Casserole was OK - no rave reviews, but full boys.

The chicken casserole must have been OK last night, as one pan was almost gone and the boys were all full. Joe came in late, so got to eat alone. His casserole might have been better if it had been eaten hot out of the oven, b/c he was out in the garage with Kevin too long -- tepid casserole it is then!

Not sure if I'll add it to the repertoire or not -- we're not really "casserole people", you know?

New "casserole" for supper and last night's meatloaf.

In the spirit of Rachel's new blog: "What's for Supper" http://whatwerehaving.blogspot.com/, I thought I would share my last two days of supper planning and cooking.

Here's what we're having for supper as soon as Joe comes in from the garage.
Cooked noodles, Alfredo sauce, cut up chicken breast, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives, cheese. All stirred together in a pot on the stove and then put in the oven for a little while to make it more like mostaccoli in consistency. We'll see how it goes over.....

I made the alfredo sauce, and I've got to tell you how easy it was. I have made alfredos that start with roux and they have always tasted a little paste-y to me. I have never been satisfied with an alfredo I've made before. I am not sure that I am thrilled with this one, but for the ease of preparation, I give it an A+; and for the taste, an A, as well.

Anyway, I took 2 sticks of margarine, some chopped, dry garlic, & 1 cup of Parmesan cheese. Put these all in a bowl and whipped them up with my hand mixer until the margarine was fluffy. Added 2 cups of Milk and continued whipping. The margarine and the milk never really blended together, but they were mixed enough to make it work. When the noodles were done cooking, I drained them, put them back in the pan and stirred in this margarine, parm., and milk mixture. I kept the heat under the pan to low, and added a good handful of mozzarella cheese to this whole mixture, too. As it all started to melt together and get stirred up, it started to thicken up pretty nicely.

I added the chopped up chicken, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, olives and stirred it all together. Divided this into 2 casserole dishes, topped with a 'nother sprinkle of shredded cheese and popped it in the oven for a good 1/2 an hour. It looks appetizing sitting on the stove top now (waiting for Joe......), and I have some pull apart bread in the oven now to go with it. I tasted it twice already -- and it's delicious! That alfredo may not be the thickest I've ever made, but again, the ease, and the fact that I was baking it added to the rave review here!

I'll let you know how it goes over tonight.

Now for last night's meatloaf -- I've got to share my "specialty" -- "MEATLOAF SURPRISE"!! I don't know where I read this, or why I started doing it years ago, but now, meatloaf without the surprise is almost unacceptable around here.

I just make my basic meatloaf mixture -- beef, egg, milk, bread crumbs, spices (my boys like salt, pepper, a little garlic and onion, and sage.) I cook my meatloaf in a pan. I actually have a "meatloaf pan" for this. It's a bread pan with holes half way up the sides and all over the bottom -- it sits inside a regular bread pan, so that all the grease drips out of the loaf and into the bottom pan. Anyway, I line the bottom and sides of this pan with meatloaf mixture and then put 2-3 hard boiled eggs on top of that 1/2 the mixture. Finish filling the pan with the rest of the meatloaf, covering and surrounding the eggs. Bake as you normally would -- 1 hour @ 350 or 400.

Now, when you slice it and put it on plates, each slice of meatloaf will have a slice of egg in the middle, too! The first time you pull this off at home is like a "TA-DA!!!" moment. My kids were thrilled and Joe was intrigued. I've made it a couple of times thru the years without the surprise and always get mixed reviews on "plain meatloaf". This is the recipe that my daughters-in-law are going to hate. The boys are going to say, "Well, this meatloaf is good, but my mom puts an egg in it." Having put a raw egg in her loaf, the DIL will respond with, "I DID!!". The son will have to explain that his mom put one in the middle -- "you know, like cooked." Future Daughters-in-law, I apologize now and will show how easy it is when you ask.

BUUuuuuRRRPPPP!

