Friday, April 29, 2005

Redeeming the Time

Little Sarah and I have some wonderful conversations while we go through our days together. She is at that great age of 5 where the world is a big exciting mystery to her, and the questions are endless. I love to answer her questions, because I can remember when my own mother and my grandmother patiently answered my childish questions.

Tonight, she wanted to know what people were doing up in heaven. I explained to her that they really were not in the true heaven yet but were in a place of rest waiting for the judgment day when Jesus said that he would bring back the saints with him to get the rest of us who are waiting down here. "Resting?" she replied. "Yes, resting," I answered. She thought that over for a few minutes, and then a big smile came across her face.

I knew what she was thinking before she even said it. We don't get a lot of rest around here sometimes. That's what comes of having 7 people in a family who all have obligations that take them out of here all day and all night sometimes. It must seem to my little five-year-old that we are in motion constantly. Rest, to her, at the tender age of five, is already a precious commodity.

I have thought about it a lot, and the only way I can explain it scientifically is that there has been some kind of change in the time-space continuum since I was five.
I can remember when days were seemingly endless. We never rushed through anything. We played and played and played, and then we played some more. We had three square meals a day, some of which I thought I would never be excused from because the conversation went on and on! We spent long, leisurely summer nights running through the plush grass catching lightning bugs. Then we still had time for a long bath, a t.v. show and some popcorn, and a bible story before bed.

I think I have even mentioned before that I do not ever once remember my grandmother telling me to hurry up. Now, it seems like I say it to my kids a million times a day. "Hurry, honey and get out of the tub. We have to go pick up the boys." "Hurry and eat kids...it's time to leave." "Hurry and get your homework done." "Hurry up--we are going to be late for...."

My kids have even noticed the difference from the time they were little bitty. We used to have time for just about anything we wanted to do. It seemed like I used to get a whole lot more done in a day than I do now.

I don't know if that is how we get old, or what. But whatever it is, I don't like it.

I was up alone the other night for the first time in a long time. Hannah can usually hang in there with me until I decide to go to bed. However, this one night, all were down, and I was leisurely going through some tapes that I have made through the years on my camcorder. I have not been good about always labeling them or detailing the contents on each tape. Now that we have begun to lose members of the family to death, it is comforting to go back and see some of these tapes.

I stayed up half the night (and paid for it the next day), but it was wonderful to see glimpses of a simpler time. I reflected on some of the great moments of the last 18 years---the time since I started having children. I watched Hannah's birth and Sarah's birth, and I watched my wedding from the back camera---not the professional's view from the front. Watching my little girls come into the world made me remember how each and every one of my babies was so little and vulnerable and precious when they were born, and I just wanted to be like the little old lady in that storybook "Love You Forever" and go hold each one of my kids right then while they were sleeping.

I wanted to, and I did eventually that night, go and snuggle up to my sweet husband, remembering the last seven years with him and thanking God that He brought such a wonderful man to me and my boys when we needed him the most! We have surely crammed a lot of living into seven years!

Before I drifted off to sleep that night, I determined to squeeze every drop of life out of the time that I have left to rear my children. From the mere weeks or months that I might have with Daniel to the years left with the little ones, if the Lord wills that we are all still here, I resolve to try and make the most of whatever time there is in a given "day."

I fail to believe that there are still 24 real hours in every day. My body tells me that I don't get 8 real hours of sleep at night, and my house tells me that I don't seem to be spending 8 hours a day keeping it, either! But whatever has happened to time, we still have to "redeem the time."

That is why I have dropped a lot of the "fluff" out of my life, and there is probably more that I can do in that regard. Taking away the t.v. set has opened up lots of time that we never even knew we wasted. Delegating responsibility where I can, like the woman of Proverbs 31 has helped some, too.

There are other things, though, that are rather time-consuming, that I am sometimes tempted to skip...daily Bible reading and prayer and meditation, answering a child's question, sending a note of encouragement to someone who is really struggling, calling an aged friend and talking and talking and talking, spending some quiet time with my mate. I have to somehow have the discipline to let some things go if I must to do these needful things.

I guess in the end, it is all about balance, and I am still trying to get mine. I don't know if I will ever have it down to a fine science. Hopefully, though, when my Sarah is a mommy, I will have made enough of an impression on her that she, too, will find the time to answer a child's precious questions.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Puke Bug, Move Over!

Well, it seems like Puke Bug, as my friend Jennifer affectionately named the vomiting virus that has racked our little area of the country this winter, has left the building, (knock on a big piece of wood.) However, Mr. Cough Bug has moved in and left us with a miserable week and weekend last week.

