More tea, M'Lady?

Here are some pictures of a tea party the girls and I had a couple of weeks ago....

The cat wouldn't even eat it...

Haven't posted in a while....
I have always heard that you can't burn things in a crockpot. Well, I am here to tell you that that is wrong. You can burn food in a crockpot. I guess I mean that I can burn food in a crockpot. I know, I know, that is a real talent. And we all know how talented I am. Ha Ha. Well, usually when I make food and it turns out bad (it has happened occasionally), we just have a burial ceremony, say a few words as we dump it in the garbage can, and move on with our lives. We laugh, and then we call for pizza delivery. Not this time. This time it was so bad we didn't even laugh or have a burial ceremony. Yuck. I can just chalk it up to putting the wrong combination of things in the crockpot. The best and only practical thing to do is to remember what I did, and never, ever do it again.

oh, and I didn't really try to feed it to my cats....it was just a funny sounding title, and you read on, didn't you?

Sound Like Me?

You Have a Sanguine Temperament

You are an optimistic person who is easily content. You enjoy casual, light tasks - never wanting to delve too deep into anything. A bit fickle, it's easy for you to change plans or paths when presented with something better. You enjoy all of the great things life has to offer - food, friends, and fun. A great talker, you can keep the conversation going for hours. You are optimistic and sure of your success. If you fail, you don't worry about it too much. At your worst, you are vain. You are obsessed with your own attractiveness. A horrible flirt, you tend to jump into love affairs and relationship drama easily. You're very jealous - which just magnifies the craziness around you.

What Temperment Are You?

You tell me.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

sweets for the sweet

Laundry Schmaundry

Tomorrow is Long Hair Proud Daddy's birthday, and I have no idea what we will be doing. My main goal right now is to make something fudgy, and help the girls make/buy/decorate presents for him.

First thing this morning I tried really hard to fold and put away these 3 loads of laundry that are in my dining room. Well, I got the first one completely done, and the second one barely started. Disclaimer here: please note that I say that these are the 3 loads of clean laundry in the dining room, and does not include the 2 in the girls bedroom, and the 3 (?) in my bedroom. Now don't you feel better?

The more valuable things I did today included helping Dancer Girl and Little Sister with drawing, coloring, and gluing Cheerios onto paper. I took time out from almost blogging to completely detangle and style (complete with curlers) one of those doll-head thingies. I let myself be subjected to the whole story line. Dancer Girl asked me about colors to paint her hair, & how to apply the make-up. I was fully engaged in the activity. I surprised myself. Another time today we sat and worked puzzles, lots of them.

There are usually times each day when I find myself saying, "Not now", or "No way" or "Maybe Later". "Maybe Later", that is apparently one of my favorites. But not today. Today I was there with my girls. Forget the laundry. And, I was successful in not letting my children watch non-stop television all morning. At one point, I actually turned on the radio to the local classical station, and we listened to Mozart(I felt it was time they knew what a radio was-haha).

The best part is that I wasn't trying to do anything wonderful or great, I was just trying to accomplish the normal. Now I know I am not Mr. Excitement like Daddy is, and I am usually the first one to lose patience and want to run away (at least for 15 minutes). Yes, even now as I type this, it is later in the day, & I find myself taking away blocks because "we don't throw our toys." I find myself saying, "we don't hit our sister with the guitar, go see if she is ok and tell her you are sorry."

I have no idea what's for dinner, probably a highly processed canned product--anyone for Spaghettios? And, we will probably be glued to the television....6:30 pm Wheel of Fortune, 7-8 pm 7th Heaven (and it better not be another re-run tonite), and then hopefully books and bedtime, and no melt-downs. And, I am almost out of pull-ups. I will have to scrounge around to see how many I have left-- one would be the worst case scenario but not impossible to deal with, and three would be great. Well, it is another opportunity to be creative, and be thankful I have a drawer-ful of thick cotton training pants (well, actually I will probably look in the drawer and find only plastic pants, and have to dig around in laundry baskets, and hope for some clean baby underwear).

