WooHoo!

WooHoo! I've done 6 posts in a week!!!!!! Can you believe it, momteacherfriend? (wink wink!) I said I wanted to do more entries, and I'm actually doing it! Praying for time management is working! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! I was told by my grandma that my aunt prints off my entries for my grandma to read. My grandma said one day I should take my experiences and put them in a book.
My response? First, I didn't even know that anyone really read this blog, except my mom and momteacherfriend. And occasionally my DH. So that is exciting! Second, I said, "but there's like a hundred or more books of christian ladies that have written their experiences with their children, so why should I? Who would read it?" You know what she said, "Well, I would! (Now that's enough right there to make a granddaughter write a book! Even if she was my only fan! ;) ) Besides, no one has kids the exact age as yours, and no one has the exact circumstances and situations and life lessons that you have. And you need to share what God is doing in your life. I am excited to hear about it and know what is going on in your life."
That made me so happy! I told her why I had started this blog and what I hoped to get out of it. Thanks to the person who prompted and encouraged me to start this blog and then keep it going when I wanted to destroy it. You are a TRUE friend. (You know who you are.) Who knows? Maybe some day I will publish a book. It is something I've always wanted to do, but never have made the time to sit down and do. Taking these entries would allow me to do that in little bits and pieces.......hmmmmmm. Something to let simmer on the backburner of my mind while my kids are young, then we shall see in about 5 to 10 years. I hope they still have Blogger around then, and that you are still unlimited in the number and length of your entries. If you could see me right now, I am Beaming!
Loves!

Developing a Habit of Hapiness

The following is what got out of watching Joel Osteen's sermon on tv this morning. You may or may not like him. I personally love hearing what he has to say. So I will share. The title to this entry is the title to the sermon that I watched. You can watch it on his website if you have realplayer. Click on the word website (link to his site) and click on message #310.

We must retrain our minds away from the conditioned, negative responses. Its all in how we choose to see it! Phl 4:11 ~ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Paul learned. It was not automatic. He had to train himself to be positive. Stay aggressive. When you wake up and get out of bed in the morning, you've got to set the tone and put a smile on your face. At the very start of the day. If you don't se the tone, the Devil will set the tone for you! If you say "Well, if I smile I'm just faking it 'cause I've got so many problems and I'm depressed so I can't be in a good mood," that's ok. When you smile, that's an act of faith. When you smile, that's sending a message to the rest of your body that everything's gonna be ok. Dig your heels in. No matter what your circumstances look like, start having this positive attitude of faith. You will sow a seed for God to work in your life.
Negative attitudes will spread to every area of our life and drag us down.
What thoughts and attitudes you put in are what you get out. In the middle of tough circumstances, you ahve to think "I know God has something better in store for me. I know when one door closes, God's gonna open another." When you do that, you just tllk that negative situation and turned it oround and stamped it positive.
Pay more attention to what you're feeding yourself! Are you storing away more positive or more negative?
Reticular Activating System - its in our brains, has to do with our memory and our habits. {With some added research I have found it has to do with our consious and subconsious thoughts and actions as well.} me: Its a function where our mind eliminates the thoughts and impulses it deems unnecessary. Like getting used to sleeping even though you live by train tracks; a train goes by 4 times each night, and it doesn't wake you up. You at first hear and wake up each time the train goes by, but then go right back to sleep. Over time, you train yourself to not even hear it anymore and you sleep through it. back to Joel now: We can train our mind like that. When that negative, discouraging thought comes to your mind, learn to tune it out. If you keep it up, your mind will realize "they don't need that thought anymore. They're not gonna do anything with it. Let's not send it."
Choose what you're gonna dwell on!
Don't pray necessarily about the problems, turn them around. example: instead of praying about your kids disobeying, pray Joshua 24:15b (example verse) over them. 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' And thank God that your children will one day follow Him. This will train you to focus on the positive instead of the negative.

Well, people, this really spoke to my heart today. Even though Satan was trying to get me to stay home from church today so I wouldn't be filled with God's wisdom, I was anyways! So how do you like that, Satan?! Bite the dust! I need to review this often. I was taking notes in a notebook while watching this. Then I typed it here. Hopefully I will retain more of it this way. Blessings!

