I've done so little today!

Read emails... didn't reply... Read blogs... Thought about writing to friends and family... Ate... Showered... Supervised the kids in their cleaning and cooking projects... Ate... Perspired... Talked on the phone for a few minutes... Took pictures of Butch... Ate...

I can't wait to go to bed.

I think I just made up for New Year's Day.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a normal day. Enough of these extremes already! LOL

Wondering who Butch is? He's the largest of my several (seven?) hermit crabs. (At any given time, about half of them are happily buried in their substrate. That makes it harder to keep track of them.) Anyway, Butch just molted. Not only that, but he did it on the surface, which is a pleasant surprise for me. Check it out!

Happy New Year!

Above all things, be thankful that your children are your own, and everyone knows it.

It's very strange to have that sort of thing called into question... in the ER... by three police officers... and not have adequate proof on hand.

But it's ok, in the end, I got to bring all my children home with me last night. Gracie had four stitches in her cheek (just below her eye) yesterday, which she handled amazingly well. The doctor didn't even need a nurse to hold her head still.

I think I cried more trying to process the whole police thing than Gracie did once we got in the truck to go to the hospital. What a trooper, that girl!

Prayer request

Please keep me in prayer. It seems I have a LOT of improving to do as a wife. Details are irrelevant, but support is much appreciated. Thanks!

Ok, well that week flew by!

I guess I was so busy shopping and child sitting and sending out Christmas cards and trying to breathe that I forgot to blog!

I'm done with my Christmas shopping now. For real. Except for some of the stuff for Christmas dinner. That's a hard thing to say, because I keep coming up with more great ideas. But now is the time for self-discipline.

Remember when I got sick back in October? Well, I felt great for about a week in November, and then it started all over again. So I finally went to the doctor. A steroid shot and two antibiotic pills later, I'm feeling much better. Hopefully I'll be totally over this by the end of the month.

I drove Toby to work this morning (a strange statement to get used to), and poor Gracie was NOT ready to be awake. She was eager for a nap by 10am. Here she is, snoozing hard on Daddy's pillow.

Baby got blog

Toby and Lynae started blogs today. Their links are listed on the right side of this page. Check 'em out... I'm so blessed to spend my days with these children!

Gratitude For a Sovereign God

Mood-setting media: The song I can't get out of my head

It's a big day: a treasured IRL friend is loading a truck to move across the country. A treasured internet friend just got home from the hospital after surgery. Another internet friend is grieving the loss of her father. And my sister is having her baby.

My own life is boring by comparison - praise the Lord! And praise the Lord, He is in control of all these situations, as well as the child who was hit and killed by the skidding plane, and the two brothers who were killed in car accidents 20 minutes apart, leaving their father with unspeakable grief.

With that in mind, it seems I should be able to handle my own burdens with wisdom, patience, and a grateful attitude. Lord, help me to do so. And be with my friends and my sister through these big changes in their lives.

Happy December!

I have a minute while I use my nebulizer, so it seems like a good time to post.

We had a very quiet and low-key Thanksgiving, and are now overwhelmed by "holiday stuff". There are packages to send (I'm grateful for online ordering and the option of having things shipped directly, but I have a couple to mail myself anyway), a parade to be in, pictures to take, cards to mail, a concert to attend, friends to bid farewell (sniffle), field trips to take, treats and memories to make, and a special diet to maintain (groan). Oh, and then there's the cleaning and decorating.

It makes me want to hide out in bed under my new quilt and read the following giant stack of books on my dresser:

Training Hearts, Teaching Minds
Parenting With Love and Logic
Senior High: A Home Designed Form+U+LA
The Business of Heaven
Bible
Created to Be His Help Meet
Love and Respect

But no... gotta run!

Listening to: The ticking of the clock and my two oldest blessings giggling together in the other room

It's almost my bedtime. What's funny about that? Well, I just woke up from a nap a couple of hours ago. We tend to spend the afternoon in town after the homeschool meeting each month, and come home totally exhausted. Today we laid down just after 4:00, and the little ones are still sleeping. I'm sure it was nice for Loren to come home from work and be able to crawl into bed, rather than being mobbed by enthusiastic children who try to keep him up for hours!

Hmm... come to think of it, this might be a great time for me to make a Walmart run! (groan) Loren did the grocery shopping for me yesterday (have I mentioned that he's a wonderful husband?), but I have a couple of meds to pick up for myself. Can you say "bronchitis"?

It turns out my big kids were cracking each other up, talking about words which are often mispronounced ("often" being one of them). I told them about Category 7, the weather comedy designed to promote the religion of environmentalism. I wonder how anyone could take it as anything but a joke when the leading scientist character continues referring to the "mesosphere" as the "messophere".

On an unrelated note, Toby said he woke up from his nap to find Lynae writing by the light of his fish tank. I told her, "Girl, you are going to go blind and deaf (added for dramatic effect only) and there will be nothing I can do about it." Toby added, "Yeah, you'll have to go sniff out truffles." ROFL!! He got it from Guy Noir, A Prairie Home Companion

Welp, I think the kids and I are going to giggle and cough our way through Walmart. I leave you with something I found encouraging:

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?