"Hey, Sis!"

Today I had a "luncheon" with Marybeth. At least if you call chicken nuggets in the McD play area with 4 kids "luncheon", then that's what we did. But we did have a fabulous time talking houses, schooling, and writing. I love that God has so richly blessed me with friends here that are such a big help and fun to hang out with.

Almost as soon as we left McD, my phone rang. The caller ID showed a "+1999" number and my first thought was, "Great, sales call." I answered it and, lo and behold, it was my little brother. Calling from Iraq. Wanting to know if I'd help him and his teammates out with their Eng 101 homework.

You see, several of them are starting an on-line English course in a few weeks. So in between missions where my baby (a broad-shouldered 6'4") brother is riding on top of a humvee shooting at insurgents, they'll be parsing sentences and writing essays.

Surreal.

After assuring him that I'd be helpful while trying not to bleed red ink too badly on their papers (especially since one is his staff sergeant), we had a long chat about his upcoming leave, rank, reports, writing, my girls, jeeps, college, career plans, and who knows what all else. I don't hear from him too often when he's deployed so it was nice to just talk. And then I started thinking...

1 day.

2 conversations.

Same topic of writing, but two such different situations.

Now that's surreal.

"Mommy, I have a problem"

Today was just one of those days. The kind where everyone is out of sorts and can't seem to be happy no matter what.

This morning was bible study, so we got everyone dressed and out the door, but not before the bickering started. Before we'd made the 10 minute trip to the church, the girls had declared they were no longer sisters and had, in fact, begun to deny each other's existence at all.

After classes were over, we settled back in the car and the girls picked their argument up exactly where they had left it off a couple of hours before. Sigh....

Through lunch and a run to the bank to deposit yet more girl scout cookie money, it just got worse. For the sake of my last nerve, I instituted martial law and demanded absolute silence for the rest of the trip home.

Once home, things cleared up some and an uneasy peace was reached only by limiting the interactions of my sweet daughters. After awhile, we packed up for a trip to the post office with a promised stop at the mall to spend a Build-a-Bear certificate. Both girls put on their shoes, loaded their cannons, and let each other have it before we'd even made it out the door.

So I called off the trip and sent them to their rooms. Because no one should have to put with that.

While in her room, L decided to do some reading and ended up with most of the books from the bottom shelf of her bookcase scattered on the floor. Being the responsible little angel that she is, she decided to put them all back. Then, naturally, dissolved into wailing sobs when it proved a harder task than she liked. I heard her from the living room as she cried and I could barely make out the words, "Mommy! I have a problem!" I walked to her open door and saw her sitting on the floor working hard at those crocodile tears. She never even turned to look at me as she continued her fit.

It struck me how often we do exactly the same thing. We see a task that needs to be done, so we jump in head first. Soon we are overwhelmed as we realize that our own strength and ability isn't enough and we start crying out for God to help us. Unfortunately, we're so busy wallowing in self-pity that we never turn our heads and open our eyes to see that God is standing right there with us the whole time. Once we do see Him, we expect Him to jump in and solve our problems, completing the task for us. If He chooses, like I did, to help by teaching us how to do the work ourselves, we fall back into our pity party feeling betrayed because God didn't just fix it miraculously. We can't see that it's far better to learn by doing and experiencing the hard things than to simply be rescued.

And that's my deep and profound thought for the day. Thank you, thank you very much.

Digging out from under the *stuff*

Today I finally took the mess by the horns and got serious about digging out from under all the clutter that has taken over my house while I was busy with my writing contract. Unfortunately, it was complicated by the fact that *of course* my allergy thing has made a right turn toward Sinus Infection Land. Did I call the doctor today? Of course not! Because I felt far too bad to make the decision if I was going to drive all the way uptown to visit my regular doctor or find another one closer, pick up the phone, make an appointment, drive over there, entertain 2 rowdy kids while some PA looks up my nose, drive over to the pharmacy where I am again required to entertain said children, then drive home again and wait for the meds to kick in. It's much easier to whine and complain here.

Where was I? Oh, right! The cleaning.

So I started in the kitchen and bribed the children with double chore money if they would please clean the living and dining rooms for me. Then I tacked on their bathroom and they happily went to work. I finished the kitchen and swept and mopped all the floors, so we're well on our way to cleanliness again. Now to get all this laundry washed as I think we're out of clean towels and I know someone will want to bathe soon. At least I hope they will.

I also took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday and cleaned out the trash dump known as my minivan. The girls LOVE car cleaning time, in spite of their disappointment that I had no intentions of spraying them down with the water hose when I rinsed the van - it wasn't that warm. We emptied it, wiped down all the surfaces and PRAISE BE TO GOD put the huge, bulky car seats out by the dumpster. K insisted that weigh them both yesterday and we discovered that while she has only gained 5 pounds and is still a few pounds away from the "magic number" to go without a booster, L has gained over 8 pounds and is now heavy enough for a small booster! You should see the look of glee on her face as she climbs into her own big girl booster. L has absolutely shot up recently, growing so quickly that I can't keep that child in clothes and shoes anymore. She fits right into my...vertically blessed family.

I'd post a picture of the girls in their boosters, but that would require actually going somewhere with them. And my clogged sinuses just aren't up for all that. Besides, my house is looking good and I'm basking in the Pine-Sol glory of it all.

Whew! Spring!

Remember how I waxed poetic about the "first blush of spring" (why, yes, I *do* have a Barbie Fairytopia fan in my house! If you recognized that quote, I'm assuming you do, too!)? Oh wait, I was going to wax poetic, but I was in the middle of a crushing writing deadline and I had to condense it down to one uninspiring sentence. So just imagine that I wrote such a beautiful ode to the first pink blossoms of spring that you wanted to pack up and move out to NC.

