Save the House!

So instead of trying to clean my house, I've decided to try to save it instead! My energies are devoted to creative money making endeavors. I'm crocheting hats, scarves, purses, blankets, and doilies for sale. Hoping to get some customers soon... I'm also doing a "save the house" fundraiser. More on that later. I'm begging for your prayers in the days ahead as we put our energy into trying to be good stewards of what the Lord has given us. I love all of you! Thank you so much for your encouragement and your support and your love! God bless you tonight!

God Loves Mugglebugs!

So this last week I learned something very, very important. I learned that the people we love, love us so much more than I ever realized! Anyone who read my post about how I was feeling tired and discouraged could tell that I was having a rough day. But the truth is I had a really tough week. I know most of you who read my blog already know our situation, but for those who don't...

Harry has not been able to find a job. The reality of our situation is that the totality of our monthly income is less than our monthly mortgage payment. All of our other bills apart from the mortgage have gone unpaid. Without going into more detail, suffice it to say that we are really feeling this living by faith thing right about now.

So this week our friends and neighbors have poured out their love and encouragement on us. We had friends who helped us pay our electric bill, a church who is giving is $1000 (yes, that is 3 zeros) in gift cards to Shop & Save and Quick Trip and other places to help provide for our basic necessities, and friends who've so generously given of themselves and their resources to help. We've had friends and family praying for us and encouraging us, literally and figuratively holding us up during this time. In all this, I have felt so overwhelmed by the sacrificial love people have showed us.

In the midst of all this, God reached down and spoke to my heart. "You feel so overwhelmed by the unexpected demonstrations of love by your friends and brothers. How much more do you think I love you? How much more do you think I care?" Suddenly I realized that God was showing me his infinite love and mercy in a tangible way. But beyond that, I feel a deep conviction that God loves me! He cares about me! And He has not forgotten me! I am encouraged to know that He is taking care of me through His people.

How predictably unexpected!

Muggle Chuckles

Kahmylia: Daddy is the highest person in our family!

and in another conversation...

Brisa: I am so broken heart : (

Tired

I did not accomplish any more from my list today. I did not lose ground however, which, in my world, matters a lot!

Tonight I just feel tired and discouraged. I feel like I'm watching my whole life unravel and there's no way to keep it from happening. It seems futile to fight anymore! I'm just soooo tired. So I think I better go to bed. Maybe things will look better in the morning.

Good night all.

Update

I cleaned my brains out today. I don't think I have any brains left, but I'm well on my way to accomplishing everything on my list by the week's end! Go me! I promise to post pics by the end of the week. :-)

Super Muggle Returns

This is more of a prediction than an observation. I am determined to be a productive citizen of society this week. I figure if I declare my intentions they'll have a better chance of coming true! Anyone with me? Here goes.

1. I will finally put away all of the junk that still remains from the last time I rearranged the furniture. The house is a mess and I just can't stand it anymore.

2. I will find some way to organize the homeschooling materials and sessions.

3. I will mop. My entire house except my bedroom is wood floors or tile. I HATE MOPPING!!! But I'm committing to doing it this week.

4. I will scrub 3 of the bathrooms. The basement one doesn't count.

5. I will make a gift for my friend Amy's new baby.

6. I will catch up with the laundry. It's outrunning me.

There. That wasn't so hard. Of course, actually accomplishing all this will be much harder. Let's see how I do!

Celebration Trash Can

For some reason, people find it necessary to give my children things just for being cute. Case in point, today we went to Schnucks and the cashier thought the girls were so cute that she gave them each a bunch of Schnucks stickers. When we got home, Brisa thought it would be a great idea to stick all of her stickers to the trash bag in the trash can and says, to us, "Look guys, I'm celebrating the trash can, it's a celebration trash can!" She was so pleased with herself, I just couldn't resist sharing...

Celebration Trash Can

We capped off the night with a Kahmylia and Brisa original. Also while we were at Schnucks, as we were discussing what to have for dessert, the girls came up with the idea of having Reddi Whip on ice cream sandwiches. Always game for something new, we all sat on our front porch and had a most delicious dessert of ice cream sandwiches topped with heavy whipped cream. We called our new favorite dessert "Super Sandwiches."

Does it get any better than this?

Muggle Chuckles

Just thought I would share some funny stories.

One morning we were having cereal for breakfast, and Kahmylia was trying Captain Crunch for the first time. She says to me, "Mommy, I heard of Caffeine Crunch before, but I never had it before!" I had an instant vision of my daughter full of "Caffeine Crunch."

Brisa knocks on the bedroom door and says, "Daddy, I brought you your phone, because I saw Granny on it."

I was brushing Kay's hair, and all of a sudden she says to me, "Mommy, that is not appropriate!

Me, trying not to laugh, "What's not appropriate, Honey?" "It is not appropriate to hurt people!" (Evidently, I was brushing too hard)

Brisa comments on finding a grey hair on my head, "Mommy, your hair is getting old!"

The other day Kahmylia asked me, "Mommy are you getting old?" I explained that I was going to get older. She says, "Are you going to die?" I answered yes, but that many don't die until they are very old. So she says, "You'll probably get old when you're thirty thousand and eight."

Glad I've got so many years left!

Muggle Struggles

Tonight I played the piano for the church choir I accompany for. They are doing a variety show this Saturday evening at 6:30 and we were rehearsing a couple of the acts. For some reason tonight I had no sense of rhythm. The rhythms were so simple, but I just felt like I was completely incapable of playing them. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that it was a 50's Du Wop medley and I had never heard any of the songs. But whatever the case, I didn't feel "on." Ah well, maybe I'll have a better time at tomorrow's rehearsal. And if anyone wants to come watch a primarily senior (as in 60+) variety show, tickets are cheap, the snacks are great, and the laughs are inevitable! We'll be at Redeemer Evangelical Church at 6450 Kingshighway. And now, to pay homage to the 50's...

