The Black Thumb Project

If you build it, He will bless it...or at least that is my prayer.  You see, I am starting a new veggie garden this year!  I have a thumb that is pretty stinkin' black but I can't decide if its my lack of watering, lack of sunlit areas in a log house with wrap around porches, etc. Or maybe its that I have kids who like to dig in dirt. Any dirt will do but they just seem to LOVE to dig in any dirt found INSIDE the house!  I have many a pic of a child sitting in a circle of potting soil, some smeared around their mouth from the obvious ingestion of it (for fiber purposes I suppose), and a helpless little plant by their side.  I just can't seem to keep plants alive. Then I have this endless need to try to plant things from SEED! This is an obvious mistake of the newbie that you veteran green-thumbers snicker about behind my back.  My sister is one of those green-thumbers. She always has amazing plants that just grow and grow. Once she even gave me a precious plant that had grown too large for her small apartment. She decided that our "spacious" house would be the perfect place for it.  It was a death sentence for this huge, out of control, BIG, HEALTHY plant.  See, my, then one year old, little boy loved to dig in the dirt. He dug, so I moved the plant higher. He grew. I moved the plant outside. IT grew. I didn't see it, so I didn't water it. Big plant suffered and became little plant. I nurtured it. I brought it back inside. Little boy dug. You see the circle. Good, green-thumb-ownin' sister never gave me another plant. I offered it back to her, mostly dead, and completely sad, knowing that she could probably just look at it, and it would come to life in her gaze. Instead, her gaze turned to me as if I had killed her first born! So sorry sis!

Its not like I'm a newbie to dirt and seeds. I grew up in a family that gardens. Its not like any one of them are Martha Stewart (except maybe my sister) or Better Homes and Gardens kinda people. We are just poor kinda people!  We had to garden to eat!  And I hated it!  I don't like to get my hands dirty. I hate the way that feels. My hubby throws pottery and is very good at, but I know I never will be because I hate the way clay sucks every molecule of moisture out of your hands and there is no lotion in God's great creation that can help! Clay is just fancy dirt. It wasn't until a lovely little old lady introduced me to gardening gloves that I came to realize that I'm an idiot for not using them before.

And with all these obstacles in my way, still I want to garden.  Why, you ask?  Because I like to EAT!!!  I like veggies better than fruits. I like the harvest. I tolerated gardening as a kid so that I could have fried zucchini (still my only fried food guilty pleasure) and fresh corn. That summer meal, in a Meat and Potatoes kinda family, that consisted solely of veggies picked that morning!  I like to pick them and try them new ways. But I'm cheap! I spend a large chunk of my grocery budget on produce each week.  I hate that. I have a perfectly huge lot that our house sits on with land that should never have perked for a house, it holds water. Bad for houses, but good for gardens!  So I read and I planned and I drew up plans and I showed them to hubby. He hated them. I replanned. I redrew. I even built with my own hands a new pantry to store all my soon-to-come goodies from the ground. (I am MUCH better at building/crafting/remodeling than gardening.) Hubby then decided that if I was gonna go to that much trouble and build a HUGE pantry then I must be serious. He decided to take it into his own hands.

This is what I figured my garden would look like.....

This is how I want it to really look...

                             

And this is how it really looks (right now).

It isn't finished (the slats aren't on or stained to match the posts) but it will keep God's big critters out while I try to organically keep his smaller ones at bay and welcome the nice ones with pretty flowers. The flowers will also keep me smiling as they grace vases inside the house, bringing a little outdoors in! See?  My garden would have been small and simple but hubby's influence made it grand (and much more expensive) but much nearer to my inspiration picture!  I knew I married him for a reason...I'm just too darn cheap to buy what is really needed.

So, I see a certain person from our Bible class posting beautiful pics of her greenhouse successes(you know who you are!) and I'm just green with envy (and probably getting my tomato slips from her!). I see the pretty plants at the store and know that I can make mine look like that with time and patience. I did my homework. I did my composting. I have my pantry ready and my freezer bags stocked up.

 

Its just me and God now and I'm betting on the God part because the me part is seriously flawed.  I'm ready God! Bless me with produce and help me feed my family and any needing neighbors that might cross our paths. ...Somehow I get the feeling that its gonna start raining squash and I had better be careful what I pray for. So if I come with bags of produce to church, know that God has answered my prayers and He is blessing you too!

"...and Jill Came Tumbling After!"

"Jack and Jill went up the stairs to get the Baby A__, Jack came down and turned around, and Jill came tumbling after!"  Well, sort of!  This basically what happened in our house on Sunday after church.

