|
Last night was my very first teen party in our house. I know it sounds crazy, but after Becca invited all her high school friends to her house for a Disney movie marathon party, I got a bit nervous. I've never entertained in this house before. Yes, it's huge, of course it can hold plenty of people, but how would it work? Where would they sit? What would I feed them? How many will come? Do I know how to be the mohter of a high school kid? Perhaps I'll embarrass her. Perhaps I'll embarrass me! But Friday did arrive, and we got the house picked up, made a bit of snack food, researched pizza joints and found one that sold $5 pizzas and sat down and waited for folks to arrive. It was slow-going; at first, they arrived in dribs and drabs. Then suddenly, there was a whole bunch of people hanging out in our front hall and on our porch. We did invite them inside, really, but they liked the porch. (Who could blame them? Our porch is very likable.) Then Rebecca informed me that they were getting hungry. I was gone for 15 minutes to pick up the pizza and-- (Jim was here--we really didn't leave them unattended.) when I got back, there were significantly fewer teens on our front porch and none in the house. What had happened? Did I offend them by not feeding them soon enough? Were they so hungry they had to go and forage for their own food? Turns out there were a couple of Mormon missionaries knocking on doors in our neighborhood. Rebecca's chums waited for them to approach our door, but when they crossed over to the other side of the street and crossed the railroad tracks, these Jesus-loving kids decided to chase them down and introduce them to our Saviour. And they would not be deterred from their chosen task. Not the arrival of pizza, the begging of partying friends nor the starting of Disney movies could draw them back. Finally it got dark, and they re-joined the party. I am still picking up the random tracts they brought home. The watching of Hunchback and Hercules was a great success, though the talkers got shoo-ed back out to the front porch. The last group left after midnight--does that mean we passed the test? I was nervous about my first high school party, but really, how nervous should I have gotten about 20+ teens coming to watch Disney movies and convert Mormons? Her friends are fun, and I think we did ok. Now they want us to open the pool so we can have a pool party. Anyone know how to open a pool? |
|
You might read this and think that the inspection must have gone very well and life is lovely and all is well. Well-you'd be wrong. Actually, I was running around Monday feeling quite certain that God must hate me. After hearing nothing all day, I got a call that the contract had fallen through. Apparently there is quite a lot of waterproofing that needs to be done. And since that time, we've heard quite a bit of speculation about all kinds of things--such as, the people were trying to find as much wrong with the house as possible so that they could get us to drop our rate further, etc. All speculation aside, something has not smelled right with this whole deal. And now that I've lived two more days since Monday, when I was simply a sniveling puddle, I could almost tell you that I'm glad it's fallen through. Blessings: -Before we were given this horrible offer, we didn't know what our rock bottom price was. Now we do. -I've discovered through much of this that I'd forgotten what Jesus said, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." I'm not sure I've ever understood "wise as serpents." Now I'm beginning to get it. -I'm recognizing God's hand in my life again--for instance, our realtor has misplaced the packet that I sent her on our house--it has EVERYTHING--all the manuals, receipts, etc. for everything regarding the house. She was sure she never had it. God helped me find it--in the trash bag in the car. I was able to come out with a date and signature for its delivery. -My friends are WONDERFUL!! They have held my hand, sent me hugs, commiserated and prayed with me through this whole thing. I am experiencing His love through my friends in such a special way. -Sometimes I just whine to friends when things are bad. But sometimes they are bad enough, that I know I just sound whiny, or I know that nobody else should have to bear the burden I feel I would be placing on them. Then, I find myself at my Lord's feet in a way I am not otherwise. I'm afraid that sometimes my unwillingness to get out of myself and lay myself at His feet leaves Him with no choice but