Do You Hear What I Hear?

Do you hear that sound? You don't??? Get closer to your computer... closer...closer... Ok.. I'm messing with you.. There is no sound! (Did you seriously bend in closer? I bet you did!)

Anyway, the point is... there is NO sound in my house. Just my fingers clicking away on the keyboard. (My piano teacher would have a royal FIT if she saw how long my fingernails are!) Chris is at school... 2 weeks into his new school year.... 2 weeks into him being gone from 8:40 am until 4:00 pm. That's a L-O-N-G time for him to be gone and a L-O-N-G time for me to be home without the endless questions, the requests for food or drinks and to wear my hat as activities director. Don't get me wrong, I miss him.. it's too quiet. Although, I must say, my house is looking much tidier and, dare I say it ... I have some time to myself. For those of you who have endured the perils of having a child in 1/2 day kindergarten, you will sympathize with me on how brutal that was... 3 lousy hours was all you had. I was so FRAZZLED! I could barely go food shopping, unpack the groceries or clean a couple of rooms before I had to race to pick him up. It was rough. This year is a little easier. I can exercise (Not that I actually have yet, but I can when the spirit moves me) I can meet friends for lunch, I can browse in stores without someone tugging on me to look at the toy department.

Honestly, I think I am most grateful for the quiet time with God... it's not sandwiched in between brushing my teeth and putting breakfast on the table. It's actually quiet... and I can take my time... reflect and pray. What a concept!

Anyway, if nothing else I'm learning to be content in whatever season in life I am in. I was just telling my husband the other day that I really want to treasure each day we have together. Oftentimes the days just roll into each other and before you know it, our son will be in college. I just want to savor every joyous moment we have together as a family.... and while he's in school and my house is a little more quiet, I know that God will help me in using this time to not only better take care of our home and spend time working my business, but in using me for whatever purpose he has for me. So, whether you are still in the "frazzled" season of life with you kids, or are finally enjoying a little more "silence" during the day, take a deep breath and enjoy the day..whatever it may bring.

Nightmare

Chris woke up at 5 am crying... he had nightmare. He rarely gets them, so when he does, it's a big deal. Lots of crying, wailing, weeping, gnashing of teeth.. you get the idea. It only made me feel worse when I realized that I caused the nightmare.. .you see, I like to read books to Chris before bed. I pick one and he picks one. He reads one to me, and I read a bigger chapter book to him. So, last night he picked some Star Wars Clone thingy, and I read several pages about Droids, clones, light sabers, weird separatists nations, etc. He came into our room exclaiming, "It was so bad and loud..even my Star Wars Lego guys were scared!"















So, needless to say, there must be a reason why they haven't come out with a Star Wars Bed Time edition or Lullaby. IT IS NOT NIGHTTIME MATERIAL. I was firmly instructed by Christopher (and his Dad) that all Star Wars reading material must be completed way before sundown.

That's it... back to VeggieTales tonight.

Most Wondeful Time of the Year

Hope you enjoy this commercial as much as I do... it's from a few years ago, by Staples.

Waiting & an Answer

This is a follow up to my last post about Chris' prayer request... here he is waiting on the Lord so to speak...























Here he is immediately following the answer to his prayer (thanks to his Titi Shirley)

A Whisper & Prayer

This morning Chris walked into my bedroom and announced that on Sunday he learned that if we need something, all we have to do is pray to God and he'll answer the prayer. "Yes, that's right", I replied and then he dashed out of my room and into his. I peeked around the corner and saw him kneeling by his bed and whispering a prayer.

I ducked back into my room and moments later, Chris walked in with a big smile. "Mom, I prayed to God that he would give me a Lego set because that would make me really happy." "Aren't I so cute?" (and yes, he is)

Great", I replied. "Did your teacher also tell you what three responses God answers with?"

He looked puzzled, so I explained," Sometimes God says yes, sometimes God says no, and sometimes God says wait." "So, what do you think God's answer is going to be?"

