Today I was off work. Now, when you are me, your days off consist of lots of things. For the past, well, I don't know how long it has been, I've scheduled doctors visits, dentists visist and lots of fun stuff like that on my days off. Today, was my turn. What fun! I finally after 8 years decided that I should probably go to the doctor for that fabulous yearly exam. Boy, what a great way to spend your day off right. At any rate, I went to a new doctor, okay not new to the area, but like I said it has been 8-almost 9 years since I've gone, so he was new to me. He was funny, really, I had my exam complete before I knew it. At any rate, he wrote this down for me to go home an watch, since he saw that I had 3 boys, and thought I'd enjoy this. Check it out.

Enjoy!

Well, you can no longer view this on You tube. I was getting ready to email it to someone, and found out, it is not longer available.

Hop over to 5 Minutes for Mom and check out this awesome giveaway. Wouldn't it be great to vacumm in style.

Hop on over and sign up. Hurry, the drawing is Monday October 1.

Goodbye tree

Here are a few pictures of a quit funny little incident at our house last week. Here goes.

We are trying to sit and eat together, which is nearly impossible with 4 ADHD males, and beautiful weather outside. Rob eats and disappears, and then Zach runs in the house as I'm cleaning up from supper, and is yelling "Dad has a chainsaw and is cutting down the tree." His eyes were bright with excitement. Well, of course all the boys had to go and watch, it was quit a site to behold. You can see Zach laying in the lawn watching. It was so funny. My husband sometimes amazes me. He hadn't even let me know his plans for the evening, and then down comes the tree. Well, in his defense, the tree is dying and needs to be taken down, but I guess I just didn't think it'd be that day. Then he said last that this is the last week for brush removal by the city. Good enough excuse I guess.

Happy Birthday Me!

Well, again it has been forever. I think things to post all the time, but getting it done after working all day a "trying" to keep my house in somewhat order is nearly impossible. I work every other weekend, which means I have Thurs/Friday off every other week.

I was off last weekend, in fact I eve took a vacation day for Friday, I was so excited to have a 3 day weekend. Guess what! I got sick. Well, in all reality it was my allergies, but it was awful, I could barely move around I felt so awful. It is so aggrevating to be sick on my days off. I plan to get so much done, and then *WHAM* I'm Sick. Last Friday was my birthday, the boys got invited to a birthday party for a neighbor, so Rob and I decided to go out alone. It was nice. We went to O'Charleys. The food was wonderful, the atmosphere was a little more peaceful than say Chilis or Texas Roadhouse (which is one of our favorites), so we enjoyed the evening, except for the fact that I didn't feel so hot. On Saturday we did not do much of anything, because Ididn't feel so well, but the boys made me a birthday cake. (Like the candle) It was yummy! Butter Pecan Cake with Butter Cream frosting(Jordan baked the cake, and Zach frosted it). Rob and the boys decided to put candles on the cake, but of course we didn't have 35, so they opted for the black candle, and boy did the kids think it was funny!

You know how not fun it is when you are a sick Mom. I was kind of grumbling about it, then the Holy Spirit put me in check. You know there are so many Moms suffering so horribly. Like, Heather, who is suffering with a horrible illness herself, plus a sick child. Then there is Amy whose is finished with her suffering on this earth, but left behind a husband and toddler. And,there are many more I just dont' have the time to find them all and link them. Through all of the sufferings they give praise to God. I was so convicted of my complaining, that I had to repent, and realize that God is in control off ALL things. Why, oh why, do we loose sight of this awesome truth so often. God is so good, God is faithful, and EVERYTHING, absolutely EVERYTHING that is done in our lives is to bring glory to him. My boys, all being ADHD, and requiring so much, I don't even know how to describe it, but you know again, the Holy Spirit has put me in check yet again, when I want to gripe and complain about it, and how hard it is most days. God made each one of us exactly the way he wanted us, and our purpose in everything is to bring glory to God. Why do we wonder around coparing oursleves to others, hoping maybe we could be more like so and so, or why can't I have things this way, well, plain and simple. We are exactly the way God created us to be. I could go on and on, but I don't feel it necessary.