Burping is the latest thing around here. BELCHING!!!! Loudly, purposefully, and often. It goes along with the other latest fad around here -- Root Beer. Clayton and Curtis have liked root beer for awhile, now, but Cole has just discovered he likes it. REALLY likes it!! And, of course, root beer makes you burp. A LOT!

The culmination (so far) of the belching phase we are in could've been the other afternoon. The big boys had a school delay in the morning, so needed to be brought to school at 10 am. Cole then had to be at preschool at noon, and all three picked up at 3 pm. So, Cole and I dropped the boys off and then headed to Lowell to go to Walgreen's and the bank, before heading back into DeMotte for preschool. We got done with those 2 stops just in time to hit McDonald's before school. We had a McD Arch card to redeem, so went out to lunch together. Ck nuggets and root beer make for great burps let me tell you! Eat a piece of chicken, take a drink of R.B and 4 seconds later, BUUUURP!! I must say that at least he followed most of these up with " 'scuse me". Anyway, repeat the cycle thru 3 1/2 chicken nuggets and a most of a small fry. At some point I reminded Cole that we really should not belch like that in public. I said, "Close your mouth when you have to burp and it won't be so noisy." He told me, like I'm some kind of idiot, "It doesn't work that way -- I have to let them out!" Maybe it's like sneezing -- 'cuz you know if you don't let sneezes out, your head will explode, don't you? Try sneezing while keeping your eyes open. We don't think it can be done. We think God made it impossible to sneeze with your eyes open, because they might just blow right out of your face if you were able to do that! Must be the same with being 4 years old and burping. If you don't let them out, your belly or chest just might explode -- ??!

BEEeeeellllch!!! Oh well, such is life with the boys, huh?

BbbEEeeeellch!! Buuuuuuurp! :)

What's in a name? Especially a "C" name!

Someone asked me again last week -- "What's up with the "C" names?" I don't think it's all that unusual. All the Dahm's have "J" names, all the Dugger's have "J" names, so far all the DeBoer's have "E" names.....

Honestly, it started with Clayton. It was one of the few names we could agree on when I was PG with him. We just started flipping thru the baby name book and each writing down -- well, I probably wrote them down and Joe got veto power, is actually more how it went. I was pretty adamant about using Joseph as a middle name, so everything I picked had to pass that litmus test, too. Clayton just means "clay settlement" -- nothing all that special. But, it does shorten to Clay, which I think is still quite a masculine name. Had he been a girl, we should have named him Natalie -- meaning born at Christmas (since he was due on Christmas Day). I think we finalized the decision in the van on the way to the hospital on the evening of December 6th, 1998. It was really unintentional that we had two "C's" -- Chris and Clayton.

Jump forward a few years and now we are PG with Curtis. He arrived quite a few weeks early, but we had already decided that it was to be another "C". You couldn't have 2 "C's" and not add a third. The youngest always gets teased about being adopted anyway -- if his/her name doesn't fit in the older ones will have more ammunition! Curtis Wayne for a boy and Carolyn Marie (?) for a girl. I think we debated much less about this one that Clayton's or Cole's. I think I just spit it out and we both liked it. Curtis, again, shortens to Curt -- still masculine and goes with Wayne (my dad's middle name). We liked it and it means "courteous" -- ironic that it's our Curtis, huh?

Now 2 1/2 years later -- now here we are again. And the ultrasound lady is pretty sure that she saw a "ding dong" there on the screen. She won't confirm it, but won't deny it either. We would have been surprised if Cole had been a girl! Cole Thomas was, again, decided on in the hospital or on the way there. We had chewed up a lot of "C" names -- many we thought were too feminine, or just plain "old" -- (Claude, Clarence) -- or they sounded too close to Chris or Clayton or Curtis. We didn't want any confusion about who mom was yelling at in the years to come!
Cole just means "coal; or dark one" -- which is funny 'cuz Cole is our blondest child. He does have the big brown eyes, though. Thomas just went with Cole in our minds. We started throwing out boy names after Cole and Thomas just stuck. It was also good in that none of the boys would have the same initials either. (You know how your analyze EVERYTHING when you are pregnant!)

