64 Degrees and it is Dec. 30 ! !

I am so loving the weather today.
With two sickies in bed with Strep. I have every window and door open today. The house smells of lysol, bleach and the ham in the oven.

I kicked the healthy children outside to play and they all have played out front for much of the afternoon. Street hockey is the theme for the day. When they need to rest they go straight for the legos. Gus is happy as well. He has been tormenting Hockey Player while he tries to play street hockey! He grabs the street hockey ball and goes running. All he needs is a pair of skates. Great defense.

I should have the camera out, but then they will just want to pose and the magic will be lost.

My Favorite Quoteable Today !

"Flutter Nutter I need Jesus!
Bring me Jesus !
Bring me Jesus Now! "

Everyone needs Jesus right? Fun Mom is laughing. She think what I have just hollered dramatically and as enthusiastically as a fire and brimstone preacher is "just wrong!" Why? Cause Jesus is smelly and needs a bath.
Jesus goes everywhere with us. Flutter Nutter loves Jesus so much.
I am washing fleece so it is a perfect time to bathe Jesus!
It is Jesus' fault Flutter Nutter will need lots of orthodontics. Flutter Nutter likes to suck on and chew on Jesus. He puts as much of Jesus into his mouth as possible. He has done this since he was babe. And the orthodontist was the one who discovered the problem a year ago when we had the older ones in her office. She took one look at him and asked us what he sucked on? I thought she must possess some super powers, how could she know? I told her he sucks on his BLANKIE. (Yes, Jesus is a blankie! ) She looked at me incredulous. She said, "Nuh uh." I said, "Oh yeah! He shoves as much as he can in his little ole mouth and sucks on it. Fortunately, he has never suffocated." Light bulbs and an aha moment for the orthodontist. I asked her how she knew. She pointed out how his teeth don't touch anymore when he bites down. Sure enough. I just thought he had a great goofy grin that wrapped itself all over my heart. And he does. What to do? Not much, she is going to make money off of us. She told us it was up to us if we wanted to take the blankie away and have to pay for therapy in addition to orthodontics! Gotta love an orthodotist who is a mom to a large family as well! !

Before you think I am being sacriligeous or blasphemous. Please meet Jesus. We all need Jesus. But sometimes, it is nice to have Jesus here on Earth to wrap yourself up in. Flutter Nutter has just that.

Powerful Lessons learned and much Joy!

Hockey season is over!
It has been a great ride. There have been lots of lessons. I have enjoyed watching the young men on my son's team grow in maturity, character and in skill.
Some will say winning isn't everything.
Others will say winning may not be everything but it is the goal and a lot better than losing.
It is hard to not become too involved as a parent.
I will be the first to say that maybe Sarah Palin has nothing on this Hockey Mom! :)
But I will say, as a parent you want your child to do well. You don't want him disappointed. You want every game to be referreed fair and every team to play with integrity and good sportsmanship.
But that doesn't happen always.
So what do you do...

This year I have spent a lot of time on the sidelines hollering, yelling and praying. Praying for my son to do his best. For God to see his faithfulness. For my son, to give all he has, so he can't say he left the ice not doing his best. I have watched my son this year and this afternoon, I realized in my heart, he is not a little boy anymore. He is becoming a young man. He is growing in wisdom, stature, integrity and faith, but still a boy at heart.

So with tears in my eyes as I recount this weekend....
We have spent the season, one win short, one point short and it has been frustrating. Kids and parents wanted this championship this weekend so bad. It came down to the last game. Tulsa had 3 wins.
We had to win to tie. The tie breaker would be the number of points of scored.
This was a tough game. Kansas City hadn't won in this tournament. They wanted the win just as bad we did. At this point, they wanted at least this one win.

Our team amazed me this weekend. We had the fewest penalties ever this weekend. I would dare guess our penalty box visits were fewer for the whole weekend than in any one game we had through the season. These boys were playing the game.

The referees were another story.

Here are a few of the quotes:

During game 2 to our coach:
Ref says: Not counting the goal (our goal, they decided against it) and I am not counting the trip on the other team.
Coach: So you are saying the other team tripped our guy.
Ref: Yes and I am not giving the penalty.

During game 3:
At this level no checking is allowed.
KC Player sent our player, who had the puck on his stick, into the boards. Really hard. Imagine his parents watching him being slammed into the wall. No penalty called. Ref looked at our guys and said: PLAY FAIR!
And maybe that was the gentle reminder to not retaliate. But I don't think so. I think he forgot to look the other direction and say to the other team.

Again during game 3:
In the last 3 minutes the Ref address both teams and coaches and says: Alright, these last 3 minutes I am going to call a fair game.

?? ! ?? ! ?? Isn't that what a referee is suppose to do. Does he realize what he just said?

The score has been 1-0 since the first period. KC has the 1.

In the last 3 minutes, our kids played their hearts out. They did not earn a penalty box visit. We pulled our goalie. KC lost 2 players to the penalty box. It was 6 on 3 and 13 seconds left in the game and we score. The game is tied much to the ref's disappointment. We could tell it pained him to award the goal. Now we go into 5 minute overtime. First to score wins.

