Monthly Archives: December 2008
Protected: Countdown to a Blessed Christmas – 6 Days Until Christmas
Countdown to a Blessed Christmas – 7 Days Until Christmas
Amazing and Random Acts of Kindness. That’s the best way I can describe our day today.Â
Let me back up a bit — last night, at our church’s Family Advent night, my children couldn’t keep our auto issues to themselves. They told everyone and anyone who would listen. I was in the kitchen, helping to serve food, and had people I’ve never seen before come up to me and ask about our Suburban.
I was gone most of today, had to carve out the time to shop for DD#2’s birthday and Christmas presents (yeah, almost done!). I returned home, had enough time to visit with the kids, then came up to my office shed to check emails.
There, amongst all of my work emails, was one from the blended service musical director from our church. She said they had a large, 7 passenger van that she used for work (she’s a certified musical therapist) and she and her husband were offering it to us, to use until our Suburban was fixed. She knew that all six of us couldn’t fit in the Explorer safely, and she figured the van would suit our needs. She’d use her husband’s truck while he used his work truck for a few days.
Doesn’t that just make your heart swell? These people barely know us — sure, we say hi and I am with their daughter on Wednesdays when we have Sacred Arts classes with the kids — but, they don’t *know* us. Yet, out of the goodness of their hearts, they offer us a vehicle, so that our whole family will be able to get to and from church TOGETHER on Sunday. I have tears in my eyes, just typing it!
Lucky for us, the transmission folks identified the problem the minute they put the car up on the lift, ordered the part (something about a shattered gear – for which they’ve ordered a heavy-duty one this time) and it should be finished tomorrow afternoon. And, since it was under warranty, there is NO CHARGE for the towing or anything that they did to fix it. There aren’t enough “Praise God’s” to go around, for this grand adventure, I assure you.
Thank you, Lord.
Thoughts for this Christmas Countdown Day: Random and Amazing Acts of Kindness can only come from above. Thank you, from the bottom of our humbled hearts … thank you.
Countdown to a Blessed Christmas – 8 Days Until Christmas
I had to make a presentation to my MIL’s church ladies yesterday, to request a sponsor for our Girl Scout troop. Yeah, they voted unanimously to sponsor our troop!Â
As we were driving to town, the Suburban made a whining noise – it didn’t last long, but it sounded like a belt or the water pump (yeah, I’ve driving OLD vehicles long enough to know lots of sounds and the awful things they can mean). It quit pretty quickly, but as I continued to drive, I said to JD, “I think the transmission is slipping.” Now, if you know anything about me, you know I’m a numb-nuts when it comes to autos. I know enough to be dangerous. But hey, I’m married – and my older brother (now deceased) was quite happy to turn over my auto duties to my husband once that marriage contract was signed that I can tell when something is wrong – but, not really what. But, yesterday, I could *really* tell that something was wrong. ;-(
We got to town, he dropped me off at MIL’s church and he went to main street to get the license renewed. And in the middle of my speech, my MIL’s phone began ringing. And then it rang again.Â
Oh crud.
Seems JD got to the tax office, and tried to leave, but the car wouldn’t go in reverse. He knew, as I did, that it was the transmission – same symptoms as last year. The receipt for the work that the transmission shop did was in the glove box, and he called them. They sent a tow truck over the hill (in record time, I might add) and tied up main street in the big burg of Medina, Texas, to load my wheels and carry them back to the shop. One year and four days after we got it out of hock last year. Thank the good Lord that the work they did was guaranteed for THREE years. Oh m’dear, I was praying so hard.
But, the biggest issue right now is that my MIL’s auto has a big rear main seal leak that she can’t afford to fix until after the holidays. And our second auto, an Explorer, won’t hold all six of us at the same time. Last night, we left DD#1 with MIL to go caroling with the youth group at her church – while we took the other three kids over the hill to our famliy Advent night at our church. Now, what in the world are we going to do come Sunday, when we ALL need to go to church?!
Thoughts for this Christmas Countdown Day: There’s always chaos and calamities that occur when we’re stressed. I’m thinking I need some more quilt therapy, to de-stress my life and calm the soul. The car will be fixed and we’ll deal with it, once it’s done. Right now, all we can do is pray that it won’t cost us anything…and hope that our chaos returns to ‘normal’ after the holidays.
Countdown to a Blessed Christmas – 9 Days Until Christmas
Lice. Two of our girls had lice and nits in their hair last night. ARGH. I’ve never had lice, or even seen them, in my life. DD#2 just had the lice, and they jumped from her head as her dad was applying the special shampoo…like fleas jump off dogs when you give them a flea bath. DD#3 had both the bugs and their eggs, and it took us hours just to get to a point where we “thought” we had everything gone. Then, we sprayed every single fabric surface they’d touched over the past week … stripped all their beds (and let me tell you – those two little girls had more stuffed animals and blankies in their beds than you’d find in an entire orphanage!!!) and did our best to get them to bed before midnight.Â
I was surprised a bit, though, as the only one who really had a heart attack was our oldest daughter! And they weren’t even on her head! 😉
The rest of us checked out clean and free of the pests, so at least we were only treating two kids and not the entire family of six!Â
Today, we have a full day of excitement — I have to give a presentation to my MIL’s church, to see if their women’s group will sponsor our Girl Scout troop – have to deliver a quilt batting order, go to library, get girls from school, head to the big town over the hill for errands and groceries and then it’s family Advent night at church. None of us will have time to think about bugs, with that type of schedule!
Thoughts for this Christmas Countdown Day:Â Never let the little bugs in your life get you down.