Oh well. The point was that I am feeling pretty good about today. And I have on clean clothes, and I had a bubble bath (never mind that Little Sister stood at the side of the tub almost the whole time, throwing bubbles into the air and onto my gardening magazine)....

Very Present Help

For those who are interested, today I have loaded the dishwasher and washed all the dishes on the counters, including those little things I hate to wash---measuring cups, knives, tea party things, sippy cup parts, plastic medicine spoons that refuse to get clean despite 5 trips in the dishwasher, etc. etc. I washed out both coffee pots and respective parts---yuck.

The children have been fed, and are happily watching saturday tv. I told them that today I was going to be working on cleaning up and putting away laundry. I also plan to keep plugging away on finding homes for the the Christmas things we got.

I am sure I will not get much further before I have to start making lunch, or break up a sisterly squabble. I am trying to keep things relatively calm and quiet because Long Hair Daddy is sleeping in. He has had a very stressful week, and hope his work is very productive today.

Last night after I laid the little one in bed asleep, I got to work on my ten year cross-stitch project. Yippee! I got two rows done before she woke up. Now that's what I call progress. I'll take what I can get.

My thoughts today are with some of my family members and my friend's mom who are all facing health problems. May they become strong and healthy and have hope and faith for today. May God send the help they need today to encourage them and bring them what they need.

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).
"Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of Grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

God is Good

Some things happened yesterday that I want to write about. I want to thank God for thinking of me and my family, and for providing everything we need and for surprising me with things I didn't know I needed. After we came back from the store, I was unloading groceries. I happened to go out to the mailbox to get the mail as a beautiful young girl was walking her dog past my house. She walked by and was already to the neighbor's house when she stopped and turned around. I thought she was just going to say hi.

She floored me. She said that she wanted to stop and thank me. She said that I had come to her middle school class and talked to them about waiting to have sex until you are married, and that we gave out little keys (key to represent commitment to yourself to be pure and it is something to give your spouse on your wedding day). Well, she said that it had meant a lot to her that we had come and talked to them, and that she would never forget it. She also said she noticed that I and my family lived here and had been meaning to stop and tell me thank you for a long time. You have to understand. This is a tall, dark-haired beautiful college student. What she is talking about had to be at least 5 years ago, something I had already forgotten.

My friend and I had gone for a number of years in a row to a local middle school to talk to them about purity.We told them how much they were worth, how valuable it would be to wait until marriage to have sex. We told them about our own lives and mistakes, and maybe this made a difference. One thing I will always regret is having sex before I was married. But one thing I told all those classes that I am proud of is that my husband and I decided to wait until we got married to have sex. Now this was a very hard thing for me and a miracle that we made it over a year, but it was important to us and our commitment to each other and God that we make a fresh start with our relationship. You have to understand, I was 16 when I became sexually active, and I was 24 when I got married. It is very difficult to just stop something that has become a regular part of your lifestyle, but with God' s help we did it. In between 16 & 24 I had a lot of grief and heartache and inner turmoil because of the things I was doing. Maybe this part of my life that I shared with that girl's class is what affected her. I will maybe never know. I was just being honest and caring for those kids. I remember what it felt like to be in middle school, the desperateness of wanting someone to want you. Anyway, God knew I needed that boost, to know that things that I have done for Him and for others for good are having a good effect.

It is like planting a seed in the garden. The blooming time depends on the seed. If you plant irises or daffodil bulbs in the fall, they don't bloom overnight. You have to wait until the spring to see what the flowers look like, and then you worry that it might not bloom. Maybe you planted in bad soil, or it didn't rain too much, or maybe you picked a spot that is too shady. It is like this girl to me. Apparently my friend and I planted some good seeds, and they had good soil, they were watered enough and they had just the right amount of sunshine. I am proud of this young girl. I pray that her life will be blessed by her decisions to be pure in thoughts and body.

