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A few years ago we remodeled our kitchen. We had to make it bigger because (a) our kids all turned into teens and they took up way too much space and (b) we bought the giant commercial stove that took up the entire rest of the kitchen. So…due to the remodel, we had to put in new flooring. I picked ceramic tile. Not because it was so easy to take care of or for it’s durability, but because it was the thing to have. I wanted my kitchen to be cool. Cool comes at a high price I’ve learned. Basically, 2 years later, every single kitchen thing that I own is chipped or broken. Ceramic tile floors challenge your kitchen stuff to come down and have it out and then they smash it to bits. Our coffee carafe has a busted lip as does the top of our slow cooker. Three or four plates died on the floor. And a glass….it’s incredible! The place of impact is empty and the glass shoots like a pinwheel into every direction. I find it in other rooms and months later. I’ve lost cutting boards and hot plates and just about anything you can drop in a kitchen. Babbies with bigger heads then bodies who tend to tip over don't do well either. It would seem that the ceramic floor is undefeated….but no. Around the same time as the remodel, my husband decided that he didn’t like the feel of cheap silverware. He hunted high and low till he found this really great, really heavy stuff. You notice how nice it is the minute you hold it in your hand. It’s great. But when you drop it on the ceramic floor, it cracks the tile. No kidding. We make the kids carry their silverware with two hands when they set or clear the table. So our very cool kitchen has tons of broken stuff and cracked tiles. And don’t ask me about cleaning grout. |
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Getting
home after being gone for a week was wonderful. It was hard to leave my daughter Kara and
her new baby and hard to be away from everyone here. One of the difficulties of having lots of
kids is that your heart gets scattered all over the place. My husband
James did a perfect “Mr. Mom” while I was away and nobody touched the washing machine
(….touch it and die.) So after many,
many hugs and kisses and many stories (from
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Still here in See you later tonight Scarlett. |
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Slept last night at my daughter’s house while Kara and her husband stayed at the hospital with the baby. It was a little creepy being alone at the house and I was glad for the company of her two dogs and new kitty. I was just a little scared. The kind of scared that when you hear noises you’re pretty sure nobody is going to come get you but you you’re ready to scream just in case. We all cuddled on the couch and I watched tv. ( I didn’t realize that is was SO Christmas until I saw the commercials. We could never do the “no present Christmas” if we had tv. It even made me want the toys.) I eventually crawled into bed and one dog, Ava, settled behind the bend of my knees and the other, Zsa-Zsa laid her head on the pillow next to me. We drifted off into wonderful sleep, despite the occasional dog gas wafting up untill 6:00am when little kitty started purring loudly in my face. I repeatedly did the cat toss onto the floor but she kept coming back. Then she climbed into the window and slammed around the mini-blinds till I couldn’t stay asleep. Tonight…the dogs stay but the cat goes. |
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Scarlett blessed us with her presence at 12:31 today. We all fell completely in love with her. Her dad, Nate said she was easy to love because she already loved him. Welcome sweet baby.  |
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Today my daughter Kara is scheduled to have her baby. It’s not the birth she had planned…..natural labor with her husband and I there to watch as Scarlett enters the world, but she decided days ago that all she really wanted was Scarlett! And of course being through with pregnancy is always great! I decided years ago that the birth process…natural or c-section or even adoption is not all that important. These are people God has given to us for a short time to take care of…they are His. Sometimes I can’t believe He entrusts things of such value to us, as our impact on these kids is so great. My prayer for you Scarlett is that you will see in your parents all the love and grace that is in your Heavenly Father. Hurry Scarlett, I can’t wait! |
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Thanksgiving is at our house each year and its nice having a house full of kids to clean before company comes. A few days ago I was cooking in the kitchen and Grace came up and asked if there was anything she could do to help. I told her to start the dishwasher. She informed me that she didn’t know how. This was one of sweet opportunities to teach my young daughter some kitchen skills. Without even looking over at her I said in a slightly loud and irritated voice, “Just put in the soap and push start!” A few minutes later her brothers were yelling and she was crying. There were bubbles pouring from the dishwasher. Seems that the dishwashing liquid had seemed right to her. It was hilariously funny and I felt much less irritated. And by the way…after bailing bubbles for a long time, I found that vinegar works well to dissolve them. |
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Our son When we picked him up after the funeral we couldn’t believe how cute he looked. Black people dress much better then white people for church and Auntie had gotten him a Troy sized suit……complete with shinny black shoes and a flower in his pocket. He stayed in the suit all night and even got his sister Kelly to dance with him. He has worn it every week to church since the funeral. The dress at our church is really informal and let’s just say that I’m sure his Auntie would be glad to know the suit is getting such good use. I think I won’t tell her that he rode his bike in it. |
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Last week was my granddaughter, Layla’s first birthday. She is adorable, and looks just like her mom. We couldn’t believe how smart she was…listening to each birthday card that was read to her, hugging every gift in appreciation. Her mom, Lane, commented that we think all our grandkids are geniuses. Of course they are. What was her point?
