He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress and for his children it will be a refuge.
Proverbs 14:26

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Day 24 and 10 Random Thoughts

September 7, 2016

I am so thankful that i am able to be at home with my kids.  I mean, we are kind of in a season of life where I am not really at home with them much.  I am actually full time chaffeur/ transporter of little people to all their various activities.  Anyway, you know what I mean though.  I am blessed to have my focus at this season be my kiddos.  We have kind of a unique set up in that Jason mostly works from home which means we get lots of together time.  The last few years while the big girls have been homeschooling, like LOTS of together time.  And yes, there are days when we are kind of falling all over each other.  Especially in the winter- when one room of the house is warm!  But those days are no more!  (Well, at least for this year!  I've learned not to look too far ahead).  But for this year, all 4 of my babies are physically attending a school that is not located in our home.  

Jason has been traveling this week which is the first week they've actually all been out of the house.  So here are some random thoughts of my first quiet house week.  Husband gone, kids gone, LOTS of time for my brain to think lots of thoughts.  

So for your enjoyment (or my own entertainment down the road), here are random thoughts that go through my head with WAY too much quiet and no adult around for too many days to express said thoughts too...

1.  What in the heck kind of meat is this that I just bought?  I though it was red meat (like the steak kind that I can sautee for the black and blue salad I was planning tonight) but it is freakin' weird and very crumbly in texture...  Gonna cook it anyway and hopefully it won't taste funky.  Oh the joys of overseas meat buying...

2.  Yeah I just let out a really loud scream because I saw an animal go running down the hall out of the corner of my eye.  I thought for a split second (or maybe a bit longer because I had time to scream) that it was a rat.  Nope.  It was our dog.  That we've had for over 8 years.  I still screamed.  

3. This house is REALLY quiet.  My people must talk a lot.  Like a whole lot.  I kind of miss them.  But wow quiet is nice.  Like really nice.  I could go to sleep.  Or not.  I can sit here and get lots of stuff done without telling them to give me "5 seconds for the love of all things that are holy without anyone speaking a word."  

4.  I am really technologically inept.  Like really.  I must have interrupted Abbey and Maddie's school days ALOT to get them to help me with stuff that I now can't figure out how to do.  Why do school websites want to enter all the homework on the website and not send it home in an actual notebook?  And HOW am I supposed to figure out the parent ID (in Arabic) if I have to have the kids ID (I don't) to get the parent's ID to work but i have to put the parents ID in first to see the kids ID?  See?  Confused?  Me too?  Why don't these things confuse teenagers?

5.  I really like my day planner.  It's Erin Condren and I have multi colored pens for all family members and it's awesome.  It has big squares that I can write all the things in and I don't have to type or sync or upload anything.  It's WRITTEN ON PAPER and that makes is super amazing.  And it's very pretty.  And it makes me really happy to make all the lists on the pages and then cross things off with my pretty pen.  It makes me feel smart and organized when all the technology makes me feel dumb.  

6.  When one is vacuuming and uncovers a fairly large spider what should one do?  I mean if I (can't continue with the one thing..) vacuum it up there is a chance it will remain alive and when I empty out the vacuum bag(yes, feel sorry for me, I have THAT kind of vacuum), it might go running up my arm (did I mention it's big?) OR do I let it go running off to the unknowns of my home OR do I squash it and risk the squishy noise that I hate (more a risk with roaches really) or even bigger risk that it will explode into lots of babies (YES! that has happened).  Problem solved- while contemplating this, it crawled into another hole in the wall which will be superglued quickly... 

7.  I mean like REALLY QUIET in here.  I will appreciate all the words that I will be the recipient of so much more after long quiet days!  Lord make me super thankful for all the words!  

8.  When your kids ride the bus and you may or may not have forgotten to meet the bus in the recent past, you may be a little jumpy about the time the bus arrives home.  Receiving a text from the school that says "the bus will be late today" is a good thought.  Really it is.  But when you receive the text an hour after your kids were scheduled to arrive home, you've kind of already figured it out.  Good thing I've lived overseas long enough to not be too stressed out by late buses.  Not long enough to remember to be home to meet the bus apparently but at least the bus being late doesn't stress me out.  But that's probably because I am VERY gifted when it comes to be late.  My husband calls it "leaving impaired" as in I can't get anywhere on time ever no matter what.  I call it gifted.  

9.  It is really amazing how clean this place is.  Having people not here all day is a great way to keep things clean!  So just keep everyone out of the house all the time and maybe I won't have to clean as much?  That should work? 

10.  And they are home.  And fighting.  Literally within 30 seconds Anabelle is crying huge big crocodile tears because "Naomi said she can't watch Disney Junior (Naomi is in charge now?) and Naomi won't make her the right kind of turkey and cheese sandwich." (No i have zero idea what the right kind is).  But they are home and things are noisy and for this moment- i love the noise.  Remind me of that in about 43 seconds!  (because it's now been 4 hours and while half of me was driven crazy by the constant bickering that landed a certain 5 year old in bed almost an hour early this evening the other half was crying internally thinking about the fact that one of my noise makers is leaving the nest all too soon!)

Seriously though-  I've said this before and young mothers think they hear it way too often, but don't blink.  They'll be gone before you know it.  And I know not REALLY gone.  They do come back.  But "the family years" as I heard it referred to in a recent book- those years where the 6 of us are under one roof-  will be forever changed.

Sweet sister moment in the midst of all the chatter...




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