The wonderful age of almost 5

My DD has a friend who lives down the hall from our apartment. Her mom has 3 children total, with two different dads. She does not have full custody, only every Wednesday and every other weekend. This perplexes me, but I am not close to the mother, so I have not felt it is my place to ask why this is. We have talked cordially about raising kids, the trouble they get into, sicknesses, the normal stuff moms talk about. The girls started playing outside together, but the other little girl is not here much. When she is here, either with or without her older brother and sister, they are only here a couple of hours and you see the mom go in with her work uniform on and come out a couple of hours later dressed up in fancy clothes with hair and makeup done, and she whisks the kids off. Even when the kids aren't with her, this seems to be her pattern on the days she comes here. To go into her apartment and come out later seemingly ready to "go out". Where else would someone go dressed up?

Anyways, I received a call from the mom yesterday about 1pm asking me if little girl could please spend the night and if I could watch her till mom got out of work on Sunday at about 2 or 3 pm. I felt like I needed to do this. Here are the reasons: 1) I never know when I may need someone to watch my kids, so I try to be available even if I don't want to. (Plus it's kinda hard to say no to a neighbor when you live in the same building and you are gonna be home all night and they can see that.) 2) I am constantly striving to be more Christ-like and I know that He would want me to do it 3) I feel bad for little girl always getting pawned off on different people. She says she doesn't sleep here very much; that most of the time she stays with her dad. And he doesn't do anything with her. (According to her.) She is almost 6, by the way, and has never been to preschool and will start kindergarten in the fall. You can tell that hardly anyone pays attention to her. She is quite a bit behind speech-wise than my DD. I have a hard time understanding some of her words. By the way, my DD diction and pronunciation has been perfected through preschool! Praise the Lord! She only mispronounces something if she doesn't understand the word completely. (Except hospital which she still calls hostable.) I digress.
So the mom usually pays me for bbsitting - quite well. Usually about $20.00 or so for 7 hours. Its an easy $20.00 since it just gives DD someone to play with. On Wednesday, the mom cut my DD hair for me b/c my DD decided to take scissors to her own hair. It was beyond repair except to cut it off. So she got a cute "stacked" haircut. I will try to post a pic of it soon. so I don't know if I'm gonna get paid for this time or not. We shall see. I don't care about the spending the night part. Except for the fact that last time I watched the little girl, was when the mom called me and imposed upon me asking if I would have a sleepover. I had about 6 hours to prepare. I kinda thought the idea would be fun when she asked, so I was excited to do it, but it bugged me that the mom would have the gall to call me up and ask me that. People, I'm telling you I don't even know her boyfriend's name, or much about her. It's kinda weird that she has me watch her daughter, but I think she either doesn't know what to do with her or she doesn't care to have a relationship with her and finds her a bother. Its sad. I figure that if the little girl comes here, hopefully she can feel Christ's love in our home, and we can show her God's love in how we act and speak as a family.
But this time it has been SOOOOOOOOOOO difficult for me! The girls have been arguing and yelling. Little girl is talking my DD into doing things that my DD knows she is not to do. Little girl heard a song that was playing on the radio (a christian rock and roll radio station we listen to ALL the time) and mistook it for "regular" rap. She told DD and DS#1 that the song was about killing little kids and that we have a bad house that we play bad music. I had walked outside my apt. building to where my DH was rearranging the contents of his work truck and come back in. In the span of a whole 2 minutes, this little girl had upended my two kids (I had taken DS#2 with me) and they were visibly shaken up. I asked what happened and all I could get out of them was that above about the radio station. Oh yeah. And that the little girl saw a man (at some point other than that day) outside our complex and she didn't know him, and that she has seen someone be killed before. This is what my DD told me that the little girl told her while I was outside and my DD said the little girl described what she saw. That's what shook up my kids!!!!!! That got my hackles up, let me tell ya! For a 5 year old to come into my house and tell me I have a bad house and I'm listening to bad music?! But not only that, but to tell my kids about a murder?! You've got to be kidding me! I was FURIOUS!!!! I want to shine my light for Him, but this is too far! I do NOT want my young children exposed to things like that. DH and I are EXTREMELY careful with what we watch on tv when the kids are awake. We generally don't even watch movies that are above PG-13, and even those are getting terrible! I corrected the little girl about the music, telling her that this rap music was about Jesus and His love for us, not that other stuff. And I told her to never ever talk about that other stuff in my house again. I did not do this in a very loving way, but come on! I have to protect my kids! Good grief! People; don't sell your kids short by allowing them to view things you THINK they aren't picking up on. Just because they are in the dining room coloring or playing with toys, it doesn't mean they can't hear or see what you are watching in the other room! Don't expose your kids to things too early. Protect them! Charish them! Shelter them! Especially if they are below school age!
The next problem we had was that we could not get the girls to begin to settle to go to bed until 10:00! I had told my DD that if she was going to have a friend spend the night on a Saturday night, then we were still going to church. (I had previously cleared this with the mom, and we have taken this little girl before). But also, that my DD had to go to bed when I asked, and she said she would. DD fell asleep by 10:50. Both DS were asleep by 10:30. See, the girls were so hyper that they kept the boys up. Little girl didn't fall asleep till 11:30! She kept complaining to me that she couldn't fall asleep. I told her she still needed to lay there. When we did the sleepover, the next day (which was a Saturday) I had asked little girl's mom what time she goes to bed and she kinda just looked at me like she didn't know (which she probably has no idea) and said, "Uh, well, whenever she wants to."
Needless to say, we missed church. I will watch little girl again, but NOT overnight. I am fine with her being dropped of on Sunday at 7:20. I usually have to get up by 6:30 or 7 to get ready for church, anyways.
Then this morning, talked my DD to getting the phone to try to make phone calls. I stepped in and corrected the situation. Nicely. Then they were playing with dolls and the dolls were having an arguement and the little girl (pretending to be a doll) said (to my DD who was pretending to be a different doll) "Fine. I'm gonna hurt you or kill you."
I have not had a chance to talk to DH about this one yet. I think it may be time to sever this friendship on behalf of my daughter. I will talk to the mom about it, though. She is one who will defend her children to the death regardless if they are guilty or not. I have seen her do it with the other neighbors, so I am not looking forward to it. I am praying that I will have a calm and not accusing spirit that she will hear the heart of what I am saying and not get defensive.

