Month: November 2008

We got back from Albany Saturday afternoon…we had a great time, and I plan to upload pictures and tell all about our visit when I have more time. Right now I just want to tell a quick story.
This morning was a little rough because we are all just a bit tired from traveling and stuff, but we got up early to go to church. Josh always gets up first on Sundays to spend time alone downstairs as he finishes preparing for Sunday School. We had a few minutes this morning before we had to leave, so Josh sat down in a chair and closed his eyes for a second (EXTREMELY RARE). Ruby walked over and said, “DADDY, you can’t go to sleep! You have to teach Sunday School.” It was so funny.

Josh actually tied it in beautifully in his Sunday School lesson. He shared how Ruby already is well aware of his role as a Sunday School teacher. As she grows up she will be even more aware of what that means…that her daddy is responsible for teaching the Word of God. It is so important that Josh live out The Word in our home, in private, where no one else sees but us. He is our leader. The kids are watching him, and they desperately need to see the Truth lived out by our actions and not just taught with our words. I feel confident that Josh will do just that, and I am so proud of him as my husband, our children’s daddy, as a Sunday School teacher, a son, a brother, a friend….He is a good man. I am glad he is getting a nap right now. He lives out The Word much better when he gets his Sunday afternoon nap! Ha.

I opted out of a nap today and got a Starbuck’s coffee instead, then went to Wal-Mart. I roamed, and I loved it. I got Molly a doll with a blowdryer and lots of hair thingys, a stroller and a medical kit. I got Mack a rug with a road on it so he can roll some trucks and cars on it. I also got a John Deere tin that will be great for holding all the cars and trucks. Ruby got a set of glamour dress-up clothes with a microphone and other accessories. She’ll love that. I was able to find a few stocking stuffers as well. I picked up some new ornaments, too! I cannot wait to get our tree…hopefully we can do that tomorrow evening. I LOVE THIS TIME OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!

My children have been especially silly today.  I tried to get them to stop giggling at each other over every single thing by asking them what they were thankful for…Ruby said, “I am thankful for my clothes–even my panties.”  And both girls burst into laughter.  Mack joined in, though he had no idea what he was laughing at…actually, I think he thought they were laughing at him.  Anyway, that story reminded me of another inappropriate one that occurred the other day in the car.  

For the most part, I try to ignore the little ways they try to shock me with words like “toot” or “poopy” or “hiney.”  Well, on this particular day, I was tired of hearing it and so I turned off the radio and said in a most serious voice, “What is so funny about saying hiney?” Pause….silence from the back of the suburban….”Seriously, Ruby, Molly…tell me right now why it is so funny to say hiney.  Tell me, Ruby.  Tell me, Molly.  Tell me now!”  Silence from the back of the suburban, and then Molly shoots her eyes over to Ruby and says, “You tell her” as if there was a perfectly logical reason that she didn’t feel comfortable saying to me.  Ruby just shook her head no.  They never gave an answer.  I tried.

Well, today we painted a little manger scene–Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.  Ruby wanted to paint Mary, Molly said, “I want Joseph because I am Joseph”….whatever that means.  I didn’t quite trust Mack with a ceramic figurine, so I painted baby Jesus while he watched me.  The whole time he sat in his highchair sucking his thumb.  He did get into some painting fun and the paint mixed in with the snot running from his nose…lovely.  Ruby insisted that Mary be painted pink and black…it really didn’t seem right to me at all, but I let her go for it.  While I was watching Ruby and wishing she wouldn’t use pink and black on Mary, Molly was enjoying painting every bit of Joseph yellow.  I went back over his hair and beard with brown…I just couldn’t stop myself.  Here are some of the pictures:

The picture of the coffee is just a funny reminder to me that every time I went to this cup of peppermint coffee, it was cold.  Every time.  I did try to enjoy it, but it seemed impossible, and that is ok.  I had fun with the kids.  They even slept with me last night while Josh was gone.  Molly is the one who always gets out of her bed at least seven times an evening and shows up early to ask if she can sleep with me.  Well, I thought she would be ecstatic on sleeping in bed with me, but she was just mad because Ruby was in the middle.  I did NOT want Molly next to me because she cannot be still and she slobbers horribly.  That is why I put her on Josh’s side! HA!  Anyway, she got up this morning, walked around to my side and asked, in the same sweet voice I hear each morning, “Mama, can I sleep with you?”  I don’t know where she thought she was all night, but I scooted over and let her in right beside me…stinky slobber and all. 

This evening the kids were playing a little too rough on the furniture, so I politely and calmly asked them several times to play on this one certain piece of furniture…after much disobedience, I got a little loud and let them know that if they didn’t cool it and obey me, then I would take the stool away totally and they would have to sit down.  They looked at each other and started laughing…boy that ticks me off!!! These little people that I take care of each and every day and night are laughing AT ME.  Ruby looked at me and got serious and said, “We are just laughing at each other.”  Yeah, right.

