I was listening to that song by Mercy Me, and right now, that is where we are at! But the next part of the verse is ..."as long as I can see Your face." Amen to that. Seeing God's hand, for me, is KEY...is PARAMOUNT to surviving trials.
Boochie came down with a fever Friday night, and we didn't put much stock into it at the time. By Saturday, he had erupted into having hand-foot-mouth disease, and Sunday I discover he has thrush (from the antibiotics from a month ago) as well, his whole tongue is white. Monday we merely confirmed all of this with the pediatrician and we are now on prescription meds. Oh, and he has an ear infection so back on the same antibiotic that caused the thrush in the first place (pediatrician said it was necessary to treat now and not wait, or he will be even more miserable). Poor guy can't get a break, he is always sick. But for some reason, this one really has me by the heartstrings. I am crying out for my poor son whose whole body is being taken over by the agony of multiple tongue lesions and he hasn't eaten more than a bite or two in days, and is drinking is sporadic at best. Wet diapers so something is going in... He is rejecting cold soothing yogurt, probably too acidic. Rejecting popsicles, again, probably too acidic, and today, refused ice cream. ICE CREAM. We're talking heavenly custard from CHICK-FIL-A. You know the boy is in misery :( I laid hands on him in the middle of chick-fil-a and cried out for mercy for my son, through tears, and he finally agreed to a cup of iced tea! Thank you Jesus! I don't care if he asked for a tub of LARD at that point! My boy got his very first, very own cup of iced tea...of course he cried drinking that, too :(
I think what is killing me more than the incessant crying and drooling, more than the large amounts of sleep loss on both mine, my husbands, and Boochie's part, more than the lack of eating, it would have to be the forceful administering of the medication. My son CLEARLY lets me know that he is being violated and traumatized...and I grieve when I see how angry he is with me after we manage to get him to choke down his medication, by means of restraint and breathing restrictions (holding his nose for maybe 2 seconds)...just to get him to open his mouth. You can't squeeze his mouth open or pry it open or anything, due to the many lesions in his cheeks, gums and tongue :( It really is a sad pitiful sight.
So it got me to thinking as I have been seeking the Lord on the issue of my kids and their health, as well as my sanity. I walk away with so much rich stuff from the Lord when they go through things, I almost feel bad for benefiting from their misery. But it must be what is propelling me forward. Those who know us well know the struggle we went through with Beeps from infancy probably to about age 3-3.5 First was the undiagnosed and untreated reflux, which explains the misdiagnosis of "delayed colic." Just a little knowledge into the situation (knowledge God gave me later so I was able to detect Boochie's reflux when he was just 7 days old) would have saved her and me so much grief. But from that I had to walk away with this: The doctor didn't know. I didn't know. But God knew. And He knew what wouldn't kill Beeps would make ME stronger. There was a breaking in me God had to do...something He is still doing today...daily, and that is breaking me of ME. My selfishness, my motives, my everything. I've asked the Lord to "tear this church down to its cornerstone and build me up again." (lyrics from The Waiting "I Am"). I am pretty sure I remember the pivotal point (and the spirit is showing me even now as I recall it) in my college dorm room as I poured out my all to my God, asking Him to rewire me. I knew by the time I was 18 I was pretty messed up, and I needed Him to do this intricate work if I was ever to glorify Him. Beeps and her reflux was a short but big part of that.
She also had countless ear infections, and from 18 months to 2 years she was on 5 different increasingly stronger antibiotics in attempts to clear out her ears. It's a miracle that she didn't get thrush! I didn't even know what that WAS then. A visit to the ENT specialist told us she should wait til she was 2 to determine if she was a candidate for tubes. Even with that bad history of infections, the specialist wasn't comfortable performing the operation. His exact words were, "If it were my little girl, I would wait." If he hadn't said that, I might have pushed the issue, I was just so done with all the medicine! Beeps wasn't even in that much pain! But the issue was hearing/speech development. Thank you Lord for better discernment. The specialist was right, after age 2, her Eustachian tubes grew in, and the infections were no longer an issue!
Then 4 years later I received what I call my 'honeymoon' child. Now this is a family-friendly blog, so it's not what it sounds like :D when I had Boochie, it was like a dream, a honeymoon of sorts. He wasn't needy, didn't cry, and was a "just business" nurser, as opposed to my 3 hrs at a time nursing daughter (again, those were MY issues-not hers, God had to bring me a LONG way before I was ready for another child).
