Then what princess am I ?

So, I can't leave well enough alone.  After realizing, Cinderella I am not, I started to wonder which princess I most like.  I have to admit, I don't feel much like a princess these days.  Not with a household of seven.  Princesses live lives of glamour, beautiful clothes, and travel.  They must, right?  That is what all the fairy tales paint it out to be.  Never mind that the England's new princess opts to do her own household chores right now.  She doesn't have kids.  William doesn't count.  I mean seriously, my life is most like Snow White and the seven dwarfs. 
Yet, when I spend time reflecting on the qualities of Snow White, the animals don't come peacefully into my home to help clean.  No, they come bounding in the door in the shape of a black lab, one that figures obstacles were meant to be mown over.  Doesn't matter if the obstacle is a pile of clean laundry.  The trash can is just a large food dish. 
Though, I do have a lot of little people around.  But they never put me in a glass box in sadness because I am "asleep" and they miss me.  Nooo, they shhhshhh each other out of fear of waking me.  I am beginning to think I resemble the old hag the most.  The scary one.  Seriously, I am not taking the nap cause I feel my most charming self.  They aren't shhhshhh each other out of love for me and my need for rest.  They are shhhshhh each other, so I will stay asleep, cause when I closed my eyes I was just as haggard as the old women in the story and just a mite grumpy.  They fear if I awake a bit too soon, I will still be an old hag.  They are hoping for a miracle, that I will awaken as Snow White. 
Like I said, I think I should have left things well enough alone. 

If we could only be Cinderella..

We have had a relapse around here.  There is something called Princess Syndrome that runs in my family.  Painful to admit.  For those of you who have not heard of this syndrome the symptoms are:
*an inability to see things that need to be picked up
*if said things are seen, there is an inability to pick up and put away these stray objects because it must be someone else's job.
*if these items are mine, well, someone else should do it for me, cause I am ever so busy. 
*a strong desire to laze about and live in a dream world
*beginning to compare one's self to Cinderella
*dreams of being whisked away to a far away castle where there were people who actually enjoyed doing things for you
*complaining or grumbling or just having in general a bad attitude while doing chores

It is painful to admit but I know these symptoms all too well.  I too have dwelled in the fantasy world of wishing my Prince Charming would appear and whisk me away to a castle.  I just loved the story of Cinderella growing up.  The fabulous rescue, the sense of "in your face" mean ol' stepmother and stepsisters.  No more serving you.  But I had an aha moment this summer when I watched one my own sweet princesses struggling to overcome this syndrome in her own life.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a gracious, delicate aha Cinderella moment, it was more like a clutzy stepsister aha moment.  Our Princess Syndrome behavior was nothing like Cinderella.  Cinderella was kind and gentle, she served others with forebearance.  She didn't like how she was treated but she didn't act out or rebel or return evil with evil.  She returned good for evil, she whistled while she worked (i.e. did all things without murmuring or complaining).  And in the end she was blessed by her King of Kings. 
Ouch...
So not Cinderella here, but I want to be with all my heart.

Been pondering....

This morning God woke me up.  Yep!  Really early too!  Couldn't go back to sleep. I tried, and that is how I know God woke me up, cause I was still really tired.  But I have been struggling with feeling overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed by what all needs to be done in a done and how it is going to be done.  So with my glass of water (Important point, cause there is no Pepsi in the house.  Kind of like coffee for the one who doesn't like coffee. Which is a good thing, cause if I had made a pot of coffee, then the whole house would have started to wake.  Did I say it was really early.).. 
So with my glass of water, I curled up to read my Bible and pray.  God didn't have a magic answer to how it was all going to get done.  He just told me to "just do it".  There was no, huh??  head scratching, trying to figure out what He meant.  Cause we have been down this road before.  One foot it front of the other, just go to the next thing when the first is done.  You see, I like to plan.  I homeschool.  I have a large family, to some at least...not like the Duggars.  I like to create beautiful schedules.  But guess what, my kids don't get it.  THEY JUST DON"T GET IT!!!  My husband doesn't either.  Not that he should.  Cause he is the head of the home, and I shouldn't be telling him what to do.  Maybe asking him about a possible honey do project...(a whole other topic..)
But really they just don't get it.  They don't have the same sense of accomplishment of a long list with tick marks next to each item.  They just do not get it ! Besides my beautifully created charts just aren't fun to apply.  Fun to create, but not to apply.  So I have been pondering on how to organize my year, months and days.  Not an easy task when I know my crew won't follow my schedule.  I have managed to learn life throws us curve balls on a regular basis.  So how Lord do we get it all done?
He reminds me, One foot in front of the other.
He didn't ask me to get it all done.  He asked me to seek HIM first, then to just go to the next thing, one foot in front of the other.   So I don't have all my plans figured out, but I have my mission/theme for the year. 
Seek the Lord first and then "Just do it!"

