Smell of Death and Life

This Post is Mostly Just for Fun...Got Something important to do? This is one you could skip....

God is amazing! Everything He created-amazing. But out of the five senses He created and gave us I think I like the sense of smell the most! I also, hate it the most. So-it is the sense about which I am the most passionate!

Here are my top five things I love to smell-often smell-seek out on purpose-to smell!!

1. My baby's skin...heads-toes-and everywhere in between!
2. Clean/fresh laundry. I love to hold the warm clothes up to my nose and absorb a big whiff!
3.  Lysol. Weird, I know. But it reminds me of when I was young and my Mom's house when she cleaned.
I use it now to clean and just opening the bottle and smelling the stuff makes me "feel" like my house is clean!
4. Baby Powder. I don't use it. Ever. Not on me, not on babies. But...my Mom uses it
every day after her bath-even still. And, so, I have some and love the smell of it.
5. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Mmmm, love the smell.

Here are my top five worst things I hate to smell-have smelled-remember smelling!

1.  Smelly feet or socks or shoes. Ugh! I have a closet just for shoes-don't want

them where I can smell them. I put fabric softener sheets in our foster boys hamper, because did you know 

that smelly feet is hereditary???? My kids DO NOT have smelly feet. Well-let me tell you-these boys do!

I can walk up the stairs if they are playing in their room and their socks can knock me over! 

2.  Dog poop. Dog breath. Dog gas. Dog smell in general. 

Have you read any of my really old posts? If so, you'll start 

to get the gist that I don't like dogs. Sorry dog lovers-I'm just not one.

The smell is reason enough that I will never understand who 

ever decided it was a good idea for these animals to be allowed in houses. 

3. Rotting food in the fridge. Do you know the kind I mean? Not just leftovers. 

I mean the stuff WAY in the back-in the old containers I forgot about. The ones growing

scary mold...no....they are not science experiments. I hate that smell so much that 

if I am the one cleaning the fridge-they go right in the trash! I know it is wasteful-but I would

rather throw the containers away (and have even thrown away glass ones) than open them and have

to smell them to clean them! Really-if you think about it, it's biblical! God says we should burn things

with mildew..so..throwing it away is mild!!

4.  Wet towels that really need a good wash. This is a strange one. I don't like the smell, and yet

it oddly reminds me of frito corn chips-which I like to eat!

5. Mystery smells. I am the super sluth of smelling in our home. When there is a 

mystery stink, I will crawl around on hands and knees smelling the carpet. I will

empty closets, dump out diaper bags, clean everything. I will keep going until I find the 

culprit-even if no one else in the house smells a bad smell. This was my best super sluth 

nose find...one winter day the heat kicks one. I start to smell a BAD stench. No one 

else smells a thing. I start crawling around and my nose leads me to the heater vent.

"It's a dead mouse!" I tell my husband." A dead mouse in the duct work." 

He looks at me like I am crazy, but kindly goes down to the basement to check anyway.

He pulled off the front of the heater and there they were! Not one, but two dead mice..

rotting away and sending their odors through the heating system!

I love the sense of smell God created!

"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. to the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life." 2 Corinthians 2: 15-16

Wow-think about that. To those who are being saved-I could be a sweet, wonderful smell-even better than Mommy's baby powder or clean clothes and to the other....I smell even worse than 2 dead mice in the heater!

From one extreme to the Other

Isn't is amazing how God made us all so very different?

Even among the circles of Christian women..we each have our own styles, 

our own gifts, our own interests.

We should, however, each be striving to become the woman God has created us to be!

The Proverbs 31 Blessing Bracelets can be a wonderful reminder to women with all different

styles. 

Especially now that It's a Blessing has created 2 new versions of this bracelet!

From one extreme...the small, delicate, very feminine version:

To the other....the bigger, chunky style:

For those in the middle.....the original:

Perhaps you are just not a bracelet woman at all!!! No problem:

Proverbs 31 Blessing Bookmark

 

or maybe.....

Proverbs 31 Keychain

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Tea Party in the Potty!

I'm having a tea party-in my bathroom-and YOU ARE INVITED!!!!!!

So, my bathroom is a little out of balance. It's happy that way. 

And-I'm happy to have it that way. 

So much so-I think I'll throw a tea party! 

In the bathroom!!!!

I just spent two solid hours cleaning one bathroom. Top to bottom. Inside cabinet

doors, shelves of medicine cabinet, wiped down all the walls, scrubbed the baseboards

and floor on my hands and knees.

I even found the Black Hole!!!! I know, there have been many studies that

show the black hole is somewhere in outer space. Until today, I believed it myself.

Then, I bent down and reached back into the tight space between my sink 

cabinet and the wall. Eureeka! The Black Hole!!!

You wouldn't believe what had been sucked up in there. Polly pockets, a missing space man, q-tips, 

teeth flossers, tissues, bath toys, a cup and some huge pile of something 

that I think must be dust and hair-but it seems to have 

taken on a life of it's own!

As exciting as this discovery was, I do have some sad news. For those of you, who like

me were hoping that when the black hole was discovered we would find all those

lost socks....well....they are not there.

Let's not focus on the sad news, though! We're going to have a tea party. Right on 

my very, very, very, clean bathroom floor. 

