Thursday, March 09, 2006

VENT

 This is a vent; and only a vent….I will pray this through and I will not go postal…though I would love to hear what others of you would do in these situations. {G}

Have you ever wished you could just “take off the Christian label” for 10 minutes and give someone a piece of your mind? Of course, this isn’t right. Of course, I would not really want to take off Christ – for any amount of time…but ARGH.

I shared that our van was shot a couple of Saturday’s ago (story and pictures at about 25 Feb). The man quickly noted that we are Christians, that Mike is a “pastor at the base” and that he is a pastor himself, as well. We got TWO estimates to repair the damage that he ADMITS his son caused to our van when he wasn’t watching him in a city park. The estimates are approx $400 because this is a 2005 van and Ford puts a clear coat under the paint to prevent rust. To properly fix the van, since the hole goes to the medal, the clear coat will need to be replaced and the whole door painted. This man didn’t have the $ to pay $400. We agreed to take payments. We faxed him the estimates. He called and wants to pay $75 – 100 PERIOD…because we are wanting to do too nice of a fix it job, because he has some “Christian” in Midland who said it can be fixed for $75. This man has NOT seen the van, doesn’t know the year, doesn’t know what damage was really done and does NOT live in the same city as we do. I can’t believe this. We may well have to take further action with this man and we WANTED to simply be nice, accept payments and be done with it. Really, a parent should be teaching their child to be responsible for their actions…and that would include the parent paying for the damage caused. I’m totally shocked by this situation. I can’t believe that he actually believes that he is RIGHT to suggest we put a bit of putty on it and give it a few sprays of paint. Then again he saw nothing wrong with a 4 year old playing on a play ground with a loaded BB gun. {sigh}Since the incident we’ve learned we SHOULD have immediately called the city police and he would have a nice fine and other repercussions to deal with in addition to fixing our van. He can’t seem to understand that we are being fair and nice.

THEN – TODAY – our new dentist called. I had asked them to be sure to call United Concordia and get pre-approval for our cleaning. They said they did. Our last cleaning in AK was 26 May – our cleanings here were 29 Nov. I repeatedly asked if they had gotten approval because I thought we needed to wait until 2006. Yes, they insisted it was fine. I just got a notice from them. “Oops….your last appt WAS 6 months ago but the May was the second appointment in that year so they won’t pay for it”. So now – at a tune of $50+ per person I have to pay for it because THEY SAID they had pre-approval but seemed to have only looked at the dates and DIDN’T call to get pre-approval.

In both these situations the fact that Mike is a Chaplain/Pastor was brought up. Of course, I need to be Christ-like in ALL situations – regardless of my marriage to a minister…but I’m really wishing I could give someone the left boot of fellowship here….What does being a pastor have to do with either situation? Does being a pastor mean that business offices can do a sloppy job and stick you with the bill? Does being a pastor mean that kids can take pot shots at your van and then refuse to fix it?

On the other hand, I would HATE to think that my actions over something as trivial as auto body work or dental cleanings would turn someone sour on my Lord. ARGH….Why can’t life be simpler? Reading back over this I can’t help but think how chilling the thought of taking Christ off really is. I would be so lost without His grace and mercy in my life. I desire to show grace and mercy to others. I simply desire them to treat me fairly as well…..of course, Christ wasn’t treated fairly. Who can help me with my angst? PASTOR’S WIVES UNITE! {vbg}

**If anyone here locally knows a dentist they’d care to recommend we may well pay the bill and find a new dentist…because I asked them repeatedly to check with United Concordia and they assured me they had. The kids also were not really taken with the “chair side” manner of this dentist.

OUR ORNITHOLOGISTS


I love it when God sends little bonus’ to our school days. We began studying birds at Jared’s request. I thought it was a strange time of the year to study birds; but we were done with Astronomy and needed something to do for the next ½ of the year! {g}

Wow – I was not thinking TEXAS when we began the study. We have had a LOT of birds in our yard. We have a tree in the backyard with bird nests.

This week we are studying nesting. I kept thinking it would be fun to look up close at one of the nests but our text book talked about the federal laws on collecting nests and so we hadn’t investigated.


We’ve had quite a wind-storm last night and today. The kids discovered a nest blown out of the tree….yippee! We didn’t “collect” it – we simply observed it before picking up our yard. It was a cup nest and made with all sorts of interesting things from our yard….dog hair, red yarn, plastic streamers, ribbon….

You can see our science book here

Guaranteed Weight Loss!

I continue to work on this - and it continues to be harder at 42 than it was at 22. {g} I lost 2 lbs last week - yippee! I am now firmly into the 150's...and I thought I'd have to grow old at 161.



BUT my problems are now over. Paperback Swap has let me know that I am being sent the book *8 minutes in the Morning - a simple way to shed 2 lbs a week - GUARANTEED*! That's it. I've been looking for a guarantee and found it. I wonder if I have to read the book or actually do anything????

