PandaMania!

Okay I know that a few years ago I said I wouldn't be VBS director again.  You know the saying If you want to make God laugh tell him your plans well there you go LOL.  I am sure God was laughing like crazy today when I found myself at the church actually ASKING for the job. No one begged me to take it. No one said if you don't do it there won't be anyone to do it. I just woke up yesterday and knew this year this was my job to do. I am really excited. I think it is going to be SO MUCH fun.  I was glad when I found out some of the leaders from last year are coming back so my recruiting is half done! Can't beat that.

Shell

Hello Michelle!

Wow I have to say I am fnally starting to feel like myself again.  I can't believe it but the combination of that nasty virus plus strep knocked me on my behind for almost 3 weeks.  If you add to it thatTimothy was sick for a week before that I have been running on empty for a month now. But I woke up this morning and thought "Hello Michelle! Welcome back!" I am so glad to say I feel pretty good today.  Of course my house is a disaster.  That kind of disaster that only happens when Mom is out of commission.

Shell

Adoption, Foster Care, Babies....and then there is me.

Man so many people I know are having babies. Some people are having babies, some people are adopting children, and some are starting foster care. I think it is great! I am so happy for these people who are either starting their families or growing their families. Having kids is so much fun. I think it is a great and wonderful calling to be a mother.

Okay so having said that can I say that I am so glad it is all of you and not me. I am loving my kids being older. Each milestone we reach, each age we pass there is a bit of sadness that we have left something behind but I would not want to do it again. I think if I could freeze them right now I maybe would. I actually like my kids right now. But I have to say when I see a baby I think how cute, how sweet, how precious, glad it isn't mine. I am pretty sure that isn't the normal female reaction to a baby LOL but when have I ever been normal?

I have friends who have no children and friends who have 6 children. Personally I don't think you can have too many or too few. I think it is a choice we all make based on our own lives and where our hearts are.

So here is what I am thinking. I will refrain from telling those of you (and you know who you are) who are thinking about adopting your current foster daughter and making her number 7 or you my dear sweet friend who is 40 this year and having your first that you are crazy if you will refrain from calling me selfish because I am glad my kids are getting older and I am kinda looking forword to this time where Dan and I have more time on our own. I promise not to judge you (at least out loud LOL) for your choices if you won't judge me for mine.

Testing out multiple accounts

I have more than one google account. My personal one and my school one. Everytime I log into one it boots me out of the other so I am trying to fix it so I can log in with just one or the other. This post is just a test to see what happens if I post from the other account. Hope it works.

Looking for some motivation.

Wow I am seriously lacking motivation today!  I was thinking all these people take all these medications to make them feel better about all kinds of things.  From prescription to over the counter to health food supplements there are pills that are mood enhancers, mood levelers, pain reducers, energy boosters, libido increasers I mean really if you want it fixed there is a pill for it.  However, I have never seen one to fix the one thing I want fixed.  I want motivation in a bottle.  Wouldn't that just be the cat's meow?

Shell

Favorite Verses

I found I new favorite verse today.  That got me to thinking. It is really surprising that doesn't happen more often.  When you think about how many verses there are I mean WOW. It is kinda like saying my favorite icecream is vanilla before I tried the other 31 flavors.

Isn't it just like God to provide so many verses so no matter where we are in our lives there is a verse that can be our "favorite".  I am guessing that I had read this new verse before. I can't say that for sure because while if asked I will say I have read the whole bible to be honest there are parts of the Old Testament that I more scanned than read.  I know I know it is ALL important but to be honest when I get to the lineage parts especially I kinda zone out.

But I was reading this book today I am too embarrassed to tell the name because it was a sad little romance novel that I would never admit in public I would even read. (Thank you harlequin for coming out with the "love inspired" line that gives me my romance fix without all the trash)  Anyway in the book the woman was talking about how you can't "outgrace God"  I thought wow what an idea. Not to say you can do what ever you want over and over and over and hey no worries God has unlimited grace, but it is good to know that even though I fail to live up to what I want to be Go'd compassion is renewed everyday. Knowing that does give me hope.

 
 
Lamentations 3:21-23
²¹ Yet this I call to mind
   and therefore I have hope:
 ²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
   for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning

Shell

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs!

Okay so I am thinking about getting another dog.  I have the two beagles that to be honest with you I am not all that crazy about. But then I found out someone is giving away a lab collie mix and I am all over it LOL I think a lab collie mix should be a great dog to have.  Dan seems okay with the idea but if anyone is looking for a beagle I have one to give away!

Shell

The things I get into when I am sick.

The other day I posted about Dan being slightly afraid when I get out of the bath and say "I have been thinking". Well just imagine what kind of "thinking" I could do layed up on the couch for a week sick LOL.

I have so many ideas and plans running around in my head right now I can't even think straight.   What am I going to do with all these ideas? Who knows maybe everything... maybe nothing. See that is what I love I LOVE the ideas.  I care very little about seeing them become reality I just love the IDEA!

I know this is hard for most people to understand but that is the way it is for me. I can look at a problem and see what needs to be done to fix it. I just don't care if anyone ever fixes it. As soon as I have shared the solution I am ready to move on to another problem.  One of these days I am going to figure out how to use that to my advantage.

