Dave Ramsey, Michael Pearl, and the Flylady for President!

Besides Jesus of course, the persons named above have become regular self help leaders in this home.  I am not too fond of self help books or people that get on TV and try to solve people's woes.  I don't watch OPRAH, can't stand Dr. Phil and the ladies on the VIEW make my skin crawl....But I do like to get advice from people who seem to get it right and make sense.  In my opinion, the above could basically do a better job leading our country than any Democrat or Republican.  America's debt would not be skyrocketing, our homes, marriages and children would be set straight and the Flylady would declutter, destress, and organize us all....Since I know that ain't happening, we will concentrate on this home and a few others that I know of.  Something is a changing in my home...life is better (not that is was horrible), decisions are being made, money is being spent wisely, the TV is OFF for the majority of the day, we are all reading more, the house seems to be cleaner, the kids are cleaning their rooms, we are all outside, we are all exercising, the Bible is being read, God is speaking to us, we are saving money where we haven't before, we are decluttering, etc. etc. etc.  BUT it is hard work.  I am exhausted some days from just trying to get it all done!  And it is all good stuff!  The book I spoke of before...Crazy LOVE..speaks of being in AWE of God.  It speaks of his omniprescence and how God IS, God was, and God will be...nothing we can do or will do (America too) can change that....it speaks of how little we all are and I started thinking about it....stress that I put on myself and stress that my friends are putting on themselves is unnecesary in that it just means that we are putting all that stuff in front of God, even if it is good stuff...if we let it wear us down, make us tired, make us crazy, cranky, unpleasant mothers and wives then that is not right either....I do let the ideas and notions of Dave Ramsey, Micheal Pearl, Flylady, and others put pressure on me..but today as I was running in the rain, listening to the sounds of the rain hit the trees and leaves and pavement....I realized something...we all need to relax a little...We are not ALL THAT, we are small, a bleep on the radar screen, a notch on a long long timeline in the history of the world...and if my sink gets shined and if my coupons get clipped and if my kids say please and thank you that is great but I want to stand in AWE of God!  The God that makes the rain fall from the sky, the God that creates catepillars, the God that makes our heart pumps, the God that created the universe, the God that does so much but still loves little ol me....!!! My prayer is that we can stop and smell the roses, listen to the rain and stand in awe of God and then go inside and shine our sink with a smile on our face and a joyful heart and if the 6 stacks of laundry in the garage don't get done...well there is always tomorrow or maybe not :)

Molly

Molly has quite the personality.  I realized last night that I had not taken pictures in awhile so I got out the camera.  It is soooo hard getting a picture of that girl because she is on the GO!!!  She doesn't stop for much and she wants to hold the camera so some of these pictures are a little fuzzy but it was the best I could do last night.  We have a play stethoscope that came with a kid's doctor set.  She likes the stethoscope a lot.  She carries it around.  She actually (no lie) puts it around her neck and then gets up and walks around with her little walker toy...it is hilarious.  The big kids think it is fabulous!  Maybe she is going to be our little doctor!  I just love her to pieces!!!!

Good stuff...

I'm reading a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  I had to quote him:

"Worry implies that we don't quite trust God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.  Stress says that things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace towards others, or our tight grip of control.......(another paragraph)  Ultimately, I have just as little control over my own life and what will happen to me.  Isn't the easiest thing at this point to start living in a guarded, safe, controlled way?  To stop taking risks and to be ruled by our fears of what could happen?  Turning inward is one way to respond; the other is to acknowledge our lack of control and reach out for God's help.  If life were stable, I'd never need God's help.  Since it's not, I reach out for Him regularly.  I am thankful for the unknowns and that I don't have control, because it makes me run to God."

When Momma is sick....

.......things fall apart!  I was sick all weekend starting at about 5 pm on Saturday. I didn't do anything on Sunday recovering...so today was the first day that I got back into the groove of things.  Now, I will say that when things really fall apart, like when I am pregnant.....John totally steps up!!!  But during these times that I am down for about a day or two and especially when he is working (this was his 6 days on and he doesn't feel good either)...things kind of fall apart. I guess I should say they fall apart in my mind...the stacks on the desks were growing, unopened mail had built up, bills needed to be paid, school papers were all around, dishes in the sink, LAUNDRY was crazy!!!!, bathrooms dirty, things out of place....oh this kind of stuff just drives me crazy!!!!  My house is not by any means perfect but to some degree, I have to be organized and feel neat and clean and when I woke up this morning...I did not feel this way!!!  I got to work and this is what I did today:

Did 4 loads of laundry so far and still working on it
cleaned kitchen three times
cooked homemade dinner (Roosh's chicken and rice...figured it would be good for my stomach)
paid bills
organized stacks on desk
went through all unopened mail
Got all our tax info together to take to accountant
registered J.D. for kindergarten
updated calendar
did Emily's homework with her
did J.D.'s homework with him
studied Emily's vocab words with her
helped Emily write 7 thank you notes
picked up living room
took Emily to ballet
organized school papers and filed papers
listened while Emily practiced piano
fed, bathed, and put three kids to bed
cleaned both bathrooms
LAUNDRY, LAUNDRY, LAUNDRY!!!

there has to be more...it's no fun being sick but then it is nice to know you are needed!!! 

