Rug #1

Okay, here is a photo of the first rug. The red one is still drying and I don't know where I'm going to put it yet.

337 Strikes Again

The above photo is what Aaron did to himself in the car while waiting for the following story to unfold...

Many who know me have heard me say that 337 is my "God number." I didn't choose it, but it's just a number that has appeared in many strange ways and situations over the past 15 years or so. I've begun to notice it as God's way of marking something and saying, "Hey, pay attention to this..." or "Hey, watch what I'm going to do here..." or "Hey, pray about this...". (Okay, maybe God doesn't say "hey" that much, but you get my point.) You know, like the time our motor home broke down--yet again--and I went to get a burger while Peter sulked outside and my order number was #337. I just knew God was in the middle of our RV trauma and doing something about it. Sure enough, we went outside and fired the motor home right up and sailed away. No problemo.

Well today was a good one. For months after we moved here I combed over Craigslist ads daily looking for furniture deals. Once we purchased the furniture we currently have I got tired of it and stopped searching. Okay, so we ran out of money. That just to say, I have not been on Craigslist in a long time. Today I got the random urge to sell something on Craigslist. Once my listing was posted, I decided to take a minute and do a couple of searches. Bunk beds. Floor gym. Area rug. Bingo!

A listing came up for a 5' x 8' red wool area rug in Hawi (basically my town) for $100. I noticed the phone number which ended in 8337. Dingdingdingdingding. My curiosity had me calling the number immediately. Sonora was her name. She seemed very mellow and was open to me coming over right away to look at her rug. Peter jumped in the car with me and we drove 5 minutes down the road to Sonora's house. We introduced ourselves and she noticed Alyma and we talked kid talk for a couple of minutes. I found out that she has SEVEN children, two of which are adopted. They moved here two days ago from Seattle and don't know anyone in the area. She's my age. Her house is stinkin' cute and looks like she's lived there forever. I wonder how it is that she is more unpacked and organized in her house she's been in for 2 days with 7 children than I am after 7 months and half the children.

She shows us her rug and I like it. She comments that she has another one. And then another. We decide to buy two of them. Yeah!!!! The longer we talk, the lower her price gets and we end up with two rugs for $200. She asks me if we happen to know a guy named Oliver. We know Olivier (pronounced oh-live-ee-ay, French), a friend of ours who lives on our street. Turns out they have mutual friends. I suspect she is a Christian, so I ask her and she is. We find out that we have mutual friends who went to Vanguard University, our alma mater. She used to live in Costa Mesa. So did we. Suddenly we are all very excited at our "small world" experience and that our rug purchase led us to meet some new friends!

We have planned to go to Kapaa Beach Park for a BBQ with them and Olivier and his family soon. Sonora is excited that they have so quickly been able to meet other young Christian families in the area. Now you can't tell me that this was a "coincidence." This has 337 written all over it! ;) And I just thought of something else. Only yesterday I found out that Olivier's name is spelled like it is. I never knew it was spelled so similarly to Oliver. Had I not learned this yesterday, I never would have thought about our friends, Mia & Olivier, when Sonora said "Oliver."

Anyway, it's just so fun. I love how God works things together like this. We're looking forward to getting to know our new friends and OH! We stopped by Mia and Olivier's house on our way home to let them know about our encounter with Sonora. Olivier, who happens to own a carpet cleaning business, saw that we had two rugs rolled up in our truck and offered to clean them for us for free! And it's a good thing because one of them was FULL of dust like you would not believe. He cleaned both rugs very well and sanitized them for us. All ready for baby now! And I PRAY they cut down on the echo factor in our house!

The End

The Shrink's Couch

I haven't blogged in a while because I have so little time for such things anymore. If anyone saw the condition of my house right now, they would see why. But my kids are fed and some of them are even clothed and most are happy. So I give myself a pat on the back for the things I DO accomplish which are, hopefully, the most important things.

I just went downstairs with Alyma and plopped myself down in the recliner hoping to vent to Peter. Unfortunately he's "at work" right now and not able to hear all that I would like to say. He did listen as long as he could, at least until the phone required his attention. I feel like I need some time on a shrink's couch with a large box of Kleenex.

So, I turn to blogging-while-nursing instead. (Is there ever a time in a mother's day when multi-tasking is NOT required???) Here comes my brain dump. I'm frustrated with my teenage son who finds strange pleasure in pretending he doesn't hear me when asked to do something or, if he does acknowledge hearing me, simply refuses to budge. It doesn't matter if it's a minor request or a major one, he just doesn't see the need to do what he's asked to do. He's "not into that whole subordination thing", to use his words.

Today it was a minor request while at the public health nurse's office for his TB test. "Mark, please go back into the restroom with that paper towel you have stuck to your face or wait in the car until that newly popped zit stops bleeding." "Mom, I didn't pop a zit. I have a cut on my face." "Oh really, so you just went into the bathroom and got a cut on your face, huh?" "Yes, I got a cut on my face. I didn't pop a zit." "Whatever, just please come back when you don't have paper towel hanging from your face."

No movement. I ask 5 more times. Nothing. People are staring. I'm embarrassed. He doesn't care. We get the TB test and walk outside. "Mark, please come here." He keeps walking. "Mark, I know you heard me, you're standing right next to me." "Huh? What? Huh?" Keeps walking.

Is this what happens when you take over raising a child who was partially raised (in the most formative years) by a mentally-challenged mother? Or is this just plain teenagerness?

I want to buy the boys a bunk bed so Alyma can use her crib. I found the perfect one on Craigslist today, including mattresses, for $500. I want one with a queen bed on the bottom so that we don't have any kiddos falling off the top onto our hard floor and breaking bones. Better to land on a mattress and bounce than the wood floor and, well, not bounce. This bed I found has a full on the top and a queen on the bottom. We could use it for guests to sleep on and I could move Aaron out of his crib so Alyma could finally use her pretty crib set. But we don't have the money. Unless I want to dip into our meager travel savings.

Which leads me to my next tangent. As of now, we stand to lose $2200.00/month of income beginning in January. Our plan is to take the entire family to California for Christmas and we have about half of the money for airfare saved up so far. The rental car situation is another story and something we yet to have an answer for. I can't imagine NOT going to California for Christmas. Alex's already-broken heart would be crushed if he could not be with his cousins and see his grandparents and other loved ones after being away for a whole year. I don't even want to think about Christmas morning in Hawaii with warm weather and no family around. Maybe someday we will enjoy this, but I'm not quite there yet.

How can we justify spending so much money to go to California when we will turn around and possibly not have enough money to pay our rent? I seems like a lose-lose situation. Either we stay here and be sad or we go and be broke. I'm leaning towards broke at the moment. Of course, to show some sign of faith, God has always been faithful to provide for our family even when it didn't seem possible. So I must confess that I do trust Him, even with these difficult issues, and know that He has a plan. Somehow I am still stuck worrying about tomorrow.

Matthew 6:25-34

25 "So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life – whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn't life consist of more than food and clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don't need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not. 28 "And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith! 31 "So don't worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. 32 Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, 33 and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. 34 "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today."