My Absentee

Things are beginning to get better around here. We've had lots of snot, coughing, and more snot. My house has suffered, the laundry has suffered, and this little blog has been the last thing on my list. Emma still has a pretty rough little cough. I took her to the doctor on Monday to get it checked out. It's a pretty shallow cough, although it sounded really chesty to me. The Pediatrician said it's a viral thing, and it will take a couple more weeks to get over it. I am very excited about seeing this Pediatrician. If recall an earlier postt, where I had a terrible experience the last time I tried to find us a good doctor, you will understand my relief. Anyways, my little Chunky Monkey weighs 15 lbs and 13 oz. She smiled and flirted with all the staff and they really made over her, bragging on her pretty green eyes. She is going to have her Daddy's stand-out beautiful green eyes. Can you tell we are all in love with her? She has everyone's full devotion, from Daddy down to Gracie.

Despite the trials and tribulations of sickness, we have crossed a MONUMENTAL barrier in the past week. You're not going to believe this: Elijah and Grace are BOTH sleeping through the night, in their OWN beds!!! This is literally an answer to MUCH prayer and I am THRILLED beyond what I can explain. It's about time! Also, Gracie is almost fully potty-trained (is that a contradiction?). It won't be long, and no more diapers for Gracie!

Well, until I have something more interesting to post, or even some good pictures (the camera is down again), it'll be slow posting here. I hope everyone is doing great. Have a good second Monday :0).

Disclaimer

Just a little note on the afore-linked blog, "Are They All Yours?" and specifically the post "Judging, Hating, and Name-calling". This lady writes a lot of controversial stuff and is very straight-forward, even harsh about how she states her beliefs. I DO NOT agree with everything she says, although I believe she does make some very valid points sometimes. The particular part of that post I was referring to was her points about judging, but as far as the name-calling and hate go, well, I have to say please do no associate me with that. I think this is lacking in compassion, which is essential, for if we do not love the sinner, we are not like Christ, who loved us so much in our sins He gave His life for us.


Jude 1:22-23
And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

I hope I have clarified myself as to the fact that I do not share this woman's views on this matter, and "disclaim" myself from being associated with such. Should have done so in the previous post.

Yuckies

It's our turn! We all have the yuckies. Today was Day 3 of Grace's fever, and it finally broke this evening. Emma's temp ran 102.5 rectally this evening and Elijah is also running a temp, although I haven't checked his yet. John sprained his ankle today while loading our stuff into the Penske truck. It took us 3 hours to get it all unloaded into our house. It's like moving in all over again! I think we just need to light a match to it all. GROAN.

Needless to say, my blogtime will be severely limited until we are all better. I'll try to post as soon as I can. Gotta take care of my afflicted family for the time being.

Love,
Amy

Celebrating Elijah

Happy Birthday Elijah! 4 Years Old Today!!

Elijah is such a sweet and special little boy. He loves his sisters and is a big help to his Mom. He is a little shy, and I'm afraid he will be a big heartbreaker for the girls one day--if he ever stops picking his nose, that is! :0). His Daddy is his hero and his best friend, and I hope it stays that way. His favorite foods are grilled cheese and pizza, his favorite Bible story is the Good Samaritan. He can quote the first four verses of Psalm 23.

My prayer for Elijah is that his heart is tender towards the Lord. When Jesus knocks, I pray he opens wide the door of his heart and invites Him in. I pray He never desires or knows a sinful life, but seeks to please God every day. Lord, give Him a servant's heart. Use Him for your glory. If he must travel to far lands, be imprisoned and persecuted, or give his life for your sake, let it be. Make Him what you want Him to be. Amen.

On a lighter note...

Well, goodness. I never thought my little blog post would get so much attention. I would like to say I think I clarified myself on the judging Baptists thing, and although there is much more I could write to expound upon it, to continue to do so would be to beat a dead horse, so to speak. Discussion over. Let's move on.

