Adam and Eve

When we look in the Bible, we start to think about how we have gotten to where we are in this world, how we may need to rethink why we do what we do and how we might start to do things differently.

We know that Adam was there when Eve had the discussion with the serpent and when she took the fruit. He was there when she took her bite and then took the fruit from her and ate it as well.

Genesis 3:6

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Why did he stand by while she did this? We will never know. It reminds of a time when Tobi was younger and she cut her own hair. Brighton and Dora were both close by when she did this and so I asked them, "Why didn't you stop her from cutting her hair?" To which they replied, "We told her she shouldn't do it." I then pointed out that they should have taken the scissors away instead of just telling her, a two year old, what she should do.

No matter what Adam's reasons were for standing by while Eve took the fruit and ate it, really doesn't matter at this point. So then, why he accepted it from her and ate it, we won't know either. But we do see that when God found out, Adam was no less held accountable as Eve was. In fact, I believe he was held even more accountable. It is mentioned in Genesis that Eve took the fruit first, but after that most of the time when the fall is mentioned in the Bible, it is blamed on Adam, not Eve. So we read that God punishes the serpent first, making him the lowest creature. Next comes Eve's punishment, which I think is interesting.

Genesis 3:16

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;

with painful labor you will give birth to children.

Your desire will be for your husband,

and he will rule over you.”

As a mother of four children, I agree there is pain in childbearing. I do believe that God has also shown mercy in this area as well, because no matter how hard I try, I really don't remember the pains of childbirth. There are other pains that come with childbearing, the pains of not being able to get pregnant, the pains of not carrying a child to term, and just the struggles that come with having children. I really think that we can not deny this punishment, it was given to us from God and it is real. What I think we forget is the next line, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." This is harder to pin down, harder to see in every day life, because we look at our desire to be on the same level as men as our rights as women. Is it? Are we trying to put ourselves into the same position as men, because desire what they have? We struggle with the knowledge that we are not the same as men, women don't want to admit that, but if we did, maybe it would be freeing to us. I also think this verse shows that once sin entered the world, there began a break in the union of husband and wife. What all do we desire from our husbands: attention, comfort, praise, security, etc. Security, that one I think sometimes women don't realize how much they want that. I think, and I could be wrong, that if we really admitted it, we want a husband that takes care of us, a husband who does the work that pays the bills so we don't have to, a husband who lovingly makes the final decision on decisions that are hard, and a husband who truly leads his household spiritually. Our biggest fear is that if we admit this out loud, other people will think we are weak and that it will give our husbands some kind of power over us and he will be cruel to us. I believe that is what Satan wants us to think. He wants us to think that we can not really trust our husbands to be the head of the household, because we as women can do a much better job. He is wrong and I fear that is why so many of our families are struggling today.

Genesis 3:17-19

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”

Man in no way got off easy. "Through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life." All the days of your life, ALL, that means that the man will always have to work to provide for himself and for his family, this will not be easy. "It will produce thorns and thistles for you," In other words, this work will never be easy. Not only is man going to have to work ALL the days of his life, it is not going to be easy work. I think it is in man's nature, all of our nature, to want it to be easier, I believe that is why so many men have allowed women to take on their roles in the world. It is easier to let someone else do the hard work, but it is not what God had planned for man. Once again God was showing mercy to man, because through that hard work that man is doing for all his life, he is growing, he is learning and he is bettering himself and his family.

I believe that God set these punishments as punishments, but also as a way of life for us to grow and to seek Him. Just as when parents punish their children to teach them a lesson and to make them better people, so should we see these verses for us to be better people, see why we desire what we do, how we may have to learn from that and that we may need to change our attitudes.

This has been interesting for me to look at. I have no problem saying out loud that my husband is the head of our household, although inside me it is harder sometimes. Over the past 19 years of marriage, we have both grown a lot and I have learned to seek my husband's wisdom before I speak, which is a very good thing for other people, because I could be a quick tempered person. I have also watched my husband grow as the spiritual leader of our house, which I personally think is awesome. I know that he loves his family and would not do anything to hurt us, I appreciate that he discusses things with me, takes what I have to say and then is willing to make the final hard decision. There is a freedom knowing that he loves me like Christ loved the church, which makes me even more willing to submit to him.

