Ordinary Time

I needed to sit down for a few moments, so I thought I would write a blog post. Last Saturday, J. took TM to the Enrique Iglesias concert. TM loved and, and J. ended up enjoying it, saying it was a good show. J., however, turns out not to be a fan of Pit Bull. I'm sure there is no big surprise there. Poor Q. has really outgrown her box. I finally ordered her a bigger home in the form of a large rabbit hutch. It comes in a few days. Until then, she is just going to have to be cramped. We discovered she really loves crunchy lettuce and celery, so we've been giving her that to make up for it. People keep asking me what we are going to do for the week we are having the floors redone, since we cannot really be in the house while they are working. I am actually greatly looking forward to that week. I won't be able to do a thing, so my plan is to sit on the lounge chair (which we will take ourselves so that it doesn't end up in storage), and read some books (which I haven...

I've just gotten home from an appointment that is 1 1/2 hours away, but took me 2 1/2 hours. Bleh. I really feel as though I just want to go curl up in bed. If only... As I was driving home two staggeringly obvious thoughts occurred to me. At least they should be staggeringly obvious, but are more of the category of not something you think about unless you are in the midst of it. The first is that having a long commute is really expensive. I mean, I knew we would have higher fuel costs and such with J. doing this crazy commute, but I guess I didn't fully appreciate what that would look like exactly. I couldn't figure out where the extra money in the paycheck from his salary increase was going. If anything, it seemed as though we had less money by the end of the pay period. So I added up all the commuting expenses. The gas, the tolls, the stops to get some caffeine and snacks in order to stay awake. The total was eye-opening and pretty much negated and then some the extr...

I'm taking a break from packing the butler's pantry (packing crystal and china is fairly tedious), to celebrate my birthday by hopping up on one of my favorite hobby horses. (Look! Real content!) And today's favorite hobby horse is... the real cost of a large family. We've all heard it. Raising children is expensive. This idea is supported every time one of those reports comes out that tells us exactly how much we spend per child to raise each of them. It's an extremely high number. A number that cannot be even remotely correct because I'm pretty sure J. and I have never made that amount of money and we have raised a couple of children to adulthood already. They each seem to have survived, so I'm feeling pretty good not believing the numbers. Let's look at the costs of raising a larger family realistically, shall we? Of course if you have more children, you will be spending more money. It would be silly to argue the reverse. It's just that it...

This is the part of moving that I do not relish, not that packing is much fun, either. On Sunday afternoon, a friend threw an enormous good-bye party for us. It was fun, though J. and I still feel as though it warrants a move of continents instead of the other side of the Chicago area. We decided that we were a good excuse to have a big party where lots of people could see old friends and have fun. And it was fun. It was great to visit (if briefly) with people whom we don't get to see a lot of.  We were also blessed with some lovely gifts. A friend made this lovely platter. If you can't read the words which surround it, it says, "If you can't fee one hundred people, feed just one --- Mother Theresa."  Other friends brought us back a scroll from their last trip to China. This is 1 Corinthians 13. And finally, the children's ministry director gave us this. Yes, it's a shepherd's crook. Here's the story. J.'s mother is the one w...

(If you are just joining us, read Part 1 and Part 2 , first.) For everyone joining me in working on digging out an out-of-control house, how's your kitchen? Your laundry? Your bedroom? And biggest of all (and really the reason that we are doing this), how's your relationship with your family? Have you been smiling? Looking them in the eye when you have a conversation? Taking time to do things together? Are you working on being all on the same team? This last is super important, especially when we get to the point of involving the family in keeping the house under control. If you haven't nailed these things every day, it's OK. Remember, you are in the process of creating habits, and habits take a bit to really sink in. At least the good habits, the slovenly ones which require no effort, take no time at all. Think about how you are creating habits when you are deciding what to do. You are creating the habit of putting things away in the kitchen right away. You are c...

It's been quite a week. It's also now June, the month of a lot of birthdays, five children off to church camp, and MOVING! June has been so far in the future for so long, this feels a little unreal. The first part of the week saw a lot of large family gatherings with the two families we have shared so much with over the past 20 or so years. The H-S family was briefly back in town, and we had a lot of fun spending time together. The little people had several very late nights in a row, which does make for less than calm days following. I've packed up (minus wall hangings) both living rooms, front hall, most of the dining room, and the games. The games and puzzles took quite a while because of the needed sorting. I went through every game to check the contents against what should have been there. It was an easy first purge to get rid of any game which did not have the pieces necessary to play it. Why, why, why is it so challenging to keep game pieces together? On Wedn...

My blood pressure can go back down, and I can start to really look forward to this move, because... yes, indeed, the very large earnest money check was handed over today! Now, perhaps my brain can start functioning again and I can start writing real posts before everyone abandons ship around here. You can look forward to actual content arriving on a regular basis again. I will enjoy it, too. I was more than a little tired of that particular hamster running in my head. For now, though, you can read my latest article. (And share it. More than once, if you like.) How I Feel About Celebrities Adopting