Category: kids

Life Unexpected: Living Outside the Normal Everyday Crazy

Posted on by Mary

Unexpected things happen ALL the time…Have you every heard the expression

“When it rains it pours”

Well, yesterday it was a monsoon.  I laugh now as I look back at the unexpected happenings.

So yesterday started out in its normal crazy fashion…Up at 5:30 (First day back after Spring Break I might add) Yeah that was easy!!   Ha!!  Lunches made kids fed, three of them on the bus at 6:25. Whew!

Finished up my study Questions from “You Are Loved No Matter What” by Holley Gerth (THAT BOOK IS AAZING)

Bus alarm goes off a second time ..Fourth child out at the bus for a 7 50 pick up.

Back inside:

Blogging

Bible Study

Reading

Normal household chores

Then I did something that is completely normal and it led to something SOOOOO completely Unexpected.  I went out to the garage to get chicken to thaw for dinner….the unexpected was that the upright freezer door wasn’t shut all the way….UH OH!  yep, so the rest of the normal plans out the window and I collected all the thawed gross things from the freezer that now resembled that of the abominable snowman fro  Monsters Inc….WELCOME TO THE HIMALAYAS was all that ran through my mind!  well after my hands we frozen and completely sticky…my sweatshirt and my pants doused int the  conglomeration of mystery liquids……I had all the Ick taken care of….found chicken in another freezer and thawed that, put it in the crockpot and what’s that?  the alarm for group #1 of our kiddos returning from school with #2 returning soon after group #1.  Did I mention I was having Bible study with a teen from our youth group around the same time?  Hubby was picking her up.

Hubby and I had realized that the freezer had been ajar since we left to visit family on Thursday YAY! Hubby also informed that while he was on a run to deliver a tractor (normal) His glasses broke and feel apart while he was driving (UNEXPECTED and dangerous)  he made it taped them together BUT now had t run to the eye place we get our glasses prescriptions filled.  At that point he offered to take the kids with him and to pick up groceries (Normal and AMZING) But half way through his trip the fan in our van  wouldn’t shut off…even when  the van was shut off and key removed (UNEXPECTED but isn’t can trouble almost always)  I finished my bible study, her dad picked her up, I finished dinner and I sat down on the couch.

Everyone cam rushing in and quite frankly if you have read  Hope for the Weary Mom or seen Mom’s Night Out  you will get what I am about to say.

I had a moment…..And my kids ate  dinner  in silence…and I felt horrible (after all hubby’s sermon was coursing through my brain….Saying” you blew it”!!

Hubby left for a meeting, saying that if it ended before a certain time he was going to run to the store to get the part for the car. Ok off he went I gave the 45 minute warning till bed….

Homework

Chores

Reading

Child #3 asks “mom can I get my shower?” (NORMAL)

” Yep you can”

10 minutes later….As he stands at the top of the stairs , “Mommy why do you have your razor in the shower?”  Ummm because it’s my shower and it’s hanging up above your reach!

Umm no it’s not and I think Im bleeding everywhere .  (SO UNEXPECTED  that it took a few seconds to register, but I snapped into  nurse mommy mod) e. let’s add to this that this is the child with Autism AND he is JUST out of the shower.

So after some minor freaking out (on his part) my little army of three non injured kids snapped into a well oiled machine f helpfulness.  And I could not with all the pressure I could get the bleeding to stop.  I had to call hubby.

Hubby came home….Off to urgent care….To sit and sit and sit some more .  Usually our urgent care is very quick….Not last night.  They finally got him in at 10-ish.    due to how his foot was cut they had to create  an imitation scab.  When they left, the battery in the car was dead from the constantly running fan (Unexpected, kind of) they came home at 12:30 am.  (UNEXPECTED)

SLEEP (normal)

Now this morning had a few unexpected things like oversleeping and leaving child #4’s math homework on the table, but compared to yesterday it was a breeze!