Venting

This was an interesting week. I really wanted to vent to someone, but I had to be careful who I vented to in order to protect myself from gossiping. This makes life rough, so I had to vent to God, which is amazing. The more I would talk out my frustrations in my head to God, the calmer I seemed to get, until I got to the point where my thoughts were put down on paper without any bad words or with me quitting. I feel that in the past when I come across a person I disagree with, I may try to say my concerns once to them and if they treat me like an irrational woman, then I tend not to deal with them anymore and remove myself from the situation. One thing people should understand about me, is that I rarely share my concerns with a person without first seeking council from my husband. He usually has a good idea what my concern is, he sees that it actually has merit and helps me decide what words I might want to use. So, when someone treats me like an irrational woman, it kind of makes me laugh, because I know they would not treat my husband that way and he is behind what I say. Anyways, even he was busy this week, although he did help me some with what I said, but he was working through his own concerns on the matter with God, so I took his lead and did the same.

I have also come to the understanding that in removing myself from the situations doesn't always help, because God may have placed me there to continue to get a differing point across. I think I have always taken the easier path of just quitting, but I am tired of doing that and I want to be the person God wants me to be. I believe I am seeing some future struggles coming up and I am praying for strength as they approach. One struggle I see is how we as women have tried so hard to be on the same level as men in the church. I think we need to realize we were never meant to be elders in the church, we can do ministry and we can serve on ministries in the church, but we should not be in a place of high authority in the church. I think that because women have been fighting to be placed on the same level as men in the secular world, we have allowed that into our church as well. In that process, men have stepped aside and allowed women into authority roles, and that is one of the reasons our churches are struggling in the world. Just as important as it is for my husband to be the head of our house, the men should be the heads of our church. This is not a popular idea and I am sure that I will get some arguments from women. It does remind me of the story of Jonah, the people of Nineveh did not know what they were doing was wrong until Jonah came and told them. Once they heard God's message, they changed and repented, was this easy? I doubt it. They would have had to make some huge changes that could not have been comfortable, but God blessed them after they made the changes (mostly by not destroying them). I think we in the church have gotten off track, thinking sometimes that the Bible is old fashioned and did not really mean in our more modern world that men would be the only elders, that is just crazy talk. But is it really? I have been amazed at how the Bible can speak to me in what I am dealing with right now even as old as it is. God is everywhere and I believe His order of authority in the Bible was meant to span over all generations, it may just be a test for us to see if we are willing to obey.

Ok...that may have been a little bit of venting from me.

Married

I was driving home from work listening to the radio and there was yet another program about marriages ending after the kids grow up. I have heard so many of these programs, so many of them discuss how a husband should come home from work, help the wife with housework and the kids, then they discuss how the wife should make sure to make time for the husband. It is discussed how they should have date nights, make time to talk and time to spend time together. Then almost every discussion has one woman who says, "My kids are young, it is too hard to make time, I feel that I am neglecting my kids." This always bugs the heck out of me, we have no problem with neglecting our husbands, but always think that we are neglecting our kids if we are not giving them our 100% attention. Has anyone ever wondered if by giving our kids our 100% attention we are actually neglecting them? If they are always getting our attention, they are rarely learning how to think and entertain themselves, or to think about how to please others.

Our family life has always been different. I have alway told my kids, "I love you very much, but you are some day going to grow up and leave to live your own life, but your dad is always going to be here with me, so he comes first." None of my kids give off the impression that they feel any less loved, because they know that I love their dad first. I feel that I am also setting an example to them of how they should treat their own spouse someday.

It comes down to this in my eyes, I REALLY love my husband. Something inside of me still gets excited knowing he is coming home from work, and I look forward to the attention he gives me. I work hard to make sure the house is fairly clean, usually with the help of my kids and we start cleaning about 30 minutes before he comes home. (I even did this when my kids were young, they got excited too that daddy was coming home.) I try to have dinner almost done, or at least started, before he gets home. I do all this because when he gets home I want to give him my full attention. I want to relax with him eating dinner or watching a show. I want be ready to go to any meetings we need to go to. I can remember a time when I use to continue to work on the house after he got home, and I missed that time with him. It is hard for me to sit still sometimes, but I love our time in the evenings together. I think everyone is more relaxed knowing that we are going to eat dinner, watch a TV show, or even finish up a school project, all this we do together, in our living room. All of my family is in the living room most evenings together, except when the older kiddos are at practice or us adults are at a meeting, and that is a good feeling.

