tamara b

So, I’ve neglected blogging, I know. It’s been busy; crazy actually. Wednesday is a huge deadline for me to get contracts signed at work so I’ve been there longer hours which is normal but considering that I’m also preparing to bring a child home, I could use some time at home too. I also haven’t posted much because I like to break up the text with pictures and until this weekend, my camera had been in hiding and on vacation. Friday night after the fish fry, Ryan hung out with the guys to watch the UNI guys in the basketball tournament. I took the kids home for some snuggle time. We watched a movie in my bed and S&B were snuggled up together which was cute but my pictures were less than cute. They were in bed by 845 and I was asleep by 9 which was lovely. Now, apparently I’ve trained my body to function on 6 hours of sleep so by 3am on Saturday I was wide awake for two hours. So much for sleeping in.

Note: this is a little lengthy, you might wanna grab a cup of coffee or read it in two parts.

My house is chaos. My dining room has become a sewing room and needs to be organized and picked up. No, it needs to become a dining room again by time we bring our son home. Before that though, I have some flannel blankets to whip up quick (much quicker than the journey bags I’ve yet to finish) for the kids’ easter baskets. The floor of my walk-in closet has disappeared and the closet is shrinking as things get piled in there. The kids’ rooms are under re-organization/construction. Over the weekend, we turned Scott’s room into a room for the two boys. That meant kicking Bethany out of Scott’s room and into her own. In Scott’s room, we went from two twin beds back to bunk beds where the bottom bunk was manipulated to fit a queen size mattress. It looks kinda like a dorm bunk. We bought some storage things and put those together to help with clothes and toys for the two boys. In Bethany’s room, the crib was taken apart and the base of it which was drawers is now the base of her big girl bed. She’s been in a twin bed for a long time but now the mattress is in her room with a different frame so its all new to her. The asian beetles that invade us every spring and fall are hiding in the window sills and will soon be removed when I finish cleaning. Crib parts will go the attic along with some other baby items that I’ve held onto. B3’s clothes need to be moved from Bethany’s room to his room. Both of the kids rooms need to be fine-tuned with cleaning and organization.

In the midst of the chaos upstairs yesterday, I had to run my in-laws truck back to their house. While there, I needed to stop at wallyworld to pick up a few things I’d missed the day before after having lost my shopping list. To say I was in a hurry and acting impatient was an understatement. Waiting at the fabric counter, I even decided to help myself. I had bought the same fabric the day before and watched the lady scan it, plug in the yardage, and print out a label. It couldn’t be that hard right? So I scanned and cut the first yard of fabric. While folding it up, an employee walked by and let me know that she’d be right back. I waited for her to come back, but not long. Being naughty, I finished cutting what I had started and she walked up just as I was finishing. She was, rightfully so, not happy. Now, I’m not trying to justify myself completely, but I did wait twice. They didn’t have anyone nearby in the store. I knew what I was doing. The part of me that shows that I need work, is that I was in a hurry and didn’t want to wait. Bad me. I’m sorry Wallyworld lady that I royally ticked off. I should have waited longer for you to come back. In fact, I should have searched for you the first time and not started at all. One suggestion though, maybe have a little bell ringer or some way that a customer could try to get the attention of an employee would be helpful so momma’s on a mission can receive help quicker. Yes, I’m admitting that I’m not perfect!

Speaking of my lack of perfection and things I’m working on, the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking through 3 different verses, one at a time. Each verse needs to change my life, I need to own it. These are not verses that I’ve come up with as a self-help type of thing. Each verse has come out differently. For example, one verse is something that my friend encouraged me with, one is a verse that my small group encouraged each other to memorize. All 3 have been good for my life right now and verses that continually need to impact my life.
The first verse is from James (chapter 1 I think) where Paul is saying that we should be slow to speak and quick to listen. When I stop and really consider that, I realize how quick I am to speak. And how worthless the words are that come out of my mouth. I certainly haven’t perfected this one yet and have a long way to go. I’ve found myself lots of times realizing after the fact that I wasn’t slow to speak and quick to listen. It’s a process for me.
The second verse is in Proverbs (19:13) where it refers to a nagging wife like a dripping faucet. This verse came to mind one morning while praying for my husband. The dripping was ANNOYING. I so don’t want to be like that annoying faucet. And besides annoying, the dripping is wasteful. I don’t want the words out of my mouth to be wasteful.
The third verse is Ephesians 4:29 which says “do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen”. Man, if you break that verse down, there’s a ton of stuff in there. But the way I’ve simplified it in my mind is “no unwholesome talk, only what builds others up”. Wow, do I also have a long way to go on this. I’m realizing that even fun little jokes, aren’t useful for building others up.

So basically, it’s a process all across the board. The house is a process and things are coming together for #3 to come home. I’m in the process of doing a better job at bearing the image of Christ. The weather is a process too and it won’t be long before I get the garden planted and begin fighting weeds!