Thankfully in all of the UNEXPECTED events of yesterday, it could have led to major strife and minus the MOMENT I had unrelated t all the rest going on, it’s those moments that show our true colors.   Does our responses point to a Savior who is in control of every detail, or do we get bent out shape and let everyone know it , that it didn’t go according to our plan.  I know it wasn’t in my plan to smell like a garbage can. Do we moan and groan about how awful these circumstances or do we whisper a prayer and say ok LORD it’s not about me.  There has been a lot in my life that has been UNEXPECTED, soon good, some not so good and some just horrible things.   Thankfully God doesn’t expect us to be perfect through it all, he wants us to rely on Him, for everything!

Random Ramblings: CRAZY weekend

Posted on by Mary

Actually its been a super crazy week since I last wrote a Random Ramblings….. Crazy Crazy CRAZY!!!!

Let’s Start with last week.

J was home from school on Monday because he had a fever the night before..and the school holds to a 24 hour policy without meds. T, K, and S went to school, but we were all very aware about the storm heading our way.  Hubby had a meeting Monday night.  Snow showed up Early Tuesday morning and we quickly realized that things had changed over night…our original 12 inches was upgraded and by Tuesday evening we had 29 inches of snow.  did I mention the kids had a snow day Tuesday )YAY)…..and then Tuesday afternoon a travel ban was put into place…… so Wednesday no school….Thursday rolled around and the roads were much better excluding the drift spots, but no AWANA that night.  J’s respite care worker came Thursday and Friday instead of Tuesday and Wednesday…. Hmmm I wonder why. Hubby  was at church from 10-4-430 and then we had some errands to run and dinner out together (Are you getting tired yet, cuz I am just writing it.  THEN Friday Happened….Initially all the kids had off school for Friday but since they exceeded their 5 allotted snow days T, K, and S all had school on Friday  so it was just J home.  Hubby and J went to church to finish up the previous days project.  When they came home J’s service coordinator came for a brief meeting and his respite care worker came…we ate a quick lunch and were off to visit a church person who also had her gall bladder out last week (That is 3 of us from our church in about 3 months), then we had to pick up the kids from school (OOPS almost forgot that detail…thanks J for reminding us at lunch) had to o pick up K’s friend, whose parents are our church’s youth leaders, from her grandparents house so she could come spend the weekend with K while her parents, I and two teenagers went to a youth rally….. BREATHE!!! We drove home that night, stopped at Walmart  and came home….. slept….. then left AGAIN the next morning to head back.  We were there till 5ish and then headed home again… IN MORE SNOW.  I didn’t get to go right home though I had a meeting at church that took a while because it involved some artistic work… and you know artists, we are our own worst critics!   Yep OCD was strong!!  I came home to my children (T & K) preparing dinner for us!  What a blessing those two are!  And that leads us to Sunday with all the normal Sunday stuff for a pastor’s family.

This life is crazy and we all go through crazy times but in the end we have choices.  As the speaker at the youth rally I attended this weekend shared as he spoke through 1 Corinthians 13, we all have a choice in being loving we can be kind or we can be rude….. So in these times of  Crazy it’s very easy to become self absorbed and rude, I mean ungrateful… and much more or we can CHOOSE  to look beyond our crazy, our horrible, our circumstances and be who God has called us to be…… LOVING!   It’s not easy and it takes a ton of practice.  I know I’m not there yet.  I’m not perfect and I most certainly DON’T have this all figured out. So start small. That’s what I am doing. I’m picking one thing….. and I’m choosing to pay attention to others rather than my crazy! How about you? What keeps you from being loving when THAT is what God calls us to do?

 

It’s Been a Month…..

Posted on by Mary

It's Been A Montha Month…a whole month?   REALLY? Tomorrow marks a month since I last posted , and it’s not because of a lack of want.   it’s been a very crazy month and i wish I could say it was going to get better.   Actually it will…..once we leave on vacations, but until then the month coming will hold some fun!

 

It had been a pretty focused month …and then it happened last week….I got sick.   I have not been sick all winter…I would start down the cold road and then I would take extra vitamins and then Id be fine.My seeds That needed to be are all started…They aren’t really doing much BUT they are started at least!I had my laptop sitting next to last week, open all ready to write but my arms ached so BAD!  I just rolled over and went to sleep.