There is an old Good House Keeping article that was from the 1950's that I have seen passed around. It talks about the man being the king of the house and how the wife and kids should try to make the home a pleasant place for him. (Now there are some parts I don't agree with about the husband not having to come home and the wife should not question him on this.) I think too often we have forgotten our place as a wife. I am suppose to be submissive to my husband, to do things to make our home a comfortable environment and to please my husband. In return, he is to love me like Christ loved the church. I am glad my husband is the head of our household, he treats me like a queen and I treat him like my king. I am glad that after almost 19 years I can still say this, I still feel like a teenager in love. I can only hope that my kids will get to feel this way for their future spouse and that they will be able to tell their kids, "I love you very much, but your mother/father still comes first."

I'm Sorry

I'm Sorry, is that 2 words or 3? No matter how many there are, they can be the hardest words to say sometimes, but the words we most long to hear sometimes. Even at a young age it is really hard to say these words. I can remember trying to get my little ones to say "sorry" to a sibling they had just hurt, or even to someone else that they did something to that they should not have. I have watched other parents try to get their little ones to just say "I'm sorry" and then they would no longer be in trouble, but those mouths seem to clamp shut and their eyes seem to lock and there is no way they are saying anything. Why in the world is it so hard to say such simple words? Even as parents, we find there are times that we have messed up, grounded or punished when maybe we should not have and it is time for us to say those words to our children. Then there comes the time to say them to our spouse, even if we did not realize we did something that hurt them or if we did know and did it anyways.

Personally, I tend to be an apologizing kind of person. I like to smooth things over and keep peace. It doesn't always go as smoothly as I want it to. Although, I have had to make myself say I was sorry to the kiddos a few times and I did find that harder. It was like really admitting I was wrong and made me feel really low, but I then realized it was something they needed to see, the needed the example and as much as I hate being wrong, it happens.

I really realized how good the words can be when they are said to you last week. I had never really thought about it and I have had people say sorry to me before, but there are sometimes the words come across more real. When you have to tell someone you think they owe you an apology and they immediately say one, it really doesn't feel real. Yet, when someone realizes on their own and says those words, it can feel so soothing. Still, we have to choose to accept the words, decide to forgive and then work past the hurt to move on to healing, which can be a whole another thing entirely...lol.

Birthdays

I have the coolest new sewing table that was a gift made by my hubby for my birthday. I was going to take a picture to post here, but right now I have tons of sewing stuff stacked on top of it and nobody will be able to see the table. If I actually get it cleaned up, then I will definitely post a picture, my hubby did a great job.

I have decided I don't like Birthdays any more. I am horrible at remembering other people's birthdays, which means I rarely wish them a happy birthday or get them a gift. One of these days I am going to make a calendar just with every birthday I know. But what I really dislike is my own birthday. I start looking forward to my birthday usually a month before it happens, I am usually waiting to see what someone is going to do for me, not that I really know what I want done, but with a birthday close to Thanksgiving and Christmas, not much is ever done. The day comes and goes without much fanfare, which is to be expected. After all, I am the mom, I am the one who is suppose to do the nice things for everyone. Maybe it is just part of being a mom. Then I also wonder to myself, if I want something more special for my birthday, maybe those around me do too? Maybe I need to start looking at ways to wish those around me a better birthday? I could always start this year off by remembering other people's birthdays, hmmm...that is a thought.

Still, I should not complain, my husband worked in secret to make me a custom sewing table to fit in a small corner of our bedroom that gives me more space than I had before and my "5th" child, Claudia from across the street insisted that her mother buy me a portable coffee mug since she sees me take coffee to work every morning when she comes over to catch the bus. I didn't get to go out for dinner to a restaurant, but I did have dinner with my small group at a friend's house. Maybe it is just my weird expectations that get in the way of me enjoying my birthday?

If today is your birthday,

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY"

A Day at home by myself!