And that is only one thing that happened. At the end of the day, a friend gave me a big garbage bag full of hand-me downs from her daughter. I was so surprised. Everything she gave me were things that Dancer Girl needed. I love it when things like that happen. It is like going shopping and coming home with new things, only I didn't have to go shopping. God brought the things right to my doorstep (figuratively). I want to say thank you to God. I am so happy that He did these things for me yesterday. It reminds me that He is thinking of me everyday, and like every parent, He likes to surprise His children with good things. It reminds me of His love and mercy at a time when I am feeling undeserving of His love. He loves me despite how I act. His forgiveness and joy for me are apparent. He is saying, this is what kind of parent I want you to be.....

and I say, "Ohhhhh"

Ha Ha

A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the
Louvre. After carefully planning, he got past security,
stole the paintings and made it safely to his van. However,
he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of
gas.
When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then
make such an obvious error, he replied:
"Monsieur, I had no Monet to buy Degas to make the Van
Gogh."
(And you thought I lacked De Gaulle to send you a story like
this.)
from the
http://www.gcfl.net/archive.php?funny=20060118

Good Day

Today has been a really good day. So far ....
Little Sister Girl has helped me make blueberry muffins
Dancer Girl, Little Sister & I had a tea party for breakfast
We bundled up, and played in what was left of the snow (pretty white snow kitty played with us)
Had ham and cheese quesadillas for lunch
Had school time including coloring, cutting, and gluing rainbows
Had our own Story Hour, with songs and show & tell

and now I am blogging while the girls are playing....
oh yeah, and I got to play with our new digital camera we got for Christmas.
As soon as I take time to figure how to download the pictures, I am sure you will see for yourself what we have been doing (those of you who know me well know that I am definitely a manual reader, every page, usually).

and....I loaded the dishwasher and fed my husband.....oooohhhh

Daddy's Princess

What we live for...

At your own risk

I find myself today hesitating to seriously think about my real feelings. I find myself hesitating to type what I really want to type. Why? Because I know who will be reading this, and I think sometimes they take things I write the wrong way, or if I type some of the hard things I am going through to get them off my chest, they will try to figure everything out for me and rescue me. But then, I try to remind myself why I blog. So, parents, don't take this the wrong way because I love you, but I write this blog for myself some days and not to entertain others. As with all people, some days are harder than others. Yesterday I had an angry day. About 4 pm I snapped, and spent the rest of the day recovering. I am drained, not feeling very funny or light-hearted. Today I am serious and contemplative. I don't need pity or rescuing or advice. I am just venting because this is my blog. I am not going to live my life afraid to write what I want to just so I won't hurt someone's feelings. I have spent most of my life keeping the peace around me, doing everything to keep everyone calm, doing everything to stop arguments, and make sure no one left. We had a great visit with all the grandparents, and I have to say that I am relieved that there were no big blow-outs or fights. To be frank, I think we were all afraid of what might happen, except for dad, because he probably wouldn't have been affected even if there was one and it involved him. So I guess I am emotionally drained. I was tense and happy going into the weekend. I was so looking forward to everything, but at the same time I was afraid. The reason I got angry yesterday has nothing to do with last weeked, and I am not going to talk about it. So don't ask. It is not a big mystery for anyone to solve. It has to do with expectations I put on myself. I am mad at myself for the person I am sometimes. It has nothing to do with being a Christian. I love being a Christian, and I will never regret my decision to follow Jesus as the Messiah. I am also overwhelmed because organizing and finding places for things is not my forte. So one of my main focuses this week will be to clean, rearrange, or reorganize to get all the Christmas presents put away. I know I will feel better when I can get back into a routine. And, then again, maybe it's all PMS. Who cares? It wouldn't help me deal with life any better if I knew that's what my problem was right now. So comment if you want to, and if you don't, it's not going to ruin my day because it's going so great already.....that said, I guess I am still angry today

btw, if you click the sign, you will go to a site with more real signs. But beware, I do not like the first one shown, and I do not like to use bad language and I don't think using bad language makes something funny. You have to scroll down to get to other ones that I thought were funny(as if you care which ones I think are funny--You can laugh at whichever ones you want--it's a free country, thank God), although I didn't take the time to look at all of them. I am not responsible for any of them that are crude and offensive...

