Tangled hair

When I hadn't been feeling well last winter, and Andy was working, Morgan's hair did not get attended to as much as needed. When I had some energy, I got to work on it. It was a tangled mess! I had thought, and think this again and again with tangly hair, that life can get tangled, and messed up. Life can hurt, and pull you in all directions, it can make you cry and sometimes, make you very upset. (As big tangles do for Morgan). We braid Morgan's hair a lot now, to avoid tangled up messes, since hers tangles so easily. My life felt very tangled last winter, and I sometimes felt that life would never be the same. Thankfully, I have come through that time, with God's help, and am much better. I had had 2 bad UTI infections, some bad colds, and throat infection. My vitamin D had been low, and that can affect your health a lot! I am glad my doctor is having me still take the extra vitamin D because it seems to help a lot. Of course, I also developed acid reflux last winter. So as you can tell, I had a lot of problems. A tangled up life. My anxiety was very high. I had trouble doing daily tasks. I got behind on the girls schooling. With help from meds, and a lot of leaning on the Lord, life is better. I still do end up with tangles, and things to go through. That is a part of life. But after all that, I realize that yes, I may cry, yes, I may get upset at things... but usually life goes on, and tangles will be smoothed out. Then you can sigh and say, I made it through another tangle, I got through another day. Everyday will have some tangles, cranky kids,(or husband or wife), messy house, to much to do for one day, etc. We can work through them with God's help. I am so thankful God walks with me in this life. Without Him the tangles would pull harder, the troubles would be worse. I am thankful that He wants me to lean on Him, I do not have to walk my road alone. He goes with me. I do not understand how those who do not know God, make it through the hard times. They must have it really tough. Their tangles must be so bad that life is hard to get through. I am so glad God can ease us through the tangles of life!

I have not posted in a long time.

I have not posted on here in a long time. Some has to deal with getting busy with other things. Some of it has to deal with me just being lazy about getting on here. I DO want to start posting more. I get frustrated with blogger, though, because I have trouble figuring out the extras that I would like to add. I would like each post to have its own page, and I would like to post more pictures on it some how. I remember when I looked at what you could change before, I had trouble figuring it out. I did get pretty sick last winter. It is not a winter that I would want to go through again. I got sick, and got well, then got sick again. So much happened that I was frustrated. I wanted to stay busy, yet felt so bad, it was hard to stay busy. About all I could think about for a while was being sick. I got behind on the girls' schoolwork, as I could not help them as much. I did not feel up to a lot. I made myself feel worse by being anxious about things, instead of leaving my troubles with the Lord. I had a hard time. But I made it! God saw me through! I knew he could (and that he would) inside of myself, yet I let my trust and faith falter. My anxiety was very high. Some do not agree with taking meds, but I have to take meds. I do not deal well with anxiety. I have a tendency to get overly anxious about things. I was off of medicine for about a year. I started out okay without it. But then, I could not handle things anymore. For some reason, I do not handle life well without medication. I do not take a large dose, but I feel that I need it. Andy feels that I need it. I just do not function the same without it. I have struggled with these issues since I was a teenager. At times, I have been fine without medication. Then other times, I just do not function very well. Some say just trust God. Some say that you can do things without medication. But it is hard. Some of us are more prone to things, and I am one of them. We do have medicines out there to help us. I think if you need it, use it. If it can help you, why not try it? And of course, God helps A LOT! I would never get through hard times without God! So thankful that He walks this road called life with me! I have weaknesses like everyone else. Satan likes to attack us where we are weakest. I can handle things better this winter. I do not know if I can ever be off medication, it seems when I try that I have problems. I have talked to some other friends that experience anxiety also. They pray alot, read the Bible alot, as I do too. You lean on the Lord a lot with anxiety issues, because He is always there. He always understands our troubles. And yes, I know of friends that take medicine like me. It does help! Sometimes with anxiety it feels like your life is one big troublesome thing. It is hard. Sometimes you can't go hardly anywhere. Sometimes you feel alone. It is good to reach out to friends, and family. Medicine might not be the answer for everyone. But it can help.

