All posts by Becki

Mothering Monday: The praying mom

a. Mothering Monday, Uncategorized

As moms, we all have really good intentions and lots of visions of how we’d like our mothering to look.  Maybe you’d like to be a June Cleaver keeping the perfect home, raising well-behaved kids, and having dinner ready for your hard-working husband when he arrives home from work, all while sporting heels and pearls.  Maybe you’d like to be a Mrs. Brady keeping the perfect home with the help of a housekeeper, raising well-behaved kids perfectly meshed together in a blended family.  Maybe you’d like to be a Claire Huxtable keeping the perfect home, raising well-behaved kids while successfully maintaining a successful law career.  Whatever your personal vision is, most likely your reality falls short of it.

As I’ve said over and over again, I am extremely aware of my imperfections.  Some I’m willing to concede to as just who I am.  Others I’m willing to accept as who I am today, but desire to press on in those areas to grow into the woman God has created me to be.  As a mom, I have many, many, many, many imperfections.  But lately one has been standing out above the others to me.  I haven’t been praying for my boys as faithfully as I should.  At night I pray with them.  But I haven’t been petitioning God on their behalf through the days.  I haven’t been praying for their safety at school.  When I’ve been frustrated about a behavior, I’ve talked to my husband and friends about it, but I haven’t been talking to their Creator about it.   I haven’t been praying for the friendships they are establishing.  I haven’t been praying for the decisions that they are making everyday.  I haven’t been praying about the decisions they will make in the future – decisions about sex, about drugs, about careers, about relationships.  I used to be better at this, but I’ve gotten busy and lazy and things with them have been going pretty well and the praying has been neglected.  But this is an imperfection on my part that I cannot allow to continue.

So as I’ve thought about how I want to be more intentional about praying, yesterday I was reminded of a prayer card I received years ago.  It is 31 Biblical Virtues to Pray For Your Kids.  My intention is to each day, pray one of the virtues for my boys.  For example #1 is Salvation.  So today I looked up the verses noted on the card.  “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it;  I, the LORD, have created it.” (Isaiah 45:8)  “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” (2Timothy 2:10)  I then prayed what was written on the card, “Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal Glory.”  I then continued on my own praying, “God, thank you that (Son 1) and ( Son 2) have both asked you to be their savior.  I pray that as they grow they will not walk away from you.  I pray that when they do mess up, they will know the fullness of your forgiveness.   God, I pray for (Son 3).  I pray that he too will ask you to be his savior.  I pray that he will know that he will never be good enough, but that it is only through your death on the cross.”

Then I find that when I take those few moments to be more purposeful in praying for my boys, it continues through the day, shooting up prayers for them about anything and everything.  (You can order a prayer card like this one from here.  Or you can search “31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Kids” and find them typed out on various sites.)

Now here’s the cool thing about my deciding yesterday that I need to be more focused on praying for my kids.  Last week I signed up for another blogger’s 31 day “Making Your Home a Haven” Challenge.  Then yesterday after I had gotten out the prayer card, I noticed she posted Week 1’s challenge:

 

“Go buy an extra large candle and light a candle everyday in your home. I will be starting mine in the morning! But you can start yours at dinner time. Do what makes sense for your family. I will be placing mine in the kitchen – the main hub of my home. Each time the candle catches your eye, say a prayer for peace in your home.”

 

In the post, she later says about a praying woman, “She knows that she is weak but God is strong and that she cannot fulfil the role of wife, mother, homemaker and sometimes employee, on her own strength. She is completely dependent on God and practices this dependence by daily praying for all of these things.”  (click here to read the whole post)  God is really impressing on me the need to pray, so I’m going to listen!  With the home decorated for fall and the cooler weather here, I love lighting candles.  I have my apple one in the kitchen ready to light once I’m done all my running around for the day.  Each time the candle catches my eye, in addition to praying for peace in my home, I’m going to pray the day’s virtue for my boys as well.

Are you a praying mom?  I’d love to hear the ways you pray.  Do you want to be more of a praying mom?  Join me in praying.  I’d love if you’d leave a comment committing to pray more.  Let’s encourage each other to Pray On as we Press On!

