Barefoot In The Garden

So Much for Homeschooling

This week anyway. Sigh.

I have spent the WHOLE WEEK (including Thing 2's B-day - we'd had the family party on Saturday while MIL was here) running around like mad.

I've had doctor appointments, errands to run, presents to buy (for birthdays) - we did play a little - but now the week is almost over and I've DONE NOTHING with the kids. Well, no workbooks anyway. And today is no better. Today the plan is

Target - for my baby's big girl car seat, birthday gift for my niece (The Diva), the grocery store, stop and pay some bills (ick), make appointments to get Thing 2 and I haircuts.

But wait! There's more! I am all ALONE - all DAY! Yes - I am aware that I am a SAHM and hubby goes to work. However - normally he comes home at dinnertime. He's getting TONS of overtime this week (that I am NOT sneezing at) so he's not getting home until after 7 each night and he thinks tonight he'll be even later. The extra money will be great - but THIS was NOT the week to leave me alone. PMS city. I don't even want to tell you what a STELLAR mother I was in Toys R Us yesterday.  Let's just say I have Mother of the Year all locked up. Good thing Santa doesn't bring gifts to grownups - I'd be gettin coal. ALOT of COAL. And we have oil heat. ;-)

Oh yeah - and my van is broken so I am stuck driving DH's Jeep. I hate the Jeep. It's just not my van. HOWEVER -sigh - I am grateful that DH drives a workvan so I have the Jeep available to me.

This was just not the week to test me. Well, I guess it was, but I don't have to like it.

4

Yesterday was my baby's birthday. She's 4. Where did the time go? We had a family party while my mother in law was here - not a big deal - I was O.VER.WHELMED. with stuff so never go the party planned that I wanted for her. I am really thinking about throwing an unbirthday party in the summer for them both (since both kids are winter birthdays).

So in honor of Thing 2's 4th birthday here's four things you may not know about her about her.

1. She has a vivid imagination, showcased by a family of imaginary friends - Haggi (a blond girl her age), Balbo (Haggi's brown haired older brother), Haggi's Mom and Dad (and apparently Dad is the one who stays home and homeschools them)

2. She has a kind heart, a mothering personality and a love for Jesus.

3. Someday she will stand on the stage and "sing her happy songs" - she tells me this all the time.

4. Her most favorite movie right now is the 1977 version of "The Nutcracker" with Baryshnikov. She got it for her birthday after watching it on PBS and falling in love.

AND ONE TO GROW ON

5. She is independent and spicy - she will not let her brother bowl her over. She has her own ideas and is not afraid to say so.

Giving Thanks

You guys are great! You have NO IDEA how hard it is to not reply to the comments though.

Thank you.

Lil'Bit is HOME!!!!! She has to be on an IV antibiotic for about 4 weeks but as long as she's home we're thrilled!!!

Happy Turkey Day!

Save us, O LORD our God,
and gather us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
and glory in your praise.

Psalm 106:47

Thankfulness

Why do I have such a hard time with Thankfulness? Not with being thankful for other things. I am easily thankful for my God, My family, my home, my friends, and the multitude of blessing in my life.

What I have a hard time with receiving thankfulness from others. Several times in the last couple days Papa Bit has expressed his thanks for my watching their son while the baby is in the hospital. I find myself having trouble accepting their gratefulness. I have to turn it aside with a joke or brush it off as nothing.

WHY do I have such a problem receiving thanks from others? It's not that I want to toot my own horn in writing this. I found myself uncomfortable being thanked. Which is stupid. As I got in the car I was irritated with myself. Why am I minimizing their feelings, and I do it ALL THE TIME. I can think of many other times where I just brushed aside thanks because I was uncomfortable receiving it.

I am the same with compliments.I can't take 'em. Really - ask anyone. I will turn them aside in a minute. It's not that I don't want people to think well of me, it's just when they do - and say so - I don't know what to do with it. I can't seem to just say "Thank you". I have to turn it aside and "prove" that I really don't deserve their thanks or compliments by dogging on myself - or adding the "yeah but"s.

I want to learn to accept gracefully, and more than that I would like to learn to BELIEVE them - I have trouble even believing those who I know tell me the truth and love me - sometimes more than strangers. Since I "reason" that their comments are fueled by their love for me and not seeing me for what I am. How stupid is that? I say "reason" since obviously there is no reason involved. The chick at Express is much less likely to tell me the truth than my husband or best friend.

Tell me I'm not the only one with this problem right???

Playing Catch up - Now with Randomness!

