The Hike

Nate, the kids and Uncle Bubba went on an incredibly long hike this afternoon. We followed the creek on our property for a few miles until we came to the lake that it empties out into. Along the way we found a beautiful 10-12 foot waterfall, it felt completely like an exploration instead of just a hike. We did see signs of some pretty big deer, a cute little box turtle, and what looked like the evidence of a satanic ritual. (nice huh!) Well the good news is that even though we got a little off course and ended up hiding in some cudzu on the side of the runway when a plane taxied by, we all felt like we had accompolished something pretty big, especially me, I didn't even get tired. All the walking I've been doing is really paying off. Yea!

Quick update

Life has been somewhat of a soap opera around here, it has been disquieting to see up close and personal the consequences of poor choices and sin. It is a helpless feeling to know that all you can do is release people to God. I know that is supposed to be all we do anyway but I have the tendency to want to make people do the right thing. Yes I am still working on giving up control.

I had all the ladies from church over at my house monday night for our ladies night out. Our church is not that large and all did not come since it was raining but we probably had close to 20 here. While I was scrambling to get things ready Luke had been pestering me and driving me to the cliffs of insanity with his youthful boyishness. I was about ready to strangle him when he came running into the kitchen:
Luke: Mom I want to be a rock star,

Me: uh huh

Luke: Mom I want to be a rock star, but I don't have what it takes.

Luke: I DON"T HAVE WHAT IT TAAAAAAAKKKKKEEESSSS!

Luke: Why don't I have what it takes?

Me: I don't know, you just don't, get out of the kitchen.

It was pretty funny and I had to laugh because I couldn't imagine where that came from until I heard some song they were listening to that said "I want to be a rock star"

No news on the adoption front, and one more pound bites the dust. (5 lbs.to go)

Ahhh Peace

Once more my household has returned to a somewhat normal state despite having live in company. I took yesterday and today to calm my queasy stomach and relax. Homeschool has been very light this week so I will have to kick it up a notch next week. It's been rainy here for the past couple of days and I love it. I have to say that I would love it more if I was alone but alas that is not in the stars for me now, the kids have been really good even though I've been in a distracted state. I've had some really good discussions so thank you all who have participated.

We are Free

We are officially freed from our old house. Today was the closing and I think that we set a world record for the fastest closing in history. We were getting out of the truck and the clock read 2:07 we were hurrying because we were a little late. We were pulling out of the parking lot with our check in hand(YEA!) at 2:19, is that unbelievable or what. Nate and I are getting pretty speedy putting down our John Hancock's.

In other news, I have decided that I LOVE having some thought provoking blogs on controversial or hot topics. So I am confessing to you that I lied when I said that I would keep my blog shallow and only blog about ME. I don't plan to do tons of these because I want to keep the friends that I have and not cause them or anyone else a coronary, but from time to time I will be posting some iffy stuff. I will try to think of a good symbol or code word for those who want to remain on my blog for the fluffy stuff. I'm enjoying some research on the emergent church's stance on the inerrancy of the Bible and how they feel about homosexuality. It has been fascinating reading and I may choose to tackle those issues at a later time. Right now my energies are being focused on a crisis a little closer to home that demands my immediate attention, so I will not be blogging about anything deep for a while.

And for the dieting record I lost 7 pounds so far. I would like to lose 6 more but I am afraid too because at least a pound came off between the middle of my rib cage and my armpit. (wink, wink) So that may be a bummer to a member of my household.

I'm at it again

I found this under Emergent Village blogroll and sadly this is what I find so often when it comes to the attitude of the Bible. I can never ever agree that the Bible doesn't have the answers to our daily living. If the Bible is outdated then so is the author and I will never concede that God did not give us everything we need in his word for life in Godliness. I am open for conversation about alot of things, but whether or not this is the inspired word of God that is for this age and the age to come is something I can't converse about. God is who he says he is, his word is true or else he is a big fat liar that enjoys screwing with us.

GOHERE

And for the record I know that not every single emergent holds to this, but I have seen alot that do. For the ones that do, it is no wonder they don't know if homosexuality is a sin, or think spanking is outdated, etc etc. I am putting this out here for food for thought. As we grow in Christ our understanding of things change as God reveals himself to us through his word, but if we doubt the scriptures then aren't we ultimately doubting God himself, and if we doubt God then doesn't he say we are like the waves crashing to and forth.