Babies are gifts from God

A friend of mine just had a beautiful baby boy.I thank God for my friend and her beautiful family. We just got back from my parents and my husband's houses for a belated Christmas. I thank God that we are all finally well and got to visit everyone. I will probably be busy all week making room around the house for all the nice Christmas presents we all got. So the big things I will be doing this month will be reorganizing at home and getting ready for Long Hair Daddy's birthday. This spring Dancer Girl will continue with ballet and gymnastics, and Singer Girl will have her big #2 birthday in March. Home-schooling will officially start for Dancer Girl in the fall, even though I am trying to incorporate a routine in our schedule, with school time a few times a week, which she loves. I have to admit that it is a challenge, and there some things that are much easier to do when the little one is napping. I am also trying to schedule a lot more time with the TV off, which some days doesn't really happen. There are many things I want to type, but I keep getting distracted, so I will save some of my thoughts for later....

Jeremiah 29:11

This is how type a blog with your mother standing over your shoulder....oh wait, Motherkitty said...."This is how to...." Thanks, Motherkitty, I don't know how I would have done it without you. I love you. We had a great Christmas. {Motherkitty laughs, "Christmas in January....HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"}

"Don't forget your title", Motherkitty says....(just for you, Motherkitty, I will leave the title blank (tee hee)

anyway, we finally all got well, and made it to Grandma's for Christmas. Hurray! We have had a great day, and tomorrow will be another adventure as we go to Grammy and Papaw's house.

Is it Friday already?

What happened to Thursday? I guess it was swept into the black hole of nothingness. I woke up to heavy rain and thunderstorms, and checked the weather and was surprised to see that it is supposed to snow tonite. It has been unseasonably warm here, and I was beginning to think we weren't really going to have a winter. I really got up to shut off the computer because of the thunder and lightning, so hope you all have a great Friday....

Silly Science Quiz

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

hey, Trish, I got 8/8 too! Great minds think alike!

Bowl of Cereal

I have only been up a little while, and I have already

• worked on a complicated cross-stitch project(long term, goal is to finish by 10 year anniversary), while listening to an encouraging CD teaching on parenting
• read a devotional
• participated in the last 15 minutes of an exercise show on FitTV

and drum roll, please.....

• I am eating a bowl of cereal, all by myself! (of course, while I am blogging)

I am unsure how it happened exactly, and am sure it would be hard to duplicate, but I am glad today is off to an especially good start! (those of you who know me know that I am a morning person anyway, but it is nice to have that extra boost sometimes to get the momentum going)

Honesty

Just to show you how funny real life is....After trying to encourage myself and others to speak positively yesterday, I had to go to the local hospital for routine out-patient lab work. The girls were with me, and they did great while we waited for my turn. They were very sweet as they said hello to people in the waiting room, and ate their snacks. The trouble came as I was pulling out of the parking lot. Now you know I have this Big Green Van. We have only had it since Thanksgiving, and only recently got it back after weeks at the transmission shop (waiting to be ransomed out). So....I was pulling out slowly, looking in my mirrors trying to make sure I wasn't going to back in to any cars. As soon as I barely backed out of the space, a big fancy car (like a cadillac or something similar, pretty and shiny) zipped into the space I had just pulled out of. He didn't wait for me to pull out of the way or anything. What that driver did was dangerous! How many of us just reverse, switch into drive and just drive on when we are exiting a parking lot. I thought that it was common courtesy to wait til someone was completely finished pulling out of a parking space before pulling in. Well, anyway, I am trying to avoing the bad part. I called the guy a jerk, and not just quietly under my breath. As I continued out of the parking lot, there were two more cars waiting and looking for parking spots. They were side by side and clogging the lane, and at first I did not realize that one of them was not a parked car. I stopped and waited as I saw another car reverse out of a parking spot and one of the waiting cars pulled in that spot. So I slowly progressed toward the exit way of the parking lot (I was the only one driving in the correct direction as this parking lot has one entrance and one exit on this side of the street), and I happened to look at the face of the woman who was going the wrong way, still waiting for a spot. Her face was angry, she was looking at me, and she was saying loud ugly words that I could not hear. I could not figure out what I did wrong, but her angry look and unheard angry words directed towards me unnerved me. It rattled me, and made me wonder what I did wrong. I tried to console myself in that I was doing the best I could to drive safely, and that she may not have been talking to me directly. I realized I felt guilty about what I did do wrong, calling that guy a jerk. And then I had to spend the next 15 minutes explaining to the girls that even though the person was driving dangerously and not carefully, I still shouldn't have called him a jerk. I asked them to forgive me and I told them that I was wrong. That may seem like a small thing, but to me it is a big thing. I don't want my children hear me say that I am trying to be loving and nice like God wants me to be, and then talk ugly to people.

