Hairdresser-in-the-making

I've been meaning to get this posted for over three weeks, now. Sorry for the delay!!

Yesterday, a certain four-year-old decided she'd waited long enough for her haircut and took matters (a.k.a. scissors) into her own hands.

I intended to get her haircut done that weekend. I really did! It's just that so many other things got in the way that I didn't get it done. Never mind the fact that I'd been taking care of two boys with the flu!!! -- but that doesn't count, does it? I had told her on Saturday morning that I would try and give her a haircut (first mistake) but it would have to be after her bath. I don't like cutting dirty hair, you know. Well, I did what I could that day, and I barely managed to get her bath done.

After her bath, I was just sitting down to rest and she came up to me and said, "Now can I have my haircut?" I'm telling you, this child doesn't forget ANYTHING!!! I had to tell her that I was sorry, but I was wiped out and I just couldn't do it (second mistake). So, she went on her merry way and found something else to do until bedtime. And that was the end of it.

Or, so I thought.

On Monday afternoon, I was downstairs doing something in the kitchen. And after awhile, I noticed things were awfully quiet in the house. I was downstairs alone and Mandy wasn't anywhere in sight. Time to investigate.

Amy was in her room on the computer. Collin was busy doing something, off by himself somewhere. Tim was watching a movie in my room (I don't remember whether or not he actually had permission to be in my room to begin with, but that's a moot point, now). And Mandy was playing with her toys...in my room, too. All was well...

Then Mandy looked up and saw me looking at her, and with a great deal of pride she said, "Look, Mom! I cut my hair!!"

I didn't notice it at first. I wouldn't have noticed it at all if she hadn't made such an effort to show me. "You did? Where?"

"Here!" And she pulled the hair on the sides of her head around to the front so I could see. There was a lot of hair missing.

I didn't see any suspicious items (like scissors) lying around, so I asked, "What did you use to cut your hair with?"

"Your scissors."

"What scissors?"

She grabbed my hand and led me to my bathroom, and pointed to the drawer where I kept my hair-cutting scissors and electric clippers. "Those scissors," she said. The scissors were in the drawer. Further observation revealed hair all over Mandy's shirt, the bathroom counter, and the floor, but not enough to have made me too concerned. Then I saw the HUGE wad of hair in the garbage can. She had cut her own hair, put the scissors away, and tried her best to clean up the mess! I took a closer look at the back of her head, and that's when the reality of it all set in. I had work to do to fix this. *sigh* So, I gave her the rest of her haircut. And she was happy.

However, when I was done, she wasn't quite so happy. She looked in the mirror and said, "I'm a boy, now." She had lost over six inches of beautiful brown hair.

The funny part of it all is that the hair that was really bothering her wasn't touched! Her bangs had been hanging in her eyes for a couple of weeks but she didn't cut those at all, much to my relief. The hair-cutting scissors are now kept safely INSIDE the box with the electric clippers, and I'm pretty sure she can't get that box open. I have a very hard time getting it open myself.

Since then, she has mentioned that she doesn't really like her hair short and she wants it back. I told her that she'll just have to wait until it grows back and that she shouldn't cut it again.

I wonder if she'll remember that!

Tag with a twist...it's new to me!

I used to love playing Tag - but now, I just don't like running because it makes my lower back hurt. So, when I found out that I was "tagged" by Tiffany, I thought, "What an interesting twist!" I'm just gonna copy and paste the rules from her blog:

The rules of the game:
(1) Link to the person that tagged you.
(2) Post the rules on your blog.
(3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
(4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
(5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Six things about me:

1. When I'm angry, I clam up and pout. And I usually hold an imaginary "conversation" with the object(s) of my anger, spelling out all the reasons I'm right and they're not - unless it's one of the kids. Then it's not very imaginary.

2. I used to be addicted to milk. Really addicted. I went through genuine withdrawals for three months when I discovered that Mandy, whom I was nursing at the time, started showing signs of a milk allergy. After that first three months, I was fine. Now, I don't even like milk. I eat cold cereal with vanilla rice milk. It took some getting used to, but it's not too bad. It's better than soy milk, I think.

3. I am really blessed that the only thing that reminds me of morning sickness is the smell of a paper mill. That smell still remains indelibly impressed in my nose and it doesn't take a hormone overdose for the odor to have its usual effect on me. That's another story for another post at another time. Not right now - I just had a nice Sunday dinner and I'd like to keep it.

4. I never wear high heels. Arthritis in my feet won't allow them.

5. Tiffany wrote: "I eat cold cereal super fast because I can't stand it if it is the least bit soggy."
Neither can I. In fact, I have even considered making the child who interrupted my meal FINISH the now soggy cereal. Never actually did it, though.

6. I really love to sew, but more than once, my children have outgrown patterns I had bought for them and clothes that needed mending before the sewing and mending ever got done. I need do something about that.

(Can I write seven things about myself instead of only six?)

7. I like creative writing.

Okay, now I'm supposed to tag someone else. Since my group of blogging friends is still rather small, several of you have already been tagged before. So you don't have to go through all this again, unless you have six more "unimportant" things you can tell us about yourselves!

So, here goes: Sheri, Gail, Tami, Aubrey, CJ, and Cody. Let's get one of the dads involved here - he hasn't updated his blog in a little while!

Mandy doesn't like tomatoes!

When we have salads with our dinner, one of our favorite things to put on them is those little sweet grape tomatoes. Only thing is, Mandy thinks they're grapes.

We've told her over and over and over again they're NOT GRAPES!! They're TOMATOES! We've also reminded her that she HATES tomatoes. She just can't seem to remember all the tomatoes we've found on the counter with little teeth marks in them because she thought they looked like apples. And the grape tomatoes, lightly chewed, that we've found in the garbage can because they looked like grapes. It usually only takes one or two tastes and then she decides that batch isn't any good. But the very next time I get tomatoes, she tries them again.