Our daughter Kara is due to have her first baby in 3 weeks and found out at her doctor appointment yesterday that the baby is breech. She is very discouraged. Please pray that the Lord will turn Scarlet around. |
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Things
have been going well with our decision to have a gift free Christmas this
year. We’re all getting pretty used to
the idea. Our son Kevin came home from college this past
weekend and we broke the news to him. He
flopped around on the floor for a little while, crying and whinning. It’s hard for him because (a) he won’t be
going to I’ve been
even starting to realize how nice this whole no gift thing will be. I don’t have to figure what everyone wants
and find it in just the right size and make sure that I buy gifts of equal
value for each person, etc. I was
thinking how wonderful it would be to spend the season focusing on the birth of
our Savior and having true Christmas joy and all those wonderful things and
then last night we went to……..TARGET. I was
dying!! Everything in that little dollar
section right in the beginning? Oh man,
they would have been perfect in the kids’ stockings! How can stuff that cute be one dollar? And the games in the toy section…we NEEDED
them. There was an outfit that my granddaughter
Layla HAD to have. It was terrible. We didn’t buy anything, but I think I’ll need
to stay out of Target for awhile if I want to be content with our decision. (Even
the wrapping paper was calling my name.) |
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Our
science class of about 12 kids has been learning about electricity and Monday
we took a trip to a local hydro-electric dam. Mr. Jerry from Allegany Power gave us a great tour of the power plant. The children listened politely as he showed us the control room and the three giant turbines that turn to produce electricity for 1,400 homes, and the regulators that control the water flow over the dam.
And then he told them about the eels. Every child’s head turned toward him and all
eyes fixed on his face. Apparently there
are numerous eels in the That’s when the questions began. “Are they
electric eels?” “How do you catch
them?” “Have you ever touched one of them?” “Why do we have eels in the river?” Nice Mr. Jerry did his best to answer all the
eel questions. We walked
all around the dam and I pointed out all the parts we had learned about and the
kids searched the water for eels. |
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Our pastor has been preaching a series of sermons on the Holy Spirit. Like who He is and how He gets in you and what happens when He does kind of stuff. Today he taught about the Gifts of the Spirit. We told our kids that since we’re not giving Christmas presents this year (in lieu of the trip to France) they should take advantage of any gift giving they could. Pastor Tim read in 1 Corinthians a list of some of the gifts and suggested that we spend some time figuring which ones we might have or should have. As he was reading through the list I was disappointed to see that the gifts that I had wanted weren’t on there. No gift of writing blogs or making cool stuff on the computer. Darn. Our family has recently decided to join this church that we’ve been attending for about 2 years now. The “what can I give to this church” question has already come up in my mind. At the last church we went to I did a lot of stuff. Lots and lots. I think in looking back that it was more stuff and less of the Gifts. I’d like to let the Holy Spirit pick this time. He’s probably better at it anyway. If there is a blog thing……..pick me, pick me! |
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I’ve
spoken to about 4 people lately who have lost all their digital pictures that
they stored on their computer when it crashed.
When they tell me these stories, I feel sick. It could happen to me. I recently checked my photo storage and there
are 4 years of memories sitting there vulnerable. Digital photography is
wonderful but fragile. The worse that happens to my old photo albums is that the
little circle tears that holds them into the binder. But they don’t all disappear suddenly. My son in
law, Stephen, bought me a software program called ProShow Gold to make
slideshows with your pictures. It’s
great and you can burn a DVD of the show when you’re finished. I decided to start with this year. It’s November now and we haven’t even gotten
to Christmas, (photo op extravaganza) and I have 967 pictures. I actually
deleted A LOT! Of course, I have to add
soundtracks to the slide show which you have to have find as well. The finished product is fantastic but my kids
can’t remember my face. All they see is
my back silhouetted against the computer screen. They talk to me and I do that “u-huh”- not
really listening at all thing to them”. Do I need this many pictures? Our kids will never have questions about
their childhoods…there it’ll be…14 pictures of every event. What do
you do with all your digital pics? |
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Caught up
on everyone’s blog last night and saw all the Halloween posts and all pictures
of all the cute costumes. Well, my kids
were dressed up too and they were adorable, just like your kids. But you know what the real star of Halloween
is. Let’s tell the truth. The real prize isn’t the pumpkins or the
kids. It’s the candy.
