Counting The Cost

My man is doing a study with his youth called Follow Me.

In the book, the author asked, "What has it cost you to follow Jesus?"  So my man has been asking that question all over the place. 

Now honestly questions like that tend to turn me off.  It sounds too much like "how is your life miserable now b/c you follow Jesus", or maybe some guilt trip b/c I have the luxury of 2 crock pots. 
And I don't have an answer for that b/c my life is joyful and I used to have 3 crock pots before Nate tripped over the cat and broke one.  And I'm perfectly good with all of it. 

But for whatever reason the question has still been floating around my head.  Until yesterday when I decided I was tired of thinking about it and needed to settle it once and for all. 

So here's where I landed. 

God is love.  And there's a period at the end of the sentence.  And He says if we love God, we will love others.  And there's no getting around it.  Even if they stand too close to you in the Aldi line or take your favorite parking place at the library. 

And this is where I got hung up.   It doesn't help that I've been studying 1 Corinthians 13.

There are so many ways to love people, yet I tend to take the path of least resistance and only do what I have to for the sake of "being nice".   And when I get to the verses that go...love is patient, love is kind, love is a lot of things that Sandy's not, I realize that I can not insert my name in any of them because I'm too concerned about my own well-being instead of everyone else's. 

I tell ya, God holds nothing back in these painful conversations!

But thankfully I rest in grace.  And His mercies are new every morning. 

So today I want to choose something different.
Something that goes like this....

Listen when someone is talking to me.
Smile.
Be grateful for the work of my hands.
Look for ways to encourage others.
Engage until the very last minute when I go to bed.
Hold everything with open hands.
Pray tons more for others.
Do more than is required.
Plan ahead to make the day better for everyone.

And the list goes on....like writing letters to my grandmothers, making snacks and tea for my man, playing ninjas, and writing to our sponsor child in Ethiopia.  Really it can go on forever because when I'm no longer concerned with serving The Queen Of The Universe, then I am free...really free to follow Jesus, walking in His footsteps and following His example.

It's a life (a real and meaningful life) that goes on forever.  A life on mission.  Loving everyone God puts before me.  In my own house.  At my church.  Across the world.  And even at Aldi. 

So what does it cost? 
Time.
Giving other's the benefit of the doubt.
Not judging.
Every earthly possession if necessary.
Space. 
A quiet mouth.
A listening heart and ear.
A willingness to lay aside my imaginary crown.

At this point it hasn't cost me nearly enough.   But Lord willing, change is in the air....

Missing Our Boys

Our boys have been gone for a couple days camping with G'ma and G'pa. 

At first the house was super quiet.  Nice.....
But then it was toooo quiet.  Not nice....

And I'm missing my boys so much. 

We have guests coming so the girls and I have been super busy preparing and cleaning and catching up on laundry.  Because everyone knows that when your friends come over the top of the fridge needs to be scrubbed spotless.  And when I folded Zboy's blankey....oooohhhh ya'll it made me miss him.  Then there were the other pieces of laundry for each boy that I folded a little more carefully and neatly and wished they were here wearing them.  I folded so much of Nate's laundry that I'm wondering what he's even wearing at G'ma's.  And since I didn't check his bag it's highly probable he's still wearing the same thing he left in. 

I cleaned up by the drums and saw a filthy pair of wadded up socks.  Jess.  Because playing drums barefooted is where its at.  And ya'll.  It looked so cute. 

 

 

 

 

Bikes And Purses

~So I had a huge load of groceries checking out at Aldi. I was using the last of my cash which included something like 37 ones. I counted them all out while the lady was still ringing me up and arranged all my bills by denomination and making sure all the faces went the right way. Because that's the nice thing to do right?

But when I looked up the guy in line behind me was RIGHT THERE. Like at the credit card machine thingy. And it was MY turn!  Not his.

People, personal space Ok!?
Does this make you crazy too? Or is it just me?

