Dressed for Work

Have you ever started one project only for it to lead you to a much bigger one?

That's exactly what happened to Greg earlier this week. He began a little simple gutter repair around the house and uncovered a real problem area with some boards right in front! So he has been hard at work all week on a new project... tearing down, replacing, painting.

I have enjoyed watching him work. I think it is very masculine to see a man take care of his home, his yard, his vehicle, and by doing so, his family.

I also like noticing what a man chooses to wear for all this work. It seems like every man has his own wardrobe and habits when it comes to his physical labor. I've seen my Daddy in all sorts of work-wear, and both of my grandpas, too.

Greg's habits have changed some over the years.
When we met he wore hiking boots for everything - work, play, church... ev-er-y-thing.

Now that his footwear world has expanded (and no longer includes hiking boots at all) he has different shoes for his work-wear. His current work shoes are his old casual/dress shoes. So after spending a couple of years going into the world everyday with his Dockers, they are now covered in mowed grass and paint.

He wears these without socks.

What can I say? I don't know about you, but I am certain the men in my life aren't the least bit concerned with fashion while they're out sweating.. ya know? (For that matter, I have to question how concerned they are at all about fashion... but that's a different post.)

Greg will often tear the sleeves out of an old t-shirt when it has been relegated to work-wear. He says it's cooler that way. And since I just said I don't think he's concerned with fashion I suppose he's referring to the temperature and not the look when he says it's 'cooler'. You think?

And for the last several years, a cap has always completed his working look. Usually a freebie from a friend at a certain paint store. :)
[If you freebie paint store friends are reading: HI! Send me an email sometime! ;) ]

Of course, any wardrobe calls for accessorizing, as needed. Ear plugs, sunscreen, gloves, masks, the gel-pack cooly down thingie we gave him for father's day a couple of years ago... they all find their way into the mix now and then.

Any way you slice it, tacky, dirty, sweaty.... nothing says love and dependability like a man out working. Add to that his patience with a small child or two getting in the way ready to help at every turn and it just makes a woman's heart melt, doesn't it?

What about you? What interesting wardrobe and working habits does your man have?

Summer-time Salad

Big Mama put out an S.O.S. for summer-time suppers and asked for everyone's favorite recipes.

This is a salad that a lady at our church made several years ago and we took over adopted as our own.

There are so many ways to change it up and it makes a LOT so you can have plenty to share or if you like leftovers it is good to nibble on for days!

Vermicelli Salad

1 24 oz pkg vermicelli
1 large bell pepper
6 green onions
1 small can sliced black olives
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 Tbs seasoned salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup real mayonnaise

Cook vermicelli and drain. Rinse with cold water; let dry.

Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, and seasoned salt (black pepper is also good to add here!)and pour over spaghetti. Toss, toss, toss.
Add black olives, reserving juice from can.
Finely chop green onions and bell pepper and add to spaghetti. Refrigerate overnight.

Next day, whisk together mayonnaise and juice from black olives and pour over spaghetti.
Toss, toss, toss again!
Add grated cheese. 1/2 cup or so of grated Parmesan is good, too!

This salad is fantastic just like this! I may or may not have been known to eat it straight from the bowl, but I'm not telling. :)

Other options are mushrooms (fresh OR canned) and/or crab meat (we buy the shrink-wrapped imitation stuff). YUM!

Enjoy! And stay cool. And head on over to Big Mama's for lots more summer recipes!

Kids say funny stuff

Allow me to provide a few examples:

Last week after our visit to Fair Park we still had some time to fill before Alan's appointment. Since it is such a short drive over to the airport we decided to go see if we could see some planes taking off or landing.

Even though it was a short drive, Alan fell asleep. He slept the whole time we were there, while the rest of us watched a few jets land. Finally it was time to go on the the hospital. Dale quietly got buckled back into his seat so as not to wake Alan. As Greg backed out of our parking space, we stopped to watch one more landing.

Which was interrupted by a low, yet fierce growl from Alan's half of the backseat.

Hello! Weren't you just sleeping!?

And why are you growling?

One look in the direction Alan was looking and we knew. He was growling at this:
I'd growl too, wouldn't you??

And then....

