Help me JESUS.

My family loves to tell the story of the time we went horseback riding in a state park in Texas. I don't know why...I do NOT need reminding.

The guide asked who was the meanest one of the sisters. I wasted NO time in my truthful answer, "HOLLY". Well, the guide said, oh, so YOU, he said as he grabbed my arm, are going to ride this guy.

Well, "this guy" was like the meanest horse ever.

During the ride, the horse bit me, bit another horse and ran off away from everyone else with me on the back. I was terrified and must have screamed things like, Help Me Jesus, Oh Lord Jesus, etc...

Ha ha.

But today I was thinking about that. Sometimes I feel like I'm on a mean horse. Like everything that happens is taking me down a road I don't want to go.

For instance:
-Hattie sits on the potty today to pee and I have NO idea how, but her pee didn't go in the toilet, it came out, soaking her panties and pants and the floor and the toilet.
-Hattie came to me with the floss and said I need some mommy. I looked up to see about 17 yards of it in her hand.
-I took Luke to Walmart when Jody got home from work and when I got home, Silas and Hattie greeted me dripping wet. They were wetting their hair in the sink and trailed water all over the house.
-Silas and Hattie fought over who would push the handi-capped door button at the Y
-Luke ate another piece of blue chalk. I know this b/c there was blue drool coming out of his mouth while he was standing at the little easel.

I'm sure I could go on and on. Laugh all you want. But I wish I would have kept a tally of how many times I said or yelled, "Help ME Jesus" today.

Home-Made Ice Cream

Today was a good day.

Jody found some more AWESOME garage sale deals. A queen size bed (frame with tall posts, mattress and boxsprings), a work bench and a kitchen table with 6 chairs and leaf. I'm telling you, he's the BEST deal finder.

I went to a Once Upon a Family celebration with my friend Stacy while Jody and the kids hung out with the rest of the Stephen's family. While there Jody called. Of course I thought, oh no, what happened to one of the kids. Nope. He wanted to know (in the middle of the presentation) if I would go get the ice cream maker and make icecream at the Stephen's house.

So when Stacy and got back, we made vanilla ice cream and delicious chicken salad wraps and sandwiches. We had a great time hanging with the Stephens.

Jody also was THRILLED to get to know 2 of our neighbors a little better. Those of you who know Jody know that one of his favorite pass times is making new friends.

So, he's pumped and ready for tomorrow (church).

Hope you all have had a great weekend too.

Potty Training

I am SO proud of Hattie.

She's been potty-training on and off. She's hasn't pooped in a diaper in, I don't know, almost a year now. But she just couldn't get the staying dry part. Until recently.

I gave a her an incentive. If she got TEN stickers for keeping her pull-up dry, she'd get a prize. Apparently that's all it took for her. She's been keeping pull-ups dry pretty good for over a week now. BUT Today she wore panties for the first time, ALL DAY, and didn't have ONE accident. I even forgot to put a diaper on her at naptime and she reminded me about 30min after she woke up that she needed to pee.

Yay Hattie. (I realize I could be posting a couple of days about a relapse or pee all over my carpet, but today I am very proud)

Funnies

I love to hear kids say funny things. Here's a couple of recent ones:

Hattie wanted me to put her baby's clothes on and she said, "Dey are out-inside".

We were driving by the State Capital and Silas said, "Mom, I see the cassorole"

Canonball pics

"I should have been Jesus"

Silas and I went with our friends Lisa and Jolene to Canonball. Canonball is a Native American Reservation that our church goes to once a month and does a little children's ministry program.

It's really a blessing to go. Its a VERY different world there. Poverty exists like many wouldn't believe.

Anyway. Lisa was getting the kids to do a little drama. Of course, Silas volunteers right away for the first boy part that was offered, Jarrius, the man whose daughter dies. Then slowly Lisa persuaded some other kids to join. We needed a Jesus, a mother, a disciple and some crowd members. SIlas was SO cute.

Later I told him that I was proud of him. He leaned over and said, Well, I should have been Jesus.

I laughed so hard. But you know, he just wanted to participate, so he volunteered quickly. I'm glad he's so willing to get involved in things like that. He played with the kids and was really sweet.

I'm going to get some pics on here of our afternoon, hopefully soon.

The Traveling Salesman

I know I am a sucker. No one knows that more than...well, Jody, and my parents, probably. I prefer to NOT think of myself as a sucker. More like, trusting.