~If you need a new way to clean your kitchen floor you've come to the right place. Here's what you do. Instead of adding dishwasher detergent, pour in blue Dawn because soap is soap right?  After awhile your floor will have a nice coating of bubbles that will require every towel you own to wipe it all up.   But this isn't a laundry tip ya'll, it's a floor cleaning tip.....and your kitchen will have a nice clean smell.  My son tried it and it works.

~Yesterday was the big sale at Savers.  And amongst the ladies in our house, that's a big event.  So we headed out after church and bought sacks of essentials including 3 show stopping purses.  In fact, when we went out for date night I warned my man that people might stare since my new purse was that out of this world.

One of the purses is Mally's.  She loved it at first sight.  And her selling point to me..... "Mom.  It's totally washable!"  So what could I do.

~It was a big day at our house today.   ZBoy learned to ride his 2 wheeler!  With just a little bit of help....

And he was off! 

Now Mally was napping while all this was going on but we figured the minute she heard about it would be the same minute she would ditch her training wheels too. 

And we were right.  Except she needed NO help.  She just hopped on and acted like she had done it all her life and it was the easiest thing in the world. 

Of course that led to everyone pulling out bikes and a fun ride around the neighborhood.  

~Guess what else happened today.  My bees stung MEEEEE!!!  Me...the one who was feeding them for crying out loud! They stung me on the face twice and then one bee was caught in my hair.  I think it was the new hat.  Apparently they don't like the hat.  And no matter what I did I could NOT get the bee out of my hair.  And there I was in the yard swinging my head upside down and flailing my arms about and looking totally ridiculous while this bee is buzzing like crazy and I can't see her, feel her, or find her.  And all I can hear is this crazy buzzing in my head.  So I go over to Jess to see if he can help.  His answer...."No, I don't see it but I hear it.  And it sounds like a whole SWARM of bees in your hair Mom!"  

Oh the voice of comfort.  

 And it took me all day but I've finally forgiven them. 

Ramblings Of Recently

I am so hopelessly behind on everything!  Do you ever feel like that?  And the things that are getting done I don't feel like I am doing well.  Sigh......

~I've had so much fun watching my kids lately.
I promise I won't bore you with the low down on the TKD tournament from the weekend but if you're interested in a 12yo's view point click on Special Ed on my side bar.  That guy had a great time.  We all did.
And now they are gearing up for the next one in August.

Then there was piano recital for Jess.  He's had 4 teachers in 3 years and this was his first recital.  Ms. Susie also let Josh play his guitar with him and they played Oh Happy Day while Jess sang.  I love those boys.
And let me tell ya, Susie is the BEST piano teacher ever.  Especially for Jess.  She caught on to his love for music right away and gave him an old church hymnal to do with as he pleased.  And it's hilarious ya'll because if he misplaces it, he acts like he is lost without it.  He loves picking out music and figuring it out to show Ms. Susie next week.  And of course she is always enthusiastic about his new pieces.

~Guess what I did.  Well it was date night and it was Sunday.  But sometimes we like to do something earlier since everything closes so early.  I had a moment of insanity and said, "You wanna go to Academy?  On the bike?"  My man loves to shop.  He loves Academy.  But the "on the bike" words were a big surprise.
I made provisions for my kids in the event of my death and jumped on the back.  My son said, "Hold on tight Momma" and I wish he hadn't said that since I had a death grip on him the whole time.  Now my man is nice to touch and all but I would've much preferred a safety harness and a big bar to hold onto.  Maybe a cage.
These things are clearly unsafe.  I prayed the entire time that if I died at least it wouldn't hurt.
And I kept wanting to yell "Are we there yet?"  The Academy sign had never looked more beautiful.

The riding jacket was hot.  The helmet messed up my hair and hurt my earrings.  Next time we can just take the car like normal people.  Lesson learned.

