Dishpan Dribble

A weekend of camping

Home from the beach; sunburned, tired and sore! Met family at Newport and 22 of us tried to crowd into MO's for lunch. It's a tiny little restaurant with tables practically touching each other and right down on the fishing docks. We were a bit overwhelming for the establishment I'm afraid.

Today we met three other families of our neighbors all out at the dunes. That was pretty fun. Last night we set around our friends' campfire and roasted marshmallows and had smores. It was the first time my kids has set around a campfire and they were amazed that smoke stings your eyes!

Anna Lise loved roasting marshmallows and was quite good at it! I, on the other hand, had lost all knack, and no matter what I did, or what side of the fire I crouched, I ended up with a flaming sticky torch of a thing. I hate black marshmallows!

It was good to discover though, after all these years, that smoke still follows beauty! It made me feel almost young again. hee hee

I gotta get to bed. Tomorrow we go to McMinnville (about an hours drive) to an anniversary celebaration for my first cousin once removed and his wife. They have been married 50 years. Of course, since he is my first cousin once removed that would mean his kids are my second cousins and it's really them that I want to see! So I must hie me off to beddy-by. Night night!

Off to the Dunes

Well we're going to Florence. I wont be blogging for the weekend. What will the world do without me? I've been busy packing and washing and ironing clothes. Of course, I can't leave unless the house is clean so I'm staying up late to get everything done. I don't think we'll send Anna Lise to Bible School tomorrow that way we can get an earlier start.

I'd like to be to Newport by lunch so I can meet a bus load of my family out there. My sister and brother and their families are going to the beach too but further north than we are. If we meet them that would make 22 for lunch. The problem with that is that the little coastal towns don't boast very big restaurants so we'll see how this work out.

After lunch we're heading south to meet friends who are camping by the dunes. He has a dune buggy and so we go out there when he's out there so Greg can get his fill of riding the sand dunes.

I'm looking forword to the break. But I hate riding on the dunes. Those dune buggys make me so buggy sick I just want to puke. The tires on those things are like riding on marshmallows! They swoosh and slide around till I am thoroughly ready to hurl!

I will not be riding it this time at all. And if I don't get things done and get to bed I wont be riding in anything, not even in the car to get out there!

The world according to Wally

Excerpts from Wally this morning on the way to school:

Mama can you turn the air conditioner on so my bug can breathe? (He was carefully holding a cut worm in a tupperware cup!)

Mama, him has a BIG stove! (said while passing a loaded logging truck filled with the long logs like only the Northwest can produce!)

Mama there's a snail snake on the garage wall! Me touch it! (Twas none other than a gross slimy slug!)

Brush up on todays activities

I've got Anna Lise off to school, now I need to water the flowers and lawn and fold two loads of clothes. It looks like we may be going to the beach again this weekend. A friend of ours has a dune buggy he takes down to Florence all the time and we plan on going out there and staying Friday night and Saturday night.

Of course, it appears like there's only one available motel room in the decent motels at Florence and that room is only for one night. We might have to stay in Newport which is quite a drive from Florence. We'll just have to see how this all pans out.

I've decided that next week I'm going to get some painting done around here. I've waited on the Procrastinator to finish one of the living room walls that was torn up in the construction and he never has. So I plan on just painting over the plaster for now. I've given up on him finishing this house. I also have to paint over the stairway wall where Wally chose to draw with a chocolate chip! I'd sooner he scribble with a crayon. Chocolate just does not want to come off!

I hear Wally in the family room shouting out directions to Dora! He loves that show. Anna Lise is much too old for it but still watches it with Wally a lot. The other morning I heard her say, "Don't worry, Wally. She'll get over the bridge. She always does." Then about a minute later she shouts, "In your backpack where it always is!" Uh, yeah, I'd say she's too old for that show.

I'm heading downstairs to finish the morning work. I'm going to make Anna Lise a sandwich and take it along when I pick her up from school. She goes straight from school to Bible School and the snack today is nachos and cheese. She hates nachos and I couldn't get her to eat breakfast so I'm going to have to take a sandwich to her. That child would be content to never eat! Eating is a chore to her. Too bad I don't operate like that.

Bible School

Still working every morning in Vacation Bible School. Making snacks and serving 300 little wiggle worms is not an easy task. The church kitchen gets so hot and the news is saying that today will be hotter than yesterday! There's a tiny little fan in the kitchen that don't do diddly squat!

Anna Lise goes to class but Wally follows me around and stuffs his little face with the snacks the entire time! He loves Bible School!

Oh bother, I have smoke alarms going off in here. I think it's just low batteries but I hate it when that happens. Excuse me while I go investigate. I don't want to get so used to low batteries now and again that I ignore what those things are really for. If they want to cry wolf I certainly don't have to fall for it!

When the well went dry

I just want things to look nice around here! Is that too much to ask? Apparently! I spend hours watering my flowers and yards because that's what I love to do! I want my flowers lush and my yard green. So shoot me! You may as well before my husband does!

He's going to have a cow when he sees this months water bill! Every summer I watch all the neighbors waste trillions of gallons of water on the street as their high powered sprinklers belt the stuff into the blue yonder and back to the steaming pavement! And here I am carefully arranging my tiny sprinklers so as not to waste one cup of water!

I wish I could say I was doing it for the environment, you know, like trying to conserve on water because the great Columbia River might run dry sometime! Oh no, I'm stingy with the water so I don't have a huge water bill!

Now huge is relative. I'm willing to pay over a hundred a month in water if that's what it takes to keep my precious flowers happy. My husband has other ideas. He wants every plant watered by hand and every blade of grass given precisely 3 drops of water twice a week. Okay, Okay, it's not that bad but almost.

The grass doesn't have to be watered blade by blade but I certainly better never allow it to touch the street! He's harped on this so long that even I am beginning to cringe when a drop hits the asphalt. I mean, it really doesn't make sense to water pavement. Really, it doesn't.

So then why do I still want to have a high powered sprinkler that goes swush, swush, swush, long into the night hours? I'll tell you why. It's sign of opulence to me. You see all my life I have had to conserve on water - and with good reason!

As a girl growing up our well was only 27 feet deep! Every summer we ran out of water and had to carry it in big old metal milk cans from the neighbors! The big cans sat on our back proch where it was shady and cool; right under the shadow of The Yellow Rose of Texas bush. The sounds of summer were not swushing of a sprinkler, but rather the banging of a hammer against metal as we popped those lids off those cans!

The banging of the hammer was also a tell tale sign that somebody was into the precious water within. If one wasn't careful it would bring Pop running to see who was taking the lid off and for what reason! It pretty well better not be for just one cup of water! You'd better be banging that lid for an entire pitcher of water or you might find yourself in the wood shed! I mean, didn't we know that every time we took the lid off we were exposing the water to the heat and contamination?

Somtimes we had to carry our water because of animals in the well. Yeh, you heard me! When our well water got low, the shrews would somehow find their way into the well and drown in it's murky depths. Now we, of course, wouldn't know the exact day or hour that the shrew would get in the well so we blissfully kept drinking the stuff until the water would taste funny. We girls could always smell and taste the decomposed shrew before Pop or the boys.

We would go for days drinking the bodily juices seeping from the shrew until it finally would get so bad even Pop would notice. Then armed with several gallons of clorox and a bucket, out he'd go to the pump house to get that old shrew and clean up the water. He'd winch the bucket down and bring up the bones of that decayed creature( with a few fur clumps hanging on) and then dump the bleach into the well.

For several days we would again drink milk from the milk cans as the bleach did it's job and the well refilled with water. So we drank away the summer days and thus we counted every precious drop!

Now here I am, married and living on the line that seperates the county from the city. I'm far away from the drowning site of those long ago beasties and far from the old metal milk cans, and yet, I still feel the need to save the water for the day the well runs dry! Is it any wonder I want to spray water all over Gods green earth? And how did I end up marrying a man who has access to all the city water he needs yet still counts each drop as if he too were raised on a 27 ft well?

There are some things I will never understand. In the meantime, go get yourself a nice cool drink of water straight from the tap and then go water your lawns. Let the water belt out into the blue yonder and fall on the steaming pavement... do this for me!

My big boy

I weighed and measured Wally. He is 3 years and 5 and half months old. He weighs in at 45 pounds and is .... yikes, now I forgot, I think.. he's 43 inches tall. He's gone to bed so I can't recheck it. But I believe that's the height. Regardless, he's one big boy! The pediatrician tells me that is the size of a kindergarten kid! Yep, that's my baby!

My baby makes up stories! waa!

Wally: Mama, mama my finger's cut! I need a bandaid! Waaaaa!

Me: How did you cut your finger?