I think this is a first in a really long time, I have they day at home all by myself. I really should be getting more stuff done, but it is feeling so good to be lazy. I am planning to try and move things around in the little girls' room. I am working on laundry today as well, I must say my new washer and dryer hold so many clothes that I am not nearly as behind in laundry as I usually am.

Last night I started dreaming about the next dress I want to make. My mom got me a gift card to JoAnn Fabrics for Christmas, then I had a 20% off coupon, plus the clearance fabric was 50% off, so I really got some good deals. I got some really filmy brown material that I have decided I am going to make me a new regency dress. I will have to layer it with something under it because it is so thin. I am not as fond of the regency dresses, but I am getting excited about this new dress idea. I want to make it fancy and do some cool things with the sleeves. It was hard to sleep last night because my mind was racing with ideas, now I just need to get started. I will make sure to post some pictures when I get started.

I do believe life is going to get back to normal for me. Work was really crazy for November and December, but it should be slowing down, I think. Of course we are getting ready to head into a busy season of Winter Percussion contests and other school like things. Does life really ever slow down? And I am really not sure what normal is for me around here...lol.

The season is closed!

Our official re-enacting season is finished for this year. We ended on a cold but beautiful weekend. Friday night was just freezing! The girls slept in our big tent with our big heater, Dwayne and I slept in Sari's tent, and Brighton slept in his diamond fly. My feet froze all night, Dwayne woke up at one point and stated that we needed more wool blankets, that one blanket was not enough. I told him that he was suppose to have FOUR blankets, so then I had to find all the blankets he had kicked off. Brighton woke up Saturday morning with frost on his socks...that just happened to be on his feet! The sun came out on Saturday and warmed us all up. Saturday night we talked Brighton into sleeping in the big tent and Dwayne and I used our 2 small propane heaters to warm up our smaller tent. Sunday was another beautiful day and we were able to pack up in record time. This is a very low maintenance weekend, the event provides dinner for us on Saturday night, so I did not even have much cooking to do. Our new friends this year brought us some yummy snacks and we really just enjoyed winding down from a great season.

3 Events down...1 to go...

It has been a good time. We have had some wonderful events so far and we are looking for to the last one coming up on November 5th. I did not get as much made as I wanted to. Working, keeping up with the kiddos and the house, and then just attending and preparing for each event has taken a toll on my time. The little girl's had just enough clothing to make it through the weekends, Brighton is seriously in need of new clothes, but I was able to purchase a used wool coat off of a friend that will get Brighton through this year.

I took the hem out of Dora and Tobi's blue dresses this year,
so Tobi wore that quite a bit.

Brighton looked awesome in the used coat that I bought off of Dennis,
or as we call him...Uncle Dennis.

I added some hook and eyes to Sari's Regency gowns and I think that will make them look much better on her. There has always been a gap on the back with just tying them. Plus, Dwayne looks awesome in his new purple homespun shirt.

My girls are begging for something here, but they look cute with me anyways.

First week of school...first week of work...

I have finished my first full week of work and by 3:30pm tomorrow my kiddos will be home from their first full week of school. I think we have all done well with this week. First off, my kiddos have done the dishes and straightened up the living room without being asked every day this week. I think that is awesome!!! Plus, I think, notice I said think...not know, that every one has been doing their homework every day. This is such a good start! I am enjoying my 8am to 1pm work day. I know it has been about 5 years since I have done any medical coding, but it is coming back to me so quickly and I am really enjoying it. Today the weather was slightly cooler making me want to actually cook again, so I made us some cubed steak, asparagus and french fries. Dwayne took all the kiddos outside to help him set up all our canvas tents so they could air out before our first re-enactment. We will all probably sleep out in the tents this weekend. I am so excited. It also makes me realize that I really need to sew. Tobi's bodice is pretty much done. So, Saturday I will probably show Dora how to finish the eye holes for the lacing on it while I make a bodice for her.

Dwayne and I were discussing how nice it is to know that we will have 4 weekend camping trips set aside this fall for our family. We camp with another family or 2 and that makes it so much fun. It is funny how when you tell people that you can't do something because you are camping, they don't always take it serious, but when you tell people that you are re-enacting, then that is different. Which is true, re-enactments are only available at certain times. I am just thankful that we are into the re-enactments, because we can always depend on these 4 weekends for our family when all the rest of our lives are stay so busy.

