There's probably at least two dozen of them flying around outside my window. They've just about got all the berries stripped off my dogwood trees. Every once in a while a bigger one will land in a tree that still has leaves on it and cause a big shower of leaves to come down. I think they must be playing some sort of mixed up game that combines tag and chase and musical trees.
I like birds. They're fun.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Well we got the truck back
The car died while Will was on the way to work this morning (4:30 am *yawn*) so he and I drove over and woke "R" up and told him we needed the truck back. He wasn't happy about it but he didn't raise a fuss.
Hopefully this will be the end of it.
Hopefully this will be the end of it.
Monday, October 26, 2009
The sacrifice of praise
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. ~ Psalm 100:4-5
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. ~ Hebrews 13:15
I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. ~ 2 Samuel 24:24
I know that You are strong
I know You're more than able
to save me from whatever, ever comes my way
I know You are a Healer
I know You can deliver
I know that You can rescue me
But even when I cannot see Your hand
when You move in a way that
I would not have planned...
Still I will worship You
I will worship You
in the midnight hour
I will worship You
when I'm in the fire
I will worship You
when all hope seems gone
I will stand and proclaim that
You are my God
I will worship You
I will worship You
~ Curt Coffield
Thank you Lord for teaching me the meaning of a sacrifice of praise. Even when I feel so beat down that I can't even take another step, I will praise you - not because of everything you've done for me or for everything you've given me, but because you are the Holy Holy Holy.
~ me
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Life
First of all, big thumbs up to angelfoodministries.com! We got food from them for the first time this past week and have now at least tried almost everything from the order. So far everything has been really good. We'll probably order from them again.
Last night Will and I were watching a DVD and about 11 pm we thought we heard a vehicle (we live at the top of six acres in the woods, so nobody should be driving up unless they're lost and miss the No Trespassing signs). Will had me pause the DVD and he poked his head out the door, then came back in and grabbed the 9MM. I asked him if somebody was out there and he said yes. So I grabbed the phone in case I needed to call 911 and sat there. After about 20 minutes I hadn't heard anything, so I got up and turned off all the lights on this side of the house and grabbed a knife out of the kitchen drawer and went around looking out all the windows to see if I could see anything. The motion light came on and I could see then that Will was standing out there next to a white truck talking to someone.
Hmmm. White truck. Just like the one that was "taken" from us a few months ago. Well, isn't that interesting.
I went and put the knife away and waited for Will to come in. Finally about 11:30 he came in. The guy was drunk (he's a "recovering" alcoholic who sadly doesn't seem too interested in sticking to the recovering part) and has been living in a camper trailer outside his brothers' house (the whole lot of them is a bunch of no-good drunks) and had a sob story about how he was planning to just drive out into the woods and shoot himself (and he had a gun in the truck) but he decided to come up here and talk to Will instead. Sad to say but I doubt any of that was really true, he was just looking for pity. But he did at least give Will back the keys to the old truck (that they were supposed to be fixing up) and the keys to his tool box. He said he'd come back this morning with the money that he owes us (for returning the parts Will paid for to the store) and that he still wants to help rebuild the old truck, blah blah blah. Will just evaded all the comments about wanting the guy to come back around and let him ramble until he was done.
Last night Will and I were watching a DVD and about 11 pm we thought we heard a vehicle (we live at the top of six acres in the woods, so nobody should be driving up unless they're lost and miss the No Trespassing signs). Will had me pause the DVD and he poked his head out the door, then came back in and grabbed the 9MM. I asked him if somebody was out there and he said yes. So I grabbed the phone in case I needed to call 911 and sat there. After about 20 minutes I hadn't heard anything, so I got up and turned off all the lights on this side of the house and grabbed a knife out of the kitchen drawer and went around looking out all the windows to see if I could see anything. The motion light came on and I could see then that Will was standing out there next to a white truck talking to someone.
Hmmm. White truck. Just like the one that was "taken" from us a few months ago. Well, isn't that interesting.
I went and put the knife away and waited for Will to come in. Finally about 11:30 he came in. The guy was drunk (he's a "recovering" alcoholic who sadly doesn't seem too interested in sticking to the recovering part) and has been living in a camper trailer outside his brothers' house (the whole lot of them is a bunch of no-good drunks) and had a sob story about how he was planning to just drive out into the woods and shoot himself (and he had a gun in the truck) but he decided to come up here and talk to Will instead. Sad to say but I doubt any of that was really true, he was just looking for pity. But he did at least give Will back the keys to the old truck (that they were supposed to be fixing up) and the keys to his tool box. He said he'd come back this morning with the money that he owes us (for returning the parts Will paid for to the store) and that he still wants to help rebuild the old truck, blah blah blah. Will just evaded all the comments about wanting the guy to come back around and let him ramble until he was done.