So here are some of th things we have accomplished over the last month

  1. Little Bean turned 6
  2. Picnics
  3. Weasels’s 3rd quarterly report was written and sent in.
  4. Homeschool curriculum for grade 3 has been purchased  and recieveed
  5. Letter of Intent to homeschool has been sent in
  6. Away has been completed
  7. we acquired a second set of college stdents (related to a class that they take in the special education degree)  they spend 25 hours with a family over the course of a semester.   For whatever reason the second set couldn’t finish out their hours with their assigned family so we were asked if we could fit in another set.  this was a fourth semester participating in this program…a lot of this college kids don’t…or can’t connect but the group we had this semester really connected wonderfully with weasel…..they were simply amazing!
  8. My stack of reading is GOING NO WHERE FAST!   I just had too many things going on at once, but soon I will have more time once homeschooling is done for the year.
  9. we (my Women’s Bible study group that I leadI) put on this AMZING Ladies Brunch….. And we are beginning to form the foundation of a a thriving women Ministry in our church.  this was really time consuming, BUT it’s what I am called to do and I love it!
  10. we are getting ready to kick off our next ladies Bible study  using Rest Assured By Vicki Courtney which I reviewed here a couple of months ago.  I have fallen in Love with the book and it is beginning a 4 level Bible study series spanning 4 books
    1. Rest Assured
    2. The Best Yes
    3. Thrive
    4. Fervent
  11. and even though I have been silent on the blog, I have been writing.   There is a blog series pending the release of Stacey Thacker’s book  Fresh Out of Amazing.   This series of blog posts has been shall we say….HARD!  that seems like such an understatement.
  12. There have been people in my life who need me…not just my hubby and kids.  I have some friends who are really going through some really hard things…unthinkable things.  sad things.  and I will be there for them.  I made a determination a year ago that I would be that friend that God uses to be a light….(I write this as Michael W. Smith’s song I will be Here for You come on)
  13. We also have another Bible study meeting here in our home.
  14. and there are somethings I just can’t share.   tThey quite possibly could require “new Normal’s”    But we are willing.  That’s really what God asks of us, is willingness.  Usually based around our “i’ll never…” statements..
  15. Little Bean accepted christ as his Savior,  then later that week, 3 young girls from our church followed suit!  what an amazing blessing…Did I mention Little Bean accepted Christ on MOTHER”S DAY    🙂
  16. Hubby and I celebrated 13 years of marriage..while I was sick 🙁
  17. Tomorrow is Hubby’s Birthday!

Well there is a look inside our last month.  You will be hearing more from me more often I have some really neat thing coming down the line including a weekly project Post, sharing my latest creations and  a snapshot into my planner….I have been using The Happy Planner for the last 7 months and boy am I loving it.    There will also be some  Why I do what I do posts, inspired by Rest Assured and The Best yes, So won’t you Stay tuned in the coming days weeks and months as we jump into writing again!  I promise It won’t be a month till you hear from me again !

Blessings

Mary

Fuller House: A Promise Broken

Posted on by Mary

Fuller House_

Fuller House is the 2016 reboot of acclaimed 80’s-90’s family TV show Full House and is based on the life of  DJ (Tanner) Fuller and her two “she-wolf” Clan members, Sister- Stephanie Tanner and life-longBFF-Kimmy Gibbler.  As a true 90’s kid I was giddy in anticipation over the return of such a classic CLEAN family TV show. especially since the breed has become virtually extinct since the 90’s.  I perhaps would not have been so giddy if I had not heard the interview with Candace Cameron Bure promising that the show had “THE SAME GREAT FAMILY VALUES” and that is exactly where it stayed. A promise…it’s a broken promise!!

Let’s Talk about the 90’s show for a minute…..(TRUE CONFESSION we own all 8 seasons on DVD and we allow our children…ALL OF THEM…to watch all 8 seasons freely.  the show is played out in such a way that they didn’t condone poor choices and unhealthy habits, so therefore it is easy to talk to our kids about the poor choices.

Alcohol is barely mentioned..an occasional reference to wine or champagne, and every once in a great while beer. AND you never saw them drink…ANY OF THEM.

NO references to drugs in positive light.

Except for the very first season, swearing was very minimal.

Marriage was held in high regard.

The kids were innocent and it was frowned upon for  young kids to make out.

Dancing wasn’t raunchy.

AND there was no general RAUNCHINESS.

