Pixiemom

The clean-up here in the neighborhood really helped me get out of the mood I was in a little bit ago. VBS helped, of course, with the worship of God and the fact that I was doing my favorite thing every night… singing, dancing, and teaching kids songs and dances. The thing that helped me the most was going around and talking to so many different people in the neighborhood and how we all worked together to get the mess cleaned up. It really brightened up my spirit.

This week, I am still doing well. I met the lady who lives at the end of our block. She is 3 doors down from us and has two girls… a 2 yr old and a baby. My kids have already fallen in love with the 2 yr old and love playing with her. I think she loves the attention my big kids give her.

ALSO, my best friend from St Louis is coming up to visit!! Woohoo! She is coming tonight and staying until Sunday. THEN, my best friend from where we lived in mid-Illinois is coming up next week. I’m so excited! You know what? I love having a place where I can tell people that they are welcome to come visit anytime that we are here.

Another thing that is happening next week is Google’s family picnic. It will be nice to meet some of Jeremy’s co-workers and family members.

So, if I don’t post for a while, you know that I am busy. (I have started school up a bit too, so we are getting back into that routine as well.)

Well, ok, I have friends, but you all are out there and I don’t know anybody who lives nearby. I’m feeling extremely lonely right now. I miss my friends from where we used to live in mid-Illinois. I miss my friends from St Louis. I’m really missing my sister a lot. I haven’t really seen her much since Christmas when we were at her house. I had looked forward so much to seeing her at the family reunion back in June, but those spots on my kids prevented that back then. I saw her for about half an hour at Grandpa’s house before they had to get on their way. I was thinking that we might see her for a small time this next month because Jeremy and I had planned on going to St Louis for our anniversary, but we won’t be able to do that now. I was also hoping to be able to go down there in September after the baby is born to help her out a little and to see my new little nephew, but we just can’t afford it.

What I really need is a time to sit with some friends somewhere and talk a bit. Then, put all of it away from me and just have a crazy de-stressing time. It’s not coming soon. I just don’t really connect with anyone up here. I have some good neighbors and people I know at church, but it’s not the same.

Today, I’m just sad and feeling worn-out and like a failure at everything. What is my purpose up here? Where do I fit in? What is my ministry?

I’m not sure this post will stay up. I just had to get it out. It may get pulled after a bit.

I think I have the post vacation blahs. I’ve had a hard time since coming back up here.

It may change soon. I have something that may potentially be a comforting thing for me to do sometimes, plus it will help me with figuring out songs for the church’s Children’s Choir. I’ll let you all know when I’ve got more details (and maybe pictures too, if all goes well.)

I got a Shelfari account and started putting books on there that I have read and loved. I realized how broad my reading is. I like such a variety of authors, from Terry Pratchett to Dee Henderson to Louisa May Alcott. Terry Pratchett’s humorous fantasy series of Discworld is my choice when I need a good pick-me-up and a laugh. I like other fantasy as well. Elves, dragons, and such are so fun to imagine about. A few other authors of these that I enjoy are Terry Brooks and the Christian author, Donita K. Paul. Dee Henderson’s Christian suspense thrillers and other various authors in murder mysteries are great for when I want to think. Louisa May Alcott and L.M. Montgomery are for when I want to read old-fashioned stories. I also like some of the Christian romance authors, like Janette Oke, for when I want a simple love story with no graphic physical encounters (if you know what I mean.) I like the way her books focus on loving who the person is more than what they look like and that is what I look for in a Christian romance novel. If you know of an author who writes like that, let me know, I don’t have enough of those for when I get in a sappy mood. I tried science fiction, but it was incomprehensible to me. I just didn’t understand it nor enjoy it much. I tried a few different books and one of the sci-fi mysteries, The Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov was kind of interesting, but still wasn’t enough to make me want to read more.

Anyway, if you have any new author suggestions for me, I would love to try them out.

Sarah got up here around 11 am. She helped me out with the kids’ school and lunch. James had tried destroying his homework page to get out of doing his math, but ended up grounded and with much more work to do which I wrote up myself. He stayed home with Jeremy, who was working from home yesterday. After lunch, the two of us took all four girls out to the Nature Center. They really enjoyed watching the turtles because one was actually moving all around its enclosure. If you were next to it’s space and talked, it turned it’s head toward you. Noelle loved that. She made up stories about how it was listening to us and what it was thinking. Once they were done indoors, we took a small half mile hike out to the pond. Christine doesn’t know how to be quiet, so as we got close to the pond, Sarah and I noticed that all the frogs we’d been hearing suddenly got quiet. Later, after we got back away from there, we heard them start back up. They just couldn’t compete with my girls. The hike ends at a few cages that sometimes hold injured animals. Only one of the cages had an animal, a red hawk. The sign said that it was badly injured and can’t be released back into the wild as it wouldn’t be able to catch it’s food, so it is there for life. It is beautiful.