Earlier this week Dale, Alan, my mom and I were in our van for a quick trip to visit family. We were on our way home when Dale announced in a firm, yet slightly unnerved tone of voice:

"There is a bug back here that I am NOT enjoying!"

And based on the size of it and the way it proceeded to come to the front seat to dive-bomb us, I can say we didn't enjoy it much either!

But we did enjoy the waves of giggles we would get from the backseat by swatting, dodging and opening the windows at 60 mph each time buggy buzzed to the front. :)

And finally....

Alan's favorite food in the world (for now, lol) is french fries. His last batch came from a fast-food drive-through with Daddy a couple of weeks ago.

A week or two later the four of us went through the bank drive through, and guess what Alan thought he was getting?

Yep. The same thing he got the last time Daddy drove up close to a building next to a big ol' window.

Aww. It was all we could do not to go straight from the bank to you-know-where! And if we hadn't already had supper waiting on us at home, we might have done just that!

It's the most - won-der-ful time - of the daaaay!

We recently (as in yesterday) re-instituted Dale's afternoon nap.

This was mainly due to the increasing incidents involving random tears, along with some challenging ... umm...behavior issues.

Ahem.

Clearly, this is a boy who needs his sleep.

Proven by the fact that yesterday, his first afternoon nap in a couple of weeks, he slept THREE AND A HALF HOURS.

Yeah.

So Dale is napping again. And Alan is on his second nap of the day!
Earlier this week we put him back on two-a-days since he insists on getting up at the crack. of. dawn. every. day. these days.

And have you happened to notice what time dawn actually is? Wow. So the younger half of this household is getting more sleep now. The older half is just drinking more caffeine. :)

Ok, so not really. But it was fun to say.

I don't know how we're managing to hold up, to tell you the truth. But I am not a napper. I wake up from naps in worse shape than when I laid down. :( Hot, grumpy, sleepy, and mad that I missed out on 'x' number of minutes/hours of my day. Unless I'm pregnant. And then I nap. :)

But these days, instead of napping, I love the peace, quiet, and freedom that comes while the younger half sleeps. Ahh... I read, I blog, I catch up on housework.

Ok, you got me again. I don't really do housework while they sleep. But it is good in theory.
I could.
I should.
I might.

But not today. Today, after I finish this post, I am going to work some more on Dale's kindergarten plans. I've got a pretty good outline for the first two weeks and am just beginning on the third. I don't want to plan too far ahead, because I want to be able to change things as I go to make them work for us.

Naptime seems to be the only time I can get any planning done, since I like to spread out all my stuff in the floor and look it over. And we know how that goes with a toddler!

So... off I go!

How do you like to spend your alone times?

Why parenting is a two-person job

For a couple of weeks now, I've been trying to teach Dale how to take off his own shirt so he isn't coming to me every time it is time to change.

This winter he had it down: hold on to one sleeve and pull your arms in and go from there. But now that it is short sleeve weather he's having trouble. (Ever gotten 'stuck' in an article of clothing? Frustrating!)

In spite of all my little lessons, Dale just wasn't getting it.

Enter Daddy.

Greg came along and gave one lesson, of a completely different method (which I thought was completely awkward and would never work...)....

.... and now Dale is a pro. After ONE lesson.

It takes two, baby.

Frugal Friday - Family Fun

When Alan has his dr. visits in Dallas, we always have a gap of time to fill between early morning labs and an afternoon appointment. In some of the past appointments days, I have filled that time with shopping.

Not frugal. Even if it is at places like Big Lots and Payless!

This time we decided to make more of a family fun day out of our time-gap. Many places of interest charge admission, and a hefty one at that. We did a little internet research and found some great alternatives!

Our original plan involved a FREE trolley ride to a FREE architectural fountain display.

And then it rained. With only a 20% chance!

But we had a backup plan: an aquarium!
But not THE aquarium. THE aquarium cost $18.95 for ages 12 & up, and $10.95 for ages 3-11. Yikes! That's $50 for just the 4 of us! Again, with internet research, we found a second aquarium. This one cost $4 for adults and $3 for Dale. So we all got in for the price that just Dale would have been at the other place!

Granted, this one was smaller, but with the boys being so young and our time being limited, it was just right for what we needed!