Vacation 2013

I have not posted on here for a long while! I had a very rough winter, and did not get on here. We had a very nice vacation. We went to Oklahoma then Texas. It was nice to meet the little ones in the family in Oklahoma. We hadn't met Alyvia and Edison yet. We started out on a Thursday and spent the night in Springfield, Missouri. We went to a zoo in on Friday then traveled with my sisters for most of the day. We had a big lunch at my Aunt Shari's house, and spent all day visiting Saturday. My grandma brought a bunch of pictures, and it was nice to look at them all. It is so good to have good family time like that. I think we all enjoyed ourselves. We went on Sunday for a suprise visit to Terry and Valerie Basham in Lawton, OK. We drove by the Witchata Mountains. Also, Oklahoma seems to be known for its many turbines.. we saw a lot of them. We enjoyed lunch with the Basham family and another couple from their church. Morgan made friends with Lacey and Leslie. RaeAnn talked with them all I think. Reagan and Macy stayed close to me most of the time. It was very nice to visit with friends! I wish though, that one of us would have remembered a camera that day! We then ended up going out of our way for a fan motor for our van (a different AutoZone had the part, then we didn't need that part after all the trouble) We were going to spend the afternoon with family, but by the time we picked up the part, and headed back to Weatherford, OK it was evening. Then Morgan ended up with a fever, so I took her back to the hotel room, and everyone else went to Lucille's. Andy did bring us some food. And while I am mentioning hotels, the Holiday Inn Express we stayed in was great! They had great beds, and a great breakfast.... you could eat pancakes, waffles, or french toast... eggs, biscuits and gravy or sausage... blueberry or banana nut muffin, a few cereal choices, yogurt, milk, juices, or bagel with cream cheese or peanut butter. We went to the zoo in Oklahoma City the next day, then went back to visit with family again. Tuesday we headed down to Texas with the air conditioning in the van still not working. So it was very warm. Our family tried to help get it working, but we didn't figure out until we got to Texas, that it was a switch of some sort that was bad. We had a nice cook out when we got to Texas, and all but Macy and I went for a swim. (She is not liking swimming pools right now, but she loves baths) We rested for a while the next day. Wednesday we went to Pizza Hut, and Morgan got sick in the middle of the restaurant. No fun! The poor girl was not feeling well for a few days. We found out that there is a great donut shop, and had donuts and crescent bacon, egg, and cheeses for a couple days. Thursday we ate at Saltgrass (a yummy restaurant) in the evening. Friday we went to Galveston, TX. We rode a tram for a historic tour, then ate lunch at Fish Tales where Morgan drank 3 glasses of pink lemonade. We later took a Dolphin Watch tour which was great! Then took the ferry across the Bay, only to end up going the opposite way than what we needed to go! We were good at detours this vacation! Morgan made a friend of a boy named Levi while we visited Uncle Kenny and Aunt Tish in Texas. We ate Chick fil a for dinner that evening, then went to Dairy Queen for ice cream with Aunt Tish. (Uncle Kenny didn't want to go, but Mary and Levi went with us.) That Dairy Queen was chilly! We then finished our stay with a late lunch at Bennihana's on Saturday. That was neat! They grill your food right in front of you. The man cooking had a fake ketchup bottle and pretended to squirt RaeAnn with ketchup! He also started to put the scraps that he scrapped off the grill onto her plate! The kids all wore the silly hats there, and the cook made an onion into a train! I wish Andy would have been recording! Macy latched onto Uncle Kenny, and called him grandpa, even though, we told her several times that it was Uncle Kenny. He does look like his brother, Andy's dad, so we can't blame her for that. We headed towards home then. We made it to Texarkana, and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express again. We found a good Baptist church to go to there, then headed towards home. We AGAIN ended up going on a slight detour when two interstates split up. Andy does have a gps, but we still managed to not have it on when we got side tracked! We made it safely in last night. Thank you, Lord, for all the safe travels and great family time!

Slowing down

I haven't been on here since July! Wow, that is way too long! I love to write, yet I just find many other things to do. I have been ill this week, and I am hoping that I feel better soon. Also, I am hoping that the kiddos do not catch this! My stomach has been very achy, and I just do not feel up to much. I am trying to take it easy, as I learned last time when I was ill, sometimes I have to learn to slow down a little. (or a lot). I do like to be able to take things slow or have a relaxing day every once in a while. I do not mind being busy on others. I remember on Thanksgiving, when Macy did not sleep in, I thought this is a day to relax with family, not get up early. (I did get up early on Sunday to make a turkey for our church family, but my step mom was cooking the Thanksgiving one at her house) But when I feel that I should be up and doing things for my family, it is sometimes hard to rest. I am used to cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc. for my family. And I feel bummed out when ill and cannot do the things I normally do. It is great to be healthy and do what you need to do. But this week, I am a bit sick. I have to take it easier. I am not having school. I am sitting or laying when I can. I have to take care of myself, so I can take care of my family. I learned that the HARD way last month, when I got so sick. I was overdoing it. I was trying to go and do everything that I normally did. I was not resting much.... I ended up being badly ill. I had to rest. I have learned from that experience, that if I need to rest, I need to rest. So I will relax today, and let the kiddos relax too. I did do a few things, and I am writing this post today, but other than that, I will be resting. I have to rest in the Lord as well. I find that I do not always rest in God like I should. So I am trying to slow down this week until this has past. And I am hoping by tomorrow, I feel much better.

Low risk, low reward.

