Stomp the Wombat
My day started with Jillian making green cream of wheat and me rushing out to Mid-America Labs to have Seth’s blood drawn once again. The last time, the important” stuff came back normal but his lymphocyte count was up. Just a small thing, really. A brief Google search resulted with scary words like “cancer” popping up so I quickly closed the window. I went through freak out phase with his earlier issues that turned out to be non-issues. (See earlier posts…after I transfer them here.) Before I left, I told Ben to tell Lenae to take The Big Blue (our 15 passenger) and that I’d meet them at the shop. He told Lenae but somehow the message was missed plus Lenae’s alarm didn’t go off so my “staff” was still home when I returned. The soup was not heating up in the kettle and Reubens were not warming in the oven. That was fine, we were still okay on time so I didn’t spaz. That could have been the start of a bad day but the sun was shining; it was all good. Add to the hustle and bustle of the morning, the pain in my shoulder became worse (pulled something – and I have a high threshold of pain so if I notice pain, it’s worse than I think it is) and I fought the urge to become….grumpy. So I went to the chiropractor after driving the crew home after work. I can’t tell if it helped, yet. I feel worse but that’s not abnormal so we’ll see tomorrow.
All that being said, all of that craziness made the laughter of the evening’s card games a welcome release. The outlandish things that came out of the mouths of my DH and kids kept me posting on TweetDeck all evening: ”Okay we need a glass of water, a sharpie, and a very sharp spoon.” Natalie helping make up rules for a new card game. Craig’s card game rule: “and you can’t touch the table.” Noah: “And it’s called ‘Stomp the Wombat”(thank you, Penguins of Madagascar). Craig: “What part of don’t you understand don’t you understand?” Whacked. They’re all whacked. We don’t need TV. We’re our own sitcom.
Play with your food,
Michelle
St. Patrick's Day Cream of Wheat. Ew. The kids loved it!
Isabelle is Irish!
I May Never Pass This Way Again
I haven’t been blogging because I told myself that Quickbooks and Taxes are a priority and must be done first. BUT…I’m cheating by blogging that I’m not blogging for said reasons. I hope to have my part done by the weekend then dump it all in the accountant’s lap. Pray for the woman.
(In my best Arnold accent) I’ll be back….
I Like It Here…
My first blog was on Homeschool Blogger. I hear it’s been improved upon but I’m a scrapbooker at heart and needed to be able to load photos with ease. So I moved to Blogger. Much better and has served me well but up until recently, we were on dial-up and Blogspot didn’t always load up very quickly, if at all. I didn’t really make my blog known as there was a lot of tweaking I wanted to do but the dial-up and some limitations of Blogger fed my appetite for procrastination. I’ve been wanting to do a hodge podge blog where I can keep my general journaling and photo-posting, share my vast wealth of knowledge on zookeeping, talk shop with other homeschoolers, chronicle our adventure into the catering business, offer some spiritual introspection with Biblical exploration here and there, AND host a foodie blog all in one place. I guess we could call it a scatter-brained blog but that’s how I roll. SO, pages I need and flexibility to be creative with layout and so forth. And here I am, giving it another go. I am impressed with what I have found here and the recommendations to set up residence here have convinced me that I will be very comfortable here. I make no claim to being a great writer but I think best through the printed word, written and read, and I need the therapy. Here’s hoping I stay motivated and others might be blessed by my efforts.
Play with your food,
Michelle
Whew!