♥Becki, imperfect pray-er

Thursdays Thoughts on Home: Decorating and deep cleaning

d. Thursday's Thoughts on Home

I love decorating!  I love setting things out to create a mood in a room.  I love pulling out my Rubbermaid bins marked “Fall” and looking through to decide what to use this year and where to use it.  I love looking at how other people decorate and then using their ideas to create my own.  I love lighting a candle, making coffee and having people over after I’ve just redecorated.

But, I hate cleaning, especially deep cleaning.  I hate scrubbing the floor boards that get all scuffed up.  I hate cleaning windows.  I hate using the attachments on the vacuum to clean the corners and along the walls.  I hate cleaning the bedroom doors that some how get disgustingly dirty.  I hate cleaning the shower and cleaning behind the toilet.  I hate cleaning out closets and under beds.  I hate really just diving in and doing what needs to be done.

And not just cleaning, but I also hate the home maintenance that you have to do.  I hate scraping paint off wooden trim in and outside the house and then repainting.  I hate cleaning out the dryer vent duct work.  I hate pulling weeds.  I hate replacing or repairing things that have broken.  Pretty much I hate things that involve labor… I think I’m pretty lazy.

So what do I do?  I constantly only surface clean and then decorate to make it warm and inviting.  And usually it is pretty warm and inviting for guests (as long as I know they are coming).  But then if you look closely, you’ll see the layer of dust, you’ll see the dirty floorboards, you’ll see the unrepaired cracks and chipped paint.  Which, really those things wouldn’t be so bad, except that ultimately these types of things when ignored become bigger more expensive jobs down the road.  These types of things ultimately lead to my home losing its value.

I think I do that with my spiritual life too.  I decorate and surface clean up myself a lot.  I get a new outfit, I fix my hair and put make-up on.  I go for a run.  I talk about God, talk to God and read the Bible.  But I think it has been staying on the surface, safe level.  I don’t really get flat on my face before God and say, “Here I am, chip away at anything in me that is not worthy of you, repair anything that is not fully focused on you, replace anything that is not bringing you glory.”  Instead I’m saying, “OK, lets not worry about what’s down deep in my heart, let’s just take what’s here and make it look good.”

Ultimately I am not living fully surrendered to God.  I’m not sure what I’m scared of, maybe I’m not sure really how to… but I know that ultimately, like my home, if some of these things in my heart are ignored, they will lead to bigger problems down the road.  And these things will ultimately lead to me losing my value – not my value to God, I’ll always be fully loved – but perhaps my value in my service for God and my value in my relationships to others and my value in my quality of life.

And so I press on… and maybe this weekend I’ll tackle one of the deeper cleaning jobs in my home and perhaps I’ll stop talking about fully surrendering to God and really let him start chipping away…

Training Tuesday: Excuses and discipline

b. Training Tuesday

Ok, today I traded a run for a nap… but I think I would have felt better if I did the run.  But my oldest son has been throwing up each of the past 3 nights, so I haven’t been sleeping well at night.  I couldn’t run yesterday because I had a meeting in the morning and then had to stay home with my sick son and get caught up on laundry.  And then today I had a morning meeting again, and then had to stay home with my sick son again, and I had to wait for the guy to come clean our boiler and I fell asleep waiting… and basically yesterday and today have been full of excuses why I couldn’t run.  Valid excuses, but still – excuses.

So, I need to figure out how to keep with the training when life gets in the way.  I know I should have a workout planned that I can do at home.  I know I should get to bed earlier so I can wake up at the crack of dawn and exercise.  I know all these things that I should do, but knowing and doing are different things.  My friend Jen, who by the way lost 85 pounds recently, posted a photo from MotivateHopeStrength on Facebook:

Sounds like I need a little discipline, OK a lot of discipline in my life.  So thank you, Jen for being inspiring and I think as soon as Jeff gets home, I’ll have to tell him I’m going for a run… I really don’t want to, I mean really, really, really don’t want to, but I also really, really, really don’t want to be overweight…  which don’t I want more?

♥Becki

 

Mothering Monday: A dog?

a. Mothering Monday

They are wearing me down.  They make unceasing promises about how good, happy, responsible they will be.  They point out every one they see.  They are willing to make it their ONLY Christmas present.  We got to see Santa when he was on “vacation” at Ocean City this summer and my middle child told Santa he wanted one.  Santa wisely replied, “Santa will have to talk to your Mom and Dad about that.”

A dog.