Your thoughts? Comments?

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

The following is a recipe that is wonderful! Got it from Hershey's website, but I had originally found it on their baking cocoa box. Indulge! (But only once in a while! This stuff is addictive!)


Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

(see below for frosting recipe)
Directions:1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. 2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. 3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS: ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine2
/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting. This makes plenty of frosting which also goes good with graham crackers! Yum! I used real sweetened unsalted butter for the frosting and it was totally worth the extra calories! If you're gonna spoil yourself with this chocolate cake, go all the way, baby! If you're looking for a cake that is low cal low fat, go with the one that you use pumpkin instead of veggie oil -- also a very good cake, and better for you. Here is the link for that cake:hersheys

The need to share

I feel the need to share the lyrics to the Scott Stapp song "Justify". It is from his newest CD called 'The Great Divide'. Someone out there is struggling and wrestling with their life. This person is a christian who has back-slidden and walked away from God. This blog is for you. This song is for you. Allow it to touch your heart and change you from the inside. God will take you back. Regardless of what you have done. He still loves you and wants a relationship with you. Reach out to Him in your time of need.

I met a man in New Orleans wore a half suit with dark blue jeans Kicked his heals together winked at me real nice.I saw him from a mile away,But in my state of mind I let him make his play“Hey boy… have you seen the other side”Yeah…in this man I saw the devil's hand so I looked at him man to man said“This time it’s gonna be a fight!”I do not have to justify,The way I live my life.I do not have to justify,The reason I’m alive.I saw her from across the room with diamond eyes she’s heaven’s jewel.Dropped two aces smiled and threw my cards back.Yeah I’ve been that man Who lives deceit Surrounds himself with worldly things. So let me tell you a story Let me feed it to you We fly around like we were superman live in another trance a different way to dance with dark romance you get another chance to do that dirty dance without consequence. I do not have to justify,The way I live my life. I do not have to justify,The reason I’m alive. Let me change the timber of this section. Add a little booze to ice. I guess you probably noticed I’ve been living a double life. So fly around like you are superman given another chance a different way to dance with true romance you get another chance to tell your dirty, darkest secrets.We fly around like we were superman live in another trance different way to dance with dark romance you get another chance to do the dirty dance without consequence. I do not have to justify,The way I live my life.I do not have to justify,The reason I’m alive. No more. It’s just not me. Not me. I’m just like you.

I will not interpret or give clues to what this song means. You who are reading it that needed to hear it know what it is telling you from God. The Holy Spirit impressed upon me to share this song on this blog. Contact me if you have questions.

