HSM3
My husband will laugh at me, but I AM SO THERE!
Think there’s a midnight showing?
Oh yeah, I might even bring the kids 
Oooh, I just checked my calendar. The kids are off school that day. SCORE!
Holy Mama Writes a Book
If you’re not reading the blog of Holy Mama!, you should be. She was actually one of the first blogs I started reading and is so funny.
Well her first book, “A Love for Larkspur” has hit the stores, at least Amazon. I can’t wait to read it and thought I’d put a little plug in for her, since she hates doing it herself.
Finally
She has arrived…notice I said “SHE”. I have another niece – Annabelle Ruth – although the exact spelling is still being discussed after some more sleep. It was a long and difficult labor but they are both doing great.
She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz. Apparently they don’t measure the length in the U.K. Oh well.
She definitely got the amount of hair from the MacKenna side of the family as Gumm babies are typically pretty bald. I dare say it looks like a few curls though and those are definitely from her mommy!
Baby update
…is that there is no baby update.
Apparently it really wasn’t her water that broke it was her “hind water”. Um, yeah I have no idea. That must be a British term because I didn’t find anything on WebMd.
So she was sent home, and back one more time, and back home.
She is there and they broke her water about 5 p.m. our time. They think the baby might be quite good sized (esp. for as little as Jenny is).
Baby Mac Watch
Though God did not see fit to give me a sister growing up, despite my constant pleas with my parents to have another child, I got the best sister I could hope for when I married Mark.
Unfortunately Jenny fell in love with this British guy and moved half way across the world. Okay, I’m kidding about the “unfortunately” part – we love you Rob!
They are expecting their first child. We don’t know if it’s a boy or girl so it has been named various things – Pooch Person (don’t ask), The Bump, and Baby Mac (their last name is MacKenna).
Got an email this morning that Jenny’s water broke and she went to the hospital this morning. Guess they do things differently there – in the U.S. that’s means an automatic ticket for a comfy hospital bed. But her contractions weren’t doing much so they sent her home for now. If she still hasn’t gone into full labor by 9 a.m. tomorrow (which is really like 11 p.m. here) they’ll induce.
Can’t wait to find out if it’s a boy or a girl!
The Things We Keep
I mentioned yesterday that I am very big into doing periodic purges. I usually have a box somewhere in the house that is being filled with stuff for Goodwill. I go through my clothes at least 2 times a year.
I totally love shows like Clean Sweep where they come in and go through people’s things. They really make them think about why they’re hanging on to stuff.
A few months ago my mother-in-law was cleaning out her mom’s house (which they have moved into to help take care of her) and found this…
Curious what is inside? So was I.
Those would be the aluminum cans that were tied to the back of our car on our wedding night. Complete with the string.
Saved for nearly 15 years.
P.S. The date on the bag was off by 5 months.
WFMW: Ballpoint Paint Pens
I didn’t have a WFMW idea until I read Shannon’s post and I remembered this wonderful tool that is on my list of things to get one of these days.
Rubbermaid’s “Paint Buddy Touch-up Tool”. It allows you to store paint for a fast and easy touch-up. Just fill it with paint and it’s always available to cover scuffs, nicks and marks. When you squeeze, a valve opens to let paint flow onto the blending roller. The roller’s flocking blends the paint so there are no brush marks to reveal the touch-up. Paint Buddy allows you store leftover paint inside the tool where it stays fresh.
When finished, close the valve, wash the roller or throw it away, and give Paint Buddy a quick rinse under warm water. Put back the old roller (or put in a new one) and the cap, and Paint Buddy stores the paint until you need it again.
Our house is painted in about 8 different colors and 8 of these would sure take up a lot less room than 8 mostly empty gallons of paint.
Back to Shannon’s for more WFMW.
Could you give it all up?
I spent the last 3 days in garage sale land again. This time it was cleaning out Mark’s grandparents home. A week ago we loaded up a 17 ft U-haul truck that Mark and his cousin drove to Arkansas where they will live with their daughter. As I helped sort through things, bag clothes for the Rescue Mission, and load stuff in the Uhaul last week I thought, “Hm, there’s not really that much left.”
