I Can't Think of a Cool Title

I am knee deep in clutter. Most of it is books and paper, but there is a fair mix of clothing as well. I am trying to REALLY clear out some clutter. As in gone-out of the house-bye byo. I am really good about getting things boxed up and READY to go out. Not nearly as good at actually getting it out the door.

For those of you who need to know-Facebook time in exchange for chores works really well. Incredibly well. Fighting over who gets to fold the next load of clothes well. We sort of ran out of time today though and I have a "no rollovers" rule. I will have to re-evaluate the rollover rule. I don't want this to ever die.

Tomorrow night, I will begin teaching a ladies class at church. It will be a quick one, only two months. I am excited about applying the teachings in the Bible to everyday living together. I am also desperately nervous that no one is gonna show up. I tell myself it doesn't matter how many people show up-but my self knows I am lying.

I left my cell phone charging in the bathroom at my friend Jennifer's house. We ran over for a quick visit while Lilly was at piano next door. I wanted to have a fully charged phone before I crossed the 2nd scariest bridge in the world to go to gymnastics...but ended up having no phone at all. Oh well, I'll get it tomorrow.

We have had a good day today. We got school done. Everyone's room is still clean. I threw out a whole mess of papers. Life is good. Bring it on, tomorrow.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow. You're only a day away.

Ketch-Up

• Hula girl sent me the bigger file to her picture. The most beautiful pic!! Thanks again Hula for letting me use it. Isn't she talented? I finally got around to making the pic bigger in my header.
• I feel much better, but I am still not 100%. I am trying to rest frequently to let my body recover, but that is tough to do on weekends. The next two days will be catching up slowly on housework, laundry and school.
• Soon I have 50 bazillion books to review for you. Some of them were so good I would be tempted to read them again if I did that sort of thing. (I don't.)(Do you?)
• Dishwasher is still broken. We did a little research on the web. It won't be an easy fix. I wish we could just win the lottery or something. (This is impossible as we don't play.)
• My tweens are officially ADDICTED to facebook. They want to go on several times a day, which I don't allow. The begging is killing me. I'm probably going to institute a facebook time for chores program. I predict it will be wildly successful.
• I don't have many other thoughts right now. My brain is in hibernation while my sore throat dominates.
• Have a wonderful Monday!!

Thursday Thoughts

Yesterday, we slept in a bit, went for breakfast, swam in the pool and then gathered our belongings. We had no definite plans beyond Baskin Robbins. My kids had never been to one. Our city used to have one but doesn't anymore. Seemed like a bit of a crime to let them go on without tasting one of the 31 flavors. I had stashed back ice cream money and it took every cent of it. Lilly got choc chip cookie dough, Erika got jamocha, Kayla got tax crunch & I got snickers. Mmmmm. Good.

Once we crossed the bridge from Evansville into Henderson, I decided just to drive through the Audubon Kentucky State Park. Oh my word, I am so glad that I did. We walked through the museum, watched birds and had a really fun side trip. Then we grabbed 4 JR Whoppers from the nearest BK and made our way home. It was good to be home. The kiddos played in the yard with a couple of giant dogs that were delighted to have their family back.

After church last night, we made it home in time to see the highlights of AI-Danny Gokey, I choose you!! (Lil Rounds, you are a close second!) Tattoo arm girl, I'm very disappointed. Kayla likes Adam Lambert though. (She typed that!) I think that guy is FREAKY and The Ring of Fire proved it!! Who are y'all cheering for?

This morning, I woke up with a sore throat so bad I could barely swallow. I have not had a sore throat this bad since I was a kid. I went to the doc for a strep test. It was negative which means it is viral and I am forced to suffer through it. Usually a sore throat will let up a bit as the day wears on but this one has not let up one bit, not even after Tylenol and salt water gargles. So I am quite miserable. I need a nap. I think it is time for more Tylenol and another gargle.

Last Day, Sort Of!!

Last day and night. We return home tomorrow, at some point-no real timetable. So much to do, so little time. Today we will be leaving the library and off to more adventures. The morning started with a fun license plate adventure. Someone stole our license plate and I had to cross the bridge over to good KY to get a replacement. $6 later, we have new tags with a different county on it. Won't people wonder....We love this city's close proximity to our home state. IN was not kind to us at all. We had a police report BUTT they would not give us a temporary tag until we could get home. A tiny little blackmark on the board of my favorite city.

