Busy Days...

Things continue to be pretty hectic around here. We're making headway on the house - our small group from church is coming over on Sunday evening to help us paint the living room and kitchen. Are those true friends or what? :) We've been doing the prep these past couple days - using lots of spackle, pulling off paneling, discovering wallpaper remnants (we're removing chair rail in one room, and suddenly had a vivid reminder that when we stripped the ugly wallpaper several years ago, we simply CUT around the trim) Ah, the joys. A dear friend watched A for me yesterday for five hours so I had some good solid working time - I'll also have that tomorrow when hubby and the kids take a vehicle up to his sister's. Speaking of hubby, he's really going through a lot right now. Things at work are really tough right now as people are being laid off and others are training their replacements. Lots of raw emotions floating around - and he's worked with most of these people for nearly 13 years. He's carrying a lot on his shoulders right now, and please pray for him as the Lord brings him to mind. Please pray for me, too, that I can be supportive and helpful, rather than just adding to his burden.

I took some fabulous pictures of the sky yesterday that I was hoping to share, but we're having computer issues once again. When I turned our main computer on this morning (which I'd dumped pics onto last night before heading to bed) I was greeted with an error message, stating that one of the Windows config files is missing. That computer has been giving us a lot of problems in the past couple months, and it may finally be time to just let in rest in peace. In the meantime, I'm working on the old laptop - but no access to pics, editing software, etc. I don't think it's going to be a priority for awhile, either, so posts may be photo-free for a bit.

Well, my coffe is cold and my break time is over. Back to the grindstone!

Friday Funny

You may have heard that tomorrow is Valentine's Day :) Since I have an Italian surname, how about some thoughts on amoré...

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That's amoré.
When an eel bites your hand and that's not what you planned
That's a moray.
When your horse munches straw and the bales total four
That's some more hay.
When a New Zealand man has a permanent tan
That’s a Maori.
When Othello's poor wife, she gets stabbed with a knife
That's a Moor, eh?
When a Japanese knight used a sword in a fight
That's Sa...mur...ai.

Hey, I can hear the groans from here! So is anyone doing anything blissfully romantic tomorrow? Not much happening here at the D house. We'll be painting in the morning, shuttling son off to his last round of basketball, etc. We are planning to send the kids off to bed a bit early then make a nice meal just for ourselves and kick back for the evening. No presents, though. Well, unless you count the microwave as a joint gift :) Yep, ours went out with a loud pop last night as I was cooking vegetables for dinner. Considering we had it nearly 13 years I don't think we can complain much. I needed to run out last night anyway so stopped and picked a new one up. Hauled it in the house, got it all set up, tested it out... and the glass part wouldn't turn. How annoying! So that meant packing it *all* back up so I could return it this morning to pick up a new one. It's sitting on the table now - I haven't even opened the box yet, but you can be sure I'm going to give it a 10 second test run before setting it up in its final location!

Son Fun

Today is the 100th day of school! The kids were each supposed to create a hat with 100 of something. D wanted to use Spiderman stickers (a book of which he'd received in his Christmas stocking), and Daddy volunteered the use of his uber-cool hat. My contribution was creating a band of orange cardstock. Fun times!

And finally, as promised, here is a video clip from Basketball Practice. This was a couple weeks ago, and he definitely has improved even in that brief period :) You'll see him attempt to catch a pass, dribble, then shoot. I must say that I've been really impressed with his coach - very patient with the kids and giving them all a chance to play. Only one week left!

Lastly, just a brief "Yay Me!" update - I weighed in at WW this morning, and I'm down 2 lbs this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, this is one time that the overuse of exclamation points is definitely called for) Philippians 4:13, baby!!

Friday Funny

Received this in an email, and was totally cracking up!

Why parents should always check their children's homework before they hand it in:

A first grade girl handed in the drawing below for a homework assignment.
After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis,

I want to be very clear on my child's illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. The picture is of me selling a shovel.

Mrs. Harrington

Crockpots Rock.

Found this on the MSN homepage this morning. Never really thought about the energy-saving aspect. Lovin' my crockpot even more now!

And can't remember whether I've shared this site before, but I love it!

OK, off for another productive day :)

Random Bits

First off, some silliness from the homefront:

I swear our daughter is trying to make up her own language. She frequently asks me, "Mommy, do you know what -insert random string of sounds here- means?" and then reveals the definition. Some examples (bear with me on the spelling! :) ~

• attoobo - playing video games in the living room
• blurkfoha - walking on ice
• kinnentraction - having to put all your toys away

Yesterday morning, while I was calmly drinking coffee and sorting paperwork, she took a break from playing Polly Pocket to enlighten me further. She asked me what fornicate meant. I choked on my coffee. And then she told me that's when a Mommy says to slow down. Yep, I'm all for slowing down on the fornicating! (insert eye roll here)

Speaking of our daughter, I haven't posted any gratuitous cuteness in awhile, so let me share these few I snapped yesterday. BTW, it's officially now been a year since her brother cut her hair. I've trimmed it several more times, but it really is getting quite long. I'm really disappointed that the curls have vanished, though.

