Got the cold

I end the year with a cold that has decided to become laryngitis. Rats. It is most amusing to me that Anna keeps trying to point out to people that I can't talk but everyone seems to have more and more questions to ask me. I can't answer. Or at least I can't answer loud enough to be heard so they keep asking and looking at me expectantly. Hmmmmm.......

We have had a nice Christmas with quite a few guests etc. I would have loved to have a few more but it hasn't worked out. Our friends Marty and Marcy were over today and as she is the mother of an organist we had fun talking about the trials of being an organists mother. Har har. Such a burden. Marcy have that odd understanding of each other that just clicks. We don't see each other very often but it is always nice to get back together again. It was just nice. Charley had fun chatting with Marty about................wood.

I was hoping to have some other friends over tomorrow afternoon and evening but we shall see if they want to expose themselves to this cold. It will probably work as it seems to be the 'sleep it off' type of cold. Laryngitis is a pain though.

The kids have been playing games together and that sure beats the tv going. I get sort of tired of movies being the 'interaction' around here. They got quite a few fresh, unruined games this year and I hope they will keep them intact. I like playing games myself. I got myself one of my favorite games, Five Crowns. I love that game.

Sigh. Charley is taking the kids to church tonight. Well, at least the older kids. I can not believe how much church I have missed as I look forward to this time of year but our little kids just seem not able to handle night time services so we are tag teaming lately. I guess it does give me more one-on-one time with the younger kids so that can't be bad.

A New Year tomorrow. I don't tend to make any more resolutions except the yearly attempt to plan meals so I don't waste resources. Charley loves this sort of resolve. Otherwise, back to work with school and Charley to work. Happy New Year!

Not feeling like doing anything

We are all in some sort of stupor. It is supposed to be a break for us afterall. It doesn't feel quite right though. I know I have worked extremely hard, endlessly this past fall leading up to Christmas and there are so many things I would like to do in the midst of all that busyness but there is not time. There is time now and I don't feel much like doing them. The time is passing quickly til I need to be responsible again in the school department. I'm slowly working on finishing cards, finishing wrapping the kids presents that we will hopefully get to Wednesday. I want to exercise but hate the stationary trainer. I should do it tomorrow and perhaps I would have more energy. I did not have indigestion until I stopped exercising. I'm tire of the indigestion so I should start again. Snow tires anyone? I think they cost too much. Sigh.

For a person who has not had many question to ask I am full of them now. I'll keep you in suspense as to whether I will post any of my findings. So much to wonder about and so little do I understand. Sigh.

I am hoping to clean out most of my room tonight and tomorrow. It has been the Christmas dumping ground for awhile and the chaos must go. I'm just writing more of the same here so that's all for now.

Confused

I must say my brain is befuddled on many levels. True I am publically saying this and perhaps should keep my confusion to myself and perhaps will not even state what I am confused about but I do find it interesting that just when you think you have seen or thought about most aspects of life, things come up that leave you in a state of confusion. I hate it when I feel this way and then try to proceed with the day without letting confusion muddle me too much. It is not worth talking to too many people about my confusion but I am certain someday I will have to. Sigh. How does one keep confusion to themselves. I think guys are better at this skill and perhaps many women are. I think I stink at this.

On the practical side I need to get something done today and I definitely need to set up the bike trainer and get on it. My countenance would at least be slightly improved by getting some pent up energy out of my system. I'm sorting some of the dreaded socks and sock sorting is enough to increase anyone's confusion. Was there a sock like that in that pile? Then there is Mt. Laundry and perhaps I should wrap the presents to the kids which we haven't exchanged yet. Pretty lame eh? They exchanged gifts with each other so far but the onslaught of gifts from grandparents and other friends makes me hesitate adding. We will do it. Erik is at Camp Grandma so we will at least have to wait till Wednesday.

