Enough said.

I think it’s the curse of being female. I’m sure guys struggle with it too and need to be taught similar lessons, but our daughters need to be taught about their value. They need to know that their value doesn’t lie in how much they weigh, or how well they can please everyone around them. It doesn’t lie in how well they clean their rooms or whether or not they color inside the lines. Or how much or how little other girls gossip about them. Or if a bully picks on them.

And I’ve always wondered how to give girls that confidence. I found the answer - or at least a strong lesson to teach - over at 4 Reluctant Entertainers. She used this lesson with a group of early teenage girls (or maybe preteens?). She offered them a $10 bill. Then she wadded it up, tossed it on the floor, stepped on it, threw it around the room a bit. When she picks it up again and straightens it out, has the value changed? No. It’s still worth $10. Nothing has changed. Then she had the girls imagine themselves as the money. And she told them, others are leaving you out; bullying you; snickering at you; gossiping about you; spreading rumors. Did your value change? No. It’s still the same. Our value is the same because of the One who created us in His own image. Because of His love.

What an important lesson to learn! I wish someone had taught me that at a young age.  If you have girls, or if you have any influence over girls, head over and read it. It’s a pretty awesome lesson, for girls of any age to learn.

Every now and then I get my stuff together and plan out the meals for the week in advance. This week is going to be one of those weeks. I’m determined. So, to keep me accountable, here it is. Dinners planned for the week.

Monday:  Beef stroganoff made with leftover roast and side salad.

Tuesday: Honey terriyaki salmon, steamed broccoli, and hopefully potatoes au gratin (if I can find a decent recipe)

Wednesday: Barbeque ribs, potato salad, and grilled corn on the cob

Thursday: Spaghetti with meatballs, salad

Friday: Chicken pot pie

Saturday: Veal stew

Sunday: Pizza night!

Liam’s brain tumor is benign and small enough to stay where it is. Hubby’s travels are mostly over. The Great Plague of 2007 is coming to a close. All is well with the world.

And just now, when all I want to do is take a week-long nap to recover from the last few months of drama, we got news that my in-laws are moving in with us in about 3 weeks. Yes, I’m quite pleased that they’re coming. They’ve never met my kids. My kids haven’t had the pleasure of knowing them yet. And they’re going to be a huge help as the pregnancy continues and my energy levels plummet.  It will be a great joy to have them with us.

But now I have 3 weeks to make my house beautiful, rearrange furniture, get more furniture, send loads of stuff to Goodwill and generally prepare everything for my in-laws to move in with us. I guess that week-long nap I’ve been craving will have to wait until after they arrive. And that’ll be nice, because then it can be an uninterrupted week-long nap…

A girl can dream, right?

Welcome to our discussion of chapters 3 and 4 of Our Covenant God by Kay Arthur.  Thank you for bearing with me over the last few weeks.  I know you don’t need me to encourage you in reading this wonderful book, but I truly love our discussion time.

Here are a few questions I’ve prepared to get us started.  Please feel free to share what you wish from your reading, not simply responding to my minimal questions.  So, here we go.

Chapter 3:

God obligating Himself to man.  Have you ever thought of grace in those terms before ?

Have you ever thought of grace as a result of covenant?

Have you ever thought of the story of Noah to be a picture of God carrying you through the storms, in the safety of the ark?

Chapter 4:

Karath beriyth.  How solemn is this compact?

Have you seen the unconditional reality of the covenant that God has made with His beloved?

Eager to hear your thoughts.

It’s shiny. It’s new. It’s heavier than a ton of bricks. But it works so much better than my ancient Oreck. It’s the Kirby Sentria. It has a transmission! Self-propulsion. Once it’s turned on it’s like butter (pronounced, butta, please). It’s just getting up the stairs or down that’s a struggle. But they’re bringing me a factory-reconditioned one to keep on one floor of the house so I won’t have to lug it.

I grew up with Kirbys. I know Kirbys. And when they demonstrated the new Kirby, with its self-propulsion and more tools than Sears, I was hooked. I vacuumed my carpet with my Oreck. Then they vacuumed it with my Oreck. Then they vacuumed it with the Kirby and showed me how much ickiness came out of my carpet after having been vacuumed twice with the Oreck. Oh, my friends, I was grossed out. And it takes a lot to gross me out.

So today (after I take Bean to the doctor, because apparently the Great Plague of 2007 continues) I’m hoping to set Bean up downstairs (where the carpets have already been vacuumed sufficiently with my new friend) and take my Kirby upstairs to thoroughly clean every inch of carpet, upholstery, hard flooring, ceiling fan, and any other surface I can reach. And I’m hoping to vacuum some of the Great Plague germs out of our house. Wish me luck.

