Monday, November 24, 2008

Thankful

Well, this past week was a bit crazy for me. I literally went through it in Survival Mode, literally. I only did what was necessary to survive all the responsibilities that seemed to come to a head in this one week. And as an added bonus to the chaos, I had a child home with strep throat. So, as I sit at my computer this morning I am very thankful that I lived to see the week come to an end, O So Thankful!

I thought it would be fitting to begin this week being mindful of all the blessing in my life and truly thanking God for them. So, I hope you will join me in having a mind and heart of gratitude this week.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

Things I Am Thankful for:

God's love for me
My salvation
God's Faithfulness
My family
My friends
My health
God's Steadfastness
God never sleeps
I'll enjoy Thanksgiving with my family

Leave a comment and let me know what you are thankful for this week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Did Something Just Crawl Out Of My Jeans?

I just have to share with you what caused me to be the last parent to pick up her children in the car rider line on Friday.

Friday was my house cleaning day and as you know I am not a big fan of cleaning but believe me it was time. I had a very prosperous cleaning day.

I got my shower and began to get ready to pick my children up from school. I went to the laundry room and got my jeans. Unfortunately, they were going to need ironing.

Now I know that some of you are gasping at the thought of ironing your jeans. And I will just go ahead and tell you that I iron everything. I also iron everyday. We are an iron as you go family. I don't iron undershirts and underwear, but everything else gets ironed. Yes, even my kids t-shirts and sweat pants. I just like my family to emerge from our home looking crisp.

Back to Friday. I turned the iron on and went to do something else while it heated. I came back and laid my jeans out on the ironing board. All of the sudden I think I see something move.

Sure enough I did. A stink bug crawled out of my jeans. I am totally grossed out. I go get something and kill it which leaves a nasty smell, hence why they are called stink bugs.

I live in Georgia and I have always known these bugs as stink bugs. I am sure they have a more prestigious name, but I have never heard it. They are rather large bugs with a flat back and when you get too close and they feel threatened they let out some stink.

Once I dispose of the unlucky stink bug, I resume my ironing only to discover another stink bug crawling on the floor under the ironing board. Same as above, he did not make it either. And again there was some stink.

I am back to ironing. I iron the legs and move up. And what do I see but a stink bug crawling out of the pocket.

Well, now I am getting mad!

Where on earth are these things coming from?

And then it hit me. These are the jeans that I had hung outside to dry. And now my memory replays all the stink bugs I saw on the grill cover outside right by the deck where my jeans were hanging.

My mind immediately plays images of my laundry room covered in stink bugs. I mean the jeans did lay in the clothes basket for a couple of days.

Well, after killing 5 stink bugs and thoroughly examining my jeans I think I have them all. I believe that my jeans are safe to put on.

I slip my right leg in only to fell something crawling on my foot. I sling the jeans off and run out back on the deck. I start slinging the jeans because I am about 5 bugs past grossed out.

I then look down to see that I am on the deck in my shirt with no pants. My poor neighbors! I don't believe they saw me, but to be honest I really did not care. I mean I was being taken over by stink bugs.

Finally there are no more bugs and the jeans are safe.

I know some of you are probably wondering why I did not just leave the jeans on the deck and grab another pair. Well, I thought of that but my other jeans were dirty and I was just in it too far to give up. No stink bug was going to keep me from wearing my jeans!

Fast forward a few hours. I call my husband at work because at the last minute we were going to have a few hours on a Friday night to ourselves. So we were making some dinner plans.

He made the comment that he was going to have to come home and change first. Of course I asked why.

He said all day he had been smelling something. He said he was wearing the jeans I had hung out and they just stunk like the outside.

I started laughing and retold him my jeans experience. I told him it wasn't the outside he was smelling but some stink bugs. He said he never felt anything crawling on him probably because he sat on them and killed them. Oh my!

Well, the lesson in this story is don't hang your jeans out during stink bug season!




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