Rite of Passage

"Mommy, Mommy, I have a loose tooth!!!"

Mandy came running in yesterday morning, loudly and proudly announcing her big news. Two hours later, it was so loose that it was bothering her and she started whining about it. So, I asked her, "Do you want me to pull it out for you?" She nodded her head, though she was clearly uncertain about it. I asked her, "Are you sure?" and when she said she was, I pulled it out. It came out very easily and boy, was she proud!! She went around showing everyone her "gone tooth". And then, this morning, Collin heard her say:

"I have lost one tooth (opens mouth and points at toothless gap). Help me find my lost tooth. Click on me to begin."

Now, tell me again that "educational" computer games are harmless???

Girls' Day Out!

On Thursday, Amy and I went out for a Girls' Day Out - for the first time in I don't know how long!! First, we had lunch at La Madeleine, then we went downtown. We parked the car, took a nice, leisurely walk on the Riverwalk, and then went to the Majestic Theatre to see "Phantom of the Opera." It was absolutely incredible! The sets and costumes were amazingly elaborate. I think the most interesting set was the scene where the Phantom is taking Christine on his boat across the lake to his hide-out. They used fog machines to cover the stage with fog, and with the lighting and all the candlelights that came up from underneath the stage, it really created an amazing effect of water.

I took some pictures of the theatre, though they didn't turn out all that great. The setting I used really requires the camera to be on a tripod. Of course, I took them BEFORE the performance started, because they'd have confiscated my camera if they caught me taking shots of the actual play. I'd love to have taken some pictures of some of those costumes, though!

Amy posted her thoughts about the performance on her blog, too. I agree that the main characters' voices were more to our liking in the movie than in this production, but there's just nothing like seeing a Broadway musical live on stage. No matter how elaborately done, the screen just doesn't do it justice.

I was blessed to have been able to buy the tickets online at a group rate, for a limited time in December! You have no idea just how hard it was to keep it a secret for two months! Well, it was actually a month and a half. I finally broke down and told her a few weeks ago. I got these tickets for her birthday present, so it was nice to be able to celebrate her birthday a second time!

Gone Fishin'

Friday was a day to remember - we all went to the coast to go fishing! This is the first time in my life I've ever done any salt water fishing, at least that I can remember. We had a great time. The weather was perfect - 75 degrees and a little windy, but not too bad.

We went to Port Aransas where Gary had gone out with his co-workers back in November. The first place we considered was right out on the Gulf, and that wouldn't have been a great location because of the wind and high seas. The waves were extremely high and I'd have been a nervous wreck worrying about Mandy falling off the pier into the surf. So, we continued on a little way and found a nice spot on a pier in the shipping channel, where it was well protected. The water there was perfectly calm (except whenever a really BIG ship went by) and by the time we arrived, several people who had been there for a while decided they'd had enough, and they made room for us.

We started out with mud minnows, and while everyone to the right and left of us was pulling in one fish after another, we were getting a lot of nibbles but didn't catch anything. Then, a little while later, a kind gentleman asked us if we wanted his leftover bait, and we gratefully accepted. It was squid, and that seemed to be what the fish were really after! At that point, we started catching more fish than we could count. They were all hardhead catfish, and there were so many of them out there that we didn't catch anything else, with ONE exception - Tim caught an eel! Several people on the pier took pictures of him with his eel! We gave it to a couple of guys who wanted it for bait. They were even kind enough to take it off Tim's hook for him, which was good. I can deal with the catfish and their spines, but I wasn't interested in tangling with that eel's teeth.

I shared my pole with Mandy, because she wanted to catch a fish, too. She reeled in a couple of them and boy, was she happy!

Later in the day, I counted at least five fish that I caught on the same squid. I was amazed at how resilient those things are! During the course of the day, though, we lost quite a few of our hooks. The fish kept swallowing them. That was kind of aggravating because they were on steel leaders.

We each caught more fish that day than we've ever caught before. We threw all but one of them back, of course, because Gary hadn't brought a fillet knife and we really don't eat much fish anyway. But a very nice guy helped Gary fillet one of the biggest fish, and we brought home that and cooked it on the grill last night. Those who like fish said it was pretty good.

Another highlight was watching the dolphins out in the channel. I wish I'd had the equipment to get pictures of them, but they were too far away for that. But, we could see them quite well and they were really fun to watch.