On other fronts I want to finish working on helping my dear husband with janitorial issues at church so we can keep up better with the filth that lots of church loving people can create with little effort. Twice a year deep cleaning does not cut the mustard in light of nose blowing, cheerio dropping, paper doodling, bulletin leavings, dinner crumb spread that a broom does not always pick up, etc. Phew......point given and taken. I watched Stefan yesterday wipe his nose and then wipe his hand on the pew............just one example of sharing the wealth.

Well............better go tackle some things..............and turn my confused brain off. Machine Karin. You are a machine. Don't forget it.

Post Christmas exhaustion

After much preparing, eating and everything else that goes with being the mom of this bunch, I am SLOWLY moving today. Church was great this morning and it was of course nice to have our Pastor back on his feet. Everyone seemed to have a sense of calm or perhaps they too were exhausted. I was creeping around slowly between chatting with people. Since I fake being awake, I wonder how many other people do the same.

After feeding a friend's lonely cats and picking up some milk and filling the car tank.........I am home. There is the fallout from Grammy and Grandpa and Uncle Steve and Aunt Brenda still everywhere. The dishes are almost caught up on and I have not done much laundry in weeks. Hopefully the laundry does not give itself away. I keep trying to chill out on the couch but jump up to do this or that and my body is screaming at me not to eat any more out of the ordinary stuff and to try and kick up my heels and rest. The kids are outside sledding and snow boarding. I picked up a few snow boards at a garage sale last year for five bucks and I think it was a worthwhile investment as I would never have bought them new and the kids love them.

Since I am not listening to my body, I might seriously go hunt my husband down and tell him to put me in line. (Translated - don't expect anything too spectacular out of me today in the line of cooking and cleaning and heads up..............I need to make myself chill). To further explain.......we are expecting a new little Horner in July and I have a very hard time sitting down and behaving myself when my body tells me to. If you got bored with this post before this paragraph you will not have caught that..........

My tummy screams tea and also twinges of aches from the instantaneous big tummy look that comes with baby number nine. Had a few of those this morning while walking from one table to another in Bible class and had the cross eyed look of "Ouch, that hurt, hope I can get to a chair soon" I'm not sure why that happens but suppose it is the older mom thing. With all the colds going around, I thought it might be humorous to name the baby phlegm in honor of all the nose blowing. It sounds a little like Sven so we could say it is a Scandivanian version of..........uh..........John or something. LaRena suggested if there were twins to name them phlegm and phlam. Har har. Maybe I can sneak a nap.

Silly things I've learned this year

I learned a lot of the same lessons this year as others such as weeds grow very fast if you don't pull them.
Mice will continue to find a way in anywhere and will be a constance annoyance and no one's home can stay mouse free forever............even the church......
Um..........taking on a little exercise and building up from there is better than blitz exercising. Sometimes you have to buy store bought bread to keep your sanity. It's ok and the bread making police will not put you in jail for doing so.
Trying to cut spending seems to be Murphy's Law that things will start breaking or your kids will put holes in all their socks.
There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.
Never become too attached to any item as it surely will break.
The latest thing I learned that there are still a few people left in the world who don't care if you finish their gift and give it to them later. They understand. Phew.
That's all I can think of right now...........oh yes, used Amazon books is my friend.........

Merry Christmas!

It has been a good Christmas this year but not without things that have been new and different. The services have all been wonderful but minus our Pastor who succumbed to the stomach bug. Major bummer for him and his family. Assistant Pastor to the rescue. There a lot of people sick this year and I can say we all gave Christmas greetings sort of from the distance. It was good to see everyone and of course these bummers, as we were reminded of do not change the fact that Jesus was born.

My dad, my brother and his wife all are sick as well, so instead of them coming today, they are all at home convalescing and we hope to get together soon. Sigh. The kids are rolling with the punches and of the remaining well people at church, a few families may stop by to play games and eat later on. Paranoia runs rampant but as I always say, if we can avoid spreading the wealth then avoid spreading the wealth. Sigh. Praying all are well soon and those who are not sick, do not become so. By this time next year, we will have to be reminding each other of "remember when everyone was sick last year?". I think I will begin praying for a healthy Easter for my family, my church family and become more vigilant on teaching my kids sanitary habits.