This is an article that the people from Answers in Genesis (the ones who openend the Creation museum) wrote about the emerging church. I spent a large part of my life in a seeker friendly church and found it lacked substance and conviction. The word of God says that the world will HATE us because of christ and yet we as christians are always apologizing for what God says and trying to make friends with the world. Do I think that the church is healthy and reaching the lost? No, but I do not think this is the answer. You can have and show the love of God yet be unrelenting on the Bibles stance on sin. You can speak the word of God in love and see lives transformed. You can boldly proclaim the message of the gospel without watering it down to appease the masses. And you can definitely trust God in believing that he knew what he was doing when he gave us the scriptures for this age and the age to come. As the church progresses into the future I think we need to cling more tightly than ever to the word of God and meditate on it day and night so that we are not deceived and swayed. Your personal experiences with church and church people can not taint your view of God and his word. People and churches and movements will come and go, but the word of God will forever remain the same.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n4/emerging-church

Hmm a complete blank

Nathan is finishing up his 2 day risk game with the boys so I am taking a moment to say nothing much. My adoption paperwork (one small part) is missing from the US and Haiti. Of course I sent all these documents priority mail but who knows where they are now. The good news is that these documents aren't holding up the adoption, if they don't get resolved before I travel to Haiti then I might have some trouble.

We close on the old house next tuesday so that will work out nicely since we were just notified that we still owe a good deal of back taxes for 06, yuck!

I have implemented a chore/behaviour chart for the boys. Everyday they have to complete 3 jobs without my reminding them to get a sticker for that job. They also have 2 behaviours that we are working on that get 2 stickers each if they succeed in those. (like no hitting, or no arguing, and talking patiently with siblings) At the end of 2 weeks if they have 50 stickers I take them to buy a candy bar or small treat around 50 cents. If at the end of the month they have 100 stickers I buy them a slightly bigger treat. Austin and Luke got to go yesterday after church and pick up something, Evan was 4 stickers shy but he still gets to go for the month prize. Every night at bedtime we go over the chart and all children seem motivated to get their stickers. This is eliminating some of my nagging and having to constantly supervise their work plus it is making bed time so much better because I don't walk into their room at night to tuck them in and find a disaster. There teeth and beds must be done by 10am but their other work is required to be done before the tucking in at bedtime. So far so good. Oh and we break for the sabbath all they do is brush their teeth.

Punkin Bread

I made a fabulous loaf of pumpkin bread today and I am so proud. I love to mess around in the kitchen but not when it comes to baking because you usually have to follow a recipe pretty closely. I am more like a mad scientist in the kitchen, a little of this and a little of that. Today while organizing my pantry I found a can of organic pumpkin left over from last holiday season, and a half a bag of white chocolate chips. I ground some wheat flour, threw in a couple of eggs and a stick of butter plus some brown sugar and wha-la pumpkin bread magnific. I should have added a bit more flour because it took longer to bake than it should have, but I just covered it with tin foil and baked an extra 20 mins. It was perfect, of course Luke thought it looked burnet and he kept saying "Is that all I'm gonna get for snack, is that burnt up punkin bread." I didn't go off my diet but I did break a corner off one of the kids slices just to make sure it was as good as it smelled.

I also washed all the kids bedding today, I'm not sure if I had ever washed the big boys sheets since we moved in. They go to bed mostly clean so I guess the sheets were in pretty good shape because they didn't smell the slightest bit stinky. (remember I hate laundry)

I'm still walking with MW twice a week, and we went tonight since it was pouring this morning. I"ve lost some cm off my chubby ankles (Nate even noticed) and I am feeling like I can walk up my driveway and not get winded.

Trials

The boys have been taking turns going to work with their dad so the school schedule is off these past couple of days. It is just as well though because I have been very busy trying to track down missing adoption papers. The US side is just as difficult as dealing with Haiti. The October status report came out Tuesday from my orphanage. Lots of kids came home last month and several more got out of MOI. Next to my name it was blank (meaning they didn't know where my paperwork stood) AAHHHHHHH!!! I should have been in MOI for the last 2 months but it appears I am still in 2nd legal. MOI is another stage of the adoption that can take 6 months, so I was really hoping to be whittling away at that one. To find out that I'm not even in yet was a blow that has bummed me out for a few hours, however since we are talking about Haiti anything is still possible. I have known of people that only spent 1 month in MOI, so we are still praying for a Christmas homecoming.

