Random Events Make Up an Excuse for a Post

Things are getting back to normal around here, some of them slowly and others in rapid time. Such as children fighting. And not listening. And getting out of bed 10,000 times even though I told them not to. Can you tell that one is a current issue? No? My kids would never get out of bed after I told them to stay in it.

Hubby has had a strange week this week. Instead of running one long run and one short run this week, he's running three short ones. Two of them sent him right by the house so we got the pleasure of spending a bit of time with him yesterday and again today. Today he was home long enough to trim the yard while I finished mowing, wash his car and have dinner with us. It's been nice to see him much more this week than usual. Almost seems like he has a regular job rather than one that keeps him away so much.

Guess I also should've mentioned that one of my sisters-in-law has sold us a car that they didn't need. It's sitting for now since it needs tags but a car! So I don't have to keep driving back and forth to Tennessee! One that will save money on gas because it has a little bitty four cylinder engine! I'm not excited or anything.

I had a short chat with Janjanmom Monday evening about how she was coming to my town on Tuesday. She wanted to get our kids together for a play date so Belle, Brady and Bryce met Kayla, Erika and Lilly. We met at McDonald's where we had ice cream and the kids went out and played while we had adult conversation. Oh how I love adult conversation! Over an hour and a half later, we loaded up six hot kids and headed home. We had a great time!

As I said previously, today I got up and started to mow. Of course tonight we had a flood when storms blew through so that I will need to mow again tomorrow . I honestly feel that I was on the mower most of the day, no matter how much I know I wasn't. I also finished cleaning one half of my kitchen. I like four full cabinets and four half cabinets, fridge and stove having my kitchen clean. Oh and mopping of course. It will be nice to know that I don't have to do these things for a while now. Or at least the odd stuff like the cabinets. Next I get to start on the living room. Oh and I also mailed off three resumes this morning in the hopes for a job. I'm hoping that these three will break the streak of me sending them and not receiving responses. We'll see.

Tomorrow the kids are off to Mom's for their couple of days at her house. Brady was so excited earlier this week that he was willing to pack today for the occasion. Luckily he didn't. That gives us something to do tomorrow to pass the time. Hubby will be home on Friday evening so tomorrow evening will be my time then Friday evening will be our time. It's nice to fit both times into the same weekend.

Here shortly I will be heading off to bed so that I can watch more CSI. Tomorrow I hope to get some reading done after the kids leave. How has your week gone?

Getting Back to Normal

Last week was awesome! It has been so long since I've had some much time to myself that I couldn't even remember it. Wednesday, I did as I had planned. Nothing. I watched two episodes of Army Wives. I went to lunch and shopping with Mom. I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix because ohmygoshHarryPotterandtheHalfBloodPrincecomesoutthisweekend!!!! Not that I'm excited or anything. So not excited that I'm considering having a Harry Potter marathon with the kids on Wednesday to get ready to see the movie Saturday. Nope not excited. Thursday I lingered around the house until Hubby got in that evening. I picked him up here in town so he could shower before taking his truck back to where he has to leave it. Then we went out to dinner before walking through the door at 10pm to watch a movie. Friday, I introduced Hubby into the art of doing nothing. He didn't understand it at first. How could we sit there, watch a movie, return them and spend the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing productive? But we did. And he survived.

Saturday Hubby got me on the kick that I was bored. I wanted to do something. Anything. So we went bowling only to realize that neither one of us could bowl worth a flip that day. So we left and drove to the next town. We went to Books-A-Million where I scored a Patricia Cornwell book for $3. We went to Pet Smart to visit with the adoptable kitties only to find they had dogs there as well. I found this beautiful six year old cat that was white with grey. She was spayed, declawed and sixteen pounds! She was huge! She was also very long haired, so long haired that fur was shedding in my hands as I petted her. I wanted her! But Hubby informed me that if I got a cat he got to pick out a dog. I found that to be completely unfair since we already have three dogs and only two cats.

Sunday, the kids got home about 12:30 and we started running. While we were at the mall on Saturday night, we found backpacks at Spencer's for 75% off. We showed the boys pictures of a couple of them and they decided they liked them so we went and got them since quantities were limited. There, they made their selections and we proceeded to the checkout where we expect to be paying $10 each for the bags. We found that not only were they 75% off the original price but an additional 50% off the final price. We got two Pirates of the Caribbean backpacks for $10! We immediately left that town and headed to Tennessee to take Hubby to work. A drive that is normally 2 1/2 hours took an additional 45 minutes. The kids were so exhausted from their week that Belle asked if she could go to bed at 9pm even though the boys weren't out of the shower yet.