~Last week the local bee club president drove all the way out here to do a hive inspection for us.  Super sweet of him since he even had to leave work to do it.  But I was like the new first time mom who was worried that her baby wasn't normal so he offered to come out and take a look.  And...they were perfect!
He showed us so many things and included all the kids.   I assured him we wouldn't need the smoker since they are pretty gentle bees but he wanted to show me how to light it anyway.  I'm such a chicken when it comes to fire!  The whole time he kept saying, "these are such nice bees."  And I was so proud like I had something to do with it!  Ha!!

I was impressed with my kids' bee knowledge.  2 of my kids spotted hive beetles and Jess found one of the queens.  They are getting pretty bee smart.

~VBS  registration tomorrow!  I've been studying all week and love the material.  I can't wait!

~Next week I have friends from Colorado coming that I haven't seen in a looong time!  Meanwhile my man is taking all the boys camping so we girls can have the house to ourselves.  I am seriously looking forward to all of this.

TKD Blowup

Well prepare yourself for more TKD than you'd care to know about.

But I just can't help it.  

It was so fun. 

These pictures make me SMILE! 

Saturday was the big day. 

5 of my kids were testing for BLACK BELT!! 

Huge accomplishment. 

Super exciting. 

And I have over 200 pictures and lots of video to prove it. Do you wanna see them all? 

No? 

How bout just a few?  Pleeeease....... 

First off ZBoy was testing for his purple belt.  His form has improved dramatically! 

Then Mally tested for her purple belt too.  Ok, so she's not so fierce looking but she's looking very pretty in purple and thinks it's far better than green.  

Nate showing off his form and mid-terming for his black belt.  

And here we start with the black belt kids.  Jess rocking his form...

Josh with his high kicks...

LB who moves like a graceful dancer, yet you would be foolish to cross her.

CT ...solid and strong....

And Lane who is as tough as she is beautiful. 

My man testing for his red/black belt and only 1 belt away from black.

And our friend Kyle, who was also testing for Black.  

He might as well have been my own the way we were cheering for him.  

So here's how it went. 

The colored belts did forms, kicks, and self defense. 

When they were finished it was time for the big show. 

Or as I like to call it....The Time When Mom Sees How Long She Can Hold Her Breath. 

The black belts and mid-terms had to break boards in order to pass.

HATE the stupid board breaks.  

Oh yeah, it looks all cool when your kid kicks through a wooden board or smashes it with a strong hammer fist.  But when the whole world is depending on that stupid board breaking....then it ain't so fun anymore. 

We bought boards at Lowe's, cut them to the right lengths, and broke them all over the patio. 

But when it comes down to THE MOMENT and everyone is watching and the whole place is quiet and your grandparents came and your super awesome friends are there...and your BLACK BELT depends on it?!  Well Yikes.  

So Lane went first.  They get 3 tries and I already told all my kids that they better break the first time and not make me wait until the last time since I can't hold my breath that long. 

But NO. 

And I wish I could post the video to show you her whole demeanor on the THIRD time.  She knew it all came down to this.   And she made this movement with her hands that I can't describe but it's hilarious and sums up the whole "I'm getting it now" that was all over her face.  But if I did post the video you would frantically scramble for the sound button to silence my annoying screeching.  

Then finally...CRACK CRACK CRACK!!!  

CT broke on the first time because he loves his momma. 

And so did LB with that fierce look in her eye! 

And Kyle!  YES!!!!  Look at the face! 

And then...oh my goodness.  The guy I was praying for extra hard because....well I felt he *needed* this black belt more than anyone else.  And I called and texted my friends to pray for him and 

THANK YOU GOD!! 

But we weren't done.  And after the three tries the boards did not break for Jes. 

And 2 of his sisters had tears streaming down their faces and Mr. Townsend said he almost cried too. 

The crowd did not erupt with joy and excitement and screaming.  There was the polite clapping and people telling him he did a good job.  And he did.  But.....  

Oh it was a huge disappointment and seeing my sweet son so sad made me wanna put down the video and hold him tight.  

