Five for Friday

1.  Whelp, folks, it's time to start talking Africa.  Guess who has 2 thumbs and leaves 3 months from today?  Yep.  THIS GIRL!  AND my whole fam.  Can you even believe it?  Can you believe I'm really going back to Uganda....again??  Gosh.  Fifteen months ago I thought I literally might die from the weight of grieving over Africa, and now here I am co-leading a team!  Really, truly, y'all - God is ALWAYS working.  Sometimes it is SO. HARD. to see and so hard to trust Him through the dark, but we just have to.  "Lord, where else can we go?" (John 6:68) Totally talkin' to myself here.

2. Jacob is (finally!) getting to play football this year!  Poor guy, he's wanted to play tackle football ever since he finished playing flag when he was 6 years old.  Mama wasn't so crazy about the idea, and somehow I conveniently missed the signup deadline (really) every year.  He made DARN SURE I didn't forget this year and, well, here we are.  He's #33 - wide receiver - and he loves it.

Uh, his uniform is wet from getting water poured on his head.  It was hot, but not THAT hot. ;-)

What we do not love is practice 3x per week and games on Sunday afternoons.  For 8 weeks.  But, what're ya gonna do?

3. Kloe's spending the night with a friend tonight and The Mister is out of town.  Would you like to guess what movie Jacob picked for us to watch on our night home together?  A little Diary of a Wimpy Kid?  Bolt?  Sky High?  Noooo.....this:

Oh yes he did.

4.  Why yes, that is my t-shirt Kloe's wearing.  It's just not right.

5.  Have you met this girl?

Bloggy friends, meet Zoey.  Zoey, meet bloggy friends.  Don't let this innocent face fool you.  That was our first mistake.  This girl is a tasmanian devil in disguise.  Oh the barking, and the digging, and the jumping.  We are prime candidates for the Dog Whisperer.  I think he would pay us to let him come help us.  If only I knew where to get his number.

Hope you all have a great, quiet weekend!

Annnd....they're off!

You'd think after 8 years of doing this gig (and even more, if you count preschool), it would have dawned on me before now.  I'm a little slow that way.

Here it is, the big revelation:  School makes me crazy.

All year long last year I fought with my kids almost every (week)day about running late, messing around in the mornings, not getting their stuff done, not doing their chores, homework, messy rooms (ok, this one is ongoing), and on and on and ON.  I thought it was them.  Lazy.  Undisciplined.  Careless.  Couldn't-care-less.  Bad attitudes.

And then I thought it was me.  Overbearing.  Impatient.  Too-high expectations.  Drill sergeant.  All-around bad parent.

After a couple of weeks of being out of school this summer, things started to mellow out a little.  We all started getting along better.  Tempers flared less and less often.  Less arguing (between them and me, not between themselves), less grouching, less frustration.  More harmony.  More laughter.  More relaxed.

Yesterday - on day ONE of school - I woke up and prayed, "God, I don't want to go back to the way things were last year.  Please give me the patience of Your Spirit.  Please fill me with Your love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness....  I want our home to be full of Your PEACE...."

And on day ONE of school, both kids were STARTING their lunches 5 minutes before time to go (yes, they make their own.  Bad mom.).  Kloe was asking me - as she should have been walking out the door - "Do I take these supplies that were in my backpack from last year?  Or only the ones in the sack?"  Didn't we already go through all this?

Jacob picked up his sack of supplies and the handle tore off, nearly dumping notebook paper and spirals and dry erase markers everywhere.  His hair looked like he just crawled out of bed - after he brushed it.  He wore a shirt with bleach stains on it.  Oh yes he did.  On the first day of school.

After school I got a text from Kloe saying she wouldn't be at her usual pickup spot, but instead was by the front doors of the school.  Of course traffic was RIDICULOUS, because every parent in the known world picks up their kid on the first day of school (WHY?).  So I waited and waited and waited in the pickup line (normally I can just drive right through the middle because of where she usually waits), only to get to the front and....no Kloe.

I found a parking place where I could see the front of the school and I started the search.  After a while I found her, standing over to the side, talking to a group of friends, totally not watching for me at all.  Grrr.  So I waited awhile, hoping she would glance up and I could catch her attention, but no.  Finally, I climbed out of the car and began The March to the front of the school.  The poor Assistant Principal happened to be working traffic.  She smiled her big, beautiful smile at me and said, "HI!!  How's the first day of school?"  I practically growled at her.