Dale loved every display. He was constanly running ahead - not with boredom, but with excitement to see what was next!
Alan liked the turtles best. And we happened to walk up just in time to see them get fed! After the aquarium we took a walk around Fair Park and found more fun stuff... for FREE! The best was a sculpture thing that actually encourages you to walk and climb... and over the water, no less!

Great fun, great pics, great memories, and great price!

And in the search we found lots of other low or no cost things for a family to do. Be sure to research in your area or when traveling. You never know what you might find!

For great money-saving tips, be sure to visit Biblical Womanhood!

Keeping me on my toes

I can't tell you how many times a day Dale asks the definition of a word, usually a word that's just been used in conversation. Sometimes it's a word he already knows what means, but I think he likes hearing it confirmed. Other times it is a new word for him.

Tonight, as we finished up his bed-time prayers, he picked out a word from my prayer.

"What does 'trust' mean?"

As an answer, I told him to, "stand up."

He did.

I scooped him up and cradled him in my arms. "I am not going to drop you. Do you think I am going to drop you?"

(Giggling) "No."

To make things even more interesting, I swung him upside down, holding him with his knees against my chest. "I am not going to drop you. Do you think I am going to drop you?"

(Laughing) "No."

I swung him up and deposited him on his bed, loving my parenting cleverness. "Trust means that you believe that someone is going to take care of you. We trust that God is going to take care of us. Do you know how we know?"

"How?"

"Because He told us in the Bible!"

"Oh yeah..." The light of recognition flickers on in his eyes. Ahh... teaching moment accomplished...or so I thought:
"...what verse?"

Uhhhh.....

ummmm.....

"Trust in the Lord..." (Prov. 3:5&6) pops in my head. It's been one of his memory verses.

But I want a verse that says, "I will take care of you".

And I can't think of a single one.

I tell him to wait for me there in his bed and I'll be right back. I find my Bible, and Greg, and start scrambling for a verse!

I know there is something I'm not thinking of (just like that person whose name you knew until someone asked you so-and-so's name... and then you can't think of it for the LIFE of you ... or is that just me?). But to get back to him before he loses interest in the conversation, I open up to Isaiah 41:10 and the passages about the birds and the lilies and 'ask, seek, knock' in Matthew 6 & 7.

Dale meets me in the hallway as I'm heading back to his room. "Did you find a verse yet?!?"

So much for waiting for me where I asked him to. But oh if we all had that eagerness for God's Word!

We read and discussed our verses and I tucked him in. Thank goodness for the many questions of children to prevent us from becoming slack!

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. For I the LORD thy God will hold they right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee."
Isaiah 41:10,13

The promised, mish-mashed post

Shopping.... Yes! I went shopping!

(Ever seen That Thing You Do? "Tina... yes! I'm Tina!" .... oh anyway...)

This past Saturday my mom and sister and I spent alllll day shopping. I intended to buy a few things to wear this summer, and did buy a couple of new tops, but came home with an interesting assortment of items, including:

FOUR long-sleeve winter tops, less than $4 each
one new pillow (Greg gave mine to Alan while I was gone)
1 boxed set of 10 classical music CD's (10 different composers) - $10!
several new jewelry items - yay!
one shoe craft/school supply organizer

So... that was shopping.

Now - Alan in the rain:

What else can you say, really? His face says it all!

My dad, a.k.a Gramps, brought us some tomato and pepper plants. Yay! I've been really really wishing I had a garden. These will go a long way to help with that wish! Here's Dale after we got them planted:

Meanwhile, Alan decided to take himself swimming. Don't worry... Daddy was right there!

Re-run

Here's my Works-for-me-Wednesday post for today.

Regular readers of my blog will have seen this before, but that's ok. :)

CLICK HERE!

Mr. Social Buffalo

We've barely begun to get our feet wet into our 'official' homeschooling journey (Dale will be kindergarten age this fall) and already we have heard more times than I care to count about "socialization".

Now... I could go into all of our views and beliefs on this topic, but not today.

No, today I am simply going to tell you what I observed this afternoon.

Dale and I went to the library to turn in his latest Summer Reading Books. While we were there, a former employee of my mom's (Mimi is the library director) stopped by for a visit. This mid-twenties, friendly lady came in (with her miniature schnauzer - shhh!) to visit with my mom for a few minutes. It was the first time Dale had seen her in a year or two, so he didn't remember her, or even know that she was someone he should recognize. But that didn't slow him down any.

