I Won't Be The "I'm Not..." Person

Unglued by Lysa TerKuerst is a fabulous read. There were many takeaway points, so many that I'm in the process of starting a group study for the book. One of which, was, not letting ourselves get nailed into boxes of our prior habits. We can do all things through our strength in Christ. We don't have to be the person who... has a messy closet, explodes, doesn't mail their Christmas Cards out on time, can't fry a chicken... etc. I'm sure you have your own list in your head. So this was running through my head tonight after our Bible time.

I had corralled the kids, and asked Bronz to >quick< read the Proverb for the day while one child was firmly planted next to him, and my lil Extra Appendage being ever near me. He laughed, "You do know what chapter that will be?" -Bummer, the 31st. Hmm kitchen clean, hair done, chicken fried steak digesting, I think I can take it. So after reading and discussing the chapter, I couldn't very well just veg out. Enter stretching, not Edith Project. I can sew, sorta. But it's always stressful. I'm artsy, and sewing requires too much of the mathematical parts of the brain, the parts that were misplaced when I was born. (Hey, maybe that's what's in my feet!)

So I pursed my lips and made This, well almost made it... The one below is not mine, I promise to put pictures up, no matter how lumpy it may be.  And I really only have a couple more steps to go before completion. But something about the sewing machine running into night time noise ordinance... Naw, Bronz is a great sport, he didn't even complain about all the racket I was making.  He did wake up and wonder about football stadium-esque lighting I had going on.  That would have been the time to make a coy reference to "Her candle goeth out not at night" or, "Hmm, wonder what the Proverbs 31 man's light bill was?"  I guess I was just too engrossed in making my own binding.

 

Diary of a Germ

Not really, at least not too much, and it could be grosser I could be telling you about the gigantic Zit in my ear which hurts so bad, and is so big, that it's making me wonder if my dizziness is the Zit throwing off my equilibrium. Wait, that is gross. Everything, I promise, is uphill from there.

Bronz and I were both hit with a bad virus this week, he felt like his lungs were operating at 30 %, while I was dizzy, weak, and my nerves hurt.  We both limped along, sharing the 7up and Kleenex and keeping the recliner in business, yeah, and we both couldn’t get warm. Whew the wood stove has been cranking out the heat.  Our poor children are running around half naked.  Kamie doesn’t like it when I’m sick, she gets all motherly with me.  “Here Mommy, lay your head on me” >while patting me< “It’s ok, that too bad you’re sick.”

I did get to take a CPR class, before the bug hit. And I’m all certified too. (Thanks Pam!) I’ve even got a little card to prove it. (Those kinds of things are Big Deals to we the homeschooled.) After spending an evening doing chest compressions on dummies, I was pretty happy to come home to my nice squishy, warm little people. So people, you know how I am. If I do something, I think everyone should do it.  But seriously 2-3 hours of your time… It was completely worthwhile.  And I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t take it sooner. 

Last weekend was super fun.  (It must have been a way of overcompensating in advance for this weekend J) My brother-in-law, and another friend organize a downhill skiing trip each year.  It’s really a great group of people who turn out. And there is a lot of good conversation in the lodge.  I didn’t want to bother trying to ski, and bring along the requisite gazillion clothes, only to have the kids fall apart.  So Kamie, Blake & I were happy lodge campers.  Then my big feet came in handy… embarrassingly enough, Bronz and I are only ½ a shoe size apart.  So Bronz talked me into putting on his stuff.  (Hey, I’m not too proud to wear Carrharts. Plus, the hills I skied on weren’t exactly the show-off hills.)  What a nice break.  And yes, it is possible to get an adrenaline rush from the bunny hill. 

The best part is when everyone gets back to our host friends’ house.  Their house is huge, as in 30 some people comfortably spent the night.  I tucked the exhausted children in, and then kicked back.  So much fun.  Games until midnight or so.  Then the few bravely awake, or desperate for adult people time – Oh, that was just me, you say? stayed up and talked later, host mama came in and got comfortable on the floor, pizza reappeared.  What great friends we have around us.

