Murder and Frankenstein

I'm leaving on the ladies' retreat tomorrow. I cannot even tell you how much I need it.

When coordinating a MOPS group with 25 women on the Steering Team is the easiest thing in your life, you have a problem. It seems God has me in a "everything is hard and you need to learn to stick with it no matter what" phase of life, and I really don't like it at all.

With that said, here are a couple of funnies from the week:

Ian: Will we be dead when we get to heaven? Will we be angels?
Me: No.
Ian: Well, will we still be alive?
Me: Yes, but we’ll have new bodies. We won’t be angels. The angels are already there.
Ian: (with big eyes) Well, I hope I’m still a boy!
Hayden: I hope I still have my same voice!

Last night, Hayden was all huddled in a laundry basket in the living room with a blanket over him. Riley and Ian were behind the couch. They wanted to do a skit. Riley Narrated.
Riley: A long time ago Mary found out she was going to have a baby. She was scared but the angel, Gabrielle, told her not to be scared. So she and Joseph headed off to Jerusalem, but none of the houses had any room for them to stay because it was Christmas. But somebody said they had a barn they could stay in, so they did and Mary had her baby. Then some wise men came.

Riley and Ian crept out from behind the couch presenting a toolbox and a hotwheel case to baby Jesus.

Riley: and the wisemen brought him gifts of murder and gold.
Clayton: Ha! Ha! Murder!!? It's Myrrh! and you forgot the Frankenstein!!

Bleachaphobia

Hi. I'm Angela Gifford, and I'm afraid of bleach. I don't keep it in my home. I don't use it. It irritates my skin, ruins my clothes, burns my eyes, gives me headaches, and makes everything smell like a swimming pool - which I don't tend to find to be a very homey smell.

So, when my son's science project listed bleach as a supply under "common household items", we had to go to the store. I was going to help my son use bleach to demonstrate a water purification system. LOL! Where are the eco friendly science projects, please? (My apologies to those who use bleach and believe it is good. Sales pitch: please visit http://www.saferforyourhome.com/ and then call me. End sales pitch. :D )

Against my better judgement, I decided that I might as well tackle some of those cleaning projects that maybe could benefit from bleach, but I don't buy it. You should have seen me decked out and ready to open it. You may have thought I worked for hazmat...lifting the seal with tweezers, etc.

So you can imagine my frustration to not see much of a difference from my efforts. I had to scrub just as hard as I do with my nice, safe, non-toxic cleaners for the same results. What is the point? It did however discolor my nice blue cleaning rag. When I got done, I realized, "What am I going to do with this nice cleaning rag? I can't put it in the laundry!" So I threw it away, and now I'm sure the inside of my trash can will be more sanitary.

I'm not sure what I accomplished this morning other than possibly permanently singeing the inside of my nasal passages and assuring myself that I'm not doing a half-baked job on my cleaning around here without bleach.

Riley was the first one up. I had done the cleaning downstairs, and when he came out of his room upstairs, his comment was, "WHOA! It smells like a swimming pool in here!" Which was soon followed by (after seeing his tub of clean clothes), "Mom, you always give me too much laundry!" Hee! Hee!

So we leave for Oregon today. We're not packed. I was up til about midnight tying up loose ends and awakened at 5:00 by our lovely resident packrat who decided to munch on the wall behind our bed for breakfast. After grumbling through my shower and bleach incident, I had to have a nice chunk of "face time." All better now. :D

Fall

Ahhh! Today is the first day that feels like fall. It is gloomy, drizzly, and cool. I've got tortilla soup in the crockpot, and am dragging up the box of fall decor. Maybe the kids and I will have some fun today. After all, this is my favorite season!

We're heading to Oregon later this week to teach at the leadership retreat for my dad's church. They are starting small groups, and want to start them right. We're very excited about the opportunity to show others how real discipleship works! We're also excited about just seeing them, and having some fun. Mom and dad will be following us back, because THEIR HOUSE FINALLY SOLD!!! After 18 months on the market, it should close the 25th. So we will all be busy getting it completely cleaned out.

Riley also has his ultrasound on the 24th to check out how he's lookin' inside.

I'm also really looking forward to the ladies' retreat at the end of this month. I've been told that there are few plans besides the worship times and meals. They want us to just have time to spend with God. I'm SO excited!

This afternoon my instinct said, "Have some green tea and put your feet up." I didn't listen. Tonight I have a headache and chills. Fun.

(Written Thursday - but no time to finish and post)

The last few weeks have been completely overwhelming. Many factors involved, but the biggest simply being the whole home schooling thing. I’ve felt like an over-worked robot, who simply can’t keep up with the demand. I feel *I* have 12 hours of schoolwork each day (13 subjects) to accomplish.
The hardest thing about all the stress is that it reveals so many character flaws in me. Honestly, I can’t work on this many things at once. *I* have so much to work on. The kids can get distracted, push my buttons, and goof off. But it is my attitude that needs the most work. Yes, it is frustrating to be running crazy and pass my husband resting on the couch with his knee propped up day in and day out. But it is my servant’s heart that is lacking.
Today has been a really good day. I have a few ideas why. They won’t happen everyday. Some I have no control of, but some are very intentional. Here are my ideas:
*I’ve been sharing my struggles with others, and they have been praying for me. (accountability James 5:16)
*I got out of the house last night and went to exercise. (taking care of me)
*Bill and I spent some time in an online parenting class last night. (training for the job)
*A bestest girlfriend called last night. (time to laugh and fellowship)
*I ended my night in the Word. (spiritual food)
*I got up early today. (discipline)
*I started my day today on my face before the Lord. (humility and submission)
*I spent some time this morning praying for others (getting focus off self!)

