in the US? Where is the call to action for the national guard to line the border's to make sure no 'sick' individuals are slipping through? If it's as serious as the media projects, why aren't these things happening now?

How do we know if those reporting are credible or if they just have an 'agenda' of their own? It's hard to say if the messages we receive are truly without bias, prejudice, or are sexed up to some degree for the sake of some benefactor or maybe they just want to make news more interesting! Less face it, who would listen if it wasn't somewhat interesting, but the challenge for us all is determine if what we are told is totally true or not.

It's hard for us all to be positive in a world that seems to be spilling so much fear, doubt, and uncertainty into our lives daily. I avoid listening to the news when at all possible! It's a challenge but we have to put our trust in what we believe and know that historically we've been here before and we will come out of this! We need a new dawn and rebirth in our nation! It's going to take some ingenuity to get there and several bright minds to make it happen. God has a plan and I hope those bright minds disclose themselves soon!

On a lighter note, the one thing I've learned in life, is that we have to see the forest through the trees. The big picture tells us that regardless of what goes on in the world, we can all enjoy the small things right now in our lives! Love, happiness, provision, community, fellowship, relationships, faith, these are the things that center who we are and what mind frame we take to direct our lives.

Here's an excellent distraction that helped me be back away from the media trap. Last night, Cooper was quietly playing with his cars while I was indulging in some Desperate Housewives. He drove his Spiderman car across the couch making puttering noises as he went. I looked up fully expecting to see Spidey in his rightful drivers seat and to my shock and delight, the EASTER BUNNY had car jacked his car! Does anyone else see the hilarity in this!?

We live in a world where we are influenced by all that is external. However, the brightest spot in our lives can be the humor of an act, impulse of the mind, or the simply the appreciation of what we have!