Days of Sunshine

Today we (some of the core group of Hometown Church) went to visit a church called Vintage 242. This church is similar in size to what Hometown church will be.  I was able to hang out with Ashley their children’s director.  I am so grateful!  She really shared her heart and offered some sound advice.  She showed me some things that work really well for them and was also honest about some things that she doesn’t like so much and hopes to change soon.  I really appreciated her frankness and honesty!  My mind is so busy trying to sort through all of the thoughts she left me with!  I also visited the different rooms to get a feel for the way they do the lessons for the kids.  I was able to spend the most time in the elementary area.  The lead elementary  teacher was fantastic.  She really engaged the kids (and me!) from the beginning.  My kids think she was awesome!  I briefly checked in on the other areas but was only able to spend a few minutes.  I guess I’ll have to make a trip back. 

I am very excited!  It seems like Easter is so far away but I know it will be here soon.  I am already praying for our future attendees. 

I guess this day comes to all mothers eventually.  The day that it is time to push the little birdies out of the nest and let them try out their wings.  Today is that day for me and my oldest son Karsten.  He left this afternoon for a ski trip with Grace Presbyterian.  We have been to that church about 5 or 6 times.  He only knows one of the boys in that youth group a little and he thought that this trip would be  a great way to get to know everyone.  He signed up a couple of months ago and has been really stoked about it.  I think I must have pushed it to a corner of my mind to deal with later.  I actually thought I was excited for him and ready for this.  Then I woke up this morning and the panic began.  Tears started flowing- mine, of course.  This is the first time he has been away without family.  Karsten is an awesome dude, if I do say so myself.  He is one of the sweetest and most thoughtful kids I have ever known!  He is also very athletic.  He has never been skiing before but everything he tries he usually has perfected within 5 minutes. But…..he’s not perfect.  Oh, no.  He is the biggest scatterbrain.   So, I’m not really afraid that he’ll break a leg and it will take me 5 hours to get to him, although I know that could happen.  No, my fear is more along the lines of what if he gets lost.  What if he doesn’t make friends?  What if he’s lonely, or gets made fun of?  Who is going to remind him to grab his gloves in the morning before he leaves the hotel so he doesn’t have frost bite? Or what if he loses his gloves altogether?  What if he loses his meal tickets?  He loses everything!!! I think it is only natural for a mother to have this fierce desire to be there for her children, every step of the way to make sure that all goes well for them!  No one wants their kid to have it rough! Don’t you remember what it was like in middle school?  The embarrassing moments?  I do!  I can’t stand the thought of him being there without me to mother him!

I have a pretty wise husband.  He provides the reason in our relationship while I provide plenty of emotions!  He sweetly hugged me while I was upset and the reminded me that it is time for this.  You see, I want to focus on making life easy for him but that doesn’t help him in the long run.  He has to learn to be responsible.  If his hands are cold for a day but he learns responsibility, won’t that be worth it?

I did-secretly- give one of the chaperones extra money this afternoon to keep in case he lost his wallet on the slopes or something.  Guess what?  I get a call from the laughing chaperone this evening.  Apparently when they pulled over to buy dinner Karsten realized he left his wallet at home.  I know it took guts for Karsten to mention it and ask if he could borrow some money.  I’m sure he was embarrassed.  Maybe this will be a lesson learned.  While I hate that I’m not there to keep him from being uncomfortable, my husband is right.  Better that he learn these lessons at 12 than at 20.  So, I’m letting my baby spread his wings.  It’s probably as hard for me as it is for him.  No, probably harder.  These are my growing pains too.

“…..homemaking isn’t about the house itself or the things it contains.  Being keepers at home is about focusing upon the Lord in all the everydayness so that our houses become centers of hospitality, forgiveness, training, business, welfare, shared mourning and celebration, and- oh, yes- lots of tracked in mud, crumbs under the chairs, and everything else that goes with human beings.  We must not lose sight that our homes are God-given tools to bless others.  They aren’t the end goal; they are, simply, one of the means to the end.  And what is the end?  Dying to self, laying down our lives, serving others that Christ may grow His kingdom and transform the world and ourselves as we do things His way.”   ~From the book   Passionate Housewives Desperate for God by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald

I knew this day was coming with a house full of boys and BB guns.  I discovered a hole in my window and knew without any doubt a bb “somehow” was shot at it.  The boys have only had the guns out once in the past couple of months and it was while they had a friend over.  After much questioning, and promising immunity this time, I still don’t know who did it.  My boys will cover for each other and they would NEVER out a guest if they thought that they may not be allowed to come back.  While I am not sure if this is a good thing or a really bad thing,  I am glad they stick up for each other.