My Sewing Project

I am working on a new bodice for Tobi, this is just being pieced together. I have one half sewn together and the other half is ready to be sewn together. I still need to cut out a new bodice for Dora. Right now I have been taking stitches out of material that I have bought at rummage sales. I love picking up curtains and table cloths at rummage sales that I can use to make clothing from, I have to find 100% natural material, cottons, linens and silks. I am always searching for any material I can find,
and I keep it stored up for when I need it for the next project.

My Garden!

Just a few things out of my garden this year!
Dwayne has built me this most awesome fenced in garden with
a cute little gate. I am learning a few things this year,
like next year I will not plant pumpkins, because they have
taken over my garden. Plus, I really need to get in and keep it weeded. I am really enjoying my tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and the occasional green bean. I should have enough today to make a small batch of salsa, with even my own home grown cilantro.
I am so grateful to Dwayne for building me the garden,
so that no rabbits could invade it.

Marching Band!

Band Season!
I have 3 kiddos in band this year and they are doing great!
I love being involved with the band and helping out. I have many years ahead of me in band. I am not a musically talented person, but I love watching my family perform. We are still waiting to see what Tobi is going to do, but I am thinking she may go into guard, which would be a new world for me. This year Sari is the Drum Major, which has to be a proud moment for Dwayne, because he was a Drum Major as well. Brighton is playing Baritone and is doing well with it. Dora is doing well in her first year of marching band playing Trumpet. She is the shortest one out there, but she keeps up well with everyone.

A Great Weekend!

I have begun on my sewing projects. After taking lunch to my band kiddos, I started working on new re-enacting clothes for Tobi, I got a new bodice and skirt cut out for her. I also did some cleaning on my sewing desk to make it easier to work on projects that are up coming. Brighton definitely needs a new wool coat and a new work shirt. After dinner with Brighton and Dora, Dwayne and I went over to our friend's house to hang out and I took along my sewing basket. It is so easy to sit and chat while I take out stitches, so I took out stitches on two items for Tobi since she as grown so much this year. It was so nice to sit out on our friend's back porch, enjoy conversation, and the wonderful view at their house. We hung out for a couple of hours, traded humorous stories, and shared our views on different subjects concerning God. I love talking about God, I love thinking outside the normal box that people try so hard to put God in, being with people who want to serve and grow in Christ, and who just need to relax on a beautiful night that God has given us to enjoy.

Sunday morning brought church and it is my Sunday to run our visual part of church. I went in early to finish up some of my slide presentations. I love working in the audio visual department of our church. This is just awesome to me! This past week, I also did the visual and the audio for Vacation Bible School, which was a stretch for me, since I don't normally do the audio side. I love learning the new stuff. At church today, we actually had a power outage half way through the first service, but it happened during the offering and the open worship time. So, although Satan could have been messing with our worship service and try to mess with us, God redeemed it during the perfect time that it did not mess too much up for the church service. We were able to quickly bring everything back up to what was needed to push the service out online. In case anyone is ever looking for a church service online, check out www.farmlandfriends.org on Sundays. I work the visual slide shows every first and third Sundays of the month. I really love working this area. I would work it more often, but I need to give other people a chance to serve as well. Today was also important to me, since Dwayne was talking about his trip to Kenya. It was a wonderul service about traveling to different countries for missions. I know my kiddos all want to travel to different countries to serve God and I am excited for that. Even though I have not felt the call to go to another country on a mission trip yet, today I really wanted to go to another country to adopt a child. Some day I see our family adopting children from other cultures and loving them, but not sure when it will come to true. I am grateful for the good weekend. Dwayne got more work done on his woodworking workshop out in the garage, I got some work done on my sewing and listening to Mars Hill church sermons, the kiddos worked on band stuff and got to relax, and to finish the weekend off we will be heading over to my grandparent Wright's house to celebrate their 75th Birthdays. I can't wait to see what we get done this next week!

Time To Sew...

Kids grow, we all know this, but this year I am really noticing it. I make all of our re-enacting clothes and Tobi is showing me that it looks like it is time for some new clothes.

