Confessions

We aren’t going to church this beautiful Sunday morning (I’ll explain), so I felt the intense urge to embrace the Catholic ritual of confession. Instead of a dimly lit, private confessional, I’m using the internet. That’s just as private, right? 

Here’s my confession: I am a terrible, awful, down right rotten mommy-nurse! 

Seriously, y’all, it’s bad! If by some crazy spoof I was in the running for “Mother of the Year” award, I’m officially disqualified now that the stomach bug has found our little house. Let me paint you a picture...

Thursday night, we all went to bed happy and healthy. I was looking forward to not having to run out the door to take Asher to school and actually being able to get some stuff done around the house.

Friday morning I am awakened by the sweet sound of, “Mommy! MOMMY! My belly hurts!”  I drag myself out of bed and fuss for Asher to go to the bathroom and go back to bed. He obeys and then, of course, starts throwing up IN his bed. Vomit and bedding... my favorite combination!

I’m usually not a squeamish person, BUT I. do. not. do. vomit. well. Guess who is the only person in our house capable of cleaning up vomit. Yep, you nailed it, ME! You so smart!

When there is vomit involved, I am not nice. For some reason, it’s like I’m personally offended by the vomit. I know they don’t do it on purpose and in fact cannot help it at all, but try to tell my stomach that! And I know I should be sympathetic and sweet, but y’all... it’s vomit. Immediately, my face goes into involuntary “this is totally disgusting” mode, I’m holding back my own vomit and “Ughhhhh... bleh... Ewwww!” is slipping out between held breaths. Clean up cannot go fast enough and people cannot get far enough out of the way. If it's covered in vomit, washable and cost less than $15 it's probably going in the trash. 

Once I do get it cleaned up, I know I should go snuggle in close to my sick child and kiss their sweaty head while they continue to deposit last night’s partially digested dinner into the toilet, but my senses are being assaulted and apparently my senses are cowards. The most I can muster is a back rub with an outstretched arm. My affectionate word choices include, “Are you done, baby?” and “Do you feel better now?” Internally, these are pleading prayers for a end to the nastiness. 

After the first episode of upchuck, I am anxiously awaiting the next, because it’s rarely just one... that would be too easy. I watch the culprit patient very carefully for any sign of impending sickness. If they open their mouth for more than 2 seconds I am sprinting across the room with a bowl and frantically asking, “Do you feel like you’re going to be sick again?” Avoiding vomit clean up at all costs is vital!

So, Asher had the bug all day Friday. He got very efficient at using the provided bowl. I love my Pampered Chef mixing bowls by the way... maybe this one a tad bit less now though. For the record I did not make him sleep on the floor. That was his choice. 

Last night and today was Brayden’s time to shine. Lance went to a friends house last night for some bearded buddy time, so I took the boys to Burger King for an ice cream cone, because they are good and they are 69 cents. 

Immediately upon finishing his ice cream, like not even 30 seconds after his last bite, Brayden said his belly hurt. We have a bit of a “boy who cried wolf” situation with Brayden and belly aches. He usually gets them when we are asking him to finish his meal and they magically go away when people mention dessert. So my oh so sympathetic reply was, “Reeeeally?!?!” He said it really hurt so we headed home. I put the boys in bed and Brayden started screaming that his belly hurt bad. 

Now, you have to understand something else about Brayden. He acts like you are ripping his fingernails off when you try to cut them and if he falls and scrapes his knee you would think he was in need of a knee replacement. If “dramatic” started with an “e” it would have been his middle name (all the men in Lance’s family have “e” middle names). I’m not sure what we did as parents to encourage this behavior, but whatever it is, DON’T DO IT!

Rational conversation is completely pointless when he is like this. I ask him, “How bad does your belly hurt?” and he replies, “I CAN’T SAY HOW BAD IT HURTS. ONLY ME KNOWS BECAUSE IT’S MY BELLY.” Alrighty then! That was helpful. I ask, “Do I need to take you to see a doctor, baby?” and he says, “NO!! I AM NOT GOING TO THE DOCTOR... Will they give me a shot? AHHHHHHHHHH!! I WANT DADDY! PLEASE CALL DADDY!” No problem! Gladly! This screaming went off and on for about an hour. Somewhere around 9:30pm Brayden went to the bathroom, and let’s just say we finally understood why his belly hurt so bad. I knew what was probably coming next... it showed up around 3:00am. Vomit. Then again around 7:00am and this time it was all in the bed. Perfect! Two for Two!

After repeating the clean up scenario from Friday with a few more gags and ill tempered word blurts, I announced that we were out of Ginger Ale and sacrificially volunteered to get dressed and go to the store. I mean somebody has to do the hard stuff right? 

Brayden has had it a bit worse than Asher, but he’s actually handled it like a champ. He hasn’t complained too much about throwing up. He did, however, scream like a banshee when his brother dropped a book on his forehead shortly after this picture was taken...

So that’s my confession. I do not have the “good nurse-mommy gene” and I’m not quite sure how to acquire it. For the record I also lack the “good nurse-wife gene” either, so this nasty little bug better be done with this house. Just Sayin!

Until next time! -K 

Post-Election Day Thoughts for Christians

Well, it’s Post-Election Day! The internet and the television are in a frenzy about the outcome of this presidential election. I thought I would add my two cents for those of you who care enough to read it. Nothing ugly, I promise!

I vote, and I vote conservatively. I choose to vote this way for many reasons... I choose to vote on behalf of the unborn. I choose to vote in favor of less government bureaucracy not more. I choose to vote for biblical marriage. I choose to vote for less taxation and more responsible spending. 