But we still weren't done.  Nate was next.  And he also had to break for his mid-term. 

And again the boards didn't break.  

Nate was disappointed but not quite as much and besides there wasn't a black belt riding on it.   

Oh my goodness gracious.  The full spectrum of emotions.

And I can finally take a breath and love on my disappointed boy for a minute.  

The class lines up and the belt presentation begins.  First the colored belts.  All smiles. 

Except for 2 little boys trying to wipe away tears and clap for their friends.  

But then.  

Mr. Townsend pulls out a belt and ya'll....

It was BLACK. 

And it was for Josh.  

The one I had prayed for so hard. 

And I sobbed.  Like a baby.  So Meg grabbed the camera and took pics for me. 

And almost a week later I can't blog about it without crying again. 

And the sweetest thing happened that I didn't even know and my friends told me about later. 

The minute they called Josh's name to receive his belt, Jess immediately was a different guy and he was no longer crying but super excited for his brother.   They told me his whole countenance changed.  

And all was good......

Oh the happiness!! 

Our school of black belts. 

I think that color is rather flattering on them, don't you? 

Then there was cake and juice and celebration.

And ya'll I'm convinced I have the best friends in the entire world. 

When all was said and done, I saw so many of my friends bending down and speaking words of encouragement to Jes.  Telling him he'd get it next time, praising his good attitude....I can't even tell you. 

 I was blown away by the sweetness toward him.  And so incredibly thankful for the awesome people in my life.  

Recent Ramblings

Listen y'all, this is getting urgent.

 I've been checking out children's books from the library for over 2 decades and I've never lost a book that we couldn't find. But now....

Where is Clifford And The Big Storm?   It's nowhere. We've looked all over the place and even called the dentist office and made them look all over the place.   So if we have been to your house lately will you please turn your house upside too to see if we left there?  I'm out of renewals and had to call to ask for an extension which they gave me with no problem because who even wants a Clifford book anyway??

Wednesday was our last night of Awana.  Award night and no class.  And this is hilarious. The very last night and we had like 10 new kids including the babies that had to go home after dinner! Apparently word got out that it was party night!   One of the new kids was a guy that would be in my class. A fourth grader named Jacob and NOT Robert (as I called him).  Turns out if you call him Robert he will not acknowledge you in any way.  Apparently he only answers to Jacob.  In my defense he does look more like a Robert than a Jacob and its too bad his mother did not consult  me before naming him. Anyway he told me he would come back to VBS but he won't come to church on Sundays because he is not a Sunday person. Well I'll take what I can get and look forward to getting to know him better.

My boy Shannon is back and that makes me smile.  He's such a sweetheart and I like having him in class.

So before games Geo talked to all the kids very seriously about what it means to trust Christ as your savior. I love these talks and it seems to me that every time he does it there is a hush over the crowd and the silliness is put aside for those minutes. As he was dismissing he asked anyone to stay who didn't feel like they had the matter settled between them and God and wanted to take care of that. A handful of kids stayed behind and 2 of them were mine.

My MJ and Hayden.

So I asked them what was on their minds because I always wanna be careful not to put words in their mouths during these talks. I talked to both of them and asked them a lot of questions and both of them wanted to pray.

I've been praying for these boys for a long time. And every week I have the opportunity to not only go through an Awana program but to dig deeper and explain things to them. That's what I love. Honestly we could ditch the book and still have a great class.

I will miss them this summer but I'm also looking forward to spending more time with the youth and that hot youth pastor that works there.

And VBS is right around the corner!! Oh JOY! My absolute fave.

~There is a war on gophers going on at my house. We caught one in the trap and it was pretty uneventful except for those of us who wanted to see a gopher snapped in two... which didn't include me because I'm not into things that look anything like a mouse.  Then yesterday we caught another one except it wasn't dead and Farmerboy had to go all hunter on him and shoot him like 6 times in the head before he died.

