Another Weekend

I was so sad to hear of the death of Maria Sue Chapman. I went to the website to find out information and was so moved by her story. I can't imagine the pain of losing a child. I know that my children are not my own...they belong to the Father; being without one of them would just be devastating.
Another friend of mine who lives in Kentucky is suffering right now as well. Her son was hit last night by a drunk driver. He is alive but has a fractured spine. Life is so precious and so short. I need to remember that as I deal with my littles each day. It is so easy to get upset and feel irritable with everyone. I need to use more kindness and gentleness with them. I need to pray that for myself.
Himself is happy today...his brothers and their families are arriving this evening to spend the long weekend with us. I am so excited that he is excited. We should have a great time. Ren is in a baseball tournament at Bellevue. We will be spending some of our time there watching him. I hope that this season turns out to be beneficial to him. It is hard to know sometimes whether or not it is.

The Weekend

This morning we made it to one place on my list of four! But, I got the things I needed and found the fabric to recover my kitchen chairs. Best of all, the upholstery fabric was half off! I am excited about recovering the chairs. The hardest part so far has been removing the old fabric. The company really stapled the fabric on well.
Tonight, Aiden has his final soccer game and then we are off to Mississippi for Ren's tournament. He is excited. I hope the game doesn't go too late. The little boys are both very tired today from last night's softball game. We didn't get home until almost 10.
I did a computer recipe exchange today. I hope I get some recipes. I always send recipes out; I am not sure that I have ever received any. I sent my Key Lime Torte recipe. It is always a great summer recipe because you serve it cold.
Some friends from our old church are moving to St. Louis today. He is a dr. and she is a pharmacist. They have one son. They are pretty excited about being closer to family. They sold their house very quickly considering the housing market right now. We are going to miss them. Reed really enjoyed Mr. Caleb and I know that he will miss him.

Trying to Keep My Head Together

Nobody every said that every day has to be great, right? The last few days have really been a trial of my patience. Ren has really been having a hard time and I just feel at such a loss. These are days when I feel like I should retire my place as Mother and go hire someone to do a better job. I know that everyday is not going to be a picnic. It seems I am preaching that to the children all the time. I think that my hormones get out of whack and I don't get enough sleep and then I am just a bear. I am even a bear to Himself. I would really like to climb in a closet and shut the door and stay there for awhile.
Whew. Okay, you know........I am not so bad off. I was reading about the Chinese families that have lost their children. The children that are 1 per family. The children who are to look after them when they are old. The children who they have hung all their hopes on and now they have nothing. I should be praying for these mothers and fathers and praying that God's light will shine even through this horrible disaster. I will be praying. I get so selfish sometimes (often) and I need to be focusing on others instead of me.
Our softball game is still on for this evening as far as I can tell. We usually eat at the field and the children run and play and have a great time. Tomorrow starts Ren's baseball tournament for the weekend. We will be in Mississippi. We will need to find things to do while we are waiting for the different game times.
Next weekend, Himself's brothers come to visit. Ren has another tournament. I am hoping that Deda and Bubba can help with a couple of the games. Otherwise, we will be spending lots of time with all of us at the games. The good news is that the games are very close to where we live.
I saw an interesting billboard...it said, "Perseverance - if you are going through HELL, Don't STOP!"
That is what I need to remember!

The Thirteeth of May

Is that the same as the Twelfth of Never? We have had a busy few days. Our ballet recital was last Friday night. All the children were in Swan Lake. Ren was Prince Seigfried, Muireann was in a black swan and a white swan, Reed was a prince and so did Aiden. It was a delightful performance. Last night, Ren and Muireann had their piano recital. Ren played "Rockin' Robin" and Muireann played "Little Spring Song". It is so fun to see how all their hard work pays off.
Himself was so sweet to me on Mother's Day. We went to church and then out to lunch. We had a wonderful walk at Shelby Farms. It was fun to just relax and hang out together.
I am working on new curtains for the living room. So, far, things haven't gone so well. I bought the wrong size tension rods and the wrong color finials. Then I messed up the screws that were going into the wood. I am not through with the new curtains, and so last night I had to pin up sheets so that no one could see in. Hopefully I will be through with them before Ren's game tonight.
I want to post some pictures, but I am not sure how to do that. I will try to figure it out.

Did you ever wonder.........?

Did you ever wonder if people plan for church to be boring? Church is a place to worship and adore Christ. It is not necessarily a place of gloom and boredom. We visited a church this morning. It was recommended...not just a place we randomly picked. I had high hopes. Instead, it seemed to be "dumbed down". I want church to be where I can learn and sing and worship and serve. This place just wasn't for us. I am not sure where we will go next week.
Mark and I are busy doing spring cleaning. He spent some time last night working on his side of the closet. I have been working on throwing out 30 things a day. That can be time consuming or not - it just depends on what you are getting rid of. I told Mark the other day that we couldn't buy anything else at our favorite thrift store until we gave some things to our favorite thrift store. We really do have way too much "stuff" in our house.
Mark's family is coming for Memorial Day Weekend. I want to have new curtains in the living room to replace the ugly old burnt orange roman shades. I think the shades have been here as long as the house. I am also deep cleaning bathrooms and bedrooms. It would be great to have a new mattress in the little boys' room, but I can't justify that for a weekend. Maybe Mark and I will sleep in there and let his brothers have the other bedrooms. There will be at least ten of us here. It will be crazy, but fun.
This afternoon, we are going to softball practice. The children love to go and help and also play at the playground. I am going to run to Mom's and pick up a few things. I also have to run get a present for Laurabeth. We are going to dinner tonight for her birthday. That will be fun.
This week starts a crazy week...we are getting ready for Swan Lake on Friday night and we are preparing for piano recitals next week. After that, life is going to be dull! All that running around and when it is done, we will have nothing to do....well, not really, but it will seem that way.

Teresa

Sunshine!

Good morning! We had LOTS of rain yesterday. It stormed like crazy. As a result, all of the weekend tournament for R has been canceled. He is disappointed, but the good news is that we get to go to the canoe race down on Old Muddy!! M and his best friend, J are participating in the race for the second year in a row. It was great fun last year.
MG and I went last night to see Baby Isaac in the hospital. He and his parents are doing well. As I told MG, it is such a wonderful thing to hold something so brand new to the world. It really makes me want to have another baby. I just don't know if that will ever happen. Isaac was so precious and so tiny. It seems as though this is something that I just have to wait upon - this wanting a baby. We have tried and nothing has happened. I know that it can happen, but perhaps God is waiting for my heart to be right. Perhaps, the timing is just wrong. God does know why, of that I am sure. I just have to depend on Him and listen to His voice and then He will answer when He is ready.
We are in the search for a place to worship. We have left the place where we had been. It is an interesting thing....looking for a new place to worship. It is hard to be new....not my favorite thing. I like belonging to a place without having to feel like I am being interviewed all the time...you know....like always wearing my best clothes and saying the right things. I want a place to worship and know God better. I also want to belong. I want to be on the giving end and not on the receiving end. Does that make sense?
We are waiting to see the dr. again about R. I really want to find out what is truly wrong. There are days when I just feel like giving in. He is such a difficult child. Without the medicine, he is difficult. With the medicine, he is difficult, just in a different way. The family dynamic is so odd. Some of us seem to tiptoe around him - never knowing what will happen next. The hard part is that he just doesn't seem to get it.
I hope that today goes well and that the race turns out well.

Teresa