Much To Do About Rafting . . . and Other Stuff

The lists are endless. Packing list for Noelle to go to Grandma's tomorrow for the night. Packing list for us for the raft trip. Shopping list for the food to go get tonight. List of things yet to do today. I love making lists, but today I'm feeling a little overtaken by them. There is a lot to do. At the moment I am waiting for our church bulletin to finish printing so I can begin laying out the next project.

That's another thing I like - print day. I like it that every Thursday morning, with an occasion exception, I stay home and print stuff for church on Sunday. The prayer list and sermon outline, the bulletin, uploading the bulletin to the church website, checking the church calendar for things to get the word out about, printing anything extra that is needed - this week it's an insert for the bulletin on community outreach stuff that's coming up. It's a good feeling when I get done and there are stacks of papers next to the printer - a sign that I've gotten something tangible done.

I don't know why that's so important. Maybe because there is so much unfinished in my life right now. The laundry pile is never really gone, there's always one more dish to wash, one more thing I can straighten. There are very few things that I do that I can say loudly - "It is finished!" and check it off my list.

See now I'm back to my lists again. Love them! Really.

Other things . . .

• We had dinner last night with our Summer Supper Group from church. Very fun. Four families, 3 with small kids. Noelle reached her new max number of steps last night - 5! I feel sure it was from the influence of an almost 4 year old, almost 2 year old, and almost 1 year old she was trying to keep up with! :-)
• Noelle goes to Grandma's tomorrow night for her first overnight stay. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, but Grandma sure is. I've been getting hints since she was born about letting my Mom have her overnight and I've finally relented. (Also, the raft trip had a little something to do with it). This has caused some family tension because my sister and neice want Noelle to come out and spend then night with them. *sigh* So Noelle has already got a weekend in September booked with her cousin for a night. Travis and I have to go to a wedding out in the sticks of Tennessee and T. is playing and arranging the music for the wedding and he's the sound guy or I would just tote Noelle with us. But, in keeping up family relations, I realized this might be a good opportunity for an overnight stay.
• The dogs . . . a short word. Sam was bad, bad, bad yesterday. I had made my dessert for our Summer Supper Group and whilst turning around for 2 seconds, heard the sound of small smacking and caught him with his head in the pan and a bite out of my spice cake. It was an ugly scene for a moment. I thought about just cutting out the part that he had nibbled on, but then realized that I couldn't, in good conscience, take that to a dinner so I made dessert #2 which I then promptly place high up and out of reach.
• I have a new scrapbook magazine laying on the coffee table. I skimmed through it last night, but I am itching to get it and spend some quality time with it and my sketchpad. Not going to happen today. Maybe I'll have a moment while I'm lazing down the Ocoee River on a raft on Saturday?

This is very random today. Hmmm. Off to do some more work and get N.'s lunch ready for her when she awakens . . . Back on Monday with reports on our rafting experience and injuries if any! :-)

The Force....

Okay, so I just read somewhere online that Star Wars Episode III has been titled and is set for release on May 19, 2005. Am I a totally geek because I already have that on my calendar? The Revenge of the Sith - sounds totally cool.

Other movies that I really want to see (although I may end up watching them on video rather than the big screen):
Spiderman 2
Hidalgo
Princess Diaries 2
The Incredibles

My Houston trip is officially off for now. Both of my friends are tied up with stuff on the weeks that I was trying to travel and part of Travis' business trip has now also been postponed until September. I'm disappointed that I'm not going, but now I can start to get some stuff lined up for while Travis is gone. I've got a bunch of church work going on in August, and it would have been tough to get a lot of it done from Houston. I'm hoping I can tag along for the September part of his business trip...

Last night I finished reading Miserly Moms. I love books that inspire me in my stay-at-home-Mom role. This book has some very good ideas about slashing the budget without making you sound like a freak for wanting to save a penny here and there. And it had a recipe that I've been trying to track down - a good recipe for homemade pizza dough. We love homemade pizza and it's soooooo much cheaper than ordering one. And, funny story, apparently the neighborhood that we live in is just rough enough that Papa John's will not deliver to our neighborhood after about 8:30 p.m. I've tried explaining that we are nice folks, but they won't buy it. :-) Anyway, I spent a chunk of time yesterday working on my meal plan for August. I like planning most of my meals for the month at one time and making only one HUGE shopping trip per month, supplemented by the little runs for more milk, eggs, etc.

But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.

I have this verse taped over my sink in the kitchen and have been trying to memorize for about a week. The only thing that is sticking with me is the first line so I've been thinking about it. I even went to the Bible Knowledge Commentary to look up the verse and see what it said since it's been on my mind so much.