to allow difficult circumstances to lead me there. And there is such a beautiful sweetness in sitting at His feet. -I finally have "the peace of God" again--I think my will was really getting in the way. I know what _I_ want. And suddenly, I wanted it more than anything else. Now--I don't think the house we're looking at here is outside God's will. And I do want it desperately. BUT I don't want it more than my relationship with Him. AND I know that God knows what's best. I don't. I will trust Him to guide us to the right place. If this "dream home" of ours isn't it, so be it. Thank you, Lord, for giving me your peace. May I be able to use this situation to witness to others as to your goodness and mercy. |
|
Ok--I feel like I'm standing here naked to be revealing this much, but I feel like this is really a turning point in my life, and I want to get it out here. Here goes--a couple of weeks ago, I realized that it's not that I don't trust God. It's not that I don't believe He's capable. It's that I don't actually believe that He loves me enough. I do believe that He loves me enough to save me. FINALLY I am no longer struggling with assurance of salvation. BUT--knowing that I don't even deserve salvation, I certainly feel like I don't deserve anything beyond that. I seem to function along the lines of--don't look for great--you don't deserve it and God always does those cool, miraculous things for other people. Clearly, there's an issue with my identity in Christ. So--I've been really praying to understand who He is, and who I am in Him. And to remember that even if I was the ONLY ONE--He would still have died for me. I am not an add-on to His plan. Which means that He loves me in my daily life, too. I pulled out a great book by Brother Lawrence called The Practice of the Presence of God. I LOVE this book. I love what I'm learning about basking in His presence and Practicing being in His presence. I think, too, that I am not recognizing what He HAS done for us. Did he sell our house in two days? At above list price? To buyers who waived the inspection? Um, NO. BUT He has sustained us through this time. He HAS kept us from buying the wrong house--twice--in the last six months. He HAS kept our dream house on the market, and brought it to a price where we could afford it. And today, He gave us a snowblower for $20!!! Two weeks ago, I won the HSB contest for The Grammar Key. That was really when this whole crisis of believe started--I was shocked that I even bothered to blog a comment to enter the contest, and I was certain that I would never win. Still, I'm nervous about our inspection on our old house--by these picky buyers --who are bringing in a structural engineer! Please know--I don't actually think there are problems with the house. I just happen to know that the pickiest of inspectors can find and advise buyers whatever they want....But I TRUST that He loves us enough to provide an honest and trustworthy inspector who will do a thorough inspection and that the buyers will not nickel and dime us with ridiculous repairs. 'Cause we're a little short on nickels and dimes right now. And THAT is the ugly truth of where my heart is right now. BUT I know that God sheds light on areas so that He can cleanse them and draw us close to Him, and I can't wait to really feel like He cares about even the littlest things in my life. |
|
It's true. I've not blogged in a long time. No particular reason except that I'm stretched in a thousand different directions. AND I've discovered Facebook. Where else can I get in touch with friends I've not talked to for 20-30 years? Where else can I play simple on-line games with friends I don't get to see anymore. Where else can I quickly update people on my mood and life, without having to worry about my grammar and my wordsmithing? And so--I've been absorbed into the world of facebook. But I don't know that it replaces the good old blog. There is a notes feature that I thought i might use as a blog spot--but I'm not sure...so, I'll try again. |
|
...why go to Walmart and spend money on a costume when you can make your own for twice as much??? This year, Bubba made his own robot costume, "Robo 2000" and Magoo is going to be--are you ready? Paint. The punkie will be wearing her own OSU cheerleader costume. (a clothing gift from Grancma and Grandpa last year--nothing to buy. Woot!) Anything OSU is actually a health hazard in this area--it could get her mugged... :) I'll |
|
