Holy Holy Holy

I know a 4oz glass of apple juice doesn’t sound like a whole lot. Until… it’s dripping from the picture window, pooling on the antique commode, drenching the computer, soaking into the carpet and sticking to ones bare legs. All because I didn’t want my computer to go crashing to the floor, which is exactly what happened anyway.

In my plight to be really quiet at 0600 Saturday morning and get some things done before the rest of the house got up, I went upstairs, grabbed a banana and a glass of juice, (small, but apparently not small enough), picked up my laptop, which was leaning sideways along the wall, and, as it slid out of my grasp, tried to catch it with my banana and juice hand. This did not bode so well for me. I broke two fingernails and somehow bloodied my thumb knuckle with the broken piece. Though my computer is working just fine at the moment, I had to snap two pieces back together and I still have a big, black plastic thingy with DELL labeled on the front that I’m trying determine where to put. One of the many reasons I’m married to a computer-man, I figure.

In lighter news this week, Eden and Lars were able to go outside in their favorite shoe, The Croc. Also known as “Nurse Shoes”. I don’t know where Eden picked this phrase up or where she learned it, but all week she and Lars had their nurse shoes on to go outside and play. And when they came in to play ambulance & hospital, they wore their nurse shoes. I asked if Lars could be the medic and she said, “No, b/c he has nurse shoes on, not tennis shoes.” Ok, at least I know the rules now. I really should invest in a doctor’s play kit for them. I’m just afraid she would think its cheap and unrealistic looking, since she plays with my stethoscope and trauma bag on a daily basis.

Exciting things have happened in our house this week. Well, exciting if your life consists of waking up, serving breakfast, doing laundry, making appointments, fixing lunch, cleaning up the kitchen, the stories & quiet time ritual, shower??, entertaining kids, changing diapers, contemplating & scrambling for supper, then an entire bedtime routine.

Well, on Friday, our bedroom curtains arrived! Moss colored to match our room, wide enough to span the width plus a bit & long enough to cover the wood paneling to the floor. Not to mention, they are machine washable. Earlier that day, on our bi-weekly trip to SB, we picked out beautiful curtain rods & pull backs, so Al was able to hang them up before bedtime. They kept the room dark as a tomb, warm as an oven and, in his words, made it look “homey”. They look great and he got to check something else off the ‘honey please do’ list.

Other excitement this week, you ask?

The Red Wings are winning again! They are fun to watch now that they’re not squandering away each and every meager lead gained. I won’t mention to my local western friends that they are now two spots ahead of the Avs.

Also, spring has sprung. According to both the calendar, and the tulips. This means I can take down my winterscapes and replace them with summer pics. The kids can play outside w/o too much help from me, and I’m one week closer to having my shade sail put up over the deck for the summer. I guess we’re also one week closer to having an infant again.

And finally, I completed sorting out my scrapbooking stuff and have put several pages together in my mind and now need to affix them to paper and add them to the book.

The confirmation kids had questioning this past week after Lenten service for Confirmation, which was this Sunday, also Palm Sunday. What does this mean? This means that when the current week is over, (the longest week for a pastor & his family out of the whole year), Easter will arrive and our life will relax a bit. Normally, we have the rest of the spring & summer to relax, but I’ve never had a spring baby before, so I’m not really sure how this summer is going to shape up!

In unfortunate news this week, our land line is down (this is not all bad, as it’s cut the number of toll free calls to zero for the past 3 days) and our ‘new to us’ Buick needs a $500 part, sooner, rather than later.

Nothing that can’t wait till after Easter, I say….. blessings on your week of reflection.

March Madness

For the record, I would like to start by saying that I believe that 0500 is still the middle of the night. It doesn't stop being the middle of the night until at least 0615, and then it's just really early in the morning. No man, woman or child should be forced to arise before 0730 on any given day for any given reason. If everybody followed this policy, it would be quiet and calm when sleep is most appreciated. It is also completely irrelevant whether or not the sun is up.

In other news this week, Spring has officially sprung. We've had cold mornings, with a dusting of snow earlier in the week to finish off winter, but now it's short-sleeve shirts and capris with sandals in this house. Today is supposed to be nearly 70 degrees and the sun is shining. It's really a shame I have so much to do indoors today.

