WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING....

According to my blog manager, I am suppossed to write on here. But really, how exciting would it have been for you to read over the last week,
My ear hurts and I went to the doctor....
My ear still hurts and I went back to the doctor....
I am walking around with this white thing hanging out of my ear and I went to the doctor....
Today, my ear doesn't hurt quite so bad....
There was enough of that from me on Facebook.
The only thing new is that I have decided the "stuff" in my house is getting on my nerves. So, since my ear started feeling better, I have been going through my kitchen. I am an equal opportunity "stuff" get rid of-er. I tackled the boys' room and the hallway before I became sickly. Well, the kitchen is taking about three days. Which is exactly 70 hours longer than I wanted it to. However, looking into that decluttered pantry everyday does make me happy. The living room is next on my list before I tackle our master bedroom. Considering how long the kitchen took, I don't have much hope for finishing before school starts again. For those of you wondering, no I have not read 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Hatmaker. I just get tired of the stuff.
And moths.
We have been fighting moths in our bathroom. That would have been the other posts....
I cleaned the bathroom to kill the moths....
The moths came back....
I cleaned the bathroom to kill the moths....
The moths are still here....
Fly paper seems to be my best friend. Economical and sure-fire. I have also had to wash everything in the bathroom pretty much everyday.

So, dear blog manager, who I love, here is your blog update. Of course, you had the gall to go out of town and won't read it till next week, but it will be here waiting.
Have a wonderful weekend peoples of the internet.

GROWN UPS

No, not the movie. (Yet, just for you sister....Somebody shoot that turkey!)
Grown ups in Jesus. Mature Christians. Maturity defined by relationship and not age. On Sunday I start a class on Matt Chandler's study of Philippians. I am pretty excited. I haven't seen a lot of Chandler's stuff. I caught him on the Elephant Room clips. I have listened to a sermon, at best two. I haven't read the Explicit Gospel. What I have seen though, I liked. I was challenged. Which is the number one reason I excited about this study. I want to be challenged. I want to meet with Jesus and have Him grow me up. Dangerous statement? Very possibly. It could get real ugly. Growing pains hurt, but who wants to stay a Christian toddler? I have seen myself as that...fit throwing...mine-mine-mine...no thank you. A Christian teenager? Insecurity about who I am and relationships I have and needy friendships and not being part of the "in" group and letting it bother me and she stole my bestest friend....please, please let's get on with it.  So, I am a little stoked about it. The growing pains may or may not be played out here. You may just get analogies about our relationship with Christ and the process of canning tomatoes. I had one last night about how placing them in the boiling water and removing their core is much like us realizing our sins and sinful hearts, and then how the hot water we find ourselves in often seals us in Jesus, preserving us, or we don't seal and we ruin. Of course, it may have been the lack of sleep talking. Posting at midnight rarely a good idea.
What about you? What is the topic of your small group or Sunday school class? What do you think about it so far? How have you been challenged?

WE ARE ROCKERS...

This is my reading chair.

Yes, it is covered in wildlife.

Matches a blanket we have.

My mama did it.

Covered the chair, not made the blanket.

It's my rocker glider from when MC 1 was born.

I am emotionally attached.

This is my reading stack.

You will see Agape Road by Bob Mumford on top.

A timely study for me.

God is so in my business.

Then my Bible.

At the bottom - a First Place fact sheet.

We will leave that topic alone for now.

All those times I rocked MC 1, I really never envisioned this.

That one day, my baby would be reading in the chair I rocked him in.

It is his reading chair of choice.

(For those who don't think your kids copy you, well, I beg to differ.)



Hank is his reading selection.

At least this week.

So, do you have a favorite reading spot?

Do your kids try to crash it?

I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN...

• is what I could have said to myself as I walked around the "track" I mowed in my pasture yesterday. I hate walking in the neighborhood. The MCs and dogs are all over the place and it is more stress than exercise. So I mowed myself a path. The boys and I walked it today. MC 2 made a lap then let me know he "needed to catch his breath". W...A...L...K...I...N...G...He made 2 laps, which was his requirement. MC 1 & I made 5.
• is what we could have said as we pulled stickers in the yard today. Like eating an elephant...
• is what I could have said when I had to bag the dead cat the dogs managed to drag up while I walked the "track" this morning.
• is what I can say as I continue to can the veggies HH's garden has produced. Let's just say if I hand you a jar of pepper jelly for any holiday or your birthday or just when I see you.....TAKE IT!

So what have you been thinking you can this summer?

THE THING ABOUT TEACHER'S KIDS...

is that they are all our kids. Any place. Any situation. Any time. At least, that is what I have found for me and many of my cohorts in education. Quite frankly, I've found it in many moms as well. But that teacher/mom combo is a force of nature.  You cheer them like they are yours. You correct them like they were yours. They are just yours. Which may explain why I let a small, random toddler spit, and I mean with lots of drool, a cap full of rocks out of his mouth and into my hand at VBS last night, and further explain why I left my hand there so he could spit out the remaining rocks in his  mouth....one at a time.  I know- extremely unsanitary. A smarter person would have had him spit them on the ground. But that is not what I would have done with my own kid. I did stop myself from sticking my finger in his mouth and doing a sweep for more rocks. And I did locate hand sanitizer rather quickly.

How about you - moms & dads? When have you caught yourself "parenting" other's children? Any stories that required hand sanitizer?

PHOTO ESSAY OF OUR WEEKEND



SOME QUESTIONS FOR YA....

Is it really choosing if you think you have no other choice?

Is it willing submission if you see no other alternative?

Do we sometimes choose to be "slaves" of God instead of "servants"?
Or our jobs?
Or our spouses?

Blow those comments up peeps!

UHM.... YEAH....

I really have no good reason for not writing. In my head I totally just quoted Lane Frost, well Luke Perry as Lane Frost- I got no excuses Kel- you did the best you could by me and I failed you. Except I am not sure that is exactly how it went so at 10:45pm I am wavering going over and putting the disc in the DVD player and actually looking up the line. You l know, the scene where he has gotten his act together and he comes back to apologize. I promise I'll look at it tomorrow and fix it if I am wrong. And I completely realize that my drivel here pales in comparison to what he was referring to. So sorry I haven't blogged. Week before last I had a few days at home without the kiddos. Tuesday I did have to go to work, go to vote, and go get something for HH. Wednesday I had a long lunch with a friend of a decade and then some. Boys had half days so it really doesn't give you much time to do much. This week we have all been out. Which means 2 weeks of my summer vaca is gone.
(This morning) In the past two weeks, however, we have had some big celebrations. My grandfather turned 95 yesterday & we had a big blow out for him on Sunday. Not many 95ers still live in their own house and get around without some help. He refuses a walker of any sort because "it's absurd & for old people". Also on Wednesday we welcomed a new nephew, which gives my in-laws a grand total of 6 grandsons and 1 lone granddaughter. Bless her heart. We have cleaned house, mowed the yard, picked a ton of peppers and cucumbers from HH's garden. We have spent two days with two different sets of cousins.
Best of all, most days we have slept late. I mean it's not often we get to sleep till 7:15. You know those people whose kids sleep till 9 or 10 and go to bed at 8, well, we don't have those kids.
The MCs are up now, and I assume will want to be fed soon, so off I go.
Have a great day!