Passion

I realized today that, somewhere in the last few months, I've lost my passion. My focus hasn't been where it should be: on Jesus. Always straight on Jesus. This was in no way intentional. Life got in the way, I guess. I was sick for awhile and recovering was trickier than I thought it would be. Then it was *technically* time for school to start. I considered my current situation...headaches, lack of energy, drug-induced confusion and clumsiness...and Chris and I made the decision that school for our family would begin in September instead of August. And then we hit our knees and gave thanks to God for the benefits of homeschooling.

In September we hit the books hard and heavy. The kids were (and still are) learning lots and actually enjoying it enough to not cry about it too much. :) We had a schedule that gave us Fridays off, since we school year-round. Everybody loves this! We began attending a homeschooling co-op at church on Thursdays, which we all really enjoy. Everything was great. But it was also a lot of hard work. Getting lesson plans ready. Planning field trips and library visits. Shaun joined a dance team and is also taking karate again. Routines to learn! Oh! The nursing home ministry that our family is blessed to be a part of...together. We love it! But its also work...songs to choose and rehearse (along with rehearsing for the other 2 routines from other activities). Chris' guitar lessons and band rehearsals. Homework for School of Discipleship and keeping up with the reading for my small group.

I began to get really good at juggling everything! I was doing all of the above and still managing to keep the house decently clean, which is a major, major big deal for me. I was even on a Bible reading plan to read the New Testament in 30 days. But... I was on auto-pilot. Literally. Doing things without really doing them, if that makes any sense. Praying without thinking, reading without comprehending. Auto pilot.

Then, last night, my Hubs had the opportunity to lead worship for our church's middle school ministry. I had never attended one of these services and didn't really know what to expect, as this is a fairly new ministry at our church. I'm so glad that God orchestrated the events of our lives to allow me to be there last night. The message was about Jesus, and how He not only died for us, but because of us. Because of me. He knew each and every sin I would ever commit, and He died for me anyway. Of course, I technically knew this already, but lets just say that it had been quite a while since I had really meditated on it. Towards the end of the sermon, the pastor showed clips of The Passion of the Christ. I hadn't seen that movie in so long. While watching, I became overcome with gratitude for my Savior. And I wasn't the only one. The alter was full of middle school students making commitments to Jesus. It was a great night.

I left church last night with the correct perspective on life once again. And its so nice. Life has a way of taking my "best", and its so easy to lose focus on the important things. I've committed, once again, to not become so busy and wrapped up in my family that I lose sight of my Jesus. My Passion. I'm so grateful that He gives us second (third, fourth, fifth...) chances.

Ambien

I came here tonight so that I could post about our crazy busy weekend full of "firsts"...but the Ambien has shown itself and there's no telling what I'd type. So I'd better go to sleep instead. :)

Jordan's First Big Service

This morning at church, Jordan couldn't decide which classroom he wanted to be in. There are two choices for the four year olds at the 9:00 am service, and Jordan just could not choose between the Leopard class and the Tiger class.

So, I had an idea.

"Say, Jordan. Would you like to come upstairs to church with me?"

He looked at me and whispered, "To the big service?"

I told him sure, but explained that he must be quiet and remain in his seat the whole time. No funny business. He agreed, and off we went.

We sat waaaay up in the balcony, so we could make a quick getaway if the need arose. But, to my surprise, no getaway was needed. Shortly after the service began, an older couple came and sat right beside us. The woman looked at Jordan and then asked if we were visitors. I assured her that no, we were not visitors. She then went on to make sure I knew that there was "Sunday School" downstairs for the kids. Again, I assured her that I knew the routine. She "reminded" me of this fact several times. Apparrently she really thought Jordan belonged down there!

I guess my boy's growing up. Sometimes I forget that he's almost five years old. Anyway, he was really, really well-behaved. He sat in his own seat for most of the service, and then moved to my lap. The only issue was during the invitation song. Everyone stood up, and Jordan tried to stand in his seat. When he did this, his little feet slipped though the opening in the theater seats and were stuck there for a few minutes. He was able to get himself out quietly, though. And then it was over.

I hope he comes with me again next week!

Monkey Joe's Head

This is by far one of the funniest things to happen to me all year.

So, Monkey Joe's is having free admission again. My kids love MJ's. And so do I. I love that I can sit and talk with my mom-friends and my children can run, jump, and play themselves silly. Which is what we were all doing when two of my friend's children came running up to us with Monkey Joe's head. You know, the big fake purple monkey head that the poor MJ employee has to wear (along with the rest of the costume) at birthday parties. We all gasped and my friend Rebecca said to her children, "Where in the world did you get that??" .

