What do May flowers bring?

Surely you've heard that old joke.

Q: "If April showers
bring May flowers,
what do May flowers bring?"

A: "May flowers bring Pilgrims."

Hey....I don't know
if you know it or not.....

but it's May.

It's actually getting
to the end of May.

And you know what happens next?
June.
Do you know what this means?
Are you following the pattern?
April....May....June.....
We're talking about summer here, people.
And I feel like I have missed something somewhere.
Didn't we just have summer?
Didn't it just finally get too cold to go swimming
and I had to dig out the jeans and sweatshirts?

For our family, this past year has been
a messed up year.
In some ways it seems like lifetimes have passed
since last summer, but at the same time, it's like I've just
gotten back from SOMEWHERE
(oh, please, let's not go back there again...
where ever it was we spent this past winter and spring)
and stepped right back into these nice, warm days of happiness.
The only thing that's different is that
we now have Baby J in tow.
Well, that's not the only thing different...


So tomorrow, Dear Reader, might be the end of The Big Stink. We got a call on Friday telling us that The Big Stink will end on Monday. We have been excited about it, but we're not going to really believe it until something is in our hands (like an air freshener).
Tomorrow might be a red letter day.
That will be so great.
One can only take so much stench, you know.
I'll let you know.
You'll probably be able to tell, even just reading
my future post, whether or not I smell better.


In the mean time,
take a look at this picture and guess who said,
"Mama! Take a picture of me holding Baby J!"

Random Thoughts

My microwave has two settings for two different sizes of pop corn bags. Both settings burn the pop corn. (sigh) Last night I finally figured out that taking it out with 20 seconds left on the clock has the pop corn in perfect condition. Burned pop corn is not one of my favorite things.

I have decided once again that I love Ireland and would like to go there. Now, how can I do that without either flying across or sailing over the ocean blue? Listened to an interview on NPR with some Irish novelist and was so enchanted with his accent. This is why I love Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Do you know that Bend It Like Beckham is the only movie that I ever bought without watching it first?

I'm hearing more NPR now because the radio in Baby J's room won't pick up Moody in the summer. Or BBN ever. So I hear snippets of NPR throughout the day when I am nursing the baby. Wish I remembered to turn it on every day at noon to hear Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac.

If I am ever in a coma,
please play recordings of Garrison Keillor's voice
for me. Or someone with an Irish accent
--or have Jonathan Rhys Meyers come visit me.
(That would probably bring me out of the coma.)

How old is Dolly Parton? I like Dolly Parton as much at the next person (as long as the next person is not some huge fan of hers), but what's wrong with admitting that the woman is old? It's not an insult. It's a fact. I saw her yesterday (on TV, not here at the homestead) and it was the eyes that gave it away. You can cover a lot with wigs and make up and plastic surgery and distractingly large anatomy, but you can't hide those old watery eyes.

Yes, it was me who put a Celine Dion
song on the juke box. No one had a gun
to my head. I just couldn't find
John Lennon singing it and it
didn't sound as good
to have Richard Dreyfuss signing it for us.

Amendment to previous random thought:
Now that I have had time to think about it.....I have bought one other movie without having seen it first. (But Bend It Like Beckham was the first.) The other one was one of those kids movies....like the one where Chris Rock does the voice of some animal and they end up on an island. I think Ross from Friends does a voice too. Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, we watched it one time and promptly put it in the "movies to get rid of" pile. We don't like a lot of the humor presented to children today. Inappropriate.

When you want to get rid of a movie
because you don't think it's inappropriate
for your children, what do you do with it?
Do you give it to someone else who doesn't
find it offensive? Do you throw
it away? Do you give it to Goodwill?
What do you do?

We have such a pile of yard sale stuff in the hall from
cleaning out the boys' bedroom. Makes me tired just to
look at it. Makes me really tired to think of
actually having the yard sale.

Everything has been so lovely lately.
The weather. The family. Everything.
Or maybe I am seeing with new eyes.
Whatever the difference....I am enjoying it.
I have so much to be thankful for.

Today In History (or actually yesterday)

This was the family on December 20th, 2009. I don't know if you can tell it from just looking at my face in this picture, but OH MY WORD!!!! I had been in and out of the hospital so many times in the month leading up to that. I was on bed rest (can't you tell? the way I'm laying on the bed in that first picture?) and I was on my way to church for a Christmas service. Of course.....this was also the day that Lloyd Dobbler took the little blood pressure thing to church with him and checked my BP during the singing.....and then promptly made me go home and lay down. And I did go home and lay down. Later that day, I was back at the hospital. I had pushed my luck far enough. They admitted me and we were going to have a baby the next morning.

