Counting to 625...........

601.  The heart of my "healing steward".  So big and deep, just precious beyond belief.
602.  Son who asks about my computer at home...did I remember to grab it from church.  Searching diligently and wanting to help me in. Then he gets the doors, shutting the behind and opening them before me.  Where did this gentleman come from? 
603.  Listening to "The Man" race to say "I love you" first everyday. 
604.  "The Man"s need to say Good Morning at 4 in the afternoon, because he "never got a chance to say it yet"
605.  Fun Girl's willingness to prepare a whole chicken in the crockpot.  Yucky meat to have to handle.
606.  A child's acceptance of punishment and not argue, complain or ask to be released from his/her consequences.  (Thinking of several...so don't try to place names.)
607.  Watching my children Grow and Develope into who God created them to be, not what I could possibly imagine, which could never be as grand as what God has dreamed up. 
608.  Beautiful sonogram photos. 
609.  A sister that chooses joy.
610.  God's work is never down. 
611.  Zoo trips just before the rain came.


612.  Fun Girl delighting in introducing The Man to the goats at the zoo

613.  Feeding the goats
614.  Seeing the beauty in all God creates
615.  Answered prayers before the prayers even start
616.  Discussing the attributes of God in the car with my children.
617.  Self improvements in the pool for Fun Girl
618.  600 in under 25 minutes for me in the pool
619.  Visits from Grandpa
620.  Shelfs from Grandmama and Papa...new organization for school and the dining room
621.  Fun Visit with Mom and Henry
622.  Braums
623.  Book It coupons in the mail.
624.  Dad's Bud interest in reading is growing.
625.  Little Princess completing another book and excitedly ready to start another...after so many vision struggles to be reading !!  What joy in my heart.

Wednesday night quoteables

 Dad's Bud

at Awana asks Commander Evans,

"Do you know what is better than a hug?"

~"Nothing is better than a hug," and he gives her a great big one.~

 

 

At Awana ~ The Man is learning a new verse.

 

Children, obey your parents in the Lord

for this is right.

Ephesians 6:1

He looks at his leader and says,

This should be easy!

 

He thinks super hard.... he is struggling to get the "for this is right"

 

Leader comes to tell me this,

and then she adds, "I just couldn't figure out what part was suppose to be easy."

"The reciting the verse, or living it out."

 

I asked him at home.

Didn't get an answer.

Best to claim the fifth anyhow when you are 6 going on 7.

One sweet ride!

This is Hockey Player's dream car.

Maybe in a different color.

But the car nonetheless.

 

 

McLaren

 

 

So imagine my joy when at the zoo, I turned around and saw this baby!

 

 

Oh yeah!! I can see my Hockey Player zooming down the hill in this baby!

He quickly pointed out the spelling was off.

But hey, it is not in yellow+! 

Check out those wheels.

 

Campout with the Gorillas!

We have an awesome Kidz Ministry at our church.

I adore how they reach out to the 5th and 6th graders.

Knowing they are capable of much.

Not as big as Middle and High School-ers

But definitely not as little as the younger set.

So what do they do?

They have their own weekly Bible Study through the summer

They do service projects.

Like yard work for home bound members

Gardening for the church

Helping with VBS

It is not all work and serious study.

They have fun. 

Mighty Goofy Fun that can only be had at this age.

We have some awesome leaders.

This time it was a campout at the zoo.

Camping in the Gorilla exhibit.

Not in the enclosure with the animals.

But in the viewing area.

Listening to the animals throughout the night

and the first morning stirrings and rumblings.

Puts a whole new light on waking up at home with brothers and sister.

 

Entering the ZOo!

Happy and Caffeinated

 

The next morning, the smile is there just not as big and bright.

 

William, the whale.

A bigger smile, just a few less sparkles in the eye

She had a great time.

The next day, she had lots to say,

after a good night's rest.

 

My Grand-Neice!!

Just Telling it Like it is....

So, I am not much for pretending to be perfect.
Far from Martha Stewart. 
My home will never be featured in Better Homes and Gardens unless it is a before shot or maybe in a what not to do article. 
But that is okay.
We laugh, we smile, we cry, we live and we embrace all that life is at the moment. 

