Monday Musings

A little about the soon-to-be-not-youngest-baby-in-the-house:

Thomas has been getting in touch with his swashbuckling side and going around the house saying, "Ahoy me hearties!" while holding his little baby doll and pushing his vacuum cleaner.

Keep in mind he also attacks the doll with his toy dinosaurs and runs over the baby with his ride on toy. I hope this is not how he plans to "help" with his new little brother or sister.

Thomas also gets along fabulously with his brothers and sisters, especially Tristan.

Thomas: MOM! MOM! Triss'an call me poo poo head!

Me: Choking down the laughter, "Well, (snort), tell Tristan that is naughty and not to do it again."

Thomas: Running over and smacking Tristan in the head, "Tristan! Naughty!"

A few weeks ago, Thomas gets the iron from my dresser, plugs it in and burns a perfect iron shape into the hallway carpet. Deep breath. Let's just be thankful- it could have been worse.

Thomas also has lovely manners. Yesterday, I was obviously not getting the boy his noodles fast enough, and he not knowing they were called noodles, says:

"MOM! Get me my "this", NOW!

To Choose

I admit that over the last two months I have been on an emotional rollercoaster with the all the things going on. I've also been having a hard time just functioning, because I have to have a plan and know what's going on at all times. But, obviously, I've not been able to make a plan and I generally have had no control over what's been going on. This has been very hard for me. It's literally been one thing one minute and something else the next. I've felt like the Lord has been giving and then taking away. First, David's old job looked as if there was hope for a turn around, then he got fired. Then, there was the new job he's been offered, but still no contract. The contracts were supposed to be signed before Christmas, now it isn't until the tenth. He was told he'd be making one salary and now it will be less.

Yesterday, I decided that I was fed up with this.

Okay, God.

I am ready to move on.

Sick of waiting.

Done.

Finito.

So, after my morning meltdown, I went over to a friend's to get some books she was getting rid of and then went to the Christian Book store to try and exchange a Veggie Tales that we had been given for Christmas, but already had a copy of. It turns out that the movie was on sale and so I would've had to spend an extra five bucks to get a different Veggie Tales, which I didn't want to do. So, there at the checkout was a display of $5 items and one of them was "Facing the Giants". Much to the displeasure of Tristan (who wanted the Veggie Tales) I went ahead and got that movie.

As I was watching it last night, a line in that movie really struck me. This is an awesome, awesome example of how mighty God can work in your life, by the way. The story is about a high school football coach who seems to have everything going wrong for him. Then, some amazing things start happening once he decides to give it all over to God. He tells his team that they are wasting their time if all they are there for is just to win games. After several wins, they suffer a devastating loss. The line is:

"We will Praise God when we win, and we will praise Him when we lose."

That is what it's all about. Praising Him.

I seem to have forgotten to "Praise Him when he gives, and Praise Him when he takes away."

That is such a hard place to be. But, when you finally get there, it is such a tremendous relief. Now, I feel like I can "move on."

Another part of the movie that really spoke to me was when a an older gentleman, who walked the halls praying for all the students, went to the coach and told him that God wanted him to "bloom where he was planted" because he hadn't lost his job yet. (His job was at stake, if the team didn't make a turnaround.) Then he told the story of two men who needed rain for their crops. Both prayed for rain, but only one went out to prepare his field to receive it. Which man trusted God the most? Which man was he?

Why would a football movie speak to me, especially when I totally dislike football? Well, God does find often humorous ways get His point across.

I will be the man, er woman, who will go out and prepare the field and trust that God will bring the rain. And trust that God will give me the strenth to trust him to bring the rain.

A Very Merry Christmas!

Thanks to the generosity of some very dear friends, we all had a very merry Christmas! We are so blessed to have so many looking after us. The kids got exactly what they wanted. I loved seeing all their expressions, since they all knew we didn't exactly have a Christmas present fund this year.