Noone quite knows how the puck got past KC's goalie. I believe the Lord allowed it to. Not that I think he takes sides in sporting events. But he does wipe out nations. He does set rulers upon thrones and removes them at his discretion. I believe there are times he chooses to honor those who are doing right at the moment they are choosing what is right. Other times he chooses to show honor upon them in heaven for all eternity. He knows the tender hearts of children who give it all and try to do right only for an adult to play favorites and try to manipulate the outcome to suit the adult's interests, instead of letting the kids be kids and play it out fair.
Never has a victory seemed so sweet as to be the mom and watch my son enjoy a job well done with his teammates and taste victory.

Blessed are the Feet....

To those who have prayed for us on this trip, thank you very much.
Hockey Player was Divinely Protected on Saturday afternoon.

I really like the verse from Romans 10:15
How beautiful are the feet of those that bring good news.

I love baby feet. I marvel over my children's feet how they grow and change. The difference in them now compared to when they were wee babies. I wrinkle my nose and try to not gag as they aren't quite so sweet smelling as they are getting older. But they are beautiful, for they carry my children to me and to others. Feet taking a beating. They can affect how a person feels overall. Tend need lots of protection and TLC.

A teammate unintentionally stepped on Hockey Player's bare foot.
Not a big deal unless of course the teammate is wearing sharp ice hockey skates.
A little to the left, a little to the right and our story would be different.
But as I started out with, Hockey Player's foor was Divinely protected by our Precious Lord.

FYI: I am not posting pics of the injury, was not a pic I could bring myself to take.

I can say this all calmly, but let me go back to the moment I heard.
Big O Daddy O: breathlessly asks, "Where are the bandaides? Hockey Player is cut. So and so stepped on it with his skate."
Me: I begin digging for bandaid. But my expressions is of alarm. A week and a half ago one of the team mates received 2 stitches for a gash to his leg. BODO tried to reassure me.
BODO: "It's not like cut to the bone or anything."
Me: I was undone. I had to go myself. BODO wasn't stopping this momma from seeing her boy.
BODO: following and saying, "It's not that big of a deal. Just a scrape really."
Me: I'll take care of it.
By the time I hit the rink doors, BODO was so far behind, I think he resigned himself to the fact this momma was going to take residence in the locker to take care of her boy's foot.

I got in there and there is a couple of bloody paper towels on the floor. He has another towel wadded up on his foot.
BODO was right, it wasn't too bad. There was no bone. It was more like a scrape, but more than a scrape. The blade shaved a chunk of skin off.

I then begin to do, what I know needs to be done. I send BODO to look for ointment. I clean it, hockey rink floors aren't the cleanest. Hockey players have to be really careful about staph infections. Skates and gloves can be really difficult to clean, dry out and disinfect.
BODO finds the ointment. We bandage him as best as we can till we can get to the hotel.

We clean it again and rebandage it again at the hotel. I didn't let him sleep with socks, to help it air out and form some sort of a scab. We start the process over in the morning. He was one tough cookie. He skated the first game as if there was nothing wrong with his foot. At one point, I saw BODO with him, which is very unusual. I knew something was wrong. The bandaid had slipped, or so he though. But only 3 minutes left in the game so it would have to wait.

Off the ice, another cleansing and it burned. Poor guy. But this time BODO carried him out of the rink to the lobby/concessions area to hang with the guys and left his foot air out. The "team medic" went and got him "new skin" but not before the next game started. So after all was done with the skating, more disinfectant and cleaning. And "new skin" painted on. HP, asks "how long is it going to sting?"
Poor guy.
Rides home with no sock or shoe.
His foot looks 10 times better. There is no redness and puffiness.
I can only give God the glory. Don't know how the blade missed more of the foot or the other toe, other than by Divine guidance. God's healing of his foot so quickly.

MidWest Championship in KC, this mom's scoop..

We went with hopes of bringing home the trophy. It wasn't to be. They ended the weekend this morning with afantastic win. Hard fought and very physical, but they stayed in it and didn't let anything get by them. These boys fought for each and every goal with all they had this weekend. It was some of the most physical games these guys have played to date. At times, it was hard to believe the refs did not make calls for roughing and checking on some players. Maybe they knew many of these players would move up to PeeWees next year, where checking would be allowed. Who knows? No injuries, that is a major relief. Hockey Player got in there and knocked a few players off their skates, all with in the rules of the game making this momma proud.
It sounds so odd to cheer for my boy to knock someone down. I will explain.
Hockey Player does not weigh 70 pounds, significantly less than 70 pounds. He plays defense. Defense! One of his teammates weighs 150 pounds and is 10 years old! He, also, plays defense. So a couple of months ago, I had a heart to heart with Hockey Player. I GENTLY told him if he couldn't start playing more aggressively, I would seriously consider not letting him play next year. His eyes just about popped out of his head. He has a better chance of staying on his feet if he is the one to initiate contact when playing. If he always backs down or lets the other team initiate he will be less able to stay standing and would just get plowed over and possibly injured. I preface all this with, all within the rules of the game. I don't want him to be a fighter. I want him to play smart, play safe and protect himself. So this weekend, I saw him fight for the puck, not with his fists, but within the rules of the game and knocked a couple of players onto their butt-pads! AND he protected his goalie. This morning, a player from the other team was hitting our goalie with his stick and Hockey Player took him out! Sent him to his rear, again all within the rules of the game. So proud of my brave "David". He doesn't let size intimidate him. Hockey is a God given passion for my guy. God has lifted all the barriers for him to play. As long as God keeps opening the doors I will encourage, drive and cheer him on. But I will still be his mom and want him safe, even if that means he has to knock someone else's player to the ice...all within the rules of the game.