The other day, we had salads with our dinner. And, true to her tradition, Mandy had to take a grape tomato. Before we could stop her, she had popped it into her mouth. And then the "fun" began.

Her face started the usual contortions, and she said, "I don't like it."

This, time, my compassion had come to an end with this issue. I decided to make her remember that she doesn't like tomatoes. "You will not spit it out. You will swallow it."

Talking with a full mouth, she said, "But I don't like it."

"I know. I told you that it's a tomato and you don't like tomatoes. You decided to grab one anyway and so you're going to eat it."

Face turns red. Mouth desperately wants to eliminate its contents without involving the throat in the unpleasantness of the situation. She looked at me again. "I don't like it."

"I know. Swallow it."

By now, I'm hoping that Mandy is thinking that maybe she really doesn't like tomatoes. ANY tomatoes. They're not going to get any better if she waits until the next batch comes.

She looked around the table at everyone else. No one volunteered any sympathy. Everyone else had lost interest in her predicament and was involved in other conversation. She was stuck with her mouthful of tomato.

"Swallow it."

I could tell that she was suffering, but like a good girl, she finally managed to choke it down. I praised her and gave her a drink of water. "Now," I said, "you're not going to help yourself to any more tomatoes, are you?"

"No."

"Do you know why?"

"Because I don't like tomatoes."

The really funny part came when Amy, who had been watching the whole episode, commented about what Mandy's face looked like with that tomato in her mouth. "She looked like she was meeting eat loaf."

We all got a huge laugh at Amy's little slip of the tongue. I don't think I'll ever look at meat loaf the same way again!

Music Practice

My kids are watching too much TV lately, I think. They're singing a song from one of their favorite movies:

"Git along home, Cindy, Cindy

Git along home, Cindy, Cindy

Git along home, Cindy, Cindy,

I'll marry you sometime."

Mandy started it. She doesn't know all the words to the verses, but she sure knows the chorus. And the boys joined right in so all three of them were singing just now. They sound good, too! I hate to make them stop to get busy with schoolwork. I'll log it in as music practice for today!

In case you're wondering, that song was from Rio Bravo, with John Wayne, Walter Brennan, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson. I'd rather it be that than some of the garbage on TV these days!

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!

Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord Unto Me!

It's hard to believe we've been in Texas a whole year, now. Just after dark one year ago tonight, our little caravan arrived at our new home. We moved just the mattresses into the house that night. Then we went to a New Year's Eve party at the home of one of Gary's friends.

God provided a few able-bodied friends to help us unload the truck the next day, January 1st, 2007. That was a huge blessing, too, because the whole time we were traveling down here we were wondering what to do about that! My key verse through the whole ordeal was Isaiah 40:11 - "...He gently leads those that have young." He did truly lead us gently and brought us safely here. We began 2007 by moving into our new home - how's that for timing?

God has provided in so many ways this year. Gary and I both grew up in Illinois, so our roots there were quite deep. But, when it was time for us to actually go, God "worked in us to will and to act according to His good purpose" and so neither of us had any reservations about leaving. We're both amazed at how joyful we were to come here, even though it was painful to say goodbye to so many beloved friends there.

From our old home in Illinois:


To our new home in Texas!



He has provided us with a nice new house to live in, with plenty of room. Well, okay, we might wish for one more bedroom, but we certainly aren't complaining! God provided for the house in Illinois to sell quickly so that we could purchase this one. It was really nice that we could rent it for a while, a "try-before-you-buy" kind of deal.

I have enjoyed getting to know our new surroundings. (Google Maps has been a huge help to that end!) The traffic patterns around here are quite different than Illinois, so that took some getting used to. I'd never seen a "turnaround" before we came here!

He also has provided us with a church home that doubles as a homeschool support group! We have been very much blessed this year, and we know without any doubt that it was His will to move us here. We're looking forward to what He has in store for us in 2008!

Happy New Year to you all! Or, as Amy says, the Texas State Word is "ya'll"!

"Tis the Season to be Sneezin'

Well, now that Christmas is over with, I have my annual virus. I haven't had a cold since the end of last January. This is the first time in years that I've gone that long between colds! That's another part of northern Illinois winters that I haven't missed much.

I'm so glad it waited until AFTER Christmas to make its appearance. My head feels like a brick and this afternoon my voice shut down, so the kids know they'd better not not make me have to yell at them. When my voice sounds like this, and I have to yell, they know they're in big trouble. I'm glad I called Mom and Dad yesterday - today they wouldn't be able to hear me!

I'm also glad that it showed up during Christmas break when I'm not trying to muddle through school with the kids - we don't get much of anything accomplished when I'm sick.

So, that's the bright side of it, I guess. The not-so-bright side is the fact that I had to cancel our trip to Tulsa because of it. Dad's blood count is too low to enable him to fight off infection much, and the last thing he needs is for me to show up there and give him this! So they're going to come here next month to visit us instead! I think that'll work a lot better, and we're all looking forward to it.

What's an HTML-illiterate blogger to do?

I've been wondering - you know when you post a picture on your blog, you can click on the picture and see it in a larger size? Well, I've been noticing that sometimes it works that way and sometimes it doesn't. I post the pictures all the same way using the photo feature in the edit window, but sometimes it doesn't include the html code that it should. Is anyone else experiencing this? Do you do anything differently?

I tried comparing the html code for photos that worked and those that don't, and I noticed some significant differences. However, I don't know enough about html to rewrite the code to make it work. I experimented a little with it but all I did was mess things up.

I haven't been able to find any help on Blogspot, so if any of you has suggestions I'd appreciate it! Please leave a comment or email me!

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!