Gem from shelovesgod.com

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's weary mind: ''You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it.'' Thus giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. Why kill myself over this?'' he thought. ''I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that will be good enough.'' And that is what he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. ''Lord'' he said, ''I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?''

The Lord responded compassionately, ''My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all, your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock.''

At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.... By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God who moves the mountains.

William turned 6 on 11/23. We had a REALLY low key birthday for him. Picked up pizzas and made a rice krispy with peanut m & m "cake" per Chris's request, cuz his birthday was the 22nd. I thought I had candles, but didn't, so Will got an ancient taper candle stuck in the "cake." We got him a new bike, which he really needed.

Thanksgiving was at my Mom's house, where she cooked up a wonderful feast, as usual. I had to work for the first time in my life that day, and it was totally dead--hardly any calls. Very boring. We got a really late start to Thanksgiving and home late.

I am in my new office!! I'd take a picture, but it's kinda messy....it has a door, it's out of the way, it's ok if I want to be my sloppy (but organized!) self!! Yay!
I completed my second day being at home for my reservation agent job today. I was having lots of issues with internet and phone, and then I found out my equipment was not updated. It was a VERY long, painful, frustrating process to get to the priveleged place of having customers tell me first, that I am speaking too quietly, or that they can't hear me, or that they want me to PLEASE not charge that fee, or that I am being rude when I repeat myself loudly so they can truly hear me over my constantly breaking up phone line. I had nice customers all day, until the last one...and it took me a long time to get him out of my head. Big deal, he said I was rude when I wasn't and it was the phone line's fault, right? Nobody was murdered, no random acts of violence. I wish I could get over these dang meanities a LOT quicker. I had a hard time with that when I was a teller, too. Too stinkin sensitive. Still working at Key Bank in evenings, though the hours are reducing greatly because of changing technology. I may be there another 2 months. Baby steps to severance, baby steps to severance....

I worked like a dog this past week, for Key in evening, from like 7-ish PM to 11 or 12 ish AM and then at ACS doing reservations from 3:30 to 9:30 AM. Not fun. Not ready to be doing the reservation work at home either in terms of having my office ready...or my confidence. Next week, I'll take vacation at Key and go do reservations in office at ACS for the evening shift.

Today, since it was so beautiful, as a family, after church, we went to a few places to have some fun in the sun. The first one was Lake Sammammish, which was kinda boring, but I got some good pictures. I wanted to go somewhere else, so we checked out Gas Works Park in Seattle, which we all loved. So glad we got to have a great, refreshing time--safe, cheap, and great pics, to boot!

I'll put more photos on Facebook.

I have been a scrooge with news. But there is some. I have started a new job, as an airline reservation agent with Virgin America. They are newly installed at SeaTac airport. I will be doing 3 weeks of full time training onsite, and then, wonder of wonders, be working at home 30 hours a week! Yay!! Today was orientation.
Me so tired. Nine hours of sleep the last 2 days. My mantra, tatooed on my brain, is "...a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a bandit, and scarcity like an armed man." Proverbs something: something.
I will be putting all the kids in public school next week. It's hard work to get 4 people signed up and outfitted! Not for sissies! Open houses are tomorrow.
I tried to get a video of William up here recently, but blogger kept not working for me. It was funny, though. He was singing "Deep and Wide" over and over and over and over, and he was completely covered and encased in a blanket. SO CUTE. Another precious thing that I like to think about was how, after I told him that I come in his room and kiss him goodnight when he's asleep, after I get home from work, he excitedly said to Zoe, "Zoe, Mom comes into my room and kisses me at night!!!"

Anybody heard of Meetups.com? You can find local groups in your area that meet--many interests to choose from. I actually looked at one that was for shy and anxious folks. It had about 40 members. Guess how many people showed up at the last 8 events? Three.

Seen on a bumper sticker today:

It's hard to be humble when you're Scottish!