I’m popping in here at Mudlark Tales (thanks, Kath) to let you all know that…

1. Yes, I’ve completely dropped the ball over the last 2 weeks of our read-along of Our Covenant God by Kay Arthur. I have no excuse other than to say that there has been lots and lots of life happening round the Everyday Mommy House.

2. I have not thrown in the towel and will be posting our discussion this Wednesday.

My apologies for leaving y’all hanging out there and my thanks to Kath for allowing us to meet at her place. See you Wednesday!

Jules
Everyday Mommy

It’s a meme. Amy Jane tagged me, and I suppose I deserved it - I tagged her with one a while back. So here goes. 8 random things from my cooking life.

1. I won’t let the kids in the kitchen when I’m cooking. I’m so paranoid that I might splatter or spill something hot, or that I’ll be paying so much attention to one thing that I’ll step on one of them. So they’re not allowed in the kitchen when I’m cooking. We have a playroom right next to the kitchen, so that’s where you’ll find them most evenings between 5 and 6.
2. I don’t cook on Sundays. Yes, I observe the Sabbath. At least in some ways. By not cooking I take tons of stress off myself and then we eat on paper plates so that clean-up is easy too. By not cooking, I mean we have sandwiches for lunch (or zap leftovers in the microwave), and for dinner we do pizza - usually the refrigerated kind from the deli section at the supermarket. I add toppings and extra cheese and bake. I don’t consider that cooking. But we do eat.
3. I buy canned spaghetti sauce. I can make it myself, but I choose not to. I made it myself for years when I lived overseas, but there are so many companies here that do a great job of it, that’s one less thing for me to spend my time on.
4. I do make my own salad dressings and honey mustard. Just because.
5. There’s always a bag of frozen blueberries in my freezer. Bean likes them in her oatmeal, and it’s the perfect remedy for bumps and bruises. When an ice pack isn’t convenient, frozen blueberries do the trick. In fact, some of our friends have had to stock frozen blueberries because their kids are now convinced that frozen blueberries are the only way to heal bumps and bruises.
6. My best meals are spur-of-the moment. And unfortunately are usually un-duplicable. I just throw in what I have, improvising as I go. The sad part is that when it’s awesome, I can’t recreate it.
7. I almost always try out new recipes when we have company. It drives hubby mad, but I have a lot of fun with it.
8. I’d much rather experiment with something new than recreate an old favorite. This goes for restaurants and travel destinations too. I suppose I’m just adventurous that way.

So there it is. And in return, I’m tagging Lara and Colleen. Just spreadin’ the love!

In honor of our 5th wedding anniversary, here’s a marriage meme, taken from Shalee’s Diner, a while back.

