The Past Week

To quote the magician on Frosty the Snowman, life is "busy, busy busy" right now. Specifically, I'm in the planning phase of our homeschool year. It's a big "to do." Oh, and not to brag or make any of my fellow homeschool moms green with envy, but guess who's speaking at our homeschool Kick off night? Todd Wilson! Carl heard him at CHEO in Ohio a few years ago and really enjoyed him. Now we'll get to hear him again. Two thumbs up.

This past week has brought a few nice surprises. As in I won a prize (thanks, Andrea).

An even bigger surprise (oh, if I could only explain how big it is) was the fact that IN finally (F-I-N-A-L-L-Y) picked up the adoption ball and a case worker actually sat in our dining room today preparing the necessary homestudy (we've already had one done, but this interstate adoption requires two.) The case was transferred months ago and they just got to it today. While it has been frustrating to experience unnecessary delays, I can honestly say Carl and I have rested in the knowledge that God's hand has been on this baby's life since before the start ("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you." Jeremiah1:5) Still,....WHOOHOO! Someone was actually, finally here today to move this case along. Double WHOOHOO!

Now then, Newton's laws of motion include this;
To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, yes. The social worker came out and it was very good. On the other hand, the van had a flat tire and OH, LOOK! No treads on the opposite tire.
One minute I'm looking at a free plug job (I'm a member of their fix-it club after all.) The next minute, "Mrs. H, see here on the edge is not a good place to go pluggin'. You're gonna need a new tire. Or two."
Gee, swell. By all means, sock it to me, safety first. Two hundred beans later (sigh)...........

And what happens thee very flippin' next day? Carl goes to start his truck for work and,...........Wat Wah! Yep, she's dead alright. Another 90 bucks and a new battery later...........

I need to add that God truly provided for these unexpected expenses though. Long story short, we made two errors in our checkbook recently that worked in our favor (thankfully; ever so thankfully). In fact, we had more money in checking than we thought, and it covered 75% of the tire replacement cost. God is so good.

Now, did I mention that I got to take all four kids to the tire store in a down pour? Or that the waiting room had 11 people in it? That was before I added 5 more. And it would have been fine, had the tire joint built a waiting room capable of hosting 16 people. But ooooooh no. They had five (count 'em) generous seats in there. And I use the word "room" very lightly, what with prison housing being more spacious (I'm only half joking here.)

I had to laugh when the tire manager took me in the garage to show me my tire and explain my options. He looked like a bad knock-off of the Avis car commercial that promotes the free music itunes. You see, the second he'd try to speak, the auto tech behind us would crank up this air powered tool that was as loud as a jackhammer and it would drown out the manager's words. He tried two or three times to talk to me, each time being met with a blank stare and an obvious attempt at reading lips on my part. I must have looked like such a confused dork but, ya know....he looked pretty silly with his case of jackhammer mouth too. Bahahahaha!!!

On a lighter note, my Olivia dished a little ditty to me at bedtime tonight.
"Mom, I took a spider into Patch class to show Steven. I hoped to scare him but I never got the chance."

A. When did my daughter manage to sneak an arachnid into CHURCH?
-and-
B. Why did she "never get the chance" to scare show him?

Sheesh, I'm only learning of this hairy legged adventure two months after it happened. And uh, she didn't get to show Steven because she showed the teacher first. Whaa????? Well, aint that just grand!

"Oh reaaally, Liv? Hmmm. And what did your teacher say?" (having every confidence that Olivia's going to confirm the teacher made her get rid of sweet Charlotte outside.)
"She said, "Just keep it in your pocket during class time."

Folks, I fully admit. I was a bit dim here. See, I just about fell out of my chair trying to understand why her teacher would encourage her to keep a nasty spider in her pocket. It sooooo wigged me out. So you can imagine Carl had a good laugh at my expense when he discovered I didn't realize the spider was PLASTIC! Sigh, I'm always the last to know.

And of final note, Reece was attempting to put on his sandals yesterday. He was fumbling with the straps for quite awhile, but clearly didn't want to ask for help in spite of his growing frustration. When he finally spoke, the words were oh so familiar.
"The twenty-eight other times I tried to do these straps, it worked."

And uh, that "twenty-eight" line is spoken quite regularly by Reece's dear father when he too is frustrated. Like father, like son.

Toni