tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119305322024-03-14T13:48:48.332-05:00Abigail's Day"And I, the Lord, will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt."Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.comBlogger2156125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-57346442391968698092017-05-05T12:42:00.002-05:002017-05-05T12:42:35.345-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'd love for you to come hang out at my website.<a href="http://www.abigailwilsonauthor.com/"> www.abigailwilsonauthor.com</a> and for all my blog posts you can see them at their new fancy-shmancy location <a href="https://abigailwilsonauthor.com/home/blog/">here</a>. </div>
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And yet, when I think back over the last 4 years, we've seriously had "church" change its shape countless times. Now, don't get me wrong, surprisingly with every shift it still held to what is biblically defined as church ( as we see it defined for us in Acts and through Jesus' ministry), and sometimes it maybe wasn't as healthy as it should be, but we were always striving to follow the commands of Jesus: to Love God, love our neighbors and to follow the great commission.<br />
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And turns out there are a LOT of ways to do that!<br />
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One of the biggest ways that the Lord has taught me to be flexible and open to change has been through my children. In those four years our family has added another human and all three of our children have grown and changed and had different needs, so even if we had WANTED to keep things the same, life just kept changing them for us!<br />
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So, how have we incorporated our children into our ministry?!? Good question!!! And people just keep on asking me about it! ( and P.S. I keep on asking other people about it too!!) I think for us Mom's its probably at the top of our list of priorities- as it should be!! We've done just about every possible thing to try to meet the needs of our children's spiritual health and that of our own personal ministry. You name it, we've probably tried it. I listened to this awesome little video from our dear friends Chuck and Deb who have been discipling us for years and I think they hit on just about all of the ways we've incorporated our kids into church the last few years:<br />
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But for the sake of my own personal history keeping, I wanted to share what it looks like for us right now (it'll probably change next week! Ha!) :<br />
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We are currently doing church together in our home, rather than in other places or homes, 3 times a week. This has taken shape mostly because of the season of life we are in-with a baby and two smallish children. We have our church that meets on Wednesdays that we lead and then we have church on Thursdays that we are a part of-this one is where Brett and I learn a LOT from some of the most committed and incredible Laborers for Jesus we've ever met. Both of these churches have graciously allowed us to meet in our home since we put Justice to bed pretty early and we have lots of toys etc for any other children (often just our own). We also do church again on Sundays. This one we call "family church" because its usually just our family and anyone staying in our home at the time.<br />
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On Wednesdays church starts at 6:30pm, our older two kids participate in the first third^^^^of church. Prayer, worship and vision casting ( usually a 3 or 4 minute mini lesson about what church is all about.) I usually have to make a quick exit somewhere in that first part of church to put Justice down, which at this point thankfully doesn't take long. Then the older two kids head off to another room to watch a video for the second part of church. I then put the kids to bed once church is over and they usually are only late by about 30 minutes past their usual bedtime.<br />
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On Thursdays starts at 7pm our older two kids ( Justice goes to bed pretty much as church is starting so thankfully he's a minimal hassle) participate to some extend during the first part of church again and then they are expected to sit quietly or play quietly in the room until they're normal bed time. Because of the timing of this church ( it starts later than our wednesday church), it usually means they are expected to remain "quiet" and good for about 30-45 minutes. Ive found this is about their capacity ( at 6 and 4) and I really want to teach them the self control of being quiet and considerate and I also want them to at least <i>hear</i> some good teaching and what we are doing.****<br />
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On Sundays we have church completely focused on our children and it starts whenever we want! haha- in the past we've done "children's church as part of our wednesday church-but when the needs of the church as a whole changed, we shifted the priority and made it a part of our weekend. So on Sunday our teaching, our prayers, everything is at our kids level ( mostly aimed at the oldest, but trying hard to get the 4 year old involved too).<br />
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**** A few weeks ago I was sitting in our thursday church and I looked down to see Ransom had made a "nest" for himself smack dab in the middle of the room:<br />
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I almost started crying because memories came flooding back...In fact, one of my strongest memories from my early years-I was probably as young as 3 or 4, was laying on the living room floor, falling asleep to the sound of my parents and their best friends Steve and Billie talking about God. As the pastors of a church themselves, they were always talking about Jesus and the need for a revival, and even when I didn't understand a word of it, my own heart was soaking it all in. Those memories are some of the coziest, most important memories I have and I know they are part of the important foundation I have in my relationship with the Lord to this day. And there was my own son, soaking it all in having a very similar experience. Sure, what church looks like for us is always evolving to the needs of others, and the needs of our family, sometimes it involves crying and spankings and babies that refuse to sleep or your kid flashing their underwear for the whole church to see ( let's just say" "hypothetically") or any other incredibly UN-spirital thing, but I'm learning more and more that this life of reaching people for Jesus- ALL of us our messy and challenging and if my kids are the ones that teach me that it won't be perfect and that I'll need to shift and change and be flexible, than great!<br />
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^^^^ We use the same "Three Thirds Process" in all three of our churches, we've found it helpful to make sure that all the elements of what Church should be are happening. This totally delightful video made my some great students in the Philippines does a great job explaining it ( how awesome are they?!? Isn't it encouraging to see what the Lord is doing ALL OVER THE WORLD?) :<br />
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Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-359658500948204862017-01-17T12:20:00.003-06:002017-01-17T12:25:23.160-06:00The parting song of Edythe CalhounBrett's grandmother passed away two weekends ago. When I tell people this, I try to quickly rush forward with the information that she was 103. I want people to know that we are celebrating her ( long!) life, and not mourning her passing. She is with Jesus and I know she is infinitely happier there with Him then being held captive by a body and mind that were past their time.<br>
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But as we remembered her this weekend at her memorial today and then as Brett prepares to travel to her funeral this week, I've been itching to get a few thoughts down on paper so I wouldn't forget, that my children wouldn't forget what a wonderful woman Edythe was for us.<br>
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The day before we left of her memorial Ransom had a piano lesson and on the way home he said he wanted to play a piece for Mimi. I was pretty distracted-we were hosting church that night, and I also needed to feed my kids and finish up packing, so I said something like, "That's nice honey, she would love that." And then I promptly forgot.<br>
But the next day as we loaded up the car, I noticed Ransom's piano bag sitting by the door. I began to chastise him about not putting his things away, when he interrupted to say that he just wanted to make sure it got packed. Even though I had forgotten, he hadn't: he was very much ready to play a piece for Mimi. In fact, he play the very upbeat "Galloping Pony" at her memorial and it was probably my favorite part. My little son, sitting straight at the piano waiting for his queue and then playing with confidence his little piece...Edythe would have LOVED it, she had spent years teaching piano and playing herself. In fact, her piano is played almost daily at our house and I love that her music lives on in my kids and in our home.<br>
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I remember the first time I met her: The evening was already rife with nerves since I was attending a church fashion show ( right?) at the invite of my not-yet-boy-friend-but-definitely-special-friend's mother. I was so anxious to make a good impression and my first conversations with his mother and aunt were already being overanalyzed in my head as the fashion show portion of the night began. I remembered little of the fashion or the models as I thought about whether or not I had talked too much ( a common problem) or maybe I had been to enthusiastic? Did I seem genuine enough?... however all my self-absorbed thoughts came to an abrupt halt as the finale of the show came through the doors... it was Brett's little grandmother (a young 91 at the time) perched atop her walker as someone pushed her as though she were a princess on her sedan. She was grinning from ear to ear and she positively <i>glowed. </i>I am not even kidding, light radiated from her. And as the years passed and I got to know her, I learned that the light was not her at all, it was most definitely Jesus.<br>
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Those first few years were a gift to me, she was still very healthy and mentally strong I got to sit and hear great stories from her childhood-I've always loved to hear stories from the past and she had some good ones!And I basked in her kind questions after my mother and my family. She would pray beautiful prayers and she would smile and smile and smile.<br>
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And as the years continued and dimentia set in, I was blessed by what was left of her. It was truly a testament of her heart that when her mind failed her, that her Jesus didn't. She was still as kind and gracious as ever, even when she was confused and even fearful. Even if she did not remember exactly who I was, she knew who Jesus was. When I think about it now, I am reminded of the verse, "Out of the heart the mouth speaks" and I see how true this really is.<br>
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If you're lucky and you have parents who teach you "manners" than even when you're nasty on the inside, you can at least pretend or keep that to yourself on the outside. <i>However, </i>when the mind goes, whether with age, or disease, or even because of something else ( too much to drink? a lot of laughing gas at the dentist?)...your heart begins to speak for you, and I shudder to think what my heart would say if it wasn't for Jesus. It is at these times that it becomes too clear that we ALL have fallen short, no matter how good we try to be, how good we want to be, deep down we need help and Jesus was willing to be that Help for us.<br>
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Edythe was a beautiful testament to that, in her final days she was still exuding kindness to those around her. She was still exuding her Jesus who had died for her sins, who had risen from the dead so that she could have life. And now she lives with Him in heaven.<br>
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She <i>truly </i>lives!<br>
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As we said goodbye to her, I am challenged to give more of my heart to Jesus-there are always pieces to give-so that when all that is left of me is my heart, let it be Jesus. Thank you Mimi for reminding me of that this week. I look forward to seeing her again one day. I know she's singing her heart out in the heavenly choir even now.<br>
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<br>Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-51099260034765268632016-12-04T09:46:00.000-06:002016-12-04T09:47:24.751-06:00A StoryI am the slowest learner ever. Its unfortunate because it means I have to keep learning the same lessons, and boy, lessons are the HARDEST.<br />
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You'd think I was a certain 3 year old who keeps 'forgetting' to flush the toliet....JUST FLUSH THE TOLIET FOR THE LOVE OF ALL, ITS NOT THAT HARD!!!! *ahem*<br />
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Basically, I'm a little like that.<br />
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So, lets recap. I wrote a book. It took me years to write it and one of its major themes was:<br />
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"Look and see what the Lord can do when our own hands our tied and <i>we </i>can't do anything!"<br />
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I'd written all kinds of cool stories illustrating just how this was true and so you'd THINK I would have it drilled through my little bitty brain by now that I really should be able to trust the Lord with what He has directed. That if He's put something on my heart that I should probably go ahead and do it and trust that He will do exactly what He wants to do and nothing will get in the way of His plan.<br />
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But this week, I had to hit "Start" on my crowd funding project for my book. And I wanted to throw up. I really just wanted to beg God to let Brett and I do this ourselves, for the Lord to just magically fill up a Savings Account labeled "Book fund" or maybe just let me go the traditional publishing route and let some big publishing company foot the editing bill....but nope. That was not the Plan.<br />
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And so on Monday night I went "live" with my crowd funding and then I basically didn't sleep for three days.... I felt so humbled, so helpless....<br />
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But what I learned in those three days is that I have beautiful, and generous people in my life. Friends shared the link, they gave from their hearts and they sent me kind words and I heard beautiful stories of generosity and sacrifice that made me bawl my eyes out and within three days we got past the 60 percent funded mark! The coolest part is that even if I had imagined who was going to give, or how much the book would raise in the first three days, it would NOT have looked like that!<br />
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It was TRULY incredible! And for the briefest of moments I learned the lesson. I was confident in the Lord! I thought YES! THIS BOOK IS GOING TO BE PUBLISHED HOORAY!!!! I was singing God's praises! YESSSSSS!!! THIS IS HAPPENING!!!! YAY GOD!!!!<br />
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And then two days went by and I didn't get a single supporter.<br />
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Hehehehehe....<br />
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Are you laughing yet?!<br />
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Because you already probably know the punch line, right?!<br />
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That Abigail is back doubting.<br />
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But really how can I?!? How can I doubt that the rest of the money we need for this book to hit shelves will somehow come, and not just arrive, but it'll probably arrive from unlooked for source? I'll have more sweet stories to share of how this book went from being, "my baby" to the baby of a whole bunch of people who believed in it and loved it too. People who identified with our story, who knew that it could bring hope and help to others who find themselves in hard times. In fact, every time, I look at the stationary ( but really BIG NUMBER) on my <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-day-between-a-memoir-of-miracles-book-jesus#/">Indiegogo</a> site, I hear this almost audible whisper.<br />
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<i>This book is bigger than you. </i><br />
