My Rug Story

I love watching decorating shows. I'm always looking for ideas on how to arrange things and make things more comfortable in my home. My favorite shows are the ones that redecorate with stuff people already have - no-cost decorating! Then there's one where the budget is $500 and one where the budget is $1000...for one room. With $500, I could do several rooms and with $1000, I'm fairly certain I could decorate my entire house!

One way a lot of these decorators stretch their dollars is to go second-hand. I see them quite often put down an area rug that they've found at garage sales or thrift stores for not a lot of money. I always wonder why can't I ever find those rugs??
Until last week......

Under a clothing rack in Goodwill, I found a gem. A large-sized area rug in wonderful condition. I unrolled and rerolled (like a scroll) to find out where the damage was and to my surprise found none. The best part?? The rug was a grand total of $7.50!!!!! That's right...I said Seven dollars and Fifty cents!!!!!!!
Want to see it??????My little dog, Jack decided to get in on the picture too!
Thanks for sharing my excitement today!!

I don't know about you but I feel inundated on every side by bad news! The economical, political, and global forcasts are not encouraging. If I let it, all this bad news and the pessimistic outlooks could really do a number on me.

This morning, this verse keeps going through my head:

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."

Psalm 20:7 (ESV)

This is where my hope lies....in the Name of the Lord my God.

Apples

My parents have an apple tree in their back yard, and this year, it is fully loaded with apples.

Today, some of those apples found their way into my kitchen and became applesauce and an apple pie. It smelled so good and fall-like!! And they tasted just as good!!

On a side note, I am cautiously optimistic that all our plumbing problems are finally solved! We ended up having to stay at my parent's on Saturday night. By Sunday, we were back in business! We've had a long run at plumbing issues and hopefully we're at the end of them!!

A Breath of Fresh Air

With the on-set of Fall, I seem to get a renewed sense of energy. It's like a breath of fresh air after the hot, dry, muggy air of summer. It's a time to give my house another good cleaning; to sweep out all the corners and clear out stuff that's gotten piled up under other stuff! It's also a time to get the yard, the house and our wardrobes ready for the long, cold months of winter that will be here before we know it.

This past week, it seems as if God has done a sort of "Fall Cleaning" within me. He's had to sweep out some corners and take me to task on some things that needed some attention. It's been a reflective, convicting week and one that I'm glad God has taken me through. I'm so thankful He cares enough about me to prepare me for the journey that lies ahead of me.

God has been doing some amazing things in my life, my home and in my church. I wish I could go into more detail. But, all you have to do is to keep an eye out for the brilliant colors of fall to catch a very small glimpse of his amazing greatness.

As I sit and write this post today, I am reminded of one of my favorite songs we always sang at our Thanksgiving services when I was a kid.

"Great Is Thy Faithfulness"

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided; Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Sigh of Relief

Plumbing is fixed!! It wasn't the big repair they originally thought...the big repair that was going to dig up half my yard! Turns out it was just one incredibly long clogged pipe! As I write this post tonight, all the dishes are done, laundry is done...closets and drawers are full of fresh, clean clothes and the beds are all made up with fresh sheets. It's a great feeling!

Fall is in the air here in KC. After the heavy rain this weekend, things have dramatically cooled off. It's heavenly and refreshing. I've had the windows open and my house smells like the crisp, cool, clean air of Autumn. This sense of fall makes me want to go bake a pumpkin pie!!!!!!

Quite A Crazy Weekend!

Amy drove home this past weekend in the middle of heavy rain forcasts. She had just pulled off the exit, hit some oil mixed with water and rear-ended another car. (This was her first fender-bender!) After getting through all that goes along with fender-benders, she met Cliff up at the local Wal-Mart just as a tornado touched down just a few miles away. They shut the store down and they were there for 45 minutes until the all-clear was given!! This is still only Friday evening!!

Saturday, the kitchen sink and toilet decided to back up. Our plumber seems to think we have a collapsed pipe in our main line. Meanwhile, Cliff needs to take Amy's car up to a body shop and at the same time, I'm trying to prepare a dinner to share with my parents for Emily's birthday celebration. ARRGH!!!!!!!! Too much all going on at the same time!! We finally got everything done and Cliff & Amy walked in just as we said the prayer for dinner. Emily got some very nice gifts...the sweetest of which came from her brother who, after starting a new job, had some money of his own and chose gifts he knew she'd love.

