Stalker!!

Me: "Please carry the basket of clean clothes upstairs."
14 year old son: "Who will carry it when you get old?"
Me:"You."
Son:"What if I move away? To .....Alabama?"
Me: "I will move with you. Follow you"
Son: "That's called a Stalker."
Me: "That's called a Mom."

Things I Never Thought I would Hear or Say.

A day to remember.....

          


There are so many things on a daily basis that one of my kids will say and I will think, "did he/she really say that?"

            Couple from today:
I went to buy a new bra and I took my girlie (3) with me. I went to Nordstrom's because it has been so long since I went to buy a nice one that I was a bit overwhelmed by the choices.
I was in the dressing room trying on a bra as the sales lady left to get a couple more choices for me.
Girlie says (in her loudest voice), "Mommy, is this the BIG BOOBY STORE!"
giggles... from the other dressing rooms.....


            The next one was this morning. (Yes, I live an exciting life with these kids).
My youngest son and my girlie are in the tub while I am putting on my make-up. I had washed my hair last night and slept on it. So I wanted to wet it so I could style it. I thought, "Oh there is a tub with nice hot water. "
So, I leaned over the tub and used a cup to start wetting my hair. About half-way through, girlie says with a giggle, "Mommy, I peed in here."
FREEZE.
O.K.  So, there is a couple of the things I never thought I would hear. I will add as time goes on and the things I never thought I would have to say as well.

Recipe Re-invented-Or, Hot Pumpkin

        

             I have a pumpkin soup recipe that I have made since I taught preschool 15 years ago. I got the recipe out of a curriculum book that I copied the page from. (I bought the book. I just wanted a copy in my recipe mess (more about my recipe mess another time)). Tonight it occurred to me, I don't make the recipe that is on the paper. I make my own recipe entirely different from looking at it. My recipe comes out sweet and the other one is garlicky with ham in it. Hmmm. Not only that, I don't even eat mine. I drink it out of a mug. 
           I told my husband, "This isn't even a soup. It is a drink. Like Hot Chocolate. Or Hot Vanilla (love that!). I am going to actually write down this recipe and post it. Then I can throw away the other one, that I have never even used. 
So, I hope you enjoy it. Here it is;

Hot Pumpkin

3 cans (15 oz. ) of Pumpkin

6 cups milk

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 - 1 tsp pumpkin spice

1 tsp vanilla

1. Mix all ingredients into a pan (or Crockpot) and warm until hot. Be careful not to burn or curdle the milk.
2. Drink. You can add a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkle cinnamon on top.

I whipped the drink in the cups with my frother. 

If you heat it in a crockpot, you can leave it in there on warm for several hours. Stir occasionally. 

This serves many. 

Options: 

• You could use whipping cream for a richer flavor.
• You can add cocoa powder for a chocolate pumpkin (that is  yummy too.)
• You could use almond, or coconut milk or another alternative milk for  a more healthful drink. Since Pumpkin is full of vitamins.
• This is a good drink to put in a To Go cup and give to the neighbors.

Let me know how you like it. 

Rainbows And Cupcakes

Girlie is carrying around a teacup, telling us it is full of rainbows.
Little boyo grabs her cup and makes a big slurp noise.
"He stole my rainbow!" comes the umbelievimg girlie.
I am unflustered. Without skipping a beat, I say,"Spit it out." holding the cup to his lips.
He pretends to spit it out.
Girlie screams, "Now it's all wet!"
Of course.
Why didn't I think of that?
Little boyo doesn't want to be out done. Says back very authoritative, "I can only burp cupcakes. "

And that was my day.

My Oil Is Overflowing.

        

            There are so many things in my life that 20 years ago I never would have thought I would do or be able to do. Some I am proud of, some I am still stunned. I had such a small vision of what I wanted to do with my life. I have fulfilled what I wanted to do, I suppose. I just hadn't thought of all that goes with it. When I dreamed of my life, this is where I went;
I wanted to be married to a man that adored me. Check
I wanted 2 kids. Check. Well, double check that one.
I wanted a boy and a girl. Check, check, check and ... check.
I wanted to live in a big house with a yard and a garden. Been there done that. Now I am moving on from that.
I wanted to stay home with my kids and raise them. Well, got that one covered and then some.
I wanted to be the mom that was home all day to bake cookies for when the kids came home from school, have a nice dinner, etc. Use that time during the day to get things done so I could be with my kids as they needed me when they got home. Well, curve ball number one. And it is a doozy!
Homeschooling changes that one enormously. I may have been too attached to the one where I stay home with my kids...

