Discussions with the kids

Hayden to Uncle Taylor: You better stop getting so fat or you're going to have a baby.

Ian to Daddy: You can't be Spiderman. You're too old. You couldn't even get the suit on.

Ian: I've been thinking about it this week, and I'd really like to get married and have four kids, 2 boys and 2 girls. But you can't really decide. God decides if you can have kids or not have kids and if they're boys or girls.

Riley: I don't want any kids. I want to be like Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Michelle. Kids are too hard to control.

Riley has become our own infomercial expert. He writes down every 800 number on t.v. and gives me a full report of what I really need to buy and why. He has some good ideas, but suggesting I really needed a Life Call system, because I was getting old and might fall was a bit much.

Riley also decided this week that he was tired of people googling over his beautiful, long eyelashes (in his words..."Making fun of..."), so he cut them all off.

I started working this week at a local pediatrician's office. It is a tree hugger's torture chamber. We are converting paper files to electronic, so we copy papers to scan and then shred the copies ten minutes later. It is thoroughly boring, but I don't have to sweat, fry anything, or wear a hair net; so I shall be grateful. I'm only working about 9 hours a week, at very doable times. The family has stepped up and been very good about making sure I come home to the dishes done, toys picked up, etc. It forces me to be more scheduled, so schooling, etc. is all done before I leave for work.

The only thing is that I've been working hard to work less...in the sense that I want to be more of a lover than a doer. God has been pressing me to work on relationships vs. tasks. SO, it is a bummer, that for this season, I must add a task that has nothing to do with relationships. But so it is. I realized tonight that I had gotten into a groove of using my dinner prep time to make phone calls and check in on all "the girls", and now I'm gone during that time. So I must readjust and figure out how to indeed put the people before the details.

The Lord continues to press me to refine and narrow my focus. My new friend, women's minister, and mentor, Santha, reminds me that when God prunes, He often prunes off live, growing things for the sake of better fruit elsewhere. I felt this week the Lord tugging at me to let Him prune some things off. I said "yes" and it has been indeed a bit painful. But I have to trust Him with the results. I continue to pray about the direction of ministry, whether I will have to work more or be able to minister the way I feel called, what is happening to my book. I told Bill last night that I literally could drive myself crazy trying to come up with solutions, but I just want to know the heart of God. I just want to know HIM!

Bill was told Friday that he will not really be scheduled until the course re-opens this spring. He has been applying for miscellaneous tied-me-over jobs, but has also been asked to go ahead and come into the course a few days this week. Tonight he is at the Hagadone Suite at the resort, schmoozing a bunch of vacation planners. They needed someone super friendly and outgoing to give away merchandise and answer questions about the golf course. They picked Bill. Nice.

This week the recurring song going through my head has been, "Momma said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this momma said (momma said, momma said)!" So does teaching phonics with five interruptions, while one kid who got a snow day is running around taunting the other two who do not EVER get snow days (such is a bummer of homeschooling count? phone ringing with husband on other end needing secretarial services so I run through the basement dodging two boys tossing each other into bookcases? What about someone falling into the grout bags of the eternal remodal project and deciding to try to use the shop vac by themselves and blow the dust all over the basement? Or maybe the dog throwing up four times? Or the little guy wetting his bed two nights in a row?

Actually, the kids have been quite helpful this week. Ian did the dishes for me this week, which gave me the opportunity to mop the floor and wipe down all the countertops. Riley made Kool-aid, which again enabled me to wipe down all the countertops. Hayden helped tack some photos to my photo board, which gave me the opportunity to redesign it altogether.

...and don't I still live in North Idaho? Since when is school cancelled for six inches of snow. I'm baffled still.

I wanted to post some candids of the kids from today, but alas, my computer isn't wanting to read the card tonight. Momma said there'd be days....