My Peacefully Chaotic Life

I'm having an attitude problem. I'm looking around at what needs to be done. I have the desire for the work to be done but I have no desire to actually do the work! Therein lies the problem. I think we could truthfully apply that to a lot of areas in our life. We want our church to have "programs" but we don't want to actually work in them. We want to be healthy but we don't want to work or sacrifice to get that way. Same thing with weight...(don't even want to go there LOL!) We want our children to behave, make good choices, etc but we are tired. We want our homes to look nice but don't want to do housework, yardwork, work! Ugh, so what to do, what to do? I'm telling myself the answer right now as I type. Get over yourself! Sometimes you have to lay aside the selfish, less important desires and just do the harder thing in order to get results and have the real desires of your heart. Sigh..so I guess that's where I am headed no...

A lemon and honey kind of day, that is. The children are getting sore throats. One pediatrician told us to mix a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of lemon juice for cough and sore throat. I tried it but I just didn't find it to bring relief. Not only that, my children were not too keen on being spoonfed honey. We like to do this instead. Heat a mug of water to your desired temp. Then coat the bottom of the cup very liberally with honey. Add 2-3 teaspoons of lemon according to your taste. Stir and sip. Very soothing and relaxing!

Yesterday we had to do some hospital visitation in another town. We've been hearing about BJ's wholesale club about 20 minutes from there and how we should check it out so we decided to combine the two destinations. We paid a nice long visit to a church member in the hospital. Then we headed over to the next stop. What we did not anticipate was the traffic between the two towns! We got stuck in rush hour traffic, bumper to bumper! Oh my...we've been living out in the boonies for the last 5 years and it had been a long time! Finally I told my husband that I did not care what it was, just please stop at the next restaurant we came to and let's eat supper to let the traffic clear out. It turned out to be a Smokey Bones which we had never eaten at. The food was good and it was a much needed break. We got ready to leave and their computers went down. So we had to wait for them to get the computer working before we could leave. (Isn't that so sad that we are THAT dependen...

We had this for Sunday dinner today and it was so good! I didn't follow a specific recipe so here is what I put together. 1 T olive oil 2 T butter/margarine 2 lbs chicken breast, boiled and chopped 1 large onion diced (I used 1/2 of a VERY large Vidalia) 1/2 bell pepper diced 3 stalks celery diced (my guys don't like the texture so I buy celery that has lots of leaves and chop the leaves and only a small amount of celery stalk instead. I do the same thing in cornbread dressing.) 4 cloves garlic diced 1 15 oz can tomato sauce 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes 1 can black beans 1 can kidney beans hot wing sauce to taste ( I used 1/2 - 3/4 bottle) 3 T smoked paprika 2 T chili powder 1 T cumin salt to taste Cook veggies til tender in olive oil and butter/margarine. Add all other ingredients and simmer desired length of time. I served this with plenty of blue cheese crumbles, Tostito Scoops, and extra wing sauce and hot sauce on the side for those who like more heat!

It's been a busy time the last week. Last weekend we had friends come to visit and spend the weekend as well as The GuitarMan being home and my mom was also visiting! This week the children have been battling allergies and the grumpies that accompany them. Yet we still managed to homeschool and even had a field trip to a local ministry house that gives aid to the needy. they have been learning about communities and family in Social Studies along with the difference between needs and wants, so it was good timing. Lately fierce storms have been periodically moving through so we are appreciating the nice weather. Tomorrow we plan to go to a local attraction where the children can play in the water and sand. They have new bathing suits and water shoes so they are beside themselves with anticipation. Oh, my that made me think, I forgot to purchase sunscreen! I'm going to be leading/teaching the music at our Vacation Bible School this summer. I'm working on learning the new VB...

Oh, my, what a day! My husband is sick for the second day in a row with a stomach virus. This is the same man who, when he worked construction on the oil refineries, fell face first 30-some-odd feet into pipes, and got up and walked (bleeding everywhere, mind you). Just last year, he and my son were doing some work and the knife slipped and went almost through his hand. Not a scream, not a tear. But, let him get sick? He turns to putty. I'm sure all you wives know exactly what I mean! I swear we've been sick more in the last 2months, since we moved, than we've been in the last 2 years! I'm sure this virus will make its rounds through the family, oh joy. In all the fun of the move and the subsequent illness after illness, our daily schedule has suffered. Suffered mightily. Routines are out the window. It leaves this woman an unhappy camper. I'm not a clean freak by any means. But I like for things to be orderly. I like to do my dishes before bed and wake up to unload...

My, it has really been a while! Where do I begin? Well, for one, we have moved to a different state. My husband accepted a different church pastorate back in January. While we are still in the South, it is a new time zone for us and that has been quite the challenge to adjust to. About the time we finally began to settle into it, the time changed occurred last Saturday so we are all mixed up yet again! As for the family, other than a bout with flu a few weeks ago we are just fine. The GuitarMan is still in college and the move puts him a little further away. Throw in his job, male chorale tour and sports and it adds up to not seeing him nearly often enough! We saw him the last weekend of February and will see him again the end of March. His hand healed quite well and other than some minor "reminders" there are no signs of his injuries, at least at this point. You would most certainly not know it from seeing or hearing him play! FlowerChild and LadyBug are growing like crazy. ...