In My Home This Week: The List

In my home this week, I...

...had a bit of a meltdown the other night.  Overstressed, overtired and mostly just dang tired of feeling I was living with a bunch of teenagers and toddlers, I sat down after supper and had a good cleansing cry.  Granny always did say it was often the very best way of relieving stress.  And when I was calm once more I realized that I had two things working against me.  Number 1, I have a tendency to just DO things when I see they need to be done.  Others don't always see what I do.  Number 2, because I am a doer, I don't ask for help.   And so my family left me to my doing and I did it all quite alone.

It also helped to realize that every single one of us adults were stressed and overtired. I refused to be a martyr but demanded of myself that I look at the whole picture and only the true one, not the over fatigued one my mind presented earlier in the evening.

Coffee Chat: Shortcake Season

Hello all...

I've started to chat three or four times now and time keeps slipping away so quickly as I am interrupted multiple times and I lose the pattern of my thoughts.  So frustrating but so normal these days, as well.   So this one may be short and sweet as time has slipped from me this morning and I really must get myself together.

John was off to work this morning and I sat down long enough to work up the bill box since he gets paid next Monday and I like to know about where we are and what's coming up.  How pleased I was to realize that I shall be able to pay off that loan we took out prior to our going on vacation next month.  Joy joy!  It makes me happy to see that while I might be stretching pennies I am getting them to stretch to cover necessities and pleasures alike.   I won't say it's not been a close fit but John's overtime has covered all our needs extended as they are at present.

In My Home This Week: Discovery Time

In my home this week, I...

...  Realized this week two very important things.  I have always said I'd like to be like Granny and I guess when it comes down to it I am.  I long to know and understand my grandchildren but I'm not really willing to lay down my whole identity for them...And that's pretty much like Granny.  She enjoyed us, took us when she felt up to it, put up with us for a time and then sent us home.  She taught us, loved us, knew us and our interests and fed them, disciplined us and let us roam free but she didn't fawn over us and she didn't spend all her time with us.  She had a life of her own.  And I guess I am more like her after all than I'd thought I might be.  That's a nice discovery.

In My Home This Week: It's Not Over Until the Baby Sings

In my home this week...

...I'm  teaching the baby to sing...Really.  Isaac's most favorite form of expression to date is screeching shrilly at the top of his lungs.  It has been known to not only make grown-ups jump in their skins but to shatter eardrums.  So this past weekend, when he began his screeching I started to sing scales.  Isaac listened and began to mimic me.  Soon his pitch matched mine.  'Do' is still a little low for him yet but he did right well with 'Re, Mi, Fa'. 'So' and 'La' will come in time.

From that moment forward we've practiced our scales daily.  I can say sincerely that my voice is getting better.  His pitch is improving.  Our eardrums are grateful.

Towards the end of last week we settled into a routine of sorts...and naturally this week everything has shifted and changed.  Sometimes, life really is a beach and the tide is constantly changing the shore.  We do our best.

Coffee Chat: A Very Long Spring

Hello loves.  Come in and have coffee and toast with me for another early morning coffee chat.  It is VERY early and my house remains quiet which is unusual because normally by now there is a lot of screeching and screaming and stomping...and that's just the baby, lol, who is rather heavy on his heels but apparently has forgotten he was crawling a mere two weeks ago.  He's even learned that he can 'run' when he doesn't want an adult to take something away from him which is at least five times a day!

But yes, at present it's quiet.  And that is lovely.  I miss quiet.

In My Home This Week: Another Month Gone

In my home this week...



I announced to John on Saturday morning, when we had unexpected time alone together, that I meant to stay home on Sunday.  He knows well that I listen to endless sermons on the Christian channels if I stay home on a Sunday, but he shook his head.  "It's never gonna happen..."  "But I'll have a chance to mop and vacuum deeply and..."  "It's not gonna happen.  But I'll help you get all the work done this morning so you at least don't have that to do tomorrow."  Well, he was quite right.  No real time alone.    The house rocked hard all morning prior to Bess leaving for church with the boys.  Sam decided he must stay home from church and rest a bit more.  I realized dinner was going to be wanted when everyone came in from church.  I set to work doing laundry, clearing up after breakfast, starting dinner prep...I managed a quick blog post.  Ta da.  Day alone wasn't a rest day at all, as John thought it might be.  

Sunday Morning Coffee: It Isn't What I Expected

Good morning all. Yes, I really ought to be in church but truly I have been listening to some sermon or another since about 8am this morning.  Bess courteously turned to TBN where we listened to Father Cedric Pisegna...and so started the morning of worship, which was following a rather dicey Bible reading and prayer time.

Dicey?  Yes.  Josh snuck into my bedroom this morning and said "Let's read the Bible..." so I proceeded to read him Psalms while he puttered about the room and before I'd finished his Mama had come in.  He'd interrupted my prayer time which became more a scanning of prayer needs and a silent prayer that indeed God would know my heart for each concern.  I managed a chapter or two while he and his mama went to check on the new chickens they brought home yesterday.  Then they came back and Josh crawled into the bed, Bess brought in the smiling baby, and they got in the bed and then in came Sam who also crawled in.