Old or young

When I was younger I lived on hand me downs and never ever thought to look around to see if what I wore was in style or not. When I look back at some of my 'favorite' outfits, I see that they look waaaay old for me. Now in my older yrs. I am dressing younger....hoodies, crazy jeans, t-shirts and all that, but I still have this old person living inside me apparently, because when I go shopping at a thrift store, I am often tempted to buy things that look like something my grandma would've worn. What's with that? I don't want to be that way, and yet I do. I wonder if we're all like that in a certain way. haha A happy in between is what I need to find and hopefully stay there.

Getting ready for Victoria to take a class up at North Greenville University next sem. How weird this is going to be...but totally exciting. She will start with only one class,( Psychology) so it shouldn't be too bad. However, it looks like we will be doing a Mon. night class, so even though the class is 2.5 hrs. long, it will only be once a wk. That's awesome since it's half hr. drive each way. Now Francis and I will have to figure out what we will do during the time of her class though. We'll have to find somewhere around that we can hang out at. It might be some great mother/son time. I am so ready to see how Victoria does in this new season. I think she's going to grow and change in a good way and become more prepared for life on her own. Wow. What a thought. But, really, so excited!!!

The Little Things

God sometimes reminds us that He is in control of everything, and we all have stories of those times. Well, I have a new story to tell, and it is about a seemingly insignificant thing. While Victoria's friend Kiara was here from Puerto Rico, we went to the library to find an old cartoon version of The Lord of the Rings-The King Returns. As we searched the shelves we couldn't find it. The kids had watched this together before, ( yrs. ago) and wanted to watch it together again for old times sake. :) I decided the best thing to do was to go to the children's dept. desk and see if someone there could help us. When I described what we were looking for, they were doubtful that we would find it, but while standing there waiting while the secretary searched the comp. data base...Victoria,( who had come up to stand beside me) said, " Isn't that it right there?" I looked down on the desk, and on top of a pile of videos that were to be checked back in to the library, was the exact and only copy of what we wanted. I was astounded, and so were the ladies at the desk. I rejoiced at God's hand and wondered at His love for us that even something so little was on His heart to give us. Amazing. I don't think I've been chafing over much of anything since then. I realize that my life is ordered by God down to the seemingly unimportant things.

What possesses a person to have a big party at their house? :) I am having one for the teenagers from church so that my kids can make memories, and so that I can get to know the youth better and of course so we can have fun!!! But who's gonna have fun I wonder? I doubt it's gonna be me. haha I have to make sure everything runs smoothly, have all the materials for the games in order and at hand, make sure the food is at least accessible and pre-prepared so I can just set it our when the time is right. And how the heck do you do that when you are serving banana splits? I have to keep the ice cream in the freezer and have the topings in some kind of containers and ready to serve. Hmm The house needs cleaning, the lawn needs mowing and I haven't gone shopping yet. Oh dear, the fun of last minute preparations! Nerve wracking, stomach churning, hair pulling stress. Yet, when it's over and I collapse...I hope to have good pictures/video and tons of happy smiles and laughs running through my memory's movie screen. In the end, it's almost always worth the craziness! I hope this time will be no different. :)

Day 1

We started back to school today. It started like this...a funny wake-up song that the kids absolutely hate..haha. So, that means I started the day out with two grumps. We sat down to do a half hr. review or quick-snippet of various info. from the Bible to the body, from hymns to handwriting. The kids had breakfast while working on the first subject,( half an orange, milk and monkey bread). I have been scouring youtube and howitworks.com for some needed supplemental videos. Now in the quiet I am quickly updating all of you, and now I need to clean the kitchen and prepare to help Francis, since most of his classes are a time of review with me. I think we'll be done by 3.

half-baked

I am so half-baked, and to give you an idea of what I mean, here are a couple of recent examples. I have been staring forever at a cookie sheet on top of my toaster oven that has dried herbs on it. However, instead of drying the herbs how the books and internet said I should, I just cut them and threw them on a cookie sheet. They did eventually dry. Now I just leave the cookie sheet there and take from it when I need it. I know I should crumble and store the herbs, but I just don't. The next example is the shop-vac. Every Wed. Francis uses it to vacuum his room,( he's the only one with carpet). A few days ago, I took it apart to clean the filters. The filters stayed laying on the side of my bathtub for about 2 days after they were dry and another 2-3 days sitting next to the vacuum, where they still currently are today. I only have to slide the filters back in place and put the top back on, but have I done it..haha...nope! What is it about starting things and not finishing? I have started scrapbooks that who knows if they will ever get done. I have put many articles of clothing that needs stitching up in my 'fix it' pile, just to forget it and see it again later after my kids have already grown out of it. Yikes. Talk about procrastinating. I guess it's all about what is important to me. I mean, some days I get the organizing itch so bad that I lug things out of shelves and closets until everything is in the 'new' place where I visualized it. How weird to get so obsessed with something like that, but then not care about stuff laying around waiting to be put away. This is me though, this is part of who I am and how I work and I know there are others like me...believe me, I've seen it with my own eyes. :)

It's raining, it's pouring...and I love it. There's a few things in the garden that are still trying to produce, plus the squash seeds I put out yesterday are surely loving this downfall. Soon, I hope to see those thick, spring greens seedlings taking off. The butterfly bush is beautiful, the caterpillars that are now munching on,( actually have left only skeletal remains of) one of my brussel sprout plants are hopefully soon to make their comfy cocoons and become a bunch of butterflies. I haven't seen more than one of those in my yard, til this last couple of days. Now I've been seeing these great big black winged, with blue tails butterflies and today a large yellow and black. Wow!! I also gave up on attracting humming birds...then a few days ago, while looking at the flowers on this humongous tree/weed thing that is growing out from the middle of a huge holly bush we have....I saw a humming bird sipping from the weed's flowers. Today, I opened my bedroom curtain to see one drinking from some of the flowers I put out for them. Oh the joy!!

Speaking of joy, while reading several sections of the Word today, there was such a quiet joy in my being...I felt like one who was being pampered and loved on by an amazing Heavenly Father. I need that right now I guess more than normal...something may or may not be about to happen in our family that could prove to be very difficult for all of us and in various ways. I feel like today, all the things that I had hoped for this yr. to happen in my yard/garden are slowly being revealed to me now...as a way that God is saying...I saved all this for this specific time, so that you would know that I am thinking about you. I am so blessed.

I guess that' s it for now...I have a bit more work to do on the school room, then I'll take a picture and post it. Another day, I need to blog out some crazy deep thinking I was doing yesterday...intellectual kinds of stuff that I would usually not even be able to understand, but for some reason, my mind seemed very open and clear. Wow. I guess that proves that I really can think logically and reason. :)