Fish in My Hair

Wordless Wednesday: Smile!

A Conceited Fool Dares To Show Herself Again

I am of the delusion that you miss me terribly and I must return for.........................ummmm lets not make any promises for how long I will surely let you down. Now I have been considering posting just to let you know that I have not dropped dead yet, praise the Lord for I am sure no-one in my house could survive without me. This became very evident to me when I left the house for 2 hrs the other day, yes that's correct a measly 2 hrs and I returned to total chaos, you know when you think have I not taught my children anything or my HUSBAND. Oh come on surely you all believe I am a most submissive wife and I looked at my dearest Husband with adoration and started finding a path to the kitchen to dish up tea with the sweetest smile on my face. Good, I am so glad you all remember this is exactly how I am.

I am just going to keep this short and sweet so I don't rave on for the sake of raving on which believe it or not I have been known to do. So all is well, life has been cruising along in it's very human way and all that human stuff that gets in the way of me being a perfectly nice person.

 Nice to see you all and  you know the drill comment to feed my terrible ego.

Survival tactics

1. Getting to bed at a reasonable hour (not happening tonight, because I had to prepare for JASMINitas- Mothers of Preschoolers group- meeting tomorrow)
2. Getting up before the kids this has only been possible as LittleSunshine wakes up for her first feeding at 6am pretty consistently.  If I get to bed on time, I am able to stay awake at this hour.  This is SO key.  These few minutes before I get up are spent meditating on the WORD.
   
3. Maintain a cheerful attitude.  Sometimes this is just not possible.  But I at least try to think positive.  I need constant reminders on this as little things can frustrate me sometimes.
4. Do the next thing, this sounds easy, but I am THE distraction queen.  I have to constantly remind myself that I must think only of that one most urgent next thing, and do that.  Otherwise there can be a possibility of 347 things at any given moment that I could do.  But I have to think of the MOST important (sometimes the most urgent) next thing and then DO IT.  This is very difficult for me.  :)
5. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT spend time counting the days/hours until he comes back.  This is vital.  He will come back.  Someday.  And I have to occupy us until he does.  So I do the next thing. 
   
6. Enjoy his phone calls and always say 'I love you' before hanging up.
7. Look forward to at least 15 minutes of free reading before sleep.
   

Fires and Blackouts and Floods Oh My!

 Fires: We have had this very scary wildfire burning since July 1st. It's a little too close for comfort to be able to walk outside and see flames burning in the hills above you. Even though you are far far away from it, it's still very scary and you wonder how bad it's going to get and you wonder if you will have to evacuate your home.

 Blackouts:Then there are the power outages caused by the fire. Our power has gone out every night and some daytime power outages as well. Today it went out while I was at the laundermat.

Floods: We came home from lunch on Sunday to find that our washer went on strike and flooded the hallway, entry, and dining room. So Tim had to call in at work to tell them about our flood emergency and he wouldn't be in. So went spent several hours cleaning up the mess and ripping up the hallway carpet. Then of course the power decided to go out. When that happened Tim started laughing. I was afraid he was having a nervous breakdown! But I'm glad he saw the humor in all of this. Next we will pull the carpet in the living room because just a bit of water was there. The thing is the water  that was flooding was clear and we have no idea why the washer acted so "hateful".

Such adventures!

Oh my!

Jammin'....

Lileks Zings Keillor Again

4th of July...cut short

We were looking SO forward to the reenactment over the 4th of July.  My dress was perfect, the boys had their pants and suspenders (which looked adorable!), Adam was ready to battle, and we were all set to enjoy our time.

We got there on the 4th, and had a blast.  Adam was in two battles (I have a video to share along with that). The first one he was told that since he is a beginner, he needed to be a casualty right away.  But the next one, he was able to fire his gun, and stay alive. 

As the evening approached, Gable started complaining of a stomach ache.  I was hopeful that maybe he was just tired and maybe a little dehydrated.  But that wasn't the case.  He started throwing up right there at the reenactment.  So that day was cut short.  We missed the night fire, and the celebration time.

By the time we got home, Madie started complaining about her tummy hurting.  For the rest of the night, Adam and I were tending to two kids with stomach flu.  We were hopeful that they would feel better on the 5th, but they didn't.  So we stayed home.  

Sunday was the last day of the reenactment, and we were once again hoping that the kids would feel better enough to go so we could do church there, as well as watch Adam have another try at the battles.  But guess who got the stomach flu!?!?  Me!!!  It was terrible!!!  We got to spend ONE day at the reenactment.

We are all doing better now.  A bit bummed out that we didn't get to stay longer.  Adam, Ethan, and Anna haven't come down with the sickness, and I am praying that they won't. 

There is another reenactment coming up on Labor Day weekend.  Lord willing, we will be able to enjoy the whole even this time.  Maybe I can even get a couple of dresses made by then!

Here we go again...