Every mom
wants it. Now whether or not you eat it…that
depends. It's all about the candy. You know it's true. Put that candy back!! |
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At our Mom’s support meeting tonight the talk turned to sons and knives. You know, just your casual chit-chat about the kids. Seems we’ve had another stabbing or actually it was a slicing this time. One boy won a buck knife at church and his dad wasn’t convinced it was sharp enough and upped it to a Leatherman, i.e. real sharpie. Of course, he cut his finger and needed 3 stitches. This began the litany of whose son cut what. We recalled the knife in the sister incident with Julie’s son just about a year ago. My son has an almost perfect Nike “swish” on his cheek from a run and fall with his knife when he was about six. And there were the boys who were expelled from V.B.S. for Lego guns and the illegal use of such. What’s with all this? I’ve read the Vision Forum catalogs and all the dads and boys are looking so chivalrous with their toy guns and knives and bows and arrows. They are all about defending their….. I don’t know what, honor, territory, and women folk? Okay, that may have been back in the day, but my sons have nothing to hunt, except maybe the other sock to the pair that came through the wash alone. They don’t need weapons for that. Boys just aren’t happy pushing the doll stroller. That’s why God invented Band-Aids and Emergency Rooms. |
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Last night
was daylight savings and we turned the clocks back an hour. You know that means some family will be
pulling into the church parking lot and seeing no cars, being very confused…or
thinking they were left behind. It means
to me that even though I slept in and had my shower, I still have plenty of
time to waste, writing a blog entry. I used to
hate daylight savings when my kids were real little. It would be a week before they figured out
that nobody’s in the mood to play at 6 in the morning. Teenagers are great. You could set the clocks back 4 hours and you’d
still have to shake them awake for school.
Of course,
this also means that right after dinner it’s going to start getting dark. I’m okay with that too. I’m tired of having tons to do in the
evening. Staying in and playing games or
reading under a blanket on the couch…wonderful!! The only
real pain with daylight savings is that I can never figure out how to change
the time in the car. I remember you have
to hold down two buttons at one time and then with your elbow you advance the
volume knob to the hour you want and then push it three times to set it. Or something like that. I’ve gone many years subtracting an hour from
the car clock and being happy when it was right again in the spring. My ten
year old just came into the dark room where I’m typing and I whispered, “ |
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Last
night, very late, our newest granddaughter, Ayisha Raye Gray was born. She’s beautiful and wonderful and watching
her birth reminds me again of all the blessings God has given us.  |
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James and I are celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary this Friday night. One of my daughters yesterday said that we’re perfect together. After being married this long, I don’t always know where he starts and I begin. We’re not much alike. All the places I come up short, he’s long. Whenever he goes down, I pull up. The length and strength of our marriage has allowed us to do some hard ministries and know that when all else may be slipping, we’re standing solid. I love you Jame. |
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When you have your kids work in a fast food
restaurant, it usually means a few things. First, you realize that there are smells
that can permeate anything. I have
washed shirts that reek of chicken or tacos or burgers and the smell doesn’t
go away. It’s like the burritos molecular
make-up becomes infused with the polyester fibers to form a unbreakable
chemical bond. Or more simply said….they stink FOREVER. Another unwanted byproduct of teens in the
fast food industry is that after listening to them tell their stories of what
goes on at work you can never eat at that restaurant again, ever. We abstained from Taco Bell for; I think 4
years, thanks to my son Jake. Don’t worry;
I’m sure it was just his Taco Bell. However once in a while you hit it lucky and
yesterday was one of those times. David told
us that Dominoes Pizza was bringing out a “new
pizza” next week and that he learned
how to make it and he would actually bring us one home. Wow!
We get to be like a premiere family tasting it ahead of the rest of the
country! He said it would be called the Here's David with his pizza and yes those are baseball chunks of sausage. This pizza's batting a thousand!!!
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Our family has decided that we will go visit my daughter and her husband and kids in France next summer. They'll only be in France for one year learning the language and then they'll be off to Chad, in North Africa. I'm thinking France will be a slightly nicer place to visit. Let's see, Eiffel Tower or miles of deserts with a chance camel now and then. Anyway, we have 6 kids still at home, which means the airline tickets alone will be crazy expensive.. So my husband came up with the idea of skipping gifts at Christmas this year. It seems like a great idea. We certainly have everything we need and Jesus is the reason and all that but..... I see disaster looming with this idea. So we have to tell all the relatives, "no presents." You know someone will wonder why we're being so cheap. And what about my grandaughter who's only one...she needs cute baby outfits. Or can we just get everyone one little gift? Maybe from the dollar store? Then my husband says (I love this one) "We can all make things for each other." Okay, I don't whittle little animals or sew bonnets or any of that. I don't even really like homemade stuff to be perfectly honest. Homemade stuff usually looks so...homemade. This is all in the planning stages, but I think it would be easier to sell cheesecakes door to door to raise money for the trip. I'll worry about this later. |