Gratitude

Things aren't always easy.

But God has surrounded me with blessings, with people who love me, and with material blessings, too.

This was from my Mommi. It's a beautiful Sunday missal, with the full text of all the sunday readings, plus lovely pictures and prayers throughout. I have been looking for one like this with no luck. It is so special because it came from my Mom with much love and understanding.


I was also blessed with a few years worth of curriculum, which I can't say thank you enough for. I already started using a few fun, age-appropriate books with the kids. They got mad at me because I only let them do one page each! This is such a huge blessing, and Mommi and I had a lot of fun going through it together. Thank you so much, Michelle! (The beautiful bookcase was a baby shower gift from dear friends my old job when I was pregnant with Boo.)



And thank you also for the computer - it is perfect for the kids to have their own machine for their learning games. Livvy is starting to learn how to use a mouse, and I have Reader Rabbit stuff for Elijah to use. It adds a certain dignity to their room, too. Hey you can also see in the background a beautiful phonics curriculum that Elijah and I will use later, and the adorable Scooby Doo curtains that Nana made for her babies awhile back. And the school desk was a gift from Mommi, the white toy shelf was a cast-off from my job, and the shelves were a cast-off from Nan. Everything in the picture was a gift, including the little princess who was a gift (on loan) from God. Am I blessed??? I THINK SO!!!! :) :) :)


To sum up, THANK YOU to my friends and family, and THANK YOU Jesus for loving me and looking after me!!!

Sharing

The plan was that first I would read the book - the seventh and final Harry Potter book, in which all questions will be answered and all secrets will be revealed - then Lee would read it after. But I found that I wanted to read it slower (like two days instead of half a day) and that I wanted to share it. So instead, Lee and I are taking turns reading it, then talking about it as we go along. It's really fun. I already don't watch movies without him anymore - jokes aren't as funny without him, and I miss half the subtleties without him (he misses the other half). Now I guess I have to (that's "need to", not "obligated to") share my book with him, too. Who knew?

We're almost finished.

Reasons to Believe

While hanging out at the Potter Party tonight (will write about that later), I was reading "Reasons to Believe" by Scott Hahn. I found a quote that I totally loved. The whole chapter was about logical and philosophical reasons to believe that God exists. Scott Hahn was quoting Peter Kreeft, and I am paraphrasing from memory.


The music of Johann Sebastian Bach exists.

Therefore there is a God.

Caveat: you either get this or you don't.

I totally, totally, totally get it.



We had fun tonight, but... it's 3am. Lee is making me sleep before I read That Book.

And tomorrow we have to go to Uncle Pork's yearly pig roast, and I'm not going to be able to read there. ugh.

Must sleep now.

Prayer Request

Please pray for me. The time is soon coming when Elijah will be of school age. Lee and I are wrestling over what that means. If you know me very well, you know that I have strong ideas about schooling and all that goes with it. Lee is pushing to send Elijah to kindergarten just so he can have the whole socialization experience, and so he can get an academic start, if you will. He says I can homeschool later, and reminds me that he has already given up on them going to high school. This is a big concession from Lee, because he is into the whole high school sports thing. Me, I don't want to go through them going to school, period.


But I know that God put me and Lee together for a reason. I am asking that you would pray that both Lee and I would have soft hearts toward each other. Please pray that Lee would understand where I am coming from. And please pray that I will keep my marriage as more sacred than any preconceived ideas about my children's lives, and not be stubborn, but be able to articulate my desires and ideas without becoming clouded with anger. And please pray that God's will would be done in the lives of my kids, whatever that will be.

As for what I am going to do, well, I am going to drop arguing with him about it, unless he brings it up. I am going to work with Elijah some this year to get an idea of what it would be like, whether homeschooling kindergarten really is something that I could do. And if I feel positive about it, then I will present that to Lee. The final decision will be his - I do believe that he is the head of my household, and that God will move his heart in the direction that is right.

Wedding Pictures

I didn't take my camera to the aforementioned wedding, but Nan did, and she got her pictures back. Here's the cream of the crop.



