What I Failed to Mention

Blogging is the best.  Know why?  I can have a terrible awful morning and then blog about it, and ya'll tell me that you too are sometimes terrible and awful.  And *BAM*  I suddenly feel better!

OK, so there was more to it than that...your comments encouragement yesterday completely helped in shoving moving me in the right direction.  The rest of my day was MUCH better...and as you all wisely said, Eli came home completely happy.

Here's what I failed to mention yesterday.  I have been drinking decaf coffee all week (except for one little trip to Starbucks on Tuesday morning.)  Yes, you heard me right.  DECAF.  

I went from drinking 12 cups of regular coffee daily to pretty much...decaf.  This may have been part of the reason I have not been particularly sunshiny this week.

I know what you're thinking.  Why?  WHY?  

So here it is.

It's like a drug addict (and yes technically caffeine is a drug, but lets not talk about that;)  To get a fix, I needed to drink an insane amount of coffee...and still I didn't feel very peppy.  When you can drink a Venti Caramel Macchiato and then lay down and take a nap...that's probably not normal.

I've weaned myself off and today I'm feeling like I'm coming out of the haze a little...I'm pretty sure there's a term for that that I can't come up with right now...watching celebrity rehab has apparently failed me.

Anyways, I'm not breaking up with caffeine.  Just putting a little space between us so that when I do need a good "buzz"  *snickering*  then I can get one.

...and now I'm thinking of all the ways I'm gonna get "googled" from this post ;)

Good times.

Pin It

Bad Mom Award Goes To...

I sent my "middlest" child off to school this morning...in tears.

I somehow forgot, in the midst of him ignoring my instructions all morning, how sensitive he is.

Mornings around here are sporadic. One morning, everything goes smooth as can be, and the next: chaos.

This morning would fall under the latter. The problem has a simple fix: Just listen and do what mama says. Simple right? Don't I wish.

Here's how it goes around here.

I say: Boys' go upstairs and brush your teeth.

They: head up the stairs and have to pass their bedroom to get to the bathroom...guess where they end up?

I say: Get your coat and shoes on.

They: Get up, but end up in a room in the house that does NOT contain their coat or shoes. When they finally make it to the mudroom, and are half-way dressed, they decide that they cannot possibly wear the shirt they have on...they must take off their coat and shoes, run upstairs, fling clothes all over until they find the right t-shirt and THEN come get their stuff on.

As I rushed to help get Eli's coat on I began my lecture.

"This is why I told you to get your stuff on 10 minutes ago, I tell you this for a reason, you need to listen and obey and not run off blah blah blah blah blah"

And then his tears came. I immediately wanted to take back my dumb lecture. It wasn't necessary, I had already been getting after them all morning...he got the point. Yet in my anger and frustration I couldn't let it go...

I hugged him and hugged him trying to reassure him that it was ok, no need to cry...but once those tears start for him they're pretty hard to stop.

And then I sent him out the door...feeling like the worst mother. Ever.

After he left I pleaded with the Lord to make it all better in his sensitive little heart and at that moment God revealed to me that the chaos of our morning was not just my boys fault for not listening...it was more mine, for not listening to my Heavenly Father. If I had...that lecture never would have began, I wouldn't have had to send my sweet boy off in tears.

Mommahood is tough. My idiotness sometimes makes it a lot more tough ;)

Starting fresh again today. It's 8:56 AM.

Pin It

Good Grief

I give up.

As a mom...there are just some battles I am not willing to fight...because I am tired. Very tired.

Awhile ago the boys came home with their school pictures. Generally, I order the smallest package possible...but for reasons I cannot explain, this year I decided to order a good size package for each of them.

When they came home with the pictures, and I looked at them, I thought to myself, "Sarah: You are an idiot" (and by idiot, I mean experienced a slight lapse in judgement ;)

I put them aside for retakes. When retake day began to near I thought I should warn the boys that they would be re-doing their school pictures. I wish I would have taped their reaction. It was pathetic. It involved writhing around on the floor and gnashing of teeth...by both of them. Ridiculous. In the heat of it, I made a rash comment (shocking, I know) I said, "Fine, I'll just hand these out to everyone we know, is THAT what you want?!?"

Again...I am an idiot.

Immediately they stood up, smiled at me and said, "Yep!"