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that I probably did not vote to re-elect the President. For several months, I’ve had a feeling that the President would remain in the White House, but that didn’t make me any less disappointed with the outcome of the election.

This morning, as I laid in bed thinking about things, I heard a simple question in my head, “What would you have said out loud in that moment had the election gone the way you had hoped?” It didn’t take me very long to reply inwardly, “I would have said, ‘Praise the Lord!’” Then another simple question popped up, “Why wouldn’t you still say that regardless of the outcome?” Oooooooooo, yowzers!

The truth of the matter is, as Christians, we SHOULD praise Him in every situation! I have continually heard people say, “God is in control,” “Jesus is still King,” etc. Yes, he most definitely is in control, and of course he is still King, but are we actively praising him for it regardless of whether we are satisfied or disappointed with our circumstances? 

I was sorely convicted before my feet had even touched the ground! Once I got up, I found this short Psalm. What a wonderful confirmation of what SHOULD be overflowing from my soul!

Psalm 146

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!

I will praise the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord his God,

who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,

who keeps faith forever;

who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;

the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,

but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

Can anyone else say, “WOW!”? I mean how appropriate is that? Praise the Lord!

Until next time! -K

N-O-V-E-M-B-E-R

I guess I took a bit of a break from blogging. Sorry. :) I wish I was better at posting more frequently, but sometimes it just ain’t happenin. 

I hope you guys had a great October, and hopefully none of your children went into a sugar coma! That month went by crazy fast, right? It will be Christmas before we can blink an eye. 

I thought I would be ubber cheesy today and do an acronym for November. So this is a random thoughts post since I am just going to make stuff up to fit the acronym. That’s what people do right? 

N - November (I think using the acronym word in the acronym is a no-no but deal with it!) is Adoption Awareness Month. 

We don’t have much of an update on our own adoption other than we are getting closer to starting our home study. I’m really praying we can start earlier than January. 

I never had the pleasure or pain of “trying” to have a baby. Both of my boys were sweet surprises. However, the last few days I have felt what I imagine may be similar to the pain of a woman with a barren womb. I want so badly to have my girls... to love them and care for them. I see other adoptive moms who have faces to match with the love they feel in their hearts, and I feel very barren. I would never have dreamed that I would have this longing for two children who have no blood relation to me and who live on the other side of the world. I know that this process will take a long time and in God’s perfect timing I will have those faces, but oh it’s so hard for this impatient momma to wait... and we've only just begun. 

So, in the mean time I read a ton of articles/blogs and watch a ton of YouTube videos about adoption, [country in Asia], adoption stories, interracial families, etc. 

Here is one I found this morning. I cried. So sweet!

O - Obama... no, totally kidding. I’m not going there. However, I read an old puritan quote by John Newton that came in my Grace Gems email. 

“The whole system of my politics is summed up in this one verse, ‘The Lord reigns! Let the nations tremble!’ Psalm 99:1”

Amen!

V - Veggies are my BEST FRIENDS for the next 10 days. I started an AdvoCare herbal cleanse today, because over the last month I have been a sugar whore and have said yes to any sweet that crossed my path... and I liked it way too much. Soooo nothing like a good cleanse to trim that waistline and feel cleaner. Wish me luck! 

Oh and “V” is for Vegas, too! I am heading to Vegas this month with a few friends to photograph a huge travel agent convention. This is my first trip to Vegas, so I’m excited. I’m not a big gambler, so no body needs to worry that I am going to gamble away all of our adoption funds. :) But how stinkin cool would it be if I played a slot one time and won $50,000! I would be the crazy girl screaming, “Oh, PRAISE JESUS!”

E - Eggheads... that’s who we have driving on the roads in Columbus, GA! During rush hour yesterday, we about died on the interstate because the people in front of us decided it made perfect sense to slam on breaks in the middle lane because people in the right lane were exiting. I'm going to move on before I sin...

M - Moving again! It seems as if we are playing musical houses! Yes, we found out that we CAN stay in the house we own, but after talking it over, we agreed that we probably needed to move back to the house that Lance’s dad owns and sell ours. It would give us double the space and double the bathrooms (we only have one here). I REALLY do not want to move, but we think it’s the best option right now. We are praying that our house will sell quickly this time around. 

B - Beards are manly and sexy... unless they are gross. I love Lance’s beard. It’s “No Shave November” and so all these normally clean-shaven men are attempting to grow beards. There is no attempting for Lance... his is good to go. I did ask him to trim it down a while back. We had been watching "Eureka" (awesome show by the way) and the character Nathan had a closely trimmed beard. I liked it... on him... not on Lance. So, he grew it back out. Much better. 

E - Every preschool class must go to the Pumpkin Patch. Asher’s class was no exception. He is so cute and sweet. I love my boys!

R - Reading is for people who have lots of free time... I am not one of those people, but I wish I were so I could finish some books. I’ve been reading the “Game of Thrones” books thanks to our friend Brandon. The first one was great and I’m enjoying the second one, but I just cannot find the time to read that dang book! I’m about halfway through. 

I also started reading a parenting book by John Rosemond called “Family of Value". I've only gotten through the first chapter, but so far I agree with it. Don’t ask me what it was about... I don’t recall now... I just know I agreed. 

Then of course I really want to read my Bible more... I need the Lord to give me discipline regarding this. I’ve been doing a Bible study on the book of James with a group of ladies at our church and that has been great... when I get to go. This was a verse that stood out to me big time in James:

Can anyone else say, “Ouch!”?

Well, y’all. This is where I have to say goodbye and go clean my house. I’ve got a sink full of dishes and about 150 crushed CoCo Puffs on the kitchen floor. I’ll stop the description there.

Until next time! - K