Running at the Speed of Light

We have been having a great Christmas season. There has been plenty of time to chill out and reflect.I have been without a car for 16 days. No running around for us.

My friends and family still seem to be my saving grace when it comes to surviving stuff like not having a car. We spent 9 hour baking yesterday with one of our closest friends . She opens her home every year and it is such a blessing to have the kids and adults joke around, talk, bake and eat way too much cookie dough.

I am ready for Christmas and I continue to seek to keep the birth of Christ the center of it all. Knowing He died for my sins, shed His precious blood, all for you and I, THAT is the best gift ever!Many blessings to everyone this Christmas.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I am amazed at the amount of blessings I can receive in one day!First of all, my dear father-in-law invited my son to spend the night,my mother-in-law has my daughter helping her out of town, and I have had 2 sweet customers come over today. One of them , Shelley, offered to take me to get some hair stuff, and she brought me 4 books about Amish people AND she gave me a gift card to Bath and Body.My other customer brought me some movers gliders to help me move some furniture. And yesterday, my friend Janelle came and got my son and I around 10:00 and we didn't get home until 4:00. We had a lot of fun and the kids were all very good. I notice that if things were like the old days, meaning not having 2 cars, I would be a lot closer and spend more time with people. Just like not having cable(that means no tv to our family) we read and play more as a family.I see God's blessings so abundantly it makes me feel so happy and thankful.

My car is still in the shop and I have not had a car for a week now. Ouch. The good news is, I'm not out shopping and spending money.I am praying that my car ends up being cheap to fix.

I also talked to my dad for about 30 minutes today. He was asking me stuff about the kids and homeschooling. I didn't get the feeling he was disappointed, I felt like we were just talking about it. He is so sweet and I always enjoy our talks. He had a few good suggestions about teaching that I need to remember. Other than that, today has been VERY lonely without my kids. Talk about boring, NO messes, no teaching, no making food for someone else( or myself for that matter) I have had eggnog and a roll today. I miss my kids. They seem to fill my days with happiness! I love them a ton.

Why use a short broom?

This is so silly but we just got back from church ( for the second time today ). I was so excited to go because our missionary friends were speaking. They have been in the Philippines for years. One of the things they showed me was a very short ( and of course handmade) little broom. Maybe 2 feet tall. He said all of them are like this. Everywhere you see people bent over in half sweeping. I questioned him and thought maybe it was to make 3 bamboo handles instead of just1, but then again, bamboo grows like mad. It made me think about how we must make God at least chuckle when we do things like that in our spiritual walk. We have what we need at our fingertips but insist on doing it the hard way. I need to make sure I don't have any 2 foot handles in my spiritual walk. I know I do.

My son is all better. He still has a cough, but he hasn't had a fever in 5 days or so. I am so thankful for medicine. He couldn't even breathe.

I am ALL DONE with my Christmas shopping.I like to get it done but I also enjoy picking out the gifts. I have to mail a few gift cards but other than that I am done.

How Funny

I just went to do some prayer time right after I wrote my last blog and I found this verse, John1:2
My brothers and sisters, be very happy when you are tested in different ways.You know such testing of your faith produces endurance. Endure until your testing is over.
I am so thankful for God's hand providing what I need, even in a verse.
J

Give me patience and a kind heart

I have spent the last two days (three actually) with a very sick boy. I think it is important to acknowledge a HUGE pet peeve I have. And this is the only one I have. When people KNOW that their kids or they themselves are sick and come around others. People are so worried they will miss out on something that they expose people to stuff because they are selfish. Sorry, but it chaps my big fanny. Now, breathing treatments, up all night, my son crying saying it hurts, and calling customers and telling them I can't do their hair, and loss of money. I love my family to pieces but I just wish this wouldn't happen. This is not the first time it has happened either. Well, my point is, I need to think nice thoughts and I am struggling with that.

My husband and I are so thankful for what we have, I don't want to take all my thinking into a waste of being irritated. I need to focus on all of these blessings and realize not everyone is the same. ( yea! )

My daughter and I sat on the couch and watched 5 episodes of Little House on the Prarie. It was so fun. I realize I like that show so much because I wish I lived back then Of course, we would be hurting really badly right now without asthma medicine. My friend then stopped by to bring us a few movies, The real St. Nicholas, and The Footprints of God. I learned more from watching that movie than I have in 15 years of church. I realized today that I am a very visual learner. Then I realized, so is my daughter. This might help me teach better. It's not to late to realize that, she is only 10 :} Well, once again, I thank God for all of our blessings. Let me list them,
My mom and dad calling today
Friends being such a wonderful blessing to me, she will never know how much I appreciate her
Friend across the street, I miss her
Kepper's mom for all of her friendship and hard work
Medicine
My sister-in-law made it through her surgery
my in-laws helping her when I can't
And my husband who works his rear off and then comes home and loves us all! He is the best!
My brothers and my parents


Blessings and goodnight ( even though I will get little sleep)

A Morning Fever

Well, my boy woke up with a fever. We were at Goodwill getting some stuff for our girl's group that we do on Fridays, and he said he didn't feel good. I had a feeling he was going to puke everywhere so I left. When I got home I discovered he had a fever.

The good news is , I didn't expose my sister-in-law and all her kids to it. She had surgery this morning and I couldn't be there. I hated to not be there but I had so many hair appointments scheduled and my in-laws went. Three adults is too many, plus my two kids, just an extra hassle for them. But I might try to go Wednesday instead of our cookie exchange. I want to help if I can. Even if I just clean or something. I will see how my son's fever does tomorrow.

We didn't do crud for school today. Both of the kids did math, we studied economics at Goodwill, and we tried to make quick sand. Big dud, it was too watery.

I have been looking at several of the award winning sites, and I think it is a very bad idea for me to look at what other people are doing. I want to do it all, and now! My friend told me today that I like to " chase down rabbit holes?" I think that is what she said, I am always searching out fun stuff. It leads me down many new paths. I am learning a lot of new things by looking at these sites. I have decided that record keeping is my main reason for doing this. I found out on one site today that Ibookmark.com is a good way to save favorites. I have sooo many of them it is dragging my computer way down. So, good to know!

Welp, I am gonna go take care of business and clean things up for tomorrow.
Blessings!