Why Yesterday Was Awful and OK--a List for Your Viewing Pleasure

Yesterday was awful because...

• Bee poured a huge cup of water all over the couch, my ipad, the floor, etc. 
• We were still doing school at 8pm
• S had to work on church stuff so he was pretty much disengaged all evening
• Bee won't come when called and I don't like spanking her in public. It just makes every single trip to the store or anywhere 50% harder than it needs to be. 
• Actually right now it's all harder. She doesn't want to get buckled in her car seat. She doesn't want to sit in the basket at the store. She doesn't want anyone to hold her hand. She doesn't want to walk into the house, she wants to examine every leaf in the yard. Sigh.
• It was the first day back after spring break and a wonderful vacation and I just wasn't ready to "be back." 
• I didn't sleep good. My coughing, Bee waking up, Little Bit's bad dream (all layered on top of each other of course.)
• I told the girls I was going to sack up anything in their bedroom floor and they both told me it was good and I sacked up an entire tall paper garbage bag FULL. 
• I had to sweep the living room (we have carpet) just so we could get all the crap in a pile and it took 3 of us 15 minutes to clean it all and we had started the day with the floor clean.

Yesterday was OK because...

• S did Bible stuff with the kids before bed. And Bee sat so proudly between her big sisters holding her Bible and just beaming.
• We got a little refund check and now I'll be able to pay off some more debt.
• We had enough food for supper so I didn't have to go grocery shopping.
• Bee took a nice, long, early nap and we got a lot done on our projects.
• The girls were happy to be back at choir.
• Everyone was healthy and we are blessed.

Not sure I'm ready for today either but at least we can stay home (except grocery shopping-ug) and get stuff done. Maybe we won't have to be doing school all evening. S has a Bible study with a gentleman tonight so he'll be gone all evening, which I'm not looking forward to. Spring Break was probably the most and longest we've been around him ever and I liked it. 

Going to sack up anything from the girls' floor or bathroom again today. Let's see what kind of bag collection I can get going in the garage. 

Off to tackle this day....ready or not...here it comes.

In Which We Make Our House Work For Us Again

OK--no more whining. S and I put our heads together and finally came up with a solution for making this house work for us AND a place to put all the furniture. We were actually so perplexed I was praying about it last week. Then, the other day I was visiting with my mom and telling her the problem and BOOM...an epiphany! An answer to prayer: how to rearrange to meet all our current needs.

So now, instead of this:

Homeschool cabinet in corner of living room.

We have this:


An office for S!!! (That's some CHEAP Wal-Mart furniture there. Nobody sneeze or slam the door too hard!)
 

And instead of this:

One side of the front room.

We have this:

Wow! A place to hang our map! And you can't see it but our spelling board is hung up too!

 

And instead of this:

and this:

We have this:

Here's the middle of that front room with our new table:

Yes folks, we have a homeschool room again. And it feels good!!! The table is tall, with bar stool-like chairs so Baby Bee won't be able to reach it for a while. And now we don't have to set up the card table in the living room every day.

And S has an office to work in! It's so wonderful!

And that little extra room that used to once upon a time be my sewing room but more recently looked like this:

Now looks like this:

The girls' rooms are clean too. There only remains our room. One day, I'll get all that laundry put away. But for now we are just so excited to make these changes and USE our house the way we need to!

We've got 7 more weeks or so of school. How about you?

Family Weekend

Tonight we were off. And it felt really good! The last 3-4 Friday nights we've done a Bible study with some folks. That is really, really important. But tonight, several folks couldn't come and with Little Bit still getting over being sick, we begged off.

And had a night at home--just us! We watched a movie from the library (FREE!) and relaxed together.

Tomorrow--because it's a Saturday--we're going to the beach.

 It's finally off-season and we don't have to rush down there just to find a parking place. I love it when we get our beach back. I realize not everyone lives in Texas and some of you might be thinking, "The beach? In OCTOBER?" But tomorrow the high is 83 at the beach. We'll take the girls' long-sleeved rash guards and call it a day.