I'm sure you can guess how the rest of that scenario went.

Happy first day of school.

Today started out even worse.  Even though we got up earlier, everyone was running later.  More procrastinating.  More tempers flaring.  More arguing.  When Kloe and I were ready to walk out the door, I asked Jacob, "Where's your lunch?"  He said, "I didn't make it yet."  What??  He said, "What am I going to do?"  And I barked said, "I don't know.  You're going to have to figure out a plan."

Fortunately for him, The Mister was still at home and had time to wait.  I took Kloe to school while he made his lunch, then came back home and got him.

And somewhere in the middle of all that it dawned on me.

It isn't them.  It isn't me.

It's SCHOOL.

It makes us all crazy.

We don't roll this way.  We're not organized, orderly, stay-in-the-lines kind of people.  We're more the march-to-our-own drummer, take our own sweet time to do it our own way kind of people, and it seems we just don't fit in the standardized school mold.

And yet we have no choice but to keep doing it, year after year after year.

What is it they say about the definition of insanity?  Yeah.  This.

And so in the midst of all the craziness, in the midst of the chaos and frustration and not knowing how to make it be any different, this mama rushed everyone out the door on the first day of school to do what we always do - take pictures before her little loves rush headlong back into another year of crazy.  Pictures that hopefully we'll look back on and remember all of the good - and not so much of the insanity.

And tomorrow morning we'll get up and do it all again (minus the pictures).

Kloe - 8th grade

Jacob - 5th grade

A moment of peace. :)

Hello Thursday

Well, hello, Thursday. My, you snuck up on me quick this week. (I don’t really think “snuck” is a word, but my spell check says it’s ok, so I’m going with it.)

**Edit: this started out as sort of a “random Thursday” post, but kind of turned into a mostly-about-Ebenezer post. Sorry. I can’t seem to help myself. :)

So much going on around here lately – seems we are busy, busy, busy all the time, but at the same time it seems like really nothing is going on. When it’s the same-o, same-o, I guess it seems like nothing, even if it’s a lot.

Let’s see.

So….Uganda. LOTS going on with that already. Update in the next post (whenever that may be).

Kloe is preparing for her first major ballet production. She is so excited she could pop. She’s been taking ballet for just over a year, and she auditioned for a part in the spring production and got it! We are SO proud of her. It’s a small, group part, but just to be able to say she’s in the production is so awesome!

Jacob? Is, well, Jacob. :) He’s not playing any sports right now, and I’m SO thankful. Practices and games every week just about wear me out. He’s doing Boy Scouts (loves), preparing for Battle of the Books at school, and is learning to do his own laundry. Glory. And hallelujah.

The Mister is B.U.S.Y. with a capital “B” this time of year. He sells drip irrigation systems, so they are trying to squeeze in every last sale and minute of work they can before the farmers plant. We typically see him between 9 (or 10) p.m. and 7 (or 6) a.m. I am oh-so-ready for planting season to get here!

My newest bloggy loves: We Are THAT Family and Gloriously Ruined. If you aren’t reading them, you should. Wynne from Gloriously Ruined is a photographer and is good friends with my mission trip leader, Kari Gibson. She was part of the Man Up and Go team and is pretty much all-around awesome. I just recently found out that she only lives a couple of hours away from me! We are totally planning a get-together soon. ;-)

I’m still making letters for Ebenezer, and even yesterday when I walked into Jacob’s school, the workroom assistant stopped me and ordered 3 more.  Oh Lord. Whew. Making those letters is SO involved and SO time-consuming and SO frustrating to me….and yet, the orders just keep coming. I really don’t even make that much profit from them to donate to Ebenezer, and yet I can’t seem to get away from them. Thank you, Jesus, for Your purpose.

Speaking of Ebenezer, I have to tell you THE. COOLEST. STORY. EVER. IN. THE. HISTORY. OF. THE. WORLD. Ever.

About six-ish weeks ago, the director of Hope Grafted In (HGI) (which is the U.S. non-profit that handles donations for Ebenezer) contacted me and asked if I would host an online 31 Gifts party (she’s a consultant) as a fundraiser for Ebenezer. I said, “Uh, sure, but I typically don’t do very well with parties.”