Need More Posts

I do, that is. I'm frustrated that I think all day long about little things I would like to post about and I never get to them. So, I'm gonna try to stay caught up more on my chores and then I will maybe be able to stop and do a short post (those of you that have read my previous entries and/or know me IRL are thinking yea right!) here and there when I think of them. First, I want to say, does anyone that knows me remember me talking to them about "mystery poopy"? I swear that I've had that problem before!? I think it was my dear friend Beth from the church I am currently attending.

Anyways, yesterday, I made a chocolate cake from scratch (look for the recipe to follow shortly). It calls for baking cocoa. DD spilled some on her clothes. You know how it's like powder? Well, I thought some of it dusted off onto the bathroom floor. Innocent me. Nope. Tried to wipe up the "chocolate dust" and it was stuck on there. I thought, well, I'll have to scrub it off later. Then, a few hours later, I noticed that my bathroom was smelling really foul. I HATE cleaning my bathroom!!! And I just cleaned it last week. And mopped the kitchen and bathroom floor last week. (Some of you are probably super-grossed out by this - sorry! I absolutely LOATHE to clean the bathroom and you do not want to be around me when I do it.) In fact, I usually wait until my DH is gone so that I don't gripe him out about the chore and get myself into trouble. I digress. (do you notice I do that a lot? Oh well. My blog. I can if I want. -- yes, it has been a trying afternoon.) So I decided that I would need to mop the bathroom floor again today. And, if I'm gonna mop the floor, then I would need to go ahead and clean the whole bathroom. All 15 square feet of it. Just as I had resigned to start on it after lunch, my DS#1 spilled a whole cup of juice on the kitchen floor. Great. So, I guessed I would have to mop the kitchen floor as well. Did that. Then went to do the bathroom. Found more "mystery poopy". I call it this to inject some humor so as not to get too upset. You see, no one knows where it came from. No one has even noticed it there. But also, no one is gonna clean it up but me. Phhhhhllllllllllbbbbbbbttt!!! Oh well, job is done now. Hopefully my br will smell clean again. Gotta run for now! Severe tstorm warning forcasted for our county and my DH is out installing someone's sattellite! Please pray for his protection! 70 mph winds and nickel size hail!

My Husband

Good Morning! I am finding that with summer being in full swing, I have less and less time to post! I long for the time, and think often about posting, but run out of time in the day! Day starts between 6 and 7 am and ends between 11pm and 12 am. So, very looooooooong! I expect to be able to post more after summer, though.

Today, I would like to post about my Dear Husband. As I have noted before, he started school in March at ITT Technical Institute for Computer Engineering and Electronics Technology. The Lord then blessed him with a wonderful job that we feel we (as well as other close family and friends -- you know who you are; and thanks does not begin to describe our appreciativeness) had been prayerfully interceeding for for the past 3 1/2 years. He is installing dishes for Dish Network. He loves the job, and thinks that he could stay there a long time. He does not look at it as "just a job" but really enjoys the work. I enjoy hearing of his experiences, although I don't really understand what he's talking about. This is a very physically demanding job and he is just learning the tricks of the trade. Sometimes he doesn't get home from work until 7 or after. Well, school starts at 5:45 three nights a week. Right now, he has to work mandatory 6 days a week, and his days off rotate. Not that much fun for our family. More on that later. After talking with eachother, and seeking wise guideance, (thank you Brian) Curt and I have made a decision that he will step down from school for 6 months until he learns his job and can do it more efficiently. It is scary, and I am apprehensive about what people may say, but as our dear friend, Brian said, its not like my DH is 18 years old and deciding to quit school just because of a job. People, if you don't know me IRL, then you don't know the poverty that my family has lived in. DH and I feel like right now is the time to get the job down pat and make the money. I feel guilty for that. Like we don't deserve it or something, but I know that is just the enemy, Satan. I also feel guilty for the swell of pride that comes up in me when I look outside my living room window and see my DH work truck parked outside. It makes me so happy. I am proud of him that he was blessed by God with a better job than just McDonald's. Some of you may understand what it is like to have a husband who cannot get a decent job to provide for his family. It destroys a man. Believe me, people. I watched it happen in my own household. I cannot describe the sadness and opression that used to hang over my husband. It will crush the spirit every time. It will keep them down. Not only have we been blessed with that, but this job will provide more abundantly than that. I'm not saying we're gonna be rich, by any means, but let's say it will be a decent amount more than the state assistance we were getting -- was under $500 per month. I have to say, I AM proud of my husband. Is that bad? I know the Bible says not to be proud. Maybe today, when DH gets home, I will take a picture of him by his truck and post it.

