Blessings in disguise.

This post is to say that when God puts on your heart that you are to do something for him that he will make sure it is within your means to do so. Johova Jireh. Our church selects an Oklahoma City elementary school to "adopt" and buy all of the school supplies for. They type up the sheet of the needs and like "Angel Tree" you go pick up the stuff and bring it back. It really feels good to do this with the baby and talk to her even from a young age about why we are doing this and why it is important to do so.

Last year's list wasn't too extensive and ran right around $30 for all of the items. That didn't hurt to do it, it was more a matter of finding the right things. The school was specific about the brand of items. This year I picked up a list and didn't look at it until I got into the car. 4 boxes of 24 crayons, 4 boxes of markers, 8 glue sticks. My first thought was . . . when I was in grade school I didn't even use one whole glue stick how could they possibly . . . I stopped myself right there. These are things they said they needed and I picked up the list because I feel like I am supposed to. There are things on there that at face value are kind of pricey. I can see how someone could easily spend $100 on the items on that list. So I say praise God for small blessings.

at 1.99 each pack are the glue sticks on the right ($8 worth) on the right are 4 packs of 24 crayola crayons (self described as "the ones teachers prefer") ringing in at 2.99 a pack. Total paid for all of it? $1.69.

Now let me tell you how God is thinking about things even before you do.

I got home yesterday and got the weekly flier for the neighborhood grocery store. I have their discount card and I tell you it is worth it's weight in gold every now and then. In the flier they are advertising certain type of school and office supplies for 30% off and tucked into the corner is the part that is supposed to draw you in. 4 packs of crayons for $1.00 next to 5 packs of 2 count glue sticks for $1.00 (of course the list only specifies 8 glue sticks so I only needed 4 packs of 2 count glue sticks). I live two blocks from an elementary school so even though the flier had just come out I didn't expect there to be any crayons because I live in a neighborhood where you have to get up early (and I mean early) to suss out the values. I had to go for milk and thought I'd check it out and there weren't any just as I had suspected. They did have the glue sticks so I went ahead and got those.

Fast forward to today. I got my report back from the county extension office about "what's in my dirt" with a report that I will probably have a pretty easy time growing my grass this fall. I had some questions so I called and one question in particular garnered a plug for Horn Seed Company. I used to know where that was. That is the problem with living in a big city, things change so fast it's hard to keep up. So I headed over to where the building used to be and on my way find another in the chain of grocery stores like the one in my neighborhood. Some of those fliers advertise prices in one store but not another but I figured I could make a two-fer stop and see if they had the crayons at the ad price and pick up lunch from the deli. The seed company has moved so that was a waste of a left turn but I trucked back over to that store and checked the office supply aisle first. They had the crayons . . . they had the crayons for the price in the flier. They were so going home in my little shopping bag. I picked up lunch and the crayons all for under $6, so there are some things McDonalds can't do for you.

All in all I don't consider it a waste of time that I drove all the way to the south side to find seeds to sow and I will get to sow an even better seed in my daughter, the one of giving. Even if the task seems impossible . . . God will make a way.

How are you liking Oklahoma? Part 1

This is a question I get all the time that I will break down into parts. Part 1:

Scratch the surface of Oklahoma and you will find red dirt. There were places in Tennessee that had some red dirt but I'll tell you Oklahoma bleeds with it. It is a clay like soil and when it gets wet is very heavy. A little grass cover is not going to help with erosion-let's put it that way. A brief history of this state is it started with a gun shot. Literally. That is also why it is called "The Sooner State". People lined up around the boarders and when the gun went off they made a dash to claim land with their little flags in hand. Some of the unscrupulous ones got out there "sooner" than they were supposed to. It was originally intended to be a "black" state. They were going to ship the southern black people here they way they did with the native american tribes (this is the end of the trail of tears - more about that later). But another black substance changed all that (also will talk about that later).

