happily random

Went to the doctor...

...last night. Went to the After Hours Clinic after Joel got off of work. On top of laryngitis, I have bronchitis, 101 fever and the starting of an ear infection. I’m on antibiotics now, and cough medicine, which is actually why I went. Unfortunately the cough medicine didn't help for squat, so I'm calling to see if he'll prescribe something else today. I haven’t been sleeping because I’ve been coughing so badly and it wasn't any better last night.

The kids got to wear their costumes at school today. Lucas is Spiderman and had his costume on from the moment he got up. Rebekah is a princess and curled her hair with hot rollers, and she looks lovely. We don't do "Halloween" but we do let the kids dress up. Tonight we'll head to one of the local churches that does an awesome Harvest Festival for kids with game and tons of candy. What's better is that it's INSIDE.

It was 15 degrees here last night. It's a brisk 26 right now. We even had a sprinkling of snow the night before last, our first of the year. I just love the cold. I know a some people don't, but I don't really like the summer myself. I always feel that I can always put on more clothes to get warm, but I can only take off so much. ;) I love the short days, fires in the stove, sweaters, snow, scarves, everything! :)

I've completely lost it...

My voice that is! I'm down to just a whisper, although I can make a strong effort and talk in a crackling, deep voice, but it hurts. Gotta nasty cough too. So if you call my phone and I don't answer, that's why...

I don't know how my life has gotten so crazy, but it has. It must be all these kids. I wonder when their mom is going to come to pick them up? LOL. Do you ever feel that way? I take a look at my four kids and I'm just amazed that they're all mine, that they came from my body. In my head, I still feel like a 20-year-old college student. But the mirror definitely shows the battle scars of carrying, birthing and raising four children. And I haven't had a decent night's sleep in 7 years.

The time my kids rise and shine also makes me question their geneology as well. This morning I awoke to Tyler sitting next to me in bed at 5:30 in the morning. Where did this compulsion to wake up early come from? Definely not from me. I am so NOT a morning person. I don't really get going till early afternoon myself. But Tyler was awake and ready to go before the sun even showed evidence of rising. As a matter of fact, as I write this, the sun is just starting to rise over the horizon. The sky is brilliant reds and purples. Of course, it is 7 a.m. now and daylight savings time is just a week away, but still.

But I love each and every one of my children. They are all so amazing: smart, funny and a blast to be around (most of the time anyway). This is just an exhausting season in our lives. Little sleep and four small children to wait upon. Too much whining and not a lot of alone time. It's hard. There are some days when I don't know which end is up. But I know there are things I will miss about the kids being this age, about them needing my help so much. I'm sure it'll hit me one day a few years from now that they've grown and don't need Mommy as much as they used to. Kind of hard to see the forest for the trees I guess. :)

The sun has risen now and the sky is a clear light blue. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day...

My last day of 32

It's been a good year. I had our 4th child and survived (thus far) being a mom of 4. I coordinated a 60-woman MOPS group, which was totally out of my comfort zone. I continued to publish layouts, although not as many as the previous year, as much as I could with a new baby in the house. I finally jumped into digital scrapbooking, realizing that it's not the "Dark Side" that I thought it was. I still like paper too. ;) I have been a good wife and a good mother to my family. It's been a good year. Good-bye 32.

MIA

Yes, I've neglected my blog for the past two weeks. We had our first MOPS meeting of the year last Friday and I have been busily preparing for that. I am the coordinator of the group, so organizing & delegating it all falls on moi. Everything went very well, even with a few additional unexpected moms and kids. Nonetheless, I'm glad to have the first meeting of the year done and over with. It's always the most complicated, most stressful and busiest.

Thought I would share a little video of my 10 month old Samantha. She has picked up playing peek-a-boo. Isnt' she a doll?

That's all for now. Promising to be better about updating this week so everyone doesn't get so worried about me. ;)

Reading, reading, reading

I can't be the only one who does this. Last night I started a book that I bought over a year ago. I started it then when I bought it, read the first chapter and then forgot about it. I have a stack of books like that. Mostly they're Christian help or devotional books. The Power of a Positive Mom, Breathe, 5 Star Families, What Every Mom Needs, & Captivating are just a few of the awesome titles sitting on my nightstand. All these books are fantastic, and all of them I know would give me encouragement and insight... if I would just make time to read them.

I don't seem to have any trouble reading novels. As a matter of fact, I just finished 2 of them in the last week, one of the Lord of the Rings (again!), which as you know, is not a short book. Now it did take me about a month and a half to finish, but still.

I love to read. Why can't I get myself to read books that will help and encourage me instead of books that are mostly just an escape? Not that reading novels is wrong, but if I could read them just a little less, I could finish this enormous library of books that I have stacked up. Books that I WANT to read.

So, starting this week, I'm going to start tackling my library. I started (again!) The Power of A Positive Mom last night and I'm going to commit to reading one chapter a day in it. There are 20 chapters in it, so I should be done in about 3 weeks. I am also reading Captivating at the same time, but I am doing that with our Women's Bible Study at our church and only have to do a chapter a week in that.

The first chapter of The Power of A Positive Mom had me read Romans 12. Wow! I think I've mentioned before that I am reading The Message Bible, which is the Bible translated into contemporary American English. I love the King James or NIV as much as the next gal and wouldn't use The Message if I was going to do some indepth word study or something, but The Message Bible has definitely brought my attention to verses that I had never even noticed before. Romans 12 is WOW! Here's verse 1.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life -- your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life -- and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Powerful words for a SAHM who wonders if her life is making a difference. I could write in the whole verse... it just popped out at me. I am definitely looking forward to what The Power of A Positive Mom will take me. :)