I thought maybe if I got a friend to team up with me we would do better. So my friend A graciously jumped on board, and we had an online party for 3 weeks. And we got 3 orders. Three. We raised all of $50 for Ebenezer. Which is good, don’t get me wrong, but I was a little discouraged to say the least.

Well. Right after we found out the total from the party – like that same day – Ebenezer posted on their FB page that the heavy rains of the Ugandan rainy season had caused their school/church structure to collapse. And by “structure”, I mean it was a metal roof held up by some wooden poles. Not even “poles” as you would picture them, but just trimmed down tree-poles. That structure is where they hold classes for their school, which is a source of income to the ministry. George posted that they needed 90,500 shillings to fix the structure. OH. MY. GOSH. Do you know how much 90,500 shillings is? Approximately $34.

I emailed HGI right away and said, “OH. MY. GOSH.” (I like emailing in all caps when I’m excited.) “Am I reading this right? It’s going to cost less than $40 to fix the structure???” They emailed back and said, “Yes, I think so! God knew what He was doing – looks like your 31 party will cover the whole thing!”

I was beside myself. SOOO cool that my “disappointing” $50 donation was now going to completely pay to fix their school room/church structure!

Ohhhh, but wait, it gets better.

Almost as soon as I got that email from HGI – in fact, I think while I was reading it – George posted an update on FB that said, “Sorry, the repairs are not 90,500 shillings, they’re 900,500 shillings.”

Oh, the difference a zero can make! What we thought was going to take $34 to fix was actually going to take $335. HGI emailed me again and said, “Your $50 will still help them get there.”

*sigh*

Now wait. Remember I’m still making letters for them? Earlier that day – before all the drama – I had just so happened to “randomly” check the balance in the separate checking account I use for that money. There was $282.00 in the account.

Check this.

$335.00 (to fix the structure)
-  50.00 (31 Gifts fundraiser)
$285.00

$285!!!!
Y’ALL!!!
(Yes. Yes, I DO need all those exclamation points!!!!)

GOD. IS. SO. COOL!!!!

Never have I ever been SO. ECSTATIC. about God's awesomeness (ok, maybe not "never")!!  And that, my friends, makes any day a good day.  Happy Thursday (night)!

Five Six Several for Sunday

1.  I finally used up the last of my Christmas stamps from last year.  Whew!  Just in time to get some new ones for this Christmas year.

2.  Kloe is playing tennis in school this year, and she LOVES it.  Ever since last Valentine's Day, my kids beg to go play tennis anytime we have a free afternoon.  Can you believe this was my first time to use my new racket?  I know.  And after I'd played for a while, the kids weren't all that anxious for me to use it again anytime soon. :)





Love this action shot! :)









Haha - me in a jacket; Jacob with no shirt. :)

3.  Jacob's last soccer game of the season was a couple of weeks ago.  Team USA had a great 5-3 season.
 

The coach (who also happens to be my Mister) has a tradition that any player who scores four goals in one game gets to pour water on him. But when it's the last game of the season, we pretend everyone scored four goals. Even when it's 41 degrees outside.

4.  You might be a redneck if....this is how you make Cocoa Rice Crispies.

5.  We have Box Tops coming out our ears....

6. They're back!  Glory and hallelujah.  Hurry, buy a bag or twenty before they're gone again!

7. Science experiment.  I wasn't sure what exactly was supposed to happen, so I asked.  Jacob said, "Nothing, I just wanted to make it look all science-y."

8.  Our first pomegranate.  Not a lot to eat out of a pomegranate, but lots of fun (and so pretty)! :)

9.  Does your table ever look like this?  No?  Just me?  Sigh.

10.  I'm plum (do your people say plum?) out of dinner ideas.  What are you having tonight?

Twelve.

How does this happen? I wonder every year. One minute you’re holding this teeny tiny, squirming little newborn who you just can’t believe is actually Y.O.U.R.S. ….and then you blink and take a few (thousand) deep breaths through the tween years, and suddenly a dozen years have passed. Wait, how did I totally miss the tween years? I’ve been soundly informed that our little miss is no longer a tween - she’s a preteen.

