Shes a maniac, maniac

I swear most of my days are spent running around the house like a chicken with its head cut off. I am reminded of that scene from Flash dance where Jessica Beals is dancing and sweating in the warehouse. Is like that for me, but I don't get to dance. I get to run around doing chores. I think maybe there is a game show to be made here. I'll have to get back to that one. I don't understand why I'm not thinner. Maybe I am like that bread and fish that fed the masses.

My day starts out with me running around and ends with me running around. At least in my head. Takes me forever to turn off my brain so I can sleep, it keeps going - thinking of my to do list even after my body has collapsed into bed. But I make goals for myself that I want to accomplish that day, on top of the chores that need done. Sometime I get to them sometimes I don't. But hey, at least I had a goal. Its the thought that counts right?

Todays goal was to finish the diapers I have sitting here for my kids. I have another huge pile for my store. But I figure that can wait. My kids need poop catchers. Apparently diapers don't last forever. I had to throw a couple away recently. They had seen better days. But considering the youngest of the diapers were 5 years old I couldn't complain too much. I think I had gotten my money's worth. But still that meant I needed to make more. Thankfully a friend sent me fabric as a gift after the baby was born. Heres my pile as I am sewing.


And here are the diapers all done.
My sewing machine got a work out. I was sewing so fast so I could get them done while the baby napped. I am really really looking forward to relaxing this sabbath now.

Dh and Stress

Today I had to deliver some diapers I sold. While I demonstrated the diapers to the buyer dh changed the baby behind me. I mentioned what an aio was and dh, feeling the need to also demonstrate, took the dirty diaper he just changed and opened it up to show her. If shes not a repeat customer, can I blame it on him?

Maybe he felt the he had to distract me from what he had said earlier, which was: "You should join a health club, for other than the obvious reasons I mean." Oh yea, hes gaining tons of points with me today. Actually, we were discussing ways to destress. Exercising, swimming, meeting other people. Nothing like trying to make friends while you stink like a skunk and drip with bodily fluids. I guess if they are willing to talk to you the next time they are probably pretty decent folk...or have no olfactory senses.

But it is hard to meet people when you have a large family. We scare people away. Other folks who could handle us usually have a bunch of their own. Which means 2 busy schedules trying to match up, kinda like getting all the planets to align. Of course, if dh goes around showing people our dirty diapers we might have an ever harder time of making friends.

Newtons Laws applied to family

First Law: An object at rest remains at rest, unless acted upon by a net force. An object in motion remains in motion, unless acted upon by a net force.

The first part of the law applies to men and children. They will remain at rest until acted upon by a force. That force is called "Mom".

Example: dh sleeping on the sofa while garbage can over flows, shower drain is clogged and the desk drawer sits in pieces next to him. Mom exerts force, foot to leg. Dh jumps up and is now in motion. or If the object is a child watching tv, the force is usually mom turning off the tv.

The second part applies to mothers. The force that stops the motion is usually called baby but can also be called exhaustion.

Example: Mother runs from room to room stopping fights, loading the dishwasher, wiping butts and putting clothes on the line. The baby crying stops the motion as mother sits to nurse.

Second law: Force applied on a body is directly proportional to the rate of change of momentum of the body or mass times acceleration.

Example: Small child pushes a Pyrex 4 cup measuring cup across the counter. Said cup crashes to the floor and breaks into a million pieces. Mass makes the difference, If the child has pushed a brick it wouldn't have even moved to the edge. Likewise if the child had pushed the 1 cup plastic measuring cup it probably would have flown across the room and landed on carpeting. If you ever want your kids to be scared of breaking glass this is a dramatic way to accomplish that. My 10 yr old is scared to death of glass now.

Third Law: To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Example: Giving a child a bath will result in said child playing in peanut butter. or Nursing a baby will result in spit up or poop. Usually all over you. Or one siblings jumps out of the closet scaring the other sibling into wetting his pants. Which then lends itself to a never ending cycle of actions and reactions where on the children take turns scaring each other and then getting upset that they were either scared or their scare was foiled.

Its the laws of motion, there is no getting around them. And you are armed with a good science lesson if the need arises.

