My Peacefully Chaotic Life

Do you ever get curious about the homes you pass each day? Some are perfect and tidy with neatly trimmed bushes and freshly mowed grass. Others have gorgeous flowerbeds. Some are completely neglected and give an air of despair. It makes you wonder about the people who live there. Take a look outside our house and it is pretty obvious that a family lives here. It has nothing to do with the type of house or the location. Yet there are some dead giveaways. The laundry flapping on the line is an assortment of guys basketball shorts, big and small, little girls dresses, and men's and women's clothing. Not to mention the big, fluffy sleeping bag with the sparkly butterflies and flowers on it! Toys are strewn across the back yard and a slip-n-slide is draped across the bench under the plum tree, just waiting for some active children to spread it on the ground. Children's pool toys spill out around a big, blue mushroom pool. (The FisherMan says that's how you can tell it's...

We are indulging in an early lunch today after having a late breakfast. I would say it is due to growth spurts but I'm not sure. Unfortunately mine tend to be outward rather than upward so I am hoping that isn't the case for Mama! :P As I went towards the kitchen to fix lunch LadyBug frantically called, "Wait, wait! Mama look at my picture!" She had worked so hard to color a kitty in a coloring book. The head was royal blue and the body orange while it sported a jaunty red bow. (Just so you Auburn fans know it...there was some Crimson Tide thrown in there, ha!) I praised her for staying in the lines while in my head I thought of how an adult would have had to made it look more real. Have you noticed that about children? The majority of young children never color a picture to look real. They use different colors all over. FlowerChild used to color pictures of people and animals with a pattern of up to 8 colors at a time! Have you ever seen a plaid horse? How about a st...

Jennifer's wedding day was fast approaching. Nothing could dampen her excitement -- not even her parent's nasty divorce. Her mother had found the PERFECT dress to wear and would be the best-dressed mother-of-the-bride ever! A week later, Jennifer was horrified to learn that her father's new young wife had bought the exact same dress as her mother! Jennifer asked her father's new young wife to exchange it, but she refused. 'Absolutely not, I look like a million bucks in this dress, and I'm wearing it,' she replied. Jennifer told her mother who graciously said, 'Never mind sweetheart. I'll get another dress After all, it's your special day.' A few days later, they went shopping and did find another gorgeous dress. When they stopped for lunch, Jennifer asked her mother, 'Aren't you going to return the other dress? You really don't have another occasion where you could wear it. ' Her mother just smiled and repli...

In our state we have to register under a church school, in order to homeschool. This gives you a "covering" or an "umbrella" to homeschool under. They keep your school records and produce your transcript should the time come to transfer or start college. I've been looking for one for a while now. There are plenty of them out there but I was running into overpriced tuition or unreturned phone calls. Here it is August and I didn't have one yet. I was getting a little panicky! But I kept praying over it and asking God to lead me to the right one. Then The GuitarMan went over to a neighboring town to help out a friend with a Kid's Rally. He thought FlowerChild might enjoy it, too so we brought her over at the appointed time. He knows many of the people there so when we walked in he immediately scooped up Cornbread to take him around and show everybody "Little Me" as he called him. Cornbread really is a miniature of him! As we stood there chatting w...

This week's plans have been undergoing some rearranging already. I'll show you what I mean. Here is what I originally planned. MONDAY grilled cheeseburgers home fries baked beans TUESDAY mexican casserole WEDNESDAY fresh peas fried eggplant fried okra new potatoes cornbread THURSDAY BBQ chicken leftover baked beans mashed potatoes FRIDAY fried catfish potatoes and onions squash casserole hushpuppies SATURDAY Going to a Bible Study so I'm taking fingerfoods SUNDAY Grilled sausage dogs baked potato any leftovers Well, the casserole was for The GuitarMan but he went to a friend's. So I told him no worries we would just flip flop Tues and Thurs. Then we had the whole fiasco trying to get waited on and got home late so it changed again to soup! So we will try again for chicken tonight. We have a meeting at 3 in another town though so who knows! It all sounds good though so I don't mind how it works out. I'll probably just wing it and go with whatever I am in the mood...

Oh, my goodness. Why is it that anytime you teach a lesson on something, (or your husband preaches on something ~wink~), or in this case you BLOG on something....it always, always comes back to you? I knew it was coming this week because God had laid some things on my heart for Bible study Sunday, then I blogged about Brand Name Christianity and protecting our witness. Oh, yeah. My talk was bound to be tested! (Oh, me, hopefully I passed!) It's like the lady at our church who told me this past Sunday, "I keep praying to God for patience but I still don't have any!" I said, "Well, there's your whole problem! You're asking for it so He keeps giving you situations where it is required!" Ha, ha I want patience God and I want it now! :) This time it was me that was being watched as I handled waiting and tired children..... That were slightly cranky..... Well, grumpy really. Oh, let's be real here. They had lost their minds and were trying to take min...

When I grocery shop I tend to check prices on everything. I have it down to a fine art now. I know how much certain items should cost because I buy them every week. It's so funny when The FisherMan asks what he can go get while we are in the store, to shorten the load for me, you know. Inevitably he comes back with brands that cost more but don't offer anything better than the no-name brands. At times the store brands actually taste better! It's a guy thing, I guess! "Hey, babe, this was only a $1!" "Oh, that's good, but, you know hon, the store brand is only 78 cents!" (I appreciate his help though!) When you get down to it, those pretty labels don't change the fact that it is still a bag of chips, ya know? I have noticed the same thing in the Christian world. There are all kinds of things you can buy now to make you look like a Christian. Jewelry, clothing, plaques, dishes, even candy! But sometimes all those pretty labels don't disguise th...