EMAIL ME!

ok, now i’m receiving emails.  the problem is that the batch of emails from noon yesterday until about 1 hour ago still have not arrived.  SOOO, if you emaile me in the past 30 hours or so and i did not respond please resend!  i feel totally out of the loop!!

Internet Issues

I have not received email since noon yesterday.  Soooo…if you are emailing me and I am not replying, it’s not because I don’t love you.  If you need to contact me, you’ll have to actually use the phone.  Sorry.  As of right now I can access the internet, send emails, just not receive any.  It’s a bit frustrating, but I will survive. 

Why you should brush your dog EVERY day!!!

Poor Harley. She had mats all the way down to her skin.  She had to be shaved.  Today she looks like a hairless RAT.  Learn from our mistakes…brush your dog daily!!

Today

I feel like today is the first real day that I am back to being “mom” and “wife”.  I have been reading and have a list of things I “need to work on”.  Feeling pretty convicted by the story of a boy soldier in Africa and a man who literally sold everything to live with the poor.  But here I sit, trying to figure out how all this will look for me in the years ahead.  Who knows.  What I DO know is that between now and 6:00 tonight I have to:

-pick brigg up from preschool

-load the dishwasher

-pick up harley from the groomer

-take lani to dance

-take brigg to TKD

-pick up lani from dance

-pick up brigg from TKD

-attend small group

It is 2:30.  I’m not sure how it will all play out, but I’m assuming we’ll figure it out somehow.  So for now, the dishes need to get done and I need to switch on the TURBO mom button.  I’m off…

My “Relapse”

So once the storm hit, we decided to go rent movies at Family Video.  I didn’t want to drive, so I insisted Paul come along, which meant, the kids, too.  They were very excited about renting a movie.  I have strict rules when we rent movies…in and out-5 minutes flat.  That’s the deal.  You pick one out and we get out of there as fast as possible.  And if you even THINK about asking for the bottles of sugar called “candy” by the check-out, we put the movies back and walk out empty handed.  So what I failed to do was inform Paul of these rules.  We braved the icy roads and headed in to the video store…me with my game plan in mind and Paul with thoughts of aimlessly wandering around for as long as he felt neccessary to find the perfect movie.  So immediately my plans fell apart.  I made one frantic trip around the new releases and saw nothing appealing and decided (in my mind, not aloud) that we would just gets the kids one movie each and Paul and I would look for something on cable after they went to bed.  I decided this all within a split second and in the mean time Paul was casually roaming through the WESTERNS, of all genres!!  So I am starting to freak in my brain as the kids are yelling and Lani is begging to be held and screaming that she wants the baby bottle sucker full of purple sugar.  I am yelling at Paul across the store full of like 100 other customers with the same great storm day plan “Hurry up! I am next in line to pay!”  At this point I was just holding a spot in line and Paul had no idea what I was doing.  But of course I did.  It was simple in my mind.  So he walks up and we start bickering.  (Remember there are like 20 people in line behind us).  I think our bickering turned into fighting and he’s like, “What is WRONG with you?”  I said, “I just want to get out of here and you are totally PSYCHING out!” (which he wasn’t, by the way…he was just wandering aimlessly…in his own world…which was driving me MAD!)  So we fight the whole way home and then he leaves me to simmer down for a while.  When I regain my composure he says, “Are you done?”  I say, “Yes.  I’m done.  I’ve been trying so hard to be a better wife and mother…taking financial classes, signing Brigg up for Tae Kwon Do, discussing planting a GARDEN.  Really, I’ve been better!!”  He said, “Well, that may be, but today you had a serious relapse!”  I laughed.  We made up.  It’s still snowing, but we’re going to stay in and avoid the movie store at all costs tonight….

Pictures and Plans

It was supposed to be a big day…Tae Kwon Do, bowling and church.  It has turned into a mess outside and we will not be leaving the house.  Ice and snow is coming down and I just witnessed a snow plow get stuck in front of the house.  Jody just called and church is cancelled.  Paul and Brigg are scrolling through the TV guide on TV to find a movie to watch today/tonight.  Thank goodness Paul is the master of popcorn-making.  That has become our new plan…movies and popcorn.  Hope all are safe, sound and warm in their homes!!

God sent Grandma

It’s been a rough week.  Today I was making soup for supper and I suddenly felt the desire to bake homemade bread with my kids.  I think this was God’s way of sending my grandma for the afternoon.  There is nothing like the smell of homemade bread to bring memories of my grandma rushing in.  The kids giggled and played in the flour and I felt at complete peace for a couple hours with fond memories of spending time with my ever comforting grandma.  I miss her.

Our little karate kid

Brigg started Tae Kwan Do this week.  He LOVES it.  The instructor is great…very encouraging, yet demands respect and discipline.  I think it’s going to be great for Brigg.  (Plus, Paul loved watching him!!)

Choices

Over the past week I have felt like I have been on the highest mountain-at the top of my game, and then bottomed out at the lowest valley-like I could never make a difference in the life of anyone.  Today I am feeling better.  I am not going to change the world in a day!  I have a pile of books ready to be read and just skimming through them I am finding bits of encouragement.  Read this quote today while skimming on of my books, “You don’t get to control any outcome, only every choice you make along the way.” (Shephen C. Paul).  Sitting on my butt just thinking about how I am never going to make a difference is not what God has in mind for me.  And he may not have it in His plan for me to save an entire country on my own.  But I am working on choosing to be obedient in what I am feeling moving in my heart.  It may not be as grand as I hope, but as Buechner says, “The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.”  So today I am choosing to make a difference…maybe just within the 4 walls of my own home, but it will be for good and not evil.  That’s what I choose for today.  May my heart continue to be soft and my eyes open and aching…

Some more…

The night before we went into the village, we attended a church service in Huehuetenengo.  It was amazing.  We met this family and they were our first encounter with the people of Guatemala.  We fell in love with them…

This hand made wall hanging hangs in Dr. Hugo’s office…

There were 5 bald men on our trip.  Here is a photo of them in Tikal…

I just loved this photo of Barb and Randy…