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And in reality not only is this book bigger than me, this <i>story </i>is bigger than me! All of this: the truth about who Jesus is- what He did for all of us- it was written before we even drew breath and its being written over and over again in all our lives. I put down on paper just one of those stories, but as I have thought about the sweet souls who have supported my book this past week, I see that same story written and reflected in their lives too.<br />
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In fact, I believe this so very much, that I can only think about the story of those 3 guys in the Old Testament who were about to be thrown into a fiery furnace and they said that they believed their God could save them, but <i>even if He doesn't</i>.....<br />
I feel that even if this book DOESN'T get all the way funded, that somehow, someway, I will be able to see this book come to life- and I will be able to honor all those who have already given and we will all be able to celebrate this story of miracles together.<br />
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So, if you haven't already, head on over to our books site and watch a miracle happen!! Won't you watch with me, to see how in some mysterious and miraculous ways, this book reaches print?!?<br />
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(and if you haven't already supported this project- even if its just sharing it with your own social media network- pleeeeeeease give us a shout out, won't you?!)<br />
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<br />Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-79904742522290170292016-11-21T10:56:00.003-06:002016-11-21T12:16:35.610-06:00I've got good news and bad news ( and more bad news).Last month I took a break from Facebook. Social media had reached this point where I wanted to give everyone a stern talking to, send them to their room and then, in some cases, there was a need for at least one or two spankings. But since I ( sadly, thankfully-whichever) wasn't anyone's mom- I left the conversation.<br />
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But, I would HATE for you to miss out on what happened to our family during the next month while everyone was fighting over politics. I would never do that to you. I would not want you to miss hearing about the time the Wilson's NEARLY DIED OF THE PLAGUE.<br />
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First off, the major downfall of public school!?! Ransom is like a walking petri dish. First he brought home this insane stomach bug that messed with his gut for DAYS and DAYS. The craziest part is that he would seem better, have a good day at home ( driving the rest of the family batty) and then he'd throw up in his bed that night assuring another day home from school! By day 4 I was losing my mind, and I was starting to worry that there was more going on. My already-skinny-little boy was wasting away and he didn't seem to be getting any better. As he lay on the couch staring into space I called the pediatrician to make an appointment.... As I talked to the receptionist I casually stroked my sweet little 6-year-old's head like any motherly-mother would do....<br />
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Wait. My hand froze in mid-stroke.<br />
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What was that?!?!<br />
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I finished up making my appointment and then got closer to Ransom's head to make sure.....<br />
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YES! There was a little bug crawling on his forehead!!!<br />
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I picked it up and took it into the kitchen to get a better look...I then furiously googled images on my phone to confirm.<br />
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Yes, Ransom had LICE.<br />
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And friends, I am not ashamed to say that I nearly LOST MY MIND.<br />
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If I had had a paper bag I would have blown into it. Instead, I did the next best, verbal-processor-thing-to-do: I called my sister, got her out of her weekly bible study and hysterically cried into the phone.<br />
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But it wasn't just myself I was thinking about- or even my other two kids, or Brett- who was on his third week of nightshifts...nope, I was also thinking about my friend- M.<br />
M's husband had just deployed and the week after he left- their house flooded. Leaving her not just alone, 6 months pregnant, with a two year old- but now houseless.<br />
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It had been our PLEASURE to invite them to stay, but now as we looked down the already 4 days of stomach bug running rampant in our house, but also a possible LICE INFESTATION. I felt like we'd invited her out of the frying pan and straight into the house of FIRE.<br />
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The worst part?!?! When I told her we had lice and she mentioned ( as any sane person would) leaving and going to stay with another friend, I had to basically tell her she COULDN'T leave! Not until we'd checked her and her daughter for lice! She now was not only living in the cesspool of the Wilsons, but she ran the risk of being another carrier if she tried to leave it.<br />
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It was truly mortifying.<br />
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Thankfully when I googled, "What to do about lice" one of the first things that popped up was, "Don't freak out." followed by "Don't scare your children."<br />
So I was able to quickly pull myself together and make what followed into a twisted and insane "game". It clearly worked. My kids probably think treating your head with tea tree oil and getting a random headshave is just par for the course with me as their mom....<br />
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We ended up doing the deepest house clean of our lives, shaving Ransom's head down to the scalp and banishing all the rugs, stuffed animals and dress up clothes to the garage for 2 weeks...the lice HAD to be gone!<br />
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I'll now spare you the details of the next 2 weeks when Justice and I both got the stomach bug, followed by back to back colds. Or when Justice missed his own 1st birthday because he was too busy barfing on his "My first birthday" onesie. Instead, I'll skip on ahead, when after another fitful night sleep ( I would find out in a few weeks time that Justice had a double ear infection. hooray.) when I woke up scratching my head....<br />
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And then later in the morning, as I was scratching my head, I pulled my hand out holding a little critter between my finger nails, I knew I COULD NOT HANDLE THIS ALONE.<br />
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But this time, with Thankgiving, more visitors and most importantly of all- My Birthday Purple Hair Dye Job fast approaching, I did not take matters into my own hands. Instead I told Brett that if it was anything under $300 ( a randomly large number that I pulled out of thin air to assure that I got what I wanted, haha) I was going to call those "Lice Doctor" people you find on the internet to come take care of this problem. Sometimes you have to give up and throw money at problems. And if you don't have enough money, then you sell your house and use that money. Which turns into a two birds, one stone situation because you've gotten to sell your lice-house to the next unsuspecting person.<br />
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But, thankfully it was under my dollar limit ( whew!) and the very next day a nice little hair dresser, turned lice catcher arrived at our door ( in an unmarked car! hahaha!) to inspect all our heads! Turns out, I was the only one with lice, some little licE from Ransom must have bailed ship onto me hung out in my lush locks, and then not seen fit to transfer to any of the other members of our family because, why leave the super long thick hair, unless you have to, right?!? RIGHT?!?! And so we should be, thankful for my long thick hair?!?!?! THANKFUL?!!<br />
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But now, according to the Lice Doctor Guarantee our house and heads were finally "safe".<br />
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However, honestly things had been SO BAD for a solid month at that point I absolutely HAD to turn the situation around, so I borrowed from my friend Deb, who had used a line on a unsuspecting plumber months before, and told the Lice Doctor that while she was telling me bad news- that I had lice- that I had some GOOD NEWS for her!<br />
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Because, friends, did you know you can share the Good news of Jesus with someone in just one minute? 56 seconds in my case? And I KNOW you can do it, because I'm a girl of many words and I've been able to do it over and over again! The great part of this particularly short version of the gospel is that it almost ALWAYS sparks good conversation with whoever you're sharing with! And it did in our case. The Lice Doctor and I got to have a really good heart to heart about her thoughts on religion in general and I got to share with her my thoughts on a relationship-a Relationship with Jesus. It wasn't scary, no one got hurt ( other than the 3 lice she found on my head *crying emojis forever* , and this chick got some of the most important information she'll ever hear.<br />
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Thankfully this round of the plague is officially over, here at the Wilson's House. Brett and I got to help lead a training for <a href="http://noplaceleft.net/">No Place Left</a>* here in San Antonio and also receive some great encouragement from all those who attended. And some other cool things have been happening. Brett got to baptize an A/C repair man who had come to our street a few days ago, and who walked away with something so much greater. I got purple hair.<br />
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You know, all good things, all good things.<br />
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* Brett and I have been a part of this movement for a while, mostly when we found out that there is a startling MAJORITY of people in the United States who have no desire to go into a traditional church, but who ARE willing to learn more about Jesus! We've been trying to focus on reaching these unchurched people, meeting with them in our home, their homes and any coffee shop that'll have us! We share the Good News of Jesus in an accessible, reproducible, teachable way based on the principles we see laid out in the Great Commission ( found in Matt 28:18-20) so that those who are hearing about Him can easily share it with their own friends and family. In this way we would like to see No Place (or people group) Left where the Gospel has not been shared. If you're interested in more information about what we're doing, do not hesitate to private message me!<br />
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Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-79271620994262464372016-09-28T13:45:00.002-05:002016-09-28T13:48:32.066-05:00the twilight zone of Justice Tirian<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is a picture of Justice just moments after loosing his lunch all over his bib and side......crazy, right?! </div>
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Justice turned 11 months yesterday. And when I was thinking over the month-what he'd learned, what his milestones were- it was all heavily overshadowed by one all consuming fact. Justice barfs. And not just a little bit of spit up, oh no. He goes hardcore exorcist on everything around him. I think we probably perpetually smell like puke. I have started putting a thick blanket down under his crib because his carpet was getting so stained from all the throw up from his nearly nightly barfing episodes. He would calmly go to sleep and then about 2 or 3 hours later he'd wake up, fuss a little bit and then start loosing his cookies all over everything ( and everyone, if you were the lucky parent who tried to pick him up and calm him down). I started making notes in my phone and he probably throws up about 7 to 10 times in a week on average. I've learned a few tricks to help him from barfing EVERYTHING up....you know, make it a "small barfing event" rather than a cataclysmic "now we need to clean the whole house and do three loads of laundry" type thing, but so far I have yet to find a reason or a pattern for the actual throwing up. He's had blood work done to see if he's allergic to anything. Nothing.<br />
I've taken things out of his diet that he seemed to throw up a lot. But nothing seems to make a difference. I've waited longer after giving him milk before putting him to bed at night and I have learned to never ever push food or drink on him-even if it means that he hasn't had more than a few ounces of milk or water in a whole day!* If I DO try to get him to drink or eat when he pushes it away, then I am most DEFINITELY in for it... It seems to be worse when he has a cold. Then he'll up his barfing to a whole new level. And maybe the fact that he's teething right now? its not like he's snotty or anything....but maybe?! Maybe...maybe....every day I'm considering another possible theory. And yet the the barfing continues. Night and day. The longest stretch we've gone without him throwing up in the past few months has been three days. Randomly at a meal, while playing, after going to bed, while getting his diaper changed...sitting, standing, laying down....You never know when he might let loose.<br />
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But here's the thing. Justice is a pretty chill and laid back baby. He can be a little fussy before he actually throws up, but rarely. He's always suuuuper happy after the fact. And yes, he's small for his age ( he was in the tenth percentile at his 9 month appointment, and since things have not gotten better, and have possibly gotten worse since then-I can only imagine where he is now, and I doubt its very high), and when I weighed him today after about 2 weeks, he'd actually LOST weight from the previous two weeks. So yes. He's small, but he's still got cute chubby cheeks and squeezable thighs...<br />
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*So you can imagine how his lack of eating and drinking also stresses me out! He keeps loosing weight! He completely cut me off breast feeding about half way through the past month, but he refuses all bottles and everything but a regular straw for drinking. So its not like he went from breast feeding to getting his milk in some other fashion! Oh no, this kid drinks like my 6 year old, just a little here and there- in fact, now that I think about it, my 6 year old may drink more then he does!<br />
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I feel like people are just so chill about his barfing when we're around others or when I tell people about it. No one else seems to be worried. And most of the time I'm not worried either. And then he throws up again.<br />
I feel like I'm living in a twilight zone. Where most of the time it looks like I live with a totally normal 11 month old, but on the side I live with a weirdly sick child. And I don't have the answer. And its driving me crazy.<br />
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I saw this print on Instagram from one of my favorite artists<a href="http://www.gracelaced.com/store/"> Ruth Simons</a> and it immediately struck a cord. This is how I feel just about every single day. And right now it is the only thing I can cling to when I'm giving my kid his third bath of the day and doing yet another puke covered load of laundry. </div>
Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-66178796485626898692016-09-08T10:44:00.003-05:002016-09-08T10:55:40.122-05:00"How was your day?!"This week marks Ransom's third week of school and Tabitha's first week of school ( using the word "week" loosely there because she only goes Tues/Thurs). It seems like the perfect time to give a "little " ( and by little I most definitely mean super long, so buckle up.) update on how we are all feeling regarding the new schedule, our decisions to send our kids off to various schooling systems this year etc.<br>
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First off, let's start with Justice. Poor dude. His little routine has taken a major hit, we've pushed and shoved naps into various different spots in order to accommodate his siblings ( hashtag third child problems). The bottom line is that while at first I was sad that Tabitha had to wait two WHOLE WEEKS to start her own little school program ( more on this in a minute), it turned out to be a major blessing. We were able to adjust a little bit at a time regarding Justice's napping ( I often have to wake him up from his second nap to pick Ransom up from school and that kills me just a little each time I have to do it.) as well as adjusting to having less fun and exciting children around to play with/observe/try to ruin their fun. Bottomline, the jury is out on whether Justice will ever really like having his siblings in school. He would much rather nap when he wants and have two people who are ALWAYS entertaining to follow around all day.<br>