In the course of the conversation, Dale:

- told her all about his favorite racecar (Lightening McQueen)

- asked how old her dog was, and when she (the dog) was born

- said, "You should put my mama's cell phone number in your cell phone and call her sometime and come visit us when we are in Dallas" (meaning when we are at Children's)

- asked what color her recently purchased wedding dress is (Dale hasn't been to many weddings, lol)

- offered for her to come visit Mimi so her dog could play with Mimi's dogs, and even gave a house description and street

My sweet Dale is like this every. where. we. go.

The doctors & nurses at Children's? Talks to them all. (Now the clowns that come by to entertain every couple of days... not such a big fan of them, but then, neither am I!)

On the playground? At our last visit to RMH, two little girls came out to play after Dale and some other kids had been there a while. The other kids didn't seem to notice them, but Dale jumped up from what he was doing and said, "Welcome! Welcome my friends!" Self-appointed playground greeter!

Church? Well, this Sunday Dale shook the hand of every male over the age of 16 and wished them a "Happy Father's Day!". Even told a couple of women to "be sure and tell your husband happy father's day".

Is this prompted by us?
Not usually.

Are we worried about his social skills?
Well ... what do you think?

Monday thoughts

Hi all. I'm still around. Just wanted to post a quick note to check in!

Soon I hope to:

- tell you about my weekend girls-only shopping trip - fun!

- post pictures of Alan playing in the rain - cute!

- blog about some of the stuff coming up for us this week - busy!

But for now I have Monday-morning house stuff to be getting to, including starting some laundry, cleaning up our bedroom, and reading Dale's library books with him.

Sam - you made me giggle with your comment about not checking with you all before I changed my blog design. :) Made me wonder... what do you all think about it? Do you miss the colors? Do you like the 'cleanness' of this design? Let me know!

Have a great Monday, and I'll 'see' you all later!

The upside to being down...

...is when your husband brings you these:

Wasn't that sweet of him?

Yesterday was the first day we brought out the little wading pool for the summer. There is this one spot that gets the shade of our backyard tree most of the day, but is far enough out from the tree that unsavory tree stuff and bugs don't fall into the pool.

Our pool, however, is not sitting in that spot due to a slight misjudgement on my part before filling. So we're just extra careful about the sunscreen. :) And that also explains Alan's hat. :)

The following picture is one of those "mean mommy" moments when I should have been going to Alan's rescue but took a moment to get a picture first. You can't exactly tell from the pic, but he's stuck. His hands are on the bottom of the pool, his feet are on the grass, and try as he might he can't stand up. Hilarious in my opinion. But I helped him get upright and unstuck before he got panicky. :)
Then today Dale helped Daddy trim limbs in front and back. He loaded them up in his wagon from all over and hauled them to the trailer to be carried away. He worked hard! And learned what it means to keep working until the job is done, even if you are tired. Yay Dale!
And while they sweated and slaved away, I played with the camera. Not sure what the lesson is there. I was helping with the trimming.
Briefly.
Until Greg told me I smelled too good to be doing such sweaty hard work.
So I quit. :)
Anyway... my pics:

And this afternoon... back to the pool!

And finally, one random observation: I've done 6 blog posts in 6 days, and do you know which one got the most comments?
The one about not-so-clean toilet bowls! Is there any significance to this? What does it say about my blog? My readers?
I have no idea.
But isn't this blogging business fun? :)

Victory!

Sometimes knowing why we feel a particular way goes a long way towards feeling better.

For example - have you ever dreaded a certain event, and couldn't figure out why? And then later realized it wasn't the event you were dreading at all, but something between here & there... the preparation or something that had to be done first. (Does that make any sense at all?)

When you figure out what it is you are really feeling so negatively about, it makes a huge difference in how you view the event you previously had been dreading.

While I haven't been dreading anything in particular, I spent the first half of this week feeling very down. And that seems like an understatement. I was sure I slipping into downright depression. I could elaborate, but #1, that would be...well... depressing, and #2, you've probably been there before and know pretty much how I was feeling without me having to expound. Right? I think it is enough to say that I am blessed to have the type personality that even with stressful things going on, I still rock along pretty good.... and feel joyful and happy amongst it all. But not this week.