B-Day Song

My home computer is fried somehow, so I am doing this on Chris's laptop on the back deck on a "glorious" (as my Mum would say) Saturday morning. It must be near 70 at 10:00. Chris went to get Zach and Jess from raspberry picking. Windy our dog is panting on the ground near me in the sun in her black coat. Will and Zoe are watching Spongebob. Plans for today? Have a good time and not use gas!! I started a watercolor portrait of Zoe and Jess awhile ago. I could work on that. It's been a long, long time since I've done watercolor. I would have liked to have done acrylic, but I only had tiny tubes and couldn't spend the money to get more. Watercolor must be the cheapest way ever to paint. You need so little paint and it lasts forever. I don't even bother to squeeze fresh paint in the compartments. I just wet the dry stuff that's been there forever.
For the fourth, we just stayed home. There are a lot of firework stands around. We didn't buy any, but plenty of neighbors did, so we were set. There's a 19-year old guy next door. Nuf said. My favorite part of the day was unexpected. Some of our neighbors had their metal fire pit thingy going. It looked inviting sitting around it. But it took their sweet daughter asking me to come over (3 times) to "get up the courage" to bring my chair over. I'm glad I did. I was welcome and the group that was there was lively and friendly, and we had some great conversations till the wee hours. I would have stayed out even longer, but a neighbor's visiting racist, foul-mouthed, loud, obnoxious brother showed up and turned my stomach.
Best compliment lately came from Chris. He said I was a "warrior squaw" and that the other women were "fat squaw." What other women? I was marveling at how I know more than one woman who doesn't work, has only 2 kids, and still complains and doesn't even make dinner every night. Like, her husband gets fast food for himself or makes the kids mac and cheese. I thought it was a pretty cool thing for Chris to say. I was definitely gratified. :)
I'd post some new pics, but this laptop doesn't want to get photos from my camera. Not amused. Not savvy. So pictureless I remain.
Zach and Jess did their first of 2 days worth of CAT tests yesterday.
Will make raspberry jam today. Already did strawberry.

Today, Zach and Jessie started raspberry picking 15 minutes away. I have to get them there at 7:00 in the morning. They picked for 2 1/2 hours. Twelve is the youngest age, and it's a rare opportunity, so I signed them up. Zach did it last year. I bought local strawberries today right near the raspberry fields. They are so delightful and perfect. Pretty soon, I'll buy raspberries!

I'm pretty sure Zach and Will both have shot up like an inch in the last month. Maybe that wasn't lime koolaid I thought I was making. Maybe it was Miracle Gro.

The Best Day of Swimming Ever

This afternoon I decided to take Will, Jess, and Zoe to Sumner Community Pool for their 2-3:30 family fun swim--about 30 min. away. It became clear after awhile that traffic was REALLY slow. I thought this was due to the road resurfacing that has been happening on our main road out of Orting. But it was some kind of accident or something, and at a certain point, traffic was NOT COMING OR GOING. It was just about 2:00, but I thought, I'll turn around and go right at Military Rd. and try to find my way over there. But Military Rd was truly blocked due to resurfacing. There was no time or justification to do a really long roundabout. Sooooo, we turned around toward home again. But, I thought, I'll salvage this and we'll go to the river, where we had some nice times in the summer last year. Plus, it's free. After stopping at McDonald's to change in the bathroom and get starving people burgers, we head to the river. Of course, they're resurfacing that road, too, and there are monstrous vehicles parked where we normally park. So, we turn around and park in a place where we have to walk around a mile to get to our spot. We walk and walk and get there. The river seems low and the mud in the region is excessively squishy. But we didn't go this far to turn around yet, right? Everybody strips down and finds long ways around the mud to get to the good part. And the water is so cold and the air only 70 degrees, that one's feet ache after a short time in the water. Get out, walk around, maybe get used to it? Nothin doin. Time to call it a day. I'm wearing flip flops, and there is this one spot that is SO SOFT, that I just sink and fall directly to my knees. I'm carrying my bag and what's left of my drink. I have mud up to my thighs, but I keep everything from dumping and even my shorts mud-free. It must have looked really funny, but I was not too happy at the time. What a truly disappointing time. I think I'll move to Australia.
And then I was going to make devilled eggs for dinner, and when I removed the shell, it pulled off tons of white, on every egg. So the eggs looked like they had been assaulted by hungry voles. So we had egg salad with biscuits instead. Weird. I did actually see a vole like creature on our way out of the slough of despond. It was a good sized mole, I believe, and it swam from the water into a tunnel in the mud!

What's new?
Chris got medieval on our garage--deep cleaned it Saturday. It looks a lot bigger, and is a sight to behold. I took Zach and Jessie swimming, which was fun. Zoe went to a neighbor's brother's baseball game. Then I went for a bike ride. Dinner was quiche, or as Alton Brown calls it, "refrigerator pie." Yum.

