This and That

Is it seriously almost December??  Holy moly, how did that happen?  Well, I guess we did just celebrate Thanksgiving, didn’t we?  It’s funny how life just gets away from you if you aren’t paying attention.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, we had a really great one.  We spent Thursday with my family and Friday with Shad’s family.  I love it when we do that because we aren’t rushed.  We spent so many years gorging ourselves the first half of the day with one family, then turning around and doing it again the second half of the day with another family.  It seemed to work alright back in the days before kids.  They seem to do just fine, but Mom and Dad are spent after a full day of dragging overly fed, tired kids from house to house.  And another thing, Shad and I are finding as we are entering our late thirties, that our guts just can’t seem handle that much heavy eating in one day.  We are both finding that we end those kind of days with a terrible case of gut rot.  It sure makes eating that second slice of pie really hard.  The other thing that makes splitting our holiday into two days nice is that we can sit, relax and enjoy our time with our families.  Since we were free the first half of Thanksgiving day we had time to stop in at the nursing home and visit with some more of Shad’s family.  It’s nice to be able to visit with them on the holiday, so they don’t feel like an after thought a couple of days later.  Also, we got to my parents’ house a couple hours early, so I got to work in the kitchen with my sister and my mom.  That was priceless.  My sister and I both enjoy cooking, however, she’s a professional chef and I’m a stay-at-home-mom, Food Network trained cook.  It’s fun to meld our skills together.  Since we live an hour away from most of our family now, we spent the night at Shad’s mom’s house on Thursday night.  That was nice too.  We  got to spend some extra time with her that evening and the next morning.  After we had our Thanksgiving feast, we had plenty of time to hang out, visit and play some games, too. 

We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up leaves, cleaning out the trailer and shopping.  Our bible study group adopted a family of 9 that just moved to the US from Africa.  Needless to say, they don’t have much of anything.  We decided to buy each family member their very own bedding set.  I still remember going shopping with my mom and sister when I was young to buy my very own set of bedding.  We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so I remember it being a very big deal to have a my own bedding.  I must not have been too old because I remember wanting a set that had Cabbage Patch Kids on it.  My mom said no because she knew I would out grow that.  She was right, I would have.  I had my bed set until I was probably in high school.  Those moms, they know their stuff.  Somebody tell my kids that.  Anyway, we went to Wal-Mart and bought a set for each family member based on the color preferences that they listed.  It was a lot of fun and the kids were quite helpful.  Sunday, we missed church because Bethany had a slight fever.  But later that afternoon, she perked up, so we went to the mall.  It sounds silly, but we all needed something nice, and coordinating, for our family pictures.  We, seriously, spent 2 and a half hours at the mall with all three kids.  They did surprisingly well.  Josh was not excited to get a new shirt for pictures, but he allowed us to force him to try on a couple.  And Hannah, oh my, that girl can shop.  We bought her a dress, but she could not get this little black sequined skirt that she saw at Target the day before off of her mind.  I caved and took her to Target that night and bought her the skirt, then took the dress back the next day, to the other store.  But, oh the outfit she chose is so cute.  I can’t wait to share the pictures.  Well, this is all in lieu of the kids doing well tonight when we get them taken.  It may not be the best plan in the world, but our appointment is tonight at 7:20. 

On a totally different note, I want to say thank you to all of you who have donated for the maternity center in Haiti.  My team is so excited about our 5K on January 6th.  You can see from the button on the left, we are up to $200!  Training, for me, has not been super easy (I guess that’s why they call it training).  It is getting cold and wet here, so the motivation is not great.  Also, the only time of day I can run is after the big kids get on the bus or in the morning on the weekends, so if I have to do something first thing in the morning, I can’t get a run in for that day.  But, I continue to do my best and run when I can, even if it’s raining and cold.  I saw that Under Armor makes a water resistant hooded sweatshirt that I may just have to invest in for this winter running.  I will say, though, they are not cheap, but they are so cute.  I have to keep remembering that my discomfort is nothing compared to what the ladies in Haiti go through on a day to day basis.  At least I have a dry home to come back to, and a hot shower.  Our goal for the maternity center is $1000, so if you are so moved to give we would really appreciate it.  You can just click on the button to donate.

God has really been speaking to Shad and I about life and some changes that we need to make for His glory.  It’s not easy to listen and obey, but we are trying to be obedient without too much complaining.  Our bible study group just finished going through the book Radical by David Platt.  I can see all of us being moved in different ways by the Holy Spirit as a result of reading this book.  None of us will be the same, and we are all a little nervous and excited to see where God will take us.  It is very hard to read Radical and not have a serious heart change.  The cover of the book shows a house upside down and the subtitle of the book is “Taking back your faith from the American Dream”.  I think it is safe to say that if you allow Him to, God is going to turn your house upside down after reading this book.  And it is all good, not easy, but good.  More to come on that.

Well, I am off to put Bethany to bed and enjoy some quiet time.  And by quiet time I mean, clean the house without a little rug rat running through my sweep pile.  Have a great day and don’t forget to donate to team 4 The Love for the Run for Life Haiti.