I have always been a bargain shopper. Always been good at finding “deals” when I make purchases. Almost never pay full price on retail items. So, when it comes time to make decisions about home purchases, I don’t take my best price sleuthing skills for granted. Today we decided to do asbestos testing on the popcorn ceiling in our kitchen since part of it decided to peel off and fall down today. The first guy I called really made me uncomfortable on the phone. I felt like he was trying to pull some scare tactics on me and I don’t like that. I really didn’t like that he said he wouldn’t charge me “much”, only $200 for this testing. So, I called another guy. A much nicer and more friendly guy. His quote was less. A good bit less. Enough that I was pretty much ready to have him come out and do the testing. But, I found one more number and wound up leaving a voice mail for that guy. The third guy called back and his quote was even less. For the same testing. Granted, he can’t come until later today, but he’ll still have the result back on Thursday. So, he’s booked. I really felt bad about backing out on the second guy because he was so nice and courteous to me on the phone. But, hey, let’s face it – money talks. The third guy was just as nice, so I hope he lives up to my expectations. More than that, let’s hope for NO ASBESTOS!! If there is none, we can take down that horrid popcorn ceiling coating ourselves. It’s not our idea of a great time, but it would save us a ton of money. And, no one wants asbestos in their house. Yikes!!
Do things really happen in threes?!
If things really happen in threes, as the old wives tale goes, then we are 2/3 of the way there with house issues. First, the water problem happened. Well, now we have another issue that has come up this morning. I was boiling water on the stove so that I could use it for cleaning, etc. I had the exhaust fan on, but apparently it wasn’t enough to contain all the steam and the steam caused a section of the ceiling to peel off above the stove. Just lovely. It’s that yucky popcorn stuff on the ceiling and we’ve actually wanted it down for quite some time now, but we just haven’t bothered with doing anything about it. Guess we will now. We are trying to decide if we need to have it tested for asbestos. Odds are, it’s not present, but I’m thinking that’s not a risk to take. I have scheduled someone to come out this afternoon to take a sample to test for asbestos. Hopefully it is not present, but we would always rather be safe than sorry. So, add another thing to our plate. But, hey, at least the ceiling will look better soon. Then maybe we’ll be inspired to do the remaining ceilings.
On Our Home Front…
Well, it’s been a weird couple of days around our home front. This is because we are currently without hot water. We had some sort of leak in our basement which caused the pilot light to go out on our water heater. Mickey called a plumber and he came out to work here most all of yesterday afternoon. He thought he had the leak fixed, but the pilot light wouldn’t relight at that point. We all assumed it needed to properly dry out and THEN it would light. Mickey tried several times through the evening to relight it to no avail. This morning he went to the basement bright and early and not only would the pilot not relight, but the leak was back. Not as big as before, but still there. {{sigh}} So, we have to call the plumber and get him back out here ASAP. Then we have to hope that the leak stays away and hope the pilot dries out enough to finally light. If that doesn’t work, we have to get some sort of technician out here to fix the water heater too. The “joys” of home ownership, right?! Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining too loudly. I know for a fact that we are blessed to have a home. I am grateful for that. I’m also thankful that this problem isn’t any worse than it is. Sure, it’s an inconvenience and a half, but it’s not the end of the world. At least we have the stove to heat water for dishes and we could heat water for bathing if need be. Does that sound ideal? No, but it’s a solution that works. So, we’ll do what we have to do and hope this gets resolved quickly. I’m SOOOO ready for a nice hot bubble bath and a book. That sounds heavenly right about now.