             After all of that life didn't seem to factor into my ideas of what it would all be like.
I never thought I'd have 4 kids. Or homeschool. That was for weird people. Freaks. I never thought I could have survived, much less, thrived through all we have been through in our marriage.
My husband and I look back over our 20 years that we have been together and we can easily see where God's hand has been. We can look at the "tapestry" and see the beautiful colors ALL weaved together. The dark sad times with the joyful happy times. Woven together are so pretty.
I always wonder about the stretching times. The times when you feel like God is just asking too much. I mean does HE really not get that I haven't had enough time to get my husbands underwear washed yet? And there is a funky smell in the bathroom that I haven't bleached out yet. There are dinners to cook, curriculum to decide, hiney's to wipe, and all of the other practicules  that keep a family of 6 just treading water. Not to mention, but we must to have, any joy, just that,... joyful things. Going to the beach, walks in the harbor, playing catch with the boys, watching the boys football games, teaching the littles to swim. These things take up time that is necessary as well.
            Then HE hits me a ball out in left field. Really. Not one I expected. I am now on the board of my homeschool group. I'm sorry, doesn't having 4 kids exempt me from being asked? Doesn't that job belong to someone with one, MAYBE 2 kids? Well, this year, God said, "NO!" It is my turn He says.
I pray often that God will send me a burning bush like Moses to make it pretty clear the direction I am supposed to go. I have ignored and justified my way out of not following God's prompts before. Well, it hurts in many ways when you are praying for God to use you and you choke when HE calls. HE makes you realize it would be much easier to just do the difficult task HE asks then... NOT. Either He will give you a swift kick in the back side or worse, HE will find someone else and pass by you the next time. "I guess that one can't be trusted to be given any responsibility."
           Well, as the offer was made to lead this group, I sat prepared to give my regrets and apologies that there was no way I should even be  expected to do the job she was asking.
         Then there it was. The burning bush. Right there. I think I even started to laugh a little and said under my breath. Well, there it is. The burning bush. Even my husband, whom I pray with often, said as I repeated all that the person who asked me had said to me, "Well, how's that burning bush looking to you?"
Which was funny because he also was prepared for me to say no. Remember, he is still waiting for his clean underwear.
            That is when my mind started to go into a state of shock. As e-mails and phone calls and meetings start taking place to frantically get some things done before the school year started for most of us, I started wondering how I could hide from it all. "WHAT HAVE I DONE!!" Really. There aren't any spare moments that are around, unless I stop sleeping (which is what I am doing to write this). Really, I do my daughters hair often while I am going potty myself. (TMI sorry).
             Then we go to church, and the last few weeks it has been brought up that with much a servant is trusted, much a servant is given.

Matthew 25:23

New International Version (NIV)

   ²³ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
              So the more I am willing to give as far as serving my time, my understanding is that means the more time I should be given. I really need to give lots of time then.
                 I so many times get a visual of my life. I have my hands cupped together and God is pouring oil into them. I am trying so hard to not let any of it out of my fingers to hit the floor. I can't do it. HE is pouring too much, too fast. Funny, because there are several places in the bible that to show wealth  or abundant blessings, it says my cup runs over .

Psalm 23:5

New International Version (NIV)

 ⁵ You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; 

   my cup overflows. 
It talks about something running over. And oil was traded and was an important commodity in bible times. They used olive oil for so much. To have much olive oil, was a sign of wealth. My visual is incomplete. The rest is this: as I start to panic and feel like I just can't do it all. I can't be expected to DO EVERYTHING! How can I keep all of this together and not spill any of it? I know they are blessings but, how can I hold on to it all? That is when I realize, HIS hands are cupped under mine. I'm not supposed to do it all. HE will. IF HE  blessed me with something, HE will take care of it. I just have to make sure that I put HIS things first. And he will do the rest. 
                So as I count my blessings (love that song. I sing it often to myself and my kids), I realize HE is there to count them with me. God is going to bless me as long and as big as I am willing to keep following his burning bushes. If HE makes it burn, He'll make sure I can do it. 
                 NO the 17 year old me would never have been able to do all that I am and have done. But, 17 year old me, wasn't asking God for burning bushes and counting blessings. 17 year old me has learned a few things. Thankfully. 

Psalm 23:6

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
   forever.

Thank you Lord for the oil that overflows. 