From the looks of things, I believe someone was curious and just wanted to see if they could really hit it-it is pretty high up.  After many tears and the two of them “not quite knowing what really happened or if it was the guest or one of them” I gave up.  I even threatened to talk to this friend and his parents to see if that would get them to cave.  Nope.  I still am not sure if they really know but whatever the case,  I am sure that it will remain a mystery to me.  The BB guns have been put up for awhile.

I had a really fun/lazy labor day but I am having such a hard time getting back in the swing of things.  Does that ever happen to anyone else?  It is silly that a day off would kill the rest of my week but I am having a problem getting back in our routine.  Yesterday we started school late and had to finish in the evening and the same thing today.  Yuck!  Tomorrow we are going to get up and get going.  I like it better when I have the afternoon to get things done that I need to instead of arguing/begging/bribing kids to get math done!  It doesn’t help that I am sooooo tired.  It really seems like everyone I talk to is saying the same thing- they’re unusually tired.  What’s up with that?  Is it the weather? Barometric pressure?  Most likely for me it is the kids that keep getting up throughout the night.  I want a solo vacation.  3 days away to just SLEEP!

We had a really fun day at the Chattanooga Aquarium yesterday.  We decided that with all of the business we have really fallen behind on good quality outings with the family.  So we made a plan to get control back over our lives! No more work on Saturdays.  I hate to complain because last year we had a lot of free time (but no money to do anything) while Kevin was trying to find work.  However, now that he has good work it seems like we have a million irons in the fire- too many projects at once.  All good things, but you know that verse in the Bible about the foxes stealing the grapes?  There’s the barn that we are turning into an apartment for our sitter, the basement to be finished for my business, side jobs (of course we’re not turning much down), repairs on the house that are desperately needed, a Saturday church related project every now and then on top of needing to produce windows for his real job!  All of the little things add up and unfortunately it feels like we work work work and never really accomplish anything!  Anyone else know what I’m talking about?  Anyhow, we do well to try to steal time away for a date- and those are very few and far between.  We have really neglected the family fun time.  Something had to give but I think we chose the wrong thing.  So we are trying something new.  Of course we have to get through September and having a wedding to attend 3 out of 4 of the weekends! (One of which Kevin will be performing!)  As much as we can though, we are going to save Saturdays for family.  It will mean later work evenings, but I think that will be better.  Yesterday was perfect.  You know how sometimes (rarely) the kids just get along and laugh together with no bickering or fighting?  It was one of those days!  We had a lot of fun and hopefully will be doing it again soon.  The next 3 weekends are weddings but, after that I thing we’ll try out Lake Winnepesaukah amusement park (also in Chattanooga). I can’t wait!

We are really having fun this year and learning some interesting things! For example, maybe you all know already but I have certainly never given much thought to the process of mosquito bites and what causes them to itch some people and not others. We are using Apologia science this year which I LOVE!!! I actually bought this book a few years ago anticipating my boys getting to the age that they could understand! We are in “Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day”! Entomology is far more fascinating that I ever realized and we are on our way to becoming Entomologists! Are you impressed yet? Just wait ! So, now back to the mosquito. First, only the female insects suck blood-they need it to develop their eggs. The males feed on nectar and fruits. The mosquito has a long, tubular mouthpart (it is called a proboscis, in case you care) This mouthpart has 4 cutting/piercing tools called stylets. The female mosquito uses these tools to stab into the skin and then she will stick her proboscis into the wound to suck the blood. At this point she injects her saliva (eew, gross!) which keeps the blood from clotting. Most people are allergic to her saliva and thus the itching. Amazing! Another fun fact is that most insects use their legs and feet for tasting. I had heard this but never really appreciated it the way Karsten did. Yesterday I had a running commentary on everything he would be tasting if he were an insect. He was barefoot and of course going out of his way to touch everything with his feet. We have a molted exoskeleton (cast) of a june bug on our KITCHEN counter. We have been reminded of just how nasty flies really are. You really shouldn’t eat after them! I knew they vomited on their food, but do you know why? They have sponge mouths and can only sponge up liquids. Their vomit has a chemical that helps break down and begin to digest the food so it “liquifies”. By the way, when they vomit they also vomit what they ate last right there on your food. Remember that dog poop in the yard? Or that dead animal in the field? Yep! Yummy. Ok, enough already of insects, but that has been our life this week. Oh, just one more cool thing- we can tell if an insect is male or female now.  We can turn it over and see if it has a ovipositor (long and pointy spikey stinger looking thing) on the end of the abdomen. If so, it’s a she and that is how she lays eggs. Now you know.

