Move It Mondays

Good morning to all!  This is gonna be short, since the day has already started off on one of "those" notes.  I just found out my oldest son's car got towed last night and we'll have to go pick it up.  He was parked where he always parks when he goes to his friend's house, which apparently is a no-parking zone, and yesterday they decided to enforce the law.  So now I have to drive my son to pick up his car, after I make a deposit at the bank because J couldn't find the time to do it himself.

It's also time to do some back-to-school shopping.  Thankfully I had E check his pants and the ones I'd bought most recently still fit.  He needs a couple more pairs of pants, which I'll pick up at Target since their uniform pants are the best quality.  He also needs some sneakers.  J bought him a pair of Nike's that cost $120 and are white.  No way he's wearing that to school.  I need to get him something cheap that can get ruined in a month without hurting my pocketbook too badly.

The day may start on a sour note, but I'm still gonna sing praises to my Lord and Savior.  Have a blessed day everyone!

Observing My Senses

For Today, August 11, 2012...

I am seeing...the sun evaporate the rain water left over from yesterday.  We got lots and lots of rain all day yesterday, but today we have loads of sunshine, which means it's gonna be a steamy hot day.

I am feeling...the need to check on the tropics regularly.  Hot summers means hurricane activity will be on the rise, and it's necessary to be prepared.

I am hearing...my youngest son getting up.  He's the first of the three this morning.

I am tasting...nothing yet.  Breakfast shortly.

I am smelling...coffee brewing, biscuits baking, sausages frying.  It's nice to smell breakfast smells, but what I long to smell is fresh air.  The summer has been so hot and humid that the windows have been tightly shut and the air conditioner regularly on.  I hope autumn makes an early appearance this year.

It just takes a moment to observe your surroundings.  Won't you join me?

Follow Friday Four Fill-in

Welcome to another Follow Friday Four Fill-In Fun, brought to us by Hilary at Feeling Beachie.  Please join me for some challenging fill-ins!


This week’s statements:

1. when I was little my mom  _____
When I was little my mom taught me to crochet, but I was never really good at it.

2. ___ is my favorite condiment
Mrs. Dash is my favorite condiment.  The others tend to be too salty for my taste.

3. I don’t like to celebrate____ because____
I don't like to celebrate Valentine's day because getting a gift "just because" is much more meaningful.

4. My ­­­­­­­____takes up more space  _____ and I can never__________
My plastic containers take up more space than what's available in my kitchen and I can never reclaim the space I lost when we remodeled.  That's what I get for letting a man help design a kitchen he never uses :P

Five Question Friday

Happy Friday y'all!  I'm doing some grocery shopping today (these kids are eating me out of house and home!) and it looks like it's gonna rain.  Ugh.  Don't like going out in the rain.  Oh well, I've gotta deal with it.  But first, I'm gonna answer a few questions - five to be exact - courtesy of Mama M at My Little Life.  Won't you join me?


1. Thunder storms- love them or hate them?
I love 'em - so long as I don't have to drive in 'em.  I especially like them at night.  For me a thunderstorm is like God's lullaby.

2. Do your kids get back to school clothes?
If they've outgrown them, yes.  My youngest son is the only one in school (well, my oldest is going for his batchelors but he can buy his own clothes) and he tried on his uniform pants yesterday.  Three out of five still fit.  Which means he now needs 2 new pairs of pants and some new sneakers just for school.  There went the budget :P

3. Do you golf? Do you watch it?
No.  And no.

4. Showers or baths?
Definitely showers.  I can't picture myself swimming in my own sweat and dirt. :P

5. What's the strangest meal you ever ate?
Hmm, strangest thing.  That would have to be my mother-in-law's chow mein.  She adds hot dogs to it. *gags*  Oh, and her spaghetti "sauce," which is actually ketchup with worchestershire sauce.  Can you tell I don't care for her cooking?

Thursday Thoughts

I've been awake now for a little over an hour.  That's not normal for me.  I'm a morning person; typically I'm awake by 6am and out of bed before 7am.  It gives me time to eat my breakfast and read my devotion in a leisurely manner.  My day feels more productive the earlier I get up.