Wally: I dunno! Waaaa!

Me: Wally listen to me. What did you cut your finger on?

Wally: Nuthin'!

Me: "No, you cut it on something." I wrap it in a bandaid. I discover that two fingers are cut!

Me: Okay, you come show me where you got cut.

Wally: I cut it on my bedroom wall!"

me: No, you show me. Let's go to your room.

Wally: See, I cut it on the wall.

I looked and behold a pocket knife lay on the window sill.

me: Wally did you cut yourself with Daddy's knife?

Wally: Yeh, Maybe I was cutting paper and then maybe it just cut me!

Now I ask you dear reader, how can a three year old already be so good at lying! Maybe I was cutting paper? Maybe it cut me? What am I going to so with this kid!?

A cup of water in His name

Worked in the church kitchen all morning and discovered that the lady in charge of snacks still had 18 dozen cookies to make today! She lives in a little apartment. So being the generous woman that I am I have invited her here to finish the cookies in my large roomy kitchen, complete with convection oven and 12 ft. long counter top for rolling out cookie dough. So now I must spend all day helping her!

I don't really mind. Last night the preacher preached on how everything we do is remembered by God. When Hezekiah was sick he turned his face to the wall and asked God to remember the many things that he had done for the good of the children of Israel and grant him length of days. God heard and gave him 15 more years of life.

He was saying that our God is writing all the time and will never forget something done in His name, no matter how small. So here I am trying to store up good things in heaven so if I ever get sick God will have a reason to grant me a few more years! Of course, I don't know if it counts if I let my right hand know what my left hand is doing. Certainly putting my good deed out on the world wide web is not doing my alms in secret, now is it!!

Well, never mind. I'm going to help bake these cookies for Bible School and let the Lord bless me how he will!

I'm so thankful Edison invented lights

I'm writing this in the evening because tomorrow is going to be another crazy day! Anna Lise has school in the morning and then she's going straight to Vacation Bible School where she will go to class and I will help prepare the snacks. Wally will roam free. I'll have to keep a sharp eye on him but he is not yet old enough to actually attend class.

I want to do a little shopping tomorrow too. Anna Lise needs a few skirts and so do I. I'll be checking back in here tomorrow afternoon. I really don't have time to write now. I slept all through church tonight, I'm just so everlastingly tired these days! I'm sure it's the heat combined with a fast paced schedule.

Whatever happened to leisure summer days spent reading under the apple trees? Who coined the phrase "the dog days of summer"? Somehow I always thought that implied a slow dragging summer with nothing to do but lay around and nap the days away! I've yet to experience any dog days! sigh

Well, like I said, I have to get this bod to bed! I'm like a baby when it comes to my sleep. I just cannot stay up late without having a terrible day the next day. And once again my husband is in bed before I am. I hate that. I like to go to bed and cuddle and smooch for a little. When I get to bed after he does all I get is breath in my face and earth quaking snores!

And he never leaves the night light on, so I end up stumbling around in the dark and stubbing my toes on everything! Then when I yelp in pain he awakens and wonders why I can't get to bed with less noise! Well, maybe if somebody would leave on the light for me I wouldn't have to awaken His Royal Highness! No matter how often I ask him to leave the light on he doesn't!

He does that in the evening watching TV too. I hate walking into a dark room. Not Greg. He sits in the dark and watches TV and loves every minute of it. I simply have to have a light on somewhere. It's spooky sitting around with the house all dark. It's just plain weird! But hey, it saves on electricity, ya know! That's the important thing!

Well not in my book! Let there be light! That's my motto! Now I better go stumble my way to bed!

I want to be a coffee bean

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it, and wanted to give up. She was tired of all the fighting and struggling. It seemed as though in solving one problem, two more would arise.

Her father, ( a chef ) took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil.

In one he placed carrots,
in the second he placed eggs,
and the last he placed ground coffee beans.

He let them sit and boil without saying a word. The daughter impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners.

He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl.
He pulled the eggs out and placed them a bowl.
Then he ladled the coffee out and poured it in a cup.

Turning to her he asked. "Darling, what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked. "What does it mean Father?"

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently.

The carrots went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, they softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, the insides became hardened.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you," he asked his daughter.
"When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?

Are you a carrot,
an egg,
or a coffee bean?

Macaroni and cheese recipe

Somebody came to my site looking for a macaroni and cheese recipe. Here is the recipe for you and all my readers who are interested in making their own mac and cheese. I'm always hapy to accommodate.

Mac and Cheese

1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
1 cup light cream
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 1/2 cups grated sharp cheese
salt
Preheat oven to 350°F. Boil macaroni according to package directions; drain and set aside. Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Blend in flour, stirring constantly. Gradually stir in milk and cream. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add paprika, pepper, and 2 cups of the cheese; stir until cheese is melted. Gently stir in macaroni and salt to taste. Place in a buttered 1-quart casserole dish. Garnish top with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and dot with additional butter. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.
Serves 4 to 6.

What are the dangers?

The kids are fighting over everything this morning; where to sit on the couch, who gets the play cell phone, who gets the couch pillows, etc. Greg has a toothache and is making an emergency dental appointment. I had another bout with IBS last night because I'm out of my fiber pills. I awoke this morning to the very beginings of a migraine. I have two migraine pills left. I'm afraid I'll have to use one today.

Welcome to the weekend at our house. Gone is yesterdays calm. We can still have a good day around here if I can pull out of this headache. When I have one of these brain splitters the entire household falls apart. It takes mom to keep things running smoothly for everyone.

I need to clean the house today and do a little laundry but when it gets hot I plan on doing nothing but reading my book! If I rid myself of this migraine, that is. In The Shadow Women Pharoahs wife suffers from migraines so the doctor drilled into her skull to let the bad humors out. The woman was left a blithering idiot. The doctor told her daughter that he left the hole open too long and her ba flew out. The little girl knew her mothers ka was still there but because she ate and drank and moved around but her eyes were empty; a result of having lost her ba.

Can you imagine such ignorance! They don't even call it a migraine but it's obvious that is what is going on. I'm so glad I live in a time where doctors no longer just guess at what to do. Goodness, that's all I need is for someone to drill through my skull and let my ba go free! Criminy! Scarey stuff!

Hey, I have a weekend question for you all. I hope to master the mysteries of my digital camera this weekend and I'm thinking about the pros and cons of putting pics of us on my website. I notice many of you do. Are you worried about having your pics out there? And exactly what are the dangers of putting the kids pictures on the net? Has it ever resulted in kidnap or death of the child? Or is it more of a privacy thing. I put Haileys on because she's just a generic baby. One would be hard pressed to find her for any kidnap. But my kids are older with distinct looks all their own. What do you all think?

Pool

Didn't go to my brothers place. It was just going to be too much on the kids. Instead I stayed home and helped hubby put up the swimming pool. It's filling right now and we've stopped for a lunch break. We still need to hook up the filter and do a few odds and ends. Gotta run. Hubby will die if he sees me pecking away on this thing right now!

EDIT: I thought I might take a moment now to write a real entry for you all and lo and behold I get to the computer and almost fall alseep! These have been some trying days - fun, but trying! I think I'm going to take a nap.

Greg put the upstairs air conditioner in today, so with the downstairs one and that one running the house is staying at a cool 73 degrees on a 104 degree day. Thank you, Lord, for a nice cool house!

body fever

Ah, shoot. Anna Lise has a raging fever. It seems like we can never do anything out of the norm without running all our immune systems down at the same time. Greg brought home some sand to help level the pool. I have no idea when we can work on it because the outside temps hover at 100 degrees. This is just the pits. I'm fast getting down on the dumps here!

And yeh, Greg is very upset at the broken window! Why do things like this have to happen? Okay, face it. I'm definitely not happy tonight. Everything is wrong.

More trouble

Just got back from the park. It's cooking hot here! I think Anna Lise is overly tired or suffering from heat exhaustion because she totally gave out at the park. We were there about 2 1/2 hrs. She's complaining her head hurts and she almost fell asleep on the blanket. I gathered everything together and brought her home and she's sleeping in her bed right now.

My husband is going to be one unhappy man when he gets home. As I got in the Expedition at the park I noticed a strange spidery pattern on the dash. I thought it was a tree limb. Upon further investigation I discovered the windshield had been broken! Something hit it good. It's made a large circular pattern on the passenger side.

I think I'll wait to tell him until after he's in bed tonight. Then he'll be all cooled down from the hot day and his tummy will be full from supper. I think he'll take it better that way. He is not going to like this, for sure!

Busy week

Ah, I love to see the impatience of my fans! It does my heart good! Well, I'm back up and running- that is, my keyboard is back up and running! This old lady is hobbling! Too much walking and junk food has turned me into a crippled old woman! Everything aches!