Now, for the heart of why I'm posting about him. I had to explain/catch up any of you who didn't know what was going on. The dynamics of the Baker household have DRAMATICALLY changed since he started working on his own. (Been working for the company about a month now, but got truck last Friday and since then has been working on his own). Some good things that have changed: I have become even more dependant upon the Lord Jesus Christ for support since DH is gone A LOT!!! I realize that even though I would toss up "one-line" prayers throughout the day that that just isn't enough. God actually wants to ANSWER those one line prayers. And now instead of me feeling like I am just sending up pleas to Him for help, I feel like I am in a TRUE RELATIONSHIP with Him! Isn't that AWESOME!?! I feel like the relationship is balanced and goes both ways. In other words, healthy. Yes, I have many things I need to work on, but I realize God knows about them and yet still loves me and accepts me. Regardless. That I have known for years, but it has very recently become personal to me. Its like it was in my head, but now it is finally in my heart. And it feels so wonderful to be loved like that! Another good thing that has changed, is that I have learned to become more patient with my children. I am in the process of learning how to balance my housework with spending time with them. Still needs some improvement, but this is doing much better. Only a couple of bad things, but really more of an adjustment: The kids and I hardly ever see DH. This is especially hard on me, considering my DH is also my very best friend. Do each of you have that close of a relationship with your husband/wife? I pray so. It's incredible! So one blessing we did have during our time of poverty was that we were always around eachother. Yes, we fought. But DH and I are quite good at working things through. So as you can imagine, going from having him home nearly constantly to having him gone 15 hours a week for school, then to have him gone 60 hours a week for work on top of the 15 hours for school has been gut-wrenching hard on me! On my emotions, mostly. On the one hand, I am ecstatic about the job, but on the other hand, I MISS HIM! I Liked having him home. We never run out of things to talk or joke about. Today, he told me that he has been missing me, too. This is a happy adjustment period, and one that I'm not used to. I think it's safe to say that most marriages start out with both spouses working. We have never had that. And I only worked for just over a year right after we got married, so I am VERY used to having him around to talk to. Just pray that I will not get too discouraged, especially when it hits 6pm and I start getting anxious about him coming home, when it may be several hours still.
Ok. I want to share with everyone the note I found on Sunday morning. I will preface it by saying that I packed DH a lunch before I went to bed Saturday night. He had already went to bed. I left him a note thanking him for installing our a/c unit that my parents had bought us and the kids and I picked up earlier in the day. DH had had a work day from H***, and it was almost 8:30 by the time he got home. His day started at 7, he had 2 appointments, and he didn't even get to the second one. But still, I meekly asked him if he could install it. I thought all you had to do was stick it in the hole in the wall and then plug it in. Boy, was I wrong. I didn't know the thing had to be put together first, and then mounted. Oops! But still, DH loves me and the kids so much. He took a deep breath and came out of it 2 1/2 hours later with it purring like a kitten and blowing cool air on me! Did it take him that long because that's how long it takes, or because he had a lousy day and he was tired, I don't know.Yes! It was then that he said he hadn't eaten anything ALL DAY! I felt aweful! Dreadful! (He ran down to BK). I do know that my husband sacrificed eating and a little bit of sleep so that we could sit in comfort one day sooner (rather than having us wait till Sunday night) just so he could work outside and sweat! So, anyways, when I woke up, I found a post-it note and this is what it said:
Thank you for taking care of the kids. You do a great job; better than I could. Thanks for the: -Lunch -Doing Dishes -Note -picking up the a/c -Time -Shopping -Love -Help. Thanks. Love U
I will treasure it always! I have read and reread it many times since Sunday. It makes me feel good. (smile).

I...

I...
I want...a deeper relationship with Christ
I wish...that I could be more laid back
I hate...cleaning my bathroom
I am...a stay-at-home-mom of 3 kids under age 5
I miss...my grandpa Hitchcock and my friends and family in Michigan
I hear...the Lazy Boy creaking
I wonder...if there will ever be life on the moon
I can't imagine...not having a relationship with Jesus
I regret...putting God on the backburnerI am not...deceitful
I dance...with my kids
I sing...with every song I know (which is a lot!)
I cry...at the drop of a hat
I am not always...great at keeping my housework done
I do have...issues within my family
I would...like to travel with my family someday
I make...a mean lasagna
I write...in my blog, but not as often as I should
I confuse...my will for God’s will for my life, but only sometimes
I should...slow down, way down
I start...lots of books at a time and then it takes forever to finish them

My Little Girl

First off, I want to say two things: 1) I love her very much. She is the apple of my eye and I would absolutely not trade her for anything or anyone in the world. 2) She is a replica of me. And she mirrors me. (Don't all little kids?)