Imagine all that bubbled into a home school day.
Gonna be one of those stories.
I wake up.  Kids are getting along.  (yes!  Maybe I should stay under the covers and let it last a little longer...and yet I get up. )  I shower.  Still harmony.  Kids are cleaning the kitchen (without being asked, oh yeah! ).  Some kids are working on school without being asked!  Hallelujah, the angels are singing.  We are communicating. Laundry is going. Lunch is in the crockpot.  I come out of bedroom after my shower and I smell yummy lunch cooking. 

This is an incredibly awesome day.

I sit down with The Man and we start school.  He is doing so well.  He is motivated.  He is reading with interest.

I pull out the flash cards.  Yes!  there is no crying, whining or begging to stop.  What an amazing day. 

The angels are singing. 

Oh yes.  Please come into my home and see all this.

The Man, doesn't have to sound out "THE" any more. 

Heaven is exploding with praises. 

We have been working on "THE" for weeks, months...can I say I was starting to raise my voice a little everytime I said THE....why couldn't the darling remember it?  But I hear the choir singing. 

Next sight word.... "SH*T"

The angels stop singing.

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!  SHE    SHE   SHE  SHE  SHE

Silence and then the older siblings start laughing and come running to see what the word was?
"WHERE did THAT come from SHE?" they ask.
Well The Man just likes to add "it" into any word he is sounding out when he chooses to be lazy.
We say, SHE SHE SHE SHE over and over.
I mix flash cards and it comes up again.  What does he say, but, SH*T again!
NO!
WE don't say THAT word, son.
TM:  What is SH*T?  in all innocence.
A Very BAD word for POOP.  DON'T SAY IT AGAIN YOUR MOUTH WILL BE WASHED OUT WITH SOAP!
Siblings STOP laughing.

Oh yeah, everyone who came into my home to hear the angels singing, they aren't anymore.  My 5 minutes in Happily Ever After has come crashing back into reality.  This is life, My Absolutely Crazy and Fantastically Humorous Life.   I secretly wonder how many first graders and kindergartners say colorful words in the classroom when reading out loud.

What on earth? Better yet what on high seas?

 

It is Hockey Player still. 

So the plastic bag trick doesn't work too well in the shower.

He had to get another cast.

I begged. I pleaded.  I offered this kid $20 to get a hot pink cast.

To get out of his normal color palette.

Nope

I offered $40.

Still no.

I offered his choice of places for lunch.

Still no.

I offered $40 and lunch.

Still no. 

He is a man of principles and he sticks to them. 

For that I am very proud.

 

Considering he would only be stuck with it for a week, I am shocked.

His jeans are long and baggy. They cover it up. 

Glad he didn't take his mother's money though.

As for lunch, well it was food and he was happy.

He was really happy when I showed up to his piano lessons with pizza in the suburban.

It was an eat in the car kind of day!

And yes, minus one slice, he did all that damage. 

 

 

 

 

Free Household Cleaner anyone?

My sister recently received the opportunity to test out Soft Scrub's All Purpose with Bleach cleaning product.  The spray bottle works upside down.  She mentioned it is difficult to get it to work upright immediately after using it upside down.  That would be a little bothersome if you forget.  However, I am forever just needing a bottle to work from strange angles.  Getting a chance to give it a try for free excites me....woohoo!! 
Just so you know, I get nothing more than a friendly and loving thank you from my sister for helping to spread the word.  I don't even get extra "tickets" in the drawing. 

Check out this post and opportunity for free bathroom cleaner from Soft Scrub.