I drove my Expedition to Tillamook yesterday. It was decided to take the gas hog because my parents and brother and his wife could just ride along then. Once at Tillamook we all joined up with my sister and family and traveled in their bus to Astoria. Years go by and I never get to Astoria. Now suddenly I've been there twice in one month! What a beautiful town. I am definitely not complaining!

With 20 family members all in one bus it can get a little hairy. None of us believe alike in religion or politics. Everyone of my family is as vocal and opinionated as I am. Do you get the idea here? It was continual effort on my part to put out the little fires that seemed to spring up. Of course, they sprung up as a result of my tongue usually. But because I was dealing with family members fires could quickly spread to gargantuan proportions.

Other times we laughed till our sides ached at dumb stuff only family would find funny! Once this past weekend I laughed so hard at a charade my brother was playing that I actually pondered whether I had ripped open my scar from having Wally three years ago! It hurt for hours afterward!

Saturday my brother from John Day and his family joined the rest of us in a trip to Mt. St. Helens. Again we all rode on my sisters bus. It had been about 5 years since I had been up there. The trees and under brush had grown in and covered the hillsides in that amount of time; there was a lot less destruction visible from the eruption.

We got home from St. Helens at about 8 pm and around 9 pm I started cooking for Sunday dinner. I finished at 1 am! I didn't make it to church Sunday morning. I still had a lot of stuff to do. After running through the house and cleaning last minute things, like the toilets, I actually had everything ready by lunch time. We had three tables on the deck and lawnchairs set in circles all over the back yard. And everywhere there were children. When it came time for everyone to leave the kids bedrooms were covered in toys, not a speck of carpet showing! One of Lauries eleven kids informed me that they have seven boys and they don't even have as many toys as Wally! Yikes. Don't let my husband here that!

The other day I bought a Barbie dollhouse with all the furniture for Anna Lise. It also came with the Barbie store and all it's groceries. I bought the entire shabang for twenty bucks at a garage sale. Anna Lise oves it, but , oh, the many little pieces! It tests my sanity on daily basis!

Our swimming pool arrived and is partially set up. We hope to finish it tonight. Yesterday a little girl Anna Lise's age drowned at the coast. A sneaker wave got her. It just reinforces the dangers of having this pool when Wally don't know how to swim. It will only be filled to about the 3' mark but the rules will have to be that Wally only goes in with a life jacket. When not in use I'm going to take the ladder and put it in our boat so Wally can't get in the pool without my knowledge, nor will he be able to put the ladder back when I've taken it down. I just can't imagine what that poor family of that little girl must be going through today. The fact that she was my daughters age and that we were at the beach too yesterday, just seems to make it all too uncomfortably close to my own reality!

Today is suppose to be in the 90's so I have to get some work done! My cousin thinks all I do is talk about housework on my weblog so I will refrain from mentioning exactly what I'm going to do. It's hard not to talk about cleaning the house when it's such an integral part of my day! Ya know? Anyway, after the house is cleaned I've got to wash the cars.

I also need to spend time reading with Anna Lise. I didn't even try to get her up for summer school this morning. The kids are totally exhausted! We're suppose to go to my brothers tomorrow. That's another hour and a half drive from here. That would be the last we'd be with my sister and family as they head back to Maryland on Sunday. But as tired as everyone is, I'm not sure whether I'll go to my brothers tomorrow or not!

One must pace themselves when one gets old, ya know!

sorry

To all my loyal readers I leae this note. My keyboard needs a new batery nd I don't know how to change it. 'm waiting on my dear husbnd, ho we all know is the worlds wors pocrastinator.

Of mice and men

Wally just came into the house proudly dangling a dead mouse from his left hand. In his right hand was an ice cream bar! Will I ever get used to having a son? I like to have died!

Companys coming

Only two more days until my sister and brothers come. I have so much to do. I want to go antique shopping with them tomorrow so everything has to be done today!

It's getting hot and I have a pan of bars to bake, plus four berry pies. I'm going to positively cook right out of my kitchen! It's only ten in the morning and I'm already dripping sweat! This is just the pits.

I've got a bunch of cleaning to do and two loads of laundry. I need to make a jello salad and polish all my stainless appliances in the kitchen. The deck needs hosed down and two of the yards need mowed. Tonight I have to pick more blueberries.

My girlfriend has been calling trying to talk me into going to her Mary Kay party tonight. I haven't entirely ruled it out but it's not looking good. A body can only do so much, ya know. My guest count now stands at 31. Hopefully it wont change again!

Well now back to the grindstone. This is not getting my work done. Truly, I do still need an engineer, - I guess! Nah, I shall discipline myself to get it all done. If this bores anyone you're welcome to stop now. If not you can continue with me into the abyss of house cleaning because I'm going to tell you what I have done so far.

I have cleaned the playroom, made up the spare room bed, washed a load of clothes that is now in the dryer, folded a load of clothes, cleaned the upstairs bathroom, put all of Haileys baby things away, ie, playpen, toys, blankets, walker etc., cleaned my bedroom, dusted, cooked, and engineered the kids!

As you can see, I have "miles to go before I sleep."

EDIT; Forgot to mention that I stopped to listen to the news of Martha Stewart. She got 5 months! How unfair! My heart is broken!

I had a dream

In my dream the Russians stole my kids coat! Yep, no lie. I always knew my problems would come straight from Russia! Here I was, in a thrift store, shopping for kids clothes. I laid Wallys long warm overcoat on the counter in front of me while I proceeded to sort through some clothes. Quick as a wink, a lady reached around me and grabbed his coat!

I quick tried to gather up my things and grabbing Wally I took off after her. I found her at the cashier. But... a long line stretched between us. The line was mostly made up of Russian boys; boys all buttoned up from head to toe in long coats like my sons. Each was wearing a fur hat! My heart sunk.

No way was I going to be able to convince anybody that the lady had stole my sons coat when she had about 5 boys all wearing that same coat! I turned to go back to my shopping. I figured I'd just pick up another coat for Wally while I was here at the thrift store, but I was out of luck! The lights were going off and the store was closing. My son shivered in the cold as the five Russian boys walked by him, booted and buttoned to the chin in nice warm coats!

Now dreams are never quite so cut and dried. I spared you the details of why the store closed. The way I told it to you made it seem like it closed quickly but in my dream I was actually at the counter for over an hour. There are lots of reasons it took an hour but you would never believe them.

For instance, one of the cashiers decided to go into the attic to turn up the heat. A huge stairway was pulled down from the ceiling. The stairway was at such a slant that it stretched overhead across the entire store. The only problem was that once the stairs were pulled down it was actually a quilt in it's frame! A lady got on this huge quilt stretched at a slant overhead and precariously elephant walked the entire distance of that store on that quilt to get to the attic! See, I told you that you wouldn't want to know all the reason I was at the counter so long!

It was a rough night. My allergies and back were giving me lots of problems. And then the Russians had to come bother me yet! I am so tired I just want to go back to bed!

Note to self: Don't forget to buy a new coat for Wally. It's 100 degrees outside and he might need it! (what was I doing in the store, with a coat, in the middle of summer?)

Since I'm grown up

I just finished cleaning the starirway carpet and figured I needed a little treat so I ate an entire avocado! That's the nicest thing about being grown up - you don't have to settle for slivers off of somebody else's piece! You can eat the whole thing and slurp on the seed when you're done! I like being a grown-up.

Work for the night is coming

When I was a kid my Dad did not like us sitting around reading or playing in the middle of the day. After supper dishes were done and the floor was swept we could play, but not until then, and God have mercy on the child that was found with idle hands!

Now of course, we still found time to play because Pop was at work during the day and mom never followed up to closely on his rule. Pop always said she needed to learn to engineer. I suppose with nine kids it did take some engineering to run the household efficiently but Pop was a ruthless taskmaster.
Oh, he spent many a winter evening playing games with us but when it was time to work, you worked!

I loved to read. I would read anywhere! I got a lot of whippin's for reading when I was suppose to be working. Somehow the fear of discipline did not stop my from my pursuit of knowledge. I would hide my book under the pile of laundry and pull it out when ever Pop or mom left the room, or whenever "the coast was clear" as we said at home.

Pop had forbidden us to read Nancy Drew books. He said they were evil and lacking in character and definitely a waste of time. The Hardy Boys were classed in the same lump. Both were forbidden. However, we read every Trixie Belden book we could get our hands on and I think those are very similar to Nancy Drew in that they are all childrens mysteries. But Pop had never come across Trixie and so never really knew what we were reading.