I wonder if I can find all the consignment shops I have on my list of fun stops?? I wonder if we can visit all the museums in this town? I wonder why they just charged me for the maps I printed and where I have to go to retrieve them? I wonder what we will have for lunch? My stomach just wondered (out loud) what we will have for lunch? I love the street name 'Stringtown'. I just know it has a cool history lesson. I wonder if all the libraries have cool discarded book shops? I wonder if Stephanie will grow to love this town as much as I?? I wonder how Kasey feels about a town that doesn't 'spring forward' or 'fall back'? I wonder why it took 2 full hours of open-ness for the locals to come to the library? I wonder if people know why I am in the teen center? I wonder why...

Have a wonderful Tuesday!!

Busy Day!!

Church, CARE group, Baby shower, funeral home, drive to another city. Very busy day. I think tomorrow we may not do anything at all. Or we might do a lot. We're just gonna play it by ear. The first day after check-in is always the best to be in hibernation. Tomorrow night we will definitely take in a movie. It's so good to be "home" again.

There are teenagers here-I hope it is not spring break. GRRR!!!

Pizza House

My husband has Saturdays off (like the rest of the world) for a while and it is NICE. This morning we hauled off our old gutters (our new ones look good) to the grassroots small town recycling center. We were hoping to take them somewhere else for revenue but in the end decided it was good to support a local greenie venture. After that we came home and made homemade pizza. This was our first time and very likely something we will do again, often. We used crust mixes from Walmart that were cheap but we will attempt from scratch crust next time. We made several different kinds-but my personal favorite was the one with mustard for sauce, pickles, bacon bits and lots of cheese. It is supposed to be cheeseburger but I did not feel like browning ground beef on top of everything else. I see myself packaging up crust mixes and topping bags to be ready to grab and make pizzas quickly.

I finally got around to getting my potatoes planted today and checked out an awesome gardening book at the library. Lilly had dress rehearsal for her concert tonight this afternoon giving us one hour to kill. Hello library, my old friend.

It was just she and I attending her concert tonight. I went to check on her at intermission-big mistake. She has been struggling with stage anxiety lately and I thought she was not going to sing!! Luckily, some of the other moms stepped in to encourage her as I stepped out otherwise she would have held on to me for dear life and not performed. She did great. I love to watch her sing, she opens her mouth wide and puts everything she has into it. Lots of people complimented her afterward, so maybe we are over the hurdle.

I am drained, have tons to do and not much time at all to do it in. Next week we will visit my favorite town for a few days...I can't wait to visit the library a city block large...have a great rest of the weekend!!

Oh Spare Us, Gus

My asparagus bed has been pitiful for the past two years. We bought just a few plants because they were so stinkin expensive. Then two of them did not do well so it was time to re-up or give up. So my darling hubby brought me home 20 plants today and they are now tucked away in their bed and I am ecstatic. This time next year I will be able to harvest enough for a meal. And that will save me lots of dough because asparagus is the priciest fresh vegetable.

Then we went for a walk on our trail through our woods. It is just as horrible as we thought it would be. Trees down everywhere. It is early enough spring that we just took detours, but soon enough things will take off and those detours will be dense undergrowth. Some time soon we will have to chainsaw through it...but not very soon.

Next, we had a small fire. We have 10,000,000 small sticks around our house that we piled up on a stump we have been trying to burn for years. The fire was small, the marshmalows were great and the ambience was very much needed. Nothing soothes my soul as much as sitting around a fire. Luckily, we have enough sticks and logs to have a fire every night for the next five years.

Because of the calming fire, I just took it in stride that my dishwasher is broken. It sucks, but honestly, what good would stressing do? We are going to try to figure it out on our own researching the internet. If that doesn't work, it will have to wait a while-gutters are coming tomorrow and 'winders'(windows for you non-ky folk) after that. Our home improvement funds are pretty well tapped out.

Tomorrow I am planning on planting some taters. I love growing my own taters. You can harvest them little and they are sooooo much better than the ones from the store.

This has been a very busy week but I am so thankful spring has sprung!!