We came back that night very late, very tired, and very happy - God allowed us to have a fun day and kept us all safe! We'd like to go out on a boat one of these days - maybe we'll catch something other than hardheads!

A Christmas Caper

I glanced at the Christmas tree the other day, and I noticed that it was looking rather bare. The only thought that crossed my mind was that maybe we need to make some new ornaments for next year. We used to do that every year, but for the past few years we've been somewhat negligent in that particular area.

It never occurred to me that the reason for the apparent shortage of tree decorations could possibly be due to theft. I hadn't really paid that much attention.

That is, until yesterday, when I was helping Mandy clean up her room. I suggested that she might want to put some of her toys into the drawers under her bed. We opened the first drawer (the same one that had so effectively concealed our pork loin a while back).

There, mingled with NUMEROUS toys and prizes, were no less than ten of our ornaments from the tree. I looked at Mandy with my best Well-Now-You've-Been-Caught look. She just stood there, grinned, and gave me her best I'm-A-Good-Girl-I-Am look. I could have sworn I saw her hand go up to the top of her head to adjust her halo.

Tim helped me put the evidence back on the tree, high up where little fingers can't reach -- at least until they get a chair first.

We had a really nice Christmas Day. The kids actually let us sleep until around eight o'clock this morning! We even had breakfast before opening the gifts, and they were all very patient. Even Mandy seemed to understand that she'd be in a better mood AFTER breakfast. Yesterday, she couldn't quite comprehend the fact that "Christmas Day is TOMORROW!" She took a bit of a nap in the early afternoon, and then when she woke up she came to me and said, "Now can we open the presents? Please, Mom, please?" That's what I heard every ten minutes or so for the rest of the afternoon until we went to Opa and Oma's house for supper. They made a wonderful German dinner and then we opened their gifts. So, Mandy's yearning was appeased for the time being.

Today Opa and Oma came for a big turkey dinner and for the first time in I don't know how many years, we set the table with my mother's china. The kids also wanted to use my grandmother's lead crystal goblets (given to my grandma for her wedding in 1933), but those have been permanently retired to the china cabinet. So we used the blue-stem wine glasses from Arby's - not expensive ones, but they make a pretty addition to the table! The boys especially like being allowed to use them once in a while. Seems to give them the impression that I trust them... :) I think they feel a bit more grown up at times like this. I even bought some sparkling grape juice to make it extra special for them.

We're going to Tulsa on Thursday, and hopefully we'll have good weather for traveling. Guess I'd better get started with the packing! We'll be staying with my Mom and Dad, and my brother and his family are there, too. It'll definitely be a houseful!

'Tis the night before Christmas

It's Christmas Eve. For the first time in years, I actually have all the gift wrapping done - usually I don't get this job done until late in the day or evening on the night before Christmas. I finally have a chance to sit down and relax a bit. Usually by the time I quit for the night, I can't think about anything except my pillow. Maybe I'll actually get one post done this month!

It's been an incredibly busy month, most of it spent focusing on Psalty the Singing Song Book! Several months ago, when we heard that our church was going to do "Psalty's Christmas Calamity" for a Christmas musical production, I volunteered to help with costumes (WHAT was I thinking!?). I wasn't feeling well at the time and I was rather reluctant to be the one in total charge of the costume department because I didn't know what was wrong with me yet. That was before we found out that my gall bladder was causing the problems.

I learned some important lessons in the process of making the one and only costume that was required for this production:

1. Make sure you know beforehand what you're volunteering to do - though I'd heard of Psalty years ago, I hadn't ever actually seen Psalty or the costume before and I had no idea what I was in for. Amy and I both love to sew, and we thought we could help with that. Turns out the only costume needed was the big blue "songbook". Someone up there has a sense of humor.

2. Don't be afraid to deviate from the instructions when needed. I discovered rather late in the game that the instructions for making the costume included some...shall we say, completely USELESS steps that were a total waste of time. A LOT of time.

3. Elmer's glue is completely useless when you're trying to glue foam rubber pieces together. Use a hot glue gun, and make sure you have a LOT of extra glue sticks. Like about 200.

4. Have a teenager with a driver's license on call at a moment's notice so she can run to Hobby Lobby for more glue.

5. Don't try to use spray glue in the dark. It's bad enough in the daylight. (Maybe I should explain - we used spray glue to attach the blue fabric to the foam rubber for the book cover, and we did this outside on the patio. I've had experience with spray glue before and I didn't want to spray that stuff in the house. Unfortunately, it got dark before we were done and so we had a little trouble...)