How to clean you house with small children

Step 1 - Lock your children in a room. No, no, no, no. I have that backward. Start with the easiest room to clean and lock the kids OUT. Like I'll start with the little kids room. I clean that first then lock the door. Why? They can't get in there to make a mess. Where there is tidy and organization thats where they strike. They are like a tornado, going from clean room to clean room leaving a disaster in their wake. As you move from room to room going from easiest to hardest, lock the doors behind you. If they rooms don't have doors corral the kids out to the next room. Do the hardest room last. I know it flies in the face of conventional wisdom that you start with the hardest so you have the energy to finish. Actually if you start with the hardest you won't have any energy to finish. Do you want to drop dead before you get 2 rooms done or do you want to drop dead with only 2 rooms left to do? At least most of your house will be clean then right?

Step 2 - Tidy up. I use laundry baskets. If they are all full a box or bag works just as well. Stick everything in there. Don't go around trying to put everything away as soon as you pick it up. You'll get distracted, it takes too much time and the kids will be back in there making a mess before you even put away 3 things. Don't forget to look under beds! You might need an extended grabber for this job. Good bookcases? Shelves? Guaranteed there is stuff thrown up there. Look behind tvs, fish tanks, desks.

Step 3 - Vacuum. This usually scares the little ones away so you can tidy the room. Actually its amazing what a clean floor does for a room. This is where you want to pass out on the sofa cause the room LOOKS clean, don't be fooled. There are dust mites laughing at you. Grim on the windows are scoffing you. Don't give in!

Step 4 - Dust and Clean the windows. Yea, those are windows. At one time you could see out of them. These are jobs I like to get the kids involved with cause by this time they are antsy and well, they made the mess - they can clean it up! Don't forget to dust the ceiling fans. Nothing worse than turning on a fan and everyone gets covered with dust.

Step 5 - Wash the walls (and counters if you are doing bathrooms or a kitchen). By this point you have walked away from the blog thinking I am insane. Have you looked at your walls? There are hand prints on them in various food products, like chocolate and cheese. At least I hope thats chocolate. If you were conned into thinking there was actually a thing called "washable" flat paint, then you can skip this step. Don't want to scrub a hole in your drywall now! Actually, washing the walls will give the room a freshly painted look. And if you do it often enough it won't be that difficult the next time you have to do it. Like when you have company - thats when people who don't live there come to visit. You know people who haven't learned to block out the mess like you have.

Step 6 - Put away the stuff in the laundry baskets. I usually round up the kids for this one. If everyone takes a couple of things to put away this can be done in under 10 minutes. Now wasn't that easier than you trying to do it yourself?

Words of Encouragement

Dh delivered a pizza thursday night to a school and noticed a SUV with 8 children decals on the back window. Excitedly, he asked the lady to whom he delivered the pizzas to, who the owner of the SUV was. Sheepishly she responded it was hers. He shared that we too had 8, as he was sure she thought he was going to say something along the lines of how crazy she must be.

Today, when we were at a fast food restaurant, a family with 5 children came in. The mother had a wearied look. A look I know all too well. Annoyed by staring strangers, feeling defensive of rude comments and inappropriate questions. It wasn't a look that says, "I am dead tired" or "Someone please take my kids and send me to the funny farm". No, this was the "Don't go there look". I've worn it all too many times myself.

How sad is it that we feel so discouraged every time we leave the house? That we have to be on the defensive any time we are out with our family or the topic of family comes up? That we even have to come up with comebacks for the comments because we get them so frequently?

To those women and others like us: be encouraged. There are men and women out there championing the cause; standing up for our right to have large families. Last time I went grocery shopping a driver had to stop, roll down his window and ask; "Are they all yours?" When I responded with a smile that they indeed were he said, "Thats great! What a blessing!" Then once inside the grocery store someone else stopped and told us that we had a beautiful family. My mother took it upon herself to send an email to her congregation chastising them for not supporting large families. And then she asked that they pray for mothers, that they might be blessed with even more children! How encouraging is it to know that not only is there someone out there that thinks your family is great, but praying that you can even add to it?!

I wanted to share my words of encouragement with others who need it: You have a beautiful family! What a blessing! Children are a joy!

What a day

Yesterday ds1 made apple juice popsicles in the ice cube tray. Yay! for him for being independent. Bad on him for not putting the tooth picks away. Ds5 and ds3 got into them and used them to turn my foot stool into a giant pin cushion. I asked Ds1 why he didn't put them away and he said cause he lost the container. More like the container got up and walked away. Probably on 2 little legs in the form of ds5. I guess not all the tooth picks were used in the pin cushion because about 10 minutes later dd1's foot found one. Tooth picks aren't good for acupuncture. I told ds1 to find all the ones all over the floor and throw those away. He said, "But we won't have any left." Does he realize what they are used for? I told him I don't think anyone wants to put a tooth pick IN THEIR MOUTH after its been playing with dog hair and who knows what else on the floor. So he threw them away. Today I made Banana Bread. Can you guess what I needed? Now imagine events like that one right after another, all day long. There you have it: my day. Apparently I am a little stressed and my brain has taken a vacation without me. Because I could not for the life of me remember the term for those things you put under glasses to keep your coffee table from getting rings. Yea, Coasters. Excuse any typos, poor grammar and just total nonsense. Its obvious I have been relived of my senses.

