I did some GOOD work today! I cleaned out a cabinet, making room for stuff that used to be on the floor to have a real spot. I threw away a whole trash bag of junk, took a garbage bag full of donations to the van to take tomorrow, took a Walmart bag of school shirts to the van to give away at school tomorrow, and took out several empty boxes. Plus, I posted seven items on Craig's List -- with pictures even :-) And I did all that in only an hour or two. Productive afternoon :-)
This morning, I decided to get some of the junk out of the computer room. I'm just moving it down to the laundry room :-) I had barely started the project when I found GROSSness! I had tossed two old pillows in the corner behind Seth's crib and left them there for I don't know how long. I decided to move them from that corner to probably some other corner (moving the junk around counts as cleaning in my opinion). The bottom pillow STUCK TO THE WALL! EWWWWWWW!!!! It had frozen to the wall, melted, refrozen, and mildewed. GROSS GROSS GROSS!!! It was easy to clean up since the mildew was just on the pillow and in the ice, not really on the wall. So first of all, shame on me for leaving stuff all over the place instead of either finding a proper spot for it or disposing of it; and second of all, what in the world kind of place is this that things freeze to the INSIDE WALL?????!!!!!!
I'm forcing myself to get this place de-junked (not just moved around -- that's only a temporary fix). I'm DYING to make a beaded lamp shade for this new lamp someone gave me, but I have to complete Project De-Clutter first. The bead project will be very time-consuming and detailed, so there will be no hope of finishing the cleaning project if I start beading first. The beadwork will be my reward for cleaning up. That's why I moved the computer room junk to the laundry room. I can't clean much of anything except during naptime and at night after the kids' bedtime. Seth's room doubles as the computer room and junk room, so I can't do any work in there during my allotted work times.
We are almost finished refinancing our house. We're getting back quite a lot of money and also lowering our payments quite a bit. I honestly don't understand one thing that's happening, but I'm getting pretty good at acting like I'm following along properly :-)
I decided to take snapshots of all four kids yesterday. Seth's always with me, so I take lots of pictures of him. Makenzie's the only girl, and I can think of all kinds of excuses to take pictures of her. Joel and Luke are usually either too busy or too grouchy to get their pictures taken. How many pictures can I take of them playing the wii before people think that's all they do when they're home?
Seth looked just ADORABLE in his little overalls outfit! He saw the cardiologist today -- charmed her, of course! His heart seems to be perfectly healthy, and he doesn't go back to the cardiologist for TWO years unless (God forbid!) something goes wrong between now and then (such as passing out or a significant, consistent loss in his activity level). From birth until about age one, he saw the cardiologist every month or two. After he was completely healed after his heart surgery in 2006, he saw her yearly. Now it's every two years because he's doing so well -- praise God!
Luke was headed downstairs when I stopped him to give him some instructions. When I prompted him for a response like "OK?" he turned around with this devilish little grin and said "ok." I on purpose didn't remove the red eyes because they add to the sense of mischief surrounding this child.
Makenzie is still too afraid to get her ears pierced and can't even wear normal clip-on earrings because they hurt her ears. So she sometimes wears these little play earrings. She's trying really hard to work up the courage to get them pierced, though. She really wants to wear the pretty earrings that I've made and/or bought for her.
Joel wanted me to take a serious picture of him, but I kept making him laugh -- which is NOT a difficult task. He's easy to "give the cracks." That's a phrase he made up one night after his bath. He said something that made me laugh out loud, and he said, "Mom, I just love it when you get the cracks!"
Nothing exciting is happening today, so I just have these two funny pictures. Seth's hair is REALLY long. I did finally make an appointment for him to get a trim this week (pictures of that event to be released by midnight Friday night). Luke wanted his picture taken in the bath just like Seth, but got soap in eyes. Plus, I buzzed his hair off a few weeks ago, so there wouldn't be the halo of "seaweed" all around him (final decision on the haircutting issue: pay someone else to do it from now on!).
Seth did pretty well in speech therapy yesterday (he's learning to point with his pointer finger at whatever he's asked to point to and to recognize colors) and occupational therapy today (he's learning to eat with a spoon, twist a lid off a plastic jar, and color). He's so cute, I just love taking him everywhere to share his cuteness with everyone around. He's the kind of little person who makes even the grumpiest day a little brighter :-)
After fifteen tries to get a good picture of Seth today, I gave up -- these are from a couple years ago. Seth did not complain in any way to being awakened by the camera flash :-) I just read a few more chapters of Expecting Adam and had to write out how I'm feeling about what I read and what God has blessed me with. The people in that book are from very "intellectual" lives. People advised them to kill their baby, using the "socially acceptable" term of "terminating the pregnancy." Some people gave this advice because a baby would be an inconvenience to the parents' careers. Others gave this advice because raising a "retarded child" was just unthinkable to them. So on to the title of this post: BLESSED! I have been BLESSED with a good childhood in a family that raised me to know that the top priorities in life are God, family, and friends. I have been BLESSED with a tender heart that God has shaped to be compassionate, accepting, and loving toward all people no matter what race, religion, or abilities. I have been BLESSED with three beautiful, intelligent, creative, healthy children. I have been BLESSED beyond all explanation with one perfectly amazing angel child. To even consider the fact that without the first two blessings, I might not have been granted the fourth blessing makes me cry in gratitude for my Lord's goodness to me.
ATTENTION, ALL OCD-TYPE PEOPLE: When was the last time you pulled out your oven to clean? I am apparently not a very good ocd person because I had NEVER pulled my oven out to clean the entire four and a half years that we've lived here. "YUCK" doesn't even begin to express what I found there! But it's pretty much clean now. So why did I decide that TODAY was the day to tackle this project (ha ha -- pun on today being super bowl Sunday)? Last night, I broke my snowman night light which is plugged in right next to the oven. Three pieces broke off the poor guy -- his carrot nose, his broom top, and his hat brim. The first two parts were on the counter, so I super glued them back on; but I couldn't find the hat brim. I looked all around, but figured it had to have fallen behind the stove. With all the gunk back there, the only way to know for sure was to pull it out and clean. It wasn't there, but I was still glad to have finally done this nasty job. So where was the stupid hat brim? In my utensil jar (which I did look in last night, but obviously not well enough) :-) Jason was a little annoyed about that since he was the one who had to pull the oven out instead of relaxing in front of the tv, but he didn't complain because he knows that I really wanted to clean back there anyway.
This might be a good place to add #26 to my "random facts about me" list: I HATE SPORTS! Please don't look down on me for that just as I don't look down on all you sports fanatics :-) I don't think anything about other people loving sports as long as it doesn't interfere with what's really important in life like God, family, other people's self-esteem (I don't tolerate people making fun of their kids or yelling at their kids for messing up in sports or for not wanting to be involved in sports), a good Christian testimony, common decency/compassion . . . I'm sure my dislike of sports is caused by my COMPLETE inability to excel at ANY type of athletic activity. The only sport I'm even semi-good at is badminton, and I'm really only as good as most nine-year-olds -- I'm sure Joel will be winning our family tournaments this summer since he is now ten, one year past my skill level. Anyway, this piece of personal info was on my mind since most people are so wrapped up in watching football today.
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