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As I alluded to early, Tabitha definitely struggled with sending Ransom off to school. Firstly <i>she</i> wanted to go to school too! She's showing more and more of her extrovertedness these days and as soon as she discovered that it was "school time" she was asking very few minutes when she might leave for school too! It was also hard visiting her school, for family night, two weeks before she actually began. She learned both her teachers names immediately and began to talk about school constantly. She also became a tad more demanding at home "by herself" with Justice and I, and is constantly wanting me to play with her. Turns out she misses having Ransom as a play mate far more than I thought she would! Let's just say everyone was relieved when she had her first day on Tuesday! <div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EmIkDjwEDF4/V9GI5mQJ3mI/AAAAAAAAEMc/nqT_dv1JWZA/s640/blogger-image-1485790552.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EmIkDjwEDF4/V9GI5mQJ3mI/AAAAAAAAEMc/nqT_dv1JWZA/s640/blogger-image-1485790552.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>The fun thing was, Ransom was almost as excited for Tabitha as she was, and the first thing he asked when we picked him up from school that day was how her day went. And as for her day, it went great. In a lot of ways I think we will learn more about Tabitha's school days then we ever did about Ransoms. When we picked her up on the first day, we learned more before we had even left the building then I think we had all year when Ransom was in Prek3! ( in case you are interested, she played doctor in Little Town, did a parachute dance-though they didn't have balls in it like they do at the library!-had apples and cheese for snack, she made a friend who did not like cheese, and they read a book about a dog.) My favorite part of the first day was the confident "Bye Mom." and the quick hug before she ran off to play with magnet blocks. This girl was MADE for preschool! <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8KmmDVWlP_I/V9GI3JLUYiI/AAAAAAAAEMU/uMvHLeE6e94/s640/blogger-image-1642075930.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8KmmDVWlP_I/V9GI3JLUYiI/AAAAAAAAEMU/uMvHLeE6e94/s640/blogger-image-1642075930.jpg"></a></div></div><div><br></div><div>My next favorite part is walking through the quiet and clean children's museum an hour before they open as we drop Tabitha off. Its so cool that the museum is their own private play place for a whole hour before it opens! And knowing how they take EVER. SINGLE. detachable playing toy and sanitize it at the end of the day makes me kind of happy too. The one sad thing about the class is that there is only ONE other girl in the class! I mean, Tabitha is no stranger to playing with boys-she's been doing it for years with Ransom and his friends-but I was hoping for more girl friends for her this year. Thankfully she and the other little girl ( aka the girl who doesn't like cheese) in the class are already getting along great.<br>
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And now for Ransom. We knew going into this year that Kindergarten was going to be an adjustment. But thankfully it was not as rough as I thought it would be! Not by a long shot! Ransom was genuinely excited about going and was a ball of happy nerves and excitement on the first day! I've learned from these short first three weeks that our home as exactly one "morning person" in it, and his name is Ransom. The rest of the family, including Tabitha, speak in monosyllables for a solid hour while Ransom is almost immediately wide awake and ready to discuss which one of his cool t-shirts he is going to wear that day. The 7am alarm is far harder on me and probably Tabitha then anyone else. When we went to meet his teacher the Friday before school started, I instantly liked her. And my instincts seemed to hold, when on the first day of school she was insistent upon letting us know about an incident with another kindergarten teacher who had yelled at Ransom and made him cry followed with a description of all that she had done to make Ransom feel better. Honestly, Brett and I were more worried about whether Ransom had DESERVED to be yelled at ( probably), rather than our son crying. But she was so sweet and sensitive and obviously upset with the other teacher and their actions, that I knew my uber-sensitive son was in the right class. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k8AejSR0g0s/V9GJ-6q6WtI/AAAAAAAAEN0/k9_TnBnpe2c/s640/blogger-image--1049102966.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k8AejSR0g0s/V9GJ-6q6WtI/AAAAAAAAEN0/k9_TnBnpe2c/s640/blogger-image--1049102966.jpg"></a></div></div><div> And speaking of crying. My goal for the first two weeks was to go two days in a row without Ransom having a random melt-down when he got home from school. And by random, I mean <i>random. </i>One day he lost it in a ball of tears about spilling some ranch dressing on his water bottle while eating his afternoon snack. Yeah. His tears came from seemingly no where and were always very intense and lasted a while. One day he cried over remembering an incident that had happened earlier in the day when he'd hurt his chin on a hand railing. Believe me when I say, it was hard for this non-feeler mother to have the right amount of sympathy for these outbursts. But I <i>did </i>know they were more a symptom of Ransom holding in all his "strong emotions" all day at school. They were symptom of him having to be around lots and lots of people and peers for hours and hours. For a little introvert, it was very hard work. So, it wasn't that I wanted the crying fits every day to end because they were inconvenient, but because it would show me that he was learning to adjust. Thankfully now, in week three, he's already done sooooo much better, and I can tell he's starting to level out a bit. Maybe learning to pace himself emotionally throughout the day when it comes to his socializing? But, his coping skills do seem to be maturing. HOORAY! My favorite thing about school for Ransom so far is how much I miss him, I know that sounds strange, but I have so much more emotional capacity for his outburst ( when he has them) now that he's at school! My second favorite thing is seeing how much he really does love school! He's already reading more-something he knew how to do at the end of last year but had zero interest in doing-but something about "being in school" has made him embrace his already known abilities. He talks about his friends a lot and tells us about their electives -gym, music and library ( definitely his favorite part of the day) and while we don't get as much information as we do from, say, Tabitha- if we're patient he does give us pieces of information throughout the afternoon and evening. He loves picking a book out at the library. He likes dancing in gym class and he loves to run errands for his teacher. He also loooooves getting to eat from the cafeteria one day a week (it costs $2.20 so we read the months calendar and then circle one day a week that he particularly likes- you would think that they were a 5 star restaurant the way he raves about their "star shaped cheese sandwiches! hah! But, really, I think he just likes getting to make his own choices about all the different sides and drink etc.) My least favorite part about school is how LONG it is! This would also be Ransom's least favorite part too. If given a choice I don't think he'd want to stop going, but he WOULD want to shorten his day! He often prays that school would be shorter during his nightly prayers, and I too wish that kindergarten was still a half day thing. Sigh.</div><div><br>
Thankfully, I feel that with more "practice" at this whole "school business"- God will answer his prayers, by making the day "seem" shorter.<br>
<br></div>Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-42222380495421360142016-08-25T08:35:00.001-05:002016-08-25T08:39:09.677-05:00Get out of Jail free Card Yesterday was not my best day. I let my kids watch "bonus" screen time while I cried over my kitchen sink. After two weeks of me calling and badgering them after I realized that a SIGNIFICANT portion of our photos and videos were inexplicably missing from our cloud drive, an Amazon representative spent and hour on the phone with me "letting me down easy" that I would never, ever see all the pictures and videos from October 2015-May 2016 again. Sure, it would have taken me hitting the delete button like 10 different times to delete a solid 700 pictures, but <i>apparently</i> it had to be me ( or someone else who has access to our pictures), and not Amazon, because <i>they just don't do that</i>.<br />
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Bottomline: Hilary should take note, if she wants to store top-secret secure documents and then delete them so that NO ONE CAN GET THEM BACK then she should be using the Amazon Cloud. *eye roll*<br />
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This left me crying into my pillow and eating the biggest bowl of Two Cookies Bluebell ( new favorite! Why hasn't someone combined cookies n' cream and cookie dough ice-cream before?!!) because this is not my favorite week anyway...this is the week when we look back and shake are heads that its really been <a href="http://abigailsday.blogspot.com/p/our-twintwin-transfusion-story.html">4 years since we were fighting for Tabitha and Priscilla's lives</a>....August 25 2012 is the day we lost Priscilla. Today is hard for me even now. Sure, four years distance has made it easier, but its still a little weighty. And I think it would be easy to just wallow a bit. I think that's fair, right?!<br />
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But I read something this morning,in Acts 16:25, that really reminded me what an opportunity these moments bring, it says:<br />
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<i>" At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." </i></div>
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Paul and Silas had been thrown in prison, without trial, after preaching the gospel, they really didn't know what was going to happen to them and yet there they were praising God, and the other prisoners <i>were listening. </i> </div>
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I so often take advantage of my "midnight" moments and get a good wallow in ( see: facebook status from last night), but I'm missing opportunities there, sure its not wrong for me to cry about things that are hard, but what an incredible testimony of Paul and Silas! What an audience they had there in the prison as all the other prisoners listened. Because, they were not alone in the prison!!!! I think, so often, when I'm having my cry-over-the-kitchen-sink moments, I feel so very very alone, but in reality I can't tell you how many people have told me similar stories of losing all their pictures, all their journal entries from a certain important period, their Journaling Bible with their letters to their unborn and new babies....story after story! The truth is, NONE of us are alone in our struggles, we are SURROUNDED by people struggling. </div>
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And then there are the harder things, like losing a child, that seem almost insurmountable, but we can be assured that we aren't alone in those heart aches either! Maybe the heart ache looks different, or has a different story, but the bottom-line is that NONE of us are alone at midnight. NONE of us are alone in prison. </div>
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The difference is that I have the Hope of Jesus in my midnight moments. I have the Hope of Jesus in my prison moments. I should not keep that to myself! </div>
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I am sorry for being a bit on the "woe is me" side yesterday, but today I want to share my story, my struggle ( because it is still a struggle! Its not all roses!), but most importantly I want to share my HOPE and my God. Because there are other prisoners in here with me. </div>
Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-19973860951269865612016-08-12T16:12:00.000-05:002016-08-12T16:12:23.609-05:00WHAT NOW?!?! This past weekend we headed to Nacogdoches for Ransom's birthday celebration with family. While we were there, I sat down for coffee with my friend Esther who had taken on the job of doing a grammar edit of my book. Essentially I had given it to her in a hot mess of runon sentences and an over use of ALL CAPS and she had returned it to me covered in a sea of green ink (so kind of her not to use red. It might have killed me.)<br />
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As it turned out, I do not really write with punctuation in mind at all. I know this doesn't surprise you in the least since you all read this blog and it is never well edited either. But, I <i>was </i>an English Major and I DO ( see?!?! I can't stop it!!!) actually know how to write a proper sentence. The thing is, every time I tried to edit my book for myself I would get caught up in the weeds of making some sentence sound better. It was horrible. I could NOT get it done. NOT EVEN A LITTLE. Besides, it took another person doing an intervention to make me take out all those ALL CAPS. Because apparently I like to YELL AT PEOPLE in written form.<br />
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IT'S MY THING, OK!?!<br />
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Annnnyway, so there we sat, and as I passed her a big ol' fat check it really hit me that this can not just be a trifle that I'm doing as a cute little hobby in my spare time any more. For one thing, you just don't invest this much time or now-<i>money</i>, without it holding a little bit more weight than that.<br />
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It's an awful feeling, because now its starting to hit that once again I've gotten myself into one of those "rejection" type situations. You know, like apply for college or deciding to cast all caution to the wind and date that cute boy with good hair, or submit your resume for that job you really want- all those things are now happily in my past. Right where I want them to be, because I do not <i>enjoy rejection. </i>It didn't help that at that moment when I realized how <i>serious </i>this was all becoming- Esther asked me casually "Just what made you decide to write this book, anyway?!"<br />
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In that moment I wanted to run away, crying "I don't knoooooooowwww!" But instead I think I smiled and said, "Because God told me to!" -which is entirely true...I never would have started this endeavor if I hadn't heard it quite so clearly. And yet. And yet, now that I'm here, 3 years in...wondering where I'm going to go once I put all these corrections into my digital copy. Thinking that the response I get from second person (other than myself) to read it through is "Why did you write this!?"- well...sigh....isn't probably a great start.<br />
I have a feeling this whole "book business" is going to be a Personal Growth Endeavor. Which I <i>hate. </i><br />
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So, the bottom-line is: This fall I should be ready to start looking for a book agent and that is a nightmare of a thought.<br />
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<br />Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-65834448621795268612016-07-29T13:47:00.000-05:002016-07-29T14:06:49.909-05:00Daughter DateAt the beginning of the summer I had a Mommy/Daughter date planned for Tabitha and I, but due to the craziness of life and Brett being out of town I had to cancel it last minute.<br>
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Thankfully this past week I received a text from my sweet friend Katie inviting Tabitha and I to join her and her daughter for a play at the local children's theatre. I jumped at the chance and I think it was a grand success ( even though the play itself was decidedly awful*)<br>
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If you don't mind I'm going to document our little date here so that one day I can look back and smile ( read: bawl my eyes out)<br>
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We started our date in good girl fashion by picking out our outfits and getting ready. I let Tabitha wear whatever she wanted and when she heard the name of the play we were going to see was "La Cinderella" she made her choice very quickly! She then went on to pick <i>my </i>outfit for me and also the accessories that we both wore. She was also very much insistent that she and I wore the same lipstick and then she made sure to pack her lip smackers "lip stick" in her puppy purse for the much needed re-application later in the night.<br>