To which they replied:

"Shaun's little brother and his friend who looks like him went into the room that says 'Stop! Employees Only'. The next thing I knew, he was running around with this on his head. So I grabbed it."

Oh my. Well. Rebecca was able to heave a sigh of relief, since her children weren't involved in this scheme. She instructed her kids to take Monkey Joe's head to the snack bar and give it to the employees who were working back there. The worker man then gave us a funny look, grabbed his keys, and ran to the back of the building--to lock all of the doors. I looked at my friends and wondered aloud why those doors weren't locked in the first place. But I guess that wasn't really the point...

I went to find Jordan. He saw me coming and jumped into my arms saying, "Did you see me? I put Monkey Joe's head on!"

In between the bursts of giggles that I just could not hold in, I told him that he wasn't ever, EVER to go into those rooms again. And he agreed.

What a day. What a day. I laughed out loud again just thinking about it.

Crabs

We ate at Red Lobster this weekend. Twice. Friday night was my 11th wedding anniversary. The Hubs and I knew we wouldn't be able to find a sitter and we had some Red Lobster gift cards, so we made plans to go with the children. Not exactly my idea of a romantic anniversary date, but we decided to make the best of it. Friday also happened to be my mother's birthday. While at her house that afternoon, she asked if Chris and I wanted to go out to dinner with her and my dad. Along with my sister and her family of 6. Of course we agreed. And, to our surprise, we had a really nice time. The kids were well-behaved. The adults were even able to sit at a table by ourselves. My parents decided to treat us to dinner, so at the end of the night we still had our gift cards. When the kids heard this, they had a simple solution: to just go to Red Lobster again the next night. Which we did!

This time around, it was just the four of us. When we asked the kids what they wanted, Shaun replied "Crab legs!". And we let him order just that...even though his kiddie crab legs meal cost the same as my popcorn shrimp meal. Needless to say, the crab legs were a huge hit. Here's a photo of Shaun getting ready to dig in. Pardon the quality...my cell-phone doesn't produce top-notch quality photos.




When the waiter brought Shaun his plate, Jordan cried out "EW! Don't eat that!"...but Shaun ignored him and chowed down. Turns out, he LOVES crab legs. I'm afraid we've created a monster, because he now says crab legs are his favorite food.

After all of the meat was consumed, the real fun began, as you can see here:





Jordan became quite fascinated by this...claw? Pincher? Whatever its called, he loved it. He took it home, slept with it, and has played with it all day long today.

Its been a good weekend!

Just another loss of control...

Things have been a little "out of control" in the life of my family lately. I guess it started when I was sick and then spiraled from there. Since I've been back home, things have NOT returned to normal. Even though I'm doing much, much better, I still don't have all of my energy back. I'm still tired, probably because I lost so much sleep a few weeks ago. My head's still bothering me, but I can handle the pain now. The kids are....crazy. All they want to do is fight with swords, jump, and turn flips. I've been trying to slowly introduce school back into they're lives while managing everything around the house, but I'm not having much luck. Out of control!

My sister and her family are moving, so she needs my help watching her children while she packs and cleans. I love that I'm able to help her...she was an absolute God-send while I was out of commission. She's always been there for me, and its nice that I'm able to help her out now. But, its difficult to get anything accomplished when even more hyper children are added to the chaos! I am determined...determined to get started with our school year on Monday. Today's Saturday, so that gives me one more day.... hmm. Maybe I should wait until after labor day. Or not. We really need to get started. But I'm just not ready yet. Our school room looks more like a toy store. I still need to go through the many, many different curriculum options that I have here in the house and finally decide what I'm going to use. But before I do all that, the rest of the house is an absolute mess. Which must be cleaned up. The most frustrating thing about this mess, is that the mess accumulated in about 3 hours while I was out of the house yesterday. Thanks to the three males who were left here unattended. Out of control!

On top of everything else, I dropped off the children's old clothing at my first ever consignment sale yesterday. I'm pretty sure it will be my last...it was just too stressful. All of the clothes laying around the house for weeks while I printed out tags, organized, and washed them so they'd be ready. Me, telling the kids to please not mess up the small piles of pants and shirts strewn all over the living room floor. My husband getting frustrated because his computer room floor was also completely covered in clothing, save a small trail that led from the doorway to the computer dest. And let's not forget the drama that insued the night before the sale, when our printer wouldn't work to print the tags...and the many holes I poked in my fingers trying to safety-pin the tags onto the clothing. And the night of absolutely no sleep that i endured trying to finally get everything ready. Out of control!