One time I was reading Treasure Island in a free minute and Pop saw the cover and became quite irate! He grabbed the book from my hand and threw it into the fire declaring that it was a terrible book for a young girl to be reading as it was filled with evil men and killing and cuss words. To this day I've never read Treasure Island, nor have I ever read a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boy book.

Looking back on it I have to wonder if part of his ire was just the plain fact that I was reading...again! The work was never done. So even if the supper dishes were cleared away there was still work to do. Pop was continually frusterated at the overwhelming amounts of work both inside and outside.

Many, many times he would stand at the end of our long kitchen, with his back to the warmth of the old wood cook stove and engineer the kitchen work. All burners went on high no matter what you were cooking. A lo heat was a waste of time. If we were drying dishes he knew exactly how much time that bowl should take to dry. And when the seconds were up we'd better be pulling the next dish out of the drainer. He stood down there and barked out orders until the kitchen was humming like a factory. When mom would walk into the kitchen he always made a point of letting her know that all it took was a little engineering!

For some reason his ideas on cleaning the kitchen never really worked unless he stood at the end of the kitchen and.. well... engineered! When he wasn't there we dawdled around making up stories and songs and literally spending hours at the dishes. I can remember spending all day Saturday, many times, at the dishpan. With all the cooking, baking, and food preservation going on the dirty dishes were insurmountable. There was no such thing as an automatic dishwasher. Whenever we suggested getting one Pop said he already had five dishwashers. Why would he want anymore? (there were five of us girls)

Today as an adult his training has had a profound impact. No matter how I tell myself that times aren't as hard as they used to be and people don't work so hard these days and that I am an adult and Pop is far away, I still feel compelled to work! My girlfriends will want to watch a movie on a hot stifling afternoon. I tell them no, not because I don't want to but because I physically can't! There's work that needs to be done and who will do the engineering if I'm sitting watching TV?

On these hot days I mentally plan what I will do in the heat of the afternoon. Yesterday I turned a fan on myself and folded laundry. I also took the fan to the kitchen and sat at the table with my cook books and planned some meals.

That's one problem I have in writing in my Dishpan. I hate to think of my readers checking in here and finding yesterdays stuff. So I write in the morning. I may have to write my entry at night and post it in the morning because it is taking up the cool hours of the day.

Like this morning I should be picking more blueberries and watering my perennnial gardens. I should be hand scrubbing the carpet on the 14 stairs leading up to the family room. It's hard work and not something you want to do in the heat, however, it is definitely on my list of chores for the day. Just writing about what needs done makes me ansy!

I know. I'll engineer. Anna Lise can pick the berries while Wally waters the garden and I'll go get breakfast started. I can really see some value to this enginering thing now that I'm older.

I've got one little problem. Anna Lise cannot pick the berries without me there. They are so ripe they're falling on the ground at the slightest provocation. She'll end up wasting too many. Wally cannot water my garden because... well... picture a bull in the china closet. Now picture tender young plants getting trodden on while he reaches for the big flowery ones in the back!

Well my kids aren't old enough for me to do too much engineering, but just wait a couple of years! In the meantime, I will persevere. Maybe when I'm in an old folks home I can actually pursue my own devices in the middle of the day.

laundry solution

Somebody did an aol search on how to do mounds of laundry really fast and ended up at my Dishpan. In case you check back here's my solution; take it all to the laundry mat and fill every washer you need. In the time it takes to do one load you can do twenty.

If you don't have time and company is coming than shove the clothes in the tub and shut the shower curtain.

Anybody else have a household problem I can help you with? I'm really good at this, as you can see!

Energy leak

I want a big frapaccino. My strength is ebbing fast!

The dog days of summer

Deep in the throes of a summer morning. Wally's eating toast with fresh marrionbery jam while he watches a Disney Sing Along video. Haileys down for a nap and Anna Lise, bless her lazy bones, is still sleeping from the nighttime.

I'm going to freeze the mornings blueberry pickin's and then set about making pie crusts for this weekends pies. I'm only going to make four and my sister in law will make two. We figure 6 pies should be enough for 26 people. My weekend guest list has dwindled due to a funeral and a church park day. So that saves a lot of cookin'.

After the pies are made I'm going to clean the guest room and then go mow yards and repot some flowers. It's so frusterating because this will take all day as a result of having Hailey here. I love that sweet child but when I want to get something accomplished she sure slows me down.

I'm throwing some chicken and veggies into the crock pot for supper tonight. It will make an easy meal for a hot day. Anna Lise woke up and the fighting has begun! Wally just hit her with his sippy cup. Yes, he still uses a sippy cup, so bite me! I just don't want to have to worry about spilt milk.

And so this summer day marches on. Some day I'll look back at all the work I used to do and long for the days. Today I'm looking ahead to someday and longing for the rest of old age! Hmmm. No, maybe not. I really don't want to grow old just yet. I guess I just want this day with a lot less work. Yeh, that''s it. I want the summer of 2004 just like it is...except....with a maid thrown in. That would be perfect!

So now. Share your day with me. What are you going to do when you get off this computer and actually accomplish something. Or are you staying on it all day? How I envy you!

Note to self: Take your allergy pill. Nobody wants to hear you scratching your throat your throat all day.

morning check-in

It's 6:30am and I'm going outside to pick blueberries before it gets hot. I'm out of Migrahealth and the pain is threatening the left side of my head. It's not full blown yet but I can tell it's not going to be good. No time to worry. Those blueberries need picked- NOW.

Rude, ruder & rudest

Another hot day! But this time a girlfriend actually called me and invited me to go to the park with her and her married daughter and her mother. So there were four of us adults and, oh, what, fun we had! We took picnic lunches and let the kids play in the wading pool. We were there for four hours. Anna Lise had a friend over so that made four kids for me to watch but I didn't care. I was getting out of the house and spending time with friends.

I got there a little before 11am and chose a table under a shade tree next to the pool. About five minutes later this kid comes running from the parking lot and plops his stuff on the table. I don't think too much of it. He's just a kid. No big deal. But suddenly there are five or six kids with all their swimming clothes and bags being loaded onto my table.

I was just telling the kids that they couldn't sit there when here comes their sitter and asks if she can sit at my table. I tell her that she may not as I have 4 other adults and 7 kids coming. One of her kids informs me that her baby sitter needs to sit at this table.

I again said that this is my table and I need it. I couldn't believe what was happening. Obviously they come to the park almost every day and sit at that table. They have claimed it as theirs! The sitter looks at me and says, " I'll just sit here on the end." It finally dawned on me that I would have to be just as rude as they were. The lady was very huge and walked with a cane. But my friends mother is in a wheel chair and would also need a close table when she got there.

I looked directly at the sitter and said, "I was here first and now this is my table." I felt like a kid in school again.

She looks at me and says, "Can't I just sit on the end?"

No you may not! I have lots of people coming and we're having lunch on this table!

"Well, where am I going to sit?" she demands. As we're talking more stuff is being piled onto the table. Nobody was paying any attention to what I was saying. It felt like one of those dreams where you scream for help and nobody hears you because there's no sound coming out!

I was getting a little ticked. " I said, " Listen lady, there are empty tables all over. I don't care where you sit!"

She turned to go sit under the tree. One of the kids looked at me and plopped more stuff beside me! He says, " We need this table. It's our table." I stared him in the eye, and said, "Kid, do you see all those people getting out of those cars? Do you see that lady coming over here in a wheel chair? This table is for them! Now get your stuff and get out!" He did!

Is the world getting 'ruder' or do I just inspire people to be rude!? And what's with the kids? In my day nobody argued with adults or strangers. And the sitter? How presumptious was she? I guess the kids were being taught well!
It was just unbelievable to me how I had to spell everything out to them. Who would go up to a table of four kids and an adult and just start spreading their stuff out? It's just too weird!

I positively despair for the next generation of kids!

A thunderous night

The thunder rolled all night. I am a native Oregonian and I don't ever recall it thundering for the entire night! The lightening wa so bright it lit up the kids rooms; every few seconds, all night long. It was amazing.

I got to bed at 12:30 am and slept very little as a result of the thunder. My allergies were making it hard to breathe and altogether it was a horrible night. I stayed up so late because my missionary girlfriend swung back by here on her way up to Washington. She didn't get here until about 10 pm. She's spending the night and then going on to Washougal today.

In a little bit Hailey will be here and then it will be time to make breakfast and get the kids up and dressed. I am just so tired it all looks incredibly overwhelming.

I just want to go back to bed.

So hot!

Does anybody live in the frozen north? Please bring me some ice or a blast of cold air or something. It is so hot. I don't even wanna play anymore. I don't wanna sleep. I don't wanna eat. (Hmm that could be a good thing) I don't wanna do anything!