And--squeal!--we have to get all our camping gear out and organized and get ready for our camping trip! I can't wait. It's been a whole year since we went camping, due to a little addition to our family in May when it was perfect camping weather.

Yes, S tried to convince me to go in my last month of pregnancy. He's very funny. Actually I would have loved to have gone, but couldn't see how it was possible to duck and climb into and out of the tent or to get up off our air mattress. And the getting up to go to the bathroom in the night? Ug. Wasn't worth it.

Last year when we went I was really nauseated and remember being pretty grossed out by some of the food. Plus I was completely exhausted. I'll be more help this year. Able to lift things, and hey, maybe even take a few pictures. That one above is one of the only ones I have from last year's trip. We were pretty organized but now the Holiday family and we are going to be planning this from 2 different states. We'll see how we do.

We've never camped with a baby. We started camping when Little Bit was 2 or 3. Bee will be 5 months old when we go so this will be new territory for us.

But we got this:

There's no way she will fit on the air mattress with us all night. I think I can pull her on there to feed her in the night but if we want to be able to move at all, she needs a place of her own. Plus, when one of us rolls over the other one lifts up in the air. I could just see us launching Baby airborne in the night!
I wanted her down on the ground by us and not have to stand up and then bend over a pack and play to get to her. This little bed is just perfect. It has it's own air mattress and everything. I think she'll sleep well in it.

So there will be some "get ready for camping" prep this weekend too. But that's fun. WAY more fun than unpacking and cleaning up once we get home!

And looking back over this post I realize we sound kind of outdoorsy and adventurous and not at all like people who sit around in their living room every night. Ahem.

I Have Many Titles

Lost and Found.

Stop and Start.

In Which the School Year Does Not Get Off the Way I Envisioned.

Pick one, any title will work. We were off school today to help our good friends pack up and move away. Enjoyed being off school. Did not enjoy why. The collective girls got to play together all afternoon and then we all went to one of our regular hang-outs to eat. And then we said good-bye.

Thankfully, we have reservations to go camping together again this October. So---six weeks or so and we'll get to see each other again.

It doesn't change the fact that we will walk through the doors at church every week now and they won't be there. Our lives just changed for sure. It hasn't fully hit me yet.

While we were at their house today I got the call that my uncle had died. This is the uncle who taught me how to tie my shoes when I was 5. He teased a lot. I always liked him when I was little. I started to tell funny stories about him in the car to the girls and then realized I was going to cry if I kept talking so I quit. But he was funny. Funny and sad.

He was married for a while and we didn't like his step-kids. We were thrown together with them and expected to play of course. Because that's how it is with kids. Mostly, he was a bachelor. And he lived alone. My grandmother worried about him a lot. Everyone else had families. He had a lot of nieces and nephews.

He would hand my older cousin some money and tell her to go buy us all Christmas presents. We found out later that it wasn't much money to buy for that many people. So THAT is why we each got a pair of crazy socks or pantyhose. She did a great job shopping for him.

One year he made the mistake of spouting off that he hated Brut cologne. So we all--every single member of our extended family--bought him a bottle of Brut that year for Christmas. It was beyond funny watching him open them all.

I would go stay with my grandmother for a week or two in the summers when I was 14 or 15 years old. Old enough to go alone and stay but too young to have a life or a job or a car so going there was exciting. One morning when I was there my grandmother went out on the front porch to sweep and nearly had a heart attack. My uncle had brought his laundry by and left it on the porch. He was pretty round most of my life and he had stuffed all his dirty clothes into one pair of his overalls and tossed them up there. She said she thought a dead man was laying on her porch.

He was bald just like my dad, but actually a bit balder. He ALWAYS wanted us to say HE had more hair than our Daddy, but we wouldn't. So one time he met us at the door with a wig on his head and said, "Who has more hair now??" Silly man.

