Music Monday

This week's Music Monday is a song that is one of my favorites right now. It is by Kari Jobe, and again, there isn't anything I've heard by her that I don't love. This song is so challenging and reminds us of what we are - the light. If we don't shine, no one will know who we belong to. I live up on a hill and as I was listening to this song I thought about how we can look up at the lights on a hill and see them shining in the dark. It's beautiful. Are we shining?

Music Monday (and success!)

Ok, before I get to Music Monday, I have to tell you that not only did we catch one mouse last night, we caught 2 mice!!! Excuse the exclamation points, but you have no idea how excited I am! Especially since Sunday morning I found all the peanut butter eaten off the snap traps again. I felt defeated. But a little cheese and we are in business. Thank you for indulging me on my mouse rants this week.

Onto Music Monday.

You all have probably heard of Jamie Grace. She's everywhere on Christian radio right now. She is a fun girl who loves Jesus and is cool while doing everything! I love everything by her. Her song "God Girl" is my ring tone right now and it says how I feel.

I'm a God girl, that's who I be

From the top of my head to the soles of my feet

No I can't deny it, wouldn't even try

I'm your girl in a crazy world.

That's what you hear when my cell phone rings and I hope it's what you see when you look at my life.

Now what?

In my Monday post I told you all about my mouse situation. Well here is the rest of the story.

On Monday I got the heavy duty mouse traps, baited them with peanut butter (since the mouse apparently loves peanuts) and went to sleep. Tuesday morning - more mouse poop, no peanut butter and no mouse. I was not happy. Tuesday evening D. and I had to go to church for a meeting. I was gone for an hour. Came home - more mouse poop and no peanut butter, no mouse. I declared war. All I had was glue traps though. So, we put a couple of sunflower seeds smack in the middle of them and left them there.

Tuesday night we went to bed around 9:45. At 10:30 I got a text alert from my phone (which was in the kitchen) and that is unusual so I got up to check it. I also checked the traps. There was a mouse in one of the traps!!! I almost shrieked with excitement. It was still moving so I left it there. I figured it would wear itself out and it would be there in the morning. I did try to tell D., but he was sleeping and didn't want to wake up. So, I get up the next morning and NO MOUSE and NO TRAPS!!! Yes, you read that right. Part of the problem is that the back of the cabinet has come away from the bottom in the back leaving a 2-3 inch opening to the floor under the cabinets. Well, I could hear the mouse under there, but I was livid! How dare that stinkin mouse? D. got his gloves on and a coat hanger and fished out one of the traps. It was chewed to shreds on the ends. Un. Be. Lievable. I was so freaked out that the mouse would die under there stuck to the other trap. So D. came back home soon after he had left with real snap traps and poison to put under the house. He also fished around some more hoping to get the mouse. But, all he got was another glue trap chewed to shreds on the ends.

The crazy part of the story is that we have had the snap traps set ever since then and no mouse! And all of my mixing bowls, placemats, mixer, etc. is still on my counter. So what should I do? Put it back and risk having to wash it all again? I dread that thought. But how long is long enough? Ugh. I just don't know.

If you have any suggestions I am certainly open to hear them! And if you made it this far, bless you.

Happy Day!

Today's post isn't about me or my kids. It's about another member of our family. Today, January 12th, is my nephew Jay's 5th birthday! You know the Southern saying, "I could eat him up!"? That's how I feel about Jay. He belongs to my sister Leah and her husband Chris. Jay and Mallory are 6 months apart, so it has been fun to have him and Les grow along with my kiddos. Even though he and Mallory are close in age, he adores Aubrey. Now that their family lives close, we try to take full advantage and see them as much as possible. All of the kids love it!

Jay is one of the funniest kids I have ever known. He says the funniest things and does the funniest things. He tells his mom, "Mom, you're the best mom, but I love Aunt Sarah the best." I mean, who wouldn't love a kid like that? Jay also loves his brother and cousins to pieces. Someone recently hurt his brother Les and as Jay was going to bed that night he told Leah, "The next time I see that boy I am going to punch him in the stomach!" Of course Leah told him that was not ok, and although she loved how he loves Les he can't punch people. I just thought that was so sweet. Then this week before we were going to meet for Jay's birthday dinner at ChickfilA (our favorite meeting spot) Jay wrapped a few Lincoln Logs up for Aubrey in tin foil and tape "because I love my cousin so much, Mom". What a sweetie!

He is such an active boy. He goes 100% in everything he does. Smart as a whip, always asking questions and wondering about things. Wheels always turning. Honest to a fault (he never lies when in trouble, often getting him in more trouble!) Rough and tumble just as a boy should be.

All this to say, our lives are so blessed to have Jay or "Birdie" as he is called much of the time (Jay"bird") in them, so I wanted him to know how much his Aunt Sarah, Uncle D., Aubrey and Mallory love him. Happiest birthday to you, Jay! You are so special and wonderful to all of us! We love you and pray God's richest blessings on you as you grow!

M stands for...

It has been my semi-traditional tradition to have Music Mondays. However, this Monday,

M stands for "MOUSE". I'm not talking about the cute black ears from the magical place down south. No, I am talking about the destructive little bundles of fur that get into your house and make you crazy. Well maybe they don't make you crazy, but they are making me cr

azy. (see picture to the right) About a month ago we realized we had a mouse under our stove. (our
stove vent goes under our floor to the outside b/c our stove is in the middle of my counter) I cleaned everything out, and by everything I mean everything - all my mixing bowls, my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, all my kids' placemats, my toaster (last time I threw it out) and a few other things. I cleaned like nobody's business because I was so grossed out and we put a mousetrap under there. We never saw anything under there again that would make us think the mouse was back. Until. Last. Night.

D. had gotten a huge bag of peanuts from Sam's. It was so big it wouldn't fit on my pantry shelves. So, we put it under the stove. I know you are probably thinking, "What? Under the stove?" And in hindsight it wasn't a good idea. But it was ok for awhile. D. had some peanuts last Thursday and all was well. Last night he got the peanut bag out and peanuts started falling out. D. said, "I think the mouse is back." We looked into the cabinet and peanuts, peanut dust and mouse droppings were everywhere! Aaaahhhh!!!!!!

So today I am cleaning. Again. And I got some even heavier duty mousetraps. I am praying they do the trick. And yeah, we won't be putting peanuts down there ever again. So this is the segway to my Music Monday post. This song, "One of Those Days" by Joy Williams has become a favorite of mine. We have all had them. This one makes them sound almost fun. I am definitely not crazy about the video to it, so maybe just minimize your window while you're listening! Check her out though, because she has some really fun music.

One Word

I'm back to the blog. I really want to blog on a regular basis. It's one of my goals for the year.

I'm hoping to get here at least twice a week. We'll see how that goes.

Each year for the past few years I have chosen a word for the year to focus on. I got the idea from Ali Edwards I have taken a good amount of time thinking and praying about which word to choose each year and this year was no different. I also decided last year to find a verse to go along with my word. Last year my word for 2011 was "heart" and my verse to go along with it was Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

This year for 2012 my word is "strong" and my verse is Joshua 1:9, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." I am really working on being physically strong, but I also realized there are other areas in my life where I could use a little (or a lot) of strength. So that is my prayer and focus this year. I need a lot of prayers and encouragement in this area!

I am hoping to be back here later this week! I have so much on my mind I want to share.