I wish we encouraged the idea of Santa so that I could use it at times like this—“SANTA IS WATCHING YOU…YOU KNOW ABOUT HIS LIST, DON’T YOU?  BOYS AND GIRLS WHO LAUGH AT THEIR MAMA DON’T GET A BRAND NEW BIKE!!!!”  It would work so beautifully…..oh well.

Josh is going to see his mom and dad this evening, so he moved his date up a few hours with the girls.  They are going to see Madagascar II…hopefully it won’t matter that they have never seen the first one!  Anyway, Ruby was looking out the window and said, “Mom, it is a beautiful day for a movie.”  I thought that was funny.  Then, when I took a quick picture of her and Mack, she said, “How ’bout we say ‘pa-corn’ (popcorn) instead of cheese since we are going to a movie?”  Smart kid.

I started decorating for Christmas the other night.  I have been in the house a lot lately because it is just too cold to go to a park and it is too miserable to go in a store with three kids.  Home is where we stay 99% of the time.  For the most part, it makes my life easier, but then there is this point that comes…this I AM ABOUT TO GO SLAP STIR-CRAZY IF I HAVE TO STAY IN THIS HOUSE WITH THESE KIDS DOING THE SAME THINGS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER…….so back to the decorating.  Since I am here so much, I decided that I would go ahead and pull out Christmas decorations.  The red and green storage boxes are way up high in the garage, but I wanted to get them down NOW so I tried.  While I almost knocked our girls flat underneath the box as it fell from the top shelf, it all ended up just fine.  I decorated the stairs, the mantle with the stockings and garland, the kid’s Christmas tree, and I was so looking forward to putting up the tree….until Josh reminded me that we get a live tree!  OOPS!  We love doing that, so I don’t know why I forgot such a vital part of our Christmas traditions.  It probably has something to do with all these hours in this house with these three kids…you really do lose your capacity to think well.  Anyway, it is fun to have started the Christmas decorating….it will be even more fun when the tree is up!  The kids are enjoying their small tree in the playroom.  (But, then again, Molly was extremely excited when I told her we were getting decorations out of the garage…she yelled, “C’mon Ruby, let’s go decorate the garage for Christmas!!!!”  Thank goodness we don’t really have to do that!)

The girls and I made some Christmas ornaments this morning.  They have some from last year, too…Josh likes to keep them all on THEIR tree, seeing as they are a bit tacky.  But, of course, we do love them since our little angels made them.  🙂

 

The girls wore their Indian outfits that Gran made for them last year to Sunday night church.  They were supposed to dress in their best Thanksgiving garb….they looked cute.  I almost forgot until Molly said, “Mama, we are supposed to wear our Indian style.” (There is a whole ‘nother story here…Josh teaches our girls to say ‘indian style’ instead of ‘criss-cross-applesauce’ because the political correctness makes him CRAZY!!!!)  Monday morning we were talking about how Sunday night went and Ruby said, “Mama,Mrs.Karen and Mrs. Terry were dressed like Pigworms.”  I really didn’t get it at first, but then I realized she was saying PILGRIMS.

This past Thursday we took off for Augusta.  It was a very fun trip, and we always feel like we don’t stay quite long enough to relax and enjoy everyone, but it was a fun time while we were there.  There are seven grandkids now.  The oldest is 4 and the youngest is 3 months or so.  Crazy.  

I do have a couple of funny stories thanks to Molly.  Sweetie and PawPaw have two dogs–Spike and Julie.  Molly says, “Spike is a good dog.  Julie is a bad dog.”  When we first get there she doesn’t like them, but then later in the visit she announces, “I like Spike and Julie now.”  One night while Julie was sitting on my mom’s lap and Molly was standing close-by, she felt Julie’s paws and asked, “Why does her feet have teeth?”  Very funny.

Then, my mom was running in the house to make sure she had blown all of her candles out so as not to burn the house down while we were gone.  Molly asked, “Where is Sweetie going?”  I said, “She is going to blow out her candles.”  With a little excitement in her voice, Molly asked, “Is it her birthday?!”      

Here are some pictures from our weekend:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is a lazy, rainy day.  We are all still in our pajamas.  First of all, we all start a little later on Thursday mornings because of how busy and late our Wednesday nights are at church.  The rain and cold weather just encouraged us in our laziness.  These kind of times are some of my favorite, and I am sure ones I will miss a lot as the kids get older.  I was watching Mack walk around in his white onsie and white socks, happy as can be this morning…and I noticed his legs were getting longer and not quite as chubby.  I am sure from the picture that this is hard to believe, but just trust me on this.  The baby of our family is getting so big!  Ruby keeps saying, “Mack is almost TWO, Mama.”  While he has four more months of not being two, what she says is true  (It also allows her to tell the world that she is almost five…in another six months).  They are all so cute and so funny in their own unique ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning we played a game.  Ruby is sooooo competitive.  We really have to watch her.  Molly is not so competitive.  In fact, she has been heard saying, “How about we all can win?”  Sounds good to me!  One time Ruby ran up the stairs and hollered down, “I beat you, Molly, I beat you.”  Molly yelled back, “I WASN’T RACING!!!!!!!!!”  Back to the game–Molly said she was going to go first and that she would like to win.  Ruby said, “Molly, whoever wins (pause) whoever wins.”  She meant, whoever wins is the winner and you can’t claim to be the winner before we even play.  Molly said again that she wanted to win.  Ruby kept saying, “Whoever wins, whoever wins, Molly.”  It was very funny to me and got even funnier when Ruby tried to have Molly repeat her.  I suppose it didn’t seem to be getting through to Molly by just hearing Ruby say it.  