Women weren’t pieces of meat to be pawed at, drooled over and treated as though they were only good for sleeping with, making out with, and obsessing over.

Now just to note Uncle Jesse fit the bill with a lot of the above but changed greatly at the entrance of Becky.  BUT I will say that uncle Jesse’s behavior was only alluded to and far less disgusting than the current lifestyle of Stephanie who is definitely a downright appalling version of Uncle J.

There’s a start.

So in the light of the above statements let’s talk 2016 reboot.

ALCOHOL.  There is a whole lot of drinking, being drunk, loosing self control while under the influence and we aren’t talking wine EITHER.  we are talking Hard stuff.  Tequila is mentioned A LOT!.   The especially disturbing part is the hard alcohol  in the midst of children’s parties.  There are 2 references. One at Ramona’s birthday party and another while Kimmy is setting up a party and she says, “it’s a kid’s party, of course there will be Booze”  There is some really intense making out, due to “having a few shots”…and really far more references and instances than the few I mentioned.  Almost every episode has some reference to alcohol and is a far cry from the original series.. (I would just like to point out that people in real life get arrested for the poor judgement of alcohol at kids parties) ARE WE FORGETTING HOW DJ AND STEPHANIES MOM WAS KILLED?  That’s right, a drunk driver!    Irresponsibly drinking.  Getting hammered while watching  your own kids let alone others children, it’s the very thing Danny protected his kids from…or at least tried to.

DRUGS.  There was one reference to drugs that really glorified them.  DJ was loopy after her first kiss with Matt and Stephanie asked her “You didn’t find my brownies did you?”  This is a clear reference to pot brownies.   And clearly they must have been in the house…with kids present…ALSO SOMETHING THAT GETS PARENTS ARRESTED EVERYDAY!

SWEARING- it’s prevalent and even comes out of the self proclaimed devout Christian’s mouth…. on MORE than one occasion.

MARRIAGE. there is a reference to Steve wanting to move in with DJ.  Kimmy divorces Fernando (because he cheats on her) just to accept his engagement proposal 30 seconds later (LITERALLY).  Kimmy was married to Fernando 4 months before Ramona was born.  Kimmy offers a special rate to moms who book bridal showers and baby showers within a year of each other. It doesn’t take long for DJ to recover from the loss of her husband before she is dating (AND MAKING OUT) with TWO guys, yep you read that right!!  Quite honestly there are far too many examples to keep going but you get the picture.

KIDS INNOCENCE:  Stephanie encourages kids at a thirteen year old’s birthday party to “pair up” when the power goes out.  with all the references to sex, well  I’m very afraid of what season two will look like.

RAUNCHY DANCING…. all I have to say is episode 3. 2 guys….2 Girls, One of them DJ…..even if it were guy and girl the Dancing was RAUNCHY and DISGUSTING!  we actually shut off this episode and from this point on previewed every episode.  In all honesty our kids watched 3 episodes and we wish we could pull them back.

GENERAL RAUNCHINESS… yeah at every turn there is inappropriate comments,  jokes, and  down right disgusting-ness.  The last episode Jesse refers to “giving himself the Becky Special” Ummm. ewww.  it’s laced throughout and almost every episode has something.

So there I’ve laid it out for you!   So let’s talk about the 2 elephants in the room.

  1. “same great family values”   WHAT VALUES!?!  There aren’t ANY!  At all, anywhere.  In the first episode Stephanie hands each of the two older boys a thumb drive with the “hottest dance music in Europe” to which DJ asks “there isn’t any drugs, sex or violence, is there? ” to which Stephanie quickly grabs the thumb drives out of their hands…..HOWEVER I find the hypocritical since sex is clearly a HUGE reference throughout the show AND apparently it’s ok to have pot brownies in the house…..with kids…..can you say DOUBLE STANDARD!?!  Just because it’s the same family, does not mean it has the same values!
  2. Candace Cameron Bure is an outspoken Christian…. quite honestly Im not quite sure how she could show her face on The View since the smut in her show is not any  different than the things she stands staunchly against in her world of unbelievers.  Let alone in church on Sunday.  How does she justify it all?  She has a platform… she has been given an amazing place to live out her faith, far greater than most of us will ever have.  I know that in the Christian blogging world she has a great many friends  and at most of her projects they sing her praises, however during this release they have been eerily quiet., but we as believers are supposed to hold each other accountable, so I am going to step out…..I will say it again.  THIS IS WRONG.  I could give you dozens of Bible verses to prove my point, HOWEVER I’m going to leave you with this one verse which I think stands alone in answering the questions of Christians in Hollywood:

