Don't Forget!

...to change my blog to storiesandsongs.wordpress.com! I seem to have lost lots of you. :)

Moving

OK, it's official. Moving to Wordpress. See ya there!

See, the thing is, I shouldn't even write posts like I did today. Because then I read the news and hear about how almost 10% of people don't even HAVE a JOB, and then I feel bad. I went to the grocery store tonight and was able to buy everything we would need to eat for the week. My family is strong and healthy. God is a terrific provider - I got a phone call tonight from a company that might hire me as a virtual assistant, doing exactly the kinds of things I love doing. It all always works out. Enough poor me. Sorry about that. The end.

Where I've Been

Um...I don't really know where to start.

I haven't been writing lately. Part of it's because I just haven't felt like it. But I suppose a bigger part of it is that life's just been kinda tough lately. I know all the arguments for writing during the good and bad times, and I agree with them...I think. But I also know that when I go to read stuff online, all I need is something to drag me down a little! Life's hard enough without hearing about other people's problems too! But I'm home, kids are in bed, and frankly I'm lonely, so I suppose I'll tell you about it.

First, I have made basically no extra money for us since a month before we moved. I had been making money from piano lessons, 2 different online freelance jobs and Maeve. In addition, we have recent additional bills - school loans, dental bill we're trying to pay off before they send it to collections, and things related to moving (our house had almost no window coverings, for example). That has made for a ridiculously tight money situation the past 2 1/2 months. There is nothing like money issues to wear you out FAST.

The Jetta is still broken. It has some sort of coolant system issue, but it could be a whole host of things and (see above) we can't afford to just start replacing stuff, hoping it'll fix the problem. So I've been without a car for literally three weeks now. Nick drives 25 minutes each way to work and could technically bring me the car and I could drive him back to work and then go pick him up again...but the thought of trying all that with two little kids wears me out too.

We still have not received our deposit back from our old house. We moved a week before the lease was up, and the landlord had in the lease that she didn't have to send the deposit back until 30 days after we moved out. So on the 30th, Nick called her and she sent him a text saying she'd sent it that day. Thanks for that. Now it's 2 days later and we still don't have it. Um, that's only 10-15 minutes from here. Is there any reason it should take more than 2 days? Not that I can think of.

In the midst of all this, we've moved out of the Maeve office to cut our costs, had company for a week straight, tried to celebrate birthdays for me, Nick, my dad, and my sister, and had Father's day. My kiddos are going through a stage where they're fighting a lot and I'm trying to work with them but my patience is just thin from everything else going on. Audrey has been getting hurt a lot while playing outside...can't figure out if she's just getting used to being outside, or if her blood sugar is low a lot (I almost have to force-feed this child protein 90% of the time), or what. Her knees are all skinned and bruised up though. I can't carry an almost 3 year old everywhere she goes!

And because our small group is on a summer schedule, I haven't seen any of you guys lately and I'm lonely and don't have a car to come see you. Sigh!

One thing I can say, I'm feeling really good. I'm already at 15 weeks and time is flying by. It's a world of difference being pregnant now that I'm off gluten. With my other two pregnancies I had to adjust to just having a stomach ache nonstop. At this point my energy is good, I'm not sick, and I'm doing well.

I know it will all get better eventually. But I wish there was a quick fix. I am really glad my kids have a big house and huge backyard to play in so they have stuff to do while I work through all of this, even if I do have to still break up fights every 10 minutes...

So there ya go. The honest truth.

Call...

Got this in an email from Homeschool Legal Defense. Google the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and read what it would do to our freedom to raise our children the way we believe is right. Scary stuff.

Call Now to Stop
UN Children’s Treaty

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends,

Monday in a Harlem middle school, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told a group of 120 students that administration officials are actively discussing “when and how it might be possible to join” (that is, ratify) the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). As before, she also communicated what a disgrace it is that the U.S. would stand with only Somalia against such a widely accepted treaty.

This is the first direct public statement by the Obama administration that it will seek ratification of the UN CRC.

In my 30 years of political involvement, I have learned to recognize this as what is called a “trial balloon.” Like in World War I trench warfare, our opponents have “sent up a balloon” to see if it will draw fire. If things remain quiet, they will proceed with their plans to push for ratification of the CRC in the U.S. Senate. To discourage them from doing so, we need to make sure that our voices are heard with unmistakable clarity. We must let the Obama administration know that we oppose this anti-family, anti-American treaty.

Action

Here’s what we need you all to do:

1. Call the White House comments line at 202-456-1111. Tell them you heard the administration wants to ratify the CRC, and you strongly oppose this giving away of U.S. sovereignty to the UN. Also, keep in mind that this treaty gives the government jurisdiction to override any decision made by any parent if the government thinks that a better decision can be made—even if there is no proof of any harm.

2. Call the Ambassador Susan Rice’s office at the United Nations. Tell her that you want her to represent the United States to the world rather than trying to get the United States to go along with international law initiated by the UN. Her office number is 212-415-4000.

3. Contact your senators and urge them to oppose ratification of this treaty. (Find your senators’ contact information by using HSLDA’s Legislative Toolbox.) Ask them also to defeat it once and for all by cosponsoring SJRes 16—the Parental Rights Amendment.