Can you tell I'm pregnant in that hospital bed picture? Does the hospital gown make me look fat? I would like to carry around this picture with me everywhere so that people will see I am indeed smaller than I was a few months ago.

So the next day....December 21,2009....the day that Baby J floated in on a cloud to join the rest of us. What a day that was. All that child had to do was be born, but no. He couldn't just wait his turn on the elevator and step out the door and into the first day of the rest of his life. No. He got bored and started playing around....turned himself upside down and tied a knot in the cord. (I know. I should have been prepared to deal with a bored child---should know this after 3 kids--should have brought along crayons and paper for him.) So we ended up having drama and shouting medical personnel and a speedy trip down the hospital corridors for an emergency C-section.
This was the first of my children that I didn't see in the first few moments of his life. He was several hours old when we had our formal introductions:

And I don't remember it.
(drugs)
Glad I have a picture.

So I say all that to say this:
Five months ago Baby J was born.
What a joy and blessing that child has been already in
this brief time. So much has happened in the first
few months of this child's life. It's been crazy.
But it's getting better.
(There's even an end in sight to The Big Stink.)






Happy five months,
Baby J!

My beautiful, beautiful boy.

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickles at Publix

I wish I had taken a picture
of Sweet T tonight as I
was fixing supper
(and I'm sure he does too
because that child always
wants his picture taken
--so if it ever seems like
there are more pictures of
him than others,
it's because every time he does anything,

he says, "Mom, take my picture doing this.").

That child was burning up energy right before my eyes.

I just let him go because it wasn't hurting anything
and it was amusing Baby J who was the center of

the whirling activity. Sweet T had the paper airplane that
his great uncle had mailed to him a while back and he was
flying that thing all over the kitchen with the constant
commentary of the grandeur of its flight.
That plane would loop around the light fixtures and skim
the baby in his bouncy seat. It landed out of reach
a couple of times. It only went into the sink once and
it artfully avoided the food and the hot cook top
(which would have caused it to be grounded).

But it was Sweet T who was going 90mph.
Climbing, running, throwing, jumping up and down,
rolling on the floor. Never pausing from his chatter
for a single second. While I was standing there cooking
and watching him, I thought of how often people will
see an active young child and comment that they wish they
had the child's energy. Well, I was having
exactly the opposite wish.
I do not want to have that much energy.
I think in an adult, that much energy might
land you in a padded room.

Although if I had that much energy and applied it
to cleaning and organizing my house and that sort of thing,
it might be a good thing.

So, I know the burning question on your lips, Dear Reader.
I can hear what you were thinking.
"What, oh what, dear Bell,
were you fixing for supper?!?!?"

Well....since you asked....

Tonight was one of those most simple and basic meals
that we love. Tuesday nights are usually messed up for us
in one way or another. Doesn't seem to matter what season
it is. It's always Tuesday that takes the first hit.
Is it this way in your schedule?
Well, right now, Tuesdays have Big E and Lloyd Dobbler
at baseball practice (when we don't have a game)
from 4:00 until 6:00 and then they have Cub Scouts
from 6:00 until 7:00. So I don't make any
great meals on Tuesday evenings.
Tonight I made pesto pasta and carrots.
So basic, but so good.
We love it.


I was thinking tonight that I am so glad my children
do love pesto sauce on pasta.
It's a cheap, easy, fast meal.

(And I thought as I was eating my portion
that I can serve that to Big E's little friend
who comes from the vegetarian family.)

This morning Lovely K and Baby J and I went to
College Town. We nosed around in Target for a while
and then we went to Publix.
I love Publix.
Lots of people love Publix.
Publix is lovable.

I'm not going to get into a whole play by play commentary on my savings there today. I just wanted to tell you about my pickle purchase. It was great. They had these Vlasic pickles on sale, buy one get one free. So I was going to get some anyway because, hello? Have you met my daughter? If not, make sure you have some pickles on you when you meet her. Because she's going to want some. She always wants pickles.
So when I get to the pickles in Publix, there were these little coupons hanging off some of the jars for a dollar off of any one Vlasic pickle product. So I got such a good deal. It was already buy one, get one free for $2.89. Then I got to use a $1 coupon on each jar of pickles.....so I basically paid 45 cents for each jar of pickles! Wasn't that a great deal?

I was pickled tink.

Boys As Pests

I love quotes. I have notebooks full of quotes that
I have copied down through the years. I have pretty little fabric-covered journals where I collected my favorite quotes when I was younger. I have been known to sit down and read through a book of quotations. Like Barlett's. This is probably just because I love beautiful language and words and lovely communication. But I love them. You can find such lovely little nuggets of wisdom and humor.
I was skimming through a new blog (new to me)
today and found this quote:

Daughters are like flowers:
they fill the world with beauty
and sometimes attract pests.
Unknown

Oh, I love that.
Isn't that great?

