Money & Stuff

Last year we took all the money in our family's savings accounts and paid off a big chunk of credit card debt. Since then, DH has been making double+ payments each month to pay off the last card. With the money we'll get from our tax returns, we'll be able to pay it off. DH almost cried; I got teary. What a relief. And now we need to decide what to do with the "extra" money we'll have. We need to be thinking about a newer vehicle, and I'd like to put some money aside so we can go to Disney. That's probably not at the top of DH's list. I can't help it. I want to take my kids there - badly.

Our church cookbook was delivered here yesterday. I am so excited. They look so good! All that hard work... Is going to help mail a bunch of shoeboxes to kids through Operation Christmas Child!

Teachers striking in Wisconsin. I think parents should organize town hall meetings and force the school officials to fire any teachers who are striking. There are so many teachers out of work, and kids graduating from college who are excited to get into the classrooms. I don't think it would be all that difficult to replace the ones who have decided to not show up. Just my opinion.

Winday. Here you thought it was Friday. But with huge wind gusts here, I think it has earned a new name. Little Boy did get out there to play today. He had fun.

Pastor search - new developments, some possibilities, hard to keep on track in the meeting, and some men blew up at each other at last night's meeting. Someone stormed out angry. You know. Same old, same old.

So busy - doing what?

I feel like each day I am so busy, but at the end of the day I have a hard time figuring out what it was that kept me so busy.

Today my leg bothered me all day; it still is. Pain in my ankle/heel - joint pain - radiating up my leg into my hip and sciatic nerve and up into my shoulder - has kept me on my butt most of the day. But tomorrow morning, there is a service guy coming to adjust the angle of the satelite dish. And he'll have to come into my living room. And it's still a pit. So I need to just get at it.

Tomorrow morning Little Boy has therapy, and then at 1:30 Baby and I have a hair appointment. DH is off tomorrow, but with the service guy coming it looks like I'll be taking Baby with us to therapy and keeping Little Boy through our hair appointments. That means lunch out with them. Could be interesting.

Missing my Dad

What today "is" has been in the back of my mind all day; it's been an "off" day all day.

I was 16 when he died, and the pain is still strong enough to make me catch my breath. So many things would be different if he was still here. I don't know what that would mean for my life. I can only look forward to the day I get to see him again, and try to live in a way that honors him.

A box of sunshine and smiles!

DH bought me a box of white grapefruit from Florida again this year for Valentine's Day, and it arrived today. I had one for dessert after lunch. It was so yummy. I have the scent in my head, and it is much quicker-acting than my anxiety meds. :0)

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I heard a guy on TV say that once, and it struck me funny and stuck in my head. LOL

So my team won! Gotta love it. It's been a long time since the Packers were at the Super Bowl, and this year they got there the hard way. It was great to see them win.

We didn't have a party or anything. We DVRd the show since we went to church last night. That made it nice; we fast forwarded through the commercials and half-time show. I might go back and watch commercials later, but I've been told we didn't miss much.

My husband is a Steelers fan. We had fun; Little Boy cheered with Daddy, and Baby cheered harrassed the guys with Mommy. She kept needling: "Daddy, your team has a ZERO." "Daddy, your team has a 3." "Daddy, your team is losing."

And then she found a baby wash cloth. It is purple, with cute trim. She asked if it was a "terrible towel". I told her if she was getting out of the tub, and that was what she had to dry off with, it would definitely be a terrible towel. DH was laughing at me, because I cracked myself up. LOL

We let the kids stay up to watch the end. It was a special event, and I hoped they'd sleep in this morning.

No such luck. Oh well. Maybe we used up all our "luck" last night. :0)

Don't shoot your fellow soldier.

My kids have been fighting a LOT lately. Mean words, ugly voices, sassy faces... it wears on a person. They don't get time apart. They need time apart. We've talked about them being on the same team, that soldiers shouldn't shoot their fellow soldiers. But tonight, they must work together. They have the job of cleaning up the living room. It's become a pit. A colossal mess. And I don't have the energy to clean up their piles of toys. I don't know where they'll put them in their rooms. I don't really care. I'm tired of tripping on toys. I can only kick so many of them under our 3 couches. (Rolling eyes.)

And today, I almost blew a gasket. They were allowed to go outside to play. I called them in. Baby answered, but as I waited I wondered if they were coming. I called again. I could hear them, but they sounded very far away. I went outside. They were sliding on the ice crusted on top of the snow. They were sliding a LONG way - into the neighbor's yard. It was probably a lot of fun. I called them in, and re-warmed their lunches. And still, no kids. I went outside again. They were playing in the snow by the driveway. And I lost my temper. Stink.