I am also reminded of the time Ruby prayed before dinner.  She had just learned to swing all by herself outside….”Dear God, Thank you for this wonderful day.  And thank you for our food.  And thank you that I can swing, even higher than my friend. Amen.”  Oh my.

Just for the record, her competitive spirit does NOT come from me.  I am the gal who rolls the bowling ball and then turns around before it hits the pins…my opinion is, WHO CARES!  Josh, on the other hand……….

 

NEVER LET IT BE ABOUT ME

I (Jason) was sitting in my chair early this morning when I saw the blinking red light flash on my phone informing me I had just received an email.  I picked it up and checked for messages.  One was from a guy telling me how he could help me lose fat forever.  The other one was from my mom.  Today was the day she was scheduled to start chemotherapy.  

As I sat there in my relatively comfortable but to be honest, messy room, I was having a difficult time praying and concentrating on God’s Word to see what He had to say to me.  My mom, on the other hand, was probably not as comfortable, definitely had not slept as soundly as I, nor was her day ahead as carefree as mine, but she was having no difficulty focusing on and enjoying the presence of God.  

As soon as I finished the last line of her email I took one of those quick, deep breaths that sound louder than you expected.  I was amazed at the faith God had given her.  Her email spoke of God’s goodness toward her.  She had read Habakkuk this morning and quoted Habakkuk 3:18-19 which says, “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.  The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He makes me to go on the heights.”  Wow!  

Here’s Mom’s prayer:  “Lord, use this weak, and cracked vessel to do something, anything for you.  Lord, I pray that You would be lifted up.  Never let it be about me.”

Here’s my prayer for Mom:  “Lord, thank you for my Mom.  Thank you for taking such good care of her. You are causing her to look more and more like Your Son everyday.  Thank You for being faithful to complete in her what you began in her all those years ago.  May you draw her closer and closer to You.  May people see her and be amazed at how great You are.”

It has been a long, long day.  If the reason you “butt heads” with one of your children is because you are a lot like them, then I owe my parents a HUGE apology.  OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!  That is all I can write today.

Today has been a great day.  The girls each woke up on their own, which is so much better than Josh singing them awake with “Good Morning to You, Good Morning to You, Good Morning Little Ruby….Good Morning to You.”  He usually hears, “Wake Molly up first!!!!”    Anyway, everyone went to their Sunday School Classes and had a Bible Story.  I picked up Mack today after church and walked up on him taking a play bus to his teacher because she was cleaning the room…what a good little helper!

On the ride home I asked Ruby what she learned about in class.  She thought and said, “Um, Abraham and Anna…”  She was quickly interrupted by Molly, “NOOO, it’s Abraham and SARAH.”  Ruby replied so sweetly, “Oh yeah, Abraham and Sarah.  I forgot that.”  Then she said, “Yeah, Abraham and Sarah were old. Sarah had gray hair. Did Abraham have gray hair? UM, Sarah didn’t have any babies.  And they traveled to a place they didn’t know where they were going.”  Molly said, “Yeah, Mom, they trabulled to a place they didn’t know.”  They told us a lot about what they learned.

Uncle Jason was here after we got home from church, and he ate chili and rice with us.  He was then bombarded with the kids.  They love it when he throws them around.  Well, today they started telling jokes while he recorded them on his blackberry.  These jokes are horrible….

Knock, Knock.  Who’s there?  Banana.  Banana Who?  Banana I’m gonna eat you.     SEE???

Ruby made this one up:  Knock, Knock.  Who’s there?  Pillow.  Pillow Who?  Pillow I’m gonna knock you in the head.  (She was referring to knocking Molly in the head.)

Last quick story:  After our Sunday afternoon naps, I got the girls a snack—a blueberry muffin and some cheetos—real healthy, right?  Well, they were excited about the cheetos and were giggling with joy for them while I was still looking in the fridge for something I wanted.  I pulled out a full-sized carrot.  Just then, Ruby turned around and when she saw it, she said, “Woooaaaaa.  That’s a really big cheet-o, Mom!!!!!”  It was hilarious, yet sort of sad.  Why didn’t my daughter know what carrot was?  We don’t eat THAT bad.