Over load

I've decidedly bitten off more than I can chew. I seem to have signed up for too much stuff to do outside of the holidays this Christmas! Right now I'm looking through what I've got and what I can easily delay. Here's my list:

1. play piano for Children's choir - must do
2. make cookies - highly recommended to do
3. participate in Living Nativity - must do
4. attend Sunday School play - must do
5. attend School Christmas play - must do
6. 3 family Christmases - must do
7. update my resume - can wait
8. refresher courses for work - needs to be done by Dec. 25th, thankfully on line
9. attend orientation days for work - must do
10. write - must do in order to sleep, which I haven't been sleeping well b/c I haven't been writing
11. apply for scholarships - can wait
12. apply for college - can wait
13. wrap presents - must do
14. plan snowshoeing/sledding for Young Adult group - can wait
15. attend flute ensemble at Blue Frog - really want to go, but guess I could skip it
16. keep up correspondence with people about my book - should do
17. work out - must do
18. organize ornaments - needs to be done by end of holidays
19. organize winter outer wear - can wait
20. practice piano for upcoming times to play at church in Jan/Feb - can wait

I feel better now that I know what needs to be done and what can wait. It's hard to put things off, since I want to do them all, but if I do, I won't have time for the kids!

Mansions in Heaven

As our world seems to be rushing head long into the Apocalypse, I've been dreaming of Heaven and the New Earth. It's very exciting to think of eternity and all that I've always wanted to do, people I want to meet, conversations I want to have with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and just being in God's presence physically. My imagination runs wild, although I know it doesn't compare to the wonderful and amazing things God has planned for me.

There is one black mark marring my perfect picture of life on the New Earth. The city. The city that is 1400 or so miles square! Paved with gold, adorned with every known jewel, and inhabited by every person who has embraced the one and only Truth (ok, that part will be nice). I do not like cities, nice places to visit, but not for me to live. I also hate ostentatiousness (my new word). I don't like gaudy or things that are gilded. I want green grass, lots of trees, gardens, and lots of animals around where I live. Give me an old Victorian home with lots of amazing wood work, secret passageways, hidden reading nooks, and a massive libraries and a nice kitchen. My ideal and the way the Holy City seems to be portrayed in the Bible don't seem to line up.

For a while that freaked me out. Where would I live? Would I be forced to live in the city in a house walled with jewels and gold? Would I be cut off from the nature I so love, and clean air? For a while I no longer wanted to go to Heaven, but I certainly didn't want to go to Hell!

Then, wandering into my brain from a source outside myself (read Holy Spirit speaking to me), saying my pastor likes to use. If we both thought the same, did the same things, agreed on everything, liked the same things, one of us would be redundant and unnecessary.

Here I sit, in a house and life I never wanted, asked for, or thought I would enjoy. How much better God knows me than I know myself. I can look back through the years and observe God's faithfulness in my life to care for me, give me the things I need, and even things just for the shear enjoyment of them. Obviously He loves me greatly and wants to make me happy. Knowing me as well as He does, and I know the number of times He has been right in knowing exactly what I wanted compared to what I thought I wanted, I need to have faith. He has been faithful and consistent the whole time I've known Him, what makes me think He'll change once I get to Heaven.

For the most part I rest contented in the thought that whatever place He has prepared for me will be exactly what I want and need. But, I have had numerous chats with Him about what I'd like...

Boys and Girls

Last year Elizabeth and Samuel were playing a version of hide and seek. We have a little tiger with 2 wands. You can hide the tiger and find him using the wands, which light up and beep as you get closer. Elizabeth walks into the room where I happened to be. "Shhh, Mommy, we're trying to find a baby tiger. He's lost."

Then Samuel walks in. His pose is different, as is his intent. He tip toes around, sighting along his wand, which is held up to his eye. One eye closed, he says, "Mommy, I'm hunting a tiger." And immediately spotting the tiger, he proceeds to shoot it.

Elizabeth, meanwhile, is hysterical. "Stop him, Mommy. He's shooting the baby tiger!"

Satisfied the tiger is finally dead, Samuel turns to her, "It was a big mean tiger and I shot him dead."

Needless to say the game ended there, with Samuel taking his trophy off to be stuffed and Elizabeth wailing over the death of the baby tiger.

Too Sleepy...

