What Did You Do Wednesday Night?

I got a call while Aaron was sleeping this afternoon. It was from our church secretary telling me that these were sitting in the choir room with my name on them.














So when Steve got home from work, I headed out the door, leaving him to put the boys to bed. When I got there, I spent two and half hours opening, unwrapping, folding, and sorting. this is what the final product looked like:














Are you curious yet?



Wait no more...














Yes, our hand bells have arrived. Thanks to a very generous family in our church, we are now the proud owners of three octaves of hand bells and all of the "fixin's".

I am excited and scared to death at the same time. I started the tone chime groups in our church five years ago. Throughout that time, I have dealt with tempers flaring about so many things. It seems that whatever I do to try to make things "fair" for people, someone gets mad. I know that is just the way of being a church employee, but it is still always hard when someone has been inadvertently upset about something.

I feel as if the expectations of our group have now reached a new level. Should someone play the wrong bell, lose their place in the music, DROP a bell, not get to play ENOUGH, or umpteen million other things that can go wrong, it all falls on my shoulders.

I spend countless hours planning for performances and practices, and will continue to do so to the best of my ability. I don't expect recognition for these efforts. My reward is a successful performance, of which we had quite a few for the first time this past year. I would, however, wish for a little lenience this time around as we are getting our feet wet. This is new to all of us.

I will pray for patience each and every week as we prepare. I will also pray that others will share the same courtesy of patience with me. I feel it is important to play well, in order to enhance the worship experience of the congregation, rather than impede. To play such a vital role in the worship service cannot be taken lightly. To the rest of the group, this is a fun church activity. To me, it is a commitment to God, my church, and our members to give it my all and be responsible for every note being played and every sound being made. I just don't want to disappoint anyone, especially those who invested money or time. I feel as if there is this huge weight on my shoulder and I don't want anyone to believe that I am not doing all I can to make their efforts worth while.

I am sure I will share a video of our first performance in September. I know that we, the Joyful Ringers of Ada Congregational Church, are all excited and you, my blog friends, will be along for the ride.

This being said, aren't they pretty?

Happy Thursday.

I Knew It Wasn't My Imagination

Deb just sent me an article explaining actual recent studies about red Dye 40 as well as other common artificial colors. I have been saying for over a year that it was the cause of some of Noah's issues and others have been poo-pooing me. I KNOW that Noah had a better year because we have cut out the artificial colors from his diet. Now I finally have the scientific proof.

Thanks Deb for believing me and sending me this article.

I urge any parent who seem to have two different kids in the same body...sometimes perfect and sometimes crazy...to do the research yourself. I am quite sure some of you will find the same differences in your child that I have.

Noah is so funny about it. Anything he sees that has a color, he questions. He looks for it on boxes. I figure that anything with artificial color most likely isn't that healthy anyway. He doesn't seem to get that upset when he knows he can't have something. Instead, he is proud to have questioned it and discovered it himself. There are alternatives. They don't HAVE to have fruit roll-ups just because everyone else does. It doesn't take a lot of extra work to watch for the dyes, although sometimes it takes creativity. Especially in things like kids' medicines.

We have also prohibited Aaron from the same artificial colors. Even though he doesn't seem to display the same challenging behaviors, it can't hurt to keep them from him. They will both learn to watch for natural, rather than artificial sources of nutrition as they grow.

BTW, did you know that Pizza Hut sauce has Red Dye 40 in it?

WW# 17 Outside Alone Time

Tackle It Tuesday Stuuff Wk. 2

Last night I was up most of the night with an extreme upset stomach and nausea. Never threw up thank goodness, but it is kind of hard to get going this morning. Which is why I feel I do need a list again today of what needs to be done. Otherwise, I may find myself lying on the floor of the living room wallowing.

A. Redo MESP applications for the third time. For some reason the government doesn't seem to want to take our money. They didn't accept an official check, which I thought was the dumbest thing in the world. I would think it would be the most secure form of deposit. So I headed back to the back to deposit them and this time I am going to try to have them take it electronically. These are the days it seems where nothing can be done on paper anymore. Check

B. Back to the library to return the movies we got out last week and get some more. The favorite for this week was "High School Musical 2". So cheesy, but the boys loved jumping up and dancing at each of the songs. I think this would be a fun soundtrack for the car.

C. Sweep and mop the kitchen again. Sweep check, mop...my stomach just doesn't feel up to it. Yes, I know it's an excuse, but I the smell of the cleaner in the bathroom about sent me over the edge, I can't imagine what the floor cleaner would do. I guess I should start contemplating "going green"

D. Swap beds in Aaron's room AGAIN. When we got Aaron a new bed a few months ago, Noah's started making creaking noises. Then, we switched rooms AGAIN to see if Noah could get more sleep (which has worked like a charm) and the creaky bed, along with a creaky frame, because Aaron's, the early riser. So now, he starts at 5:30 in the morning creaking very loudly and we really can't afford a new bed for him right now. So, I am going to reconfigure his bed with the old thin mattress on top of the creaky one and take the frame completely out. It's worth a try. Check

E. Living room needs some attention. We have a previous babysitter retuning again today since my lesson schedule for Tuesday is expanding today (yea!). The house should be at least presentable for her. Check...I had the boys each pick up "ten things" It works like a charm. Nice and concrete for them and I get the bulk of the mess cleaned up.

F. Email my tentative schedule for my performing groups to church. I usually have other people's schedules in my hands when I make this so I know the two hours I spent on it yesterday will probably get thrown out the window, but I am sick of being accused of dropping the ball when I'm not. Check

G. Steve has nothing to give the boys for supper tonight so at some point I need to figure that out too. I should probably get some cat food too. She's driving me nuts. Check...the kids will have chicken and fries and Minnie is a much happier cat now. I am very grateful for a quarter pound of salami that lasts the boys an entire shopping trip if I time it right. It usually means paying for an empty deli bag at checkout but it's better that so many other snacks they could have while shopping.

H. Decide if this bout of nausea and upset stomach are a result of the new hormone meds and decide if I will continue to take them or throw them in the garbage. I would truly prefer the throw them in the garbage route. They've been sitting in the bathroom for three months and I finally gave in three days ago.

I. Play with kids...really should be at the top, don't ya think?

So I guess now, instead of blogging about everything that needs to be done, it's time to get to it. Wish me luck.

A Not So G Rated Post

How did we get from this....


Notice the bathing suits











to this?














I don't know what is so enjoyable about little boys being naked, but it sure is our boys' favorite state of being. What kind of terrible mom lets her kids run around in the backyard in their underwear? The kind who has been through three bathing suits apiece in two days and knows it is only ten minutes until it's time to go in and get ready for bed. They stepped into the backyard to play for a few minutes and asked if they could wade. I said "Sure" and the next moment, their shorts are so wet that they are falling off of them. So the solution; "We'll to strip down, of course. "

At least they kept their skivvies on.