What A Man

I was sick yesterday.  Really sick.  At one point I could not find the strength to even crawl off of the bathroom floor.  I had Noah bring me the phone and I called Joe for help.  He came in early from work and took over for me.
He took one look at me retching my guts out, closed the bathroom door and did not come back in!  I guess gone are the days of him sitting beside me wanting to hold back my hair.  Anyway, I could hear through the baby monitor that Joe was dressing the boys and he took them outside to cut wood with him.  I think I passed out because when I came back around it was to the sounds of Joe trying to get supper (raisin toast) for the boys. 
I never knew raisin toast could be so hard to prepare.  There was whining from three hungry cold little boys and yelling from my hubby.  GET OFF THE TABLE!  GET OUT OF THE CABINETS! STOP WHINING AND GO SIT DOWN!  IT WILL BE READY WHEN I SAY IT IS READY!  THERE IS BUTTER ON YOUR TOAST, NOW SIT DOWN AND EAT IT! NOAH WHERE DOES YOUR MOM KEEP THE BAND AIDS? I'm not really sure how one cuts himself while preparing raisin toast, but Jonah came running into my room screeching that Daddy cut his fingers off.  I laid there and wept as I heard my family unraveling at the seams.
Pretty soon I could tell that they must have been fed and were feeling better as I could hear happy sounds through the monitor with old Dukes of Hazzard reruns in the background.  What I heard next brought tears afresh.  I heard my husband speak to each of the boys, apologize for his earlier behavior, and ask for their forgiveness.
Joe may not parent exactly the way that I do, but essentially he does what any good parent should.  He adapts to the circumstances life throws at him.  Sure he makes mistakes, but he recognizes and corrects them as soon as possible.
So he doesn't hold back my hair anymore, but he takes good care of our babies.  All in all I still think I got a great catch.  What a man!
For those of you keeping track (MOM) I realize that this is twice within the same week that I have been violently sick to my stomach, but to my knowledge baby number four is NOT on the way...................yet.

Two Front Teeth

Guess what someone is getting for Christmas?

Catching Flies

This post is not meant to be disrespectful in any way but rather honest and from my heart.  Those of you who know the family that I married into will completely understand where I am coming from.

Today is Thanksgiving with Joe's side of the family.  I am not excited about going.  I have never been a favorite of my Mother-in-law.  In fact I am pretty sure I am as far away from being a favorite as one can possibly get.  I learned quickly upon joining this family that I had to stand up for myself and fight back or I would get trampled and my marriage would suffer.  So I did what I had to do.  I fought meanness with meanness and spite with spite.  I showed her just how much vinegar I had in me and today my marriage is fine, but my relationship with my Mother-in-law is not.

The Lord has been dealing with me on this issue for quite a while now and I have been trying to ignore that pricking of my conscience.  The pricking is starting to bleed and I can no longer ignore it.  My children are beginning to suffer because of my poor relationship with their Mama and I am the one who needs to step up and change things.

So starting today, there will be no more vinegar from me.  I am sure tears will fall before the day is over and my feelings will be trampled on, but with God's help I can do this.

Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.  Proverbs 16:24

Please pray for me today and as the days continue.  Keep me accountable for the words that I say to and about my Mother-in-law.  I have never liked the taste of honey, but I have a feeling it is going to be on my lips quite often in the future. I don't think we will ever get to the relationship of Ruth and Naomi, but developing a love for the woman who gave me my husband is something I know I can accomplish.

Do You Know Jesus?

This week as we were pulling out of the drive I noticed that Dixie Jane was out in the front yard instead of the fenced in back yard.  I backed up to go put her in the fence and told the boys to sit still until I got back from putting Dixie in the back yard. 
I used the moment to talk with Noah about the responsibilities of having a pet and that we had to take good care of Dixie.  We were talking about the fact that she could possibly die if she were to get in the road and hit by a car.
Jonah piped up at that time at said, "We can't let that happen 'cause Dixie don't know Jesus!"

Veteran's Day

Noah did so well in school today and I was really proud of him.  I have to admit that some days it is a struggle to get him to concentrate, do his best, or to even pay any attention at all.  Today was not one of those days.  We are getting better at these new roles of teacher and student.
Today we were just finishing school when Joe called and said he had to go to Savannah, GA to have a drive shaft repaired for one of the trucks.  He wanted to know if we would ride with him.  Since school was done and we still had the better part of the day left, I agreed. 
While we waited for the part to be repaired we took the kids to River Street downtown Savannah.  They played on the waterfront and we visited a World War II memorial.  The kids found the plaque for the Marine Corps and I took their picture in front of it in honor of Uncle Tj. (Notice the fuzzy out of focus photo...that means my Mom did not go with us!)

I do realize that I am posting a picture of my middle child wearing pajamas during the middle of the day out in public directly after posting my disgust of seeing adults walking around Walmart in their own pajamas.  I am going to go ahead a defend myself now before someone calls me out on it!  First of all, the rules for toddlers are different than adults.  Second of all, my child's pajamas cover all of his body which is much more than I can say of the adult women wearing their pajamas in Walmart.  Finally, the only way we can keep Jonah's skin healthy is to keep it fully covered and footed pajamas seem to do that better than anything else we have found.
So that was how we spent our Veteran's Day.  What did you do with yours?