Tim and Sam were the only ones who felt like getting out Sunday for services. The boys have missed more school, and I am anxious to see if this is going to adversely affect them. Hopefully Tuesday will see everyone back where he or she belongs.

Hannah and Sarah are still coughing, having gotten Micah's ailment, so we had to postpone Sarah's dental work yet one more week. They said they cannot work on a coughing child. I guess I can understand that. I am just really anxious to get Sam and Sarah through all their reconstruction so that we don't spend our lives at appointments. It gets tiring really quick.

Life is moving as quickly as ever...Daniel leaves for senior trip in about a week, we think. His school never gets in a hurry to inform us about much of anything, so right now I don't have a clue how much it is costing, the itenerary, or even the dates of the trip. I think they are taking a somewhat educational trip through some of the sites of early America--the colonies and all---and going to Washington. Daniel was not really thrilled when he heard where they were going, but then where else is there to go? I mean you can go to Florida and see Sodom and Gomorrah in living color, or you can go to the Grand Canyon. There is probably less to do overall out west, so I guess that is why the administration chose this trip. I just hope they have a good time and stay safe.

It is a full moon outside again, and there are a lot of people that we know dying this week, it seems. Mom called tonight to inform me that an old family friend and our former Veteranarian back in my hometown passed away, along with a judge and a former neighbor. My sister-in-law called today and said that at least I had not had as bad a week as a friend of hers last week who lost her step-dad of 20+ years on Monday to leukemia, and then the friend's mother died on Wednesday of a massive heart attack! My L'burg relations said that they will be in the same funeral home Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. That's sure not a pleasant way to spend a week. My heart goes out to all of them. The former neighbor was on the same floor as my grandmother at the hospital last fall when we lost her. He was having complications from lung cancer then, and he has suffered until now.

This week has got to get better and cheerier! I am depressing myself here!

The weather here has been very cold and windy these last few days, for all my hundreds of far-away readers! :) I think that has not helped us any with these coughs! So you can see why we are so ready for the warmth of Spring. I am ready to go get some flowers and plant them. Sarah loves to work outside in the flowers, as long as the bees stay away. We have these mean and nasty wasps and bees that like it around here because of the pool, I suppose. At any rate, one nasty bee seems to guard around the front door, and one guards around the back. We never get much done for the critters! We are going to have to find a way to drive them off for good. If anyone knows any good ways, let me know!

Where has April gone? Does anyone know? Here it is at May, and my baby graduates in June, and I am not ready! We have got a lot to do. Each senior sets up a senior table at the graduation ceremonies, so I have to get planning and get Daniel's picutes and clippings out from his early years! I have a big presentation board to decorate, and about a month to do it! I am not going to procrastinate on this one.

Well, that is about all the news that is news here in Gravy-Land. Hopefully, I will have some happier stuff to write about in the coming days.

Have a great week, everyone!

Friday, April 22, 2005

Seize the Day!

Well, we have had another couple of frustrating days! Micah passed his virus along to Hannah and Sarah, who were due for shots yesterday. Hannah was running so much fever, they would not give her shots to her. Sarah probably should not have had them either, but she did, and at least she is good to go for the next 7 years or so.

Tuesday, Sarah will begin her work with the pediatric dentist to fix her failing enamel on her teeth. My kids just don't have good teeth, for the most part. At any rate, we will take her early Tuesday for the work, and then we will swing by the doctor's so that she and Hannah can get their TB skin test and so Hannah can get her shots. We are going to have some cranky girls on Tuesday. Then, while Tim stays with them, I will have to turn around and head the 30 miles or so back north to the 'Boro with Dan in tow (as my bodyguard! :) to have a pelvic ultrasound. They want to make sure everything is back in good working order after the "Hannah birthing incident." Thursday, Sam will have more of his dental work done to restore his teeth now that he is reaching the age where they are sure that his front tooth is going to live after being replaced in its socket while we were up in NJ.

Forget housecleaning. I can't get any continuity for all these appointments and errands. We are going to try to restore some sanity to the house this weekend, so we will see how much we actually get done.

A friend sent me this verse. I thought it has merit and wished to publish it here. It reflects a lot of what I have been thinking recently, about how I am going to initiate some changes in my life once school is out---really!!!! It is looking more and more like we are going back to homeschooling next year. Attititudes and events in our present school are moving us toward that conclusion. Hopefully, we will make a decision by Daniel's graduation time. School is controling my life right now, and I do not like that. I want to be in complete control of my time--not have someone dictating to me how we are going to spend our nights and weekends.