6. Have above mentioned teenager take over meals for the duration of the costume production - at least during the last phases when the deadline is looming near on the horizon.

7. Write down notes on changes and improvements to the costume production; that way, the next person who does this will hopefully not have as much difficulty.

8. Pray that the costume will last long enough that the next person won't have to do this!

9. Instruct previously mentioned teenager to bring sandwiches and ice water at appropriate times. Hands shaking due to hunger make for sloppy work, especially when working with a hot glue gun.

10. Don't forget to give God ALL THE CREDIT for everything. Not only did He help me with getting this massive project done just in the nick of time, He even provided the blue knit fabric, at no charge, more than TWO years ago! That fabric was given to me by my mom two years ago and I'd forgotten all about it. Just when I was agonizing over where in the world was I ever going to find a pair of pants and long sleeved shirt, in a lightweight knit (NOT fleece - much too hot) in the same shade of blue that I did the book cover in...the Lord reminded me of a big bundle of fabric in my fabric box that just might do it. I know it had to have been He who put that into my head, because I honestly don't remember ever seeing that fabric before. Sure enough, when I looked in the box, there it was, all five and a half yards of it. I got it out and held it up to the book fabric, and nearly burst into tears at God's goodness. It was a perfect match. And there was enough of it to produce the entire costume and accommodate my mistakes.

God provided me with the physical ability to do this. It took me a long time to recover from my gall bladder surgery, but since starting on this project, I haven't had any more pain or stomach problems. I still have to be careful what I eat, but it seems my digestive system isn't nearly as oversensitive as it was for months. Our Great Physician healed me just in time.

God also provided me with the skills and tools to do this - all I needed were supplies but I already had all the tools I needed.

I'd never have had enough time to get all the Christmas shopping done if I'd had to do it the conventional way, so I'm also praising Him for providing online shopping with free shipping options! That saved us not only a lot of time, but a good deal of money, too. I was able to order the majority of the kids' gifts online at prices that were approximately 40% less than the retail stores were asking, and with free shipping...THANK YOU, LORD!

So, now I can focus on our family and the holidays. We're so thankful for our church family and the friendships we have with them. This has been the best year we've had in...well, years!

Conversation with a four-year-old

I have to write this one down now before I forget about it! For once, Mandy slept all night in her OWN bed! This is a rather rare occurance. Last year, for the entire two and a half months that Gary was here in Texas and I was still in Illinois with the kids, Mandy slept all night, every night, in MY bed. Since we've been here in this house, she has been switching back and forth between her bed and ours. Actually, I don't allow her in our bed very often because there isn't room. She's perfectly comfortable sleeping on a blanket on the floor. So, it was a pleasant surprise to wake up this morning to find her still sound asleep in her own bed.

"Time for little girls to wake up!" I said as I rubbed her back.

She stretched and yawned, and in a sleepy voice said, "Can I play with my play dough now?"

I said, "Well, maybe after you've had your breakfast you can."

"But I don't want breakfast; I just want to play with my play dough."

"You slept really good last night, didn't you?" I said. "You slept all night in your own bed!"

"Yeah. I used to sleep in your room when I was a little kid," she said.

"When you were a little kid? Are you a big kid, now?"

"Yes. I'm getting old, Mom."

"YOU'RE getting old? So, what does that make me?" I laughed.

With a sly grin on her face, she said, "Getting KISSED!" And she threw her arms around me and gave me a big kiss.

I think it's going to be a nice day!

My firstborn son

This is my 12-year-old son, Collin. He is a jolly lad who loves to make everyone laugh. He can talk like Donald Duck and everyone who hears it can't help laughing! I think it's pretty certain that he'll win the vote for class clown (and anything other titles we choose to tack on!). Of course, he'll win the vote because he's the only one in his class!!! Isn't homeschooling wonderful?!?

He is Mandy's best pal. He is always so good with her, even when she's being a pest, and believe me, she can really be a pest! I'll never forget the look on Collin's face the first time he held her after she was born. He was 8 years old at the time. He gazed into her tiny face, and with a deep sigh he said, "I hope I can be a daddy someday."

"What do you want first, a boy or a girl?" I asked.

He replied, "I don't care, as long as it's a baby!"

