Mentally Cleansing? Really?

From the June 2009 of Good Housekeeping magazine,
A quote from Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay:
"Men should always change diapers.  It's a very rewarding experience.  It's mentally cleansing.  It's like washing dishes, but imagine if the dishes were your kids, so you really love the dishes".

lol.....

Yeah.  Um, okay.  I hope he said all that with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.  But I suspect that he was serious.  So, in an effort to be a good blogger, I will translate the above for you:

"I have changed enough diapers to understand the mechanics of it, but only enough that I have been able to romanticize something that is not in the least romantic.  In fact, I'm so out of touch with reality that I don't even have the good sense to know that reading to a child is a rewarding experience.  Singing with a child is a rewarding experience.  Teaching a child is a rewarding experience.  Praying with a child is a rewarding experience.  But, changing diapers, on the other hand, is nothing more earth-shattering than basic routine maintenance and doesn't get anything "cleansed" but the little baby po-po!"

lol..... man.  As we say down South - bless his heart!

Freedom.

Earlier this week, I found out that a friend of mine left an upper management position to take a less-busy position with another company so that she could be with her family more.  So she could have more control over the structure with her family life in general.

::applause for the bold move::

And then yesterday, during the 5 minutes of GMA that I happened to catch, I saw this report.  Now, I realize that a lot of the flex-time that employees are able to use these days is thanks to the increase of viable communication outlets through web-based services.  And fast internet connections.  iPhones and Blackberries.  Web conferencing.  Etc.  30 years ago, flex-time wasn't this doable of a thing.  Now, some companies are taking advantage of this new freedom.  And good for them if they can do it!  And it got me to thinking and thinking....

I also just finished reading the latest Imprimus issue that Hillsdale College puts out.  And that got me to thinking some more......

Obviously, freedom has limits of rational sorts.  For example, I wouldn't be terribly interested in a doctor or a dentist who wanted to provide his or her services via web conferencing.  But as our world changes, so does the way we provide goods and services to each other.

Yay!  This is a good thing!

As long as WE are the ones doing the providing.  There is not one person out there who thinks that the government is going to be better at running GM than the GM execs were.  And look what a mess THEY made of things.  If you really, really want to be sure a package arrives on time - are you going to send it via USPS or via UPS or FedEx?  Honestly?  How often do you choose government services over private services, when a choice is available?  Be honest with me - if you could choose between a "free" clinic and a private doctor, who are you going to choose?  Why?

But, yet, there are so many people who genuinely believe that having the government involved in our private health care decisions is a good idea.  And, I'm not even talking specifics here.  I'm talking about the broad idea of freedom.  To have the government "do it" for us will mean less money in our pockets.  That's less freedom.  It will mean less choices regarding what we can and can't do.  That's less freedom.  It WILL mean someone else gets to make decisions for you, even though you are perfectly capable of making those decisions yourself.  That is less freedom.

I will admit, unhappily, that there are those who don't care much about freedom.  Because, with freedom comes extra work and responsibility, and they don't want it.  And I'm sorry for that.  But, please everyone, please think about what freedom means.  For a lot of working women, it means the opportunity to live their lives as completely as they want.  They can run a major company and still be able to be attend school functions with their kids.  Technological freedom is making it more possible.  But the minute we give up our freedom to make decisions, even the hard ones, then we give up our freedom to manage our own lives.  I know there are a lot of "things" to consider about how "everyone" can have access to good health care.  But having the government decide the who's and the how's and the why's is just NOT gonna work.  I mean, come on.

We can't bring everyone's quality of life to the same common denominator.  Unless everyone goes down.  We can not create a classless society.  Matthew 26:11 doesn't talk about this exactly, but it does bring up a point that we can't avoid.

