Contentment

This is something I am working on. It is so easy to get caught up in the "wants". I find this especially hard when I am trying to cut back on my spending. It just makes me want to buy more. I do this with food as well. If I even think about trying to "diet", I instantly crave everything I shouldn't be having.
I don't indulge myself a lot with things. We are definitely on a budget and with the plan of 2 kids being in private school next year, we really need to watch what we spend. When I do spend money, I almost always buy things on sale and try to get the most for my money. But it is hard. When I am around other people who are a little more casual about their money, or don't have to worry about it so much, or who can buy expensive things etc...it gives me the wants.
Then I have to look around and realize how much we have, we are never wanting for food or clothing or a warm place to sleep. So what if we can't go out to eat in a restaurant all the time or go to movies. We are truly blessed and this is something I plan on focusing on this year.

Feeling picked on

I am feeling picked on by satan. Does this ever happen to you? I know in my head it means I am doing something he doesn't like which means I am hopefully doing something right with God but in my heart it is just hard.
And each time you try to pick yourself up from being pushed down, you get knocked over again by something new.
It's not as bad as it sounds. I am just stressing about finances (aren't we all) and then as I start thinking about how I can cut back, where I can tighten the belt, we get hit with things like car repairs, new tires and homeowners dues.
So I guess that new bra I was going to get b/c the underwire broke in my old one will have to go to the bottom of the priority list.

Life changing decisions

My son accepted Jesus into his heart. We were talking about a classmate whose grandmother died and we were talking about what happens when you die. I guess he and his dad were just talking about this a few days before this so it was fresh in his mind. It took me completely by surprise. We have talked about it before and he said he would when he was older. He didn't even want to wait for his daddy to get home. The girls were taking naps and it was such a sweet moment of prayer for the two of us. Something I will never forget.
I just pray he continues to grow in the Lord and keep his amazing spirit of compassion and sweetness.

Perspective

I was going to log on and complain about how I got so little sleep last night between kids getting up, having accidents, changing sheets and waking up early. As well as whine about the snow coming and not being done Christmas shopping, or grocery shopping or worrying about what monday might bring and how I might be able to get to work if it's icy...etc
But then this morning I read the Christmas letter from my friend Cherise. Last December, her brother shot and killed 4 people, wounded at least 1 other person before killing himself. It was a horrible tragedy and one I cannot imagine going through. She just talked about how amazing God has been this past year. How the families of the victims have embraced her and her family and completely forgiven Matthew for what he did. About God's unconditional forgiveness and the true reason for this season. All of my whinings and complainings are pretty trivial compared to what they have been through this past year. When I get harried and frantic about what I feel I need to get accomplished before next thursday, I think I just need to sit back and thank God for sending his Son, for knowing He would die a horrible death but doing it out of love for us. I need to focus on this not only for myself but for my kids, so they learn the true lesson of Christmas.

What would you do?

Wow it has been a long time since I blogged. Am not sure what I have been doing except trying to get ready for Christmas.
Here is my dilemma: I bought a shirt for Princess at Freddy's. Or so I thought. When I got home, I glanced at the receipt to see how much it was as it was on sale and it wasn't there. The lady didn't ring me up for it. Honestly, if it was a 1 or 2 dollar item, I probably wouldn't give it too much thought and if I had never looked at the receipt I never would have known I didn't get charged for it. But I feel bad. At the time I was not going to load the kids back up in the car, head to the store and go back and say "look you didn't charge me for this". But I still feel bad, like I stole it. I feel God telling me to do the right thing. I am leaning toward just carrying it into the store next time I go and adding it to my pile of groceries. That's my plan anyway. What would you do?

sickness

Last night the girls came down with a fever. Just out of the blue. Princess was the most miserable and refused to take medicine for a long time. She sort of wimpered and talked all night in her sleep. She was sleeping with me so needless to say I didn't get a lot of sleep. Sweet Pea actually slept 13 hours which is a record for any of my kids. I finally checked on her around 8:30 and probably woke her up. I was getting worried because she was sleeping so long. Then Bud had a fever this morning so had to stay home from school.
It has been a long day with nothing much accomplished on my part. They all still have fevers so will see how the night goes.
The only positive thing about this is that they are all sick at the same time so I don't have to anticipate them getting sick one right after the other and drag it out.

Soccer is over!!

Can you tell I am excited? I am sooo glad it is over. I loved watching son play games, that was no big deal but practices just killed me. They were right at the time I was getting into my stride of cleaning and cooking. It took forever to get the kids ready to go and make them go potty b/c of course there was no bathroom there, pack snacks or pick something to entertain the girls with for 45 minutes, get son to actually put on his soccer stuff, I could go on. Then to come home at 6:30 and feed them and bathe them and put them to bed. Unfortunately, those were the days husband usually didn't get home until the kids were in bed. So yes, I am very happy it is over.
But to be fair, some positive things came out of it:
Watching son play was a hoot, at least for me, husband felt his blood pressure rising often. Son liked to get out there and then it was as if he were playing some sort of imaginary game in his head complete with mouth movements and hand gestures. But he ran the whole time he was out there.
His endurance has definitely increased the past few weeks and he no longer complains his legs hurt after riding 2 blocks on his bike.
He had a great team, all of the kids were likeable and friendly. No bully in the bunch. A couple of them actually go to son's school so he gets to play with them at recess.
The coach was great. Even though husband was frustrated that he didn't have the kids scrimmage more during practice, the coach made sure the kids were having fun but didn't let them misbehave and made them run laps if they weren't listening to him. I think if we had a coach who pushed the kids too much, it would have turned son off from playing next year (which I can't even think about right now)
It didn't rain. Yes this is the biggest one of all. We started out with 90-100 temperatures and ended up in the 50's for the last practice but we didn't get rained on. It sprinkled at 2 games, the last one we used an umbrella for a little while but it didn't last very long.

I know as my kids get older and more of them are playing sports, I am only going to get busier and shouldn't complain too much. But for now, I am glad to have my tuesdays and thursdays back to myself and my normal routines.

Now on to basketball...no I am not kidding. It starts saturday. But the good thing about is that husband has to take him to it and they only meet on saturdays. No games, just learning about the game.
yes, eventually son will have to pick which sport he wants to focus on, but for now I am glad he wants to try all the different ones.