The pink blossom percentage has increased so that we have beautiful blushing trees all around. My favorite daffodils are showing their sunny faces and I've heard rumors of tulips. Within the next week or two I intend to pack up my minivan with snacks and children, shut out all thoughts of the atrocious price of gas, and make the drive down to the zoo and botanical gardens where I can bask in a bright array of various strains of daffodils to my heart's content. I intend to borrow Mr. at Home's good camera and invite every single one of my friends and probably a few strangers to enjoy the beautiful side of spring. After all, carpooling can save on that gas money.

Because, you see, there's the not so pretty side of spring, too. Every person I know is currently suffering from coughing, sneezing, and congestion. When the weather is almost 70 one day and in the 40s the next, then back to the 60s the next, well...it can mess with all those delicate body systems. And then there's the fact that softball season started Saturday and we will now be devoting 2 nights a week and every Saturday for the next 3 months to practices and games. Even if Mommy and Daddy aren't too crazy about the crazy schedule, K *loves* softball. K *lives* for softball. K *never stops talking* about softball. We really all enjoy the sport and are ecstatic that we only have 1 kid playing on 1 team to shuttle to evening practices - woohoo!

We dove head first into the deep end of the softball thing on Saturday and got a not so pretty glimpse of our lives for the next 3 months. This was Saturday.

8am - get up and get ready for Skills Day at the ball field. Planned to swing by the sports store for cleats on the way since Target doesn't carry the *pink* cleats in big enough sizes.

9:15 - Finally get out the door with all the necessary equipment and children. No time for the big sports store, so we make a quick run in WalMart who thankfully has the right size in something K will wear.

9:45 - Pull into the parking lot and head to the field. Which is empty. Which ought to have been busy with the U6 crowd who had their time slot first. Wonder around, chat with a couple of other confused parents, and finally talk to an official-acting person who said the fields are too wet and we've been postponed to 1pm. Make him call the bigwigs to verify the time. Oops! It's 12:30.

10:30 - Go to Bojangles for brunch and take our own leisurely time. Get a call that the Skills Day time has been changed (thanks for calling 30 minutes *after* it was supposed to start!) to 12-something that sounded like 12:50, maybe 15, so we'll get there early. Go to a couple of stores to waste time, then Mr. at Home gets a migraine. Race to take him home, then head back to the field.

12:15 - Get K measured for her uniform then the girls wander out to the outfield for a warm-up before the 12:30 start. Meet up with 2 moms from last year and talk while the girls get put through their paces and try to keep an eye on L, who is playing on the playground with some other little girls. ("She's from China like me! Her name is Abby!")

1:30 - Done with Skills Day! Head over to the mall to give Daddy more time to get over his headache.

2:50 - Run home, let the girls in the house for Daddy to watch, and race to my hair appointment.

3:15 - Get the most fabulous haircut I've ever had. I had no real plan or style in mind, but I happened to see another stylist with a really great haircut that was exactly what I didn't know I wanted. About the same length as mine, same hair texture, and my stylist is the one who gave the other lady her cut, so she knew exactly what she was doing. Totally lucked out.

4:00 - Quick stop at Target where the pants I've been wanting for 2 months are now on clearance, then race home.

4:30 - Get ready quickly for a dinner party. Check email where there's one from the softball league who says the U8 Skills Day time was changed to 2-4. Hah! This is not giving me good vibes for this season.

5:00 - Load the girls in the van where we drop them off at our friends' house who have graciously come to our babysitting rescue, swing through the grocery store for a cake since when did I have time today to bake?!?, then finally sit and relax and enjoy an evening of hanging out with 30 of my closest friends.

I was totally exhausted after all that, but it's still a huge sense of accomplishment to get so much done in one day. I mean, clearance prices AND a fabulous haircut all in one day? It just doesn't get any better than that.

I am going to fall flat out any moment

Why am I going to fall flat out?

Because of this.

Do you know what that is?

It's a book. With stories by 50 authors.

1 of those 50 is me.

Can you believe it?!?

People can actually go to Amazon and buy something I wrote!!!

(I'm not doing such a good job of convincing you I can write with my one sentence paragraphs, am I?)

And when you read in the description "Sometimes hysterical and sometimes heartwarming...", just know that my story is on the hysterical side. Waaaaaaay over on the hysterical side.

Stay on target...stay on target...

I am *this close* to being DONE with my little writing contract - woohoo! Most of it is written and turned in, but I still have plenty to keep me busy until tomorrow's deadline. My feedback from the company has been very positive and that's been a nice ego boost. It's felt good to flex my mad writing skillz, but I'm totally ready to get back to normal life. I hadn't realized how busy my life really is until I added another 30 hours of work a week to my normal workload.

So after tomorrow's deadline passes and the last 12 of 60 pieces has been submitted, I'll be back to my normal chatty, bloggy self!

WFMW: A Kid Friendly Lunch

Why I Homeschool Reason #465 - I don't have to pack lunches!

Ok, that's not entirely true. I do have to pack a lunch periodically and I still have to make lunch everyday. Chicken nuggets and french fries are usually a hit, but my youngest has an irrational dislike of easy stuff like sandwiches. Fortunately, I have a secret weapon that will get even my picky 4-year-old to down that sandwich and LIKE IT.

Behold! Sandwich-on-a-stick!

Slice up the bread and meat into 1" squares and stack them up with cheese cubes. Spear them with a frilly or sword-shaped toothpick and toss a bunch of them in a sandwich bag. What was just a plain boring sandwich is now the coolest thing at the lunch table. You can also do this with fruit and it never hurts to throw in a princess or pirate napkin.

To see more Works For Me Wednesday tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer!