3 Things You Should Never Combine

(Many of you probably saw my facebook post last week about eating icecream. I thought I'd share with ya'll the REST of the story.)

My husband and I made the first icecream cones of the summer for a fun treat that evening. Chris had just brought the older kids upstairs to put them to bed and I thought I would enjoy a little down time. My baby was a little fussy so I thought I'd watch a little TV as I sat on the couch with him in my lap with one arm and the cone in my other hand. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of my cone until I realized it was dripping out the bottom. And guess what it was dripping on? Yep, my sweet little baby boy's head!! Ahhh!!  I looked down and saw 2 huge drippings and one was about to make a major plunge down the side of his head to his ear. What was a girl to do? I had one hand filled with a baby and the other holding the cone. No one else was in the room to help. Well, what would you do? Yep, you guessed it. I leaned forward and slurped the icecream from my sweet little boy's head. (I can hear all your EWWWWW'S ya know...shhhh.) The thing I was most bummed about was the fact that he had just had a bath! Oh well...it just seems like they never can stay clean for long. I was sorry that I just happened to be the one to "ruin" the clean baby. So the moral of the story...never combine TV, a baby, and a tired mommy eating a cone. :-)

The Library Book Goblin

Well,  well, well… where do I even begin. Ok, so let’s just start out by saying that my daughter has some serious issues with books.  Library books in particular. She just loves taking them everywhere she goes. If any parents are out there reading this you know what this means. When it comes time to return them…they are nowhere to be found. We used to have this really good system where they stayed in one place and were never moved unless we read them. Well, my daughter has resorted from carrying around one or two books to the entire bag of library books (which is usually somewhere between 10 and 15 books). She basically pulls the bag along because it’s so heavy! It’s quite the sight.  Now Grace takes naps in our room. This, as you can imagine, presents another problem…can you guess? Yes, we find them all over our bed and around our bed.  So now that you can see my beginning distaste for library books, I will now share with you my dilemma.

It all started when my mom took the kids for an overnighter at her house. Grace knows (or should have known) that library books do not leave the house. Well, she brought a whole bag of her “stuff” out to Grandma and Papa’s house. Little did I know she left with several library books.  When it came time to return the books to the library we found all but one book. Yes, that ONE blasted book!!! Ahhh!! I practically turned my house upside down to find this book. I’m convinced that there is a Library book Goblin that comes and steals library books! And for some reason he picks our house just about every week! Well,  I finally resorted to realizing I was probably going to have to buy this book. In my mind I figured it would be way cheaper to purchase a book off of Amazon than pay a ridiculous price at the library for a book. So I went ahead and found a used book for a little over $3. I went to the library and explained what had happened and asked if it would work for me to just replace it. No problem. Yes…resolved.

I went ahead and began looking for more books with my kids. As I was going to check out the new books the librarian told me that there was a problem. They told me the book I needed to replace was hardcover and I had brought them a soft cover book. Now, here’s where my blood starts to boil. Ok, I know that I know that I know that the book was soft cover. I remember specifically thinking, “Hmm…this book will never last at the library with kids. It’s soft cover. I never get soft cover books from the library. That’s weird.” OK, there is a .0001% chance I could be wrong. But I highly doubt it. I explained to her that I was positive it was a soft cover and went through the thinking I mentioned above. They wouldn’t accept it. Their computer was what they went by. I said, “So basically…you don’t believe me.”  They told me to replace the hard cover book it would be $14.00.  Ok, if you’re anything like me and have a strong sense of justice, and right and wrong then you would be feeling a little frustrated at this point as well.  I told them I would go search Grandma’s house myself (since it seems like Grandma’s just don’t search for a library book like Mom’s do..heehee) and to renew the book for now.

So, I am fuming as I drive to Dalton to my parents house today, not only because there is a fee that is involved in replacing a type of book that I/we did not lose, but because I am now wasting more money in gas (from our gas hog truck because the van is broke)!!! THIS BOOK IS GETTING SPENDY!! This is getting ridiculous! All because I don’t want to pay $14.00 and my pride wants to prove to them that I am RIGHT!! I think I am mostly upset because they basically are questioning my integrity!! Anyone else out there ever feel this way?? Please?? Am I alone?  $14.00 may not seem like a lot of money to some people. This would be a non-issue for most of you I’m sure. But when you have an $850 vehicle repair in the same week the dollar is so much more huge! (And again...I’m sure $850 is pennies to some out there too…not us…yet! J) 

Did I find the book at my parents house? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Now, this has become what seemed like a wasted trip. But God knows! I am still determined to not give up yet and to FIND this book!

Now, on a good note (which I know you are all waiting for) I was able to meet some of my mom’s friends that were up for the weekend while I searched for the book.  Mom just had to show off the grandkids. Turns out…one of them needed a massage! Yepper doo! AND turns out …we had wonderful fellowship! AND it turns out… I invited them to church and they are coming tomorrow! I’m super excited. So all that to say, as Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” If I had never went out to my mom and dad’s to look for the book I would have never met these dear sweet people, they wouldn’t be enjoying our church service tomorrow, and I wouldn’t have the massage $ in my pocket either.  Who knows…maybe this book was supposed to be lost after all. J

But as I mentioned I’m still not giving up!! I’m still frustrated by the whole situation…just not fuming any more. I am determined that we WILL find this book and not have to pay $14.00 and *cough* that I was right.  So, if anyone out there sees the Library Book Goblin out there…could you please tell him to bring our book back? I promise to leave him some cookies and milk…just please tell him to bring it back soon! Thank You! J

Yes...I am homeschooling!!!

