Olive Tree

The lists are endless. Packing list for Noelle to go to Grandma’s tomorrow for the night. Packing list for us for the raft trip. Shopping list for the food to go get tonight. List of things yet to do today. I love making lists, but today I’m feeling a little overtaken by them. There is a lot to do. At the moment I am waiting for our church bulletin to finish printing so I can begin laying out the next project.

That’s another thing I like – print day. I like it that every Thursday morning, with an occasion exception, I stay home and print stuff for church on Sunday. The prayer list and sermon outline, the bulletin, uploading the bulletin to the church website, checking the church calendar for things to get the word out about, printing anything extra that is needed – this week it’s an insert for the bulletin on community outreach stuff that’s coming up. It’s a good feeling when I get done and there are stacks of papers next to the printer – a sign that I’ve gotten something tangible done.

I don’t know why that’s so important. Maybe because there is so much unfinished in my life right now. The laundry pile is never really gone, there’s always one more dish to wash, one more thing I can straighten. There are very few things that I do that I can say loudly – “It is finished!” and check it off my list.

See now I’m back to my lists again. Love them! Really.

Other things . . .

• We had dinner last night with our Summer Supper Group from church. Very fun. Four families, 3 with small kids. Noelle reached her new max number of steps last night – 5! I feel sure it was from the influence of an almost 4 year old, almost 2 year old, and almost 1 year old she was trying to keep up with! 🙂
• Noelle goes to Grandma’s tomorrow night for her first overnight stay. I’m not sure I’m ready for it, but Grandma sure is. I’ve been getting hints since she was born about letting my Mom have her overnight and I’ve finally relented. (Also, the raft trip had a little something to do with it). This has caused some family tension because my sister and neice want Noelle to come out and spend then night with them. *sigh* So Noelle has already got a weekend in September booked with her cousin for a night. Travis and I have to go to a wedding out in the sticks of Tennessee and T. is playing and arranging the music for the wedding and he’s the sound guy or I would just tote Noelle with us. But, in keeping up family relations, I realized this might be a good opportunity for an overnight stay.
• The dogs . . . a short word. Sam was bad, bad, bad yesterday. I had made my dessert for our Summer Supper Group and whilst turning around for 2 seconds, heard the sound of small smacking and caught him with his head in the pan and a bite out of my spice cake. It was an ugly scene for a moment. I thought about just cutting out the part that he had nibbled on, but then realized that I couldn’t, in good conscience, take that to a dinner so I made dessert #2 which I then promptly place high up and out of reach.
• I have a new scrapbook magazine laying on the coffee table. I skimmed through it last night, but I am itching to get it and spend some quality time with it and my sketchpad. Not going to happen today. Maybe I’ll have a moment while I’m lazing down the Ocoee River on a raft on Saturday?

This is very random today. Hmmm. Off to do some more work and get N.’s lunch ready for her when she awakens . . . Back on Monday with reports on our rafting experience and injuries if any! 🙂

Okay, so I just read somewhere online that Star Wars Episode III has been titled and is set for release on May 19, 2005. Am I a totally geek because I already have that on my calendar? The Revenge of the Sith – sounds totally cool.

Other movies that I really want to see (although I may end up watching them on video rather than the big screen):
Spiderman 2
Hidalgo
Princess Diaries 2
The Incredibles

My Houston trip is officially off for now. Both of my friends are tied up with stuff on the weeks that I was trying to travel and part of Travis’ business trip has now also been postponed until September. I’m disappointed that I’m not going, but now I can start to get some stuff lined up for while Travis is gone. I’ve got a bunch of church work going on in August, and it would have been tough to get a lot of it done from Houston. I’m hoping I can tag along for the September part of his business trip…

Last night I finished reading Miserly Moms. I love books that inspire me in my stay-at-home-Mom role. This book has some very good ideas about slashing the budget without making you sound like a freak for wanting to save a penny here and there. And it had a recipe that I’ve been trying to track down – a good recipe for homemade pizza dough. We love homemade pizza and it’s soooooo much cheaper than ordering one. And, funny story, apparently the neighborhood that we live in is just rough enough that Papa John’s will not deliver to our neighborhood after about 8:30 p.m. I’ve tried explaining that we are nice folks, but they won’t buy it. 🙂 Anyway, I spent a chunk of time yesterday working on my meal plan for August. I like planning most of my meals for the month at one time and making only one HUGE shopping trip per month, supplemented by the little runs for more milk, eggs, etc.