There's only one catch. You'll have to climb up the house from the backyard and in through

the bathroom window to join me. You see, the rest of the house is such a disaster, you won't be

able to enjoy the festivities if you have to walk through the wreckage to get to the bathroom.

AAAAHHH, I think I'll try to convince my husband to watch the kiddos and let me 

soak in the tub so I can bask in the only clean room a bit longer.

A little Luck of the Irish

Before I was a Ferraby-I was a Murphy. Wearing green on March 17th-well-it's like a rule or something! 

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Tear Jerker

Our foster sons can be difficult.

Some days the one can be down right mean.

Often I am left to rely on strength from God to get from

one moment to the next because I just don't have it in me.

Rarely I wonder what have I gotten myself into.

Then I am blessed by a moment like I just had.

I tucked the boys into bed and usually I pray with them. Tonight I am

not feeling well and said, "How about you boys pray tonight instead?"

"Ok", they replied.

Jack went first,

"Thank you God for today. Thank you that we have clothes

and food. Thank you for our Mom and Dad (he meant us) and thank you

that you didn't have us go round and round and round and round and round

to live in more houses."

Then Jason,

"Thank you God that we die, that we go to God, that we have clothes

and Dad a job for money to buy food and thank you for Mom and Dad."

What a nice way to end our day together.

Thank you Lord for the blessing of giving these brothers a home. Help us to cover them

with more than just clothes on the outside but with a covering of love from you and to fill

them with more than just food for the inside but with the bread and water that you are!

My Not So "Little" House

Some of you have more children than I do.
Some of you were raised with more siblings than my children have.
If that is the case for you, this post will feel like "home".

But...some of you have less children and some may have none.
For you, I will say, "Read on with caution." Some things that happen in
our not so "little" house may offend you. But, these things are true and for
those who are looking for a little bit of "aaaahhh, I'm not the only one." or
for the curious in nature who just wonder what it's like to have 7 children...
I share.

Do you remember the post when I shared about Caeleen's little "gifts" she's been
leaving me in the bath?


Well-let me paint tonight's scene for you.

Two tucked in bed, two sick on the couch, one doing homework and...
the two youngest girls in the tub.

The older yells for me to come quick and of course, she's done it again! I "scoop", "dump", "flush", "clean the tub" and refill for them to both get back in and clean off.

Not long after I hear the baby calling, "Mommy...where are you?" over and over. I go in to find her standing up in the tub-arms up-very-very ready to get out.

The other...well..here's the part you may want to skip if you are a bit squeemish! She was lying in the tub. Water up to her ears. Eyes closed. Relaxing. Oblivious to the fact that the little culprit struck again!!! This time with what would have been a diaper blow out. I am not kidding-the entire tub of water was dark brown. The entire tub of water!!!!!!!

Here's the best part. It just doesn't faze me anymore. I gently tapped the older. Said, "You need to get out of the tub-now-and go down stairs to have a shower."

Here's the even better-best part. It didn't faze her either! She sat up, saw the brown water, got out quickly, wrapped in the towel and headed down to the shower. Amazing.

There was a time when that scene alone would have made me sick to my stomache. Never mind the task of cleaning it-or the thought of being my daughter lying in it.

Well-if you've made it this far-you are a trooper-or a glutton for punishment. :)
I'm off to spend some time with my hubby...
Have a blessed night friends!

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Harassed at McDonald's Drive Through!

I'm a busy Mommy.
I don't have time for a lot of things...
Least of all, time to drag 7 children out of the car and into McDonald's when all we want
is to cash in a few freebie coupons!
Not to mention that the baby is sleeping-so I'm REALLY not going to go in.
Aaaaahhh! Drive throughs.Wonderful.
I think a Mom invented them.
And so, like so many other Mommies in a rush, I pull into the drive threw.
There is one catch, though.

My driver's side window is broken. Can't go down-if it slides down-can't go back up. 

I am on strict orders to NOT TOUCH THE WINDOW!

Well, I'm a busy Mommy,
but also a  resourceful Mommy!
I just pull up to the little talking order taking machine and...open my door!
No problem! Since the window broke-I've done this many times.
I'm far past feeling embarrassed about it-it's just the way it's got to be!

Until today.

While trying to give my order to the talking order taking machine, I hear a loud, booming, man voice from behind my truck. I have a suburban. It's long. And the engine is running. And I'm talking. This was a loud voice.
It yelled,
"AAAWW! JUST GO INSIDE!!!!!"
Maybe "growled" would be a better word for it.

I was stunned. 

Being harassed in the drive threw? Why? Because I had my door open instead of my window down? Why should he care?? Or, maybe it was the large number of coupons I was holding and ordering with that perhaps made him panic we might be all day?
I (already having my head out my door, mind you), answered him,
"I can't. I have A LOT of children in the car and one is sleeping."
He continued to say more but at this point I was flustered and trying to focus on my Caramel Frappe!!

When I was at the window, ready to pay, I apologized to the cashier that she could not hear my order. I explained that the driver behind me had yelled at me.
He, still having his window down apparently, started yelling again,
"WHAT!? I did not yell at you! Come on! Give me a break! You are exaggerating!"

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."

Romans 12:18

Even, crazy, impatient, growly, men behind you at Micky D's!!!