Lee had a very attractive white shirt on, which he looked great in because he had this deep (for our family) tan against it. But at some point he changed back into his Creation clothes so he could go back that evening.



Black dress and shiny jewelry is not my usual dress, but it was such a nice wedding I wanted to dress up a bit for it.



This is just SOOOO Livvy.


Livvy wanted to know if Tricia - the beautiful bride - was a princess. I told her to ask Tricia "Well, I guess I am today," she answered, glowing. She is a very beautiful girl who I just love and deserves every happiness.



Boo wanted his picture taken with the princess, too. Tricia loves both the kids, and all kids take naturally to her, too.



The inevitable hug picture. My favorite (and Nana's favorite, too, I think!) :)

Today was long, my feet hurt, and I have to get up early to take Nan to work tomorrow because her usual ride is on vacation. Night everyone.

Mondays Can Be Nice

I found a beetle at work today. I am a fan of cool bugs. According to my Audubon guide, it is a Reddish-Brown Stag Beetle. Anyway, I put it in a coffee cup and took it home to the babies. My co-workers are used to my craziness. Needless to say, the babies loved it, especially Liv. Elijah is just old enough to be wary of something so strange. But Liv was completely innocently enchanted. When it was time tosay "good-bye", though, it was Boo whose lip quivered with sadness. I don't like Good-byes, either - I wanted to keep it forever and find out what Beetles eat and have a little insect pet. But I wanted it to live just a little bit more than that, so we let it go in our yard.

Then we watered the plants.


My proud bush zukes.


My beautiful fairy roses - not a great picture, but I'm just proud of them




I'm not sure if these are Romas or peppers. I guess we'll find out!



Here are my tomatoes. Yes, I have cages, but I took them off when they were little so the landlord could paint around them. Well, he is a very busy person, and he never got around to painting. Today he told me that he will kindly wait until my tomatoes are done. What we have here is a failure to communicate. That's okay, I have never seen what Tomatoes look like without a cage. Experiment!



Here are lovely daisies that I grew on accident. I think Nan gave me a pot of dead bulbs that she got at work and I dumped them here.



And here is my first beautiful sunflower. It is a beautiful orange color and about four feet tall. Lovely.



The kids were hot, I guess, because as soon as I got home from work, they asked if we could get the sprinkler out. I said NO. But they were getting in my way when I was trying to water the plants, so I kept spraying them in annoyance. Which they loved, of course. So I figured we might as well go all the way. I let them play for about a half an hour, then changed them into dry clothes right on the porch because I wasn't ready to take them in yet.



Good thing I changed them, because then we got to meet the new tenant upstairs. Meet our new neighbor, Tijere. Um, I don't know how to spell that, but I think its pronounced Tie-Jear. He's a feisty little cutie, and he's 4 like Boo. Now we have a two year old next door and a four year old upstairs. Tijere moves in in two weeks. Won't that be fun? Cheers, everybody.

Just to make everything perfect, I got an e-mail from Sarah!! Yay!! I miss my sister so much. She makes me laugh more than anyone in the whole world, and I could always talk to her about anything.

Cheers everybody. Tomorrow is my ten hour day, then Wednesday I uncurl in the morning and work again in the evening. Talk to you all when I am human again.

Easy Friday

Fridays pretty belong to me. They are my day to clean and to be refreshed. I had to fit a lot in today, but it was nice.

I got up earlier than usual so I could spend the morning with my Mommi. I put in my Avon order, then drove to her house. We had a really nice time. We walked around Mechanicsburg looking for yard sales and admiring yards that we'd like to have and houses we'd like someone else to have to take care of for us. It always feel good to reconnect with my Mom, because I feel like I can be myself around her. We only found one small yard sale, but I got a book for Lee, and one for myself, and a tartan scarf that I will use to accessorize one of the kids for the Faire.

Hold that thought. The kids want me to go pray with them so they can go to bed.