TWELVE YEARS ago we brought this beautiful little bundle home from the hospital.

Ohhhh, she was the sweetest little thing. And ohhhhh, how I loved taking pictures of her! We have THREE large, FULL, heavy albums of her....in the first year.

Poor sweet Jacob. He looks at all those pictures and asks over and over, “Is this me?” No, that’s Kloe. “Is this one me?” No, that’s Kloe too. “Where are my pictures?” Um, (hangs head) they’re in a box in my room. Sad mama.

Anyway, amidst the hubbub of back-to-school and back-to-soccer and back-to-ballet, Kloe's graduation out of tweenhood into preteenhood - which happened a month ago - somehow got brushed to the side.  It's time to rectify that.

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that Kloe wanted to celebrate turning 12 by having a SLEEPOVER.  Yep, I did it again.  And I admit, it was fun!  Turns out turning 12 doesn't have to involve a birthday party marked by gossip, borderline-appropriate movies, and hurt-feelings girl-drama. We had seven friends over for a rousing good time of pizza making, cookie-cake eating, and many lively rounds of Telephone and Apples to Apples.

Oh, and then?  We finally joined the ranks of the NICE parents (because we weren't just uncool before - we were mean).....

And much gleeful screaming ensued.

Welcome to the world of a preteen.

The ABC meme.

Ok, so I'm totally cheating with this one. I started another version of an ABC meme like a year and a half ago, but I never even got off the ground with it. That meme required an entire blog post for each letter of the alphabet! And so you see why I never did it. Maybe someday.  My bloggy friend Anna did it, and it was so fun to read. But yeah, I'm lazy like that.

So when I saw this one on Beth Moore's blog this week, it seemed much more up my alley.

I know, memes are so last year, but I've always been way behind the times anyway, so it's nothing new for me to be fashionably late to the trend-party.

Here we go!

A. Age: Really? We’re going to start with this one? Fine. 41. Happy?

B. Bed size: Queen. And most of the time that's too small.

C. Chore that you hate: I.RON.ING. ugh.

D. Dogs: Sadness. We lost our precious Annie one week ago yesterday. Our hearts are still lost without her. At night I still think, “I need to go feed Annie.” When it rained a couple of days ago I thought, “Oh, I need to let Annie in!” Much sadness.

E. Essential start to your day: Coffee. I admit it. With 3 of those little creamer cups (yes, three) and a stevia packet.  Come to think of it, maybe it's the creamer that's an essential start to my day.

F. Favorite color: Green

G. Gold or Silver: Are we talking jewelry or investments? Or the stars I earned for good behavior today? (haha – if that were the case, I would have been moved to BLACK early this morning.) Jewelry - I prefer silver, although I'm old so my wedding ring is gold. Investments........(crickets).

H. Height: 5' 7" (and a half)

I. Instruments you play: Sadly, none. I took piano lessons when I was in elementary school - and for a short stint when I first got married - but I can barely play a note today. I also played the trombone (not the clarinet, as one might think) from 7th grade through college (have I mentioned I LOVED marching band? oh, I have?), and then for a few years afterward in the church orchestra. Again, can't play a lick now. Sad times.

J. Job title: Nowadays, thanks to some major changes in my job in the past year, I'm officially a "financial analyst". Which is laughable, because I am lame at finance. Any business major will tell you there's a huge difference between finance and accounting, and I'm an accountant through and through. I hated my finance classes in college. My degree is accounting. My certification is accounting. Finance? Blech.

K. Kids: Not sure if this is asking about MY kids specifically, or for my opinion on kids - which could vary widely based on the day. And time of day. Just kidding. I have two - girl, 12, and boy, 9. And love them both fiercely. Most days. :) And also a recently heart-adopted, handsome 15-year-old boy who lives on the other side of the globe.

L. Live: Yes, I do. (sheesh, I seem to be having a fit of sarcasm today) Ok, ok, I live in Texas and am so happy to be here. I moved around a ton when I was growing up, and loved Texas the most of all the places we lived. Couldn’t wait to get back here when I graduated from high school.

