Not So SAHM

A New Beth Moore Study!!!

I’m so excited about what will happen in the next six weeks. Doing a Beth Moore study is an event in and of itself. Study everyday, good discussion every week, watching Beth teach every week. All of it helps get you closer to God in a way that usually doesn’t happen without her insightful studies. I wish I was “spiritual” enough to be on an adventure with God everyday, but as we all can admit, life takes over a lot of the time. A Beth Moore study recenters you and helps you focus on your relationship with Him. It doesn’t hurt that she’s an amazing speaker who can relate to women like no one else.

This study is “Stepping Up: a journey through the Psalms of Ascent” I’m quoting the back cover below:

Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent explores Psalms 120-134. Traveling pilgrims sang these psalms both on the way to the great festivals of the Jews and as key elements of the worship at those festivals. . . They will gain a new appreciation for the life of faith as a journey to greater fellowship with and worship of God. . .The more we unveil our faces to God and bare our souls to Him, expressing what is on our hearts, the safer we’ll feel with Him and the closer we’ll draw to Him. …

Doesn’t it sound awesome!?!? Her last study I did was about Daniel. It was full of history, character study and prophesy. That one and other studies I’ve done have gone so in depth into the subject matter, which is what I love to do. Give me the nitty gritty. So it will be interesting to see how she disects ancient Jewish songs and applies it to modern lives.

I missed last week’s class doing the Disney and all. So, this week will be full of catching up. I think this is exactly what I need to get me out of my Post Vacation Blues though. (BTW, it was 11 degrees this morning with a wind chill that had to be below 0…why, God, is this necessary?).

I’m also doing the Truth Project study on Sundays. We are disecting what the truth is in about 12 various aspects of life. But that’s a whole other blog post. I love it and wish you all could be there with me. On Sundays and Wednesdays.

My Post Meme

I’ve been tagged by Heather for a meme that talks all about memememe! I don’t even know how to pronounce meme, but I think it will be fun to do. I’m supposed to link to my five favorite posts and I’m supposed to follow the rules. So, here are the rules:

**The Rules**

Post about the meme and link back to the person who tagged you. (Check! Thanks for the love Heather. BTW, check out her blog, she’s moved it from I’ll Think of It to Finding Atman). Go back through your archives and link to your five favorite posts.

*Link One: must be about family.
*Link Two: must be about friends
*Link Three: must be about yourself
*Link Four: must be about something you love
*Link Five: can be anything you choose.

Tag 5 other people (2 being people you would like to get to know better).

Here are my favorite posts about:

1: Family: Almost every post I write is tagged with “family”. I didn’t have a hard time picking this one as my fave though. (I’m realizing I use too many tags).

2: Friends: Do I have those any more? I certainly haven’t blogged about many of them. Like I said, this post is about mememememe. My shout out goes to Rachel who sort of got me into blogging (even though I did drop the ball for quite a while). Her blog is It’s Just A Moment, This Time Will Pass.

3: Myself: Well, where should we start? I don’t have a fascination with myself by any stretch, but everything I write about pretty much happens to me. It’s cathartic to get it down in black and white, and it’s fun to make fun of myself. Well, this post talks about my awesome talent. This post is just funny to me and about me.

4: Something I Love: I love being sentimental. Sometimes. After my firstborn was born I was a sap. I’d cry at kleenex commercials. Now that number two is here I find myself less apt to cry at the drop of a hat. It was nice reminiscing during this post though.

5: Anything: I’m including this post here because I really do you want you to comply and let me know how it goes. Really, go make it and give me the lowdown.

NOW, to tag 5 other people. This wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be.

Lulaville: She’s passionate and writes with an accent. Sister of the South, bring it on!

Our Journ-O: We’re going to visit the Okamotos in Australia next year. I’m convinced we are. So I drink in everything she blogs about, getting ready to get my Auzzie on (that is an Auzzie accent btw).

Just Me: Some of the best photography, artistically and technically I know of (I sound like I know what I’m talking about), plus I went to school with her as a kid, woowoo!

My Connection to the Outside World: I found her blog when she commented for my contest. Her writing is funny and she has my sense of humor. (Blogs are all about making me laugh).

