Random Photo Friday

So, I've discovered that my "Random Photo Fridays" have been hijacked and are now being cleverly disguised as "Insta-Friday" by some in other circles. Hmpf.  Well, since I'm not part of the circle that is Instagram, we shall continue with the Random Photo title over here in these parts.

And, in protest of Insta-Friday (I jest), today I'm doing Random Photo Tuesday instead.  Just because.

Ohhh, doesn't this look just awful?  ;-)  Several months ago, I started having this feeling like something was stuck to the bottom of my heel.  I would check, and there would be nothing there, and I'd forget about it.  Then the next day or so, I'd feel it again, and there'd be nothing there.  Well, after a couple of weeks, the "something" started to grow.  And it grew and grew until it felt like I was walking around with a marble inside my heel.  Walking on a marble = not fun.
 


So I went to the podiatrist and....it was a wart!  Now mind you, there was no evidence on the outside - just that marble-like feeling on the inside.  But anyway, of the 3 options he gave me for treatment, somehow strapping an acid pack to my foot seemed like it would be the most fun.  Yes.  So they stuck a little pad to my heel, packed it full of acid, wrapped it up in about 3 bandages, told me not to get it wet for 6 days, and to take Advil if I needed to.

Oh. My. Word.  It started out not-so-bad.  But by about day 3 I could hardly walk on the thing.  Three advil at a time wasn't touching it.  Um, ACID on your foot?  Maybe not such a good idea.  I can't get my foot into a shoe, so I had to borrow a velcro-strap sandal from my mom.  I've been hobbling around like a little old lady, trying to set a good example for my kids about not complaining. Ha!  It's finally starting to get a little better, and thank the Lord, I go back to the doctor tomorrow.  Pray that the acid has done its magic and I get go back to walking semi-normal!

Now after all that foot talk, let's discuss dinner, shall we?

Cereal night. I heart cereal night. Why yes, that is a box of Cap'n Crunch you see there. Why yes, the whole box was consumed in one sitting (not by me alone). Don't judge. Please also notice the boxes of Cheerios, Cascadian Farms, Corn Flakes, and Kashi. Thank you.

All those letters that gave me and my family such stress back before Christmas? I thought it'd be fun to make some more. :)

And by the way, now that I'm a spray painting expert (oh, please hear the sarcasm in my voice) here's my humble opinion about spray paint - cuz baby, I've used a. lot. of it in the past four months: Valspar. With primer inside. Krylon? No. Say it with me: Valllll-Sparrrr.  The end.



Happy happy happy-ness that came in my mailbox today ~

This?  This would be what happens when you put a bag of frozen strawberries in your refrigerator to thaw, and said bag has a hole in it that you don't notice until 3 days a while later and all the juice leaks out all over your refrigerator and runs down the back (of course it has to be the back) of the shelf to all the happy shelves below.  And then said juice turns into pretty red cement.

And with that, I bid you a happy Wednesday!

Going to the chapel.

Look at me, blogging twice in one week. If I’m not careful, this could become a habit.

Two weeks ago this past Wednesday, I was standing at my kitchen sink doing the dishes when my phone rang. It was my dear friend Tammi, who I’ve known for over 16 years, and who is a kindergarten teacher at a local Christian school. She said, "We want you to come talk about your trips to Uganda during chapel at school!" She was SO excited, and I could tell she expected me to be, too.

My immediate, emphatic, and serious response was "NO."

For real.

Tammi was shocked, "What?! Why not? You have to! You LOVE Uganda! This is a chance for you to talk about what you did and the people there that you love!"

Yes, I love Uganda, thanks, but NO, I will not stand on a stage in our (very large) church and talk in front of all those people! Thank You, God, for the opportunity, but no thanks. Ha - I'm so dumb.

Tammi and I argued and argued and argued about it, like only the best of friends can do, until finally she said, "Well, you pray about it and let me know tomorrow what you decide."

Almost immediately when I got off the phone, God reminded me of the verse that says, “Whoever can be trusted with little can also be trusted with much." (Luke 16:10) He said, “Valerie, I’m giving you this opportunity. Can you be trusted with little? Are you going to turn this down when you’ve asked Me over and over again to give you opportunities to do something more for Uganda?” Sheesh.

I thought about the letters I painted to help raise money for Ebenezer. Little. I thought about the jewelry sale and auction I did for them. Little. Both of those were time consuming and frustrating in their own way, but I stuck it out. I wanted to be trusted with the little.

And I felt like maybe God was giving me this opportunity to take a tiny step forward on the path, traveling from "little" toward the general direction of "much". Sigh. But did it have to be something so hard? (Why I thought it would be anything less, I have no idea.) I H.A.T.E. speaking in front of people. Did you know that the fear of death is the SECOND most common fear people have? Do you know what #1 is?