The air blows through here as hot as a desert. Everybody's cranky with everybody. This after noon I loaded the kids in the car and took them to ride the carousel and train at the mall. I let them play in the play area for ages and allowed them to buy stale bubble gum out of the quarter machines. It was so blessedly cool in there!

But now we're home and it's so unblessedly hot in here! Where's Jack Frost when you need him?

Oh, Lord give me patience. Wally just walked in here with that famous stale bubble gum all wrapped around his neck and stringing onto his clothes. It's literally dripping like ice in this heat. I'm not kidding. His entire neck is encircled with sticky melted bubble gum. Why is he so naughty?

Ooowwww! It's HOT!

Nobody wants to play with me

Yesterday at church I asked several friends if they wanted to get together this week and do something with the kids. Do you think I could drum up any interest? NO. Somebodys grandma was in town, and so and so's parents were in town and another friend was going camping for the week. Nobody had a day for me and my kids. That's unbelievable. I am such a fun person to be with I can't imagine why they wouldn't cancel ther activities and spend their time with me.

Botheration, who am I kidding? I could start feeling like Eyore very easily about now. Actually, I can relate to that self centered beast quite often! Why doesn't anybody want to do anything with anybody else these days? Everyone just lives in their own little world. Whatever happened to the days of long ago when little boys went fishing and little girls played hop scotch and jump rope all day? The pictures always show them playing with other kids. Maybe that never happened. Maybe I'm trying to live some sort of reality that never has existed.

Anna Lise is daily growing away from the neighborhood kids. The one her age is moving in a few days and is hardly ever here. The other kids are all older than her by about a year and a half and more. Somehow that year and half is huge when you're seven trying to play with an almost nine year old. The almost nine year old thinks she's almost nineteen!

And Wally? Well, we wont go there. Nobody wants to play with Wally. They all want to play with Wallys cool toys but they don't want to play with Wally. Wally hits and calls them punk and stupid. They don't like Wally!

And now I'm beginning to think nobody likes me. How could all my friends be busy in the same week? Yeh, I'm busy too, but don't they get the feeling they need to have a cup of tea with a friend? Mercy, what's this world comin' too?

Yeah, I have plenty of things to keep me busy this week. I have about 50 people coming for Sunday dinner this weekend. I have a lot to do in preparation for that. But I want to visit with friends anyway.

I'm starting to believe Wally. He told me last night that, "friends are stupid. I don't like my stupid friends. Punk Seth!" Guess he was mad at Seth, wouldn't ya say?

But you know what? He may just be right? Nobody wants to play with me either.

Friends are stupid. Punk friends!

Does somebody have an idea of things I could do with my kids to keep boredom at bay around here? It's only the middle of summer and my ideas are about used up!

Marrionberries, migraines & mending

Another frightfully busy day! Started it out with one of my famous migraines. I awoke at 1am and the right side of my head felt like it was going to blow right out! I can tell when these migraines are coming because the weight of my hair is too much on my scalp and it actually becomes painful. One time the pain of my hair was so much I actually contemplated cutting it off. The scalp just gets soooo sensitive. Last night when I went to bed my scalp hurt!

The last two weeks I didn't take my Migrahealth as I had ran out. Well it took two weeks for my body to run low on magnesium and B2. Hence the migraine! I take over 2000 times amount of B2 recommended for the day. It's the only way I can keep migraines at bay. To whomever it was that left the link to Migrahealth on my weblog I can't thank you enough! This was the first migraine I've had since starting it two months ago!

So anyway the morning started out slowly. By afternoon I was feeling better and ran to the store for sure jell to make marionberry jam. I returned some things at the mall and bought each of the kids a new throw rug for their bedrooms. K mart had a sale on them. I stopped at a Kettle corn factory and bought a bag for the kids.

I stopped at Starbucks and bought myself a cup of coffee. Yes, I tried Starbucks again. Better luck this time except this odd guy came in and when he went to order the cashier said, And what would you like?" He goes, "A new president and a strawberry lemonaide." Only at Starbucks! Of course, I couldn't keep my mouth shut and told him he can only hope the next president is Bush and that I was leaning so far right I'm about falling over. He was left speechless.

After I walked around the corner to await my drink he says to the clerk, " If you don't voice your opinion in America you're ignorant. That's what freedom is all about." Are all Starbucks as weird as ours? For more on how I feel about this place you can read this entry. I'm surprised I even dared to go in there again!

Anyway, I came home and made hamburgers and frenchfries for dinner, bathed the kids, vacumed the house, and finally started the jam. I made four batches of jam which made 14 pints. It's so yummy!

The kids watered all my flowers outdoors and then Greg put them to bed. Just as I was ready to turn in for the night I spyed Anna Lise's dress hanging at the foot of the stairs. She had hung it there so I wouldn't forget to mend it. Tomorrow in Sunday School whoever wears green gets to enter a frog contest to see who can jump the furthest. If you're the winner you get a sticker. So for one measly sticker I drug my weary feet upstairs to my machine and mended the only green dress my daughter owns. What we don't do for our kids!

Now I'm draggin my weary bod to bed. Night, night.

To pool or not

I have been so frustrated today. The neighbors have all taken off on their weekend vacations-again! sigh. And here I sit; still working in the trenches.

Then it dawns on me that I am an adult. My husband is an adult. We are at the mercy of nobody but ourselves. So I head to the den to speak to him about the possibility of a productive family weekend. I gave him two options: take us all somewhere overnight, or put some more stuff in the backyard for the kids to play on: ie. simming pool, tree fort, tire swing, monkey bars.

He chose to put up a swimming pool. So after doing his much needed researching on the internet he set out to buy a pool. We're getting one about 12 ft in diamater and three ft deep. It has a filter and pump and a little ladder going to it.

But here's the catch. My husband never buys things on the spur of the moment. I've told you all before that he researches things to death. Remember my furniture? It took him 6 months of research on that one. The upstairs furniture took him two years. Okay, so he's at the store with Wally now. Any bets on whether he actually will buy the thing? I'm not exactly holding my breath.

EDIT

Greg came home with out the pool. What a surprise. Only this time he gets credit for trying. He went to four or five different stores and they didn't have what we were looking for. And bless his heart, if he didn't go and order one from Costco on the internet.

The problem was that all the stores had the inflatable ones and I wanted one wiht a stiff edge. I hate the inflatables cause the kids sit on the edge and the water sloshes out. We found one on the internet that had the hard sides and a little ladder going up. It was 12 ft in diameter and 3 1/2 ft tall.

We looked at one 15 ft but we just didn't have the space for it without leveling a bunch of dirt and it seemed too much bother. The 12 ft one fits perfectly into the spot.

To further endear himself, Greg hung a tire swing, and a playground swing in the walnut tree. The kids just love it. The swingset is getting a little small for Anna Lise although still perfect for Wally. This walnut tree has such wide spreading boughs that it would be perfect for a tree fort. I think I have Greg talked into building one. I may have gone too far though when I came up with the bright idea of doing a Swiss family Robinson house in it's branches!

Lift up your eyes

I long for beautiful things that don't get chipped and broken. I long for quiet hours reading a book and sipping tea. I long for order! In the midst of my longing my single girlfriend from Russia arrives. She teaches school over there and has been involved in mission work all over the world.

I joked with her that I just want to touch her and bask in the knowledge that I have touched something that a few days ago was across the ocean. I noticed the scarred, dog earred, address book she laid on the table and couldn't help but wonder aloud what all that book had seen. It's been to places I will never be. I'm 44 years old. My friend is six months younger than me. We have been best of friends since 4rth grade.

I sigh and apologize for the constant interruption of the kids. She shows us slides of the people and the city where she teaches school. She shares the struggles she has of being in a foreign country and adjusting to the culture there. She shares her burden for the people and the great work that God is doing in the lives of the people over there.

I listen and nod as I wipe the spitup from Haileys shirt. The timer rings and I realize that my cookies are done. I plop the baby in the high chair and grab a dishtowel to pull the cookies from the oven. Anna Lise comes tearing into the kitchen with Wally in hot pursuit. They run round and round the center island as they fight for the same toy. I throw the dish towel on the counter and settle the arguement. Both kids are now in the corner and my friend resumes her story.

She is now telling me in beautiful detail about the mountains and old beauty of Austria. Hailey needs put down for a nap. She's crying. Suddenly I remember the cookies. I drop everything and pull the now burnt lumps from the oven. It's extremely hot in the kitchen. I make the kids apologize to each other and dismiss them.

I am paying little attention to what is going on in my mundane household. My body is here but my spirit is in a foreign land seeing through my friends eyes the great cathedrals of Saint Petersburg and the smaller quainter churches of Austria. I want to go there. I want to be a missionary. I want to experience another culture and feel the deep inner peace that comes from knowing your making a difference in peoples lives.