I just want to urge anyone who is on the fence about this kind of thing to think about the ramifications.  Please.  Taken from Mark Steyn's Piece:

If you're a business, when government gives you 2% of your income, it has a veto on 100% of what you do. If you're an individual, the impact is even starker. Once you have government health care, it can be used to justify almost any restraint on freedom: After all, if the state has to cure you, it surely has an interest in preventing you needing treatment in the first place. That's the argument behind, for example, mandatory motorcycle helmets, or the creepy teams of government nutritionists currently going door to door in Britain and conducting a "health audit" of the contents of your refrigerator. They're not yet confiscating your Twinkies; they just want to take a census of how many you have. So you do all this for the "free" health care—and in the end you may not get the "free" health care anyway. Under Britain's National Health Service, for example, smokers in Manchester have been denied treatment for heart disease, and the obese in Suffolk are refused hip and knee replacements. Patricia Hewitt, the British Health Secretary, says that it's appropriate to decline treatment on the basis of "lifestyle choices." 


I just find the whole idea of incompetent people in Washington, D.C. making decisions about my health care choices completely absurd.  Sort of like trying to imagine those legislators building cars.  They won't do that well either.  Just watch.

And I'm done for now.  I just had to get this off my chest and out to the universe.  Please read the Imprimus piece if you get a chance.

Quick OB Update from today

And it went fine!

Today was the glucose screening test, which I passed, thankfully.  Got my RhoGam shot, found out I was slightly anemic.  I was with Toot as well, so it's not a major thing.  Those dumb iron pills are expensive though.

I start with the checkups-every-two-weeks schedule now.  Yay.  (Can you hear my excitement?)  I remember how fun it all seemed with my first baby.  And now, the hassle of having to either schedule someone to watch the kids or bring the kids with me to all the extra appointments just seems to be a big ole bother.  But, I understand the reasons behind it.  And, it's but for a short time.

We'll have the 4D sonogram next time also.  This is merely for "fun" - it is not diagnostic in nature at all.

And that's it!  Nothing exciting occurred, and for this pregnancy, that's a good thing!

Charlotte who?

In the homeschooling realm, there are almost as many education methods practiced as there are in "regular" schools.  Even inside a single family, a parent may decide to use one method with one child and a completely different method with another child in order to accommodate various learning styles and abilities.

Right now, at the Zoo, my intentions are to follow a "Charlotte Mason" type of education, for the most part.  There are always tweaks and alterations that are necessary, I think, to any type of education in order to make the learning as accessible as it can be to each child.  I will say that if at any time this doesn't seem to be working, we will make quick adjustments as is necessary.  But, for now, this is what we're going to try. If you are like I was a year ago and didn't know Charlotte Mason from Adam's housecat, this is a pretty decent and quick summary of what the Charlotte Mason method of schooling entails:

 From SimplyCharlotteMason.com  

  1.  How does Charlotte Mason view the child?

      The child is a whole person whose education should cultivate the whole person. A child's personality deserves respect, and his natural appetite for knowledge should be nourished.

   

   2.  How does Charlotte Mason define "education"?

      Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.—"By this we mean that parents and teachers should know how to make sensible use of a child's circumstances (atmosphere), should train him in habits of good living (discipline), and should nourish his mind with ideas, the food of the intellectual life" (Vol. 3, pp. 216, 217).

      Education is the science of relations.—The child should form personal relations from a feast of great ideas given through a broad curriculum.

      "They come into the world with many relations waiting to be established; relations with places far and near, with the wide universe, with the past of history, with the the social economics of the present, with the earth they live on and all its delightful progeny of beast and bird, plant and tree; with the sweet human affinities they entered into at birth; with their own country and other countries, and, above all, with that most sublime of human relationships––their relation to God" (Vol. 6, pp. 72, 73).

   

  3.  What does Charlotte Mason say is the role of the teacher?

      The teacher is a guide. She is to carefully prepare the banquet and spread the feast of living ideas by introducing the child to the great people of the past and present who thought up those ideas, then get out of the way and let the child form his own relations.

      "Give children a wide range of subjects, with the end in view of establishing in each case some one or more of the relations I have indicated. Let them learn from first-hand sources of information––really good books, the best going, on the subject they are engaged upon. Let them get at the books themselves, and do not let them be flooded with a warm diluent at the lips of their teacher. The teacher's business is to indicate, stimulate, direct and constrain to the acquirement of knowledge, but by no means to be the fountain-head and source of all knowledge in his or her own person" (Vol. 3, p. 162).