Today has been a lot quieter day. I took the kids to the library to borrow new books because I returned theirs last week. We then went to the store and picked out a couple of things for lunch. They're adjusting to being home again and I'm adjusting to being mom again. I'm striving to be a more patient mom. Today I've done better than I have in a very long time. I cleaned today. My sister-in-law had all of the kids clothes washed when she got here so all I had to do is wash what Hubby and I have wore and the clothes the kids wore home. I have wiped down all of the cabinets on one side of my kitchen, inside and out, as well as cleaned my window above my sink. I hope my violets appreciate that. Now I'm off to watch a couple of CSI episodes while I wash one of my last load of clothes. Getting back to normal.

Smorgasboard

This summer thing is trying to kill me! I went to mow last week and the steering went out on my lawnmower. I cannot tell you how disappointing it is to spend forever trimming so that you can mow and be finished only to find that the darn mower is broke and there will be no mowing! All that time trimming wasted!

Now jumping right into my next topic - when I'm writing my posts, in my mind everything makes sense. Usually because I know the background that you need to know or I hold something back for one reason or another. I did that on this post about faith and religion being difficult. While I put them together in one post, I do understand that are two totally different things. One thing I hate about religion is the politics that goes on behind the scenes. Arguments about what is best for the church but what God has in store for the church never seems to be considered. My problem with religion on this particular day was when someone accused me of not allowing my daughter to attend VBS because we are baptists and the church holding the classes was church of Christ. Not only did I have a problem with that statement but I had an even bigger problem with the fact that the statement was made to Belle's friend and not to my face. No I didn't keep her home because of the denomination of the church. I kept her home because of what had happened the week before. Because I knew the friend was planning on declaring her salvation and I couldn't help but wonder if the friend went home and told her parents, grandparents what Belle had told me. Or had she been scared into it. So Belle stayed home and if I had the opportunity to make the decision again, it would not change. Yes the friend is still coming around, but I still have issues with grandmother for not confronting about my choices to my face. Leave the kids out of it.

I went and picked Hubby up from work on Thursday morning and on the way home, he let me know he was wanting to go to Indiana to see his sisters for the holiday weekend. So we went on a road trip across the Ohio River and visited with S and J, and C and her boyfriend M. The kids played with their cousins, went swimming, watched fireworks set off in S and J's neighborhood, played on a make-shift slip-n-slide, fished, and played kickball. I had adult conversation! We went to a party of strangers where the only people we knew were S and J. I can't tell you how hard I laughed watching Hubby and J join in a game of kickball with C's neighbors and our kids! As the weekend wore on, C told us that she wanted the kids to stay up there with her for this week because she had to come this way on her way to Memphis this weekend and could drop the kids off. After some consideration, Hubby and I decided they could stay. So I am sitting in my living room with no kids. And no Hubby. Just. me. Cool.

So what have I been doing with my new found freedom? Cleaning. Hubby didn't go back to his truck until this morning. Last night, I started cleaning out my laundry room and I finished it up this morning. Hubby fixed my lawnmower yesterday so I mowed today as well. I have wiped down cabinets. I cleaned my living room windows and the carport door windows and they are still clean! I didn't know it was possible! I have thrown stuff away! That never happens! So tomorrow, my plans are to veg. I may or may not finish my kitchen. I will read. I will catch up on Army Wives. I will be me. Not mom, not wife, but me. Now? I'm going to sleep. Because I can.

Gone Fishing

Life in this household hasn't slowed down one bit. The kids spent the night with my parents on Friday night, so I had the house to myself for a few hours before Hubby got home. Then he and I spent the night in peace. We went out to dinner, rented Gran Tarino and came home to veg. It was awesome! We picked the kids up on Saturday just after lunch. That evening, I took the kids swimming in the neighbors pool while Hubby burned the big pile of wood in our backyard, on the hottest night of the year of course. Now if we can get the rest of the shingles out of the backyard, my yard will be back to normal again.

Hubby has been dying to do some decent fishing since the beginning of spring. Yesterday, we set out to do just that. He called a buddy of his and we went to his parents house to fish off their dock. Ok, they fished. I read.

Let me start by saying excuse the pictures because I took all of them with a cell phone. I was kicking myself when I got to thinking I really should've brought my camera. Next? I could live off of the deck alone. The picture above was taken of Hubby and the kids fishing off the dock from the deck. I love this setup so much, that I told Hubby we needed to buy the house two doors down that was on the market. Twice as big as what we are living in, with four bedrooms, hot tub, deck, and dock for only $457,000. How could we not buy that house!?!