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Spinning and Twirling Happiness

I am happy! Ever so happy.  Little Preschool Girl happy in a twirly sparkly dress kind of happy way.
I went swimming tonight.
I swam 600 meters.
To some that is not much.
To me after 20 years of not swimming.  That is so exciting.  Not only is it exciting, but I have been only at it for a couple of weeks.  It has been 10 days since I posted this post.
The best part was I did my 500 in record time (for this season of my life).  My first 300 was completed in 10 minutes. 
Considering all of my attempts have involved ear plug malfunctions and lungs protesting and horrible coughing fits, this was enough to rejoice. I just didn't need to pause between laps and lengths.  There were only 2 times I needed to stop long enough to catch my breath!  It was but for a few seconds. 
I kept pace with Little Princess.  A few times, I pushed myself just to make sure I beat her to the wall.  The point was that I was pushing myself.
I finished my 500 and said, hey why not another 100?!?!  Still had time to spare. Out of the pool with a great big smile on my face.  So proud of myself and excited.  I had to restrain myself from not running over to Fun Girl in her practice to high five her.  I was just so excited. 

Jehovah Jireh My Provider, His Grace is Sufficient for Me

A couple of weeks ago, I took Little Princess for a physical. Perfectly smooth morning it was. We stopped and found an awesome garage sale on our way towards home. Had a couple of chuckles and some fun together. While at the garage sale her nose starts gushing. The lady running the garage sale was sooo gracious. She was quick to grab some kleenex and kept encouraging us to take more. This nose bleed was slowing down none to quickly. Both Little Princess and I were grateful we stopped at the sale because otherwise this would have happened in the car and I was out of kleenexes in the car. AIY! As we would find out, I couldn't even find a restaurant napkin in the suburban. Completely unusual for us. But considering the time of year it is to be expected. Ragweed season and I am always sneezing, sniffling and sometimes the others join in with me.

We take our tissues, and special garage sale finds and continue on our path to home. Our path has another stop at the grocery store.

 

All was going well, and I told Little Princess to lay down, because we were only going a half mile to the store and we were on the back roads. If she laid down she would be better able to get the bleeding stopped.

 

We stopped at the light and within seconds, Little Princess is asking if we had been hit. Yep! In spite, of my assurances that all would be okay. We had been rear-ended at the stop light. The other driver, a nurse, is quick to check on us and we cross the street to a parking lot. When she sees Little Princess' bloody tissues she becomes concerned. I reassure her, no worries.

 

 But the bummer is we are running out of tissues and my nose is starting to act out because I standing outside in the Kansas wind. The police come... they discover the blood and ask if we need an ambulance. NOPE! Everyone is okay. Just a nose bleed. Cars are banged and bruised. Insurance companies will have to be called. Everyone is okay. The bleeding has stopped, so has my sniffling.
Good thing there are no more tissues.  

Once released we make our way to the store. Why do I have to go to the store?

Because between school, life and putting stuff on EBay, I have failed to keep up on my deal shopping for household goods. Thankfully, there was once upon a stockpile. Nothing like what you will see on Extreme Couponing. A stockpile nonetheless. However, when life gets hectic, that pile can dwindle.

I actually found myself needing to crisis shop for dishwasher detergent.

When I say crisis I mean, the dishwasher was full and there was overflow in the sink. This would be a run the dishwasher 3 times day.

If I was truly industrious, I would have searched online, found a recipe and made my own. But life is hectic and busy and well the store is only 2 miles away. The five dollars I would spend was so not worth all the time I would spend trying to find a recipe and make it.

I did think to grab my coupons, because

I vaguely recalled there was a buy 10 things get $5 off sale happening.

Good thing, because I was down to my last bottle of laundry detergent. I scored all of the below for my target prices when keeping up with the deals!

6 bottles of laundry detergent

Cereal

Pringles...just to be kind to my crew

Gatorade

and of course dishwasher detergent!

 

But did I remember tissues?  NOPE !

I left the store telling God thank you.

"Thank you for protecting us.  Thank you for the deals. Thank you for providing for me and my family. Thank you for a healthy daughter.  Thank you for no blood in the car.
(This is because, I told Little Princess I was sorry for stopping at the garage sale.  The accident might have been avoided if I had stopped.  She quickly pointed out if we hadn't stopped she would have bled all over the car.  Such an insightful young lady.)
Thank you for such a friendly driver to have hit us.  Thank you for insurance.

Thank you God for your provision.

Thank you for your faithfulness."

Cause you just can't have enough shoes....

Pretty much a daily occurrance:

Time to go, get your shoes on.

I must tell them to get their shoes on.

