Here's a little 60-second video of Landon's first try at eating rice cereal. In the end, I think we can call it a mixed review...

httpvh://youtu.be/VceTAyx2i0k

So we discovered a little water on the floor around our upstairs toilet and I determined that we have some sort of leak going on. I was in an adventurous mood – I mean, lately we've been painting, refinishing our stairs, changing lightbulbs, watching HGTV, etc. so I thought, "I got this." What I meant to think was, "I eventually got this." Here's how to install a toilet in 53 easy steps:

1. Mop up all the water from around the leaky toilet and pull the little shut off valve.
2. Put down a couple of towels that you are willing to throw away. Forever.
3. Go to Lowe's and look at ALL the toilets. Call a couple of close friends and ask them classy questions like, "What kind of toilet do you have?" and "Does it, you know...flush pretty well?"
4. Ask a couple of fellow toilet shoppers at Lowe's the same questions.
5. Ask Ed, the guy in the toilet department at Lowe's, what he thinks. He has some great recommendations and you decide on a nice Kohler which is on sale for $189, down from $209.
6. From the looks of your fellow shoppers, you realize the baby has probably been crying long enough in the stroller. You thank Ed for his time and determine to come back tomorrow to make your purchase.
7. Let a couple of days go by.
8. Drop kids off at choir and run over to Lowe's to purchase the new toilet.
9. Pick one from the top of the stack. Look around wildly for a forklift as soon as the bottom of the box clears the top of the one beneath it.
10. Recover using your knee and your foot to keep from dropping it and somehow manage to get it onto the flatbed cart, sticking your foot behind one of the wheels to keep it from rolling any farther.
11. Wonder where Ed disappeared to. Turns out it's his day off.
12. Get to the checkout and realize the toilet rings up at $209.
13. Ask David in your nicest frustrated voice, "What's the deal?" but cut him some slack because it's his first day.
14. Realize that you have to pick up the kids from choir in about 7 minutes.
15. Go back to the back of the store where the toilets are with Lynn from Customer Service and find that the tiny little price sign reads $209.
16. Express genuine disbelief. Grunt "Me, too." when Lynn says, "I'm sorry, darlin'."
17. Jump up and down like an idiot when you pass by a small stack of YOUR toilet with a big sign that clearly reads, $189!
18. Check out at Lowe's, wiggle the toilet into the back of the van. Buckle your 5 year-old in. Put the stroller on his lap.
19. Pick up the kids from choir and head home.
20. Wrestle the toilet box out of the well of the back of the van. Breathe. Finally let your wife grab one end of the box, halfway up the stairs.
21. Realize that she's probably stronger than you.
22. Read the 6-step directions on the top of the toilet box. Think, "Really? That's all there is to it?"
23. Practice your Spanish by comparing the top two paragraphs on each installation step.
24. Gather all the tools you could possibly need to unscrew the two nuts holding down the old toilet.
25. Have both T-bolts start turning in the thing they're in underneath the toilet.
26. Determine that you have to pry up on the washer to hold them in place while you use your power drill / driver to unscrew the nuts.
27. Realize you've got the wrong hex bit and go back down to the garage to get the correct size.
28. Watch the last half of a "Big Bang Theory" episode with your wife on the way back upstairs.
29. Finally get the bolts free and remove the old toilet. Find more towels with zero sentimental attachments.
30. Remember from the first time you ever swapped out a toilet some 16 years ago that that is JUST the wax ring – nothing more.
31. Ask the kids to please stop asking, "Daddy, are you all right?" and assure them that you are...fine.
32. Mildly panic when the bottom of the new elongated toilet looks longer than the old one.
33. Take measurements and determine that all is well, with a full eighth inch to spare.
34. Install the new wax ring on the bottom of the new toilet and notice that they don't look much better when they're brand new.
35. Manage to get the new toilet flipped over without your wife's help AND have the wax ring stay in place.
36. The new nuts and bolts work like a charm. Hope that the directions weren't being really strict when they warned against moving the toilet after the seal was in place.
37. Manage to install the bolts holding down the tank.
38. FINALLY use the level on your iPhone to make sure the tank is level.
39. Congratulate yourself on buying that LifeProof iPhone case and express relief that there was no water in the tank yet to test it out.
40. Install the new "non-slammy" toilet seat and lid.
41. Make mental note to instruct 5 year-old that both of the other toilets in the house are still "slammy."
42. Realize that the 6-inch connector is about 4 inches too short to reach the new "comfort height" toilet.
43. Drive to Walmart to buy a longer connector hose for $5.
44. Drive back home and install the new hose.
45. Turn on the water and allow the tank to fill.
46. Make the first flush and...it works! Breathe.
47. Put the little trash basket against the wall and notice that the PVC connection for the shut off valve seems to be slowly dripping...
48. Put a bucket under the valve and determine to call it a night.
49. Ponder why you didn't call your brother to install the toilet with for you.
50. Remember the conversation you had with him 16 years ago regarding number 30 and the resulting promises you made to yourself.
51. Wonder why an ad for a plumbing service shows up on your Facebook sidebar. Are they just messing with you?
52. Make mental note to call Comcast to see if you can just remove HGTV from your channel lineup.
53. Ask your wife if she knows anything about fixing a PVC valve joint...

 

We've recently had one of those times in our family, every year it seems, when we seem to just be tag-teaming each other with some sort of sickness. We've had ear infections, sinus infections, chest colds, head colds, Penny had a touch of pneumonia, I had the first case of the flu in Charleston County, and it just seems to wear us down in general.

