Stained Glass Hearts: Seeing Life from a Broken Perspective Book Review
Ever wonder how despite all our brokenness how God can see us as beautiful and good? This book explains how people are just like stained glass windows, broken and rough around the edges, needing to be smoothed and a 'fit' into a beautiful picture, which God does for us. He takes something broken (us) and makes it into something new and amazing!
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others. I love Patsy's style of writing that draws you and makes you feel at home with her in her little cabin listening to the birds sing. Her stories are entertaining and easy to relate to which helped to provide a good foundation for the supporting Bible verses. I also enjoyed the Art Gallery at the end of each chapter where she added info about music, museums, art, and such that related to the chapter's topic. Patsy comes across as real, a person who know she has flaws and who is truly appreciative of God's redeeming grace. This was the first book I've read by her and I am looking forward to reading more!
Booksneeze has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book to review, all opinions are my own.
To all my Warrior Wives friends, this is a must read!
Hiding Out
 |
Yep, that's Bea! She was under the blanket at one of Bub's football games so she could see her itouch since it was so bright out. The cheerleaders got a kick out of it and were laughing at her tactics :)
|
You ever have a day you want to just 'hide out' you know crawl right back under the covers and stay there all day? I think today may be that day for us....
It all started yesterday evening. Bea was being a bit grumpy after school and after dinner on the ride out to pick up Boo from football practice she said she wasn't feeling well. At one point I even pulled over in front of Boo's school because she thought she might be sick. Luckily for Boo it was at that point he remembered that he had Chemistry homework and he was able to run back in and grab it. Thankfully it was a false alarm and we continued on home.
At home I got her ready for bed and let her snuggle with me in my bed, something that is a treat on Fridays and Saturdays not school nights...but you know when kids aren't feeling well they just want to snuggle up with their mamas :) She feel asleep quickly and all was well so I decided to go take a bath and read while I was waiting for Mr. B to come up and watch our show.
I had been in the bath about 10 minutes when I heard a sound that no mama wants to hear...one of your child puking...on the wrong side of the bathroom door! I quickly jumped from the tub and threw open the door and not only had she puked but it was everywhere!! I yelled down the stairs that I needed Mr. B right away!
He ran up and found a mess! The mattress, sheets, comforter, pillows, and carpet had been hit. She just missed my purse by an inch! Even the side of the mattress was victim. She was literally covered herself! This was crazy because we haven't had issues like this for years since the kids are all now big enough to run to the bathroom. Unfortunately for me she got caught up in the pillows/blankets and couldn't find the 'barf bowl' and I was in the bathroom, ugh!
We spent at least an hour getting it all cleaned up and even after shampooing the carpet twice it still had a funky smell. Desperate for a solution I googled 'how to get puke smell out of carpet' and to my delight there were many responses, LOL! I used the prescribed baking soda and thankfully this morning all traces of smell have vanished, I LOVE the Internet!!!
So now today Bea & I are hunkering down and settling in for a day of snuggling and the food network, oh how she loves to watch the food network when she's home sick! And even I don't mind a 'forced' day off to spend time snuggling ;)
On another note at football yesterday Boo managed to jam one of his fingers pretty good and of course it was on his recovering hand. So now he's got a big fat finger, I have no idea why he seems to insist on having at least one body part out of commission!
Mid-Bay Shores, FL 2011 Cabin Life
This year we once again made the trip down to stay at Mid-Bay Shores in FL. We went at the end of May and made it home on the 30th to celebrate Bea's 8th birthday. This time we took along Mr. B's parents with us :) We had a great time! I highly recommend all the military folks check out and utilize the Mid-Bay Shores cabins. This time we even took the majority of food with us so we could cook at the cabin, which was great to be able to hang out and relax. And this time I made sure to get a cabin facing the water :)
Here are some photos of the cabin, because I know when I'm researching places to stay I like to find 'real' photos of what it looks like :)
One of the bedrooms, a queen and a twin, you do need to bring your own sheets and towels
Bathroom
Living room area, couch folds out into a queen sized bed
Kitchen dining area, many games of Parcheesi were played here :)
Second bedroom, queen bed
Kids relaxing, why yes that is a camp rock sleeping bag....LOL!!
Entrance, facing the water, also has outside shower spout to rinse off sand
Using the grill to make smores
A nice view while making dinner
View from the front of the cabin
Bridge to Destin, FL
Bea was lucky enough to have some dolphins swim by and say Hi on her birthday!!
There were quite a few of them, amazing thing to watch!
We didn't really 'swim' here but the kids do have a favorite evening activity....
Crab hunting!
No worries, no crabs were hurt during this crab hunt, it's catch and release folks, catch and release, LOL!
Growing Pains
Funny how no one ever tells you that 'growing pains' are really experienced by the parents and not by the child, LOL!
 |
| This is Boo and Mr. Bill back in May, I really need a more current one as Boo has grown a ton since then! |
Saturday started off a bit crazy with a call from my doula client saying that I would be needed that day. While yes, I did know I'd be going soon with her it was just a bit of a surprise since she was just under 38 weeks and I'm used to clients going at least a week over their due date :)
Mr. B & Bubby headed out to his game and I got ready to head to the hospital. I got to the hospital around 9:30 am and was there until around 3:30pm, things went well....then I got a phone call....