"Definitely, yes", replied Chris.

Now there's some faith!!

??

Last night I posted on Facebook that my son asks questions... LOTS of questions. He was a late talker so we didn't get a whole lot of the Why? What? Where? How Much? etc. questions until he was older. Now that he is six and very verbal, my days are consumed with answering questions. If I don't answer, he just asks again LOL So, my throat is tired and my mind is ready to explode.

Today we are heading into NYC to take our friends to a cruise ship... would be nice to hop on board with them! Oh well.. maybe someday. Then we are spending the day in the city and hopefully taking Chris to the Central Park Zoo and the huge Toys R Us in Times Square. I'm sure good food is on the agenda too. Will try to remember to take a few pictures for you.

Tomorrow I have to finish my preparations for my dad's upcoming visit. He'll be with us about two weeks so we are very excited to have him come stay with us. I have lots of fun things planned for while he is here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

He's Got A Plan!

My son's new favorite TV show is WipeOut, where contestants are put through a demanding physical challenge in the form of various obstacles, designed to trip them up and land them in mud or water. He just loves watching these people attempt to go through the obstacles.

So, for the last week or so, he's mentioned to me that he wants to be a contestant. I told him he was too young, but that wasn't good enough. He wanted me to find out more information. So, I looked it up and here are the qualifications that I read to him just a few minutes ago:

* You must be at least 18 years old
* You must be a legal U.S. resident
* You must be able to swim
* You must be a California resident
* You must be fun, strong-willed, outgoing, and have a great sense of humor

"So, Chris, you only meet two out of the five requirements because you are not 18, you are still learning to swim and we don't live in California."

"That's okay, Mom, after we live in Florida (because he is determined for us to go back there someday and live right next door to my sister (and more importantly, her pool)), we can move to California! Ok.. so Florida, Mom, and then California."

He's got it all planned out... I hate to be the one to tell him that there is no way I'm moving to California just to establish residency for him to be a contestant on a show that will likely be off the air by then anyway.

Amazing Grace

Just posting a wonderful worship song... a nice spin on a classic hymn. Have a great day everyone!

Today's Chuckle

Chris was invited to a birthday party today at Chuck E Cheese's... my former pastor used to joke that the concept of Chuck E. Cheese came from the pit of hell -- a room of screaming kids where all you do is watch them go insane for a few hours and willingly give them money to do so. Anyway, Chris was so young the last time we went there, that he didn't remember any of it so he was really looking forward to going today.

Now, the closest Chuck E Cheese is easily 45 minutes away (which, I have concluded, is a good thing. During the whole drive all I heard was "How far to Chuckie Jesus? How far to Chuckie Jesus?" I said Christopher, it's Chuck E Cheese.. not Chuckie Jesus.. He didn't believe me until he saw the sign. It was truly a good laugh.

Sunday

So, yesterday turned into an interesting day. We arrived home from church and I had just sat down to finish watching a movie when I noticed what looked like a dark spot on our carpet in the area between our living room and dining room. At first I thought maybe Chris had spilled something so I went over to investigate. It was about a 12 inch area that was wet. I asked Chris and he said he hadn't been over in that area... his thought was that maybe my husband's shoes were wet when he came inside. We had a ton or rain that day, but I knew that was not likely since we always take our shoes off when we come inside the house. So, as I am standing there investigating the spot, a drop of water lands on my head. That can't be good... I look up and sure enough there is a 12 inch area of water droplets on the ceiling sheetrock. We are standing directly below the bathroom. Then I notice another, smaller area in the ceiling that has water droplets on it as well.

This is the part where I become thankful... what? Thankful.. Yes, thankful. You see, I was supposed to be in Dallas, but I was home instead. My husband was home. We weren't on vacation somewhere. We had caught this early. Not only that, but God puts people in our lives for a reason. My good friend's husband is a general contractor... who happened to be home and able to come right over with his truck and tools. He was able to get the sheetrock down, and we have a plan in place for fixing the problem. (Believe it or not a neighbor had a similar problem so we have to recaulk the bathroom!) So, I was thankful - even though this is an inconvenience... God still takes care of us.