With tried and true methods of cultivation these homesteaders began to grow crops. During the depression it was obvious that something was wrong. Farmers all over the northwestern part of the state had plowed up all of the native grasses. Everyone plows their fields at the same time and there was nothing holding the dirt in place. One of the seriously under utilized natural resources that Oklahoma should be the lead in developing is wind. The wind picked up and carried all of the surface level of Oklahoma to the doorstep of congress (see references to 'Black Sunday' if you search Dust Bowl).

Some of what I do at work is to help promote programs that help farmers to use farming techniques that prevent this from happening again. There are more deciduous trees in Oklahoma. The ones they plant are generally ones that grow big roots and instead of finding them in groves or blankets of forest, you generally find them in rows along fence lines. If you are paying attention you'll realize this is as a wind break to help keep the fertile soil from blowing away. Not everyone does this kind of preventative maintenance (a tornado will rip one of those trees out and send it through your window) so you get a flat view almost all the way to Iowa. I used to tell people I could hit a live shot from Dallas if I had to because it is so flat. People who don't work in tv don't understand that reference but just know, that is flat.

When you ask a person from the Northwest how they are liking Oklahoma there is a one word answer that is very loaded and that is "flat". Which also means red dusty, hot, and lacking shade.

I don't know how many parts of this there will be so please stay tuned . . .

I have been baptized . . .

My sister will get a kick out of this.

Last evening I go to pick up my daughter. I had 3 important things that needed to get done and that was the first of the three. Lately she has been putting off leaving the daycare because she wants to play with this toy or show me what she learned from this show or some other such thing. I pick her up, chat with the workers about the day she's had. I look at her sheet and see that she only ate 25% of her lunch. For the last two weeks she has been eating everything that has been put in front of her and more so a 25% lunch report is odd. It's not the first time something has been odd in her pattern but I blew it off an hoped that meant she would eat her dinner.

I walked her out to the car and plopped her down in her car seat as usual. I reached around and clipped the chest piece of her harness together. I clipped in the left side of her lap belt. I clipped in the right side of her lap belt and it was like I hit the button on Ol' Faithful. Pink curdled stuff came spewing out of my daughter and into her lap. The fortunate think is it was more of a gush than a projectile vomit but still I wondered what she'd had that was pink.

We still had about 10 to 15 minutes to get to the house, she was covered, her chair was covered and I have never been able to deal with the smell of expelled stomach contents. Which is why my sister would have paid money to see this all go down. When we were kids she would always have to clean up after me because I couldn't handle it. It has been the event she has been waiting for to see me deal with as a mom because she knows my history, intimately.

I didn't know quite what to do. I unbuckled her seat belt and took off her shirt and tried to clean her up as best as possible with the extra t-shirt I had tucked in a safe place just in case. I clipped her back in to her seat. I could have gone back in and asked for a change of clothes I left there for her but the seat was still covered so I'd only be getting more stuff drenched in "it". I decided to open the windows and b-line it home.

When we got there I didn't even think twice before I picked her up, chunks and all. As I saw it there was no way to get out of this with out getting some on me so I might as well dive in. I dragged her car seat inside as well. She was still trying to drink fluids and eat fish crackers but everything that went down came back up 10 to 15 minutes after it went down. I felt so bad for her. I remember how scary it was to be sick as a kid. Fortunately she probably won't remember this but unfortunately it won't be the last time. Every thing that came up, consequently, found it's way down the front of my shirt and gathered in my cleavage. (Not that I have much cleaved there but that is another story for another time.) After a while the contents were narrowed down to just water or watery juice.

Her tummy was so sour that she wasn't able to fall asleep for a long time. Finally around 9pm I prayed that God would settle her tummy enough that she could go to sleep. She drifted off. She woke up two more times, once ralfing on her bed sheets so I laid her on my bed for a while. The next time she woke up we made it to the tub. I could tell she was ready to be done with puking. I gave her her some water and as I gave it to her I prayed, "Lord, you are the God of healing, if you can make the deaf hear and the blind see I know that you can settle the stomach of this small child. I have faith that you will place your hand on her and make her tummy still."