Skeeter

The latest in the Hermie & Friends series is SKEETER and the Mystery of the Lost Mosquito Treasure. This is the first Hermie video we have watched as a family. I have always assumed it was for younger kids than I have. My kids are 7, 11, and 12. I knew that my 7 year old would enjoy this movie but I figured my older two would be bored. I was wrong. The animation is top-notch as is the story line. I loved the story as well. I think the message that God has an individual plan for us is one that should be reinforced-OFTEN. That is the overall message of this movie. Now we are excited to check out some of the older Hermie movies. Family entertainment is really hard to come by these days. Especially family entertainment that includes Tim Conway. Gotta love Tim Conway!!

How Do You Eat An Elephant?

One bite at a time, of course. I also like to read alot as I digest the elephant bites. OR MY FEARS-the ones I have been alternately obsessing and denying.

I have a little problem, I am overly analytical. (Hubby just chuckled and said "You can say that again.") I always have been. This makes being me very difficult because most people don't always say exactly what they mean or I take things way different than they are meant. I know this fact because I do it too-the saying things different than they are heard...VERY OFTEN.(My sense of humor is WHACKED!!) We all just sort of walk around spouting off opinions, cracking jokes because we make an assumption that people, "know where I'm coming from". This brings me right around to the biggest FEAR I am dealing with. My fear of people.

This is a new fear for me to face, I have been in denial about it for eons. For most of my life, I have not been taken very seriously. I am the youngest of four girls and the self-appointed goofball. I would say anything for a laugh and when I got one, I just kept it rolling. My sisters are all a little goofball-ish to, so we are always full of zingers and one-liners. Sometimes those zingers really zing. I often felt like the butt of too many jokes and felt pretty insignificant as a result. These led to me thinking the words I spoke, funny, cruel, sweet did not count much. I didn't have the power to really hurt people OR really help people too much either. I was wrong though-words are very powerful.

Through the years though, (okay-mostly just in the last 2-3)I have begun to develop some discernment with my words. It didn't come easy though, I killed alot of potential friendships and even a few established ones. The pain of those "break-ups" is the cost of making necessary changes. (The blessing is MANY friends who love me despite myself.) So now I find myself scared to put myself "out there" too much because if I am rejected- it will hurt for a long time, plus the ripple of that hurt will also hurt my family. My over-sensitive, over-analytical self coupled with my crass blunt side has robbed me of many friendships too. Also, as hurts happen-and they do, they must be dealt with. And for years I have preferred to not address them and then, as wounds often do, they have festered- both my wounds and the wounds I have given to other people. Both the wounder and the wounded have a responsibility to "work it out". So I am working on my woundedness and where I know about it, those I have wounded. (One of the 12 steps-powerful words to live by for sure!!)

Today, I took a step I'm not sure I could have taken a month ago. I confronted someone who had hurt me, recently-not a festering one ( ; While part of me felt like it might be my sensitivity run amok, it was still a valid feeling that needed to be dealt with. AND it felt right. I feel it was a healthy mature thing to do and the validation I received was affirming. I am certain God will put me on the other side of the equation soon and I really think-for the first time in my life-I will be able to handle the truth spoken in love. I also hope to bury this fear of people that I have. This new "tool" in my tool chest for dealing with the normal day-to-day hurts that we as people give and receive. Maybe, I can even pass this tool to my children and save them YEARS of angst.

And that would be a very awesome thing because ANGST is totally over-rated.

Monday, Monday

My favorite day of the week. To let you know how I am doing-I am on my fourth book this weekend. 'Nuff said.

I have had many glorious distractions to keep my brain slightly out of focus. I am officially a great aunt. Noah Jay was born yesterday just after noon. 7lbs 10oz. I was distraught because I knew I would be tied up all afternoon with a wedding shower and then a funeral meal-but then we dumped off the oldest two at youth care group and bee-lined to the hospital. I held him, fed him and burped him. He is adorable. It has been too long since we had a babe in the family. Mia-I thought about you, Amanda and Cameron all the way home too. New life is just soooooo precious. Lilly had never held a baby so "brand new" before. I wish I could tell you she was great, but she was a bit of a sniveling drama queen. This just gives her lots of room for improvement, right??

Tonight we are having a big workday at my Mom's in Slab town. I think it will be fun. These days I am loving a good distraction.

