Frustrated

I am a little frustrated today.

1. I have been given this awesome coupon from Borders.com and the website won't process my order. This has happened A LOT. I am ready to take Borders off my list of places to shop.

2.Jeff's Grandpa is in a nursing home. We were with his family for Thanksgiving and while there we visted Grandpa a couple of times. It broke my heart to see him in that YUCKY place!!! I can't seem to get it out of my mind! I want to go get him out and bring him to our house. He actually asked us to take him home with us. (He is only supposed to be in there for a little while. Just until he gains some strength. Right now Grandma can not take care of him totally. They are both in their 90's) Even though I know all this, it still frustrates me!

3.Something stupid happened this week and I realized that I am on the outside looking in...when I thought that I was on the inside looking out! Don't ask!

4.I can't keep the house clean, organized, or quiet.

5.All of Joel's new toys from his Birthday are every where. Just think...Christmas is just around the corner....YIPPEE!!!

I am done complaining. I have a wonderful husband, a fire blazing in the wood burning stove, school is almost done for the day, supper is already made (yeah for leftovers), I get to do dishes soon, and there hasn't been any requests for a video so far today!!! I am very blessed!!

Whats up?

Thanks for asking. I would be glad to tell you.
This week started our summer of Family Camps. We had 17 families here for the week and it was awesome!! The families just didn't want to leave this morning. I d to see them go too, but we do have 21 more families arriving Monday afternoon.
Here are some highlights of the week....

• 8 absolutely wonderful messages preached
• 215 homemade cinnamon rolls
• homemade pretzels
• lots of outside activities
• two very long hayrides
• fun crafts for the kids, but most importantly.....easy for the workers
• date night for the parents
• not getting the kids to bed before 10 o'clock any night this week
• a tornado warning (which required all 200 people on this camp to get into four different basements! Lots of excitement, but no real reason for it! Nothing happened.)
• LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of salad for me
• visiting with friends that I haven't seen since last year
• a camp fire with SMORES

God has been doing some neat things in my life this week. I am learning about how faithful my God is to me and how truly unfaithful I am to my God. Tomorrow I will TRY to type out an excerpt from a book that I am reading. It really convicted me and yet challenged me to serve God in everything I do!!

My life....in a nut shell

• muddy clothes
• no cooking
• stinky feet (the children's feet, not mine)
• staying up WAY past our bedtimes
• hearing God's Word preached twice a day!!!
• talking with friends
• busy
• not home much
• a clean house
• LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!

Just checking in!

Okay, this will be short. I am just checking in with ya all, because it has been SO long since my last post! I am still living and everything is going great.
Some highlights from the week....

1. Jeff and I went away by ourselves last night! We had a great time together just relaxing and having fun.
2. I went on a "date"with a friend tonight. We went shopping and had some wonderful fellowship!! I love my husband DEARLY, but talking with another women is just really nice sometimes.
3. Fitting back into some of my size 10 pants. Not all of them, but who's counting?
4. Did an Easter egg hunt today with some of the kids on the camp. It was a lot of fun!!! Yes, I know that Easter is over, that is why I got such an awesome deal on the candy filled eggs!! My kids just don't seem to mind when they have an egg hunt. They love for me to hide things and for them to be able to find it!
5. It is so cold here again that we have a fire going in the wood burning stove. It feels very cozy and warm here at the computer.
6. I am reading an AWESOME book on anger!! I think that the title is The Heart of Anger. I want so much to just quote most of the book on here. God is teaching me so much about myself and my children.

That is it for now. I will try to write again real soon!!

My attitude

Why is it that some days I am just plain "GRUMPY"? Today that is me!