Public speaking. Mmm-hmm. Hence my immediate "no" to Tammi's invitation.

Long Short story short, I called Tammi the next day and reluctantly told her I would do it. Tammi had a great idea that she could be on the stage with me, and we would do the presentation more like an interview. Whew! That made it SOO much better. It put my mind at great ease, and I actually started to get a little excited about it.

Tammi had assured me there was no reason to be nervous, because after all, I would be speaking to pre-k through 3rd graders. “Yes, and teachers and parents!” I said. She said, “Oh no, there’s only 5 (I think that’s what she said) classes (meaning only 5 teachers) and only a few parents come to chapel.”  She totally lied.

When I walked into the church Wednesday morning, the sanctuary was PACKED!! Ok, not packed. But we have a pretty large sanctuary, and it was at least half full. There were TONS of parents there. Tons. Including one of our local news anchors (his child goes to school there). Not to mention a TOUR GROUP of visitors from South Korea! What?!

Seriously. You people have no idea how much I hate this. Tammi simply cannot FATHOM why this is so hard for me. She is just about as sanguine as they come and has no concept.

But I fought down my urge to bolt, and sucked it up and got up on that stage. In the end, Tammi had ended up emailing me a list of 12 questions that the kids themselves had come up with. The kids (and Tammi) sat on the stage with me, and as I answered their questions, I did a slide show of pictures that went along with the answers.

And you know what?

I had fun.

Don’t tell anyone. :)

God gave me the opportunity to tell probably 200 (?) people about my love for Uganda! Are you kidding me? Yes, I was petrified. But God totally came through, and after the first little kindergartener asked me his question, the Holy Spirit filled me with total peace (John 14:27), and I was able to sit on that stage, reminisce about my lovely Uganda, and tell people what God allowed me to do there.

Amazing.

God is good. (and patient)

“Courage is being scared to death, and saddling up anyway.” ~ John Wayne

Tiny Talk Tuesday

I feel like I never blog anymore.  I think about it all the time, but guess I just feel like there's not really anything blog-worthy going on around here.  Our lives consist of work, school, errands, laundry, dinner, dishes, homework, repeat.  I'm sure y'all don't want to hear about our exciting adventures of cleaning up after the new puppy, or the annoying knot on the bottom of my heel that won't go away.

But I've been reading back through all of my Tiny Talk Tuesday posts and cracking up at the little comedians we have in our family.  And so, for the benefit of all my many both of my readers, let's have a little Tiny Talk, shall we?

For some reason, one of my kids' favorite things to do is to lay all the seats in the van down flat - like fold them into the floor.  We just got a (not) new van last week, and as we drove down the road one day Jacob said, "Mom, I know how to flatten the van."  I said, "You do?"  He said, "Yes.  See that semi truck right there?  Just pull in front of it and stop!"

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You know how much I love it when the Canada geese come to visit our hometown every winter.  My whole family knows to be on the lookout for them.  One morning Jacob and I were getting in the car to go to school, and there was a flock of geese flying right over our house.

Me: "Wow, look how low those geese are flying!"


Jacob: "Why are they so low? They probably had a heavy breakfast."

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Back before Christmas, we made our first-ever visit to Santa Land.  Yes, our kids our 12 and 9.  We wanted to be sure they were old enough to truly appreciate it. :)


Jacob, looking at the very looong line of people:  "Wow, what are all those people doing?"

Me:  "I think that’s the line to see Santa."

Jacob:  "Maybe we should just wait until Santa Land closes and catch Santa in the taxi on the way out!"

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Hope you have a laughter-filled Tuesday!

On being a doer (or notsomuch)

*This post was written way back at the beginning of December.  Old news, but thought it was worth posting anyway.  I didn't want all that effort to go to waste! :)  If you're friends with me on facebook, you've seen the end results of this post already, but now you'll know the back story....

I am SO not a doer. Not one of those choleric personality types who sees a need and goes after it until it’s met. Oh, I see the need alright, and I go after it alright. I’m a great starter. A great idea-er. In fact, a little too eager for my own good in the idea department. Ready to jump into all sorts of projects and activities at the drop of a hat. Great on the uptake; a little lacking in the follow-through.

I’m more of the phlegmatic runner-out-of-gas-half-way-through type. And it frustrates the dog out of me – not to mention everyone else around me.

And that’s where I find myself now with a project I started to raise money for Ebenezer Children’s Ministry in Kibuku, Uganda.

Ebenezer was started by my sweet friends George and Sylvia Kooli, who I met during my first trip to Uganda in 2011. George was the director at Canaan Children’s Home (I talked briefly about him here) – where my sweet Christopher lives – during both of my trips there. When my team was there this past summer, we learned that George would be leaving Canaan shortly after our trip. I was SO SAD. But George had clearly heard the call of God on his life to start his own children’s ministry, and in obedience to that call, George and Sylvia spent their entire savings to secure a home and small parcel of land in the town of Kibuku, about 3 hours away from Jinja (where Canaan is).