So, there it is in a very small nutshell.  I thought the grandparents might appreciate being able to sort of know the direction we're attempting to follow.  For now, anyway.  :-)

He's OSO special!!!

There's a new show on the Disney Channel that currently comes on at 7:00am during the week.  It's called Special Agent OSO.  And this little bear named OSO has quite captured Tooter's attention.  He will sing the opening song sooo loudly that you can hear him anywhere in the house, no matter what doors are closed between you and him!

Anyway, I finally got it on tape and thought I'd share.  This is way funnier to me and to Jmk than probably anyone else, but here ya go.  :-)  (Oh, and poor Poodle thought she might sing with him, but was sharply rebuked during the middle of the song.  Toot is a performance hog).  And, yes, he's eating breakfast whilst singing.  It is 7am, afterall.

Mother's Day 2009

Just some pictures from a couple of weekends ago:

The family just before lunch after church.

 All of us'ns who went to eat lunch after church.  My family plus my mom and dad and my sweet brother.

Then, we went over to Amy and Jay's house and got to see Jmk's mom and grandmother.  Notice the garden off to the right - not too shabby, eh???

And, here are the winners of the Peas and Carrots pageant.
Or, two peas in a pod contest.  Whatever.
Poodle loves her some SueSue!


It was a lovely day, truly.  And, as my grandmother always used to say - every day is Mother's Day!

Test post of the picture from Amy and Jay's house.  I wanted to see what cropping would do after it was posted.  You can ignore this one!

A, My, The

Some clarification on the sermon that I referenced in the last post:

The quoted verse was II Tim. 4:7 -

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." He was keying on those three little but powerful adjectives.  The point Bro. Philip made exactly was that Paul fought a good fight, not the good fight.  There are many fights that can be fought.  Paul just fought one of them.  There are many courses that can be run, Paul ran his course.  We must run our own course and fight a good fight, but always keep THE faith.  There is only one faith - the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Forever and Amen.

"Run Your Own Race"

Or:
"Keep Your Eyes On The Goal Or You're Going To End Up Running Into The Neighbor's Grass And Falling Down"

Last night, we had a wonderful meeting-of-the-moms with our homeschool support group.  The primary purpose was to bring and share curriculum choices and to talk about things that are and are not working for us as individual teachers.

It was very wonderful for me to have some time to talk with some other mothers who have the same educational philosophies that I do - and to talk about certain book list choices that I am getting ready to put on our shelves.  Lots of good things happened last night, but one thing in particular has been on my mind today.  I was talking with my sweet friend (and church sister) Karen, who was relating to me a sermon that she heard from Elder Philip Conley that dealt with running your own race.  Essentially, keeping your eyes on the "prize", (i.e. Jesus Christ) and keeping your path towards Him straight and true.  There were other things that she mentioned about the sermon itself, but it was how she related that to homeschooling in general that made so much sense to me.  And, as I thought about that concept today, I thought about how it relates to life.  To parenting.  To dealing with children and family and co-workers and friends and clients and neighbors and on and on....

When we're talking about things regarding life as we live it, there are a number of goals that we have for ourselves and our family.  And even if we have the same goal as someone next to us, the path to that goal may be very different.

For example.  In my own family, I want my children to have an education that is part of their becoming whole, well-rounded, vital citizens and that encourages them to become lifelong learners.
But, the path to that same goal is going to be vastly different for Poodle than it is for Tooter.  (And likely as equally different for Sparkie).  Because they are such different people with such different learning styles already.  And it is definitely going to be different for my children than it will be for another family's children.  But, if I am always looking over my shoulder to see what the family down the road is doing, than I'm going to have to take my eyes off of my own goals.  And I'm going to wobble.

Just like watching the kids ride their bikes.  When they are looking straight forward and paying attention to what they are doing and where they are going, then they stay right on the sidewalk and do a great job. But the first time they look behind them to see what everyone else is doing or they start watching their own shadows or they watch a car pass by in the road, they all of a sudden start veering into the neighbor's yard and usually end up either stopping or tipping over.