Yesterday after church was the annual 'spring cleaning'. A few families stayed after bible study to enjoy a bit of a pot-luck lunch and get to work. Since the building project was completed in November, many boxes and cabinets were still in need of a home, so the men moved and the women organized. It was a very productive day, and as always, the trash bin in the alley was overflowing when we were finished. Unfortunately, my children didn't get a nap and we were all paying for it by the end of the day. Douthit's came for supper and cards and left by 7:45. We're such a sorry bunch of middle-agers!

The rest of our week was fairly un-note-worthy. Eden didn't have preschool at all, and Lars OT was out of town, so that freed up some time.

Had company for supper Tuesday night, then taught the guy how to play Settler's of Catan, only to have him beat us hands down in about two hours flat.

Al put fertilizer on the grass just before it snowed, so hopefully our green will start popping up in the next week or two. I worked on re-connecting the hoses and soakers in the gardens, and planned out my spring planting ritual. It's always my mother's day gift...a day outside in the garden for planting without the kid's help. Let's just hope at nine months pregnant, I can still get down on my knees and get back up again.

Managed to neglect the housework most of the week to start finalizing projects that, suddenly at 32 weeks along, seem utterly important to finish. I now have piles all over the house of 'projects that need finishing immediately'. Al's quilt needs to be sewed together, rolled and tied. I have 14 scrapbook pages to complete, three journal entries for the kids books, 5 empty totes to fill with 'special stuff to keep someplace', summer clothes to get into the closets for everybody, shelves to re-organize and a many other projects in mind that haven't yet got a title.

Al's list is as long as mine and includes hanging the new blinds (which haven't come in the mail yet), painting the sandbox & back porch, fixing the seat on the sandbox, spray painting the wrought iron on the front porch, hanging the new bedroom curtains (which haven't arrived yet, either), and cleaning the garage. I'm sure other things will come to me soon.

Daddy had Friday off, and the kids and I enjoyed every moment of it. Al started crossing things off his 'honey please do' list, and that gave me opportunity to add to it when he wasn't looking.

Watched the Wings on Friday and Saturday night. Two games, two nights in a row, with 0.2 seconds left in each game to change the outcome of the points standings. What a rush both times!~

The biggest excitement of the week is our new front porch chairs, which were acquired in last weekend's shopping spree. Al fixed the rocker rung (it was the display model) and I set it out on the front porch where the big flower tub used to sit (demolished in last weekend's cleaning spree). The other chair, a non rocker that was part of the set, sits where the hose reel used to be. I moved the hose reel onto a dead rose bush and called it good. Eden read stories and had quiet time in one chair, and I sat and read my book in the other. It's a great place to talk on the phone in the afternoon, and watch the kids ride bikes back and forth on the sidewalk.

I'll also admit that I like watching the cars drive by and waving to everybody. I think that's a small town thing, really. I can't imagine doing that back home in Michigan! Ah, how life changes as we go....

Blink. Blink.

Thanks to Papa & Grandma for the Mexico T-shirts

Today began way too early for me, but alas, time is but a blink of the eye. Soon I'll be wondering, "where did the last 100 years of my life go"? and "how many grandkids do I have? I lost count".

The weather has been indecisive here in West Nebraska all week. Had a couple beautiful, sunny, warm days, followed by cold, windy, spitting, overcast days. Today is one of the latter, and I do hope the sun comes out soon.

We Strawns had a very long days this week. They seemed to start early, with a boy who has decided 0530 is a good wake up time, followed by all day work schedules, finished by evening meetings every night of the week.

In bible class yesterday, we talked about how 'over-scheduled' we make ourselves, our families and, especially, our children, leaving no time for church activities or worship. I thought, 'well, we don't do too bad.' As I look at my calendar to blog this morning, I'm no different than any other over-commited person out there.

Monday: Pastor works all day. Weight Watchers & LWML in evening.
Tuesday: All day winkle and elder's meeting for Pastor. Preschool for Eden. OT for Lars.
Wednesday: Bible study & Confirmation class for Pastor. Soup dinner & Lenten service for all.
Thursday: Preschool for Eden. Piano lessons & choir rehearsal for Sarah.
Friday: Speech for Lars. Work for Pastor. Meeting and Dr. apt in SB for Pastor & Sarah, respectively. Babysitter for kids. Take babysitter home.
Saturday: Pastor in Denver for a hospital visit all day. Trip to the library everyone else.
Sunday: Church in the morning, Sunday school, naps (yeah!), day of shopping with friends in SB (double yeah!), dinner out (great food), kids late to bed (not so great).

