Ordinary Time

Today is TM's birthday, though we will celebrate tomorrow. He really does not like having his birthday connected with all the hoopla and scary stuff of Halloween and I can't say I blame him. We decided that All Saints' Day, Nov. 1, was a much better time to celebrate, so that's what we do. I did make apple cider donuts this morning per his request, though. So, Happy Birthday, TM! I love you more than you may ever know. You have changed my in profound ways; no less profound than when M. was born and I first became a mother. I am constantly amazed at your creativity and love to see your seemingly effortless projects. You are bright and energetic with so many good things inside of you. I also grieve for the hurts you have endured and would do just about anything to be able to go back and somehow change it. When you hurt, I hurt. I continually pray love and peace for you. That you would feel God's profound and unreserved love for you and as a result be able to feel ...

As I finished writing yesterday's post , I considered add in a little line at the bottom about knowing that in the great scheme of things, this was a trivial problem. Then I decided that it seemed pretty obvious that the whole trivial episode ended in my owning up to my poor behavior, but once again, I'm reminded that tone in writing doesn't always come through. Because I do know that a movie not arriving the second I expect it hardly worth getting my pants in a knot over; it's one of those first world problems, a problem with abundance. Yet I find it is these types of problems that trip me up more than the 'big' ones. For the big things... finances, difficult children, health issues... they feel so big and possibly so overwhelming, that I know I cannot even begin to deal with them. I have no expectations except that God is going to take care of them in the best way possible, even if that turns out not to be the way I would have arranged things. (And I'm ...

I spent a portion of last night going around and apologizing to my older children for my little temper tantrum regarding the Netflix queue that happened over the weekend. They were right... I was wrong. To explain the whole story, I have to back up a bit. Netflix is one of our major entertainment options and our movie queue is very long. Since we don't watch a movie every night, it can take a while for a person's chosen movie to reach the top of the queue, thus arriving in the mail able to be viewed. It has become a thing around here to fiddle with the queue and "help" ones movie reach the top faster. Not everyone is guilty of this all the time, but it happens. I've learned that if there is a movie I really need to arrive, such as for school, that I need to time moving it to the top of the queue to the time when a previous movie is mailed, ensuring its arrival when I need it. Last week, when I was looking ahead in my school schedule, I noticed that I had sched...

P. was in her first horse show yesterday. She has been looking forward to this for weeks now. She and A. have been taking riding lessons for almost a year now. Their very generous grandparents are paying for them, because it certainly isn't in our budget and they love them. The stable where they ride has two school shows a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. When the notice came out about the spring show earlier in the year and I saw the entrance fee, I had to tell the girls there was no way we could make it work. They were disappointed, but took it fine.  This time, when the fall show notice came out, I could tell that P. had been doing a lot of thinking. She had decided that instead of buying the new bicycle that she had been saving her money for, she would rather pay the entrance fee to the show. I questioned her carefully because 20 minutes of riding in a show verses having a bicycle that she could ride for a long time didn't seem like an equal trade-off. (And...

It's the end of October which means at any second now, life will feel as though someone hit the fast forward button and it won't be until the middle of January that I'm able to catch my breath. In order to contain and conquer some of the season's worst excesses. To that end, I am starting to make lists and am also going to sort through all of our winter wear. Due to general nuttiness around here, this is something that never happened last year. As a result, people would go to the basement and grabbed whatever they could find. They were warm, but things are fairly topsy-turvy. Since I will be busy doing that, I'm going to send you to other posts that I have written about getting organized for the upcoming season. I'm also going to link to posts where I have shown various things I've made for Christmas gifts to get you thinking and give you some ideas. First about getting prepared. You can read the long version: Advance planning: get a cup of tea, this is ...

I thought that making G. a panda costume would be a good idea. She loves them and she is still little enough to think dressing up as a panda would be fun. So I bought I pattern that looked as though it would be fairly simple to change into a panda and started looking for some fabric. Then a bit ago, I discovered on one of my many trips to Vogue (I live just a few blocks away and just run over anytime I need a sewing notion... which seems to be a lot) I happened to notice that minky fabric was half off. You know minky fabric, right? It's that super, super soft fleece that many baby blankets are made out of. It's the fabric, that when you bring your children to the fabric store, they stop and pet the whole time you are looking at other fabric. It really feels good to touch it. And wouldn't a panda made out of minky be just so soft and cute? I thought so, so I bought a bunch of black minky and white minky. Those of you who have actually sewn with minky fabric before can se...

It's 10 am and I am still in my pajamas waiting to be able to get in the shower. You see, a good friend of mine is taking three of my children to a zoo for the day and we are waiting for them to be picked up. That's fun, you think to yourself, and if you are a normal, healthy individual, that's all it is... just fun. But if you happen to have had a lot of bad things happen to you in your early years, then fun is not so simple. Fun and anxiety are processed  and interpreted all the same way. In fact, it's pretty hard to tell the difference between the two. Fun, beforehand, really isn't so much fun. Which is why I'm still waiting to get dressed. Over the course of the morning, waiting for the three to get picked up, I have been on high alert. First there was the drama about what lunch to bring. "What should I bring for lunch?" "I don't know what I should bring for lunch." "Could I pack just a snack." "I don't think ...