George, Sylvia, and Baby Leslie

Oh friends. If you could only see the place where they live. And where they have taken in 20 HIV-infected and -affected children. When I saw the pictures I was stunned. And I’ve seen lots of stuff in Uganda.

They have cement floors (which is common), no electricity (they use TORCHES for light), and up until a couple of weeks ago had no running water.

Front of the house

bunk beds in the living room

kitchen (!)

back of the house

Sweet Sylvia tidying up the room where 20 children sleep.

Waiting for lunch.

Not long after they took in their first group of children, I received an email from George (it was a group email – not just to me personally) asking for monetary donations so that they could BUY FOOD for the children. They were out of money (remember they spent all their savings), and now that George had quit his job they had NO source of income.

Oh. My. Word. Can you even imagine? Truly. Truly. Stop for just a second and imagine that being your family.

Their only source of water at the time was a community well (hole in the ground) where they had to pull water up out of the ground in a jerry can. When the rainy season came, the well (hole in the ground) got contaminated, and they started having to buy bottled water to supply their needs.

Their water source - those are George's feet in the picture.

Now let’s back up for a minute. They didn’t have enough money to buy FOOD to feed themselves or the children, but they were having to PAY to buy bottled water. George really wanted to have running water installed at the house (which – mind you – means a spicket outside, not faucets inside). I asked him how much that would cost, and he replied apologetically that it would cost 898,000 shillings.

EGAD!! 898,000 shillings??

Um. Hold up a second. That’s $373.00 U.S.  Are you kidding me?

Oh, how I wished we just had the $373 we could send him. But we didn’t. And so I began to pray that God would show me a way I could raise some money to help them. And every time I prayed, a picture kept coming back to my mind of a picture I had seen on Pinterest of some giant wooden letters painted so cute with all manner of polka-dots and a cute bow on top.

I thought, “I could make those and sell them to raise money for George!”

Ahem.

Yes. Yes, I could.

(Great on the uptake. A little lacking on the follow through.)

And so I began a quest to find these gigantic wooden letters for a price that would still allow me to make a profit. I found the letters, tossed out an order form at Jacob’s school, and promptly got orders for FIFTEEN!! Wahoo!

Ahem.

And then I started buying ribbon to make the bows. And I bought the wrong kind and had to take a bunch of it back. And then I figured out I didn’t know how to make bows, and the lady who offered to teach me said what I really needed was one of those Bow Maker as-seen-on-tv thingies. So I bought one of those.

And then I bought spray paint and tried to paint my 15 gigantic letters and found that the wood sucked in the paint so fast you couldn’t even SEE any color on them! So I went back to the store and bought spray primer, and came home and found that one can would only cover about three letters.

Sigh.

Back to the store for more primer.

And then I read on the back of the spray can that you can only paint if the temperature is above 65 degrees. In December. Good thing we live in West Texas. And there has to be no – and I mean ZERO – wind. Not so good that we live in West Texas.

And so in between waiting and waiting for the temperature and the wind to cooperate at the same time, I started making bows. I would paint a couple letters, then make a couple bows. I made about 3 before I had to go back to the store for more ribbon.

And then more paint.

And more ribbon.

And OHMYGOSH, CAN I JUST QUIT ALREADY?!

There are probably a dozen other “ands” that I could tell you about – from trying to find the right size of painting sponge to trying to find fluorescent orange wired ribbon to the paint that literally disappeared when it dried – and with each and every one I wanted (and still want) to yell, “Just forget it!!”

But I have already told George I’m doing this fundraiser and by NO MEANS am I going to back out on him.

I’m so happy to report that some other very generous (and probably choleric) donors have already provided the money needed to install running water at Ebenezer. (THANK THE LORD they’re not waiting on me to come through! I could be here until NEXT Christmas!) But I am determined to finish this project and send the profits (which will be about $2.37 by the time I’m done making 47 trips to the store) to George and Sylvia.

Besides the fact that there are these people who’ve ordered 15 letters to give as Christmas presents and are depending on me to come through!

Oh Lord. Whatintheworld.

Please pray for me. I am truly going to need the grace of God to help me get all these letters done on time.

And please, PLEASE don’t ever let me do something like this again!

*Edited to add: By God's grace, I DID finish all the letters by the skin of my teeth.  I never wanted to see one of those giant wooden letters again.  And then....by God's grace and fabulous sense of humor, as I was making all my deliveries people started coming out of the WOODWORK clamoring to get more of them!  Before I even knew what was happening, I had orders for 15 more!!  Needless to say, my hubby and my children are not thrilled.  BUT....I asked God to show me a way to raise money for Ebenezer, and truly, my first efforts didn't really produce any profit.  I learned a lot, and have lots of paint and ribbon left over, so I'm hoping and praying this next lot will be much more profitable!  Wish me luck!  Pray for me?