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We then took "prom style" pictures by the front door while Daddy and brothers fawned over her. ( Seriously, Ransom's compliments and kisses for his sister were so sweet! Sure, he was mostly excited just to get his "guys night" started with Daddy...but he also accomplished making his sister feel special, which was great.<br>
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Then off we went in the car by ourselves. Tabitha tends to really like going on little trips alone with me , I know this because she always starts telling me how much she loves me every few minutes. Tabitha's love language: Quality Time.<br>
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I asked Tabitha what music she wanted to listen to and she asked for the "dust to diamonds" song. Luckily, we listen to enough Christian Radio that I was able to narrow down which song she meant pretty quickly, and found it on demand on the Amazon Prime Music App.<br>
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After listening to her song several times in a row followed by a few listens of "Let it Go" and "Move it, Move it" and her letting me know that her REAL favorite songs were Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the ABCs song, she then admired the clouds and the beautiful sky- finally arrived at dinner with our friends.<br>
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We had a tasty dinner at a wonderful cafe called <a href="http://www.bakerylorraine.com/">Cafe Lorraine</a> downtown at The Pearl and my only regret is that we were a little rushed and didn't get to "savor" our time there as much as I would have liked! It's kind of a dreamy spot for a little ( or big) girl on a date complete with a green lawn, twinkle lights and tasty food... we definitely got a lot of stares from admiring "fans" as we paraded back to our cars to head to the theatre....little girls in frilly dresses and crowns will do that.<br>
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We carpooled to the theatre, and my friend and I enjoyed listening to Tabitha and her friend chat in the backseat, overheard:<br>
"It's important to obey your Mommy and Daddy!"<br>
"Oh yes, and to be sweet and kind...AND PATIENT"<br>
"YES! Patience is very very important. And to be loving and share...."<br>
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Haha! Honestly I wish I had recorded more of their little chatter!<br>
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The <a href="http://magiktheatre.org/">Magik Theatre</a> is super cute and decorated with a child's eye in mind and I think Tabitha and her little friend were kind of overwhelmed with the stage and the seating. We ate jelly beans ( that had been conveniently packed in Tabitha's puppy purse) and the girls "read" their programs. Sadly the play itself was a bit too "old" for our girls, and yet, because of some of the crude jokes and crass choices, I'm honestly glad our girls <i>were</i> too young and hopefully didn't notice or get most of what was happening. My friend and I were definitely bummed that Children's theatre has clearly lost its innocence and that we now have to "preview" theatre as well as movies...but such is life! And we ended our night playing in the WONDERFUL Hemisphere Park: <a href="http://hemisfair.org/about/vision/yanaguana-garden/">Yanaguana Garden</a>. I had read about it opening a while ago, but had totally forgotten that it was open! Anyway, the girls ended up playing for a while and enjoying the "late night" ( it was already an hour past their bedtimes!).<br>
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Tabitha was verrrry sleepy when she got home, but was met at the door by here very excited brother who had clearly had a great night too!Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-69141663659854037402016-07-25T14:20:00.000-05:002016-07-25T14:20:37.938-05:00Life hacking<br />
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Who else can believe that July is almost over?!?! Who else is ready for fall to just come already?!? Is it just me, here suffering in the South?! I know my daughter, for one, is ready....she heard my friend talking about Pumpkin Patches the other day and has asked to go every day since. She even resorted to some mind tricks by praying about it during her nightly prayers, "..and thank you for letting us go to the pumpkin patch soon." ...well played, daughter but sadly even Jesus isn't gonna conjure up a pumpkin patch for you in 112 degree heat.<br />
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Anyway, as the summer has rolled on and we've dealt with the hubs being gone for business several times, plus fussy babies, and hot hot hotness....I've collected a few "life hacks" that have helped me survive. Here they are:<br />
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<b>Hack #1</b>:<a href="http://amzn.to/1thBexT"> Smuckers PBJ Uncrustables</a>. Sure, its not hard to make a PBJ and I make at least 3 of them basically 350 days out of the year- because that's all my children ever want to eat for lunch, ever. HOWEVER, there is something truly magical about dropping a few dollars at Costco to get the 18 pack of these puppies and then come lunch time just throwing them on a plate next to the Manna from Heaven that is Pirates Booty and a giant pickle and calling it "lunch". It will take approximately 65 seconds after walking in the house from swimming lessons for lunch to be on the table. This is very important because that is also 65 seconds TOO LONG for a certain hungry baby who wants to be nursed. Now. Basically whether its Uncrustables or some other food that you've found to be fast and "mildly" nutritious, I'm telling you to just GO WITH IT. Not ever meal has to be filled with the food pyramid. Sometimes something's gotta give...so cut yourself a big fat break ( or a piece of zucchini bread made from all those zucchinis that are in season, I bet if you cut yourself some of that too...life will be better, guaranteed)<br />
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<b>Hack #2:</b> Swimming lessons. If you spend money on ONE THING this summer, let it be swimming lessons...but if you DON'T want to spend money on this, did you know that MOST cities provide FREE swimming lessons!?! Look it up! Because, in our house, if Daddy is going to be gone then we're gonna need something to do <i>every single day. </i>This is important for many reasons. Tiring out children. Also it is a ready answer for when Ransom asks me "what are we going to do today?" for the trillionth time.-swim lessons are at the top of the list for ALL summer lists, and if you haven't done yours yet, you need to RECTIFY. Also, I suppose its icing on the cake if my children actually learn to swim. The jury is out on that one. As a former lifeguard going to the pool can by highly stressful. I mostly want to spend the whole time scanning the pool for drowners and yelling at children who aren't my own to "stop running". That said, it is VERY important to me that my children are able to swim without floaties- because, turns out, my kids don't actually wear floaties 24/7 in the off chance that they are near a body of water. How many kids have I saved who fell in the pool when their families were either just arriving or just leaving the pool!?! Yup. A lot.<br />
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<b>Hack #3</b>: Baths. I've trained my older two children to "go take a bath" without any oversight at all. This is wonderful for lazy me, but maybe not so wonderful when you're trying to get "clean children" out of the deal. But I gave up on that a long time ago so we'll just settle for "wet children". And, if you play your cards right- it can take up a whole 20 minutes of your day. That's gold.<br />
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<b>Hack #4</b>: CD player. I wrote a whole<a href="http://abigailsday.blogspot.com/2016/06/listening-pleasure.html"> post on this.</a> So I'll save my breath here. But let me just say, this puppy is getting a work out, and I'm loving it.<br />
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<b>Hack #5: </b>grocery shopping help. This summer, due to the insane heat and also me being me and therefore excessively lazy- I've hated going grocery shopping MORE THAN EVER. This is when I've started incorporating two different services into my life. One, <a href="http://r.wmt.co/d6nb4">Walmart Pick up</a> , (ps if you use the code here, than you get $10 off! ) is AMAZING. Sure, they don't have TONS of locations yet, but I suggest you at least clicking on that link and putting in your zip code, because you never know-there might be one close by, and also if their isn't I have a feeling that if we all put our zip codes in over and over maybe they'll get a clue and put in more locations ( this is just a theory and not at all confirmed. Abigail Wishful Thinking, if you will). People have asked, and yes, I have gotten produce this way and I was actually surprised at the selection. I feel like in some cases they had a better apple selection then when I had picked them out myself.<br />
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Anyway, there is NO FEE for using the service ( only a $30 minimum) and you literally shop online and then drive up and PICK UP YOUR GROCERIES FROM YOUR CAR at the assigned time. Um. That's basically God's gift to me. We live in the golden age, people. GOLDEN AGE.<br />
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Two, I've used Amazon Prime's NOW which guarantee's to deliver certain items within two hours. This is a much more expensive endeavor, and I save it for "emergencies". But I <i>have </i>used it to have Butter brought to my door when I had forgotten it and just could not face the 100 degree afternoon heat with my 3 children. A girls gotta do....<br />
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So, enough from me! What are your current Summer hacks?!? I've got another month of summer to get through, so I'm gonna need all that you've got! Let's get through this together...<br />
<br />Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-86984207391064210372016-06-30T15:32:00.000-05:002016-06-30T15:58:50.135-05:00Listening pleasure<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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Hello from the end of June! How did <i>that </i>happen!?! How did I get through the whole first month of summer without doing even half the things on my "summer to-do list"?! Is this just me?!!<br>
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Of course, to be fair, my to-do list looked like "clean out all five of your junk drawers-because no one needs that many junk drawers" ...but still....time is flying by!<br>
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I did want to check in before we get too far into July to share a little secret with you....this summer, due to all my "projects" ( junk drawer cleaning not included), I hadn't had as much time to read out loud to Ransom as I would like....THANKFULLY I purchased a cheap<a href="http://amzn.to/29exp6W"> CD player on Amazon </a>while Brett was out of town for work for several weeks. And if you haven't seen Ransom's Review of his latest book you can watch it now:<br>
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*side note* if you've spent ALL DAY with a 3 and 5 year old you will find that dinner time is a new level of hell for you. It is a terrible time of grumpy children who WILL hate all foods that don't start with P and end with A and have two Zs and I hate, hate, hate dinner time when Brett is gone. SOoOoOO in came the CD player, which I hoped to use to listen to books on CD while we ate so that my children would be too distracted by the story to complain about things like "green foods" and "things that aren't pizza"<br>
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The CD player turned out to be Ransom's new favorite thing and he will literally listen to books ALL DAY if I let him.<br>
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But the other thing that he has on absolute repeat are these gems that you all need to stop and purchase RIGHT NOW.<br>
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They are actually right out of my own cassette tape filled childhood and a few years ago I remembered them, did a little research and was happy to find that they'd been converted to CD and could be easily purchased online.<br>
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These wonderful stories are each based on a different composer and tell a fun little kid friendly story that tells you facts about that composers life, all the while playing a wide selection of his music in the back ground. Turns out this was how, to this day, I can "name that composer" about 90 percent of the time on my classical music station- and also smugly tell Brett that it was Beethoven's 7th Symphony that made that scene in the last X-men so powerful. All that said-these CDs are WONDERFUL even if you DON'T want to be a classical music snob. They're really entertaining and a great way to fritter away an hour on your next road trip. Or if you're my kid, you'll just listen to them over and over again for a week straight.<br>
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Mama was not complaining.<br>
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So, here's the link to my three favorite. There are others. But you NEED to start with these three!<br>
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<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h5oQ9zH5cU8/V3WA0uw3YcI/AAAAAAAACn4/GexmnfT3j6A/s640/blogger-image-1563285537.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h5oQ9zH5cU8/V3WA0uw3YcI/AAAAAAAACn4/GexmnfT3j6A/s640/blogger-image-1563285537.jpg"></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br></div><div style="text-align: center;">( if you don't mind, use my Amazon links above and I will benefit a tiny bit from your purchase.) </div>
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Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-65295636375147484832016-06-02T13:49:00.000-05:002016-06-02T13:49:06.999-05:00Ransom Reviews: Indian in the cupboardFriends, I'm here to share Ransom's first book review with you all. We finished his first "summer" book yesterday and I said, "Hey, Ransom lets do a video book report!" and that is all the instructions I gave. I thought it was funny that he introduced himself so professionally!<br />
Kids.<br />
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Anyway, I needed this little bright spot in my day since our brand new (very expensive) A/C went down in the middle of the night last night apparently do to a "loose wire" according to the repair guys. Um. Not ok.<br />
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Also, Justice was up half the night being upset about Life. At least that's what I'm going to assume the reason was- I spent $25 for a doctors visit just to prove that he wasn't upset about anything that requires medicine. Money well spent (!?) That said, he's now in his room taking a nice, lovely nap and I'm having to be all adult and <i>not</i> nap because of the whole "having other children" business. Unfair.<br />
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Annnnywho, hope you enjoy Ransom's review. For anyone who's actually <i>read </i>The Indian in the Cupboard, do you find it interesting that Ransom does not mention ANY of the pretty stressful, high-suspense moments?! What does that say about him?! Let's psychoanalyze him in the comments section, shall we?! ( JUST KIDDING!)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Epcyq4X3HVM" width="420"></iframe>Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-51316094363283657612016-06-01T14:19:00.003-05:002016-06-01T14:19:22.091-05:00Summer reading fun!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, as we head into summer something that we will NOT be stopping around our house is read-aloud-books! If there is anything I feel suuuuuper passionately about its reading aloud to my children. I've got a MAJOR soapbox issue when it comes to reading and I believe the reason so so many kids today struggle with it and downright don't enjoy reading is because they were not read TO enough! ( which is a TRAGEDY!):<br />
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Personally, I think reading to our children, or rather just having books read to our children* is the absolute best way for our kids to gain a desire to read more ( they realize what they're "missing" and want to practice reading more) and better. After all, if they're just familiar with books on their own reading level ( aka often very short, not very developed plot wise, usually not particularly captivating ) then they're never going to really have a desire to work harder to get to all of the AMAZING books that are out there!!!<br />
