My garage sale was a huge success today. This was the most money I've ever made. Yeah! It was interesting to do a sale with preteen help. This morning in the predawn hours I thought the oldest two would be lucky to make it through the day alive. However as the day wore on, they turned out to be great help. They ran the checkout end of things for me.
Katie had a friend over to help her with her drink stand. They were also great help today organizing stuff and entertaining Abby.
I enjoyed meeting new people and getting rid of truckloads of junk. I still have tons left on the porch to haul off to goodwill, but at least it's over!
One of the best parts of the sale was when people asked where my clothes were. When I showed them, they looked at the clothes, looked at me in disbelief, then asked what I was doing to lose weight. Made my day.
But the absolute best part of the day was hanging out with the kids. Abby "guarded the shoes so nobody buyed them". She announced this as she put her hands behind her back and marched back and forth in front of the shoes.
Katie and her friend played chicken on a tree stump and giggled and chatted the day away. It was fun to sit around during slow moments and hang out with all the kids and be a part of their lives w/out any intertuptions for awhile.
Then later on in the car on the way to eat, the girls jokingly prayed about something girly "dear God....". James w/out missing a beat jokingly prayed, "dear God I'd like to use my veto prayer for the day to cancel out what the girls just said". I laughed till I hurt. I love the idea of a veto prayer. That's just awesome.
We finished out the day with some burgers at mg's and chilling out at the house watching movies. It's been a great day. I am grateful that God blessed me with children.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Love the Boy
This afternoon James and I ran some errands together. We finished getting junk out of storage and then went to "Albertshires" as Abby calls Albertsons. I love time alone with that kid. He pours out his heart and opens up when its just the two of us jammin' to some loud 80's rock in the car. It's cool.
He started by giving me the rundown of last night's football game that I missed. The play by play, injury by injury, story was long and confused me, but I tried to nod along and not freak out at his war wounds. He was so proud that he got hit so hard that his boxers split right in two. Apparently this was a great play. I said "wow that's awesome.". It seemed to be the right response.
Then he sprung the sex talk on me out of left field. "Hey mom, you know this girl's pregnant at my school." (whoa - thought we were talking about football) That led to him talking about the abstinance program the kids attended today at school. He said it was good, but it was really awkward to sit through with all your buddies.
He said the main focus of the "talk" was to explain STD's and encourage abstinance as a way to prevent catching weird stuff. This led to him explaining and discussing herpes with me. Are you kidding me? Since when am I old enough to have children old enough to be having this conversation? I had this weird out of body experience. Most of me was comfortable and cool with the conversation. But a small part of me watched from afar with great sadness that my baby is not a baby any more.
However, it was cool to get to talk to him some about God's design for sex in marriage and to get to share with him how glad I was that I waited and how God blessed that decision.
The kid's got a good head on his shoulders. I am praying often for him and Grace that God will guard their hearts and minds over the next few years. I know most everybody takes away a few scars from their teen years, but I don't want theirs to be decisions that damage them long term.
Then when we arrived back home, the moment was over. He lost his reasoning capabilities again. We were stringing a clothesline for my garage sale tomorrow. He couldn't figure out how to go around the tree. For real. At one point he had tied himself to the tree and at another point he had me wrapped with the cord.
Love the boy.
He started by giving me the rundown of last night's football game that I missed. The play by play, injury by injury, story was long and confused me, but I tried to nod along and not freak out at his war wounds. He was so proud that he got hit so hard that his boxers split right in two. Apparently this was a great play. I said "wow that's awesome.". It seemed to be the right response.
Then he sprung the sex talk on me out of left field. "Hey mom, you know this girl's pregnant at my school." (whoa - thought we were talking about football) That led to him talking about the abstinance program the kids attended today at school. He said it was good, but it was really awkward to sit through with all your buddies.
He said the main focus of the "talk" was to explain STD's and encourage abstinance as a way to prevent catching weird stuff. This led to him explaining and discussing herpes with me. Are you kidding me? Since when am I old enough to have children old enough to be having this conversation? I had this weird out of body experience. Most of me was comfortable and cool with the conversation. But a small part of me watched from afar with great sadness that my baby is not a baby any more.
However, it was cool to get to talk to him some about God's design for sex in marriage and to get to share with him how glad I was that I waited and how God blessed that decision.
The kid's got a good head on his shoulders. I am praying often for him and Grace that God will guard their hearts and minds over the next few years. I know most everybody takes away a few scars from their teen years, but I don't want theirs to be decisions that damage them long term.
Then when we arrived back home, the moment was over. He lost his reasoning capabilities again. We were stringing a clothesline for my garage sale tomorrow. He couldn't figure out how to go around the tree. For real. At one point he had tied himself to the tree and at another point he had me wrapped with the cord.
