Where No Oxen Are

I just love Proverbs 14:4.  "Where no oxen are, the manger is clean.  But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox." 

The first time I came across this verse it was being applied to children in our homes.  There will come a time when there will be no children in my home, and (maybe!) it will be clean (at least a lot less of it), but for now, it is blessed with children and their creative play and their pets, and toys, and books.  But, just look at the reward-"revenue comes".  Look at the blessings that come.  Blessings come to the parents by having children to love and disciple.  Blessings come to the children by being allowed to be creative, make some messes, learn, and love furry friends.  Blessings also come to my children by my choosing to spend time with them, and on things I need to do for myself in order to be a good mom, instead of making sure I have a spotless home. 

All of my kids have chores, and we work hard to keep it reasonably clean, but there are some things that just have to wait.  Sometimes it starts making me crazy, and like yesterday morning, we have an "everybody is going to work together to get the downstairs cleaned up really quickly" morning. 

If you come to my house, it is likely that you will find 2 or 3 play "corners" set up.  Sometimes a "corner" may be the entire den!  These change around weekly depending on what the little ones are doing.  I make them pick up those scattered toys, but if they have spent a lot of time setting up a play scene, and I know it is something they will come back to for a day or two, we have decided to let them leave it out.  They may go back and forth between 2 or 3 activities during the day.  When they don't touch it one day, then they have to pick it up. 

So, though, I don't use this verse as an excuse not to do housework, it is a look at the reality that I have 5 people who are in this house close to 24 hours a day, and a 6th one here when he's not working.  My home is full of living, and if you drop by, chances are you'll have to step over some of it and move it off the couch to sit down. 

Swimming Lessons

For the past 2 weeks, Marissa has been taking swimming lessons in Gatlinburg.  She's nine, and this is the first time she has ever taken, mostly due to failure on my part.  Everyone else's hectic schedule always seems to put it on the back burner.  The fact that makes this newsworthy to me is how great she has done.  She has never wanted to take swimming lessons, and absolutely has refused to put her face in the water.  Last year she was still in the pool with floaties, and it was getting kind of embarassing.    When we went to my parents' in early July, we went to a pool that is part of the community they live in.  We were impressed because after 2 trips, she actually dog paddled part way across the pool without the floaties.  She still wouldn't get her face wet, though.  It took major convincing to get her to jump off the side in 4 ft.. without someone to catch her.  So, when I came home determined to get her in lessons this year, I didn't know how it would go over.  Lessons are at 6:00, so James has taken her 3 days each week, and I have gone the last one to watch.  In her first week, she was swimming the length of the pool on her back with no help at all.  Her attempt at the crawl stroke was a little above the dog paddle(we saw arms come out occasionally), and she would stick her nose and mouth in the water on occasion.  And, she was bobbing under water for a split second.  I was amazed.  (Why won't she do for me what she will do for a different teacher?!)  This week, not only is all of that improving, including bobbing under water, and actually staying there a tiny bit longer, she is also jumping off the side in the 10 ft with no one to catch her, swimming back to the surface, over to the teacher, and back to the side with no help.  WOW!  For her to have started where she did, I am very proud of her.  I am proud that she is in there trying and not letting her fear get the best of her.  And, on top of that--she's having fun.  It was her idea to sign up for a 2nd week, and she wishes she could keep going.  (She's better than me.  I swam all the time growing up, and I HATED swimming lessons.)

For those of you who live around here, we much prefer the lessons in Gatlinburg than the ones in Sevierville.  We've never tried PF.  Gat. has their pool closed during lessons, so it's not full of other screaming, jumping kids to distract..  There are only 3 or 4 kids in the classes, and we have always been happy with the teachers.  I can't say the same for Sev. 

Today is her last day, so I'm off this evening to watch our progress.  She is soooooo excited for me to come see her jump off the side in the deep.  Fun!!

Where in the USA?

My friend, Momof5littlewomen , had this map on her blog, and I think I saw it on someone else's, and thought it was fun.  We like to travel, but a lot of times we just go to the same states over and over.  I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I've been to Florida!  Our next "great adventure", we hope, will be out west. 

You can create your own map at http://douweosinga.com/projects/visitedstates.

So, where have *you* been?

Letitia

P.S.  Ashley is coming home today.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Update...Transferring old blog posts, I saw this. I can now add Illinois to the list. : ) Still haven't made that trip out west 7 years later. One day!

Fried Brain!!

Well, this last week has been quite eventful.  It all started last Wed. with the picnic that I posted about last time.  That was a spur of the moment decision to go to that.  Thursday, a friend had asked me to come help her for a couple of hours to set up the decorations and tablecloths for her daughter's wedding reception.  That couple of hours turned into 7 hours.  I got home at 11:15 pm.  The friend who was supposed to help her on Friday had an emergency, so I took her place--another 5 hours.  The wedding was on Saturday, and I stayed to help them undecorate--another 5 hours.  It was such a sweet wedding, and I did have a lot of fun helping my friend, but I *was* very tired. 

On Sunday, I didn't go to church because I stayed home with Ashley, but had to drive her back to camp Sunday afternoon, 45 min. each way.  On Monday I had an appt. in Knoxville and was gone about 3 1/2 hours. 