So, I leave you today with these thoughts....They remind me a lot of the "Cats in the Cradle" song of the 70's. If you have never heard the song, find a copy and listen to it.....

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know itwas coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, "How about going to lunch in a half hour?" She would gas up and stammer, "I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain." And my personal favorite: "It's Monday." ...She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches.. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Stevie toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of "I'm going to," "I plan on," and "Someday, when things are settled down a bit."

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now..go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain dripping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask "How are you?" Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, "We'll do it tomorrow." And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say "Hi"?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005


And they lived happily ever after....The End! Posted by Hello

The blushing bride....just what she is blushing over, we do not know!!!! Posted by Hello

Brooke and Drew with the "going away" carriage! Posted by Hello

Getting the garter....which Sam caught, I might add!!!!! Posted by Hello

The wedding cake of Brooke and Drew! Posted by Hello

Transforming the reception hall.... Posted by Hello

The entire wedding party.... Posted by Hello

Brooke and her daddy, who is also named Ronnie! My dad is Ronald, Ron or Ronnie, too! Posted by Hello

Brooke---the newest Mrs. E! Posted by Hello

Sarah and Ben, ready to walk the aisle! Posted by Hello

Sarah and Nipa, a friend of one of the groomsmen! Nipa was great to lend a hand whereever she was needed! Posted by Hello

Sarah, flower girl, Kelsey, bubble girl, and Ben, ring bearer! Three amigos and cousins who could not love each other more! Posted by Hello

Daniel's collection of medals from A.C.E. convention! Posted by Hello

Life in the Whirlwind!

Last week found me trying to get a post done sometime every day, but circumstances never permitted me to sit still that long.

The Puke Bug stayed until Thursday. Daniel threw up Monday, Tim and me on Tuesday, and Micah did his "round two" with Puke Bug on Thursday. I was sweating it that yet another of the kids would come down with round two, and that we would have to miss Drew and Brooke's wedding (my brother and his new wife!)

To top it all off, as things like this usually go for me, Thursday night, Tim was hit with having to stay at work on an investigation, and he did not get in until the wee wee hours! Meanwhile, I was caring for one sick boy and dealing with two cranky little girls, one of whom has to touch all the items in our home daily. Thursday night was supposed to be packing night for the wedding gear, and I could not even begin til Tim got home to wrestle the girls.

Somehow, I managed to pull it all together and get 7 people's clothes ready for a rehearsal, a wedding and two services of church on Sunday, along with play and night clothes. It really is like moving the army of a small country. Tim helped me immensely by packing the seven bags we were taking in the SUV and driving me to my parents' home, where my lovely sister-in-law Steph met us and carried us the rest of the way to Alabama.

I felt so sorry for Drew and Brooke and Brooke's family, as they had two hard days of work (plus the many, many hours and days and weeks that had gone into preparing for this wedding) ahead of them, and there was little I could do. We had the rehearsal dinner catered right at the building where the wedding was held--a community center in the Florence area. You would not believe how they transformed the place from a somewhat dirty little hall into an elegant wedding chapel. It was gorgeous, and I know they were gratified in the end that all that hard work paid off.

Meanwhile, my wonderful husband was in route back to our fair city with Mr. Micah, the ailing son in tow. Micah was feeling somewhat better, and talked his step-dad into taking him to "Shakes," a frozen custard shoppe along the way home. THEN, he talked step-daddy into going to Krystal and getting a bag of "gut-bombs." Now you might think that a boy who was just puking his guts out a few hours before would not want Krystals. But Micah did, and Tim ended up being the one with a stomach ache. They came home, and Tim ingested multiple Alka Seltzer cocktails to get his intestinal tract straightened out!

So where were Dan and Sam during all of this? Well, they had been spending a week up in Chattanooga with their school competing in all kinds of academic, athletic, and choral events! Here is Daniel's account of convention:

"I'm back from Convention and I couldn't be any more pleased with how it turned out! Here is a list of events that I was involved in and how I/we placed in them:


1st place in:

PACE Bowl (First time ever in school history!)
Male Duet
Male Trio
Mixed Trio
Large Ensemble (5th year in a row!)

2nd place in:

Mixed Quartet
Male Solo
Website Design

5th place in:

Basketball


In Large Ensemble, we even earned a Command Performance, which meant we got to sing in front of the whole 500+ people that came!