1. Where/How did you meet? Kiev, Ukraine - but only briefly. 3 years later I got a job in Chisinau, Moldova and ended up attending his church.
2. How long have you known each other? “known” is a funny word. We met 9 years ago in Kiev, but really only got to know each other 6 years ago.
3. How long after you met did you start dating? Well, again it was 3+ years after we met, but 10 months after I moved to Chisinau and started attending his church.
4. How long did you date before you were engaged? 6 months
5. How long was your engagement? 6 months. I wanted a long engagement. So did he - but we meant different things when we said ‘long’ - so 6 months it was.
6. How long have you been married? 5 years
7. What is your anniversary? Today, October 19
8. How many people came to your wedding reception? 100
9. What kind of cake did you serve? I don’t remember the type of cake, but it had turtle filling. It was not your typical wedding cake, and it was heavenly.
10. Where was your wedding? Brandon, FL. But we got married before that in Chisinau (on paper, September 13th). And then we had another wedding reception in Chisinau after our Florida wedding and Mexico honeymoon. Confused?
11. What did you serve for your meal? At our wedding reception in Florida we served some kind of carved meat (turkey? roast? I don’t remember) and heavy appetizers - little skewers, and those little spinach pockets (spanakopita or something like that?). In Moldova we served a full meal, complete with sarmale, icra de baklajan and other such goodies. And it wasn’t looked favorably upon that we served champagne.
12. How many people were in your wedding party? 3 bridesmaids, 3 groomsmen
13. Are you still friends with them all? I wish I was - I miss them! I’m still friends with 2 of the groomsmen and 2 of the bridesmaids.
14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? No, or if he did he hid it well!
15. Most special moment of your wedding day? Well, it’s not really the wedding day, but the rehearsal dinner was probably the best moment for me. My parents hosted it at their house, in the backyard, with catered barbeque and beer on tap. We invited all out of town guests, so there was a big crowd of people I hadn’t seen in ages. It was fantastic. And none of the wedding day jitters!
16. Any funny moments? Funny moment #1: To initially get married (on paper) we had to say “No.” Yes, that’s right. In Chisinau on September 13 the woman asked if we had any objections to marrying. I looked at E. with questioning eyes and said “Am I really supposed to say ‘no’ so that we can get married?” Indeed. It was the day we said no. Funny moment #2: During our wedding ceremony in Florida, our unity candle fell. That’s right, we almost set the church on fire during the ceremony. While we were lighting it. My dress was a near casualty. And the videographer was focused in on the whole thing. Great to watch over and over! Funny moment #3: Not having been raised in the US, hubby didn’t know about the whole ‘garter’ thing at the reception. The DJ surprised him before I had a chance to tell him, and that look on that poor man’s face was precious! (’You mean, in front of all these people?’)
17. Any big disasters? You mean nearly setting the church on fire wasn’t enough for you? My photographer showed up late. I wasn’t happy about that.
18. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. And they had their first hurricane in 20 years while we were there. (We chose Puerto Vallarta because it was hurricane season and I wanted somewhere not likely to have a hurricane. I guess they were due though…)
19. How long were you gone? One week. What I’d give for another week on the beach! (Maybe without the hurricane this time.)
20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change? I think I’d like to do it a little more casual, maybe even on the beach.
21. What side of the bed do you sleep on? Whichever side is closer to the bathroom…
22. What size is your bed? Queen.
23. Greatest strength as a couple? We compliment each other perfectly - we’re different in so many ways, but we share this ‘other’ culture that so few understand. (When we’re in my culture I totally understand where he’s coming from; when we’re in his culture he totally gets where i’m coming from. It’s cool.)
24. Greatest challenge as a couple? Communication. We don’t share a common native language, so one of us is always speaking a foreign language.
25. Who literally pays the bills? Him.
26. What is your song? We don’t have one, and that doesn’t really bother us.
27. What did you dance your first dance to? Steven Curtis Chapman, “I will be here”
28. Describe your wedding dress: Sleeveless cream with little pearls all over the bodice, and the skirt and train had a darker cream colored wrap-around thing that opened to reveal pearled flowers growing up the main part of the dress. I bought my veil in Moldova to match my dress - for under a buck, and a pearled tiara-thing for another 2 bucks. Mom sewed them together, and it was gorgeous!
29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding? I wanted a very simple bouquet of 3 calla lilies, and a single calla lilly for each bridesmaid. But my florist gave me this ginormous bouquet (including, but so not limited to 3 calla lilies). And for future reference ladies, calla lilies drip. Everywhere. Continually.
30. Are your wedding bands engraved? No. But I put “Un’te duci? La tecuci. Ce sa faci? Cozonaci!” on his Ipod. Does that count? (Not translatable, so don’t ask. Sorry.)
31. How old were you when you got married? He was 27 and I was 25.

Liam was born in December 2005 with a pretty big head (”Look at that gargantuan cranium! It’s like an orange on a toothpick!” Know the movie?). We weren’t surprised - his big sister had a big head too. But at 10 months old his pediatrician noticed that his head was growing much faster than the normal rate, and the rest of his body had nearly stopped growing altogether. At CT scan at that point found nothing.

In June of 2007 Liam had his first seizure. A CT scan at the ER was clear (or so it was interpreted). The seizures continued through the summer, getting worse by September. After multiple EEGs and an MRI, he was found to have a benign brain tumor. At that time he was also placed on anti-epileptic medication, which has - thankfully - controlled the seizures. As of yet, we still don’t know if the seizures and the tumor are related - they could be entirely independent of each other.

The neurosurgeon decided that tumor is too small to incur the risks of brain surgery, so now we wait. And we test. Several times a year Liam will have an MRI to monitor the tumor’s growth. And in the meantime, we praise God for His provision and guidance through this.

How do we feel about it? We know that God placed something in Liam’s head that most people don’t have. We won’t say that it shouldn’t be there. It wasn’t a mistake, or a punishment, or a curse. It’s a blessing. We may not understand it fully, but somehow and for some reason, God chose to bless our Liam with a small, benign brain tumor. We are eternally thankful that the tumor is benign, and that it’s small. We have complete faith and trust that if God put this in Liam’s head, He’ll be the one to guide us through treatment options. We have complete faith that God loves Liam even more than we do, and for that we are thankful. We are also thankful that He is in control of the situation. As the Almighty creator, sustainer, and healer, we know that He is faithful to Liam and to us.

We covet your prayers for Liam as we walk this road:

• That the seizures would stop and he’d be able to wean off the medication
• That the tumor would not grow
• That MRI’s would go smoothly without any complications due to anesthesia
• That his team of doctors would be blessed with wisdom and discernment
• That we - as his parents - would have the wisdom to shepherd his heart and give him coping skills as he learns about the ways that God made him special
• That this situation would edify and not tear down his relationship with his big sister and baby brother