Sunday--had parents over for Father's Day. Chris barbecued ribeyes and made the world's best barbecue beans with bacon, molasses, maple syrup, etc. I baked giant potatoes and served green salad. I forgot to add the bacon to the salad. Duh. Dessert was gourmet sorbets--coconut, chocolate, espresso, and raspberry...with decaf. Weather has been perfect--upper 60s, low 70s.

School is officially done tomorrow! Wow!! Jessie wants to go back to "regular school" in fall. The new middle school will be done then.

In bed sick all day yesterday. Not fun. Feeling quite a bit better and going to the doctor in a few hours.

I had a very extreme and scary dream last night. One of the books I'm reading is The Time Traveler's Wife, so that impacted me. I dreamed I was at Fairwood, and so were a bunch of other people, of course. It was 1945, and the stinkin' Nazis, with Hitler and tanks showed up!!!! I had all the kids but no Chris. I was wondering if I should hide in the woods with them or stay behind and help others. At one point, and this is funny, because my Mexico vacation, with its touristy pirate ship came into play, Hitler was on this pirate ship, and some of our people were on it. Very quickly, he brainwashed our youth to fire croquet balls at their own family with cannons!!! I am not making this up. It was very dangerous. I had to dodge quite a few. Later, IN A CAB, if you can believe it, with 2 teenage girl Fairwoodians, I was screaming at them so hard for shooting croquet balls at their family members ("Would you really have wanted to smash your grandmother in the face?!?!?!?") that I was turning red and spitting. I actually asked an older Fairwoodian, "The Nazis didn't REALLY come to Fairwood in 1945, did they?" So I guess I had a hint it was a time traveling nightmare. Very glad to wake up!!

Meheeco

We are back to reality now. Had a grand time in hot, sunny Cancun. We sweat and relaxed and got waited on and walked and experienced and had a very enjoyable time. Some of the times--not so good. Like, you get accosted by shop owners and salesmen trying to bribe you to go to timeshare presentations, which are supposed to be "90 minutes," but are more like 4 hours. And they don't want you to leave. That was a nightmare. But we went to a gorgeous eco-adventure park called Xcaret (esh-caret) right after that. It was expensive to get into, and that was their bribe that got us into the ruddy timeshare presentation in the first place. One of the highlights of Xcaret was swimming, with life jacket, fins, face mask, and snorkel, this underground river they carved out of lime stone. It wasn't 100% enclosed and not too deep. We saw fish and crabs there. We also sailed on a sailboat in the Gulf of Mexico. Weather here is gray and cool. I will post more pictures on Facebook. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa for watching the kiddos for a whole week!

I bought this beautiful painting at GOOD WILL for 15.00!!! It was done in the sixties, and I am SO THRILLED AND PROUD of it. I have never seen that kind of thing there. ")
So, last weekend was Zach's 14th birthday party, and yesterday was Jessie's 12th birthday party. They had a great time. The weather was good for both, and on both days, we had lots of water balloons. We got Zach a bb gun and Jessie a new bike, which she badly needed. There are more pictures on Facebook.
This Saturday, Chris and I are going to Mexico, Lord willing. To Cancun. Unbelievable. For our 15th anniversary.

Random funny pics

"It was more fun than all the toys that I want!"--William, speaking of the wedding

I updated my Facebook "situation" a little and put my pitiful few photos on of this recent weekend. I wish I had taken more, but I wanted to be more of a participator, not a spectator. The wedding went great, and I loved visiting with friends and loved ones from far away! I miss you already!

