Category Archives: family

christian growth, family

Serving and Being Served

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We just got back to St Louis after spending the weekend in New Hampshire, where Mark spoke at a Bible conference yesterday.  As shocking as it may sound, we went on this trip alone–without children.  Two different families watched the kids.  One family picked them up from school on Friday and kept them through Saturday afternoon.  The other family had them until this evening when we got home.  Now, these are what you call friends, people.  The first family has 4 little kids — ages 6, 5, 2.5, and 9 months.  The second family has 6 kids, ages 10, 8, 6, 5, 2, and 8 months.  But from all accounts, everyone did fine.  When we walked in our house tonight, the only one who was really thrilled to see us was the dog.  (Oh, and our friend Justin took care of Simon for us).  So you see why we don’t get away alone too often.

Mark spoke on Ephesians yesterday, and he really did an excellent job.  Yes.  I am his wife.  I am biased.  But the Lord can still use him to speak to me–to convict me of things I need to work on. 

Here’s the main theme I took away from the talks–God puts us in relationships with other people to change us and make us more like Christ.  We learn to submit to Christ by submitting and serving others.  There was a lot more meat to it than that, but my notes are somewhere between Detroit and St. Louis.  When they arrive tomorrow, maybe I’ll write more.  But, if you are really interested, I could hook you up to buy the cds of the lectures.

One great thing about these lectures for me was that while I was sitting in pleasant surroundings listening to good Bible teaching about needing to learn to serve others in the body of Christ, I was being served by my friends back in St Louis.  They came alongside us and cared for our dear children to allow us to spend some time alone together.  I was also being served by the church that hosted us.  They put us up in a nice hotel, they took us out to eat at some nice restaurants, and they gave us free time alone.  We also enjoyed a vibrant worship service with the saints there this morning, a pleasant meal at a great restaurant afterwards with a large group from the church, and great conversation and fellowship on the way to the airport.

I am glad to be home.  It is nice to come back refreshed and blessed by the service of others.  I am praying I can be of better service to those around me after our little time away.

family

The V-Day Post

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I see many of my blogging acquaintances are posting about Valentines Day. I felt I must get in on the action.

So as not to be a copy cat, I won’t tell you how Mark and I met, but I’ll post that some day. It has some interesting elements.

I will say that I like Valentines Day because it reminds me to be thankful for a good husband who loves me and our 4 children. It also reminds me to be thankful for the 4 children, themselves. These 5 people are the loves of my life. I praise God to have loves in my life because I know many people don’t.

Most Valentines Days in the past, I have tried to make it a family night, with a “fancy dinner” (anything I make served on china with a table cloth and candles). Our girls really like this sort of thing, and the boys tolerate it. We also usually give the children a little gift. Well, circumstance has made the “fancy dinner” hard for me to pull off this year, but we did manage to get the children small gifts to remind them they are loved. I also made the trip to school to be a party mom for one child’s party. Evangeline and the third graders in her class were the lucky recipients of my children’s party skills. Valentine Bingo anyone? (BTW, I sign up for one party and one field trip per kid per year if possible. I made the party circuit this year, but the field trips haven’t worked out as well.)

I may not have a dramatic love story to tell, but I do feel blessed by the love and loves in my life, which is worthy of a blog post every now and then. Happy Valentines Day to everyone–especially, Mark, Calvin, Nevin, Evangeline, and Charis.

books, family, money savers, parenting, time savers

Library Elf

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I came across the library elf on our local library’s website.  This is a great service if you are a parent who takes your kids to the library with any regularity.  It is a free service that links to libraries across the country and tracks individuals accounts to help you keep track of all those books, videos,  etc., that the whole family has checked out.  It sends you e-mails or text messages to remind you when items are due.  You can choose how far ahead of the due date you want the reminder.  You can also choose to get one reminder or daily reminders until the items are returned.  What makes this better than tracking accounts on the library’s website is that it lists the entire household’s checked out items.  Just go to your library elf account and it’s all there on one page.  This is going to save us time and money!  Woo-hoo!

Now, if only I could finda free laundry-elf, cooking elf, driving elf, cleaning-elf,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

family, weather

The Annual Ground Hog Day Post

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In honor of my Pennsylvania roots and my native Punxsutawney parents, I am obligated to wish everyone a Happy Ground Hog Day. According to the news, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, and that means 6 more weeks of winter. Of course, if he doesn’t see his shadow the other option is “spring is just around the corner.” Well, that’s a fairly undefined expression, so it doesn’t make much difference if Phil doesn’t see his shadow. Six weeks, around the corner:it’s pretty much a wash.