I realize this isn't a new concept for life in general.  It has probably been the subject of a whole lot of speeches and a whole lot of pre-game motivational talks.  But, it helped me, personally, to be reminded of that last night.  And, I thought that maybe someone else could use that reminder as well.  Just because my friend down the road did something a certain way to reach her goal doesn't necessarily mean that this is the way I need to do it in order to reach my goal.  Whether we're talking about curriculum choices or relationship choices or free time choices or family choices.

There are different paths to the same goal when it comes to life.  And that's why we have a big responsibility to be true to ourselves when traveling down those paths.

Thankfully, there is only one path to Heaven - thru the blood of Jesus Christ.  And, as the song goes....  "I'm so glad that salvation's free".

Conversations with Tooter

From the back of the van on the way home from birthday present shopping and lunch:

Poodle:  Mommy, what day is it?

Me:  It's Tuesday.

Poodle:  Okay.

Tooter (who had an extra spoonful of contrary cereal this morning, apparently):
 It's not Tuesday, it's Oneday!

A milestone reached

Poodle called for her first song yesterday during song service at church.  :-)

For those non-PB types out there, our worship service goes like this:  we have 30 minutes of a cappella congregational singing, followed by an opening prayer, preaching, a closing song (usually with a handshake) and then a closing prayer.  During the congregational singing, folks call out the songs they want to sing.  (Not that way in all PB churches - sometimes, the song leader(s) pick the songs....)

Yesterday, Poodle asked me what she had to do to ask for a song.  I told her when we finish this one that we're singing, that she needed to call out the number she wanted really loudly.  I asked her which song she wanted to sing.  She said "which number is Amazing Grace?".  I told her it was 154.

And she called it out!  It took an extra song for her to get heard, and I actually had to call the number myself to get the sound all the way to the front of the church, after some folks at the front said that a child in the back had called a song.  (We're pretty particular about supporting our children being involved with the worship service.  There's nothing better than the sound of babies crying and children participating in church).  But, she called out her first number.  It was really meaningful to me.  And, it's not like a rite of passage in the church or anything like that.  It's just a big deal to me to have the guts to speak out that loudly with all those grownups sitting around you.
:-)

I'm proud of you Poodle.  That was a big girl thing you did.

What we did today.

I took the kids to the Y to sign them up for swim lessons.  Then we went to the park for a playdate with some other families in our homeschool group.  Then one of the other moms and I took our kids to a pizza buffet for lunch.

Pretty non-eventful for most folks, but it was a huge thrill for me to be able to do this!  Sometimes I just need to have things taken away so that I can fully appreciate the blessings that I had in the first place.  God is good!!!

Praise Report!!!

Hallelujah!!!

Sparkie was not-so-cooperative with the camera today.  So, she gave us a wave and politely asked us to step off and let her go back to sleep, thankyouverymuch.

There have been a lot of bended knees in our house and on our behalf.  There have been untold numbers of prayers offered for Sparkie and for her gestation.  I am so glad, so grateful, to be able to say that God has answered those prayers in a most magnificent and merciful way!!!

Had an OB checkup/sonogram today to check on the hematoma - and they could not find it.  It has been resolved.  The bleed has been absorbed into my body and is no longer a threat at this time!  Yes, there is a slim chance that it could reoccur.  But, that is rare.  Yes, there is always a possibility that the sonographer missed seeing something.  But, that is unlikely with all her experience.  I have been released from limited activity orders and life has just gotten miles easier!!!

Not only does this bring a physical freedom that we've been missing, but it also brings a much desired emotional freedom and release from worry.  I do still have to be reasonable about things and be mindful of the care that is necessary when growing a wee one.  But, I can take the kids swimming this summer now.  I can take them for walks in the neighborhood now.  I can take them to the park and on playdates and on school outings.  We can go to the grocery store to pick up milk and bananas anytime we need them.  We can run up to the bookstore or library to see if they have something that we just *have* to have.

