Sometimes they REALLY get into their roles…
I’m just glad he didn’t embrace the whole pacifier thing. 
Month: February 2012
Too cold for comfort!
While it is very uncommon for me to wake up at night to use the bathroom, I am very glad that I did last night. As I was doing my business I suddenly woke up enough to realize just how cold I was. I wondered if it was just the bathroom, but returning to my bedroom confirmed that it was just plain chilly in our house. I spoke out to John about how cold it was and he popped out of bed not realizing that I was already on my way to investigate. His words were, “Wow. It is.”
As I headed down the stairs to check the thermostat I reckoned that we knew this could happen. The furnace is pushing 30 years old and it was one of our main concerns when we first bought the house. As I padded to the living room I was chewing on the hassle that was probably before us of buying a furnace and having it installed ASAP. I confess I was totally grumbling.
Then I got to the thermostat and smiled. The little arm on the top of the older-style device was pulled all the way to the left. It was set to 50 degrees. Oh, those little hands! The thermometer registered 65 degrees! I slid the plastic arm back to it’s home at 72 and headed back up the stairs.
As I snuggled back I chuckled as I told John about my findings. We both snickered a little and acknowledged how glad we were to have caught it when we did. As I rolled over to find a comfortable spot I suddenly laughed out loud. “John! Some people SET their thermostat to 65 degrees!” Despite the 3:00 A.M. hour John roared as well.
I then rolled over and smiled as I concurrently thanked God for Fairport Electric and contemplated what a difference 7 degrees makes!
All in a day
In playing with the boys this morning Marie bit her tongue. It was a considerable bite and bled for hours. I finally called DDS who was out of the office. His secretary directed me to call pediatrician. We went in around 10:30 A.M. and were there until noon. There is a flap on the side of her tongue but the doctor does not think she is a candidate for stitching. She does think it will continue to bleed for another day. She had said if it were grossly bleeding at 1:30 P.M. to call and we’d go to an oral surgeon somewhere. But if it were just a slow ooze that we would not need further evaluation. At 2:00 P.M. it was just trickling and our doctor visits were over for the day.
Soft, cold foods only. She told us to go get a milkshake or smoothie. Marie made the doctor smile when she said, “That’s the best news I’ve ever heard.” We went to McDonald’s where I paid an obscene amount for a milkshake, but it was the size of her head and came with whipped cream and a cherry. You should have seen Marie’s face when I went to hand it back to her. “This is mine?” Glee.
She was also told not to talk or open her mouth except to eat cold, soft foods. That is hard for any child, but Marie…..
This will hardly register as a blip on the great screen of Marie’s life, but it did make for an adventurous morning!
She’s now outside climbing pine trees and driving the baby around in the PowerWheels car. [The baby is wearing a helmet.]
Kids practicing for passion play
I, for one, would have had the kids singing this straight with no choreography. Less is more, in my book, when organizing children.
Not so with Mike. The guy has a vision. He makes it work.
He also makes a great dance at the end of the video.
Scripture balloon and saying, “Good-bye.”
On Monday we went to Pastor Jeff’s memorial service.
It still seems unreal.
Just unreal.
HOW IS HE GONE?Just a few months ago he was there – teaching about the seven letters to the churches from the Book of Revelation.
And now – he has moved on to Heaven.
It is still so hard to believe it.
The service was like no other service I have ever attended. It was beautiful. It was almost two hours in what was probably a 78 degree sanctuary at the end of a long day. And yet the kids were all so attentive. Little Tabitha started to fall apart the last 20 minutes from fatigue. The kids [and John and I] hung on every word and WORD as we longed to know more about the man we won’t get to hear from anymore in our time.
We heard from his aunt on behalf of his sister, and from his college roommate and fellow pastor. We heard from his dear friend and pastor of Pittsford Community Church and from our own worship leader and youth pastor. We heard from the daughter of an elder on his behalf, and from a dear friend and small group partner. Scripture was shared from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, read by a friend and fellow worshiper and from our Pastor Emeritus.
And the message was shared by his long time mentor.
Music from a trombone ensemble and our own choir blessed our hearts.
A video was compiled from family movies and photographs.
And at the end of the night each family was invited to take a Scripture Balloon home. The kids and I have different memories of what our scripture was. But we were instructed to take it home and send it into the sky. As soon as we got home we went out to the deck. We prayed that if it pleased the LORD the scripture would find its way to someone who God had prepared to read it. We watched it go into the clear night sky. Thousands of stars shone as we watched the balloon for as long as we could. We could hear the coyotes in the distance [I choose to believe it was a GOOD distance]. Some of us cried. We continue to pray for the words to find their way to someone who wants to know more about God. We know that is what Pastor Jeff would want, too.
“Well done.”
Sometime in the waning hours of February 15th, our time, our good and faithful Shepherd welcomed Pastor Jeff into the assembly of saints.
I can’t know for sure, of course, but I am rather confident that Jeff heard the words, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”
A friend encouraged me this morning suggesting how Jeff in his suffering probably introduced many new people to the LORD.
May it be so.
new look for school books
Our homeschool set up changes a little each year.
This set up in the dining room has worked for the last two years.
I had my eye on this little beauty…
18 x 42 Chrome Rolling Wire Shelving Utility Cart: 2 Shelf
1842R2C-NEXEL-DUC
$145.00But at that price, it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Then, at BJs the other night, I saw this!
$39.99
Now we can wheel our school books to the pantry when we have guests over.
Or not.
But now we CAN if we want to.My funny Valentines.
Tabitha asked this morning why we had to do school on a holiday. I explained Valentine’s Day was more like Mom’s birthday. We don’t take the day off. She said, “Well! Can we not have to do school on Easter, anyway?”
“Sure, honey.”
We make a biggish deal out of Valentine’s Day. Not expensive. No gifts anymore. But a “fancy” [for us] meal and a cookie bigger than Daddy’s head.
Six-sevenths of us loved the linguine with Alfredo sauce and shrimp. Tab ate plain pasta. We all had a half-a-can of Pepsi, too. Like I said – we make a big deal out of the day.
Some of us REALLY enjoyed it. Extreme eating.
I used cookie dough out of a tube. Yes. I did. It was just what fit for this year. And we had frosting enough for left over spoons-full for the kids.
They really enjoyed them. Johanna wondered why I waited so long to serve this pink food!
At first I was seriously berating myself for buying frosting in a CAN. “Contents-under-pressure” CAN. But look at the fun it provided.
Jo-hanny was mad when we said, “All gone.”Since they got in the shot, I have to show that I haven’t thrown out my flowers from Jesus from two weeks ago. I just am still so touched that they were sent for me. I have since learned who sent them. I won’t say who it was, but they did come from my favorite greenhouse.
It’s a good thing we homeschool
Because I didn’t have to make her change.
And no – I didn’t just happen to be at the bottom of the stairs with a camera Monday morning. But I was just walking by the stairs as she was just coming down. That’s a lot of visual stimulation at 7:12AM, let me tell you. I asked her to stay there while I got a camera. Some things need to be recorded to be believed later.
Lest anyone has any concerns about my daughter, this gem-of-a-girl just asked me if she could take Hanny to her room to read her some books.
I love my family so much.
Dayspring Disciples 
