Halloween

Many things I have in my mind to blog about, but as we just had Halloween, I figured I'd talk about that.

First off....we let our children dress up and we go trick or treating. Now, don't you go and hit your knees, bombarding heaven in an attempt to cast out any demons. There are none. We are God-fearing. We are not in a cult. We don't participate in any evil doings...nothing like that. We are like any other normal parent out there. We take our kids from house to house for one thing and one thing only: TO CONFISCATE THEIR CHOCOLATE!!!

No....really!

We dressed the kids up....2 were Superman, 1 was a pirate and the other was asleep in the van! I drove beside the kids and the dad with the back of the van open. The kidletts walked from one lit house to the next. They trotted up yelling "Tik-or-teat" (the words of my 3 year old) and before saying "thank you" gave a Charlie Brown-like report of what they had received; complete with #2 son's statement, "I have a rock in my shoe."

We spent about 1 hour going from house to house. We had to dump the collection buckets three times, in the front seat, in order to continue collecting. We probably hit about 20 houses....it doesn't seem like a lot, but as every lot is at least 1/2 acre....well, there is some distance between each house. After about 1 hour, we made it home: happy, hyper and fighting hypothermia. It was a bit chilly.

We all gathered in a little huddle on the floor and dumped our booty to admire and sort. Being the good parents, we got rid of all Now and Laters and jawbreakers. Then we separated into semi-like bunches. Lollipops and gum are big faves...so we put those in a bag. Then we put all candies like: smarties, nerds, tootsie rolls and the like into a bag. This is the bag that, by next Saturday, will probably be forgotten and/or thrown out. Finally, we have a bag that Daddy has labeled "the meltables." These are put together to "keep them fresh." It also makes for easy acccess.

So instead of praying for forgiveness for taking our children out on "All Hallows Eve," perhaps we should pray for forgiveness for stealing their candy.

Myspace.com

OK....here's the deal. Myspace.com has become quite a force on the internet. EVERYONE uses it, it would seem...everyone except me.

Well, that's not entirely true. I went on to find another friend's blog. She is on myspace. I "peek" at her list of friends...I know a lot of people in her list...and they are all on myspace. I WANT FRIENDS IN MY SPACE...not the site, but in my little circle of friends.

So today, I go to this site and click the button to leave a message. I had to create an account. EEEEK! Did I just succumb to the status quo? Did I make a deal with the devil? Well, I don't deal with the devil, but I think I'm now in the traffic pattern of ordinary society.

What a disappointment. I always considered my self EXTRAordinary. Hmmmmm...so the dilemma is now this....do I move my blog? Do I go on myspace.com in order to gain new cyber-friends? You know...I didn't join a sorority just for that reason. I always did it my way. (Oooohhhh, flash to Bon Jovi - "Like Frankie said, 'I did it my way.' I just want to live while I'm alive. IT'S MY LIFE!" (sorry...that was TOTALLY a tangent. )

Anyway, I'm just now figuring out my blog stuff To consider moving now is a bit insane. I don't know. We'll see. I will give it a bit before I decide. I just have a hangup. And that is a whole "nother" blog....but I'll peek into it a bit.

First off, my biggest peeve in the world is when someone says "a whole nother." What is a "nother?" Grrrr. My hangup is this...there is SO MUCH to do and see on myspace.com. I don't like that. I like my little corner of the world, under my rock, with not a lot to look at and get lost in. There, I said it. I'm plain. I'm boring. And I flat don't want to move.

Myspace.com...I'll visit to see my friends, but I probably will not take up residence there.

Oh, be careful little eyes what you see!

There is a book out there titled The Pilot's Wife. It was quite popular several years ago. There was even a TV movie based on it. My best friend called one day, a few years ago, and asked if I had read it. She said that I needed to. I think that even Oprah had it on her book list or something.

I have never read the book, but I've heard enough to get the idea of what it is about...and it's awful. It is basically about this guy...a pilot...who marries two women and has two families. The two lives collide when he is killed in a plane crash and the two wives try to claim his benefits.

Being a pilot's wife, I do not read such trash, nor do I entertain the idea of all the possibilities. My hubby and I have discussed stuff like this many times. We have chosen to trust each other, be honest and guard our marriage. We both have opportunity. (But frankly, having 4 kids probably doesn't lift me too high on the "desirability" ladder. :D)

We have discussed the "what ifs" of unfaithfulness. Do you forgive? Do you separate? Well, I would kill him. I've told him that. He believes me. LOL!!!! I'm serious. He knows it. However, this is not the point of this entry.

DH and I have discussed how we view married life and how we are to participate. We know that marriage is NOT give and take. It is NOT 50-50. The person who wrote that is probably divorced. Marriage is 100-100 and it is give and give. Anyone who goes into a marriage with a different idea is headed for divorce court.

We have based our family with God as our head-of-house. We are faithful in church. Our children are involved. We pray as a family. We tithe as a family. We play as a family. We ARE a family.

DH and I have been married for 15 years. I KNOW that we will never divorce....I won't even have to kill him.

SO, be careful little eyes what you see. Be careful little eyes what you see. For the Father up above is looking down with love. So, be careful little eyes what you see.

Hobbies

Do you have a hobby? Do you actively pursue it? If you put a hobby down for a while....say about 7 years....is it still a hobby? I don't know.

I have a hobby; or I had one. It was astronomy. Please reread that...ASTRONOMY, NOT astrology. I love to study the stars. Several years ago, I was really pretty good at it, especially considering that it was just something I kind of picked up on my own.

It is truly amazing, the wonders of the sky. Anyone who sees the rings of Saturn, or the Great Red Spot on Jupiter and doesn't believe in God....well, there just isn't much to say about them.