Overall, the school placed first in Music, tied for second in Drama and placed second in Academics!
A.C.E. Convention 2005 presented many challenges for everyone involved. The weather was fickle. The computers crashed. Scheduled events were moved and moved again. People even missed lunch or dinner a time or two in order to get to an event. Despite all these trials, most everyone shrugged their shoulders and then took the hardships head on. When the week was done, everyone that held a medal had truly earned it.

At the end of the week, the seniors were asked to come on stage and have a picture taken. As I stood there in front of 500+ people, I thought about everything I had experienced to be able to stand there. I couldn't help but smile my big, goofy, crooked smile as I saw all of those people applauding and taking pictures. It reminded me a little of a verse in my favorite book of the Bible, Hebrews...

Hebrews 12:1- "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us..."

I had about 500 people clapping for me that night. But can you imagine the millions and millions of people that must be looking down from Heaven and cheering us on?! Wow! That being said, I hope that as I endure the trials and hardships of this world, I can take courage from that thought.

The week was not all hard work. One night, everyone on my floor in the dorms got bored and built a couple of wrestling rings out of old mattresses. You should have seen the look on Mr. Warren's face when 20 guys dragged him into the ring and dog-piled him! Sadly, I didn't manage to get a picture of that, (I was busy helping drag Mr. Warren) but I did manage to get a few of the rings.

Also, I placed well enough in all of my events to go on to the International level in Missouri! I may or may not get to go, but I'll keep everyone posted, seeing as I would enter this website into competition again if I did!

I came home early Saturday morning from Convention only to turn around and go to my uncle's wedding in Alabama! It turned out to be a very beautiful wedding filled with Scripture, singing, and plenty of great surprises. My sister and her two cousins were asked to be part of the ceremonies, and they all did a really good job! Congratulations, Drew and Brooke!"

Tim got the boys somewhat after midnight late Thurs. night/Friday morning. They had a few hours to sleep before I gave them a wake up call to get up and get their suits on and make the 3 hour drive down to the wedding.

As Daniel said, the wedding was beautiful! I had a "bird's eye view" from behind a large pillar about 10 feet away from Drew and Brooke, where I was operating the video camera. We decided to video the wedding from the angle which would let us capture her expressions, as we only had one professional camera there and my Sony for the back view. Drew's friend who is in the video business and was one of his groomsmen will mix the tapes and get it back to us.

At any rate, when they got to the middle of the wedding where they play the sentimental song, I couldn't help crying. (My brother Doug got the "fun" job of running the sound system, and he had to time out the songs so that they would start when they were supposed to. He definitely had the worst job there! LOL! I would have hated to have been responsible for messing up a wedding when I cued up the wrong song or couldn't get something to play. But Doug did a flawless job, and it all went off without a hitch!) Then, Drew sang to Brooke, and that just made it worse. I was doing my best not to sob into the microphone, where that would become a permanent part of their wedding tape! :) However, I don't think I was too successful, and so they are just going to have to put up with the little sniffs while they view their tape! I could not see my mother from where I was standing, and it was a good thing, as we would have fed off of each other's crying.

The newly weds took off to Cancun, where they are undoubtedly spending a much-deserved, leisurely week. I suppose they will be back this weekend.

Sunday found us doing our usual drive to church, where we had two excellent services. Daniel led singing on Sunday night, and he always does a great job. In fact, one little lady and her husband at the church have asked him if he could not just lead every service! He and I got tickled at that. He told them that he thinks the others might like a turn every once in a while.

I have not said a lot about Sam. He came back with 7 medals. I don't have his breakdown, but he had a lot of firsts and seconds, too. I was so proud of both of them, because despite the fact that they had all these events to prepare for and a grueling season of basketball going at the same time, they managed to both get wonderful scores on their report cards. Daniel had a 99% overall average, and Sam had a 94%! Sam also completed 18 of the workbooks called PACES that they do in the A.C.E. curriculum. That was more than he did in two quarters combined! Looking back, I don't know how they did what they did this quarter or how their parents held up, either.

Tonight, everyone is gone to church except me and sickly Mr. Micah. This time, he has something bronchial going on, and he had to have a chest x-ray yesterday to see if he had pneumonia. The doctor said he didn't, but Micah is not getting a lot better, so we will see what tomorrow brings. One thing it is going to bring is shots for Sarah and Hannah, so tomorrow night should be fun!