Weak Week

If I could think of a word to describe myself this week it would be...FRAGILE. I am feeling pretty inadequate in all areas of my life. I wish I could blame it on the weather (Which did the old bait and switch, beautiful almost summer like weather and then SNOW!!), but the truth is that the nice weather propped up my MOOD, but my heart is still achin'.

I put the blame squarely on Beth Moore's shouders. Why not? Okay, maybe it is just where it all started. Last Thursday(not yesterday-the week before that) when she addressed FEAR. Of course, I know what I fear- water, bridges, heights-no biggie. I get better about those fears as I get older and I never let them hold me back. I would say I have nearly conquered the water one. (The escalator one doesn't even trip me up these days!) She talked about real fear, the kind that controls our lives, influences all the decisions we make, effects every facet of our lives in huge and powerful ways. AND I was brought to my knees. Fear has a very powerful role in almost all of my decision making. Too powerful. So, this weak week, I am re-assesssing some of my life decisions and then burying myself in a book to get away from it. It is entirely too much for me. I've read two books consecutively and there are more to come. I'm in the denial-running stage of conviction. Today though, I am SLOWLY morphing into the thinking/processing mode. I'm probably gonna be here a while. Prayers appreciated.

Waking Up Is Hard To Do

Another day of breaking Lent. Actually 2. Yesterday, I took a whole day off from life and read a book...then started another. My day began about 5 PM when I took a bath and got ready fro church. Today, I slept late because I could not sleep last night. I finally went off to beddy bye at about 2AM. So to say I "slept in" doesn't seem fair when I got up at 8:30. Tonight, I will try to get to bed early and get back on track tomorrow.

Now, part two of waking up. I am "waking up" to the world of teendom. Slowly but surely. The times are different, of course, but the raw emotions are the same. The same crushes that both excite and embarrass. The same way you need your parents but wish them invisible most of the time. The way you want to butter them up for certain privileges but hate them in the moment if they say no. So many things I had forgotten. Blocked out of my memory...all the things I said that made so much sense to my 11 year old brain sound so different when your brain is 37. It is tough not to laugh at some of the big "problems". However, that would efectively shut down critical lines of communication for things that will come along that are big.

Waking up, literally and figuratively, is really stretching me out of "my comfort zone".

Good Morning, IT"S TUESDAY!!

I have accomplished so much this past weekend and yet the list of things I did not accomplish is just as long. Sometimes I think I am way too hard on myself which tempers nicely the fact that I often feel like a slacker.

Last night I had a wonderful night out with the girls. All the girls could not make it, but that did not stop us from eating Mexican food out and then playing spades after at an undisclosed location. A location that allowed us to fellowship away from our families. A location where we giggled loudly and apparently disrupted another "more reserved" meeting of the minds. A location that may not be approved for future gatherings. I have my fingers crossed that I won't get a tongue lashing at church tomorrow night.

Yesterday, I must confess that I failed miserably at my Lent sacrifice. I was not only unable to keep from sleeping in-but it was a forced teacher in-service day(wink, wink) because my butt could not get into gear, not even a little bit. We did make our 4H meeting at 2:30 and it was all
I could do. Pitiful. Today, I am back on track and thankful for a God with lots of mercy!!

I must get off of here. Duty calls. (Middle school laughter.) Have a great day.

Not So Spring-y

I would like to go on record for two things. I LOVE daylight savings time. I HATE that we have to "SPRING" forward to get to it. Also, sorry Mia-I totally forgot about the time change when I stayed at your house until 9:30 which was really 10:30. ARGHHH! If it helps any, my eyelids have been propped open with toothpicks since 7AM.

Yesterday was such a fun blur. We were busy from the time we got up (EARLY o'clock) until I went to bed (MUCH TOO LATE o'clock). We helped with my lovely niece's(in-law) baby shower-I was the game girl, can you imagine?? IT was alot of fun and they even fed us a meal which is totally not something we are accustomed to at a baby shower. Delicious. Then we went to a friend's 40th birthday party where there was more food but I was too full for anything but water. I got to look way up at him to call him an "old man". And then to Mia's to preview her yard sale. I am so pleased with my new-to-me vacuum!! I even stayed up late to test it out on my rug. I will not document how many times I emptied the thing for my one rug...some things are just personal.

