My Peacefully Chaotic Life

I received this as a forward email and thought it was worth sharing here. Some of you may have already seen it (especially if you happened to send it to me, ha!). But read and enjoy anyway! Before I was a Mom, I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations. Before I was a Mom, I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night. Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep. Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so...

No bright lights and city life for us out here! So what did we find ourselves mesmerized with tonight? Picture it. There we were. The FisherMan, me, The GuitarMan, a good friend of his with her zebra print blouse LOL, FlowerChild, LadyBug, and Cornbread. We are gathered around the new bug zapper with its purple light waiting for it to zap a bug. Then we notice that it makes Cornbread's white shirt glow in the dark. My little Gloworm! So we get to looking around and we see it makes Blondie's zebra shirt glow in the dark. She says, "Hey, this is better than the bowling alley!" GuitarMan goes, "Galaxy bowling!!!" Aah, life in the country!

This is what I found my girls up to one morning. Ok, so, no they didn't really think they would catch a fish in the pool! They actually had been practicing casting with their new poles and wanted some real water. But it was so cute I couldn't resist snapping a picture!

This week is a lean week grocery wise so I have planned "roll-over meals" and simple stuff thrown in. A roll-over meal is where you stretch one meal to create a new one. Like rubber chicken. Roasted chicken one night, chicken pot pie another, chicken soup, etc. Now I didn't have a chicken this week but I did have 3 pounds of hamburger, a roast (on sale woo-hoo!), a pack of hot dogs and a small can of chicken. This is what we're having. Monday: Leftovers from the fish fry Tuesday: Grilled hamburgers and fries Wednesday: Sloppy joes, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables (leave out 1 lb after browning for spaghetti) (save leftover sloppy joe mix) Thursday: Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread (save leftover spaghetti sauce) Friday: Eating with friends Saturday: L)Hot dogs with homemade chili (use leftover sloppy joe and spaghetti sauce) S)chicken tortilla casserole, refried beans, salad Sunday: L)crockpot roast w/gravy, potatoes, carrots, butterpeas, biscuits or cornbread ...

The rain we've had has left the air so clean and sweet. We all suffer with allergies so we are ready for that. Not to mention, this is the first rainfall the garden has received. I am thankful for the sprinklers but there is just nothing like a good rain to get the plants to thrive. Unfortunately the rain can also have some undesirable aspects. It gets the critters to moving! Yesterday we had a snake out at the manhut! Otherwise known as the gazebo. What kind, you say? A dead one. Well, he didn't start out that way. See, the GuitarMan came home for a visit yesterday. He wanted to spend some time with us, oh, and get his clean laundry. :P So we thought we would just grill some hamburgers for supper. The FisherMan was out at the gazebo cooking and had the hamburgers finished. He was about to start the french fries. Cornbread and I had just walked back inside from being out there, too. FlowerChild was sitting out there strumming her guitar. Apparently her daddy turned around just ...

Well, I suppose you could tell I have been struggling a bit with blogging! Life has really been something lately. You know how it is, when it rains it pours! The FisherMan has started preaching through the book of James and he has been focusing on how to handle trials. I don't know why it can't be enough to do lip service on that subject rather than having to live it out! LOL Wow, sometimes it is just one thing after another. Anyway I've just had this underlying melancholy feeling for the last few days. Not sad, not mad, not depressed. Just....magenta. Did you ever see that episode of The Golden Girls? Blanche defines that jumble of feelings with the color magenta. I tend to be an upbeat, hopeful type of person who is strong on faith and short on self pity and martyrdom. I really don't have much patience for those attitudes at all! So when I feel that old discouraged feeling creeping in I get a little frustrated with myself and I know it is time to back it up, get in th...

Well, one year ago at this moment I was attempting to get ready for bed hoping for a little sleep. But, it wasn't going so well seeing as how I was in labor! So it wasn't long and we were in the road making a mad dash for the hospital for Cornbread's arrival. I'll share the story after I tell you about LadyBug's birth. Ironic as it seems, today also held a mad dash for medical attention. The day started out as normal as could be. With The GuitarMan coming home there were some things I wanted to have ready. Tomorrow is the birthday party and fish fry at church so there were some things to attend to there as well. I had all the sheets in the wash, dishwasher halfway loaded, homeschooling started. As FlowerChild was doing her reading aloud she began to complain with an earache. By the time we had begun phonics (only a few minutes later) she started to cry a little and whimper. So schoolwork was set aside and I gave her some medicine. I have one of those little teddy b...