I gave them directions and went to my room. I needed to cool off.

They ate and went to bed. And tonight, instead of going next door to visit their grandparents, they are cleaning.

Awwwww!

That's what Little Boy said today when he came out into the living room.

"Awwww! It's just not the same!"

EXACTLY!

Last night I had HAD it. The Christmas Tree HAD to come down. We did it in about an hour.

So now there is an empty spot that will soon be filled with the chair. The spot where the chair is will soon be filled with a big bin for toys. And hopefully the mine field that is now my living room floor will be cleared again.

Yay!

Decisions

I wish it was easier to make important decisions. I guess, usually I can be more decisive. But this decision involves the lives of so many other people. If I had to make a decision right now regarding the pastoral candidate we just hosted, I would have to vote "no".

I was talking to a lady from church who feels pretty much the same way. She asked me what it would take to turn my vote into a "yes". I don't know.

The head deacon texted my husband that the committee needs to meet. Apparently he and his wife have finally compared notes, and he now knows that she will vote no and he will vote yes. Hmm. I'd hate to be living in that mess.

Thankfully my husband is as unsure as I am.

Ok. Now what?

DH is a Steelers fan, and I'm a Cheesehead. If he was more competitive, or if his quarterback hadn't disappointed him by lifestyle choices, it could be more "hairy" here. He said with the scandals Roethlisberger has been involved in, he would be happy watching the Packers win.

Cool.

Go Green Bay!

I just can't help it

I was born a Cheesehead. And I love to watch the Packers play. The worst part? I can't yell! DH and the kids are napping!

GO GREEN BAY!

Praying for God's Eyes

We met the pastoral candidate and his wife and daughter today. Hmm. I don't want to describe them physically. They aren't the world's idea of beautiful. But they are kind, respectful and genuine. They really seem humble and willing to serve.

I haven't heard him preach in person, so I'm trying to reserve my "judgment." I think I'm so weary that I am looking forward to someone to shoulder the load.

I might go into more detail at another time, but right now I need to get some meds and lie down.

I just pray that God will help me see this minister and his family through HIS eyes. And it bothers me that I have to fight off the shallowness, because I'm not anything all that special myself.

Blustery Day

We don't live in the Hundred Acre Woods. But it has been very cold and windy here. 16 degrees with 40 mph gusts of wind - my two children are sitting on the couch, looking out the windows, wishing they could be out there. The snow has melted or blown away, and the ugly brown grass is showing - again.

My stomach has been giving me trouble; I think it's a bit of anxiety for tomorrow. We have a man coming to candidate to be pastor of our church. As much as I keep reminding myself that what will be will be, and I'm really just looking forward to someone coming to give the people at church some direction. (I'm getting so tired of being the voice of reason.)

I got a package in the mail today. My most recent CBD order. Little Boy and I just watched the end of the Brad Stine video I got. He makes me laugh. I think my dad would have thought he's funny. It's good to laugh.

Proud of my kids

Baby, Little Boy and M*** - saying Psalm 1 during the morning service yesterday. I think it's important for them to get recognition for what they do, even if there are only three of them. They did a good job. They are holding papers so they don't fidget too much. LOL

Squealing, Barking and Crying

And those are only some of the sounds we've heard here this morning.

It might be a long day.

So Rare

I'm sitting in my living room. The only sound I can hear is the hum of my computer and my fingers on the keys.

My husband is working 2nd shift, and my kids have gone next door to pester the living daylights out of visit my in-laws. Although, Granddad did ask if Little Boy could stay until 9 pm to watch Mike Holmes with him. That was sweet.

I fell off the second to bottom step this morning in our basement. There is a fluffy, bathroom rug down there, and it must have helped some. But my ankles and the tops of my feet hurt where they hit the edge of the bottom step, and my knee aches a little where I landed on it. It was completely my fault - completely a boneheaded thing to do. I had full hands and decided to not turn on the light. And so it goes.

Little Boy's sugar was low this evening. It took me awhile to get it back up, and then we were too late to go to church. I called the head deacon's wife. I wanted her to tell her husband we wouldn't be there, but that it had nothing to do with him being a Raven's fan. ha.

Last night was a great night in our house. Pittsburgh Steelers WON. Green Bay Packers WON. And now we have a week of rest before next week's games.

Next week, though, I think we'll be preoccupied. We have a pastoral candidate coming in for a long weekend. I put together a tentative itinerary for my husband to use to plan things with the men from church. They were a bit surprised or perplexed, I don't know. They are not organized at all, and I don't think they had any idea how to even go about setting up a schedule of any kind.

