Wilderness Week Adventure

Prior to this past week: Brian moved in with us. We had to move rooms around and adjust things for that. I guess I am used to this by now. It seems like we learn a lesson then get a rest period and then we go for another round. As soon as someone moves in all hell breaks loose. I guess that is good huh? Rejoice when the devil is chasing us because we're doing something right.... or something like that. Well as soon as he moved in - Before the end of the first week: The dog got sick.
Edgey's van needs surgery. It blew a $500 fuel pump which is inside the gas tank of the van and will cost an entire paycheck. To save money, rather than getting it towed, he borrowed a friend's tow dolley to tow it to the van hospital and it blew two of his van tires and thrashed the dolley. So- then we had to buy two used tires for the van. Also will have to replace/fix some parts on the dolley. $$$$

Update of the past week: Coughing, runny noses, blowing noses, draining, sore throat, super sinus headache & pressure, achy body, etc...... Taking lots of vitamin C and multivitamins, drinking lots of fluids and washing our hands. Discussing germs in homeschool. Sleeping in the lazy boy so I can breathe. Nyquil..... is a good thing. Sudafed is a good thing.

Elizabeth and I both started with the sinus stuff last Thursday. By Saturday I could not think and slept most of the weekend. I didn't go to work which is not good because no work-no pay.
Brian (who is staying with us for a while) also got it on Friday. He was a good Christian and went to church on Sunday. Sunday Mr. Edgey got it and started whining around. Sunday, we were quite the pair taking turns snoring in the lazy boy chairs. He was worse on Monday and put a damper on any fun during schooltime or afterwards. I started to feel a bit better. Tuesday, he went back to work. I felt better but didn't think it would be a good idea to spread the joy with my classmates at the bible college (especially since one just had a chemo treatment a few days prior). I stayed home and watched American Idol. Fell asleep in the chair.

Now we are current to Wednesday. Edgey felt worse today than he has so far. Today I woke up very early because I slept in the lazy boy again. It really does help me sleep better with the sinus thing. I left TBN channel on the entire night. I think it helps my spirit man, even in my subconcious sleeping mode. There are times I start dreaming about whatever they are preaching about. Very weird. But I know it is good for me.
I woke up early and listened to TD Jakes & Paula White. At some point during the night I woke up to some other preaching guy- can't even tell you what his name was, but the message, I think, God just tapped on my head to wake me up for it.
Since all this sinus stuff has been going on, I haven't felt much like worshiping. Mostly because I am so tired and sleeping a lot. When I do worship, because I sing and I love to sing, I usually sing praise or sing worship or sing pray. Well, my voice sounds like a frog.... seriously like a croaking sound. Very low, gravelly and disappears at inopportune moments.... like when I am trying to talk to my kids. B was laughing at me tonight because I told her I can't yell for them or at them and when I raise my voice it disappears. So I just smile and whisper, "come here", so I can wrap my hands around your neck while I am talking to you.... It truly has been very frustrating! Frustrating to be unable to talk and frustrating to be unable to sing.

Well, the preacher dude came on and God knocked me in the head, and woke me up. He was talking about how Moses was to go to Pharao and say Let my people go so that they can worship me. They had been in bondage/slavery and needed to be freed to worship. But - here it is- they did not get to be let go to worship in the promised land but to worship in the wilderness...... aaaahhhhhhhhhrrrggggghhh. We have to learn to worship in the wilderness BEFORE we can get to the promised land. We have to learn to depend on God for sustenance and depend on God for our very life and breath, to walk around in desert sand and rock and heat and still be able to worship. And let me tell you, I do not want to spend 40 years goin' round the mountain before I figure that one out. So I went to church tonight, even though I didn't feel like it..... and I went up on the platform and worshipped, even though I had a frog voice and croaked some unknown notes - because I do not want to miss out on the promised land because I can't worship the way I think it should be done. Pastor talked tonight about being pruned and chopped up so we can produce more fruit......even though it may be a good thing that is getting chopped. I would HATE to not be able to sing. This is a time that is very very frustrating to me. But if God has chopped my voice so I will worship Him without it, then so be it. I will try to be content and worship anyway.....

Now, if I still cannot talk or sing next week, y'all may have to remind me of what I just wrote here.

Well, this is the last of my Calvin & the Snowmen pictures..... I'm kind of sad. Oh well. No exciting news for today either.... how boring is that?
My excitement for the day will be tonight when I go to class. I also get to sing.
Elizabeth just got up and she is asking for my help.... I guess the assignment for Wed night church is for them to either write a song or an essay. When did church start giving out homework like that? Anyway she wants me to help her spell the words to a song she is working on. So I guess I better go so I can do that. Sorry so short!

Integrity

My comrade has challenged the integrity of my news sources...... It has been brought to the level of the National Enquirer..... oh the shame!!!
Truly I could not bring myself to take the word of the Wacky News Channel.
Actually my source came from AOL news to start with but it has also been on CNN! That is a channel of integrity - real news. Water Intoxication It was even news worldwide! BBC (British Broadcasting) even had a story on it, thank you very much - http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6261509.stm

As for the Gorillas, I saw that originally on AOL news also, and I would consider that not "wacky" LOL Chimp Gives Birth. It was also on USA Today.

I just thought it was interesting and thought I would share.