So......there's the story. Nothing all that intentional, just something that began to happen and we followed thru with it. It's kind of nerdy, kind of clever, something to talk about, something to make the younger boys probably even more anonymous than they would have been already.

(We have a family in church with 4 boys - older than ours, the youngest there is in 7th grade. This 7th grader got paired up with Curtis for a project for 1st grade for school. I asked Curtis who is partner was and he told me "one of these H------ boys." I got a little snippy with him about that. "Do you want to be known as 'one of those Pr----- boys' for the rest of your life?" "You need to call him Justin -- not 'one of those H------ boys".)

Anyway -- there you go -- all the "C's" -- Christopher Scott, Clayton Joseph, Curtis Wayne, Cole Thomas. We could name our little homestead like some kind of ranch -- the 4C's - circle C, etc. etc.

I stumbled across this Video on Flixxy.com.....

It is a video that was shown to Sony execs in 2008 and is a little creepy. Lots of strange, information about the future having to do with technology, population shifts, jobs, etc. etc.

Made me think about the "sign of the beast". When we were younger and everything was being hit with a barcode, one of my school teachers warned us that the barcode may be the sign of the beast. That if we were ever asked to get a barcode tattooed on us or stamped on us in any way, shape, or form, we should vehemently refuse! This video makes me think about that kind of thing. Maybe binary code is the sign of the beast. I don't know how it all works and totally don't understand it. (I thought it was mostly 0's, 1's, & 2's -- not 6's--???) I don't even understand Html -- can only copy and paste it when I need to!

Now, I'm not getting all "millennial" or "end of the world"-y on here......really. Just something to keep in the back of our minds as the world progresses. Maybe the Mayans were right about the end of the world in 2012. I really hope not, as I don't think I want to be a part of that with the tribulation and the suffering and all the prophecies about the end times, but I guess God knows the time and date and will get us thru as he has planned all along.

Anyway, check it out.....it's just 4 1/2 minutes long, I think. Interesting (and creepy if you are in the mood I am in today.) :)

Another Country cartoon....

I am not a big supporter of our involvement in Iraq -- truly I don't quite understand it. I understand better the US military being in Afghanistan and think we should be looking harder for a certain 6' Arab with a portable dialysis machine in Pakistan and Iran.......(or Texas!)

But, I received this political cartoon via email and thought is was worth at least a second thought.

(I'll post another good one to think about in a day or two.......)

80 different kinds of snowflake classifications -- ??

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/class/class.htm

Did you know that there are at least 80 different classifications of snowflake crystals? I just discovered this! That's a lot!! The link above will bring you to a whole page of pictures like this:


Stellar Dendrites



Triangular Crystals

Hollow Columns

Bullet Rosettes

Fernlike Stellar Dendrites

Amazing, isn't it? I mean, we have always been told that no two snowflakes are exactly alike -- but this is beautiful!

God is good!!

Mama's little baby......gets on the bus!

I just put Cole on the school bus for the morning ride to school for the first time a few minutes ago. I should probably explain why it's January and it's the first time he's riding the bus: Sshh! He's really not supposed to be riding the bus. Technically, preschoolers are not allowed on the bus. I found out about this rule about this time of the year when Curtis was in Preschool and he had been riding the bus, whenever available, since the beginning of the year. I continued to put him on the bus for the rest of the year, because our bus driver was OK with it. Cole has not ridden the bus, because he just has a totally different personality than Curtis did at that age and would probably draw a little too much attention to himself on the bus, therefore getting us all in trouble! I'm also a little worried about the boys, Curt and Cole, in particular, fighting, arguing, and just causing a ruckus with each other on the bus on the way to school.