"those who are near God find joy and safety. Though he [Asaph] had nearly slipped in his confidence in God (cf. v. 2) he now was reassured that God was keeping him secure. God was his Refuge. . . . Nearness to God always helps believers maintain a balanced perspective on material things and on the wicked.

That last line is right where I'm at. Especially the part about material things. That has always been a struggle for me. Wanting more than can be afforded, trying to keep up with the Jones's and all that. However, if my focus is on the Lord and my time with Him and how I am representing Him then I shouldn't feel like I'm missing out on anything. My nearness to Him is my good and it will complete me and fill me up. Pretty fabulous.

A shot of the girl for the day....

You are a Prairie Muffin! You love God and you
love your home, and you are determined to do it
all Right. Have you read your manifesto yet?
Do a google search for Prairie Muffin
Manifesto, if you haven't.


What kind of muffin are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Not much to say today. Loads of laundry whirring, going to make some bread (yummmm), and lunch with my Mom and sister to look forward to.

I'm off.... :-)

A Little Bit Strange...

This is picture is of Noelle laying on the vacuum. She was also kissing it while I was trying to sweep last night. She is a little bit odd. :-)



A Noelle Update:
She is consistently saying DaDa now, usually at the top of her lungs. She is also saying "Baa" (her lamb) much more. MaMa is occasionally uttered, but I still don't think that she is referring to me yet when she says it. *sigh* :-) We are eating all sorts of new table food as well: chicken, cheese - she LOVES string cheese, lots of kiwi, strawberries, peas, green beans, cheerios, crackers, mandarin oranges, cantalope, honeydew. I gave her some watermelon for the first time this weekend and I don't think she was impressed with it. We haven't been able to get her to eat any red meat either, like hamburger. She turns up her nose at it. She had some pizza a few nights ago and thought it was pretty great. She is now taking two steps in a row fairly consistently. If it's more than two, she resorts to crawling. Her crawling is getting slower, though, because she usually needs to carry something now when she is going somewhere (small toy, Baa, the dog's *ick* bone, etc.) and therefore only has one hand for crawling. She's getting so big.

In other family happenings . . .

My trip to Houston is still in an on again/off again status. I emailed my friend I would be visiting and she is going to have family in town most of the time that I would be there so it's really not a good week for her. Plus, Travis's work hasn't made his reservation yet, so he didn't want to make my flight arrangements and then end up travelling at a different time than me. I don't see the point in spending a bunch of money on a plane ticket to sit in a hotel for 8 hours a day while Travis works. We had a backup week for the trip if I couldn't go the first week, but that's is now also up in the air as to whether T. will go to help with that training.

I don't like "up in the air." I like things written on my calendar so I can plan, make lists, and get excited about it. We have several things going on right now that are in various and sundry states of this. We're supposed to go on a raft trip this weekend with the youth group and I wish we could just finalize the trip plans and BE DONE WITH IT.

I also had an epiphany about part of my frustration last night. We have too much going on on the weekend and by Sunday night, I am tired because of too many "good things" that went on, and not enough just being home together time. Monday morning rolls around with no thought to what's coming up in the week, do we have clean clothes, and is there even anything in the house suitable for Travis to take for lunch? The last two weekends, we have had outings on both Friday and Saturday night, and all-day commitments for Sunday. This coming weekend looks just the same - raft trip Friday and Saturday, then Sunday is taken up with church, a lunch ministry meeting for us and then he has a band rehearsal in the evening. Then the following week we are committed to 5 day clubs every evening.

I need some margin in my life. On a whim, I looked up the word "margin" in the dictionary:

a limit in a condition or process, beyond or below which something is no longer possible or acceptable

I have reached my limit in the things that we can fit into our weekends and still be an excellent wife and mother (EW&M). (Prov. 31:10) I don't want to settle for just being mediocre at my job by giving myself to everything else and leaving T. & N. just the skimming of what's left of me. I'm going to be pondering this morning in the weeks to come and am very excited. Right now, in my role of EW&M, is clean underwear and socks for the family! :-)

Happy Monday, ya'll.

You Go Girls...

Check out these sites for Project Blog . . . these women are going to blog for 24 hours for their charity of choice. Check them out, keep them awake, and get to know them!

Dana

Sarah

Little bits of this and that...

I've been on the run today. Finally took a breather to check email and etc. Went to the paper store to pick up the embossing plate and so must finish the wedding invitation envelopes this evening and/or tomorrow. Travis is going over to a friend's house tonight to play cards with "the guys" so it seems like the perfect opportunity to pop in a movie and finish this up. After Noelle is in bed, of course - what a total mess there would be if she was helping me with the embossing! :-)

Oh, before I forget! Special mention of Tammy - she is the latest entry into my guest map Hall of Fame. Check out her site - she has a son named Wally who makes me smile. He is ALL boy. Sign up, sign up and you too can have your moment in the spotlight. :-)

This weekend seems especially busy. I have a baby shower in the a.m., and we have a 30th birthday party to attend in the p.m. Then Sunday, it's birthday lunch for my sister at my folks' house. BBQ ribs - my Dad is the grill master. Yummmmmmm.

