Stimulus???

We were quite excited to find our Stimulus/Rebate check in the mailbox on Saturday. We were heading out of town & didn't get to deposit it, but yesterday it made our checking account look so FULL! THAT's a switch!

Here is where I'm not sure how this check is supposed to stimulate the economy. I suppose if we used it for purchases only it might do just that. However, according to the news I heard recently, we are going to use ours like most other Americans are: to pay bills. We know longer have credit cards, but we have medical bills (remember, the ER staff knows us by name). We'll pay on each of several medical bills we have. Somehow, the insurance didn't pick up much of our allergy testing done in DECEMBER when we'd already met our deductible & out of pocket expense. I'm not sure how that happened. So, we will stimulate our doctors' wallets with a government check. Makes me think socialized medicine might not be so bad!

We WILL spend a bit on ourselves. We're getting Six Flags Fiesta Texas passes, which we've done every year for several years now. We can't afford a vacation, and Phil has no days off (he used them all and borrowed some in January when his dad was ill), so heading to the theme park will have to do. Phil works about 10 minutes or so from the park, so he likes to run by after work & hit the coasters mid-week when it's not so crowded. The girls like a lot of rides and the water park. Me? I like shows and sitting in the water doing nothing. Mostly when we go I just sit in the heat doing nothing while they ride rides! I think I should take a book with me, except I think it would get wet. The library no doubt would frown on that! Oh, yes, that is yet another thing to pay: library fines. Last night I took things back so they'd be in before a fine incurred. As I got to the library, I realized the 3 dvd's that were due back were on my desk! We'll get them in today. If we look really pitiful maybe they'll have mercy & erase our fine from those!

What we'd LIKE to do with the money (besides the obvious spend it on fun stuff to do) is to use it to somehow help us earn more money or save money. Phil has been checking into converting a car to bio-diesel for awhile now. He's also looking at a bigger motorcycle (more reliable) to use for driving to work. They get WAY better gas mileage than the van or car.

So, after this stimulating reading, what are YOU doing with your stimulus check? Leave a comment & let me know!

At my age....

Today I told the girls that at my age, Mammaw (my mom) was a grandmother. Actually, I started with, "Did you know Daddy & I are old enough to be grandparents?" Then I explained the ages that our parents were when they became grandparents. Natalie said, "You'll be OLD when you become grandparents!" Um, yeah, we will! But you know what? No matter how old I am, Phil will always be older! Tee-hee!

This all came to mind because my friend Stephanie is turning 30 this month. We are going to celebrate her special day tomorrow evening. She's has felt a little anxious about this momentous change in date, but I reminded her that she'll feel really young tomorrow night (I know some of the other guests & we are all older than she is). She said she has intentionally surrounded herself by older friends for that reason. But in a valiant attempt to make me feel better said, "I am drawn to the older & wiser ones." Steph, when you reach my age, you will have an 18 year old, a 15 year old and a 14 year old. YOU will one day be a YOUNG, COOL, HIP Grandma!!! You are a young, cool, hip friend! Happy Birthday Month!

It's OVER!!!!!!!!

I love our homeschool co-op, LIFE (learning in a family environment). I love the kids, I love the moms and I love the classes I teach. I love the fellowship with other believers. I love that someone else can teach my kids things that don't come as naturally to me (dance and science for example). But, this time of year, what I love most is when we've had our last day for the semester! That was last Tuesday. Then Wednesday through Friday were days for testing (standardized type tests; I will blog about THOSE sometime if I haven't already). Thursday night was our end of semester program. It was a lot of fun & Natalie did a great job with her dance class. I watched the girls practice several times over the past few days & wasn't sure she knew all the steps. The teacher always stands in front of them & does the dance so they can see her if they forget, but Natalie still didn't seem as confident as she has with other dances. Well, she did a SUPER job. Bethany even joined us up front when our American Girl class sang patriotic songs.

We've been up early every day for the past 4 days. The girls went to Grandma's today (Phil's mom), so tomorrow we will sleep in & no one will be here to wake us. Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!! I have a show tomorrow & am very excited to actually go show our products to people. We'll do an interactive show so the guests can try out the products.

I just thought I should blog in case anyone has checked in to see if I've done this lately!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms! I'm really not sure who reads my blog, so if you are a mom, hope your day was wonderful. If you aren't a mom, I still hope your day was wonderful! For many years I had such a longing to be a mommy, and Mother's Day wasn't the easiest day of the year for me. So, if you are in that position, I hope you will know how special you are right where you are. If God had given us children sooner we certainly wouldn't have had some of the same experiences we did. I can't imagine being at the end of parenting (well, parenting in our home, at least, I know you never really stop parenting) at this age, though my mom was a Mammaw at my age!

We had a nice day. Phil brought me roses yesterday & today the girls gave me homemade cards, some homemade gifts, and a nice packaged gift with rose scented soaps and fuzzy slippers in it. Ruth came to our house, then we went to eat, or so we thought. She wanted to go to the cemetery today to see the marker on the columbarium (where they put the ashes of those who have been cremated) where Bill is. We planned to go to the same restaurant we went to after the burial service. We drove up & there were no cars. They are CLOSED on Sunday! Since we were already near the cemetery, we drove there first.

Apparently, Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year at Ft. Sam Houston's cemetery. It was bumper to bumper traffic, one way only. The map they gave us was very difficult to read (not a good copy), so we missed where we were supposed to be and had to go out & come back in. We finally found our way over and got to see the place. I knew people would be out to visit the graves of their moms, but I was quite surprised when I saw a family with lawn chairs who must just spend the afternoon there.

