Life's Curve Balls

Life has a way of throwing us curve balls, doesn't it? Like when I though we were moving to New Orleans...I'd *almost* wrapped my brain around that when those orders got changed and he was "punished" be being sent to Texas...thank you, Lord, for your punishment!

How would you define a curve ball? In baseball, when a pitcher throws a curve ball, it doesn't take the expected route to the batter...instead, that ball curves like it is going somewhere else first, but eventually comes back to do what was intended...and goes across the plate for the batter to swing at it.

In my life, I have seen a good number of curve balls....things I *thought* were going one way, which ended up taking a different route, but accomplished the same intentions, usually causing change in my life or especially spiritual growth.

For myself, I think I get stuck in the day-to-day sameness, and don't recognize when God is trying to work on me. I think that I sometimes make it a necessity for God to throw curve balls at me, so I will actually pay attention to what He's doing.

So, what do YOU do when God throws you a curve ball?

What a day in my life *really* looks like...

As I was going about my day today, I started thinking about what it takes to maintain life in my household. Not necessarily sanity...I'm convinced that is a lost cause.

I am often amazed that people think that life with a large family is unthinkable. They think that it must take a special person to handle it. Obviously they've not followed me through my days. I am NOT special. I am very average. Average height. Average weight (more than is good for me!). Average educational level. Average. Average. Average.

Then, this morning it hit me. The math. THAT is what people have trouble with.
The eight people in the house.
Which means 7 beds.
And at least 16 sets of clothing every day.
Which adds up to at least 2 loads of laundry, every day (which is why, on any given day, Mt. Laundry IS going to blow!).

The eight place settings at the table.
At every meal.
Which we usually manage AT LEAST 3 of those as SIT DOWN TOGETHER meals, per week.
Which adds up in terms of food.
Like the stew I made this morning.
1 1/2 pounds of stew meat.
1 pound of carrots.
5 pounds of potatoes.
There's a little bit left over...but then Jason and the two oldest kids didn't eat at home tonight.
Milk...3-5 gallons per week.
Cereal...at least one box per day. (We quit buying in boxes...they're too small).
Eggs...one dozen at a time.
Bread...sandwiches for everyone requires one whole loaf.

The sheer overwhelming numbers of activities.
School...3 in elementary school, 1 in middle school, 1 in high school, husband in grad school.
Church...
Small groups from church...women's group, men's group, military affiliated group
Marching Band.
Concert Band.
Middle School Band.
PTA activities.
Military community activities.


SO, my schedule today was fun...and I thought I'd throw it in, just so you get an idea....

4:00 a.m. Alarm goes off. I turn it off, shake the husband, and crawl back in bed.

5:00 a.m. Second alarm goes off. I turn it off, dress and wake up oldest child. Fix coffee, go for a walk.

6:00 a.m. Grab a cup of coffee and walk oldest daughter out to meet her bus (which picks her up at 6:10 a.m.).

6:30 a.m. Finish second cup of coffee, grab purse, keys, and list, to run to the grocery store for potatoes, carrots, milk, butter, bread. (had coffee on the list, too, but not enough $$).

7:00 a.m. Back from the store, put things away. Get the rest of the kids out of bed. Spend time doing emails, catching up on facebook, email lists, doing childrens' hair, motivating (yelling at) children. Also wash and cut up potatoes and carrots for the stew for supper, and saute the stew meat, then dump in the crockpot. Load dishwasher.

7:45 a.m. Out the door to wait with the 3 elementary-aged children for their bus, which supposedly arrives at 7:53 a.m. Chat with neighbors.

8:15 a.m. Suddenly remember I have a dental appt at 9:00....gotta MOVE.

8:30 a.m. Out of shower, kicking 12-year-old out to catch his bus...which supposedly arrives at 8:40 a.m. Let my work know when I'll be back.

8:45 a.m. Load 4-year-old in the van, complete with bag of toys, x-rays from dentist in MT, name and address of dentist in MT, and dental insurance card.

9:00 a.m. Pshew...I made it. I can relax and fill out myriads of paperwork, gag on the x-rays, and get my referral to an oral surgeon.

9:58 a.m. Home again, time to get busy on my WORK for the day! First get 4-year-old her snack, because she STARVING, MOMMY, STARVING!

12:00 p.m. Take a break from the computer long enough to fix sandwiches for myself and 4-year-old. Forget that I was supposed to go to gym.

12:40 p.m. Neighbor girl shows up, reminding me that we were supposed to go to the gym at 12:30. Change clothes and head out for 30 minute workout.

1:45 p.m. Home again, and back to work. Started load of clothes.

3:00 p.m. Oldest child home...snack time!!

3:30 p.m. The elementary school bunch gets home.

4:00 p.m. The middle schooler is home.

4:30 p.m. Jason walks in, updates me on things, and leaves again, taking the oldest two with him (he's dropping the oldest off at her school for marching band performance at the football game, and taking the 12-year-old with him to his two softball games.).

5:00 p.m. The 4 left at home go out to play, leaving mom inside to have some peace and quiet.

6:00 p.m. Start gathering everyone in for supper. Get all the riding stock put away in the garage.

7:30 p.m. Supper is done, kids are in PJs. It's movie night...tonight we watched Cars.

9:30 p.m. Movie is done, kids get in bed. I leave to go pick up oldest from Marching Band. Home, feed her (more...she also ate at the game), start another load of laundry.

There's my day. I'm exhausted. I don't think I could cram one more thing in there, today. Maybe another day...but I don't know.

I LOVE having a big family. I can't imagine it any other way. But some days? I just want some sleep!!!