I worry about having to take it out during the day.  I worry that our home is too small.  I worry that it will disrupt my sleep.  I worry about when we go away.  I worry about barking.  I worry about expenses since we are already looking for things to cut out of our budget.   I worry about my oldest son’s possible allergies.  I worry that I would either want to “take it back” or that I’ll spend the next 14ish years regretting giving into it.

It was so much easier when my younger 2 were afraid of dogs – but now they want one.  It was so much easier when my oldest seemed to have allergic reactions – puffy red itchy eyes – but now not so much.  They were good reasons to not get a dog.  But now my reasons though valid, seem almost petty when I see the joy on their faces when they play with dogs.

My husband, Jeff, would bring one home with him today if I called him and said that I’m on board with the dog idea.  So really, the power lies with me.  But like it is with Spiderman, “With much power comes much responsibility.”  (Ok, maybe not as much power as Spiderman.)  But I definitely feel like this decision has a big impact on their childhood.

So is it yes or is it no?  I don’t know.  And if it’s yes… what kind?  What do we get for a small house.  One that’s easy to take care of, preferably doesn’t bark too much.  One that is “hypoallergenic”.  Any thoughts?  Oh, yeah, I have said that if I do give into a dog, it has to be a cute girl dog that I can dress up since I don’t have any little girls to buy dresses for.

Opinions definitely appreciated here…

♥Becki

Friends & Family Friday: Footloose

f. Friends and Family Friday

I am a true 80’s girl… the prime of my childhood, 7-17, took place in the 80’s.  I wore leg warmers, stir-up pants, big oversized fluorescent sweatshirts, black and white rubber bracelets, and jellies for shoes and of course a Swatch Watch.  My hair was teased and sprayed with aerosol cans of Aqua Net.  I played with the original Smurfs, Strawberry Shortcake, Shrinky Dinks, EasyBake Oven, Cabbage Patch Kids.  I played PacMan on the Atari and Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo.  I watched the original Duke’s of Hazard, A-Team, Red Dawn, Karate Kid, Dirty Dancing, Star Wars Trilogy and of course Footloose.

When I see something from my childhood resurface I usually have 1 of 3 different reactions, depending on my mood of course: 1.  It was a bad idea 30 years ago, what makes anyone think it’s going to be any better now.  2.  That is something sacred from my childhood and it should not be messed with.  3.  I embrace it with a sense of nostalgia.  Jellies and big oversized fluorescent sweatshirts and leg warmers were a bad idea better left in the 80’s.   Thoughts of a Dirty Dancing remake makes me a little upset – that is one of those sacred things.  But the Footloose remake, I am embracing.

Footloose brings back one of my sweet childhood memories… I was in 4th grade, I’m pretty sure, I could be wrong, but anyway… a group of girls, including my best friend Amy and myself, planned to go see Footloose.  I had no idea what the movie was going to be about, didn’t really care, I was just excited to be going to my first movie without parents.  But then in gymnastics, a bad dismount off the balance beam left me with a sprained ankle and crutches.  So my mom didn’t think it was a good idea for me to go.  I was crushed and so disappointed hearing my friends later talk about how much fun they had and how great the movie was.  I know, I know, that doesn’t sound like a sweet childhood memory… but here’s how it became one.

After a couple of days of me moping around, my mom announced that she and I were going out.  It was a school night, so this was definitely not the norm.  Where did we go?  She took me to the local movie theater (back when movie theaters were those rinky dinky things in shopping centers) and we saw Footloose – on a school night!  (I’m pretty sure it was a Thursday night… that’s how much it is ingrained in my memory.  I loved the movie!  And although, I didn’t get to see it as my first movie out with friends, I love that I got to see it with my mom – on a school night!  (Can you tell that to a 4th grader, going to the movies on a school night is a big deal?)  So whenever I hear songs from Footloose, I think of my mom taking me to see it and I smile.  (You know, I wonder if my mom even remembers that… do you Mom?)