FIRE ALERT!!!

Another “real” homeschooling moment brought to you by *me*. {vbg}

I was aware when Mike left for work. I’m usually up. I knew I should have gotten up. I rolled over and caught about 20 more minutes of sleep.

Zander woke me up “Mom – its GROSS in the kitchen”. By this time I could smell that something was UP. I walked out of my room and the kitchen and living room were full of thick smoke. The alarm didn’t go off. We began airing it all out. Discovered that Zander must have been on a hunt for contraband food (he’d checked the cupboard above the fridge!!! – previous chocolate hiding spot of mine). In his search he found a package of microwave popcorn. He’d put that in the microwave. There were 56 minutes left on the timer when I turned it off. The GLASS is black in the microwave. The popcorn was a rectangle piece of charcoal….ugh.

Now on with the day….

Answer to prayer

No, I don't usually post emails from my girls but this one says it all. From Bre:

"It went really well! We were majorly real with them about issues that they deal with and it impacted. The administers had a meeting right after we left and asked us to come back with another assembly in two weeks! So if we do that (and I'm guessing that we pobrably will)- we'll be busy crafting another assembly in the next couple of weeks and preparing for another one that we already had lined up....so yay!"

Heard from Krista this a.m. and she agreed that it all went well. Thanks for your prayers.

IDITAROD POSTERS!!!

Big thanks to Darshia from Anchorage who made my boys’ week. She sent us two copies of the Anchorage Daily News with Iditarod coverage – complete with posters. Nolan has already mentioned we should cover (laminate) these like we did the Narnia posters. His poster from last year got torn. Ah – moving is the pitts but friends that stick with you through all the moves are the what Cherries along the way????

Thanks, Sis.

TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY

Tuesday: is one of our busy days. We have to finish school early so that we can run to speech. Josiah wasn’t working this Tuesday so he came with us and ran to the library while Nolan, Stacia and I went to speech. Tuesday night I led our PWOC Breaking Free Study. This is the first study I’ve led since last May. It was fun. I made some fresh bread. I was trying Adrienne’s new recipe and used 2 TEAspoons of salt instead of 2 TABLEspoons of salt. The bread rose beautifully and then sunk in the middle. Bummer. We saw some lingering “challenges” that I think we can trace to our “splurge” with Zander’s diet on Sunday night. I’m going to have to get to a health food store and see if they have some really good things to add to ice cream that don’t have the artificial flavors added.

Wednesday: I started the day with a burst of inspiration. I made home made hamburger buns and planned to grill for dinner. We’d add a fresh salad and I have 20 lbs of white potatoes from co-op so thought I’d make oven fries. I didn’t have a lot of faith that the kids would enjoy this food – but it’s a meal they are familiar with that I could “make healthy”. An hour later I was up to my elbows (literally) in lots of bread dough but I did make over 50 buns. We’ll use them for sandwiches too. Thanks to Adrienne for the tip.

The afternoon found us enjoying the local park. I know it sounds like we are doing this all the time. I told someone a week or so ago that we are park deprived after three years of AK winters…..and the other factor in our current schedule, is that I KNOW it will soon be to HOT for sitting in the park….I’m making a conscious choice to get us to the park to PLAY.

While at the park Zander found a family to socialize with. Aren’t we always worrying about isolated homeschoolers knowing how to socialize? NOT. Anyway – the boy went and joined a family who was EATING….and helped himself to their left overs. I was humiliated. I couldn’t believe they LET him eat their food. He had his cheeks crammed with goldfish when I found him. Adrienne told me about a store in town that may have some of those substitutes that we could give him. Yes, they would still be processed but we need to find a few treats he can enjoy from time to time too. God has blessed me with ladies on SHS and Adrienne and Heather who can give me GOOD TASTING recipes that are healthy….which is really a key. I don’t mind extra work but I want our food to taste good.

The evening found us executing my dinner plan. We ran out of propane. Plan B was the broiler…I dropped a burger in the bottom of the oven and grease splattered everywhere from the broiler. I hate grease! This meant all the windows open and fans blaring air through the house. Nolan told me the hamburger buns “weren’t really any different than Burger Kings” – this was a compliment. Zander ATE the oven fries. Arielle contented herself with two carrot sticks, an apple, peanut butter and one fry. I keep praying she will EAT. Stacia amused us all by enthusiastically eating her rice, a jar of green beans, some sweet potatoes and chasing it all down with the JAR. Some notes about the photos.

Yes, I feed her topless as much as possible….saves on clean up. Yes, I was using CANNED baby food – because after I bought tons of bananas to make her yummy fresh and she hated them I thought it would be wise to try small jars and see what she likes before I buy fresh stuff and steam it and have her hate it. {g}
And this is what our eating machine did when she realized there was no more food…haven’t we all felt like this at one time or another in our lives???? I believe this was my very expression after finishing the last bite of Andes Mint Cheesecake at Christmas. {G}