God always has a way.

Today was a doozy. Well, maybe I should start out with yesterday. We are in the midst of discussing car options. We both drive beater cars, but my van is far more reliable than Cort's car so we're keeping it and trying to decide what to do for Cort. Yesterday morning, I decided we could afford a car payment, so why not just get a newer (used) nice car that could be our family car when the van dies? I decided it would be really nice to drive something that didn't have a list of small repairs to make on it. So it was settled--we'd finance a newer nicer car.

Then today. By 9:40 am, two glasses had been shattered by Matt in two separate incidents. Duke shattered a third after school. All accidents, obviously, but sheesh. I went out to clean out my car and vacuum it, as I do about once a month and saw all of the ink written all over the back seat by someone who penned the name "William" everywhere, and crackers smashed in places I didn't know crackers could be smashed. It was really clear God was telling me, your family is not ready for nice things yet. Keep going with all the old stuff: old dishes, old cars, old couches, old flooring, etc. Your kids are just going to break everything anyway and who wants to be sad when something gets broken? I currently just shrug it off because I own very few things of any value. God always has a way of roping me back to reality, in a good way, when I get a little too ahead of myself.

Also about today...Duke found a baby snake and was hysterical when I threw it back in the bushes. Hysterics (screaming, hitting, pyrotechnics) lasted a good 30 min. Screaming such themes as, "I've never kept a snake before!" When he finally fell asleep tonight, he asked for a snake for Christmas. Tough luck, kid. Santa says NO!


Just as he hit the camera out of my hands for taking a picture of him crying because I wouldn't let him keep the snake.

I also had this great idea of helping the boys set up a candy stand outside our house when the Jr High gets out across the street. It could probably be categorized as a "mom fail". I spent more time chasing my kids away from the candy and soda than them actually selling anything. This led to tantrums because of not being permitted to eat candy, followed by sugar meltdowns from eating too much candy even though mom said no. I'm deciding on who to donate the leftover candy bars and soda to. Our family is clearly not able to handle such abundance in our home, and I really don't ever want to repeat this experience.




Next time, we'll focus our business efforts on services, rather than commodities.

Cortney had a meeting at church tonight and spilled olive oil all over himself right as he was walking out the door. Hopefully it comes out in the wash.

Time for me to just sit in a dark quiet place.