I glance around my messy kitchen and sigh as I mix a bottle for Hailey. Another buzzer interrupts us as the dryer signals that the clothes are done. And so the day goes by.

It's now bedtime. I'm so tired. The kids have been exceptionally difficult. They have taken advantage of the fact that mom is visiting and not paying a lot of attention to their needs. My girlfriend goes upstairs to bed. I envision her lying on her bed with the cool evening breeze tugging at the lace curtains of my guest room. Most likely she will be reading her Bible and spending some quiet time alone with God. She's like that; a quiet and restful sort of person who knows what it means to find shelter under the shadow of the Almighty.

These days it seems like I scarecly have the time or energy to wing my prayers heavenwards. It's been weeks since I've gleaned a new truth from Gods word. I guiltily end up quoting chapters from the Bible as I do my housework and call it my Bible reading for the day. I'm sure that if I could be a missionary I would be like Praying Hyde. That is part of their mission- to pray and read their Bible.

I wearily tuck the children into bed and listen to their prayers. I turn their lights off and begin to straighten up the house. Oh mercy, Anna Lise is calling me again. I hate it how she always finds ways to prolong her bedtime. I sigh as I head for her room. A person can't even get a little time to themselves around here. I impatiently demand of Anna Lise to tell me what is wrong.

Very quietly she says, " I just wanted to tell you I love you." I hugged her as the realization hit me that I had not really been tuned in with her during the day. As I'm hugging her she whispers, " Mommy when I get big I want to be just like you".

Tears sting my eyes as I sit holding her on the edge of the bed. I pray for Gods forgiveness and thank him for this beautiful girl cuddled in my arms. I have so few years to teach and to train her. I sit there for a few minutes and bask in the joy of her. Then once again I kiss her and turn off the light.

This time I don't hurry to the front room to pick up the toys. I linger in the dim light of the hallway. I hear Anna Lise rustling around trying to get comfortable. I hear Wally already gently snoring. Then it is that I hear a small voice saying, "Tammy, lift up your eyes and look around. Before you lies your mission field."

There are no cathedrals with tinted windows, no steeples with church bells ringing over the country side. There is only a wooden crib and a porcelain daybed, but in those beds lie two precious little souls that depend on me to point them to Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

I am a missionary. I go to my room and falling on my kness...I pray.

Around the house

The rooms are littered with the debris from children working, reading and playing all day. I'm too tired to clean them. Everywhere my house screams children. When I had my first daughter I once heard a preacher say that when you have children every room should tell the visitor that a child lives in your home. I smugly thought, " Not in my home. The toys belong in her room or the playroom. This guy does not know what he's talking about!"

The years went on and two more children were added to my home. I now see the point that the preacher was trying to make. I still want my home to look neat and clean but really, it's hardly a conscious choice when you have kids. Every room automatically says kids.

As I'm writing this at my husbands computer it dawns on me that I may be sitting in the only room of the house that doesn't speak. I long for beautiful things that don't get chipped and broken. I long for quiet hours reading a book and sipping tea. I long for order! In the midst of my longing my single girlfriend from Russia arrives. She teaches school over there and has been involved in mission work all over the world.

I joked with her that I just want to touch her and bask in the knowledge that I have touched something that a few days ago was across the ocean. I noticed the scarred, dog earred, address book she laid on the table and couldn't help but wonder aloud what all that book had seen. It's been to places I will never be. I'm 44 years old. My friend is six months younger than me. We have been best of friends since 4rth grade.

I sigh and apologize for the constant interruption of the kids. She shows us slides of the people and the city where she teaches school. She shares the struggles she has of being in a foreign country and adjusting to the culture there. She shares her burden for the people and the great work that God is doing in the lives of the people over there.

I listen and nod as I wipe the spitup from Haileys shirt. The timer rings and I realize that my cookies are done. I plop the baby in the high chair and grab a dishtowel to pull the cookies from the oven. Anna Lise comes tearing into the kitchen with Wally in hot pursuit. They run round and round the center island as they fight for the same toy. I throw the dish towel on the counter and settle the arguement. Both kids are now in the corner and my friend resumes her story.

She is now telling me in beautiful detail about the mountains and old beauty of Austria. Hailey needs put down for a nap. She's crying. Suddenly I remember the cookies. I drop everything and pull the now burnt lumps from the oven. It's extremely hot in the kitchen. I make the kids apologize to each other and dismiss them.

I am paying little attention to what is going on in my mundane household. My body is here but my spirit is in a foreign land seeing through my friends eyes the great cathedrals of Saint Petersburg and the smaller quainter churches of Austria. I want to go there. I want to be a missionary. I want to experience another culture and feel the deep inner peace that comes from knowing your making a difference in peoples lives.

I glance around my messy kitchen and sigh as I mix a bottle for Hailey. Another buzzer interrupts us as the dryer signals that the clothes are done. And so the day goes by.

It's now bedtime. I'm so tired. The kids have been exceptionally difficult. They have taken advantage of the fact that mom is visiting and not paying a lot of attention to their needs. My girlfriend goes upstairs to bed. I envision her lying on her bed with the cool evening breeze tugging at the lace curtains of my guest room. Most likely she will be reading her Bible and spending some quiet time alone with God. She's like that; a quiet and restful sort of person who knows what it means to find shelter under the wing of the Almighty.

These days it seems like I scarecly have the time or energy to wing my prayers heavenwards. It's been weeks since I've gleaned a new truth from Gods word. I guiltily end up quoting chapters from the Bible as I do my housework and call it my Bible reading for the day. I'm sure that if I could be a missionary I would be like Praying Hyde. That is part of their mission- to pray and read their Bible.

I wearily tuck the children into bed and listen to their prayers. I turn their lights off and begin to straighten up the house. Oh mercy, Anna Lise is calling me again. I hate it how she always finds ways to prolong her bedtime. I sigh as I head for her room. A person can't even get a little time to themselves around here. I impatiently demand of Anna Lise to tell me what is wrong.

Very quietly she says, " I just wanted to tell you I love you." I hugged her as the realization hit me that I had not really been tuned in with her during the day. As I'm hugging her she whispers, " Mommy when I get big I want to be just like you".

Tears sting my eyes as I sit holding her on the edge of the bed. I pray for Gods forgiveness and thank him for this beautiful girl cuddled in my arms. I have so few years to teach and to train her. Once again I kiss her and turn off the light. This time I don't hurry to the front room to pick up the toys. I linger in the dim light of the hallway. I hear Anna Lise rustling around trying to get comfortable. I hear Wally already gently snoring. Then it is that I hear a small voice saying, "Tammy, lift up your eyes and look around. Before you lies your mission field."

There are no cathedrals with tinted windows, no steeples with church bells ringing over the country side. There is only a wooden crib and a porcelain daybed, but in those beds lie two precious little souls that depend on me to point them to Jesus the way, the Truth, and the Life.

I am a missionary.

Flash them buns

As I peeked through my window what to my wondering eyes did appear, but the naked buttocks of my son in the neighbors yard. There was his fat little baby bottom looking, oh so cute, but oh so naughty! He was standing by the neighbors decorative yard fountain. He giggles with glee when I came marching across the lawn." Mama, he says, "I'm fishing." How dumb can I be? Of course, one needs to strip to get into the neighbors fountain to fish. That way one won't get in trouble from ones mother for getting ones clothes wet.

Caffeine drought

I've had a friend from Russia here for two days and now I'm so tired I can't see straight. I stayed up till 1am visiting and that was a huge mistake as far as energy and sustainability go. On the friendship side it was wonderful. There's just nothing quite like a visit with a childhood friend. Now I want some coffee to get me through the rest of the evening! zzzzzzzzzz

You asked, I answered

I have been challenged by readers to tell what it is that makes me love my husband and what roll does he play in the home and family. First let me say that I have written some lovely things about him in this weblog. Feed his name into my search engine and you will see that my life with Greg is a wonderful life.

For some reason I seem to have gleaned a bunch of new readers. It's funny how that happens. I can go for a while and it's pretty much the people that have learned to know me that post comments. Then I'll hit a week or so where the new readers come out in droves. The newer ones are the ones that are challenging me on this. I know it takes a long time to read in the archives so I'll just freshen everyones mind! I love my husband. Let's get that out of the way immediately. If I could marry him all over again today, would I? YES!

I had to chuckle when one commenter on the entry below wondered why everything is always so black and white with me. I have real life friends tell me all the time, " Tammy, life is not so black and white." Well, maybe not. But in my book there is very little room for gray. I'm just one of those fortunate individuals who know what they believe and aren't ashamed of it. I know that no other man could have ever met my needs like Greg has.