I have a bunch of blogs saved in favorites, a lot of which I don't read. But I read Carrie Fulton's this morning, (fultons.blogspot.com), and her Sept. 07 post was 100 things about me. At first, that sounds narcissistic, but she was honest about good and bad things, and it was endearing, so I thought I'd give it a shot. But it took me awhile to come up with 30.
1. I loathe mornings, but love late, late nights.
2. My 2 oldest do most of their homeschooling on their own. And I don't give letter grades. Am I a bad Mom?
3. I asked this man who came to church to talk about the power believers have to heal... to heal my herniated disc....and he prayed 3 times, and nothing happened. So now I'm gonna get a cortisone shot Tuesday, Lord willing. I'm not really too bitter. Sick of the discomfort, though.
4. If I make to do lists, I rebel against them and do all sorts of dawdling things to avoid them, just because I "can't be told," even by the "good voices" in my head. This is consternating, but believe me, can't be helped.
5. It's ridiculous how cheerful I am when I have sweets around.
6. Some people can run themselves ragged all the time, but I can't do it like when I was younger. If I try to get up after 6 or 7 hours of sleep, I might as well have slept 8 because of how useless and sluggish and grumpy I am for 2 hours. So, I get enough sleep...it's a priority...but I still feel guilty...
7. I was anti-Harry Potter for quite a long time, but I have changed my mind, and now I am a big fan, and wish I had written the books myself.
8. It's hard for me to get excited about much, although I do pine for Latin dancing, even though I am pretty inhibited.
9. I'm a child-like sucker for simple pleasures, like a beautiful day, a simple walk, God's critters.
10. I may seem dignified or aloof or mature on the outside, but I love doing voices and imitations and goofy sounds and moves...but only around my family. Otherwise, I am extremely inhibited/dignified and few would guess what lurks beneath.
11. A huge percentage of mine and the children's clothes are purchased secondhand.
12. I think about and obsess about money all the time.
13. Money problems are a pain in the keister, but if we're eating decently, I can handle it a lot better.
14. I have dreams of adventure and places like Fairwood and convention-like settings ALL THE TIME. They're my most recurring dreams.
15. One of my biggest regrets was not lasting at Fairwood.
16. I wish all the time I could visit old friends and places in California.
17. I am pretty inept at the friendship thing.
18. I feel badly that the kids are not getting ANY LESSONS or activities because of time and energy and money restraints. I mean, I feel REALLY BAD.
19. I love the ghost hunting shows on TV. And the makeover shows. A lot.
20. It's gratifying how much I am brushing up on things secondhand in the process of helping my 6th and 7th grader with their schooling.
21. I take great pride in the variety, health, tastiness, and economy of the meals I provide the fam.
22. I feel like a leggy, awkward, nerdy, backwards person a great deal of the time.
23. I don't let my minivan get too dirty or cluttery...on the inside anyway. But some rooms in my house are not company worthy!!
24. I wish I could write a novel.
25. I wish I had a bikini ready body, but I just couldn't force myself to expose myself that much even if I did.
26. I don't secretly wish for any tattoos.
27. I had a great childhood.
28. I wish I had been a lot smarter about some things.
29. I have a very tender heart, but don't like to show emotion much, but can't always help it.
30. I have really great kids!!

News: We just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary, and it is the biggest accomplishment ever, if only you knew. Last night, we had dinner at Toscano's Seafood and Steak restaurant. It was intimate, Italian, small, cozy, and good...it seemed to foster/encourage conversation. Our first time there. A good thing to do on a Sunday night when one often gets SUNDAY NIGHT FUNKY CHANGE GEARS MOOD. :) I had a prawn gorgonzola ravioli with hazelnut thing, and Chris had some pasta with kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes, and onion soup. Good times! We're also in the process of planning a trip to Mexico, in May or early June. We have never gone anywhere amazing together, not even for our honeymoon. So this is a big deal! Thinking Cozumel....

Anyone ever had a herniated disc? This is my reality right now, and it's a real pain in the keister, literally. I am going to have a cortisone shot on the 15th, and I can't wait!! I hope it does wonders.

Latest wildlife rescue: injured broken-legged blue jay currently in cat carrier, with food, possibly recovering, and still alive, since Friday...wow!

Chris and Zach went biking last weekend. The view is nice, eh? The picture with the little boys includes (although you can't see it) a homemade "animal den" dug in the ground.

Williamism for the day: When I was peeling carrots for dinner, he asked me if I was "sharpening" them?!?!

Painting, listening to yellow-bellied sapsuckers and such

.

Things that go bump in the night...on my car

Om.....I'm just wondering if somebody shot at my car 23 minutes ago on my way home....a bit shaken up. On the freeway, shortly before my exit, I was in the left lane, and another car was in the right lane. About a half mile before my exit. It was either slow down to 60 and ride this person's tail, or speed up to 70 and go in front of them. I did the latter. And I wasn't a jerk about it either. Turning right off the freeway onto 162...the person takes the right, too, and they're behind me. They don't act mad or aggressive. They're not tailing me. But then I hear a LOUD metallic sound like something hit my car on the right. Did my tire blow out? Did I get shot? The people behind me take a right (but they weren't screeching, nor did I notice someone leaning out a window. It didn't look like a gangster car, either. And this is Orting, not east Tacoma) into a subdivision and I keep going... wondering what the heck and will my tire go flat? I'm still shaky. I get home and look over my car. Tire seems fine. There is a mark on the right front side, above passenger door. Was that there before, or did a bullet leave a groove as it skimmed by? I didn't want to wake up Chris. I'm glad I'm ok, but frustrated by thinking the worst and knowing I may never know the truth.