So... that said, I sat down at the computer yesterday morning and happened upon this post, at a blog I have never visited before. This blogger suggested reading the book of Mark for those times that you just don't know where to start reading. And she went on to suggest leaving the computer right then and reading your Bible instead.

Sounded good to me!

So I left the computer to join my buffaloes at the breakfast table and read aloud the first chapter of Mark. Which led to discussion.

Verses 21-28 tell of a time Jesus cast out a dem*n. In verse 24 the dem*n says to Jesus "I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God."

I believe the reason this dem*n knew who Jesus was, was not from some mystical knowledge or lucky guess, but because he had seem Him before. Face to face, in heaven, as an angel, before he was cast out and joined Sat@n. (funny punctuation is to avoid my blog popping up in search engines when these are the words searched for)

The point is, that world is real. We don't see it, so we tend not to think much about it. Which means we underestimate it.

Ephesians 6:12 tells us, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

I thought I was feeling down because Alan had spent two weeks in the hospital. Because we have to decide whether he needs surgery or not. Because we are about to be moving. Because, because, because.

But those things are all earthly. Flesh & blood. There was more going on. We are at a time in our lives that we are learning so much about God's love and strength. About how to live with faith in Him. And it is strengthening our marriage. And our resolve as parents. And hopefully is a testimony to others.

And Sat@n doesn't like it.

If you look up "principalities" in Websters 1828 dictionary (written from a Biblical perspective) you find that a principality is royalty, a supreme power. We aren't dealing with the underlings my friends. The bad guys are coming at us with the big guns.

Whispering lies about God, about those around us, and about ourselves. This is real. There is a battle going on. The rest of that passage in Ephesians 6 talks about putting on God's armor. And armor is used in battle, right?

The good news to me yesterday was that even though I was praying for God's help through the situational stuff going on, I wasn't thinking big enough. I was wanting to see those things resolved, or to feel happier about them (or in spite of them). But God is so much bigger than that. We have a bigger victory than over just the circumstances in our lives. We have "Victory in Jesus"... over sin, over death, over all the "darkness of this world".

If we have trusted Jesus as our Savior then "the Spirit of him that raised us Jesus from the dead" dwells in us! (Romans 8:11) God's complete & powerful Spirit.

I've never seen the movie, so I apologize already if this reference in inappropriate, but thinking of this yesterday made me think of the Incredible Hulk. How all of a sudden this ordinary guy gets these huge fists and muscles. A power bigger than himself. That is what we have. We are wimps, but we have something more.

One of the Psalmists said, "the joy of the Lord is my strength". I think the inverse is also true - the strength of the Lord is the source of our joy!

Afterthoughts: First of all, a lot of the credit for these references and thoughts goes to Greg. He is the one that pointed me in the direction of Ephesians 6 and other thoughts in this post. Secondly, it has been amazing how different I have felt since Greg and I had this conversation yesterday!

Victory in Jesus
I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory,
How he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me:
I heard about his groaning, of his precious blood's atoning,
Then I repented of my sins and won the victory.

O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever,
He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew him, and all my love is due him,
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

I head about his healing of his cleansing power revealing,
How he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see;
And then I cried "dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit,"
And somehow Jesus came and brought to me the Victory.

One of the many reasons I'll never be that "cool mom"

Dale played outside a lot today, and I went out briefly with Alan.

He climbed the ramp again, and rather quickly and skillfully this time!

I decided that instead of having to constantly reach above my shoulders to keep one hand on him at all times, it would be easier if I was just up in the play-thing with him. Dale was with us too, of course.

After we'd been up there for a few minutes, I thought it would be fun for Alan and me to slide down together.

It was going great until my feet were about halfway down, and I saw my right shoe leave a rather large streak of mud on the slide.

With both hands full of Alan and both of us moving at slide-speed, there was nothing I could do but slide right through the mud patch. Which left a nice big mud-smear on the backside of my pants. And the whole thing took less than 5 seconds!

We went inside after that.

I changed my pants.

We're so artsy fartsy it hurts.