M. Mother’s name: Glenda. She was the GOOD witch. Grin.

N. Nicknames: None that I know of. Probably Miss Sassy-Pants after this blog post.

O. Overnight hospital stays: Besides when I was born, only when my kids were born, and Jacob’s little two-day stint at the beginning of the year.

P. Pet peeves: Tailgating. And people who say “Nu-cu-lar”.

Q. Quote from a movie: For many, many, many years, my favorite movie in all the world was Pretty Woman. And then at some point I decided maybe that wasn’t the best favorite movie for a good Christian girl. But none the less, I love me some good Pretty Woman quotes. “There’s a band!” My husband and I say this all the time. :) “It’s broken. Mine is broken!” “Do you have a dream? What’s your dream?” And our favorite of all time, “Slippery little suckers, aren’t they?” Lamest quote from the whole movie, which also happens to be the closing line, “She rescues him right back.” Lame. I do avoid the Cinderella reference at all costs.

R. Right or left handed: I tried SO HARD to be left-handed when I was in elementary school (or was it junior high?). I practiced and practiced and practiced. I just couldn’t do it. Funny thing is, Kloe has been doing the same thing recently. We’ll see if she makes it any further than I did. :)

S. Siblings: How much time do you have? In the most basic sense, I’m an only child. My parents divorced when I was very young, and my mom never had any other children. My dad did remarry, and through him I have two half-sisters, one half-brother, and a step-brother. What with all those “partial” siblings, none of them do I actually think of when I think of siblings. On the other hand, my mom’s sister (my aunt) was also divorced and had three sons. My mom and my aunt and all us kids lived together much of the time I was growing up. And so, if you ever hear me talk about my “brothers” here on the blog - by blood they are actually my cousins, but by heart (and by sibling rivalry standards) they are my brothers. :)

T. Time it takes you to get ready: On my own: exactly an hour. With kids: 1 ½ to 2 hours minimum. Even when they’re 9 and 12.

U. Ultimate Vacation: Nantucket.  Ahhhh, lovely Nantucket.

V. Vegetable you hate: Boiled okra. Gross.

W. What makes you run late: Trying to do too much within the time I have available.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Other than lots and lots on my teeth for the whole braces gig, I had a CT scan (sort of like an x-ray, yes?) on my head about 8-ish years ago when I had some weird, unexplainable, severe head pain. Oh, and remember when I told you I totally lied to get out of PE in junior high? Yeah, well that little episode cost my momma a pretty penny, I’m sure, when I had to get my hip x-rayed. Long story.

Y. Yummy food that you make: Listen, we all know I’m not a cook. That being said, I make a mean chocolate chip cookie pie. And I’m pretty good at the instant, chemical-ridden version of Swedish meatballs.

Z. Zoo animal: Huh? As in, name one? Or which is my favorite? Let’s go with favorite, and mine is totally the elephants. Riding an elephant was on my bucket list, and I got to do that several years ago…..nope, not in Africa…..at the county fair. :)

Now, you remember how this meme stuff works, right? If you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged. I want to hear from all of you! I know you’re out there – I can see you and track you down on my Site Meter. Bwahahaha. So play along! Pretty please?

First day of school. Ish.

The first day of school this year was….interesting.

That’s not the word I would have used on Monday, but thanks to the passing of time and a little water under the bridge, I’m able to discuss it a little more calmly.  *ahem*

I won’t rehash all the gory details here on the blog, but suffice it to say that due to some…. miscommunication….NON-communication….we didn't get to take a picture of Jacob with his teacher on the first day of school.  Weren't even allowed in his classroom.  Boo.  Is all I have to say about that (now).

I’m happy to report that Kloe’s first day went much better, and she LOVES being a 7th grader! And she LOVES all her teachers (thank You Jesus)!  And she LOVES playing tennis!  Can't wait to watch her out on the court. :)

4th and 7th grade.  I know all you moms can relate when I say Whatintheworld?

Somewhere along the line, it became a tradition for us to get frozen yogurt on the first and last day of school.  Not sure when that happened, but we're all happy that it did.  We might need to add some more days to this tradition.  Like the last day of the first week of school (which would be tomorrow).

And we finally did get that picture with Jacob's teacher after all.  Not the first day of school....but at least it was the 4th day of 4th grade, which can be fun, too. :)

Here's trusting that the rest of the year will be a thousand times greater than day one!