Throw in a few calls in there, meals, baths & teeth brushing, story time, running errands, laundry, clean up, bill paying, broken garbage disposal, outdoor play and the like, you have one very tired, yet very blessed, Mommy this Monday morning!

Looking over my gardens this week, I have several tulip and grape hyacinth sprouts popping up, along with some day lilies and a mystery plant. The grass is starting to green up and I'm excited to put the early spring fertilizer on soon! I have decided that I will not go overboard in planting flowers this year, but I have time to change my mind on that issue.

In anticipation for spring this year, the kids helped me dig the dirt out of an old planter tub on the front porch and as it found its way to the trash bin, another smaller one took it's place. We also went shopping for some lovely outdoor chairs for that same area and found something that I am excited to haul out of the Ford and put out today, if it ever warms up. We also raked the winter kill spots out of the grass and swept the sidewalk off.

Though it was busy, it was a productive week. I managed to pin Allen's T-shirt quilt together and it's all ready for the last few stitches from the sewing machine now. I looked over scrapbooks and decided I needed to update those before the new baby comes. With the pics all digital now, I spent much time on the computer, finding and sorting and ordering photos for that purpose. They came in the mail on Saturday, so I have no excuse if I'm unproductive this cloudy and overcast day. I also put away all the 'stuff' that was stacking up on the table in the laundry room. It's such an easy place to put all that 'stuff', until one nearly weightless piece of paper is too much for the pile, and it crashes over in domino effect and you break 3 quart jars on the floor.

Here's to another fun filled week!

Happy 5th B-day, Miss Mataya and Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!~

Just another week in paradise.

A beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon it is, with few clouds to speak of. Daddy is asleep on the couch, Eden is playing quietly with the train set and Lars is still down for a nap. I've got my feet up, babysitting Sir Topham Hatt until it's time for him to go to work in Eden's train yard, smelling the ham that's baking in the oven. Sounds picture perfect, doesn't it? I'm sure something is about to happen.

Eden, my now 4 1/2 year old, is beginning to have quite an inquiring mind. She asked daddy what a habitat was today. She asked me if something Lars was doing yesterday was a habit and, if so, was it a bad habit. She wants to know why God made the grass go 'doormat' in the winter time and why babies can drink only milk and not be hungry for chicken. She even admitted to me, "Mommy, you were right. I was wrong. Putting mashed potatoes on my graham crackers IS yucky."

She also wanted to know if I would tell her "a little bit before time" when the pager is about to go off and I will have to leave for an emergency. I told her I'm just preparing her for mother-hood. You never get warnings when your son is about to dump milk on the floor or choke on a bottle top or throw a rock at the dog or your daughter is going to wet her pants or draw with crayon on the flat screen TV before covering it was scotch tape. It's all just life's lessons, I say.

Lars did not have speech therapy this week, b/c there was no school on Friday. He is really starting to put words together more regularly, though. In church this morning, he couldn't help but tell me in the one volume he has (LOUD), "I see Daddy. I hear Daddy. I want Daddy!" Thank God he's got one, that's all I can say. He's also very aware of noises outside, like the helicopter coming and going, the numerous trains that run through, a loud truck going by, the dog barking or kids playing nearby. He's able to say in words what he hears instead of screaming and pointing to the window.

Had friends from our last congregation come and visit Friday and Saturday. They were visiting their Grandma in SB and we used it as an excuse to get together, have supper and catch up. Eden was so excited for Tyler to come, she should hardly stand it. Thankfully, they played together nicely and enjoyed each others company the whole time with minimal fighting. It was nice for the moms to have playmates for the kids, too!
The rest of the week was fairly easy going. I cleaned up the house a bit, made curtains for the guest room and picked up in there, took a few naps with the kids, tried a new recipe, and contemplated locating some of the infant stuff. We're all just kind of waiting for spring to come, yet enjoying the last bits of snow that fall for the kids. They both love any excuse to put snow pants on.

Took a walk last night and got a tour of the progress at the new Baptist church down the block, then on the way back, missed the Census lady by a hair at our house, which was nice. I'd much rather return the envelope in the mail then stand at the door in the cold with a stranger. Call my crazy.

Looking forward to a couple hockey games this week. If they're all like today's game, though, I might have to start by taking some Tums before the puck drop!~