All of this has really made me realize how much we take for granted. I mean, just think about hot water. It’s just supposed to BE there, right? Turn on the tap, wait a nominal amount of time and hot water is supposed to be readily available. That’s what we’re used to and being without it sort of turned things upside down for us. I was talking to my brother Charlie about this just this morning and we both realized that it really could be a lot worse. At least I don’t have to draw water from a well or collect it from a creek. At least I don’t have to heat water over a fire. I mean, really, the inconvience is so slight compared to what it could be. I am so guilty of taking so many things for granted, especially things like “every day conveniences.” We have a climate controlled home. Flip a switch, adjust the dials or buttons and we’re as warm or cool as we want to be. Easy. Start our washing machine, add powder, throw in the clothes, close the lid and walk away. Come back later to clean clothes. Easy. Want to go somewhere? Go out to one of our two vehicles, get in, turn the key and it’s ready to go. Easy. So many things in our life come so easily. We’re spoiled, quite frankly. We’re not even a family of “privilege” by many of the world’s standards, but yet we are absolutely spoiled and pampered. It really makes me stop and think about these things when I lose a convenience that I rely on so much. It’s frustrating as all get out, yes, but I won’t lose sight that it’s temporary and simply inconvenient. It’s not the worst thing in the world.
So, today finds me hoping that the plumber can come over and fix this problem. SOON. But, in the meantime, I am reminding myself to be grateful for the things we DO have which are plentfiful. I’m not always good at doing that, but it does help to make the most out of a frustrating situation.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart…”
Jeremiah 29:11~13 (NIV)
Our Recent Happenings…
Before I post about what is going on in our family lately, I am once again going to point readers over to MckMama’s blog called My Charming Kids. Sweet baby Stellan (aka MckMuffin) is still in need of prayer. So is his family. Please lift up this precious baby boy and those that love him.
In news from my home front…
- As I mentioned previously, my friend Dana and I went to see Kate Gosselin speak on Friday. I had so much fun hanging out with Dana and getting to just talk, share, laugh, etc. That was great! I thought Kate was good. She spoke for about an hour and most of it was about her struggles to get pregnant, their decision not to selectively abort any of their multiple babies in utero and how they handle things at home. So, that was very informative and uplifting, of course. I was just a little disappointed because I had hoped she would speak some about Proverbs 31 Ministries because she sometimes does speaking engagements through them from what I understand. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable evening out with a friend and I’m so glad that Dana and I got to go.
- On Saturday afternoon I got to photograph a wedding reception. I had so much fun! It was “work”, sure, but it was quite a great time. I am almost done with the final edits of the photos. Mickey and I are also working on a photo montage video for them. I am so hopeful that they like the photos I got for them.
- We went to church on Sunday. We have been trying to go at 9:30, but this Sunday it just worked out better to go to the 11:00 service. I’m so glad we were at that service because not only did we get to see our friends Jessie & Carly (who we LOVE), but the message was incredible! Jody preached on the Acts church and how that is what we should strive to be. Church isn’t about meeting in a building once a week. Church should be about what we do every day. How we live. How we reflect Christ in our lives so that others see and want to know what He means to us. It’s a lot to take in, but wouldn’t that be an awesome way to really live?!
- Yesterday Mickey and I went to Macey’s school for lunch. We thought it was a special lunch for her “Character Education” award. But, no. I had the date wrong. That lunch is NEXT Monday. So, we just got to have a nice meal with Macey for no particular reason other than just because. And, hey, just because is always good enough.
I hope I will get to go to the lunch next Monday, but I have jury duty beginning that day, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what time I’ll be done. - This morning I am taking Mariana to the ENT for her pre-op visit. On Friday she is having her ear tubes replaced and her adenoids removed. We hope this will help solve the continuing issues that plague her so often. Prayers, of course, are much appreciated.
Guess that’s it for now. Hope everyone has a beautiful day. Please keep praying for Stellan!!
In Christ,
Kelly
Praise the Lord!
How many times do we say “Praise the Lord” and never really think THAT much about the phrase itself? I know I’m guilty of it from time to time. There’s a parking spot near the door at Target? Praise the Lord. We already got Macey signed up for summer dance camp? Praise the Lord. Mickey gets to come home early today? Praise the Lord. If I don’t say it out loud, I still think it many times a day. But, do I really praise Him? Or, am I repeating a phrase I’m used to repeating? Makes me stop and think, really. I should give pause and actually give Him the praise. God is the fount of all good things. Why am I not praising Him more? That is the question.