I know

I know why kids do thing right in front of you when they know they shouldn't be doing it. Cause kids know you can't catch them.

I know why you have kids when you are young. Cause thats when you have the energy to deal with them.

I know why babies need to eat every 2 hours. Cause moms are so busy that if you aren't forced to sit down you never will.

I know why kids wake up in the middle of the night. To wear us down so that the next day we are too worn out to care if they are bad.

I know why kids do things like stick laser pointers in the freezer. Its to keep us on our toes. Never get comfortable. Never get complacent.

I know why kids don't listen. So we think they are never listening and we end up saying something that probably shouldn't have been said within ear shot. Which they then get to repeat to every neighbor, stranger and door to door salesman that comes around.

I know why kids make messes. They think we need the exercise. And we probably do. I wonder how many calories I burn cleaning out underneath 6 beds?

Lying

As a kid I could never figure out how my parents knew when I was lying. I was sure it was some secret parent power you obtained after you had kids. I was so good at it, I convinced my friends. But gee, those parents, they are hard cookies. Now I have kids of my own and I get to watch them lie. And now I get it. No special powers were needed. If you can see, smell, hear or feel you pretty much can detect a lie a mile away. Why? Because kids are terrible liars! Sure I was a great liar to my friends, they were terrible liars too. How would they know what to look for in a lie?

Perhaps its the rush of adrenaline, or being in the middle of the forest and not being able to see the trees. Or maybe they think we are dumb. I'm not sure but for some reason kids think that we don't see what we see or hear what we hear or smell what we smell. Like when ds put on daddys cologne. The conversation went like this:

Me: "Dude you smell, did you get into daddy's cologne?"
Ds: "What cologne? I don't smell."
Me: "You do so smell. I could smell you from upstairs."
Ds: "I don't know what you are talking about. I didn't get into any cologne."
Me: "Yes, you did. Go take a shower, you are giving me a headache."

Seriously, I could smell him on a separate floor. I think he spilled the whole bottle on himself.

Then there is the seeing. A child with chocolate all over his face, still licking his finger denying they ate the last of the candy. Writing all over the wall that they blame on their baby brother or better yet the dog. Or kids denying that they got into makeup. Can you spot the lie?
Now hearing I think thats the one they think they are really good at. In reality we are just hoping and praying they do the right thing and come to us or fix the problem themselves. I love it when I hear , "Uhhhh what are we gonna do? Hide it!" You just know something is broken. And our secret weapon: the baby monitor. That thing picks up conversations from 3 rooms away.

You are thinking; how can you possibly feel a lie. If you have a boy who refuses to wash his hair and then Lies about it; you know how its possible. Water does not make grease go away, kids I guess don't know that. One loving rub on the childs noggin is enough to realize someone wasn't being truthful about that shower he took. And thats a lie the next day I would be able to smell too.

Now either kids don't realize their lies are that obvious or they just think we are stupid. Or maybe its that adrenaline and they really don't smell anything. Or maybe they forgot what they did. Yea thats it, they forgot. Makes you seriously reconsider lying doesn't it?

Hmmm I wonder how that feels

We all know kids go through stages. Mostly I think just to keep parents on their toes and annoy the heck out of us. They like a food one week and hate it the next. They enjoy doing Mad Libs today and tomorrow they will be on Word Searches. Their never ending rotation of posters on their walls. I can never keep track of their current favorite show or who they are currently crushing on. Right now my 2 yr old is in a texture phase. Remember the peanut butter? Today was a banner day for ds5, he discovered all sorts of textures.

First was the tooth paste. Again. This time he got himself naked and smeared it all over himself. Let this be a lesson to all you sewing mothers out there. Never sew a cape for one son while the other is out of your sight. Its a trick! They are in cahoots. I know it. (The cape turned out great btw, now my clothes pins can stay on the line where they belong.) Turns out he doesn't like toothpaste as much as peanut butter. Especially when its in your butt crack. Minty Fresh! Course I don't enjoy it on the door knob or my sheets either.

