Category: daily life

Happy Homemaker Monday – 3/20/2017

Posted on by Mary

The weather::: today will be grey and very overcast with the high of 43 but the temps are looking up with a dip back into the 20’s but then rising again to 50’s.  we still have a very thick blanket of snow, but there are spots of grass in the areas the wind blew the snow away.

On my reading pile:::  Pretty much the same as last week.  Unglued, The Best Yes, You are Loved no Matter What, and I Am

Movies or Shows I watched this weekend:::  Nothing I was away most of the weekend at a Youth rally

On my TV:::I am about to put my TobyMac  station on Pandora on our TV

On the menu for this week:::

Monday Venison with Potatoes, Carrots, and  Tomatoes  in the crockpot

Tuesday Leftovers

Wednesday TaterTot casserole in the crockpot

Thursday Meatball subs

Friday Hamburgers and hotdogs and fries

Saturday Pizza (Hubby’s Homemade including my fave Bacon cheeseburger Pizza YUM)

Sunday Meatloaf and potatoes and a veggie (meatloaf and potatoes go in the crockpot together)

On The To-Do List :: I need to tackle my sewing cabinet this week.  When hubby built it for me there was no time to organize it so that is my major tackle for this week AND if I can complete that I will move onto the craft / exercise room

What I am sewing, crocheting, knitting or creating::: I have a couple of Cricut projects I need to work on.  I’m still learning to use my new machine, but I need to just practice more with it to build up my confidence

Happening this week:::Our friend is moving out this week.  we are happy for her that she has found a place so quickly, everyone is sad that they are going but it’s a new adventure for them.   God has blessed them greatly in this and we look forward to see how God works in their lives

Looking around the house::: the downstairs looks amazing, we have to find son #2’s AWANA grand prix car sine he lost it….and we can’t seem to FIND IT ANYWHERE   YIKES

From the camera:::

kitten therapy

What I’m wearing today::: comfy jeans…you know the ones with elastic…Hey don’t judge the girl I jam still healing from gallbladder surgery and real pants are very uncomfortable still, a blue sweater with navy and maroon plaid collar and tails  and my sneakers

One of my simple pleasures::: Coffee with yummy creamer…

Bible verse, Devotional:::

Hebrews 9:11NIV

11 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here,[a] he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation

 

For More Happy Homemaker Posts Check out tDiary of a Stay At Home Mom

 

Random Ramblings: All the New Normals All wrapped into one Big Crazy

Posted on by Mary

Well I am still here, and I am still alive…and now I am well. and Every Monday I am going to post  random ramblings about our lives….this maybe one of the longer ones…it spans months but  it is to keep family and friends up to speed  on our day to day lives, from the perspective of our faith as a family intertwined as it is who we are, not what we do!

So Onto todays Ramblings….

Let’s start at the latest bit of crazy and the least unexpected of all.  Nearly two weeks ago….I found myself in the ER waiting       for emergency surgery….MY gallbladder to be exact.  Let’s just say apparently I had been a lot sicker than I realized.  It’s amazing at just how well I feel since the surgery, it has been kinda hard for my poor hubby to keep me down.  I have learned my limits though…like bending.  I gave up bending over a week ago!!    The back pain that I had been experiencing  for literally months went away as soon as the gall bladder was gone and has not been back since.  And during this time God really struck me with some new thoughts….now that I was feeling better And that I had to be resting it was the perfect time to read and write and read and write and write and read some more…and I have done just that.  It is during these moments that God and I have worked through some REALLY tough stuff….NO joke.    Part of what we have worked on is this lack of confidence thing that has haunted me for 2 1/2 years now.  but Im going to be blogging on that regularly now.

The next oddity is that this has been our absolutely sickest winter since our oldest child was in preschool…he is going to be 12 in just a few short months…we have gotten 6 illnesses that have hot almost very person in our family.  the most recent was child #3 getting the flu… yes he had the flu shot.   this has not been easy. We have not had 1 whole week since New Years without at least 1 kid home sick from school….it’s not a two and a half months I want to revisit anytime soon.

And perhaps the craziest of antics of all actually happened in October.  we had a friend and her three small children move into our home.  yeah so we grew by four…if you are keeping track that is 10 all together and 3 cats and a dog…..no exaggerations. . Their apartment (in our house) has been mostly done since just before Christmas and in just about a week and a few days they will be moving into their own place.   It has been a stretching experience but we  are glad we did it!

We also said goodbye to hubby’s Grandpa in October and then his uncle VERY unexpectedly almost a month later.

Im really sorry it has been so incredibly long since I have written.  it has not been  my intention And I will be  discussing on Mondays my struggle and explaining my journey with my word confidence, so place on jumping into that next Monday.  I can say this….God has given me the desire and gift to write…or so I am told, so I will write.  I am not going to hide any longer.  My confidence is not in men but in Christ….and I am not doing this for anyone else but HIM to bring him glory through what I have to say!  Thanks for sticking with me! and I look forward to getting to know each other in the near future.

with much love,

Mary

True Confession: On Brokenness and Breaking the Silence….

Posted on by Mary

brokennessBrokenness comes in all shapes and sizes.