We didn't get there until almost one, and the kids quickly tired of fishing because they really weren't biting a whole lot. Later that evening, we took them to Dairy Queen for supper and got back about 6pm to fish some more. That's when they started catching fish. Brady caught his first fish ever (after complaining all afternoon that he wasn't good at it) and the only reason he did catch it was because he was too busy talking to Hubby to play with his hook in the water. Bryce and Belle caught quite a few fish between them but Hubby managed to land the best fish of all.That was the only picture of a fish I got all day because it was well after they started catching that I thought to take pictures. Hubby also landed him a snapping turtle, too.

Then the kids started getting tired. And they were quietly fishing off the side.Seconds after I snapped the picture of Brady and Hubby, Brady laid his head on Hubby's shoulder. How I wish I had my camera!! And let me tell ya, it takes a minor miracle for these three to be quiet at the same time and not be sleeping. They finished using their bait and we headed home just before 9.

Today, I recovered. I washed tons of laundry, went to the store and took Hubby to work. The kids are on their way to bed and I am on my way to watch a movie. Tomorrow, we're off to the park.

My Green Thumb

I think this is the fourth year that I have put out a garden during the spring. Each year I have put out squash and the last three springs I have gotten tomato plants that I never planted. May have something to do with the tomatoes that rot on the vine before I remember to pick them. Last year was the first year I planted corn, but we left on vacation before it was ready. Then the entire week we were gone it didn't rain a drop so we didn't get any corn. My squash didn't really produce much last year either. This year is a whole other story. This is my garden this year.My tomatoes are mixed in with my squash, along with my carrots and a couple of canteloupe plants. My sweet peas didn't turn out as well as I would've liked but I have learned to stake them early next time so it wasn't for all for nothing. My squash plants have finally ripened enough that I was able to start harvesting them. This is what I have gotten over the last five days.This does not show the squash that I have frozen, cooked or given away. And there's much more coming! I think it's safe to say, I'm going to have squash for a very, very, very long time!

Why Is Faith and Religion So Difficult?

This is one of those posts that is hard to write. One that I struggle to put into words what is going through my head and one that can't be totally understood without background information. I didn't grow up in church. I grew up knowing that we were supposed to go to church and going occasionally. I vaguely remember attending various churches over the years, one where my parents were members and visiting others. There were plenty of times that I went to bible school in the summer with different people in our area. I went to friends house after school to learn various Bible related things. In high school, I went to church with friends. After Brady was born, we joined a church not far from our home. A little while after, I started wondering, thinking and then doubting. Doubting my salvation. Watching others and wondering how they can be so dedicated to their faiths, that they would do anything. Wishing that I could be that dedicated, that strong in my beliefs instead of doubting. Knowing that even though their hearts were breaking, they were breaking because of a higher power that I didn't know.

Eventually we fell out of going to our church. We had bought this house, leaving us a good drive to get there. Then came a time when money was scarce. There was no extra for anything and we had to cut back everywhere. Including gas to get to church. Lately we have tried attending a few of the churches closer to us, but I just can't seem to get motivated to get up and go. I have every intention on going Saturday night, but when Sunday morning rolls around, I just can't seem to move.

Belle was invited by our neighbor's child to attend vacation bible school with her a couple of weeks ago. After talking to Hubby about it, we eventually told her she could go and I sent her on her way. Later, she called asking to spend the night there and did. The next day, she came to me with questions about things she had "learned" at bible school. Turns out the kids were taught flat out that if "they weren't saved they would burn in the lakes of...." Yes, I understand the truth to that statement and yes, kids need to know that but when did bible school become about scaring the kids into salvation? Bible school I remember from growing up and helping out with was about singing, learning, crafts. There was nothing in there about fear. Then you get into the kids being saved for the wrong reason and then they are in the same boat I am. Doubting. Lucky for us, Belle came to me with her questions and worries.

What I hate is knowing that I am struggling but am trying to lead my children by raising them in the same situation that I grew up in. So I talk when they have questions and hope they understand. Questions they have that I can't answer immediately go to Hubby (the son and grandson of preachers.) I still can't help but feeling like the fraud that I am. I want my kids to be strong in faith and religion, but yet I am not myself. I am uncomfortable talking about it, but yet don't want my kids to be. Wondering if it's too late for me, if I've stalled to long but wanting to prevent that in my children.

Overall, two weeks later I'm still stunned. How could a church be so irresponsible to scare kids instead of teaching them? I know you're not supposed to ask shoulda, coulda, woulda, but what would've happened if Belle hadn't come to one of us? Now is time for us to decide what our next move is. For us and our family.