Anyway, so until today, I have taken the boys to school on the days when Cole has Preschool. Clayton sometimes catches the bus anyway on those days -- some social networking, perhaps? -- but Curtis really seems to enjoy the extra time to get ready or just be lazy on those days. Cole has been begging me to ride the bus and I just kept telling him that he's really not supposed to be on the bus and just wait until next year. Well, this morning was a rough one for me with the paper, and I had gotten home LATE last night from a Day Camp Meeting.....took me almost an hour and 1/2 to get home because of the weather and poor road conditions. There was a 2 hour school delay this morning because of the weather, again, and while I was home in plenty of time for the boys to be ready for school, I was not up for driving into town at 10 am and then again at noon to pick Cole up. It crossed my mind to just put him on the bus and then just kept festering there until I got home. I decided to try it and Cole was THRILLED!!


He was so cute stomping thru the snowdrifts at the church to get to the bus. He promised to sit with Clayton and Clay was OK with that too. They also promised to just stay away from Curtis....he sits with Caleb anyway once they switch buses....and that will maybe avoid any fighting.

So, I waited out by the church with them and just asked Kim, the bus-driver, if it was OK that Cole ride. She didn't care. I reminded him to stay with Clayton and be good. Gave him a quick kiss and he was off.

Why I am dwelling on this little milestone this morning?? I am really not that kind of mom. I did not cry when any of the boys left for preschool or kindergarten. I took pictures of them all at their first day of school, but really did not get very upset. I put both Clayton and Curtis on the bus without it even phasing me. I'm not sure that I am seriously upset about Cole getting on the bus, but it did cross my mind here more than once this morning. "I just put Cole on the bus for the first time." "My little guy just got on the bus....he truly is out there on his own."

Again, I am really not this sappy kind of mom. I think I have always embraced the new phases in the boys' lives as new adventures, exciting expeditions. I have worried a little bit about a few things......Chris' first day at ICHS, I was worried that he wouldn't know anyone or know where he was going. Clayton just always kind of rolls with it or figures out the situation pretty quickly. He may be the most like me, in that he is a little nervous inside about a situation, but will not really let you know. He just goes in and tries to figure it out. In preschool, Clayton asked me not to come in with him! As long as he is not overreacting to anything, people enjoy him. Curtis TOTALLY rolls with the situation. He probably doesn't even get nervous about it at all -- inside or outside. He so "flies under the radar" that he just observes quietly for a minute or two in order to figure it out and then either jumps right in to the middle, or hangs on the edges doing his own thing.


I guess it comes down to -- "Cole is my baby". And he is; he always will be. His personality (a little high maintenance, a little crazy, a little too old for his age, a lot clingy onto me!) lends itself for me being a little apprehensive about sending him into new situations. He REFUSED to stay at VBS this summer, he "needs" me quite often, he hated the church nursery........


Oh well, I will embrace this today and see how it went with him on the bus and then getting to his class at school. I don't know if I will be sending him on there again, or continue to drive him to school. A new phase of my life, too, I guess.....all my boys leave on the bus in the morning and I get a little time to catch up on laundry, hit the blog and enjoy the quiet!! :)

On that note - "Calvin needs a Sister"

These are a few of my favorite of the "Snowman series" from Calvin & Hobbes. I've always liked this comic, and I was young and reading the comics in the hey-day of Bill Watterson's publishing years (1985 - 1995). I, now, as a mother of boys, appreciate Calvin on a whole new level. Maybe we should have considered "Calvin" more seriously as our 4th "C name" a few years ago, huh?

"You don't like my "snowman house of horror", do you?"

"mom & dad don't value hard work and originality as much as they say they do"

Maybe it's just a complete lack of estrogen

WGN radio's (new) morning man, John Williams, had a brief discussion this morning about, essentially, little boys, weaponry, and just how inherent some things like that just are in boys. Most of the phone calls were light -- a lot of laughing. One woman had several sons and said that she had declared one day a week as "No Weapon Wednesdays". Another woman told how she had banned all weaponry from her home, but her sons ate the middle out of pieces of toast and then "shot" each other with the crusts. The undertones of the conversations were along the lines of: "Do people with only daughters have this aggression in their homes?" and "Is this really an inherent thing with boys? Does banning weaponry help or will little boys bite the toast into guns or pick up any leaf or stick and shoot each other with it?"