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But first let's get to that asterisk* : Reading out loud is actually not just the 'act of reading words on a page in an out loud voice.' It is SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. You also have to think about what the listener is hearing, you have to master inflection ( scary passages in a scared voice, happy passages with an upbeat rhythm etc, ) and speed ( not too fast, not too slow). And as it turns out not a lot of people know this, or have taken the time to practice. Because, yes, it takes practice. I know for a FACT that I have gotten better at reading aloud to children since having my own children. Practice does indeed make perfect, or it at least shows you areas that you need to work on. If your kid keeps getting up and walking away then MAAAAYBE just maaaaybe its not the book that is boring ( although, to be fair, that's possible too) but maybe its your monotone reading voice. But, don't worry....if dramatic reading is not something you're up for then please PLEASE do not think that read-aloud books are not for you and your kids! In fact, don't even feel like this is some kind of great fault! Not everyone is cut out for dramatic reading, but have no fear, thanks to modern technology read-aloud books can be in your future too!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Studies say that kids who see their Dad's reading and are read to by their father's are more likely to read themselves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Crazy. But apparently true. </span></div>
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Start by, thinking about the time you spend in the car (Everyone with one of those awful built in DVD players in their car, PUT THEM AWAY! You are WASTING perfectly good car time! *unless you're on vacation for hours and hours in which case, lets all watch Kung Fu Panda 1-3 please and thank you) Instead, hit up your neighborhood library and check out a million and one books on CD! I promise, that if you start by doing it in the car ( where your child is already strapped in) then your child will also be 'trained' in being a good book listener ( because yes it does take practice to be a listener too! Ransom started out not loving it, but only doing it so he could get screen time...now we're at the point where he doesn't even get the screen time any more but just asks for more chapters! AAMAAAAAZZZZING!) . Pretty soon you and your kids will all be delving into a wonderful world of books too!!!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Not a chapter book exactly, but we do a lot of reading for all ages around here. </span></td></tr>
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Ok! So those who are ready to start practicing reading aloud, the good news is that most of the books that are great for being "starter" read aloud books ( fast paced, fun, short chapters) are also pretty easy to read....so you and your kids can grow together! And also those of you who just want to hit up the audio books-that's great too! Or hey a great mix of both is also wonderful! I know this summer I plan on doing both!! ...now I'll just say there are a BUNCH of great reading resources that have good reading lists for kids divided by age group particularly on Pinterest. But for fun, and also because this way I will have my list in one easy to reach place, here is the tentative list of the books we'll be reading this summer:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TVzc45vozFk/V08zkQ57LFI/AAAAAAAACnI/bZSBHFmWR1Q/s640/blogger-image--776304203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TVzc45vozFk/V08zkQ57LFI/AAAAAAAACnI/bZSBHFmWR1Q/s640/blogger-image--776304203.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We even read on vacation!! </td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375847537/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0375847537&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=4J2BD6NGCLAARSDC" nbsp="">The Indian in the Cupboard</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0375847537" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ( we're currently reading this and Ransom HATES it when I stop reading...we're reading about 3 chapters a day and he's pleading for more).<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380709244/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0380709244&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=FKM4GT5QP3PTYRHC" nbsp="">The Mouse and the Motorcycle</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0380709244" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316058432/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0316058432&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=ATYIYMMZEG6YFOB2" nbsp="">Mr. Popper's Penguins</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0316058432" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142402257/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0142402257&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=GWF6ZZUICLFNSXDA" nbsp="">The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0142402257" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440400597/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0440400597&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=RQWUSFGZQ7AYA4VB" nbsp="">All-of-a-Kind Family</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0440400597" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0763666661/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0763666661&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=PYGMLASV5EN3MHSX" nbsp="">Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0763666661" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312380038/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312380038&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=EDW2OW35IWNDKJY4" nbsp="">The Cricket in Times Square (Chester Cricket and His Friends)</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0312380038" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0152047379/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0152047379&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=635MKY7IPQPMHOU3" nbsp="">The Borrowers</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0152047379" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064471098/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0064471098&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=KUICC6F5ZQZBJRCS" nbsp="">The Silver Chair (The Chronicles of Narnia #4)</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0064471098" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064405052/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0064405052&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=JZKH6QRVVC52CBUV" nbsp="">The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia)</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0064405052" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0689716044/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0689716044&linkCode=as2&tag=abigailsday-20&linkId=O6YP7ZHXMUO3FCXP" nbsp="">The Bears on Hemlock Mountain</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=abigailsday-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0689716044" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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So there you go! These are the books I've come up with for our summer reading, and I probably need to add just one or two more to fill up the summer at the rate we are going! I think I'm going to do a little blogging project with Ransom after we've finished with each book- maybe a little video book report or something, I haven't decided yet, but it'll be fun ( and probably funny!) so stay tuned! </div>
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Also, let me know if you have any great titles on YOUR reading list for the summer that you're excited to read/listen ! I'd love to hear about them and maybe read along with you! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I wear a lot of white shirts while reading out loud apparently....</td></tr>
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Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-34249517373425725172016-05-26T14:48:00.003-05:002016-05-26T14:48:53.203-05:00A couple of very important life lessons: <div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Look how little they were exactly one year ago on moving day! </span></div>
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A few days ago we celebrated ONE YEAR of being in our house!! WHAAAAAT!?!?! Thanks Timehop for letting me know! Honestly, things were SO crazy a year ago with renovations and packing and being pregnant that I hadn't kept the <i>exact day</i> in my memory banks- its hard enough to remember THREE KIDS birthdays. Whew! Tough stuff. <div>
So thanks to my time hop app I learned that we'd been doing life in our house for a whole 366 days. Of course, come to find out, the house itself clearly remembered that it had been exactly a year because it chose that day <i>exactly </i>to give us the typical first anniversary gift, and allow the HVAC to go the way of the ghost and start leaking water into our garage. We then learned several things: </div>
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1. Our warranty company had lied to us the year before when we'd questioned them about the A/C-saying that we thought it might need replacing. They'd said "ooooh noooo, its totally fine!" Ok. Just kidding. Maybe "lie" is a strong word. Maybe when they look at something that's totally rusted out they think that actually means "could probably survive another year."- poTAto/PoTAAAto. </div>
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2. When the house was inspected only one year before they'd failed to mention that the A/C was not up to code- and had RANDOM venting and piping going into crazy-and unhealthy places. Like, say, our guest bathroom ( venting) and the garage ( piping). Cool. Very cool. Sorry Bro-in-law who lived in our guest suite for about 7 months, hope you don't have any long lasting effects of the weird venting business. EEEEKKK! </div>
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3.Apparently our savings account was about to be depleted. like whoa. HVACs are Not. Cheap. </div>
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So, so much learning. So much growing as a person. Honestly, could it GET any better when it comes to being all grown up!?!! I submit not! When you're playing house when you're 7 years old THESE were the moments I tried to replicate: vetting a/c repair companies and trying to decide just how much money you can afford to give over up front and how much you're going to have to be forced to pay over time. YAY! That's exactly how I played house as a kid. *sigh* </div>
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As I joked with Brett, I'm SO glad that we decided to go away to the beach last weekend because its clearly the last VACAY we're having for a long while.</div>
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( side note: I hate debt. The first debt we'd had since we were very first married was buying our house last year, I kept telling myself that having a house note is NOT THE SAME THING, but in my mind it is and I won't be fully happy again until we don't have any debt at all, that said, sometimes your A/C dies and you live in a city where you need an A/C 10 months out of the year and those apparently cost a fortune and you have to go into debt for that...and apparently a lot of people think debt is no big deal, but it will seriously eat away at me until this is paid off...so sorry, that's just me making a mountain out of a mole hill. Promise I will now stop complaining about my little bitty problems. Sigh. )</div>
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Speaking of, have you ever taken a "quick weekend vacation" with three kids under the age of 6?! Its cool. real cool. But seriously. I've learned a couple of things that will make that vacation a success and here they are: </div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XIWeUa6QADg/V0dRVhyLB8I/AAAAAAAACmU/70n4t1qpnA8hDpariBiJTqJJGbJ9sukPACLcB/s1600/2016-05-22_004501000_07513_iOS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XIWeUa6QADg/V0dRVhyLB8I/AAAAAAAACmU/70n4t1qpnA8hDpariBiJTqJJGbJ9sukPACLcB/s320/2016-05-22_004501000_07513_iOS.jpg" width="235" /></a></div>
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1. Don't get a hotel room! You can find a beach house for the same price, sometimes cheaper! Airbnb, Vrbo, they all make it SUPER easy to find something that'll fit your needs. </div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nEOyE0v-qwY/V0dRdLlfTUI/AAAAAAAACmo/rPZS_edpUFEU9SH100n8W2i2PfEl-DMYQCLcB/s1600/2016-05-21_014924921_375E8_iOS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nEOyE0v-qwY/V0dRdLlfTUI/AAAAAAAACmo/rPZS_edpUFEU9SH100n8W2i2PfEl-DMYQCLcB/s320/2016-05-21_014924921_375E8_iOS.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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2. Make sure said beach house has a LAUNDRY ROOM. I did 4 loads of laundry in two days. Basically every time we went to the beach I did a load of laundry. It reduced the sand and grossness of the beach aspect by 1 trillion points. Also, kids, they seriously make a lot of laundry! This made returning home a few days later a breeze because laundry was already done. boom. </div>
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3. Take basic groceries and a million billion snacks along. Taking groceries, even going to a legit grocery store ( not just a corner store where the cost of milk is the cost of a small midsize sedan) while on vacation can really cut costs. And my kids are just always better behaved when they have eaten their weight in Pirates Booty. ( Do you not know about Pirates Booty?!? Its basically the #1 mom approved junk food of toddlers everywhere, go buy yourself a bag as big as your body at costco and thank me later). </div>
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4. Don't forget the pack n' play. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, but this happened and we had to drive 30 minutes to the nearest Wal-Mart to buy a new one. Oooops. But at least it was much more fun going to Wal-Mart on vacation then on just a normal day, right?!?! ( I also bought donuts and muffins and Tabitha complimented me on my shopping skills, she's clearly been judging my bad grocery shopping silently from the cart for 3 years, apparently I've been "over buying" when it comes to all those fruits and veggies and good proteins I've been insisting on purchasing all these years. ha!) </div>
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5. Get a house that has a giant TV so that your kids will wake up extra early because they are SO EXCITED about watching cartoons on the giant TV. Sigh. </div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KhE-Bb01suk/V0dRbx3UVxI/AAAAAAAACmY/vFsdT0FYL6Qo2NnS6aM6bamMrod-9cVwACKgB/s1600/2016-05-21_132126548_19C46_iOS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KhE-Bb01suk/V0dRbx3UVxI/AAAAAAAACmY/vFsdT0FYL6Qo2NnS6aM6bamMrod-9cVwACKgB/s320/2016-05-21_132126548_19C46_iOS.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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6. Thanks to having a beach house 2 minutes from the beach we would put swim suits on the kids before we left the house and just pack a pair of underwear for the end of the day, we'd then just pull off swimsuits next to the van ( discretely hiding under towels etc) and they'd ride home in undies to take a serious shower. Yup. Our kids stripped down in our van and rode around in their undies. We are AWESOME. </div>
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7. Get a fully detailed car clean when you get home. Seriously, it will be needed, even though we did the whole "ride home in your undies" thing there was still plenty of sand and crushed gold fish in our van....also, I hear that salt water is bad for your car?!?! So drop a chunk o' change and get that sweet ride detailed. But also, it took 2 and a half hours!!!! WHAAAAAT!?!?!? Clearly they had never seen a car so dirty....</div>
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So there you go!! Hopefully you gleaned a few little life lesson nuggets from this post- or at the very least got a laugh or two at our expense. If you enjoyed this, feel free to send me a check for a million dollars. Kidding, kidding....but really. For the first time EVER I'm considering selling my soul to the Mommy Blogger wagon.... But don't worry, I will resist and you'll continue to read my blog for unsolicited and unsponsored opinions because that's just the kind of lazy/nice I am. </div>
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Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-9702776880391477332016-05-24T22:17:00.002-05:002016-05-24T22:17:48.069-05:00We did it!! Homeschooling year in review! Tonight I threw a little "end of school party" for the kids and some of our homeschool friends! It mostly started because I bought some of those amazing water balloons that fill up like 50 of them in a minute flat ( man, I'm a SUCKER for those things! They are as much fun to me as they are to the kids! haha!) and it quickly morphed into a full on water party in our back yard. It ended up being SO much fun with ten kids running around making our back yard into a lake. And I'm so glad we did it because homeschool kids need an end of the year party too!!<br />
