And you thought it couldn't get worse...

So if you thought yesterdays post was bad.... you won't believe today.   It's actually too bad to even go into details about.  However, it clearly ranks as the second worst day of "mom duty" I have ever had.   Which of course bears the question, what was the first worst?   You may be sorry you asked.

When my oldest son was between 10-16 months old, we went to Damon's with two other couples friends of ours.  (Luckily, they are still our friends, even today)   We were eating dinner and hanging out with my son in a high chair at the end of the table.   Within a short period of time, he went from being happy and okay to having this look of "not okay" on his face.   Of course, I got concerned and started to watch him more closely to make sure he was okay.   Then the smell came!   I thought, "well that must be why he didn't look okay, he just filled his diaper."   Oh no, it was much worse then that.    He had exploded his diaper!   Not just seeping out the sides and onto his pants; no exploded out the top, onto the highchair and even the FLOOR!   In the middle of Damon's!!!!   I'm getting ready to carry him to the bathroom to basically give him a sink bath in the restaurant, when my husband declares he has to leave for work.

Now granted, staying did mean he was going to be late, but how could you leave your wife in such a situation!!!   Luckily my friend followed me to the bathroom as I carried my son at arms length out through the restaurant.   The other members of our party, covered the "evidence" on the floor with napkins and moved to another booth close by.   I must have been in the bathroom about 20-30 minutes trying to clean off my son.   I ended up trashing the clothes (which probably made the bathroom smell lovely for the rest of the evening).  

Then I returned to the table, kindly cleaned up as much of the high chair as I could and informed our waitress of the "issue".   Then I had to sit and continue to hang out (when I of course wanted to run home and hide my head in embarrassment) because I was riding home with our friends so my husband could go to work.  

That was truly a horrible evening.... of course, no fault to my son at all.   I guess part of it was first child syndrome and not really knowing what was going on.

So today only compared lightly to that, but it was still bad.   I'm guessing we went through about $15 worth of pull-ups between my two completely potty trained twins. 

Yep!  This is my life :D

Another one bites the dust...

Beware... puke stories ahead... do not read if you're stomach turns easily...

Well, I'm pretty sure it started with the Superbowl game.   Our family all gets together, including 13 children, and we seem to always exchange germs.  I got sick first and was down for pretty much 2 days.  The my oldest got it while at home group on Thursday.   Luckily, we stayed home from church on Sunday to give everyone a chance to rest and to try and prevent the spread of more sickness.  My daughter got sick, luckily no throwing up, on Sunday with a fever and one of the twins got it Sunday afternoon, again no throwing up.  However, the luck didn't last long... last night, the other twin threw up in the middle of the night and just now my 2nd oldest was bowing to the porcelain god.   Does it get any better than this?   My parents and husband may have the bug too, although it seems to be working the other end for them.   I know, I know... TMI!  Sorry.

I'm just looking forward to the day when everyone is old enough to make it to a toilet or a bowl.   Unfortunately, this was not that time.   I've spent two nights cleaning up puke which is absolutely NO FUN!  

However, in the midst of all this, I am thankful for a few things.  One, the kids got it before performance time for the play.   Two, I think we're done now, it's been through everyone in one form or fashion.  Three, my house was overdue for a good bleaching, and this certainly calls for a good cleaning.  

So to all my readers, I hope your families are well and if you get a second today and think about it, please pray for the health of ours. 

Good night....

What's Your Superpower?

My kids love playing all of the Mario Bros games on the Wii.   Currently they have been spending time playing Mario and Sonic at the Olympics and Mario Super Sluggers.   In the game, each character has a superpower that helps them get ahead or win.   One of my older sons said the little ones weren't winning cause they didn't know how to use their superpower.  

Then I thought, wouldn't it be cool if we had superpowers.  Some unique power that enabled us to help people that not everyone could do.

Then the lightbulb went off over my head.   We DO have superpowers.   God has gifted each of us with unique talents and giftings.   Some are great at hospitality, some at administrative, some at leading, some at executing, and so on.   These gifts are given to us to help people with things they themselves cannot do and to support  the overall body of Christ.

Scripture supports this in 1 Corinthians 12: 27-28

"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues."

