Sometimes I Thank God for Unanswered Prayers

Or at least prayers where the answer was a resounding NO, LOL!

After a series on finances at our church (perfect timing with this economy, eh?), I requested Your Money Map from our library. I've skimmed through quite a few chapters already. I'm so thankful that Ted and I have no credit card debt, and currently the only debt we do have is about $1700 left to pay on our minivan. (It will be paid off just in time to get another vehicle that will better fit our family, ha!) Even though the book contains a lot of information that Ted and I already know, have accepted, and claimed for our lives as stewards of the resources God has given us, it is still good to be reminded that EVERYTHING we have is God's, and it can ALL be used for His glory--not just whatever we tithe.

This morning I was reflecting during my prayer time, asking God for wisdom in directing us to a new (or "new") vehicle, saving more, etc., and I couldn't help but start to praise Him once again for His protection over our finances. Some may remember that in 2005 we were asking for prayers for Ted as he flew from Maryland to Las Vegas on a house-hunting trip. Every person we talked to had told us we simply HAD to buy a house--the market was hot, hot, HOT, and we'd make so much money when it was time for us to move again. Ted did his best, but it seemed we hit a brick wall every time we thought perhaps we had found a house we could actually afford to buy.

Finally we opened our minds to the possibility of renting a house instead of purchasing one. Immediately our prospects looked much better--there were tons of rentals going for less than our housing allowance, so we'd actually be able to use some of the allowance for utilities, etc., instead of over-stretching our budget simply to make a mortgage payment.

So we moved into a 2,000 square-foot rental in August 2005. In May 2006 we had to move to another rental because the owner was facing foreclosure. In October 2007 we once again had to move to another rental because THAT owner was not only facing foreclosure but also charges of fraud and who knows what else. (Goodbye, security deposit!!)

Thankfully we haven't had to move again, and even though the process of moving 3 times locally has been painful and frustrating (that 4,000 square-foot house we were in before this one is STILL sitting empty, sigh), we are just so thankful that WE are not the owners going through a foreclosure!!!

God truly does know best! I thank Him over and over for protecting us. If we had bought a house in 2005, it would have been highly overpriced, and then we would be faced with trying to sell it in this market. Not a good prospect.

Thank you, Father!!

Answers to FAQs

In case you were wondering...

1. No, I haven't had the baby yet.
2. No, we haven't decided on a name yet. But even if we had, we wouldn't be telling you! (No offense--not even our kids will know the name until Baby is born!)
3. No, we haven't heard where we'll be moving this summer.
4. No, we don't have any idea where we'll be moving this summer.

Trust me, we'll share news as soon as we can!

Baby Update

I realized I haven't posted an update for awhile regarding Baby's kidney. I had another ultrasound on January 14, and over a week later I finally learned the results. Basically, there has been no change, which means his kidney is still measuring within the "normal" range, but on the high end. So they still want to monitor it. That means more ultrasounds, sigh. It's not that I don't appreciate the opportunity to see that the baby is OK, but driving 45 minutes each way to the base hospital, plus finding child care for the kids, plus having to endure a full bladder while a tech presses on my belly...let's just say that at this point, it's more troublesome than thrilling!

The good news is that the OB informed me that if there is a problem with an enlarged kidney (which is fairly common in boys), then usually it will resolve itself. Even if it doesn't, they will simply continue to monitor the situation after birth. No major surgery required, no drama, no need to worry.

So I'm not. :-) As Jesus said, "Each day has enough trouble of its own!"

I Love My Husband!

There are many reasons I am still head-over-heels in love with Ted, but I thought I would share a few things he did yesterday that show his character. While I took the older 3 kids to a birthday party yesterday afternoon, he stayed home with Kenna and:

1) Swept and mopped the dining room and kitchen floor
2) Made a yummy Strawberry Earthquake Cake for us to enjoy later in the evening
3) Got dinner ready for us to eat as soon as we walked in the door
4) Kept Kenna contained for 2 hours :-) (Notice I said "contained," not "entertained," as he was busy being Mr. Mom!)

I came home to clean floors, a wonderful-smelling house, a prepared dinner, and a happy Kenna!

I love my man, and I'm so blessed to be his wife!!

The Little Things, Part 2

Little joys of life from yesterday...

* The homeschool garage sale I attended--I spent $34 and got TONS of GREAT stuff, including 27 Mythbuster episodes on DVD!! One of my biggest joys from yesterday was seeing the look on Ted's face when he saw the collection! Also lots of wonderful books that our whole family will be enjoying for a long time to come.

* The gorgeous weather. From the wonderful smell of rain Wednesday night to the bright sunny afternoon yesterday, I'm finally starting to realize that I will actually miss Las Vegas when we move.

* Listening to Kenna's shrieks of laughter while I jumped on the trampoline with her. "Bump," she would demand, and I'd jump some more, toppling her over in a matter of moments, much to her delight.

* Watching the kids do an "experiment" to see what it's like to be blind. (Our current Sonlight read-aloud is Follow My Leader, about a boy who is blinded by a firecracker at age 11 and has to learn to adapt.) Charis kept asking for more and more "tasks" to perform while "blind!" Great discussion opportunities. I cherish these moments of homeschooling my kids.

* Surprising the kids with a hot chocolate treat in the middle of the afternoon...while sitting down myself with a chai latte!