But, as always, we were able to get it all done. My sister and I went to the church to drop everything off. I brought out a cart to pile everything on, so it that we would only have to make one trip. I parked the cart behind my Jeep, and started filling it with shirts. I looked up to ask my sister a question, and the next thing I knew, the cart...along with my clothes....was rolling away down the sloped road heading straight for a mini-van that was pulling into the parking lot. Thankfully, there was no collision, and the cart came to a stop safely at the bottom of the hill. As I stood there watching the whole scene, I couldn't help but laugh. Hard. That cart careening down the hill just reminded me so much of my life at the moment...out of control...that I just laughed and laughed. I laughed so hard that I was barely able to walk down the hill to rescue it. Of course, my sister laughed too. Because this incident went along perfectly with the rest of our day...nothing else had gone as we had planned!

This whole situation reminded me that even though things are hectic, hairy, and out of control right now, they will get better. Like that silly run-away cart, we will one day soon be resting safely, finally able to breathe. One day, my life will probably be so predictable and boring that I won't know what to do with myself. Until then, with help from my Jesus, will continue to take whatever life dishes out as it comes. No matter how out of control things may seem. And I'll do it laughing the entire time!

Patty

Today's been a hard day. Especially for Shaun.

This morning, the boys and I had plans to head to Wal-Mart with my sister. I was waiting for her to arrive to pick us up, when I heard an awful howling noise from outside. It was so loud and agonizing that I was sure a coyote had attacked an animal in the woods behind our house or something. Then my phone rang.

"Erin. I just ran over Patty", my sister whispered to me.

I jumped up from my chair, thinking "Oh my gosh, I can't believe our little dog made that horrible, loud noise". Thankfully, Shaun and Jordan were absorbed in their video game and didn't hear a thing. I walked out onto our car port and there was our little Patty...hobbling around, pulling herself with her front legs. Looking up at us with such sad eyes.

My sister had tears in her own eyes as she apologized profusely and begged me not to tell my boys that she was the one who did this to their dog. We decided to take her to the vet. I went inside and told Shaun and Jordan that Patty was hurt and needed to go to the doctor. We put her in a crate off we went.

When we arrived at the vet's office, we were ushered to an exam room...me, Shaun and Jordan, and my sister and two of her children. The doctor came in and took Patty to a back room to examine her. When she came back in, she informed me that something was definitely broken but x-rays were needed to see how severe the injuries were. She brought out a price list that totaled more than $600.

In a panic, I whispered how much we would need to pay today. I told her that I didn't have an extra $100, let alone $600. I talked to the office manager and we were working out a payment plan. Then, this sweet woman asked if she could talk to me in the hallway, away from the children. Once we were alone, she looked me in the eye and asked me if I was willing to pay that much money for a dog we had only had for a few months. She went on to say that the $600 was just a minimum of treatment costs...the total bill was likely to be closer to $1300. And, she went on-- it was likely that Patty would have to be put down anyway.

She proceeded to talk with me through my tears, suggesting that we may want to consider just having Patty put to sleep. I went outside to call Chris, who of course, left the decision up to me. While I was on the phone with him, a "God Thing" occurred.

The vet and nurse came outside onto the porch. They told me that, while Patty was in the treatment room, one of the technicians working on her had become attached. And...get this...this sweet woman became aware of our financial situation and offered to adopt our dog- and pay for all of her medical expenses. Wow. At first I was a little taken-aback. But then, when I considered it, it made the perfect solution. But- I still had to run it past Shaun. I brought him outside and told him what was going on. A heart-breaking conversation. He cried and cried. And so did I. But, proving once again that he is indeed growing up, he agreed to let the technician take his dog...as long as he could meet her first.

We went back inside and met with Bar. One of the sweetest, most compassionate people I've ever met. She was so good with Shaun, explaining that she lived on a huge farm and had a retired husband and several other dogs for Patty to play with. Plus, she worked at the vet's office, so all of Patty's injuries would be taken care of. She passed the test with Shaun, and we left the vet's office minus our little dog.

Jordan still doesn't understand what's going on. Shaun's still sad. So are Chris and I. I told Shaun that once our hearts don't hurt quite so badly anymore, we'll go to the Humane Society and pick out a different dog. He said he didn't think he'd be ready anytime soon. :(

So, that's been our day. My eyes are gritty from tears and my neck is tense from the stress. But even so, I've been amazed once again at how God takes care of us and provides us with everything we need.

Yes, today was definitely a "God Thing" day.