Song of deliverance

Hi, everyone! It's been a while, I know. Getting all set up in a new home may take just a week for some of you, but I like to pace myself - I'm a big believer in spreading the joy :-) We just had our first visitors last weekend which forced us to pick up the pace (basement carpet has been cleaned and stretched and upstairs carpet shall be installed by the end of the week). DH's brother and sister-in-law came to see us and were also a big help in getting some other little projects accomplished around here, so things are looking up! We even managed to get an antenna in the attic so Craig Ferguson from the Late Late Night Show (after Letterman) is once again back in my life... Ah, the simple pleasures!

But all this also means less time for mamacita here to spend browsing the internet and killing an hour or two writing some fun stories. Well, a while back a friend asked me (after reading my blog) if I was a writer by trade. While flattered, I quickly rushed to say no, but in the back of my mind, a little voice was saying "What about that compilation book on twin stories?" The thing is, as a member of the twins club in my area, a writer got in touch with the club asking for several short stories on life with twins. She got responses from all over the country and picked some she deemed appropriate for the book. I submitted two stories and they both made it into the book. The other thing that came to my mind was that (don't laugh now), as the twins club Chaplain for the last two years (I told you not to laugh!!) I had the opportunity to write articles for the club newsletter.

So, what follows right now is one of my Chaplain articles. It seemed to have connected with a lot of people based on the response I got. Twins or singletons, motherhood takes a lot out of you, but eventually it gives it all back tenfold! The purpose of these articles were mainly to encourage everyone to just hang in there. Hope you enjoy it!!

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"YOU ARE MY HIDING PLACE; YOU WILL PROTECT ME FROM TROUBLE AND SURROUND ME WITH SONGS OF DELIVERANCE" ~~ Psalm 32:7

We’ve all experienced that moment: you hear a song on the radio, or at the mall, or at a doctor’s office, and all of a sudden, you’re transported to a specific time of your life. Like "the" song they played at your high school prom or the song to which you fell in love with your husband.
Sometimes, it’s not so much an exact moment of your life, but rather, a phase. Stop and think: what song brings you back to your first stumbling days, months or years of motherhood? For me, if I were to be absolutely honest with you, that song would be "Unwell" by Matchbox 20. The chorus goes something like this:

"I’m not crazy I’m just a little unwell
I know that right now you can’t tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you’ll see
A different side of me"

Oh, boy, it only takes a few days of no sleep and bad eating habits to make you feel very unwell. Many a days I found that being my theme song and wondering where this different side of me came from.

But you know what? There’s hope! The days go by and turn into months and years in which your kids get older and you learn to cope. Sometimes because God placed angels in your path disguised as wonderful spouses, relatives, friends or neighbors. Sometimes, you had to learn to cope on your own. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for sure: there’s just no one song that will define your entire life. The top 20 hits on the radio change daily. So will the songs that mark important stages of your life.

I know that’s definitely been the case with me. I’ve had a different theme song for the last few years now, to which I even play air guitar and throw my long curly hair around (much to the delight of my son and embarrassment of my daughter – go figure?!) whenever I happen to hear it on the radio. It’s "Better Now" by Collective Soul. Here’s a little bit of it:

"Yeah, yeah, oh I’m newly calibrated
Yeah, yeah, all shiny and clean
Yeah, yeah, I’m your recent adaptation
Yeah, yeah, time to redefine me
Let the word out. I’ve got to get out
Oh, I’m feeling better now
Break the news out, I’ve got to get out
Oh, I’m feeling better now"

What is your song of deliverance? Here’s hoping and praying you get out there and get a good one!

And like flint, we're in!!

Well, we've been in our new home for a week now. Half of the boxes are gone (I'm pacing myself and spreading the joy - ha!). Wow! I'm really learning to love this place! The fall days are gorgeous and just perfect for the kids to ride their bikes to school. I know it won't last and it will get too cold for that before too long but for the moment we're enjoying it.

On moving day, our friend Kittie, unbeknownst to DH, sent an email to coworkers and 5 guys (including DH's boss) and another sweet girl from work showed up to help us haul all the furniture into the house. I was sooooo thankful for our friend's quick thinking and all I had to do was provide the food & beer. They were done in about 2 hours.

Of course, now that all the furniture is in the house (remember, hind sight is 20/20) I decided that no, I cannot leave with the brown carpet upstairs, and we're on the hunt for the last few days for new carpet. Let's call it my "fix" for not being able to paint the outside of the house yet...

Baby girl is having her first sleep over tonight at her BFF's house who lives a couple of blocks from us. Baby boy already has had playdates and they are both now into the Pokemon trading card fever. Lord, help me. I was actually shocked last Sunday when my door bell rang: through the glass panel I was able to see baby girl's BFF's face who just showed up by herself, on her bike, to see if they could play. I'm so not used to that and it was so cool!

But for those of you who may be under the illusion that this move/transition has all been smoother than a baby's but for me, you'll take heart into knowing that into every sunny day a little rain must fall, and I was definitely caught without my umbrella on our last day living at our friend's house. As I'm loading the car with the last of our boxes to get going to our first night at the new home, the kids were going berserk with anticipation. To get them out of my hair, I told them to go ride their bikes one last time while I finished loading the car. Well, someone misunderstood me (I won't name names) and as she left the house, locked the door behind her. This was 3 pm. As I tried going back in for more boxes and realized what had happened, I was pretty miffed. After we tried every single way back into the house, my self restrain came crashing down and I had a little cry fest. For the next 3 hours, we visited the neighbor to the left, who was not home. Then on our way back, missed the neighbor to the right who was just leaving in his pick up. With my purse inside the house, which contained car keys and cell phone, we were pretty much stucked sitting in the garage. For a while we even road our bikes, then just sat in misery (OK, I was in misery - the kids were playing with rocks!). Finally I saw one of the neighbors get home, around 6:15 pm and said neighbor happened to have, as I was hoping, our friend's number and I was able to find her spare key. I haven't memorized any of DH's new phone numbers yet.

By then, DH who had planned on going straight to the new house, had already left several messages on my cell and on our friend's house phone. He was also on his way to the house fearing that some ax murderer had gotten hold of us. So, yes it could have been worse but don't try telling me that just yet. I'm trying to recover from the trauma still.

Oh, yeah, and we finally got internet installed in the house, and also got a home phone number yesterday. The kids have started piano and guitar back up at a very nice conservatory nearby. My Jazzercize cronies continue to haunt me and, who knows, I might give in sooner or later... Speaking of that, they offer Jazzercize Junior here (for kids) and both my kids decided to try it out for a bit: they're rehearsing some musical number from High School Music to perform at one of the Middle School basketball games in a couple of months! I can't wait!

Catch you all later. I hear boxes calling my name...