All by 8:15am

Okay, I debated on posting this blog because of the roach. But I am working on being more transparent at this stage in my life. So I decided to post.

Just in case you had a bad day...here goes. I found a roach on my shirt while getting dressed this morning. Thankfully it was a white shirt and the bedroom light was on. Often Steve is still in bed when I get dressed, so I don my clothes in the dark. It was a baby roach...which means it has a mommy and siblings somewhere in my closet. Yuck!
This may explain in some Freudian, psychoanalytical way why by 7:15 I had spilled bleach on my favorite pair of jeans. They are really my favorite by default. I have only one other pair of jeans which I ruined earlier this year when I sat in gum at the county circus. Yes, we went to the county circus. That is a story for a different blog...or not. Anyway I tried everything google had to offer including peanut butter and a few nights in the freezer and my sweet husband sat for hours dissecting the gum from the back of my jeans (after I had taken them off of course) but to no avail. So now, I have one pair of jeans and from the knee down on both legs there are splatters of bleach.

By 8:15 or so I had cleaned up vomit. Which is another interesting story. Katherine and Lydia have had the stomach bug this week...and stayed home from school. Today, Joshua woke up convinced he had it. I was not convinced. I was doing the whole "tuff-love" thing and making him get ready for school...unless he could come up with some symptoms, no pun intended. Anyway, I let him stay home, but there was no nuturing or compassion going on here. I made him lay in the bedroom floor with a bowl while I scrubbed the bathroom with bleach (which I had sprayed on the floor earlier...hence the stains on the jeans). Well, I started feeling guilty, like what if he really was sick. Throwing up is terrible. Maybe I should let him watch Scooby Doo, or at least lay in a bed. I was working through this and just prayed, "Lord, give me discernment here...if he is sick , I will stop what I am doing and just love on him. But if he just wants a day at home..."

Which brings me to two points. One, the Lord cares about the everyday. Don't just turn to Him for the big stuff or when nothing else works. He desires to be involved in the mundane of everyday life. And two, the Lord always answers us, sometimes it's in the rustling of trees, or a whisper-a still small voice. Sometimes we have to wait...and He is teaching us something in the wait...Other times, it is an immediate answer and right before our eyes. That was the Word I got from Him about 5 minutes after my prayer...then I was cleaning up the mess.

I think Joshua's first words after the "episode" were, "Can I watch Scooby-Doo now?"

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. Joshua is in first grade, Lydia is starting kindergarten, and Katherine will be in preschool just two mornings a week. They were all excited, I was not but think I did a great job hiding it from them. They got ready so fast this morning they had time to watch 10 minutes of Scooby Doo before leaving at 7:35.

Horses

Over the weekend we celebrated a friend's birthday with horseback riding at the party! The kids can't stop talking about how much they loved it. They all want to learn to ride horses now...and if they take after me they will be just the right size!

Vacation 2010

We had a terrific vacation this year. Enjoy the highlights!

As the kids are older and better swimmers this year (thanks to the swimming lessons this summer), we spent lots of time in the water!

That is Lydia under the waves! She loved "riding" the waves and even being wiped out! Katherine was wiped out a few times as well...she learned quickly to close her mouth and eyes and hold on tight to her floatie!

There are just endless activities to do in the sand...

JUMP!

Katherine entertained folks at the pool everyday as she would run and jump in the water while yelling "cannon-baum!"