Has anyone heard of letterboxing...or geocaching? Geocaching involves using a GPS device to "treasure hunt" stuff people have hidden and recorded. I always thought it sounded fun, but never wanted to spend on the GPS. Well, recently, Zach stumbled across a letterbox find. We were walking on the levee nearby, and he was looking under boulders for critters. He found a salamander under one, and under the other one was a small, clear plastic box. Inside it was a tiny homemade? notebook and a homemade shamrock stamp. There were pages which people had stamped with the date and their own homemade stamp. At the end was a website, Atlasquest.com. When we checked it out, we found out there were quite a few other letterboxes hidden along the levee--a shamrock series. The website listed the clues, and when you find them, you log your finds. And of course, you're supposed to make your own stamp so you can stamp the little books. We got a kit for 12.00 at Michael's. I thought Zach would want to do it, but I ended up making a stamp of the back of our dog's head and another one with our user name, Naturefreak. After that one find, we did go back and found 3 more. There's still a few more to find, and I printed the clues for some other series of letterboxes in Orting and nearby Graham. Even though there is no cash, it's really fun...and free! Atlasquest.com is an international thing, so anybody that looks would probably find something in their area!

"Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new!" A. Dean
From one of my favorite blogs at http://www.xanga.com/resolved2worship

I am sitting down with my dinner of birthday cake and ice cream after resting for 3 hours--my Sunday highlight of the week nap. Hannah Montana was as difficult to sit through as I was afraid it would be. We went there at 1:00 and watched 5 minutes of it before the fire alarm went off. And it really was a fire. I think maybe the popcorn machine burned, because there were bad burned popcorn smells when we arrived. So, I had to take everyone back to our house and GO BACK LATER at 7:30. I punched out as soon as I got home. Headed,exhausted, straight for a bubble bath.
Kristi and Dennis stopped by at 3:00 and had coffee and cake with us and watched Zoe open her gifts. Good to see them!

The realtor will stop by Tuesday to take pictures of our house so it can be listed. Yikes!

Our pastor talked about the fight of faith this morning. I do stumble with the faith thing, because I ask myself, What am I trusting God FOR? What am I believing about and for? You can't really say, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and He will work out YOUR plans and WISHES as quickly and as smoothly as possible. The definition of faith the pastor gave today, that he had us repeat after each verse he read about faith is REALLY GOOD:
Faith is complete TRUST in God, His CHARACTER, His WORD, and His WILL for me; because of His LOVE for me, regardless of the OUTCOME.
He talked about the people in the Bible who died without seeing the promises fulfilled, and how God WILL "disappoint" us....when we hope He will meet OUR expectations.
During first service, He was saying something like, "When we lift up our worship and praise to God, it's like incense going up to God, and He causes lightning to be hurled upon the earth." I was like, "What?!" I looked it up, and in Rev. 8:3-5, it does talk about it. There was a man I don't know there, who didn't want to be there praising, because his daughter has kidney failure, and it's a serious, scary thing, with "no hope." Well, after pastor said the thing about the praise and the lightning, this man had a vision that lightning came down from Heaven to/on his daughter! I expect we will hear an exciting update on her health.

Zoe is 10 today. I am taking her, Jessie, and 3 pals to the Hannah Montana 3D movie on Saturday. Oh joy. No, I am not looking forward to it. I got her all excited about it, because, duh, 10 year old girls like the chick. And then I find out that tickets are 15.00 instead of 7.50 cuz of the 3D. Sheesh!!!!

I asked God if He could break off just a chunk of my eternal reward that I could enjoy NOW, if there could be some prosperity and easier times around the corner. I was talking to him on my way home from work, in the dark, wee hours, as I often do. I asked Him if I whined too much, and what he looked like, and was he in the car with me, and could he say something, anything, to me. I told him I really looked forward to seeing him someday, and how was my mansion coming along. That I don't really deserve or need a mansion. That just to BE THERE, safe, in a beautiful, peaceful, perfect environment, where HE WAS, and where there was no worry or extreme fatigue, or sin, or ugliness, would be worth SO MUCH!!!! Does anyone else have outrageous conversations like these at Jesus? I really want him to like me. I hope I make him smile sometimes.

Has anyone ever tried to go low carb? Cripes!!!! It's REALLY HARDDDDDDD!!!! I tried for just one day. I think giving up cigarettes would be easier.

