JOY

So a new friend has got me thinking more about joy.

Joy.

In all things, Joy.

And when I see that word 'JOY'... I think of where it comes from.

It DOES NOT come from my Sweetie,

it DOES NOT come from my boys,

it DOES NOT come from my morning cup of coffee.

It comes from HIM, from His Word ... and no where else.

I may get side tracked thinking these things bring me such joy, but really I know that

I'm joyful in them because of HIM.

If it weren't for the presence of the Holy Spirit in my heart, I would not be able to find JOY in anything.

And can I get an Amen?!

I've shared it before and I'm going to share it again, it has been my life clinging to and the cause of great rejoicing verse as of late...

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is His faithfullness." Lamentations 3:22-23

Praying that all my loved ones; friends & family are finding that JOY today and always.

(and to Cheryl, I've SO enjoyed getting to know you better. thanks for being a blessing.)

Welcome Fall, and Other Changes

Today is the first day of Fall. I love Fall. I love the cooler weather. I love the coziness. I love the changing colors. I never liked Fall until I moved to the east coast. Because where I'm from, they don't get Fall. They get heat, and fires, and dryness, and wind and HEAT!


It's official people. Our house is on the market. Anyone wanna buy it??? How will I ever live without this view??? Since the day we moved in, I have been thankful for the opportunity to live in such surroundings and have felt so spoiled and almost like we were cheating by living in such beautimous scenery.


The Realtors came and told us what to move out and around. We had to get rid of the chair that goes with the furniture. (No, we didn't get 'rid' of Sweetie's chair, we just put it in storage, he can still go and visit it and sit in it whenever he wants to). Dave arranged this furniture. I was at a loss. I was on the brink of a clean-out melt down. Till the Davester came down and had this brilliant idea. And it works. And everyone loves it. And Dave is my hero.


The school corner had to go. The boys were thrilled. They tried to box it up and load it on the truck to go to the storage unit. Yeah. Nope. It just got moved. They are happy-happy boys.


Oh, and it is no longer the school 'corner', but the school 'wall'. I'm clever, I know.


And the guest room is now guest friendly. Just in time for a visit from my Sister in October and my parents in November. Wee-hoo. (By the way, don't think I haven't noticed that none of Sweetie's family has ever come to visit us in the three years since we moved here, not that we're bitter or anything, I'm just stating a fact. Not that our feelings are hurt or anything, we are much stronger than that, really. We totally feel loved, sure.)


Oh, and I got my hair chopped. My sweet hairdresser/friend Kathleen, is on maternity leave. Ugh. It doesn't look too bad right after I fix it in the morning, but by midday, it's a disaster. The other night I was on Skype with my sister and she was horrified. I was trying to make it look better by using office supplies to put it back. Paperclips work best for putting weird stray long bangs back into place, just in case you were wondering.

Sweetie and Calvin have been gone for a week. They come home tonight. And it's about pickin' time.

This is what Dave does in the morning. It's very sad. The boy needs his Dad.


I'm off to enjoy this first day of Fall by cleaning all three of our toilets, because that's what I have to do everyday on some off chance that a potential buyer wants to see them. Lovely.

Apple Pie A-La-Mode

I made an apple pie today. And Dave helped.



Our finished masterpiece. Not overly pretty, but oh so very tasty.



Oh, and I broke my rolling pin in the process. It kinda made me sad. It was a wedding present, I think. 18 years of making pies, what to do now?

Thankful Thursday

1. A good night's sleep.

2. Coffee this morning while watching some HGTV with Dave curled up at my side.

3. Homeschoolin' and how it totally works for us.

4. My diet coke from McDonald's, nobody makes it like them. Is it the straw? The ice? The cup? Maybe the smell of french fries coming from the drive-up window.

5. Five completely cleaned out and clutter-free areas of the house: master bath, master bedroom, pantry, kitchen, dining room.

6. Cooking homecooked meals for my family.

7. Sweetie, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. That man is perfect for me.

8. The wrestling match I had with both boys this morning before chores. Score: Mom - 1, Calvin - 2, Dave - 0.

9. Going to the Library. So much fun, I'm learning the art of checking out different kids of books. So has Calvin. Check out his stack...