I know. You could've gone your whole life without knowing that right?  But if you have a garden you will be glad to know there are two less gophers in the world to eat your stuff.

Speaking of garden... you knew this was coming didn't you?..   My garden is not growing except for the onions. So I called PawPaw and he told me some ideas that made sense. Then I called my man with a list of what he needed to do. Being the sweetie that he is he made a run to the store to get a few things including a handy gadget called a Garden Weasel  since our tiller is super old and tired and should've retired a long time ago. But get this.  It was TKD night and I and didn't even get to play with it until it was almost dark.  It's pretty nifty and guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

~TKD testing tomorrow and Oh My Word five of our kids are testing for BLACK BELT!!  Black belt ya'll!!  I'm so excited for them.  And nervous.  They have to break all three boards with different techniques to pass.  Which shouldn't be a big deal but with everyone watching and the pressure of failing and then choosing just the right board holders.....oh my word!!

And then my Nate will also be mid-terming which means if all goes well he will test for black belt in 3 months.  I'm also a bit concerned for this one since he is a bit smaller and not quite as strong.  At this point he only has to break 3 boards but not in the same sequence.  We'll see.

The rest of my people will be testing for colored belts including my man who is just one belt away from black.

So needless to say it'll be a big day.  Grandparents will be there and cupcakes are involved.

First Hive Inspection

So after chomping at the bit to finally get in there, when the time came I was surprising reluctant.  The weather wasn't good and I knew I shouldn't work the hive then since it makes them more cranky.  The biggest reason I was putting it off was because I had no idea what to expect or what I was looking for.  Even watching the YouTube videos weren't helping.   But today was beautiful and I decided to go for it.  

One hive was decidedly more advanced than the other.  Not sure why. 

And even as we were lifting out the frames they were busy working. They have a bunch of wax built up.  Can you see the solid yellow parts?  Those are capped cells.  They are either full of brood (babies) or honey. 

They were not bothered by us one bit even though we didn't smoke them.  I'm more scared of fire than I am bees and Honey wasn't home to extinguish a mishap.  Plus it was one less thing to mess with. 

Ok this freaked me out!  Can you see how they have connected 2 frames with honey comb?  And when I started lifting out the frames it was tearing apart and I had no idea what to do so I put it all back and went inside to call a more experienced bee keeper.  He said I could just cut it apart and they would re-build it.  Hopefully keeping to one frame this time.  

I think the darker cells are full of pollen.  The bee guy said the different colors are from the different kinds of flowers. 

And the white capped cells in the corner I'm pretty sure is honey. 

We found both queens and put everything back together.  I refilled their feed jars and they acted like nothing happened.  Once the feed jars are empty I will go back in and cut the connecting comb then give them a couple more weeks.  By the way the one hive is looking we will be needing to add a honey super sooner than we thought!  

I'm so impressed with how they work and can even use the stuff I will cut away to make more comb.  

LB... "I think the bees have more than paid for themselves in awesomeness."  

I agree! 

Cookbooks and Bubble Baths

~Are you ready for this?

I put a book on hold at the Charleston library.  I know!

So here's what happened.  A few months back a nice lady at church gave me a series of 8 books that I didn't want.  So I immediately PaperBackSwapped them to the same address (bonus!) and got a nice load of credits.  Free books?  Yes please!

But don't you know that when I really really really wanted to read this certain cook book they didn't have it.  So I looked at my FSM library and they didn't either.  And nothing even close.  So I put it my Amazon cart but then changed my mind because it costs $22 and there is NO WAY IN THE WORLD I would pay $22 for a book.  Plus it would have to come out of my school budget that I'm trying to save for September.  So nevermind.

But wait!  That's when I remembered my little bitty library up the road.  Surely they wouldn't have it but I decided to look anyway.  And lo and behold(!) they didn't have it but had something close.  Actually 2 books that were close so I held them both.  And while I was at it I looked around their site and found 2 african books that looked promising because I can't find my Pastor Surprise book that I'm wanting to read right now.

