Downer

This is what happened today. 

1) I had surgery 10 days ago to remove a suspicious mole on my back.  The biopsy results were supposed to be back in 7-10 days.  I waited fairly patiently and peacefully, but today being the 10th day, I called the doctor's office, even though they were supposed to call me.  I got put on hold and transferred around so long that I started to get nervous.  Finally a nurse told me that they hadn't heard back from the lab and that she would call them and call me back.  Eight hours later, I hadn't heard anything, so I called again.  Nurse said she had emailed the lab and they hadn't gotten back to her.  She suggested I call the lab and have them fax the results to the doctor.  After being transferred around and put on hold a lot at the lab, they told me they never got anything from the doctor.  I called the doctor back.  Nurse said she would check with someone else and call me back.  I never heard anything from anyone.  So I guess my mole is missing in action.

2) We didn't shovel the last time it snowed, because I thought the weather was supposed to warm up enough to melt it.  There wasn't that much snow, so we just drove over it.  Now with more snow and ice forecasted, I thought I should get out there and clear off the driveway before it arrives.  I spent a long time hacking away at packed-down icy snow.

3) Sarah has a cold, one of those super-snotty disgusting ones.  My grossness threshold is being approached.

4) Noah started puking violently this afternoon.  He has fever, chills, aches. I don't deal well with puke.  So gross.

5) I had to go to the vet and get flea pills for the cats.  I crushed them into a powder and mixed them with tuna.  The cats refused to eat it.  Mike suggested adding some chicken broth.  That was all it took for Shiloh.  She licked her platter clean.  Now I'm waiting for her to puke.  They all puked about half an hour after I gave them the pill last time.  Marty and Shadow wouldn't eat their tuna-chicken broth-medication concoction. The pills are $15 each.

Now I will try to think of something good about each of those.

1) I know that mole wasn't cancer anyway.  I'm glad I don't work as a mole courier.

2) It was a nice, sunny day for shoveling, and Noah helped me.

3) This is a hard one....nothing is coming to me.  At least she's not puking?

4) He made it to the toilet!

5) I love having cats. They're more than worth it. 

Bloody donuts

If you ever call and leave a message with Sarah, you might want to double check that it was received.  The poor man from the Red Cross called for Mike, and he got Sarah.  She sounded very polite and professional, but when she hung up, she said, "I have a message for Daddy.  The Red Cross called, and they want him to call him at some number that I didn't get.  But the guy said he could find it on the back of his donut cart."  After thinking a moment, I said, "You mean his donor card?" and she said, "OK, whatever."

Minibot

Sarah put a gift tag on Noah that said "To Mom, From Sarah".  Then she brought him to me and said, "I got you a present, Mom!"  I said, "Oooooh!  I've always wanted one of those!"  She pushed a "button" on his chest and said, "Look what it does!"  He started singing and dancing.  I asked if it was waterproof so I could wash it.  She said, "Not this one.  Version 2.0 is waterproof, but only for one minute at midnight.  There's also a tiny version that goes around and does all your cleaning.  It's a one-inch-tall minibot."  I said I really wanted that one.  She said it was only 59 cents plus shipping and handling, and if I called right now, they'd double my order for free.  I was exclaiming about how cheap they were, and she told me I would need a lot of them, because it takes about a hundred of them to lift the toilet brush. She suggested I buy extras too, in case I step on some and squash them. 

Of cars and hair dryers

 assembling his car for AWANA Grand Prix

sanding it

 washing it

 Sarah had to show him how to use the hair dryer.  :)

drying it

and of course the hair dryer had to become a gun.

Slippery words

Sarah is making a list of her "slippery words".  I asked her what that meant, and she said, "It's those spelling words that slip right off the tip of my brain sometimes."  

She made several lists of different slippery words and posted them throughout the house.  I was impressed with her initiative!

The first day

When I was a kid, I had a puffy sticker on my record player (I am so OLD!!!).  The sticker showed a chick just breaking out of its shell, and it said, "This is the first day of the rest of your life."  I remember spending a lot of time pondering what that meant.  It seemed like a deep thought to my childish mind, and I couldn't quite grasp it.  I'm still thinking about it.  I think of Lamentations 3:22-23 that says God's mercies are new every morning. And Matt Maher's song "Hold Us Together" provides the soundtrack while I'm mulling it over. 

Yesterday was a bad day with the kids.  I was disappointed and discouraged by their attitudes, bad choices, and behavior.  I decided that all my years of teaching and training had failed, so I was going to give up on them and let them do whatever they want. That was my state of mind when I went to bed.

This morning I read Jeremiah 23:2:  "Instead of caring for my flock and leading them to safety, you have deserted them and driven them to destruction."  I was convicted that I can't desert my little flock.  I wrote down what I want to say to them as I meet with them individually when they wake up, and I made a plan for getting us all back on track. THIS is the first day of the rest of our lives.

Salt dough

 The girl is perpetually in creative mode.

Sarah doing what she does

 stringing beads for necklaces

Spanking machine

Last week while Mike was working nights, it was nice having him home during the day to join in our little games, like the quiet game.  My favorite game!  Whoever is quiet for the longest wins.  Noah almost always loses.  When you lose, you have to crawl through the spanking machine, which is the legs of the winners, and they spank you as you crawl through. 

After losing about 10 times in a row, Noah pulled out all the stops in trying to make the rest of us make noise.  He wrote this to tape on Mike's back:

They claim I laughed, but really just a tiny puff of air escaped my nostrils.  In any case, I had to crawl through the spanking machine:

Notice Mike and Sarah getting their spankers all warmed up!

Missing animals

Noah put a load of his stuffed animals into the washing machine this morning.  That's the last I saw of them, and I didn't give them a thought until a few hours later when I noticed a stuffed animal in the hall.  My kids leave everything lying around, so it wasn't unusual.  I just kicked it into Noah's room. 

A few minutes later, I saw another one in the living room.  And one under the kitchen table.  And another one in the hall.  Pretty soon I realized they were all over the house, like the washing machine had exploded.  Just as I was starting to wonder how they had all escaped, I saw this:

I went to the laundry room to investigate.  Apparently somebody had transferred the load of animals to the dryer and left the dryer door open.  Shiloh was making multiple trips to rescue them as if they were her kittens!

Garlic infused oil and toasted bread crumbs

If you're not into cooking, you'll probably want to skip this one.

I'm making garlic-infused oil.  Crushed garlic cloves in olive oil over low heat for about 30 minutes.  I love that smell!

Meanwhile, I tear up some bread heels and put them in the food processor.  My  mom doesn't understand why we don't just eat the heels, but we all have an aversion to them, so I save them to make bread crumbs.

Here are the heels a few seconds later. 

 

If I'm not using them right away, I bag them up and freeze them.  But today I'm using them to top a casserole.  And since I'm also making garlic infused oil, I make one of my favorite treats:  toasted garlic bread crumbs.

I remove the garlic from the oil and use it for something.  Then I turn up the heat, toss bread crumbs in the oil, and toast them for a few seconds.  Then I have to put them directly on the casserole or else I'll eat the whole batch right out of the pan. 

Miscellaneous

 Sarah doing one of her daily shows.  If you ever want to attend one live, I can arrange it.  This outfit is her new favorite.  Someone gave it to her, and she's about to outgrow it.

 Sarah and Marty making party hats for Sarah's birthday party.

Hats for girls and dolls

 Noah running around the house barefoot to see how fast he can go.

 His best time was 24 seconds, I think.

 I got too wild rocking the guitar and broke a string.  Noah flossed with it.

Shiloh has always enjoyed chasing her own tail.