But by and by Boochie grew to have to endure quite a few sicknesses. When he was just 4 months old, he and his 4.5 yr old sister got pneumonia. At Boochie's 1 year check up, his blood tests revealed that he was anemic. I think only slightly so, but enough that the pediatrician urged me to stuff my son full of iron and to stop the milk. Because he wasn't a very needy kid, he stopped asking for the nursing as time went by, and I stopped offering it to him. And because I was concerned with the anemia, I didn't replace nursing with whole milk. I figured if he acted normal, and seemed to be happy, he was fine. By Christmas it was clear to us that Boochie had become emaciated due to his lack of fat and nutrient rich milk that he had been denied. He was close to being completely weaned, so he lived off of Pediasure for almost 2 months, and I'd say by mid-spring we started seeing weight gain.
In the months to come, he's endured several colds, more infections, discovered an allergy to mosquito bites (and enduring an infected bite millimeters from his EYE) and now the HFMD and thrush. To say I am stretched is an understatement, but I feel so strong that the Lord is with me, in the midst of this chaos. It's like everything in my spirit is erupting with the knowledge that this is His work for good, not that He MADE Boochie sick, although He certainly allowed it and maybe He did cause it, but that this work was for me to completely rely on Him. If I can't trust God for what I can't control now, it won't be a pattern to look to Him when things weight much more heavy on the scales. Boochie's conditions (for the most part) weren't life threatening. They seem to be increasingly grievous and painful and really break my heart as a mother, but thy are something we will pull through. My prayer is that Boochie will learn to look to Jesus as he gets older (he is comforted by our prayers even now!!) and that the Lord will use these times of illness and sickness (and yes, the forceful administering of medication) to affirm his faith (pray Boochie even receives Jesus as soon as he is able to! Beeps did at age 3!) and to look to Jesus as learns of and is reminded of His suffering, the price He paid so we could spend eternity with Him, in a place where there will be NO suffering...this includes starvation, pneumonia, insect bites, allergies, infections and mouth ulcers!
The previous was written around 3p.m., as of 9p.m. we believe we are starting to see a turned corner...Boochie still can't eat very much (he has been asking for granola cereal...the ONLY thing he has put in his mouth, but still mostly plays with it), but the amount of time that he screams after the medicine has shortened significantly, so we think at the VERY least, he gets that this is actually doing something beneficial for him. To me this is a HUGE step towards healing! Halleluja!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Wanna know what a day in the flesh looks like??
Tonight was rather difficult. Well, lets say it was extreme. And it stunk. But there's good that came out of it only because of God's faithfulness. But it sucks when you can tell where the crappy day stemmed from, and it is large in part your fault.
Today, after breakfast, the kids and I went to the dry cleaners to drop some stuff off. In that same shopping center was a bead shop I've been wanting to go in. Since it was such a cool day and nice for walking, we walked the short walk to the bead shop where I ooh'd and aah'd at all the offerings, and then was bummed because I felt like I'd need to invest a quarter of a million of my LIFE'S EARNINGS to start a jewelry business :( That stuff is expensive! Well, that and I am picky :)
Anyway, after we got back home, I was feeling pretty good about the day and was even thinking about how much I was going to accomplish. Well, one thing led to another and the kids were dancing in the living room to music put on by my daughter who knows how to operate iTunes for the most part. And we got not much done :p I made them lunch and sent Boochie to a late nap, because he had gotten up late that morning. Beeps and I DID spend half of that time in pretend-land as we played a lengthy game of ding dong (God did redeem some time, possibly because He knew she needed to have her love tank full for events to come...also see previous post), and then I sat her down to her Time, Money & Fractions learning math computer game, at the Mac. I was on the laptop still trying to figure out this blog thingy, all the while talking my daughter through every. single. math. problem.