Here's a picture of what our living room/dining room looks like now. And how was your Sunday?

Picnic In the Park

We decided to go on a spur of the moment picnic on Saturday. Living here in the mountains of western New Jersey, there is no lack of State Parks to choose from. So, we made some sandwiches, grabbed some drinks, snacks, picnic basket and blanket and took off on our adventure. We had done this one other time and had a great time down by the Delaware Water Gap. This time we wanted to stay a little closer to home. So, we picked a state park that is just about 20 minutes from our home. The mountain is so beautiful... incredible views!

So, we pulled into the deserted parking lot, saw about 7 - 10 picnic tables in this little clearing and that was about it. There was a little shed which looked way too small to even be a bathroom and absolutely not another soul around other than the 3 of us. I was feeling a little uneasy for no good reason at all. Maybe it's the New Yorker... you know.. going into "foreign" territory (aka a park) puts my entire body on full alert. (If I was in a NYC subway by contrast, I probably would have been fine - go figure!). Anyway, we walk over with all our gear to the picnic tables only to be greeted with a sign that was bolted down to the corner of the table. In big bold letters it said " YOU ARE IN BEAR COUNTRY!" There were 3 or 4 sentences underneath it that I didn't even bother to read... You had me at "Bear Country". Now, this wasn't a news flash.. there have been bear sightings in my own neighborhood and one was killed by a car last week not far from where we live. But do I want to have to eat my sandwich with the fear that Yogi is going to come scampering out of the wilderness to join me? No thank you. So, Steve & I looked at each other, grabbed our things and explained to Chris that we were going to have a different kind of picnic. (Thank God I have a husband who is from the city like me who understands what my limits are!)

Back to the mini van we walked. I opened the back, readjusted the chairs so that the back row of seats folded down to a flat surface, laid out our blanket and set up our picnic... that's right.. in the minivan... with the back hatch/door closed shut. It was like being in the park without having to BE IN THE PARK. It even smelled like the park because when we arrived at the park, I had doused each of us with OFF to make sure that the mosquitoes didn't attack us. We were prepared LOL.

We enjoyed a nice lunch while watching Toy Story 2 on my son's video player. I personally had one eye on the player and one eye watching out for Yogi. Although Yogi was not spotted during our time there.. I had a feeling he was close by (I watched too many horror movies in my youth).

Not sure we'll be going on a picnic anytime soon...well.. maybe at the beach.

Words of Advice

Here are some words of advice to the mother whose son's life I saved at the pool today.

1) When taking your child to the pool, it would be helpful if you, yourself wore a bathing suit. Although you looked stylish standing next to the pool in your Capri's, fancy heels and halter top, it wasn't exactly pool appropriate attire.

2) When your son is not tall enough to stand in the pool by himself, don't let him go down the slide without you being IN THE POOL waiting to catch him. (See Advice #1)

3) Don't count on all the rest of the moms at the pool to be keeping our eyes out on your son. I didn't see him in distress until it was almost too late.

4) When you need my assistance to save your son because I, unlike you, am IN the pool with my son, don't just point to me and say sweetly in a calm voice that your son is having trouble and he keeps going under... my advice is to either A) JUMP INTO THE POOL to save his life B) YELL LIKE A MANIAC and get people's attention.

5) After the life guard and I both went through great lengths to save your son, a nice thank you would have been appropriate...I'm sure the fact that you didn't get near else was because you were afraid we would splash you therefore forcing you to send your outfit to the dry cleaners.

6) After all of the above had transpired, Please, Please, Please, do not allow your son to go BACK DOWN THE SLIDE -- it blew my mind that you allowed him to go again forcing the lifeguard to once again jump in and rescue him.