Also found out that we are taking a trip to Houston in about 3 weeks. Travis' job is sending him there for the month of August to co-lead a training for his company. He'll fly out on Monday mornings and back home on Friday nights, but will be for 4 weeks straight. Noelle and I are going to go with him the first week. Two of my best friends from college live in the Houston area and both have had babies in the last 9 months like me. We've been wishing we could get together and let our babies meet and God orchestrated this! It will be interesting to see how well I handle the following three weeks. We've never been separated since we were married for more than 2-3 days. I will try and refrain from too many "woe is me" entries. After he gets done with the Houston leg of the training, he'll be home for 2 weeks and then there is the possibility that he will be sent to Phoenix to help with two more weeks of training.

I'll end with a quote from Heather's site that I read last night. It made me smile.

"Encourangement is to friendship what confetti is to a party. It's light, refreshing, and fun, and you always end up finding little pieces of it stuck to you later." (page 135, Fresh Brewed Life, Nicole Johnson)

All Done!

They are done! All 300 wedding invitations, reply cards and little direction sheets! The only thing left is to emboss the return address on the envelope and I'm still waiting to get the plate from the paper store. Yeah!

Hey, just a thought . . . if you are visiting my page here and have never signed my guestbook, would you take a second and sign in? I'd love to be able to see where folks are visiting from around the globe. And, in an idea stolen from Kara, I would be happy to give mucho publicity to new signees and try to direct traffic your way! :-) Speaking of Kara *hint, hint* visit her page and check her out.

Off to get the house cleaned and picked up a bit before Travis gets home from work. I've got a women's Bible study to go to tonight and Travis is staying home with the kiddo. We're studying Ruth, chapter 3 this week.


I would like to issue the disclaimer that it is her Daddy that drinks Mountain Dew, not me. But it was so cute, I couldn't help but get a picture! :-)

Tito & Kathryn

We moved into our house last August, 6 weeks before Noelle was born. Travis and I specifically chose this neighborhood for several reasons - it's the same neighborhood our church is in (actually within walking distance), about 5-10 minutes away from Travis' work depending on traffic, and we could afford it. :-)

One thing we were excited about was that over the past 4-5 years, our church has been building up a community outreach ministry to the folks that live around our building. Let me describe our neighborhood to you. It's made up of older couples/widows that bought in this neighborhood when it was just built 30 some years ago, Latino families, and African Americans. Lots of single parent families. This is the kind of neighborhood where the kids walk and ride their bikes out all day and just wander around from house to house until the parent(s) get home from work. Not much adult supervision around here. Our church saw the opportunity where we could connect with these kids and tell them about Jesus.

Sometime after the first of the year, we met Kathryn. Kathryn is an 11 year old Peruvian girl who lives at home with her single mother, older brother Carlos (around 17 yrs. old) and little brother Tito (4 years old). Her mother doesn't speak English hardly at all so I've never even been able to carry on a conversation with her, and she doesn't seem to want to get to know us to be honest. The dad took off about the time that we got to know the kids and comes around sporadically.

We initially met Kathryn because I found her two puppies wandering around in the street and I put them in the backyard with our dogs so that they wouldn't get hit. She came up to our door panicing because I had her dogs she thought we were taking them. After assuring her that I did NOT want two more dogs, we talked for a bit. Kathryn started coming over after school 2-3 times a week just to hang out. Usually she wanted to watch a movie, but sometimes we would just chat about school and Noelle and get to know each other. After she had been coming over for several weeks, her little brother Tito came with her. Kathryn has a pretty good command of English - she's been in public school for about 2 years. Tito speaks mostly Spanish at home, and what English he knows, he has picked up from his sister and her friends. He calls Travis "Mr. Traaaaabis" and follows Travis around constantly.

God has so obviously placed us into the lives of these two kids that I am honestly overwhelmed. They frustrate the life out of me most of the time. They come over at the most inconvenient times - I'm trying to make dinner, Noelle is napping, I'm napping. They want to help Travis with yard work, washing the dogs, whatever they can do to follow him around and make whatever he is doing take twice as long. :-) What sobers me is that I am a representative of Jesus to them. How well am I representing Him to these kiddos? Kathryn and I have had some good conversations - most of which come completely out of the blue. Are we going to have Noelle baptized as an infant? What if Travis and I get a divorce? When does Noelle take her first communion? All big questions that have allowed us small opportunities to show them our faith.