With the volume of people in the world, sure there are others with the same gift or superpower as you.   But in your local body of Christ, you have a place to fill, a job to do, a purpose.   So I encourage you to find out what your superpower is and USE IT!! 

Dances, Cheesecake, and Snow

What a crazy week.   I got sick on Sunday of this week with a cold.  Then we had family over for the Superbowl game.   We all exchanged germs and since I was already sick, I came down with a stomach bug.   It didn't hit until Tuesday, but then I was out of commission until part way through Wed.   I was hoping no one else in the family would get it, but unfortunately, my oldest got it on Thursday.   Oh how quickly plans get changed when you've got a stomach bug going through the house.  

My daughter went to her first Father Daughter dance last night at her school.   We did her hair up in hot rollers and she wore a beautiful Cinderella dress that was given to us by her cousins.   She looked gorgeous and what better date could she have then her daddy.   Here's some pics from last night...

Then my hubby and I got to enjoy a date night out to The Cheesecake Factory.   YUM!  It was so delicious and we had a good time.   I've been counting calories since the beginning of the year and realized today that my meal yesterday was 2000 calories.   Holy cow!   I figured when we were going there that yesterday was shot, so I enjoyed it regardless.   He also got me a dozen pink roses before we left, what an awesome guy!

Everything else has been going well lately too.   The kids are enjoying play practice and it's been fun to sit and watch everything they are learning.   I think it's going to be a good show.  Who knew Shakespeare could be so funny -- well I guess it is a comedy... so there you go. 

I've been enjoying our "winter" weather lately.  Its the middle of February and we've had more sunshine than I can remember.  We even pulled down the kids bikes and had them outside quite a bit over the past few weeks.   Alas, the fun is over though as I look outside to the blizzardy weather.   I'm just thankful for the sun while it lasted.

I hope all is well with all of you.   Have a great weekend and Happy Valentine's Day!

Still hanging in there

It's been much too long since I've been on here.    It seems like the same old stuff is going on, but in truth lots has been happening.  

We've finally hit the financial woes I've been expecting.   Praise the Lord we didn't hit them until January when I honestly expected them in November.   My husband is working full time in the trades now and one of the major downfalls is the up and down nature of work, especially in the winter.   The blessing, I've been able to see lots more of my husband this week and I enjoy spending time with him.    The bad side is our stock on everything is running low.   I ran out of laundry soap, light bulbs and batteries last week.   All necessary but slightly expensive stuff.   Praise the Lord, I found another jug of ALL in the laundry room.   Most of our monthly money goes to my parents for rent and payment on a loan.  They were gracious enough to let us pay our other bills for now.   So I was able to buy batteries because some things in the house just needed them.   I'm looking forward to tax return time and praying for more money to come in the door.  

School has been going well with the boys.   We're definitely in a groove and I feel like they are learning things.   What more could I ask for :D

Our schedule has gotten really busy since the beginning of the year.   The boys started playing basketball and my three eldest children are in a local play.   So we've been bouncing between play practice and basketball for them.   My husband started playing basketball with some men from a local church which is great for him to get out and exercise too!   I've been hanging out with friends and getting the "me" time that I desperately look forward to every week.  

So I've been away for a while, but still hanging in there.  Please pray for God to continue to meet our financial needs.  

Writing In Prose

Ah, what a week.   It's been a doozy.   My husband worked this week about an hour and 15 minutes from our home installing a kitchen.   To save on gas money, he spent two nights at my aunts house.   Which, of course, left me for 3 days with the kids all to myself.   By Thursday, I was at the end of my rope.   On top of which, my husband thought was going to be a short day in which he didn't get home until 11 PM.   I think the expectation of him being home earlier on top of three days of fighting, complaining, crying, whining, etc just got to me.  

Sometimes, I tend to hide out in my hard times, not wanting to "bother" anyone.   Hence the reason I am able to write about this now.   I feel better today and now that we're on Christmas break, I hope the next few weeks will go better than usual.  

I been overcome by feelings of failure lately.   Like I am doing irreparable damage to my kids in my emotional roller coaster, lack of self discipline and lack of consistency.   I also feel so alone.... like every other mother out there has got it together.

