busy busy busy

It seems like we are always trying to catch up on something or other around here lately. The kids have been trying to get caught up with school work that got "forgotten" with the holidays and just in general. I am always trying to get caught up with laundry and cleaning (but my decluttering project is really going great!!!) Troy is always trying to catch up on his reading or paperwork for work...currently he is trying to catch up on his napping though....hee hee. Do you ever feel like you are just chasing your tail? I've been feeling that way all day long.....but then I always feel that way when I'm getting over a migraine.

I'm so pleased with the progress that I'm making on my house!! I can now tell where things are without even having to go look for them! I have all of my sewing projects organized and stacked NEATLY in my room waiting for their turn to be finished. The boys room is cleaned and decluttered, though the decorating still looks like I did/didn't do it.....hahaha. Taeler's room is done except for her closet and that is only because it is storing things that have nowhere else to go. The kitchen is almost completely done. I have even cleaned and arranged the bathroom cabinets! I still need to clean out the filing cabinet and then sort and organize my recipes. We do still have lots of piles, but now at least we know what is in them and mostly they exist only because our house is so small that we have nowhere else to go with stuff. Along with the decluttering mission came a plan to get our lives more organized. I now plan our meals at least two weeks ahead....that doesn't always mean that we eat what is planned for that specific day because I am so very well known for changing my mind at the last minute but it does mean that I buy those foods at the store and nothing else. I have meals planned for the next three weeks and I've spent a total of $108 on food for the entire month of January!!! Troy keeps on telling me that I should write a book about how to save money on household expenses but I don't think there would be much interest...most folks don't want to do the things I do to save money. My personal opinion is that I can either work to save it or get a job and work to make it. It would be totally unfair and wrong of me to make Troy work as hard as he does and not do every little thing I can to make his money go as far as possible. (stepping down off of my stewardship/helpmeet soapbox now with a shy and embarrased wave)

I get plenty of laughs around here lately. One or the other of my kids is always saying or doing something that gets me to giggling. Jared is the one who makes the most comical slips in his day to day talk.....the last two of his will just never leave me. Jared said the last time we had a roast beef for supper "Hey Mom, what part of the cow is beef?" . He says this kind of thing so seriously and really wants to know the answer and you just can't help but laugh your guts out over it and it usually takes him awhile to figure out what everyone is laughing at. This time when we had roast beef for supper Jared asked for gravy on his meat.....rare since he usually hates gravy of any kind (for a long time I wondered if this could really be a child of my gravy loving self). After trying gravy and deciding that he had been horribly wrong all these years he smacks his lips and says "wow, it's kind of like salt only it doesn't fall off". Makes me wonder sometimes just what does occupy that space between his ears! Just kidding around, he is really bright about most things, he just says the funniest off the wall sort of stuff sometimes.

I have to wonder if things are really so funny or if we are really so easily entertained....probably we are just very very easy to entertain. I know the kids are.....I can remember so clearly the days right after I got saved when we didn't have a tv set in the house. Troy and I were sitting in the livingroom with the then baby, Jared, visiting with each other when we heard the sweetest most earnest giggling coming from the kitchen. The giggling would start suddenly, escalate to a loud and breathless peak and then stop. After several minutes of silently wondering just what it was that had our baby girl's rapt attention and was causing her to laugh so hard we finally gave in to curiosity and went into the kitchen. The scene we found when walking through the doorway took us a minute to figure out since there was absolutely nothing that gave us any immediate answers. We rounded the corner to see a two year old top knotted Tater bug standing in the center of the room on top of an upturned milk crate staring at the sink as though she fully expected it to fly away if she took her eyes off. I can only imagine how foolish we must have looked standing there looking at Tae looking at the sink! Well after just a minute or two the sink dripped and made a 'ping' as the drop of water hit the stainless steel pan and then the giggles erupted as Tae points to the sink with one hand and holds her belly with the other.....laughing so hard that she looked ready to fall off of her little perch. As soon as she caught her breath she again is totally absorbed in watching for the next drop to fall. Pretty soon we were so caught up with laughing right along with her we didn't care how silly we looked it was just fun.

I noticed today at the store how dour most folks look when they are just walking about. So many people look like someone just walked up and kicked their puppy....so sad! It made me think of the message our Pastor preached a little while back about being happy from Psalm 144. He said that joy is the echo of God in our lives. There are folks back home who won't go out in public with me because I giggle and cut up and have fun......but ya know what? I'm too happy not to!!! What makes people walk around looking like they ate a persimmon before the hard frost hit? Lack of the Lord in their lives. I'll keep on laughing.....I have every reason I need.