Thankfully God and my children are merciful. I suppose it is good for them to see that no one is perfect, and that when we are wrong, we should just say so, and not try to justify what we did or said. This is a big concept, and one I have been trying to explain to Dancer Girl. So, hopefully my honesty and example of being real and asking God and them for forgiveness will help her see that she should be honest too. She is really cute when you point blank ask her something like, "Did you put away your dress-up clothes?" and she'll answer back, "Yes." Then I say,"If I go right now to check..."and she doesn't hear the rest, because she is running back to her room to make sure she gets there before I do. I find myself saying the same things my mother always told me about putting things away when you are done with them. Ha Ha Ha. Light bulb moment. It didn't make me pick my stuff up when my mom told me that, so what makes me think it'll work when I say it? Well, I don't really care if she keeps her room perfect or picks up all her stuff. I would much rather she be honest, and not be afraid to tell me the truth. Why are people afraid to tell each other the truth?

(now it is your turn to answer...)

Voices

My dad and other friends of mine are fond of saying that everyone has a voice. Everyone has something to say, and it is worth listening to. I agree. But I will go a step further. I will say what the Bible says, and I believe it to be true. Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." It is true that you have a voice to say what you want, but you also have a responsibility to either speak things that are life-giving or death-giving to people. We have all heard that it is bad to call a child stupid all of his youth, and that it will have a large negative impact on that child's outlook on life. We are responsible for the things we say, and since I have become a Christian I have made a concerted effort, to the best of my ability, to speak positive and life to everyone I know. If you want to encourage someone, don't tell them how stupid they are, or how much they messed up. If you want to discourage someone, speak some death into their life. Tell them how bad all their decisions are, tell them how stupid they are, tell them how ugly they are, tell them how wrong they are, and they will begin to believe it. Everyone has the responsibility and power to choose positive life giving words to others. I am not perfect, and I have said lots of things in my life that were wrong and negative, and very much regretted. But I also have a voice to say I was wrong and ask for forgiveness. I am doing my best to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. I have the power to restore the wrong, and try to reconcile the negative. Everyone does. If anyone is listening, I tell you to choose today to speak life giving words and words of forgiveness. If someone is discouraged or wrong, tell them how much you believe in them. Tell them you love them and support them. If someone is sick, tell them that you hope they feel better today than yesterday. If someone is lost on the road, you don't go up to them and tell them what an idiot they are for getting lost and how stupid can you be for making a wrong turn. How about asking where are you trying to go or do you need help reading the map? How about are you thirsty or hungry, or are your feet tired from walking so much? Or how about, I think you can do it, You are getting closer, Don't give up. We should all be someone's cheerleader, who are you going to cheer for today?

Well...

the girls and i were typing a wonderful post and someone small and pretty clicked something and everything disappeared. I guess what i was trying to say was not meant to be said right now.......now the baby is crying because i won't let her type again, and you will have to wait to hear what i was trying to say...it was something like we got our Big Green Van back, and we are looking forward to visiting all the grandparents very soon for Christmas activities that had to be postponed because we were very sick....

now an encrypted message from Dancer Girl and Little Sister Girl:

dfgwgtfsttttdfsnm8frrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaa/asz?zN?ZN/N/N/NNNNNN8