One of the highlights of my day: Incorporating my five year old into my "exercise routine," after the treadmill got boring. My keister and legs were so sore after throwing snowballs at the local boys 2 days ago (you know, squatting and quickly standing up repetitively) , that I thought if I could do some kind of fun activity with Will using the same movements, it would be great for my lower body. So....we ended up having a great time throwing small and medium sized stuffed animals at each other in the hall downstairs. When that got a little dull for Will, we brought over containers to try to make baskets. Often, we would make baskets as the animals bounced off the person behind the "basket." It got our blood pumping, and was quite a bit more entertaining than the dour treadmill.

I just took a handful of photos of myself to update my profile photo. The one you see probably looks "mildly serene," but I had to deliberately force a "relaxed, happy face" just to get to the level of "mildly serene." When I took photos of myself just LOOKING at the camera in my NATURAL STATE, I looked deadly serious, or malevolent, or mean, or even stuck up!!! Cripes!!! If you had taken a photo of my face in the midst of throwing animals, I'm sure it would have been a different story!! :D

You know you may be out of shape but young at heart if you're already sore 12 hours after acting like a calf in spring with a new snowfall. We had a decent snow today, no school. So the kids and I and all the neighbor kids played hard for hours. There is a modest hill up the street, and saucer like equipment was "drug" out and enjoyed. We don't have any, but borrowed others'. We even occasionally harnessed our dog. Some of the best, spontaneous fun I've had in quite awhile!!! Just what I needed to ease that muscular furrow in my brow!! Yay snow!!! By dinner time, people were napping from fatigue. For me--coffe and then work!! We're supposed to get more "tonight." It is 3:45, and there is only strong winds so far.

Here's the recipe that got me singing all sorts of made up and not made up verses of "Joy Bells" in spite of having a serious grumpy streak going:

Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 cup softened butter
2 eggs
4 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 c. rolled oats
2 c. coconut
2 tsp vanilla

Cream shortening and sugar; add eggs and chocolate. Mix in dry ingredients then oats, coconut, and vanilla. Bake at 350 for 12 min. on ungreased cookie sheet. So Good!!!

From the mouth of Will just today:
To Jessie, who was sitting beside him on the way to church: "Shut up and stay shut up!!"
Regarding his cardboard lacing activities I just got him: "I'm going to do them so happiness will come." Har har!!

Knittin...movin?....Jehovah Jireh

What be goin on wit' me......I retaught myself how to knit, and now I'm knitting humble dishcloths....soon to graduate to a furry, colorful scarf. It helps interject pleasure and gratification into days which are 99% toil/service/labor/sacrifice. Jessica has a knifty knitter, and I got her some more yarn to make another hat. So we have a knifty, knitting, mother/daughter bond going on there.

Move to Port Orchard into a house my Dad could build (across the bridge) or rent...or buy? Pop needs to sell this house we're living in. I loathe upheaval, and I love this area. What to do?

Answer to prayer: I took William to the dentist for the first time (he's 5)last week. I thought he was hooked up as of November to my dental insurance through work, but I screwed up. He wasn't on it, and HR wouldn't budge because "open enrollment" was over till November. I was so depressed that I'd have to pay for a checkup, 2 fillings, and 2 pulpotimies (like mini/quasi root canals), that I was in tears on my knees. I completely thought that I had done the correct thing and signed him up to my insurance. It would have covered his initial appt 100% and other stuff at 80%. The pulpotimies alone cost 316.00 each. When I told the vivacious, kind receptionist the situation, just so she'd know, she said she was going to give me a 250.00 coupon credit to my account. That she was just about to mail them out. Hallelujah!! SOOOOOO THANKFUL!! :D

Please do yourself a favor if you have a few minutes and need some smiles. Go to rhettandlink.com for these two guys' hilarious and very well done songs. You won't regret it. :D (I tried to post a video, but it didn't work.) They have a bunch, with titles like Tax rap, The Cornhole Song, Fear of Frogs, Freelance Fireworks Hall of Fame, and Facebook Song. They seem like your goofy, wholesome cousins, and are quite addictive. :D

Williamisms

William shed some light on a few things for me recently. The liquid inside a cherry cordial is called "cherry sap."
And, "I know how rainbows go up."
"How?"
"Magic potatoes!"
How could I make that up? He was serious about both those things.
Today, Zoe was doing knock knock jokes with him. This is what I heard Will say, "Knock, knock."
("Who's there?")
"Grape."
("Grape who?")
"What a beautiful day!!!" :D