Well the guy showed up today - twice - but neither time did he bother to come knock on the door. He just got into the old truck and took his clothes and stuff he had left out there but was too drunk to care about last night. Will drove down to his brothers' house today (they live in this area) and - surprise surprise - the guy didn't have the money to pay us at all, said he'd have it at the end of the month when his disability check comes in. So I figure we won't see him again for a few months, if ever. Whatever. We still have the title to the truck and the tags are due on it (and we had it removed from our insurance) so it's probably just a matter of time before he gets pulled over and the police take care of it anyway.
We called the church today and they're going to help us pay the electric bill that's due for shutoff this week, so that's a blessing. I HATE that we even have to ask for help, but I know that we'll either pay it back in the offering plate or pay it forward when we're able to, so I try not to get too down about it.
And Will got turned down for the job he was really hoping for. Sigh. They do have some new listings up at the same place though, so he's going to apply for them too. They close at the end of this month.
The school called today and we had to go pick up Dana, she had a headache and a temp of 101*. She's felt fine at home all day though and her fever hasn't come back (nurse gave her Tylenol) so unless she's doing poorly tomorrow she'll go back to school on Thursday.
Nate brought home his report card today and has CURVY A'S! (No, we're never going to let him forget that one LOLOL.) And - he made top score for his grade in both English and Science! I'm so proud of him. His spelling still leaves a bit to be desired, but he reads more and more now so it will come in time as he's more used to seeing words in print.
I know most of you reading this probably don't deal with serious deer hunting, but we depend on the deer Will's able to kill each fall for our red meat for the year, and it is SO frustrating for him to be out in the woods trying to hunt and have people's stupid hunting dogs that they can't be bothered to keep up with, yapping and running the deer all over the place. We have NEVER had to deal with people running dogs the way they do up here in any other places that he hunts, it is the one thing that we absolutely hate about living up here. They drop these dogs off and just leave them in the woods for weeks at a time, you'll see them wandering around the back roads and the highway mostly starved to death, too stupid and hungry to stay out of the road (so you see a good number of them dead on the side of the road). Or they're up in our yard, fighting our dog for her food, lazing about and pooping in our yard. UGH. HATE IT.
Has facebook been freezing up IE for anyone else lately? I can't even get in except thru mozilla, and then not all of the features are available. Frustrating.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
This is me, rambling
I haven't checked to see how long it's been since my last blog. A while, I'm sure. I don't care. Sometimes I just don't feel like talking. Sometimes I feel like talking but I don't feel like having anyone listen. Sometimes I feel like having someone listen but I don't feel like having anyone talk back. That probably doesn't make any sense. I don't care.
I don't care. You'll probably hear that more than once tonight. In fact, you already have.
My husband, for the second time this year, is not working. He didn't get laid off this time though, he quit. That was probably "irresponsible" of us (especially since he's our sole source of income) but...I don't care. He was at work on a Friday afternoon, looking forward to the weekend (he had plans with his brother) after working 60 hours that week (plus driving four hours a day back and forth) at a job he despises, and around came the supervisor telling him he had to come in the next day. He said he wasn't going to. Super said yes he was. He said no he wasn't. And...he didn't. Monday rolled in and he didn't go in then either. And we felt at peace for the first time in almost three months. We drove up there together that next Friday to pick up his paycheck and turn in his safety hat and badge, and out of sheer joy we laughed at nothing at all for about five minutes driving away. That was two weeks ago? Three? Don't remember. Don't care.
So now we're looking at our last...$20 or so, with no idea when anything else is going to come in, and I don't care. You hear that? I. DON'T. CARE. Don't like it? Get over it.
Will's cousin is taking us to the state fair next weekend. She's such a doll. The kids don't know yet. We're going to the rodeo. I've never been to a rodeo, not exactly my idea of a great time, heh, but it will be fun watching the kids have fun. And hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can go out on his cousin's houseboat Sunday. Last time we went to visit her (after graduation) it was too flooded to take it out.