Many thoughts

My mind is full of many thoughts right now. A little joy, a little excitement, a little fear, a little worry, a lot of hope. Thank God that we are all feeling a lot better. Long Hair Daddy was really sweet today and decided to take the girls to his hair appointment with him. They absolutely loved it, so I hear. Little Dancer Girl got her hair washed, blow-dried and got a little trim. The whole time Little Sister Girl was reported to continually say things like, "My turn," and "I do it, too!" I am actually too sleepy to remember the exact account from Dear Sweet Hubby. Our hairdresser was very proud as Little Sister, who is not even two yet, sat very still & happy as she got her hair brushed & fixed (no haircut for her yet). Afterwords, he took them to Burger King for a fun time eating and frolicking in the play area. I hardly knew what to do with the time by myself. Let's just say that the house looked exactly the same when they got back as when they left! Big things are happening tomorrow, & the next few weeks are promising to be roller coasters around here. But a little optimism goes a long way. In other news, the tree is down, and the Christmas decorations are put away. Now the big question is....how long will the plastic bins of Christmas things stay in the dining room? I actually used my sewing machine this week, and that is great! I find that sewing for me comes in spurts, and now that it is out, I can feel the inspiration for finishing a few projects coming. I've got lots of ideas. Who knows what will happen.

Baby Big Fat Kitty

This is my Big Fat Kitty when she was a baby. Here you see her on her afghan, pitty-patting away. She is truly my yarn kitty. If there is an afghan anywhere around, she wants to be on it. If I am trying to crochet something, she is in the middle of it, *helping.* She was our baby before we had babies. Even though she is almost nine years old (sweet husband got her for me while we were still newleyweds), she still wants to be babied. When she was this little she used to sit on our shoulders like a little parrot. Well, she can't do that anymore but a couple of times she tried, and the laws of physics would not permit it. As it is, when she lays down, she kind of oozes over the edge of the little ledge she sits on. Well, she's still my yarn kitty, and she still like it when I sing her lullabies and scratch under her chin.

Normal operations

My last entry was very short, mostly because there is a lot of hidden emotion involved, and I knew that I would not have time to properly write the feelings associated. As it is, everything on there has its own hidden meaning. Also, it took me took long to do something I thought would be quick and simple. I found myself typing while saying things like, "Just a minute, and I will help you get a snack," and then progessing on to things like, "Mommy's almost done, you can find a snack"........pause.....typing....children come in with suckers and chocolate.....Mommy glances up, sees happy, quiet children, mutters something about being almost done again, and finally just gives up and clicks the Publish Post button, and lets her thoughts remain mostly unsaid. Things like blogs are good and bad. Good for getting your thoughts out there and staying connected to others, bad for parenting, sometimes. Like all mothers, there are times when you look back at the end of the day, and you find that you spent most of your energy trying to "take a break" and relax, just for a minute. The urgentness of dealing with sick little ones that leaves you quarantined at home with no release for over two weeks sends you running for a breath of fresh air, anywhere. So, anyway, I told the children yesterday that we were going to get back to normal operations. We are finally all feeling human enough, with the exception of Long Hair Proud Daddy, and sometimes you have to stop and stay, enough of the holiday. Let's get going. Well, then again, you also get tired of digging through laundry baskets for socks and underwear...

Rose Parade

http://www.tournamentofroses.com/photogallery/timeline/TL-1890s.htm

For our family, the Rose Parade has always been our far off dream. "Next year in Pasadena" was our family mantra. My dad and his sister grew up in Pasadena & have fond memories of the parade. I have never been to California yet. My brother & his wife went last year.

Carole King ...
My own house on high ground
Is the only place I want to be
So won't you carry me back to California
I've been on the road too long
Take me to the West Coast, daddy
And let me be where I belong

Song

can't think which tune this goes to....
words something like Sailing sailing, hmm hmmm hmmm hm hm hmmm

Blogging blogging, blogging rhymes with clogging
blogging clogging right along....
unclogging cloggy drains......

Blogging blogging, blogging clogging schlogging
Sticky ooey gooey stuff...
cleaning out my drain...

and there you go.....aren't you glad you wanted to know my innermost thoughts?

Happy New Year!