I am wondering what to do about a problem that seems to be getting out of hand. She won't stop talking. Those of you who know me personally are probably cracking up right now! I know! I am the same way, but let me explain. You see, she has to always be talking. And her little brother, well, he can't get a word in edge-wise. And he is a quiet-talker, so it's hard to hear him anyways, let alone when she is talking. Did I mention that she talks loudly? We ask her, "Little girl (yes we use her name), do you talk just to hear yourself?" She smiles and says "Yes! I just love to talk! I love to hear myself talk . Sometimes I find myself tuning her out and she catches me doing it. I can't help it. I feel bad, but my goodness! It's so hard to listen to a 4 year old go on and on about little girl 4 year old things for 10 15 or 20 minutes. (Or longer). No, I really don't think I'm exaggerating. See, when DH and I want to talk, we get like 50 interruptions. 48 are from DD and 2 are from the boys. Ok, that may be a bit exaggerating, but you get my point. I get frustrated because I can't ask DS#1 "what do you want for lunch, a pbj or a hot dog" without DD either answering for him or paying no attention whatsoever to the fact that I am in a conversation and trying to start one herself with me. We have tried the time out thing, but even there, she keeps right on talking. Which leads to her sitting in time out longer until she can stop. We do spend time with her. I am trying my best to be dilligent in spending one on one time with her as much as possible. Maybe its just her age and I will have to just deal with it. Maybe God is using her to teach me patience.

Sickness -- again! :(

Came down with it on Saturday night. This happens often on Sat. night; I believe there is some sort of stronghold in our lives....anyone know about them? please let me know how to get rid of them (seeker4christ@yahoo.com)DD is sick the most, but has stopped throwing up as of 7:15am. DS#1 was fine till this am, now he is throwing up about twice an hour. Cannot get anything to stay down. Not even 1 tsp. of water or pedialyte. Poor thing has it come from both ends at the same time! Right now, I am glad that he still wears diapers!!! I even have Tygan suppositories for them and that didn't help! DS#2 threw up all night Sat, some yesterday and now just has lower stuff happening. Seems happy for an 11 month old. The biggest problem was that DS#1 climbed into my bed this am about 5. Then woke an hour later crying and threw up on my bed!!! I will spare you the disgusting details of what he ate last night! So, by the time all was cleaned and disinfected, here it came again. DD and DS#2 threw up about every 20 to 45 minutes for the first 12 hours or so. So, I at least knew what to expect. Oh, yeah, did I mention ny DH is away on a business trip!?!?!?Yep. He is. And what's worse, is that yesterday, he had to fix his exhaust system on his car. In the pouring rain. And he had already tried fixing it a week ago -- and at that time he pulled two ribs out. So, he can't take a full breath, laugh, or cough without shooting pains. So here I was all day yesterday, dealing with the flu, and I got one escape to go to Rite Aid to get Pedialyte popsicles and Pedialyte juice, and some more Lysol. I got about 3 hours of sleep Sat night. Had to wake DH at about 3:30am when I could take no more of DD whining. Who can blame me? Then last night, flying solo, the Lord God saw it fit to allow me 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Thank you Jesus! Awesome! I am tired, to say the least, but God has created in me an Iron Stomach to deal with this. **WARNING: Graphic part coming up -- queazy stomachs should NOT read**:Saturday night we had pizza for dinner and I'm telling you, having to clean up pizza vomit is HORRIBLE! UGH! I could cry right now just thinking about it! I don't want to eat, look at, or smell a pizza for a very LONG time! Cici's will have to wait. (They just opened one right by us.) I am reminded by my mentor "This too shall pass." And I know it will. -- I am just looking forward to when the kids are older and they can make it to the toilet. Will save on the carpet, furniture and laundry $!