(Saturday)
Some random things from the week….
After a long day Tuesday, I sat and looked through baby albums. I needed to be reminded how cute and precious my kiddos are - and they are!

Reviewing with Riley this week “may” and “can”:
Me: “Each sentence has a blank to fill in the word “may” or … can you guess?
Riley: June?

Playing a syllable game with Ian where we turned over a card with a picture and got to move the number of spaces on the game board that the picture word had. Ian turned over a spider, but was really wanting to win and insisted that it was a ta-ran-tu-la!

On a recent drive around the lake, we heard lots of giggling in the backseat. We turned around to see Riley sucking on Hayden’s bare toes! Gross! Boys!

I’ve been wondering why God gave us toenails to begin with. I’m sure he had something better than nail polish in mind.

Life in General

Well....it seems I need to rework my schedule to look more like a working woman. My regular routine just isn't working anymore with homeschooling. I had gotten myself in such a groove. :P So it's back to laundry catch-up, cleaning, menu planning, errands, and grocery shopping on Saturday. Hopefully that will make the week a little easier.

The other thing I know I'm going to completely cherish is really resting on Sunday. I'm so grateful we can. A lazy pancake breakfast (sour-cream/chocolate chip), time to work with Clayton on the piano, a little worship at the piano myself, a game with the kids, a lazy drive around the lake, time to work on some home-made baby gifts, and grilling burgers with the family. Perfect! Still looking forward to some time to read, etc. tonight.

Bill went to Immediate Care today. He has been nursing a sore knee for a couple of weeks after stepping wrong on the golf course. He's been home for four days, unable to work. They said he needed to stay home for four more. We'll see after that.

I've been fighting a lot of anger lately. Nothing in life seems to make sense. It feels we're right back where we were seven months ago. I really don't understand what God is doing or what we may have missed, etc. I'm learning that I don't need to understand, but I do need to humbly stay on my face before Him daily. My prayer times have gotten lazy. I'm working on that.

O.K. off to flip burgers!

Facebook

Oh, and I'm on facebook now. Angela Brandel Gifford.

Creative School Supplies

I thought I would share the uses my boys have found for the school supplies that I so carefully acquired for each of them and separated into their very own, labeled school boxes.

Scissors: make great sling shots. Just tie one end of a rubber band to each loop of the scissors.
Pencils: are for chewing the lead out and the erasers off. Somehow they work better that way.
Paper: is for making boats, rockets and flying machines
Markers: are for coloring your finger nails
Rulers: are great drumsticks. The table is a wonderful drum.
Crayons: are for general peeling and breaking. Really there is no other use for them.

Homeschooling tends to show up every ounce of undiscipline that has been let go in the kids. Just like every teacher spends about a week going over rules and getting the kids in a routine, we're spending some time around back tracking and working on basics: come, sit, go, stay...inside voices. Goodness!

Riley is way too smart for second grade math so far, so we are trying to test him out of the first few chapters.

Ian is so eager. He is soooo much fun to teach! Everyday it's, "When is it *my* turn for school?!" He is really annoyed with the sorting and matching and "over, above, inside, outside" stuff that is supposed to be math. He really wants to do "plussing."

Hayden answers Ian's questions about half the time before Ian does. He's such a smart whippersnapper. He'll probably skip kindergarten entirely. I can't believe he has two more years to wait.

Clayton loves to read, but is out of reading material. Recent conversation with the librarian:
Librarian: What have you read?
Clayton: I like the "Left Behind" books.
Librarian: Well there are a lot of those.
Clayton: I've read all 40.
Librarian: What about the C.S. Lewis ones...The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe
Clayton: I've read all those too.
Librarian: What about Matt Christopher?
Clayton: Read those.
Librarian: Magic Treehouse?
Clayton: Read those.

Anyway, she is ordering a new series just for him, but they aren't in yet. Poor kid. She sent him home with two large novels. He read one that day, and the other the next day. BUT, he hates to write, so 5th grade is torturous. Part of this week has involved an intro to journal writing. His first assignment was to write a paragraph of the things he'd like to use a journal for. I insisted that his "paragraph" had to be at least three sentences. So his entry went something like this. "I hate journals. There is nothing I would like to put in a journal. I would never keep a journal." Oh, boy!

It's been a long few weeks with Riley's surgery, Taylor moving, family in and out, school starting, MOPS gearing up to start, cleaning out the house, etc. It seems like so many things are urgent and I just rush from one need to the next. I'm feeling overwhelmed this week at how much I'm needed and how much time I need to re-group to be of any use to those who need me.

I don't have any time to write, which is very much a re-grouping outlet for me. When I go days and weeks without writing, I feel a part of me is missing. Hoping to find it again soon.