• It could be the fact that I had to set the alarm every hour on the hour lastnight. Everytime the alarm went off, I got up and put more wood in the stove. The freezing temperatures makes keeping the stove going a necessity!
• It could just be "hormonal".
• It could be that my house is a complete mess. It doesn't take 7 people very long at all to destroy a clean house. It also doesn't take those same 7 people long to clean it, but today is game day. That leaves Amy, Joel, and I to clean it ourselves. YIPPEE!
• It could be that I wasted my weekend and I am feeling guilty for doing so. I accomplished absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.....making meals, watching movies, sweeping the floors, doing laundry and taking care of the kids. I could have done so much more with my time and I should have.
• It could be that I didn't spend time with the Lord this morning.
• It could be that I am sick of being in my house, but it is too cold to go out.

Whatever it is. I hate days like this, but thankfully tomorrow is another day and another chance to do the right thing!

No joke

Here are some fun facts about our week....

• We consumed at least 15 pounds of apples.
• We are eating our second ten pound bag of potatoes. The children were introduced to the joys of baked potatoes and they are loving them!
• I have no idea how many bananas we have eaten, but I know that it is bunches and bunches and bunches.
• Amy now knows that Eskimos are people and not just something you do with your nose.
• Joel takes his nap everyday in our bed. This morning I had put the phone down on my bed and forgot about it. During Joel's nap today, he had rolled over on the phone and turned it on. We didn't find out about it for at least three hours! That was why my computer wouldn't dial up!
• Someone dances with Joel before every nap. Jeff started this new tradition. It is called the Binky Dance. Whomever the lucky person is at that moment, Joel grabs their hands and together they jump up and down and they both chant...The Binky Dance, The Binky Dance...! It is a cute thing to behold. After the dance is done, Joel gets his beloved binky and off to bed he goes.
• Joel went blind today. Okay, not really, his hat fell over his eyes while outside playing and he couldn't see a blessed thing!
• Joel requested that Amy get a break from school. He said to me, "Bwake Mommy, bwake!" He wanted her to play with him. It worked, Amy was soon free to play with Joel.
• Vick's vapor rub is one of my best friends.
• One of the children that I teach on Thursday night, thought that Emily was ME! Emily had walked past this child and she called out to Emily, "Miss Judith, Miss Judith?" It was so funny to hear her doubt that Emily was me. At that point I walked past the child and said, "Hi, Gabby!" You should have seen her face. She had this very confused look on her face and then a huge smile!
• Jeff and I are babysitting tonight. He is at home with nine children and I am next door at Karen's house watching her three. Yes, this is fair. Most of Jeff's children are old enough to take care of themselves, NOT SO at Karen's house!!

We leave in the morning

I can't believe that we are heading home tomorrow. I am trusting my husband that this is best for us. I want to stay here for forever, but duty calls us home. I thought it would be kind of fun to make a list of all the things that I will miss here.

• our friends
• SPACE!! Yes, you read that right. There is SO much more space here in this house with 17 people than there is at home with just the 7 of us!
• Not having to cook or clean. I have helped out around here as much as they would let me, but it wasn't very much!!
• My husband!! No, he is not staying, but he will be going back to work as soon as we get home.
• chocolate M&M's, ice cream, cookies and anything else sweet!
• not having to teach the children school (Jeff did it while we were here!)
• adult conversation.....ANYTIME
• eating out
• our bat cave (Jeff and I slept on the lower, full size bunk bed. We draped blankets around us for privacy and darkness. I will miss it very much!)
• not having to pay for anything (The Week's family spoiled us ROTTEN!!!)
• services each night
• being busy, but not too busy
• warm house with NO mold
• big bathroom
• lots of warm, fuzzy blankets
• children around every corner.......oops I don't have to miss that one. We have that at home too!!
• NO SNOW
• not having to drive very far to get anywhere! For instance, the grocery store is only about three minutes away, compared to home where I shop almost a full 1/2 hour away from the house.
• pizza
• sunshine
• a quiet place to just read
• a HUGE mirror in the bathroom......I really hate that mirror, but I need it!!!
• not to have to think about what everyone is going to eat

Can you understand now why I don't want to go back home to reality!!!? I must though, so I will do it with the right attitude. Thank you that I have a home to go to, Lord! Maybe this list of things I won't miss, will get me in the right mood!

