Precious moments

So Samantha made profession/confession/confirmation (what ever you call it) of faith this morning, declaring that she has asked Jesus in her heart and wants to live for Him.  As we were singing opening songs, she started to look a little green and asked me if she could sit down.  Brandon looked over at me after she sat down so I leaned over to explain that she was getting a little nervous about standing up in front of everyone (she passed out once at a school program).  So Brandon sat down with her and talked to her a little bit about it.  They started talking about how all of heaven rejoices when even one person comes to Christ.  So Brandon says you  know, you’re giving your brother a party in heaven, I’ll bet he even gets to eat cake.   Samantha (being the ham that she is) leans over and says “you suppose it’s angel food cake?”  We are so thankful for Samantha’s committment to Christ and His promises for her.  Truely a precious moment (too bad we forgot to video tape it for Nana and Papa) -and just for the record when we realized that fact she said “well I’m not doing it again”.  Apparently public speaking is not her favorite thing.

Outing my secrets

I am a perfectionist.  There, I’ve said it.  But not the good kind of  “wow that lady always has it together -I wish I could be like her” perfectionist, more of the “paralyzed by my inability to do it perfectly” variety.  The living in CHAOS (can’t have anyone over syndrome) type.

They say perfectionism is something you learn as you are growing up and while I do remember hearing the phrase “if you’re not going to do it right, you might as well not do it at all” I think I am just naturally inclined toward it.  I remember when I was applying for my first salon job, it asked for strengths and weaknesses and I listed perfectionism under both because already then I realized that it can fall into both catagories.  It can mean that I do an incredible job at something that someone else would not.  Or it can mean that I will get sidetracked by a small unimportant detail or take too long because I’m not focusing on the main objective.

For example (true confession time) I remember when I first started teaching cosmetology, I was getting ready for my very first Junior class (the newbies) I had everything ready but it was not yet “perfect”.  You see the student kits that they would start with until their permanent kits arrived had hair clips in them, the kind that would hold a large amount of hair when they sectioned it off.  I’m sure at one point they all started with matching sets but over time one would break here or there and would get replaced by one from the lost and found …this would not do.  I wanted everything to be “perfect” so I stayed late after everyone else had gone home and took out all the clips from all 16 kits and sorted them out into matching sets which was trickier than it sounds as once you got past the first few sets, the matching logic had to stretch a bit.  In the end some of the kits matched by color, some by shape, and I think I ended up with one that had to be considered matching because they didn’t match any of the others -this is the depth of my “illness”. =) 

Brandon and I sometimes joke that I am a little bit OCD.  Truth be told (which is kind of the point of this post) it actually literally feels good to me to organize things, to have ” a place for everything and everything in it’s place”  I get just a little bit of a high when I  make order out of something that is in disarray. That being said, anyone who has visited my house recently would look at me and say “really, you’re sure about that”?  The problem is that my perfectionism takes over, I don’t want just a place for everything I want the perfect place for everything.  We have been living in some degree of CHAOS pretty much since we started living together after our marriage over 14 years ago.  Oh there have been times that we’ve managed to get it together and we even had a streak going there for a little while where we had it together enough that our home group was able to meet at our house for about a whole year….as long as no one looked in the dryer (yes that was my secret stash and dash place).

I actually think that is part of why I have not been blogging lately, I couldn’t come up with the perfect post. That and I added a baby and a teenager to my household all within 3 months…. but I am making progress!  Thanks to one of my facebook friends (another reason I’ve been busy) I have discovered a website for people like me: www.flylady.net .  My older sister had actually told me about it years ago but at the time I didn’t have internet access and the “FLYlady” hadn’t yet written her book “Sink reflections” .  This site has been so helpful to me, helping me let go of my perfectionism and learning that there is such a thing as “good enough”.  My house is not yet perfect and it may never be but it is slowly getting better and I know that because of the baby steps I’m taking to get there, it will eventually be able to stay that way.  It has also helped me to start teaching these things to my kids, teaching them how to take care of their things and allowing me to take time to spend with them to do fun things even if everything is not perfect.  As a matter of fact we had what I considered to be a really good summer.  I think it was mid to late July before I heard anyone say “I’m bored” and it wasn’t until the last couple of weeks before school started that they started getting on eachother’s nerves.