Rob found out yeaterday that he got his raise. YEEHAW!!! Another $1.05, effective this past Monday. He has gotten his CDL license now. That was a major feet for him. He was so nervous aobut it, and God is so faithful, he remained calm and past with flying colors. He was so pleased.

Well, you know I am a talker, and I could go on and on forever. I really must get up from this chair, clean the house somewhat, and go to the gorcery for supper. Dinner tonight is meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans. This was requested by both Zach and Rob. Zach thought is was so *funny* when Rob said, meatloaf sounds good, and Zach had just told me that.

Have a blessed day.

Funky Robot

And I wonder why my camera batteries are always low when I go to use the camera. Evidently I have some little movie makers. Too funny! IT is really dark, but I got a good laugh.

What is God's providence?

God's providence is his completley holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing every creature and every action.

The Westminster shorter catechism in modern english.

I posted this catechism question and answer just to clarify what I mean when I say "smiling providence" or if I use the phrase "frowning providence".

I may post more on these thoughts another day. Like I said, lots and lots of thoughts running through this mind of mine.

I haven't had much time to read lately, well actually I'm not much of a reader at all. But, I've been thinking lately that I need to read Hinds Feet on High Places again. We read that book as we were leaving the UPC and it was such a blessing. I think I need to read it again. We'll see how that goes. Oh how I wish that I still had it on CD and could listen on the way to work.

Well, just some of the thoughts running in my head lately. There really are lots of thoughts running through this little mind of mine, just don't always have words to express them.

More smiling providence

The vehicle that God blessed us to be able to purchase last week, and the boat that we were blessed to be given along with the trailer. Ain't God good.

Well, while the boys were in Illinois this summer, they stayed with Uncle Rick and Aunt Paula a few days, and they live across the street from Ricks parents. Well, Rick's family used to have a lake house, which they allowed anyone and everyone to use at one time or another. We stayed one year for a vacation. No charge to us, we just had to buy our own food. WOW!!! They had this lake house forever, and used it to bless others, this boat was at lake house, and was also used to bless others for many years. Well, recently they've sold the house, and the boat was stored in their back yard, and they wanted to just give it away. Well, Jordan evidently went over and did some "work" for them and the boat and trailer was his payment. Well, we were able to go and get it this past weekend, since we were able to purchase the Durango, in which to haul the boat. These are some pictures of the boys "cleaning the boat". What a blessing that Rick's parents have been to the Kingdom of God, and now not only have we been blessed by staying at the lake house, and using this boat then, now the boat has been given to us. My boys will get much use out of this boat, since you can tell from many pictures I've posted, they LOVE to fish. I guess there are a few little leaks that need some repair, but hey, no big deal.