In dieting news I have lost 5 pounds but I quit the fad diet yesterday at lunch when I realized my spinach was slimy and you can't substitute one thing for another. Also Sunday night after the drama I forgot to drink tea or coffee with my meal so I might have screwed it up then anyway. I am still on a diet that is no sugar, and no flour so it is still pretty restrictive. I have no idea how long I will keep it up, but I have definitley been feeling pretty good these last 10 days, if you don't count being sick of eggs.

Last night while laying in bed I realized that these were just small trials compared to the grand scheme of things and that I should consider myself extremely blessed, which is hard for me to do. I tend to get knocked down by the small things not the things that are huge. I fight the battle well if I realize I'm in a battle, what happens to me is that all of a sudden I'm down and I have no idea how I got there. I've been feeling myself sliding this week but couldn't really put my finger on anything until I realized that God cares a lot about my attitude in these small trials and if I let myself off the hook for even a minute I am in trouble. It's no big deal if I can't eat sugar, it's no big deal if we put the dog down (we will survive) and it's no big deal when Dania comes home. Everything is in God's hands where they should be. AMEN!

A Series of Unfortunate Events

transpired sunday afternoon that has left our household kinda in the dumps. Late Sunday afternoon Nate and the boys went riding on our property and Jacket aka(the black moron) discovered a raccoon in a live trap in the creek that runs through the middle of our property. Nate rode back up to the house to get me and when we got back down there Jacket was throwing the cage around and the boys were yelling at us to hurry and get him. Nate had to stand in the creek to pick up the cage and somehow it opened and the coon fell out. Jacket was on him in the blink of an eye shaking him to death. The boys and I start screaming and yelling. I'm yelling at nathan to stop the dog, the boys are yelling at Jacket and Nate. The battle was long and agonizing for all involved, the boys and I are still screaming and crying when Nate rides home to get a gun to put the coon out of his misery but he arrives back to late. By then I am furious at whoever was on the middle of our property setting traps so I haul the large trap up through the woods and head straight for the neighbors. (It reminded me of the DFACS situation where I was confronting everyone) Nobody was home at the time so as I'm heading up my own drive way I see 2 of the neighbor kids walking by. As they approached the house across the street the german shepherd over there starts barking (she's harmless) the owner comes out and is hollering for her dog to be quiet, meanwhile Jacket is just coming up from the creek with his prize coon, he hears the barking and commotion and runs over to see whats up. He and the german shepherd romp for a moment and then the kids start to walk on when suddenly Jacket attacks the boy. I could see everything from the driveway and Jacket was growling and lunging for the boys face. The lady across the street starts running and I start screaming for Nate who is further up the driveway, he takes off like a flash but once again arrives to late. The boy was not bit just scared out of his mind, he didn't have a mark on him I think Jacket saw him moving off and maybe he was protecting his coon that he had dropped or else was still to keyed up from the kill. By now the boys and I are really crying so Nate heads to the boys house while I head back to my neighbors to find the trapper. It was probably one of the most traumatic events the boys and I have experienced and was a little humbling also since I was crying with every neighbor I talked to. To wrap this up the boys parents were not angry, I think we found the culprits on the backside of our property who do not belong to the neighborhood but have lots of land back there and The Black Moron is gone to my in-laws till we can figure out what to do. The only reason he didn't get a bullet right then was because the boys begged their father not to and Nate agreed that it would add to much drama to an already volatile situation. We will never bring jacket home and unless my animal trainer sil takes him back to California he will probably end up being put down. My sil (trainer) said that he is totally reformable and not vicious but we of course shouldn't risk it, but she can easily make him submit to her while he has always been dominant over us and therein lies the problem. We were just saying that very day how good of a dog he had turned out to be and how glad we were that everything was working out with him.

P.S. for the animal lovers, myself included Nate wasn't going to shoot the dog because he was angry, it was just obvious that he had to go and we couldn't in good conscience give him to somebody else when he has shown aggression. Nate thinks it is way worse to drag him off to the vets (which he hates) and then leave him there to be put down, he thinks it is more humane (although more difficult for him) to just end it quickly. For the boys sake though we may take him in if that would be easier on them. We are doing the out of sight out of mind thing right now with the boys so that when the time comes it won't be as traumatic. (we hope)