While I could expound along those lines of theory -- I really think that would be pointless. We cannot prove either way the "nature/nurture" conundrum. My mind, while listening to the radio, went more to the thoughts of the other crazy things boys do that most girls would not ever think of doing. My other thoughts were, "I wonder if the complete absence of girls in some families has an effect on the boys. Does having sisterly influence "help" in some situations?"

Using a fairly recent example from my life with the boys, for instance -- would having had a sister around prevented the boys from spray painting my front yard tree, landscaping rock and wood sided house? Would not a sister have said at some point, "Hey, you better not do that! Not a good idea! Mom's gonna FLIP OUT! You are wrecking the house!" ??

We sat in front of "Wendy with the 5 daughters" in church last night. We had not been seated for 5 minutes before she and a couple of the girls were chuckling at us. Wendy nudged me, with a giggle, and said "We love to watch you guys". Here's the silly reason they were chuckling last night: We sat down and Cole immediately wanted a piece of candy. I told him "NO - not yet". He proceeded to tell me that he thought he had "bad breaf" and "needed a peppermint" -- this was, of course, accompanied by him putting his mouth right in front of my face and breathing "Hhaaugh" hard and loudly, to prove his bad breath. Very funny to a family of girls, who would never breathe like that on their mother. They have a little more decorum in church than that.

One other things the boys do, that I don't think girls would do, may prove, once and for all that girls are just smarter than boys -- at least socially. When my mom said "Stop doing that" -- we (usually) stopped. We understood that we should not be acting like we were in some places or at some times. The boys I have observed, even the ones that do not belong to me, do not necessarily understand this. They say "OK", stop what they are doing for maybe 45 seconds, and then go right back to it. I guess technically, they did "stop" -- but my new response has been that "I said STOP - not 'pause'!"

I also think that boys without sisters do not understand, perhaps, the certain level of danger to some situations; nor are they able to empathize with pain that others may be experiencing in these situations. Girls will, at some point in a dangerous situation, realize and point out that this is not a good idea -- someone is either getting hurt or will be getting hurt. I would bet that Wendy has never had to say, "Get that belt off your sister's neck!" I have had to say "brother's neck" to each of my 3 younger sons. Just Sunday, again, Joe said to #3: "Get that belt off your [own] neck!" Belts are wonderful tools for the imagination. They can be leashes, whips, swinging vines, tow ropes, etc., etc. I wonder how many little boys have almost hung themselves with this piece of a wardrobe that we see has somewhat harmless?

Maybe the need to conquer the world, to be king of the hill, to suppress others beneath you, is a true sign of original sin. [On a side note: People who do not believe in original sin - Pelagianists - Michael Pearl -- are sadly delusional. I have seen original sin in all my children since the first time they cried out in anger and frustration from the crib. Thanks to my good Calvinistic upbringing and beliefs, I can identify the boys' sin as inherent and something we need to teach them to resist and overcome.] My sons, and many other boys I know and have observed in church, scouts, grocery store, neighborhood playgrounds, & family gatherings, are most of the time bound and determined to "be on top". Who enjoys King of the Hill on snowy school yards? A pack of boys does. Who climbs trees to totally unsafe elevations in order that their brothers cannot reach them and in order to taunt them on the ground? Boys. [This is a silly display of headship BTW - of course you can climb higher than your younger brother. His legs are shorter than yours and he cannot, therefore, reach the branches that will bring him as high up the tree as you.] Who tries desperately to show their strength by wrestling his brother to the ground at every given opportunity or moment of boredom? Nothing exciting going on for a minute? Are we bored at the grocery store, waiting for someone to finish a project at Cub Scouts, or lining up to walk to the music room at school? Then let me show you how strong I am by kicking you in the shin, twisting your arm, or even throwing you to the ground. "There wasn't that cool? If you can do it back to me, then we are both cool and can be best friends."