Correction

I need to make a correction. Ya know when you tell someone something and forget your main point because you're so busy? Well, that's what happened to me yesterday when I posted. I didn't mean to leave this part out. I meant no disrespect to God or to my DD. I was trying to post in a hurry so I didn't have my thoughts gathered that well, and also, my DD thought I was IMing a friend and she wanted to say something. Except the key she randomly chose to use was the delete key, and she had erased half my post! :>( [i was pretty upset, needless to say!]

I digress. Ok. Here is the correction. Now two nights ago (Thurs. night) I was putting the Caladryl lotion on DD and while it was drying, she said; "Mom, I'm gonna ask God to make these chicken pox go away. (to Him) 'God please make these chicken pox go away. I don't want to itch anymore. Amen.' (short pause then big smile spreads accross her face) Mom, God just said. 'ok. I heard your prayer. I will make you better.' Really, He did, Mom! You don't believe me, do you?" "Yes" I said. "I absolutely believe you! That's wonderful! I'm proud of you for praying like that. You know the Bible says that we all need to have faith and believe in God like kids do. I know He will heal you because you asked Him to." But see, yesterday (Friday) when I woke up, did I remember that? No. Me and my finite mind. I gave complete credit to the Caladryl and Benedryl. I believe that God can use modern medicine to carry out His good and perfect will, but that really wasn't what we were dealing with. We serve an Almighty God who heard the prayers of a little girl and blessed her with a healing. Were they chicken pox, or an allergic reaction? I don't know. Does it matter? I think what matters most is that my DD faith was grown HUGE by that happening! Praise be to God! Thank you Holy Spirit for speaking on her behalf. It may have been the beginning of chicken pox. I will probably never know. I am, however, claiming this healing for my little girl. Glory to God!

Letting Go

Today, I decided to treat my children to McDonald's. We had to run errands, and they needed to get out. Rain is deluging us yet again, and my DD does not have chicken pox. Apparently, she got into something while camping. How do I know it is not chicken pox? Well, after using Benedryl and Caladryl, for a few days now, the spots have shrunken in size, and 90% of the redness and itching is gone. Amazing! Thank you God!

Just endeavoring to take all three of my children by myself anywhere requires careful planning! I figured they deserved the treat, considering the fact that they have done a great job overall doing their chores and also behaving while camping.
Well, I have been thinking about the fact that I hold my kids back after reading a friend's blog on it. MOMTEACHERFRIEND (check out the post from May 23rd.) In the middle of our meal, DD says she has to go potty. Here is the conversation between us: me: well, you will have to wait until we are all done. I'm sorry, but I can't leave the boys.
DD: I can't! I can't! I really can't!
me: I don't know what else to do, hon.
I know that she waits to go until the absolute last minute, and I felt bad for her. I immdiately felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to let go of her and let her go by herself. I was scared, but I obeyed. I told her she had 3 or 4 minutes and then I was going to come in. (How, I had no idea, as both boys are s-l-o-w eaters.) I reminded her to scream very loudly if anyone approached her, and off she ran. I was a praying maniac the whole time, and I also felt the Holy Spirit ministering to my spirit as it was happening. I was also trying to not let the boys see me anxious. Exactly 4 minutes went by and she came out with the biggest smile on her face! DD: I did it! I went all by myself! I was having trouble getting the sink on so this lady --she looked real nice to me mom, don't worry--she helped me but I went potty by myself with no help! me: Congratulations, honey! I knew you could do it! I am soooo proud of you! I will go home and write about it in my blog!
Now some of you (especially my mom), your mouths are probably gaping open. But I ask, what is a parent to do? I really feel that sometimes in parenting, you have to step outside of your comfort zone and trust God to protect your children when you cannot be right there. Yes, it is difficult, but she feels esteemed by mommy allowing her to go off by herself. And it helps me realize my baby is growing up in ways she needs to. Will I go with her next time if there is another adult present? Yes, but only if she wants me to. I could see the bathroom door the entire time, it wasn't very busy and there is only one way out of there - through the door I could see. Maybe, just maybe, she won't need so much "company" as she calls it, when she goes to the bathroom at home now. (she always insists on "company" at home because she gets bored.)
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for speaking to me today, and for giving me enough boldness to let go.

Dear Daughter's Preschool Graduation

The day of graduation, May 25th, was rainy. We were deluged with rain. So these were the best of the pics I managed to get with my camera. I was having lighting problems. Thankfully, my mother in law was videotaping! (Did I mention that I was holding DS#2 the whole time?)









DD before preschool graduation












Walking to receive her diploma.












Is this a telescope?!








The whole class.