Things are just looking short on her this year. I might be able to get away with some short skirts and chemises, but I am thinking at least one outfit that is longer is going to be wise at this point. Just wait until Dora gets home from band and tries on her clothes, that will be another new outfit probably. And what are the chances that any of Brighton's clothes fit from last year?? Not very good...lol. Yep, I really have some sewing to do and I am excited about it!

My Christmas gift

I really had planned to slow down on my reading and to get busy with other things in my house, but then my wonderful hubby got me a Kindle for Christmas. I didn't even know I wanted one and now I am trying to remember how I lived without one...lol. To have a book always at my fingertips, never having to wait til I go to town to buy one, to be able to increase the text size so that I can read while I am doing other things, this thing is just amazing! My hubby really does spoil me.

Reading!

I have been reading. I have been reading way too much. I have put off important things that need to be done, just to lose myself in a book. I really love to read, I can read the longest books in just a day or two. My husband has been very understanding, and I really appreciate that. I think I am finally coming to the end of my constant reading, and I actually want to do something that produces results that everyone can see. There was a time in my marriage that my husband actually had to strongly recommend that I not read, it was way back when my 2 oldest were much younger. I would not even look at books, I had to train myself to not even wonder what wonderful stories were out there that I might be missing. Then as the kids got older, I started reading some of the books they were reading, like Harry Potter and Twilight. I proved I was capable of doing both, reading and taking care of my family. Yet, lately, I have retreated into my constant reading stage, you would think I know better. So, I am going to work on other stuff today and try not to read much. One good thing from my love of reading, is that I have always highly encouraged my kiddos to read, and they are all big readers. I hear parents complain about their kiddos not reading and I don't say anything, this has never nor will it ever be a problem for me.

Life got messed up...

So, we had a great time in Goshen. It was a little frustrating setting our stuff up in the rain, but we pulled together and with some help form our re-enacting buddies we got it all set up and we all slept in the main tent that first night. It was chilly and rainyish on Friday, so the school kids came a little later. There were no battles, because not enough indians showed up across the way for us to fight against. That was fine, the guys showed the students the guns and how they shot, explained pirate life and I even showed them how to keep a fire going with my cool blow tube. I got my picture in the Elkhart newspaper even...so cool! We even got to do a tiny bit of shopping and met a new guy that sold the coolest pewter buttons. We invited him to come visit our camp and he enjoyed biscuits and gravy with us Saturday morning. By the end of the weekend we had bought $30 worth of buttons, but they were so cool. Saturday was still chilly and had bits of rain, but we got some visitors which was really nice. Sunday was just a positively beautiful day!! The sun was out and it was warming up. This was great because it made packing up so much easier. I will try and post some pictures from the weekend soon.

Then Monday happened! Like so many Mondays after a re-enactment, we were all tired, so I let the kiddos sleep in until 7am instead of getting them up at 6:30am and just planned to take them to school. Sari left in her car to head off to school while I got the kiddos ready to take. Dwayne had some extra work that needed to be done, so he was staying home as well. Then came the phone call, the call you really never want to get, a police officer telling you that your child has just been in an accident and you need to come and be with her. We all loaded up into the van, not knowing what to expect, it was not pretty, the whole front of the car was totalled and my darling daughter was covered in blood, but she was walking. She had done some serious damage to her mouth, she knew it was her fault, she was upset and sorry, but from what we could tell no one was seriously hurt, no one left the scene with the ambulance. After chatting with the EMT, we decided to take Sari to the dentist to have her mouth looked at. Getting home we decided her nose needed to be looked at as well, we went off to to a walk-in clinic and discovered that yes, she did have a broken nose and a nice gash in her chin that needed stitched up and then went off to the dentist. One look at her and he sent us off to the emergency room because he said the jaw was definitely broken and there was nothing he could do. One cat scan later proved that her jaw was broken in 3 areas which sent us off to Indy to another doctor because there was no one at Ball hospital that could help us. We got lost trying to find the hospital we were suppose to be at, we finally got there and you could tell they were waiting very excitedly for Sari, they were IUPUI students and they were ready to tackle this broken jaw. The 2 students we got, quickly put Sari to ease, the female doctor was foreign, we are thinking German, was Sari's absolute favorite, but the male doctor was very nice trying to explain things to me. I laugh, because each time we go in, they still call me mom instead of by my name. They tried to close her jaw that day in the office, but it could not be done without causing too much pain, so we went back on Wednesday for her to be put under and have it closed. She has now had her jaw wired shut for just over 2 weeks and has 4 more weeks to go. We go back to the office each week to have her looked at, where she gets to see her favorite doctor. The liquid diet she is on is hard, but she is keeping up good spirits through it all and I am very proud of her. Dwayne has joined her on her diet, which is very good of him, but very hard on him. I am struggling with even wanting to cook, so I am looking into more soup like recipes. I am sure my family will be tired of soup, but oh well, we are all trying to show the best support that we can.