Now that I’m a mom of boys, I don’t think I’ll be taking them to see Footloose… but there’s always Transformers…

Thursday’s Thoughts on Home: Autumn ramblings

d. Thursday's Thoughts on Home

The stink is gone!!! Remember last week’s dryer with the rancid smell (You can click here if you missed that story), well the scrub down with vinegar, the thorough cleaning of the vent line all the way from dryer to the attic and then to the roof, with Jeff on the roof, and then the drying of a vinegar soaked cloth to send vinegar lint up into the vent area seemed to do the trick.  But the funny thing is I find I’m actually still not letting clothes sit in the dryer for extended periods anymore.  Rather I seem to be folding them as soon as the dryer stops.  And I’ve figured out a new way to ensure the clothes get put away.  I fold them at the kitchen table and put piles at everyone’s seat.  I then tell them if they want to eat dinner, they have to put their clothes away first.  (We’ll see how long this lasts though… it’s only been 5 days.)

Also, when I was upstairs in the attic cleaning out the dryer vent line, I brought down my fall decorations.  I love decorating for fall.  I usually do it right after the kids start school, so I’m actually a few weeks behind.  But anyway, I use all harvest types of decorations, rather than Halloween so I can leave it up through Thanksgiving.  But as it gets closer to Halloween, I’ll stick out a few jack-o-lanterns too.  All this rambling, leads me to my question for the day (thanks to my friend, Carrie getting me thinking about it): why do stores and neighbors seem to think it’s perfectly fun and acceptable to decorate as if it was a scene from a rated R horror movie?

When I walk into a drug store, I really don’t want to have to block my kids from a bloody, evil-looking display.  Last night at dinner, my boys were talking about how they only want to go trick or treating to the left of our house because the houses to the right are too scary.  Now I know that in my imperfection, I allow my boys at a young age (thanks to having a big brother) to watch and see way too much that other (better?) moms don’t allow their kids to watch: Star Wars, Clone Wars, Transformers, Pokemon… So I’m sure there are a lot of moms saying, “You’re not one to talk.”  But I don’t make anybody else’s kids watch those things… well I guess my boys are walking advertisements for them, and they do have lots of battles outside, and probably have introduced several friends to them… but still I don’t think anyone really has to shield their eyes when they walk past my house… and I wish I didn’t have to do that for my kids when I walk by other homes.

But I’m pretty sure my ramblings here won’t change anything, so I’ll continue to distract and shield my boys’ eyes and focus on the cute pumpkins and gourds and apples and hay bales and corn stalks and signs that say things like “Happy Fall Y’All!”  We’ll go apple picking and pumpkin picking and riding tractors full of hay and running through corn mazes and trick or treating and have a great time and we’ll try our best to ignore the other stuff.  Happy Fall Y’All!

♥Becki

Wednesday’s Wisdom from the Word: Holding hands

c. Wednesday's Wisdom from the Word

My soon to be 11-year-old is at that awkward age of thinking he’s too old for some things that I believe he secretly still likes.  Take holding my hand for example.  When we are walking, whether in the parking lot, in a store, down the street, he shakes away my hand if I try to hold his.  However, often as he’s walking next to me, he’ll reach up and take hold of my hand, only to later seem to realize what he did and abruptly let go.  How a mother’s heart hurts when a child shakes away her grasp.

As I sat down to type today’s post, I was going to write about something in Galatians, but wasn’t exactly sure how to say what I wanted to say.  But then I looked down at my mousepad that I had made for free last year when I was ordering other things for my MOPS group from Vista Print.  The MOPS verse at the time was “Even there, Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.” (Psalm 139:10) So, I had a mousepad made with the verse on it and pictures of my boys to remind myself that “Even there” in the midst of my mothering, God was guiding me.  Anyway, as I looked at it, I thought about my oldest shaking my hand away and here we are…

When I think of that verse and God holding my hand, I think of the various reasons that I hold my boys’ hands.  1.  I hold them out of affection.  2.  I hold them to direct where they are walking.  3.  I hold them to keep them with me so they don’t get lost.  4.  I hold them to keep them going too fast, or too slow.  5.  I hold them to keep them safe – so that a car doesn’t hit them or so that no one steals them away.

So, when I read in that verse that God’s holding my hand, I’m pretty sure He’s doing it for the same reasons.  1.  He loves me.  When you read through the Bible, you find to be at God’s right hand, is to be at a place of honor.  2.  He wants to guide me.  So often I’m not sure how to handle situations, or what choice to make, but if I cling to God’s hand through prayer and reading the Bible, I can feel his guiding me more and more.  3.  He desires that I stay with Him and not wander away or get “lost”.  4.  When I’m clinging to Him He keeps me from going too fast (worrying about tomorrow) or going too slow (not doing what He’s asking me to do).  5.  He keeps me safe and protects me.  Running off on my own can result in getting hit by all kinds of cars (consequences of my sins) or being “stolen away” by things in this world.