In other news, a boy in our son's class at school recently broke his arm, and now D is constantly thinking he's broken. He slipped on some ice coming home yesterday, and he said his knee was broken. He caught his hand on the toybox lid - and yes, he broke his finger. The one that really cracked me up, though, is when he came to me crying just before dinner. He and his sister bumped heads, and he was quite convinced she'd broken his brain. Oh, the things these kids come up with!

In other son news, he's currently having his first "team sport" experience. We had talked about signing him up for t-ball this spring, but with the move on the horizon we decided to hold off (practice 2 nights a week plus games on the weekend? Nah, too much already squeezed into the schedule). We found out about a basketball program at Salvation Army that seemed pretty good, though: 6 Saturdays, 1 hour each, 30 minutes instruction then 30 minutes of game (although they don't keep score). He's halfway through, and he's enjoying it although I don't know how much he's actually "getting." He's in the 5-7 age bracket, so is the 2nd youngest on his team. The only kid who is younger hasn't actually played yet, as he prefers to sit in the corner and play with the orange cones. Anyway, he's having a hard time with the dribbling, and when he goes to shoot, he doesn't just bend his knees a bit to add a bit of power to his shot - no, he bends so far that his hiney is nearly touching the ground. The coach has been working on everyone keeping their hands up for defense, but D was so thoroughly confused that he was just running around the court looking as though he was being held up. It is so much fun to watch! I really need to post a few pics of him, too. Soon, soon...

One last kid story - as I headed upstairs to shower this morning, the kids were very nicely playing a game with "Word Girl" on in the background. When I came back down, they were sitting on the floor with big, red grins. Guilty grins. They'd eaten an entire container of strawberries (on sale this week at ShopRite 2/$4!) Needless to say, I wasn't exactly thrilled but I did find it very hard not to start laughing at the looks on their faces.

Finally, I have a couple links that I thought I'd pass along (all of which happen to be from Blissfully Domestic): DIY Green Cleaning (using stuff you generally have on hand anyway!), making a very cool personalized playmat from a shower curtain (D is past this now, but he would've loved it!), online swap services, and Weekly Dinner menu plans (complete with linked recipes and shopping list).

Allrighty, I'm outta here!! Off to pack up more of our we-won't-need-this-for-a-couple-months stuff...

Catch-Up, and an attitude adjustment

So here we are again... Monday. Nearly done with the first month of '09. Holy shnikees! Where has the time gone?!

We've officially started packing. Granted, it's only a couple boxes, but the reality of moving is actually begining to sink in. The process is still slow and painful, with my hoarding nature rebelling at each item being passed along or discarded. There's so much I need to do so we can dig into the deep cleaning, painting, etc. Our new president has been sworn in, and the level of hero-worship is just mind-boggling (did you happen to see this?). I'm afraid our daughter is getting a cold (although her little alien frog voice does make me giggle), and I feel "off" as well. My weight loss has plateaud - probably a little something to do with the fact that I've been snacking incessantly (and then I feel lousy about my lack of self-control... think I'll console myself with half a bag of pretzels!) All in all, I've just been a grump.

So I opened my email today and learned I'd been given The Lemonade Award from my friend Shay: "The concept of the Lemonade Award is quite simple. It is all about finding people that display a great attitude and/or gratitude. In this day and time, that is very important to have."

Smack. Yep, that's the sound of conviction :)

Last week, Amy shared some great insights from a Beth Moore study she's doing. I starred it in google reader so I could go back and read it when I had a bit more time. Well, this morning I took the time, and these few sentences really jumped out at me:

I need to remember that God has me in a position way beyond my capability so that I will be at His absolute mercy, realizing that only He can succeed.....never me - especially in my own strength. Sincerity and sweat will never suffice! Good intentions will always result in failure.

So, so true. An excellent reminder that it's ALL ABOUT HIM. As I was thinking about all this, I puleld out my Bible (something I haven't done often enough lately) and read the last chapter of I Chronicles. David has gathered things for the temple (which he'd wanted to build himself) and the kingship is being transferred to his son Solomon. Frankly, there are some things he could really be whining about, but this time he gets it right:

David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, "Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. O LORD, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you." (I Chronicles 29:10-18)

Wow. Now THAT'S the attitude I need to have!