Farewell Aunt Corky
My Aunt Coralie died yesterday. Due to the fact that she hadn’t been to church in years and didn’t have friends, it was decided there will be no funeral. I have mixed feelings about my aunt and her passing away. She babysat me, came to the hospital when I had my first baby and brought a large, pink bunny due to Easter being the following week…I think she may have visited with at least one other birth. She was tickled each time I had a baby and just thought it wonderful we had so many. Somewhere along the line, she was introduced to alcohol and started drinking herself to death. When her health started to decline and she became near blind and housebound, unable to go out to get her booze, she replaced that addiction with food. She was already overweight but her drinking and dietary habits sent her body to the point of no return. I think she was 55. That’s pretty young, IMO. I was angry with her for awhile as her health became a burden on my mom. My mom took care of my bedridden Grandma and Grandpa for years and she found herself trying to take care of a bitter, miserable, sick alcoholic who was ungrateful and witchy to my mom all of the time. Yes, she had been sweet and still could be but alcohol ruins people. Though I would get angry at her I kept finding myself just feeling sorry for her and praying for her. I prayed she would remember the seeds planted when she had sought after God, was baptized and attended a church. I am heartbroken that a person can go through life only to come to the end friendless and feeling so miserable you’re willing to drown your sorrows in booze until it takes your life. I pray I live in such a way that friends and family will want a service of some kind to say goodbye not because I want to be popular, but because I want to be a blessing to others. This is not to say my aunt wasn’t a blessing. Obviously, I was blessed by her being my aunt or I wouldn’t feel grief. I just wish she had found herself by looking outside of herself and looking to God.
1 Peter 2:12
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
2 Weeks until Third Day!!!
Moi with Jillian, Natalie & Lenae at a Third Day concert in 2006
Moi with Jillian, Natalie & Lenae at a Third Day concert in 2006
So I posted on Facebook and Twitter that I observed on my calendar that I will be at the Indianapolis Third Day Concert and meeting the band in two weeks! I am SO jazzed. A friend asked how we are able to meet the band. This is the answer we concocted: “My brother’s girlfriend’s sister-in-law’s aunt went to school with Tai Anderson’s brother’s barber’s sister.” The truth is, I am Wired. The whole family is. Meaning Craig bought me a membership to the coolest fan club ever and threw the family in to boot. SO, we get to sign up for any and all Meet and Greets we want to, we get to take advantage of pre-sale tickets, discounts in the Third Day store, etc. The sad thing is I’ve been waiting for years to join and even longer for my own Gomer shirt. Every holiday and birthday: “Mom, what would you like for Christmas?” Answer: “The newest Third Day CD and a Gomer shirt.” “Michelle, what would you like for your birthday?” “The newest Third Day CD and a Gomer shirt.” The wait made me appreciate my lovely orange shirt ever so much, but this is the last year for Wired! I could have been hanging with the band but, NO, we had to be frugal. Okay, I’m being pathetic. Libya is in the midst of mayhem, New Zealand has had an earthquake. I’m whining about Wired ending after this year. Attitude check: check. Grateful for wonderful gift from DH: check. Contentment reinstated: check. Totally ecstatic to be seeing Third Day after going through concert withdrawal the past 2 ½ years: check, check, check!
It’s all good,
Michelle
When Birds of a Feather Have too Far to Fly
Everybody showed up for church today. It was a packed house and it was so nice that the weather allowed us to open windows to welcome the breeze and rain cooled the air. When that many peeps pack a house, it can get mighty warm mighty fast. But today was pleasant and folks hung out later than usual. The small fries were able to run amuck outside and the older set played Ultimate Frisbee and some basketball. The dessert table included Pumpkin Rolls, Pumpkin Pie with Homemade Whipped Cream, and we made Pumpkin Crunch. The singing is always great and, though I’m dead tired and kept trying to fall asleep, there was a teaching time that was anointed. I was also blessed simply by the conversation shared among sisters. Very convicting. I was reminded of how a wife has the power to turn a perfectly decent husband into a monster, a lame husband into a worse one, or a monster into a perfectly decent husband. That’s another blog post.
Today’s biggest focus, besides Christ, of course, was the imminent departure of our friends from South Africa. Walter, Elaine, Janna, Nadia, and little François. They have spent the past year with us as dear friends and members of our church. For most of the past year, Lenae took Autumn and Isabelle to the our friends’ home each Monday to give a ballet lesson to help them learn English, have friends their own age and, of course, learn ballet basics. Lenae used what she has learned from working at Dance Techniques and it was fun to watch her put together lesson plans for them and talk about how each lesson went. There were days they stayed longer so the girls could play. The friendships made between the girls and the bond that Lenae developed with Elaine were precious to watch. We’re already talking about sending Lenae to visit in South Africa after we can save up enough money.
