Cats make good babies!

I've always wondered why cats make good babies. If you ask most girls and women, they'd probably admit to dressing up a kitty sometime in their childhood. I sure did. I had the best cat when I was younger. His name was Sophie. Yes, I realize Sophie is a girl's name, but we didn't realize she was a he until it was too late. Anyhow, I dressed up Sophie in doll clothes, wrapped him in a blanket and put him in a stroller or cradled him in my arms every day. That cat put up with so much. And now, my daughter does the same thing. Well, not the doll clothes yet, but she picks up Socks like a baby, places her over her shoulder, cradles her like a baby and now puts her in the baby buggy she got for Christmas. It's so funny.

I read once a while back that cats are actually good pets for women who are infertile because the way they look or something somehow meets that "baby need". Not completely, of course, but it does help. So, there is something scientific about cats and women.

So, our kitty does put up with a lot, but she's a very good sport about it. And I figure, God gave cats claws and teeth, so if they get too tired of being a baby, they can just leave.

A Very Merry Christmas

Just pictures this time!

Christmas: Bring it on, we're ready!

The tree is decorated,




















presents have been bought, wrapped, and appropriately stowed,















cookies have been baked and delivered,

I guess we're ready!

Praying for my Kid!

I've really been having a burden for my children lately. One of them in particular and I've been praying a lot for him, because sometimes I feel that's all I have left to do. Scripture has a lot of instructions for parents, and Hubby and I do our best to raise our children according to the word of God, but in the end, it is the Lord's work in a person's heart that causes the changes we so desparately want to see. Sometimes I just want to conk this kid over the head and say, "Why are you so selfish? Do you really think the world revolves around you? Why can't you just cooperate and not make everything such a great, big, stinkin' deal?" A lot of my regrets as a mother center around my inability to respond to him in a constructive way, but rather I react to him because I just get so incredibly frustrated with him. So, I spend a lot of time in prayer for this child. And for me that I can have patience and understanding because that's what he needs a lot of, that's for sure. I believe that the Lord saved him physically and brought him to our family to be brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I believe that God will do something great with this child, I really do.

Christmas Letters

I visit a homeschool message board from time to time... throughout the day. OK, I'm an addict. No, I'm not quite as bad as that, but I do enjoy it. Anyhow, there was a thread one day about how people don't like getting Christmas letters from people. The original poster was saying something about how if the people you send letters to aren't close enough to know what's going on in your life anyhow, then they're not really worth keeping in touch with because they aren't in your life. Or something like that. Well, I must say (and I did say on that thread) that I heartily disagree with that sentiment and here is why:

I love receiving Christmas letters. First off, I don't agree with the fact that if people aren't close enough to know what's been going on then who really cares about them. A lot of people on my Christmas card list are relatives who live out of state. Sure, Christmas may be the only time I hear from them, or they hear from us, but that doesn't mean we don't care about each other and want a quick update and a picture to see how the kids have grown. Secondly, keeping in touch with people is tough - even if they live in the same general area. We have friends who we love, but haven't seen in ages. Life just gets in the way, but a Christmas card is a great way of telling someone that you still care. And a third reason, and for me it's the most important reason, it's that a Christmas letter tells a lot about the sender. It tells about their personality, writing style and I find it to be interesting what they consider to be the highlights of their year. It's personal.

I know most people aren't writers and the though of writing a Christmas letter is daunting, but I am always a tad bit disappointed when all I get is a card or a picture and no letter. I feel like I'm missing something!

You don't realize how thankful you are for something...

until it is gone. No, I'm not talking about a close friend or relative who has passed away. I'm talking about my dryer. A couple of days ago my dryer started making this loud rattly noise. Of course I kept using it because.... I needed my dryer, and as long as it contined to dry clothes I was going to use it. Well, Hubby decided it was probably not a good idea for me to use it because he looked into the dark recesses and saw that some roller had come loose or something like that and it would not be good for me to continue using it. Well, fine. So, he went to Sears to get some parts to fix it, but was unable to fix it last night. He hasn't been feeling well and we got home late from my parents' house, so, of course I wasn't going to demand that the poor guy stay up till midnight so I could have my dryer. And tonight he has a trustee meeting at church, so he won't be able to fix it then. But, I had clothes I needed to wash.
So... I washed them. And hung them up to dry all over the house and cranked the heater up to... 71 degrees. I'm not sure if that's cranked up or not. For me, that's cranked up, since we usually have it around 68 degrees in the winter. But, things aren't drying all that fast. Hmm, maybe we'll have to go to 72 degrees.

Christmas Kitty

We have a new member of the family. She's our little kitty Socks. Thursday morning a friend of ours from church called me up and said her Grandma found a kitty in the wood pile by the FastStrip Gas Station and the owner there said she saw someone just drop her off that morning and drive away. So, of course Grandma brought the kitty home, but our friend couldn't keep the kitty because they have dogs. So, would we like the kitty? Of course we would. We lost our other kitten Smokie. Probably to coyotes. Smokie wasn't too bright of a kitty. Our neighbor said that Smokie was seen sleeping with their dog when we were on vacation. Any cat that sleeps with a big dog isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. So, we're thinkin' Smokie was probably out tom-cattin' (I was just about to take care of that, too) and ran into some coyotes he thought were friendly. We do miss Smokie, but I wasn't toooooo disappointed. He was actually turning into an agressive kitty (maybe if we would have fixed him, that might have been taken care of, too) and he wasn't being very nice to Missy Lou. So, anyhow, Smokie is gone, and Socks is here. She's a sweet little kitty and loves to be held and snuggled. What a great early Christmas Present.

Writer's Block

I'm very sorry to inform my readership that I have severe writer's block. Hopefully tomorrow I will be a little more creative and able to write something witty and inspiring. Until then, I will sit and watch "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" with my children and eat almonds.