I know this is going to sound super cheesy, but today… today, I’m thankful for Gratituesday. 

I need this Gratituesday discipline in my life (AND I need a Gratiwednesday and Gratithursday and well, you know…).  There are some weeks, and this is one of them, where if I didn’t have my Gratituesday post to think about, I might just skip being grateful.  Sometimes it seems so much easier to just wallow in frustration, anger, depression, annoyance, sadness, and all the rest.  Satan wants me to think that anyway, and he’s REALLY good at throwing up roadblocks to gratitude.

I woke up angry this morning, and it’s taken several hours to shake it off.  I’ve felt a definite battle going on in my home, in my head, in my heart. 

I turned on a HAPPY movie for my son, and I sat down to read an encouraging book, in my attempt to straighten myself out.  And I did some praying too.  I sat still right after putting the kids down for naps, and let the battle play itself out.  My mind was at war for a short time - knowing the RIGHT thing to do (write a gratituesday post, put on a smile, thank God for all our blessings, and quit acting like life owed me something), but fighting that - wanting to just be selfish and WALLOW in it a little longer.

Obviously, I’m done wallowing, for now.  And I’m thankful that I have a place to share, a God to thank, a family to hold and love, and friends who care.

So, thanks Laura… for Gratituesday.  (Can we do a Gratiwednesday tomorrow if I need to?)

A few months ago, I “met” a gal online, named SueZQue (aka Kim). She and I met through Laura’s Heavenly Homemakers blog, and I really enjoyed reading Kim’s blog and her comments. I could relate to so much of what she had to say, how she said it, and was inspired by her and encouraged by her.

And then I got a chance to help her with a new business venture. She wanted a website, Laura sent her my way, and we began working together to get one started. I began stockpiling a lot of fun notes in my saved email from her, as we wrote back and forth about name ideas and what she wanted in a website and hopefully a future home based business.

She wanted to get this site going, because she was looking forward to being a Mom some day, and she wanted to be able to stay home with those future kids. It was something I COMPLETELY related to, because I had done the same thing a decade ago when I started my business. It was exciting to share in HER excitement, and Laura and I were both enjoying getting email from her about her ideas and plans. (Yes, we talked about her behind her back, but it was all good, I promise!)

And then, Saturday morning, the phone rang and the world spun a little off-kilter. Tragic, tragic news. Laura called to tell me that Kim and her husband Gary were killed in their car… by a tornado. It’s been two days almost, and I still can’t comprehend it, AT ALL. My brain just keeps shutting down when I try to process the information. I find myself sitting on the couch, with my head shaking in disbelief. My kids keep looking at me as I wipe tears from my eyes.

Last night, I spent a couple of hours with google and the news websites, reading story after story (mostly repetitive) about the accident and the tornado. I had to quit once I found an article with a picture of the car.

Tonight, I sat reading the archives of Kim’s blog, and then found another one, and read those archives too. More tears flowed, especially when I read Kim’s “Gratituesday” posts, and her “Thursday Thirteen” posts. One TT post stood out to me… called “Thirteen Promises That God Has Given Me”. I just kept reading those verses and thinking about her and Gary, and praying (for the hundredth time) that God took them quickly. That she and he were praying together, and then gone. To Heaven. For their rewards.

The first promise Kim listed in her blog post is my favorite (although they are ALL good). My prayer is that tonight, and this next week, and month, and year, that Kim and Gary’s families will know and feel and be comforted by God’s Everlasting Love.

Yesterday, my son called after school (he was with my ex-husband), and was telling me about his day.  He had a “purple day” with no warnings (which is a good thing), and his special was blah, blah, blah, and on and on he went.  Oh, and Dale had just taken him for a haircut, so he had to tell me about that too.  And tell me that he would need a bath, because they put goop in his hair.

Anyway, because it was a Monday and he had hot lunch, I asked, as I usually do, “What’d you have for lunch today?”

Him: “Scorpion tails!”

Me: “Whaaaat?”

Him: “Scorpion tales.  They chopped off the scorpion part and gave us the tails for lunch, mom.”

(He is telling me this with complete serious-ness, btw)

Me: “Whaaat?”

Silence…. a couple of beats go by…. I sit wondering what in the world…shaking my head a little.

Him: “No, mom… I’m just kidding… I had chicken….  bahahahahahahaha”

Me: Spontaneous Laugh Out Loud Laughter

He got me.  Flat out got me.  It’s not nearly as funny in type as it was in person, but my son?  He is growing up.  And this was so much better than his knock knock jokes and silly crazy statements that are for some reason supposed to be funny.  This… this was a real, tease my mom and make her laugh because I’m actually saying something funny, funny.

I guess this is what 10-days-away-from-being-in-1st-grade looks like?

Whenever I sit to write a Gratituesday post, I immediately have plenty of ideas come to mind.  There is just a LOT to be thankful for around here.  My kids are adorable and sweet and loving (except when they are frustrating and fussing with each other), and my husband treats me like a queen.  But, it would get old fast if I wrote about them each week, wouldn’t it?