Bats and MUMMA'S

           We don't celebrate Halloween in our house. We gave it up a long time ago. In fact, I don't know if my oldest even remembers doing it at all. My youngest have never done it.
            We were in the car and the boys were talking about it when Little Girlie pipes up, "We don't do any of that."
             "Any of what?" The boys ask her.
            "You know. Bats or Mumma's."
            " Mumma's?" I ask. "What is a Mumma?"
            "The one wrapped  in toilet paper."
           Oh. Of course.  A Mumma. Didn't you know that?

Naked At The Opera

        

              Did I get your attention with that one? This was what I told my friend the other day. That she didn't want to show up unprepared for the opera. No she doesn't actually sing or even frequent the opera that I know of. It was a picture I was painting with words for her. It really made me think too. Here is where the conversation begins.
             Have you ever been in a holding pattern on a plane? I was a flight attendant in my younger days. I sat on planes in many holding patterns for many different reasons. Weather, plane traffic, power outages, you name it. I hated it. An unplanned delay in my day (or night). So frustrating because it was nothing that I had or had not done. Stuck sitting there. Now, there are good reasons to wait in the pattern. What if we had tried to land in some of that weather? We could have crashed. Not a good outcome.
               Many times in life God puts us in a holding pattern. Now talk about frustrating. We have our plans and something falls through. Or doesn't happen the way we thought they should. When it is really bad, is when we feel like we put ourselves in the situation that has us stuck in the pattern because of a prompting by God. Why if we are doing as we feel led, does He make us wait? My dear friend was in that situation. My husband and I had been in that situation. And I a sure that at some point in time you have or will have been in that situation. Now I'm not talking a few week pattern. I'm talking months, even a couple of years. Again, why? Why would He put us in this situation to have us, sit there? Waiting?
                I hate to tell you God NEVER does things by accident, or forgets about us. I will tell you, I was starting to really believe that He had forgotten us. Why would he put us in the situation we were in to make us wait? He does all the time. Let me tell you the verse that came to mind every time I prayed and questioned HIS motives for leaving me where I was and not letting us move forward.
            "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10
                  I really have a hard time with this verse. First because being still is very hard for a mom of 4 kids. I mean when there is so much to be done, it is hard to be still. Even now, everyone is taking quiet time. Littles are asleep, Bigs are reading, even my husband is laying on the bed resting. Not me. Here I am writing. Obviously something I need to work on.
                   I firmly believe that when God puts us in a holding pattern it is either to wait on us to learn the lesson we are supposed to get from the situation we are in and/ or we are waiting for God to line everything up.
                   Here comes the opera. If you were the soprano in the opera each night, you know that you need to wait until many other things are done before you can go on stage to do your solo. First, tickets need to be sold. Cleaning people need to come and make sure everything is nice and clean. The lighting guys need to show up and check that each light works. You wouldn't want to be up there singing your heart out and be in the dark. Then there is the costume lady. What if she didn't come to do her job yet? Oh my, and you went out on stage before she had rechecked your stitches? You might have wardrobe malfunction. Not pretty when you are belting out the high note with your lungs straining. You would be standing in front of everyone naked. (Hence the title). Then of course there are the supporting people. What if when you showed up on stage the violins were out having a cigarette? All of them. And the tuba guy? Having a sandwich. Now what happens as you sing? Not as much as would happen with everyone in unison. An opera without all of the winds and strings, wouldn't be as pretty. As awesome.
               That is your holding pattern. God has us wait sometimes to get everyone where they need to be. You may be the soloist and you think this is your big debut. But, stop and think about the costume lady. This is her career. She wants to debut her best work as well. If you show up on stage with a faulty costume, it reflects badly on her. The tuba guy, this is the show his mother finally gets to come and see her son in the job of his life. The dream job he has worked so long and hard for.
               Life isn't all about you. Even though we are looking from our window, it is about all that goes into it. Have you thought of the peripheral people as well? There was a man tonight that was going to propose to his sweetheart at your concert and if you don't wait for the curtain to go up when the tickets say so, you have ruined his proposal. Your life affects other people. Even those you don't know. You need to wait on God and HIS plans for you. Because His are always better then we could ever dream of coming up with. Well, in the end.
              "I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
you. To prosper. That is never bad. To not harm. We all want that guarantee. And to give hope and a future? Wow. Meaning, I have a purpose and I am supposed to be here and doing this. HE knows the best for us. Just wait.
                  Besides, no offense but, no one wants to see your naked booty up on stage holding the high note for a count beyond measure.
                  Makes me squeamish thinking about it.