Wordless Wednesday

A big THANK YOU!

This is to the two ladies, Adrienne and MaryGrace, for the wonderful packages from our washcloth swap! I must post pictures later to show and tell!! I am gearing up for "school" to start back and have been busy...my apologies!

Mama...do fish go to heaven???

Z~girl turned 8 this month. I cannot believe so much time as gone by! I remember sitting on the couch of the old log cabin we used to live in nursing her and watching the twin towers fall. It was unbelievable.

The last couple weeks she has really started to share her feelings with me. Her thoughts. Her worries and things she is curious about. Some of it has been some pretty serious stuff. She shared something that she thought I would be mad about and b'gosh I had flashbacks to a situation in my childhood! If I had someone to talk to about this....it would have really helped me....I talked to her....told her I liked that she shared it with me...I reassured her I was not angry.....told her a similiar situation when I was a child...but told her as wonderful as my parents were....are (in my moms case she is still here) I NEVER felt like I could talk/question my parents.

This ISN'T the story or situation I told Z but I remember once in middle school hearing (this is years ago....a more innocent time I think;) something about french kissing. I said completely innocently to my mom "Mom did you know in France they kiss with their tongues???" funny now but I got in trouble and it was a question from an innocent...naive 6th grader.

I so WANT my daughter to come to me. AND that she has this month. This week teary eyed (she is a very sensitive little soul) she said "if I think a bad thought about someone will they know I thought about it when they go to heaven?" ACTUALLY this is the second question this week that started out like this. The first one had me worried...she said she had a bad thought about daddy. I kept calm...didn't react.....she said she was thinking of the D word. I thought the worst. Finally she said in her mind she was thinking daddy was a DUMMY because he wasn't spending as much time with us as when he was recooperating(sp?) from breaking his hip. He was home with us for over 2 months. Geesh I had to squeeze her! I talked to hubby about it and the next day made sure she was able to spend the afternoon with him. Today she got teary again same question....but she was thinking about someone...that they were fat...she felt bad. GEESH I thought she was talking about me or her daddy! (we could stand to lose 20;) Finally she told me she thought it about her brothers worker. She is a sweet girl 19....that is heavy yet so very pretty. I told Z that sometimes we couldn't help what we thought....but we could help what came out of our mouth. I also told her how pretty I thought A-mans worker was (she IS!) and that God made us all shapes and sizes....it would be very odd off we were all the same.

I'm off track;) just a bit. This week I'm convinced I killed my girls Beta fish!!!! the water kept turning green (should have left it that way!) I put something in it and the fish died. Z girl was SO UPSET....she thought it was something she did. We tried to convince her otherwise. :) Today though she asked me if her fish would go to heaven. I told her I didn't know. BUT I told her when I asked my dad that question years ago about one of our dogs....he said that heaven will be filled with everything we love. That seemed to satisfy her.

I hope her questions keep coming. I love her so much!!!!

Ready for some R and R!!!

We are heading to the beach in the morning...just for the weekend. We are going to Charleston my FAVORITE place besides here in the mountains! Lots of beach...lots of exploring the historic downtown....maybe a ghost walk....maybe a carriage tour. I can't wait. I would be in bed but I'm finishing up some last minute laundry.

Incase my swap buddies are reading....I'm hoping to get the last item/s for the swap. I'm bound to find what I am looking for in Charleston!!!

washcloth swap

I'm gearing up to start sewing. I am in a swap with Adrienne from http://www.someofakind.blogspot.com/ and Mary from http://www.hookedonneedles.com/ . This is my first craft swap and I'm admittedly nervous hahahha. I have a plan but I think first I will make myself one to make sure it will turn out the way I want. Maybe if these bloggers see this they will give me some hints on colors they like??? :) This is going to be FUN!!!

Grace in Small things

I just realized it has been a long since I have posted one of these. Most of them were when we were going through a lot of hardships! shame on me for not doing it sooner.

1. a nice relaxing hike at my favorite place locally....eating wild blueberries on the way to the top. :)

2. Being able to pay for our bills and get caught up.

3. A wonderful, caring, patient husband....with his family and the client he works with.

4. WONDERFUL grandparents for my kids visiting. The are loved so unconditionally. Gma has been sitting with Z for hour drawing....I never knew MIL could draw so well! FIL and MIL being soooo patient with A~man....yet strict...a wonderful combination. The kids are going to miss them so much! (me too!)

5. ok this sounds trivial....but an AWESOME watch dog...kids dog....my faithful compainion. WHO barked his head off (this is unusual) last night to watch out for us.

the honey moon is over.....

with hubbys new client that is. IMHO he has been spoiling the guy to keep him happy. He always tends to do this with his clients. He is a good man with a good heart. After awhile though he realizes he has to buckle down and set limits. This young man is 21....I guess it is ok to post his diagnosis because I'm not going to post his name. He has high functioning autism, bipolar, RAD, ADHD. He is a really great guy and can fix about anything that needs fixing...knows all about botany...he is really an encyclopedia of knowledge. He gets along well with our 7 yr old dd but I would never leave her alone with him. A~man rubs him the wrong way and you know why? he is too much like him. He is an adult version of my son honestly. Minus the Bipolar.

This week he dh got him some fireworks. He is a bit obsessed with fireworks. All day on the 4th he was lighting noisy ones....every 30 seconds. I let this go on all morning and mid afternoon I nicely asked him to stop until the evening. Later he apologized very nicely.

Next day. DH bought him MORE! He did them all morning and come about 1:00 I had HAD it. I was polite but firmly told him to STOP. Earlier our neighbor across the street had nicely asked if he was about done too. What does he do? He goes across our street and starts lighting them. I looked at dh and said "I asked him to stop". DH goes out there and asks if he heard me ask him to stop. He then says "well I"m not on your property". DH (lol) then says well you are disturbing the peace and if you do not stop I will call the police.

He got all pouty. Well this young man has night terrors and several times a week another worker stays at the other house with him. Normally they do not last long if you leave him alone. Well he tried to attack the worker (a woman) and was yelling at this woman to take him to OUR house because....welll....I won't say it all but he wanted to do something harmful to ds and I. She called dh and he went over there to relieve her and by that time he was back in bed. He was asleep the whole time we are convinced. Scared the CRAP out of me though!

The next day he was his gentle, helpful, talkative self. He did not remember a thing and when dh told him what he said and did it made him spiral down. It bothered him so much what he was trying to do and was saying. He now has an appt with his therapist to talk about it with dh along. I was unease the first couple days around him but he was as nice/polite as can be....just really down wondering why he did all that. Mental illness sucks eh? He is over attatched now to dh and sees A`man and I as a threat for attention he is not getting. He has no problem with Z but she is quiet.

Onto other things....:) I need to finish my quilt....it's so close....I need to start crafting again. BUT I have been doing a LOT of picture taking and started back drawing(hoping to enter something in the fair)

Today we went to the vegetable stand and the young man that waited on us (jr in hs) asked Z if she was glad it was summer and that school was out. I WISH I had a photo of the look on her face. She said uhhh we homeschool...to be polite. Even though technically we are taking July off this child never stops... she is always looking for new things to learn and sometimes has mama looking for the answers to her questions on the computer. Her occupation interests? Firegirl/entemologist/Vet/scientist....the list goes on. I LOVE homeschooling.

Life is good.....but stressful.