Even little Landon had his first mild ear infection at 4 months. But he's different... he hasn't yet learned to moan and groan about his general aches and pains. Sure, he fusses a little here and there, but our whole family has been so encouraged by his happy demeanor, even when he's sick. His smile is also contagious and we've all agreed that we need more of those around here lately.

Here are a couple more photos of him, learning how to bite his big toe... he's a flexible kid!

  

It's October now and, even in balmy Charleston, our garden is about done. As I think back on this year's version of our Garden Project, it occurs to me that there are parallels to be seen in gardening and life. Jesus seemed to be fond of showing people the deep truths of life in the simple and familiar things that we experience and work in every day. Stories of mustard seeds, sowing seeds, pulling weeds, fig trees... God even started everything off with a Garden.

I don't have any intentions of matching the theology of Jesus, but here are a few things I've noticed that gardening has in common with life:

• Timing is everything.
• Embrace our partnership with God. There is a part that only He can do and there is a part that He asks us to do.
• Follow the instructions. Invest in watering, weeding and care. If we are faithful, the harvest will nearly always be great.
• Sometimes, even when we do everything right, something goes wrong doesn't go the way we had hoped and we don't know why. This is the providence of God.
• Don't forget to witness and value the miracles that abound in everyday life.
• Sometimes God will surprise you. When you think the bell peppers aren't going to make it, they produce a bumper crop.
• Some of the best things in life happen in the morning.
• Pull weeds early on. It's much more painful and difficult once they've taken root.
• It all starts with good soil. It may not smell great, but...
• There is value in patience. Some things cannot be rushed.

Lord, help us to see YOU in all that we do. Show us the deep things of life in the simple. Help us to invest our hearts in our families, kids, jobs and... gardens – the way You invest in us.

So, I got the flu. I only catch it every 4 or 5 years, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Got it the middle of last week and, with the help of my new friend, Tamiflu, I think I'm on the mend now. As soon as it was verified as the flu, Penny bugged out to Nanny's (Penny's mom) in Bonneau with all four kids. I did get a nice, "Hope you feel better... We'll be praying for you!" from the garage as they were leaving. Actually, she did feel really bad about leaving me, but I insisted 'cause – we didn't want them to get it, right?

Wrong. Now the girls are the only ones left at Nanny's and Penny, Logan and Landon are back in the sick-house with me – everybody moaning and groaning from fever and pain, except Landon, so far. We'll get through, I reckon. God brings humor to our home in opportune times to help us do just that...this scene unfolded this afternoon.

Logan hates taking his medicine. Tylenol. Motrin. Decongestant. You would think we are giving him cotton candy flavor chalk ground up in water. I even tried it and it tastes really good.

Well, today was the day for the showdown between me and Logan. He had a fever and we absolutely had to get the medicine in him, no matter what it took. I kept my cool and encouraged him for over 30 minutes, listing all the benefits the medicine would have for making him feel better, how good it tasted, how it would only take a few seconds if he just drank the medicine... only to be met with weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, mostly from Logan.

So, finally, I crossed that line. I threw all rational thought about family economics and the laws of parenting out the window and I said flatly, "Logan, I will give you TWENTY... FIVE... DOLLARS... if you drink this medicine right here, right now."

Let me just interject and offer sincere apologies to our parents, our friends who actually practice good parenting, and our parenting mentors, Gary & Anne Marie Ezzo – you all taught us better.

Logan's eyes brighten and he knew he had me. But here's God's humor sent down from above...

Logan says, "Well, Nanny gives me a quarter. Will you give me TWO quarters?"

I bit my bottom lip so hard it hurt and I looked down like I was thinking over the counteroffer. I finally looked up and said, "Deal." He drank his medicine with a smile on his face and left me thinking about how things might play out six hours from now when we had to do this all over again.

Anyway, I wish you all good health and relatively sane parenting. Pray for us...

We are overjoyed to welcome Landon Douglas Locklair into our family! He was born today, July 18, 2012 at 1:01 pm. He weighs 7 lbs 12 oz and is 20.25" long. Penny and I went to the hospital this morning and had a smooth relatively quick delivery. We are thankful, relieved, ecstatic, and exhausted all at the same time. We will have more photos to come, but this is one of my favorites so far. Thanks for your prayers! They have been answered in so many ways.

This is my favorite part of the garden project. Watering the plants. Stirring the soil. Pulling the weeds (which are very few with this new mushroom compost). Watching the miracles of growth. Watching the plants climb, flower...tiny little vegetables forming. There is something therapeutic about it all – partnering with God...a little.

Here are some photo updates:

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We have been preparing for our garden for some time now and Planting Day finally arrived. We always plant on the Saturday after Good Friday, which puts us a little later in the season this year, but no worries. We had to clean out the winter growth from garden bed. Our good friends Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo made a generous donation to our venture this year – a truck load of rich organic mushroom mulch! I snapped a few shots over the past couple of weeks and then set up an interval timer series with my Nikon D200 on a tripod while we were actually planting the garden.

This year, we are just planting basic, staple vegetables – zucchini squash, yellow straight neck squash, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, sweet red peppers and cantaloupe. We may try some smaller raised box beds on another part of our yard that gets full sun nearly all day. Our sycamore trees have gotten tall and are shading our garden bed more than I like, but they still get 5-6 hours of full sun. We'll post updates as things grow...

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