Dana is part of a dance and drama team with our church youth, they're performing at...something this Wednesday night if it doesn't get rained out. Hopefully the youth pastor gave them more info about it today, I'll have to email him if he didn't. He's a great guy, but he gets busy sometimes and forgets that the kids that just moved up into the youth group (5th graders) don't know all this stuff yet. Heh.
Will and I watched MST3K's The Brain That Wouldn't Die last night. Cheesetastic. I love netflix. We're going to have to suspend our service this month, but I think we've got time to get one more movie in and watch it before then. It'll probably be something MST3K also, we've been on a kick lately. Watching it on youtube is cool, but there's not as big of a selection and you have to get up and click on the next segment every 10 minutes. Gets annoying.
I made my first order through angelfood.com this past week, we go pick it up next Saturday. I ordered one regular box and one fresh produce box. I really hope it's as good as people have told me. There should be enough in there (along with stuff we already have at home) to feed us for a couple of weeks, along with some milk and bread and other fresh produce of course. I'll be able to get over $10 worth of free groceries during my next trip to Kroger so that will cover quite a bit of the "extra" stuff I need to get. Love how that works out. :)
We found out recently that the federal gov't does most of their new hires after the end of their fiscal year, which is this month, so do please pray that Will is at least considered for all the gov't jobs he's applied for. There's one with the Core of Engineers close by that would be really, really good. It would mean being able to pretty much pay off all of our debt within the next few months, replace our (old, worn out) vehicles within a few months after that, and then start saving up to build a house. And it's a job he's well qualified for, so that's not a problem. And it's about twenty-five minutes from the house. So...yeah. Please pray.
Speaking of praying, Jakey always wants to say grace when we eat now. This is what he says, pretty much every time - "Thank you Father for this awesome, incredible food. Amen!" Hee. I love this kid.
I don't care. You'll probably hear that more than once tonight. In fact, you already have.
My husband, for the second time this year, is not working. He didn't get laid off this time though, he quit. That was probably "irresponsible" of us (especially since he's our sole source of income) but...I don't care. He was at work on a Friday afternoon, looking forward to the weekend (he had plans with his brother) after working 60 hours that week (plus driving four hours a day back and forth) at a job he despises, and around came the supervisor telling him he had to come in the next day. He said he wasn't going to. Super said yes he was. He said no he wasn't. And...he didn't. Monday rolled in and he didn't go in then either. And we felt at peace for the first time in almost three months. We drove up there together that next Friday to pick up his paycheck and turn in his safety hat and badge, and out of sheer joy we laughed at nothing at all for about five minutes driving away. That was two weeks ago? Three? Don't remember. Don't care.
So now we're looking at our last...$20 or so, with no idea when anything else is going to come in, and I don't care. You hear that? I. DON'T. CARE. Don't like it? Get over it.
Will's cousin is taking us to the state fair next weekend. She's such a doll. The kids don't know yet. We're going to the rodeo. I've never been to a rodeo, not exactly my idea of a great time, heh, but it will be fun watching the kids have fun. And hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can go out on his cousin's houseboat Sunday. Last time we went to visit her (after graduation) it was too flooded to take it out.
Dana is part of a dance and drama team with our church youth, they're performing at...something this Wednesday night if it doesn't get rained out. Hopefully the youth pastor gave them more info about it today, I'll have to email him if he didn't. He's a great guy, but he gets busy sometimes and forgets that the kids that just moved up into the youth group (5th graders) don't know all this stuff yet. Heh.
Will and I watched MST3K's The Brain That Wouldn't Die last night. Cheesetastic. I love netflix. We're going to have to suspend our service this month, but I think we've got time to get one more movie in and watch it before then. It'll probably be something MST3K also, we've been on a kick lately. Watching it on youtube is cool, but there's not as big of a selection and you have to get up and click on the next segment every 10 minutes. Gets annoying.
I made my first order through angelfood.com this past week, we go pick it up next Saturday. I ordered one regular box and one fresh produce box. I really hope it's as good as people have told me. There should be enough in there (along with stuff we already have at home) to feed us for a couple of weeks, along with some milk and bread and other fresh produce of course. I'll be able to get over $10 worth of free groceries during my next trip to Kroger so that will cover quite a bit of the "extra" stuff I need to get. Love how that works out. :)
We found out recently that the federal gov't does most of their new hires after the end of their fiscal year, which is this month, so do please pray that Will is at least considered for all the gov't jobs he's applied for. There's one with the Core of Engineers close by that would be really, really good. It would mean being able to pretty much pay off all of our debt within the next few months, replace our (old, worn out) vehicles within a few months after that, and then start saving up to build a house. And it's a job he's well qualified for, so that's not a problem. And it's about twenty-five minutes from the house. So...yeah. Please pray.