I feel like this whole other world will be opening soon
with my daughter. My family members love to point out
to me whenever she is talking to members of the opposite
sex in public. My younger brother doesn't
like it---wants me to go over and stop it any time
he sees her speaking to a boy.

Come on. The child is ten.
And let's face it---she's still a tomboy.
And she has always been the type of girl who would
rather play with boys than girls. She thinks girls
are boring. Especially now that girls her age are getting
to where they want to stand around and just talk and
look at each other's clothes and nails and hair.
She'd rather rough house with the boys and play
practical jokes and goof around.

I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
I have never related to typical females all that well.
I have this theory about it being because I have
only brothers, no sisters.
And my daughter, bless her heart, has only brothers.
Three of them.
Is she going to be like me in this matter?
I'm always more comfortable striking up a conversation
with a male than a female. Men are so much easier to
deal with. I don't go for the drama and competition
and judgment that comes with many women.

But the "pest" part of that quote---I had a glimpse
of that this week. There's been this one boy at the
ball park....he would fall under the pest heading.
He has a sibling on the same team as Big E so he's often
at the ballgames. It wasn't until the last two games
that I realized they were forming a "friendship" and that
was about the same time I realized that he wasn't exactly
someone I wanted my daughter forming a "friendship" with.
There's obviously nothing to this.
I mean, the ball season will be over soon
and we may never see this child again.
But I felt like it gave me a glimpse into the future.

What if the type of bee
that comes buzzing around my little flower
is a pest?
This is one mother who will be
spraying that critter down
with something poisonous, I can assure you.

And this makes me wonder
what my parents thought about some of the boys
that I brought around.
Let's not go there.

Weekend Review

Hello Dear Readers.
I hope you had a good weekend. It's been raining a lot of the day here and I have to say.....I love it.
You are not surprised, I know.
But I love the rain.
I just do.

Friday night Lloyd Dobbler and Big E went camping with the Cub Scout (or as Sweet T calls them, the Scub Couts). Lovely K spent the night with my parents. So it was just me and the little boys that night. We had a nice quiet night at home. Sweet T had a Happy Meal and I was happy to pick up a meal from Captain D's and Baby J had nice warm milk. I stayed up way too late as I always do when Lloyd Dobbler is not home. Do you know that at a certain point in the wee small hours of the morning you really can't watch anything other than an infomercial? And if it's not showing me funny clips from the Dean Martin show,
I don't want to see an infomercial.

Saturday morning I cleaned house like a fiend. It seemed so much easier to get things done without as many people in the house. I also rearranged the living room (with my mom stopping by just in time to help me move the furniture that I couldn't move alone). It's so nice to have a fresh look from time to time. This is really how you can gauge how often I do a MAJOR cleaning of the wood floors like I did on Saturday. If the furniture is rearranged, then I have probably just cleaned the floor. Or else it's time to set up the Christmas tree.

Saturday evening provided me with the biggest scare I have had in a long time. Baby J took a dive from his bouncy seat on the kitchen table and landed on our tile floor in the kitchen. I can't even say that without feeling the terrified chill I felt when I went over to pick up that screaming baby, just expecting blood and smashed face or something. But he was okay. It's hard to believe it, but he is fine. He isn't bruised or marked or anything like that. We talked to our doctor and he told us things to look for, but he has seemed fine. I just thank God for protecting that baby. I know you mothers know the overwhelming emotions that go along with that. I just don't want to talk about it at all. It was awful. I can't stand for something to happen to my babies.

I didn't do anything last night in preparation of lunch today. I was rattled by the activity I just told you about. So this morning I was standing in the kitchen wondering what to slap together for our lunch when my mother called. She had made a strawberry cake and would go by the Colonel's and get some chicken if I would make some mashed potatoes to go with them and they'd come over for lunch (her house is all torn apart for some painting right now). This sounded like a great idea to me. So actually I made the mashed potatoes, green beans, and some maple sweet potatoes. They came over after church with the chicken and the great cake
and we had a nice lunch together.

Lloyd Dobbler was talking about something the other day and in the course of what he was saying he made some statement about his father and my father being "almost seventy." Now, neither one of them is seventy yet, but if they stand on their tip toes, I think they can see it from where they are. I lost the rest of what he said because I just stood there thinking about that. Seventy seems like much too old of an age for my father to be. I mean, it's one thing to be in your sixties......but seventy.....it's just a different level.
As I say this, I realize that this is just a matter of perspective. It's all relative to what age you are. If you are the age of my father, you probably think that seventy sounds younger now than it ever did to you before. And I understand that. I have a whole different view of fifty now. I have friends, my friends not my parents friends, who are approaching fifty. I find this amazing. Later this year my own Lloyd Dobbler is going to turn forty. I am going to be married to a forty year old man. And we walk around thinking of ourselves as being in our mid-twenties and newly married.
Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin'
into the future.

