Funderful Week

Our microwave may never recover, but the house itself is decent. I may have to learn how to use the stove top again. :P

Saturday was great. Zane was honored with the "best attitude" award for soccer and his coaches said that he has a genuine joy and friendliness. Amen and amen. Cade scored twice in his game, and really showed his hard work throughout the year. Many thanks to their encouraging coaches. Little sister played in the dirt with the other siblings and was pretty cute. We went out to the World Hunger Relief Farm to pet goats, turkeys, rabbits and watched a goat being milked. We saw pictures of children doing chores of carrying water jugs on their heads and showed what kind of shoes that many children around the world have if they have any at all. Good reminders. We bought rootbeer in glass bottles (Wow!) and went across to Homestead Heritage to see Grandmom during her woodworking class. How much fun can you fit in a day?

Our family tries to focus on the pumpkin and dress-up part of the fall festivities. We have had a great time this week. Cade was a ninja, Zane was a fire fighter, and Avi was an octopus. They were adorable. I think Zane's and Avi's costumes are on facebook. I was able to go to go to Cade's school to help the kiddos carve pumpkins and do math activities, and that was an extra-special treat for me. Cade REALLY likes Van and I to visit his school or substitute for a Sunday school teacher--fills up his little love cup. Our church had the best fall festival ever, and I really enjoyed getting to see community folk mingle in. Good times. Well played, Dayna, Jack, Emily, Scott's crew and everyone else who made the night wonderful. God is good.

This week was good. We have learned how to receive platelets from a local hospital (and the nurse is quick, sweet, and professional!), so my trips to Dallas are back down to once a week. Because my platelets have been so low for so long, it seems less of an emergency and I can schedule Parent's Day Out mornings to take care of it. Sooooooooo thankful to donors. Biopsy today to help diagnose why platelets are low (could be some type of auto-immune thingy) and 2 very long infusions. My platelets are 20 which is the cut-off number, so I'm going to re-fuel today as well. Bless my sweet nurse.

Van celebrated his 35th birthday on Halloween. Van said that day he kept writing 10-31-76 on prescriptions and got a couple phone calls from Walgreens. The nurses got a kick out of it. We trick-or-treated at a few special houses (not that are not special! We just had a couple of invites and had PLENTY of candy from the night before), and I had his dinner ready except for grilling the steaks. He's just better at that part--I am a nervous wreck with the kids and a grill, and his steaks are muy bueno. The kids were so proud to have the dining room decorated with balloons taped on the windows in a stair-step pattern.

We'd been so busy that I neglected to buy the kiddos a pumpkin to carve like I promised. I had passed them by at the grocery store because it is hard to fit a pumpkin, children and groceries in a cart. It can be done, but there were so many "pumpkin patches" at the churches around town (and it is fun to contribute to a church), I figured I'd just take them to pick out a pumpkin each, snap some photos and load the whole sha-bang into the trusty minivan. Well, now it was November 2, and my children had not forgotten that I had not fulfilled a promise. We stopped at Waco Baptist Academy, and I asked a fellow in scrubs if the pumpkins were still for sale. He said that the principal had told him that they were free!!! I like that word. Let's say it again---FREE! There were still a motherload of pumpkins, so I let the kids pick out one each and did a psychoanalysis on their choices. Cade immediately went the biggest, longest, oddest-shaped green pumpkin I'd ever seen. He called it "Baby Boo" which I think relates back to when he voted on his favorite of the kindergarten class pumpkins? He hauled it by himself to the back of the van and threw it in as I cringed. Zane picked a perfectly round, HEAVY orange one, but took his sweet time choosing it, sitting on many of them. Cade was happy to carry it, but I interveaned, not knowing how old this pumpkin was and if it could handle the crash that Baby Boo endured. Avi took her time carefully examining each miniature orange pumpkin. Cade tried with all his might to get her to choose a giant one, so she settled on the biggest of the small ones. Interesting. They reluctantly endured photos from my cheap cell phone. We drove off as I defended to my eldest that we did not "steal" the pumpkins, but received a sweet gift from the generous people at Waco Baptist Academy.

Cade is about to turn 7. It is so hard to believe. I remember carrying that 4lb. 11oz. bitty thing around for hours on end and being exhausted, but never really wanting to put him down. What a little miracle. God has blessed us with a beautiful family. That seemed impossible until I was actually holding him in my arms. With God all things are possible. He's always been a little man with big ideas, wonderful ideas with a touch of danger. I decided that he and Zane might not be the best pilots yesterday when they were playing with airplanes. Cade said, "I'm going in for a crash landing!" Zane said, "Landing for take-off!" Cade can be a spit-fire, but he is a defender of justice and lives up to the meaning of his name "battler" if someone messes with his brother or sister. We're celebrating with family this weekend at Legoland in Dallas. (Legos might be the best invention ever. Well, maybe a label-maker is, but for now we'll say Legos.) He is super-excited, and we are very happy to celebrate that little guy.

Hobby Lobby is one of my favorite stores. It is the worst place to take children. However, preparing for Cade's party this weekend, I NEEDED (I'll take a look at my perspective at some point) a giant circle hole punch that I once had in my possession, but could not find to save my neck. So, we loaded up. Of course, I couldn't just get the one item in that glorious store, so I meandered through all the breakables to the photo frames. I phoned Van. "Frames are 50% off. Do you want to frame the kids rainbow pictures for your patient rooms?" Yes. I grabbed 3 frames, delighted that my husband is that kind of daddy, and put them in the cart. Cade said, "Mom! Don't buy these picture frames! We don't know ANY of these people!" I got so tickled that I could barely breathe. Meanwhile, I'm in the middle of a ton of breakables with three small (and active!) children. Then, Cade grabbed a small frame and started moving the protective sheet on it with the price tag covering up a lady's face. "Now she has a moustache, now she doesn't. Now she has a moustache, now she doesn't." Funny kid.

I'm in a crafty, project mode. Dangerous. It is hard to do dishes and projects and remember to brush your child's teeth. So...we mix it up a bit and do them all together but not put soap on the child's toothbrush. A couple of weeks ago, Mom helped me pick out a small buffet to re-do to put baskets in to seperate "soccer" from "clothes to wear tomorrow" from "stuff I need to return to people". We don't have a coat closet, so it will need to accommodate that, too. Basically, it will be a mud room contained in a piece of furniture. Zane and I took off the doors, and I ripped off the back that was a bit broken. I took a deep breath and Zane, Avi and I slathered on teal paint. I followed them catching as many drips as I could, and you know what? It turned out pretty well for a first coat. (Behr with primer--awesome paint) They had a blast. They were COVERED in mostly accidental paint, so they had to stay outside until they dried. I asked Zane to take his foam brush to the trash can (by our car--What was I thinking????) and later noticed that there was a bit of extra artwork. Teal paint on a black van. It came off with water. Praise you, Jesus. Cade painted the drawers when he got home from school. He had many ideas about how it should be done, but we got through it and had a good time. I put on the last coat while they were at school/PDO the next day while watching the Duggars. Luxurious. It is functional now with baskets for the different categories, but I'll finish it out with some knobs on the side to hang jackets and some batik fabric on the back because teal just isn't quite enough. :)

My goal for this week is to practice the discipline of meditation/silence/solitude and to give my husband a chance to do the same. I'm great at silence and solitude, but while working on something-ha! I've never gotten the hang of this one, so here goes.