I do think we should be able to share our own beliefs and opinions without making personal references and attacks and/or insults, and if such arises I will just choose not to show that material on here (I have now enabled comment approval). And if what I write is offensive to you, well, just don't read it. It's a free country.

It will probably be a few days before I post on the subject again, as it takes time to write such "deep" material, and I am studying as I go along. It's not something I want to just slap up here real quick, ya know? So stay tuned.

Until then, it will be back to normal "dry" stuff about my happy little home and its inhabitants. :0). Hugs!! (you know who you are).

OH! And I was thinking about starting a new blog, solely for the purpose of discussions and topics like the previous post. What do you think?

My Week in Review

After a very busy week, stumbling around suitcases and boxes of Christmas presents, we are finally seeing some progress around here. I am glad Christmas comes only once a year! :0). Monday, we just recovered. We got in really late Sunday night, and the kids were all snotty, so we basically vegged (and unloaded the van).

Tuesday was church night, which cuts our day in half, basically, because when the kids go down for a nap, I shower and get myself ready for church. I have a lot of hair, and it takes a while to get it looking halfway decent. It's waist length has to be washed, combed out, blow-dried, curled, and fixed. Sometimes I am on the verge of tears by the time it is all over with! After I am ready, I don my apron (I'm so excited to have gotten a new one from Mom for Christmas), and start prepping for supper. Tuesday night is my one-dish, crock-pot night, something quick and easy that does not leave my kitchen in a mess. After the meal is going, it's time to lay out everyone's clothes for church and iron, if necessary. When the kids get up from their nap, it's bath time. We do all of this very early, around 3:00, because DH (here I go using y'all's terms), has to lead service so it is a must that we are on time. I get them all bathed and dress them in PJs or something for eating in, so they don't mess up their clothes. This takes 1-1/2 hours. Keep in mind I have to tend to an infant in the midst of all this :0). At 4:30 I begin setting the table (or at least try to) and do some cleaning ahead, since we won't have time to clean the kitchen after supper. DH is home by 5:30, and we sit down and try to have a nice, non-rushed meal as a family. DH shaves and dresses, I dress the babies, assemble the diaper bag and before you know it, it's 7:00 and time to go! Whew! It takes determination, folks.

Wednesday is almost like Monday all over again because the kiddos are a little tired from the late night before. This Wednesday, I was determined to get Grace's room in order. It was a catastrophe. After successfully cleaning her room, I decided to put up a little wall art that my friend Autumn and I had made for Grace when she was just a baby. She bought the letters at WM and we used some craft paint to paint them all the pretty colors. She's creative like that. It wouldn't stick to her new walls, because of the texture, so I got creative! What do you think?


I pulled out some of my ribbon and some thumbtacks and was pleased with the result. Can you tell I've been reading Nester? I've been seeing things all over the house than can be revamped with minimal effort. Now to find the time....

Wednesday, we went grocery shopping, and while attempting to put the new groceries in the pantry I decided it was time for a little reorganization. Here's my pantry before:

Here's my pantry after:

I know some of you crunchers would be in shock at the amount of MSG present in my pantry! DH is not supportive of buying the pricier, "heathier" foods (yet--I'm still praying he'll come around).

Thursday was a better day. We had a really good day, actually. It was gorgeous outside, and so we stayed outside on the porch and in the yard, just drinking it in. While we were in the yard, a truck with two young men and a little girl stopped in the road and called to me. The guy driving said he had found the little girl (about 2-3 years old) out on the main road riding her tricycle all by herself. She had told them she lived on our street, so they were looking for her parents. The little girl was dressed very lightly in an oversized, dirty t-shirt, and a pair of shorts--no shoes. Her shorts were full of poop and was steadily stinking up the guys' truck--bless their hearts, they were good sports. I had never seen her before, so I went across the road to my neighbor who has lived here for a long time. He came out and looked, but didn't know her, either. The little girl spotted a dog that was in my yard and said that was her dog. So the guys followed the dog, until he stopped and went inside a house about 6 houses down, where the front door was open. The guy said he knocked on the door, and looking in the house, saw a man and a woman "asleep"on the couch. He said he knocked and yelled, but they would not get up. He finally went in and shook the woman, who opened her eyes. He said, "Do you have a little girl?" She said "yea", and the guy said, "Well, I found her out on the main road, all by herself." The woman said "No Kidding!" and passed back out. They were obviously stoned out of their mind. Well, the guys left her there (!!) and came back to my house where they called 911 and reported it. We waited for about 20 minutes but no one came. The guys drove down the road where they were cleaning a pool and said they would watch for the cops from there. I still don't know what happened. All day long I've been thinking about that little girl down the street, probably cold, hungry, and covered in poop.