In other news: After proclaiming my love for these granola bars the other day, I found them on major sale at Publix and happily bought two boxes. I wonder if I mention another item that I love if I will then find it on major sale too. The magical powers of the blog! Or....not....

As I am typing this, I am listening to the juke box
(upper right corner--so sweetly supplied
for your listening pleasure),
and the Carly Simon Anticipation song was just playing.
I love at the end of the song when she says:
"These are the good old days."
That's such a good thing to remind yourself
of sometimes. I was reminding a friend of mine
that the other day. Things may
seem crazy. You may be in a big stink. You may be busy and
tired and stressed and burdened. But there are good things
about these days too. There are new mercies every morning.
There is always a reason to smile, always something
to laugh about. You just have to find it.
Don't be overcome by evil;
overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21
"These are the good old days."

More on that anticipation later.

I'd like to define a word for you today.
In case you were just sitting there thinking to yourself
that what you don't see enough of in blogs is
word definition.

Anticipation. /ænˌtɪsəˈpeɪʃən/ Show Spelled[an-tis-uh-pey-shuhn]

Realization in advance; foretaste.

Expectation or hope.

And now I will use it in a sentence.

Bell is full of anticipation.

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart:
wait, I say, on the LORD.
Psalm 27:14

Who said that?

I was 32
when I started cooking.

Up until then, I just ate.


Julia Child

School of Hard Knocks

This past Sunday, Mother's Day, my mom
pointed out to me that it was last year on Mother's Day
that we broke the news that I was pregnant again.
As I thought about that, about this past year of my life,
I was amazed at all that has happened, all that we have
been through since then. I wouldn't want to go through
this past year again for anything.
But at the same time, there has been such joy.
We have known difficulties and problems,
and we have been blessed.
I have not liked the hard stuff. I don't like it
right now at this very moment. But I do see good in it.
I do see God working stuff together to our benefit.
I do get glimpses of a greater plan.

There have been many times I have pondered that
simple instruction "Count it all joy when you
fall into various kinds of trials."
Count it all joy?
I still don't know that I have a grasp on that.
I am certainly not going to say,
"Here are the lessons
that God has been teaching us
and we have learned them well."
I'm not sure what lessons God has been trying to teach us,
if we have learned them, or if He is just getting started.
I don't know. But tonight we were saying that even if
every single problem got solved tomorrow and we were
suddenly living the most wonderfully perfect life, we don't
want to lose sight of the things we are seeing now. We don't
want to forget the lessons we are learning or the
perspective we have from this low point.

I've also been thinking about my ability to share things.
It amazes me sometimes how some people can just tell you
what they feel about things, and they just know.
They can just identify it
and put a name on it and there you go.
I can't do that.
I don't know if it's because I grew up in a family where we
didn't really talk about feelings or if it's because I'm the type
of person whose emotions seem to change like waves in the
ocean. Sometimes I will have these lightening bolt moments
where I identify something and it really does amaze me.
This must seem absurd. But it will happen, I will see something clearly--
for example: "Hey, I'm jealous! That's what this is all about."
And then I'm so proud of myself for recognizing that.
It's a rare occasion, I assure you.
But then for me to share stuff with people....I can do it
on a certain level, yes, but not deeper things.
And this has been apparent to me in this past year
when things have been rough.
I have a hard time saying that I need help in some ways.
I have a hard time admitting that I'm struggling,
that I need prayer and guidance. I can admit it to God
(sometimes I think these desperate pleas for help are all
He ever hears from me), but not to other people.
Even those close to me.
And yet here I am telling my Dear Reader.
I don't know if this even makes sense to you.....
Or what point I am trying to make.
Maybe this is just one of those
"emptying the contents of my head" kind of posts.
I'm just so full of thoughts and hopes
and apprehensions tonight.
Am I on the verge of something great or more hard stuff?
Harder stuff than ever before even. I hope not.
And I hope that we won't continue to just be suspended in air.
It's like someone who has had to carefully balance
a fragile object for a long time.
My arms are tired.
My aching muscles are beginning to shake.
Something is going to have to happen.

And yet...every time I get that way....I remember that
underneath me and my tired arms are The Everlasting Arms
.....and a Love that will not let me go.
So whatever happens....it's going to be okay.
God is in control.
Do I trust Him?

Yes.
I do.