Romans 12:2 New Living Translation
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

There is nothing that stands out different about her in this show.  NOT A THING.  If I didn’t know already what she professes, I would think she is just like everybody else.  As for the reference to “church clothes” in the last episode, it’s sad to say but my immediate thought was “oh they are Sunday Christians… they live like the devil all week long and look completely different on Sundays.”  I’m not quite sure how that fits int0  “be holy as I am holy” (Holy means be different or set apart from everything else).

I know the rest of the world is excited that Fuller House is all set for season 2, but in all honesty, we will get rid of Netflix at the end of this month, and when Fuller House returns…we will just ignore it and go on teaching our children, that to take the name of Christ is to be an image bearer……

1 Corinthians 10:31 New Living Translation
So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Putting On My Oxygen Mask

Posted on by Mary

image

Have you seen Mom’s Night Out?  It’s a movie that released a little over a year ago, right around mothers day.   It took us almost a year to see and my darling husband found it at a store and bought it for me……I LOVE THAT MOVIE.  Without fail, it makes me cry..Every. Single Time !   No joke and it usually is a different part each time, for it meets me right where I am in that moment.

The title of this blog post comes from that movie, and it is the very thing my husband said to me 4 days ago.  I was a bit uncertain about this week.  In all honesty I was having second thoughts about the entire idea.  My husband had this idea for me a year ago as we were making he decision to place our camper on a permanent lot at a Bible Conference a few hours from home.  We had no idea at that time what our lives would look like in a year and let me tell you if I had the choice to live this last year over again, Im not sure I could do it.   It’s only by God’s amazing grace that we have made it through with our marriage and family intact and I believe stronger.  Im still not ready to post about it, but it IS coming I promise.  We were hurt in some horrible ways.  Most people who know of our last year are shocked that we are still where we are.   And we had no idea that the decision to put our camper at the Bible Conference would lead to such great healing and respite for our family.  So here I sit.  IN my little retreat I have been completely alone for nearly 36 hours.  Im at peace.  I am feeling refreshed and renewed and I sill have another 3 1/2 days .  I have written and read and studied and blogged. I have rested ….AND BARELY SPOKEN TO ANYONE!  I have talked to my husband and kids a few times over the last day on the phone but that is the limit of my conversing.  It’s ok Im an introvert.  Maybe that’s why I needed this so much.

The premise of needing to putting on my oxygen mask is this…a quote from one of my college profs

seasonal specials

And that was the premise behind the overly long observation of the husband in Mom’s Night Out.   The dad travels A LOT.  So when he FINALLY connected the dots, the idea of the oxygen mask in the airplane resonated with him.  you have to help yourself before you can help someone else get their mask on.  I needed to take some deep spiritual cleansing breaths before I can tackle another round of insanity..    If I don’t have my relationship with God front and center, how can I possibly give my kids and husband what they need?  How can I teach?  How can I write to you?   My husband knew this line would resonate with me and it did…it made me smile to.  he told me  ” you need this, and you are going to love it”   He was right…..on both counts.

So I want to say THANKS HONEY, for cheering me on to do this, to go beyond my normal, to stretch myself and to feed my soul .  and if you happen to be a guy reading this  and your wife is looking a little…or a lot frazzled, why don’t you consider a way to encourage her to put on her oxygen mask!  and if you are a mom, can I just take a moment to encourage you to take a step back, take a deep refreshing breath and sit at the feet of Jesus. Turn your chair away from the chaos  that is where you are and face  it to a window.  I know what it is to not have the words to say, the tears flow easily and no words come.  I know that ache that makes you want to be sick and I want you to know that HE hears the very cry of your heart without  uttering One.Single. Sound.   he knows and he loves you  even in the biggest of messes!  Wont you meet him there He’s waiting!