Like the time in DC when my dad would not give the homeless guy any money and it just broke my heart to where my dad finally relented and went back to give him some money.

Well, this traveling salesman came thru the neighborhood this week. (apparently there's a group of them going thru Bismarck) They are selling this Pro-tek cleaning stuff.

My friend Lisa was here when the guy came and we decided to split the one bottle of it.

Let me just say I LOVE IT. Jody says everytime he sees me now I have my spray bottle. I have mopped with it, cleaned my windows, stove and microwave. I am treating all my laundry with it. It has gotten out blood and grease so far. Shines my sinks, dusts my coffee table and cleans my shoes to a sparkling white. I LOVE IT.

I was confessing to my friends Scott and Stacy that I bought this stuff. I said, "A traveling salesman came to my house the other day and I bought was he was selling. It..." And Scott goes, "The cleaning stuff, I bought it too" and offered a big high five, as our spouses rolled their eyes.

Wish you all could try out my spray bottle, its great stuff.

Baby Steps

Luke is taking some steps.

Its really kind of funny. He has been standing alone a little. But then on Sunday there was a baby at church that was about Luke's age and he was walking all over the place. As if Luke saw, Oh, that's what I should do, he decided to take some baby steps.

Anyway, the kids were like cheer leaders for the winning team. It was really cute.

Not that I am in a hurry for Luke to walk. He's already VERY mobile and into EVERYTHING. I'll have to try and get a video.

Flat Tire

This morning I got all the kids ready and buckled up in the car. I wanted to go exercise at the Y. Jody walked us out to the car and he said, hey, stop. You have a flat tire.

It was really flat.

I suddenly realized what happened.

2 days ago, while Holly and I were in the car with the kids, I ran over a big rock in our neighborhood. We laughed. We talked about how our dad and our husbands, had they been in the car, would have said something like,"Watch it. Don't you know how to straddle something like that?"

But the amazing thing is that I drove to Fargo and back the day after the rock incident. That was almost 400 miles. And this morning is was completely flat.

So, I was a little bummed. I called my friend Stacy because I knew she'd laugh with me. And she did more than that. She came and picked us up in her van. We went to the Museum for story time, rode bikes to the Library from the Museum (sort of. Stacy ended up driving the girls and Luke, and I walked with the boys). Then we went over to their house for lunch. After that, Stacy drove us back home. It was a great day.

I called AAA and they were going to tow my van wherever I wanted, but he pumped the tire back up, told me it was a slow leak and now I could take it myself. That was fine, because I didn't know how I would get to where he was going to tow my car anyway. So we called Jody and all went to Sams, got NEW tires (which we were in desperate need of anyway) and of course some other stuff.

Yesterday with the whole Fargo trip, I was telling myself what bad luck I have. I couldn't find my wallet therefore I couldn't go to the mall and shop at the Children's Place....but really that wasn't true.

With that tire, I could have not only made Holly late for her flight, I could have been stuck between Fargo and Bismarck somewhere with NO wallet and no number to call AAA or any other place for that matter. I drove nearly 400 safely on a bad tire.

Wow. I didn't have bad luck, I had God taking care of a frazzled, forgetful Emily.

Back to Normal

Well, we got Holly off and she's home. (We had such a great time with Holly and Elijah during their visit. ) The kids were all good traveling. It was a long ride to Fargo and back.

This evening Silas had his first Soccer practice at the Y. He did great. It was really cute.

Jody got home around 8pm. He likes the way Holly and I arranged the living room and the area rug I bought at Target for the basement.

All the clothes are washed and folded. The kitchen is clean. We'll start again tomorrow, I need to get to bed earlier, Holly and I stayed up later than I normally do every night.

More pictures

Target

Today, Holly and I took the kids to Target. Holly had just told me about this waitress that said anytime the kids outnumber the adults, its trouble.

So we were walking thru target with 2 carts and 4 kids. All the kids wanting to be on their own and walk around. All getting the gimmies at some point or another. Actually, everyone but Luke. He's such an angel, always along for the ride. I found a new carseat on sale, so that was in the cart. (Yes, a different one. The one I bought last week isn't working out. Hattie says she hates it). I was being really careful watching where I was going, until I ran into a man getting milk out of the cooler. He gave me a dirty look.

Holly and I got the giggles.

Then in check out, that man got into our line. But when he noticed us, he quickly went to another line.

It was really funny.

We are having a great time.