I am Fred McMurray

Ugh.
I think I had a bit of food poisoning last night.
Remind me never to eat food off the side of the road again.
No---I didn't do that! Of course not.
But I felt like I'd eaten some kind of poisonous putridity.
Anytime I am sick now, I always find myself thinking
of this bumper sticker I saw one time
and I can't help but smile.
It amuses me so. It said:
I'm just one stomach virus away
from my goal weight.

I think I promised
pictures from the
wedding this past
weekend. If I didn't,
you're getting them
anyway. The bride
in this situation is someone
I have known for
....my goodness...

probably 25 years.
She is a sweetheart and she found the guy
who is the perfect match for her.
They make such a cute couple and they were just the embodiment of happiness at their wedding. Especially him. I have never seen a groom so happy. He was just bursting with joy. It was great.

And I took this next picture.
Didn't it turn out nicely?

I don't have photo shop or magical powers by which
I could edit out the old man standing in the background.
But I still think it's a good picture.

And then there's this one:



This is not from the wedding, obviously.
It's my three sons in my living room.
I don't know if it's a good picture
or if it's just because I so love the subjects
of this picture that it seems so great to me.
But I do love these blue eyed boys.
Aren't they precious?

And speaking of precious,
here is my Lovely K looking around
her daddy's shoulder at my friend's wedding.


She is getting to that age where she is soaking in the details of events like this. She watches people so closely and wants to understanding everything. She's growing up.
Anyone know of any way to stop that?
Somebody said something to me the other day about
my three future daughters-in-law and
I just thought, "Oh please!"
I can't even go there in my mind.
Not that I think it's a bad thing,
but I just can't get a mental picture on the day when
my children will be adults and have spouses.
I can't even imagine it.
But I know it will be here before I know it.

But there are a lot of ordinary days to enjoy
between now and then. And I intend to do just that.

Good night, John Boy.

If you are a fan of Elisabeth Elliott's
and you have never read The Shaping of a Christian Family,
you need to read it. If you aren't a fan of hers,
maybe you need to read it anyway.
You might become a fan.
I remember getting really sucked into that book when
I read it, but now that I think about it,
that was a long time ago.
I should probably read it again.

I was thinking today about something from that book.
Elisabeth Elliott's father always got up very early in the morning and got all kinds of things accomplished right off the bat. Evidently people were amazed at how much he got done. They were always asking him how he did it, how he managed to get up so early and jump right into business of all sorts. He always gave the same pat answer:
"It starts the night before."
I think of that sometimes at night when I could go to bed....but I want to just have some undisturbed time on the computer or I stop to see what's on TV and get sucked into some movie for a couple of hours. We can be both night owls and early risers, you see. You might be able to do it for a while, but not long. I would prefer to be a night owl. That's what I used to be. But being a night owl just doesn't work very well with small children and a mommy who can't get by on snippets of sleep. 10:30 seems to be the normal time that I am snuggling into the covers now. You know, it's 9:30 right now and I could get off of this computer and get in the bed and maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't be quite
such a dead head in the morning.
"It starts the night before," you know.

Bite the Bullet

I am thinking in bullets right now.
Just little blurbs. Random thoughts.
Shall we take a peek inside the Bell's head?
Oh, let's do!

• I have slacked off on drinking water. Please drive over to my house right now and give me a good swift kick in the behind---all the while shouting "Drink more water!" I really think this will help me.
  
• This is a good post about motherhood that I need to read again and think about. You can read it too if you'd like.
  
• I have developed a deep and lasting relationship with these snacks. (And in googling them to give you a way to see what I was talking about, I found that you can buy them on Amazon.com. How odd is that? I wonder if anyone ever buys snack bars on Amazon. com.) You should try them--they are SO GOOD! And I hope they are good for me. I'm choosing to believe they are. But if they are not I'll have to sing that tacky old song "If loving you (almond bars) is wrong, I don't want to be right."
• I'm learning a lot of things about keeping a good attitude while treading water. Not literally treading water, but figuratively. Sort of a making lemonade when life gives you lemons kind of thing--which reminds me, I saw this cute bumper sticker. It said, "Who is this Life? And why is he giving everyone lemons?"
• I am so confused with the onslaught of laundry at my house. We've just somehow kicked it into overdrive or something. I can do laundry every single day and NOT be done with it. Maybe this is just how life is going to be from now on, but my soul, it just makes my head swim. Maybe those nudist people have the right idea.....
• If ever there was anyone who would never ever ever even think about becoming a nudist, it's me, your fully-clothed, faithful Bell. Just so you know. (and there was much relief)
  
• A couple of different people have told me lately that I "seemed down" on facebook. I went back and looked at all my status things for a couple of months and they didn't seem negative to me. They were things like "I love the weather" and "My kids are beautiful" and "Tip of the hat to whatever holiday it is today" and that kind of thing. Oh yeah....there was one post cursing the mountain of laundry that mysteriously rises in my house in the night. But I'm just wondering if being a part of the facebook community is worth it or not. There are some people I love having that connection with....and there are some people I want to block. And I don't care if people read my status updates. Hello. I'm the one who writes them. If I didn't want it to be read, I wouldn't type it.
  