Today’s post is actually inspired by another Kelly who blogs over at Kelly’s Korner. (BTW, if you get a chance to check out her blog – please do. It’s a great one!) Yesterday she posted an entry called Let’s Give Him Some Praise and that really got me thinking. As Kelly mentioned, it seems like you don’t have to look far to see sadness, struggle, adversity and trials going on in people’s lives. It would be so easy sometimes to get bogged down in the negative and forget all the positives God has laid out for us. But, His perfect provision is everywhere. Even in the things we take for granted like running water, homes that are heated and cooled via climate control, food on our table, clothes to wear, etc. God’s goodness can be found in everything from the tiniest detail to the most amazing miracle we’ve ever seen or heard. So, today I am going to list some praises. By no means is this list complete, but it’s a start at least. And, it’s also a reminder to me to praise Him more. Because He deserves all our praise, really.
PRAISE: I am married to a strong Christian man who loves and values his family beyond words. Mickey is the kind of husband who makes me feel beautiful because of his love. He cherishes me and I feel that every day. He also loves our girls so much and is an amazing daddy to them.
PRAISE: We both come from loving families that are always there for us. We don’t live all that close to any given member of our family, but we know in our hearts that if we ever needed family, someone would be here as soon as they could get here.
PRAISE: We are blessed to have two beautiful, sweet, caring and incredible little girls. They are healthy, smart, strong and full of life & love.
PRAISE: We have a place to call home. Our house may not be the biggest, fanciest, best decorated or even the tidiest there ever was, but it’s home and we are grateful for that. We love our home. We feel so blessed to finally have a house that we can envision our family in for years to come.
PRAISE: Our church is home to us. It’s not just a place to go on Sunday mornings. Mickey goes there to work and enjoys it tremendously. Mariana attends preschool at our church. I volunteer. Both girls enjoy Sunday School and are already looking forward to VBS. Our church family has surrounded us with love and friendship that we value so much. It’s a blessing to be there every time we walk through the doors.
PRAISE: We have some really great friends. Some we’ve known for years, some we’ve met recently and some that we even met online. Such relationships bless our hearts and lives tremendously.
PRAISE: It’s spring and that is such a time of renewal and hope. When the weather warms up, we can get outside and enjoy. Soak up the warm rays of sunshine and have a ball. It’s a great time of year!
PRAISE: I am extremely blessed to get to be home with our girls. It’s a dream come true for me. I am so grateful and need to always remember to be thankful.
PRAISE: I get to enjoy some of my very favorite things like warm chocolate chip cookies, morning coffee made by Mickey, an occasional pedicure, date nights with Mickey, strawberry limeades with extra strawberries from Sonic (whenever we are near one), Chic-fil-A biscuits, shopping, baking cookies for others just because I know they like them, receiving email and occasionally a card in the mailbox, listening to good music and singing along in the security of the van, read great books, have friends over to hang out with us, grill out, watch my favorite tv shows via TIVO so I can skip commercials, dream of being on the Amazing Race with Mickey, jump on the trampoline with the girls, shop, buy pretty things for the girls, catch up with friends on Facebook (now on hold ’til Easter since it’s Lent) and so much more!
PRAISE: Mariana is doing so well with potty-training. I’m telling everyone, this is a PRAISE!! We’re almost a diaper free household. That is sort of bittersweet, but mostly pretty exciting!
PRAISE: I have opportunities to practice my photography which I really enjoy. I’m super excited to have a chance to shoot a wedding reception this weekend. Then I get to shoot the wedding of some of our very good friends in May. Such a joy!
PRAISE: Macey is reading all the time and loving it! Can’t help but hope both girls will be book worms like me.
PRAISE: Several of our friends are expecting babies. We are so excited for them!
PRAISE: My friend Dana and I are going to see Kate Gosselin speak on Friday. I am SO excited about this!!