I am not a big risk taker in some things. I do not want to fly in an airplane. I sometimes do not want to try new foods. I am afraid of sky trams and ski lifts. I do not like elevators that go up high when you can see out of them. I will not volunteer for elective surgery any time soon(like donating a kidney or something). Well, Andy for a few days was telling me: low risk, low reward. I do not want too many risks most of the time. I like the same old-same old most of the time. Andy can get me to try some things. He gets me out of my shell a lot more than I probably would. In fact, when I started dating him, I had got myself so scared of things that I barely wanted to leave my hometown! He got me to exploring the world again. I have panic attacks sometimes, if I get too worked up about something, or stressed too much. Being overly tired can sometimes get me to be more anxious. Too much caffeine will do it too. I need to rest in the Lord in these times. But some of that is for another story, another time. On our vacation, I was thinking about the low risk, low reward. I was nervous about going to Florida. I wanted to go, it is just very different to my normal. Well, different area than I was used to. I have to go outside my little box sometimes. I have to take some risks. I have to try some things. Florida ended up being a wonderful trip. While on vacation, I tried this grilled patty thing (I forget the name right now), it was corn and mozzarella cheese together. It was great! If I had not taken the risk to try it, I would have missed out on something yummy. Also, at a restaurant I tried some type of fried root (I can not remember the name of this either), it had a light taste like fried zucchini. It was pretty decent. So I DO try new foods sometimes.... Andy was going to try alligator meat, which I wasn't sure about. BUT I think that Andy is more willing to try new things than I am. Again, it makes me think: low risk, low reward. We can use this principle for Godly things as well. If we risk little for the Lord, we will have a lower reward in Heaven. We will not have all the blessings that the Lord can offer us either. Yes, there might be more persecution if we stand for what we believe in. Yes, it might be harder to do the right thing. But it will be worth it all when we see Jesus, as the song says. I want to do things right. I know I do not always do the right thing. I mess up. I go my own way sometimes. I need to strive to do right in the Lord as a Christian. If that means it is not popular with others, then what is better? Following Christ is better, I believe. I want to remember this low risk, low reward. I had asked Andy to stop saying it, after he had said it a few times to me. It just made me feel like I did not take enough risks in life in a general sense. Then, I thought about it. I want to remember it now. It is a great reminder!

Finding Our Way Home: Blogging for Books

I enjoyed this book. Sasha Davis, is the delicate ballerina who after an injury, can hardly get around. Evelyn Burt, very much opposite of Sasha, comes to stay with Sasha to help Sasha out. Sasha, at first, is a bit mean to Evelyn. Sasha is consumed with what she can not do. She pushes people away, because she is upset with her injury. Sasha only lets the doctors and Evelyn in her life. Evelyn is good for her though. Evelyn is cheerful, and happy. She keeps a good attitude, where Sasha is dwelling in self-pity. They learn from each other, and discover a great friendship in each other. Sasha gets encouraged to push forward, and move on. Evelyn prays "Grace, Amen" when she prays. Sasha thinks maybe this pray is too short. But Evelyn wants grace through everything, which we all need. In the end, Sasha is able to cope, and is moving much better. Over all, an encouraging read to push on in life, no matter the circumstances. This book was provided to me byWaterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group as a review item, the book was free and ALL opinions about it are my own.

Illness and God's plan

I am glad that my blog is letting me put capital letters! (It didn't want to capitalize for me one other time when typing from my phone) Anyway, for two weeks we had it rough around here. My grandpa passed away the one week and Reagan and Macy were sick as well. RaeAnn had a cough that week too. Well, on the day of the funeral for my grandpa, I took Reagan to the doctor for possible dehydration. They admitted her to the hospital then. We found out she had pneumonia then. She only had to be there til Sunday, thankfully. She had not wanted to eat or drink much for that week. She scared me, and I was praying hard for her. It has been such a blessing to hear her little laugh again, and see her beautiful smiles! Macy and RaeAnn, however, where still sicky on Sunday. I took them to the doctor and found out that RaeAnn had strep throat and Macy had an ear infection. Whew! Morgan, thankfully, did not catch anything. How I do not know, because even Daddy and Mommy have had the colds and or flu too! I feel that our little family has been through a lot in two weeks! I know that I do not understand why fully. I am wondering if God wanted me to appreciate the girls more? Not taking any moments for granted? Life is so short. I know God has a plan and purpose in everything! . I am thankful for the girls, and I am praying about some personal things right now. I want to do as I should for my little ones. I am so thankful for God planning for Andy and I to have these girls. Sometimes I wonder if I can handle 4 kids. A lot of times I don't think I can train them right. I try. I am so glad our family is doing better! I pray that I can be the mother I need to be for them. I hope for them to be good Christians as adults. I am hoping that we are done with sickness, at least for a little while. In the mean time, I will be thankful for good health!