I thought moms weren’t allowed to get sick. Isn’t that some sort of Code among mothers?

Kids can go from one illness to the next, dads fall by the wayside when the sniffles hit, but moms (stalwart and strong) walk confidently through the colds, flus, and plagues of the winter months.

Isn’t that a flattering picture!

Would someone please explain to my immune system that I do NOT have time to be sick. I have to teach school and take care of my family. I can’t read books with a scratchy throat and runny nose. Our church is hosting a marriage conference this weekend and I have responsibilities. There’s no time in my schedule for napping!

Stop taking my picture, I’m sick!

Usually I sail through these times with nary a sniffle or cough. I’m available to hand out tissues, dispense medicine and offer helpful suggestions like: “Drink plenty of liquids. Have some tea. Get back in bed and rest a bit.”

Not this time. Someone put on the water and get me some tea!

Thank goodness I bought some delicious new teas this weekend.

Now to find the perfect spot for a nice nap.

Kathy

I had a whole post written out (okay, so it was in my head) about the power of scripture and staying in the Word. I spent a good portion of yesterday catching up on my Bible study homework. I’m going through Beth Moore’s study on the book of Daniel at church. Because our leaders understand that we are lazy and shallow busy women, they have devised a way to encourage us to complete our homework.

A basket of goodies!!

Yes, if you finish your weekly homework you can select a gift from the You Go, Girl! basket. In the basket they have candles, note cards, hair accessories, lotion, etc.

What a cute headband. Why yes, it’s a prize for doing my homework.

It’s basically Bribery for Women!!

And it works. Sigh. I was determined to finish my homework, even if it meant doing FOUR lessons in one day. Pathetic!

Rachel is working through a Kay Arthur study on the book of John.

Of course, wouldn’t you know it every single thing I had been dealing with and struggling over this past week were specifically addressed in the daily assignments.

My Discontented Spirit
My Feelings of Discouragement and Failure
My Self-absorption

Every single one.

When the Lord sets out to speak to me and teach me a lesson, I find that He is often creative, patient and THOROUGH. Not only did I learn that I simply MUST stay in the Word in order to have the right perspective on life and my identity as a daughter of the King, I also clearly saw that God is ready and waiting to teach me if I run to Him. Only a great and sovereign God could orchestrate it so this week’s lesson would apply directly to my spiritual battles.

If only I had met with Him.
If only I had done my lesson each day.
If only I had turned to His word instead of wallowing in feelings of self-pity and discontent.

Praise the Lord that He is faithful and forgiving and welcomes me back whenever I tarry. Praise God that He loves me with compassion and that His mercies are new every day.

Because I need them.

Daniel is studying I and II Samuel in his Bible lessons.

Wouldn’t that have been a great post! Wouldn’t you have loved to read it. Wouldn’t you have been encouraged and challenged to get into the Word yourself.

That’s what I was going to write. I was. The Lord spoke to me through a friend, on Sunday, and showed me it wasn’t sleep I needed, but Him.

Yep, that was my intended title. I had it all planned out and mostly written.

Then I fell asleep.

Really. It would be too pitiful to make this up. I went upstairs to talk to Tim, got into my snuggly warm bed, completely intending to go downstairs in a few minutes to inspire you all with my blog, and fell promptly asleep.

There’s another lesson in there somewhere, but I don’t have time to unearth it right now. I’m blogging in the middle of the day (gasp) and there are children to feed and educate.

Kathy
Project 366 - Day 43

On the way home from church this evening, I was in a car accident.

Miraculously, this is the extent of the damage to our car.

We lost our hub cap (it was subsequently run over and destroyed) and have a small gash in the side.

I was passing through an intersection near home when the driver, waiting in the left turn lane, decided (misguidedly) that she had the right of way and turned directly into the back corner of my van. It was rather traumatic in a slow-motion sort of way. I was not speeding or rushing through the light. I could see the other car was making the turn and I swerved as far away from her, over to the right as I could.

Poor Daniel, who was with me in the van. He thought we were going to “… hit the lamp post, explode, and that would be the end of us.”

Explode? Makes you wonder just what kind of movies he has been watching.

Unfortunately, the other driver received a harsher blow.

I can easily think of over 100 things I would rather be doing on a Wednesday evening than stand in a parking lot, surveying damage to vehicles that have collided on the road.

Praise God we were safe and no one was hurt!!

Kathy
Project 366 - Day 30

We had occasion today to consider the parable of the lost coin.

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” — Luke 15:8-10

Kathy was adding a little salsa to a pot of soup (she can’t stand stews that are bland, even if she isn’t going to eat any), and as she put the salsa away in the fridge, she whacked her hand against the door. Looking down at her bruised finger, she noticed that her engagement ring was gone!

At about the same time, Sarah shattered her favorite snow-globe on the floor of the upstairs bathroom. Pandemonium ensued.

One ‘down-side’ of Kathy’s weight loss over the past several years is that her ring is loose — we keep meaning to get it resized, but we never get around to it. She lives in terror (O.K., she lives in mild worry, which sounds much less impressive) that she will fling it off while standing on a bridge or hiking through an impenetrable swamp. She doesn’t actually spend that much time in swamps or on bridges, but it is still a worry.

Now the we live on the Left Coast, the boys and I have become tree-huggers. Too bad it’s an artificial tree …

We rounded up the usual suspects (trash cans, sink, pantry floor, checked Kathy’s pant cuffs, looked inside and under the fridge) to no avail. Kathy wasn’t sure the last time she saw it … she was out at church attending a baby shower today, and we feared the worst.