After we were done with the Center, we headed to JoAnn’s Fabric Store to look for some patterns and material. Sarah had a few skirt patterns she is hoping to try and make and I was looking for something for my sister’s baby. She found some pretty material, but it was a bit too expensive for her. I found what I was looking for and can’t wait to start… but I will wait because we are leaving tomorrow to go down to my parents’ house in NC. Anyway, the girls enjoyed looking through the pattern books and asking if I would make them this or if I could make them that. They all want me to make them nightgowns with the nice soft satiny-ish material for summer. We’ll see.

After a quick dinner, we headed to church. We didn’t have adult choir practice last night, so I went and taught the Children’s choir during that time instead and was able to join in with the adults for Bible study later. I haven’t been up there for Adult Bible Study on Wednesday since the beginning of the year and it was a nice change.

After church, I dropped the kids off and Sarah and I went out to a restaurant and shared a chocolate dessert and just talked. It was great. On the way there, who should call, but my friend Michelle! She and Sarah got to meet a while back when I took Sarah to St. Louis and they got along really well, so they are hoping to both get up here at the same time before the end of August (and Sarah heads off to college.) Between the two of them, I got really giggly. It was awesome.

One of my best friends, Sarah, is coming up today and staying the night. She’ll be going to church with us tonight and then she and I are going out for a talking and chocolate time afterwards. I wish my other best friend, Michelle, could come up here sometime too. I don’t think I’ve told her yet that we have our bed couch up here now, so she can come visit when she’s able. I need to tell her. I would love to really have some time with her too. It’s been too long.

Hi, it’s me. I’m living here alone until this house gets packed and cleaned up. James is with my parents in NC and the girls have gone to Jeremy’s parents house. I have some friends that are coming over to help me and keep me company, which is really nice.

Ok, I’m on a break from caffiene again. I allow myself a cup of coffee every once in a while or a cup of Dr. Pepper when we’re out, but for the last week, I’ve had hardly any. I picked up some caffiene free Dr. Pepper last Friday because I was feeling too dependent on the caffiene and drinking too many Dr. Peppers. On Saturday, I had one regular Dr. Pepper (have some around because Jeremy drinks them) and then I haven’t had any more until today when I drank a cup of caramel kiss coffee. (yummmmy!) I have also cut back on my soda consumption. I decided to stick with only 1 soda a day. The same day that I bought the c-f Dr P, I bought some bottles of water. Our store has Spring! natural spring water on sale for $1 for 6 bottles. I bought 2 packs. While I’m at home, I have my bottle of water and I carry it around with me. I find it easier to carry around than a cup, especially since usually my cups get knocked over and spilled with all these kids around here . (Where did they come from? *laugh* Just kidding.) We got a filter for our kitchen sink cold water and so I re-fill my bottle over and over at home from that water. If I lose my bottle or it gets thrown away while the kids are doing chores, than I can easily grab another bottle from the pack. It’s tastes good and I feel like I get my $1 worth out of the whole pack. Also, if we go anywhere, I can grab a bottle or two and not worry about having to save them. Anyway, I’m going to try and stick to this a bit longer this time.

from a good friend here in town. Daisies! They’re so pretty and cheery. She’s so sweet!

I got a small digital camera that can fit into my purse. I don’t want to rely on my phone camera when we’re out and about. It’s a Canon PowerShot A550 with 4x optical zoom and 7.1 mega pixels. I hooked it up to my TV, so the kids could see the pictures I’d taken at James’s drama play on Saturday (oh, wait, I forgot to post about that… pictures coming soon, maybe later today) and we checked out how big the picture could get on the TV without getting too pixellated. It was pretty good and I’m satisfied for now. Someday, I’ll be able to afford the Canon Rebel, but until then I’ll stick with this one for whenever shots and my film camera for the nice shots.

Oh, speaking of my film camera. This last roll of film has not a single photo of any of my children on it. It was dedicated to other things. I’ve used the last 10 or so shots on it to keep track of a flower growing in a pot on my window sill. I have 1 photo left on that roll of film and the flower should bloom anytime, so I’m saving it for that.