Welcome December. I'm not happy about you.

I'm in total denial that it's December.  And I am in no mood at all for Christmas.  No. Mood. At. All.  Not sure why.  I think one reason may be that we've decided to cut waaay back on our Christmas spending this year.  Gifts is my "giving" love language - I spell LOVE "g-i-f-t" - and so to me, less presents = no fun.  But reading books like Jen Hatmaker's Interrupted and Will Davis's Enough have totally messed me up and ruined me forever for the kind of over-the-top gift buying I used to do. Sigh.

Of course, it also doesn't help that the weather around here has been sunny and in the high 70's for the past several weeks.  We've done zero decorating, very little shopping, and I can't even muster up my usual excitement for doing our Jesse Tree or reading Jotham's Journey.  Even going to my friend Katie's annual cookie swap didn't do the trick.  Bah humbug.

But, regardless of whether I'm in the Christmas spirit or not, there are a few things I'm determined to accomplish this month.  First of all, in the spirit of having more than enough of everything we could ever need (ala Will Davis), we are having the Great Family Cleanout of 2012.  Every day in the month of December (doubling up after any days we miss), each person in our family will be choosing 1-3 items to give away or throw away.  Clothes, toys, books, CDs, jewelry, kitchen wares, movies, home decor....everything is fair game. 

At this moment in time, Jacob literally has a closet full of clothes, a dresser full of clothes, and a dirty clothes hamper full of clothes.  That's just ridiculous.  More than enough.  I have a drawer full of (albeit fake) jewelry that I hardly ever wear.  Ridiculous.  Shoes, I must admit, are not my weakness, so I'll probably be keeping what I have.  Same with purses (in fact, I'm not sure I even HAVE any purses other than the one I'm carrying right now).  But I'm quite certain there is a skirt or two or five that someone else should be enjoying.  And Kloe?  Don't even get me started.

Another thing I committed to doing this month is our Candlelight Christmas.  I love this tradition so much, and we only get to do it every other year, on the years when we're home for Christmas.  Maybe we should do it early this year - maybe that would get me more in the Christmas spirit?

Well, here's one thing I'm happy about December for - Downton Abbey reruns!  Even though we've watched seasons 1 and 2 about three times each now, knowing that this rerun of season 2 is leading up to the debut of season 3 just makes me all kinds of happy.  We've waited a whole year for this!  Are you a Downton groupie?

Here's to a more joyful December!

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?

Springfield by the numbers

1,571 - total miles traveled

1:32 a.m. - arrival time in Tulsa Thursday night/Friday morning

35 - my Sleep Number on the bed at the hotel

1 - pillow (MY pillow) left at the hotel in Tulsa.  Boo.

4 - hotel nights

2 - days of school missed by my kids

180 - miles driven back and forth (and back and forth) between Springfield and Branson during the weekend

14 - flying hot rolls caught by my family at Lambert's Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls

 17 - of our original 23 team members who were at the movie premiere!  Woohoo! {Yep, I can count. This was the pre-party, and some people had already left for the theater. ;)}



I hate that the flash on this picture made us all look like evil-eyed zombies! 
We were all so happy to see each other all dressed up, with our hair and
make-up done! ;)

 47 - cool-guy handshakes between Jacob and his new idol best friend, Cory Cotton from Dude Perfect

Kloe was hor.ri.fied. at my "inappropriate" choice of....um....undergarments on this day.  Ha!  Sorry babe, you probably should get used to your mom embarrassing you!

0 - movies watched in the car during the drive (can you believe this?)

10,000 - tears shed by movie watchers during the premiere of Man Up and Go

We had such an awesome weekend in Springfield.  Because of time, we didn't do a lot of vacation-y type things while we were there.  We did spend a few hours at the Bass Pro Shop Man-Mall and had a delicious lunch there.  (Where are those pictures??  Ahh, on The Mister's phone.)

We also got to Ride the Ducks in Branson.  That was a lot of fun, and the kids both got a turn driving the boat, which they loved.

It was so good to see so many of my teammates again.  The last time we were all together, we were exhausted, had no makeup on, and were covered in the red dirt of Uganda.  We clean up pretty well, I must say!

And the movie was beyond incredible.  It was amazing to sit in a theater in Springfield, Missouri, while looking at the beautiful faces - and hearing the beautiful voices - of so many people I love from the other side of the world.  And what a precious surprise it was to see my sweet Christopher in the film! 

It made my heart ache for Uganda even more.