Sunday, Cliff had to run around trying to get Amy's headlight fixed up enough for her to drive back to school. He had to do all this before church because right after church he had to referee two football games. As soon as church was out, Cliff & Jacob headed off to work as the girls and I headed to lunch with my parents. We then came home where Amy loaded up another car full of stuff during which our two dogs ran off! Those dumb dogs haven't run off for over a year!! Why this weekend?? We finally found them almost a mile down the road after 20 minutes of driving around the neighborhood!!!!! Amy took off and got back to school without anymore excitement. Cliff came in from his games, changed clothes and headed back to church for a meeting. Emily went over to my mom's for the evening. Jacob was still at work. I stayed home....alone...and breathed a very big sigh of relief!! And then headed upstairs and started cleaning up Emily's new room. It was very therapeutic!!

After all that, I have to say that comparatively, I really have no problems. There is a girl in our church who was 6 1/2 months pregnant. She started having trouble breathing and upon examination, found a mass on her uterus. Meanwhile the baby wasn't due until Nov. but they had to go ahead and deliver him about 2 weeks or so ago. He's doing very well. She, however, is not. The mass turned out to be cancerous and was the size of a basketball. During the surgery, they found it had spread and as recently as last week, they are thinking it is also in her colon. Please remember this girl as well as her family in your prayers. In addition to the baby, she also has 2 young children. God is a God of miracles and our prayers are not in vain.

Show & Tell Friday

A friend of ours inherited his dad's house. His intention was to fix it up and sell it. As they grew closer to the sell date, he asked if I'd like this china cabinet in exchange for Cliff doing some carpet work for them. At first I thought "no" because frankly I had no idea where I'd put it. After looking at it a little more closely, I thought it might be just the perfect size for my kitchen.

I got it on Monday and it was very dirty. I cleaned it up as best I can (I need to get some more Murphey's Oil Soap) and clean it up some more. I wanted it to be open, so we removed the doors and this is what we were left with. Can I tell you how much I love this little hutch??

Thanks for visiting my show & tell today. For more or to list your own, head on over to Kelli's at No Place Like Home.

Christmas Surprise

It was Christmas, 1994 and I was tired and busy and for some reason, never had the time to make Christmas cookies that year. For me, I have to have at least one cookie, so the week between Christmas and New Years I baked all my cookies. Two weeks or so later, I noticed I gained 10 pounds!! Now, I know I ate alot of cookies but certainly NOT 10 pounds worth!!! It was Wednesday and as I was heading out to set up for my kids Bible class at church, Cliff said to me, "you gained that weight because you're pregnant, Rebecca." "What?? No I'm not!" I said. Just to prove him wrong, I ran to the drugstore and bought a pregnancy test before heading to the church. Imagine my complete surprise when the test showed "POSITIVE." I called Cliff, "You are Not going to believe this. I'm Pregnant!!"

We were so happy! This was our fourth child and we knew it was going to be our last. We already had 2 boys and a girl and my heart's desire was for another girl. I prayed that God would bless us with a daughter. The day of the sonogram, I fairly skipped to the grocery store where my mom worked to tell her that we were going to have a little girl!

She arrived 13 years ago today. We named her Emily. She brought to our household and to my heart such delight. She was an excellent baby and I knew that God, in His great wisdom, not only blessed me with a girl but a very content baby.

She's been my little buddy all these years. She came to work with me every day and it's always been such a joy to have her around. I just delight in her. She's kind and creative. She's a sweetheart and our lives are all the richer because she's in it.

Out of my four children, I think that she has grown up the fastest!! For some reason it seems like one day she was a

baby and the next she was 5 and running off to school

(she was more than ready to go.) Now today, somehow, she's turned 13. I don't know how that happened. I love this daughter who has such a great attitude and such a spirit of servanthood.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Emily!!!!!!!!!

A Long Busy Day

I have wanted to put a small, open hutch in my kitchen for about a year. I finally got one today. Actually it's a china cabinet but I took the doors off and the center bar out and I'm left with a beautiful open hutch. I LOVE it. I have a few things sitting on it right now but its going to take me a few days to get it where I like it. I also have a white shelf that runs the length of my wall about a foot or two from the ceiling. Those are going to come down. I'm hoping I'll have it all arranged for Show & Tell on Friday.

We also spent some time swapping furniture. There were 2 beds up in the girls room. One is a day bed with a trundle so we took out Emily's bed and she's moving to Amy's day bed. Amy can use the trundle when she comes home. We also moved Amy's dresser down to Jacob's room because it was bigger, and put Emily's bed in his room because it was better quality. There's still a bed and dresser in my dining room waiting to go to the garage but we've all run out of steam.