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Plus, I feel like celebrating! I honestly cannot believe we were able to accomplish so much this year considering we also had a BABY in the smack middle of the year! WHEW! But accomplish we did, Ransom can now read about 50+ sight words and has a strong understanding of sounding words out. He has mastered the Level 1 readers in the Learn-to-Read section of the library ( best way to describe it) and has really learned to love reading by way of being read TO ( which in my opinion is the biggest accomplishment!). Together we've read about 10 chapter books this year. He's also learned to add and subtract numbers from 1-10, tell basic time ( mostly just the hours and the quarter and half hours...still struggling with the minutes a bit), basic graphing and number line work. He can count to 100 and understands and can work with 10s and ones.<br />
We've learned about half a dozen different countries and their culture and geography. He's learned about maps and flags and some basic knowledge of the United States as well as our home state of Texas.<br />
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As far as "Knowledge" goes I feel like we did a pretty good job of mastering kindergarten. And yet....<br />
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There are some things that we're struggling with. Things that in the end have helped us to make the decision to send Ransom to Kindergarten again. This time it'll be at the local elementary school right down the street. While I still second guess our decision I am ultimately excited to see what next year will bring. For one thing, I know that only GOD truly knows why this was the right call for Ransom for next year, and I'm interested to see how that reveals itself. For instance, this past year, if you'll remember-I wondered WHY God made it clear that homeschooling was the way to go especially since I was going to have a baby! Well, that became all to clear when we spent a week in the hospital with Justice and Ransom and Tabitha were able to not worry about missing any school! God is so faithful!<br />
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In the end what really helped me make up <i>my</i> mind regarding our decision to send Ransom to public school next year was when I finally sat down and made a list of the goals I had for him to accomplish. Of my goals for him for next year only ONE of them was academic ( read fluently)- the rest were things like: Learn to be OK when the schedule changes and is different from what he expects. Learn to get along with a larger verity of people. Learn to be OK being alone in a room for any length of time. Learn to play by himself. Have greater understanding of people from different backgrounds.<br />
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Now, I'm not saying that these goals for Ransom will be accomplished at public school, and I also reserve the right to call it a big fat failure and take him out of school after a month! But the bottom-line is that with a few of those goals I HAVE tried a lot of things to help Ransom and we've gone backwards instead of forwards ( for instance the not wanting to be alone in a room has only gotten worse as the year has progressed!) and so I am curious, as the door to public school stands open to us, if it will benefit Ransom in these areas of struggle and growth. Also, since Ransom will only be turning 6 a week before school starts, it seemed like a good idea to give him the "head start" of having to not necessarily worry about any of the academic stuff this next year while he deals with a lot of the more emotional elements of being in school. In that regard I feel very good about having this next year be his "official" kindergarten year!<br />
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So there it is! I <i>do </i>hope that homeschooling is something that we do again the future, and even though, I'm not gonna lie, the idea of having a bit more "freedom" in my own day sounds kinda amazing and having hopefully a little more emotional capital to give to my kids by the end of the day sounds pretty incredible too ( homeschooling has been an EMOTIONAL roller coaster! whew!), I know that this is something we will return to again as an option by the end of next year! ( This whole each year, each child method might get a bit tiring for you readers so maybe I'll spare you the emotional will they/won't they upheaval next year!)<br />
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And incase you're curious: Next year Tabitha will be doing a two days a week/3 hour preschool at the <a href="http://www.thedoseum.org/littledoers/">Doseum </a>. THIS I am SO excited about! I know she is going to absolutely loooooove having her very own 'activity' to do and a place to spend with new friends. She's definitely my little social butterfly and I can't wait to watch her spread her wings a bit more this next year!<br />
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But don't forget, by August when all this supposed schooling starts I'll have an active and mobile 10 month old to keep me busy at home. Wouldn't want me to good bored or anything ;-)<br />
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<b>Disclaimer: </b><br />
Dear Family and Friends, I love being able to share our plans with you as well as some of the reasons why we choose what we choose for our children. Do keep in mind that I don't always share ALL our reasoning, however. And I know that you'll trust Brett and I to make the best decisions for our family. However sharing at least in part here on my blog is something I do because I also love to hear your thoughts and challenges and stories too! I was so pleased with the support I received last year when we decided to homeschool-from parents who did the same and also from parents who chose to send their kids to school, it was refreshing to remember that we each have different kids, different lives and different situations, but we ALL have loving our kids and wanting the best for them in common! I hope to see the same support from you all this year as well! And as always, thank you for loving and cheering us on! We feel it!<br />
<br />Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-46435322396002456302016-05-18T14:16:00.001-05:002016-05-18T14:16:14.925-05:00How to ( not) write a book: 25 easy steps Step 1. Your wonderful husband is working the late shift today, meaning you got to sleep in a little bit and he helped out with the kids all morning. SCORE!<br />
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Step 2. Now, its 12:30pm and you aren't emotionally exhausted and drained of all life force and yet its almost nap time. Things are looking good!<br />
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Step 3. Put baby down for nap.<br />
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Step 4. Take toddler to potty.<br />
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Step 5. See pile of towels half way put away on the counter and remember you have laundry in the washer.<br />
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Step 6. Run and switch out the laundry<br />
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Step 7. Read stories to toddler and 5 year old.<br />
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Step 8. Put toddler down for rest time.<br />
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Step 9. Run around house finding her blanket and stuffed animal for her.<br />
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Step 10. Tell 5 year old that his "quiet time is starting"<br />
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Step 11. Tell him to stop following you around the house. QUIET TIME HAS STARTED.<br />
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Step 12. Realize you're incredibly thirsty. Probably because you haven't had anything to drink since your morning coffee at 8am. Oops<br />
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Step 13. Get yourself glass of water, realize lunch things are still all over the counter. BUT NO! You are focused! You WILL work on your book edits today!!<br />
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Step 14. FORCE SELF TO LEAVE KITCHEN.<br />
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Step 15. Tell 5 year old to STOP FOLLOWING YOU AROUND! GO TO YOUR QUIET LEGO CORNER NOW!!!!<br />
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Step 16. Realize your computer is dead.<br />
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Step 17. Track down cord for computer.<br />
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Step 18. Settle into chair with computer and cord.<br />
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Step 19. Realize you left glass of water and baby monitor in room with 5 year old. Go retrieve it. Field questions about afternoon plans.<br />
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Step 20. Settle into chair with computer, cord, baby monitor and glass of water. YOU. ARE. SO. READY.<br />
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Step 21. Baby monitor starts beeping. Battery is dying. Go retrieve cord for baby monitor.<br />
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Step 22. Settle into chair with computer, cord, baby monitor and its cord, glass of water...You are SO READY to work! Then you realize that baby has now woken up.<br />
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Step 23. Just give up already.<br />
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Step 24. Write this post.<br />
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Step 25. Try again later?!?! !Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-59332501840291642882016-04-28T09:54:00.000-05:002016-04-28T10:07:34.062-05:00Preach.I think its pretty clear from my last post that things haven't been peachy around here lately. Life is kicking my little ( not so little) booty in a big way.<br />
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It doesn't help that Justice-who <i>was</i> the easiest baby ever is going through...<i>something. </i>And I feel like I've tried every option and read every baby forum....I am reminded that babies are basically One Giant Mystery most of the time.<br />
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But when Abigail is faced with a mystery what does she do?!?! She <i>fixes things. </i>And once All The Things are fixed ( other than the one she'd really like to fix, obviously), then she <i>plans all the things. </i>Which is why for about 3 weeks I have been MILDLY obsessed with getting a tour of the local Elementary School. And P.S. When I say <i>mildly </i> we all know that I'm really really obsessed, right?! I don't have to spell that out for you, right? I mean, we've been doing this for a long time....<br />
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So, I pushed and I planned and those people at the Elementary clearly thought I was <i>crazy </i>for wanting a Tour of their school because they WOULD NOT return my calls! And <i>then </i>when I finally went up there to FORCE THEIR HAND, they essentially laughed in my face and told me <i>someone would call me</i> which is code for <i>go away. </i><br />
So ANOTHER week goes by and Ransom is sick and Justice is fussier and fussier and I'm going even crazier and I don't see any end to my life as it currently is, ever. I just get up in the morning and take care of the needs of three little people, one of which WILL NOT leave my side for even a second, another who's a raging threenager and another who I can't seem to <i>fix. </i> And <i>clearly this is it, I will be doing this for ever and ever and ever amen. </i>And so I sink further down into my OCD fixing hole.<br />
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And then yesterday, I was reading in my quiet time and this verse came across my path...<br />
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<i>Be Still in the Presence of the Lord</i></div>
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<i>and wait Patiently for </i></div>
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<i>Him to Act. </i></div>
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<i>Oh. </i><br />
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So, apparently running yourself ragged is NOT actually the correct response when Life is using you as its punching bag?! And I repented of my crazy ways. I let go of my obsession with the Elementary School, I stopped "bargaining" with God about the hub's ministry trip. ( that's right, he just left for 5 days. Rock on.) </div>
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Of course, I then got up from repenting, took Justice to his 6 month Well Check and during the time my phone was off to meet with the doctor, I got two phone calls. One from the Elementary School ( of course, who when I tried to call back, could no longer take my calls again.) and then another call from my husband to let me know that he'd be gone for half of May and then half of June for work trips.</div>
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Laugh out loud. </div>
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Life, it's just <i>sooooo funny </i>sometimes! </div>
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But as I meditated on these things, wondering where to go from there, my 5 year old was building a Lego Creation and it was not going according to what he was clearly picturing in his mind, he was getting MORE and MORE frustrated, forcing pieces into place, jamming down harder and harder until it finally broke into several pieces. AGHAGAGHAFHADAHGHG! He ran to me crying in rage and frustration. </div>
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Me too, buddy, me too...</div>
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And then I saw myself as I really am.....a 5 year old getting mad about something silly. Throwing a fit when things don't fit together perfectly. </div>
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That verse from above? There's more: </div>
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<i>The Lord directs the steps </i></div>
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<i>of the godly</i></div>
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<i>He delights in every </i></div>
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<i>detail </i></div>
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<i>of their lives. </i></div>
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Delights. </div>
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In. every. Detail. </div>
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So, here I am, a reformed ( but only just) crazy person who's going to lean hard on the fact that <i>this: </i></div>
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A precocious 5 year old, a funny 3 year old and an adorable baby. They're all mine. They are the details. And I will delight in them. They are the details made especially for me to Teach me and draw me closer to the Lord. And so I will delight in them...<br />
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But only if I get a bunch of coffee first....</div>
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Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-65180015941696027222016-04-22T13:51:00.003-05:002016-04-22T14:33:40.543-05:00A Matter of survivalFriends, I must come before you with hat in hand and tell you that I was wrong. I was way way wrong. <a href="http://www.abigailsday.blogspot.com/2016/03/daydreams.html">Not too long ago, I said that having three kids wasn't <i>that </i>bad!</a> ( I still stand by that, it's totally worth it) and that there were only three things that it had effected ( sleep, getting anything done outside the house and grocery shopping).... I was way wrong. <div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0Gx0hBbj0yo/VxpzTyNEsBI/AAAAAAAACk4/uYu34buQuZA/s640/blogger-image-1225042759.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0Gx0hBbj0yo/VxpzTyNEsBI/AAAAAAAACk4/uYu34buQuZA/s640/blogger-image-1225042759.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br><div>
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There were two other very important things that I forgot to mention. </div>
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One: eating. Now, even before I had three kids I struggled with finding time to eat. This has only gotten exponentially harder with another person in the house. Particularly one who actually requires me physically for its own meals. Its gotten to be so common place that I rarely even notice that its 10:30 and nothing but coffee ( because you <i>have </i>to make time for that! Priorities people!) has passed my lips. </div>
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I <i>did </i>however notice this past week when I got a text from a friend complaining about her late night the night before and how for "working ladies" like herself it was just too much to stay out so late.... that I started to wonder if it would be possible to reach through the phone and throttled her with my bare hands...so I realized that "Hmmmm....maybe Abigail With Low Blood Sugar isn't actually good for mankind?!?!" </div>