10. The ability to do a job that saves us money and also keeps me busy and keeps me in the know of our finances.

11. Paying bills when there is money in the bank. So much fun printing out all those checks. This business stuff isn't for whimps.

12. The bath I'll be taking tonight. Ahhhhhhhh.

Fireworks and a Life with Boys

The question for today is, what happens when fireworks go through the dryer???

Let me back up a little.

We went to Tennessee this past weekend to visit some friends. Uncle Jeff & Aunt Kristy. They spoil my boys plenty. Donuts, oreos, cocoa crispies, fruity pebbles, sodas, swimmin' in the lake, movies on the big screen, video game marathon, basketball championships, and fireworks, lots of fireworks.

Aunt Kristy makes it her purpose in life to make my boys into pyromaniacs. She' insists on driving out to 'fireworks county' to buy my boys some sparkly loud things, every year. She won't let me buy them, she insists on buying them. Fine, waste your money on things that just go boom and will be gone in less that 3 seconds. I don't care.

This is Granny, she sells the fireworks. She's a hoot. This isn't our first time meeting her, but for some reason I just had to get her picture.



My boys are happy here. Happy happy boys.

Here are some more pictures of our time in Tennessee. We had ourselves a good 'ole time, as always. Lots of fun, lots of laughter, lots of food that wasn't good for us at all.


Dave and Nathan have this special kind of relationship. We can't explain it, they are just a couple of cutie-patootie's in a pea-pod.


We took our annual 17 mile bike ride down the Virginia Creeper Trail. So much fun. Sweetie and the Davester rode ahead and were trying to beat the pack, but then they got hungry and had to stop and wait for our pack horse, that would be Jeff.


He was in charge of the food. This man is serious about his food, it was in good hands.






My Calvin, he's a goober, he might be in Jr. High. It shows.


These are our bestest friends. We've been buds for, gosh, long time.

I have 14 pictures that Sweetie took of them, while he was waiting for them to stop bickering and all smile at the camera, they are too funny.


We stopped along the bike path and ate our picnic lunch. I love this photo, it shows us all laughing, that's what we do. But in this particular photo, we were down to the last brownie and Aunt Kristy told everyone to give it to Calvin, but he was being too nice and asking everyone who wanted it, then Sweetie just grabbed it and shoved it in his own mouth. He is THAT kind of nice Dad. I love him.


Our family portrait, we think we might use this one for the Christmas card. There's that goober again. He's homeschooled.


While trying to eat our sandwiches, we caught Calvin trying to throw Dave into the river. Nice brothers.

The bike ride normally takes us 4 hours, we did it in 2. We were hauling down that path.

The whole trip was total fun. Lookin' forward to the next one. Oh and about those firecrackers in the dryer....

Nothin' happened. But that didn't stop me from callin' Dave and telling him that he blew up the dryer and his pants. Poor kid. But this is what I found when I opened the dryer tonight, lovely, just what every mother wants at the end of a long day, sawdust in her laundry. Nice.

Here Comes the Bride

So the boys were cleaning out the attic for me the other day and they found something. It's been boxed up for 18 years, they begged me to open it and show them. Then they talked me into modeling it.

Since I don't have daughters, I mentioned that I should probably get rid of it or try to sell it on Ebay. But it made them SO sad, we re-boxed it and sealed it and will keep it. It made me so happy that they found the importance in it.



Sorry for the possessed eyeballs, my photo fixer thing isn't working right now. And we won't talk about why it's all bulging on the sides. We won't talk about that it wouldn't even zip up an inch in the back. We won't talk about the fact that it was a size 4. We won't talk about what size I am now. Thanks for not talking about it. Let's just say that I looked WAY cuter on my wedding day!

Carolina Mudcats!

So we no longer live by the Padres Petco Stadium, but we do have these guys! Wee-hoo, baseball!



Our church got a bunch of free tickets because they get group tickets throughout the season, so we snatched up 4 tickets and had ourselves a blast.







We left before the game was done, just cuz' Sweetie was super-duper tired. But then I gave him wrong directions when we left and we went WAY out the wrong way. It took us an hour longer to get home. Sweetie was a happy, happy man! Don't worry, he still loves me, we ended up laughing about it for most of the way home. Good times!