7) My last piece of advice -- GET A CLUE! better yet -- stay home

Keeping My Mind Busy

I have been on an emotional roller coaster this week. I wish I could chalk it up to PMS and not having access to chocolate, or being on a diet which is making me cranky, but the truth is much deeper and more personal. I'm painfully aware that this was the week my baby would have been born. Trust me, I have given myself the pep-talks that this was part of God's plan and that he knows better than I, but did I truly have to see and be around a ton of babies everywhere I went this week? In the restaurants, in the grocery stores, etc. Just was a little more than I could handle... and I'm usually a tough cookie. So, you'll have to pardon me if I take a few more days to pull myself back together.

My sister, niece and nephew are arriving tomorrow for a short visit. I am so excited and I've been getting our house ready. It's been a great distraction -- family is always a good cure for the blues.

Christmas in July

So last night Christopher and I started putting together his Christmas and birthday list since both occasions are one day apart. He is at that age where every commercial he sees or every Target or Toys R Us flyer has something that he "must have!". So, last night while showing me another Lego set that he "needs" for his collection, I hopped on Target.com and starting his wish list. I explained to him that we could build a nice list over the next few months and then I can email it to all his Aunts and Uncles and Grandfathers so everyone would know what he would really like. He loved this idea and so it began. Of course I also explained that to make room for all the 250+ piece lego sets he is requesting that we are going to have to go through his current toys and make a few donations between now and then. Just WHERE does one put all these Legos?? Any advice from you moms with boys that are into building this wonderful creation with extremely small pieces? His bookshelf is near capacity LOL.

One Extraordinary Sunday

Today Steve & I celebrate the 8th anniversary of our "reconnection". We first met as teenagers and became friends. Then we lost touch for 15 years. Then, 8 years ago today, he walked back into my life.. and hasn't left LOL That's a GOOD thing. Here's a little recap that I posted last year that always makes me smile..

I just rolled my eyes after I heard this message on my answering machine over eight years ago...

"Beth, this is your sister... where are you?? You must still be at church. Anyway, it's Sunday night and I just spent the last 40 minutes talking to your future husband.... AND YOU KNOW WHO IT IS!!! Call me as soon as you get this message..."

Ok... first of all, for those of you who know my sister, she is very excitable, so you can only imagine the squeals of delight that accommodated that message. Secondly, I had no idea who she was talking about or what she was talking about. I was a single girl, living in Lancaster and relatively happy with where I was at with my life. I had great friends, a good job, I was active in an awesome church and was learning how to cope with my mom's passing.

So, after replaying the message a second time, I called my sister back and she rapidly and excitedly told me that at church that day she had run into a guy she knew from college, Steve M. It had been years since they had seen each other and after a few minutes of chit chat he asked how I was doing. Ruth didn't even remember that he knew me (she had introduced us when we were teenagers, we formed a friendship but lost touch once I went away to college). So, she of course mentioned that I was still single (thanks for the plug, Ruth) and living in Pennsylvania. She threw in that I often came to NJ to visit and that we'd all have to get together sometime.

Honestly, my first reaction to this was not very positive. "Ruth, I haven't seen this guy in like 15 years. I'm not the same girl.. I'm no teenager and certainly I don't look like I did back in those days." But she was determined. My sister enjoys being a matchmaker and was successful in pairing up several of her friends. Up until this point, the matches she made for me were anything but successful. One guy tried to sell me Amway products during the entire course of dinner. Thankfully, this was a double date with my sister and brother-in-law at whom I repeatedly rolled my eyes throughout that disaster of a dinner/date. Next up was a blind date with a guy that had a personality of a wooden door -- didn't crack a smile all night. It was painful. I definitely needed someone who can laugh.