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Two: clean hair. </div>
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Now, I'd already made peace with my "every other day is good enough for me" showering schedule. I mean, sure I enjoy the weekends when I can take two showers, two whole days in a row...but during the week- unless something unusual ( like exercise) happens then I have become contented with every other day. This is mostly because showers must either be in the morning or the evening when all the children are either confined to beds or are confined to the glowing box in the living room, and often at both these times another VERY IMPORTANT OPTION is also on the table: Sleep. And I probably don't have to tell you that I sadly pick the later pretty much 100% of the time. Sorry. But deodorant is pretty strong and a clean pair of undies can go a long way...plus in a pinch baby wipes aren't just for babies. </div>
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HOWEVER, if you are on this particular showering schedule there is no wiggle room for a missed shower day and THAT is something that three kids just does not afford: Wiggle room. And this week the stars aligned to where I had a sick kid, a very very fussy baby who was up for HOURS after he should have been in bed, and a husband that was working a very late shift. I had taken a shower on Monday and made the fatal mistake of not washing my hair. Little did I know the week ahead. And so sure enough Tuesday passed without a shower. No biggie. It happens more often than I would like to admit. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e10E7JdKOKg/Vxp8VMABKhI/AAAAAAAAClM/6-gHKzTkhmI/s640/blogger-image--920659888.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e10E7JdKOKg/Vxp8VMABKhI/AAAAAAAAClM/6-gHKzTkhmI/s640/blogger-image--920659888.jpg"></a></div><br></div>
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But then Wednesday rolled around and instead of getting my normal allotted shower I got a very sick kid and a meeting that I needed to leave for in 5 minutes. So, sure, I got a quick shower...but no hair washing: I didn't think those people would appreciate Wet Hair Abigail. </div>
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THEN Thursday happened- my hair was a HOT MESS minus the "hot" part and I had had to resort to a hair wrap to look presentable- but a very very fussy baby cried and cried and cried ( and cried some more and then threw up and required a 10pm bath- so when <i>that </i>finally settled down- Sleep won and I promised myself that I would get up early and wash it. Surprise, surprise when "morning" rolled around and I realized that between all my children I'd gotten two hours in a row at ONE POINT during the night, I was pretty sure I could wear that hair wrap one more day. </div>
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Of course, when the clock hit 8am and all my kids were up and I was awake enough to realize that what I had rationalized earlier was a BIG MISTAKE, it was much too late and I had to take Ransom to a doctors appointment in 30 minutes. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Lz9drW_A3mA/Vxp8Warfi3I/AAAAAAAAClQ/AwPHrt5s-lI/s640/blogger-image--367874553.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Lz9drW_A3mA/Vxp8Warfi3I/AAAAAAAAClQ/AwPHrt5s-lI/s640/blogger-image--367874553.jpg"></a></div><br></div>
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Sigh....</div>
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And that is how I skipped lunch today to take a shower and wash my hair. ( the Hubs was leaving in 20 minutes and I had to choose which one I wanted to do). </div>
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Hashtag holythreekidsbatman</div>
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</div>Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-16765545346083376152016-04-15T11:17:00.000-05:002016-04-15T11:26:05.711-05:00School UpdateI can really tell that you're all on the edge of your seats regarding the school situation at the Wilson Household. Yup. I thought so.<br />
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So, today's your lucky day! It's been ages since we've talked homeschooling, or schooling in general around here but I'm ready to hash it all out for you, therapy style. Thanks for not charging me an arm and a leg for this later.<br />
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First off, starting in the new year we began homeschooling again in earnest. As in, we started having routine and structure in our home to some degree. I had taken off a few months as I had foreseen due to the holidays, a baby and then the craziness of Justice's sickness ( nope, hadn't foreseen that!) but we got back into it because lets be real here, <i>I </i>needed some structure to our days and so did <i>Ransom, bless him. </i>He takes after me in so many ways and is continually asking "what are we going to do today? What are we going to do after naps? What are we going to do tomorrow?!"<br />
It's super annoying. But also basically my own mind mirrored back to me, so I can only blame my own genes on that one.<br />
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What we did kind of give up during these early days of getting back in the swing of things were my theme weeks. Instead I picked and chose things that we should work on and therefore covered particular "skills" I felt like he needed to learn. This is when I taught mostly math. Ransom covered subtracting and also counting by tens and all about two digit numbers. I filled in the "holes" with piano practice and lots and lots of reading. Somehow I just didn't have the mental capacity to make this theme related to something like "birds" or "volcanos" or something! hahaha! ( "somehow" equals "I wasn't getting enough sleep")<br />
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Mixed in there we had some pretty rough weeks. I was pretty sure that I would be sending Ransom to public school next year.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TdTUQpkNs8E/VxESpTh2KWI/AAAAAAAACkI/ibrjoICKsew/s640/blogger-image-545750813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TdTUQpkNs8E/VxESpTh2KWI/AAAAAAAACkI/ibrjoICKsew/s640/blogger-image-545750813.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These are the moments I love having all my kids at home...</td></tr>
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As I've mentioned before, Brett and I have always maintained that we would revisit our kids schooling each year, for each child. We do not believe that our kid's educations are a package deal of 12 years neatly tied up in a bow. Well, at least not until God gives us some huge revelation that covers multiple years and multiple kids. Till then, we'll be rehashing our kids particular needs and our particular situation each year. Tiring indeed.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eventually I'll have to start focusing more on this little one too....</td></tr>
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And so that we're coming to the end of the year I'm starting to obsess about Ransom's schooling for next year. Obsess is a strong word. Let's use "think about constantly" instead. ;-)<br />
Through prayer and the like we narrowed down our choices to the local elementary school down the block and homeschooling again.<br />
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I then would vacillate feelings wise from week to week regarding what I "felt" like was going to happen and how I might feel about said decision:<br />
one week: Ransom is acting HORRIBLY, he clearly needs more stimulation than I can give him! Let's send him off to school! HOORAY!<br />
next week: Ransom is happily playing with cars and math problems out in the sun, homeschooling is wonderful! I will be so sad if we have to send him to school next year! Boo!!<br />
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and so on....<br />
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As of now the pendulum has swung yet again and we're back to doing theme weeks ( Ransom has started picking the themes himself and that's been a LOT of fun! and a challenge for me!) So far we've done "The American Flag and other symbols", "Texas" and "Japan".<br />
And I've called the elementary school MULTIPLE times leaving messages to try to set up a visit and NO ONE has called me back. I'm pretty annoyed. And wondering if that's my closed door?! And yet at the same time, I just can't seem to give it up completely without at least walking through the door of the place! Does that make sense?! <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DFOli_Pn6xg/VxESyZSAB-I/AAAAAAAACkg/jH3C_85AFSg/s640/blogger-image--1338409312.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DFOli_Pn6xg/VxESyZSAB-I/AAAAAAAACkg/jH3C_85AFSg/s640/blogger-image--1338409312.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Learning all about Japanese Warriors: Samurai </td></tr>
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I'd love to hear your thoughts about your current schooling-whatever that may entail! Maybe you too vacillate from day to day?! I feel like its got to be pretty normal, right?! Right?!?!?!<br />
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<br />Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-46708693408993617702016-04-11T11:54:00.001-05:002016-04-11T11:54:32.257-05:00A little flash backThis week I had the honor and privilege to do a guest post over on my<a href="http://www.courtneyathome.com/"> sweet friend Courtney's blog </a>.<br />
She's doing a pretty cool series on the "Resilient Military Spouse" and she actually thought of me! ( Whaaaaa?!?! I know! hahaha!) But seriously, it was cool to think back over our years in the military and all that I have learned. One thing I do want to add is that I suppose technically I still am a military spouse since Brett is in the Reserves! Don't want to forget that! I am so proud of all of his hard work for our family!<br />
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Here's the link if you'd like to check out my <a href="http://www.courtneyathome.com/resilient-military-spouses-abigail/">interview with Courtney</a>!<br />
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P.S. This is hands down one of my favorite pictures EVER!! </div>
<br />Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-27328053487296279022016-03-29T13:56:00.002-05:002016-04-07T14:07:05.865-05:00Daydreams<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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"So, is having 3 kids as hard as you thought it would be?"<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note the less than stellar-ness of this Easter Picture!</td></tr>
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A friend asked me this the other day, and I could honestly say it wasn't nearly as horrible as so many had made it out to be....probably because everyone had made it out to be <i>terrible</i>. I can honestly say I cannot remember <i>one </i>person telling me 3 kids would be a great thing. This is crazy to me, because its like with your first kid no one talks about how hard <i>that</i> is going to be! They just tell you how wonderful being a parent is ( very true!) or with the second -which is also super hard- but everyone focusing on how now you won't have an "only child" and how now your kid will have " a playmate!" no one focuses too much time on how much those "playmates" are going to bicker! HAHA! Probably because it isn't as overpoweringly awesome as having two kids....and honestly I feel we should stick with the pattern!!! Why can't all the positives outweigh the negatives with three kids too!?!?!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kids playing together happily for one millisecond </td></tr>
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So I'm here to tell you that it really isn't that bad! And Justice is WORTH IT! He is by far my favorite kid at this point. He can't talk back, he stays exactly where I put him for as long as I leave him there AND he always eats all his dinner. hehehe. ;-)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Angel Baby"</td></tr>
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Anyway all jokes aside, there are a COUPLE of MINOR things that have changed in our house since having a third kid. And I'll quickly breeze past them now: less sleep ( obvi), practically zero time to get ANYTHING accomplished outside our home that isn't ruining SOMEONE'S nap time ( this won't last forever) and the inability to go grocery shopping ( this really is a quandary)....there just aren't enough spots for everyone plus all the food we eat and usually I have one or more kids throwing some form of a fit. *sigh* I'm really still trying to figure this out-but until I do going grocery shopping has become a valid "date night option" and that is NOT. COOL.<br />
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But the MAJOR thing I've noticed since having a third child?! My daydreams have changed:<br />
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I have this one day dream and its getting more and more detailed. So much so that I actually think I might pull it off one day ( read: after Justice is weened)<br />
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It goes like this:<br />
I'm at a hotel. Its a very very quiet hotel room with clean sheets ( that I didn't wash) and a made bed ( that I didn't make) and I'm sitting at a quiet desk, sun streaming in the window ( totally optional but this is my daydream after all...) and I'm working on my manuscript...<i>hours </i>pass by...NO ONE interrupts me. NO ONE. I do not feel guilty for being there for any reason. I am just there. Getting STUFF DONE. Then, after I've worked for an unlimited, amazing amount of time. I get hungry and I go have a quick lunch where I have stimulating conversation ( WITHOUT INTERRUPTION to take someone to the potty, or cut someone's meat or to ask someone to eat their carrots for the LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY) with an old friend about my book and whatever they're working on- but the lunch somehow ( its a daydream) has a time limit so I'm not tempted to make it longer-because, you know me, I do love a long chat with a friend....and the conversation leaves me with some great ideas as I head back to my quiet quiet room were I work for another amazingly long time without anyone having a loud fight in the other room that I need to break up or the laundry buzzer going off. THEN it will be dinner time and I'll join a large group of my friends and we'll laugh and talk and play games if we want, or go workout together or do whatever until very late at night ( because I do love nights!) and then I'll SLEEP IN and do it ALL again the next day.....and I'll only check my phone when I wake up and when I go to bed to see pictures of my children who I'll miss terribly terribly.<br />
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End scene.<br />
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For me, I realized that Brett really couldn't be in my daydream because if he was I would get ZERO work done! I think that's part of my problem...even when my kids aren't around I have trouble focusing because then I want to spend all that great quality time with Brett!! If he were there I would be tempted to do everything with him and that would defeat the purpose of me getting ALL THE THINGS done. So I have a whole different daydream scenario for Brett.... Spoiler alert: We'd probably Neflix and Chill for ever and ever.<br />
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So what about you? Have your "vacation" daydreams changed over the years? If you could have a spouseless/kidless weekend what would YOU do!?! Want to join me on MY working-weekend one day ( seriously! I need to fill those "stimulating conversation" slots!) ?Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-55887533311860408582016-03-20T15:41:00.000-05:002016-03-20T15:42:09.083-05:00Mercy in all its forms ( Olivet-Post 3)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oaLAss3XHMA/Vu8LH0MEPzI/AAAAAAAACik/W3DiEJqmx5E/s640/blogger-image--723135871.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oaLAss3XHMA/Vu8LH0MEPzI/AAAAAAAACik/W3DiEJqmx5E/s640/blogger-image--723135871.jpg"></a></div>If you've had kids than you'll hopefully know what I'm talking about when I mention that overwhelming fear and panic mixed with excitement and awe that you feel when you first leave the hospital with you're very first baby. <div>
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"Did they make a mistake?! Should they really be sending <i>us </i>home with this teeny tiny baby?!" </div>
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Thankfully, that feeling does fade as the sleep deprivation sets in and you get use to having your very own baby. And seriously once baby number 3 comes around you're pretty well sure you can handle this little bundle of joy...unless, like my sister, your teeny tiny baby inexplicably gets very very sick. </div>
