Graduation, Car Trouble, and Pink Eye

Quite a combination, isn't it?  My niece is graduating high school this weekend and we were supposed to go.  Not gonna happen.  Why?

Well...

For starters, we haven't been able to get the van fixed.  Shoot, our mechanics can't even figure out what's wrong with it!  Of course I can't have a vehicle with normal problems.  lol  Until we can get it fixed, it is too dangerous to take out on the highway.  (We are supposed to go on vacation in June and it had better be fixed by then!)

The other reason we can't go is because I think we have Pink Eye.  Well, not all of us just the 5yo.  She has been stuffy for a few days and then her eye started gooing and turning pink.  Niice.  :(

I'm pretty sure that no one wants around with Pink Eye!

Serving

We were blessed to have an opportunity to pack food for Haiti with Numana.  I had heard about it through our church and really wanted to do it, it just didn't work out.  Well, we finally got the opportunity to go. 

Our homeschool group tries to serve through ministry opportunities.  In the past few years it has been raising money to free modern day slaves, sending hygiene kits to Haiti, taking cookies to the fire fighters, etc.  It is an amazing way to get our kids involved in serving others. 

Today, we went to pack food with Numana. 

I wasn't sure what to expect.  I mean I was taking all four girls with me and you never know what kind of mood they are going to be in!  Let alone me!!  ;-)  I prepared for the day, praying that we would all get along and serve with joyful hearts. 

The kids were in great moods.  That is until our youngest had to put on the hairnet and plastic apron.  That did NOT make her happy!  Truly, they were hideous!  She dealt with it and eventually cheered up.

We were assigned our table-our homeschool group filled THREE tables!  At each table, there was a station for the rice, beans, soy, and vitamin powder.  A certain amount of each one was put into a funnel and into a bag.  The bag was then weighed and then sealed.  Each almost 4lb bag of food would feed a family of six.  Seriously! 

Our youngest scooped up the beans, rice, and soy putting them in the funnel for almost two hours and never complained.  So did my other girls, but at 5yo I was pretty impressed!

It felt good to be able to contribute to the well-fare of others and to see how much our girls enjoyed doing it.  To foster a heart of service in our girls is a high priority; I'm so glad that we have a group of friends that help us in that endeavor.

I love my house

No, really I do.  God brought it to us and gave it to us.  I am grateful and in awe that He would do that for us.

That being said...I am tired of the leaks.  We have two windows that are leaking; but only sometimes.  Is there any way to predict when it will happen?  Nope.  Does it happen frequently enough for us to be on guard against it?  Nope.  It just happens out of nowhere...water starts pouring through the windowsill. 

Yup, good times.

After we had finally got the kids to shut up, I mean in bed, it was quiet and I could finally hear myself scream think.  When the quiet settled around us I heard someone peeing.  Seriously, it sounded like just like that!  However, all the rugrats children were in bed and I didn't think that any of them would pee in their rooms.  (Anymore!)

Lo and behold, it was coming from the school room.  So not cool.  Water was pouring the window, down the wall all over our timeline.  AAGGHH!!! 

I know I should have been worried about the wall or the carpet or even the window and why it was leaking.  But all I could see was our timeline and the characters that we had placed on it.  It covers almost two walls.  Here is a post that has a picture of it.  You have to scroll down a little to see it.  I was getting more upset with each century line that was ripping and then the tape that we had used started ripping the wall.  Niice.

As we were cleaning up the water that was pooling on the carpet, I kept chanting to myself, "They are just things, they are just things."  It still broke my heart.  :(  I love our timeline and I can't replace it.  At least not anytime soon.

So...Steven and I stayed up most of the night going out to check on the offending window to see if the well was filling back up with water.  I grudginly graciously let Steven go to bed and then proceeded to stay up all night so that I could run out in the rain and look into a window well.  I got pretty sick of it and the last time I was grumbling a bit and almost didn't catch that the water was rising and needed bailing.  It was such a joy to pick up the pitcher that I had broken earlier bailing water out of the well that I couldn't help but curse!  Okay, so I didn't really but I wanted to. 

Thankfully it didn't leak anymore past 3:30am.  That and the kids let me sleep until I woke up.  Then I had copious amounts of coffee!  We found a covering for the window but I am expecting that at any random moment water could start pouring in my house.  I guess I will keep a bucket handy!

A WINNER!!

I week behind in posting this.  lol  The winner for the copy of Radical by David Platt is...Jodien!!


Woohoo!!  I will facebook you for an addy!  :)

Indivisible Blog Tour

From the publisher:

An inseparable bond.


An insatiable force.

Battling his own personal demons, Police Chief Jonah Westfall knows the dark side of life and has committed himself to eradicating it. When a pair of raccoons are found mutilated in Redford, Colorado, Jonah investigates the gruesome act, knowing the strange event could escalate and destroy the tranquility of his small mountain town. With a rising drug threat and never-ending conflict with Tia Manning, a formidable childhood friend with whom he has more than a passing history, Jonah fights for answers—and his fragile sobriety.

But he can’t penetrate every wound or secret—especially one fueled by a love and guilt teetering on madness.

From best-selling author Kristen Heitzmann comes a spellbinding tale of severed connections and the consequences of life lived alone.



My Opinion:

This was a great book!  It was a little frustrating at first because I wanted to know all of the back stories for all the people and the author did not give anything away until she was good and ready to! lol  I was intrigued from the first and just had to know what was going to happen.  The characters were crafted in such a way that kept you guessing as to why they did things.  You had to keep reading so that you could get their full life stories; you just had to! 

Now, I will warn you that there was a little bit of gruesome in the book.  I'm not going to give it away, I'm just going to say-be prepared!  It's not too bad, but it did make me a little squemish.  It wasn't a major focus of the book, but it was definitely a key point that couldn't be ignored. 

I did figure out the mystery of 'who-dunnit' about half-way through.  Kind of!  There was a twist in there that I hadn't seen coming and was pleasantly surprised.  Even though I was pretty sure of the outcome, I still had to read it.  The characters were addicting. 

I was disappointed about one thing.  One of the characters...well, I can't give anything away; but I wanted more about him.  I wanted history, stories; more just more about him!  Maybe there will be another book just about him? 

If you want to buy this book go here.

You can download the first chapter here

You can listen to an interview with the author here.

Include the FTC disclaimer: This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Mother's Day

Mother's Day.  it is a day that is celebrated by so many and yet for others it is a day filled with sorrow and pain.  I spent many years dreading Mother's Day.  I would avoid going anywhere, especially church.  They would pass out flowers and have all the mothers stand for applause.  I couldn't do it.  Through those years of miscarriages I learned a new appreciation for those 'on the outside'. 

My heart would break everytime the word mother was mentioned.  It hurt with a pain so deep that I couldn't even give it a voice.  There was no way to describe the heartache.  It was consuming.

One of the things I learned is that all women are mothers.  You may not have given birth to a child, adopted one, or whatever other way there is to be a 'mother' but you are a mother none the less.  If you are around people younger than you, you are a mother.  God gave women the instint to mother and you do it all the time.  You guide, protect, love, instruct, encourage, correct, and give your heart to those around you.  That is being a mother. 

So, whether you gave birth to a child or adopted one or just parent the children you come in contact with I say Happy Mother's Day.

Liz Curtis Higgs posted something on her Facebook status today that fits exactly what I am feeling. 

"For all who are celebrating this Mother's Day, may the Lord bless you. For all who are mourning this Mother's Day, may the Lord comfort you. For all who are struggling this Mother's Day, may the Lord strengthen you. "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." Prov 31:29"

God Bless.