My life is so full of blessings. Our family is blessed beyond measure. PRAISE THE LORD!! There have been times when I have been guilty of not seeing these blessings and neglecting to be thankful for what I did have in the face of what I felt I didn’t have. I should be faithful enough to praise God EVERY day because every day is a blessing. Even though there will be struggles and trials in this life, the hope of my heart would be that I would be found to be faithful in the midst of it all.
Blessings,
Kelly
A heaping helping of randomosity…
- Good morning and HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY!
- Macey wore her green to school very proudly today. Well, she was somewhat disappointed that she wasn’t dressed head to toe in green, to be honest. She has on a green long-sleeved tee which I thought was perfect, but she wanted green pants too. Go figure.
- Spring weather is supposed to return to us today. We’re looking for mid-60s for the high. I can definitely appreciate that!
- I made Rachael Ray’s Chicken, Biscuits’n'Gravy Casserole for dinner last night. It was my second time making it and it was great once again. So easy to make and yummy too!
- Mickey brought home a new book for me yesterday. What a sweetheart! I sent him a list of books I’d like and he went to our church bookstore and got one to surprise me. He brought home Take One, Above The Line Series #1 by Karen Kingsbury, so that’s what I am reading now. Kingsbury is always great to read!
- I’m not sure whether to whisper this cautiously or shout it from the rooftops, but Mariana is doing SO well with her potty-training. She is quite proud of herself too!! (Won’t say more because it’s early in the process yet.)
- I’m excited to watch Biggest Loser: Couples tonight! Maybe that will help me regain some motivation. Lately I have just not been into working out and I need to get my movitation back on track. I think maybe I need another DVD or two so that I can work through a rotation and not get bored. Ideally, I’d like to join the YMCA as a family so we could work out there, so maybe that can happen soon.
- Our play room is well on its way to being more organized. I had a wonderful organization consultant over here yesterday and we worked hard to get the play room in better shape. I am waiting on her to give us a quote to put in shelving units with drawers into the closet so that we can keep it organized down there. It felt good to purge some excess yesterday. Now, if only I could do that all around the house. Hmmm…?!?!?
- I am photographing a wedding reception on Saturday and I am SO excited about that!
- I’m off to get ready to face the day. Hope to get lots more done around the house. I guess I’m “spring cleaning” in steps. LOL!
- Have a great day!
Thank You, Spay Georgia
Macey got a kitten for Christmas. She named him Dasher. When Dasher came to live with us, he had feline pneumonia and didn’t feel well for about the first week we had him. With medication and lots of TLC, Dasher has bounced back and really lives up to his name. He’s a feisty little fella these days. He has been a fun addition to our family.
Today, Dasher is getting “fixed.” Thanks to Spay Georgia we were able to get a reduced rate on this procedure. Spay Georgia is a non-profit organization dedicated to the humane treatment of animals. They also have a goal of preventing more unwanted pets by providing low cost spays and neuters. It’s a wonderful organization! Highly recommended! If you would like to learn more or perhaps donate, check out the Spay Georgia website for more information.
Here is our Dasher:
Hopefully everything will go super smoothly today and we’ll have him back this evening. He’ll probably need a day or so of quiet recovery, but I’m sure he’ll be back to dashing in no time at all.
~Kelly
Snow Watch ’09
You can definitely tell we live Down South. The possible snow is all the buzz. In our house, we’re all anxious to see if/when the snow will get here and, if it does, how much will accumulate. The girls have snow bibs from our trip up to MI in December, so it would be fun to get those out again and turn the girls loose in the snow this afternoon. We’ll see.
On a totally unrelated, but happy note – the girls are absolutely LOVING the animals they made at Build-a-Bear yesterday. They are still playing with them this morning. So cute!
Happy Sunday!