So in his new job as plant manager, Jim has to thoroughly understand all the processes that are run in his plant. One thing they have have him doing is "fixing" the batches that come out substandard. So whenever (and I mean WHENEVER--middle of the night, five times a night...) a bad batch is run, he gets a call from the plant, they give him the quality control numbers, he writes them down, plugs them into a calculator, does some math and advises them on what to do to get the batch back "in spec." So the other day he got a call. The guy starts to give him the numbers, and Jim says, "Hang on--let me get a writing implement." The guy at the other end yells, "Hey, Chuck--you owe me $5--he said 'implement.'"!!! And that's my funny for today. Unless it's also a funny that the Punkie saw the kitchen garbage can without a bag, went to the cupboard, got out a bag and put it in...now if only the REST of the family could do that... |
|
Ok, Maggie posted this on the All American History yahoo group. A great group--here's a link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AllAmericanHistory/ I really want to do it and I'm afraid I'll forget it. I figure if I post it on my blog, I'll always know where it is, right? LOL. And y'all can benefit, as well. So, thanks, Aunt Mags!! This is a great recipe to use in turning brown paper bags (like the Have fun--let me know how it goes!! |
|
We’re thriving here (well, so’s the local plumber—we’ve had him out three times, I think…or four, I forget—nothing like a house that’s been empty for a year. ‘Course, it’s only $80 to snake a sewer pipe here! Speaking of cost comparisons—my overdo library moves were 5 cents a day-- instead of the buck I pd. In Pgh.—I was afraid my fine was going to be $8 and it was only 40 cents. SCORE! But I digress…) |
|
Magoo: ...Does your blood turn black when your heart turns black? Me: What makes your blood turn black? Magoo: Sin Wow. |
|
I love SwapACD.com I love that I can get rid of CD's I never listen to and swap them for someone else's CD's they never listen to. All for not very much $$! So, thanks to SwapACD I got Paul Simon’s |
|
Madeleine L'Engle is dead... Pour a cup of tea and pull out your favorite L'Engle book and think of her. What's your favorite L'Engle book? Post it in a comment!! Mine might be A Severed Wasp, or A Live Coal in the Sea, or The Arm of the Starfish, or The Young Unicorns... Her theology was pretty muddled, but her characters...and her interweaving storylines...the way she caused me to think. And helped me realize during my most gawky, difficult years that I wasn't that weird... |
|
So many of you have been wondering what it looks like...we had our neighbors over for dessert tonight, so it's cleaned up and I thought I'd take some pics. they're a little out of order in our moving story, but what the heck! Hope i can remember how to post them... The front of our home...
If you come in our front door and turn left, here's what you see.
The first door on the left is the kitchen...here it is from the other end. You're looking at the door you just walked through.
Here's the cute little eating area in our kitchen. Believe it or not, we all fit around this table...
Here's our living room/dining room combo--looking from the dining room end...
And from the living room end...
The doors on the right go out to our sun room/school room.
BeccaLoo and dh are watching something on the TV in the corner. Our school shelves are at the end of the couch that you can't see. We LOVE this room. So bright and sunny. Really, it's all very reminiscent of our Dover house, with a garage and a huge, beautiful back yard and much better curb appeal! Our basement is great, too, but not worthy of pics yet. At any rate, this house costs less than the house we had the contract on, and it's smaller--no six bedrooms here, and no bathtub with jets, no walk-out basement, no three bathrooms. But we really love it. What I love most about it, though, is that it is sufficient. It is so unlike me to be satisfied with something less than the most we could get. It has to be a God thing. Because it is not even in me to be dissatisfied here. We LOVE the neighborhood; we LOVE the location--both are much better than the other house. Here we are less than a mile from the Christian school where BeccaLoo is taking a couple of classes. Close to downtown. Close to Walmart(!) Close to the hospital and doctors--so good for Mom. Praise God that He meets our needs, not our wants, and provides in ways we didn't know were necessary. We now have a contract on THIS house... More later--leave some comments!! Me...