So now let me describe Greg to you. Where I am loud, he is quiet. When I want to impulsively jump into things he is my voice of reason. When I'm in a group of friends and I'm annoying people and I don't care, he's the hand on my knee that says it's time to stop. When I feel hurts so deeply that I am wounding myself by hanging onto them so tightly, he's the one that gently prys them out and heals the wounds. When I feel like even my closest friends don't care, he's the friend that is always there.

When I feel weak with no strength to go on he says to me, "Come let me hug you. I will give you strength." No, he doesn't say that figuratively. My husband says that in just those words; many times.

The first several years we were married he spent hours with me curled up on his lap pouring out all my past hurts. I had led a promiscous life; a life far a way from God and as a result I had been deeply wounded. Greg listened as I waded through years of garbage. He just held me. He never asked questions, he never judged me or condemned me. He just held me. Some evenings my rant would go on for a couple of hours. He never rushed me. He let me work through all those years. Occasionally a tear would fall onto my hair but he never stopped me. I healed in his arms.

When we are in a group of his friends that I don't know very well, he never leaves my side. He stands with his arm around me, or his hand on the small of my back. If he wants to talk with some one across the room he asks if I want to go with him. If I don't he goes over and talks to them but he is always glancing my way to make sure I am okay in his sea of work friends. He is attentive as few husbands ever are. My friends have noticed this and commented on it many times.

Greg is a gentle, caring man and I love him with all my heart!

There now I have ran out of time and I haven't even gotten to the things he does for our family. But suffice it to say that I will be more careful in the future to show this side of my wonderful husband to my reading public!

Submission or doormat

I have to chuckle at how irate people get over this submission to husband thing. In a day and age when nobody wants to submit to anybody, this is a hard concept for some. Women have worked long and hard to be equal with men. Now how dare somebody openly admit they are submissive to their husband? The favorite term for this is "doormat". That word is bandied about like a pingpong ball.

These same people who are trying so hard to make sure they never submit seem to forget that they live their lives in submission whether they like it or not. They stop at the red light. They go at the green light. They slow down in school zones. They yield to pedestrians. They pay for their merchandise before leaving the store. They fly their flags at half mast because a man told them to. They arrive at work the same time every day because the boss says to. I could go on and on. But just let me say, what a bunch of doormats you all are.

Sound ridiculous? Yes. But that's how women sound when they bristle up about submission. All submission to husband really is, is just going by the rules. God put forth the rules for a working home and some of us follow those rules. Those that don't may get by, just like the offender of the law of the land, but they are not experiencing all that God intended marriage to be. Over half of the offenders in marriage, do not get by. Their marriages end up in divorce. Seems like after a while such smart women would get the message that just as they must submit to the road laws on the way to work so must they submit to Gods plan for husband and wife.

The nonsubmissive wife, the liberated woman, thinks that they are so in control and no way will they submit. That very same woman is the one who submits to male police officers, male bosses and male presidents every day. Do those men deserve your respect and deference more than your own husband? You have learned that things go much better for you if you do things by the law. Then why not do things by Gods law?

Does it ever dawn on you that if you have a failed marriage in your past that maybe your way isn't working? Statistics show that the divorce rate for second marriages is higher yet than first marriages. What's so surprising about that? Most of the people that enter into second marriages have already failed at it once, and unless they change their ways, of course they'll end up in another divorce. Maybe men and women should try Gods plan for marriage. When all else fails maybe they should read the directions.

In the end let me say this. I am no more a doormat in submitting to my husband than you are for submitting to the people in your life. (refer to first paragraph).

Nobody is bigger than daddy, not even God

Me: Jesus can hear all the naughty words you are saying and it makes Him sad.

Wally: Where is He. Is Him peekin' through the window?

Me: No, He's all over. He's in this room, He's in your heart, and He's up in heaven.

Wally: Do me have to die?

Me: No, Wally, you're not going to die now.

Wally: Me die in heaven?

Me: No. We'll be alive in heaven.

Wally: Me don't want to go. Me want to stay here with you.

Me: We'll all be in heaven together; the whole family and Sissy and Hailey.

Wally: Daddy too big to go to heaven.

Me: No, Wally look at the sky. Heaven is up above those clouds and it's great big. There's plenty of room for Daddy.

Wally: Nope. My daddy bigger. Him don't fit through the castle door. He big!

We are not the Cleaver family

I finally made a decision today. I called the lady I babysat for last school year and told her I wasn't going to babysit this fall. I agonized long and hard over that decision. I think of it would have just been the little boy I babysat last winter I would have done it. He's a year younger than Wally and would make a wonderful winter playmate this year again. But since then he has been blessed with a little brother. The baby would only be about 4 months this fall. Some how I just don't have the energy for the baby thing anymore so I had to give up the job. I'll miss the little boy.

Wally is going to need all the attention I can give him this year. I decided to let him go to a little home preschool down the road from me for 5 hours a week. He is getting so bored. That's 2 1/2 hrs twice a week. On one of those mornings I'm going to work in Anna Lises classroom. My kids need me.

Wanna know how badly? Let's see, Wally hit two girls with a stick today and chased said kids down the street with said stick. He peed in a bucket outside and dumped it in the grass. He got out of the neighbors pool and peed right there in their lawn. He kicked Anna Lise with booted feet. He called everyone stupid and punks! When I put an end to that via the wooden spoon he then dubbed them all poopy! Sigh!

Anna Lise had one trial after another that I can't even remember now. All I know is that at bedtime I heard her crying in her room so I went in to see what was wrong. There she lay... on her bed.. with the pillows and duvet cover on the floor. She was crying and saying she wanted her blankets. When I picked them up and gave them to her she threw them off. By this time I had about had it. I demanded to know why she wouldn't sleep with her pillow and blanket when she was crying for them.

To my alarm she wailed," I don't deserve them. I just don't deserve to sleep with them. " She then started crying and wailing as she rolled on her bed. I watched her for a minute and, horror of horrors, I felt a laugh rumbling toward the surface. I tried to talk and it came out a snort. She instantly caught the choked laughter in my voice and it only made her angry. She put her fingers in her ears and rolled all over wailing, " I've been so naughty I just don't deserve it. Oh, I don't deserve it."

I finally calmed her down and she eventually accepted the pillow and blanket. So now what do you think? Do ya think that maybe they need my undivided attention from now on?

And hey, I just realized that once again I didn't post the nice things that some of you want to hear. I'm sorry folks. It's real living around here; in the trenches kind of living. I don't know what else to say. If you have a perfect home just be thankful for it. And if I were you I would stay as far away from the Dishpan as possible lest we all rub off on you! I'm serious! This is scarey stuff.

(I still chuckle when I think of Anna Lise rolling around crying how undeserving she was. It was hilarious!)

Peace

Wallys playing in the neighbor's pool. Anna Lise is playing in a neighbor's air conditioned house, Hailey is sleeping on my bed with a fan blowing, Greg's back is feeling much better and he's bringing fresh cherries home from work. I'm on the computer and sipping a glass of ice tea. Once in a while a woman needs a respite from it all. I'm enjoying a small one right now. Peace, my friends, peace!

Never idle be

Oh, forever more, have mercy on this poor creature! My Mother in law decided that we were all going to wash the upstairs windows today!

Okay, ladies, you know how the house gets and how the laundry piles up when you've been gone. Well, Thursday I was shoppping and getting ready for my trip all day. Friday and Saturday I was gone to the coast, and Sunday was church and parades and BBQ's and fireworks. Do you see housework in there anywhere? No. Neither do I.

So now it's Monday and in the midst of this awful mess my mother in law decides we are going to move all the furniture upstairs, vacume, wash base boards, take down curtains, and wash all the windows. That's 20 windows inside and out, half of which have to be done on mammoth extension ladders! Our house is tall!

When she mentioned it I audibly groaned and Greg flashed me a look that only I could interpret. You see at the beach I had told him I was going to do my best to make him happy and help him when he wanted my help.

I am not a helper! I hate helping. I am an instigator. If it's my idea I have no problem doing it. But don't ask me to help on your idea. I don't know why but that really burns my socks. So Greg glances up from his coffee and gives me a loaded stare. I knew I was up to my old tricks. I also knew that there was no way out. So like a trappped animal I helped!

We spent five hours doing all that stuff and then on one of the last windows Greg goes and pulls his back out of place. Great. Now remember. I live with backaches. I down vicodin and muscle relaxants like candy. No body in this family seems to care. But now Greg has pulled his back. Is this a test or some thing? Well, by cracky I'll pass it if I die trying.

