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!

HH'S GREEN THUMB...

WHEN CHOOSING...

stinks and is stinking hard.

I know it sounds flippant some days, just choose Jesus, just choose this or that, but I am all to aware of how hard that can be. The sinful me has its own choices it wants to make. The hurt me wants to protect me and mine. The wounded me wants to bite back when you mess with her. The insecure me wants the praises of peeps because they are tangible and drown out the what I am not ramblings in my head. Over the weekend I had the opportunity to work this out and let me tell you, it was difficult. I was mad, old wounds (that I thought had healed) ripped open, and I had a full scale debate raging in my head and my heart. I will tell you there was a point when I felt the burden lift. However, it only came after I confessed to the Lord the deepest, ugliest truth I had hid in my heart about the whole thing, and even then, I had to keep choosing.

I guess I want you to know two things:

First, if you find choosing difficult today, you are not alone. Choosing is hard for many of us, if not all. Whether it is choosing not to have that next drink or next cookie or next hit or next snarky comment, you are not the only one.

Second, it is only when we come clean with God about the truth in our own hearts are we able to move forward. Freely. You can tell Him. He can handle it. It does not change the sacrifice Christ made for you. It is the very reason for it.

If you and I choose nothing else today, let us choose to lay it all before Jesus.

He has chosen to carry it.

All the way to the cross.