GOD IS SO GOOD!!!

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who came and picked up the kids and got them out of the house when I couldn't do it.  Those times of release from house arrest for them was priceless.  Of course, we welcome all takers who want to get them out from here on also!  :-)  They love, love, love having the chance to go and do without Mommy or Daddy around.

My only hiccup of the day, if you can even call it that, is.....  get this....  I have to gain some weight.  lol....  wooohoooo!!!  It's the first, and I assure you will be the last, time those words will be uttered to me.  But, for some weird reason, I've only gained 10 lbs so far.  Who knows why.  I've got two young ones.  My food aversions and nausea lasted longer this time.  My day is physically active as opposed to being restful at a desk.  It's 2009.  Who knows.  Whatever!!!  Talk about having a non-problem, huh?  I better enjoy it now, because I have a LOT of weight to lose after Sparks gets here.  I, um, well.....  let's just say I didn't start this pregnancy at an ideal weight for my body type.  ::grin::

Anyway, Jmk and I can not utter enough appreciation to all who have prayed us through this time.  And who will continue to pray us through the rest of the pregnancy.  We are acutely aware of the absolute miracle of a baby being born healthy and alive, and we take nothing - not one single day of this - for granted.  Thank you so much for loving us enough to pray for us.  God has been merciful to us, and we are so grateful for his gracious blessings!

This was the only other picture from today.  She apparently spends so much time with her legs back over her head like some Cirque du Soleil artist, that it was hard to get a decent picture of her.  But that's one good looking spine, eh?

Some recent quotes that I liked

From Kat, who just simply has a way with words, described how she gets thru her day with 3 kids 6 and under and a special "challenge" on top of all that:

Every few minutes, I pray for grace to get through the next hour or so. God is faithful, just as he is to you, and he gives me just what I need to manage for the next little bit. None of this "Here, have enough grace to make it through the next few days." Oh, no, it's "Here, here's enough grace to make it through cooking lunch. Then come back and see me and we'll negotiate snacktime." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Rhonda, who I think got this from an email forward:

Whenever God closes one door, He always opens another - even though sometimes it's Hell in the hallway.

Product Recommendations

I don't usually do this, but I have gotten a couple of things lately that I have to compliment.

First, is a hair straightener (flat iron).  The Remington Wet 2 Straight .  This is a fantastic product!  I know that the Chi is sort of the gold standard for flat irons.  Because of the price of those, though, I never could talk myself into getting one, since I wasn't that great about "doing" my hair every day anyway.  Thus, I can't compare this product to the Chi.  BUT, the Remington works so great!  It's only about $25'ish at Wally World, it has a programmable heat function, you can use it on wet hair (I haven't tried this yet), AND it has a turn-off feature!  Very important for me, because I have some mental block about turning off flat irons half the time.  It is super effective - great product.

Second, is a vacuum cleaner.  The Dyson DC25 Animal .  I really do heart this vacuum cleaner.  We used a 20% discount coupon at Bed Bath and Beyond to get it, and so far, it is living up to all its claims.  Because of the wood flooring that we put down, we needed something that would go easily from hard surface flooring to rugs and then back again.  Because of the easy-to-get-to switch for turning off the rotating brushes, it does a great job on hard surface flooring.  Then, it quickly goes back to being able to handle carpet/rug areas.  The ball feature is fantastic.  It takes almost no effort to turn the machine, which is good for me right now.  (No, I promise I'm not vacuuming every day.  I'm being good!)  I haven't used the mini turbine head attachment (the only thing that makes this different from the regular DC25 model), so I can't yet say whether or not it's worth the extra cost.  The only con to this machine that I have encountered is that the cord is just too short.  It really ought to be another 3 or 4 feet longer than it is.  But, other than that, it is a good machine.  I really, really like being able to empty the canister after each use.  Getting dust and such out of the house is a necessity around here.
It IS very pricey.  Very pricey.  I have been wanting one for a long, long time, but wouldn't ever "let" Jmk go get it.  It just seemed like way too much money to spend on a vacuum cleaner.  But, when we got the new flooring and had sooooo many flooring transitions to deal with, the cost became a little less scary.  My sweet SIL told us it was the best money she ever spent.  So, we sort of lumped it into all the other home improvements costs.  Great vacuum!