The Right Wife: I found her blog by surfing blogher and her title intrigued me. I’ve commented once or twice so I’m technically not a lurker. She has great music sense like Leigh Anne from Lulaville (whom I also went to school with).

So, have fun learning more about me. And play along, I want to learn more about you!

Post Vacation Blues

The high from having new floors has worn off. Was it the glue they used to tack them down? Whatever was making us glad to be home has worn off.

Daily life

The gray sky juxtaposed against the sunny warmth of vacation.

Du has over 200 emails waiting for him at work. And that’s only one of his accounts. He has at least one other account that I know of. His is a job where the work waits for him to come back. Someone may step in and fill his shoes, but he’s left picking up pieces, figuring out where they were supposed to go and trying to get the machine oiled.

My job doesn’t pile up while I’m gone. But it does wait on me and remind me of my lot in life. I am usually positive about homeschooling, but today I’m having the hardest time getting motivated to teach. It was so nice to not teach for two weeks. Not having to constantly remind someone they should be working instead of asking off-topic questions or staring at the cats.

And to make it just that much worse today we couldn’t start with a normal day. I had to call early to make an appointment with socialized medicine to get Ashlyn seen. Not being able to follow our routine makes it that much harder for Reagan to pay attention. Tomorrow will not be normal either. Half this week is gone–I should wait until next week to start back with school. But that would push us one week more into the summer (and that can’t happen since we have to prepare to move).

There are so many other things that are on the to do list that we didn’t have to worry about while on vacation. We could just be a family. No responsibilities. Just four people having fun together and enjoying each other’s company. Daily life though is what pays the bills, educates us, and gets things done so we can go away on vacation. If we could somehow combine those two that would be nice.

I believe that the level of PVB is proportionate to the amount of time spent on vacation. We were gone for two weeks, so I should expect these blues to last for quite a while. I need to try to see the humdrum of daily life as a comfort instead of a burden. Retail therapy would help, but this town is devoid of shopping, and I shouldn’t spend my money on that anyway. I’ve got a Pampered Chef party coming up (where I’m going to get their cookware for 60% off!! That just made me a little happier), and pictures from Ashlyn’s one-year photo session to purchase (ooh, just erased all of that joy).

I will snap out of it. Sooner or later.

We’re home!

We’re home! After a 4 and a half hour delay and threats of cancelling the flight we took off from Orlando and landed safely in Kansas City. While we were flying over Alabama the captain warned us of turbulent weather and had the crew suspend in-flight service. The turbulence wasn’t bad at all. The way they were acting I expected the plane to do some acrobatics. However, I see on the news today that there were several tornadoes in Alabama yesterday. We flew through the aftermath of that. (On a side note, the tornadoes hit Pratville, which is west Montgomery and where we were thinking about renting a house).

We went from shorts weather to layers-upon-layers weather. It was sunny and warm in Florida, it is cold, windy, cloudy and grey in Missouri. Why am I happy to be home? BECAUSE…we have NEW FLOORS!!! New floors people! While we were gone our landlords (and friends) had the kitchen, dining room, hallway, bathrooms and laundry room redone. The house was nice before, now it’s like coming home to a brand new house.

So, today is unpacking and moving furniture around. Both are like Christmas for me. We bought so much new stuff in Florida it’s like unwrapping presents. And getting to move furniture around is something I enjoy doing about every six to nine months. It’s a good thing we move often. I can change houses instead of having to buy new things every couple of years. Now, my house has changed for me and my regular furniture will look great on the new floors.

Lots of love and prayers go out to those who suffered in the storms yesterday. And lots of warm feelings to us since we have to get used to winter again.

Day 14 – On hold at the airport

We are in a waiting pattern at the airport. Thank God we’re actually in the airport and not on the plane. There’s ice on the runways in Kansas City and for some reason they’re having trouble removing it. It’s always cold in Kansas City (except for the couple weeks in summer where it turns to blazing hot…then it gets cold again.). My point is they should know how to clear the ice. Maybe it’s the 25 mph winds that are making it difficult.