Mission Possible

My little sister bravely boarded a plane with her baby and husband and is headed to Ethopia for a week as she and her husband co-ordinate the mission for their church.  Meanwhile, my older sister and her husband have made the hard decision to leave their children for 2 weeks in order to give their time to children in Africa without parents.  How did I end up with cool sisters, like that? 
So, I'm going to admit something.  If I spent very much time thinking about it I would be just a tad bit jealous. Which I know, yes, is very wrong on many different levels.  I mean these have been agonized, prayed up, advice asked decisions for my sisters.  Lydia ran the risk of having to leave Marcus behind if he caught any flu bug. Hayley is leaving her kids.  I know all this.  I know it's not going to be all that glamorous.  So why do my messes, that God's called me to, not look quite as 'called'?  Why do I find myself acting like my daughter who goes through books saying, I want that, and that, and that -- what's that, Mom? Saturn. I want Saturn, Mommy.  Daddy, can I have Saturn?  Don't I understand that I have what's best for me, that really my grown-up Saturn wishes aren't going to deliver.  Can't I meet with challenges given me, knowing God has fashioned them uniquely to strengthen and build me as His person?  How ridiculous is it that I would want to trade... Oh, but it's easy, really easy. 
So today when my dear friend stopped in shortly after having the stomach flu, I didn't grab the Lysol.  --We are good enough friends, I could have gotten by with it :) -- Instead I thought of Marcus and malaria, and offered her a chair, then she proceeded to put skin on God's love, sharing with me a passage of scripture which she knew I needed to hear. 
This is my life, Lord,
Help me not to wish it away,
Waste it away
Or, not taste the joy of the people around me.
Lord, help me to be a joyful giver of Me.

Bronz starts a new line of Hallmark Cards...

Laughter is good for the soul...
Background: Bronz is griping about someone who has changed now that they are married. I remind him of his own -er- romantical lapse in the flower department. He pauses, then replies.

Flowers Fade,

Chocolate Melts,

But My Love Lasts Forever

I was laughing so hard, and admitted to him, that making me laugh is better than flowers or chocolates.  He meanwhile was so impressed that he wants to put the saying on a wall.  (Everything gets written on walls around here.)  Next to a vase, I tell him. 

We have had a lot of meetings going on at church.  Kamie comes to me this morning. "Mom, I wrote a report."

Bronz bought new glasses, since we have trouble with keeping them from breaking.  This morning The Kamie told me to come and see her block tower.  Which wasn't blocks, but 11 of the new glasses stacked on the edge of the counter.

Bronz is ticklish, which Kamie & like to take advantage of, she however came up with an ingenious plan.  Instead of having Bronz wake up and tell her to quit pestering him, she brought her dolly over, and had her dolly jump on his ribs, then proceeded to tell her Dolly "No, Bader, that's naughty I'm going to have to spank you" This went on repeatedly, "Bader, you are just not listening to me tonight!"

We interrupt this report to tell Kamie not to throw Bader at the chandelier... 

I get a bit of a vacation day, or you might call it that, because the sink is leaking and the dryer isn't drying. Without doubt Bronz will have them running in no time, are roses overrated?!



And Then There Was January

I wish I had something really fascinating to write
or at least a gazillion pictures of my bathroom which is truly becoming beautiful
or maybe before pictures of how awful it truly was (awful enough to totally justify a new whirlpool tub.)  But no, it was Sooo bad that I didn't take pictures of it.  No matter how much I painted, the mildew was still there. The orange rusty tub... the torn linoleum.  It's been a long journey.
In between my painting, never mind, my painting is in between everything else.
Like the flu.  (One person had it, six baths for three people in one day.)
Christmas Cards. (I am now emphasizing the Happy New Year part)
Potty Training. (Why, oh why did I brag about how I was going to do the whole potty training in a day thing?)
Spontaneous Snow Man Making Day at Grandma's
A Cattleman's Banquet was on the slate for tonight. (Best meat you'll ever eat off a plastic plate, or any plate, for that matter.)  Then a phone call that Bronz's very dear Great Grandma was in the hospital with pneumonia, and all the family was flying/driving in.  She's such a sweetheart, I told Bronz.  But, somehow has a lot of spunky-ness to go with.  If ever a person has twinkly eyes it would be Grandma Down.  When Bronz grew up weekly letters would come with a stick of gum or gummy bears stuck in.  And when it was warm, the gummy bears did the same as Frosty. 
So we dropped everything, bathed the kids, cleaned up an accident.  Then answered another phone call which kinda blindsided me. 
Once in Humboldt we were happy to hear that Grandma was actually doing really well, and had made a complete turnaround.  Bronz was able to visit her, and pray with her. We spent most of the afternoon around the best pizza in Humboldt with family.  Kamie was spoiled rotten by a professional balloon artist cousin, who had all his supplies along, he followed her request for a pink monkey, and a pink pig, along with other adorable creations.
But now the house is quiet my last little one is asleep and it's prime painting time. 9:48 p.m.
Postscript:
I was going to write a post about my out-of-the-box new year's resolutions.  How I actually completed it last year, and my amazingly simple one for this year.  Except apparently this year's isn't so simple. Bronz and I holding hands five minutes a day sounded really sweet, and doable to both us...