* Seeing Charis almost single-handedly make the meatloaf that we had for dinner last night. What a great little cook she is becoming! (And as a fun side note...she crushed the crackers while being "blind," but the rest of the project she did while fully sighted--thank goodness, ha!)

We Love Three-Day Weekends!

I really think we should have more of these on the calendar. I had a great weekend, starting with a long day of scrapping at Debi's house on Saturday. I finished our Disney World pages, so now I am officially two years behind, ha! I also did a few more pages in Kenna's album. This needs major work if I am to finish before the new baby comes and provides more opportunities for getting behind in scrapbooking. Debi and I had a fun day together and enjoyed a break for lunch at Panda Express. Her daughter had left for college in Reno that morning with her dad driving her, so I think it helped Debi that I was there to somewhat take her mind off the fact that her firstborn is flying the nest. I can hardly imagine what that feeling will be like...it's only a decade or so away before my sweet little Charis is ready for college! I say "only" because I think of how short the first 10 years of our marriage seemed (we'll hit 12 years in June) and of how fast time is already flying with our children. (Although there are plenty of long days in there, trust me! See earlier posts, LOL!)

Sunday afternoon I did a Sam's Club run--I'm realizing now I need to blog some things about Charis, but I will do that later. Anyway, I started experiencing some major contractions while shopping and came home to sit down with relief and visit with some friends whom we had invited over for the evening. We watched a little football, ordered dinner from Pizza Hut, and began a series of pinochle games while the kids watched Horton Hears a Who with their friend Addie. Laura and I got thoroughly trounced by the guys in all three of our games. (Well, there was the game that we lost by only a couple of hundred points, but it was dismal overall.) The contractions continued, causing me to wonder if I should have started nesting a long time ago.

But, thank the Lord, the contractions had subsided by Monday morning, leaving me free to continue with the grocery shopping at the neighborhood Walmart. I did quite a bit of work on my business--Ted did the Sonlight reading for school time while I prepped for a Tuesday morning workshop with my deaf friends. While he fixed lunch, I entered orders from my Friday night show (almost $550, woohoo!). I took a break to play a game of Catan with the whole family while Kenna was napping, and then I spent a good hour and a half or maybe even more entering receipts from last year--ugh. I can't believe I totally let that area of my life go!! I used to be so anal about my business tracking, entering each individual receipt the day I spent or earned the money. Now...?! Now I just enter 8 months' worth of STUFF all at once!!! Yikes! I have got to do better this year.

Before bedtime, Ted and the kids and I finished reading The 101 Dalmations (the REAL novel), one of my all-time favorite books. (I don't know if it's on the Sonlight list...if not, it should be!) After we got the kids in bed, Ted and I watched Facing the Giants for the first time. (I had picked it up for us for Christmas.) It was quite good! We had seen Fireproof in the theater, and I have to say that this one was just as good. We look forward to watching the extras tonight.

So, that was our weekend. Terribly exciting, wasn't it?! I guess it would have been if I had really gone into early labor, ha!

And Another One

Today Kenna got into the honey jar. Talk about a sticky baby!! The days are long but the years are short, right?!

Today's Kenna Stunt

A big uh-oh here.

Kenna can now get out of her onesies. Heaven help us all!

During a particularly good "Room Time" for Kenna (so I thought), we were making great progress on our Language Arts writing assignments. Tobin was having a reasonably good time comparing and contrasting Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, and Charis was actually happily writing a story based on a Story Starter picture prompt. (A happily writing Charis is a rare creature!)

So I should have suspected something was amiss when an hour had gone by and Kenna was still not fussing to get out of her room. I had Arden go ahead and let her out, and soon we saw her at the top of the stairs, with her onesie unsnapped...and her bare naked bottom hanging out. This might have been cute but for the odor which wafted all the way to the dining room.

Yup. She had pooped. And un-diapered herself. I dreaded what I might find in her room, but thank the good Lord she hadn't yet made it around to creating any artwork with her feces. There WAS a pile of solid poop on the bedspread of the twin bed in her room, which cleaned up easily. Whew!

With our morning school session officially over, Kenna enjoyed a morning bath.

You Make Me Laugh!

Yesterday during lunch Kenna looked up at the back screen door and saw a bug. She immediately notified us, pointing and exclaiming, "Buh, buh, BUH!" We acknowledged that yes, it was indeed a bug. (How clever of her to notice!) She stopped her proclamations, stared thoughtfully at the bug for a moment, then wrinkled her little nose and said, "EWWWWW!" The whole family burst into laughter, so I knew I had to remember to write this on the blog!

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While reading aloud to me this morning, Arden was running his sentences together. He's a great reader for being only 5 1/2 years old, but he does tend to be a bit monotone and wants to read fast like his older sibs. I had him stop and pointed out the periods on the page. I suggested that he take a little break, maybe take a breath or something, when he came to a period so he would remember to pause more between sentences. Dutifully he read the next sentence, stopped completely after the next period, took an enormous breath, and moved on. It was very hard not to giggle!

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During our Sonlight read-aloud time this afternoon, I caught a whiff of stinky feet. I asked who the culprit was, and of course everyone denied being the one to have smelly toes. Tobin even leaned down to sniff his foot to be sure. When I asked, "Well, does it smell?" his response was, "Only if you get REALLY close!"

Dry fur, anyone?

As I was putting lotion on this morning, I noticed the disclaimer on the bottle: "Finished product not tested on animals." Which begs the question, WHY would anyone think there would be a benefit to putting lotion on animals?!