Random Ramblings

My friend, Becky, calls it a Brain Dump. I have always called it Random Ramblings. Whatever you may call it, it means that I don't have enough brain power going on to write a post on one subject that would make any sense. It's hard to put cogent ideas together when you have little ones around all the time. Also hard to get the checkbook balanced, the refrigerator cleaned, and the laundry kept up.

So -- I'm going to try to clear the hard drive of all the trivia that is there, and hope you don't get bored stiff.

One thing that really frustrates me about myself is that I write wonderful phrases in my mind - and then can't remember a word of it when I finally get to the computer. I seriously need to get myself a mini recorder so I can capture my brilliance.

I had two semi-normal weeks - as normal as possible around here. Kristen's job schedule varies from day to day, so the old word "flexibility" continues to be a huge part of my life. But then sickness hit again, and we have again had the girls 24/7 for the last two weeks. I am thankful to say that Kristen is finally starting to feel better, so HOPEFULLY tomorrow they'll get to go home. The girls also have been sick at various times during this two weeks - remember how miserable Care Bear was during her school Valentine party? It got much worse after that, but she's finally on the mend.


My friend, Midlife Mom, recommended this book. I got it from the library last week and I can definitely pass along the recommendation - very inspiring. If you haven't seen the story on Youtube, Google "Team Hoyt" and you'll definitely want to read the book. (As you now, I do find time to read when I am exercising at the gym and the littles are in the gym nursery - oh, that reminds me of something cute. On the way to the car after exercising the other day, I asked the girlies if they'd had fun in the nursery. Emma says very matter-of-factly, "It's not the nursery, Grandma, it's the GYM." The nursery is at church, I am thinking).


Life with the little is more interesting every day - three years old is such a fun time - especially times 2. Listening in on their conversations between their Polly Pocket dolls makes me giggle - but I must do it sereptitiously or they are upset that they are being "laughed at." Grandpa is their special buddy and they were having devotions with him the other night, "reading" from their Gideon New Testaments.



Often we are amazed to realize they are doing things exactly as their older sisters did at their age - today they were making boats or cars out of this common item - interesting, since they have so many toys. (It's also interesting that they never have clothing on their dolls).



Lest you think they are always angelic and adorable, let me disavow you of that notion, unfortunately. Our new door between the kitchen and the garage is far too easy for them to open and escape from the safety of the house. We had some unusually spring-like days last week - this is not something we normally do in February!

Miss Feisty bought some horrible sparkly, perfumed, sticky nail polish with her W-Mart gift card - they love it! Their great auntie loves to give them manicures when they are over at her house, so they think they know how to do it!

I tried an interesting new recipe yesterday to share at our Wednesday night meal at church. I wanted people to guess the secret ingredient. The girls helped make the "from scratch" cake, and it was cooling way back on the stove when Feisty came running up with the news ----



I don't know how they got to it, but thank the Lord none of the burners was hot! I had to take the cake anyway, so I added this sign.





Oh, by the way - the surprise ingredient?? SAUERKRAUT!! Nobody guessed. Here's the recipe, if you're interested.

And I'm not going to prove this to you with pictures, but suffice it to say that the old carnal nature is alive and well - when they get really mad, they clench their teeth - and twice their teeth have been embedded in my flesh - I have scars on my leg and on my arm. Hard to believe, I know!

But mostly they're turning into bright, fun, delightful conversationalists that are a joy to be around.


I've had a "word of the year" for the last two years. The first year's word was "flexibility" and I'm still dealing with that every time I turn around. This year the word has been on my mind, and I keep bumping up against it, but I haven't formulated a post about it yet. This year's word is "CHANGE."

We're experiencing a lot of change in our church lives right now. We've enjoyed our new pastor so much and he's facilitating a lot of the change. We feel good about it, but it's tough at times. We know there's a lot more coming, and we've become a bit comfortable with what's changed so far, so it's a bit disconcerting to think of more.

I want to see change in my own personal life, and as God shows me what needs to change, I will ask Him to help me do it.

A change we're thrilled about is obviously the change in Kevin's life. We are hoping to do a sequel to the story we wrote when he came home from Teen Challenge the first time. If you were with me back then, I began blogging just at the time he came home and Diane of Partners in Prayer for our Prodigals threw a cyber "Welcome Home Party" which was so exciting and wonderful.

Diane and I have kept in touch all of these 5 years, and have met IRL in Minneapolis twice. (Here we are last summer when I went to Minnesota for my uncle's funeral).




What a blessing this friendship has been. She now has an on line ministry to parents of adult prodigals which is far-reaching. She has a weekly broadcast on Blog Talk Radio and she asked Kev if he would be willing to be interviewed for last Friday's program. This he did, and it was an amazing experience. I listened live as he was downstairs in my house talking to Diane on the phone. I have since found out that though only 35 people actually tuned in to the live broadcast at noon Central time, as of today, 550 people have listened to the archived broadcast. Wow! That is so exciting.

If you would like to listen to the broadcast, you can go here to do so:

Kev will be speaking at our church Sunday night, and then the next Saturday will head back to Maine to resume his work with the Teen Challenge center there. Angie will have at least one interview out there on March 25. Please pray for the Lord's will in their future. Exciting days are ahead for them. But it will be a big change for Angie, since she's lived here ever since she left Kenya to marry Kevin - almost ten years ago. Ten years ago??? How can it be??

Whew! I feel so much better now! Maybe my mind will work better and I'll be able to come up with a cohesive post one of these days soon.

Have a great week-end!