She didn't wake up or throw up the rest of the night. All I can say is it may not be parting the red sea but it is God showing even the smallest of those he loves that he will be faithful to heal them. And showing their mommys he will answer prayers, even in the middle of the night.

I have been thinking about roses. I planted some earlier this year and now they seem to be doing well. I get new buds all the time.

But the Rose I have been thinking about lately is Xyla's aunt. She will be having a baby soon and has asked me to shoot and design her invitations for the baby shower. I am trying to find a way to incorporate this picture. Stay tuned . . .

How have I not known this all my life?

Other than the weedy habitat in my back yard and my general dislike for the little jerks, I admit my knowledge of mosquitoes is limited to "only the females bite" "carriers of several deadly diseases" and "need standing water to hatch their eggs".  

I have eliminated all of the standing water that sits long enough to collect larve (dog dish is changed daily so it doesn't count).  I have hacked down the jungle in my back yard and still I have a healthy population of skeeters at my house.

I would love to blame it on my neighbors who haven't done anything about their weedy back yard either but I can't.  After doing some research it turns out that mosquitoes eat 10x more nectar than they do blood.  They only need blood for reproduction.  So I have yet another reason to attempt to irradicate that lovely flowering menacing vine in my yard.  I am not attached to having humming birds in my yard, I could take them or leave them but the same flower that attracts them also is the food source for my unfriendly yard guests.

It is really hard to get rid of this vine because it reproduces so quickly.  Apparently you have to continually cut it down to the ground and put round up on the cut ends.  Hopefully this will only take a few years worth of applications because the stinking vine is everywhere in my yard.

If no vines means no mosquitoes then guess what I will be doing Saturday with all the other yard work.  

My 15 month old . . .

At 15 months of age my little girl can:

-climb 3 steep stairs with out help

-put her bike helmet on her head

-says "circle" and "shoes" and can identify both

-says yes as often as she says no

-likes hot dogs, string cheese and cereal

-goes to sleep with out much of a fight

-throws away diapers in the trash

-washes everything with wipes, even herself

-loves to play in water

-prefers to bathe in the running faucet rather than sit down in the tub to scrub

-washes herself

-can execute the blowing part of "blowing kisses"

-wears sunglasses for almost 10 seconds

-has 3 3/4 teeth

-tolerates nail trimming

-doesn't get too rattled by schedule changes

-climbs her high chair

-eats a wide variety of food but never the same thing two days in a row

-has a purse with contents of a card, a cell phone, and her sunglasses.

-wears size 5 shoes

- is 20lb 5 oz and 31 inches tall

-is well known for being a happy baby

-gives flibberts

-is just starting to try to wrestle out of her diaper during changes

-loves to be outside

-thinks tooth brushing is fun

-only gives her mommy kisses sometimes

-isn't afraid to pet a dog just of the dog's large head when it is pointed in her direction

-likes the motorcycle ride at the mall

- knows how and is willing to share

-says "thank you" but has not quite grasped the concept of "please"

-Favorite thing to say . . . "uh, oh"

-started using a pacifier because her friend Bob does

-while trying to help mommy make sandwiches she gets out the mayonaise and the jelly.

-still uses a bottle

-favorite song "Little Xyla Has a Farm"

-sings "eee-i-eeee-i-oooo" at the appropriate time

-favorite movie "Barn Yard"

-just picked her first "lovey" and it's name is "monkey butt".

-is suprisingly obedient

- makes some of her own boundaries that she won't cross

-has good problem solving skills for a 1 year old

-might have allergies that will be with her for life

-dances in circles

Updating my world . . .

When ever we go to Granny's house X gets to sit in these little plastic adriondak chairs her cousins got. She loved them immediately because they are exactly her size. Knowing that the wood ones from Pottery Barn Kids are expensive I was trying to put off getting her a chair. Her aunt told me she thought they had been bought at Toys R Us. I had nothing else to do so I decided to brave the toy store. We checked out the prices of so many things. She seemed to like the lego's more for the noise they make in the box they come in. She was completely into the little trikes they had but she is still slightly too short for that so we had to leave it at a short ride around the store. But she also found this little plastic chair. It is slightly too big for her to just "sit" in but she really loves it. She uses it as a wheel barrow. She backs it up to the couch so she can climb into it without it bucking her out. And I caught her standing on it while she was engrossed with "Nacho Libre". Before you get after me for allowing my child to watch a movie about Luchadore wrestling let me express to you that I am all for good clean fun but I push the classics too. That last shot is her trying to read "Tom Sawyer".

