Balancing Act

I just wanted to add that Jenny's comments about being content with what she has in her home inspired the idea to use our furniture in the guest bedroom. It helped me realize we DO have really nice things, and I am happy for that. I don't have to feel stuck with them, but I can also move them around to different rooms OR let them go when needed. It's a delicate balance!

Decorating!

Yesterday I found the most beautiful quilt at TJ Max for our new upstairs guest room. It was only $39 (not as good of a deal as Mom and Tammie's rummage sale, but still a good deal). It even had pillow shams to match on another shelf. I thought it was a good find. It looks so pretty and feminine. We'll eventually be moving our furniture into the guest bedroom, and we both think that was a stroke of genius because the furniture matches both in style and wood stain. I feel so good that some things are finally coming together. Now I just need to tackle the closet in the hall (hah!) and our room (double hah!).

I was reading hgtv's site last night about color choices. "Have you ever picked a color only to find that nothing in the world, including your room, matches that color?" That would be me! Yep. I LOVE the color of our room, but everything I find to match it is so UGLY. Therefore there is nothing on the walls. None of the furniture even matches. I feel stuck. My next step will be calling in a decorator. That sounds like such a grown-up thing to do, but I think it just may be time...

HOPE: I picked up some magazines today with the same exact color on the walls, or at least close. Why is it that those things look like they would never go in MY room? Is the color that different? Are the windows special? Or is it that they just don't care how well it matches because in the end they touch it up on the computer before putting it on the cover? The picture does look lovely. I bet they have special lighting! I can only hope mine will look just as pretty.

And why is it that my husband had to buy a new computer program; but it wouldn't work on our computer so we had to get a new computer? Same reason I HAD to paint our room and now we'll need new furniture to GO with the paint! Life is funny.

Pain

Well, you guys are at my mercy today. I have a lot to say. I went to the chiropractor today... I didn't care for it at all. It freaked me out, really. He showed me the x-rays of my spine and skull and how my neck was not where it should be. Even my head is turned to the right (I had already noticed that at home). But the thing is...I do feel better. Much better. But it just creeps me out. Please pray for me to be able to endure this if this is what I must do. At least Micah is going with me and getting his back adjusted, too. If you have never been, it is weird. Just plain weird. At least I can turn my head today much further than I have been able to in days.

For those of you who don't know I received inserts for my shoes from a doctor a month ago. My low arch was causing my ankle and entire foot to hurt to the point where I couldn't walk across the room. I even sprained my ankle at one point just from running a little. For 4 years I've been thinking it was my shoes. When I could no longer walk in my home I realized I needed more help. Too bad my family physician didn't realize that. At any rate the inserts have completely changed the way I walk, stand, run. Everything. And apparently my back, too. I have had pain so bad that it sends me to bed in tears. This week I gave up when I couldn't turn my head on Wednesday. My shoulder muscle was so tight it felt like a huge rock was in there-REALLY!

I have now been told I have a high pain threshold. Great. Just Great. Not what I wanted to hear. Hopefully there is an end in sight.

So Excited!!!

Okay,
I am so utterly excited and just floating on cloud 9. Crystal Lake called us this morning to let us know that we could use their building for free!!! So, not only is this the perfect place to meet for our co-op it will cost us only sweat to clean it afterwards. This is just too good. I am so thankful for the Lord's goodness in providing us this place. Just when I thought all was hopeless, He provided exceedingly & abundantly above all we could ask or think. I was dumbfounded when he said it would be free of charge. I wanted to clean my ear and say, "Excuse me, did you say "FREE"?...Because I'm not really sure I heard you correctly." But I was so afraid he'd change his mind, so I thought I'd just wait until I pick up the paperwork.
God is good-all the time!

TOO FAR OUT

Okay, this one is cynical. Yesterday my mom was called by a neighbor stating that a man was in their backyard, and it was not my dad. Dad said indeed he was not there but had left the house 30 minutes before. The neighbor and my mom went over there to find a homeless man, drunk and unclothed in their pool! At any rate, she called the police and they said they weren't coming out because he hadn't broken into the house! My dad asked him to sit down and wait for the police to come, but he wouldn't do it. So, my dad chased him for two hours in the car. He called the police every time the man went into a different store.

Then Mom saw a cop car sitting in a parking lot, so she went over there to him and asked him if he could help. He said no he could not because he was on an assignment (in the parking lot?). Anyway, my dad called to say he was across the street from where my mom was, so I guess that convinced the cop to go over there and check him out. Meanwhile the police found time in their schedule to go to my mom's house. Of course they weren't there because they were doing the police's job of chasing the guy! When the police questioned him he said, "Well the man was asleep so I decided to take a bath." My dad had been asleep in the house right before leaving, so that means the man looked in the window to spy on him. My dad left without ever knowing the guy was there!

A few weeks ago in a nearby city someone stole a man's truck meanwhile hitting him on the head. He called the police and they came out. Of course the men got away, and the police then charged him $500 because the robbers weren't there and he "lived too far out". Too far out for what? Too far out for you to...DO YOUR JOB? What's this world coming to?

A PRAISE

I am so thrilled about this! We have been praying and praying for a place for our co-op to meet next year. We had one church pegged as our very favorite. We thought they called to tell us that it wouldn't work, but here a week later they called and said that never happened. So, they are praying this very night and meeting to discuss whether or not to let us meet there. I am so excited! I have been praying daily since we got the "no" that God would open a door and allow us to meet there. That He would somehow change their minds. So...we'll see what comes of it all. It is just so perfect with 30 acres to study botany, classrooms and a kitchen already ready for us. A pastor who didn't care if paint got on his new floors because of art! (Of course we would clean it up!) He just laughed and said, "Ah, that's why we put linoleum down. That's what art's for! To get messy." Wow! Please pray with us if you get this message for God's complete will. I know He has the perfect place for us.

Anyway

Okay, so I told you about it anyway.

STUFF

I'm waiting to see if I publish anything of importance here before I tell anyone about it...At the very least I will amuse myself greatly.

I am currently doing a major reorganization of our home. Everything in this room is going to that room, and everything in that room is going to that room; you get the picture. I feel like Ernie and Bert in that book where Bert is looking for his cowboy hat. Man, that is my favorite book ever because so many times in my life I find myself in that same situation!

All the kids toys are getting boxed up and put away for rotation. I have never seen so much stuff in all my life. Why? Why do we shuffle so much? Why do we collect so much? I was astounded when I got their toys and books in the boxes. Utterly astounded. I couldn't believe how much they had! I filled ten boxes. And I go through their stuff all the time. About every two or three months I give away 10 bags or so to the Salvation Army. How do we collect so much stuff?

Brimful...

What? I can't believe I'm joining the ranks of bloggers! It seems like such a trite thing when everyone else you know is doing it and then you decide to do it as well. Oh well. I'll just have to get over that. You see what happened is that I drank half of a Dr. Pepper around 8:30 and now I can't go to sleep. I have more productive things to do than start blogs, but I am hoping in the end this will prove to be helpful to me. You see I feel the motherhood stage of my life is getting the best of me. Er, I mean I hope it is! I am hoping to make some sense of it all by journaling here. Well, maybe I will; maybe I won't. Either way, I LOVE journaling and miss it terribly. A journal can't turn its ears off or change the conversation or ask for a cup of milk. It just sits there and takes whatever you have to say! Nonetheless, I hardly ever take the time to journal and most of the time don't even know where I placed it! I'm working on that. Hopefully I won't lose my computer that much...

All that to say I have immensely enjoyed the entries of various family members and have been encouraged beyond measure. May this be an overflow of a cupful.