After the cemetery, we drove to a different Vietnamese restaurant. I had to step into this decision (since I was not involved in any others today) and repeat that I CANNOT eat Chinese food. Chinese food has soy sauce, which has wheat in it. Wheat has gluten. I CAN eat Vietnamese food. They do NOT use soy sauce. It is possible that you could have something made at a Chinese restaurant without soy sauce, but chances are the pan was previously used with soy sauce in it, or more likely, their is often a communication gap at many Asian restaurants, and I speak neither Chinese nor Vietnamese, so it's easiest to stick to what I know.

We came back to our house for lemon bars. GLUTEN FREE lemon bars. They were yummy!

I like to read "Our Daily Bread" devotionals at this website: http://www.rbc.org/odb/odb.shtml
I don't know about you, but it seems to me that every mother's day the sermon in church uses Proverbs 31 as the Scripture of the day. These are some of the verses they read each 2nd Sunday in May:
10 A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.

11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.

12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

and

28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

29 "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

Here is a link to the entire passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Prov.%2031;&version=31;

I realize this is the standard that we are supposed to hope to reach as Christian wives and moms. We are supposed to be Super Woman like this lady.

Read this part:
15 She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.

Let's see. Verse 15 pretty much knocks me out from the get-go. Arises while it is still dark. Well, I do, but it's typically a potty break.

It's the rest of verse 15 and the following verses that really give me an "Ah-Ha!" moment. "She provides food for her family AND PORTIONS FOR HER SERVANT GIRLS." AH-HA!!!! THEN, it says she goes out & works & keeps working into the night. This woman had house help! Not just one. She didn't call Merry Maids for the day. She had house help daily, I am sure. Now, this may be a stretch, but did you notice in many verses in that passage that she works outside the home? Just a hunch, but I'm guessing she wasn't a full-time homeschool mom. I may be wrong on that, but she wasn't at home with her children all day all the time.

So, we've got a woman who has servant girls to help her do whatever needs to be done. She's not at home all the time with her kids. I don't think this is encouraging us homeschool moms to run out & take a job while we send our kids to school. My husband and children have never arisen and called me blessed. They've mumbled things at me, but I'm pretty sure that "blessed" was not in there anywhere. Are you still with me? Because I really have a valid point coming here. I believe I know how to be the perfect Proverbs 31 woman. All I need is for my husband to hire some servant girls. See! Wouldn't that solve the problems? They could do the housekeeping and watch the kids while I go do my "profitable trading" which, in my case is kitchenware. Phil wouldn't need to rush home when I have a show. He wouldn't complain about me being out late doing a show. Because the servant girls would be here to help with the kids. What do you think of my brilliant plan?

By the way, I do have one part of that Proverbs 31 lady down pat: Her lamp does not go out at night. There is hope after all.

Bethany's address to the Union

Bethany bridged to Cadette's tonight. One of her requirements was to do something to help plan the ceremony. We had the 2 girls that bridged write about their memories of being a Junior. Bethany's made me laugh. You know how when your kids moves on to something new, it can make you kind of teary eyed? Well, this time it just made me laugh. I almost got teary eyed just from knowing how silly she was when she wrote this. Tomorrow I'll try to upload pictures. For now, here is her essay. She was too shy to read it, so a good friend read it for her.

Back in the old days, when I was a Junior, I experienced a lot of fun things. One thing I enjoyed was the day in juniors when I got to eat chocolate. It was also fun when we had Girl Scout sleepovers at Mrs. Frazier’s house. It was also fun when we had the sleepover at the Crespins’ house. Another thing that was fun (and still will be) is the friendship circle. My favorite badge to earn was art in the home. The thing I will miss is my other friends who will not be in Cadettes yet .

I am looking forward to being with my friends who used to be in Juniors a long time ago but have already bridged to Cadettes. If I could do these IP’s (Interest Projects) I would want to do the Travel one, From Shore to Sea, Pets, Sports for Life, Visual Arts, Rolling Along, Water Sports, Wildlife, Reading, Artistic Crafts, Games for Life, and High Adventure. Thank you for listening my fellow citizens of America!

Monkey Girl

If it wasn't obvious that Bethany was put inside of me in Africa, it has become quite vividly apparent. Look at the white speck way up in this tree. She's a tad like her mother used to be!

My parents went to Florida and all I got was.......

You know the T-shirt. The one that parents like to get for their kids to gloat when they go somewhere fabulous. Well, my parents don't ever bring us gloating gifts! And we are amazed that they even bring us gifts at our age! LOL! But, I do find it enjoyable to wear the t-shirts from Florida that they have brought me in the past. For one, I lived in Florida, "The Sunshine State" (I am immortalized on cassette tape with a whole story about life in Florida, recorded when I was about 9!). The other reason is that MY NAME is in the middle of the state. fLORIda. It's oh so obvious to me now, but it wasn't until about 5 years ago that I noticed this. Color me dorky.

All this rambling is leading to the fact that my parents are taking a trip to fLORIda! One of mom's brothers & SIL will be leaving to head north for the summer on May 6th, so my folks are heading there a bit early to see them. Then, her other brother & SIL will still be there (on the other side of Florida, I think; geography isn't my strong suit). They also have friends in Florida, so it will be a nice trip all around.

Mom's knee is coming along. Um, of course it's going along on the trip. I mean that it is healing nicely. She still has pain if she bends it too much. She kneeled down to do something, intending for her weight to be on her right knee, but she didn't realize how much it would hurt her left knee to bed it & have pressure on it. I know that riding in the car will be much more pleasant than before she had the surgery.

The girls & I will be pseudo housesitters. Because it is May, life is very busy, so we won't be able to go spend days at their house. We'll drive over to water plants & such a few times.

Hopefully, after a very "eventful" beginning to the year, this will be rather uneventful, but very pleasant and enjoyable!