Rachel (our resident detective) piped up with a comment: “If only someone had taken a picture of you recently, so we’d know when you last had it on your hand?” Happily, Sarah and David had just recently been taking pictures of us parents with Kathy’s little Kodak camera. Sure enough, a picture had been taken of Kathy leaning over the back of my chair — and the ring was on her finger! And to think people tease us for taking more than a thousand pictures a month!

“OK,” I said. “It’s got to be in the house somewhere … Mom hasn’t been out of the house since that picture was taken, about an hour ago.” Unfortunately, Kathy hadn’t been idle in that hour. Here’s a (partial) list of the things she did:

• Worked in the kitchen making stew
• Worked in the living room, putting away decorations
• Put away some miniature Christmas trees that were on the porch
• Swept out the pantry floor
• Helped Daniel take the lights off the tree and roll them up
• Took pictures of the boys putting away the Christmas tree
• Puttered around on her computer for a little while
• Built a miniature nuclear reactor

OK, maybe not that last one … but it seemed she was on the move, the whole hour!

We got a little carried away, putting the tree in its box for the year.

“Do you have to be so busy, Kath?” I grumbled. Why can’t she follow my sterling example and stay in one place? People tell me I’m a saint to put up with her.

A bounty was offered: $10 or 5 one-hour computer chips to the person who finds it. I nearly trampled several children, throwing myself on the floor in front of the fridge, as though I was saving the family from a grenade. We prayed and asked the Lord to help us find the ring, and to give us sharp eyes to see it. We split up around the house, each hurrying to be the hero of the hour. I sorted through orange peels and coffee grounds in the garbage, while Daniel crawled around on the floor where the Christmas tree had been. We searched high and low, for more than thirty minutes, but without success.

I chimed in with an opinion: “The problem is, since we know it was lost here in the house, we continue to have hope. We’ll keep looking and looking, but if we haven’t found it by now, we probably won’t find it. But it will be a long time before we feel that we can give up and stop looking, so we’re actually worse off.” I’m often complimented for my ability to find the right encouragement for the season. As Kathy says about me, “Bummer man, he delivers.”

“I wonder if it somehow got into the box with the tree,” Kathy mused. Since Kathy didn’t help to put the tree away, I was less than eager to get it back down from its high perch in the garage. Kathy decided first to look in the box of the miniature trees she had put away earlier. I came out to the garage to help her get the box down … we dumped out the trees and gave each of them an individual shake-down. Voila! The ring appeared on the carpet as if by magic.

Hooray! The ring was found!

We were delighted, although Daniel (who had hoped for a five-chip bounty) was disappointed that he hadn’t found it. I suggested that, like the woman in the parable, we should have a party to celebrate. We ate the stew that Kathy had made, and I took all the kids to Albertsons to buy an individual pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for each. There was much wrangling over flavors, but great satisfaction when we returned home. We ate it while we watched the second half of The Chronicles of Narnia and generally celebrated. Kathy (who doesn’t eat sugar) couldn’t have the ice cream, so I splurged on a couple of twelve-packs of her favorite sparkling waters. She really knows how to party, that Kathy.

Maybe the kids got pints, but I went with the half-gallon! Hey, wait, I’ve been cheated! It’s actually only 1.75 quarts.

Thank you, dear Jesus, for helping us to find that ring. Kathy would have been very sad to lose it permanently, and I would have been very sad to have to pay to replace it.

Rejoice with me! I have found my lost ring!

Tim
Project 366, Day 19

When Tim and I began this blog in 2004 we set up the usual categories - family, Bible study, reviews, etc - we never thought to include Coffee as a topic heading.

What were we thinking? If you do a search for coffee on the Duckabush Blog, more than 30 posts come up. Obviously they aren’t all strictly ABOUT coffee, but coffee is mentioned in some way, shape or form.

I guess if you’re going to give up sleep in favor of blogging (and I’m speaking hypothetically), you need some help from caffeine to survive.

Or so I’ve been told.

Of course, it turns out my love of coffee isn’t just a self-indulgent quirk, it inspires others. I received an email today from Holly, a Seattle blogger, who thought of me while she was buying her coffee creamer today.

She thought of me. While she was buying coffee creamer.

And she emailed me to suggest a fantastic coffee combination - peppermint mocha.

Some people long to make a difference in the world through their ministry, social work, or financial giving - I inspire culinary greatness in the world of caffeine.

Holly, thank you! Only another Washingtonian would truly appreciate my search for delicious coffee at home.

Stop by and visit Holly’s blog. She is a mom of twins (and therefore a hero in my book) and recently posted a recipe for an amazing Crunchy Milk Chocolate-Peanut Butter Layer Cake that would go beautifully with a tall mug of coffee.

I know we’ve discussed coffee before, and Tim warns me I’m beginning to sound obsessive, but I’m still curious, so tell me about your coffee loves and hates.

Are you a coffee snob?
Do you find yourself thinking Starbucks and nothing else will do?
Do they know your name (and order) at the local coffee shop?
You’ve never been in a coffee shop, coffee drive thru or other over-rated, high priced coffee emporiums and don’t plan to, thank you very much.
Does it take you longer to order your coffee than your fast food take-out?
Are you happy the holidays arrive, not because of the good will, cheer and spiritual significance but because it means pumpkin spice and gingerbread lattes are back?
Nothing fancy, you like it plain black, no sugar or cream.
Forget coffee, tea is your thing.

This one’s for Tim:

You like your caffeine cold, in the form of Diet Coke, and you think chocolate should stay out of coffee and in the Nutella jar where it belongs.

Coming tomorrow - a beautiful family picture from our day at the studio.

Kathy