i Ascribe

well, i wrote that last post after being with the kids for one 12 hour day. i went back on monday for what turned out to be a 16 hour day with the older child home from school for a 9-day thanksgiving break (is this normal?). a note to all mothers, dads, and grannies: before this week, what i am about to say was still under the category of hypothesis in my mind. now it is a proven fact. for a babysitter, the older sibling of tiny children is NOT a help . the only possible exception to this rule is if the tiny child is actually an infant. this exception depends on the age and maturity of the older child. that said, at the end of monday, i really didn't ever want to go back again. tuesday morning, i did some deep prayerful thinking about choosing battles, motivations of defiant three-year-old behavior, etc. tuesday was more successful. today was a little better still. i think i'm learning some things by trial and error - and i have reconciled myself to my reality that s

yesterday, i arrived at the neighbor's house at 4:30 a.m. to find everyone wide awake, including my charge, the three year old twins. the twins didn't seem to notice that i was a complete stranger and were pretty comfortable. i was pretty nervous going into it. i wouldn't have realized just how nervous i was except that i barely slept the night before. i think that it's the weight of knowing that these kids need their mother, and i'm not her. . . and wanting to minister to their lives as much as possible without overstepping any bounds, but not really knowing exactly what those bounds are . . . and again knowing the weight of the giant need that must exist in the lives of three year olds who have no mother. it went pretty well all in all. my mind was constantly taking in information, working over time to figure out all i could about these kids and - well just everything. a few things i learned : * because of the move i think, there's almost nothing for the k

i like God. i really do. He's very romantic. He's always looking for ways to do the very best thing for me. i recently had a little personal break-down about my desire to affect other peoples' lives for the better and not wanting to waste my time on earth - so to speak. today i got the opportunity to affect peoples' lives. some weeks ago, a family moved into the house closest to us, so a couple weeks after they moved in, we went over one afternoon and brought a plate of cookies and introduced ourselves. (i really like domestic neighborly things like bringing your neighbor a plate of cookies and stuff like that.) it turns out there are two houses on that property. we visited the house where "mimi" lives. mimi is the mother-in-law of the dad of the family who lives in the other house with his children. mom died about a year ago. today, the dad stopped by with the two kids i didn't get to meet before. they're three, and their babysitter disappear

This evening, i spent used up some time following some online ads that promised to tell me which celebrities were my look-a-like. Sounds entertaining, right? Well, some of the pictures i uploaded wouldn't work. Others produced very unexpected results. Have you ever looked at me and thought, "she reminds me of someone?" Well, if it has been bothering you, maybe it's Annette Bening. One of the hints on one of the web sites suggested using different photos to see if the same person comes up several times. This could confirm your results. I did this quite a few times. My data from these experiments on two different programs confirms that i look just like Oprah Winfrey, Annette Bening, and ..oh yes, Winston Churchill. Who knew? Get the Facedouble Widgetbox widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox !

when i hear the media, etc., talk about the dangers of global warming, the very first thing that comes to mind is a time when i was probably around ten. and some publication (or maybe it was our text book) we were reading in school alerted our young minds to the "fact" that our planet was headed for another ice age, worse than the first.   a couple of months ago, my husband and i purchased a copy of the 2009  Old Farmer's Almanac, and inside i found an article that helped put all of these fears of climate change into perspective.  did you know, for instance, that way back in the 1930's, "scientists," were concerned about global warming, while in 1923 the media was warning readers of the coming ice age?  the concern about global warming and the melting glaciers continued through to the end of the 50's, but suddenly in 1960 the earth was cooling again.  then in 1970, the media once again warned of the coming ice age.  the people were so convinced, in fact

I really hope i'm wrong. I can't stop feeling like we should all be in mourning. Yesterday, i just kept asking God to have mercy on us. Last night, James and i watched in horror as the electoral votes added up on the side that we feel sure will mean big and horrible changes for the history of the United States, the nation that we love. When the outcome became obvious, we changed the channel and watched something meaningless, trying to forget for a few minutes the historical time we are in. Like i said, i really hope i'm wrong. God, my Father, please have mercy on our nation. Please grant the favor of revelation and the mercy of repentance on this land and on Your people. My heart is in quiet mourning today. I find peace in knowing that my God is in control. No matter what happens in our nation, in our land, God is my Father, and He is in control. I already see God's hand working in that i am compelled to pray, to cry out for mercy for the American people. The scrip

Here he is. We're officially kitten havers. Stanley, a 6-8 week old tuxedo kitten, came to live with us today. He's a very astute kitten with great personality and proper manners. He has inordinantly long whiskers, disproportionately large ears, and two black freckles just above his nostrils. Sadly, Stanley also has the runs. So Stanley's in the bathroom tonight, and i don't think he's very happy. I'm praying he'll feel better in the morning, so we don't have to lock him in the bathroom anymore. He really doesn't like it in there. I heard about Stanley yesterday, from a freecycler (freecycle is a yahoo message board network wherein people can give their unwanted but still usable belongings away for free instead of sending them to the dump, or in this case, the pound). I had to convince the lady who found him that i would be a good and loving pet owner. I managed to do that by email, but today when she brought Stanley over to my house, she als