Back. After yard saling, Mommi made yummy Philly Cheese Steaks, and then I went home to Lee. Lee paid a couple of bills, then we went to Barnes and Noble. The kids and I played with trains, while Lee picked out a couple of novels. I have some books I have to read because I promised Lee I would, so I just browsed, myself. I always love being in a big bookstore.

Then Lee went to work and it is time for me to do my housecleaning. I am working on the basement, because the landlord needs to get in there tomorrow morning, and its pretty much a war zone. Luckily the rest of the house is in pretty good shape. Well, I have to go - it's time for my weekly scheduled vacuuming. Like nature, I abhor a vacuum, so I have a scheduled vacuum time every week - 9:30 pm every Friday night. I don't run any appliances after 10 out of respect for the girl upstairs The landlord used to live above us, and he had no shame in running the vacuum at midnight... not much I could do about that!

A Fresh Start is Sometimes Nice

Filling up the fridge again took more than half of our food budget for the month, but it was fun, and we bought healthy, easy to prepare foods. It's really nice to have a fresh start sometimes.



Here is Livvy's hair. I don't remember what I was doing it nicely for - maybe the wedding - but apparently I was proud enough to take a picture.



It's been a hot week. Saturday was nice a short shift at work, and Michelle brought me a bag of books (thanks again!!) which was AWESOME. There was a LOT of great stuff in it, including a couple of kids prayer books, and a couple of Bible story books, which the littles and I have already read three and four times.

Saturday night Elijah and I went to Mass, partly because I knew Lee wanted to try and go to church together the next day. Then Sunday I got the kids up and got ready for church. We visited Jon Whaley's church with him. He goes to an Emmanuel-ish church. It was nice to have Lee in church, though. When we got home from church, the next door neighbor had her pool out, and she invited the kids to play. She has a two year old, but he was pretty much afraid of the water, lol.




Monday was just work, and Tuesday, too. Work was fun because we peppered the day with theological discussions, including a discussion on praying to the saints, a debate on whether it is God's will for us all to live long lives, and me beginning to warn people NOT to go see "The Golden Compass" because it is blatantly anti-Christian if not downright satanic (will post this later).

Yesterday (Wednesday), Lee and I spent the morning figuring out where he is going to go to school for his four-year degree. We think we have found the perfect school - Millersville. It is cheap, has the classes he wants to take - good history courses and fun languages - and is only forty miles away. We will probably move halfway there, so he can commute to school, and I can continue to work at Servant's Heart (which would mean a lot to a lot of people). Millersville has Dual Enrollment with HACC which means his classes would transfer easily and he would have guaranteed acceptance. Even though we have talked about moving out of state, just because it would be fun, this is way more practical. We are both kind of excited about it. Lee is going down to see his counselor at school today to see what he has to do to switch his duel enrollment and make sure his classes for the next semester are on the right track. Say a prayer for him if you have a minute. He has so much on his shoulders, and I am so proud of him.

The Wedding/Fourth of July

The reason I had to pick Lee up from Creation was because we had to go to a family wedding on Saturday, before it was over.


Lee's cousin Mike and his girlfriend (now wife) Tricia have been together as long as Lee and I, though I think they may have broken up once or twice. Tricia is a dear girl and has been considered family for a loong time. She is a school teacher. Everybody loves her. We love Mike, too, as he and Lee were cousins that played together. So it was always going to be a very special wedding.

They were married in the capitol building. The wedding party came down the big beautiful steps inside. The dresses all matched. It was a short ceremony presided over by a judge.


Lee loved being in the capitol building because he could feel the hum of the politicians. While they were taking pictures, Lee went off to visit Senator Piccola. Lee says likes him because he is an idealist, and because his first degree was in History. He wasn't in, so Lee talked to his chief of staff for awhile.

The reception was in the Zembo building. It was a very pretty interior. In the receiving line, Lee's cousin gave me a hug. That made me really happy. I don't know Mike well, but he is one of the few relatives Lee has who is not condescending to him. that came out negative. What I really mean is, I really like Mike, and I really like Tricia, too.