This day has been different.  I awoke at 3:20am needing to use the bathroom.  I was fine when I got up.  Then, out of nowhere, my nose started leaking, I was getting stuffed up, sneezing, eyes tearing...major allergy attack, and I don't know what triggered it.  Figuring whatever it was would leave my body eventually, I went back to bed, but kept having to wake up to blow my nose because (a) I kept sneezing and (b) my nose was constantly dripping.  I finally realized I had to get up and take some meds or else I'd end up ripping my nose off my face.  I took a Benadryl and administered nose drops.  The first round of drops did nothing; I had to blow my nose and add more nose drops which took at least another 20 minutes before I could breathe again.  The last time I looked at the clock it was 5:20am, then slowly but surely, as I chatted with my Father, I fell asleep.  Oh, what bliss!  I heard my daughter get up to feed Molly which gave me even more comfort, since I didn't have to get up and do it myself, and I dozed off again.  I finally got up at 9:15 this morning, still feeling groggy but unable to stay in bed any longer.  I've had my breakfast and coffee but I still feel like the anesthesia hasn't worn off :P.

Here are some more happenings from the past week:

 - I didn't mention what happened last Saturday as I was desperately trying to forget.  Friday night my daughter gotten the call that the orphanage was hiring her.  She asked if we could go shopping for jeans the next day.  I saw no problem with that; she works in jeans and a polo which the orphanage gives her, and her jeans looked a bit worn, and anyway she deserved it!  So the next day after lunch I ask which mall she wants to go to, and she mentions an outlet mall in our area which is very large and has great prices.  I thought it was a good idea.  There are over 300 stores (and the mall is still expanding) so I was sure we could find whatever she needed.

When we arrived, I was surprised to see the parking lot jam packed and cars roaming around looking for someone to follow back to their parking spaces.  I was puzzled as to why the mall was so full.  Then my daughter tells me, "Oh, it's tax-free weekend."  What?!?!  I'd forgotten all about that!!!  I NEVER schedule shopping trips during times like this when I know the malls will be overflowing with people.  How could she not have mentioned that to me?!  This mall has the largest parking lot I've ever seen and still there was no place to park.  It took 20 minutes and 2 stolen parking spaces (it annoys me to no end when people see you're going for a parking space and they rush to get there first) before we found a spot way out in Timbuktu.  Of course, that wasn't the worst of it.  Despite how large this mall is, it was wall-to-wall people, and the air conditioning couldn't keep the place cool enough, so my very sensitive nose was picking up body odor all around.  I wanted to leave so badly, but I didn't want to do that to my little girl.  She was on cloud 9 thanks to having received an internship from our old church and her new job within days of each other, and I couldn't ruin her excitement by saying, "Mama's having an anxiety attack and we need to get out of here."  I measured my breathing, spoke as little as possible, and pushed on.

Thankfully she wasn't as thrilled as she thought she'd be, surrounded by crowds like we were.  We went to a couple of stores, including the Gap store where she didn't find anything to her liking.  Then we reached the Levi store.  As she said, "If I can't find jeans here I might as well give up."  She did - two pairs of really good quality jeans at $49.99 a pair.  We walked around a little afterwards per her suggestion, but it wasn't long before both of us said, "Let's get out of here."  I'm glad our little expedition turned out successful, but it's a reminder to me to check what day it is before I rush to the mall again :P.

 - I ordered bowling shoes for myself and my son E which shipped yesterday.  Once they come in we'll be visiting the bowling alley often.  With my daughter working now she won't be able to join us as often, which is too bad, but E and I can enjoy a couple of games a day.  School will be starting soon, so we may as well make the best of the time we have left.

 - We had our Awana leaders meeting last night at church.  Lots of fun activities are in store!  My son is done with Awana; our church only does the program to sixth grade, and he'll be entering 7th this month.  Still, he wants to help out, so he joined me for the meeting and suggested a family movie night as an activity for after the Christmas recess.  The pastor loved the idea, and E was so happy he'd made the suggestion.  I love that our children's pastor loves the kids so much.  He really takes their ideas into consideration.

That's the "interesting" stuff going on here with us.  Hope your week is just as fun!  God bless.

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch

In the last 15 minutes I've watched it get cloudy, pour down rain, and get sunny all over again.  There's something to sit on the porch and watch!  I'm inside, though, where it's cool and dry, but you can join our friends Wendell and Patrice for their porch chats at Everyday Ruralty.


1. Do you like to sing? What kind of music are you likely to sing?
Why yes, I do like to belt one out every now and then!  I especially like to sing in the car with the radio.  My choice is praise and worship songs.  Worshiping the Lord with music is one of my favorite pastimes.

2. Do you watch soap operas (daytime TV), or have you ever?
Many moons ago I watched All My Children, when my son was a newborn and I was home with him.  I watched it on Soapnet for a while after that, but I got sick of it.  Soap operas are the same thing over and over again: marriage, infidelity, divorce, scandal.  Thanks but no thanks.