This morning has been ONE ADVENTURE AFTER ANOTHER. I woke up at 0500 for a 0630 departure from the house to fly out of Orlando at 0930. After getting ready I woke Reagan up and left her to get dressed while I woke up Ashlyn. I walk into Ashlyn’s room with the light from the hallway. I looked into her pack n play and could see liquid in one corner. This did not come from her south end, it came from her north end. She had vomited sometime during the night and went back to sleep. I’m sure I would have heard her if she had started crying at night (I say that, but who knows if I hear her every time she cries at night). She’s in a great mood though. I pick her up and she’s smiling and cooing, vomit on her clothes, in her hair and on her face. We get her cleaned up and put her in the chair for breakfast. I feed her the normal: oatmeal mixed with apple juice. I thought for sure the oatmeal would be good for her stomach.

We get everything and everyone in the car and back out of the garage. That’s when we realize the garage will close, but it won’t lock. It’s a manual door so Du shuts it from the inside and leaves through the house. We start driving and I barely get this sentence out: “Du, be prepared to pull over if Ashlyn starts throwing up again.” Right then we hear the gagging and lurching in the back. Every bit of oatmeal came back out. It hadn’t even had time to digest. Sorry I’m being so graphic, it’s so fresh in my mind (oops, pun not intended). We haven’t even left our street so we turned around and went back to the house. We got her cleaned up and put her in the “just in case” outfit I had put in my carry on.

We head out again. Our thirty minute cushion is now gone. I guess this is why it was there. We get near the airport and realize we haven’t filled up the rental car with gas. We have to decide whether to pay the outrageous fee with the car company for them to fill the tank or turn around and go fill it up ourselves. I know I’ve said I’m cheap, but in circumstances like this I’m all for convenience…and for keeping our flight. We make the decision to go find fuel and ask Jeeves (our nav device) for the nearest gas station. He leads us to the nearest gas station and Du begins pumping. We should have noticed that there were no signs with gas prices outside this station. We did not notice that. Fortunately Du noticed the numbers on the price of the gas spinning around like the Price is Right wheel. This station was charging $4.50 per gallon. Du stops the fill up and we procede down the street to look for another station. The next station Jeeves wants us to go to doesn’t exist. On to station number three.

Meanwhile I’m envisioning the line at security in the airport. When we landed two weeks ago the line to go through security was miles long with thousands of people. I’m sure it took each of those people hours of waiting to get through. This was all I could see as we were driving farther and farther away from the airport. All our cushion time is gone and now we’re eating into TSA time.

We find a gas station that’s reasonably priced, fill up and head back to the airport. All is well while we find the rental car return and turn it over. Then comes the fun part of hauling all our bags to ticketing. While on our way to ticketing the friendliest lady ever comes up next to us with one of those bag carts with no bags on it. She’s pushing it around to carry her purse and a plastic bag. This is why I’m convinced it’s a God thing. She offers to let us put my suitcase on it (the heaviest one we have…no comments please) because we’re going the same way. When we get to ticketing she gives us the cart because she only has her two bags. AND then the Southwest lady who’s standing at the beginning of the serpentine line up to the counter sees us. She asks if the baby we have is a lap baby. Yes, she is.
Ok, please go to that line over there. That line over there only had five people in it. Another God thing. I don’t know what the difference was, but I was for once grateful for a lap baby (even if she’s potentially hazardous to our health).

As we leave ticketing we wonder if the plane will depart on time. We had checked the weather last night and knew there was an icy-windy storm moving through. We were dreading leaving the 70-80 degree weather to go back to below zero. Next to come would be the line for security. Happily the lines were a manageable length, even if our plane was going to take off on time.

So, here we sit. Ashlyn’s already taken a nap and is crawling around trying to get into our things and other people’s things. Reagan was coloring peacefully…until she noticed a bar near the floor underneath the dataport table. She decided she’d do some kind of swinging gymnatics on it and is now crying because she fell back and hit her head on the floor. I heard and felt the thud.

The plane has been delayed indefinitely and we’re thinking it will be canceled. Does that mean we have to get all our luggage back? Can’t they keep it for us and put it on the plane we do finally get on? I don’t want responsibility for all that ~~crap~~ cute summer clothing and wonderful souvenirs until we land in KC.