Lil'Bit is better. She went through her surgery well, gets a pic line put in today so she can get her antibiotics at home -  no word on WHEN that will be yet.

So I am home today. I was supposed to go see Ellen in New York. Sigh The budget didn't agree with me. Oh well, it was only standby tickets so I probably wouldn't have gotten to see her anyway. RIGHT?? I need a resounding YES here people - I am a bit disappointed. But I am glad that I can be around to help Mama Bit take care of her son while Lil'Bit is in the hospital. And really which one is more important? But my hubby better make it up to me by getting me tickets to the Dancing with the Stars tour! ;-)

So why is it I always come up with really good blog posts at 12:30 at night when I can't sleep - and then can't remember what they were at a more reasonable time? I guess maybe they aren't that good anyway. HA! Anything sounds good and reasonable when I can't sleep.

One more thing my Mother In Law will be here Wednesday afternoon and will be here until Sunday morning. After Wednesday I may not be updating until after she leaves. I don't want her to catch on that I have a blog. I don't know what that says about me, I just want to have someplace I can rant when need be without having my MIL reading over my shoulder (which is why my mother doesn't know I have one either)

The Turkey is in the fridge, thawing out slowly, I will be brining the big boy on Wednesday. I have most everything I need except for a couple of fresh ingredients which I'll pick up tomorrow afternoon. I guess I should be cleaning up my house.... ick.

One more thing - I have to run the grocery store, and order my daughter's birthday cake! She turns 4 on Monday. WHERE DID THE TIME GO????!!!!!

I just got off the phone with Gramma Bit.

Lil'Bit is not in good shape. This infection is SERIOUS. Her hip is septic and will be going in for surgery in the morning - they will have to drain the infection and put in a drain. They will also be needing to put in a pic line because they will most likely have her on IV antibiotics for 6 weeks or so.

Mama Bit will defiantly need help - I have not spoken to her yet - I hope to get over to see her tonight. I am going to see if we can flesh out her needs, and I can rally Fly Babe support around here.

It looks like they MAY be able to have her home on Thanksgiving but that's not set in stone. It all depends on her surgery and how it goes tomorrow.

Please continue to pray for my friend and her family.

Prayer Warriors please

I just got off the phone with Mama Bit, Little Bit (who is 8 months old) was admitted to our local (and very good) Children's hospital last night.

She has been running a fever for 5 days and was passing sugar in her urine. After some further testing, she is not diabetic (turns out some people just throw some sugar in their urine, and Daddy does it too so no problem there). What she does have is an infection in the fluid in her hip.

They will be sedating her tonight to aspirate the fluid to test it to find out what the infection is, and how to treat it. Mama Bit herself had a very similar infection when she was 3 - in fact, that infection got so bad that part of her hipbone was removed (she walks with a slight limp when she's tired and doesn't have full range of motion in that hip). So not only is she worried for her daughter, but she is doubly worried since she knows what she went through - medicine has come a long way - but that doesn't dispel her worry completely.

So if you pray, please cover her family in prayer. Pray that the doctors find the cause quickly and that they can treat it as minimally invisibly as possible. If you would like their names - just drop me a line.

Praise Him!

So, we lost power tonight! YIKES. NOT  because of the storms running through the area - but because apparently water was getting in the meter box, following th main cable into the house and pooling in the main breaker in the house!!!

THAT is a problem. Apparently it has been going on a while since the breaker box was rusted on the inside. It started dripping this afternoon while DH was downstairs and he found the problem. I am so BLESSED to have married a handy guy. He knew just what to do. HE went outside in the pouring rain and pulled the main breaker (as in stopped the electricity from coming in the house). And proceeded to fix the problem (it took 2 hours). It was a huge pain - since the "fix" was really to caulk it - and did I mention the POURING RAIN? Yeah - hard to caulk something outside when it's raining.  Poor man. But he fixed it.

And then God laughed. 10 seconds after the problem was fixed and our inside box was dried out the POWER ON THE WHOLE STREET WENT OUT!!!!!! HA!! It came on a half hour later. We had a nice time reading books and talking about pilgrims and how they used candles for light. The kids had a nice time and Thing 1 read another book all the way through to me. YAY! One more and he gets to go to the book store and pick out ANY book he wants. (When he gets 10 on his list he earns a book)

In the middle of this I had to take the kids and go to Wild Thing's house - her parents had the parent teacher conference for their oldest child tonight. So while we were over there Thing 2 asked Wild Thing if she loved God. Wild Thing said "yes" in this matter of fact voice - like why would you even ask. Then, Wild Thing's brother asks me a pile of questions about God. And I got to answer them. His parents, well, I would not say they are believers. They are non-committal, Dad is very against organized religion, Mom is open to discussion but skeptical. I pray over them nightly.