Well, that brings us up to speed for now. Hopefully, I won't be as long getting back to this as I have been. A mom of five and a wife can only do so much, and sometimes, blogging, though preferable to laundry and dishes, has to go on the back burner until the other things are under control. I think I will be putting up clothes from the trip for the next two weeks, and it is closet-cleaning time---in earnest now. I WILL have a yard sale this year if it kills me!

Nighty-night, all, and have some pleasant dreams!

Monday, April 11, 2005

Just call me "Zombie Mommy!"

Well, it's official. Puke Bug has been inducted as a member of the family. We just cannot seem to get rid of him, so we are now just setting him a place at the table.

NOT!!!!!

Saturday morning, I was trying to sleep in a little, but it was not apparently meant to be. Daniel had to go take the ACT test, so Tim got up to take him. There was a small panic when Daniel could not find his wallet with his i.d. in it. We have too many little fingers in this house who like to see what is in it! At any rate, he was able to see that you could take a yearbook with a picture of you and a name in the caption for i.d. Otherwise, he would have not been able to go. We would have both been quite hacked....me, because I have to pay $26 for a stupid test, and Daniel, because he has studied and prepared for this one. The school he goes to has them take it twice to see which score comes up higher. He was supposed to take it back in February, but we had a conflict, so this was the next test date.

So, after getting the men off to the test site, I crawled back in bed. Hannah was not too happy, so we got her another bottle and tried yet again to sleep. In what seemed like just a few more minutes, Sarah woke me up and said that her tummy was hurting. I did not think much about it, because she frequently has tummy aches. She is a very "sensitive" child, which is just another way of saying she is a big baby. If she gets a scratch, she screams like her arm or leg has been cut off. But being the dutiful mother that I am, I got up yet again and accompanied her to the bathroom. The poor little thing sat atop the toilet and proceeded to erupt from both ends. Of course, I was not ready with a bucket, so I had a little cleaning up to do.

Fortunately, she had eaten lightly on Friday and just had some banana popsicles on Friday night, so I am not left with some aversion to food as I am with these things many times. The bad part was that she threw up all day and had diarrhea at the rate of once every 20 to 30 minutes. Late Saturday night, just when I thought she was winding down, she wound up again. At two-thirty in the morning, Sunday morning, I was washing her hands at the sink, and she promptly projectile-vomited right in the sink. Needless to say, I had my hands full between taking care of her and cleaning.

The poor little thing had stomach cramps so badly that she wanted to know why I was not taking her to the hospital. I told her that we have almost all been through this, and that she would live.

Meanwhile, Tim was out nearly all day tilting at windmills. He started a carpentry project in our kitchen last Saturday which has turned into a small disaster. It all began a couple of years ago when we purchased a stupid, and I do mean stupid, Golden Retriever from the pet store at the urging of the children. We brought her home, only to find out that she was the worst chewer we had ever seen. We had her tied out back, where she had a pretty good run, but she was able to get up on the deck. There, she managed to chew up the screen door and chew the weather stripping off the bottom of the back door.

Have you ever heard the expression, "For want of a nail, the battle was lost?" You know the progression----no nail in a horseshoe, so no horse, no soldier to ride the horse, no vital soldier in the battle, and finally the battle lost. Well, our progression was no weatherstripping, no protection from rain, rain comes under door during storms, rain eventually rots wood around door, whole door has to be replaced as well as wood on the floor and under it in the floor support beams.

I told Tim not to tear it out last Saturday, as I knew that he could not do it all in one day, but you know men....they always think they can do more than they can do. So, next thing I knew, he had taken out my double patio door, half my kitchen floor was gone, and the linoleum was torn to shreds.

By taking Monday off, he was able to get it back to a reasonable state, but he was fighting a cold and did not feel well, and his stomach was bothering him to boot. So, this last Saturday, he left early to find another sturdier door set to replace the one we have. He first went and rented a trailer to haul the thing home in. Then, not finding the one he wanted at our local Lowe's, he picked Daniel up from the ACT test and they went to the next town up. There, they thought that found the perfect door set, and so having purchased it, they went to load up in the trailer. The door was too big by ONE INCH!. They tried everything they could, but to no avail. It would not fit.

So, plan B was to get a refund on this door, go back to hometown and get a bigger trailer, and go find a door. Meanwhile, I am here at home holding the bucket and getting more frustrated by the minute. I had plans for the family for the last two weekends to clean house all day (which I think was the original reason dear husband tore into the door project.) He would rather do anything than clean house. He would rather move 10 day old cow carcasses all day, I do believe, than clean house.