An incredible video

I am not Catholic, but I agree with much that the Catholic church supports. My father-in-law sent me this video, and I think that it deserves to be seen.

Wordless Wednesday: Help! Mt. Laundry is gonna blow!!

for more wordless Wednesday, go to 5 Minutes for Mom

Memories (installment 29)

So, on August 25, 2003 we moved into our new house in Helena, MT. We camped out for a couple of days, and then our household good arrived, and we got down to the business of settling into a new town.

I was homeschooling still, so I didn't have to worry about getting kids registered, but I WAS 5 months pregnant, so finding a doctor was imperative. To get prenatal care, I had to first find a primary care physician, have another pregnancy test, and get referred to an OB practice. Um. Yeah. Like being OBVIOUSLY 5+ months pregnant, or having in my posession all of my records from the practice in TX was not enough.... So, I found a primary care, peed in a cup, and had it verified that, yes, (surprise!) I was pregnant, and was referred to an OB practice. While still in TX, my PAP smear had come back with an "abnormal" reading, so THAT was a present concern, too.

Before we got to Montana, we had been given the name of a possible church to attend, and since Jason had to be at work the first couple of weeks in Helena, I took five kids and my very pregnant self to visit this new church where I knew no one. Before too long, we decided that Hannaford Street Bible Church would be our church home. They had an excellent children's program, AWANA, youth group, and small groups, plus a thriving women's ministry.

In October, I had my first chance to have a fun get-together with my best friend of more than 10 years...in Fargo, ND. Since we were both homeschoolers, taking off in the middle of the school year was not a huge deal. Karla and I had been friends for more than 10 years, but had never met in person...this was an opportunity to remedy that. The kids and I spent 2 weeks visiting with Karla and her kids, leaving Jason home, getting settled in at work.

We arrived back home, and started getting settled into life and homeschooling again. Several days later, I got a piece of mail that confused and upset me. It was a bill, addressed to my husband, for some surgery....surgery he'd had while I was gone...and I had no idea...he was not intending to tell me about it. I was opposed enough to him having a vasectomy that he decided to go behind my back...though I still don't understand how he thought that it would be a good idea to hide it from me, or that I wouldn't somehow figure it out.

I was HURT. I had THOUGHT we were on the same page, but obviously that wasn't true. Again, I wondered how much I could trust him.

Jason was involved with the Christmas Dessert program that our church was putting on, running the sound and lights. I wanted to be involved, but I was TIRED, pregnant and hurting....and BUSY homeschooling 3 children. Our baby was due in early December, the week before the Christmas Dessert was scheduled to start. Given my history, though, I wasn't holding my breath. I really didn't expect to have the baby until closer to Christmas.

At my one-week-past-due appointment, the OBs office decided that the baby's heartbeat was not rebounding after the contractions I was already having, and they wanted to speed things along. SO, on Friday, December 13, 2003, I went home from my appointment, packed my bags, and arranged for the kids to spend a night or two with one of our pastors and his family.

This labor was one of my shorter ones...Katherine Louise was born by 5:30 pm, and Jason had to be at the church to run sound and lights for the program by 6:00....fortunately, the hospital was only about 5 minutes from the church. We called the pastor's house, to let everyone know that they had a new sister....Justin was 4 at the time. Because of our pattern of children, most of the kids were convinced that this child was going to be a boy. When told that he had a sister, Justin said "NO. It's a boy." It took a while to convince him that he had another sister. After we got off the phone, Jason took off, and I sat back to enjoy a few hours of rest with my brand new baby girl.

( I TRIED to find earlier pictures of her, but these were the earliest I could find. I KNOW I have some....somewhere...)

Plans, and things that interfere

I had a good plan for this week. I was going to be getting back to my normal posting schedule...but my brain interfered, as have a few others of importance...Jason, Frances, Jon, Heather, Justin, Leah, Katherine....and work. And house cleaning. And attempting to get rid of those ugly migraines.

So, my house is getting back to a little better level of control.
And we're eating MEALS again.
And I'm getting caught up on the laundry.

But I still have to find a dentist...because I'm a grump when my mouth hurts.
And I still have to get a referral to my counselor.
And I HAVE TO get some more sleep...I'm doing better, really. BUT, my body still wants to shut down on me (as does my head).
And feeling like I'm falling apart is NOT my idea of a good week....

So, HOPEFULLY, tomorrow, I'll have a post of some substance.

I hope.

Thank you for sticking by me, my lovelies...I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your loyalty.

Week in Review

This week has been hard for me.

I think that coming into it already overwelmed set me up for a not-so-great week.

I haven't gotten enough sleep all week long.

My house is a disaster.

I spent all week catching up on the laundry.

I'm whiney.

I've been snippy with my children.

All I want to do is sleep for a week or two.

I realized this week that THIS is how I was for *3* long years, when I was working overnights at Walmart. I was tired. I was overwhelmed all the time. I was NOT a nice mom. I had to appologize to my kids.

Over and over again. Because they deserve to have a mom who is THERE, with them, not yelling or snipping or angry with them all the time.

So, I HAVE to get more sleep. And I don't know how that is going to happen.

At least I FINALLY found someone to work out with! We go to the gym twice a week, so far. Hopefully this will help me lose some of this weight that is creeping back up on me. AND, this should help me emotional health. I HOPE.

And this next week, I HAVE TO find a dentist, and an eye doctor. And a counselor.

Finding a new counselor scares me. Because I need someone to talk to NOW, and sorting through them to FIND the right one is time consuming, and emotionally wearing. I REALLY miss my last counselor...the one from Montana. The GIFT from God....I am sure I won't find another like him...but I can hope!

I think I am going to go take a nap until I have to get more kids up....