It is very important that we speak up right now. Please call before you close this email!

Michael Farris
HSLDA Chairman

Testing...testing

I have never experienced so little desire to blog. Kinda funny. I'll give it a try today though. :)
Here's our update:

1. Still working on various projects related to moving. My parents have a ride-on lawnmower that they don't use anymore, and Nick's been working with my dad to try to get it working for two weeks. They have the problem narrowed down to the carburetor, so that's getting rebuilt when the repair guy has time to get to it in a couple weeks. Meanwhile, the grass (read:weeds) is growing very, very tall. I think we're going to hit it with the weed whacker here pretty quickly. But, we've got lots of wildflowers!

2. Our friends Marty and Casey are coming to stay with us next week, as they attend New Life's ENTER worship conference. We're so excited to see them. I used to play keys in Marty's worship band in Tulsa, many moons ago, and Nick did his degree internship with Marty.

3. Nick's birthday was yesterday. We both agreed this year was a bit of a downer in the birthday department. Money's been spent on moving, lots of projects to do, very little time to relax. But, we did get to go down to the reservoir swim beach (which was a little cold, but still fun), and then to see "UP" at the drive in theater. Our friends Rich and Bekah and their kids went with us, as well as my sister Amy and her boyfriend. Aside from the trouble we had finding the drive-in, it was really a fun day. And even getting lost was pretty entertaining. :)

4. I got a few plants and flowers this weekend. I'd LOVE to put in a vegetable garden, but it doesn't seem like it'll happen this year. I have lots of large containers though, so I planted one tomato, one zucchini, a row of bush beans in a long narrow flower pot, and I repotted several houseplants. My spider plant had sort of split itself into three plants, so I pulled them apart and repotted. I got a cheap hanging basket of petunias for the front entry. Now we just need to mow and it'll actually look like someone lives here!

5. Ran into my old piano teacher at Walmart last night. She's lived about 2 minutes from here for the past 5 years. Mildly intimidating, since there's no way I can compete for the limited piano lesson clientele out here. She's been teaching like 30 or 40 years or something and I think has a master's degree. But, she's also the one who told me you couldn't learn to play from chord charts and since that's mainly what I teach now, I feel somewhat redeemed. :)

6. We've decided to take a break from Maeve. We're pulling out of our office before the end of the month and doing remaining fittings at my house. We have two more projects for August weddings and then no more committments. There are various reasons for this, but I feel we've made a really good decision. I thought about being disappointed about it, but the more I've thought about it, none of it was wasted. We learned a ton, created some beautiful things, and we can always go back to it when we're ready. For right now, I'm honestly really looking forward to a peaceful, restful time when I can focus on my husband, kids, and home, and get ready to have a baby. Expect to see me much less frazzled, coming soon. :)

7. The Jetta is broken again. It's right around 100,000 miles, so it was due for issues, I suppose. It overheats when we drive fast and then cools down when we stop or drive slowly. It's weird. But it's kind of a problem since we have to drive 55 to get out to our house now. Between that and the lawnmower, I'm tired of mechanical things, just in general.

That's probably good enough for now. I've missed hearing from you guys! Leave me a comment, just to say hi, if you're up for it. :)

Need a pick me up?

Dr Laura wrote a book called "In Praise of Stay at Home Moms" and was on the Focus radio show on April 7 and 8. So encouraging to me today. (You'll have to search for the April 7 and 8 shows.)

Can't Touch This!

12 Weeks!

OK, I couldn't resist the title. Hopefully you won't be fighting that song in your head the rest of the day...

I've been mulling over this post for a few months now, and now that I have a (albeit tiny) baby belly, I figure I now have the authority to say it.

I often hear pregnant women ranting about how much they hate that people want to touch their belly. Here's the disclaimer for this post - don't miss it - it is kinda weird when complete strangers and men in general touch women's bellies. I gotta say that first. Don't be creepy, people.

That said, here's my thought: the type of people who will touch pregnant bellies are typically the type who do not understand social norms. I think you'll give me that. They don't "get" personal space. Therefore, I submit to you that the desire to touch pregnant bellies comes from an instinctual or possibly even spiritual place.

I think people want to touch because they want to be connected with new life.

Our society has become so disconnected from each other. Touching is taboo, though at the same time sexual images are pervasive. (How does that work, by the way?)

I'm rambling a bit, but the point I want to make is this: it should be okay for us to touch each other in healthy ways, especially between Christians. We need to be touched. You may have something in your past that makes you a little uncomfortable with being touched. That's okay. You still need it. We all do.

Now, it still weirds me out when men other than my husband touch my belly. But, if we women can't touch and bless each others' babies, who can? I think we should be (or work on becoming) open enough with each other that we can receive this kind of touch as a blessing and not as torture. I particularly feel this way when older Christian women want to touch me. Please, please do. I need your mothering. I need your encouragement. I want my children to be blessed by your years of walking with the Lord. Same goes for my close friends.

I don't want to go through life isolated because of the social norms of the world around me. So, feel free to hug me. And bless my growing baby through your touch. We all need it!