"Good night, sweetheart, well, it's time to go,

Good night, sweetheart, well, it's time to go,

I hate to leave you, but I really must say,

Good night, sweetheart, goodnight!"

Super Muggle!

Today I felt a little bit like Super Mom. Ok, so maybe a lot. But before I can tell my story, I need to give introductions. For those of you who don't know, I have two daughters, Kahmylia who is 5 and Brisa who is 4. Today I was babysitting for a friend. I've been babysitting their son once a week since he was 4 months old. Ivan is now 2. Babysitting my kids and Ivan isn't all that impressive, but then another friend called and asked for a favor. He's a stay at home dad and he was in a bind, because he had a previous engagement and no child care. He has Anna who is 4, and Ada who is 6 months. So of course, I said yes. Evidently I wasn't really thinking about the fact that that is 5 kids under 5 all at the same time. I didn't consider that Ivan, the overactive toddler, would be screaming his head off 78% of the time and that he would be totally fascinated with another baby in the house. Or that he would be incessantly asking me, "Who is that, Ewa?" "Baby Ada? Baby Ada? Baby Ada? (never ending echo) It occurred to me, after the fact of course, that Anna and Ada live in a relatively silent home, compared to the frequent screaming, the sounds of plastic toys and race cars bulldozing over wood floors, and the never ending questions and constant repetitions of the two year old at my friend's house. "He hit me, Ewa! He hit my hair, Ewa!" (loudly referring to Ada)

Needless to say, Ada, the hungry and sleepy infant, refused to eat or sleep for the 2 hours we were there. It's amazing she was as happy as she was, especially considering the situation. Fortunately, my girls and Anna hadn't seen each other for a while so they mostly entertained themselves. At one point, I left the girls and Ivan in the kitchen eating lunch, because I was trying to give Ada a less distracting environment to take her bottle. It wasn't working too well, because Ivan was screaming at the top of his lungs for no apparent reason, and Kahmylia was yelling, "MOM, Ivan's being loud!" Too which Ivan's response was to come flying into the living room to say to me, "Ewa, I'm being loud, OK?" Oh, by the way, Ivan calls me Mommy when the girls are around, so he repeats everything they say to me. So out of the five kids, one was on my hip and three of them were calling me mommy! I remember thinking to myself, "Is this what it would be like to have more kids?"

It was quite a day, but I felt so blessed to have work, and so privileged to spend time with kids that I love and who love me! So, now I'll close with just one final story...

So, once I was done watching Ivan, the girls and I walked the 6 blocks back to my house. Ada in a stroller and the rest of us on foot. I overheard a priceless conversation that I just can't resist sharing.

Brisa: Oh Anna, when you get to our house, you are going to love it! We changed the living room and it is so beautiful! And we have a new teapot for tea and coffee!

Anna: And when we get to your house, we can play a beautiful game of house! And I can be the mommy, and Brisa can be the baby sister, and Kahmylia can be the father!

Kahmylia: No, I think I wanna be the daughter, because I don't wanna be the father.

Brisa: Let's just pretend he's dead.

Anna: Yeah, ok, he got killed by the monster.

It's a good thing, I'm a Super Muggle, or I might have collapsed right in the middle of the street!

Messy Mugglebugs

I like things to be neat and orderly. I really do. But the thing is, if you've been to my house, you know that my desire to clean obsessively for extensive periods of time must not actually exist! Now, to be fair, I do have young children, and my house is not ALWAYS completely repulsive to me--just most of the time. So, I either need to clone myself, hire a maid, or clean obsessively for extensive periods of time. Unfortunately, I don't know how to clone myself, I can't afford a maid, and I'm too tired and overwhelmed to clean. Is your house spic and span? If so, how do you do it? If not, how do you live with it?

These are my confessions...

1. I mentally correct people's grammar when they talk. It's bad, I know, but oh so true.

2. On a related note, I frequently find typographical and grammatical errors in books, magazines, etc...

3. My feet are frequently the topic of conversation and the butt of jokes. They have been called nice things like, cherub feet, and angel feet, and other things like frog feet, duck feet, webbed feet, HOBBIT feet, 2x4's, 4x4's, and Big Mac's. My sister says you can only see the balls of my toes from the underside of my feet, hence another fave name for my feet, "ball toes."

4. My feet are so chubby that my pinkie toes don't actually touch the ground.

5. I discovered my shoe size for the first time 5 months ago. I wear a 6W--no surprise there. But what's funny about that is that I've been wearing a 71/2-8 for the last 5 years. It's crazy how far off I was from my actual shoe size!

6. I totally fart all the time! I know I'm gonna regret confessing this, but oh well. I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome and not a day goes by that I don't feel bloated and gassy. So sad.

7. Now, it should be said that I have learned the art of the silent fart. 97% of the time no one would ever know. However, I must confess that there have been a few times when I've let off a silent stink bomb and totally not claimed it. I only claim them if they're audible or if someone asks directly. Trust me, you'd get get tired if I claimed it every time I let one loose! LOL

8. I don't speak fluent Spanish. I wish I did, but I don't. And for most of my life, I've felt like that was my fault, but I finally realized that it isn't. I am proud of the Spanish I do know, and hope I get more and more fluent!

9. I purposely don't bother to learn when it comes to computers and software, because it's way easier just to let Harry do it! This also works with opening jars and taking out the trash. I still haven't figured out how to get out of cleaning the bathrooms though!

10. I hate mopping. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY HATE MOPPING! I would rather get down on my knees and scrub the floor with a toothbrush than mop!

11. And finally, I confess I'm a Mugglebug.

Goodnight!