He and Daniel went back to the trailer place, where the man is really nice, and he tried to fix them up with an open trailer. For some reason, it would not connect to our trailer hitch and have the brake lights come on. They worked and worked with it to no avail. So finally, since they knew that I was having a booger of a time here at the house with the sick, they came home.

I should mention, too, that the boys leave tomorrow for their American Christian Education convention, so they needed to be washing and packing too. Poor Sam was cleaning house for all he was worth and trying to help me manage Hannah. About as soon as Tim got home, he started complaining that his stomach was hurting, too.

I don't know how many false alarms he has had now with this stomach mess. He just cannot seem to get it out, so he suffers and suffers. He then drinks some tea with some apple cider vinegar in it and seems to get better for a while. So he tried that, but he was still hurting.

By Sunday morning, he was puking too. It was not with the violence that the girls have puked, but it was bad enough. So, we called a member of our church who lives about half way between us and the church, and he said he would come after the boys. Well, they had a full day, as they stayed with him through the afternoon, went back to evening services, and then went another 20 miles or so south for the teen Bible study that happens once a month. They did not make it in until just before midnight. Daniel and I had to make a Kroger run, then we came home and got to bed.

Then, Hannah decided that she was not sleepy in the least, and she pitched one of her famous "Hannah-Bee fits." This continued until 3 o'clock in the morning. I would have given her some Benedryl (which friend Jennifer highly recommends) but it has the opposite effect on my kids and makes them hyper! Some time after 3 a.m. when I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness, I decided enough was enough and gave her a teaspoon of cough medicine which always calms her down. I hated to do it, but I was a desperate Zombie....uh, Mommy.

Another mere three hours, and it was time to go again. I was so tired that I figured I would rouse the boys via cellphone (now is that not the heighth of laziness?) and give myself a few more minutes of sleep. Sam informed me that his and Daniel's stomachs were hurting badly.

Tim got up and took Micah to school, and later, he came up to report that Daniel was now violently upchucking downstairs. Tim emailed his boss that he would not be coming in today, and I started saying prayers that Dan and Sam would be able to leave tomorrow for convention, or else yet one more school event would be totally ruined.

Dan and Sam are both in numerous musical events, like quartets, ensembles, and duets, etc., and if they do not show, all is lost. Daniel is an integral member of the basketball team as well. I told them they may be standing there holding buckets while they sing. They HAVE to go!

So, as twilight falls this evening, tummies are a little more stable, though many are just drinking Sprite right now. Tim and Sarah are ingesting ginger snaps to deal with the nausea.

We are also nervous about the upcoming wedding
between brother Drew and Brooke this Saturday. I am going to be horrified if we are still puking by then. My brother Don is in from Germany, but I cannot see him right now, because he is the best man, and we do not need him to get sick. Hopefully, Sarah is going to be past this and get some color back in her cheeks.

Just an update on friends Alvin and Tina at church that I have told you about....both made it successfully through their surgeries and were at both services yesterday, the boys said. They also both went to the young people's Bible study last night. I personally think the two of them may be pushing it a bit, but I admire their courage. Both have ongoing treatment to eradicate remaining cancer cells. One of our elders found a doctor who is a Christian who has said he will do reconstruction if she would like it for free. That is so good, as Tina has no insurance. Tina has a long way to go with chemo, and if that turns out well, she will look at the possibility of reconstructive surgery.

It is going to be a busy week. Hair appointments, getting the boys off to convention and to the wedding on time over the weekend...it is going to be a hectic week. We have storms forecast for tonight, and tender-heart Sarah is beside herself.
Hopefully, it won't produce the 20 + tornadoes that they have spotted today in Kansas!

Have a good week, all!

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Another week gone by...

Life keeps getting ahead of me. I am doing my best to keep up, but this pesky thyroid and Puke Bug and all the other enemies of efficiency are weighing me down. I have the best intentions of keeping up with my blog, but I just don't know how well I am going to do until school is out!

When last I wrote, we were coming upon "Homecoming" for the boys' basketball team. It has been a long and frustrating season. You will all remember when they could not go defend their state title because the whole team came down with the flu in one form or another, and the decision was made (and rightly so) to not endanger anyone's health by pushing it too hard and going.

I don't even remember when basketball officially started, but it was not long after school started in the fall that the team was selected, and they started practicing. They had at least two games a week all through the fall and winter, up to the State Tournament. After that, they had a light schedule with a game here and there, but practices have continued, since they are going to the A. C. E. convention and will be competing there for a title.

