But first--the past few days!

Thursday... Hhmmm... Who knows?! All I remember is fixing spaghetti and chicken parmesan for dinner, running full speed to get the kitchen cleaned up, then zooming out the door with Katie to go to Ladies' Bible Study that night. We had more of a prayer meeting, really, for all of the big needs out there right now--Rob & Missy Hawkins, the Williams family, the Browns, and several others. It was a good service.

Yesterday was my day to work Merry Marketplace! Wa-Hoo!!! Sooooo much fun!!! I'd post pictures, but my camera is underneath the drivers seat of the car parked at the airport in Midland. Long story. We did pretty well, I think, but there wasn't quite as much business as I remember there being last year. Still, it is sooooo amazing how much $$$ is made in just a few short hours in a place like that. And the booth still looks like it's bursting at seems! How is that possible?! Anyway, it was great. I love being there. I love writing tickets and running the register, I love spending the time with Aunt Sue and Stacey--it's always a barrel of laughs--just the whole sha-bang. One of my favorite days of the year. :-) I hope they did well today.

James and the kids met me in Odessa when the Marketplace closed down and we went to Denny's for dinner. That's Joe's new favorite restaurant because he can order a hot chocolate. They have a terrific kid's menu (best one that I've seen) and on Tuesday and Saturday nights the kids eat FREE! Although last night wasn't a Tuesday OR a Saturday. Hhmmm. Don't know how that happened!

Today has been a pretty good day. James flew to Albuquerque this morning so he can be there for services tomorrow. Southwest Airlines has some really great rates if you book 'em early enough, so that's what he did. He drove around and looked at a few houses there this evening, just in case we ever actually move there! Ha! I hope they have good services tomorrow. He'll be flying home on Monday.

The kids and I have had a good day. I got on a cleaning binge, of sorts, and sifted through all of our VHS and DVD's. What a mess it has been. Driving me nuts. So I sorted through them and created a pile of give-away or garage sale items. ~whew~ Feels so good to clean it out a bit!

I came across some old videos of when the kids were really little and they were dying to watch them, so we did. I'm amazed!!! They were soooooooo good! We were watching tapes of when Katie was almost 3 and Joe almost 2 (Sam was just a month or two old) and every thing they were told to do they just DID--immediately--and they were just so cheerful and happy! I don't know how, but I never remember my kids being that good! I mean, they're better than most (no offense! Ha!), but I was just amazed watching these tapes how extremely good they were. Who knew?! And what has happened since that time?! Ha! Most people talk about the "terrible two's" and how bad toddlers are. Apparently, my kids were very nearly perfect at that age (Sam excluded, of course!), but we seem to have lost our handle on things since then! This is where the "small wonders" title comes in though.

We got to talking about the videos and how very good the kids used to be (I think they were pretty impressed with how good they used to be, too!) and how in all the video that we watched, nobody ever talked back to me or argued or slumped their shoulders--they just did what they were told to do without even thinking about it and they were HAPPY when they did it! We discuss regularly how important it is to do just that, but until seeing the videos today I'm not sure they really believed it was possible for them to be that good! But they must have been impressed because they have been soooooooo good since then!!! I went and worked in the back yard for an hour or two today and they were all right there with me, working hard and playing with one another and being nice and cheerful and trying to help me and share with each other and on and on. Then tonight I came into the kitchen to see Katie at the sink washing the dishes, Sam sweeping the floor, and Joe scrubbing the floor with a wash cloth. !!! Whoa! I love these kids! Ha! It's great that they were cleaning, but better yet was their attitudes. They were all cheerful and chattering on and singing... Just like the kids in the video's. If only I would have known, I would have sat them down and made them watch those tapes months ago! Ha! Anyway, it's been so nice today. It's strange, but those tapes have renewed my vision for my kids and made me realize that, yes, they really can be "that good." And apparently it had the same affect on them. Let's hope it lasts!!! I've really been praying for God to help us all and to give us a happy, joyful home full of love and good times, not anger and strife. So was it an answer to prayer that I felt that strange impulse to clean out the video cabinet and happened to run across the documentation that good Horne children really are an achievable goal?! :-) It's been a good day.

So good, in fact, that I told the kids they could stay up late tonight and watch a show. Sam picked Dumbo. So that's what they're doing right now. I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to blog, so here I am. Once they go down I'm going to try to get a few things done here around the house, then hopefully make some headway on my Ladies' Retreat lesson!!! (I'm running out of time!!!) I need to get the house looking good because we might have another showing tomorrow. The kids and I were home all day today, but apparently the realtor called while we were out back. The message said somebody wanted to see the house at 2:00 today, but nobody ever came--and I never heard the message until 7:00 tonight! Maybe they'll come tomorrow. We've had LOTS of showings lately and the realtor said that one of the couples who looked at the house this last week "loved it," so we'll see what happenes. Still praying for the right buyer at the right time! And trying to not be anxious, but REST IN THE LORD. :-)

~Becki~