No photography this week

Thinking we need to post a "No Cameras" sign on our front door this week. 
Both my girls had oral surgery today.  The eldest lost her wisdom teeth, the youngest, some gum tissue. 
Fun Mom wants company.  She wants sympathy.  But she won't let her friends near her, until their lack of photographic equipment is proven.  I have thought about sneaking a few pics while they sleep.  But their suffering hurts this momma's heart too much. 

My guy...without always meaning to often turns me back to My GOD...

Taken earlier this summer.  All dressed up for work.  He like his job.  Then the other day he blew me away with the question, "What do you think about moving to Kansas City?"  Stopped my heart, questions ran through my mind faster than a wild Cheetah.  Then I paused and asked him why?  What was he thinking?  Whew, so glad I asked those questions instead of responding with my first thoughts. 

But, he has gotten me thinking.  When we first married, moving wasn't a big deal.  I had moved a lot.  I had never lived anywhere more than 3 years until my teen years.  I lived in Colorado for 5 years and then moved my senior year.  Though I never changed cities or states after that move, there were lots of moves from family homes to dorms to apartments and then I married.  Our first apartment and then our first home.  I seriously told him, I wanted to never move again.  A home to grow our family in.  It wasn't that I was tired of moving.  But the cost of buying a home overwhelmed me so much, I never wanted to do it again.    Now a family of seven, each person with their own stuff!  I can't imagine the hurdle of moving.  I can only imagine it taking a year to accomplish.  A year to pack and then unpack.  Oh, my! 

But this time when he asked me what I thought about moving, I didn't think about packing.  I thought about the kids, their friends, our doctors, our church, our hockey association, our homeschool network, our family.  I realized we would still be near family.  There would be new opportunities.  A lot of new transitions.  A lot of new opportunities to see God work.  Relationships take time to build. I really rely on the security of having known our physicians for the last 5-15 years depending on the family member.  There is a security in the known.  I would have to trust in the security of knowing the One who Knows.  For now, I am grateful my husband was just looking for a conversation.  He does this sometimes. Makes me wish he would try a slightly less startling opener.  At least I was able to sleep afterwards. 

Ugly Hands ????

So it has been an incredibly long day.  I was only home for 30 minutes out of a 13 hour day.
I sure miss being home.  But it was one of those days.  Errands had to be done.  The meeting was supposedly mandatory, but........ made no sense to us and we were free to leave early.  However, hubby and I decided to not go home.  We decided to plug the laptop in at McD's and use their Wi-Fi and have a little Parent/Teacher Meeting.  We never get alone time at home, not with Hubby's work hours.  So we talked for an hour uninterrupted, headed home.  But I stayed only a 1/2 hour.  More to get done.  And then it was time to go work for hockey $$$.  Oh, how I love my boys. Hubby and I volunteer (?) our time for the hockey association in exchange for $$$ to be deposited into an account for hockey expenses.  It was my turn to work.  Got home and was tired. 
Decided to soak in the tub.  For a REALLY long time.  I happened to look at my feet and then my hands.  I couldn't help the memory from rushing back.  Flutter Nutter taking a bath and started crying.  He was looking at his hands and was very upset.  "MY HANDS ARE UGLY!!!!"  No amount of consoling would work.  He had played long enough to get wrinkly.  The sight of his feet just made things worse.  It didn't take long in his very short life to determine he liked showers better.  Showers don't turn your feet and hands ugly.  This time, my hands were ugly and all I could think was, in a few more years, they may look like that for always.  But that is okay, cause I will still enjoy soaking for a long time. 

But it such a sweet memory of my Flutter Nutter's innocence, I can't help but record it. 

A New Flutter Nutter Quoteable !

Everyonce in a while Big O Daddy O breaks into the
"You say Poe-tae-toe, I say Poe-ta-toe;  You say Toe-mae-toe, I say Toe-ma-toe"
Well in our house there is always a mispronouncing something or other and it happened again.  To which B-O-D-O broke into the above quotation...
Then Flutter Nutter responded with, "So it's an onion?"
Completely confused and very serious.
The rest of us all laughed. 
Now, he wants dad to say it again, just so he can ask, "So it's an onion?"