Almost convinced

The master has been talking up his new IPhone 4. The "amazing" stuff it will do and all the cool apps. I've never been into cell phones. I didn't even get one until my parents offered to add me to their family plan a little over a year ago. Since then, I've been more than content to use my mom's hand-me-down, bare basics phone--that I am notorious for forgeting to turn on or leaving behind. But sitting here in a hotel room in Houston,checking my blogs and putting up a post using a device only slightly larger than a deck of cards, I am definitely sensing a greater attraction to the cell phone world.

Simple Woman's Day Book

FOR TODAY...March 23, 2011

Outside my window...some wonderful spring weather.

I am thinking...about the many changes/improvements that need to be made to the center before summer. We hit a new, all-time record of kids in care over spring break--52. We're only licesed for 58.

I am thankful for...healthy children. Randy passed his four year old check-up today (yes, I realize we are running almost a year behind) with flying colors.

I am wearing... scrubs. I'm always wearing scrubs.

I am remembering...spring 1998

I am going...to Houston next week for Cara's appointment, which we may decide to turn into a little mini-vacation--seeing as how the kids were stuck at the daycare for the entire spring break.

I am currently reading...Royal Marriages, and The Gifted Preschool Classroom.

I am hoping...that the master's new boss/best friend sold many, many hearing aids today. Did I tell you that the master is in the hearing aid business now?

On my mind...the season's many activities

Noticing that...my grey hairs are becoming quite numerous

Pondering these words... "When a child disobeys, he is in sin. When parents continually reinforce that disobedience [by failing to correct the child's waywardness], they are in sin." -Gary Ezzo

Ouch.

From the kitchen...not a whole heck of a lot.

Around the house...Girls arguing about bath. Ian measuring a pencil. A couple of doors opening and shutting. One lazy dachshund.

From my picture journal:

Girls with new pet bunny (which they promise, promise, promise to take care of) Oreo.

He Brought Home the Bacon

Not only did he bring it home, but he fried it up right after church. Home-grown, not-exactly-certified organic bacon. We put the first hog up ourselves as chops, ribs, loin, and tons of ground pork, and Daddy got a good bit for sausage, but I was sorely dissipointed that for all his pig-farming ways, the master did not have the knowledge or the means to prepare ham and bacon. So, we sent some of our last little piggie (over 400 pounds) to a smokehouse for curing. Real bacon is nothing like what we buy in the grocery store. It is meat--hardly any fat at all--rather tasty. Kids are saying, "Dad, I don't like it, I love it!"

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY...March 14, 2011
Outside my window... breezy, exceptionally clear night.
I am thinking...What a marvelous difference that one little hour makes. I actually have a tiny smidgen of energy at the end of the day. Oh, blessed sunlight! You will be hearing more from me in the weeks ahead--or at least until baseball season hits full swing.

I am thankful for... that the first day of spring break at S*nnyside was not the nightmare I dreaded, but turned out....sunny.
I am wearing... Thomas the Tank scrubs
I am remembering...my dog Sheba. These spring nights remind me of sitting on the front porch swing after school and petting her shaggy, black-rusty coat. Sweet puppy. (Also struck by the memory that there was a point in my life when I had the time to sit on a porch swing.)

I am going...to begin again on painting the house.
I am currently reading...Royal Marriages, The Gifted Preschool Classroom, and Shadows Bride.
I am hoping...to nail down several upcoming events in my life, Sunday school fellowships, birthday parties, CIA functions...
On my mind...the suffering Japanese
Noticing that...I feel more connected to myself when I write (journal, blog) regularly.
Pondering these words... "The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."
From the kitchen...After all that cooking I did over the weekend, we ate out tonight. So, what is up with that? But Monday nights at Carino's are more of a family tradition than anything else. Monday is half-price family platters. We can eat cheaper there on Mondays than we can at McDonald's.

Around the house...relative order and truly filthy floors. Clean laundry thanks to my beautiful, blessed mother-in-law.

From my picture journal:

Who could resist those eyes?

He's Still Working Miracles

In two short weeks we will celebrate her seventh birthday. Born two months premature to a heroin-addicted, alcoholic terminally ill prostitute in a country still desperately trying to recover from a fifty year reign of Darkness. Labeled with pages of dire diagnosis for her mental and physical development. Taken to a cold, sterile orphanage of 125 other abandoned children in a city of 69 such institutions. Placed in a group of 24 infants and two caregivers--who held her as little as possible for fear of a disease she did not carry. Her head became mis-shapen from laying in the same position in her crib, elongated on the sides, protruding forehead. Waiting--alone, yet, not alone--for over a year.
This same child reads above her grade level.
She, whose greatest dilemma in life is deciding which of her dolls she is going to play with.
This same child made a perfect score on her mid-term math test.
Last week, the pediatrician, declared this same child, "as healthy, beautiful, and strong a child" as he had ever seen.
This same child cannot walk around in Wall-Mart without drawing stares of admiration and compliments on her beauty.
This same child looked at me yesterday with tears in her eyes and shock in her tone and said, "Momma! Do you know what Sadie said on the bus? Momma! She said no one in her family prays!"


Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR?
Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:33-36

In the Kitchen

Spent most of today in the grocery store and kitchen. I tried my hand, once again, at cooking-for-a-month. We have to do something. With the master and I both not getting home until six-ish after working twelve to fourteen hour days, we've been eating out two or three times a week. It is killing our budget (Dave would be ashamed of us) and after a certain point, it isn't even pleasurable. I've started to crave my own cooking.
I didn't quite make a month's worth of meals, though. I've yet to see that whole, "cook for a day, eat for a month," gimmick work out, but I do have meals for a week, plus ingredients on hand and plan to see us through March and into April. We'll have Rachel Raye's Pasta Pesto tomorrow, pinto beans and rice for Monday, Tuesday pork chops and Catalina, Wednesday dinner is at church, Thursday pelmini, and Friday hamburgers.
I'm also hoping to teach K and Abby some simple meals that they can be responsible for coming home from school and preparing for the family, but that too, requires an initial time investment, that I'm not exactly sure when I can work in, especially now that baseball season is upon us. Abby knows how to make homemade pizza and last week, I taught her how to make meatballs, and she is eager to try her hand at more, but whenever I bring up my brilliant plan to K, he keeps saying "I don't know how to cook." With a tone rather reminiscent of my father when he would say, "I don't know how to program the VCR." Suggestions on how I can inspire him to culinary greatness--or at least willingness?

What A Week

Thank God it's Friday. A common enough phrase, but how deeply, sincerely I mean it tonight. It's actually been a rough two weeks. Should have blogged all through it...now it is too long of a story to retell. You couldn't hang with me for the duration of the narrative, I'm sure. And since ya'll are my friends, I wouldn't ask you to.
How is it that the longer I go without posting, the less I have to write about?
So here is to a better week--a much better week ahead of me--one in which I will blog every day, and you will only read pleasant, funny, or inspiring anecdotes from my life.