|
|
So with our stuff safely on a truck and us finally together in our new town, we woke up on air matresses Saturday AM and set about cleaning the house. It was great that we had a whole weekend to do that. The house had been vacant for a year, and was full of dirt, spiders (yuk) and other fun things. We ran into plumbing problems right off the bat. But the whole time I was cleaning, I just kept praising God for giving us such a lovely home to stay in. I was constantly amazed by the wealth of built-ins and the space in a smaller home. (We seem to have a knack for finding homes that are bigger than they look.) I was so thankful to the owners for all the things they had done so well--having the basement water-proofed, putting in a permanent de-humidifier in the basement. I just so filled with a feeling of being blessed. Later, Magoo asked me to watch him run around the yard--he picked two trees to run around. Once he started running, I saw that one of the trees was in the neighbor's yard. And no sooner had he rounded that far tree, than a huge golden retriever came running after him. Soon his running reached the next level as he realized he was being chased by a hound bigger than he. As soon as he was back in our yard, the well-trained dog gave up the chase. But soon we were rewarded for his terror, b/c we got to meet our neighbor! Turned out that her husband is the pastor of a small church in a neighboring town, and they have three kids, the youngest is a girl Rebecca's age--who will be homeschooled this year!! She invited us for dinner--hotdogs around an outdoor pit--so fun! We had a great time and felt so blessed to have such wonderful neighbors. What a great beginning in our new home. |
|
Our move was handled by a moving company whose name rhymes with Hayflower. It, um...has been less than ideal. They arrived on Tuesday to pack--got there late, left early. The next day was supposed to be the second packing day. Again, they left early. The packing still wasn't finished, but the next day they were to load--how was that going to work?? They had about five guys there that day. We managed a birthday party for the Punkie, with my niece and great-niece in attendance--it was so nice that they were able to visit on our last days in Pittsburgh. They may have been bored to tears, but it was great to have the stability of family together and to see the girls playing together. As for the party, Linda and Laura and the rest of BeccaLoo's "posse" (their boys who BeccaLoo babysits) had planned to come too, but Magoo threw up that morning, so we didn't have much interest in anyone coming to our house. Poor Magoo. Being sick is bad enough, but being sick in a house where everything is packed and there isn't even a couch to rest on? He said it was the worst day of his life. But BeccaLoo didn't mind :) We had a cute table and a huge cake in anticipation of more friends that day. We were able to share with the guys who were moving us. That was fun. They left early again on Thursday--before 4:00, as a matter of fact. We couldn't imagine how they would get the rest of the house loaded the next day. They didn't seem too worried about it. The next day arrived and--go figure--the guys were late. Sure enough, we couldn't imagine how they would get the rest of the house loaded by a reasonable hour because...they couldn't. They had been hoping to get out by 4:00. Instead, they didn't leave until 7:30. Then we had to pick up the mess they left, do some simple cleanup and see how much of what they had left we could fit into the car. Our realtor helped us by finding someone who would clean the house after. Hurray!! Our dear friend, Laura, ordered pizza for us and then came over to help with all of the last stuff. I don't know what I would have done without her. I was exhausted and she was able to check in closets and give the house a once over when I didn't even have it in me to climb the stairs. And she took the things that we simply couldn't fit inside our car. Linda came by later and emptied the fridge and took other things from a cabinet the movers had missed. Phew! By the time we finally left town, it was much later than we'd hoped, and we didn't get to our new house in Michigan until 2:00 AM. Fortunately, BeccaLoo stayed up with me, and a couple of Starbucks stops helped :) The little kids slept most of the way. The Punkie, who had done so well all week as she watched all of our earthly belongings packed away into boxes and loaded into a truck, finally fell apart on Friday, in tears much of the day. She had settled for awhile as BeccaLoo held her outside, watching them load the truck. BeccaLoo carefully explained to her that they would be driving all of our things to Michigan so we could live with Daddy. The Punkie didn't want to go inside--just wanted to snuggle with Becca and watched everything get packed onto the truck. It was good to have our whole family together in one place again, air mattresses and all... |