When we finally get a pastor, and the church construction is done in the church basement, it will be a good thing for our church. I'll tell ya.

There are still some logistics that need to be figured out. One big one being who will get stuck in the nursery and what to do about children's church. I would really like to hear him preach. I don't think I'd be able to concentrate very well if the kids stayed in the service. I'm trying to figure something out. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I will sit here next to my Christmas tree that is still up, enjoying the quiet.

Ahhhh.

How Did I Kill the Tree?

Baby asked me this evening how I killed our Christmas tree.

Huh?

How did you kill the lights on our tree? (A small section has gone "out", and DH will find the culprit bulb when we take down the tree.)

I told her I didn't "kill" the lights, and that I didn't "kill" our tree. It's artificial. Of course she asked what that meant. I told her it's fake; it's plastic. She didn't believe me.

Poor kid. She's never seen a real one inside, so she wouldn't know the difference.

Hopefully soon we'll get ours taken down. I'm ready to rearrange the furniture and get back to "normal".

Whatever that is.

My Week

I survived the Home School Review on Monday. I barely survived getting the cookbook in the mail Wednesday. And the rest of the week seems to have just gone down the drain. My kids did very little school, and I don't really know what I did. I feel like today I have accomplished more than I had in the last couple days. All of this inspite of terrible back pain. I don't think I've done anything terrible to my back. I think it's just stress and sleeping incorrectly. I sleep on my side, and sometime in the night I end up on my back. DH wakes me and tells me to turn when he's up to check Little Boy's sugar at 2 am. But by the time I wake up, I'm on my back. And I get out of bed painfully and walk around like a cripple for an hour or so.

Today I finished, copied and folded the church bulletin, finished copied and distributed tomorrow's Order of Service page, finished the church prayer list. Wrote up the minutes from the Ladies' Fellowship Meeting a couple weeks ago, and started the agenda for the February meeting. Yay. I feel like I've earned a little TV time. :0)

Procrastination

I know I have a tendency to procrastinate. But the church cookbook took on a life all its own. I have been working on it for almost a year. Last week at our meeting, I mentioned that there were a few categories that were "light", and asked for some recipes. We were short of the 150 recipe mark. Saturday a lady emailed me some recipes. Sunday a lady handed me a nice little stack. Monday? On Monday a member handed me a PILE.

But after that meeting, and before anyone even gave me any more recipes I discovered a huge "OOPS". Remember way back when my DH did updates on my computer, and I thought the whole file was wiped out? Thankfully he was able to restore the file! But not all the original recipes were restored. In fact, a very large number of recipes were missing. I had printed the first batch I entered, and when I was proofing, I caught this problem. The worst part? All the missing recipes were from one lady. She would have been upset, I'm sure.

So between the "found" recipes, and the ones I was given, I had quite a few more than 150 recipes. But not nearly 200 recipes. So I either had to cut some or add quite a few. I added them. I used the old church cookbooks and included recipes from a couple of the older ladies who had not submitted any, and from one lady who had passed away this past year. Her husband and daughter have started coming back, and I thought they would appreciate it. And I had a cookbook a former member (who may also be returning) had given me, saying, "You can use any recipe out of here you need. I've tried many and I've never found one that wasn't great." At the time I was a bit exasperated, but last night as I finished entering recipes, I was grateful.

So when I finished about 3:30 am, it was partially procrastination, but just a lot of meeting a deadline with new materials. And when I mailed it at 11:3o this morning I was tired and a bit slap-happy.

I was on the phone with DH, and told him I was really too tired to fix lunch. I asked if McD's was ok. He said it was ok. When I asked what he wanted, he said he wanted something good. So you want "home" food? And I started to chuckle. You want me to ask for something with a whole piece of meat? I was holding in laughter. He got a chicken sandwich last week that had the smallest piece of meat on it... I could feel that crazy laughter-that-quickly-turns-into-tears coming on. So when I went through the drive-through, I was feeling "punchy". It didn't bother me that they had to bring the order out. Or that they had forgotten the Mac Wrap. And the cheeseburger. But by the time I got home, the punchiness had worn off, and I was feeling super tired. I did get to take a nap this afternoon, and the kids played quietly in the living room where I was half awake. I'm still feeling tired, but I'm pretty certain I'll be able to sleep tonight.

On to the next project: mailing out (ahem) Christmas cards. Yikes.

Church Cookbook

Is done.

It's only 3:30 am.

Have to get it in the mail today.

Off to bed!

Kids in Snow 2011

They are so much more beautiful when they've been outside playing long enough to give Mommy a break! LOL