Jesus is born. We rejoice in that and look forward to the services of all twelve days of Christmas and Epiphany to come. Things were just a little different this year...........

Need more keys

There is NEVER a dull moment around this house. This morning Charley left early for church to take care of the sidewalks etc. at church. I was moving pretty slowly and wondered if the rest of us would even make it on time. Leaving my bed was definitely a challenge and facing the kids, breakfast, and whether we had clothes to wear was not something I even wanted to think about. So when we were left with just enough time to get there I went out to the van without my coat to load the little kids and Matthew came following behind me. I turned around after buckling them in and Matthew proudly announced he had locked the house up. What????? My coat, purse, keys, phone and diaper bag were in the house still. Oops. I was a little freaked out as it was cold, I had no way to call anyone to let them know we were stuck and the kids program was later in the morning to boot. I was visualizing getting very cold and having to walk with all the little kids to a neighbors which is not very close to us. Well, fortunately Matthew remembered there was an emergency van key under the van so he got down on the ground and got the key and we were able to drive to church. We kissed and made up and everything worked out fine. The greeters at the door asked if they should take up a collection to get me a coat - har, har. We need to make some copies of the house key to give to a few more people and perhaps plant one somewhere in the outbuildings. The children's program was great and the kids really enjoyed preparing it and putting it on for the congregation. It is so much nicer when the kids are enjoying what they are doing and really want to do a nice job which they did. Yay! Hopefully they can do that again sometime. It was a great experience.

Christmas cards

Below is a facebook post by Mr. Scott Schreiber which I thought was rather good. I have to add that I am quite understanding to those who don't manage to get one in the mail to me every year. My favorite Christmas card from anyone ever was from my high school friend Jeanne who when I read her letter that year, which I did not notice was the year before's letter, and poured over how much she was longing have another baby and had a tear come to my eye at her longing. Then I took out her family picture of her husband and little guy marked from the year before and then noticed another picture behind it. I flipped it out and it was a picture of her little man holding his new little brother dated the current year. I screamed with delight. So anyway, if you get a card from the Horners know that it is not always without challenge and I send hugs to those who might miss a year or two......or three.......or five. I understand and am just happy to hear from you when I do.

A note from Scott Schreiber.

Confession: I listen to a "Christian" radio station in the mornings. Discussion: This morning they wanted to talk about the "year-in-review" letters that some folks include in their Christmas cards.

I was quite dismayed to hear some people call in and describe their distaste for these letters. They discribed them as bragging and immodest and making other people "feel bad" because the letter writer has always had such a perfect year.

Friends, when I see a Christmas card in my mail, the only thing I have is gratitude that the person thought of me and my family enough to send us greetings during this busy season. If they include a letter, even a "form letter" annual update, I am glad to receive it. When I read of the joys and accomplishments in their lives, I rejoice with them and thank God for His blessings on them.

I can not read their letter and take from it insult or offense, for these are not included in the letter. If I say the letter makes me feel bad, I have obviously taken out of it something that the writer had not included. Therefore I have sinned against my neighbor and the 8th commandment (You shall not bear false witness) because I have not put the (obvious and ) best construction on the letter and the reason for it....

I don't usually include a letter in my Christmas cards, but I still hope that none of my friends are as callous and self-centered to have this angry reaction to such greetings.

Mittens

I can see why my mom likes making mittens. I've only made a few pairs but perhaps I will make more. Small children especially seem to love them. I'm not sure if I can find time to keep it up as much as my mother does right now, but perhaps I will find more time some time in the future. Mittens are just part of my childhood, my children's childhood and hopefully my children's children's future. Maybe I will even use up my yarn stash on them. Hats are equally fun.

I have one mitten down and one to go for Ingrid.