Love the boy.
Monday, September 28, 2009
I'm happy
Yesterday was a busy day and Abby was exhausted. I put her to bed for a nap. She was screaming "I'm not sleepy. I'm not tired. I'm not grumpy." She flopped and cried and whined. The hysterical moment was when she was mid fit and started screaming "but I am happy. I am happy." Soon after she totally crashed and slept for three hours.
As I snuggled her for a minute, I wondered if I am like that with God. Are there moments in my life when He's saying "rest with me for a minute. You'll feel better later" and I am frantically screaming "I'm happy" as I fight against Him? How often do I try to convince God that my plan is better and that I don't need Him?
Abby's fit made me stop and think that maybe I need to slow down and listen instead of frantically trying to convince myself that my plans for my life are great. I need to make time to just spend time with God. Just to love Him.
As I snuggled her for a minute, I wondered if I am like that with God. Are there moments in my life when He's saying "rest with me for a minute. You'll feel better later" and I am frantically screaming "I'm happy" as I fight against Him? How often do I try to convince God that my plan is better and that I don't need Him?
Abby's fit made me stop and think that maybe I need to slow down and listen instead of frantically trying to convince myself that my plans for my life are great. I need to make time to just spend time with God. Just to love Him.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Monday morning update 9.28.09
I am trying to sort through all of our junk this week. I am planning to have a garage sale next weekend. I have found tons of interesting stuff up in the attic. Boxes and boxes of clothes left from my eBay seller days, old journals, books, bible studies, toys, and crazy stuff I did not even know we owned.
In sorting out everything, I am once again convinced that I have way more stuff than any one person should own. Much of it I don't know where it even came from. But I have stumbled across some treasures along the way. I found some old journals from when the kids were little, back in the days when I actually wrote on paper- pre blogging days. But the treasure I am sharing tonight is from my daughter Grace's journal that we found. I am sharing this with her permission.
June 15, 2008 (our first preview service)
"Dad did an awesome job preaching and Robby, well he could have been mistaken for Chris Tomlin himself. Nursery? Complete success. There were only 3 children - Emi, Abby, and Reid. We all had a fun time, and I heard everyone liked the children's area. So today, an awesome day."
I know this is a little different spin on my Monday morning update, but when I found this it reminded me about how beautiful this year has been. Seeing my daughter's unvarnished, unprompted, private thoughts about church at The Crossroads made me thankful a million times over that we said yes when God asked us to plant a church.
To quote Grace "So today, an awesome day." That has been the bottom line of everything I have said or thought about our journey this year.
Today was our last day at The Tiger Cat Tumble and Cheer Gym. Next week we open a new chapter of the story as we move into Joe K Bryant Elementary. We are excited about the possibilities that are in our future. There is now a much greater potential and space for growth.
At the same time, I confess that I am nervous about the unknown. I am nervous about being "enough". I don't know if that makes sense. I guess sometimes it seems that God has called us into something so much larger than ourselves and there are days when I am nervous about being surrendered enough to be what God needs me to be.
I know that this is an unusual spin, but God really uses Grace's journal to remind me about what an amazing year we've had. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in this next chapter of The journey.
In sorting out everything, I am once again convinced that I have way more stuff than any one person should own. Much of it I don't know where it even came from. But I have stumbled across some treasures along the way. I found some old journals from when the kids were little, back in the days when I actually wrote on paper- pre blogging days. But the treasure I am sharing tonight is from my daughter Grace's journal that we found. I am sharing this with her permission.
June 15, 2008 (our first preview service)
"Dad did an awesome job preaching and Robby, well he could have been mistaken for Chris Tomlin himself. Nursery? Complete success. There were only 3 children - Emi, Abby, and Reid. We all had a fun time, and I heard everyone liked the children's area. So today, an awesome day."
I know this is a little different spin on my Monday morning update, but when I found this it reminded me about how beautiful this year has been. Seeing my daughter's unvarnished, unprompted, private thoughts about church at The Crossroads made me thankful a million times over that we said yes when God asked us to plant a church.
To quote Grace "So today, an awesome day." That has been the bottom line of everything I have said or thought about our journey this year.
Today was our last day at The Tiger Cat Tumble and Cheer Gym. Next week we open a new chapter of the story as we move into Joe K Bryant Elementary. We are excited about the possibilities that are in our future. There is now a much greater potential and space for growth.
At the same time, I confess that I am nervous about the unknown. I am nervous about being "enough". I don't know if that makes sense. I guess sometimes it seems that God has called us into something so much larger than ourselves and there are days when I am nervous about being surrendered enough to be what God needs me to be.
I know that this is an unusual spin, but God really uses Grace's journal to remind me about what an amazing year we've had. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in this next chapter of The journey.
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