I noticed that Boo was trying to call me. I missed the call so I sent him a text asking him if he called since I was still at the hospital. I thought this was weird because they do not normally call when I am at the hospital with a client. Then I seen I had 1 missed message from Mr. B so I read it and it said 'Dad is hurt very bably,' (she meant badly, Bea had sent it) and my heart dropped I also noticed that the message was at 2:19 pm and it was almost an hour later! I rushed out of the room and into the hall to call the house.
Mr. B answered the phone and told me that indeed he was hurt pretty bad, I told him to just get to the point and tell me what was wrong because I was in the hall of the hospital trying not to freak out and cry! I had no idea what he was going to say was wrong with him, he didn't sound great on the phone....
He told me that he and Boo were playing football in the living room (something the guys play often with a tiny football and tackle each other onto the couch) and Boo had tackled him and hurt him bad. So bad in fact that he could not get up off the floor for 2 hours!! I told him to call the ambulance but he wouldn't. Apparently the kids had tried to get him to let them call the ambulance as well, only hours prior, but he wouldn't let them. We've since had a discussion that if he's ever on the floor again for longer than 10 minutes and can't get up they are to call regardless if he wants them to or not!
He was trying not to call me because he know I was busy at the hospital with a client. Apparently they did start trying to call me at some point but I did not even get any of the calls until the last one shortly after 3 pm. By this point Mr. B had been able to move up to his knees and was leaning on the couch. I told him if he couldn't walk when I got home I wouldn't be able to carry him to the car and would call an ambulance myself. He got Boo to help him up onto the couch and by the time I got home 25 minutes later he was able to slowly shuffle forward.
I loaded him up in the car and headed back to the hospital I had just came from, I tried to explain that if he hadn't been so stubborn he could've just rode in the ambulance and I would've met him downstairs...ugh! I'm really hoping that being immobilized on the floor for 2 hours took a big knock at his pride and that he'll call for help next time...and if not I at least know the kids will!
At the ER we found out that he's strained a muscle or pinched a nerve and got him some meds and onto the road to recovery. The funny thing was the nurse we had, a male, had just had something similar happen to him a few months prior so he shared his story with us. The PA came in and talked to Mr. B then made the comment about the hazards of playing with small children and I replied "Oh he's not small" and she looked at me and said "What's that?" I proceeded to tell her that our child was not small but in fact almost 15 years old and bigger than me, needless to say she determined that Mr. B should not be rumbling around with Boo for kicks, LOL! I don't know if it's because Boo is so big or because Mr. B is so old ;p Boo would say it's because he's old!
Really I have been surprised at how fast Boo has been growing the past few months, he's shot up and left me in the dust and is quickly overtaking Mr. B in height. He's weighed more than me for awhile which is probably from all the lifting they've been doing in football. So really Boo probably cracked Mr. B harder than I even could have, LOL! Boo's coach asked on Sunday if he was good for practice on Monday (from his wrist fracture) I told the coach that he sure was...he was so ready to go that he's just sent his dad to the ER from tackling him. Needless to say Mr. B's injury story produced many laughs from folks at church :)
So Mr. B learned the hard way that 'growing pains' can put you in the ER when you get tackled by your teenage son! They really need to start a 'frequent flier' program for the ER as my family could make good use of it ;p
Full Range of Motion....
Well Boo has almost fully recovered and has his full range of motion back, these first photos were taken on Sunday, and why yes it was spirit week and the 10th graders were assigned orange...why do you ask? LOL!
 |
| Since Sunday he's made a LOT more progress |
 |
| Slight bend is ever so slowly going away |
 |
| Able to rotate it over, wahoo |
|
|
|
|
Then today he's been trying it out in hopes of practicing tomorrow and it started to act a bit weird....
 |
| See the large bump/bone...which is all fine and dandy except that it does not match his other arm...so how does he break the other side if his wrist and end up with this side looking weird?! It's a bit swollen tonight which is probably from him 'testing' it out, he was able to do some push up though, which is big progress |
 |
| hello lumpy |
 |
| See you can see it on the left wrist but not his right one, maybe because it's skinnier? I dunno?! |
 |
| I'm hoping its just because it's swollen some and that it will normalize soon...if there is such a state as normal for him.... |
Butterfly Mosaic
I'm reading Patsy Clairmont's book Stained Glass Hearts and after each chapter she has art/music to go with the section. The first chapter talked about mosaics, and that reminded me that I've been wanting to make my very own mosaic...out of my photographs! It's been something that I've wanted to do for awhile but since it's not something that you can just whip out in a few minutes it's been on 'hold.'
So I got motivated and this morning I figured out how to make one and I'm soooo excited! (And yes you can pay companies to do all the hard work for you BUT I decided to go the true artistic route and make it myself in Photoshop) :)
Here is my Butterfly Mosaic:
While I do like it a lot, it was a bit time consuming so I'm not sure that it's something I'd make on a regular basis :)