I have this verse taped over my sink in the kitchen and have been trying to memorize for about a week. The only thing that is sticking with me is the first line so I’ve been thinking about it. I even went to the Bible Knowledge Commentary to look up the verse and see what it said since it’s been on my mind so much.

“those who are near God find joy and safety. Though he [Asaph] had nearly slipped in his confidence in God (cf. v. 2) he now was reassured that God was keeping him secure. God was his Refuge. . . . Nearness to God always helps believers maintain a balanced perspective on material things and on the wicked.

That last line is right where I’m at. Especially the part about material things. That has always been a struggle for me. Wanting more than can be afforded, trying to keep up with the Jones’s and all that. However, if my focus is on the Lord and my time with Him and how I am representing Him then I shouldn’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. My nearness to Him is my good and it will complete me and fill me up. Pretty fabulous.

A shot of the girl for the day….

You are a Prairie Muffin! You love God and you
love your home, and you are determined to do it
all Right. Have you read your manifesto yet?
Do a google search for Prairie Muffin
Manifesto, if you haven’t.

What kind of muffin are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Not much to say today. Loads of laundry whirring, going to make some bread (yummmm), and lunch with my Mom and sister to look forward to.

I’m off…. 🙂

This is picture is of Noelle laying on the vacuum. She was also kissing it while I was trying to sweep last night. She is a little bit odd. 🙂

A Noelle Update:
She is consistently saying DaDa now, usually at the top of her lungs. She is also saying “Baa” (her lamb) much more. MaMa is occasionally uttered, but I still don’t think that she is referring to me yet when she says it. *sigh* 🙂 We are eating all sorts of new table food as well: chicken, cheese – she LOVES string cheese, lots of kiwi, strawberries, peas, green beans, cheerios, crackers, mandarin oranges, cantalope, honeydew. I gave her some watermelon for the first time this weekend and I don’t think she was impressed with it. We haven’t been able to get her to eat any red meat either, like hamburger. She turns up her nose at it. She had some pizza a few nights ago and thought it was pretty great. She is now taking two steps in a row fairly consistently. If it’s more than two, she resorts to crawling. Her crawling is getting slower, though, because she usually needs to carry something now when she is going somewhere (small toy, Baa, the dog’s *ick* bone, etc.) and therefore only has one hand for crawling. She’s getting so big.

In other family happenings . . .

My trip to Houston is still in an on again/off again status. I emailed my friend I would be visiting and she is going to have family in town most of the time that I would be there so it’s really not a good week for her. Plus, Travis’s work hasn’t made his reservation yet, so he didn’t want to make my flight arrangements and then end up travelling at a different time than me. I don’t see the point in spending a bunch of money on a plane ticket to sit in a hotel for 8 hours a day while Travis works. We had a backup week for the trip if I couldn’t go the first week, but that’s is now also up in the air as to whether T. will go to help with that training.

I don’t like “up in the air.” I like things written on my calendar so I can plan, make lists, and get excited about it. We have several things going on right now that are in various and sundry states of this. We’re supposed to go on a raft trip this weekend with the youth group and I wish we could just finalize the trip plans and BE DONE WITH IT.

I also had an epiphany about part of my frustration last night. We have too much going on on the weekend and by Sunday night, I am tired because of too many “good things” that went on, and not enough just being home together time. Monday morning rolls around with no thought to what’s coming up in the week, do we have clean clothes, and is there even anything in the house suitable for Travis to take for lunch? The last two weekends, we have had outings on both Friday and Saturday night, and all-day commitments for Sunday. This coming weekend looks just the same – raft trip Friday and Saturday, then Sunday is taken up with church, a lunch ministry meeting for us and then he has a band rehearsal in the evening. Then the following week we are committed to 5 day clubs every evening.

I need some margin in my life. On a whim, I looked up the word “margin” in the dictionary:

a limit in a condition or process, beyond or below which something is no longer possible or acceptable

I have reached my limit in the things that we can fit into our weekends and still be an excellent wife and mother (EW&M). (Prov. 31:10) I don’t want to settle for just being mediocre at my job by giving myself to everything else and leaving T. & N. just the skimming of what’s left of me. I’m going to be pondering this morning in the weeks to come and am very excited. Right now, in my role of EW&M, is clean underwear and socks for the family! 🙂

Happy Monday, ya’ll.

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Dana

Sarah