All Things New

I know I'm blogging at the wrong time, I normally blog at night, once a day. But I was just moved to tears when the Lord showed me this verse this morning. I had to share, in light of last nights 'venting post'.

"Because of the Lord's great love
we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail,
they are new every morning;
great in His faithfulness."
Lamentations 3:22-23

Stuff

So I have this book that is called 'Does this Clutter make my Butt look Big?' The title alone, made me buy it. I haven't even read it, it just sits on the shelf along with the other 17 books I have on 'simplifying your life'. Sweetie just laughs at me.

Sweetie - 'How about simplifying by getting rid of some of those simplifying books.'
Me - (I just roll my eyes at him.)
Sweetie - 'Why do you have a statue of a sheep that says 'Simplify' on it?'
Me - (Again with the eye rolling.)
Sweetie - 'Do we really need that sign that says 'Simplify'?
Me - (Okay, now he's just getting on my nerves.)

Today I started clearing away some clutter in the upstairs boy rooms. I was in a great mood, finally over my cold, well rested, hyped up on my diet coke and ready to conquer. 10 minutes into it, I'm seething and yelling. Seriously, what is it with boys and all their 'treasures'. I've boxed up everthing and the pile of boxes looks big enough to fill a 1500 square foot house all on its own. I'm wondering who I can hire to light a fire under it.

We have this wonderful couple in our church. He teaches our ABF class on Sunday mornings. They are missionaries, or used to be, in Africa, I think, somewhere. There they were working for the Lord when they found out that they needed to leave IMMEDIATELY because some bad guys were coming to kill them. (He tells the story WAY better than I do.) Well, they left their home with all their things and just took their kids and the clothes on their backs. The bad guys came and burned everything. They had NOTHING left. But wait, that's not true, they had the good stuff left. Themselves, their children, their God. Everything else was just fluff. Wasn't it? Sure there was sadness over the pictures. Sadness over heirlooms. Sadness over memories. Sadness over the things that bring us comfort and make us feel like we're at home. But when it really came down to it, after the dust (or ashes) had settled, they were actually thankful. Thankful.

Tim shared that story with us months ago. It still haunts me. Probably because on my own journey here to recovery from being such a shop-a-holic, I yearn to get to the days when all the stuff does not matter to me. Or at least, it doesn't have such control in my life. You know the saying, "Your stuff owns YOU, YOU don't own your stuff." That's me right now.

I'm sitting in my living room, looking at boxes all around me, I feel completely overwhelmed. How will I ever get this done? How will I paint the walls, when I'm such a horrible painter? What if it's not enough? What if the house still doesn't sell? Why do we have so much stuff? Ugh. Overwhelmed.

I'm determined to do it. To get it all done. I will not burden Sweetie with this. He is working so many hours, trying to keep two companies going, he doesn't need a wife that is not 'gettin' it done' at home. With God's strength I can do this and I will. One step at a time, one box at a time, one day at a time.

Maybe in the course of all this, God will cure me of my everlasting love affair with 'stuff'.

I'm off to find my matches.

Kitties

We have two kitties now. Mr. Darcy whom I've introduced you to before. The sweet snuggler of a kitty that we love.

Now we also have Shirley. Adopted from some friends that couldn't keep her any longer. She's not so much a snuggler of a kitty.

The first night we had her she slept under our bed growling and hissing at us all night long. Lovely. I'm very thankful for my ear plugs.

She has simmered down quite a bit since that first night, but she still is pretty temperamental. Typical female. Winston or Darcy walk by, and she hisses at them, they just stare at her. She has no idea she's about a hiss away from being drop kicked off the back deck. Not really. Well maybe.

This is Mr. Darcy tonight, snugglin' with my sickie.



Isn't he sweet? He's never growled a day in his life, okay, well maybe when Winston tried to kiss him. Not the cat's fault, I'm thinkin'.



This is Shirley. I decided to leave the possessed eyes there for effect. Don't let her sweet face fool you. She'll scratch your eyes out if you give her the chance.

Right this minute, Calvin is trying to corral her into the laundry room for the night. She has so far clawed both his arms, hissed at him, jumped three feet off the floor at him (which by the way made him scream like a girl), growled at the dog and she is still perched under the entertainment cabinet, glaring at us. She's a joy.