Now math comes easy for some folks, and not so much for others. My daughter was a fluent reader by the time she was 4.5, so its safe to say she excels in this area. Math however....UGH. Couple that with me being interrupted every 10 seconds, it made for a very annoyed (albeit VERY SELFISH) mommy, so bad mommy moment, I attempted to correct the situation by yelling at her to think of the answer, because I was explaining the process at length and I thought she should know (she was counting coin values and we got as far as the 5 dimes, and 2 nickels, all she needed was to add a penny, so we were at 60 + 1, and she was giving me answers like 67 and 62), and not to get overwhelmed or I was shutting the game off and she was spending the rest of Boochie's naptime in her room. Yeah, THAT works. In comes the tantrum. She is overwhelmed! Why? Because Math is HARD and mommy was heartless!! And she is counting on mommy to coach her through this, meanwhile I am dense to the fact that, no, not everything comes easy for my seemingly gifted child, she needs coaching and guidance! So in backpedaling, I apologize for loosing it, and tell her to turn the game off so we can work on her book together. She was SO relieved. That was our answer from the get-go, and had I STARTED THE DAY IN PRAYER and continued in this pattern of constantly praying, asking, 'Lord what now?,' instead of jumping to my agenda, much of this would have resolved itself. I would have pushed forward with school instead of this blog. It was what she needed.
Well, by the time we found a pencil, Boochie woke up, surprisingly early from his nap. He is my 3+ hour napper if I will let him, and being that he didn't conk out until 45 min after I put him in bed (he talks to himself, no screaming, etc) I gather that he only slept 1hr and 15 min! He was a hot mess when he woke up, so needless to say, nothing got done as far as school goes.
I'd like to say I came to my senses and realized that my day needed to go forward seeking His face, but things went from bad to worse :( I had a GREAT idea! Let's text daddy and ask him to go out to eat tonight! Because when your family is NOT together and regrouped, being in public sounds great! UGH...although daddy agreed, I place total blame on me for making stupid suggestions, I was totally out of control. Dinner was nothing short of embarrassing. Both kids were an ornery mess. Now when we do go out to eat it is usually a custom of sorts to walk off our dinner. So Bill suggested some shops nearby. We both had this WEIRD sense and kept asking each other what was wrong. So I told Bill I thought we weren't supposed to go anywhere, and he totally agreed. Naturally Beeps was way bent out of shape about that. The entire ride home was spent listening to her wail and cry about wanting to go somewhere with us coaching her through the notion that we were in charge and that we didn't ask for her input. WE FORGOT TO ADD THAT GOD TOLD US NOT TO GO.
Folks, let me just say how important it is that your children know where your authority comes from. YES it is important they learn to obey you, but more importantly that you point them to YOUR authority. How else are they going to look to our Heavenly Father for direction when they come of age?
At any rate, Bill had asked me earlier why he thought the kids were a mess. I knew our schedule was off by a whopping 2 hours, because Boochie slept in til 9, but on top of that, it was because I didn't give the kids a schedule, so they ran the ship for several hours until he came home. Now not every day IS scheduled around here, and quite frankly, most aren't, but there was something about today, there was a tug that I was supposed to keep my kids involved...and I missed it. Totally blew the cue.
Bill gets Boochie to bed at a decent hour and then spends time reviewing paperwork for his new job. Meanwhile Beeps and I are going over some schoolwork, as we like to sometimes substitute the readers for bedtime stories. We get through her bible lessons, and we leave off at Jesus being in the garden of Gethsemane, which I think is a somber point, and not something I'd like to brush off with a chapter of Homer Price, which is a happy-go-lucky book about a young boy detective-of-sorts in the 1940's. Beeps starts inserting that she wants to do some math and writing. I wasn't done asking her questions about the bible story we just read, but I did tell her that we were leaving off here and saving the math and writing for tomorrow, for it was too late in the evening to try and dedicate brain power to difficult math problems, and even for writing, and proceeded to ask the question. She starts her ritual heavy panting and works up a real good panic, because what she had anticipated (picking up where we left off HOURS before, our sad attempt at math) wasn't happening, and now her world was upside-down. I started to pretend like I didn't notice her tantrum, so I continued with my question. I saw that she was calming herself, and wiping her tears, so I took that opportunity to ask her to pray, because I saw she was in a place where she was wanting control. Now was a good time to recognize it and give it to the Lord. We prayed, Beeps asked the Lord to give her the strength to fight the tantrums and to stay calm. I continued with questions. Bible lessons complete, and on to bedtime, which wasn't new news, Beeps knew this was coming. Unfortunately Beeps has a VERY short term memory when it comes to what she just prayed about, because her feelings of disappointment came flooding back full force, and the tantrum with it :( After everything blew over, after pj's were on and teeth brushed, I did ask her if there was any way she felt wronged tonight, any way she felt that she was right about something and we did not recognize. Now before you think that I was backing off on my parenting, we don't go seeking approval of our kids on how we did, but I really wanted to see if Beeps really realized that it was her rebellion that led to a most difficult evening, and that it could have been alleviated if she complied. Our daughter knows that we will listen to her EVERY word, and if she has felt wronged, and we recognize it and agree, we have and will apologize and pray about what it was that was wrong. We got no such report tonight, she was in full recognition that she was overtired and rebellious.