These all sound like great reasons to cling to God’s hand.  But, like my son, I often find myself shaking it off, by ignoring reading the Bible, by not praying, by pressing on in my own wisdom and strength instead of His.  Does God’s heart hurt when I do that like mine does when my son pulls away?  But here’s the thing… when my son tries to pull away, I will often let him.  If it’s a matter of safety or discipline, I do not… especially when they are young.  But as they’ve gotten older, I don’t force them to hold my hand.  But, whenever that almost 11-year-old hand reaches up to take mine, you better believe that my hand is there and I hold on and give it a little extra loving squeeze.  And I know that whenever I reach up to cling to God’s hand it is there holding on to mine and giving it a little extra loving squeeze.

♥Becki

Mothering Monday / Training Tuesday: School lunch

a. Mothering Monday, b. Training Tuesday

Since I didn’t post yesterday on Mothering Monday, I’m combining it with Training Tuesday… mothering and nutrition…

Growing up, I remember my mom giving me a dollar every morning for lunch.  I’d get to school, and every teacher had a different way for ordering whether you were going to get the hot or cold lunch and white or chocolate milk.  For one of the years, I can remember putting rectangle sheets of colored paper (brown for chocolate milk, white for white milk, blue for cold lunch, red for hot lunch) into a pocket with my name on it, all stapled to a bulletin board outside the classroom.  I’m pretty sure I always ordered the hot lunch with chocolate milk.  I remember the cold lunch being a disgusting looking triple-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut diagonally, stacked together to form a tall triangle and wrapped in saran wrap.  I remember the jello with the little pieces of unidentified fruit in them.  Canned peaches or pears constituted the fruit selection.  I remember learning to fill my milk carton with my untouched green beans because Mrs. Evans wouldn’t let you take your tray back if you didn’t eat your vegetables too.  I’m pretty sure the lunch used to be 70 cents but I don’t remember ever giving my mom the change.  Pretzel day was Wednesday and they cost 10 cents and ice cream day was Friday and that cost a quarter or 30 cents for the nutty buddy ice cream cone.  We didn’t have a snack at school, but I never remember being hungry during the day.

Now, 30ish years later, I’m sending my boys off to school mostly with their packed insulated lunch boxes.  But of course, there’s days when I woke up too late to pack the lunch or days that they choose to buy lunch.  But oh how the elementary school cafeteria has changed.  Lunch is now $2.45.  You can still pay cash, but the kids all have accounts that you are asked to send cash or checks in with large amounts of money so that the kids have an endless supply of funds.  The kids have account numbers that they use to pay for their purchase.  If you happen to let the account run out of money, they still let your child purchase food (because they wouldn’t want your child to go hungry…) and your account has a negative balance.  You then get an annoying automated phone call and email telling you to add funds every day until you do.  (Can you tell that I have experience with this?)  This bugs me for several reasons: <<stepping on soap box>> 1. The children are learning all about a cashless society living on credit when they don’t have enough to pay for something.  (Huge problem today in our society)  2.  The children can buy something without my permission or consent.  3. No one is assisting the children in making smart decisions.

It’s not just how you pay that has changed in the elementary school cafeteria, but the choices as well.  They still have a hot and cold lunch – but now instead of peanut butter they have sunbutter.  But they also have an additional weekly option that includes a nacho fun lunch (tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, salsa) or a monthly alternative (this month it is a hot ham and cheese pretzelwich).  The lunches also still come with a vegetable (steamed peas, steamed carrots, fresh carrot sticks, steamed corn…) and some type of fruit (fruit cup, pears, mandarin oranges, applesauce, pineapple…) and milk.  But here’s the kicker – they don’t make the kids take these things.  In fact, last year, my first grader didn’t know he was supposed to.  When he bought pizza, he only took the pizza.

