Body Betrayal

I feel like my body is starting to betray me!!! I'm not even going to the realm of the weight with this post (be happy!). It all started last year (and probably before that with some minor injuries from poor body mechanics). I got excited to begin digging up and cleaning our landscaping. "Shouldn't be a problem" I said to myself. HA!! I ended up with some carpel tunnel syndrome issues with hands tingling and falling asleep during the night. This is absolutely miserable! Well, after backing off of some of the more labor intensive digging work and having our son do all the mowing (have to pay for that!) I started to feel better. Then, there began the pains in the shoulders from painting and home repairs. This became discouraging....what was going on with my body?! After some work from the chiropractor and some weight lifting to strengthen my back and shoulders, I am making some headway on that.

Well, yesterday was the day to start mowing the yard. It was getting pretty lengthy and it was the first run of the mower for the year, so I thought I would mow it and have the kids make supper. By the time I was done, my wrists were in agony again!!!! MAN!!! So back to pampering them....and having son do the work (which is OK....he needs jobs to do).

I miss the days of just doing whatever....and there is no reminders from my body of my age!

Teenagers

Having teenagers around is a very challenging time of life. Yesterday, our church was setting up for a garage sale to support a missionary from our congregation. I sent our 2 oldest children there to help carry boxes, etc (nothing like young people to do the manual labor!!). They did great, however, our oldest (15 and will be 16 this summer) saw a computer. He really wanted this computer for his room. Now let me give some backround. He has a laptop already in his room (it's keyboard is not great and he has to plug in a different one in order to use it), we also have a nice desktop unit in our "office" room....which is fine except it doesn't like to "talk" to our printer. I asked him why he needed this computer when we already have 2 others (the one at the garage sale was older that both of our models). He said he wanted to be able to play games without his sisters bugging him. I said that he could do that in the office because it has a door that could be closed. Then he said that he has no life because we don't have modern technology in our home (i.e. internet, cable, his own cell phone....). I finally put down a firm no and that was the end of that!

I got thinking about that "no life" comment. I think a lot of that stems from hanging out sometimes at a friends home who has all the modern conveniences of life including an almost unlimited time on internet and playing on the computer. The friend is a nice kid (a little geeky....but nice). Then I was thinking.... how would hanging out by yourself in your room give you a life? We have a no game/tv in bedrooms rule that really drives him nuts. However, I think that kids need to learn how to be part of the community/family. Thankfully, he is very involved in our statewide youth leadership program and has an interest in serving at camp this summer (probably that is a glorified way of being out of the house). Our churches youth group is lacking real leadership and challenge....that is a different issue, however.

After he completes driver's ed he will have to get a job (this will be awesome!!) in order to be able to drive. Part of our deal is that children will have to pay for their portion of the monthly insurance and their own gas. Probably will have to buy their own car too...but can probably use ours to begin with.

I hope that he will be ready to "have a life" because that means responsibility and being part of the community! Ah....the joys of growing up!

Remodeling

When we look at our home some 2 years ago, I thought it's livable with lots of space and a great beginnings of a garden. Well, now I see all the work and fixing!!! We knew it was coming but I was hoping that I could resist the urge to do it all at once (darn that sin nature!!). So last year it was the roof project. It really consumed all our summer and it wasn't even on our list of things that needed work immediately. However, the leaks made it a priority! We took the winter off from anything major (Husband had much rejoicing over that) and now we are starting phase 1 of the kitchen work. This space really needs some love. We thought that we would tackle it one wall at a time. So the first work is adding a dishwasher. In order to do this we need to move some cabinets, fix the outlets on the wall, and extend our countertop! Considering our lack of true expertise on home repairs....we are hiring someone to do this project (I think that if there wasn't a sink/plumbing work to be done we may have considered doing it ourselves). Now I've got to coordinate the appliance guy, electricial guy and the general remodeler guy to get this done in a way that we won't be without water for too many days!!! It will be awesome when it's done.

Also, we have built our boxes for raised bed gardens. Can't wait to get started on that!!! I read a book called "the New Square Foot Garden" that really is what I want to achieve for the space. I'm looking forward to fresh produce...hopefully critters won't want to snack on it!

Pieces of Flair!

I've been cleaning my folders/storage stuff lately. Took all my files out of husbands office space so that he can have "free" reign there to do his master's study stuff. So, all my files/storage will now go into my sewing area (small area by laundry area!!). I had this massive pile to sort through and can't believe all the junk!!!

Anyway, within this pile is some of my "antique" stuff. One item in particular is the pencil case I made in highschool out of blue jean material and velcro at the top (also a pocket on the front for notes from friends!!). It's really of no use anymore but I just enjoy seeing it every now and then. Well, during high school I enjoyed collecting pins and putting them on this pencil case. It was a way to show Identity!!! My teenage daughter saw it and asked about it (especially the pins) so I explained it's origin and then dug out some other pins that I had in my jewelry box. She got such a kick out of it! Then my oldest came in and exclaimed....hey, that's like Pieces of Flair! I thought to myself....cool, I have the original Flair!

Still makes me smile.....have an awesome day!

Various thoughts

I'm so excited about our tax refund!!! It is better that it has been in years because husband is no longer "self-employed" (pastoring). We are looking at appliance updates since most of ours are "found" ones given to us by family members or work friends. Our list includes microwave, dishwasher (adding this new because there is not one in the house...at least the automatic variety :-) !!), chest freezer (our side-by-side freezer section is just way too small for a family of 6!!), washer/dryer, and a flat screen TV. Our larger size one frizzled out and we are now watching TV on a 19" TV that we got from Vickie (thanks Vickie!). Husband is certainly hesitant about all those items so for now we are looking at just the kitchen things. Those items will greatly improve our meals and operations in the kitchen. Now we just need to find a handy friend to help up rearrange our lower cabinets and change our countertop so the dishwasher can fit. This all very exciting stuff.

This last week, I attended 2 meetings at church. One was to work on a summer youth intern. We had a candidate who we were ready to go with and then he back out last weekend. So, we ended up putting the whole thing on hold. We are hoping to find 6 interested people/couples to tag-team work with our youth over the next year (each taking a month at a time). We'll see. The person that is doing it now really doesn't offer anything of substance and challenge. So hopefully this will be a better option. The second meeting was our board of elders. This is a fun group, however, we are facing some declining attendance and shortages in funds for the budget. So there was much talk on how to approach members who are not attending regularly. Many of those are young families. I think that our family is pretty much the exception at church. We are always there for just about everything. Many (actually most) just don't do it. We are really seeing this struggle between the older generation and their style and the younger set. The service is pretty traditional (really lacks charisma but the preaching is good). They even increased the amount of Sundays with organ accompaniment from 1 per month to 2. This just about drives husband nuts!!! We are really seeing ourselves as "missionaries" at this point. I think if it wasn't for the pastor....we wouldn't be going there.

The last thing that is on my mind is that today....the Iowa courts overturned a previous ban on gay marriages. So for now, we are the 3rd state to allow this. Can you believe it?!!! I just never imagined that Iowa would be that liberal!!! Anyway, been thinking about Christian school again and possible home-schooling. I just don't want some of that thought going into my kid's young minds.

Have a blessed weekend....Mary