It’s been fun learning about the differences as well as similarities in our cultures. What’s been especially enjoyable has been sharing the love of cooking with Elaine. She’s a fabulous cook and always goes over the top. We’re likeminded in the importance of presentation and experimenting. When we asked her what her likes and dislikes of American cuisine are, she said she likes it all. If she weren’t moving back, we would put her to work at our shop. She said if she were staying, she would love to. Man, I wish we had opened earlier!
Elaine and I also like to laugh. We enjoy good humor and good jokes. Her joy is contagious and I’m going to miss having that around. If laughter is good medicine, I’m a healthier person because of Elaine. As it usually goes, I regret I didn’t take the time to get to know her better earlier in the year.
So, this week, our friends will be heading back home on an 18 hour flight with little kids (pray for them!) and they have so many mixed emotions. They’ve missed their family and friends and country but will miss being here. My emotions aren’t mixed at all. I’ve already had the tears fall a few times the past week (and tonight) and I would love it if all of their family just moved here. But, since that can’t happen, we’re already having serious discussions about saving for a trip to South Africa, preferably around New Year’s because they have this way-awesome international fireworks competition at Cape Town! Who knew? Until then, thank God for internet. I’m gonna have to learn to use Skype.
Play With Your Food!
Michelle
I See a Sign!
After finding out that our “sign person” is booked until the end of the year, we debated (for about 2 minutes) about whether to spend twice as much to hire a professional sign company to make our signs or go at it ourselves. We had already purchased materials to make the street sign so Natalie said she was game. I went to Officemax with our logo on my flash drive and, as our sign lady said they would, they delivered. We now have our logo printed as big as life (okay 24″x 36″) and ready to stencil onto our already primed sign. Natalie will start on that today. We also had my FIL come to the shop and move the phone lines to where we want them while sharing with Benjamin his knowledge on the subject (while snapping at him occasionally in a way that only a Grandpa can get away with – it didn’t faze Ben at all, but if (when) I do that, then I’m being mean. Not fair.) Anyhoo, the previous owner, for whatever reason, had multiple phone jacks on the “appliance” side of the shop while the counter side had a couple of lines dangling there for the security system and another that was damaged. We’re “all good” now and have our charge card machine, fax and phone ready to roll!
That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 3:13
Today, I MUST needs stay home. Besides starting a business, it’s seasonal switchover time for 13 people and we host church on Sunday! And I just need to stay home. I don’t know how much longer I will have that opportunity!
I will stay home. You can’t make me leave…
I don’t have time to blog but feel compelled to tell somebody, anybody that I am staying home today. Every day that I purposed to be home for a day, duty has called me, demanded that I go somewhere. I have been trying for some time to explain to my DH, who is also frustrated with my non-stop running, that starting a business would require a huge amount of busy-ness and running to and fro is a part of the deal.I confess I’ve been anxious about this because I already have a full-time job being a homeschool mom of many. BUT, today, I am determined that I will be home, I will conquer the mountains, albeit organized mountains, of seasonal switchover, plan the menu for church on Sunday, have the house clean, pay bills, do some marketing, AND homeschool….all in a single bound. I do, in fact, take Supermom pills and something makes me think I should go take them…I’m going to need them.
I have been asking God over and over again how I am suppose to be a homeschooling mom while doing this catering thing but Craig keeps reassuring me that God wants us to do this and He already has it all figured out. Dear God, being the coordinator of all things homeschool AND business start-up, I really need You to let me in on the plan so I know how to do this. I realize our mornings are starting earlier and earlier and am counting on those hours for school but I need to know the rest of the game plan. Thank You.
Well, with the hub-bub of getting the day going, I cannot think to write so will call this one short and sweet. And that’s okay, because I’m staying home with my precious hub-bub makers and I’m going to enjoy every interruption.
Play with your food!
Michelle
http://thethinkingcloset.wordpress.com/
Recipe For A Wild Thyme 