Lee had to go back to Creation to help tear down. No problem, except that left me without a phone or a car, so he left me to sleep at Nan's so I wouldn't be lonely. That was nice and peaceful... but not having a car I had no way to go to church. That made me a little grumpy.

Anyway, Monday and Tuesday it was right back to work. Peaceful, quick days, and evenings of catching up with Lee. We had a fight Monday night (or was it Tuesday?) but it was a good one because I think I might actually understand what he was getting at. Lee was bubbly all week (bubbly for Lee, anyway), telling me all about Creation and how uplifting it was. Next year, we are all going to go. There is apparently a great kids tent, lots of food vendors, and they even had a Mass there... that made me happy. I can't wait to go next year.

Anyway, Wednesday was a great Fourth. We did NOTHING all day. Lee needed a day to just RELAX. When I am at work he has to mind the kids, and that's not really relaxing. So we just relaxed all day.

Then at night we went to see Nan. She was really surprised to see us, because usually we spend any holiday that involves eating (yes, that is in fact all of them, sigh) with Lee's paternal family (previously referred to as the heathens). I was surprised myself, as Lee's father called him earlier in the day and invited him to a barbecue at Jackie's house, but Lee turned him down, letting them know that we were going to see fireworks with Jon. Yay! And then the rain started. And when it rained, it poured. And then some. So that's how we ended up at Nan's house. (Is it any wonder I have never kept a journal before? Staying in chronological order is such a challenge for me...)

After hanging out with Nan for awhile, the rain let up enough that we decided to brace the fireworks after all. It was too late to meet up with Jon (who had to tape the fireworks for his job), but not too late to find a spot along the river and park our lawn chairs. The kids and I LOVED it. Lee says it was one of the lamest fireworks displays Harrisburg has ever put on, and everyone we've talked to has said the same, but it didn't make any difference to us. The following are pictures taken on the lowest quality setting of Lee's phone. They capture the mood well.





Immediately after the fireworks, the rain began again in earnest. We took the kids back to Nan's and went to see a movie with Jon and his girlfriend, Jill. We saw Fantastic Four, which was pretty good for a comic book movie. Lots of showing off in the special effects, sometimes a little over the top, but fun.

I was thinking during the fireworks that as human beings, we so need to have the "special" days. I haven't "felt" patriotic in a long time, although I do and have always loved our country very much and felt strongly about the personal freedoms that were ensured for us by our forefathers. It's not that I am a cynic, I have just been taking it all for granted. So it was nice to see fireworks and remember that you don't need "feelings" to love deeply, not even your country.

While Lee Was Away.

Last week, Lee was away at CreationFest, and I was "vacationing" on my own at home with the kids. The plan was to spend the week hanging out with my Mom and with Nan, and that went pretty well. When he left on Tuesday, I was quite sad to be without him for a week. I cried. He laughed at me, but gently, and kissed me goodbye. He called me at least three times a day while he was gone, and we exchanged text messages and picture messages via his phone and Jon's phone. So we were hardly separated, really, but then again, we haven't been physically separated for more than a day since we were first married... Lee drives me crazy, but I love him so much, and it felt good to remember that I can't even stand to be separated from him.

He had a lot of fun, too. Of course he and Jon came home with a DVD full of pictures and videos, but only one of them had Lee's face in it. They took pictures only of the bands and of the candlelight service. Boys! But anyway, let me try to go chronologically here.

Tuesday after he left, I just cleaned the house all day. My self esteem goes Up up up when the house is clean, so that felt GREAT! Then Tuesday night I went to see Nan, just to hang out for two hours. We needed to go shopping for the upcoming wedding, but it was just too hot.

Wednesday, I got up and went to see Mommi - finally. Well, yes, I had just seen her last week for Jubilee day, but before that it had been waaay too long. So we hung out, talked about kids, walked to pick her littles up at VBS, then went swimming. I left rather suddenly when it started to rain around 2. I had something to take care of.