Now, I am not saying that girls do none of these things. And, I am not saying that all boys react the same way to things like these. I just wonder if, in an expanded study of "nature/nurture", anyone has thought to look at boys and girls who live in "exclusive" families. There may not be too much difference, aside from the magnification of the inherent traits for each gender. Maybe that would be a truly "clean" way to do the study -- a family of exclusively boys would magnify these traits as would a family of exclusively girls magnify their traits. I wonder, why, for the sake of more well-rounded human families, God chooses to make such families as mine or as Wendy's - -why only one gender? Wouldn't the boys be more well-rounded men if they had sisterly influence? Wouldn't Wendy's daughters grow up as more well-rounded women if they had some brotherly influence? I wonder if the DeVries daughters (exclusively girls who now all have given birth to exclusively boys!) ponder these things as they compare their growing up years to those of their sons? I should ask one of them to comment on this.

Oh, well, there is much screeching and hollering going on in my living room right now. I think about removing all of the furniture and just installing P.E. mats on the floor. They treat the room like a gymnasium and it's a relatively short time that they will all live here. I could probably live with those mats for a few more years and redecorate when they are all in college.
I should probably go to see who is "king" right now and make sure that the other one is not getting seriously injured. Off to referee. Maybe I will send them outside after lunch to pelt each other with ice balls or bury each other, face first, of course, in the snow. Or maybe I will join them in the ice ball fight and show them that the queen around here trumps the little kings! ;)

He Giveth More Grace.....

While I do the paper every morning, I listen to podcasts of Revive Our Hearts Radio programs with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. (She's on Moody radio at 11:30 am weekdays, I think -- or you can find her website from a link on the right here.)

They help to keep me focused on "things above". The only other option that early in the morning is talk radio - WGN, or international programming from NPR. I enjoy both of these, really, but they are not so good for your soul, either one. Besides - R.O.H. radio "counts" for devotions, each morning, too and I can listen to almost 3 of the programs in the time I am in the car.

Here's parts of one of my favorite ones from December 2008. I listened to it again a couple of times this week. In light of a couple of tragic deaths we've heard about and some other serious illnesses, or when I get to feeling sorry for myself about the relatively little things or the big things going wrong in my life -- this podcast helped me put things into perspective a little and remember that God has a plan for everything that happens to us and around us. Someone told me a while ago that in any times of trouble and doubt, we as Christians must "Cling to what we know is True." That's an amazing statement, isn't it? We know these things are true - we just have to trust God to work everything out for his glory and honor.

This podcast is about sufficient grace. Read on a little:

If you could choose any problem to be removed from your life, what would it be? Why doesn’t God just remove it? Nancy Leigh DeMoss will help you think through this difficult question, continuing in a series called The Blessings of Thorns.
Nancy: When we’re going through thorns and afflictions in our lives, we tend to think we know what would be good. What we usually think would be good is for God to remove the problem, but God knows what is best. His idea of best and good are often different than our idea of best and good. God knows what we really need.
I think of that passage in John chapter 11 when Jesus’ dear friend Lazarus was sick and dying and finally did die. His sisters thought what would be good, what would be best, in their way of thinking, was for Jesus to come and heal their brother, to keep him from dying.
But Jesus had something in mind that would ultimately bring greater glory to God than healing Lazarus and keeping him from dying, and that was to raise him from the dead after he died—something the sisters could not have imagined through their tears as they stood at the tomb of their brother.

When it comes to Paul’s thorn in the flesh that we’ve been looking at in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9, we see that God had something better for Paul than release from his pain. God said to Paul after Paul entreated with the Lord, pleaded with the Lord to remove this thorn (and we said in the last session it’s all right to ask God to remove the thorn, to remove the affliction), but then God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you." "I have something better for you, something that will bring Me greater glory, something that is more for your good than for Me to remove this thorn, and that is that you receive My grace while you have this thorn." "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (12:9, NKJV).
So God was saying, “I’m not going to take the thorn away. I’m not going to remove this problem, but I will give you grace to bear it.”
God’s grace, God’s power imparted to Paul in exchange for Paul’s weakness—isn’t that one of the ways of God? We give Him our weakness. We give Him our pain. We give Him our suffering. We give Him our thorns and our affliction, and God says, “In exchange, I will give you My strength, My power, My grace to endure and to exalt, to embrace the cross, to glory in the cross.”
The wonderful thing about God’s grace that we see in this passage and throughout the Scripture is that it never runs out. There’s never a shortage of God’s grace.