For those of you actually still reading this blog after the last post, I thank you.

For a few days now I have noticed that one key on our piano made a funny little buzzing sound each time it was played. (It was the first 'F' to the left of middle C, if you were wondering.) It sounded/felt to me like something was down in between the keys.

I was close.

I pointed out this buzzing to Greg, who immediately jumped into the project, and began disassembling our piano! I didn't even know this was possible! He opened the top, turned a couple of latches in the upright part, and lifted a whole big section off the front.

And what we saw when he did that explained everything.

So let's all say together:
"THE PIANO IS NOT A MAIL RECEPTACLE"
I'm glad those weren't bills or anything time-sensitve. And yes. Those are 3-D glasses sitting on my F key. Buzzing solved.

And in a totally unrelated piano incident....

No. He's NOT climbing, actually. It may have started that way, but he's just standing like that, and playing.

Let's all say together:
"THE PIANO BENCH IS NOT A BALLET BARRE"

Really gross and inappropriate subject matter

I apologize in advance for this disgusting post. I have no excuses. It just is what it is.

A certain 4 yr old's latest 'sit-down' trip to the toilet left a little err...ummm... 'residue' behind.

Thankfully, I suppose because of the shape and design of said porcelain fixture, this problem rarely occurs at our house.

Which is a good thing.

Because I can't bring myself to get rid of it. I find myself hoping with each flush it will magically wash away.

Disgusting, I know.

And my reason for not wanting to scrub it away?

I don't want to get any on my toilet brush.

Worth the effort

Today was a big day at our house:
It was the first time Alan (and the four of us as a family) went to church since December 23, 2007!

Alan has not been in any public places (other than hospital visits) since his transplant. He has been to 3 (if I remember correctly) homes other than ours.

Greg and I have taken turns going to church with Dale on the weekends we are not in the hospital.

The church family that has loved, prayed for, and supported us had not seen Alan since Christmas. And the four of us have not been to church together since then.

And today was the day! It was wonderful to sit together. And amazingly enough, Alan did great. He spent a lot of time in Mimi's lap, when he wasn't scooting up and down our row. But he was very quiet.

So with as great as it was, you would think we would have been 'busting' to go back tonight. But oh how easy it is to slip into bad habits. The hour for evening church rolled around and I. didn't. want. to. go.

But we did. And I was so, so glad we did. For the second time that day, the sermon was on getting through hard times. Living a victorious life in spite of circumstances. Rejoicing in the Lord always. (Philippians 4:4) Not being anxious about anything, but praying about everything, and receiving the 'peace that passes all understanding'. (Phil 4:6-7) Being content in all circumstances. (Phil 4:11) Knowing that we can do all things, but only through the strength of Jesus. (Phil 4:13)

But even better than all that, was this:

The hymn-singing portion of church services seems to be a lot more pleasant for Dale now that he can read. He will usually follow along in the hymnal and sing at least the predictable phrases... sometimes more. I often whisper to him during a song, making sure he knows that "glory" sometimes means Heaven, and that our "Redeemer" is Jesus.

Tonight we were singing "Whiter than Snow". I may have known this song before, but really grew to love it when it was part of an Easter musical we did a few years ago.

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;
I want thee forever to ransom my soul;
Break down every idol, cast out every foe:
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Whiter than snow, yes whiter than snow;

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Lord Jesus, thou knowest I patiently wait;
Come now, and within me a new heart create;

To those who have sought thee, thou never saidst No:
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

At one point through the chorus Dale asked me what "whiter than snow" meant. And I got to have a small (if you were counting length of time) but priceless teaching moment to explain once again how our sins make our insides dirty, but Jesus' blood cleans us and forgives us and makes our hearts clean... and whiter than snow.

And that moment alone was worth the whole trip. Because one day, I know Dale will notice a feeling in his heart. And I want him to recognize that feeling for what it is... the realization that something is missing. No, Someone. And I want him to know that Jesus is that Someone, and that trusting Him with his life is the answer to filling what is empty.

So we teach him these things at home. We teach him these things at church. And maybe, just maybe, it will be one of those Sunday nights that we didn't really feel like getting out, but go anyway, that Dale makes the biggest, best decision of his life.

Every baby needs a mockingbird

We're home, we're home, we're home!!!!