At 10 p.m. on Thursday night I was singing a different tune. We were still setting up tables and pricing kitchen stuff. We probably had at least 200 pieces of glassware from dishes to vases to little knick knacks. It was midnight before we called it quits – a 14 hour day.
Every time I either have a garage sale or attend one it amazes me all over again at the stuff we accumulate. And this was not even 60 years worth of stuff. Grandma and Grandpa had a house fire about 10 years ago and lost almost everything. Save about a dozen items, this was stuff they either received or bought since then.
I am not judging them in the least, but rather looking at my home and all the things it contains. I pride myself on being someone who fairly consistently goes through closets and clothes and kid’s toys and purges the unnecessary and useless items. But why is it that there is always more stuff the next time I come back to purge?
What could I do without? What would be hardest to give up? My friend Michelle recently moved their family of 6 and her and her husband are trying to go very minimalist.
If, for example, God called Mark and I to the mission field, what would I have a hard time leaving? What would I HAVE to bring with me?
I’m really not a hugely sentimental person. My “memoribilia” from growing up fits in one medium sized box. I have two quilts my grandmother made for my babies. Photos and scrapbooks of course. Only one set of books I care about – The Little House on the Prairie series I read growing up that I saved for Natalie. In a moment of honesty I admit I’d have a hard time leaving all my scrapbooking supplies
Despite whatever loss I would feel, it is just stuff. It might be painful to part with at first, but it’s amazing how quickly you forget when it’s not there where you see it every day.
“Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” Matthew 19:21-22
Uncomfortable Obedience
This weekend we started a new series at church on Jonah. So tonight at family worship I decided to read the first chapter of Jonah and we talked with the kids about obeying God even when you’re scared.
During his message this morning, Pastor Greg brought us some history on what exactly made Jonah fear going to Nineveh so much. My previous view of Jonah trying to avoid an “enemy land” was totally rocked as Greg talked about the Assyrians who occupied Nineveh and their reputation for torture of the Israelites. Their treatment was so bad that there would be mass suicides by a town’s occupants if they were about to be attacked. They would rather die at their own hand than suffer at the hands of the Assyrian army who would literally skin a human alive, bury them neck deep in the ground, pull out their tongue and nail it to the ground and leave them to die.
I suddenly had a new appreciation for Jonah’s dilemma.
Of course we didn’t go into the whole torture thing with the kids but we did talk about our choice to obey God even when what he wants us to do is dangerous, or scary, or maybe just embarassing.
Noah (8) said “Well, like what?” So we tried gave him a few examples – like God telling you to go to a mission field that is dangerous. Or maybe just having to apologize to someone you wronged but it’s embarassing.
Or, maybe it’s that God has told you to leave your job. A good job that provides well for your family. Where you work with people you care about and have a good time. And you don’t have another job lined up and don’t know what God wants you to do. You just know that he has called you to leave.
And then God provides a job for your wife that pays all the bills so you don’t have worry about finances.
“Like yoooooou guys,” says Natalie, pointing back and forth.
Exactly.
WFMW: Five Ingredient Recipes
This week’s Works For Me Wednesday’s theme is to give your best five-ingredient recipe. This one is a recipe my mom used to make a lot and it is yummy. It has the added bonus of being a crockpot meal so I can put it in in the morning and, with a minimal amount of time, it’s ready for dinner.
It makes a really good size meal. I can cook it when we have 8 adults and it is plenty. Or, if I’m bringing dinner to someone who’s had a baby I’ll cook this, keep half for us and take half to them with a salad and some rolls.
Crock Pot Beef N Noodles
rump roast
1 pkg dry onion soup
3 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 package wide egg noodles
Put roast in crock pot in morning. Sprinkle dry onion soup over top. Dump in soup. Cook on low for 10-12 hours or high for 6 hours.
That evening, boil noodles according to package instructions. Break apart the roast – usually I can do this with just a couple of forks if it is cooked well enough. Stir well the meat well in the sauce. When the noodles are cooked, dump them in and stir.
Back to Shannon’s for more recipes.