Collin will definitely make a fine husband and father one day. But for now, he's busy learning how to be a helpful young man who is always willing to lend a hand. God has given him a servant's heart and he has been a real blessing to me, especially since having my surgery. I don't have to worry about trying to lift anything relatively heavy as long as I have him around. He accompanied me to Lowe's yesterday to exchange our propane tank for the grill. Those things are heavy when they're full and I couldn't have managed it on my own. I'd promised the boys that they could go to their friends' house down the block after we got back. Unfortunately, after we paid for the propane, which took about 20 minutes, we had to sit around and wait for another 20 minutes for someone to come out of the store and get out a new tank for us. He was so patient! I know he was getting a little antsy to go, but he didn't complain once.

He also loves nature and anything having to do with it. He and Tim were very excited to find that our new home here in Texas has LIZARDS! We didn't have those in Illinois. We have a couple of them living in our garage, and at least one chameleon that lives on the fence near the gate. Collin and I stood at the window in the laundry room one day and we watched it chase a spider (and miss), and then it changed colors! How amazing!

Once while I was out somewhere, I found a large brown garden snail. We didn't have those in Illinois, either, so I brought it home to show to the boys. We did an Internet search to identify it and find out what it eats, and Collin decided to keep it for a pet. He got some sod from the back yard and made a little habitat for it in a small Rubbermaid container, and fed it scraps of veggies. It lived happily in that little container for several months, feeding on the carrots and other tidbits that Collin stuffed through the holes in the plastic that we'd attached to the top.

Now, not too long afterward we began finding ants in the house. They invaded our house from the back door, where they must have had a home deep underneath the threshold. I vacuumed up all the ants that I could get to and then sprayed a whole lot of chemicals into the holes from where they seemed to be emerging. (And yes, I immediately threw the vacuum cleaner bag into the garbage bin outside!)

That didn't completely eliminate the problem, however. After a while, I didn't see any more ants on the kitchen floor, but now I was finding them in the schoolroom! I couldn't figure out where in the world all these ants were coming from and why they were on the schoolroom table. There wasn't any food in there like there always is on the kitchen floor. I eliminated the dozen or so ants on the table in the morning before school, only to discover a dozen more in the evening! Finally, enough ants were out one day so that I managed to trace their movement. The line of ants stretched all the way across the table, onto the wall, and then up to the top of the bookshelves, and there was the rest of the colony! Those little creatures had taken up residence in the box where Collin kept his snail! I couldn't believe it - how in the world did they manage to find that snail's habitat? They had to have come in from the back door and made their way across the entire width of the house to the front room where we have our schoolroom. Considering their size, that must have been like Columbus discovering the new world and then everyone in Europe coming to live here afterward!

So, my dear son had to give up his snail. He was a little sad, but took it really well, though. He didn't want to just kill it, but since garden snails are pests I didn't want it in our yard. So he took it to the park and released it there. Meanwhile, I dumped the "habitat" out in the grass and discovered HUNDREDS of tiny ants scurrying about trying to figure out what had happened to their world. They had made a nice colony in the sod.

Since then, praise the Lord, I have found no more ants in the house!

Finally getting better...slowly!

I guess I'd better be writing something else, as I have to imagine you're probably getting tired of reading about our pork loin! This past week and a half I have felt rather lazy, but I have a good excuse. After having gall bladder surgery, I've been kind of tired. Actually, I think the phrase "really wiped out" is probably more accurate.

I am slowly getting my strength back, but I have good days and bad days. It felt good to be able to do something other than sit in my recliner - I did some housework on Saturday. I got some cleaning done that was long overdue.

I have to watch what I eat VERY carefully for now, and if I eat something my system can't handle, I pay for it for the next three or four days. I've lost another 3-4 pounds because I haven't had much appetite, though it's slowly starting to come back, too. On Sunday afternoon, I actually ate a full meal for the first time in a long time. I tried to be really careful, but I must have eaten something that my system didn't like, because Monday wasn't all that great. Not horrible, but not great, either.

I'll be really happy when I get past this recovery stage - I admit I'm getting rather impatient. I'd like to go back to the way things were before it all started. Maybe I'll get there eventually, but in the meantime I just have to sit back and praise my Father for all that He's done in our lives. It's so easy to praise him when I'm feeling good, but when I'm feeling rotten all I seem to do is gripe and pray that He'll make me feel better. How spoiled I am. I am certainly not suffering like others I know.