• So tell me, Dear Reader, do I seem negative to you guys? (all 1.5 of you) I mean, yes, I am in the big stink. I have told you guys that. There are less-than-ideal situations going on in my life, but I don't think I'm being a big grump. I think I'm doing okay. Am I deceiving myself? Am I being evil and not realizing it? I'm not exactly Pollyanna but I don't think I'm Oscar the Grouch either.
  
• I am SO THANKFUL that someone got me hooked on Babywise when I was first pregnant with my first child. That is what I have always done and I don't know how to be any other way. Putting these babes on a schedule is just all I know, you know, but I love it. I mean, I have been sleeping at night for a while now and sleeping at night is SO MUCH BETTER than NOT sleeping at night. Wouldn't you agree? I hear these women talk about kids that never slept through the night until they were two or three and I just can't imagine that. If I had a child like that, I bet that'd be my last child. Mercy me. So I heart Babywise and I heart my good sleeping children!
• Which do you think is the lesser of the two evils: drinking diet sodas while nursing a baby or drinking regular sodas with the whole wagon load of calories? (And don't tell me to just skip the sodas all together---I know that would be best, but that's not one of the two choices I gave you, was it?)
  
• I think I am over the bullets thing now. You know me, always "mixing it up" a little. So wild and crazy. La vida loca over here. A regular amusement park of punctuation.
  

Have a good week, lovely old Dear Reader.

Stay tuned for more hum drum-iness
hot off the pages of this snooze-fest blog of mine.


It's time to wake up and go to your next blog now.

Here Comes The Blog, Big Fat and Wide

It's Saturday morning,
Dear Reader,
and I am all excited about
this particular Saturday morning.
A friend of mine is getting married today.
I am so happy for her.
She is my age and she has waited a long time
for this particular Prince Charming
to come along. I was just thinking
about that--about many conversations
we have had in the past, about other
guys she has gone out with, about her
thinking that she might have missed opportunities.
But I think this is just one of those cases when,
if you wait for God to work out the details of your life
instead of trying to make things happen yourself,
He will indeed work all things together for your GOOD
(way better than we can do ourselves).
I'm just so happy for her. I hope everything goes
beautifully and smoothly today.
I'll try to remember to snap some pictures.

Also, this morning
I am wanting one of these tee shirts.
You should get one too.

Now I am going to show you a picture
and you tell me what you think it means.
Okay?
Here's the picture:

What do you think that means?
What are these children all crazed about?

Well, I will tell you.
We went to the pool at the
Popsicle's house yesterday evening.
Lloyd Dobbler had worked
out in the gardens
all the live long day

yesterday and
he was hot and tired.

The kids were, of course,
out of their minds
when we told them to

get ready and load up.
They've been asking and asking
"When will Mr. Popsicle's pool be ready?"
So we went over there.
Then the Popsicles asked us to just eat supper with them and they ordered the local favorite pizza (which made my children very happy because they think they HAVE to have pizza on Fridays now or something is just WRONG). Mrs. Popsicle make wonderful strawberry short cake. My children broke in the summer swimming season with an overdose of ice cream novelties. It's just funny to watch--Lloyd Dobbler wants the kids to have like ONE popsicle (or ice cream sandwich or brown cow or whatever the item is they are eating) and Mr. Popsicle wants them to eat as many as they can. They learned a long time ago that they go to Mr. Popsicle and quietly ask him for another one. He spirits himself into the house and has the item in their hand before their father even knows what is going on. And I am rooting for neither team. I don't want the kids to make themselves SICK over eating junk, but that's not going to happen. Last night it was Big E who had three or four brown cows....after three pieces of pizza. This does my heart good because that boy is SO skinny. And if you recall, he is the one who, all on his own, monitors his own intake of sugar faithfully. He usually won't have a second sweet thing in a day. He's never had a coke. Won't chew gum or eat most types of candy. So if he wants another brown cow, I'm saying, give the child another brown cow. It's not going to hurt him. And after eating all that, he was STILL hungry. Mr. Popsicle gave him a package of peanut butter and crackers to eat on the way home. And he did eat them. I was afraid he might wake up two feet taller this morning.