Speaking of praying, Jakey always wants to say grace when we eat now. This is what he says, pretty much every time - "Thank you Father for this awesome, incredible food. Amen!" Hee. I love this kid.
Monday, July 27, 2009
The strange workings of my inner mind
Ya'll probably have all heard me talking about my strange dreams. Thought I would share last night's with you while it's still fresh on my mind.
It started out with me being in our old house in town. Apparently we had a long row of window boxes along the living room windows, because an Amish man and his daughter were sitting outside the window trying to tell me that a squirrel was in one of the boxes. I was pantomiming "OK, thanks for letting me know!" through the window even though I didn't really understand what he was saying, but he was getting frustrated with me and finally motioned for me to go to the door so I could hear him. So I walked out on the porch and then he and his daughter got out of their wagon to talk. She looked to be about 9 years old. She asked me if I had ever heard of this place that was kind of like Build a Bear Workshop, but you make pottery instead. I told her I had heard of it but had never been. Then she showed me this thing she had made there, the clay was still a little soft but it was a beautiful cluster of strawberries with leaves. The detail was incredible and I was complimenting her on what a great job she had done. Then for some reason a whole bunch of people were suddenly sitting around all over the porch. The Amish man mentioned this couple that goes to our church, the H'es, I was telling him that I knew who they were and they lived just a couple of streets over. (In reality, I'm not sure where they live.) Then we were laughing about how when we started going to church with them, they only had their two oldest kids and now they have six.
Then I saw Will walking down the street coming home from work. I was happy to see him even though he didn't look to be in a very good mood. I think he was mad about all of the people being there. I was telling him to look at the strawberries the girl had done, he gave them a cursory glance and stuck a telescope in them (??? don't ask me) and was just generally being a grump. So I nicely told everyone it was time for them to leave and we went inside. I fussed at Will for being rude to the young girl and he said that he didn't think he should have to gush over something that she just made from a premade mold in the last ten minutes the store was open. I told him that if it had been something Dana had made that he would have thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world and there was no reason for him to treat someone else's daughter like that.
The next thing I remember, Will and I were outside of this restaurant. It had a drive-thru like a fast food place, but it was a single owner specialty type place. Our car was parked next to the drive-thru lane and he was having to work on it or something. People kept coming by and staring. This black guy, L, that graduated from the kids' school (that we also go to church with when he's not off at college) came out to help Will with the car. I think he was supposed to be at work in the restaurant because they were mad that he came out there. I think I was sitting inside the restaurant now because I remember watching one of the cooks decorate the cake that L was supposed to be working on, she was griping the entire time and I think mentioned that he was going to get fired. The cake was shaped like a short, fat tube and it was red velvet cake with a white fondant wrapped all around it, and then lines piped all around it in the pattern of a 1st grade writing tablet. One solid brown line, and then a dashed white line, and then a solid brown line, etc etc. This went all the way around the cake lengthwise.
Next I remember Will and I sitting on one side of a table in the restaurant getting ready to eat, and the guy L came and sat at the end of the table with us. He was depressed because they had just fired him. Then Will brought out the cake that I watched the lady decorate and sliced off one big end of it and handed it to L. L was shocked and overwhelmed (the cake had some sort of significance to him, though I'm not sure what) and Will told him "That's what you do for friends. You don't turn your back on them even if they've done you wrong" and then they did this weird hand-clasp thing and started talking about opening a cake decorating shop together.
The end.
It started out with me being in our old house in town. Apparently we had a long row of window boxes along the living room windows, because an Amish man and his daughter were sitting outside the window trying to tell me that a squirrel was in one of the boxes. I was pantomiming "OK, thanks for letting me know!" through the window even though I didn't really understand what he was saying, but he was getting frustrated with me and finally motioned for me to go to the door so I could hear him. So I walked out on the porch and then he and his daughter got out of their wagon to talk. She looked to be about 9 years old. She asked me if I had ever heard of this place that was kind of like Build a Bear Workshop, but you make pottery instead. I told her I had heard of it but had never been. Then she showed me this thing she had made there, the clay was still a little soft but it was a beautiful cluster of strawberries with leaves. The detail was incredible and I was complimenting her on what a great job she had done. Then for some reason a whole bunch of people were suddenly sitting around all over the porch. The Amish man mentioned this couple that goes to our church, the H'es, I was telling him that I knew who they were and they lived just a couple of streets over. (In reality, I'm not sure where they live.) Then we were laughing about how when we started going to church with them, they only had their two oldest kids and now they have six.