Still, a small town in Pennsylvania gets its annual day of fame and boosts its economy with the events of February 2. So, Happy Groundhog Day one and all.

This photo shows our girls with the statue of Phil in Punxsutawney. The building behind the statue is where Phil is kept all year. There are statues of Phil all over Punxsutawney.

family, weather

Looks Like They’re All Closed!

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Snow.  Predicting 6 – 12 inches.  I will believe it when I see it. I grew up in Pennsylvania where it really snows, and in St Louis, we have never experienced a really big snow like I remember from my childhood.  Ok, once, nearly 12 years ago when I was expecting Calvin, it snowed enough right before Christmas that they closed I-44 for the day.  But in the combined 6.5 years we have lived in St Louis, that’s the only big snow I remember.

I am weary from a variety of things this week, and you might think I would want the kids to go to school.  But I don’t.  I was hoping for a snow day tomorrow, and I just checked one of the local tv channel websites.  It looks like all the schools around our area are taking the day off tomorrow.  Happy February!

blogging, books, family, movies, parenting

This, That, and the Other Thing; Baedekers Included

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First, this:

Procrastination–I have a big project to complete, so I am finding every manner of activity to do instead of working on the project–blogging included.

Second, that:

The project I am completing involves a lot of data entry. Arrgh. So I am sitting with my laptop on the sofa and watching a movie while I enter the data. When I come to a stopping point, I do a little web surfing. This is not the most time-effective way to complete a project, but it makes me feel less like I am working on a Saturday. I won’t do all the work like this; I’ll buckle down and get it done on time.

I am watching a movie that I love, so I don’t have to really concentrate on it. I can hear it in the background, and enjoy the familiarity, the comfort of it. It is A Room With A View by EM Forster. Say what you may about EM Forster, but I enjoy his books. I can overlook his opinions that I don’t agree with to just enjoy the plot. I’ve read this book multiple times, and I enjoy the movie from time to time. I received it on DVD as a gift for my birthday last year, so now I can just put it in whenever I please.

I recommend this movie highly if you enjoy British period films. Helena Bonhomme Carter plays the principle female role, and there are other British actors that you’ll recognize. My only disclaimer is that it has some brief male nudity that is shot distantly, so it isn’t horribly scandalous. However, once I forgot to mention this to someone when I recommended this movie, and I lived to regret that mistake. Never again.

The Other Thing

The other thing I did today was shop for pants for my eldest son. At the beginning of the school year, a mere 4 months ago, we bought him several pair of school pants and a few pair of jeans. Now, at the halfway point of the school year, he has grown 3 inches! His pants are what we affectionately referred to as “flood pants” in the old days. When he is standing, they rest about a half inch above his high-tops. At his current height, size 18 in boys’ sizes are too short. So, today I went to Old Navy to purchase the smallest waist men’s pants available–28. I am expecting them to be a tad loose at the waist, but hopefully we will no longer have a view of his ankles. He is camping with scouts this weekend, so I have to wait until tomorrow to see if my pants errand was successful. If it was, I will be a devotee of clearance racks at Old Navy. I hardly ever set foot in the store because I can’t really afford clothes from there, but there sale prices were reasonable and the clearance rack was an excellent place for the budget conscious to shop. Mark even scored a pair of pants from the clearance rack and a pair of jeans from the sale selections!

Baedekers included . . . I just threw this in because chapter 2 of A Room with a View is entitled, “In Santa Croce with No Baedeker,” which begs the question, what is a baedeker? If you really want to know, go here.

family, fun outings

Adventures in Traveling

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After celebrating Christmas at home with just us, we piled in the van the day after to head south to visit Mark’s family. Because of cold symptoms slowing me down, we didn’t get out of St Louis until around 10 am. So the 10 – 12 hour drive seemed even more daunting since we knew we would not arrive until late.

We were driving along, making good time. The kids were occupied by the family Christmas gift (dvd players for the van), and all was going well. Then, at around 5:45 pm, we received a call from a friend who is caring for our dog in our absence. He was at our house, and Simon was not willing to take orders from our friend. He barked and barked, and retreated to our living room sofa, where he promptly peed.