So, this has kind of set us back some. We have some serious bills to be paying off, but such is the way of life. We are just glad that Sari is healthy and alive. Life is finally settling back down into a regular routine for us. It has been nice to see God's hand in all this, a very good reminder to us, since sometimes you can forget that God has His hand in your life at all times.

Caffeine is Great!

I just love a good peppermint latte with extra whip cream from Starbucks. I have them from other places and they are good, but still not Starbucks worthy. Just had to share that.

Yesterday started out early...really early. Dwayne got up at 4:30am to work, I got up not too long after him to get the day started. After everyone left, I had my pile of stuff to do. I spent the better part of the morning working on bills and budget stuff....yay...so fun! Then I had to go grocery shopping. This should be fun, to go shopping without anyone with me. There use to be a time where I could not wait to do this by myself, but now that I do so much by myself, it is just not fun. Plus, no matter how fast you are, it always takes hours to get things done in Muncie...yuck! My treat to myself when I was done was a Grande Peppermint Latte with extra whip cream and cream cheese danish to go from Starbucks. This was my 3rd cup of coffee for the day. When I got home and put away the groceries, I did not feel like doing any of the stuff on my list, I just wanted to play on the computer. But then all of a sudden the caffeine kicked in and I was off. I got my chilli made, bagged and froze, got the sausage all cooked and froze. I packed up all the clothes into the trailer, even packed up the table. I drove the kids crazy and made Dwayne laugh at me, I think they all hid from me for awhile, until dinner was ready and then they had to be back around me. But I felt good with what was done.

Now, today is my baking day. I have already got bread mixing in the bread machine on the dough cycle. Bread machines are wonderful. I never cook the bread in them, just use them for their dough cycle, then I shape the dough how I want, let it rise one last time and bake it in my oven. I even used one bread machine until it died. I have to do up dishes, make cupcakes, pancakes, more bread and pack up food. We leave tonight for Goshen. I know it is suppose to be chilly and rainy, but I can't help it, I am still excited. Don't you feel sorry for my hubby, he has to put up with my giddiness when I am like this...poor guy!

I will try to get pictures posted from the weekend early next week.

Busy day ahead.

My day was really busy yesterday. I got 2 more things marked off my list, plus the normal day to day chores. I watched my 2 little buddies, one who refused to take an afternoon nap, poor guy. Plus, I went to watch Dora at her Spell Bowl meet. I took some hand sewing with me to make the time go faster. As soon as her meet was done, I rushed her home, dropped her off and headed off to a band booster meeting that I was at until after 8pm, then finally got to come home to a little bit of dinner that my kiddos left me. Whew....busy day, but today is not much different.

We will be leaving tomorrow for our 3rd re-enactment of the season. This is the first time we have ever tried doing 4 re-enactments in less than 2 months. It is tiring. Today I will be cooking and freezing some of our food for the weekend, grocery shopping, taking apart our table to be packed, and packing up clothing for the weekend. Tomorrow I will spend the day baking fresh bread and cupcakes for the weekend. I am looking forward to the weekend, but since this is the first time we have done this event, I am a little nervous how it will go. Plus, the weather looks bleak for us this weekend, rain on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but it is suppose to be dry on Sunday. Well as dry as it can be after 3 days of rain. It should be interesting setting up in rain, and packing up after 3 days of rain...yuck.

3 things done...

I was able to get 3 things marked off my list yesterday. My bedroom looks so much better now. Even my hubby was deeply impressed. So impressed that he thinks I should be able to get lots of cleaning done each day...silly, silly man. I have little buddies hanging out with me today, but I am sure I will be able to do something else to mark off my list...