He didn't go to church and I think that worried my grandmother more than anything else. I hope he got things right before he passed away but I don't know.

He was the baby brother. He should still be here. I hate cancer.

And so we will be off school again tomorrow to go be with our family and have a memorial service. Then we will come home and S will start preaching at church. And we will start school (again).

I think I've had enough changes to my life for now.

Life v. School

Schooling is a priority around here. I take my responsibility very seriously. But there are times when life is just too busy and other things are just more important.

Not that we drop school completely, but we let other things take priority.

Which is why I'm not going to get every single subject done this week. And maybe not next week. We'll see.

But we most assuredly ARE plugging along with school. Just not at 100%, that's all.

Some of the things going on?

• My uncle is in hospice care with terminal cancer. We suspect he will not live through this week. There will likely be a memorial service to attend very soon. 
• My dad has had these scary spells of confusion. We were really worried something was very wrong but the doctor seemed to think it was a UTI. Seems confusion is often the only symptom in elderly folks. BUT we've been waiting for blood work results since last Wednesday. So frustrating. Hoping it IS just a UTI and that he can get started on meds tomorrow. Mom has been afraid to leave him. 
• Assuming everything referenced above is OK, he will be starting a trial for his cancer. Prayers would be appreciated for both situations. 
• Our good, good friends are moving away this weekend. We're helping them how we can this week. And guess where they are moving? Pretty much in the path of the hurricane. 
• S will start preaching "full-time" this Sunday. I say full time in quotes because he will also have his regular full-time job. Two sermons a week plus one Wednesday night Bible study. Every week. 
• It's our month to clean the church building.

BUT. I always try to do what Philippians 4:6-7 says and present my requests with thankfulness. 

So, I am thankful for:

• My health. That I am home and well and able to care for my family.
• Baby Bee, Little Bit, and Sweetheart. I love them so much. 
• Our home, cars, my husband's income, food....we are so well provided for by our Heavenly Father. 
• That I've been married to my best friend for 19 years. 

When burdens seem heavy and there is so much going on you don't feel you can JUST focus on school....that's a good time to remember WHO you should be focused on anyway, right? 

Revisions, Revisions Everywhere

Today is our anniversary. *smile* We've been married 19 years! I cannot believe that...but when Sweetheart asked me this morning what I was doing at that time 19 years ago I had no idea. Cannot remember at all what I did the morning of our wedding.

So maybe it's not so hard to believe that its been that long ago after all.

Well, nineteen years and I'm going to be the wife of a preacher. Our preacher and his family (our good, good friends) are moving to another state. That's a post for another time. We are going to miss them because not only are the husbands friends, the wives are friends. You know, as opposed to politely visiting with your husband's friend's wife? You have friends like that, right? No, we are all friends. AND ALL of our girls are friends. We hate to see them go, but all along I have been trusting God. Because I know He is able to work all things for good for those who love Him. He can work it for their good, our good, the church's good....all at the same time. He is that amazing.

But with them moving, that leaves our church without a preacher and S has been asked to preach. Mind you, he'll still be working his regular job. So, that is one reason why I was rearranging--to make a place for S to study and prepare sermons. We did that now but have I taken pictures? I have not. Later, OK?

Me. A preachers' wife. Huh. Still kind of wrapping my head around that one. I mean, S has always wanted to preach...but here we are. I always thought "one day he'll be a preacher" but I did NOT think, "one day I'll be a preacher's wife." I guess that one should have been obvious, but it didn't occur to me so much.

Baby Bee is 2 months old tomorrow. I know! She is so sweet and cute and we are all still totally in love with her. We HAVE been able to get some school done even though she is a great distraction.

Come on...math...or me?

Is it just me, or are there a lot of revisions going on at our house lately? I was looking back at posts from this time last year...wow. I was busy re-doing the school room...NO idea a baby was in our near future. Now we have 3 girls, no homeschool room, and I'm going to be a preacher's wife.

Stick around. There's just no telling what's going to happen around here next!