But then he’d get to the end of the food line and to the big, bright, beautiful display of every kind of chip you’d want and the cookies and the ice cream and he’d take some of this too.  (They even offer fresh made funnel cakes because of course every child should have the option to have a funnel cake every day of his life if he wants, right????)  When he got to the drink section, he’d take the milk because he likes milk.  But my older son doesn’t and he’d take the capris sun or lemonade instead.  Well that stuff isn’t free – the chips, cookies and ice cream cost 50 cents or 75 cents and the lemonade costs 60 cents and the capris sun costs 75 cents (at Giant, I can buy 10 for $1.99).  No one was telling them, “No you get milk with your lunch.” So now the lunch was costing anywhere from $2.95 – $3.70.  Also, they were going up and buying snacks when I packed them a lunch.  So, I have a financial issue, of spending way too much money on lunch without my consent.

In addition there’s also a nutrition issue.  When they came home asking for a snack, sometimes I’d give them cookies or ice cream not realizing that they already had that at school.  I was giving my oldest water instead of milk to drink at dinner thinking he had milk in his cereal and milk for lunch not realizing that he bought a capris sun  instead.  The nutrition of the school lunch is already pretty crappy, so let’s throw some junk on top of it.  And then of course, make sure to send in a snack every day for their morning snack time because apparently our children will starve otherwise.  (OK, sending a snack doesn’t bother me that much, it’s just throwing that on top of all the snack choices they are given at lunch.)

So what does the school say when I ask about it?  I can check online every day what they purchase and to talk to my kids about making the right choices.  Well, yes I can, but to be honest, I have a lot of issues to battle and work on and this really is not a battle I want.  These are elementary school kids.  At home, I don’t say to my kids, go get yourself some lunch or dinner, I do it because their choices are never going to be as good as mine.  I could freeze their account and not allow them to make purchases – but my oldest son is autistic and has melt downs about certain things, and I’d rather he didn’t have a melt down because the lunch lady is not letting him purchase something.  No, I’m not really happy with those options.

What I’d like is for the school to not offer 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10-year olds cookies and chips and doritos and ice cream and lemonade and funnel cakes every single day.  What I’d like is when I pay $2.45 for school pizza, is for them to give my kids the carrot sticks and the pears and the milk that I’m paying for with it.  Because if that was all they had, they would eat them.

I think I need Jaime Oliver to come to my school…

♥Becki, imperfect nutritionist

P.S. If you are in Phoenixville School District, our district’s contract with Chartwell’s is up for renewal this year.  I am sending emails to superintendent, Dr. Fegley, fegleya@pasd.k12.pa.us and to asst. superintendent, Dr. Palubinsky, palubinskyr@pasd.k12.pa.us voicing my frustration and disappointment in our school lunch.

<<stepping off my soap box>>

 

Friends & Family Friday: MOPS – why I love it!

f. Friends and Family Friday

Wednesday morning I found myself at a microphone talking (and dancing) in front of a group of 64 women – my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group.  This was our kick-off meeting for the year and I loved every moment of it.  Although I came home, saddened by the thought that this would be my last first meeting.  In MOPS, you graduate when your youngest child goes off to first grade… so unless another baby Kerchner comes along (or adopted toddler Kerchner), this is my last year.

This group is amazing!  I can’t imagine my life without the friendships, support, laughter, tears, hugs, crafts, discussions, speakers, play dates, moms nights out, book discussions, consignment sales, retreats, and I’ll say it again – friendships that this group has brought to my life.  So as I was thinking about it being my last year, I remembered a newsletter article that I wrote for the last meeting 2 years ago.  It pretty much sums up how I feel about MOPS, so I thought I’d share it again:

I can’t believe its May already (remember, I wrote this after our last meeting 2 years ago)!  Since I’ve been a stay at home mom, I’ve established a new definition of time: a day can be an eternity, but a year goes by in the blink of an eye.  True to form, that’s how this year went as well.

When I started this year back in September (because as a mom, we all know that September, not January is when the new year begins) I knew there would be many changes for me since my middle child was starting kindergarten. (Now, my baby just started kindergarten, sniff, sniff.) I experienced a lot of expected milestones: learning to read, ride a bike and swim.  However, life also dropped on my lap many surprises.

I had no idea that I would become a home school mom of a child recently diagnosed with Asperger’s.  I had no idea that I would have regular conversations with a neurologist and explain to babysitters what do if my newly epileptic son had a seizure.  I had no idea that I would have a mild panic attack realizing that I forgot to tell the dentist who was giving my son local anesthesia about the new medicine he was on.  Believe me, through that there were many days that I didn’t know how I was going to get through the day.