Friday night, we had our last home game, and they honored the seniors--all 3 of them. Daniel, Nicole and Joshua will comprise the graduating class of 2005 at our little school. We only have about 100 students in grades K-12. It is amazing what they have been able to accomplish with their small numbers. These three are also the heart and soul of the chorus. Nicole has a beautiful voice, and Dan and Josh are not half bad! All of them took first and second place ribbons last year in their individual singing events at convention. I heard the whole chorus the other day, and they have really worked hard for this year's events. It will be interesting to see who wins what. Daniel and Joshua are both entered in the Male Solo category. I think Daniel has 9 events this year at convention. One of them is web page design. I will keep you posted. They leave next Tuesday.

Well, back to Homecoming. Now I have to explain for those who do not know this little school that our Homecoming is not like other Homecomings. Perhaps the most significant way is that there is no dance. Though our kids are not of the same religious persuasion of those who founded the school, we are united in our belief that dancing between young, hormonal kids is not right or wise. Boys and girls are expected to keep a respectable distance between themselves, a concept that is all but dead these days.

Our seniors were all decked out in their best duds, and Nicole came out and sang the National Anthem a cappella while the color guard presented the flags. Then, the seniors came out one at a time, and a little bit was told about them. They told when each one was "saved" and what their favorite Bible verses were. I liked that. If you would like to see Daniel's website and favorite verse, click here.

Right as things were getting started, I looked up and my good friend Jennifer was coming in with her 5 kids. At the very same moment, Tim's brother John with his wife, 2 daughters, and 3 neighbor kids were arriving! They just happened to be passing through on their way back home to Minnesota from vacation in Florida, and they called Tim and he told them they should stop and see the game. So they did! They managed to find the school on their own, in the dark, pouring rain, and they stayed for 3/4 of the game. Then, sadly, they had to get back on the road to try and make it to a good stopping point that night.

So, we had quite a crowd with us! It was great to get to visit with Jennifer and John and Anne and all the 10 collective kids! At the end of the night, Micah ended up going home with his good pal, Will---the only boy out of the 10 kids! Was he outnumbered or what?

The boys won their game handily, and all three of them got to play. Sam and Micah did not get put in til right at the end, but they are always happy just to get in. All in all, it was a wonderful evening, though Tim got to sleep in the dog house for missing Daniel's presentation. He always stays at work too long--even when I call him multiple times and tell him that we have something important going! Ahhh---life with the Absent-minded Professor......:)

Saturday morning, the phone rang, and Micah asked us to come and pick him up, with the dreaded words, "I am throwing up." I felt so badly that he was sick and might yet again infect Jennifer's house, after she has had so much trouble with Puke Bug this year already. Tim went and got him, and Micah ended up sleeping for the next 3 days. Thankfully, he did not throw up much at all, but I think it was harder for him to get it out of his system than it was for some of us who just got all that bug out of us one way or the other!

Micah missed Monday and Tuesday, and then Sam got up Wednesday and did not feel well. He went back to bed and slept nearly all day. When he got up, he felt better and was able to go with the rest of us to church.

I think we are all just suffering from worn-outedness. Of course, Spring allergies don't help any. I looked at Sarah last night, and her little eyes looked so allergy-ridden. We are trying to keep her healthy so that she can be the flower girl at next week's family wedding of my brother Drew.

Speaking of family, Mom and Dad are sweating it right now with Don coming in from Germany and the impending wedding. We have two close relatives who are very sick, and we pray that our attention is not needed where they are during "wedding week." My grandmother in Florida continues to have problems related to her stroke last year. She has a feeding tube, and everything has to go through it. They have really had a time regulating her food so that her system works properly. Her sister Martha has really been an angel taking care of her at home.

Meanwhile, my uncle Fred up in Ohio seems to have had another stroke as well. He is currently hospitalized, and they are evaluating his condition. He fell, and there was some initial confusion as to what caused the fall. His speech was so slurred that my aunt could not understand him, so she had him carried to the hospital. Their oldest daughter has left college in Florida where she teaches to go and be with her parents, and I understand her younger sister will be going there Monday to take over and let Hope go back to Florida and try to finish the semester. Our prayers are with all of them right now.

Well, that is the update for now. Hope it won't be as long until the next one! Since my computer crashed, I have to wait in line for Daniel's computer or work on it when he is not home. That is hard to do and keep up with the Hannah Bee. She learned how to open the refrigerator and remove items from it yesterday. She managed to get red jello all over the entry hall, and I caught her playing with the plug covers again. She is really a mess these days!