And when my son found out, do you know what he said?
"Really? We're dealing with those hooligans?"  Bless his heart.  I have poisoned his mind and turned him into a library snob.

Anyway I blame it on George.  He preached on bitterness Sunday so I decided to forgive them for having a lame story time.

~Have you ever taken your kids to a skate park?  We went this week for the first time and OH ya'll it was fun!  Nobody broke a bone or even cracked their head open.  There is a nice walking trail around it with a playground and a creek.  I can already tell this will be one of our new hot spots.

~It is right behind the high school and we were trying to find out where the school was because it may be that we get to spend some time there this year.  My son played competitive soccer for years and now the high school football coach is scouting him to play kicker.   We'll see...

~Did you have a good week?

I didn't.  One time my Colorado friend,Pam, said at Bible study that her life would be so much better if she could just leave her own stupid self at home.  Do you remember that Pam?  Because that deep truth has stuck with me and that's exactly how I've felt all week.  All year.

And it all sorta came to a head this week over an unfortunate incident involving farm equipment and I haven't felt like talking in about 3 days.  Which is perfectly fine since it was my mouth that started the whole thing anyway.

Today I woke up feeling so unmotivated.  And for whatever reason the beautiful weather took a nose dive in the 40s and it was cloudy, drizzly, and cold but I had to get outa bed anyway.  And do something.  So I tried to start a text conversation with Honey in the morning and he didn't respond until after 3pm so that didn't work.  Instead I decided to start school and make chili.

Then I took a nice long nap with my Mally Baby and woke up feeling a ton better.   But my hair didn't and Jes asked me if I had always had that cow lick.

Anyhow after dinner I decided to take a bath while everyone else was working on music for Sunday.  My friend Renee does not like baths and I'm convinced that she must be doing it wrong because there is nothing like a really hot bubble bath.   And this comes from a girl that hates getting wet.

My sweet ZBoy let me borrow his Cars bubble bath that he got for his birthday and I'm here to tell you people, that is some good stuff!  It bubbles up nice and thick and you can buy it at Walmart.

So I planned ahead and got the book I wanted to read plus a big cup of juice in a real glass.  I turned off the bright lights and turned on the smaller one since that's cozier.  I closed both doors and hoped that nobody flushed the pot before my bath water was at the perfect temp.

As soon as I was all settled in my Calgon-take-me-away type bath, I saw my glass of juice.  On the counter.  Way on the other side of the bathroom.  But I decided to live without it since it wasn't worth it to get all cold and climb out and get back in.   Problem was though that the dim light I picked was just that.  Dim.  And I couldn't see my book very well and I wasn't just going to sit there in the bubbles with nothing to do so it turns out I DID have to climb out, fix the light, and grab my juice on the way.   Obviously I am not as experienced at bubble bathing as I should be and I need more practice.

~I will leave you with a piece of farm news even though the only one who might be even remotely interested in my farm news is my dad.  And maybe Tracy.  3 out of 4 of my bee feeding jars still had feed in them today!  And that is big news ya'll because it means that they won't need me to feed them much longer and are finding plenty of stuff on their own.  And since bee feeding is sticky work plus one of my hives is easier to work with than the other, I'm quite thrilled with this.

Phone Shots

Littleman working on fixing up his scooter. 

I think he's due for an upgrade but he still likes this broken one.  

Weeeee!!!  The kids have been doing different things with the tree swing and this is their latest seat. 

DIY chicken tractor to spread the chickens out a bit and still keep them safe.  

New bee feeder lids.  This is the internal method so I'm not feeding everyone else's bees plus the neighborhood wasps.  They go through at least both of these jars in a day.  Sometimes more.  I think they may be slowing down soon since I see lots of workers with huge pollen sacks entering the hive.  

When I remove one of the jars, I can see comb they have built.