But I have an amazing, loving God who knew I was going to have days like that.  He knew that I was going to need a friend to check up and see how the dentist visit went.  He knew that dinner was going to be the last thing that I wanted to think about after spending the day at CHOP and gave me a friend who loves to cook and offered to bring us dinners.  He knew that seizures were going to terrify me and gave me a friend who was already on that road with her son to help me through. 

 He knew I was going to feel like a lousy mom and He gave me friends to encourage me and cheer me on.  He knew when I needed to laugh and when I needed to cry and provided the people to do that with.  He knew I needed a purpose beyond my family and gave me a group of women to pray for and serve.  All of those needs He filled through you, the ladies of our MOPS group.  You all have exemplified to me this month’s verse: “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” Galatians 6:2,10) I thank you for that and I love you all.  

So you can see, why I’m a little saddened thinking that this is my last year.  The group is truly amazing enough, that it is tempting to get pregnant just to stay in the group 🙂  But I know that the amazing, loving God that gave me this group, has things planned for next year that I haven’t even begun to imagine.  (Hopefully they still include me and a microphone, because as crazy as it sounds… I LOVE talking on mics!)  And I also know that the friendships that I made and will continue to make this year will continue to grow beyond the MOPS years.

♥Becki, fan of MOPS

P.S. if you are a mother of a child, newborn – kindergarten, check out www.MOPS.org to find a group near you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday’s Thoughts on Home: The stinky dryer

d. Thursday's Thoughts on Home

My dryer stinks… I mean really stinks.  If you don’t remove the clothes right away when you open the door, you are accosted by a rancid smell.  So I close the door.  Let the dryer spin for another 10 minutes, open it and take the clothes out and they smell decent enough.  Not april fresh, but not anything that will make the person next to you notice… at least I don’t think so… at least no one’s mentioned it to me.  (no, dryer sheets don’t help)

When the clothes are removed from the dryer, the dryer itself still stinks.  So of course I swagbuck searched (I don’t google, I search through swagbucks so I can earn stuff for free like Amazon gift cards.  If you are still searching on google, why?  You are just giving them the advertising money… click on the swagbuck box on the bottom of my page and check it out.)  Anyway, I searched the Internet for stinky dryer solutions and it appears I’m not alone, and it seems there are many different ways to approach this.

  1. Wipe the inside of the dryer clean with vinegar.  Since the only vinegar I have right now is apple cider vinegar, I think I’ll wait.  (btw, apple cider vinegar works well as a fruit fly trap – just sit the cup out and have fun counting the multitudes of dead fruit flies floating… I stopped at 45ish)
  2. Take out the dryer drum to clean out any lint or anything stuck in there and then clean with vinegar… um, thinking this will be a last resort.
  3. Clean the entire vent line from dryer to the outside of wet lint and or dead animals – yuck!  hoping it’s just wet lint.  For us, this involves climbing around in the attic and getting on the roof and cleaning out the little pole thing that sticks up.  But Jeff and I’ve cleaned out wet lint before and never had this smell before… usually it just slows the dryer down.  So truly hoping it’s not an animal of some kind.
  4. Change the electrical cord… not really sure why this would help, but apparently it helped a few people enough that they took the time to type about it.

So hoping a trip to the store to purchase vinegar and a good wipe down is all it takes.  Because, honestly, I just don’t feel like doing any of the other stuff.  So if you ask me in a month about my dryer, if the vinegar thing doesn’t work, most likely I’ll say that I still just turn the dryer on again and then grab the clothes out hot and then the dryer doesn’t stink.  (I know some of you are probably getting ready to start typing a comment about the fire hazard of not cleaning out the vent… I know, I know…)

Here’s the thing, I want the stink gone, but I really don’t feel like doing anything about it.  And as I’m typing this, I realize that truly that’s how a lot of things in my life are… I want the weight off, but I don’t want to change my eating… I want my house clean, but don’t feel like cleaning… I want to be able to wake up early and read the Bible and run, but don’t feel like going to bed earlier…  I think I want God to be a magic genie instead of a God who is concerned about our character and heart…

Oh no!  The dryer just buzzed… I better get the stuff before the stink comes!

♥Becki, imperfect dryer maintainer 🙂