This week, I sat for a minute and pondered the events of the last few days.  The first thing I thought of was how much fun it was to spend time on the phone with my best friend yesterday.

She and I are separated by four states (give or take), but through modern technology, we can stay super connected in each others’ lives.  It has helped TREMENDOUSLY that she now has email and we send each other little notes every day, but we still need to touch bases on the phone.  Mostly it’s because we can cover about 100 times more ground in an hour than we can in 10 email all day. (We both talk fast and listen fast).  But there’s just something about getting instant feedback on your thoughts and being able to hear the nuances of a discussion, rather than getting the information in black and white text.  And thanks to my husband, I can stay on the phone getting that feedback and hearing those nuances for as long as my children and life will allow!

When Allan kidnapped transplanted me here to Las Vegas to marry him, there was no doubt in his mind that we would set up unlimited long distance on our phone plan.  He knew how important that plan was going to be, since I was leaving behind all my friends and family in Nebraska, and the rest of my family (my MOM!) was in yet another state.  Yeah, unlimited was the only way to go.  And it has honestly saved my sanity, at least a few times, in the last four years.

So, today I’m thankful for phones, for unlimited long distance plans, AND for my best friend who is always there on the other end of the line to listen and encourage and laugh (and sometimes cry) with!

What are YOU thankful for?  Head on over to Laura’s blog and tell her (and us) all about it!

It’s Gotcha Day, and Gratituesday!

You can read about it over at DigiScrapChat.

Last night, the kids wanted to have “movie night” (which we often do on Friday nights), and since the household (i.e DADDY!) is gearing up for the new Indiana Jones movie (coming in two weeks!), Allan decided to put on Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I was a little hesitant about whether the kids should watch it.  I was worried they would get scared.  I started thinking about nightmares and sleepless nights because of all the SCARY SCARY parts in the movie.  I thought about the snakes and the tomb (or vault or whatever) with all the bodies, and I especially thought about the END.  Even though I’ve probably watched the movie a dozen or more times, I still haven’t watched the end in it’s entirety.  I always cover my eyes or leave the room for a minute, because I just don’t want to see people dissolve.  It’s too scary… for ME.

And this is why God is so smart, insisting that having a Mommy AND a Daddy is a good thing.  Because Daddy thought the kids could handle it.  And he was right.  It helps that he knows the movie backwards and forwards and could prep them whenever something a little more intense was coming up. 

I actually decided to let them have a “Boys Movie Night”, and I went to read a book - but they came a couple of times to find me and tell me how it was going.  Apparently Samuel REALLY loved it, and was completely into the action of it all - jumping and bouncing and reacting to the scenes.  (In a good way).  And lil Allan is just braver than I gave him credit for, as he came to show me a silly face (he was re-enacting a face that he’d seen in the vault/tomb scene) and tell me all about the SNAKES!  With a very serious face, “And there were lots and lots of SNAKES, Mommy”. 

Yep, it’s just Mama that’s the chicken.

that I’d be leaving my children home the next time I went to Walmart?  Yeah, well, that didn’t happen!  Turns out the photo I had printed was TOO BIG for the frame. 

Sigh!

So, I had to eat my words AND take an extra kiddo along, because of course I didn’t discover the problem until after Samuel was home from school.  I almost cried when I realized that I’d have to load and unload everyone to take them to Walmart, come home, fix dinner, and THEN load them all up again to go get Daddy for Bible Class. 

Thankfully I still have half a brain, so I decided to upload the image to Walmart.com (praying I had re-sized it correctly!), and we waited until it was almost time to go get Daddy before we left to go pick it up -  so only ONE load and unload and reload!

The picture was ready when the website said it would be.  It fit exactly as it should have in the frame.  Crisis diverted!

And my kids?  They did awesome!  I only had to give one warning to “STAY WITH MOMMY, PLEASE!” It ALMOST made me think I could do that again sometime soon.

Almost. 

Allan and I only have one car.

Wait, no…that’s not right. We actually have 4 cars, a truck and a motor home… but we only have ONE car that runs well enough and that I’m allowed to drive.

Well, allowed is the wrong word - it’s just safest if I don’t drive the old(er) VW Fox because it’s old(er) and has fuel line problems. (And when I think about fuel line problems, I imagine the car bursting into flames, so I prefer to not drive the Fox, even if I were allowed to drive it).

And the other two cars are VW Bugs, one of which doesn’t have an engine at the moment (well, not installed anyway), so of course I can’t drive it… and the other VW Bug.. well, NO ONE but Daddy drives that one. (She’s a little like the other woman, in how much Daddy cares for her… at least I hope it’s a she… I really have no idea if the white bug is male or female, but I’ll just go with she cause it fits my analogy).
What AM I talking about? Apparently I need to write a post about our vehicles, but I’ll save that (the rest of it anyway) for another day.