Over the course of the last couple weeks I have:

decided to get a real job even if that means fast food
planned a business planning kids parties
thought about opening a thrift store
decided i should devote full time effort to sell water treatment
****plus had about 100 ideas where to put that effort
decided to find a few kids to watch here at the house
checked into subbing at the schools
investigated the profitability of raising sheep
come up with an entire new plan for disciplining the kids
come up with a new plan for the kids chores and allowance
decided what I should do is find some elderly people to sit with
thought about taking a CNA course so it would be easier to find elderly people to sit with
planned how I am going to change my guest room into an office

And these are just the ideas I had that I can think of right this minute.  Who knows what will happen but what I do know is it isn't safe for me to be left on my own for long periods of time. Who knows what I might be doing next.

Shell

Strep, Wrecks, and Valentine's Day

I have been sick for about a week but didn't go to the doctor until it got bad enough I had to go to Urgent Care. Turns out I do have strep after all.

So today I am sitting at home feeling poopy. Not dressed just wanting the day to go away so I can go back to bed.  I had stuff for Caitie's Valentine's party and Amy was wonderful enough to meet me to get the stuff so I wouldn't have to get dressed and go inside the school. 

So I meet Amy at Food Lion hand off the stuff.  Head back to the house.  As I pull out of Food Lion a guy almost hits me.  The state trooper sees him and pulls him over.  Whew! Accident avoided.  I pull back out on the road to the red light to turn on to main street. I am the first car sitting at the light minding my own business.  Three cars back someone doesn't stop and pushes the two car in front of her into me.

So much for accident avoided.  The state trooper (who is still finishing up with the other guy) comes up to deal with the four car accident I am now involved in.  I am happy to say no one was hurt. My car has little to no damage. But it took close to 1 1/2 hours to deal with it.  I just wanted to say "Hello people I have strep and should be in bed right now!"

So anyway it is Valentine's Day.  I feel like poo and I was in a car accident. Maybe I can talk Dan into stopping at Walmart and buying himself a card telling him how much I love him.

My life as Lucy.

Somedays I wonder if Dan thinks maybe this isn't his real life.  Maybe this is all a dream. How else could he explain the fact that somedays our life looks a whole lot like an episode of "I Love Lucy".

I love watching "I Love Lucy" in the mornings. It starts my day out on such a fun note.  I love to laugh and it always does the trick. But for some reason this morning I am really identifying with Lucille Ball.

She tries so hard to be what she thinks she should be but that thing inside her that says she isn't like everyone else keeps interrupting her best intentions.  The thing is, that thing doesn't tell her she is less than everyone else.  It tells her that she has something special to offer.  No matter how hard she tries to be "normal" that little something extra that makes her "Lucy" keeps showing up telling her that normal isn't enough.

Then you have poor Ricky Ricardo. He spent the entire show either trying keep her from getting in trouble or getting her out of it.  Sometimes you can just see the "How did this happen" on his face.  When I get out of the bath (my favorite place to plot, plan, and scheme) and I say "You know I was thinking...." I see the same look on Dan's face.  While I do feel bad for him sometimes his willingness to play Ricky to my Lucy is one of the things I love about him.  The one constant in Lucy's life was that no matter how crazy her new idea... or how much trouble it got her in... or how frustrated Ricky might get, at the end of the day he loved her.

I have to tell you as a Lucy trying to live in the real world Rickys are pretty rare and I am so very very blessed to have found one!

Shell

Andrea's dishes

So Andrea Anderson had a blog the other day about someone leaving dishes in her car at church on Sunday. That was such an unexpected blessing for her.  But it turns out it was an unexpected blessing for me as well. It got me to thinking about how wonderful our church family really is. I can think of many instances where these wonderful people have shown acts of kindness.

There was of course when we had the fire in our house.  I have never felt so cared for in my life.  They had a "pounding" for us. If you don't know what a pounding is it is what people used to do for newlyweds.  The name is because everyone would bring them a pound of something to fill the pantry. So many people brought things to replace everything we had lost that we had to get a storage unit to keep it in.  We were provided with a place to live, food so I didn't have to cook for weeks. Not to mention the emotional support and prayers.

I know Regina Smith has a similar experience after her husband Eddie's accident.   The long trips she had to make and the time she had to spend away from would have been impossible with out this church family.

I have seen them come together to help build a house, to be a father to the fatherless, and to be a family to those whose families live far away.

I am sure it may seem to some people that the dishes in Andrea's car are a small thing compaired to a burned house or an injured spouse but it really isn't.  These things are all the same because they all show the love this church has for those who choose to adopt them as their family. I feel so blessed to be a part of it.  

I am not sure who it was that put the dishes in Andrea's car but whoever it was...Thank You because you didn't just bless the Anderson family you reminded me why I love being part of  Newington and blessed me as well.

Shell

Wow does time fly!

I swear it is like I went to sleep on October 31, 2010 and woke up and it is February 2011.  The whole holiday season just flew right by.  So here it is a new year and we are trying to get things on track.  I went to a conference one time and they talked about creating the life you want starting today.

So I guess that prompts the question if you could wake up tomorrow and your life was the life you wanted what would that look like? I feel like I am always in one transitional period or another but I don't even know what a perfect day would look like.  The one thing I am sure of is it would be a lot simplier than the way things are today!

Shell