Crazy Stuff

So the big news today is the lady that died because she drank too much water in a short period of time. They are calling it water intoxication..... She was trying to win a Nintendo Wii game for her three kids. The contest was called Hold Your Wee for a Wii. See how much water you can drink without going to the bathroom. The radio DJ's were even making fun of how "people can die" from drinking too much water. Hellloooooo!!! All the DJ's were fired after the incident and police are investigating.

The other "breaking" news story was that a Chimpanzee gave birth to a baby and all the other males in the facility had had a vasectomy..... boy could I relate to that! If you don't know that story- my husband had a vasectomy after my daughter was born and 6 months later I was pregnant with Jesse Boy.

Interesting

Several things of interest today:

1. They found the Lower Aqueduct system by the western wall in Jerusalem. It was where water came from Solomons Pools by Bethlehem and channeled to tanks under the temple mount. Very cool when they find archaeological bible stuff..... at least to me.
Israel National News

2. The other thing that is cool is that January 16th was declared by our president to be Religious Freedom Day. We are blessed - at least for now. Christians around the world are tortured and beaten every day and we have freedom to worship as we please.
"Freedom is a gift from the Almighty, written in the heart and soul of every man, woman, and child, and we must continue to promote the importance of religious freedom at home and abroad." - G.W. Bush

3. This is not so cool, but it is coming quickly. They have started using smart cards (ones with computer chips) across the U.S. for transportation - A person can go from ferry to bus to subway, etc.. without coins or money.... they just use an all purpose card and some charges are taken directly out of the person's account. If you need to remember why this is not cool go to my article on chips. mark-of-beast It sounds great to the flesh because it is fast and convenient...why not make things easier?

Calvin & The Snowmen

I just love Calvin..... I suppose he is a tad rebellious, but he is so funny. I guess it's my sarcastic sense of humor rising up again.
It's just not funny when it's my own children.
Ethan finally went out and shovelled for me. He waited until the last possible minute before Dad came home though. Of course Dad was thrilled he didn't have to do it - so then Ethan gets $5 for doing it instead of a feeling of contribution to the caring of our home and property and being a good steward. Oh well. I tried.

Since we didn't do school, I didn't allow them to play the playstation or any video games or computer games either. They didn't like that much. You think I had made them stay in bed all day. I offered to teach school again, and they took off to play. Elizabeth is the only one who actually came and read a book to me while I was making homemade hot chocolate. She also wrote a story. She will probably be my writer. She is always making up stories on the way home from church.... the boys laugh and laugh. It's get irritating sometimes because they get louder and louder. She also is the one that staples a bunch of papers together to make a book and draws pictures to go with them. She is always thrilled to get a new journal or new notebook.

It will be interesting to see how they will develop and what they will do when they grow up.
Jesse, I think, will be the pastor..... He just has the heart for it. When we had prayer the other day, he came up to pray and asked for us to pray for LuAnne. It's rarely for himself. It's mostly for other people.

Ethan is still the one I have no idea what he will be like..... here he is the oldest and I still don't know. I need to pray about it more, I guess. He loves karate and video games.... Do they have professional game players? LOL My mom says they have contests in gaming and have thousands of $$$$$$ prizes. That might be a goal. The other thing about Ethan is that is is a very hard worker. He will have a good work ethic ..... whatever he decides to do.

I am trying to get Ethan to go shovel the walk.... I happened to get this picture in an email this a.m. so I thought I would share because it was rather fitting at the moment. :)

Fresh

I woke up this morning and it was very pretty outside. Everything was completely covered with fresh white snow. There were a few big white flakes blowing around. It was like a painting only it was real.

It was tough driving home last night from work. We had a bunch of women that came in with leaking amniotic fluid. It must have been the storm and barometric changes coming. Weird. I still have to ask God about that one..... Anyway I was slipping and sliding around all the way home and there was a giant truck right next to me on the already small University Ave. in the hood. I had to keep it at a crawl and the sleety stuff stuck to my windshield and would not clear off. I was thankful to make it home without incident.
Today Edgey had to drive to Newton. He was not happy about that and tried to talk the boss into letting him work in town.... to no avail. When he was out to Colfax, the customer called and asked that they not come because her kids were home from school and it was too bad out.
By that point he was about 10 minutes away. grrrrrrr. He called me, not very happy. He said he had to drive about 30-40 mph all the way on interstate 80 and counted 14 cars in the ditch.

One thing that was funny today was that there were a ton of birds out in the backyard. I haven't put any bird seed out or anything because it has been very nice till now. So anyway I think, "Well, maybe I will go out and put out some birdseed." So I did. When I opened the door a couple of birds were at the waterdish. So then I think that I might need to give them some water. Then I fed the dog and watered her too. When I came inside to look out the window... the birds were all back and swarming the dog dish.... and the dog food was disappearing quickly. So now I know what happens to all the dog food. I couldn't figure out why she was eating so much more than normal. So maybe I will have to move the dishes back into the house...which I hate having to clean up after her because she is a complete messy pig.

College classes start again tomorrow. Tomorrow is orientation and they go over my credits and plan and goals, etc. I am starting to get excited about it. I was bummed out for a while because they aren't offering the classes on the tribes of Israel (I was very pumped about that). The teacher is in a battle with cancer and doing chemo and very tired...... pray for her. So this term I am taking a class in nouthetic counseling which is counseling based on the Bible and not psychology. Just a basic intro class, but should be interesting.


More later -

Have a great snowy day!
KP