However let me add that it was due to MY lack of obedience to the Lord that I think got us here. However, we cannot lie and make excuses for our children, either. She owned her sin, as I own mine.
Lord, PLEASE make me into a diligent wife and mommy...seeking not to be lazy, not the pleasures of this life, not seeking my own, because that isn't love. I need YOU to show me what pure love is! I am such a mess, inside and out, please don't let me stay this way!!
I can choose to be despondent from here or I can choose to look to my LORD for healing, for direction, for purpose in the everyday. Because HE who has begun a good work in you (me, too!) will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6), and I am SO looking forward to that day! Just trying NOT to ruin my kids in the process!
Today, after breakfast, the kids and I went to the dry cleaners to drop some stuff off. In that same shopping center was a bead shop I've been wanting to go in. Since it was such a cool day and nice for walking, we walked the short walk to the bead shop where I ooh'd and aah'd at all the offerings, and then was bummed because I felt like I'd need to invest a quarter of a million of my LIFE'S EARNINGS to start a jewelry business :( That stuff is expensive! Well, that and I am picky :)
Anyway, after we got back home, I was feeling pretty good about the day and was even thinking about how much I was going to accomplish. Well, one thing led to another and the kids were dancing in the living room to music put on by my daughter who knows how to operate iTunes for the most part. And we got not much done :p I made them lunch and sent Boochie to a late nap, because he had gotten up late that morning. Beeps and I DID spend half of that time in pretend-land as we played a lengthy game of ding dong (God did redeem some time, possibly because He knew she needed to have her love tank full for events to come...also see previous post), and then I sat her down to her Time, Money & Fractions learning math computer game, at the Mac. I was on the laptop still trying to figure out this blog thingy, all the while talking my daughter through every. single. math. problem.
Now math comes easy for some folks, and not so much for others. My daughter was a fluent reader by the time she was 4.5, so its safe to say she excels in this area. Math however....UGH. Couple that with me being interrupted every 10 seconds, it made for a very annoyed (albeit VERY SELFISH) mommy, so bad mommy moment, I attempted to correct the situation by yelling at her to think of the answer, because I was explaining the process at length and I thought she should know (she was counting coin values and we got as far as the 5 dimes, and 2 nickels, all she needed was to add a penny, so we were at 60 + 1, and she was giving me answers like 67 and 62), and not to get overwhelmed or I was shutting the game off and she was spending the rest of Boochie's naptime in her room. Yeah, THAT works. In comes the tantrum. She is overwhelmed! Why? Because Math is HARD and mommy was heartless!! And she is counting on mommy to coach her through this, meanwhile I am dense to the fact that, no, not everything comes easy for my seemingly gifted child, she needs coaching and guidance! So in backpedaling, I apologize for loosing it, and tell her to turn the game off so we can work on her book together. She was SO relieved. That was our answer from the get-go, and had I STARTED THE DAY IN PRAYER and continued in this pattern of constantly praying, asking, 'Lord what now?,' instead of jumping to my agenda, much of this would have resolved itself. I would have pushed forward with school instead of this blog. It was what she needed.
Well, by the time we found a pencil, Boochie woke up, surprisingly early from his nap. He is my 3+ hour napper if I will let him, and being that he didn't conk out until 45 min after I put him in bed (he talks to himself, no screaming, etc) I gather that he only slept 1hr and 15 min! He was a hot mess when he woke up, so needless to say, nothing got done as far as school goes.
I'd like to say I came to my senses and realized that my day needed to go forward seeking His face, but things went from bad to worse :( I had a GREAT idea! Let's text daddy and ask him to go out to eat tonight! Because when your family is NOT together and regrouped, being in public sounds great! UGH...although daddy agreed, I place total blame on me for making stupid suggestions, I was totally out of control. Dinner was nothing short of embarrassing. Both kids were an ornery mess. Now when we do go out to eat it is usually a custom of sorts to walk off our dinner. So Bill suggested some shops nearby. We both had this WEIRD sense and kept asking each other what was wrong. So I told Bill I thought we weren't supposed to go anywhere, and he totally agreed. Naturally Beeps was way bent out of shape about that. The entire ride home was spent listening to her wail and cry about wanting to go somewhere with us coaching her through the notion that we were in charge and that we didn't ask for her input. WE FORGOT TO ADD THAT GOD TOLD US NOT TO GO.