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That feeling comes back, and I know my sister felt it pretty strongly when they left the hospital yesterday - even more so because it had been Olivet's 5th hospital stay in the short month of her life so far. Every time you think you're done. And then things get bad, yet again. </div>
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We pray that this time is very different, for one thing Olivet was in a much more specialized hospital and got a bit more intense care- her Anemia was cared for with the blood transfusions-which, in its turn will hopefully help with the Jaundice ( if you see in the pictures that her coloring is still a bit on the orangish side and her eyes still look yellow-that's because she still has high bilirubin count-just not high for <i>her.</i>) We, of course, want to see all those numbers get better and better. And I truly believe the Lord is healing Olivet. </div>
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But I need to share this story with you in more detail- I mentioned it in my last report- because it optimizes this whole experience and you definitely need to know that all your prayers-they were answered in so many ways: </div>
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This time last week Olivet was having her 4th hospital stay and her Bilirubin scores were once again through the roof- and scary things like "life flights" were being thrown around. However, instead they decided to treat her with photo therapy one more time to get things a little more under control and then high tail it to the nearest Children's hospital...</div>
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<b>Answered Prayer #1: </b>When they started researching it the <i>only </i>hospital in the STATE OF TEXAS that would take their insurance-was in San Antonio-WHERE I LIVE! This turned out to be really helpful. Anna and Ryan were able to stay in our guest bedroom, take long hot showers, get fed home cooked meals and <i>I </i>was able to go and hold Olivet when I was feeling panic-y about how she was doing ( yup, this was selfishly important to me! hahaha! Holding her always helped me when fear started to set in.). </div>
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<b>Answer #2: </b>On the drive to San Antonio my sister-planning on just playing it by ear, spend the night at my house and then take Olivet to the doctor the next day- was called by her panicked pediatrician. They had found bacteria in one of Olivet's blood tests and now they were suspecting meningitis. Her doctor told Anna to see if Olivet "was responsive"....P.S. to any mother that's been told to check to see if their sleeping infant is "responsive"-those 3 seconds where you're poking your baby, waiting for them to move/wake up are the LONGEST THREE SECONDS EVER. My sister then spent the rest of her 5 hours drive frantically checking to make sure Olivet would respond. <i>The miracle here?! </i> That blood work was a<u> mistake.</u> Olivet did not have any infection, BUT because of that blood work Anna went straight to my pediatrician...</div>
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<b>Answer #3: </b>Because they were coming to San Antonio, Anna was able to contact my amazing pediatrician who had treated Justice just months before, and she agreed to take on Olivet's case and see her immediately. She then once seeing Olivet she had the smarts to send Anna immediately to the hospital. </div>
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<b>Answer #4: </b>Olivet was admitted right away to the NICU and they learned quickly that her blood levels were CRASH level. We're talking incredibly incredibly low. She needed an emergency blood transfusion ( she indeed up getting two over the course of the next 2 days). If it hadn't been for that first "miracle" of the mistaken blood work in Nacogdoches-we will definitely not consider what would have happened if Anna had just waited till the next day to go to the doctor....*shudder* </div>
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<b>Answer #5: </b>Olivet was admitted to that NICU-my sister hadn't slept in <i>days </i>and my mom and I tried to convince her to leave ( but to no avail. I understood- you couldn't DRAG me away from my sick baby either), the room was not equipt for a parent to stay all night, and you aren't allowed to sleep with your child there-but I turned and looked out of Olivet's little glass room in the NICU and saw one of those big comfy chairs that can recline. Just sitting there not being used by anyone. I asked if we could have it and we rolled it up next to Olivet's bed. Anna was able to stay with Olivet- and be there when things got really really serious that night....</div>
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<b>Answer #6: </b>2 days later when Olivet got moved to intermediate care we were all so thankful-it meant she was much more stable and not likely to need things like crash carts or her own special room. The bad news was that in intermediate care all the babies are in one giant room, its crowded and busy and there is really no staying with your baby all night. Thankfully Anna was able to spend all day with her and see what good care she would be getting. And was able to leave her feeling "Ok" about it. </div>
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<b>Answer #7: </b>However, Anna prayed when they moved Olivet to intermediate care that she wouldn't be in one of the first beds by the door coming in-she figured rightly that it would be even MORE crowded and nosy there. So, it was SUCH a kindness of God that not only was she not by the door, but she was way way in the back corner. Probably the most "prime" spot in the whole place! </div>
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<b>Answer #8: </b>And so, on Saturday afternoon they release Olivet from the hospital, for what we believe, in faith, is the last time. Anna and Ryan were able to take a little nap, have a home cooked meal and have one night's ( not very good because of a baby use to be up all night) sleep before driving back to Nacogdoches and "real life".....</div>
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And now...</div>
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I know that Anna will glory in the "real life" of going home especially as they get settled back at home- but I also know it will be hard-especially Monday- when she'll be back with her older two daughters, doing school drop offs and pick ups-normal Mom stuff, plus needing to go get another blood test run on Olivet, and knowing my sister doing laundry and cleaning her house....I know it'll be hard as she gets settled with Olivet in all the normal of lack of sleep and getting everyone use to a "new normal" type ways...but I think the fact that you "never really know" when Olivet's blood levels might be dangerously low really scares her- or the fact that her bilirubin is <i>still </i>high....</div>
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While we glory in all those answers-large in small- that I just laid out, I know that you can't help but lack faith sometimes. So I write them here, as a "thank you" to all of you-for your prayers. They were answered in so many ways these last few days! I also encourage you to keep praying, as I am, that God would completely heal Olivet's little body and make her strong and perfectly healthy. </div>
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Also, if you're one of those "doer" type people like myself-and you live in Nacogdoches, feel free to check out the <a href="https://mealtrain.com/8937z5">Meal Calendar</a> set up for the family to help them hopefully transition for good into normal life. </div>
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Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-54928537139261644482016-03-19T11:00:00.000-05:002016-03-19T11:00:01.138-05:00Through much prayer...<div>
Isn't it always nice how when things are stressful and rough and we're needing to spend a lot of time in prayer, the Lord will often give us good encouragement through His word?! The last two days have really had some good juicy nougats to help me in praying for my niece and I wanted to share this one with you because I think its encouraging-no matter <i>what </i>you're praying for.<br />
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So,<i> </i>I was reading in my "Harmony of the Gospels" this morning-which basically combines all the different gospel accounts so you can essentially read the most detailed account of all the stories of Jesus together and this is what I read today:<br />
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<i>"When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. "What are you arguing with them about?" he asked. (Mark 9:14-16)</i><br />
<i>A man approached Jesus and knelt before him. "Lord have mercy on my only son, ( Matt 17:14) who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech ( Mark 9:17). He has seizures and is suffering greatly. (Matt 17:15) A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions ( Luke9:39) to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashing his teeth and becomes rigid. ( Mark 9:18) It scarcely leaves him and is destroying him. ( Luke 9:39) I brought him to your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not heal him ( Mark 9: 18). So they brought him to Jesus. When the spirit saw Jesus it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion...Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?" "From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into the fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." "If I can'?" said Jesus. "everything is possible for him who believes." Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" </i><br />
<i>When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit,' he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently ( Mark 9:21-26) and came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. ( Matt 17:18) And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, Why couldn't we drive it out? (Mark 9:28) He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you he truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "move from here to there; and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." ( Mark 17:20) This kind can come out only by much prayer and fasting." ( Mark 9:29)</i><br />
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So I read that passage today, and I think for the first time ever it became so clear.... Those poor disciples went in all confident and tried to heal that little boy, the curious crowd leaning in to see what would happen, and for whatever reason it didn't work! Immediately, the jeering started, the well meaning suggestions, the imploring family- voices got louder and louder and the poor disciples lost all faith- maybe they tried again to heal the boy but this time it was no longer in Jesus' power, but now it was all them, trying trying trying but with no results.<br />
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BUT THEN Jesus shows up, He asks what is going on and the father of the little boy pipes up! He's still in great distress, he still needs help for his poor son!<br />
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Jesus starts asking him questions, but before they get very far Jesus sees the disruptive crowd coming over to where they are. So He turns and Bam! heals the boy before things get all crazy again.</div>
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Because, you see, Jesus had all power and authority already. What He says goes. Boom!</div>
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But then the disciples asked him what happened?!? Why couldn't we heal the boy like you just did?!?</div>
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And Jesus says that if only they had had a tiny drop of faith they could have healed him! But instead, when they tried once and "failed" instead of listening to the Truth:That Jesus has all Authority to do all things- they listens to the crowd, they listened to their own pride and their own insecurities. </div>
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Then Jesus says this (healing this little boy) requires much prayer and fasting. Which I thought was insteresting since it's not like Jesus had to do any major praying or fasting to heal the boy! Ah yes, exactly! </div>
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Sometimes God wants US to show our faith, to pray and to fast even when the answer doesn't come immediately- or so we think. The answer is coming! The answer is already written- but He loves and delights in seeing our faith. Seeing us get down on our knees and pray. And when the time is right, the Lord will Speak and the healing will come. Just like that.<br />
So, I pray for myself, that I would believe ( and Lord, help my unbelief!) that I might continue to pray and fast for the things that I hold dear, the things that I know He can do at exactly the right moment. </div>
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Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11930532.post-696177703161300682016-03-18T22:11:00.000-05:002016-03-18T22:11:45.421-05:00Olivet, post 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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First off, we've got GREAT news!<br />
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Yesterday's ultrasound showed some very suspicious white matter in Olivet's brain- this led the doctors to suspect a virus had eaten away some brain tissue-awful news. An MRI was done this morning and thanks to the miracle of this blog post you don't have to wait hours and hours to learn that it came back ALL CLEAR for infection! This is very exciting and also means that since her bilirubin readings are reading ( still high but not TOO high) stable for the past few days and she's had those nice helpful blood transfusions- her time in the hospital is hopefully coming to a close!! Hooray! </div>
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Of course, she'll still have to have her blood drawn every two weeks to make sure the anemia isn't getting to dangerous levels again and then she'll still have those tests in 2 months that I discussed in detail in <a href="http://www.abigailsday.blogspot.com/2016/03/olivet-post-1.html">my last post</a> to find out <strike>what is causing the anemia- </strike>that she's been completely healed. But at least we'll be able to put this particular chapter of Olivet's health journey to rest. </div>
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Helpful things to pray for:<br />
The nature of anemia in an infant is that Olivet had crash level blood stats when she was taken to the hospital here in San Antonio but you wouldn't have known it to look at her ( because all babies are sleepy for the most part). As you can imagine this is scary for a parent to think about and we pray the Lord's continued protection over her. So far every step of the way, even in the smallest of "accidents" she has gotten the care that she's needed when she needed it. ( For instance, a faulty blood test in Nacogdoches meant that Anna was able to get an "emergency" doctors appointment with my doctor in San Antonio as soon as she arrived rather then the next day...and my doctor sent her immediately to the emergency room).<br />
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Also, its pretty imperative for Olivet to have a super great pediatrician when they return to Nacogdoches however their insurance is not currently accepted with the pediatrician she has been seeing ( and who Anna has taken all her girls to see for the past 5 years) and they're suppose to change to some unknown doctor this next month ( literally the ONLY doctor in town who takes their insurance. Not really the reasons you <i>want </i>to go by when picking a doctor) Could we pray for a miracle that somehow they would be able to keep their current pediatrician?<br />
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And of course, as I mentioned in my last post pray that all their physical and practical needs would be met as they deal with the financial fallout of this last month- I'm just the sister so I don't know details, but I <i>do </i>know hospitals so- I bet it isn't pretty. <br />
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And last, but definitely not least, I am praying for complete healing for Olivet. That come two weeks ( much less 2 months) when they do blood tests they'll find no anemia at all.<br />
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I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord can do great and wonderful things and I believe that He can and will ( and maybe has already started!) to heal little Olivet's body. In fact, I got something really cool in my quiet time today that encouraged me about this very thing. I'll post it tomorrow!<br />
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But I'll leave you with this last thought...this time tomorrow Olivet could actually be out of the hospital! Wouldn't that be wonderful?! Let's pray that happens together!<br />
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Abigail...http://www.blogger.com/profile/03369035203555951142noreply@blogger.com0