Thankful on this day!

Today marks the anniversary of John being Cancer FREE for 11 years!  I have already written about his journey a time or two before, but I can't go through today without at least speaking of our thankfulness and his cure!!!  I probably "remember" it and "celebrate" it more than John wishes I did...I don't really know, he doesn't talk about it a lot and I probably remind our friends and family more than what they really care to hear about BUT I don't care and I am so thankful and will celebrate it for as long as I can!!  So instead of going through the long story again, I just wanted to write down what I am thankful for!

1.  I am thankful for a cure.
2.  I am thankful for Dr. Emhof, Dr. Sellinger, Dr. Scidmore, Dr. Bolek, and Dr. Einstein
3.  I am thankful for John's will power to get through 3 months of radiation, work full-time, and go to school full-time.
4.  I am thankful for phenergan...the drug that helped him not vomit everyday!
5.  I am thankful for early detection on John's part and Dr. Emhof's part
6.  I am thankful for my three beautiful children that we were not suppose to have or at least it was suppose to be very hard to have
7.  I am thankful for great friends and family
8.  I am thankful for 11 years of no cancer
9.  I am thankful getting to share the story with my kids!

We are celebrating tonight as a family. We put a big sign out by the door so when he came home this morning it said..."Happy 11 years of being Cancer FREE"  I am making a favorite meal and having his parents over.  It is a great anniversary!  And he asked me to marry him on this same day 11 years ago!!  Big day in our house!!!

Fun Run!

As a way of raising money for the school, CCS has an annual Boosterthon Fun Run...the great thing is that they get the kids really excited about sportsmanship, fitness, and positive attitudes.  The kids are suppose to get pledges for the amount of laps they run with a max of 35 which is approx 2 miles on the CCS track.  They run a lap, the coaches put a mark on their shirt, and they run around again..and again...and again... It is a big deal at CCS..they have a big tunnel that the kids run out of, the boosterthon leaders (20 something year old males that have more energy than I can stand to watch) are at the school all week cheering on the teams (classes), handing out prizes, and being just plain crazy....They have loud music playing as the kids run, they pick themes for each lap such as bunny hop this lap, do your favorite dance move to this lap, walk as slow as you can for this lap, and do the YMCA to this lap...it keeps the kids pumped and very excited!  It was a lot of fun for the kids as well as the parents!  They played all kinds of 80's music and the parents were all dancing!  Emily ran 35 laps!  Way to go Emily!!!!  After getting pledges, Emily was running for about $11 per lap which means she made $385 for her school!

Being Frugal

I am not a frugal person by nature...but I am learning how to be a more frugal person.  It is actually exciting!  Last night, I co-hosted a little get together called "frugally feeding your families".  It was basically a bunch of women, gathered together to discuss couponing, saving money, meal planning, grocery shopping, stocking your cupboards, frugal recipes, and other money saving tips like going on vacation (disney), eating out, buying clothing, etc.  It was a great success and so informative.  I started couponing about 1 month ago and I have really saved some money AND I no longer feel the desire to drop $45 at a restaurant to eat out when we have food here to fix!  John is actually more frugal than me and he will "make do" to save money.  He is very easy to please....except that last week I had a great coupon for gatorade and he won't drink it..he has to have powerade:)  Anyways, I learned stuff last night that I did not know.  It was very exciting gettting together with other women that want to save money for their families, want to share this info, and want to be good stewards with their money.  Dave Ramsey would have been extremely proud!!!!  Everyone was so pumped after the meeting that three of the women went to publix right after leaving!  I learned some great stuff about how to combine coupons and new places to get coupons and one of the ladies handed out the amazing, very impressive and detailed price list of most anything grocery you can buy...it has prices for Wal-mart, Publix, and Costco listed for each item!!!!!  Holy Cow!  I am not a detailed person and sometimes honestly I have no idea if something is a "good" price because I have never paid attention to the price before.  This lets you compare the prices and check it when something is on sale so you know if you are getting a good deal!  My Friend, Amy, did an amazing jobspeaking about couponing.  She had already shared with me a lot of her tips but I needed the refresher.  She showed the women a bunch of stuff all laid out on the coffee table (pretty much covering the entire coffee table) and asked them how much they thought she spent on it.  Some of the women were floored to know that she actually made $3 on the stuff!!!  She is a numbers person and she described in detail how she got stuff free by using the coupons and stacking them with sale prices.  John and I have a few more payments on our van and it will be paid off...we will no longer have a car payment...YIPEE!  We want to start paying more on our mortgage payment every month...who knows, maybe we could pay it down a good bit...Dave Ramsey says you can!  On the other hand though...I found out some really cheap ways to go to Disney, which I think we are going to do for a family vacation this year....I think we might totally surprise the kids and just get everyone in the car and drive until they start seeing the signs and surprise them!  I am very glad that saving money and being frugal is "cool" these days and I am very thankful for other women that don't mind sharing their knowledge with me!