The tryptophan in the turkey seems to be kicking in. I'm getting so tired I can barely keep my head up. The past couple of days were great with both our families. I'm so thankful that we have been able to see everyone of our nieces, nephews, siblings, parents, and grandparents that are still on this earth. The kids have had a great time playing with everyone and eating lots of good food. Off to try to find a few extra hours of sleep before seeing more family tomorrow.

The Crazy Family

Every family has a "Crazy" Family group. When all the siblings, their spouses and children, get together. There is always one family that walks in and it's like adding 20 extra people, no matter the size of the crazy family.

My family has been designated the "Crazy" Family out of my siblings. We have the oldest, and the most, kids so far in my family. They are a bit loud sometimes. I don't believe my kids are too crazy. They don't jump on or off furniture. They don't break things, maybe once or twice this has happened they try to be careful around other people's things. They aren't disrespectful or rude. I believe we received this title simply b/c we have the most kids, so of course we generate the most noise. 2/3 other grandchildren are under 1yo, so they can't be too crazy yet.

My only hope, someone else either has more kids (doubtful) or their kids grow crazier than mine!

Shopping Woes!

I should have asked my sister-in-law to do my grocery shopping this week. It just hasn't been my week to either find time or find the items I need.

I normally grocery shop on Monday mornings, when I only have 2 kids to drag with me. My kids don't hate shopping, they love it! They believe that stores are giant play places, and thus it is hard to concentrate on what I need to buy. Life conspired against me this week, of course, especially since there is a holiday coming up and I won't be able to find time to shop for 3 days.

Monday I traveled up to a doctor's appointment, which should have been very short. It was, just the waiting time was long. Much easier when you're pregnant, they seem to be able to get you right in. I had hoped to squeeze in one store to pick up essentials - milk, cereal, bread, etc. Alas, it was not to be. I also needed to make phone calls from my mother-in-laws house, since I still have not bought a new one that can make out going calls. I figured that since I did not have much planned besides some weekly cleaning, I should be able to find time to run to the store sometime Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. Never happened.

Monday night, I ran to the store for cereal, since we were out and you can't not have cereal with kids in the house. So, I stopped at one of the stores to pick up the few items I needed from there, after all the kids were in bed and I did my aerobics.

Tuesday morning, instead of going shopping, I waited around for our new hot water heater to be delivered. Installing the hot water heater took most of the day. By the time it was completed, Elizabet was due home in a half hour and then the older two had swim lessons.

The plan then became to head right out after the kids were in bed. But, Matt got home late and I lost all ambition to leave the house. We still needed milk and bread though. So, I headed out to pick them up. I picked up enough food to last us until Saturday am, then I'll have to go shopping again. But...

...I forgot the milk!

Hi ho, Hi ho, it's back to work I go...

It's finally happened. The littlest Princess now sleeps through the night, fairly regularly, so it's time for me to head back to work. I can't really complain. My job is very flexible. I can work any hour of the day or night, doing just about anything, and get paid good money for it as well.

I called the hospital I was working per diem at last. Since I do not have retirement, insurance, or anything else along those lines, they just keep me on the list. Last time, I worked on the medical floor, not my favorite, but doable. Except for the supervisor...She was not very happy to have me on as a per diem nurse. She tried to interview me for a full time aide position. She never bothered to set up an orientation for me, or even give me an orientation packet. Granted, I have worked on a medical floor before, so it wasn't too hard to find the groove again, but she should still have gotten one to me. I printed that out myself. Then I started getting notes about when I was going to hand my packet in to her. Mentioned that she never gave me one, and was told to just fill it out. Never bothered to contact me to see when I could work or tell me where holes in staffing could be filled in. I contacted her when my phone number changed, she never bothered to pass it along. Contacted her when I ended up pregnant with the littlest Princess, and she tried to fire me b/c I had stopped coming to work. Oh well.

I've asked to be set to the surgical floor, which is also the overflow medical floor and the pediatric floor. I'm hoping they'll let me work there. I guess I could work on the surgical floor again, if I had to, which I really don't have to. There are plenty of other medical facilities in the area. Working nights fits my schedule best, and most places need to fill their night positions.

I enjoy working as a nurse. I prefer the surgical floor in the hospital, dialysis or hospice outside the hospital. I've also tried subbing as a school nurse, the kids are fun to work with, but the parents and administration irritate me too much to ever be full time. I plan on working as a nurse in some form for the rest of my life.

Now, maybe I can sell my book and therefore never have to work full time again...