3. Do you wear glasses or contacts?
I've worn glasses since I was 15 years old.  I did wear contacts for awhile, but I suffer from dry eyes which made them very uncomfortable.  I now wear my glasses for everything but sleeping.  I have astigmatism, and I'm both near and far-sighted.

4. What's your favorite easy meal when the weather is hot?
Anything in the crock pot.  It's the best invention since sliced bread.  You throw all the ingredients in the pot, turn it on and walk away.  No babysitting the meal, no kitchen getting overheated because of the oven, and in a few hours you have a delicious meal.  This is my favorite when the weather is cold, too.

5. Tell me something about the past week.
Well, let's see.  Within the last week my daughter was offered an internship, accepted, offered a job, accepted, started her internship and began orientation for work.  It has been an exciting week for her, which in turn makes it an exciting week for Mama.  We've gotten lots of rain, an amazing thing considering so much of the country is bone dry.  Our summer has been very hot and very wet, and this past week was no exception.  We've been to the library and that's about it; the weather hasn't been favorable for going out, and I was trying to keep to my budget.  All in all a very blessed week.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

It's the middle of the week already, and time for some Wednesday Hodgepodge courtesy of Joyce over at From This Side of the Pond.  Joyce is continuing some of the Olympic questions.  Won't you join us?

1. In an effort to combat obesity, the mayor of NYC has plans to ban the sale of large sugary drinks (anything over 16 oz.), initially in restaurants, movie theatres, and street carts. Corner stores would also be affected if they are defined as food service establishments. You can read more here. Your thoughts?

I appreciate the mayor's concerns and his goodwill, but I believe he's going about it the wrong way.  Taking something away as training is what we do with toddlers, not adults.  Adults need to be educated.  It's easy to say to a toddler, "You can't have this," hide it and eventually the toddler will forget about it.  Take something away from an adult and the adult will find another way to get it.  Isn't that what prohibition taught us?  Mr. Mayor, you have a good heart, but I think this method will leave you sadly disappointed.

2. Art festival, music festival, food festival...which would you most like to attend?

Food festival, definitely.  I'm not an artsy-fartsy type of person, and I've already been to music festivals, so a food festival would be a nice change of pace.

3. What are you irrational about?

Irrational?!  I'm not irrational about anything!  Ask my kids!  (No, wait, don't ask my kids).

My daughter says I'm irrational about how I organize the shopping cart at the grocery store.  I place all the frozen items on the left, refrigerator items on the right, pantry items in the middle and non-food items at the end.  She says the cashier doesn't care about how neatly I organize the shopping cart because they pack things willy-nilly.  I disagree with her.  I think I'm totally rational.  It's the cashier that's being irrational.

4. Do you feel confident you'll have a comfortable retirement?

I don't know if my retirement will be comfortable according to some people's standards, but I hope that I will be content with whatever the Lord gives me, whether it's a condo on a beach, a home with a large garden, or a space in a nursing home.  It may sound irresponsible to some people, but I'm not stressing about my retirement.  I'm trusting the Lord to take care of my future.  "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." - Matthew 6:34.


5. What's been your favorite Olympic moment so far?
(Not ever, just in the 2012 Summer games.)

I'll be honest, I haven't been consistent in watching the Olympics this year.  I catch some games here and there but I'm not glued to the TV or any such thing.  I've watched some swimming, track and gymnastics.  Last night I watched Pearson win gold for Australia and was happy for her.  US took silver and bronze and thanked God for their success.  I enjoyed watching that.

6. What would you label as the messiest room in your house?

Right now that would be the garage.  Since my kids moved back home and brought all their things with them, I've had to put them in the garage until my son saves up enough money to get his own place.  It's not messy, more like cluttered, with boxes piled up and a sofa next to the pool table.  Inside my house it's kept mess-free.  My kids would say I'm irrational about that too.  But what do they know.

7. Do you follow your heart or your head?

I always follow my head.  I have to think things through and find the logic in everything.  I wish I was more of a follow my heart type person, but I've learned that God created me this way, as an intellectual and a thinker.  I also know that in important matters, He does move in my heart and I can trust Him.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

My daughter had orientation yesterday for her new job at the orphanage.  She spent the entire day learning about what you can and cannot do with the children, how they must be treated and handled, that sort of thing.  And I suddenly wished I could bring a couple of them home with me for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas.  I don't know if that was just a whim or something God is speaking to me about.  Do I follow my head or my heart?  I choose to wait.  Wait on the Lord.  He'll let me know.