I started to say - Allan and I only have one car. And since he works outside of the home, he takes the car on a regular basis. Like every day. Which means I’m left at home with the kids with no car. (Other than the four that I’m not allowed… oh, you know what I mean).

ANYWAY! Today, I realized I needed to go to Walmart to get a picture printed before we go to Bible Class tonight. Unfortunately, I realized that about the time Allan needed to be heading to work, which meant I couldn’t rush over to Walmart before he left. And since he usually comes home JUST in time (or not) for us to leave for Bible Class, there wouldn’t be any time later either.

So, I proposed the idea that the kids and I drive him to work, leave him there, and then I head off to Walmart WITH the car! (WOOHOO, an outing! With the kids!) I could then pick him up from work in time to go to Bible Class. Smart plan, yes?

(And I promise I’ll get to the “my daugher, the shopper” part of the story soon).

So, after much discussion (begging, pleading.. ok, not really.. but kinda), Allan agreed to my plan. I loaded everything up to get ready to go out (and oh my word, I’ve really not been missing much by staying home - it’s a bit of a nightmare to get it all together to go to the STORE). I fed Martha a quick bottle, so she’d be happy, and I loaded the kids in the car. And then we waited for Daddy to come out of the house, because he doesn’t move as quickly as Mommy does.

And then we dropped Daddy off at work. And lil Allan asked for three miles (or whatever the distance is exactly from work to Walmart), “Where’s Daddy? Why is he at work? Where are we going? Are we going to Walmart? Where’s Daddy…” Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I was a little worn out, and I hadn’t even loaded kids into the shopping cart yet. Thankfully that part went well, and the kids were all bright eyed and excited, because, WOW, they were out of the house and at a STORE!

Except Martha wasn’t too sure about things, because Mommy had on sunglasses and that was strange, and the wind was really blowing and THAT was strange, and the road was bumpy and THAT was strange.

And then of course there were the VERY STRANGE strangers who had to talk to the children. And touch them. Excuse me for a minute, but do people NOT know that it’s NOT cool to touch my baby daughter’s MOUTH? Oh my word, it took everything I had not to whip the wipes out right in front of overly-friendly-older-nice-but-kinda-strange lady who thought it would be fun to play with Martha’s lips. (ok, end of little rant in the middle of the extremely long post).

SO, where was I? OH yes, we were in Walmart. I took care of things at the photo counter, and then had an hour to kill before my picture would be ready. It was time to shop. I needed new sunglasses, and lil Allan wanted some too, so we took care of that. We found Daddy some of the new Indiana Jones themed M&M’s, and picked up a box of absolutely no theme whatsoever Milk Duds for Mommy because, um, well just because. We found some super cheap shorts for the boys, because you can’t have enough pairs of shorts when you live in Las Vegas, and we also found Mommy some new hair thingamabobs to hold her hair up off her neck, since, again we live in Las Vegas and long hair in the summer is NO fun.

And then we decided to go see if our picture was ready. Which it was not, because the lady behind the counter had to change out the machine IN the machine, and then her little beeper-makes-the-labels machine wasn’t working and she was getting angry and even started banging it on the counter!

So, we stood at the counter, mouths open wide (ok, just mine) at the lady banging the machine on the counter, and then it happened.

Sitting just a few feet away from the cart was a misplaced Elmo Bubble Making Machine. Very cute, probably too expensive, but all the kids see is IT’S ELMO! And lil Allan asked if he could have it instead of his sunglasses. Which I expect from the three year old.

What I did NOT expect is for the 13 month old to throw a hissy fit in Walmart when her Mother said (in a nice tone of voice), “No, we don’t need to buy Elmo today”.

Now Martha is known for her dramatic reaction to the word no. She doesn’t like that word, and she lets us know it regularly. But, oh my goodness, you would have thought Elmo was chocolate covered in chocolate or something. She pointed, and said, “mo, mo, mo”. And I sweetly said, “No, no, no”. And it continued… for quite some time… (as the lady kept sighing and slamming papers around and banging the machine on the counter). Martha had definitely entered Hissy Fit City, and even lil Allan was embarrassed.

Finally we got our picture and went on our way, and she quickly forgot about good ole Elmo (thanks in part to another stranger who wanted to TOUCH HER).

And then some punks decided to stand in line with us and discuss at great length how something was this and something was that, only instead of this and that, they used language which I’d kind of hoped to protect my children from for a little bit longer. I debated what would happen if I actually covered their ears, but since I only had two hands and there were four ears, I just tried to talk REALLY LOUDLY about the GUM and how much FUN it is to CHEW GUM!

And then Martha wanted gum.

Suffice it to say, the next time I need to get a picture made at Walmart, the children will be staying home.

And all I want to know now is, where are my milk duds? Mama needs some chocolate!

Btw, today is reverse WFMW over at RocksInMyDryer, where you get to share all about what does NOT work for you (and I’ll let you figure out what that is for ME today!!)… click on over to Shannon’s blog and link up your own reverse WFMW post!