Visiting with Holly and Elijah

Holly and Elijah are here visiting us. They got here late Saturday night. We are having a great time. But man, there is NOT a dull moment.

Elijah is confused as to where he is and he CONTINUOUSLY asks, "Where we going?" and saying "I wanna show you somepin".

Luke, I think, enjoys all the stuff going on because he can get into stuff. He's IN the dishwasher or emptying a drawer or going up the bunk bed ladder or something at all times.

Silas and Hattie have a little clique, no cousins allowed, at times.

They are playing well together and getting along good for the most part. Jody is in South Dakota until Thursday. SO, at least Holly is here with me.

Whew. We start again tomorrow.

New Pictures

New

What is the fascination with new?

For example, I put a new bar of soap in the bathtub and Silas's first words were, WOW, a new soap.

We have toys overflowing out of our toy box, books shoved on the book shelves, and clothes spilling out of the drawers. Yet when even a "new" hand-me-down shows up, the kids go crazy. When they win a stupid cheapo toy at a pizza place, they are thrilled for a short amount of time. We have 3 boxes of cereal opened, but they want the unopened one for breakfast.

Are you picking up what I'm putting down? (Jody likes to say that line, and I've never had the right opportunity until now).

Adults are the same way. We have "nothing to wear" as we look in our packed closet, so we go shopping. The shampoo gets low and before I'm out, I want to open a new bottle.

What is the fascination with new? Why can't we be content? Why don't we ever have enough?

I want to instill this in my children, but how?

Jody was telling Silas about being content tonight when he was complaining about not having a new big transformer like his friend Gage. Jody told him that we need to learn to be content with what we do have. That goes for me too. I don't want to compare to what others have and I don't. I don't want to always want the next new thing.

Grace

So, in kind of a part II to the last post...

I love the author Sally Clarkson. She has a ministry dealing with mothers and family stuff. I've never been to one of her conferences but I'd love to.

I LOVE her book The Mission of Motherhood. I am currently reading The Ministry of Motherhood. Yesterday, as the kids were having nap time, I sat down, so frustrated with myself and the kids and needing Jody to come home and give me some relief. My mind was reeling. And I picked up that book. I have read the introduction like 5 times. Everytime I put the book down, I forget the introduction and re-read it. So, finally I was one like chapter ONE.

And man, it really struck a chord. The Lord really used to to speak to me.

Sally talked about GRACE. About how Jesus used such grace when with the disciples. They were DUMB and constantly messing up. Like children. Constant spills and messes and accidents. Ugh.

Now Jesus did rebuke them sometimes. He corrected them sometimes. The disciples were far from perfect.

As I administer grace to my kids, I am showing them a picture of the Grace that Jesus has offered to us.

We need to teach grace in 2 ways. One by helping our children to receive grace. You know, not yelling, fussing, sighing, rolling my eyes at my kids. But rather acting in patience and kindness and gentleness. This leads to teaching about the grace of Salvation. The second is teaching them to give grace. These 2 things are the 2 greatest commandments Jesus was talking about. Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor. Isn't that neat?? I've never really thought of GRACE in this practical way in regards to teaching my children.

Its not the words I say, it is the example I can play out infront of those little eyes and ears. Its in the way I serve them with a good attitude.

Didn't mean to be preachy, but God really spoke to me about this in my own life.

On a different note, YAY....Jody's home. We are all SO happy.

Happy 4th of July.

Single-parenthood

I tell Jody this all time, but I did NOT sign up for single-parethood. Man. I heard Oprah say the other day that being a stay-at-home-mom was the hardest job in the world. It is super hard, but doing it all alone is way harder.

Here are some of the things that have happened to me:

I was vacuuming and dust was flying everywhere, so I decided maybe I needed to clean out the vacuum. Oh my gosh, was that an underthought. I needed to clean out the vacuum like 3 months ago. It was nasty.

Meanwhile, Luke fell down the stairs and got a terrible mark on his head.

Hattie spilled cereal all over my CLEAN kitchen floor.

Silas hauled off and pushed Hattie at church in front of everyone and he pinched Tommy.

Oh, I could go on and on. By the time I put the kids to bed, I was exhausted and my throat hurts from yelling at the kids and myself all weekend.

Even as I haven't had anyone to vent to, I'm so thankful for my relationship with Jesus. He already knows how I feel and what I'm going thru, so I might as well vent to him, you know? I'd say Jesus is a single-mom's #1 need!!! Can I get a witness?