The Santa Dilemma…
It’s that time of year again. It’s just barely past Halloween, still more than two weeks before Thanksgiving and yet Christmas is already everywhere we look. Decorations have been up in some stores for weeks now, more catalogs are coming in the mail daily and we’re even beginning to hear some Christmas songs on the radio. I could actually get on a soapbox and rant all day on how I feel that Christmas has become too commercialized and how ridiculous I find it that decorations and such are already up, but that is not the point of today’s blog entry. I can hear the collective sigh of relief already. Today’s topic is about how torn I am on this Santa thing. It’s really weighing on my mind today and I wanted to get out some thoughts and hopefully get some feedback too. So, stick with me here, please and feel free to leave comments. I’m very interested in what others think and have to say.
As I mentioned above, I am really REALLY torn on this Santa Claus issue. On one hand, I think it’s fun to get into the whole Santa system. I mean, it’s a little bit of “magic” (please note that I use that word innocently) that kids get to think about, or believe in, for a month and a half out of every year. (We all know they forget about all that “He’s watching, be good” stuff as soon as they see the gifts around the tree. That is shot for another eleven months.) In our house we leave out cookies and Mountain Dew each Christmas Eve because Santa needs a caffeine jolt by the time he finally gets to Georgia. We also leave carrots and water for the reindeer. The anticipation and excitement of it all is fun. It really is a great time. But, it feels weird to me this year for some reason. Even though I know it’s all in fun, I feel like I’m lying to my kids about a person that doesn’t exist. I feel that I’m misleading them and potentially setting them up to get their hearts broken when they find out the truth. And, what if this causes them to question if Jesus is real too?! This is the dilemma on my heart today. Of all days, why today? I have no idea, but it’s there. This burden is on my heart and I can’t seem to make much of it on my own right now.
I should clarify that we most certainly teach our girls first and foremost that Christmas is about celebrating Jesus’ birth. They know that much. We keep Christ in Christmas because, well, that’s what it’s all about. The whole Santa thing is far secondary to Jesus, of course. Macey even likes to help me bake a birthday cake for Jesus and we love to sing the Christmas songs that celebrate His birth. That element is present in our home and in our celebrations. That’s where we try to keep our main focus. But, kids are kids and since the whole Santa bit gets told in school and even in church they can’t help but to hear it and be excited by it. It’s been impossible to fully shield our children from knowing about Santa in our society. They know about the big guy in the red and white suit and, trust me, they are genuinely intrigued by it all. What worries me is setting them up to learn that he’s not really real and what that might do to their trust in us and in the Christian values we are helping to establish in them. We have a friend who told us the story of his daughter finding out about Santa and it devastated her because she then wanted to know if they made up the story of Jesus too. That really hit my heart. The last thing I ever want for these girls is to think that any element of our Christian faith is just made up or even untrue. So, the question plaguing me today is wondering if it’s truly possible to intermingle a little bit of Santa lore while keeping the the focus on Jesus? I tend to think so. I want to think so, but my mind is going a hundred miles per hour on that one today.
I would love to hear from other Christians about how you and your family celebrate Christmas. What do you all do? Especially if your child or children are like ours and can’t help but know about Santa from their various surroundings. How do you handle it?
I’m wondering if it’s time to talk to Macey and explain that Santa isn’t real, but it’s fun to think about there being such a kind and generous person in the world. I wonder if she’d get that? I don’t want to ruin any fun for her. She definitely knows what the true meaning of Christmas is – she’s got Jesus in her heart and she knows it’s about Him. Mariana is still a bit young, but she is learning too.
So, let me hear from you. How were things in your home growing up? How are they now? How is Santa handled in your house? Let me hear it. I’m eager to discuss. This is not a one time blog post. This is something that I want to explore and find my way to peace about this season.
Seven Years Ago…
On October 27, 2001 I became Mickey’s wife. That’s the day I was so blessed as to marry my true love, the man God intended for me. These years together have been the best of my life. In these seven years we have grown from a family of two to a family of four. We have moved several times and faced some challenges along the way. We’ve done it all together with God’s grace.
Here’s to Divine Intervention! Seven years into forever…