• a dryer that takes three hours to dry a load
• ironing clothes for the service each night
• not being able to walk around in my PJ's
• the noise level of 13 very excited, loud children
• sharing our bedroom with three children (it really wasn't that bad though)
• not being able to drive anywhere (the vehicles were too big for me to drive!!)
• eating out (I must have gained five pounds while we have been here!)
• having to put Joel in nursery every night (He screamed for a little while every night!)
• not having much alone time with Jeff

I am done with my lists for now. We leave at 8:00 in the morning. We are going to try to make it all the way home in one day. It will probably be a 17 hour trip, depending on weather. So we will definitely make it home sometime Wednesday! You should hear from me again sometime later this week.

I love North Carolina!!

I am just loving our time here. Great people and warm weather, what more can anyone want?

Our trip down was a blast for everyone except Jeff, he prefers being the one driving!! The children so enjoyed getting up anytime they wanted to. We definitely were SPOILED on that trip. Not only did we have the whole back of the bus to our selves, but we could also go sit up next to the driver anytime. Daniel spent most of his time up by the driver, talking and keeping him company, which left the back of the bus QUIET!! It was a very relaxing trip. I have some pictures of the trip to post, but I don't know when I will get around to it. Maybe I will just do a huge picture blog when I get back home.

We are so glad that we have come. Yesterday's services were awesome. I am SO looking forward to what God has for us this week. I was worried about how we would all do here, but everything is going very well so far. Thank you Jesus for working this all out, our family really NEEDED this time.

Today's highlights

1. Joel has a name for Lauren. Her official name from Joel is now.......Nauney (sounds like naughty)! Joel is obviously very perceptive of his sisters faults, because he also has a name for Emily. It is....Dissy (sounds like ditsy)! Enough said!!
2. We had another fire tonight while using the stove. Emily was just frying up some ground turkey and flames started shooting out from under the pan. Cooking over a open flame is not my idea of fun!! I blew out the flames and we moved the pan to another burner.
3. The children went outside to play most of the afternoon!!!
4. I gave Jeff a haircut.
5. I worked very diligently on our Christmas gifts for our supporters.
6. I got three separate foot rubs today!! No my children were not just being kind. I did Lauren's HUGE pile of dishes and in return she has to rub my feet or back for 1 1/2 hours! She did two of her three 1/2 hours today and Daniel did the other 1/2 hour (for discipline issues)! Have I told you recently how great it is to have kids?

I want to be more like.....

Are you asking yourself who I want to be more like? Well my answer will not be short, this week has held many exciting things.

1. Lauren!! She and I went to Goodwill on Saturday's 50% off sale. I found out that she has much better taste in clothing than I do!! I want to be more like her.
2. The guys at Goodwill!! I bought something pretty big for a Christmas gift. Amy Bearden and I were sure that we could get it into the trunk of her car. The guys who carried it out of the store for us knew immediately that it would not fit in the trunk. They could tell by just looking at it. They were SO right. I want to be more like them.
3. Philip Wilson!! We finally did get that big item from Goodwill, inside of the car and on top of the girls in the back seat. We had more shopping to do, so I called a friend and asked if we could store it at her house for awhile. No problem. Her husband Philip came out to help us and to show us where to put it. Once he got it out of the car, we laid it on the ground and we noticed that it hadn't been closed correctly. Amy and I tried many things while Philip just stood and watched us. We couldn't figure out how to get all the pieces to fit correctly and still be able to shut it up. Philip very nicely told us to flip one thing over and our problem would be solved. He was right. I want to be more like him.
4. Joel!! He has begun singing recently. His newest song is something like this...DA-DE-DA-DA-DE-DA-DEEEEE! In type it loses most of the effect, but my point is the child sings all the time and he doesn't care who hears him. He is so cute! I want to be more like him.
5. Amy!! She cleaned around the house today all on her own...without being asked!! She is helpful and motivated. I want to be more like her.
6. Karen!! She drove about six hours to Kentucky yesterday, with three BOYS, by herself! I don't like to drive to Walmart with three BOYS by myself!! I want to be more like her.

I will stop there for now.