This was Baby J's first trip to the Popsicle's pool
(unless you count the million times we went last summer
with him on the other side of my skin). He would just
watch his dad and his siblings jumping in and out of the water and splashing. He didn't know what was going on but he was excited about it. In a couple of months he should be big enough to get in one of those baby floaty things. That'll be fun. But last night he and I stayed on dry land. Of course he did his best to make the dry land not so dry---spitting up constantly. I was surprised that Mr. Popsicle kept picking him up when he was being the gushing fountain that he so often is.

So summer has officially started.
It even smelled like summer for the first time to me,
sitting out there by their pool last night. We just love
the Popsicles and my kids MORE than love them.
They are like this bonus set of grandparents to them.

So I'm off to the wedding.
I hope you are enjoying your break
from my 70s instrumentals with the wedding songs
that are flooding the juke box this weekend.
Don't worry, I'll be bringing back the groovy tunes.
Wouldn't want anyone to miss out on those.
(hee hee hee)

the opposite of accapella

If you hate music from the '70s,
especially instrumentals,
you're going to hate the juke box today.
I was reading this gal's blog and she had tacked up on her
own juke box song #1 over there, along with a snide
remark about the song. I love that song.
I have the most bizarre, eclectic, random taste, I know.
From The Haven of Rest Quartet to this.
So anyway, I had to race right out and get that song
on my own juke box.
Along with a couple of other smaltz-y
instrumentals from the days of
dancing on roller skates and polyester clothing.

But this mellow, groovy music is a nice soundtrack
to the lovely day I have been having. Even when you
are in the middle of a stink,
you can have a smile on your face.
Today has just been a great day, a great break for me,
and everything has just been so nice.
It just feels the way that song #2 sounds.

Again, if you hate this music, you are so out of luck.
I know you can turn it off, but it's still there.
Just know that.

Baby J is in his sound proof booth right now, also known as
his bedroom. I don't know what is up with that room.
It's like the black hole of sound. You cannot hear anything
from that room. I can stand in the hall with my ear
pressed to his door and you could run a jack hammer
in the middle of his room and I wouldn't hear it.
But I just went and checked on him and he's just laying
in there like the sweet potato that he is, looking around,
playing with his hands and feet, rolling from side to side,
wondering if his mother is ever going to come get him.
But he's all content and happy, so I'm letting him
practice being that way. I have been so enchanted with
him lately. The child is just overflowing cuteness
---at least I think that's what keeps spewing out of him.

So anyway, I hope your Thursday has been as lovely
as mine. Quiet morning at home. School and bathroom
cleaning got done. I went to lunch with my mom today
and left Lloyd Dobbler home with all four kids.
My mom and I even ran over to the next
Tiny Town over to J.C. Penney's (yeah, we just have
a Walmart because our Tiny Town is so tiny, but at least
the next one over has an old mall with an old Penney's in it)
and I used that $10 thing I got in the mail from them.
Do you get those $10 things they occasionally send out?
Love those. So I got a little plaid shirt for $3.
We had a ballgame in the afternoon
and then after that we all went out to my parents
to grill hamburgers for supper.
It was just a nice time. A nice day.
I was SO TIRED when I crawled into bed. Much more tired
than made sense for the activity level of the day, but I don't
even try to figure that out anymore.
It was still that good kind of tired.

If these instrumental songs really get on your nerves,
I could dub my voice in with some original lyrics.
What do you say?

Silly Bell, Trix are for kids.

My family just ENJOYS me
so much when I get in a silly mood.
I had a headache this afternoon and when I finally knocked
it loose with a couple of Excedrin, I was just really in touch
with my silly side for some unknown reason.
I am quite certain that Lloyd Dobbler had his fill
of the silliness when he was trying to talk to me for a minute
about something serious and I was trying to practice
doing the river dance (is that what you call it?
that Irish dance those river people did?
You know what I'm talking about!).
My children might have gotten their fill of it too
when I got the song "Beat It"
stuck in my head at the dinner table.
Did you ever have your mother prod you to finish your meal
to the tune of an old Michael Jackson hit?
How much therapy these poor children are going to need.
I guess I was actually doing the Weird Al version (Eat It).
It didn't matter that I didn't know the words.
You know I make those up to fit the situation anyway.
And it always came back to those same words:
Eat it.
Just eat it.
Eat it, eat it, eat it.


A couple of things in the news today stood out to me.
And what news worthy items they were indeed.
We're talking front page material here (not).

The first item was that Elvis Presley's doctor came out after
all these years to say that the real cause of Elvis' death
was extreme constipation.
(I know--this is not polite conversation, but I read it in the news!)
It's been how many years since Elvis died?
(or SUPPOSEDLY died, in case you believe he's still
living---and if he is living,
maybe this is just the kind of
embarrassing PR that will bring him out of hiding)
I can never remember if he died before I was born or not.
Or SUPPOSEDLY died.
Is it just coincidence that this doctor
has a new book coming out?
He just can't keep the secret any longer, wants
the whole world to know, just for the sake of truth and justice
or whatever. And by the way,
I have a book coming out....