Then he was keeping me company while I did my hair. Yea thats what we will call it, keeping me company. Seriously I can't take my eyes of the kid for 2 seconds. Cause thats about how long it took him to stick my hair clip in his mouth - and get it stuck. You know I have never looked at a hair clip and thought to myself, "Hmm that looks tasty, I think I will try it." Obviously a 2yr old has different culinary preferences. I know I don't care for bologna after I used it to cover my legs for the last 5 minutes.

For Dessert we had Ice Cream. Thankfully he was more interested in eating that than wearing it so it was empty when he donned the bowl as a hat. As ds slid across the table to get down his arm went through an ice cream puddle. Fil was concerned ds had ice cream on his elbow. I told him, "Well he put toothpaste in his butt crack and ice cream in his hair; I don't think he cares about some on his elbow. " A sentence to make a mother proud.

At least I know its just a stage. Right? It is just a stage isn't it?

Oh the Irony

Irony: an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.

I have been going to bed at 11 and getting up at 5. And thats not straight sleep either. I have been tired, and probably pretty cranky too. So the other night the baby was out at 8:30 and was still out at 9. I thought, 'nows my chance, I am gonna get some extra sleep'. So I went to bed. I was especially excited that he slept through his diaper change. I thought I was gonna get a great night sleep. I was out immediately. Then I woke up at 3 am. I went to the rest room and got a drink. I laid back down and couldn't sleep. I heard people out front talking so I went to check it out. Just the neighbors. I think they sleep less than I do. Laid down again and still couldn't sleep. I then realized it was my stupid body thinking it was time to get up since I normally only get 6 hours of broken sleep. I tried to reason with myself, I am trying to get more sleep here. Not get up earlier. Finally I put a pillow over my head and thought happy thoughts till I drifted back off again. Didn't exactly get the great night sleep I was hoping for.

I closed the vents in my bathrooms. Figuring they didn't need air conditioned, lets push that air into rooms that do need it. A few days later I noticed not only are the bathrooms not any warmer they are cooler than they were before and cooler than the other rooms in the house! How does that work? What should I turn of the ac in the rest of the house too? And that extra air I was pushing into the other rooms? Haven't seen no extra cool air around here. Nope, I don't think that worked the way I hoped it would.

The funny times - revisited

Ds3 was eating a donut while he talked to the baby. He returned to the table to find his plate gone, "Hey who ate my donut?" dh told ds he took care of the plate because DS ate the donut. Poor ds realized it was now in his tummy and said, "Oh I didn't know." Wow, playing with the baby must have been really exciting to make ds forget he was eating a donut!

My quirky 10 yr old dd asked if the baby was in his future. I really didn't know how to respond so I asked her if she knew what future meant. She said, "Something that hasn't happened yet." So I asked her if she was in her future. Nope. Ds2 who must have been eavesdropping came over and said, "Now she is, Now she is, Now she is." Like the need to explain a poorly told joke ds says, "Because every second is in her future."

Dh ordered some pizza from where he works as a driver on the weekends and he decided to go pick up the pizza to save on delivery charge and tip. Feeling bad he said, "I guess thats hypocritical but I am a poor driver." Dd1 said, "Oh daddy, don't feel bad. We think you are a good driver."

Recently we were at a party where ds4 found a little girl named Alexia that he liked. One problem, he couldn't get her name right, "I sure do like Alaska."

Myth #3 Part 2 - Cleaning Supplies

You know what happens when you have a lot of kids? You get lots of messes. Not just toys strewn all over the floor. I am talking nasty, grimy, foot sticking, nose holding, eye diverting messes. Kids are messy...and gross. You can clean all day and at end of the day start all over again. I have scrubbed the walls so much in the stairwell I have scrubbed the paint right off!

Water is the universal solvent, you don't really need too much more than that in most cases. We use just water to clean the counters and the table. Years ago we bought some microfiber towels, they were advertised as great for dusting. We still have those towels. They work wonders for dusting, it grabs it all so it doesn't fall back down as soon as you've wiped. Vinegar also works really well for windows and hard water build up. (After you clean your coffee pot take that hot vinegar water and use it in your shower.) And this mos we are to embark on a new cleaning adventure: making our own laundry soap. We got the directions from the Duggars Site. We had to wait till we found a bucket big enough to handle it and a place to store it. I figured the shelf in my laundry closet couldn't handle the weight of something like that since I don't have a dedicated laundry ROOM.