When I was a little girl my mother was the song leader for Sunday school ( I may have mentioned that before).  At one point, she taught us a song that said “He’s still workin’ on me, to make me what I ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and earth and jupiter and mars, how loving and patient he must be, he’s still working on me.”  I’m proud to say God hasn’t given up on me and I will always be able to grow in him.  The FLYlady has helped me to get a better glimps of me through His eyes.  I am not a failure, I am a work in progress.

That said, the title of this post is Outing my secret(s).  My other secret is my other blog.  Yes that’s right, I have a secret blog.  It is also about people like me, the name is actually “mom’s like me“.  It is about my experience with our son Joshua.  I must warn you it is not perfect yet.  As a matter of fact I have a lot that I want to do to it yet but as with most other things, It may never be perfect and if I wait until it is I may never be able to share it and I have already been blessed by ”meeting” other “moms like me” through it.  So I will continue to work on it as time and emotions allow and I will share our story piece by piece.  Just think of it as a continual cliffhanger.

I’m BaAack

Okay so this morning Erica had to go see a Pediatric Endocrinologist because the curve of her growth chart has dropped off significantly and they want to check if it’s because of all the steroids she’s on or some other reason.

So when we went we didn’t figure on her needing any pokes today as this was a first consult.  OOps!  They wanted to run a bunch of labs and get an xray of her arm to do a “bone age” test.  So we went from the Dr’s office across the street to Spectrum Health to get the stuff done since we were there already anyway.  After we had checked in at the registration desk and were heading down the hallway, Brandon mouths to me “does she know what we’re doing” I told him no. (you see she had just been in Yesterday AM to have an “AM cortisol” test done)  So as we approach the lab area I told Erica what we had to do and without missing a beat she says “Oh, you are so picking me up from school today” -she had wanted Brandon to pick her up after school yesterday but it didn’t work out.  Thankfully we were going to pick them up today anyway =)

Ultrasound Update

I don’t know how to put pictures on this computer yet so the blurry photo of the photo will have to wait =)

We had another ultrasound yesterday for …baby girl  -opps I almost gave away the name.  The doctor had wanted to get another look at her b/c when we were in a couple of weeks ago I was measuring a little big -okay 4-6 weeks big and she was slightly on a diagonal so they wanted to be sure she wasn’t pulling any shenanegans.  So at our ultrasound yesterday, we found out that she is currently about 7 lbs (we are 34 weeks which puts her in about the 84% -right in there with her big sisters), has lots of hair or more specifically long hair (both the doctor and the technician commented on how long it was), chubby cheeks, and we had them double check that she is a she -pink will indeed be the appropriate color to pack for the hospital.  The amniotic fluid levels are appropriate and she is in the correct position.  We are also tenetively set for another ultrasound just before christmas b/c they want to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t get too big.  So, I can now play name that bump with a fair amount of accuracy.

Ooh!  And I’m so proud of myself, I took off my boots to get weighed b/c I’m pretty sure that boots are heavy enough to be considered cheating.

Trick-or-treat truth

Since I forgot again this year to take pictures, I’ll have to describe the gilrs costumes.  Lauren wore a sleeping beauty costume complete with crown, Erica was a good witch (since we don’t allow ghosts, goblins or other spooky type things) her costume consisted of pink tights, pink slippers trimmed with fur, a lovely shear tutu type thing which we put a little blue skirt under so people couldn’t see her undies, a white top I pulled out of my box of dresses to make over and a little white fur shall we own -oh I can’t forget the fancy hair accessory (that is actually a candle decoration), Sam was not dressed up b/c she had stayed home from school with an ear ache and therefore was not allowed to go out.  both of the girls were allowed to wear make-up as part of their costumes and I also did thier hair up and curled it so they would look beautiful.  Now first let me tell you that a good witch looks an aweful lot like a fairy w/o the wings and I kept saying good fairy and was consistantlly being corrected.   We had gone into Jenison so the girls could go trick-or-treat at Oak Crest where Brandon’s Grandparents live (Sam came along for the ride).  After going there, we headed to Fazoli’s to get something to eat.  While Brandon was in line waiting to order, the girls and I went to go find a table.  We went around the corner and there were some people leaving and the lady stopped after seeing Lauren and says “oh my, are you a real princess” to which Lauren shyly nods her head yes.  The woman continued to make over her about how pretty she was and asked if she was supposed to curtsy, then she saw Erica and asked “oh are you a princess too”?  I was anticipating that Erica was going to correct this nice but clearly misguided person that she was a good witch not a princess but instead she leans foreward and says in a somewhat confidential tone, ”we’re really just trick-or-treaters”.  Oh she makes me laugh!