Confessions

I have a confession.  Sometimes I wait until all the kids are in bed and Joe is watching his logging shows and I sneak out of the house.
Where do I go you ask?  Grocery shopping...where else?  When you have the constant companionship of three little boys it is sometimes hard to remember what your name is much less what you actually went in the store for.
Tonight was one of those nights.  I had some things that I needed to get from Walmart and I needed to be able to get them without the peering eyes of my little ones.  I got a great idea from a friend to buy the marked down Halloween costumes and use them as dress up clothes for the kids.  Walmart had their costumes marked down to $1 each and so I got the kids all sorts of costumes: policemen, batman, magicians, dinosaurs, spider man, astronauts, and pirates.  They will find them in a big box under the tree at Christmas and I am sure will have a blast playing in them.  But I digress.
When I make my rare late night shopping trips I run into all sorts of people who for whatever reason are doing their shopping late at night as well.  I often wonder why they are out so late.  Is it because they have kids at home too, or maybe they work odd hours, or maybe they have a strange aversion to daylight. However, what I wonder about the most is why these people feel that just because they are shopping at bedtime they think that it is appropriate to wear their pajamas!  I am not talking about sweats and an old tee-shirt, I am talking about real pajamas that you wear only to bed.  I seriously saw people tonight dressed in pajamas complete with fuzzy slippers walking around Walmart.  I'm thinking that there must be some convention going on that I knew nothing about.  I mean really, pajamas...in public?

Slacker

Yep, I am referring to myself.  It is a full two weeks later and I am finally getting around to posting the pictures of Jonah's birthday bash.  Well it wasn't a bash exactly, just family over for some homemade chili and cornbread...one of our favorite suppers around here.

Jonah with his "cake".

 Don't you just love that dimple?

Papa and Pa were there.

 Mama showed up too.

Linny brought Pappy out just three days post surgery.  A big thank you to everyone for their prayers.  Dad is recovering from the surgery well.  Although the tumor was malignant, the surgeon feels confident that it was all contained within the kidney that was removed and Dad does not need any further treatments.  Now Linny has the task of making sure Pappy keeps his other kidney healthy!

Granny Faye sure did enjoy her chili and cornbread...but she said she paid for it the next day.  I know TMI, but if I have to hear about it I guess you should too. Granny is doing a little better after her pacemaker and recent hospital stays.  My children have no idea how blessed they are to be able to enjoy my grandmother.  I pray that we will all be able to enjoy her for many more years to come.

The kids had such fun opening gifts.  It was the first time that Jonah really got into it.  I think that Christmas is going to be a blast this year!  I can't wait to see their faces on Christmas morning.  Especially since I have now found the Puppy Dog Pillow Pets and they are safely stashed away!

 The cousins always have a great time playing together.  Mom did get them to all stand still for at least one picture.

 If you haven't noticed, my Mom is not in any of these pictures.  She is always behind the camera.  I'm not complaining...if she didn't take pictures they probably would not be taken.  Nine times out of ten any pictures you see on this blog were taken by her.  Thanks Mom for being my personal photographer.  Oh yeah, thanks for being a great Mom and Grammy as well!

Harvest Fun

Sunday was our annual Harvest Fun day with the church.  Since we had been at the ER with Noah the night before due to an asthma attack, we missed the traditional trick-or-treating.  Although with as much fun as the kids had on Sunday, I do not think they even realized that they missed anything.

Noah picked this year's theme, which was the Three Billy Goats Gruff.  He was Big Billy Goat Gruff, Jonah was Middle Billy Goat Gruff, and Micah was Little Billy Goat Gruff.  Joe was the troll that lived under the bridge.  I was just the coordinator!  The kids were not into the costumes at all but did at least keep them on long enough to place in the costume contest.

Micah enjoyed his time with Grammy dancing during the cake walk.

He soon decided that cake walking was tough work and needed a break.

Jonah fell in love with the giant shark slide.

He slid over...

 and over...

and over again!

 Noah wasn't quite so brave as to tackle the giant shark slide, but he did let me paint his hair orange.

 I manned the hair painting booth, but my troll kept scaring off potential participants.  I think that instead of a troll he sort of looks like a Santa gone bad.

 It was a full day of sliding, painting, candy gathering, bingo playing, candy apple eating, pumpkin picking harvest fun!  We ended the day with an awesome hayride through the swamp.  I have come to love this time of year.  I love everything from the colors to the smells to the weather to the decorations...and especially the hot apple cider and cocoa.

This is the scarecrow that the boys and I made for art class a couple weeks ago.  I found a cute poem about a scarecrow named Patches whose patches told the salvation story.  The kids memorized the poem, we stuffed a scarecrow, and painted leather patches (man, cross, dove, tree, candle, and heart) to sew on his overalls.  I'm not sure how well you can see the patches but I thought they did a great job.

Now see that person? That was you when sin ruled your heart.

But Jesus died upon the cross to give you a new start.

His Spirit fills your heart with love and joy for all to see.

He gives you faith and helps it grow, strong as the strongest tree.

The light of Jesus shines in you.  Tell everyone you know!

God's given you eternal life because He loves you so!