That's all for the commercials.  Back to your regularly scheduled programs!  :-)

Earth Day at the Zoo

I will admit to not being a huge fan of the whole "Earth Day" thing.  I won't get into all the hypocrisy of all of it, because I just don't feel like it.  :-)
BUT, Poodle does do some Disney channel watching and some PBS watching during parts of the day/week.  Thus, she has picked up on some of the Earth Day terminology in spite of me.  She informed me a couple of days ago that "Earth Day" was this Saturday (I know it was Wednesday - that's part of what I found humorous about what she was taking from the info that she was getting) and that we had to turn off all of the faucets and the lights and clean up the house and the plants and then everyone would get candy and treats.

lol.....  WhatEver!!!

I'll explain the difference between responsible conservation and making an idol out of the Creator's creation after the hooplah has settled from the kids' shows.
Candy and treats anyone?  Apparently Saturday is the day!  ::grin::

Conversations with Poodle

Mommy, what does "main" mean?  As in "the main point I want to make is"...?

Well, main is the same as primary thing or the most important thing.  For example, the main sail on a boat is the biggest sail.  (Robert, forgive me if that was terribly off.  It made sense to her).  What do you think the main ingredient is in bread?

Ummm - flour.

Very good!  Okay, what is the main reason to go to church?

Ummm - to sing to Jesus!


:-)
I thought that was sweet.  I did tell her that she was correct and that we also went to worship Jesus, but I love hearing what children are really thinking.  So I didn't "fix" what she said right away.

Anyway!  Speaking of children, we've named Sparkie!  No, her real name isn't going to be Sparkie.  It's just what she's likely to get called around here.  :-)  If you'd like to see her real name, you'll need to go to our website and click on the Baby's Page link.  Following my brother's advice, I'm going to continue to not use the kids' names on the blog.  I realize that if someone was determined enough, they could figure out everything.  I'm just hopeful that no one that crazy is paying any attention to us.

If'n you don't remember the website address (which is okay, since it is rarely updated and thusly not very interesting to go see), it is our last name with an "s" on the end and a "the" at the beginning with a dot and a com.   :-)

Le Behbeh Update

Hmmm.  I guess, technically, that should be La Behbeh.  But since Behbeh isn't a word in any language anyway, at least spelled that way, it doesn't really matter.  And, I have to got to let go of the le's and la's and get comfortable with the el's and la's...  Poodle starts Spanish next year.  And I have taken nothing but French!

Sparkie in an "oy, vey!" pose.  Legs straight up in the air, hand placed oh so dramatically on her delicate forehead.  ;-)

ANYway (sorry for the mental derailment there), I had my sonogram checkup at the OB this morning.  Unfortunately, the bleed/clot/hematoma/hemorrhage has grown a bit.  It went up to 3.2 cm in length and a portion of it has gotten wider as well.  Something like 1.3 or 1.4 cm where it was below 1 last time.

But.  I haven't had any additional bleeding.  Sparkie is growing just as she should.  And she's extremely active with all the pieces parts seeming to be in place.  And the increase isn't huge.  So, while it's not great news that the blood clot has increased a little bit in size, I'm not too worried or even frustrated.  It's okay.  It really is.  If it is God's will for her to be born alive, she WILL be born alive.  There isn't a blood clot in the world that will stop that.  And, I have another 2 week pass from the OB before the next sonogram with the same orders of limited activity.  No bed rest.