Then bless his heart Brandon was feeling bad for Sam and went with her bucket to each house enduring the funny looks he got when he said “we have a sick one in the car”.  So she did not have to miss out on Haloween after all.

I had joked with Brandon that if I had some black felt at home I would have cut out shapes to make a carved pumpkin on my belly out of the orange tank top I was wearing but alas there was none.

Dawn is …

…addicted to facebook.  I have been having a lot of fun on facebook lately.  It’s been a great tool to catch up with old friends and being able to stay in better contact with out of town family and get to know new friends better.  As a result, however, I haven’t been posting here as much.  That’s also partly due to being just plain too tired to think and be creative enough to write anything interesting.  Hopefully that will get better as has the status of my house -wow I’m making progress. (last week not so much-but I had a lot of appointments and we went up north for the weekend for a hunting/scrapping weekend) 

I’d like to ask for prayers for a new friend I met a little while ago online.  Her name is Kym and she lives in Austrailia.  Tomorrow she will be going in for a scheduled C-section.  Kym contacted me after she found out that one of the twins she is carrying has Limb-body wall complex.  She is only 35 weeks but she has also been dealing with pre-eclampsia  for the last couple of weeks and the doctors have determined that the babies need to be delivered.  This will mean getting to meet her precious babies but it will also mean saying goodbye to one of them.  I ask that you would keep her in your prayers for the next little while as she will have to recover from surgery in addition to saying goodbye to one baby and take care of the other.  Also please pray that the healthy twin will not experience complications from being born early.

Good report at the doctor’s and I only cheated a little bit

So I had a good appointment at the MFMS (OB) today.  I think this is the first time the nurse has not looked at me and asked if I’m eating.  I finally gained weight again and I only cheated a little bit.  I gained 3 lbs for anyone who’s interested, however 20 oz of that was my shoes =)  You see if I wear slip on shoes I usually slip them off before stepping on the scale (as most women I know would) but today I had on lace up shoes so I left them on.  Brandon was harrasing me about it so I weighed them when I got home, they are 10 oz each.

Funny story.  Oh do I wish I had video of this one.  Lauren comes downstairs tonight, once again attempting to procrastinate going to bed.  Her methods of choice this evening were, in random order, my bottom hurts, I need a blankie, I’m thirsty and you forgot to turn on the music.  On one of her first trips down she looks at me with very concerned eyes, shakes her body like she’s doing the twist, and says ” mommy, what’s that noise?”  I had given the girls hot chocolate after supper and she took quite a while to eat her supper so she had just finnished her cocoa before bed time -she was hearing it slosh around in her belly and was quite concerned.  I just busted out laughing which she did not find humorous b/c she was genuinely concerned and I hadn’t answered her yet.  I tried to get her to do it again for her sisters but she wouldn’t, I think she was embarrased.  Oh how I wish I had it on video.

Silly Girls

Once again today my girls were on a roll.  I think I actually snorted at one point.  Sometimes they just tickle me.  It all started when Brandon and Lauren came back from washing the sleeping bags at the laundrymat (major rip off by the way! -it would only take not washing your clothes for a couple of months to be able to  buy your own stinkin machine!)  They had been playing pretend, Lauren was the dad and Brandon was the son and they had been “fishing” from the carpeted bay window seat there.  It was so cute she was walking around calling him son and at lunch she wanted to say the prayers because she was the dad.

Then around supper time, we told the girls to get dressed because we were going out.  Erica wanted to know where we were going, Brandon told her “Crazy”  She said “well you don’t need to wear clothes to go crazy”.  So anyway, the place we were taking them all was to the Grand Coney restaurant here in town.  While we were eating Erica said “the next person to have a birthday should choose to go here” (they each get to choose the restaurant of their choice for a birthday dinner -within reason of course). Then we got talking about that I will be the next one who gets to pick and how I will be 34 in October.  Erica says “wow! then you’ll be like right at the top of the hill” and Sam chimes in “no, thats not ’till your 50.”  Toward the end of our meal Erica (who had eaten two pancakes, two sausage patties, and a side of hashbrowns) starts commenting on how full her stomach was.  Then she proceeds to state her observations that “Daddy is the fattest, then mommy is the second fattest because she has the baby.”  Interestingly when she started talking about herself and her sisters it switched to “Lauren is the second skinniest (the baby being the skinniest of course) then she was the third skinniest and Sam was the fourth skinniest.”  We joked that we could have our own TV show -just give our kids food and let them roll.