Some, have thought is was perfectly okay to leave home without shoes!?!?!

What they were going to do when we arrived, I have no idea.

Definitely a source of exasperation to a mother on the go.

 

Fun Man shows up..

Something tells me to look down.

 

 

No!

"But I can do it!"

No.

"I will put socks on Mom, it will work."

No.

"Mom I can't find my shoes."

No. You can't wear socks with your flippers.

"I will put socks on, it really will be ok."

No.

Dad tells him, to go find his shoes.

Now it is not like we don't keep some back up shoes on hand

for this boy.  He is forever losing shoes.

He has been known to leave the house in two, I am saying two different shoes.

For instance, a sandal and a tennis shoe!

His brother saves him and announces he has found his tennis shoes.

Relief

Fast forward several days.

Mad family cleaning session.

I find another "flipper" as I call them. 

Ask if it is The Man's?

"YES!!  Cause I had only 2 left feet.

Now, I don't"

Yep, you are correct, you don't have 2 left feet.

Woohoo!

This boy makes me smile.

 

**Same cleaning day**

In the storage room cleaning.

I find a lonely shoe.  No mate.

I have a box upstairs of lonely mismatched shoes waiting to find

the other one in the pair.

I holler for Dad's Bud to come here.

I hand him the shoe and instruct him to take it upstairs to the box,

if he doesn't know where the mate is.

If he knows where the mate is, collect the mate

and put the pair in the correct bedroom.

His response,

"It must be mating season for the shoes today"

 

Really, not making it up.

I couldn't come up with one that good if I tried.

Counting to 600....

576.  Vehicles that run.
577.  Remembering my "dump date" with Hubby and the smile it brings
578.  Good memories
579.  Driving lessons
580.  Taxi time
581.  A life well lived
582.  Last moments sharing Christ before taking last breathe.
583.  Legacies left.
584.  Seeing the growth in seeds planted not so long ago
585.  A new widow clasping hands in praise and joy acknowleding her beloved is in the presence of the Lord. 
586.  A man who gave it all to his God, family, friends and work. 
587.  Spirit of humility that causes me to reflect
588.  The smile of child, big and bright, in the midst of sorrow and heartache.
589.  A family comes to Awana, soon after losing Daddy/Husband
590.  Technology that allows children to keep on with their Awana studies and memory work. 
591.  Children who are home schooled and celebrating their time together in school and travel.
592.  Chemo, RICE, Marrow transplants and so much more....
593.  Watching the faith of those around me in action.
594.  Unexpected "Helps" from my Lord when I didn't even know I needed them.
595.  Children who band together to clean the house in the morning.
596.  Children who cheerfully start school work without being asked to after cleaning all morning! 
597.  Husband who loves God and has eyes and a heart seeking Him.
598.  Husband who desires to grow as a person and a child of God.
599.  Blessed with a husband who is able to calm my children like I can not, his physical presence is a comfort.  Just being there,
600.  Sons who love me with all their hearts.

Counting to 575...

551.  Funds for The Man to take gymnastics
552.  Quiet Moments
553  The energy to continually purge my home.
554.  Gus and his ever constant alertness to me.
555.  Car accidents where no one is hurt.
556.  Car Insurance
557.  Being able to file claims online and be more available to children.
558.  Deals at the grocery store
559.  Coupons
560.  Quadruple fuel points
561.  Understanding doctors
562. A cousin who teaches Bal-A-Vis-X to my children
563.  Children who love to visit their grandpa
564.  Fridays my hubby doesn't have to work outside the home
565.  Rain!! Blessed Rain.  It washes the ragweed out of the air.
566.  Zoo days with all 5 children.  Laughter and joy shared as a group.
567.  Swimming laps with Little Princess
568.  Fun Girl driving me home when my eyes are swollen and watery from allergies
569.  Pictures of my sister's family all together on facebook. (Wonderful tool to staying in touch)
570.  A God fearing church.
571.  Cool Fall days and all they inspire.
572.  Sprained foot and not a broken foot
573.  A family that enjoys being active
574.  Progress being made in the orthodotics of Hockey Player
575.  Listening to children play the Piano