Well, have a happy day, wherever you are! (And Alice, if you are reading---get in touch with me. I need your snail mail address!) Bye for now, all!

Friday, April 01, 2005

April Fools

I could say that April is finally here, but that would be a misstatement of sorts. I actually do not know where January, February, and March went. Just a couple of days ago, it seems, I was taking down the Christmas tree. I guess it has actually been more like 3 months. My brother Don was home from Germany, but we did not get to spend much time together, since Tim had fallen and hurt himself, and flu was going around, and I had just had half of my thyroid cut out.

Now, April has rolled around, and Don will be back in seven days for his twin's wedding. It is always good to see him. He owes me a tiramisu!

On first glance, my blog today might appear to have a punctuation error in it, but it does not.

All kinds of people will be screaming "April Fool's" today. I guess I am sensitive to the word "fool" today because it seems like, lately, that I have seen a lot of foolish behavior coming out of mankind, both within my "inner circle" and out in the world.

Merriam-Webster's defines a fool as "a person lacking in judgment or prudence; a harmlessly deranged person or one lacking in common powers of understanding." Sometimes we all feel like we are surrounded by fools. Some of the hype coming out of the mouths of people during this whole Schiavo ordeal has proven that fools do indeed exist.

I love the proverbs in the Bible. They tell us so much about practical living, and I just love to get down to the "nitty gritty" of a matter--no "fooling around." I have loved reading the proverbs about fools through the years, when I get discouraged with people in my town, people in the religious world, ex-husbands, school officials, customers, bosses, family and friends...you-name-it. Sometimes I read them just to remind myself not to be foolish.

These are some of my favorites verses about fools in the Bible:

Proverbs 12:15--The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But he who heeds counsel is wise.

Proverbs 14:16 --A wise man fears and departs from evil, But a fool rages and is self-confident.

Proverbs 17:21 --He who begets a scoffer does so to his sorrow, And the father of a fool has no joy.

Proverbs 26:4--Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.

Proverbs 26:5--Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.


There are also many other admonitions in the Bible about foolish people. The Bible speaks of the foolish virgins, the foolish builder, and the rich fool. (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:47-49, Luke 12:16-21, Matthew 25:1-13) The story of the foolish virgins represents people who do not have their affairs in order when the Lord comes. They miss going to the wedding feast (symbolic of heaven.) The foolish man built his house upon sand instead of on the foundation of rock. We all know from children's class what happened to the foolish man's house! SPLAT! This, of course, speaks to building our faith on the right foundation--Jesus Christ! The rich fool was the man who had plenty of barns, but he decided he would tear them down for no good reason and build bigger barns to house his "stuff." The Lord sat up in heaven looking down at this fool and declared that He would "require his soul that night." The moral of that story is that "stuff" is not where it's at, and we had better not let "things" take precidence over our relationship with God and with other people. It saddens me that most people in our day are just focused on "stuff" and not on their relationships. The only thing they care about is having a nice house, nice cars, and plenty of other "toys," but they don't care a bit about making and holding on to good relationships with their mates, their families, or their brethren.

I was doing some research for a project and came across a good quote by Oprah. While I don't think she has her life entirely together in all aspects, she does seem to have a lot of common sense. I wish I had heard these words and believed them 25 years ago. It would have saved me a lot of hurt from the fools in this world:

"When people show you who they are, believe them, the first time. Not the 29th time! That is particularly good when it comes to men situations because when he doesn't call back the first time, when you are mistreated the first time, when you see someone who shows you a lack of integrity or dishonesty the first time, know that that will be followed by many, many, many other times that will at some point in life come back to haunt or hurt you. When people show you who they are, believe them, the first time. Live your life from truth and you will survive everything, everything, I believe even death. You will survive everything if you can live your life from the point of view of truth." --Oprah

As I get older, I am slowly learning the lesson. It is nigh to impossible to change a fool. I really believe that only God can do that. God is the giver of wisdom, and we are told to pray for wisdom when we need it. I hope that if I can teach my children anything before I send them out into the world that it will be to stay away from foolish people and to pray for wisdom in making the many choices that they will make. If they can just do this, they will be spared from a lot of the hurt I have experienced in my life.

Truth, light, love, a firm foundation, and preparedness----I am convinced, like Oprah, that therein lies the key to success and happiness. Have a blessed April!

Attention Alice!

Alice, my dear, if you are still reading this blog....my computer crashed with all my addresses in it. Can you find a way to get in touch?