Now, to the Durango. We have had this minivan that God blessed us with last year, and it had served its purpose for us. We had it one year, and only paid $1200 for it. Well, as of late it has been having some problems, and we didn't trust it to drive out of town, so it was Rob's work vehicle. See this van was purchased right when Rob lost his job, and he no longer has a company vehicle to use, and that left us with one vehicle. Well, God made it possible that we were able to get that $$ scrounged up and purchased the van. Again, I say it was not healthy now. Well, with me working out of town and working every other weekend this wasn't going to work well for the church situation. We were worried about how Rob and the boys would get to church safely. When I was working at the store in town, he'd just drive up to my store, and we'd all go together, well this certainly was not going to work with me being 30 minutes away in a different direction from church. Well, smiling providence allowed me to have 3 Sundays in a row off, this bought us time. Last week, with the $$ we'd worked on saving, and then trading in the van we were able to purchase the Durango for a great deal. Rob had been looking for a few months at a car lot here in town, everyone whose is anyone will deal with this family owned business. So, at any rate, we'd toyed with the idea of a truck with extended cab, then a minivan, then anything we could use to tow the boat and trailer, then this vehicle came on the lot. We drove it and loved it. If you don't know, and Durango has 3 seats, so it is like a minivan with the seating capacity but it is like a truck in other ways. The best of both worlds. So, needless to say that the boys all took a trip up north in the new (not really new) SUV (as they call it--constantly) to go to a family reunion and get the long awaited boat. I think we'll be going camping in 2 weekends when I have a full weekend off. Oh yeah, that is another reason for a dependable vehicle with space, we could not camp well in our car. It just didn't fit the stuff very well. Oh another blessing, we needed a hitch to tow the trailer with. The Durango did not have one, which we thought was good, means it hadn't towed anything yet, and we had kept aside some $$ for that expense. The car lot we bought the Durango from took in another Durango before we picked up ours and it had a hitch, Rob asked if we could buy the hitch and they just removed it and gave it to us. Boy was that some "brownie points" in my boys eyes. Isn't that funny. Oh, and no we don't always have the box on top. We were just thrilled to have a vehicle we could use it on again, so Rob was able to buy an inexpensive kit to make it work on the new vehicle. See, there was not kit for our Malibu of the minivan--so man is this extra space for us.

Well, enough ramblings for now. I just wanted to share all the many "material" blessings God has given us lately. You know, the job, the raise in income, the Durango, the boat and the list goes on. We truly have been blessed with the smiling providence of God.

Going away gifts

This is a picture of the nice gifts my co workers from my old store gave me. I guess they talked to my sister one day and asked what I liked. They covered all the bases. I LOVE yankee tarts, and of course I like to use 2 at a time, one in the front of the house-one in the back. The one thing I actually collect (well sort of, if someone else buys them for me) is the Willow Tree figurines. The little boy has a ballon that says "Congrats"--I put him in my new office. The tart burner goes in my room beautifully. The card, in case you can't read was PERFECT for them to get me. It said, with an attitude "FINE, Be that way, Leave." and on the inside it said, "I needed something to whine about today." I got a great chuckle out of this card. It was a very thoughtful gift, and I really appreciated it. I do miss my old co-workers.

Here are a few pictures of Austin and his birthday cake. We celebrated at Faith and Brents house, since we were there the day of Austins birthday. He chose to have the ice cream cake for his birthday.

He got money for his birthday and this is what he'd had his eyes on for a while. He chose to buy the awesome castle and stuff to go with it. Great fun.

Grandma and her grandkids

Here is a picture of Rob's mom and all the kids while we were there in July. I totally forgot to post this picture and some others.

Zach, Myles, Acacia, Jordan, Montgomery and Austin

You belong in Fall

You Belong in Fall
Intelligent, introspective, and quite expressive at times...You appreciate the changes in color, climate, and mood that fall bringsWhether you're carving wacky pumpkins or taking long drives, autumn is a favorite time of year for you

http://www.blogthings.com/whatseasonareyouquiz/

I've been thinking something lately and I need to post about it, I just have to figure out how to get my thoughts into words that make sense. Am I the only one who has a problem with that sometimes (well, with my quit frequently)?

Well, I've neglected my blog lately. I am trying to learn to juggle life again. It seems I get in a rythm, things go well, then somehow, things seem to start to fall apart (well not literally).

Things are smoothing out. We are all adjusting well with the new job. They boys are being wonderful with the changes. I think that knowing with the exception of an emergancy, I am home in the evenings. We can have a somewhat normal schedule. It really is going well.

Today I went to church this morning alone. The boys are out of town (story for later) and therefore I went alone. It was a wonderful service. I'm not so sure that it was any better than other, or because I was alone and could really concentrate better. The sevice was so God glorifying. The scriptures pointed to Christ, the sermon was gospel centered (even though it was from Song of Solomon), the songs were God glorifiying. It was so refreshing. It made me realize once again that everything we do should bring glory to God. It sure gave me a new-well renewed--perspective on my job. God gave me this job, and it should bring glory to him.