Oh do I ever wish Brandon’s phone hadn’t died because we would have the cutest evidence of how much Lauren enjoyed her “side order of toast” not toasted. (She wanted the peanut butter and jelly sandwich w/o the peanut butter so since they have jelly right on the table we just ordered the bread and I jellied it for her -she thought it was great b/c she got to sample all four jellies)  She had jelly from ear to ear, it looked like a big jelly smile.

My Mother-in-law is brilliant

How many times do you hear that?  First of all I do love my MIL.  I have always said I am one of the luckiest people in the world because I have such wonderful in-laws.  However this tip she gave me was so helpful.  You see many years ago, when we were first married, I had canned some peaches with my mom (it might have even been before we were married).  Well, Brandon thought they were quite good, so not long after we were married he was at an estate auction and decided to buy me some canning jars that they were selling by the box.  Being new to auctions, however, he was not aware that since it was “choice out” he should go select the boxes he wanted right away and ended up with an interesting assortment of jars -lesson learned.  Well over the years I have done some canning and used some of the nicer jars in the collection (I had no idea how to get the others clean -they were dirty and had a white film on them) but this year I’ve done quite a bit more canning and needed more jars.  Well, once upon a time my MIL had told me how she cleans the glass items she gets at estate sales to get them usable again -denture tablets.  So I decided it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.  I sent Brandon out to pick up some cheap denture tabs from Walgreens but because they were on sale, of course they didn’t have any.  So off to Family Fare -I needed them right now! (I have since tried the dollar store variety and I would say they work just as well)  My mom-in-law said she just puts the item right into the water with the denture tabs and then washes them.  I had already washed the jars in the dishwasher hoping that it would be enough, not so.  So I loaded some into my handy rubbermaid dish pan (the big one I use for camping) and filled them with the warm water and denture tabs.  Next I scrubbed them with my “bottle” brush and ran them through the dishwasher.   They came out great!  Some of them still had a very light milky white film but the insides were sparkling clean and smooth.  I have since done some experimenting with pre-washing vs. not, different brands of tablets etc.  I found that because some of mine were exceptionally dirty prewashing did seem helpful and didn’t seem to have negetive effect on the final product.  I focused on the inside of the jars by putting a tablet in each jar and letting the solution flow into the water surrounding the jars but I think next time I might add a few tablets to that water too.  Here are some pictures of the process.  The first picture is the “before” picture.

  This is after one time through the soak process. this is after a second run through (just to see if it would make a difference  To be honest, the “Kerr” jar had such a serious film even after the second treatment, I took a steel wool pad to the caked on stuff you see at the bottom in the second picture (I did try this on some of my larger jars that had just the light film and it didn’t make any difference) I ended up not being sure which of the Kerr jars was the one I started with (note the others in the background)

Tag your it …

Okay now Nana sent me this e-mail foreward so here it goes:

TAG – YOU’RE IT! If you opened it, you have to do it
 
(it only takes a couple minutes I swear!) Then, post it on yours!
 
 Two names you go by:
     1. Dawn

     2. Lovey

 
Two things you are wearing right now:
     1. maternity clothes
     2. headband
 
Two things you want very badly at the moment
      1. A nap
      2. extra time to get stuff done

 
Two people who will most likely to fill this out
     1. Melissa
     2. Lindsey

 
Two things you did last night:
     1.set up for the clothing sale at school
     2.took a bath
 
Two things you ate today:
     1.honey bunches of oats with almonds

     2 crackers and cheese

 
Two people you last talked to:
     1. Brandon
     2. Nana

 
Two things you did today:
     1. worked the clothing sale
     2. showed my sister how to do stuff on the computer
 
 Two favorite beverages:
     1. hot chocolate with a mint melted in it
     2. coke w/ cherry syrup

 

Okay now it’s your turn, don’t forget to link me so I know to check your site =)