ANYWAY, he asked me several questions about God, where He is - (as in well the airplanes go up 30,000 feet and they don't see them), why no-one can see him. He was a little confused about Jesus Crucifixion, he didn't think anyone saw it happen. So I straitened that out. Alot of questions about "other gods" he focused on Zeus, ect - Greek mythological figures - so I felt comfortable dispelling those- telling him that the people of that time didn't understand how the world worked, so they made up the "gods" of Olympus to explain things they couldn't otherwise explain.

I was careful, to tell him that this is what I believe, what I KNOW to be true. That Jesus was the Son of God. I think he will be coming to me with more questions over time. Praise Him. I don't know about the salvation of rest of his family (extended, I mean) but I feel PRIVILEGED to be allowed to answer his questions about His maker who loves him. It's really nice that his parents allow me answer his questions - they do feel strongly that their children should be able to make up their own minds, I am grateful that I am able to witness Christ to these kids.

I also got to talk more to mom about Christ - I was filling her in on her son's questions, and my answers. And we got around to talking about the Ipod story, and how God's plan was so much better than mine.

Now off to read my bible for the bible study!

1. I can't find my camera - I am bummed, I made a really cute purse! I will post a picture once I find said camera - the purse is an adorable Christmas themed one with the kid's hands forming a wreath.  I am quite proud.

2. I missed Dancing with the Stars. 'Nuff said.

3. I went out to dinner tonight with a bunch of girlfriends I haven't seen in a long time - it was soooo fun.

4. God's plan is sooooo much better than mine.

I was supposed to babysit for Wild Thing's parents tonight. It got canceled at the last minute so I got to go to the dinner thing with the friends I hadn't seen in a while. YAY! BUT better than that (and this is where His plan comes in) On the way home I got to share the Good News with someone.

Yes I did! I had to give one of the ladies a ride home, and while talking about my beloved Ipod (you know the one that got stolen - perhaps THAT was in His plan as well??) she was kidding me about the kids thinking I was a dork for my Christian music (which she'll probably right - if you're naughty enough to steal an Ipod off someone's purse - then yeah you might think Christian music is dorky) and I said , "I don't care!! Ill gotten treasures are of no value! Proverbs 10:2" - which happens to be the Proverb the kids have been memorizing this week!

She jumps on it! "Speaking of that - How do you like your church?" Well, I got to spend the rest of the ride home talking about my church - which I LOVE, and my God, whom I ADORE - and got to share what our church is about and the Good News of Jesus Christ -- and how simple salvation really is.

HOW COOL IS THAT????? God is good , God is sovereign. And His plan is way better than mine - if I hadn't gotten my Ipod stolen I would not have...

1. Chosen that verse for the kids to learn (to impress on them the wrongness of stealing)

2. have gotten a new one (to learn myself that GOD PROVIDES)

3. have made the new purse and Ipod cover (I was showing off one of my gifts from him - crafty-ness)

4. Showing the cover led to the story about the Ipod - which led to mentioning the verse, which led to sharing the Good News.

And to think - I was upset about that Ipod being stolen. I just didn't see the whole picture.

Now I've heard it all!

OH MY WORD. I am playing a game , listening to the TV in the background. An advertisement for a Christmas Cd comes on. Now I LOVE Christmas - so I'm all ears, the album is the following...Twisted Sister - a Twisted Christmas Oh yes - now you can rock out to the sound of Christmas - Twisted Sister style. With renditions of ......

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Oh Come All Ye Faithful
White Christmas
I'll Be Home For Christmas (Featuring Lita Ford)
Silver Bells
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Deck The Halls
The Christmas Song
Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days)

OK - which is worse - that they made it -- OR THAT I WANT IT !!!!???

Really, who wouldn't want a rendition of "I'll be home for Christmas" with Lisa Ford? I just have GOT to hear them do this!!!! So who's gonna tell my DH I want it?

EDIT!! I just listened to the bits of the songs from Musicspace! I have TEARS streaming down my face! The Heavy Metal Christmas is hilarious!! "And a tattoo of Ozzy" YOU MUST go listen - you have to have Real Player to listen to them. You will not be disappointed if you're a metal fan (or a a former one!).

I MUST HAVE THIS CD!!!!!