You see, I went upstairs to lay A__ down for her nap and kicked N out of his room b/c the crib is currently in his room. This allows her to nap during the day in peace while he is at school. But baby A woke and would not go back to sleep. So, I picked her up and proceeded to take her back downstairs. Meanwhile, N had relocated his Hot Wheels garage and load of cars to the steps to play.  I was still dressed for church, wearing my high heel boots to keep warm from the frigged cold of that morning. I moved his toys over and started down the steps. I guess I must have missed one!  Lets just say that Hot Wheels, high heels, and narrow steps don't mix.  I realized there was no fixing the inevitable tumble and I was worried about poor A!  So, in midair, I flipped over onto my back so that I would not land on her. Poor A rode on my chest and I bumped down the stairs backward and head first. My loving hubby was at the bottom the steps and hung up on whoever he was speaking with on the phone as I shouted, "B! B!  Save A! Get her!"  Once at the bottom, he says, "ARE YOU OK????" But all I can muster is, "Get her! Make sure she is OK."  I just lay on the floor trembling but thinking I am alright and at least STILL ALIVE! (Praise GOD!)  Then I slowly start wiggling extremities trying to determine if calling an ambulance should be the next step and if I should lay as still as possible.  I determine over time, to the callings of my loving family to get up, that I am, in fact, OK and I slowly move to get up.

Fast forward to Monday morning....

I think that I am black and blue from head to toe but otherwise OK. My neck is stiff and sore and kinda hurts to move it.  As the day progresses my neck and head get worse so I decided to take advantage of my dear mother-in-law and a new friend down the street to take care of my kids. I make an appointment with a chiropractor!  End of story...Severe whiplash and a torqued lumbar spine (which I didn't even really feel, but now that it is back in alignment I am beginning to notice the difference.) Today is day 4 and chiropractors can work MAGIC!  If I had gone to the ER, I'm pretty sure I would still be in a cervical collar and unable to move, taking LOTS of pain pills. I went to the chiropractor and I can pretty much do whatever I want (within reason) and I have almost all range of motion back. He expects about 1 to 3 months for a full recovery and I might need physical therapy but I feel lucky to be alive and able to move all my limbs!  That is BY FAR the worst injury I've ever had. I've done a lot of weird stuff athletically but I've never done anything that could have potentially been fatal.

So, all this has had me thinking!  This is not the first time I have "sacrificed" myself to save my child. I bet you have done it or will at some point in the future.  I have done it once now for each kid and each time I came out pretty banged up (this being the most serious).  The other times were because of something the child did and I "saved" them, but this time was of no fault to poor A. (She, by the way, is perfectly fine minus a small scrape on her forehead.)   You see, God gave us basic instincts, reflexes if you will, in order to maintain our own personal safety.  You blink when something comes toward your face.  You put up your hands if something is flying toward you, or turn you back, which is much stronger than your head. We get into fetal position. WE BRACE FOR IMPACT if we are about to fall.  These are innate and happen subconsciously.  So, how is it that we, as parents, are able to override those basic instincts?  How was I able to flip over in midair to save A?  I believe that God gives us another instinct as parents...LOVE!  We love our children so much, that we would die for them, or fall down stairs, or jump in front of moving trucks!  It is our basic reflex to protect them in every way!  It hurts us when our children are rejected among their peers and it is your gut reaction to go jump the bully! It hurts us when they get a boo-boo, like it is somehow our fault for not watching carefully. 

This, in turn, makes me reflect more fully on Christ. I can't really turn my eyes upward right now until my neck heals, but I can bow in prayer in thankfulness that He sacrificed Himself for ME!  How must God hurt when the "bullies" hurt me, or I get a boo-boo?  He must want to swat the bad guys and shelter me in His arms and that is just exactly what He does. So I will hold my babies and love them, just as I am loved and know that I would do it all over again and so would He! 

Now to just make sure there is a new rule in this house, "No Toys on the Steps!" ....

Have You Ever TRULY Felt Loved????

Man!  Today has been an awesome day and its only half over!  I woke this morning with my K in bed with me!  I let her sleep with me last night. We (hubby and I) try to do this every so often for the kids to get special time with Mommy or Daddy. I shared a very special prayer with her, just about her and whats going on in her life. We had a great time talking about where God is, where He lives, what He is doing, and how He can hear all of our prayers. Then, I hear A over the monitor and loving hubby gets her INSTEAD OF ME!  (He slept with N for special time with Daddy and A's crib is in N's room.)  That is music to my ears as well. He made me feel loved.

Then, I am blessed and encouraged by several at church. I see so many of whom I get to keep up with through Facebook and I am able to encourage them too because I now know it was their birthday, or what they did last night with their families and how fun it looked! Today is a special Sunday, with a guest speaker who really spoke to me about prayer and how we need to pray SPECIFICALLY. As noted in an earlier post, I am still a work-in-progress in this department.  Then, SIX (yes, count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!!!!) people came forward to renew their commitment to Christ and ask for everyone's love, support, and prayers. What a wonderful day! Families are being blessed and restored. 