And how many more people are going to
write books about their life with Elvis Presley?
My soul.

Another item that caught my eye today was this:
remember the flooding in Nashville, TN?
(If you are, oh, I don't know, down the street from
the Mall of America you may not even know abut the
flooding because I hear people constantly complaining that
it's not making the news outside of TN.
Come on national news people! Show Nashville some love.)
One of the places that was flooded was The Opry Mills Mall.
Just go HERE and read this little blurb to make sure
that I'm not lying or making it up when I tell you that
two piranha fish are swimming
around the streets of Nashville.
Flesh-eating fish.
You see, I have major issues with water anyway
....so adding a piranha into the mix.....well, that's the stuff
that dreams are made of.
And not sweet dreams, Patsy.

I also saw this article complaining about
Miley Cyrus and her new album and her new image.
Evidently Miss Miley has decided to shed her
Disney image for a more grown-up scene.
They had a link to a video and I have to tell you that
I can't believe she's supposed to be
marketed to girls the age of my daughter
if that's the kind of stuff she's producing.
And how bad is it when mainstream media is saying
that you're being too wild, too sexy, too racy
for your age and your audience?
Not Christian media,
but regular old mainstream media.
That's sad.

Okay.
So that's all.
I'm out of news and out of silliness.
I need to go finish the clean up from supper.
If you hurry over, I'll let you help me.

after the storm

Some ordinary days are better than others.
I like ones like today that smell fresh outside from
the torrents of rain that
pounded the earth all weekend.
I don't often go outside in the mornings, but this morning
I went out with Sweet T to get
"the spare car seat" for him
---so that he could go running around with his father and Mr. Popsicle.
And while I love my Sweet T like no body's business,
I just can't tell you how nice it is to remove (from the school here)
the one child who isn't really doing school. This means
he's not sneaking around the house trying to lure
my two easily lured away students into revelry
and if he's not doing that,
he is also not constantly asking me to provide entertainment
for him. Lately he has just run flat out of the ability
to do things by himself and

it's driving me crazy.

So Sweet T and Lloyd Dobbler are out running the roads
with Mr. Popsicle. Big E is doing language arts downstairs.
Lovely K decided she needed to take her math test on the bed
here in my room beside Baby J.
The math test seems to have fallen to the side
as she has been drawn in by Baby J's ever-increasing charm.
That's okay for now.
It's nice to listen to her talking to him
and to see him watching her with such
total happiness on his little face.

It's just one of those peaceful, ordinary days here.
The kind that I love.
Today is the birthday of an old friend. I think I will make
some blond brownies and take them to her.
We are also going to the library later.
It's almost lunch time already. I need to get busy.
We're supposed to go to the library after lunch.
I need to have those brownies done by then.

Get busy, Bell!

Takes me back to my childhood.

Tor-madoes

Yes, tor-madoes.
That's what both of my boys say (the ones that are talking).

So tor-madoes and flooding. That's what's going on
in Middle Tennessee today. Have you seen video of the
flooding on the interstates in Nashville? Mercy!
And there have been some fatalities.
That's so sad.

And it's still raining.
And more storms are coming.
It may be a long night.
I hope not.
I hope you are safe, Dear Reader.

"The Lord is our rock.
In Him we hide.
A shelter in the time of storm."
(both figuratively and literally)

cozy morning

Hello Dear Reader.
It's Saturday morning here as I am writing this.
The rain has just begun to fall and
there is the gentle rumble of thunder in the distance.
Oooh--there was a little lightening.
But that's okay.
It's the perfect stormy spring morning here.
Lloyd Dobbler left over an hour ago
to get the big boys haircuts.
It's amazing how quiet the house is
when you remove a couple of children.
Especially if one of them is Sweet T.
Lovely K and I have been here with Baby J,
listening to Saturday morning drama on Moody radio
and doing a bit of cleaning.
She has already cleaned the two downstairs bathrooms
and dusted the living room
(well, she's supposed to be dusting....I have a feeling
she's standing beside the radio in the living room
with a feather duster in her hand...but that's okay....
she's more help to me than anyone else
when she wants to be).
Baby J just went down for his morning nap.
It's just such a cozy morning.
I wish I had
bread baking or some meaty thing in the crock pot
---something to infuse the air with flavor.

But for now I am enjoying the ambiance as it is.

Spring storms.
Saturday morning.
Laundry and cleaning.
Strawberries and Ranger Bill.

My kind of day.