Folks, let me just say how important it is that your children know where your authority comes from. YES it is important they learn to obey you, but more importantly that you point them to YOUR authority. How else are they going to look to our Heavenly Father for direction when they come of age?
At any rate, Bill had asked me earlier why he thought the kids were a mess. I knew our schedule was off by a whopping 2 hours, because Boochie slept in til 9, but on top of that, it was because I didn't give the kids a schedule, so they ran the ship for several hours until he came home. Now not every day IS scheduled around here, and quite frankly, most aren't, but there was something about today, there was a tug that I was supposed to keep my kids involved...and I missed it. Totally blew the cue.
Bill gets Boochie to bed at a decent hour and then spends time reviewing paperwork for his new job. Meanwhile Beeps and I are going over some schoolwork, as we like to sometimes substitute the readers for bedtime stories. We get through her bible lessons, and we leave off at Jesus being in the garden of Gethsemane, which I think is a somber point, and not something I'd like to brush off with a chapter of Homer Price, which is a happy-go-lucky book about a young boy detective-of-sorts in the 1940's. Beeps starts inserting that she wants to do some math and writing. I wasn't done asking her questions about the bible story we just read, but I did tell her that we were leaving off here and saving the math and writing for tomorrow, for it was too late in the evening to try and dedicate brain power to difficult math problems, and even for writing, and proceeded to ask the question. She starts her ritual heavy panting and works up a real good panic, because what she had anticipated (picking up where we left off HOURS before, our sad attempt at math) wasn't happening, and now her world was upside-down. I started to pretend like I didn't notice her tantrum, so I continued with my question. I saw that she was calming herself, and wiping her tears, so I took that opportunity to ask her to pray, because I saw she was in a place where she was wanting control. Now was a good time to recognize it and give it to the Lord. We prayed, Beeps asked the Lord to give her the strength to fight the tantrums and to stay calm. I continued with questions. Bible lessons complete, and on to bedtime, which wasn't new news, Beeps knew this was coming. Unfortunately Beeps has a VERY short term memory when it comes to what she just prayed about, because her feelings of disappointment came flooding back full force, and the tantrum with it :( After everything blew over, after pj's were on and teeth brushed, I did ask her if there was any way she felt wronged tonight, any way she felt that she was right about something and we did not recognize. Now before you think that I was backing off on my parenting, we don't go seeking approval of our kids on how we did, but I really wanted to see if Beeps really realized that it was her rebellion that led to a most difficult evening, and that it could have been alleviated if she complied. Our daughter knows that we will listen to her EVERY word, and if she has felt wronged, and we recognize it and agree, we have and will apologize and pray about what it was that was wrong. We got no such report tonight, she was in full recognition that she was overtired and rebellious.
However let me add that it was due to MY lack of obedience to the Lord that I think got us here. However, we cannot lie and make excuses for our children, either. She owned her sin, as I own mine.
Lord, PLEASE make me into a diligent wife and mommy...seeking not to be lazy, not the pleasures of this life, not seeking my own, because that isn't love. I need YOU to show me what pure love is! I am such a mess, inside and out, please don't let me stay this way!!
I can choose to be despondent from here or I can choose to look to my LORD for healing, for direction, for purpose in the everyday. Because HE who has begun a good work in you (me, too!) will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6), and I am SO looking forward to that day! Just trying NOT to ruin my kids in the process!
Ding Dong!
For those who are getting to know us, Beeps is my 6yr old daughter, and is in the first grade. Ding Dong is a game Beeps and I have played as long as I can remember. It largely consists of me being at "home" wishing someone would come visit me because I'm oh-so-alone and am in dire need of company LOL! Hence someone comes to my "door" and rings the doorbell. The visitor to date has varied from a new neighbor girl next door, to a dragon or dinosaur, and even a long lost relative (seriously, I don't know where she comes up with these ideas!!) These games usually last about 5-7 minutes depending on what we have time for, and what else I'm trying to get done that day, and yes, admittedly, what I can minimally get away with, because sometimes games like this hold me prisoner :/
Well, yesterday, I promised to dedicate an entire 15 minutes to ding dong. Yesterday came and went, and due to Grandma McCreary's delivery of Highlights magazines in the mail, Beeps' attention was diverted elsewhere and I managed to escape another day. She remembered at 9p.m. So today was THE day! And for the record, this all took 45 MINUTES, so here's hoping her "ding dong" tank is full for at least the week!