So here we are at Friday. We've been on Weight Watchers this week, and DH is already showing signs of losing (no fair!). He's been doing push-ups every evening with a little help from Elijah.

DH has also started having Bible reading/devotional time with the kiddos at night. So far, they are having a little trouble sitting still through it, but I think it will get better as they get more used to it.

Sorry so long, but I haven't had time to post about all the happenings this week, so I had to catch up. Exciting week, huh?

An Old Post Revisited

I was reading through my old posts and came across this one, that I wrote the summer before last while we were living in Fort Worth. I just had to chuckle :0).


Today I have:

(1) Rescued Grace from the front yard after she somehow opened the back yard gate and snuck out (thank God I heard it creak).

(2) Changed 6 poo-poo diapers.

(3) Wished to never again change another poo-poo diaper.

(4) Introduced Elijah to "the corner" after he climbed on top of my dresser, took down my pincushion (removed all pins) and hid my glasses under the bed pillows.

(5) Finally cured Elijah from getting on our neighbor's porch by telling him the man who lived there was going to come out and whip him with a belt (mean, I know, but it worked).

(7) Spent an hour at the park chasing Grace and Elijah from one end to the other.

(8) Made two hairbows.

(9) Washed, dried, and put away three loads of laundry.

(10) Mopped my kitchen floor three times after Elijah emptied out an entire bottle of maple syrup in the middle of it (it's still sticky).

(11) Rescued a screaming Grace from the potty seat Elijah strategically placed around her neck.

(12) Cooked supper, cleaned up the supper dishes and kitchen, gave the kids a bath.

(13) Made brownies for dessert (yum).

(14) Removed floaters from the bathtub with a ladle.

(15) Put the kids to bed.

(16) Sat down to my PC to link myself with the outside world.

(17) Hope and pray nothing else happens to write about.

Blogging Blahs

After hearing that my blog was "dry" to some readers (although this was a male reader, and my blogs rarely pertain of anything interesting to that gender), I've decided to save my blogging for those "burning on the brain" topics. Until then, here's a little bit of news:

We are selling our house!!!! Our 2nd place of residence (we are now on our 4th), has been rented out since we moved out of it, but we've had an offer and everything seems to be moving towards having it sold in just a couple of weeks. This is a great burden off of our shoulders. Two houses are one too many for a family of our economic stature. Now begins the task of moving all of our stuff from the shop there to our new house. This, frankly, is terrifying for me! I have to find a way to get all the stuff in my house and keep it organized!!

Other than that, there's not much going on, besides filtering through all the kids' new toys--60% of it is going in the top of the coat closet to bring out sporadically throughout the year. They cannot possibly play with all this stuff now. It just means more picking up for yours truly.

Hubby and I started on Weight Watchers yesterday. The Hubster is doing great--being really meticulous about what goes in his mouth. He is keeping me motivated :0).

My kiddos are all snotty, but so far, that is the extent of their cruddies (thankfully). Last night, I was so exhausted and I went to bed at 9:00 and did not move until Emma woke up at 3:00. Taking care of these whinies is draining me. I know, I'm whining. Sorry. OK, before I get to rambling, I'll sign off. Stay tuned for more interesting things to come.