Ok so, it's official. I am homeschooling! I know, I know...you all think I'm crazy. But didn't we already establish that by all my other posts? :-) As many of you know the desire of my heart was to send my kids to our local private Christian School. As we were praying about it my husband had said that he really felt that it was the Lord's will for us to homeschool. He then went on to mention several reasons behind it as well. Even if the funds were provided for us for our children to attend this particular school, he still felt that it was the Lord's will for us to homeschool our children. I personally did not see the light on this matter at the same time as him. However, I was very glad he communicated that to me the way he did. It's good to know you are in the Lord's will than to be wishy-washy and wonder if you're doing the right thing. I would rather spend 1 day in the will of the Lord than 1000 out of it. I told him that if it's the Lord's will then He will give me the grace and tools I need to do it. (Oh and by the way, the funds were offered to us to send our kids)

I was determined that we wouldn't just do it at the kitchen table. I know so many people do that but I personally want my kids to have some fun with school.  So I created the other half of Jonathan's room into our homeschool room (since there really was no other place to do it). To me...this was more fun. I have 3 little kid desks for the kids to sit in and a teacher desk as well. We have a white board, and some decorations hung up as well to make it look somewhat like a classroom. Someday, if we are still here and still desiring to homeschool, we may fix up our basement and make a room down there. We are just taking it one year at a time. (After today I guess I should say that we're taking it one DAY at a time)

So, today we had our first "official" day. Boy oh boy! We are in for a trip to say the least! I'm sure the more we get used to it the easier it will become. However, it seemed very overwhelming to me today as Jonathan (5 months 2 days ago) was crying and Luke (2 years) was desiring our full attention as well. The actual schooling part went ok. I'm sure as we go I will figure out solutions for some of the problems I'm running into. I'm not giving up YET! I told my husband I would "try" it. No guarantees.

I think the key thing to homeschooling is having the vision before you as to WHY you are choosing to do it. If the vision is not laid out before you as to why you are choosing to do what you do, then I believe that is where many people give up. For me...the vision isn't the problem right now. It's the other kiddos-that would be the main reason I would give up. I am not sure how I'm going to keep up on the rest of life since I was already feeling pretty maxed out but I know it will all work out if it's supposed to be. I'm a hard worker and know it's doable. I'm definitely going to be making some extra sacrifices that I wasn't sure I was quite ready for. I won't go into details as to more reason's why we are choosing to do this on this post.  If you are interested in learning more about our reasoning please let me know and I'd be happy to chat with you! :-) So for now...the 4 loads of laundry, the piled up dishes, and kids are all calling (or should I say SCREAMING) my name. Toodles :-)

Luke's Emergency Room Visit

So Saturday we were cleaning out our porch and of course Luke had to be part of the action. We showed him how sidewalk chalk worked and he squealed with delight playing with it for his first time. He would draw something and then say, "Daddy...yook...BIG ONE!" But besides playing with the sidewalk chalk he also had a few bumps on his head that morning as well as a couple mosquito bites. We didn't think much of it until lunch time when we noticed it looked a little larger than normal on his forehead. By supper time it was much more noticeable and Chris started calling him, "Worf" (from Star Trek I guess).

Luke at supper time with a mouth full of milk!

Again, as the evening progressed we tried to figure out what was going on with Luke. I remembered one time when I was 16 I was in a car accident with my siblings and my sister had a big bonk on her forehead like that. It was a giant bruise that slowly moved down her face. We teased her and told her she looked like the Beast from "Beauty and the Beast." Now here my very own son was starting to look like the Beast and we didn't know why. Chris even tried to get Luke to make the "Worf" noise (whatever that is) and tried to get him to walk like him too. (Man what we do for a laugh) We decided to see if it would be better in the morning. That night he woke up crying and itching his forehead. We comforted him and he fell right back asleep. But one look at his face showed me it wasn't getting better. My mind started racing trying to figure out what this was. Could it be West Nile Virus? Could he have gotten bit by a spider while we were cleaning out the porch? I had no idea but my husband reassured me that we just needed to trust the Lord. So much easier to say that do sometimes :-)

The next morning he was up at 7:00. I took one look at his face and we decided he needed to get checked out because this was not getting any better. (You don't exactly want to go to the ER unless something is really bad. But I was freaking out looking at him and seeing how he could barely even open one eye.)

Luke's sad face while he is getting shoes on to go to the E.R.

We grabbed a granola bar for him to eat on the way and Daddy and Luke headed to the E.R. Chris said that ER doctor didn't know what was wrong with him but that he was glad they didn't make him feel stupid for bringing him in. They gave him some Benadryl and an antibiotic just to be safe in case it was some type of infection.

So, all that to say, we still aren't quite sure what happened. But we are leaning toward the mother of all mosquito's taking a chunk out of his forehead. It is now 2 days later and he looks much better. I think the Benadryl has really been helping. We are so glad to see improvement and know our little boy isn't miserable. Oh the joys of having kids! :-)