The good thing is that I can catch up on the blogging. Maybe I’ll be able to post some pics from the last week. And thanks to Heather I have now got the video monster tamed…I think.

Day 13 – Downtown Disney

We slept in!!! If you call 0830 sleeping in. Today was a day of laundry and relaxed shopping. We headed out around lunchtime to Downtown Disney. Lunch was at Fulton’s Crab House, a restaurant on a “boat” in the water. Not the best seafood we’ve had (definitely not as good as the first night in St. Augustine) but not the worst. We did get to sit outside on the dock facing the water. Ashlyn was on, if you know what I mean. As soon as I put her in the highchair she started screaming. The bread was late coming so I pulled her out and held her for awhile. Fortunately there were only a couple other tables out there…so we were only being cursed by a few. Then, when the bread did come out she didn’t want any. I feared that this would become a disaster.

Our appetizer came and I tried to give her some of that. I didn’t know how she would react to muscles and clams. She liked them. So that placated her for a little while. Lunch came: for me shrimp and Alaskan snow crab (I realize this isn’t from the eastern sea board, I’m assuming they flew it in. Let’s leave it at that); for Du, scallops; for Reagan, something very fishy–mac and cheese.

Ashlyn saw all our food and immediately began whining for some. Du picked up a glob of mac and chees and fed it to A whos jaw started shaking and she started yelling. It was hot. Poor Ashlyn. Poor Du, trying to make his daugther ~~shut up~~ happy.

After she got some temperate mac and cheese she was good. The rest of the lunch was enjoyable. The seagulls were going to love us after we left too. There were crackers strewn about like someone had crunched up a cracker bag and slung it around their head letting crumbs fly as they may. We do try to clean up after ourselves, but sometimes you just can’t get it all.

~~Picking~~ Finding an orange in our neighborhood orange orchard. This is before we headed out to Downtown Disney.

A lot of people down here park their RVs and build around them for their vacation home. No kidding. BTW this isn’t what our vacation home looked like.

Downtown Disney has a lot of shopping. We only hit one area of it. We got a couple of things that we just had to have. Including ice cream shakes and a cookie at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Store. Yum. Reagan got a crown that she got to bejewel herself. She chose all the jewels for it and the veil for the back. That took literally an hour. Then she picked out lots of My Little Pony gear. You get a box and fill it as full as you can. This took a little less than an hour. Meanwhile Du got to play with Ashlyn outside.

Lego dragon

After shopping Du & I sat on a bench while Reagan played in those kid-friendly fountains. The ones that shoot up from the ground and kids run amuck* amongst the streams of water. Let’s just say we’re not shocked at why most kids are out of control these days. We saw many interesting parenting styles. We know we’re not perfect, but we have our act together most of the time (I know it doesn’t seem like it with #2, but we really do).

Actually, this whole trip has been a study in parenting styles. Our last day at Disney I was in the restroom with Reagan. We were washing our hands while watching another mother plead and “count to three” with her child to get her to wash her hands. Since when has counting to three ever worked? Of course she didn’t make it past two because what is the consequence after three? There is none. You have to stop at two and then start pleading with your kid again. If there actually were a consequence after three the kid knows they still have until 2 and a half, 2 and three quarters, I mean it, I really mean it, if I make it to three you’re in trouble.

Anyway, dinner was Chick Fil-A drive through. Not a glamerous last dinner, but we had to get home, finish laundry and pack. This was an adventure. All the laundry got washed, dried and folded. We set everything that needed packing in one room. Then we started puting it in the suitcases. Did our clothes multiply while we were out adventuring during the day? We went shopping and bought some things, but really this much? Du sucked in his pride and left for WalMart to get another suitcase. To add insult to injury I called him and asked him to pick up some “girly” items while he was there. HAHA! I know how to make a man feel masculine. I told him he was actually held in high respects by all the ladies in that aisle who were wishing their men were secure enough in their masculinity to venture there. He got home with a new suitcase and we stuffed it full. There are still things bulging everywhere.

*BTW, I looked up amuck to see if I was spelling it correctly. The definition made me laugh: “to rush about in a murderous frenzy. to rush about wildly; lose self-control” Isn’t that fitting.