Thomas has some odd domestic fascination with our vacuum cleaner, so for months I planned on getting him a toy one. He was SO excited (this is Thomas excited, yet being modest for the camera) and played with that vacuum for 4 hours straight til I took him to take a nap. He almost had to take it to bed that night. He has now finally taken an interest in his new Veggie Tales.



The girls really wanted American Girl dolls. Here is Bethany with "Kaya".



Brooke wanted "Felicity" since her hair is similar to her own. She kept looking at her wrapped package and just knew it was a "cameran" doll, as she calls it, just because she wanted it so bad. Oh, the childlike faith!

Tristan the Builder

And, here are the three oldest with some gaming miniatures they'd been hoping for.

We rounded out the day with dinner at our friends' house, along with two other couples and their children, playing Wii, pool and eating plenty of dessert.

"Not Me!" Monday

Hi! My name is Thomas and there's a few things that I definately did not do today.

I didn't help my brothers and sisters decorate our very first every Gingerbread Train, because Target ran out of houses.

I definately didn't eat all the candy off of the gingerbread train when no one was looking, because everyone paid very close attention to me all day.

And, green is most certainly not my new favorite color.

"Not me!" Monday

I've been following the things that McMama is not doing, and I thought of a few things that I didn't do today either.

I most certainly didn't eat 3 chocolate covered doughnuts today and call it "therapy" because that would totally be pigging out.

I wasn't completely relieved when Thomas's Jolly Green Giant diapers finally stopped today after he ate green food coloring on Thursday.

I didn't even get a headache this morning while we did schoolwork, because the kids always listen and do exactly what they are told. Without whining. Or arguing.

I am totally not addicted to People's Court and Judge Judy. I did not spend two hours sitting on my bed this afternoon watching them.

And, I did not think that Thomas saying "No way Jose" was the funniest thing when I told him to bring me something, because I would never let him get away with sassing me. And I didn't think it was equally as funny when he said, "Disgusting, Mom" while he tried to wipe his own butt during above mentioned diaper change.

This week

My, my how time has flown. Is it really less than two weeks from Christmas already? We are supposed to be doing school work today, but we aren't. Instead we are going to do some major clutter/house reorganizing. David will be helping me since he is at home. (Yes, still waiting on the J-O-B.)

Wednesday we had a pet for the morning. A pit bull wandered into our yard and got its leash stuck on our garbage can wheel. So I went out (no, I'm not a dog-a-phobe) and unhooked him. He really was a friendly dog, but definately a puppy. Did NOT know the meaning of "sit". So, I hooked him to our front porch in hopes that someone would come looking and see him there. But, no one did. The kids had already named him- Stucky or something like that- because he kept getting stuck with his chain around the porch post. Not the smartest dog.......

Anyway, I went ahead and called animal control who planned to send someone out. We couldn't keep him long, I mean he was a pit bull and they are so unpredicatable. And, no my children only watched the dog through the front door. They didn't get to pet him.

Animal control called me back after about 15 minutes and told me the owner had called and lived two streets over and would be there to get him shortly. So, that was the end of our brief adventure as pet owners. Well, we were really just pet sitters.

Tomorrow, Lowe's is having a "Make your own project" day, and they are cute wooden gingerbread houses, So, we are going to head over there in the morning, then take in our Scholastic warehouse sale afterwards. I really didn't plan to go, but Brittany is begging to look for more Royal Diaries to add to her collection. They've had them in the past for $1 apiece.
On Sunday, we'll head over to the annual Blythewood Christmas parade in the afternoon. We've gone every year for about the past 6 years or so. The kids love it when they throw out candy. So, then next week we will be homeschooling to the max, to make up for this week's distractions.

Some great mysteries of life....

How does needing 10 things at the grocery store turn into needing 25 things once I get there?

Why do my children spill chocolate milk on the floor and go get a baby bassinett sheet and my placemat from Zimbabwe to clean it up with?

How does a lunch of sandwiches and chips turn into three sinkfuls of dirty dishes?

It's sort of reminds me of that old commercial with the owl, "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know...."