All of this leads me to feel loved. Loved by the ones that spoke with me at church (you know who you are if you are still reading this post!), loved by my hubby, loved by my children, loved by God. I can SEE God in nature and in the beauty of this earth, but I am struck most recently by SEEING Him move in the lives of myself and my friends. There have been a lot of dark times recently and I can SEE Satan moving too. He wants nothing more than to see strong Christians struggle and flail. I can SEE what Satan is capable of and how he can manipulate situations. I want to stand with my fellow Christians in UNITY to be soldiers for Christ! So here is where I stand:

(Spoiler Alert!) I HAVE READ THE GOOD BOOK AND I KNOW THE ENDING!  THE GOOD GUY WINS!   

I know that God is ALIVE!  I know that He cares for me, for all of us!  I know that He is moving and making all things for good!  And it is this knowledge that makes me feel TRULY loved today! If you have never felt this kind of love, I pray that you come talk to me and let me tell you how to find Him, the Creator of love. Praise God!

I'm Painting Again!

Well, this particular post reached those that needed to read it and did its job. Thank you to those who knew what it was about and stepped up to the plate. God is good and is indeed at work in our lives each and every day!  Praise Him!  Therefore, I have voluntarily decided to remove this post and I consider myself an optimist and hate "negative" stuff on this blog. So, be gone nasty negativity! May my life be filled with happiness and happy people from here on out!

Top 10 Products I Can't Live Without!

Ok. So today's post is a bit different but I figured I like to know what other Mommies out there are using to make their lives easier, so here is my list! Feel free to tell me your additions and I will post those too!

10. Pampers!  I like Pampers better than Huggies b/c Huggies seem to leak on my kids.
9. Ugly Yellow Dish/Cleaning Gloves. Take care of your skin so hubby will want to hold your hand!
8. Oxi clean...not just for laundry!
7. Shark Steam Mop. It uses NO chemicals and sanitizes the floors for my little crawler.
6. Lysol/Clorox Wipes.  I just bet you love these too.
5. Libman "Freedom" mop.  Its the new substitute for Swiffer wet jet. I like it b/c I can wash the pads and put my own cleaners in it. I have to buy nothing further!  GENIUS! I love this thing!
4. Crayola Color Wonder Series.  These are AWESOME for church or other non-messy places, but its pricey!
3. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. This is probably my favorite but I use the next two daily, all day! What CAN'T you do with these magical erasers???
2. Baby Wipes.  These are in my room, in my purse, in my car, in my ____.  You can wipe up, wipe off, wipe away just about anything that kids can throw, spit, wipe, or spill on either themselves or you!
AND....
1. New Balance Athletic Shoes. Ones for every day wear and others for running. I love the number system that TELLS me how much support they provide without me having to guess, wonder, or ask the salesman, who only wants his commission!  I love these shoes. They last well and have never caused me grief.


So, there is my list. What products have you found that you use constantly. I know that I could do a whole separate list of kitchen gadgets like kitchen sheers or a pizza wheel.  I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and maybe receive a few more WONDERFUL items to make your life a little easier....like a step ladder!

Prayer Time - Confessional 2

Hello my name is Mommy and I ....am.....a...prayer mess.  See, I am a VERY organized person. For the most part, my house is organized, my thoughts are organized, even my car is organized.  However, my prayer life always just seems to be a mess.  I hate this. I love the idea of lighting candles in a calm space, taking the nicely clipped article from the Sunday church bulletin with the prayer list and then prayerfully lifting each to God. Here is my problem. I have no calm space for such things. I have spoken to several others about this and most simply agree that they don't have much time for such things either. Honestly, I am saddened as I believe that our generation is apathetically falling farther from God. Less prayer time, Bible-reading, etc. are evidenced by the sharp increase in divorce, lack of ability to quickly turn to scripture during class, fewer willing to jump in and volunteer, and so on.  I see evidence of less walking with God and more "talking AT God" if even involving Him at all. All it seems to have taken to shed light on this problem is a down economy!

So, after talking with several other women of varying ages over the years here are the solutions that I received. 
1) Pray beside the bed at night on your knees so as not to fall asleep.  &  2) Pray with your "bottom" sticking up in the air to be as uncomfortable as possible so not to fall asleep. I hate to pray before bed because I always seem to get, "Father, thank you so much for...." and then I wake up the next morning! My head hits the pillow and I am DONE! I tried both of these but my knees hurt or I couldn't breathe. That makes a distraction from the task at hand. I don't want to be distracted.  3) Pray when you first wake in the morning to be fresh and give your first to God. Now this seems ideal.  But in reality I would need to wake sometime before the ice age to actually accomplish this. I get up around 5 or 5:30 each morning in order to have N at school before 7:15.  I need to shower, dress, eat my own breakfast, get a lunch, get three kids fed, get three kids dressed, check a backpack and folder for completion, load everyone up and get out before 7:00 to make that happen. First thing in the morning just doesn't seem possible either.