That was all the running.  But in between then, I had a very emotional day on Wednesday pertaining to my daughter's birthmother (everything is okay.  It was just very emotional.)  Ashley has been gone for 2 weeks to camp to be a counselor, except for Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.  Of course, I was gone most of the time she was here.  I have missed her so much, mostly because I don't get to talk to her at all.   She will be home on Friday afternoon. YAY!!!!!

Then, after years of Briana insisting that she has no desire to go to college, she announces Sunday afternoon that she has decided she does.  Now we are fine with that, but boy, that came out of nowhere, and suddenly, you have a LOT on your mind.  Researching colleges, researching those colleges' programs, deciding if she can go to the community college for a year first, researching scholarships, deciding how on earth I'm going to part with my baby girl !

And, FINALLY-  I think-  I have been working like crazy the last few days trying to finish our support group's yearbook.  I worked on that about 6 hours or so, just today.  It's almost done.  Another YAY!!!!!  Add to that the normal mind boggling things of everyday life, and boy, is my brain fried. 

Guess Who

Guess who I got to spend time with today!  What a neat surprise to see her when I got to our homeschool group's used book sale.  I swore her to secrecy that she would not blog about what an airhead I was this morning.    It was really bad.  I must have been stressed and not known it.  Anyway, it was fun.  This lady was, of course, there.  She's everywhere!  She's everywhere!  LOL  And, it's always fun to spend time with her.  Ask about joining her FATIGUE Club!!!  Really, you must--even if you aren't tired, ask her!! 

Well, surprisingly enough, I bought less than I sold.  I only made it home, though, with $11 profit.  I don't think I made much more than that at the one we had in April.  I still have 4 boxes full of books to get rid of.  I think I will try to sell a few on the forums here. 

Thankfully there was a wonderful wind at the park today, because the temp was 95.  The wind made it bearable. 

Stay Cool!

We're Home

  We're back from a fun week at my mom and dad's.  Briana had gone to Triple Threat Performer Camp in their town for 2 weeks.  This was her 3rd year to go, and she had a blast again.  She takes musical theater for about an hour and a half in the mornings, then the rest of the day (until 4:30) is different dance styles and exercise.  We went over last Wed., so we could see her performances on Friday.  They were a lot of fun.  In her muscial theater class, they did a group number, and each one sang a solo from  a musical.  One afternoon they got to go for free to the Playhouse's performance of Singing in the Rain.   They have great performers there, and people travel for hours to see their plays. 

    The rest of the week we relaxed and played.  We took the girls to the pool 3 times, except one of those I stayed and just dad went with them.  The little ones went fishing a lot, and went to the playground one day.  We went to the fireworks show at the big lake on Saturday, then watched the small show on their lake on the 3rd.  We went out in the paddle boat a few times.  On the 4th it rained all day.  My dad managed to cook out under thier tiny little covered porch. 

    One night we had a campfire by the lake and made s'mores.  We "invented" (I'm sure someone else has done it before) a story game.  We went around the campfire, and each person said just one word to make a sentence.  We went round and round until we had a hilarious, slightly deranged story.  Slightly might be too kind!  It involved skinning a chicken on a tree and a frog with toothpicks in his toes.  We had all of us from 9 yo Marissa, our 2 teens, James and me, to my mom and dad.  We all laughed so much.  The story (thankfully?) got cut short because the rain started back up and ran us inside.  Probably just as well anyway, because it was 11:00, and the little ones were still up. 

   Try as I might, I cannot keep us on our schedule when we are gone.  Even though they are only 2 hours away, my parents live in a different time zone.  I try to stay on eastern, but it only works for a day or so.  Then they are going to bed on central time, and still getting up on eastern time.  Then add in the late nights like the fireside night, and we really get mixed up. 

   Well, I got one child back, and am about to send another one off.  Ashley leaves this Sunday afternoon to be a camp counselor at the Baptist Youth Camp about 45 min. from here.  She is going to attempt to do it 2 weeks this year.  She will be home Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon in between, though.  Talking about long weeks.  She is up at 6:30, going all day, and lights out are at 11:00ish. She gets one hour free time to take a shower and rest, and one hour in the afternoon that she has devotion time with another counselor and a few minutes of rest.  About 20 min. of it is walking back and forth just to get there and back.  Last year she had 3 big time trouble makers, so we are praying for some mercy this year.  : )  She has been working for several days preparing devotionals for her cabin.  She won't find out the exact age group she has, or which 2 classes she will teach until she gets there Sun. night. 

   Well JOY!  Marissa just came in saying there is a lizard in the school room.  I suppose I should be excited for this wonderful teaching opportunity I could turn this into.  However, I am mostly thankful that James is on the way home so he can catch the thing and get it out of here.  eeeeeewwwww!!!  And, why don't cats ever catch the things you want them to?  Whenever I set a cat down in front of some varmit I want it to dispose of, the cat just stares at me like I've lost my mind.  .......He may have a point!

   I'm off to visit a few friends, then continue my unpacking--avoiding Mr. Lizard at all costs!