So my husband and I ended up having a "spirited" conversation yesterday about everything that's been going on.   Neither one of us has a true gift of motivational speaking so it takes some working through to pick out the nuggets of good information that are put forth.   But he did have some nuggets.   One of the main ones was to start thinking in prose.   And I thought, well I already do that considering prose is the ordinary form of spoken or written language.   Then I realized, he wants me to think in pros.   Verses cons, of course. 

I've been very stuck on the negative lately.   No money for Christmas, my husband is working all the time, the kids are fighting, the kids are asking me a hundred, no a thousand questions, school isn't going like I expected, etc.   I forget to look at all the good things I have.   God has met our bills since I quit, I have been able to spend quality time with each of my children, I can play and read and chill with them, my house is cleaner (sometimes), I'm doing what God called me to do.   I've been living like the Israelites in the desert wanting to go back to slavery in Egypt, blaming Moses for all the pain and suffering.   When I focus on the negative I get irritable and just all around down.   It makes this mothering process a burden instead of the joy God intended it to be.  

I want to live in faith that we are continuing to do what God has for us.   I want to be blessed by my children and not burdened.   I want to enjoy the time while they are little, cause it won't be here forever.  

So a special thanks to my husband for putting up with this wall of "stuff" I lay out there and for getting through to my heart and giving me a better perspective.   You truly are a gift from God to me and I love ya tons.  

To any other mother out there that feels at the end of her rope... you're not alone.   I cried three separate times on Thursday.   I made dinner, served it to my kids and locked myself in my room.   I love them SO MUCH and I didn't even want to eat dinner with them, just so I could have a few minutes of quiet to myself.   I think I'm safe in saying, we've all been there and this too shall pass.  

Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

High highs and low lows

What a couple of weeks.   As you can tell from the title it's been a real roller coaster ride.   First I'll start with the highs.   I wasn't going to post this until the end of the month, but considering the second part of this post, I'll share my good news.    For 2010, we made a good effort to pay down some debt.   Unfortunately when we got to the end of 2010, I had no idea how much we had paid off.   I would have had to dig through a lot of paperwork to figure out what all of our debts were at the beginning of 2010.   Additionally, we acquired new debt in 2010 after purchasing a car, so it definitely off-set the balance.   Near the end of 2010 is when we really headed in the direction of me quitting in 2011 so the journey got really serious.   Last December I took a tally of ALL of our debt.  It was BIG.   But now, I fortunately can see the progress we've been making.  

I was really excited about determining where we ended up this year, so I couldn't wait until the end of the month.   So here's the bottom line... From 12/28 last year, to early December this year, we paid off over $15K on debts.   That's principal balance!!!   I'm ecstatic!   Who knew?  Granted, now that I've quit, we anticipate that the pace will slow down considerably and we still have years ahead of us to get completely out of debt.   But I felt pretty good about the progress we made this year.   Just goes to show what we can do when we put our mind to it.... and have God's blessing of course!!!

So onto the lows...  I guess I'll just get right to the point.   Well maybe not... my husband has been working at a local computer shop for about 15 months.    Business has been slow.   My husband's old boss decided to sell the business to one of the employees.   Ownership changed Oct. 1 of this year.   Because business was slow, my husband's schedule had been part time to full time and then back to part time.   He is currently working 2 days a week.   Because he was only working 2 days a week, he's been picking up tons of construction work. 

Side story... since the construction has been picking up.   My husband has considered going full bore into business.   We've been praying about what to do.   My husband went on a hunting trip recently and had lots of time to pray and seek the Lord sitting in a tree.   He told me he didn't feel like he was supposed to stay in computers.    This is a little crazy for me, because about a year and a half ago we had a discussion about where to go and decided computers was probably a good avenue.   So here we are having a similar conversation again and going in a completely different direction.  I truly left it in the Lord's hands.   My husband is the head of our house and I want to follow his leading, but I also needed to know from God which way to go. 

So to the point... my husband got let go from the computer shop.   The new owner recognized that only being there 2 days a week, this job was not as important to my husband as it was before.   He also recognized that he could not pay my husband in the salary range we need to support our family to bring him back full time.   So of course I'm bummed to lose the income from this job... especially since it was guaranteed income compared to the ups and downs of construction work.
So that's my story.   Always a new adventure.   It's going to be an exciting ride.