X discovered canteloupe. She liked it so much that she was trying to dig it out by hand before I had a chance to scoop out more with the spoon.

I got around to a project I have been thinking about picking up the hardware for for a while. I have been trying to find drawer pulls for this dresser that was given to us for the baby's room. After trips to Home Depot and Lowe's I found that there are not drawer pulls commercially produced that are long enough for the space between holes on this piece of furniture. I had to pick up 8 individual pulls for the four drawers that needed something done with them and soon. The bottom picture there is what the old pulls looked like thus why they needed an upgrade. I was smart about it though and used the knowledge I gained from the summer I worked for a construction company and used some lock-tite bolt glue to keep the knobs from becoming loose because of use. I can still get them undone with tools if I need to but I don't see that being necessary.

Ok the next two are out of order. This is my jar of dirt on it's way to the dirt lab. That is, on the way to the county extension office.

I bought a book from the half price book store about what you need to know about starting a lawn from scratch. One of the things they recommend is taking a dirt sample to the county extension office to find out if you need to augment your soil to give your lawn the best chance to grow. I called the master gardeners and they said to collect the sample you should dig down at least six inches and put samples from this depth in a bucket, you need samples from several areas in your yard since different parts can have different issues. You stir up the dirt and put a sample in a glass jar (mason or otherwise). I used an old washed out 16 oz. mayo jar and it was plenty for a sample. I took it in and paid $10 and will get to know in a couple of weeks: what is "in" my yard and what I can do to give my grass seed project for this fall the best chance to work. I am kind of excited. For me right now it is more nerve wracking that waiting for a report card since I am sure nothing healthy has grown in my yard, probably in 10 years or more.

As you know from a previous post some of my projects got relegated to back seat status because of what I am going to talk about next. See my neighbors had this garage that has structural damage and is a hazard to . . . probably the whole neighborhood. They finally had a company come in and tear it down. The way things go in this state I thought it would be a two day process, one day to come down and one for clean up. I came home Friday evening and found they had done it all in one shot and exceeded my expectations when it came to the clean up. You'd never know they had a garage. It created a huge problem for me though. It left this huge hole in my fence as when they put the fence up they neglected to put anything where the rear wall of the garage stood. Fortunately my immediate neighbor had the sense to let me know when they told her the she was going to come down. I had supplies delivered that afternoon and the process was started the next day. Unfortunately for the dog he had to be on the back porch for two days while the work was being done. After a discussion as to whether the 2x4's should face in or out, since my back yard sports fencing that goes either direction, we got it done before noon on Sunday. I have had to take measures in other parts of the yard to keep the dog from digging under the fence but the cement slab here is going to be effective for that purpose and he hasn't even tried to start digging. I think he is just grateful that he gets to run around outside and pee when he wants to. Cost of this project - just under $100.

Having friends like Mr. Donnie who will drop everything at a moments notice to help you address your emergencies: priceless.

Since we had to do some digging to get the fence up I decided it would be an ideal time to get my yard soil samples. I wanted to get that done before I put down the herbicide and the pesticide so it wouldn't spoil things. I waited long enough though that some of my weeds are starting to pop back up. Weather permitting, this weekend will be a yard work weekend, anyone and everyone is welcome to help. Also since there is significantly less bird poop on the back porch and none in the dog's bowl I think the feeding container I put out is doing fairly well at keeping the birds out of the dog food. I am certain that he ate all of what was in his bowl this morning. As it turns out the best thing for controlling mosquitos is purple martins. So I will be trying to figure out how to get some purple martins in my area to take care of the skeeters.

The best kind of dog to own is one who is happy because he can eat and poop freely in his own back yard.