|
I say part one. I don't know if there will be more than one part. Really, this will be quite stream of consciousness. I WISH I had been blogging throut the process, though there would have been a significant hole during the week and a half when we (gulp) had no internet. Frankly, this has been, hands down, the hardest move we have ever done. I think God did that so we/I would quit thinking that moving is "no big deal." This is our 7th abode in 15 years of marriage. We're no strangers to moving! I always love to see how God will work things out. And I tend to remember best our first move, when I had our whole apartment set up in a day--it was homey when Jim arrived home from work. And I remember our fourth move, when I had the house set up in a week and started our first year of homeschooling the following week. But that was three family members ago. Moving is MUCH different now, with a family of seven, than it was seven years ago with a family of four. May I NEVER forget. Not only has our house not sold, so we have the stress of two house payments and a house sitting uncared for, but...well, I forget where I was headed with that. Just imagine that we rely a lot on prayer. I think I'll let this suffice for move entry number one |
|
We have to clear off our shelves. Anybody need anything? Drop me an e-mail or leave a comment. If you need it shipped, add $5 for shipping. Easy Grammar Teacher's Manual Grades 5 & 6 $15.00 Happy Shopping!!! Melissa |
|
Well, last week Mom was stuck in the hospital. We took her to the ER on Sunday night--her leg was quite swollen and painful, and it had been that way for several days. Turned out she had DVT--a ginormous clot in her leg. The doctor said they wanted to put her in the hospital overnight for observation. We've now learned that's ER speak for "I have no idea how long you're going to be here, but I don't want to say anything to make you bolt, so I'll just fib a little and imply that's just going to be a one night stay..." Turns out that had to put her on all sorts of meds to thin her blood, and ultimately they put her on coumadin, then had to watch her blood--now she's on a schedule of constant blood testing. Anyway, she'd not been there very long when my Maggie Hogan came to visit and we went to see her. it was late in the evening, and we could hear the nurses struggling with Mom's roommate. Turns out she'd recently become initmately acquainted with the crash cart. Yet in no time flat, she (in her tye-died PJ's from home) got up and went to the bathroom. A minute later, she headed down the hall--she made it about four feet when she kind of collapsed against the wall. She looked sort of stoned. (Um--as if I know what stoned looks like?!) She was trying to walk home... When I went to see mom the next day, her bed was all made up! Just like in the movies when someone, well, you know. Fortunately a nurse saw me and pointed me to a private room. "How'd you manage a private room?" I asked. Turns out that Tie Dye tried to kill herself a couple of hours after we had left the night before. By the time the nurses got there, she had stopped breathing, was purple and they had to bring in the crash cart. Again. And Mom's supposed to avoid stress. She liked her new room, but she was kept up all night the next night by a man who continuously banged his remote against his bedrail. Later that day she reported that there were police all over the floor--one of them in her door--looked like maybe they were trying to keep someone from going into her room. But the banging was stopped--apparently they removed Remote-man. When we visited later that day, I watched another policeman bring a gurney in, and two policemen take someone out in the gurney. The upside is that after that gurney left, we no longer heard them yelling at Mary--"Mary, take your medicine! ...Mary, we brought you your medicine! You need to take your medicine!" At any rate--we decided that they must have put Mom on the wrong floor...she did get thanked by the nurses for being such an easy patient, and for not causing trouble, LOL. Of course, I'm not sure how much care she got--not to mention that after they did an ultrasound of her kidneys, they informed her that she had a stint that should have been taken out, as well as two kidney stones. She spent the next week trying to figure out how she missed having a stint put in! Then the doctor casually informed her that must have come from someone else's film! I don't think she'll be letting me take her back to the hospital for a while... |
|