Patience is a Virtue

I am not a patient person.  The hardest part of pregnancy for me is having to wait for nine months to actually get to hold that little blessing growing inside of me.  I get extremely frustrated with my dial-up internet connection.  I bring a book with me everywhere I go, a habit I began long before I had children because I couldn't stand not having anything productive to do if I ever had to wait at a stoplight or the bank drive-thru.

This particular area of my life seems to be a place the Lord has been especially at work in refining over the last couple of years.  I've had to do a lot of waiting.  My husband has had many a pep-talk with me in recent weeks, reminding that God's timing is not ours, that we need to keep our eyes on the long-term vision, that He sees the bigger picture.  It is so easy for me to forget that.  I so often find myself asking why I can't have what I want right now.  Why does the Lord continue to ask me to wait?  And then I realize again that perhaps He is making me wait because I am still so bad at it.  Because, as my husband says, He sees the bigger picture and knows the end from the beginning.  He knows what is best for me and as His child, it is my job to simply trust Him and wait on Him.  Easier said than done, I'm afraid.

Patience, my mother always told me, is a virtue.  It is one I would like to have.  It is one I have had plenty of opportunity to work on developing.  I think, however, it is going to be a very long process.  *sigh*  I can see it's going to be a long wait.

Aliens From Outer Space Kidnapped My Children One Day...

Note:  The fact that I am making a new post does not absolve you of the responsibility to comment on my last post.  Go do that now, and then come back.  And don't forget to notice that Cheez (aka SoyCheez) also has a new pic at the top of the blog.  She always hated the old one.

I received a very nice compliment the other day.  We had gone to one of our "Will Work For Food" places, as I call them; that is, one of three eating establishments where Huz has done sign work and as payment, we get to eat free.  This particular one happens to be a new coffee/sandwich shop and, unfortunately, there are rarely any other customers there, even on a Friday night.  Which is why Huz takes us there often-- so that we can get our free food while there's still gettin' to be had.

And no, in case you're wondering, SoyCheez can't eat the food (although she can have a plain coffee).  She either brings her own food or stays home.  In this case she had stayed home, and we had brought along a friend of Spaz & Fuzz'.

Anyway.  On this particular evening, there was another customer in the shop: a very nice older gentlemen who apparently had severe Tourette's or something; I'm not sure and of course we did not ask.  He had such a nice personality that we quickly got beyond his random body movements.  When we first came into the shop, we merely exchanged smiles with him, but that eventually progressed into chitchat.  The coffee shop/deli is not big, and so our tables were close enough for us to converse as we ate.  The kids were at one table, Huz & I at another, and the older gentleman at a third table.

We had only exchanged a few remarks when out of the blue he asked me, "Do you homeschool?"

I was surprised at the randomness of the question, but replied, "Yes, I do."  He then proceeded to explain that he knew another homeschooling family and that their children were very polite and well-behaved.  "Oh," said I.  "I wondered what would make you ask that."

"Well," said he, "your children are so well-behaved and polite, and they don't seem to have had the negative influence of public school."

Now before my non-homeschooling readers click away in a huff, let me insert a few remarks of my own here.  First of all, interestingly enough, one of the children to whom this gentleman referred actually is a public-schooled child-- he was not at that time aware that only two of those three children were actually ours.  Second, I am well-acquainted with many well-behaved, polite public school children.  And third, a child's behavior has far more to do with his home environment than with his school situation.  Not that a poorly behaved child is necessarily the result of poor parenting, but behavior often has little to do with whether or where a child goes to school.  Good behavior is not a homeschooling thing; it's a parenting thing.

Which, by the way, probably explains why my children are not, for the most part, actually well-behaved and polite.  Nonetheless, they were giving that impression. 

So this gentleman remarked that my children were well-behaved and polite, and he attributed that directly to the influence of homeschooling.  Which means he attributed it indirectly to my hard work and efforts.  All analyses and caveats aside, I'll take that as a compliment any day.

I know I beamed.  I hope I said thank you.  I did comment that only two of them were mine and that they weren't always well-behaved and polite.  (To which he replied, "Well, that's good, too."  In other words, at least they're normal.)

Now I don't know about you, but I don't get comments like that too often.  I don't think we've ever been a poster family for the homeschool community.  Not even close.  My kids are great kids, but they really are not the outstandingly well-mannered children who inspire comments such as, "Oh, what lovely children; they must be homeschooled."  They'd be more likely to inspire comments from the people who do have those types of children-- comments like, "I can't believe they're homeschooled!  Such a disgrace to the movement!  I hope no one thinks all homeschooled kids are like that..."   OK, I exaggerate a bit, but you get the point.

And so I often think to myself, "Why do I homeschool anyway?  It makes no difference in my kids' lives."  Well, maybe and maybe not.  This gentleman seems to think that it does.  And I may as well choose to believe him.

It is so easy to focus on everything I have done wrong as a parent.  And it is so nice to be reminded every so often that maybe I have done some things right.  After all, if a stranger is so impressed with my children as to comment about it, well, I guess maybe I haven't done so poorly after all.

So you understand, don't you, why five days later I am still beaming.