I surrender. If I made them do the re-takes, they'd have probably been worse. So, at Thanksgiving time, I will be passing out these:

Noah - First Grade

Eli in Kindergarten...sticking his tongue through his new gap in his teeth. Good times :)

Pin It

I Heart It...

Confession time.



Up until this September....I had never watched The Office before.



I maybe saw snippets here and there before and thought, "What the heck?!? That's dumb."



I know...I KNOW!



But this season, after much bloggy chatter about The Office, I decided I needed to give it a try.



And behold....I discovered a new love.



Two weekends ago I rented season two from the video store and watched it all weekend. This past weekend I tried to rent season three, but they did not have it. So I did the next logical thing. I bought it.



I watched the entire third season this weekend. Hysterical. Poor Ben had to shut the office doors to try to block out my laughing. It's that funny. And the more ya watch it...the funnier it gets!



I can't get enough of it. Next weekend: Season four. After that...I'll get to season one :) Good times.



Here's my bullet list favorites (that I can remember)

• Jim and Dwight crack me up! Jim plays a prank and Dwight's reaction is priceless every single time.


• Phyllis: love her.


• Michael: Seriously, he does/says the most appalling things and yet I still find myself feeling bad for him...and even kinda liking the lonely guy.


• Dwight: "Question" and pretty much everything else about him is so stinkin' funny!


• I tried to pick some favorite episodes, but I can't...I love them all.

There. Now you know. And for you office lovers...click here *smiles*

Pin It

Giddy

This is what I woke up to today.

And despite the fact that...

• we still have 5 pumpkins sitting on our front steps
• and pots with dead plants in them by the same front door
• and a yard that has yet to be raked free of leaves
• I haven't bought snow boots for the oldest yet
• or dug out everyone else's from the attic
• It's early November....

I am positively GIDDY! The fact that it will probably all be melted by lunch time also helps the giddiness factor...but there is just something exciting about the first snow...or every snow...no matter what a big pain in the butt it is, there's no denying how pretty a fresh coat of white makes everything.

Jake keeps looking out the window exclaiming "Look! It snowed at the neighbors house too!" and when he see the next neighbor's house, he announces the same thing :) It never gets old...

Guess what we're doing tonight? Yep...going to get some snow boots...because if we have them, it's guaranteed not to snow anymore ;)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Pin It

It's What I Am...

I started college with every intention of becoming a social worker. It took ten minutes into the first semester for me to realize I did NOT in fact want to be a social worker.

Two big factors stood in the way. 1 - I'm a fix-it type person. You come to me with a problem and I want to fix it for you...or tell you what to do to fix it. I have to make myself just sit and listen without giving options...I think this may make me like a man, but whatever. 2 - I quickly realized I would have trouble leaving work at work.

Looking back, I can see that the desire inside my heart that made me want to be a social worker was in fact placed there by God...but it wasn't to be a social worker...it was to be a Pastor's wife...which sometimes looks and feels kinda like working for human services.

I am constantly battling #1...seeking God's discernment on when to just listen and when to act. On my own, I tend to go over-board in either direction.

#2 - In ministry, there's no such thing as leaving work at work. The people God has placed into our lives are literally a part of our lives. The blessing in it, for Ben and I, is that we are in it together. Do we sometimes have to shut it out? Absolutely...for a time.

This week God literally dropped a desperate young mommy of three into my life. She called looking for a church...looking for Jesus. I hung up the phone so excited that she had called us...and at the same time wishing she'd called someone else. Excited because I know a Savior that will change her life, and yet wishing she'd called someone else better experienced to help her in her particular situation.

I'm asking for your prayers today...that she would meet Jesus in a life-changing way, that God would pour out His wisdom on Ben and I and our little church regarding how He desires us to minister to her and so many others.

It's overwhelming...in a really fantastic sorta way. We need so much of Him...because without Him, I'm fully aware of how badly we will screw it up ;)

Thanks for listening and praying bloggy friends!

Pin It

Bad Hair Cut...

I looked up from the computer yesterday to see Jake, holding a pair of scissors and standing over Odie.

Never a good thing.

See those spots? It's missing hair. Fortunately, Odie was in his usual state of unconsciousness on the couch, so he was totally unaware of what Jakob was doing to him.

When Odie awoke, I tried to explain to him that Jake was in big trouble, and that the hair will grow back...and that it doesn't look so bad.

But I don't think he believed me.

Sorry Odie. :)

Pin It