Another two week stay at Children's. Ugh! This is getting to be waaay too regular of a thing!

And I don't have much witty to say, but I'm so tired of my blog being neglected... I'm just jumping in! I think I have mentioned before.... the hospital server blocks blog sites. So I can't get to my own and I can only read those that I have in my reader. But at home I dont use a reader, so I don't ever think to update it with lotsa blogs so I have good stuff to read when we ARE in the hospital. And then.... the few blogs I DO have in the reader, I can't see pictures or leave or read comments. So..... I'll be catching up the next few days. :)

Funny story:
Alan makes a pig snort sound for most animals, including dogs. Last night just me & him (is that correct grammar? .... he & me? I dont think it's "I" because I wouldn't say "just I"..... ANYWAY).... it was just the 2 of us at RMH, and it was bedtime. All the lights were out and Alan was in his portable crib/playpen thing. Sometimes away from home he needs a little extra help going to sleep, so I was patting his back and singing 'Hush little baby' (a great song about over-indulging your kids with useless stuff, which, oddly enough, I sang all during Dale's babyhood and Alan's first 17 months and left out 2 whole verses. I was skipping the whole "dog named Rover" part).

ANYWAY... so there we were in complete darkness. I couldn't see if my patting and singing were getting me anywhere or not. All was quiet except my sining....
"and if that cart & bull tip over, mama's gonna buy you a dog named.."
SNORT.

Oh my goodness. Have you ever tried to sing, especially sing soft & soothingly, while trying to hold back great big waves of laughter?
Extremely difficult.

But I somehow held it together.

"And if that dog named Rover won't...."
SNORT SNORT.

End of lullaby. We gave up and re-attempted bedtime (succesfully) 15 minutes later. :)

Faith and Water

I have some thoughts I want to share here, and usually before I would put thoughts such as these on the big ol' web for everybody to read I would want to do a little more research and cross-referencing, but
#1 - the thoughts are in my head begging to be let out,
#2 - the ol' blog has been dry for too long (yes, we are in the hospital again) and
#3 - being in the hospital with your 18 month old isn't the ideal time for in-depth Bible study.

So.... here's what I've got:

I have the bad habit of thinking that to have 'good' faith, you have to be positive and completely trusting God ALL THE TIME. And while that maybe should be our goal, it doesn't mean that if we fall short of that we can't be credited with having faith.

This 'revelation' came to me the other day when I thought of Abraham. He is one of the biggest heroes of faith, and what did he do when God told him he would have a son? Got impatient and took his wife's maid. (here is the point where, if I was home, I would do a little more checking of facts and give you Bible references. Sorry).

This realization about Abraham makes me want to read through the great "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11 and pick out the flaws of everyone mentioned there. That is something so great about the Bible. We can learn from the best and worst of people.... often all in the same person!


I've been reading in Isaiah, and just today read this verse, that I have liked for a long time: "But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend." Is 41:8. I have always like the verse (and the 2 that follow) but today I saw something different: where God called Abraham his friend. Aw. Abraham that didn't trust enough to wait patiently. Makes me want to go back and read all of the good things Abraham did, and the examples of the times that he showed faith.

And then... moving on to a totally different thought....

Isaiah 41:17 "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them."

First of all.... God doesn't say "the people will always have water and never thirst". Nope. There will be tough times. Dry times. Desperately thirsty times in our lives.

And then... God doesn't say "I will give them water before they even think to ask." Nope again. He says "I will hear them". Aha.... we should ask. Not be angry because God hasn't provided water. Or that he let us go through the dessert. Or not just sit back and think "God loves me. He knows I'm thirsty. They'll be some water coming."

Now, there may be other places in the Bible where God does say things more along the lines of the two things I said above. But, again... I'm doing the best I can here. This is study-in-progress. ;)

And finally...

Isaiah 41:18 "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water."

Don't you love how God goes all out?!? He doesn't just hand over a cup of water. Or even a new well. Nope. Look at the abundance he promises! And that is so true in so many ways, and I would love to expound on that, but my time is up. Hopefully you can take it from there and feel the hope and abundance that God gives in your life.

And feel free to leave any scripture references in the comments.. either correcting or adding to what I've said. :)