Who would have known that eventually Steve & I did reconnect (much to my sister's glee!) I shared with you all last year on my blog about how God brought Steve and I back together through bizarre circumstances (I was living in NJ because of a stroke my father had suffered). Today marks seven years since that "reconnection" and we treat it like an anniversary. I'm so excited and, honestly, marrying a man who loves God, me and our son, was so worth the wait. We often joke about why we never dated as teenagers... how awesome it would have been to not have lost touch for those 15 years... but then we realize that God had a purpose in those 15 years. He used that time to make us ready to be the man and woman of God we needed to be in this marriage. God's timing is perfect.. always

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. "James 1:17

It's One of "Those" Days..

Today is officially an "off" day. My head just isn't quite on right or something. I had TWO baskets of laundry in my basement. One that I HAD JUST TAKEN OUT of the dryer.. AKA "clean clothes" and, the other, the much larger heap of dirty clothes. So, being so easily distracted by so many thoughts that typically roll around my head in any given day, I just put THE CLEAN CLOTHES BACK IN the washing machine. I honestly must have just put 7 or 8 shirts in... didn't feel that they were still warm.. didn't phase me at all until shirt number 8.

Sounds like I should call it a day. And how was yours?

Land of Make Believe

Even though this is our third summer here in Western New Jersey, yesterday was our first visit to the Land of Make Believe, a wonderful little amusement and water park located about 20 minutes from our front door.

We've known about it for years, but one thing or another always got in the way of us going there. But, with Steve having a day off yesterday and the weather calling for a scorcher, it seemed like the perfect time to check it out.

We had SO much fun. If you have kids under the age of 12, I think they would love it. For those who have never been, it's like Dutch Wonderland (except not as big). The park is really geared for toddlers (I'd say kids under 12... we didn't see too many teenagers there). The water park alone was worth the trip. Chris had a ton of fun on the pirate ship which had many slides and dozens of places to use water guns and other gadgets. They had another pirate fort, a huge wading pool which was great for babies and toddlers and at least 4 or 5 water slides (That's where the tweens and teenagers were). Something for everyone.

We did the amusement park as well - It was the first time we could truly just sit back and watch Chris go on the rides. We didn't have to strap him in or ride with him. He's tall enough to do most rides for himself. Made me proud and sad all at the same time.

I guess you could say that the only thing I was wishing for at the Land of Make Believe was that I could "make believe" time would stand still and that our little boy would always be six and having the time of his life!

If you've never been, check out their website

Change

Felt like the blog needed a little sprucing up so I changed the background and added a new quote to the top. I received this list of "Old Farmer's Advice" not so long ago. See if any of these may inspire you, apply to you or just make you smile:

* Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
* It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
* You cannot unsay a cruel word.
* Every path has a few puddles.
* Don't judge folks by their relatives.
* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
* Live a good, honorable life... then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time around.
* Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.

And then my new mantra... "Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God."

We are Back!

Just walked in the door less than an hour ago from our awesome vacation in Florida. Was a l-o-n-g day of traveling and was so happy to just walk in the door... then I was ECSTATIC when I remembered that I had spent the day before we left for our vacation cleaning the house from top to bottom. Nothing like coming home to a warm, inviting place and not a reminder of the usual chaos that ensues from day-to-day. Maybe I'll light a candle and take a bath... one last fleeting moment of relaxation before reality crashes on my head.

Vacation By the Numbers

5 -- Number of Days we have been on vacation
5 -- Number of Days it has RAINED while on vacation
4 -- Number of trips to get ice cream
4 -- Number of times we were almost hit by someone TEXTING while driving in Florida
3 -- Number of wrong turns we took to get to the beach
3 -- Number of people who fell off jetskiis in 2 separate incidents
2 -- Number of times the Coast Guard Police pulled my brother-in-law over for violations while jetskiing
2 -- Number of family members who cried during Toy Story 3
1-- Number of times a bird POOPED on my LEG while at the beach
1 -- Number of times another bird DROPPED A BONE on the beach umbrella I was sitting under!
Countless - number of memories we are making each and every day.