I agreed to a set of 3 "ding dong" games ,which ended up being a series of sorts. The first game I title, "Disparaging Woman in Winter," and it started with me in the home, and the premise here (we were trying on winter accessories just before) was that I had apparently hired a girl in the springtime to shovel my driveway in the winter. And I already paid her :p But wintertime came, and I forgot about this girl, and was in SUCH a woeful state that I was stuck in my house. So cue shoveling sounds, and my assumption is that it must be my neighbor...but the sound is getting closer! THEN...comes the infamous "ding dong!" sound. Whoever could it be?? She introduces herself as the girl I knew in the springtime! No idea where this "girl" came from :p Anyhow, she reveals to me she shoveled my driveway, and I was sad because I couldn't pay her. But, wait...what is this? I ALREADY paid her, yay!! So she bestows on me her cold weather accessories as a token of our new friendship, and takes me outside to build snow horses. Then we shower sprinkles on the horses, and they become magical pegasi (pegasuses?)
Then I moved into the kitchen as I asked to put the game on pause, and I began to ponder what was for dinner, and grabbed a handful of Craisins to stuff in my mouth. So Beeps decided the next installment was (another thing we quite often play) "Beeps' Famous Food." So I left the kitchen so I could "ring" the doorbell, because you know, we always ring doorbells at restaurants, lol. Anyhow, Beeps said I had to drive up first, so I left, and got in my "car," drove to the restaurant, parked, and entered. Oh, I forgot, I was supposed to pretend that Beeps was the girl who shoveled my driveway, and to act like I didn't know. So when I entered in, she jumped up to welcome me to Beeps' Famous Food. I began to reply, when I pointed to her with a , "Hey! I know you!" Insert Beeps' giggles and squeals :) I told her I thought she looked really familiar...so she revealed her identity much to my shock and surprise (:p). I told her I traveled a long way and was cold (I WAS cold!!) so I was looking forward to some good home cookin'! She offered me a seat and asked what I would like. I asked her about soups. She told me she made a good chicken, vegetable and bean soup (that is all in one soup, not 3 separate, just for the record lol), and also a "just" vegetable soup, to which she added off the record that it was better than mine (ha!). Then she went onto the desserts they made, because you know that is often her favorite part :D But I had to reel her back to the soup menu, because I was freezing! I asked her if they made corn chowder. Yes. Chili? Yes. Beef and barley? Yes. I then asked her what their best soup was. Back to the chicken, vegetable and bean soup, so I asked for a bowl of that, and some hot tea, black to be exact. And crackers for my soup. And I was told I needed to ask for oats and carrots for my magical horse (the pegasus) because now she was outside. And she gets mints for dessert, but not until she eats her oats and carrots. :) The soup came, and it was DELISH! So hearty and warm...warmed me to the core! The hot tea was just what my cold bag of bones needed :) While I was eating, Beeps described to me the house specialty of dessert, a cool peppermint pie. she was to bring out a piece for me and my horse, because you know, it's mint. And horses like mint. Boy was that pie refreshing after a meal of toasty goodness! Inserted into the plot now is a made up character, Beeps' "mother," who lives with Beeps in the restaurant, which is now a restaurant/hotel. She only comes down int he evenings to work, cleaning up the place and keeping out the riff-raff, because she is also a policewoman. So a superhero of sorts :) Oh, and in talking with the mother (for Beeps temporarily changed characters) I learned that this was my SISTER and that Beeps was my niece...and it was no wonder why I thought they looked so familiar! :p Beeps told me her mother offered to let me live in one of the rooms upstairs...but this goes into the 3rd installment...Hotel.
