Evaluate My Plate

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. If I'm not "momming" (which--come on--should really be an action verb) I'm working or trying to keep the house picked up and the floor decently clean enough for a crawler, then I'm trying to keep getting things how I like them in the house bit by bit with all these projects being pushed to the side.

Last Monday I did a lot of work-work (the kind I get paid for) and by Tuesday morning I was beat. I did something I don't think I've done since last November.

I put a movie on in the morning.

And sat on the floor with Tatum playing and actually watched most of it. And drank my coffee.

While it was hot.

It was a nice break.

I normally don't have the TV on during the day, and only put on a Praise Baby when someone who's short is rather fussy and I need to get something done. I don't like the idea of the TV being a babysitter and don't buy into that "it's an educational program" bull for one minute, but sometimes a girl just needs a break. God bless the makers of Praise Baby.

So what did I watch?

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness with Ingrid Bergman

Aaaaaand I realized that my life's not so busy as I think.

If you've never watched this movie, its a great one. Yes, men, it's even in color!

Its about the missionary Gladys Aylward, whom I read about when I was in 5th grade and that made me want to be a missionary in China.

That's not looking like it's going to be the plan, but it raised the bar in my mind of what one person is capable of.

This woman was deemed "unqualified" to go to China as a missionary.

So she saved up, week by week, and paid for her own ticket to take her. By train. Through Siberia. During political unrest.

Alone.

Once there she and her mentor opened an inn where they would tell the traveling mule teams stories during mealtime. Stories about Noah's ark and baby Jesus.

Through a course of events she becomes the foot inspector for the region, unbinding the feet of little girls. She began taking in children, adopting them into her life and heart. 

She walked into a prison riot unarmed and stopped it by talking to the prisoners.

And when the Japanese invaded she led over 100 kids through the mountains to safety.

One part they left out in the movie happened when she faced a fork in the road. The Japanese were coming one way, but she didn't know which road they were coming on.  It was cold, the kids were starving and she had to make a choice.

She prayed, spun around, and took the road she was pointed at. It was the higher road, and later they looked down and saw the Japanese troops on the lower road.

This gal had a lot going on.

It's a great movie and actually stays relatively close to the true life story of this remarkable woman...its on Netflix if you care to watch it.

All that to say that my plate didn't look quite as full as it did before. There was always room for one more kid in her house and one more story to tell and one more person to love on. 

So I evaluate my plate. Figure out how I can love more, do more, give more.  I've been blessed with so much, and know that because much has been given, much will be required (Luke 12:48).

But it was nice to stop for a minute and watch a movie in the middle of the day :-)

These two know how to stop and enjoy something. Like a family of mockingbirds flitting around the backyard.

Yes, Roy has paint on him.

That's fallen off my priority list...just making more room on my plate...

Mobility, Mamas and Mud

After too long a hiatus here is the return of the weekly pic!

41 Weeks old!!!

This picture was before this face:

She is so mobile now! She gets where she want to FAST! And she's standing for 5-6 seconds at a time and lowering herself to sitting from there...it won't be long before she's walking!

We here in Okie Homie had a great Mother's Day.  I was assured Matt would be on baby duty so I could sleep, but he thought I'd want to greet Tatum first thing in the morning...it being Mother's Day and all...

We went to the zoo and enjoyed the baby elephant and the tiger cubs and each other.

And yesterday...oh, yesterday was a D.A.Y.  Well let me back up...last week while driving to work Matt's tire tread peeled off on the freeway, and we ended up having to get him all four new tires.

Two weeks ago we backed into an old, beat up parked car and made a 2" dent.  We could have driven away, but we stopped, knocked on their door, gave them our info and prayed they wouldn't worry about it. 

Not so much.

That, plus our address change (we moved 4 miles!) raised our insurance $30 a month.

Then yesterday morning, Matt noticed a small stream coming from our side yard. 

I called the City's emergency dispatch at noon, explained where the leak was, and waited.

I also called our Home Warranty, and found out that because the  leak was outside the walls of the home, they didn't cover it. 

Fast forward to 7 and Matt and my Dad are starting to dig to find the leak.  The City shows up at EIGHT (after 3 more phone calls), looks at it and basically says its not their problem since its above the water meter.

Thanks.

We can't shut the water off inside the house because the inspector forgot to put that on his report and it's rusted tight, so my Dad and Matt open the water main and shut off the water (without telling me...while I was making dinner...and kneading bread...).

So we're stuck with this leak that is in this small area that neither the city nor our warranty covers...it's up to us.

So Matt digs, and my brother digs a bit and my dad digs a bit and our neighbors show up and dig a bit.

And I'm making focaccia bread inside, thinking I'll give the loaves to my parents and neighbors as a thank you.

Right before I pop the bread in the oven I feed Roy and step outside to check the progress. Coming back inside...BOTH loaves are gone.

That dog ate both of them.

Don't worry, he's paying for it today (as am I) with uncontrollable flatulence.

BUT...

the men fixed it.

It was a muddy, wet, dirty, stinky job but they did it and saved us $400!!! I am so proud of my hubby!!! 

And that night we got to take showers and run our dishwasher, thankful for the gift of flowing hot water.

Dave Ramsey says Murphy comes in threes...insurance, tires, water main busting...I hope we're done!!!

OH, and did I mention that I was stressed and all I wanted was a warm cookie but didn't want to do the dishes from it, and talked myself out of going to the store for them...only to get home and find our neighbors had brought us a plate of the BEST chocolate cookies I have EVER tasted. WARM.

God is good...all the time.

Week 38...39...Where Did The Time Go?

Since we bought our house we've been working nearly around the clock. I've been pulling 18-19 hour days at first painting and then unpacking and now just keeping up with a baby that crawls faster than you can believe! On top of working, and cleaning, and budgeting around this new-found thing called a mortgage!

I really think God should have just rounded that 24-hour day up to 30.

I did take pictures of Tatum's 38th week!

She is crawling all over the place! Once she got the hang of it she was off!

Then we had a series of expressions:

And then we had a little photo session a few days later so I guess this sort of counts as Week 39?

Mama got a little happy with the actions in Photoshop...

Other than that, the big news for us was my parents graduated from college last Saturday!!!

My mom was honored for her research project and my dad became a member of Phi Beta Kappa (correct me if I'm wrong on the name, Dad)! And I'd like to point out my mom would have too if not for her grades from college 30 years ago...so see kids? You never know when  flaking off in school will come back to bite you!

I'm so proud of them!