There are a lot of summer plans that are on hold right now - all kinds of trips and reunions and church activities and I just found out about a family wedding the 2nd weekend in July.  Lots of things we want to do and may not be able to do.  And you know what - I'm not even stressed about it.  Usually, I'd be so worried about "what will people think if we aren't there or don't go" and "but it would mean so much to so and so for us to have the kids there" and "this only comes around every fill-in-the-blank years".  Now, I feel none of that.  Nothing is more important than doing what I have to do to help this baby gestate as long as she can without additional difficulties.  It's a good feeling, and it's the way I'm supposed to feel.  I have no idea if this is actually one of the lessons that God is teaching me through this challenge, but I'm grateful for it.  To lay down the worries of what everyone else wants and to focus on what's truly important.  I have always had problems with that.

Anyway, we are all doing fine and are positive and can feel the prayers for the peace that passeth understanding.  Thank you for those - for the entreaties that God is answering so abundantly.  We love y'all!

Easter morning pics

We took a few to share!  My favorite is this one of Jmk and the kids.  :-)

All three kids.  :-)  Mommy *had* to be in the pic for this one.

And a progress tummy shot.  20 weeks and 5'ish days.  We are over half way there!  She seems to be strongly growing which is encouraging.  I go back on Wednesday for another sonogram to check on the hematoma.  We're praying for it to be smaller.  The good news is that there has been no further bleeding.

Actually, she has gotten big enough that Jmk can press on my tummy and feel her kick, if she's riled up enough.  I don't remember his being able to do that this early with the other kids.  Of course, I can barely remember last week, so it's certainly possible that he could have.

Anyway, we are all "trapped" in the master bedroom today while the floor guys are here working.  We are SO excited to have finally made it to this week to get our new floors.  Jmk has done SO much work (all on his own, since I could do nothing at all to help) in demolition work to get ready for their arrival today.  And we're all sleeping on mattresses on the concrete floor right now.  But, by the end of this week, we'll have nice new floors and we are so grateful to be able to do this.  And I am so grateful for a husband who put in so much back-breaking work by himself to get us to this point.  (And to Tim who let us use one of the dumpsters at one of his job sites.  He saved us a ton of money in dump fees!)  And I won't brag too much more about how wonderful Jmk is, but he has never one time complained about all the work and never once said or did anything that made me feel bad (or, at least, any worse than I already did) about not being able to help him.  I love you honey!!!

Here are some demo pictures just for fun:

Up comes the kitchen flooring.  He rented a floor scraper for this job, and thank goodness for that!  It's not that this floor was of poor quality...  it really was a great floor.  But, it was green.  You know?  When we bought the house almost 5 years ago, it was one of the things that we said "we'll save up and replace these when we can".  They weren't awful green.  They were a pretty deep green.  I just didn't dig them.  Oh, and the red walls are going.  It was an experiment, and we liked them for awhile.  But red walls are tough to live with in a room that we spend SO much time in.  At least for us.  They're just so strong.

Tooter using the scraper to get up the mastic that was under the old wood flooring.  Before you go call DHS on us, this machine didn't move without being pushed, and that isn't a blade on the end.  It's like a shovel sort of thing that vibrates to help peel up well-stuck linoleum tiles.  The kids thought they were IT  getting to push the big floor machine thing.

There's nothing like high-powered big boy tools to make a girl feel like She-Ra.  Y'all remember She-Ra?  He-Man's sister or wife or girlfriend or something or other.  It was the 80's.  Cartoons.  You had to be there.  Obviously, I didn't pay extremely close attention.

From an email from SueSue

Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.

Easter Preview

To try to avoid stressing everyone out on Easter morning, I got the kids into their Easter duds yesterday and took them to the front of our neighborhood to take pictures.  Unfortunately, I couldn't really maneuver myself the way I needed to OR move them around like I wanted to.  But I got a few keepers here and there.  I don't think I got a true money shot of them together, but again, we had some limitations.  And I think I overdid things anyway.  No bleeding!!!  But, I just overdid it.  I know....  I know....  it was dumb.  I thought I was being so very careful.  I'm pretty much taking today completely off and will be resting on the couch.  Sparkie is still active and we used our home doppler thingy to check her heartbeat last night and everything seems to be fine.

Anyway, here are a few preview shots for Easter!

I'll get all the shots up on a site somewhere so the wonderful grandparents can see all of them.  :-)