I decided I wanted to introduce Tito & Kathryn to those that read my posts so that, if you feel inclined, you might pray for these kids. And I can also share about them regularly and there is some context as to who they are. :-)

Looking Up

It's amazing how much better my attitude is today. A little sleep, a little Diet Coke, and all that. I'm blaming it on a slight hormonal imbalance, etc., etc. Noelle and I got out got the emission testing done this morning, but still managed to run into a snag at the County Clerk's office - because my sister and brother-in-law gave us the car (big family car swap happenings) we have to fill out a gift form or pay over $100 in sales tax on the car. Ick. Gotta hook up with Kathy today and get those papers signed.

Speaking of Kathy,

Happy Birthday to my sister - 30 + 1 years old!!!
Woo-hoo!

My Mom and I are taking her to lunch at Chili's today. Air conditioned restaurant, free drink refills, it will be great. :-)

Off to feed the munchkin. I want to write a post soon (maybe later today) about my neighbors Tito and Kathryn. They crack me up and have pretty much adopted Travis and me as surrogate parents.

Tuesday Bluesday

This morning has not gone as planned. Noelle and I were up and ready to head out early - we needed to take Travis' car for emission testing and get the renewal stickers for the tags. I had all planned to head out as early as possible - the car doesn't have air conditioning and it's just miserable to be in if it gets too late in the day. Noelle is loaded in her car seat, I've got the paperwork, and we find that the car is locked and the door key is with Travis at work. He could bring home the key at lunchtime but by then it would be too hot to get out and run our errand. Normally I wouldn't mind being stuck home without a car (or car key), but I really wanted to get this over with. Getting the tags taken care of is one of my least favorite jobs, but it's either that or a ticket.

I was reading a post on vnxmom's page this morning and it has me thinking. She was writing about how we need to challenge ourself to test those things which we puzzle over and question about against the Word of God. How can I make a scripturally based decision if I haven't even bothered to see what the Scriptures say? God pricked me reading this post.

I don't spend near enough time reading the Bible. Unless I have a Bible study assignment due or I have to prepare for something, I don't stop to read the Word. Lady_Ashley_of_Randomness has been posting about the books of the Bible that she is reading. I'm not sure the last time I just read a book of the Bible for no reason.

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2004 was to read the 4 gospels this year. Funny how I can't get time to do that, but I have time for so many other projects. God's trying to get my attention again her because on Sunday at church, we are starting a series on the Life of Christ - going through the gospels simultaniously and comparing the accounts in each of them in the life of Christ. Hmmmm, coincidence? I think not.

God has given us His Son - the exact, most personal representation of His nature that we have. Jesus became flesh and came to earth was to explain the Father to us and open up a way to the Father Himself. He is the Word. That, if nothing else, should compel me to want to spend time with Him in His Word and get to know more about Him.

The Pause that Refreshes

I've been on the phone most of the morning trying to line up details for our youth group raft trip in two weeks.

~Call the raft company to add another chaperone - woohoo! Thank you Lord that there are adults out there (unlike me) who want to go rafting with the youth group. I mean, don't get me wrong, I want to go. I just don't want to be in the boat with crazy teenagers who want to flip over. So weird. :-)
~Call vet and make appointment for Sam-dog to get fixed. So sad. He has no idea what's coming... Get kennel recommendations.
~Call the kennel to book accomodations for the furry babies. Choice #1 is booked up for the weekend; call choice #2 and make reservations. Must get shot records for dogs before their "sleepover."
~Call police re: abandoned car in church parking lot. Learning interesting information - the police will not come tow a car on private property. They can run the plates and see if it is stolen, but then we have to get it towed ourself. Must get plate number. Hmmmm.

Noelle and I walked down to the church last night to watch Travis' band rehearse. He's been given the task of putting together a band for our church's community carnival we are having at the end of August. This is our 4th year for the carnival and his 2nd year and putting a band together. Last year I was in the band (6 months pregnant) and got to sing backup vocals. I thought for sure that I wouldn't miss it this summer since I am busy with Noelle, have 300 wedding invitations that will be done by this Saturday and a raft trip to organize. However, when I went to the rehearsal, I was really bummed that I wasn't in the band. Some if it was feeling left out. I'm in a different stage of life and it would be hard to find someone to watch Noelle during all the rehearsals. Some of it was being bummed because Travis didn't really ask me to be in his band. Am I not cool enough? Band-like material? Can't I rock just as good? It's got me feeling down a little today. I'm supposed to sing special music at church this coming Sunday so maybe it will help if I work on my song a bit. But it won't be the same - I won't have a cool band. :-(

Enough moping. Here's a pic of Noelle from Sunday morning . . . in her Easter dress . . . with her foot propped up on her stroller. So unladylike. She's starting to take after me. :-)