Behind Again

Story of my life, right? My blog is named so appropriately. ;-)

Lucky for you, I've been taking notes all week. Wait... perhaps it's unlucky for you. Ha!

Monday night Haley called and talked my ear off for over two hours!!! Can you imagine?! Okay, so I did some of the talking, too, and it was one of those conversations I really, really needed. I've got a whole bunch of stuff jumbled up in my heart and mind that I've been trying to work through and Haley had so many good things to share, most of which came from her class at Ladies' Retreat. I felt truly blessed and encouraged when we finally hung up. Thank the Lord for good friends! He knows just what we need, when we need it. :-)

The kids finished school really early on Tuesday and it's a good thing since we ended up having to go to town. We finally got a check from our insurance company (to repair all of the hail damage) and it had to be endorsed by James, by me, AND by Bank of America (they carry our mortgage). After numerous phone calls on James' part we finally ended up in town at BoA so James could walk the teller through the process and we would actually be able to deposit the check at our own bank. What a mess. After we got that taken care of we grabbed lunch at Taco Bell (love feeding our family for $12) and then ran to the thrift store. Mom got Katie an adorable skirt a couple of months ago, but she can't wear it because she has no shirt to match. I've been looking and looking, but to no avail--and I was shocked and offended at the thrift store prices this time! It was CRAZY! We've done tons of shopping there the past three years, but they've suddenly upped everything considerably. No, thank you. These are USED clothes, you know.

James made baked spaghetti for dinner that night. :-) After the kids went to bed I spent the rest of the evening reading The Hiding Place, the story of Corrie ten Boom. I'd heard the name for years, but never knew who she was. She and her family helped hundreds of Jews find safe hiding places during the Nazi invasion of Holland. They were finally captured and arrested, then hauled off to concentration camps, and then the dreaded extermination camp in Germany. It is an AMAZING story and I was truly blessed by the faith and courage and LOVE displayed by Corrie and especially by her older sister, Betsie. It makes you stunningly aware of how easy we have things (we don't have a CLUE what suffering is) and so very grateful--makes you want to never complain about anything again because we simply have no right to! And it lifts your faith to see the miracles that God worked even in the midst of such terror. It challenges you to get your priorities straight and begin to see the value of souls and lives and serve God wholeheartedly, come what may. Highly recommended.

The only thing out of the ordinary on Wedensday is that I took a walk with the kids. Sad that that's out of the ordinary, isn't it? Ha! Sad, but true. We all really enjoyed it, though I must say that some of the hills around here are not very kind. I'd probably look and feel a whole lot better if I'd climb them every day instead of once every month or two!

That afternoon I finally had all I could take. I plugged in the clippers, pulled up a stool, and hollered for the boys. I hate them in buzz cuts, but they're not patient enough for me to take the time to cut their hair with scissors (I'm not very good--it takes me forever!) and I just couldn't handle them being all shaggy anymore. So bbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Got that taken care of.

That night Katie made tuna casserole for dinner. I was in the den and she yelled, "Mom, we don't have enough salt!" It took a minute for it to sink in. "What???" I went into the kitchen about the time she realized that the recipe called for a TEASPOON and a half of salt, not a CUP and a half. HA! She had a cup and a half of salt measured out into a bowl and ready to go. Wowzers, I can only imagine! Luckily she hadn't added it to anything else--it was still just salt. I was able to funnel it back into the container for future use. Crazy kid. She does pretty good for a 9 year old, but has a serious rushing-ahead problem (in every area of her life) and often fails to slow down and THINK about what she's doing. Or in this case, read the directions. Then she gets all flustered and thinks she's terrible at everything. "I can't cook! I'll never be able to cook, Mom!" It doesn't help matters when Sam chimes in with, "Yeah, she burnt the eggs this morning, too." Ha! But in the end we had a delicious casserole, thanks to Miss Rue. She's doing great. :-)

That night I decided to put off the pile of ironing that's been sitting there for days. What's one more night. I stayed up and finished my book instead. :-)

Yesterday we had another early school day so we could head to town. We left early in the afternoon and stopped by the Post Office and the cleaners, then went to the mall for the first time in forever. But since the thrift store has started charging department store prices... We found two shirts for Katie and a pair of jeans for each boy--brand new jeans for $4.88 at Penney's. Take that, thrift store. I'd rather pay that price for brand new ones that used ones. :-) Then we were off to Wal-Mart to grab a few groceries, then Sam's club to pick up cupcakes to share with the church folks in honor or Sam's birthday. We love any excuse to fellowship, you know. ;-) Sam opted out of the cupcakes and chose a huge tray of brownies instead. They were cheaper anyway, so we were cool with that.

