All Together Now!

Happy birthday to me,

happy birthday to me!

It may be a huge splurge

But I love my coffee!

It's Too Bad...

I didn't find this costume

when my babies actually were babies.

Of course, then I would have had to eat them.

Book Plugs

So, it's been worky worky worky around here lately, but one of the reasons I wanted to move to working for myself was to actually have more time available for my family. To date, that's kind of a no-go, but once my kiddos get off the school bus (with The World's Nicest Bus Driver - I love her and she is welcome to get off with them, although an abandoned school bus in the neighborhood might raise some eyebrows), my time is devoted to them.

One of the first things we do when we get home, after they have put up bookbags, gotten out school folders, and grabbed a snack and drink, is read. I've felt convicted in the past year or so that I just don't read enough with my kids. I made a decision this year to treat us all to a 30-minute read time before we start to tackle homework. Read Time meaning I read to them. The first book we read was "Indian Captive" by Lois Lenski. That was good and actually kind of PC for having been written in the 1940s.

Then we found "Island of the Blue Dolphins" a few weeks ago and tackled that one. I've heard of this book forever, but had never read it until I read it this month with the kiddos. We all loved it. The protagonist is a girl, as it is in "Indian Captive" but the boys did not mind at all. Both books were full of enough adventure to keep them captivated. Next on the list: "Caddie Woodlawn." LOVE that book, and I can't tell you how many times I've read it. Yet another book with a female main character. Yet another Newberry Medal/Honor book - this was unintentional, but I love that all three of these children's books that we are reading/have read are "classics."
Now one for the grown-up girls! I am a huge Elizabeth Berg fan and have never met a book of hers that I haven't loved. Her characters are so well developed and realistic. Despite not being a 59-year-old author/widow, I really identified with the main character in this book. It didn't get very good reviews on B&N website, but that's just because all their buyers are on crack. Kidding!

How does it get better than this? The main character says: "Eleanor didn't have many rules about child rearing, but one of them was this: Never interrupt reading." She's an author with a brilliant agenda!

Nifty Gifty From the Hubs

Why, yes, yes I do.

Reminder for the Forgetful

So, as you Caught Up Blog Stalkers know, it's been quite a busy couple of months for me. In theory, I will be working - therapy-wise - about sixteen hours a week (four hours/four days a week). And in theory, I will be coming home and working for, oh, an hour or so on paperwork on each of those four days.

In reality, over the past month, I have been providing about fours hours of therapy each day and then working, oh, three hours more on paperwork until the boys get home from school (um, yes with a smidge of Facebook thrown in), and then picking up about three more hours of paperwork in the evening after the boys go to bed. And then on the weekends, it's at least six more hours of paperwork with some catch-up house cleaning thrown in.

I can hear what you are saying Blog Stalker friends: "Cry me a river poor little rich business owner!" Ix-nay on the rich part, by the way. Medicaid rejected half of my first set of billing claims. Turns out I am full of human (correctable) error.

All I'm saying is while starting a business has been a blessing and I'm terribly excited about it and it's going smashingly well (well, not the rejected claim part, but I'll get there), it is also extremely stressful for me. For some reason (my purity and innocence, surely), I had no idea I would be spending so many hours at home to begin with. Thankfully, my hubbers is AWESOME, and he has been incredibly supportive in so many ways. And this will get to be less work at home eventually. However, in the meantime, my little (expanding) body is going a bit haywire from the stress and all that doggone candy corn that I can't seem to stop inhaling. Funny how the more stressed I feel, the less I take care of myself.

Soooooo, all this to say that when I saw that my (dear college friend) Joni posted something about the following hymn on Facebook last night, it was again God bringing to light His words in His perfect timing. This has always been a favorite hymn of mine (good heavens - where have all the hymns GONE on Sunday morning???), and I really needed to hear the refrain.

I am so thankful that God has given me this ministry that I LOVE. Also thankful for the reminder to focus on HIM in the midst of this busy, tiring time.

"Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" by Helen H. Lemmel
O Soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!

Refrain:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Through death into life everlasting
He passed and we follow him there;
O'er us sin hath no longer dominion -
For more than conquerors we are!

His word shall not fail you, He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!

Lessons Learned from Dog Ownership

Isn't she beautiful? We've had Lu Dog for about nine months now. It has been so much fun to fall in love with another little fuzzy critter, and I am so thankful we had her when I had to say goodbye to Su Cat this summer. Here are a few lessons I've learned along the way from her:

• sometimes you can have just had a bath and still stink
• belly rubbing is good for the soul
• if one of your favorite humans is gone for five hours, you will be SO EXCITED TO SEE THEM!
• if one of your favorite humans is gone for five minutes, you will be SO EXCITED TO SEE THEM!
• eating popcorn with your smacky mouth wide open makes it just that much more enjoyable
• your volume of howling is directly proportional to the depth of sleep experienced by the dog mother beside you on the bed
• there is little more perplexing in this world than chasing a tail that you can't catch
• the husband may be playing it cool, but reality is, he does kiss the dog when no one's looking
• a corollary to the above: depending on the wife's moodiness, she may quickly become Second Best Girl to the husband on any given day
• surprisingly, poop is as much of a gourmet treat as steak
• a corollary to the above: poop is as wonderful to wear as it is to eat
• it doesn't take much to have every member of our family wrapped around this dog's tail

Turns out...

...that I'm of an age where people - adults...other WOMEN - say things to me like:

• "I hope I look as good as you do when I'm your age!"

- or -

• "You don't look anywhere NEAR your age!"

- or -

• "Really?? You're that old??"

Intriguing, really, since I'm only 36. A hot 36, evidently, but still. No worries. I'll just take these statements as the, um, compliments they are intended to be, yes?