Well now, I'm not one to get up in arms about things. (Don't flame me on that--I know I should--I'm a non-combative personality.) But check this out: While environmentalists are usually vocal about perceived threats ranging from pesticides to global warming, there is a silence when it comes to one threat already harming the water supply: hormones from birth-control pills. According to the National Catholic Register, EPA-funded scientists at the University of Colorado studied fish in a mountain stream near Boulder, Colo., two years ago. When they netted 123 trout and other fish downstream from the city's sewer plant, they found 101 were female, 12 were male, and 10 were strange "intersex" fish with male and female features. It's "the first thing that I've seen as a scientist that really scared me," university biologist John Woodling told the Denver Post. So here I am, doing my part and letting y'all know! Please spread the word. Seems people should get a bit excited about this... Here's a link to the rest of the story: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56623 |
|
Ok--there are a ton of things going on in my life--most of them involve waiting on the Lord. Mostly, we're waiting on Him so that we can move forward in our move. Our family is really feeling the almost three months that we've spent apart. God is so good, though--Jim's co. gives the 4th, 5th and 6th off as holiday, so we've had him home for five days!! our family has loved re-couping and re-connecting. Also, we've had a bite on our house. A couple came back last week for their THIRD showing! Apparently, we are one of three houses they are considering. We're supposed to know something by the end of the weekend. We are trying so hard to rest in Him, but every time the phone rings, we jump. Please take a moment to pray for us, if you would!! And now, on to less important things! Thanks to Maggie, (who is a saint in my book--she took my three oldest children for a WEEK two weeks ago. They think they were at Camp Hogan--she had them busy every moment of the day with VBS, play dates, frog catching, swimming...and I got to breathe and re-fresh. it was heavenly. This has been a pretty long parenthetical--plase look back to see that the beginning of my sentence was, "Thanks to Maggie...") I've now discovered and fallen in love, with You sign up with a username, and then post books you have that you don't want anymore. You can "mooch" a book from someone else with one point. You get 1/10 of a point for every book you list in your inventory. And you get a point every time someone mooches a book from you. I'm here to tell you, there are all kinds of books on there--I got rid of all my SOTW, as well as some of my less favorite Sonlight books (the ones I won't require my kids to read no matter how many lists I see them on) I've picked up some Beverly Lewis that I hadn't read yet, as well as historical fiction for the upcoming school year, and even some of the books that have been hanging out on my Amazon wishlist for a long time. When someone mooches a book from you, the site sends you an e-mail with their name and address, and you accept or reject their mooch. Within the next day or so, you wrap up the book in a grocery bag or an envelope that you just received a book in :) and take it to the post office and send it off by media mail, so it's pretty cheap. I sent off nine books the other day for about $15--and now I get to choose nine books to replace them! Woot! If you join, click on the friends thing and have the site ask me to be your friend! I will love checking out your inventories. My username there is MelismaTo4 Oh, wait--the best part--you can put a mooch button on your toolbar, so that when you're on amazon, looking at a book, you click on your mooch button, and a screen pops up and tells you if it's available on BookMooch. Beat that!! If it's not, you can add it to your Mooch Wishlist, and then if someone posts a book on your list, the site sends you an e-mail so you can mooch it. How cool is that????? So there's my shameless plug. And I don't even get anything for it--except maybe your books that you don't want :) Mooching is almost better than shopping!
|
|
Ok--it's the current joke at our house--the Punkie is brilliant. I know, everyone thinks their baby is brilliant, and we are certainly no exception. So here is her latest proof of extraordinary achievement. The other day one of the boys had pulled the bowl of grapes out of the fridge and left it on the table--the grapes were rinsed, but but still in a big bunch. I was working on the computer and heard the Punkie climb up to the table behind me (she's pretty good on a chair and loves to "work" at the table. I knew there were grapes there and listened for choking noises, but didn't actually see what she was doing. Until Nana walked out and said, "Does your mother know what you're doing?" Uh-oh--that's generally a sure sign of trouble. But not this time! I turned around and, bless her heart, she had pulled all the grapes off the stem, put them back in the bowl and put the stems off to the side on the table. I wish I'd taken a picture--but I didn't think that a full color picture of a bowl of grapes could really capture the amazement of the moment. So there--she's brilliant. And if she's not, don't tell me--I'm enjoying my fantasy. :) |