Coffee Anyone?

Wow, you know you are tired when you doze off (and you are in that funny place between sleeping and awake where you THINK you are awake, but you are really not) and you are trying to warm up your coffee in the microwave, by pushing the buttons with a fork of course, only you wake all the way up and realize it is NOT in fact the microwave nor coffee but the laptop in front of you and you are making funny air jabby gestures with your hands, as if pushing microwave buttons, with a fork. I think maybe I need a little extra sleep perhaps. Or maybe just a little extra coffee, heated up in the REAL microwave, not the fork jabbed laptop from my dreams.

Perhaps it is because my kitchen has looked like this for the last month that I do not know where things are and how to make a simple cup of coffee these days:

Maybe a nice shower would wake me up, too, if my shower didn't currently look like this:

As you can see, still not much progress on the house repairs after the winter of misery. The insurance/contractor mess is taking a little longer to sort out than was originally thought (anyone surprised by that??) and they will hopefully start next week. BUT, we do have a nice new roof on the back of our house complete with ice barrier, one working early 80's blue bathtub that comes with rubber duckies and Dora stick up toys, and at least part of a working kitchen so I am not complaining!! Even if I have to go to my dining room and sometimes climb over the kitchen cabinets that are on the floor in there to find dishes or cups, I have a mostly warm home (currently minus some wall sections but whatever) filled with people I love. And, my coffee pot still works, just as long as I actually push the buttons on IT, not the computer, with my fingers.

(But now if I COULD make coffee be dispensed from the laptop, I might be on to something......)

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

What's black and white and red all over?

(besides our family at the beach)

An embarrassed zebra!

A sunburned zebra?

A zebra that works at Target???

Whatever. Just go read The Parable of the Zebra, it is a way better read than my lame jokes.

(oh, and then go clicky click on the Compassion link and sponsor a child, or two!! Some good answers to some good questions about Compassion's work can be found here. And of course, lots of amazing posts about the Kenya trip can be found here.)

The Final Visit!

We have our final post placement visit first thing tomorrow morning-woo hoo! That means it is our last visit with our social worker following our adoption and it also means we have had Thing 4 home almost ONE YEAR already-what?! When did that happen?? Oh and by first thing in the morning I mean FIRST THING-8 o'clock. Oh my. Our super sweet and accommodating social worker is coming then so as to be here when all the kids are here and mom and dad are both home before work and school so they don't all have to miss another day. Except, um, I HATE THE MORNING. Me and morning=ENEMIES. And yes, I am usually up by then (against my will) because I have to pack lunches and say goodbyes to Things 1 and 2 before school. But, I am usually in my jammies, eyes half closed still, and uttering unintelligible words while frantically trying to get my hands on a cold, extremely fizzy diet soda. The fizz MUST be strong-it's all about the burn, people! I gotta wake up somehow! What's that? Coffee? Uh, coffee is my go to for the mid-afternoon slump around 3 o'clock when I have to get through the second half of the day. I also prefer non-breakfast foods for breakfast like lasagna--yup, that's how I roll. (And also apparently I have a caffeine problem it seems) Anyhoo, now I have to get up AND be dressed in real clothes and have the kiddos dressed and ready to seen by the public by 8. Not a good thing for someone whose perfect schedule would be go to bed at 1 a.m. and up at 9 (or 10, whatever) Oh boy, maybe I should just stay awake all night and collapse from exhaustion after she leaves...hmmm, I'm sure that would highlight my responsible mom side, eh? I better go make lunches now and go to bed. And maybe I will just sleep in my clothes...I kid, I kid. (or do I??? I think that is just being efficient.)



ps-check out some AWESOME blog posts from the Compassion blogger tour in Kenya here!!! So amazing-and the pictures of the children are STUNNING! If you want to sponsor a child yourself, click the "go deeper" button on the top side of my blog!

My Heart Burns For Africa

I am love with Africa. I don't even know why sometimes, but I love it. We have friends from several African countries and there is just something about them that is just so wonderful-I love their accents, their beautiful brown skin, their ALWAYS present smiles (why are Africans so smiley?? It is unreal-every one of our African friends is super smiley all the time and often laughing!! Must be in the African air or something) And of course, my 4th daughter was born in Ethiopia so I have an especially deep love for that country and it's people. I long to go back in some capacity and I know God has Africa in our life forever. We are just waiting to see how that will all play out. We also sponsor a sweet boy in Ethiopia through Compassion, an organization I LOVE (have I maybe mentioned that one or a thousand times??) and who is truly doing GREAT things for children in poverty all over the world. Anyway, for the next week I plan to live vicariously through the group of Compassion bloggers who are in Kenya. Care to join me? Click here!!

Amen.

No need to add anything to this post (click it to go read it), it says it all.

Help Haiti Live!!

Help Haiti Live is a concert sponsored by Compassion International. INCREDIBLE musicians for an INCREDIBLE reason!! If you cannot get to the concert in Nashville, you can WATCH ONLINE February 27th (like TODAY people!!)!! For real! Awesome? I think so!!

Winter. Blech.

So, I hate winter. Like LOATHE. I do not make any attempts even to cover up that fact. I DO NOT LIKE to be cold. At all. Ever. So this winter with our 44 inches or whatever the final total of snow is has been particularly nightmarish for me. Well, it just got even more enjoyable last week. Seems when the water all freezes in your gutters and keeps re-freezing and accumulating more water until it is a gigantic solid mass of ice completely encasing your very high-up and impossible to reach gutters, it creates what is called an ice dam. This makes it impossible for any water that is coming off the roof from the 837 inches of snow melting to go into the gutter. But alas, gravity says that water has to go somewhere. Also, water that blows up under your shingles when you have winds in excess of 55 mph and freezes seems to lift them up and damage seals around roof vents as well. (Are you seeing where this is going??) And what started out as "um, honey, this window is dripping" has now become a new half of a roof put on our home, industrial drying equipment blowing in our house for the last week straight (mmm, extra industrial drafty, so nice in the winter), holes cut in walls to get out wet insulation and allow the blowers to get air in there to dry out the walls, baseboards and window trim removed, a shower being torn out, counter tops set to be torn out, and possibly some cabinets and more insulation/walls torn out too in the kitchen and the kids' bedroom. In February. When it is cold. And, as noted, I am not a fan of cold. I am also not a fan of having my house torn up and cut into pieces, while chasing around 4 kids, a cat, a dog, and an ever changing number of rodents. (btw, Snowy was found yesterday, flattened and stuck, yes, actually stuck, to a wall behind a book shelf-my life is so special right now. Disgusting.) I am however a fan of our homeowners insurance and their awesome helpfulness and also a fan of getting to replace my hideous brown 1979 shower and equally hideous fake butcher block laminate counter tops with shiny new ones. A silver lining after all!! (I have wanted to replace those suckers for years so thanks, Ice! But now please go away. Forever. Thank you. And we could have done without all the drama too, Water. Jeez.)

But I STILL hate winter. Blech.

PS-and our local high school had the whole gym end of it collapse b/c of snow and ice, very very scary-winter is not any good at all. NONE.