I love that verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 8, and I was reminded of it in my quiet time this morning. It’s one of those all-encompassing verses in the Scripture. Second Corinthians 9, verse 8, says that “God is able to make all grace abound toward you [not just toward Paul, but toward you, in your thorns, in your situation] that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (NKJV).
I don’t think there’s probably a verse in the Bible that has more superlatives in it than that verse. “God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”

So as we look at God’s purposes in bringing thorns and afflictions into our lives, I want to ask you:
Would you be willing—are you willing—to have that thorn remain if to do so would protect you from sin?
If it would keep you humble?
If it would make you more dependent on God?
If it would sanctify you?
If it would make you spiritually more fruitful?
If you knew it would further the spread of the gospel?
If you knew that by your willingness to endure that thorn, you would be the greater blessing to others?
Would you be willing to say, “Okay, God, I’ll accept Your grace to bear it, even if You never choose to remove it”?
You see, it really comes down to do we care more about comfort or about developing Christ-like character? Do we care more about a pain-free existence or about God’s purposes in our lives and in this world being fulfilled?
If comfort is what matters supremely to you, then when those thorns come into your life, you will resent them; you will resist them; and you will run from them. You’ll demand that God remove it.
But if what matters most to you is being like Jesus and being His instrument of blessing and of the furthering of His kingdom in this world, then you’ll say, “God, I wouldn’t have chosen this; I wouldn’t have written the script this way, but I believe that Your grace is sufficient for me, and I thank You for the blessing of these thorns.”

http://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/roh/today.php?pid=10079

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater; He sendeth more strength when the labors increase. To added affliction, He addeth His mercy; To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance; When our strength has failed err the day is half done. When we’ve reached the end of our hoarded resource: Our Father’s full giving has only begun.

This is the above song "He Giveth More Grace" - I think it's Gaither concert. (Ignore some of the strange looking people from 1972, I think -- just close your eyes and listen to the music!)

Fleeting thoughts and ruminations from this week....

Some things that either crossed my mind this week or were up for discussion around here......some others were seriously just "fleeting thoughts" -- very fleeting!!
For some background, here's what I had going on this week:
Newspapers every morning, no school yet on Monday, Oops! - no preschool on Tuesday, although I got Cole ready and brought him to school, 1st grade Christmas party at school, District Committee Mtg for Scouts, Tiger Cub Den meeting, laundry, paperwork for Day Camp, paperwork for Auxiliary at school, Roundtable Mtg for Scouts, suppers, laundry, etc.

Why, oh, WHY do we live in the Midwest (snow & cold!)
Why, oh, WHY do we live in DeMotte? (ice covered roads for DAYS!!)

Can these boys be any noisier? Or fight about anything else?
I need better rules about dealing with your brothers.

I love video games (quiet for a few minutes)
I despise video games (arguing and brain-rotting)

These FiberOne bars that were samples in the newspaper on Sunday are quite effective.
Charmin "Extra Strong" t.p. is quite nice....soft and "effective", too!

First graders are easily entertained.
DeMotte Christian School has a wonderful group of 1st graders -- actually most of the kids. They are overall very polite, caring, friendly, and respectful.

First grade Cub Scouts are almost as easily entertained as Curt's class at school.
They are not all , however, quite as respectful or polite. Could that be the difference in upbringing with some of them?? Could this be the evidence of teaching a Christian servant's heart and not? Or is it simply the structure of school and lack of structure of Scouts? Could the time of the day also affect the way little boys react to things? Scouts is after school in the evenings --??? HMMmmmm........