What? Well, my fridge was broken, and I needed to call the landlady, Mary. Not my favorite thing to do. So I got home, made sure everything was spotless, then called her. She was very cool about it, sent her son-in-law over to look at it, then called Lowes to see what they would do for her (nothing, except hook her up with an expensive repairman). Then her other son stopped by to make sure I had enough coolers. Finally, Mary called back to say she had gotten nowhere and would try again in the morning.

The next day I went to my Mom's again. We went grocery shopping together, and she scored an awesome deal on breakfast cereal. I got some picture frames for two 5x7s I bought from KodakGallery.com.



That night, Nan and I did go shopping for the wedding. We went to K-mart, and Nan bought new shoes for the kids for the wedding, and a pretty pink shirt for herself.

The next day, the repairman was to arrive sometime between 10 and 2, so I spent the whole morning on edge. I didn't get the phone call until 1. The repairman came, along with my landlady and her son, and after an hour my fridge was fixed. Yay for cold food and yay for not owning your own appliances. What he charged her to fix it was almost as much as a new fridge!

I went to see Nan again that night but only for an hour to drop off our wedding clothes so we could change at her house. She wanted to iron Lee's shirt and pants for him. After that, I stopped off at Salvation Army on my own - I had a little money in my pocket from a special gift and I wanted to buy something for myself. I found a lovely little black dress for the wedding that fit me well, plus a jean skirt and a khaki skirt for work, because I am turning into a skirt kind of girl, and a book for each of the kids for sitting still while I pored through the racks!

Then we went to bed insanely early (8pm!) because I had to get up at 1am to pick Lee up from Creation Fest. I had a really hard time falling asleep that early and ended up with only two hours of sleep, but that wasn't a problem.

The kids popped tall at 1:30am - somehow my alarm did not go off, but I have a pretty good internal clock for stuff like that. We dressed, stopped at Weis for drinks for the trip, then jumped on the turnpike. I figured the turnpike would be the hardest part, with the toll booths at all, then some peaceful backroads to get Lee. Ha ha ha.....

Well, the turnpike was actually easy, since there's noone on the roads at 2am. I've been passenger for the tolls enough times to not be scared. I knew we were going the right way because we went through the tunnels I fell in love with on the way to Chicago as a little girl (Tuscarora, Blue Mountain, and Kitattinny :) ). I got off at the right exit, paid the toll, and then began the "exciting" part of the adventure.

A combination of three things led to my brush with doom - darkness, paralyzing fog, and mountain roads. Now I am a very careful driver. I have never been in an accident, thanks be to God. And Lee said, 'just stay on the road until you see the signs for Creation. There will be a Y in the road where you can veer left into a town. Stay right, on the main road." So when I came to a Y in the road, despite HUGE signs pointing left, I went right.

It felt wrong, right away. So I called him, and he said I probably did the right thing, that it was a long lonely road. So I kept going. And going. I knew something was very wrong when I began to climb a dark dreary mountain. It was like driving in Perry County. Only steeper hills, curvier curves, and darker dark. Some of the curves were so sharp they were marked 5mph. I started to cry. At this point I was just looking for someplace to turn around safely. It was so foggy I couldn't even see the side eof the road, though I doubted there were any driveways. I watched for things that I *could* see, so I would know I was going the right way when I *did* turn around. Things that were obvious, like a one-lane bridge ("yield to oncoming traffic" signs on both sides - that's scary) and a huge yellow contruction truck.

Finally I found a place to turn around, and did. I was forty minutes out of the way, but when I got back to the main road and went left instead, it felt right immediately. There were signs for Creation shortly after. When I finally saw Lee, I was soooo happy.

Unfortunately, Lee was so tired that I had to drive home, too. But there was light by then, and I had Lee to bounce worries off of, so it wasn't so bad. If I was worried about falling asleep, that was cured when a driver three car lengths ahead of me fell asleep and bounced off the median into the side of a tractor trailer, shedding little bits of tire and car all over the road but just missing me. I was wide awake the rest of the trip.