I'm still not quite used to having only 2 kids around here and not waiting up for someone to come home from work. I've had an extra driver in the house for the past 5 years! It's also weird that both Jacob & Emily have their own rooms. No one has had their own room around here since 1995!!

We've got a busy week ahead around here. We're looking forward to celebrating my baby daughter's 13 birthday at the end of it. How my baby got to be 13 is beyond me!!

Politics and Such

The first memory I have of a political nature is watching the states roll call and the nomination for Richard Nixon.

I have made a personal decision to not discuss politics. It is one of those topics that evokes so much emotion in people. And it seems that no matter how long or hot the debate, no one's mind seems to get changed and they walk away with a whole lot of aggrivation!

I must confess that a few elections ago, I did not vote. I felt that my vote did not count and that my choices had been made for me by the press, society, and the powers that be. To be honest, I felt somewhat hopeless about that entire election. I was wrong. Not only is it my civic duty as a citizen of this country but it is also my duty as a Christ follower. I've never looked at it like this before. I was thinking about this the other day; I live my life by a set of convictions and values that I feel God has called me to live by. Cliff's values are very similiar but we do have a few differences. I think the values and convictions from person to person differ...that goes for political candidates as well. Frankly, there is no perfect candidate. So, in looking at the values and convictions that I believe God has called me to live by, I will cast my vote for the candidate who I feel best represents those values.

We need to vote and above all, we need to be much in prayer for our country. As much as our votes DO count, our prayers count all the more!!

**Disclaimer: I have purposely left out any references to specific candidates and parties. This post is NOT intended to evoke political debate and if any comments head in that direction, they will be deleted. Thanks!!

Trying to Become a Morning Person!

I'm a Night Owl. I admit it. I love staying up at night. It's been this way since I was a kid. My mom would be telling me to go to bed but I always seemed to be the last one to get there. I just seem to be more productive at night. My poor parents...their room was under mine and on more than one occasion I'd be struck with inspiration at 1 in the morning and decide to give my room a good cleaning, or, heaven forbid, decide to totally rearrange my room all together!!

Back in the days when I only had my oldest two kids, I'd stay up all night on Friday and clean the house from top to bottom. That way I could wake on Saturday to a wonderfully clean house and enjoy a total day of leisure. If I didn't have to get up for school, work, or church, I'd eventually have myself where I'd be up most of the night and sleep through a good part of the day. I was on pace for it through this summer and Cliff's hours didn't help! I'd wait until everyone was in bed and then get on the computer and watch some TV while the night hours ticked by. But now?? ALL HAS CHANGED!!

Cliff used to get home sometimes around 4:30 AM. He now has to GET UP at 4:30. My day starts at 6:00 AM! You cannot stay up half the night and get up, let alone even hear the alarm! These days I have to force myself to not listen to my inner Night Owl and change my ways. This routine has now virtually cut out the time I had been spending on the computer. I have little bits of time here and there but my blogging has suffered!! I'm working on it.

I do, however, kind of like our new schedule. It is still taking some getting used to but its far, far better for our family overall. I can put my night owl to bed for the long winter but I know he'll begin to resurface the closer we get to summer again!!

A Very Busy Weekend

It all started Saturday morning. Amy had quite a bit of last minute packing to do. It took us a couple hours to finish the packing and then get her car as well as my car loaded. The weather decided to get into the mid-90's and it was hot, hot, hot! When we got to the college and she got all checked in, we three began to unload both cars. I made one trip! Amy and her dad did the rest. Her face was so red by the time they were done! One of her roomates came by and invited her to go to dinner with them so we took

that opportunity to head out to our motel.

I have a cousin in Wichita which is about 30 minutes away from the school. We all met up at her church and had lunch together after. We had such a good time and it was the first chance Josh & Amy got to know Corrie and the first chance I had to get to know her husband. We said our goodbyes at the restaurant and Cliff and I headed home...alone. We actually did OK...until we got home. I made the BIG MISTAKE of going up to her room. Let's just say I had to go out for a little drive to pull myself back together.

Yesterday (Monday) we were so tired! We ran an errand and went to my mom's for dinner which was great because neither one of us wanted to cook anything. Today was actually my first day home alone since Cliff is on day shift, the kids are in school and Amy's on her own. It was kind of nice. I'm doing good now that the separation is behind me.