Sometimes it comes in the form of a diagnosis that we believe ends in no good for our future. I received such a diagnosis at ripe old age of 16. I had been diagnosed since the age of 13 with age-related Macular Degeneration. You may ask how on earth could you be 13 and have anything age-related? But the dilemma came with the type of Macular Degeneration I have. There are two forms, Wet and Dry. Juvenile on-set is Dry. however Age- related is either Dry or Wet, Well I have wet, and since the age of 13 I have had the eyes of a 65 year old. Minus a year and a half after I had surgery but I still had a shadow. An ever constant reminder that something could and did show back up again. At 16, or the month before I turned 16. All I could think about was the freedom that came with a car. Then I got scared. My freedom stripped away. Who wanted a damaged girl.? (My husband of now 13 years did that’s who.) What had gone wrong to make God mad at me? I heard nothing about grace in the church I grew up in. All that echoed through my head was countless Sunday school stories that said if you sin, bad things happen. And bad things happen, when you sin. I thought my life was over. And in all honesty there were days I thought about ending it all. I would be forever legally blind.

Then there are the phone calls people dread….all people. You know the ones, I’m sorry honey but Gram passed away. Did I mention that it was phone call #11….in a year!

And then there is the moment you hear the service coordinator (you have already worked with the previous two years) as you explain what’s going on (what you already know in your soul) as she says, oh Mary I am so sorry I think we missed it. I am pretty sure he has AUTISM.

Or two years later when you are standing in your church and your little boy runs out of a classroom yelling the most awful thing you could ever imagine……your head swims. Continue reading “True Confession: On Brokenness and Breaking the Silence….” →

TRUE CONFESSION: On Being Distracted….

Posted on by Mary

DistractedAre you distracted? I know I am. I have been distracted for as long as I can remember. Think I’m exaggerating ?Ask my mom….NO JOKE. Homework in the afternoon after school I’d rather be doing a million other things besides that! Or how about my teachers, or you could just look at the comments on my report cards. I probably could have been diagnosed with ADD, matter of fact I bet I could pass the test for adult ADD, or As I like to refer to it as ADOS – Attention Deficit, OHHHH Shiny- Thanks Mark Hall from Casting Crowns (see his testimony for more explanation)

Oh wait what were we talking about? Oh right, DISTRACTIONS!

I even get distracted from sleep..no seriously, IT JUST HAPPENED. I have planned into my time here at camp for naps. One a day. Every day. I set my alarm because then I won’t sleep too long, and I really want to sleep at night. Anyway in order to actually hear my alarm I have to have the sound turned up. I keep my sound turned down for both services and while I write and read…BECAUSE IT DISTRACTS ME! It keeps me from getting the things done I need or want to accomplish. I don’t need to jump at every ding, or dong….BUT today I was so close to being sound asleep then I heard the ding. SCARED ME TO DEATH! I tried my best to ignore it, but I. Just. Couldn’t. Do. It. So I grabbed my phone.

Voicemail.

Listened to it.

“Try again”

Yep that is all it said. “TRY AGAIN” I didn’t recognize the number, it was out of state. GRRRR. And when I jolt out of sleep there is just no going back so here I am.

Writing.

Something I LOVE to do.

But in all honesty this isn’t exactly the type of distraction I want to talk to you about. It actually happened in my reading Yesterday I was reading The Battle Plan for Prayer by Stephen and Alex Kendrick. and They made a statement that left me with my mouth gaping open. “no Church program, religious event, political effort or humanitarian cause can trump the awesome power of what God can do in the response to the prayers of his people.” Now this struck a much deeper chord with me and Im going to take this a little deeper than they did. So let’s ask this question…..what is the opposite of distraction?

Continue reading “TRUE CONFESSION: On Being Distracted….” →

True Confession: On the Noises Inside My Head

Posted on by Mary

TRUE COFESSIONNotice how In that title of true confession I didn’t say VOICES…but then again sometimes the noises in my head sound a whole lot like voices…..the voices of my children, my hubby , the clients at the pregnancy center, my friends, my family, the newscast anchorman, advertisements, authors, teachers, pastors (oh wait that is my hubby) and let’s add my voice in there too. My voice that reminds me of that mile long to-do list, the needing to find such and such that has been missing for 3 weeks, books to read, notes to send, kids to feed….and the list goes on and on and on. and lets be honest MY VOICE tends to show up at 10:05 as I lay my head down to sleep, or at 4:30(Wednesday and Thursday mornings) OR like last Friday morning 3:30.It really never ends. Just as we scratch one thing off, another three jump onto the page. We keep moving.

Well I’m writing aren’t you impressed. It has been quite a while. Do you want to know how I can write?

  1. I’m not home
  2. I have no kids with me..only Rosie Our chocolate labradoodle. She doesn’t say a word…unless I leave her to go to the service, then she makes a most pitiful sound comes out of her body. She really isn’t used to the camper yet.
  3. I’m an introvert, so I have avoided human connection as much as possible and can count on one hand the amount of times I have been on social media in the last 36 hours.

The funny thing is, this is my second year taking this respite time away. My husband has made me. Last year was HARD. This year not so much. When hubby left early yesterday morning with our two youngest, I stood in the camper, stunned by the silence. Not just the external silence but the internal silence as well. THERE WERE NO NOISES. What is this strange phenomenon???

Last year I found myself putting out fires and I was on a rigorous posting schedule for a conference I was working on the team of. This year there is nothing…NOT ONE THING nagging at me to get done. Well except for my reading list.

There is one more voice though…..it is small and quiet and even though it is such, it tugs at my heart far greater that all the others combined and sadly enough because it is not “dire” enough it can often get pushed off until “LATER”.

Continue reading “True Confession: On the Noises Inside My Head” →