Another highlight for this mom was game 2 on Sat. The team's 3rd goal of the team. Hockey Player ended up at the blue line. He stopped, took a breath and a look see. He saw who was open, sent the puck on its way, where it was passed one more time and then went home to the goal. It was a beautiful play. It took longer to type than it did for it to all play out. Our opponents were looking around and trying to catch up. It was beautiful. I so thoroughly enjoyed seeing that goal and Hockey Players participation in it. So often, I have missed his assists and goals, someone always need my attention at the very moment when he is playing. Drives me nuts. But, also, makes moments like these so much more special!

MidWest Tournament: Way to Go Warriors!

Hockey Player and laundry....

Hockey Player is ten.
But it wasn't really all that long ago when Hockey Player couldn't stand to be dirty.
He is a boy at heart in all honesty.
But up until he was 5 or so when I finally got firm with him about dirt and life and told him, "Life is dirty sometimes deal with it!" he drove me nuts. He was the only kid in soccer who managed to come off the soccer field clean. He didn't like soccer because of the mud. While the other boys were barrel rolling and sliding in the mud, he prefered to sit on the bench or tiptoe through the mud. As a toddler he would stick his hands in the mud and cry. I would wash his hands only for him to repeat the process much to my annoyance. He started off being a tidy eater. He eventually discovered he was able to throw food, but once he was done he wanted his hands cleaned up. Never could understand how he could find utter joy and be totally devastated at the same time. He delighted in experiences which required messes but could not stand being dirty and would holler and fuss when he realized he was dirty/messy. Just about drove me nuts.
Now Hockey Player has an aversion to anything clean in his hockey bag.
He wants to stink. He wants to have the stinkiest, smelliest, most disgusting hockey bag. They even offer an award for it every year. His goal this year is to earn that award. I am thinking of bribing his teammates. Anything, to get past the desire for this new achievement. Maybe if he wins this year, he will be more inclined to let me clean his gear on a regular basis. I am not talking floral, pretty scents. Just good old-fashion soap and hot water!
Today, he asks Big-O-Daddy-O to take him to Sports Authority.
Why?
He has a gift card for there.
He has a coupon that expires this weekend.
He wants a new Under Armor shirt to wear under his hockey gear.
Why does he want a new shirt?
His is yellow....
It is suppose to be white.
It is yellow becuase it needs to be washed.
It is yellow because I won't open the hockey bag for all the stench that is contained in it and he won't turn over his gear to be cleaned.
When I explain the yellow color and the need for washing and that just maybe the shirt could be white again, all Hockey Player could say is, "Oh."
He still wants to go to Sports Authority.
I told Big-O-Daddy-O he had best get a black shirt.
I have resigned myself to be grateful that he gets in the shower when ordered to.
I find myself, also, grateful there is no award for the smelliest kid of the season.

For my Grandchildren

In my email inbox, I find this email with the above in the subject line.


The email reads,


"I still make snow angels"

My children are blessed with young at heart grandma, who won't stop enjoying life.

I am blessed with a mother who reminds me to take time to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Not believing, is sometimes seeing...

I have noticed of late, that I am becoming a bit pessimistic and cynical.
So when I heard the weather report of 4-8 inches, I scoffed.
Won't happen.
When I heard people rumble about school closings, I scoffed.
Won't happen.
I couldn't possibly experience the joy of shutting down of activities and busy-ness this weekend.
I am ever so grateful, God chose to ignore my little cynical self.
I went to bed ever so early last night.
I even looked at the olders and said, lights out by....
I am going to bed.
Consider yourselves tucked in.
10 hours later, hubby is waking me up to tell me the car is fixed.
30 minutes later still bleary eyed and staring at the tv for weather closings and then onto the internet cause I was too impatient to wait on the scroll bar anymore.
All that I had scoffed at, really did happen.
Schools did close,
Lots of snow did fall.
I don't know the final count in inches.
I just know my kids did school as usual, they hung out with one another. We picked up the Date Mobile, took it back and got it again and came home just in time for me to take 1 1/2 hrs. nap.
Hockey games canceled (go figure?). Much to my pleasure.
They have a practice instead...maybe they do, not us. We shall see.
All that I have left on my calendar is a hair appointment and church.
I have a few kiddos begging to do History. So maybe we will do that as well.
Hot cocoa, naps, and a fire in the fireplace...sounds like a perfect weekend.
Maybe perfect enough to knock me out of the doldrums and my cynical attitude that caused me to scoff so heartily at the weather man this week.
For now, I am just enjoying the giggles I hear in the basement as all 5 kiddos are getting along and having fun!