Then I saw Will walking down the street coming home from work. I was happy to see him even though he didn't look to be in a very good mood. I think he was mad about all of the people being there. I was telling him to look at the strawberries the girl had done, he gave them a cursory glance and stuck a telescope in them (??? don't ask me) and was just generally being a grump. So I nicely told everyone it was time for them to leave and we went inside. I fussed at Will for being rude to the young girl and he said that he didn't think he should have to gush over something that she just made from a premade mold in the last ten minutes the store was open. I told him that if it had been something Dana had made that he would have thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world and there was no reason for him to treat someone else's daughter like that.
The next thing I remember, Will and I were outside of this restaurant. It had a drive-thru like a fast food place, but it was a single owner specialty type place. Our car was parked next to the drive-thru lane and he was having to work on it or something. People kept coming by and staring. This black guy, L, that graduated from the kids' school (that we also go to church with when he's not off at college) came out to help Will with the car. I think he was supposed to be at work in the restaurant because they were mad that he came out there. I think I was sitting inside the restaurant now because I remember watching one of the cooks decorate the cake that L was supposed to be working on, she was griping the entire time and I think mentioned that he was going to get fired. The cake was shaped like a short, fat tube and it was red velvet cake with a white fondant wrapped all around it, and then lines piped all around it in the pattern of a 1st grade writing tablet. One solid brown line, and then a dashed white line, and then a solid brown line, etc etc. This went all the way around the cake lengthwise.
Next I remember Will and I sitting on one side of a table in the restaurant getting ready to eat, and the guy L came and sat at the end of the table with us. He was depressed because they had just fired him. Then Will brought out the cake that I watched the lady decorate and sliced off one big end of it and handed it to L. L was shocked and overwhelmed (the cake had some sort of significance to him, though I'm not sure what) and Will told him "That's what you do for friends. You don't turn your back on them even if they've done you wrong" and then they did this weird hand-clasp thing and started talking about opening a cake decorating shop together.
The end.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
This week's provision
So I was praying in some gas money and grocery money for this week. Will gets paid this Friday (24th) but we needed gas in the car before then, and the grocery list is very long since I've been having to skimp on it the past few weeks and we are running out of everything.
So in the mail Saturday I get a $6 rebate check. Sunday afternoon a lady from church calls, wanting to know if I'll work in the 2 - 5 yo classroom that night. She mentioned in passing that it pays $10 an hour. I thought she was joking and laughed. After church she brought me a check for $20. She wasn't joking. So that was $26 I was able to mail to the bank to deposit.
Yesterday I get two more rebates in the mail. $20 and $6. The $6 one I had given up on, I mailed it out months ago but didn't keep a copy of the submission (bad me!) so I just wrote it off as not coming. So there's another $26 for gas. Nice!
Today Will doesn't have to be at work until 11 am, so he has time to run into the post office on the way to work to pick up a certified letter that we've had there for several days but had no way to pick up. It's a graduation card from his aunt with $100 in it. There's the extra grocery money I need.
Thank you Jesus! We appreciate your provisions very, very much.
So in the mail Saturday I get a $6 rebate check. Sunday afternoon a lady from church calls, wanting to know if I'll work in the 2 - 5 yo classroom that night. She mentioned in passing that it pays $10 an hour. I thought she was joking and laughed. After church she brought me a check for $20. She wasn't joking. So that was $26 I was able to mail to the bank to deposit.
Yesterday I get two more rebates in the mail. $20 and $6. The $6 one I had given up on, I mailed it out months ago but didn't keep a copy of the submission (bad me!) so I just wrote it off as not coming. So there's another $26 for gas. Nice!
Today Will doesn't have to be at work until 11 am, so he has time to run into the post office on the way to work to pick up a certified letter that we've had there for several days but had no way to pick up. It's a graduation card from his aunt with $100 in it. There's the extra grocery money I need.
Thank you Jesus! We appreciate your provisions very, very much.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