The best part of the day though, was that Baby Cameron was also at Mia's. I got to hold him and smooch him. He didn't scream or cry. In fact he nuzzled, hugged my hand and slept, well, like a baby. I was praising the Lord that my tubes are tied or I would be having the baby fever in a big way. I can't wait to see him again. I also can't wait for my niece to have her little baby boy. Babies are so precious. Sweet, lovable, precious gifts from above. Unfortunately, they grow into teenagers. Surly, sometimes snotty snitty teenagers. Talk about a packaging gimmick. (LOL, I love my surly girls!)

A Kink in the Hose

Getting up early has been working fine for me. Improvement in my moods, productivity, TV watching and so on. However, this morning was a problem. Because last night I lie/lay?(I think lie is correct but it sounds so stupid) in the bed and could not sleep. Not one wink for over an hour. This reminded me why I used to justify staying up-I'd rather be up and doing stuff than lying there essentially WASTING an hour.

Today I am sooo tired and slow moving. AND, where are those cookies Hula was talking about. GRRRR.

Tonight is a family date night and I am excited. We are going to a play. The play Lilly auditioned for. Some of her friends are in it so it will be bittersweet for her. I still know we will all enjoy it.

In other news, all three girls got haircuts yesterday and they are very cute. I made the mistake of going to JCPENNEY. I will not make that mistake ever again. The cost was supposed to be $14/per girl but it was switched on us at checkout. I will just say it was much much more than even I have ever paid for a haircut. LIVID and nothing to do with it. It's a good thing they all have cute hair.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning...

Oh what a beautiful day!! Is it just me or are the days longer, the coffee tastier, the pancakes fluffier, the kitties snugglier, the huband smilier??

There are definite advantages to getting up earlier. I have an inner battle every morning because my cozy covers want me to linger-but I am doing well with this morning thing. It takes one diet coke, one cup of coffee, and a glass of tea plus a shower to get my eyelids past half-mast-but then I'm good. This morning, I put wide awake Lilly on my lap and we read a book together. I propped my eyelids open with toothpicks but it was great.

Off I go, many more "worms" for this big bird to catch.

Lamenting Lent?

It's that time of year when I start whining about what I gave up for Lent. What did I give up? Sugar? Diet Coke? No, I decided to go in a completely different direction. I was inspired by Mike-I won't link him because he never blogs anymore-who gave up his snooze button last year. I thought, how perfect, your first thought of the day would be God. How could I do something similar since an alarm clock does not exist in my world? I gave up my most favorite thing in the world. Those precious hours in the morning when sleep is most delicious. I gave up sleeping in. This was a tough one for me because I am not and have never been a morning person. Sure, I get up early when I have to and have no problem doing so. But I don't like it. I would never choose it. My daughter was telling me about watching the sunrise not too long ago and I had to bite my tongue and not say, "HA! I'll take your word for it." I'm much more of a sunset kind of girl. I love the hours of 10PM-12AM best. They have always been my favorite. All is quiet as my early morning crew sleeps away. I can do laundry or watch late night re-runs of sitcoms.

All of that to say, it is quite an adjustment for me. I am doing OK. It is a privilege to give God my first thought of the day. I am doing much better with making breakfast and our school has a much better flow. The only problem is the fact that I am tired by 9PM and have to really push to stay up any later. My blog time is really suffering. However, my house is cleaner and my kids seem to enjoy the early morning company of mom. (They aren't so happy to give up TV time for cleaning though!) I may just have to make this LENT sacrifice permanent. The early bird does indeed catch more worms.

No Rush to Post

Hee Hee. I giggle at some of the responses I got. My friends are so diverse if you put them all in a room together and discussed religion or politics, there could be casualties. So I won't be mentioning any famous political talk show hosts today.

I have been thinking all weekend about the ladies and why we are so hard on each other and ourselves (Good point, Elizabeth). Maybe that is the reason. If I won't give myself a break, how can I give someone else one. I can't be a total slob as long as there is someone else out there messier than me. I can't be too fat as long as there is someone out there fatter than me. The rules of comparison are cut-throat and you can never win, even if you "win". So why do we do it? Why do we constantly compare?

I really want to be the kind of person who makes people feel good about who they are and who I am. I want to be someone comfortable in my own skin. I want to understand what it means to say I am a daughter of The King. I want to take it in that His grace is sufficient for me.

The real life application of that is what is so hard.