I think I will pull out my telescope, dust it off and go star-gazing soon. Hmmm...have to find all the tools to calibrate it and such, BUT I'm sure my handsome hubby would love to step in and assist. Wouldn't you, honey? PLEASE?

Responsibilities

My husband has told me a few times, in our life together, that if I didn't have a stressor at the moment, that I would stress over that fact. Hmmmm....what do I think about that?

It's true, I suppose. I'm so busy being busy that I don't stay busy at what NEEDS to be done. Let me rephrase that. I know you, my intelligent reader, are able to comprehend the above statement, but I feel the need to clarify what I mean.

I have a lot of responsibilities. Everything I'm involved in NEEDS to be done. It does not, however, have to be done by me. I have enough to keep me busy at home. My problem is that I take on so much outside "stuff" that I don't get my "stuff" done at home. The family joke (an all too serious joke, I must add) is that I will do ANYTHING to get out of doing laundry. It is a sad fact.

Now before you start feeling sorry for my family, we don't walk around wearing dirty undies....well, I won't get into that when it comes to my 5 year old. BUT, the laundry gets washed and dried. And that's about it. LAUNDRY IS MY NEMESIS! It has taken me many years to get here. I haven't always had this problem...well, that is a lie, I guess. I've always had a distaste for the art of laundering, but it was always manageable. Now that I have 4 monkeys and 1 full-grown ape...then there is myself, the zookeeper...well, THAT, my friend is a bunch of laundry.

But I digress. My point is this: because I involve myself so much into other duties, the household duties, such as laundry, are neglected.

I do love to be involved. I'm not guilted into doing any of these things, I just volunteer for pert near everything that is brought up. I have really started to look into this more because of MOPS.

MOPS is an acronym for Mothers of Preschoolers. (My dh wants to know when I'll actually learn to mop....laugh it up, fuzz-ball!) Anyway, we are going through the book "What Every Mom Needs." I am starting the discussion tonight. The topic is growth. The idea is that moms tend to lose themselves when they become parents. Two weeks ago, we MOPpers lost our identities...today our growth is stunted.

I have been reading and preparing for this talk and I have begun to realize that I'm not growing. The very first "barrier" the book brings up is busyness. THAT IS ME! I'm too busy. I made it a bit harder on myself last night. I was at a PTO board meeting (yes...I'm on the PTO board.) I went to talk to my kindergartener's teacher about the upcoming Thanksgiving Feast. I'm the homeroom mom. Somehow, I have found myself involved very deeply in this feast. Instead of just offering to bring paper goods, I'm now coordinating efforts, to be shared with all the other K5 homeroom parents, for the feast itself. If my dh is not home on that day, I will have to find childcare for my two cherubs that are still home, make my way to the school to help with the Indian headwear and the pilgrim collars before going to the cafeteria where about 125 VERY excited and antsy 5 and 6 year olds will be waiting to partake of turkey lunchmeat, dried fruits and other feast quality quisine.

So while that is in the back of my VERY PACKED head, I am planning my MOPS talk, planning a teacher training for Sunday School teachers and planning the next event for the teachers for PTO. I'm burning at both ends and feeling a bit soft and "melty" in the middle....HEY...CUT THE FAT JOKES!!!

The fact is...I love it. I love the adrenaline rush that I get from being on a time constraint and in the end (after MUCH belly-aching...both verbally and literally) coming out having accomplished all that I wanted in a semi-acceptable way.

So my hubby is right. He is such a smart man. If I only had house duties, I would be bored from lack of stress. Is that sad? I really don't know.

I will return in a few days having accomplished a few of this week's tasks and, I'm sure, having picked up a few more.

Blessings~

Time Flies

Why is it that time flies? Have you noticed that the older you get, the faster time goes by? Is it that we are so distracted by our lives? Or is it that time is literally going faster? Hmmmm....I have my own theories on that last question, but I'll save that one for when I have more time.

You probably don't know this, but I did NOT abandon this blog. In fact, I only posted a few days ago.....RIGHT! It was September 13, I believe. As I said, time flies.

It is said that "time flies when you are having fun." Is that what it was? Some of it was fun, that is for certain, but not all of it. Nothing bad happened....just life got in the way of my nasty computer habit.

We have had so much happen in the last month. My husband, who is a pilot, started training in a new plane. The perk to that? Well, he hasn't actually FLOWN a plane since mid- August. AND HE STILL GETS PAID! How cushy is that? He is gone quite a bit for said training and other "piloting duties," but still is home enough to help out with the big and/or unpleasant tasks of yardwork, auto care and the like.

Kids are in school. We have homework almost every night. That is no big deal....only about 30 minutes a night. But tack onto that piano practice, church study, baths and VERY NECESSARY play time...not to mention meals and stuff....well, the kids are busy, too. Is time flying for them? Do they have any concept of it going by SO QUICKLY? Is it fair to them that my life is making their lives so crazy?

I have often questioned whether or not the kids should be as involved in things as they are. When you take each child alone, it is not an unreasonable amount of outside activites....in my honest opinion, anyway. But what happens in six years when my fourth decides to be just as busy as my third....who happens to want to do everything that my second has chosen to do...which is, in fact, a carbon copy of the schedule my first follows. Can they do it all? Can I do it all? Is it fair to them? To me?

I don't know. What I DO know is that time is marching on! The drum is loud and steady. All I can do is pray to stay caught up. Time will go by, no matter what we are, or are not involved in.

Hmmmm, my third just came in and showed me that he could dress himself. So, as I sit here, involved in this habit of mine, time is marching throughout my house. I better go jump in.

Blessings.

I will be back sooner than later.