YEAH!! I got into school in enough time to sign up for the Kindergarten days that I wanted! Cole will be attending Kindergarten on Mon/Wed/Fridays!! :)

Be thankful for what you have. We are all healthy here and doing pretty well. So many others we know are suffering thru illnesses and other tragedies. Suck it up and learn to be patient and thankful.

Continue praying -- in thankfulness and in petition. No whining -- just praying.

I really should not have eaten black pepper chicken for supper right before a meeting. (pepper in my teeth and need a mint!)

I do not know how to deal with all this junk with Chris. I cannot continue to be angry about it. So, again, just keep praying.

Oh - "they" (Clayton, really) followed directions and put the dirty plates from spaghetti for supper in the warm soapy water that I left in the sink. Now all I have to do at 9:30 pm after the meeting is wipe, rinse, and load into dishwasher! THANK-YOU!!

These flannel lined jeans of Joe's are ridiculous in the dryer -- 2 1/2 cycles before they are completely dry! AUGH! Messing up my routine!

I really need to get off the computer and Facebook and get some other things done around here.

"Take it to the Lord in Prayer" & "I Need Thee Every Hour"

These wilderness survival books I am reading for Day Camp could really prepare me for a stint on the Survivor TV show.....I wonder if I should apply?
I don't think I would be very good at the mind game part of that show....I'd be voted off pretty early. Either b/c I would be the "old lady" or either too passive or too aggressive. Usually, when I psych myself up to be the passive one in a situation, it ends up backfiring on me. I have a hard time taking a backseat.

Hey, these roads are not so bad.....they are starting to get clearer as the week goes on.

Their, There, They're (I am right on this!)

I know quite a few Beatles songs.

Stop biting your fingernails!

My sons can be brilliant -- or at least come up with some of the funniest things to ponder! Sometimes they are WAY too interested in what's going on around them. Other times, they really know when to let things lie and just roll with it.

"Life is like a box of Chocolates"

I need to make both a dentist app't and an OB app't here pretty soon.

I do not know how to deal with all this junk with Chris. I cannot continue to be angry about it. So, again, just keep praying -- for him and for us.

The person who is the last one out of the bed in the morning should make the bed.
The person who drinks the last cup of coffee should make another pot if it is before 11 am.

I cannot learn Playstation2 from a 4 year old. Why am I letting him talk to me like this? Does it really matter? It's only video games......

Enough with the DRAMA (Clayton!)

The alien jammies are just jammies -- do not tell me that they "cweep you out"! Put them on, go pottie, get a drink and GO TO BED!!!

Gray's Anatomy tries to be philosophical at either the beginning or the end with those little "talks" from Meredith, but in all reality, is quite a strange and somewhat depressing show.

Do not make me yell in the mornings before school. Just get up, get ready, eat, and DO NOT ARGUE with your brothers. Throwing a box of cereal across the kitchen is not acceptable!! How do I even react to that besides making him pick it up?? Should've got a spanking, too, I think, but it happened before I got home....AUGH!!

It's snowing again -- so much for clear roads this weekend.

We all need to learn to be gentler with each other around here. Gentler and more patient. Now, how to go about that.......Change starts with me, I guess. That's gonna be hard.....so again, PRAY.

Pray without ceasing. Nothing is too small or too big to pray about.
Pray in praise and thanksgiving. Pray in petition and in lamentation. Finish praying with praise and thanksgiving.

Should this mom try this?

I found these online.....@ passiveagressivenotes.com

In a house that is full of boys, maybe this idea is not a bad one.

"Soap - it does a body good" Classic quote.....maybe that's the only one I really need on the shower wall.

Or "Wet does not equal clean"

I wonder if these are written in Sharpie or soap or what?? TOO FUNNY!!!

The laundry note on the side here is interesting, but unrealistic for my house. :)


To this one, though, I would add:

"Please aim or sit down" & "Remember to Flush!"