We do have paper towels in the house but we don't use many. Last year we were totally paper towel free simply because we couldn't afford it. Then my ils were over one day. They were so disgusted with our lack of paper products they bought us a 24 pack from Costco! We don't use them to clean with however. If we have a spill we use cloth to clean it up. We have messy hands? Cloth.

Our mop is not a disposable unit either. Its one of those gangly looking ones, like a mini car wash. You can throw it right in the wash when we are done, and around here there is always a load going. My kitchen and bathrooms are so small right now though I wash my floors with a towel. In my last house my kitchen was bigger than my master bedroom is now. You would think with 8 kids I would appreciate such a large kitchen. It was awesome when we first moved in. Then I cleaned it a few times. Now I don't mind so much how tiny mine is.

An Ecofriendly household is a economically happy household. I doubt you will find many large families using paper products on a regular basis, its just too expensive. Esp if you have to haul your own trash. Yea, we did that too for a long time. When you are paying by the pound to dispose of your trash but recycling is free, guess what you are gonna do more of? I can also tell you how much trash by the pound we produced. On average we spent $1.50 a mos to take our trash to the dump. If you think this is something I am passionate about you would be right. I feel that if our family of 10 can do these things, families of 2, 3, 4...can do these things. Your pocketbook would be happier and so would the planet.

Salespeople

We have had the worst run ins with sales people since we have been married. About 8 years ago we had a newspaper salesmen who refused to leave my front door step. I had opened the door on my way to take care of a dirty diaper. Good thing too as it turned out. After explaining to the man numerous times there was no way in Heaven above or Hell below I would buy his newspaper I finally had to show him the dirty diaper I was holding behind my back just so I could shut the door. After taking care of that I checked out my peep hole and he was still there so I called dh who was at work, who advised me to call the police if he didn't leave. Thankfully he was gone by the time I got off the phone. The fear of course being I am a woman at home, alone, with small children. He could definitely over power me. Thankfully at the time I had a metal screen door. So there was a barrier.

At our next house I wasn't so lucky. We had a door made for Giants I think. Only a custom made screen door would fit. So we put up a Beware of Dog sign and a No Soliciting Sign. I don't know how many times I opened the door to hear, "I'm not soliciting...but would you be interested in xyz?" Perhaps I was mistaken on the definition of soliciting?

Now this house I don't have a screen door either. But I didn't think I would have too much trouble with solicitors as half the houses in the area are vacant. I couldn't have been more wrong. Typically I like to keep the kids far away from the front door when someone knocks because of my first example. But maybe I was taking the wrong approach. Maybe I should have been letting the kids come see who is there.

A salesmen from a Pest Control company came to the door yesterday. I didn't want to even answer the door but darn it if I didn't have my blinds open and was sitting at my computer right next to the door. No hiding or pretending I didn't hear the door on this one. Of course all the kids immediately run up to the door and I tell them to go in the living room. My Lady dog tries to go around my legs to get at the sales men. Her barking is echoing off the walls of my tiny foyer. I am pinning her to the wall while I tell the older kids to take her out back. I now have 4 big kids screaming, "Here Lady...Come on Lady." My 3 yr old is in only underwear (have I mentioned its 110?) and they are on backwards. Hes on his hands and knees crawling between my legs. My 2 yr old is in a diaper and hes trying to climb over his brother and my legs to escape. I have a 2 mos old in my arms and in my office my 5 yr old is trying to look out the window at the sales men. I try to explain that I don't want his services but hes not getting it. I can barely hear him over the barking. Finally overcome with frustration the sales men lets out a gasp of exasperation and leaves.

The benefits to having a bunch of kids is endless. 8 Screaming, climbing, half naked kids is the fastest way to get rid of sales people. Maybe instead of No Soliciting I should have a sign that says "This home is full of small shrieking children."

Myth #3 part 1 - Big families aren't concerned about the enviornment

This will have to be a multi parter I think. Too much for this mommy to post at one time ;).

I think one of the biggest complaints people have about big families is the environmental impact and those people just assume (and we know what happens when you do that) that we don't care about the environment. It couldn't be further from the truth. I, of course, can't speak for everyone but I can tell you from my experience we are very concerned with it and we do our part to minimize the impact we have.