In "Hotel," I was offered a place to stay so I could move to Lynchburg (because it was now revealed where we are) and learn to cook in Beeps' Famous Food. And we were a hotel/restaurant on campus at Liberty University (we took a recent trip to the area in early Sept). Elated, I asked how much it would cost. Exactly one dollar, was the reply! But before any of that could take place, I had to have some hot chocolate and house made pumpkin pie...but there was no pumpkin pie left! Beeps offered to make some fresh, but I was SO disheartened, knowing that the pumpkin patch was SO far away :( 'Silly!' exclaimed Beeps, for she informed me that she has a garden on her roof! But we needed the magical horses to take us there. so we hopped on the horses, but we fell off on the way up, because it was really far. however, the horses caught us in this bubble gel like sac that they somehow had with them, and they were amazing things, these sacs. We were perfectly contained and unable to break out and fall to our death! We arrive at the patch (Beeps is REALLY stretching out the plot at this point so I am encouraging her to get to the point), and stuff all the pie pumpkins we could get our hands on...so we didn't have to take a return trip anytime soon. That was a scary ride! Back in the kitchen, she whips up that pumpkin pie lickety split! And boy was that the creamiest pie I ever did taste! Full of laughs, giggles, food and fellowship, we ended our final installment of "ding dong."
Hope you enjoyed reading about our lengthy shenanigans!
Well, yesterday, I promised to dedicate an entire 15 minutes to ding dong. Yesterday came and went, and due to Grandma McCreary's delivery of Highlights magazines in the mail, Beeps' attention was diverted elsewhere and I managed to escape another day. She remembered at 9p.m. So today was THE day! And for the record, this all took 45 MINUTES, so here's hoping her "ding dong" tank is full for at least the week!
I agreed to a set of 3 "ding dong" games ,which ended up being a series of sorts. The first game I title, "Disparaging Woman in Winter," and it started with me in the home, and the premise here (we were trying on winter accessories just before) was that I had apparently hired a girl in the springtime to shovel my driveway in the winter. And I already paid her :p But wintertime came, and I forgot about this girl, and was in SUCH a woeful state that I was stuck in my house. So cue shoveling sounds, and my assumption is that it must be my neighbor...but the sound is getting closer! THEN...comes the infamous "ding dong!" sound. Whoever could it be?? She introduces herself as the girl I knew in the springtime! No idea where this "girl" came from :p Anyhow, she reveals to me she shoveled my driveway, and I was sad because I couldn't pay her. But, wait...what is this? I ALREADY paid her, yay!! So she bestows on me her cold weather accessories as a token of our new friendship, and takes me outside to build snow horses. Then we shower sprinkles on the horses, and they become magical pegasi (pegasuses?)
Then I moved into the kitchen as I asked to put the game on pause, and I began to ponder what was for dinner, and grabbed a handful of Craisins to stuff in my mouth. So Beeps decided the next installment was (another thing we quite often play) "Beeps' Famous Food." So I left the kitchen so I could "ring" the doorbell, because you know, we always ring doorbells at restaurants, lol. Anyhow, Beeps said I had to drive up first, so I left, and got in my "car," drove to the restaurant, parked, and entered. Oh, I forgot, I was supposed to pretend that Beeps was the girl who shoveled my driveway, and to act like I didn't know. So when I entered in, she jumped up to welcome me to Beeps' Famous Food. I began to reply, when I pointed to her with a , "Hey! I know you!" Insert Beeps' giggles and squeals :) I told her I thought she looked really familiar...so she revealed her identity much to my shock and surprise (:p). I told her I traveled a long way and was cold (I WAS cold!!) so I was looking forward to some good home cookin'! She offered me a seat and asked what I would like. I asked her about soups. She told me she made a good chicken, vegetable and bean soup (that is all in one soup, not 3 separate, just for the record lol), and also a "just" vegetable soup, to which she added off the record that it was better than mine (ha!). Then she went onto the desserts they made, because you know that is often her favorite part :D But I had to reel her back to the soup menu, because I was freezing! I asked her if they made corn chowder. Yes. Chili? Yes. Beef and barley? Yes. I then asked her what their best soup was. Back to the chicken, vegetable and bean soup, so I asked for a bowl of that, and some hot tea, black to be exact. And crackers for my soup. And I was told I needed to ask for oats and carrots for my magical horse (the pegasus) because now she was outside. And she gets mints for dessert, but not until she eats her oats and carrots. :) The soup came, and it was DELISH! So hearty and warm...warmed me to the core! The hot tea was just what my cold bag of bones needed :) While I was eating, Beeps described to me the house specialty of dessert, a cool peppermint pie. she was to bring out a piece for me and my horse, because you know, it's mint. And horses like mint. Boy was that pie refreshing after a meal of toasty goodness! Inserted into the plot now is a made up character, Beeps' "mother," who lives with Beeps in the restaurant, which is now a restaurant/hotel. She only comes down int he evenings to work, cleaning up the place and keeping out the riff-raff, because she is also a policewoman. So a superhero of sorts :) Oh, and in talking with the mother (for Beeps temporarily changed characters) I learned that this was my SISTER and that Beeps was my niece...and it was no wonder why I thought they looked so familiar! :p Beeps told me her mother offered to let me live in one of the rooms upstairs...but this goes into the 3rd installment...Hotel.