In honeyed tones I had him lie on the couch while I wrapped a bag of frozen peas in a dish towel and laid it on the small of his back. Then I went to the kitchen and got him a drink along with my strongest muscle relaxant. I brought him pillows and babied him no end. Oh yeah, I was well aware that he has never put ice on my back. But this is my test and I will not fail.

He slept while I started the laundry and the housecleaning that should have been done this morning. See, that's what Greg don't get. So I help him like he wants me too and when the project is done, he's done. I'm not. there are still kids to take care of and meals to make and messes to clean up and all the daily chores that had to wait while I worked on his idea. That's what I hate about it.

But hey, the new me, just grinned and bore it today; just as I will for the rest of my life. (Ow, that seems long! How can I be good for such a long time?)

When all is said and done, Gregs mom sits at the table and says, " Yep, when I come around some work finally gets done around here! Now, Tammy, you can wake in the morning with peace of mind knowing those windows are washed!"

I muttered that those unwashed windows were not causing me any lack of peace and quickly fled the kitchen before I ruined my good record for the day.

I better get to bed. I have to get up at 4am to put my husbands workboots on.

His back is hurt.

Fish and chips and renewed vows

Thank God today is still a holiday! I feel terrible. Too much sun and and junk food have combined to leave me feeling achy and tired. Our weekend was jam packed with activities. Now I'm left with mounds of laundry and reoraganization.

We had so much fun at the coast that I didn't want to come home! We stayed at Hotel Elliottt, a rennovated turn of the century hotel. It was wonderful. The first day we drove down the beach as far as Cannon Beach. We stopped at Fort Stevens and toured the old military base. It's comforting to know we don't depend on those cannons to guard our coasts anymore. Spooky looking things!

We basically drove the coast the first day. On Saturday we toured one of the historical houses in Astoria; The Flavel House. It was built by the richest sea merchant Astoria had at the time. It was a beautiful old house. I just love touring houses like that. Greg and I drove the hillside of the town and looked at the turn of the century homes for awhile. In all the time I've lived here I've never seen Astoria like I did this weekend. What an intriguing town!

We went to the Maritime Museaum and toured the light house ship that used to sit at the mouth of the Columbia River. Everywhere was the continual reminder of how rough the bar crossing is. Two thousand boats have been lost crossing the Columbia River bar. Two hundred of those were huge ships. It was all so awsome.

Of course, we can't forget about the yummy seafood. I had a big kettle of steamer clams that was to die for at Pier 11. Saturday for lunch we had fish and chips bought from a guy that was selling them out of a drydocked boat he had converted into a a fish and chips place. I never buy fish and chips. I prefer my fish unbreaded, but let me tell you, this fish was done to a T. None of that greasy old stuff I remembered when I thought of fish and chips. It was wonderful.

The stay was all too short, and due to my determination to not bring up any controversial issues, we had a wonderful mini honeymoon! Lots of deep soul talking about just us; not kids, not work, not house. Nuthin'! Just us. It reminded me of how little we talk about just the two of us and our goals and our desires for our marriage, etc. When you're in the daily grind it just seems like that is put on the back burner.

It's like we married 15 years ago so that's taken care of and now we have to deal with the kids and the everyday issues of raising a family. The only time we would get around to discussing each other and the vows we made so long ago was when one or the other of us was upset. This time we were relaxed with nothing more to do than to renew our never dying love for each other.

Through it all, I have determined to appreciate my husband more and to view him through the same eyes I saw him through when we dated. We are not just mom and dad. We are man and woman, husband and wife, lovers and friends. It all sounds so simple, yet how easily I forget.

Promises kept

I'm back. We had a lovely time. It was so relaxing and for the inquiring minds- I stuck to my vow and never discussed one thing negative! Greg thinks he's perfect in my eyes and I suppose that's how it should be. But there now, I'll write more on this later. I'm tired.

Off to the Beach

Well, everyone I leave bright and early in the morning for the Oregon Coast! Yes, Jethro, we're getting a room! I mean to just enjoy myself on this trip and not use it as a chance to "talk". I'm not going to mention his procrastination, nor the fact that I need a new sprinkler head, and a new flower bed worked up. Nope. Just gonna let it all go and have fun!

We're staying in a restored historical motel, more like a bed and breakfast with out the breakfast. The internet tells me that a chocolate and rose will be at our bedside in the evening. We will dream under 400 thread count Egyptian sheets with a down comforter! I have a down comforter on my bed year round but somehow it sounds so luxurious when mentioned along with Egyptian sheets.

Anyway I'm greatly looking forward to it. I need this time with just my husband. Some friends of ours are watching the house and staying with the kids. We'll only be gone for one night but I need that night!

Have a happy 4rth everyone!

Fireworks

Before you read the following true story let me just say that it is written from a 14 year old perspective, and not meant to be taken as a serious look into how I feel about those of other religious persuasion. It is meant to be told from the eyes of a little Mennonite girl. It's comedy!

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Pop never liked large gatherings or popular events. He hated all holidays that could be mistaken for "worldly entertainment". Independence Day with it's parades, and fireworks definitely fell into this category. As children we would beg to be allowed to watch the fireworks, but Pop would not relent. We weren't even allowed in the big town of Estacada on the day of the parade lest we see something that would corrupt our minds and forever keep us from the kingdom of heaven.

However, one year, us kids somehow talked mom into taking us to see them. Now we would never dream of going directly into the town. That would be the equivalent of actually socializing with the devil. But what would it hurt if we pitched our tent toward Sodom? Certainly no harm could come from that. I mean, we weren't actually a part of the evil that way. And one could scarcely class it as premeditated sin or anything since we just schemed it up at the last minute. But anyway, on with my story.

One fourth of July, there lay Pop in bed sleeping the sleep of the just, while my five sisters and I were climbing all over the porch roof trying to get a good view of the fire coming out of Sodom. But no matter where we went we couldn't see the light show.

We finally gave up and begged mom to take us part way down the mountain;out of the trees. To our amazement she gave in. I can't tell you the excitement that ran through our household that night. Quickly, and quietly so as not to wake Pop, we all piled into our old green station wagon. It mattered not that we were all in varying stages of getting ready for bed. There were eight of us kids at the time. Some had pajamas on. Some had slippers. And some were just barefoot. Somehow we all made it to the car and off we went to see the fireworks just like the heathen.

We found a wonderful viewing spot about 4 miles away. It was across the road from the Nazarene Church. We had no fear of parking in their field. I mean, it's not like anyone would see us, thus making us a stumbling block. After all, the Nazarenes had already gone down into Sodom for the night festivities. And why shouldn't they? Their souls were lost anyway.

So we parked in the field and enjoyed a wonderful show of lights. No fireworks since then have ever came close to the breathtaking beauty of those we saw that night. As the last of the sparkly lights disappeared over the tree tops we were suddenly possessed with an urgency we hadn't felt before. What would happen if Pop awoke to find us gone? No one dared to think about it! We all piled back in the car.

Have you ever noticed that the full impact of your sin doesn't really hit you until after you've committed the sin? Here we were. The pleasure of sin had worn off and we were left with only one thought: Get home fast before our sin found us out. However the old car had other ideas. No matter how my mother tried it would not start! There was only one thing to do. That was to walk the 4 miles home!

So we all piled out of the car and with robes flying wildly behind us we started walking. And we started laughing. We were so scared and nervous and full of the adventure that we couldn't get done laughing! No one dared look back lest they indeed turned into a pillar of salt.The only problem was that some of us didn't have any shoes. Others were flapping along in their slippers. After having gone about a mile it became quickly apparent that some of us just weren't going to make it. Marty, the toddler had thrown on an old pair of boots and they were pinching his feet dreadfully. We had to take turns carrying him.

The nearest house was that of the Sunday School superintendent; an aged man with a map of the Allegheny mountains permanently etched in the back of his neck. With them lived their aged daughter, pretty in her own right, but somehow none of the church boys took the time to notice, least not that any of us could tell.

Well, one can't just wake old people up in their sleep so we went around the side of the house where the old maid daughter slept. There we started pelting her window with tiny stones. Thinking sure it was a suitor she flew to her window and looked down. She could not believe her eyes . There stood the entire Swartzendruber family on her front lawn. When she finally heard our story she laughed until her sides ached. We could tell by the way she kept gasping for air and clutching at her robe. Knowing Pop, and the urgency that this situation called for, she grabbed her matronly garb about her, and piling us all in her car she took us home.

Pop had slept innocently through the entire thing. And do you know I don't even remember how we got that car home. The rest of the story never survived the years of telling. One thing I do know, however, and that is that Mom never took us to see the lights again. In fact, I never got to see them again until I was much older and had joined the Baptist Church!