I have been up to a lot lately. I’ll start back where I left off.  I have a certain friend who is a health nut and she introduced me to colon hydrotherapy. That doesn’t exactly sound right but then again, is there any way of putting it that would? Anyway, Colon Hydrotherapy was popular back before the laxative was invented but kind of died out when that magic laxative pill came along. In fact, Colon hydrotherapy, also known as colon irrigation, was practiced regularly by the Egyptians and the Greeks. What exactly is it? I’ll quote William Tiller N.D.: “Colon Hydrotherapy is clean and relaxing.  A soothing flow of filtered, temperature-controlled water gently circulates throughout the colon, coaxing your body to yield the digested toxins and waste that may have built up inside.  Colon Hydrotherapy is an ancient, time-honored, gentle water cleansing of the colon.”  Your Colon is the last five feet of your digestive tract.  It is an organ that is hollow and tubelike.  It is a muscular structure that moves your digested food along by a wavelike motion (known as peristaltic action).  A host of beneficial bacteria live in your colon producing vitamins such as K and some B vitamins.  Your colon also absorbs water, nutrients, proteins and cell salts back into your blood stream.  If you are not eliminating efficiently you are going to have a toxic colon and therefore possibly and probably absorbing toxins back into your blood stream.  Ok, so what’s it to me?  Well, I am now an I-ACT Board Certified Colon Hydrotherapist. (International Association of Colon Hydrotherapy, in case you wondered!)  Yep.  Not sure exactly how it all happened.  It was not some lifelong dream of mine to clean people out.  However, I have always been interested in health and helping people achieve their optimum health so I guess it fits right in!  All of this is what I have been up to!  I literally found out about my first class (in San Antonio, Texas) less than a week before it started.  I was a mad lady trying to book airfare, hotel, rental cars, baby sitters ect.!  At this class I was able to take the Level 1 and Level 2 I-ACT Tests.  That was this past May.  Then in June I had to attend a conference in Las Vegas  to get certified Level 3 and to take my board certification exam.  I had a month of cramming, but I passed!!!  YAY!!!  July Kind of flew by.  I did get two really wonderful weeks camping at the fabulous Bartow Beach   We actually did have a lot of fun.  Kevin had to work during the days, but we were with friends and it was a blast!  Then there was my mom’s car wreck in which, by the grace of God, she was fine.  And now we’re back to school and all of the business that entails!  So now I am just waiting for the rest of my money to purchase my equipment so that I can open a Colonics Clinic.  Inside Out will be the official name.  I also have plans to start working on becoming an N.D.  Just waiting on the money!  (aren’t we all!)

Okay, I changed the look of my blog page. I needed something new and fresh Food seemed like a great idea! I thought it would help motivate me to write more. When I went to my blog however, I noticed that this design crosses names out on my link list. I am sure anyone looking would know that I didn’t do it, but I just want to make sure that nobody gets the wrong idea!

I love rainy days!  Well, I usually don’t but today I have decided that I love them!  I have been getting up early to walk with a friend so today I was able to sleep an extra hour!  And because the kids couldn’t go outside to play they were driving me CRAZY.  So, I decided the big boys could go in their room and read and my younger two could have a nap.  Not a very popular decision, but it worked!  I have had an hour to myself in a quiet house to catch up on blogs!  I honestly haven’t looked at any blogs in well over a month- probably two!  It was so nice.  And I am wondering how in the world Dana can keep her blog current with all that she has going on in her life.   Since I had time, I clicked the “forgot password” and got a new password (yes,again!) so that I could try to update my blog.  I am going to try for at least once a week.  High aspirations, I know, but it’s all about those baby steps!