I have spent a lot of time thinking on this over the past few years, but even more so recently.  So my confession is this.  I pray all day.  AND I'M OK WITH THAT!  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  I have taken this verse to heart and I now pray short prayers about whatever is on my heart right then, when it crosses my mind.  "Dear Lord, please watch over N today as he has a test." "Father, please help me control my temper as K has emptied a third roll of toilet paper and I don't know where there actual paper has gone!!!"  "Lord, watch over A as she is sick. Please help her to heal and feel better."  Now, each prayer is a little longer than this but you get the point.  This makes me feel less alone, like God is with me in everything that I do (which He is!).  Now, I know that Jesus set an example of how to pray with "The Lord's Prayer".  In a rather concise prayer, He covered all the bases and prayed with sincerity. I know that my short little prayers don't cover all the bases in one prayer, but throughout the day, I know that I cover them all.  Some of you might disagree with me and I would love to hear your point of view. I just feel that after much searching, this works for me and I don't THINK that I'm misunderstanding God's word. (Thats why your input could persuade me and make me look at this again.) For now, I like praying throughout the day. It puts a smile on my face to thank God for the beautiful dew on a spider web, or the sweet smell of my baby, or the milk grin on my K.  I like to know that I can turn to Him for patience, for endurance, for ....whatever it is that I want to bring to Him at that moment.  And just as importantly, I can involve the kids in these quick prayers. They can hear me pray and they often chime in too. There is NOTHING better in this world than hearing your child's sweet voice talking to their Heavenly Father and the innocence with which they ask things.

Maybe one day I will be able to sit down with my neat and tidy prayer list with candles all around, but for now this is my reality and I'm trying to make it work.  How do you make it work?  You just might have a better solution which I will quickly want to adopt (and share with the others reading this if you would permit). Can't wait to hear from you!

No more Fake Lives!!!!

Well, I just wanted to say thanks today.  I started this blog on Monday after the RANDOM idea came to me over the weekend that it might be a good way to just unload my thoughts. I figured no one would really care or want to read it and thats ok with me.  That, however, has NOT been the case. In four days there have been well over 300 "hits" to the site. I have had an outpouring of love and support from my older Christian mentors as well as "You're talking about ME!" from my fellow mommies! I have received an offer to take me shopping (Whoo hoo!) and a great book about being a stay-at-home mom. I have so many other post ideas floating around in my head so hold onto to your chairs ladies, I think this is gonna be fun (at least for me!)

I also wanted to make sure I clear this up.  See, this is done in "me" time so I literally type up each post in about 30 minutes, come back later to read through it, reword whatever, etc. then post it. I took a few minutes the other day to read a published post and found a few errors in it.  SO....If you are upset by the errors, misspelled words, comma in wrong place, etc. kinda errors then this might not be for you. I'm working on borrowed time (from the kids) and want to get these things out of my head before it explodes. I have to work quickly. I know how to write, type, spell and even place commas but since I'm not getting a report card for this, then please forgive me my mistakes!  =)

On a side note, I want to thank N's school. The Christmas program yesterday was titled, "Why We Celebrate" and every song played, sung, etc was a CHRIST-CENTERED song. (Mary Did You Know, Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, etc!!!!)  There were TWO nativity sets on stage. One big one, that Santa knelt before at the end, and one small one on a table that the narrator/ family of kids knelt before with praying hands at the end!!!  This is a PUBLIC school!  WHOO HOO!  I have NO complaints!  I was impressed.  Good to know that N is in good hands overall.  Thanks to the administration for that one. I would send in a thank you note to the Board of Education but I don't want to GET THEM IN TROUBLE for doing something amazing. I will secretly just thank the principal and tell him to keep up the good work.

So here is to praising God whenever and wherever we can and showing support for others who do the same. Here is to showing ourselves for what we truly are:  MOMS! Hard working, spit-up wearing, snot wiping, toilet scrubbing, kiss sharing, God teaching, role modeling, floor playing MOMS!  Lets not pretend in front of others anymore.  Rather, lets show helping hands and not-so-perfect lives in order to create an atmosphere of love and understanding amongst each other.  Post your perfect lives and perfect kids living in your perfect house after your perfect vacation on facebook if you must,but  I am going to just be real and let others know that they aren't alone in their pile of dirty laundry and dishes!