A God lesson

Paul is gone all day helping out at a men's ministry conference, Iron Sharpens Iron. The girlies and I were having a lazy morning. I had some bows to sew and they broke out a puzzle and some baby dolls and we put some Christian CDs on the player. I love how they ask me about the lyrics and we have some fabulous discussions. At first we listened to Mark Schultz and then they asked to hear Steven Curtis Chapman's Beauty Will Rise. I went and got the CD out of my car. We played the entire CD, which they have heard at least 30 times, and talked about the songs, about God, about His faithfulness. We had some really great conversations.

All the while I was wondering where Simon was. Simon is one of our cats. Schuster is our other guy. They used to be best friends until about three years ago when we had an incident when a neighbor's cat came up on our deck and attempted to attack Simon through our screen door. Simon freaked out. He began stalking Schuster. It's a very long story but let's just say Simon was on kitty prozac for a bit and I had a phone consultation with a cat psychologist in Maryland (yes, I know- there is such a thing). That came about when I reached out for help from the rescue organization I adopted the boys from. They set it all up. Learned some good tips, but Simon's little cat psyche was scared stiff and he associated the panic with another cat, any other cat. Even his best buddy of seven years. Schuster now has a deformed ear from a hematoma resulting from a whack Simon delivered. They co-exist much better now, but Simon will still corner poor Schuster and hiss at him. I give him 'the eye' and tell him to knock it off and he'll walk away. I know he understands (and yes, I am a big cat person).

Anyway...

It was just the girls and me and Schuster. He was reveling in all the attention. But it was really strange not to see Simon, especially for breakfast. By 10:30 I was concerned and we started to search the house. We checked all his usual places and no Simon. He's a big dude, they both are. So there are not a lot of hiding places he could jam his body. Turned the house upside down and no Simon. We began to panic. They are completely indoor cats, and he doesn't wear a collar. I couldn't remember seeing him last night and he usually wakes me up around 4am for a snuggle and he didn't last night. I tried to call Paul to see if he had seen him before he left at the crack of dawn, but I just got his voice mail. We quickly got dressed so we could begin the search outside. We gathered to pray that Simon was OK and that we would find him quickly.


Schuster on the left, Simon on the right. This is back when they got along. Told you they are big!

We started in the back yard. It rained last night and I though he might be under the deck. No Simon. We went around the house and looked in the front bushes. No Simon. Walked to our neighbor's back yard and called for him. Still no Simon. The girls were getting worried. Me too. We went to the back yard again and called for him when I saw movement up the deck stairs. We ran to the deck and he darted behind the grill. He came out as soon as he saw me. He had bits of stuff in his whiskers and fur and was slightly damp, but was safely in my arms. Whew! Found in under 20 minutes of outside searching. Thank you God!!

We took him inside and he rushed the food bowl. The girlies and I gathered to say a thank you prayer. It struck me that just an hour earlier we had been talking about how we can always trust God and pray to Him. We discussed what faith is and how we need to depend on God. Just an hour later the girlies saw that we were frightened when our cat was missing, but we prayed. God protected Simon and brought him back quickly and safely to us. What a great lesson they tangibly learned!



Paul got my message and called back. He hadn't seen Simon in the morning. Only one boy came to breakfast (these guys don't ever miss a meal). No way he got out when Paul left. Simon had to have been out all night, in the rain.

Thank you, God. For bring my first baby home safely, but more importantly for showing my girls in a very real way that they are to come to You when they are worried, concerned, frightened. That you hear their prayers.

Great causes

Feelin' better today. Not 100% yet, but on the mend for sure. Went back to work today and sent Teagan back to school. My Pre K kids missed me (it was a nice welcome back) but whoa... Let's just say 2 days with a substitute left me with 16 overly rambunctious 5 year olds to re-tame. I had a headache in a matter of minutes from their decibel level. Enough about me.

And I know I'm predominantly preachin' to the choir since my bloggy friends who stop by are all running in the same circles, but on the off chance that I have a visitor...