One of the reasons we large families do our part is frankly because its cheaper than to not. Our disposable culture has created so many things we "need" to buy - paper towels, cleaning supplies, name brand clothes, paper diapers and wipes ect. We actually don't "need" any of those things. I know mothers reading this are screaming, Wait! We need our diapers! Um, actually you don't. (screams of "But, But, But" are echoing in the cosmos)

The very best thing you can do for the environment related to diapering is Elimination Communication (here on out referred to as EC). EC is not early potty training. If anyone is being trained its not the baby but the mother and or father as the case may be. You can still use back ups of cloth diapers in case you miss a pee or a poo. There is no trash associated with this method. There is some water usage as you need to clean out the bowl, potty chair or flush the toilet. You may need to wash a few diapers if you miss a pee or poo.

If EC is not for you or if for whatever reason you can't do this (and yes there are legitimate reasons why you can't - no judging here), cloth diapering is your next best thing. Stop groaning! Its not that bad. Gone are the days of flats and pins, lap pads and stinky diapers swimming in a stew of bleach and poo in a pail. This is the new millennium; do you really think we can have video on demand and satellite on our cell phones and we wouldn't have improved our cloth diapers? You are gonna have more choices in diapers with cloth than with paper. We cloth diaper. Yup, with 8 kids we have time to cloth diaper, and have for 9 years. I didn't start till my 3rd was born. At that time my oldest was only 2.5. More than once have I had 3 in diapers. Now if you have more than a few kids and are saying you have enough laundry to do, I will remind you I have 10 people in this house. If I can do it, you can do it. Whats one more load?

There are those of you saying, "Yea well thats all fine for you but I am using eco friendly paper diapers." And I say, If you throw those away in a plastic bag going to a land fill they are no more eco friendly than any other diaper on the market. To break down those diapers need light and air, which they aren't gonna be getting in a plastic bag in a land fill.

For many large families its simply not possible to spend $2000 per kid on diapers. Finances and Ecoresponsibility often go hand in hand. The next time someone accuses you of draining the environment tell them you can't afford to!

I know people think its gross to clean out diapers. I guess it can be. But no more gross that being vomited on, peed on, pooped on, or waking up to a child who had diarrhea in their bed. I think by far the grossest thing I have ever cleaned up was dog diarrhea in the living room. That had to be the worst smelling substance known to man. Cleaning out diapers is nothing compared to that. Of course I make dh do it. But he obviously doesn't hate it enough to want to go to something else, after 9 years of it. I do my share. The compromise being I change the majority of the diapers, so he gets to participate too.

What I learned this week

I learned that when faced with an enormous electric bill you suddenly start thinking things like Giant squirt guns are a great idea. And who needs clothes? And sandwiches and salads are a perfect dinner during the summer...every night.

I learned that eventually you will be faced with every bad trait you posses...in the form of your children. On the upside I had no idea I was so funny when being rude and sarcastic. On the downside I have seen enough girls crying to never ever want to do it again myself.

And...

I learned that to get reluctant kids to bath just tell them you are gonna wash the car. Then soap them up while they are out there. There was not one complaint or shrill shriek. Somehow bathing in front of neighbors in 115 degree heat is more fun than doing it in the privacy of your air conditioned bathroom.

Sacrifices of Praise

Hebrews 13:15 (King James Version)

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Our van was broken into this week. It cost us $255 to repair it. Ds5 squeezed my toothpaste out onto the floor in his room, pooped on the trampoline, and peed in my closet. Ds1 bumped into me causing me to spill hot soup on ds4. Nightmares this week have created many sleepless hours every night. Our Electric bill is $300 more this mos than last mos thanks to a new meter. Finally ds4 broke his glasses and we can't see the eye dr for 2 more weeks.

Dear Lord, Heavenly Father,

We praise your name and your merciful goodness. Thank-you lord that it was just the van and not the house that was broken into. Praises that they were not able to steal anything. Thank-you lord for a well paying job and a savings to pay for the repairs. Thank-you dear lord for the blessings of children and their childish ways, for without them my life would be as empty as that tube of toothpaste. Thank-you lord for a steady hand that ds4 was not burned and only a few drops of soup escaped the bowl. We praise your name lord that our nightmares remain only that and nothing more. And we thank you for your word: Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just,  whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. That your word might comfort us. Thank-you father for the gift of knowledge that we might benefit from invention and enjoy comfortable temperatures year round. Father we thank-you for sight that can be fixed with something as simple as 2 pieces of glass. We give thanks for your mercy and kindness and for your protecting hand. Amen

Its easy to praise Him when things go our way. But to do it when things aren't going well, thats a sacrifice.