By the time we finished at Sam's Club it was time for church. It was BTI service and Brother Chris taught all about the finances of the church and where they come from and where they go and all that stuff--with charts and diagrams of all kinds. James loved it and had plenty of input. I finally jabbed him and said, "If Brother Chris asks if there are any comments... YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MORE!" Ha! Not everybody finds the financial structure of the Church as riveting as James does. ;-)

After church we meandered to the back room to sing to Sam and enjoy his birthday brownies. It was great to hang out with the Clarksons for a while.

This morning we got up and Sam helped me bake his cake. He had requested chocolate cake (been ages since I've used that party cake recipe!) with orange frosting, so we made some vanilla butter cream frosting and dyed it as far away from pink and peach as we could without making ourselves sick on food coloring. ;-) Then we did school, after which we realized we had somehow forgotten our morning devotions! How did THAT happen?! So we had devotions, then it was about time for lunch. Sam had offered to make Sam his birthday breakfast (eggs), but Sam's not much of a breakfast guy so I ended up eating his eggs for him. Joe made his birthday lunch: Ramen. Enough for the whole family, in fact. I love having kids who can fend for themselves a little bit. Especially when they're generous with their efforts. :-) Here's the crowd, enjoying Joe's specialty...


Sam scarfed his noodles down because he was so anxious to get into the PARTY thing. He had begged to do cake and presents after lunch instead of waiting until after dinner.
Here he is with his first gift from his Mom & Dad...
And his second gift
And the gift from Grandma Vicki
Joe had rummaged through his things to find something that he thought Sam would really and truly enjoy and appreciate. He have him his microscope and a pot holder Joe had made a few weeks ago. Knowing Sam, he'll probably find some ve-e-e-e-ery interesting use for the pot holder that has nothing to do with pots. Or even pot, Brother Dustin. ;-)
Joe wrote out a little card/note, too. Katie never could figure out what to give Sam, so she made him a card. I don't think I ever saw it though.
Here's the birthday boy, making use of his most action oriented present.
We bought a package of caps, too, Mom. He and Joe have spent all afternoon chasing each other all over the mountain just banging away. The pack came with 2400 caps. After shooting several hundred and then discovering that a few rolls had fallen out of their pockets somewhere, I think they're down to less than half of that amount! Ha! I won't be sorry when they run out. ;-)

I had Katie take a picture of me with Sam. I have far too few pictures of me with my kids. It breaks my heart to think that the days of Cowboy Sam will be coming to an end sometime in the not-too-far future. I've always loved cowboys. :-)

I don't know why, but this birthday has struck me very strange. I CAN'T BELIEVE my youngest is SEVEN YEARS OLD!!! That just doesn't seem possible. It's crazy how old people always tell you when you're young that the time just flies faster and faster the older you get. You always think, "Yeah, I know." But you don't really know! All of my kids are half grown. In a few months Katie will be half way to 20! It's all just so wrong!!! In some ways, I LOVE seeing them all grow up and turn into real people (ha!) and develop mentally and grow in the Lord and so many other things. But there's this other part of me that already so misses having little ones! We watched home videos a few weeks ago of when they were all 2 or 3 or 4 years old. They were sooooo cute and sooooo much fun! They still are, of course, but I still somehow miss that special age that just FLEW by. How did they all pass it up so quickly?! ~sigh~ No fair. ;-)

Sam has been playing with his new Legos and robot along with his cap guns, and now James has taken him to pick out a kid movie that we can watch tonight. The kids have been seeing Toy Story 3 stuff all over the place, but I refuse to let them watch it because we've never seen Toy Story 2. You can't watch #3 until you've seen #2--it's just wrong! We'll see what James and Sam come up with.

That's about it from around here. Still praying and trusting God to help us out with all of the "got to get to Alabama" stuff. Got good news about Karla yesterday, though! She is finally starting to wake up and from every initial indication, she seems to be perfectly coherent (no brain damage) which is the most important thing--it means her daddy can talk to her about her soul. :-) Please continue to pray for her healing, but most of all that if she hasn't already given her heart to the Lord that she'll do that. God has been so good and so merciful in this situation. What a wonderful God we serve that hears the cries of His people and answers their prayers just because He loves them! We are so blessed. :-)