God reminded me of that Sunday morning before church - and the hymns seemed to say the same thing - that I need to praise Him in ALL circumstances, whether or not I am feeling well. He gently reminded me that He is working on healing my body, and maybe working on a few other things in my heart, too!

A Woman of God

Today marks the second week since my gall bladder was officially evicted. Since then, my 17-year-old daughter, Amy, has pretty much taken over the kitchen.

I'm so very pleased with her hard work. It's been a huge relief to me that she has taken care of the cooking so I can recover. She has planned out the meals, done the shopping, and prepared dinner for the family nearly every night since my surgery. Yes, there are still things to be learned, but she's way ahead of where many young ladies are at 17!

She and I are long overdue for a girls' day out, and as soon as I'm up to it we're going to do it.

Amy is well on her way to becoming a faithful woman of God. Thank you, Lord, for giving me this sweet young lady!

Sometimes our Fold is more like a zoo...

We have some other members of our family who have not yet been introduced. They're a rather exclusive group of individuals who, until recently, seemed to live a very active life. They used to go everywhere we went. One, in particular, went with Collin to every piano lesson for a year. When one of them was lost, we grieved. When a new member arrived, we rejoiced. They were included in nearly every aspect of our lives.

These family members were very instrumental in helping us teach our children about how we should treat one another, and even the social graces. Lessons in setting the table and etiquette were included.

Thankfully, they don't run up much of a bill at the restaurants.

Yes, they're what we call, "The Monkey Club." These were my boys' absolutely favorite toys for several years. They have always had lots of other "boy stuff" to play with, but these monkeys were their all-time favorites.

Just after we moved to Texas, they found a box of my old Barbie clothes and furniture. Most of the clothes were made by my grandmother when I was about 8 years old. You can tell that some of the fabrics and fashions look rather dated - I think there's still a pair of bell-bottom pants in that box. Anyway, the boys found these clothes and the doll furniture, and went to work. It kept them occupied for literally hours!

They have done lots of little scenes like this over the years. Once, they made instruments out of legos and set up a little band, complete with drum set. They never went anywhere without at least one of the small monkeys in their pockets. When one of them got lost at the airport, it was a horribly sad day. It was several weeks before I found another one at the local thrift store.

The boys are good about letting their little sister in on the fun, too, as long as she doesn't destroy their hard work, that is. And that's not easy for a toddler to avoid sometimes. After all, she has her own ideas about how to set things up. She's a "keeper-at-home-in-training" and has to learn these things.

Since I'm no longer too crazy about Barbie (she just can't seem to keep her clothes on), I think the Monkey Club will do nicely.

Signs of Life

One of our favorite songs is "Signs of Life" by Steven Curtis Chapman. The lyrics of the third verse talk about the "signs of life" left all over the house and yard by the artist's children.

Our house and yard are definitely filled with signs of life - as I got ready for bed tonight, I emptied my pockets. Their contents weren't mine.

I have a small box (okay, it's an empty baby wipes tub) that I use for holding "pocket prizes" each night. One night a while back, my prizes included two cars, three legos and a bean. Signs of life.

Tonight's prizes were acorns - three little souvenirs that Mandy brought back from the Gonzales field trip a couple of weeks ago.

We were having lunch that day in the courtyard of the jail and courthouse in historic Gonzales. It was awfully hard for Mandy to sit still and finish her lunch because there were millions of acorns with her name on them just waiting to be picked up. The little pocket on her shirt got rather stretched out. It just wasn't big enough - every time she bent over to pick up another acorn, two or three would fall out of her pocket (much to everyone's amusement). She began to get rather frustrated, and then kind Mr. Warren came to her rescue with a ziploc bag!

WHAT a prize she had then! We came home with a whole quart of acorns that day. I told her before we got home that the entire bag would not be allowed in the house, or there would have been acorns all over the place! I let her take five acorns inside with her, and the rest had to go to the back yard. When we got home, her big brother helped her count out five acorns, and she obediently took her bag of treasure out the back door and placed it against the brick wall of the house.

Now, two weeks later, she had to say "goodbye" to the bag of acorns. Thankfully, she wasn't too upset about it, though I did it while she wasn't looking. They were badly moldy from being in that bag too long, and I didn't want her playing with them and ingesting that stuff. So, the precious acorns are gone. But before I banished them to the landfill, I buried a couple of handfuls in the mulch out back. And, I put three of them in my pocket in hopes of one day planting them in containers for future transplanting.

Maybe I should write Mandy's name on them.