It Takes a Village?

I suggested calling Simon’s former owners, to see if they could calm him down. A little while later, we heard back from our friend. Simon’s former owner’s stopped by and properly introduced Simon to our friend. Since we’ve heard no further reports, we assume the rest of the week has gone alright. Apparently, “it takes a village to raise a dog.”

Next time we leave town, we’ll be sure to introduce Simon to his caretaker. Live and learn.

Thank God for Cell Phones

We continued on our journey, and around 7 pm, we stopped for a greasy meal at Long John Silver/AW Rootbeer in Muskogee, OK. Charis only wanted a milkshake. So we gave her half a small milkshake and forced her to eat a hot dog sans bun. Oh, when will we learn?!

We jumped back on HWY 69, and drove a couple of hours. Shortly before we reached Tushka, OK, Charis said she needed to use the bathroom. We finally came to a Valero gas station after several minutes of driving from the time the request was made. Mark took this opportunity to get gas while I took Charis into one of the most disgusting roadside bathrooms I’ve seen. After a short wait for Charis to perform, she said, “I need to throw up.” I told her to hold on, thinking if I turned her around to throw up in the potty, she would wet herself. Bad choice. Pee is much easier to clean up than pink vomit laced with hot dog chunks. Thank God for cell phones. I promptly called Mark and sent him back and forth for clean clothes, paper towels, a new trash liner for the gas station bathroom, etc.

Upon leaving the Valero Station in Tushka, OK, we witnessed a police bust of what we assumed to be some sort of drug charges. We were happy to leave behind this facility and get back on the road.

We arrived at the grandparents’ home at around 10 pm. Charis had slept most of the way since her throwing up incident, so we were hopeful all was well. Just when we pulled into Mark’s parents’ driveway, Charis said, “I think I’m going to throw up again!” Arrrgghhh! Before I could get her out of the van, more pink vomit was decorating her carseat. With a towel from Grandmommy wrapped around her, I whisked her to the bathtub for another cleansing.

Needed Rest

After a day of much needed rest on Thursday, Charis was back to her normal self. We all needed a day of down-time after after our adventurous day of traveling.

We’ve had an enjoyable visit with Mark’s family, and we’re looking forward to our drive home on New Year’s Day . . . sort 0f.

family

16 Years Ago Today

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Apparently, December 20, 1991 was a slow news day. Here’s what I found:

· Sierra Leone issued fifteen postage stamps marking the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

· Touchstone Pictures released the live-action feature film Father of the Bride to theaters.

· The film Beauty and the Beast was released to theaters in the Philippines.

· Oliver Stone’s film JFK was released

But I wasn’t really paying attention to the news that day. I was busily preparing for this event:

· Mark Horne married Jennifer Burkett on this cold (65 degrees) and windy Friday evening at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Sixteen years, 5 states, 9 moves, 4 kids, and many memories later, it is still the best thing I have done in my life. I am thankful for a godly husband who loves me for me. I am truly blessed.

family, work

Update on the Juggling Act

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Some of you may remember this post. Later, I posted this.

Well, last Friday was officially my last day of work at my part-time office job. It took 3 months for us to find a replacement for me and to train her. I wish I could say this is because I am so wonderful, I am hard to replace. But it is really because the situation with the company is so tenuous that it is difficult to find just the right person who is willing to give it a go. But we did find such a person. She is a great fit for the office and for the work itself. However, after a little more than 2 weeks, she could sense a lot of the problems, which is not too surprising. So how long she will last is yet to be seen. The great thing is that this is not my problem! Yeah!!!!!

On my first day of “freedom,” I did some work for my part-time at-home job, ran some errands, took Charis to pre-school in the afternoon, ran some more errands, picked up the kids from school, and then went into the evening routine of homework, dinner, chores, etc. It doesn’t sound very exciting, but it was a good day. It was good not to feel pressured to get stuff done just so I could run somewhere else to get more stuff done.

My second day home has been much more low key. I have done some things around the house and hung out with Charis. With Christmas around the corner, I know I’ll be busy every day for a while, so I thought I would try to have at least one slower day.

I am still feeling a bit concerned lowering our income, but we are praying that my being home will allow Mark more opportunities to build up his business. The transition may be a bit rocky, but we’re hopeful God will bless our efforts. If you feel so inclined, pray along with us.