In "Hotel," I was offered a place to stay so I could move to Lynchburg (because it was now revealed where we are) and learn to cook in Beeps' Famous Food. And we were a hotel/restaurant on campus at Liberty University (we took a recent trip to the area in early Sept). Elated, I asked how much it would cost. Exactly one dollar, was the reply! But before any of that could take place, I had to have some hot chocolate and house made pumpkin pie...but there was no pumpkin pie left! Beeps offered to make some fresh, but I was SO disheartened, knowing that the pumpkin patch was SO far away :( 'Silly!' exclaimed Beeps, for she informed me that she has a garden on her roof! But we needed the magical horses to take us there. so we hopped on the horses, but we fell off on the way up, because it was really far. however, the horses caught us in this bubble gel like sac that they somehow had with them, and they were amazing things, these sacs. We were perfectly contained and unable to break out and fall to our death! We arrive at the patch (Beeps is REALLY stretching out the plot at this point so I am encouraging her to get to the point), and stuff all the pie pumpkins we could get our hands on...so we didn't have to take a return trip anytime soon. That was a scary ride! Back in the kitchen, she whips up that pumpkin pie lickety split! And boy was that the creamiest pie I ever did taste! Full of laughs, giggles, food and fellowship, we ended our final installment of "ding dong."
Hope you enjoyed reading about our lengthy shenanigans!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Welcome!
Hello, to those who are viewing this as my very first post, or to those who are just joining and wanted to see how it all began :) I started this blog out of facebook frustrations, thinking that a) my musings can't possibly be limited to 500 characters any longer, and b) although I weeded out my page to as small as I had the guts to do, I wasn't 'liking" that people who genuinely don't know or love me knows all about the intimate details of my life. So here, only those who truly care will even look. And if that's like 1 or 2 people, that is fine with me, but since fb is doing their own timeline thingy anyway, I figured I'd make my own timeline just by creating a blog!
And lastly, but not least, c) Over the past few weeks, it dawned on me that as much as I found facebook to be a great ministry opportunity, the thought fluttered my mind as I read people's personal posts day after day...what if it wasn't God's will for me to know all these things, let alone to consume my (valuable at least to my family) time learning details of people who never really impact my life for good or bad. so put all that together, having earnestly prayed, I got the increasing pull that I was supposed to leave facebook...at the very least not to be a daily participant. For matters of spreading news quickly, I am leaving my account open so I could inform family members should anything arise that everyone needs to know ASAP.
I titled this blog Livin' La Vida Jesus because I think that is what our hearts desire is as a family. And that was what just came out of me when I sat down to write :) We will have triumphs at times, other times, we will fail miserably, but I hope what we go through will serve as an encouragement to anyone. If anything it will be for me and my family to look back and see where God has grown us! Thanks for coming along for the ride!
And lastly, but not least, c) Over the past few weeks, it dawned on me that as much as I found facebook to be a great ministry opportunity, the thought fluttered my mind as I read people's personal posts day after day...what if it wasn't God's will for me to know all these things, let alone to consume my (valuable at least to my family) time learning details of people who never really impact my life for good or bad. so put all that together, having earnestly prayed, I got the increasing pull that I was supposed to leave facebook...at the very least not to be a daily participant. For matters of spreading news quickly, I am leaving my account open so I could inform family members should anything arise that everyone needs to know ASAP.
I titled this blog Livin' La Vida Jesus because I think that is what our hearts desire is as a family. And that was what just came out of me when I sat down to write :) We will have triumphs at times, other times, we will fail miserably, but I hope what we go through will serve as an encouragement to anyone. If anything it will be for me and my family to look back and see where God has grown us! Thanks for coming along for the ride!
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