Please go and visit Tanya's fundraising blog to bring Khloe home!!

I just got my donation together and photographed and sent to Tanya a few days ago and she has added it to the group of fabulous prizes. I know that the Lord will continue to richly bless this family as they prepare to finally go and get that sweet, little blessing!


Only one day left before the Love Without Boundaries 2010 Art Auction goes live!! Can't wait to see all of the donations this year and do some shopping. Last year I was more on the ball and I put together a large assortment of bows that brought in a nice chunk-o-change for LWB. I had great intentions this year, but having gone back to teaching plus still running the bow business has left me running on empty and time almost completely got away. Then I saw one of Valerie's planned donations and had an idea involving a collaboration and my sweet friend not only agreed to let me jump on her bandwagon, but she whipped up an amazing skirt and got it to me in record time so I could complete the set. It was so much fun to do and I'll post all about it in the next few days. I'm almost giddy to see how God uses the fruits of the talents he has blessed all of the artisans with to raise funds to bless others.

And, if you have not yet had the great fortune to visit the blog of my dear friend Adeye, please do so. She needs our prayers tomorrow, more than ever, as she faces the judge in the Ukraine to adopt two miracles who desperately need out...now. There is a 10 day waiting period that comes after this court appointment and prayers are being lifetd to our Lord on high that this 10 day period be waived.

Under the weather

Ugh.


That word about sums it all up.


We are hardly ever sick around here, but have been struggling this past week. The beautiful arrival of spring has brought about the worst pollen the area has seen in over 100 years. Everything is a not so lovely shade of yellow. We have to hose down the cars daily so we don't get the darn stuff all over our hands just opening and closing the doors. Needless to say, sinus pressure, runny noses and watery eyes abound and have hit our househould hard.

Then this weekend it hit. Teagan has what the pediatrician is calling "the plague."

Lovely

Basically it's the flu, only it's not. No muscle or body aches, but everything else. And it's apparently running rampant around here. Great. {Sarcasm fully intended}She's back to her crazy self today, but still has absolutely no appetite. And that's far from normal for this kid.

I, on the other hand, have strep throat. I thought I had caught whatever delightful bug Teaggie had when I started feeling awful late Sunday. But a visit to our respective doctors (which took a majority of the day Monday) revealed that I have strep and she has "the plague." I'm about to hit the 24 hours on antibiotics point and hope that I'll be feeling much better soon. I'm not a good sick person. I'm not sure anybody really is, but I really am not.

Off to drink more fluids and offer Teagan another popsicle.

The push up pop adventure

Once upon a fine spring day, there was a little curly locked girl of almost seven. She was having another delightful day of school, when to her surprise, a push up pop frozen treat was presented to her in the lunch room.

Another fair haired child was having a birthday and the push up pop was the celebratory treat. The curly haired child was, as is her typical style, very slow to eat. So slow, in fact, that she hadn't time to eat the frozen pop.

So what did this dear girl decided to do??

Put it in her lunch box to take home and eat later... hours later.

But, alas, that was not meant to be. For when she stepped off the bus and ran into the waiting arms of her mother she was strangely sticky.

And a red gooey mess was plastered down the side of her leg and atop her new, white shoes. Upon closer inspection, the reddish orange foul smelling goo was oozing out of her backpack.

So home they went. Carefully. Where it was discovered that "somehow" something got into her backpack. No, make that "somehow" something got into her lunch box. Oh!!! The odor was simply awful as the ever so patient mother gingerly opened the backpack and lunch box fully. Then she emptied out several dozen doodads found in various pockets of the backpack before giving it a good washing.


At least it was a warm and sunny day so the offending containers could be placed outside to dry after being scrubbed down.

After further discussion the curly haired girl's memory returned. Seems that she had just wanted to eat a frozen treat at a later time and it hadn't crossed her mind that her lunch box would not keep it ready for her.

Innocent mistake, albeit a VERY stinky and messy one. As the little girl was tucked into bed and the day was reviewed the lesson learned was discussed one more time... Don't put a push up pop in your lunch box for later. Please.