That last post was.........

slightly incoherent. I must have been tired or something as that sentence structure was pretty frightening. Today.............um..........got up early and made coffee............check. Fed the little people their daily breakfast regimen. Then went to Morning Prayer at church. Love it. Morning Prayer always reminds of Daily Chapel at Valpo but we would kneel at the Lord's prayer so am not sure why we choose to or not to kneel. Hmmm............anyway............it was great to see all of my kids lined up in one of the near the front pews. They are ALL home. Yay! Ingrid was busy peeping over the top of the pew and making me nervous walking back and forth on the pew. She is VERY busy in church. So whoever watches her is busy too. Anna spared me the watching this morning and paced around with her. She didn't have to do that but it was nice.

After church we went home and ate lunch at 10:30am. We were hungry. I left to go hunt a ball of yarn to make Ingrid a pair of mittens to match her new coat. It took awhile to find the right yarn but finally decided and I have already made progress. After yarn hunting I went to go pick up Matthew's desk top computer. I had to get an Internet adapter which happily does the trick. He is happy. My kids are 'connected' after not being connected for basically their whole existence. Cecilia is having fun using my old laptop and likes to write people email. She likes to receive it too. You would have to email me to request her address though which is a very Cecilia like address.

Looking forward to Morning Prayer in the morning tomorrow. I love this time of year. I better go make the pizza now so I can get back to knitting.

Picking up Anna and more

I left yesterday to pick up Anna. I didn't get there til 6:00pm as my biking addiction got the better of me and I didn't get out on the road till one and not on the road till 2:15. It was worth it. My route is about ten and three quarter miles. It was the coldest it has been so far at 25 degrees but it didn't even bug me.

Anna and I went to Panera for dinner and then took the car over to University Lutheran to park it. We had a brisk walk back to her dorm and then..........big excitement here...........I pretty much was wiped out and went to bed a little before nine! What a wimp. I slept till eight! I think I needed to catch up on some sleep or dorm rooms have a sleepy effect on me or something. Anna was up studying and whatever else.

In the morning she went to take her final which only took her a half an hour and then we went and got some coffee and a donut on our way to pick the car back up. Isn't this exciting stuff. OK........enough of our trip. We listened to Harry Potter on the way home and now we are back.

My new laptop arrived an hour after I left for Bloomington. Erik bought himself a new laptop and Matthew has a new desktop which he purchased and it will come in on Friday. We are VERY behind the times in this department and my kids have not been involved socially online with anyone. Well, at least the boys haven't. I hope they can use their new toys wisely and benefit from getting to know some other people more or feel included in all that.

Another exciting post in the life of the Horners..............

Books, the library and me

As usual I am thinking about what books I would like to read and enjoyed reading Jane's goals for herself from her blog for 2010. I don't read enough but love it when I do. I need to really rip myself away from our new found ease of high speed and plant myself in a chair with a book more often between all the life responsibilities that scream for attention. "How Green was my Valley" was well worth the effort. I would like to read more of his stuff too in the future.

While thinking about all this I opened the newspaper to discover that the library is increasing its fines again. Oh brother. Amazon will love me all the more. I am not very good at getting books back in on time so this just encourages me to use the library less than I did before. Amazon has these wonder penny book deals with 3.99 shipping for most of the books I want. I really want to read Rutherford's 'New York' which came out recently but am not ready to stomach the 17.95 Amazon price just yet. I find if you wait a year or two it can be found CHEAP! I have plenty on my list to keep me busy in the meantime.

The biggest catch with the library is books on tape. I don't think I want to buy them but may start collecting some favorites. We shall see. I should work on selling some I am not interested in so much and sort of trade.

Once and Future King is my current read for school with the kids. I read that a long time ago so am rereading it now so I can better grade their papers etc. I want to read the Harry Potter books, a book about Charles Lindbergh that looked interesting, Byzantium, the third and fourth Twilight books (which I don't have either) and several other books that others have recommended that I have found very cheap on amazon. So..........perhaps I will become disciplined and read some more between now and July..........and then perhaps even more after July as I will stuck in a chair more often.

ttfn

Stupid computer

I am trying to copy and paste something onto the old blog and it won't let me. Love this modern technology. I will have to print it out tomorrow and retype it. Maybe I will just post my post on reposting old posts. Did that make sense?

I am contemplating doing something fun next year for me..........we shall see. I won't even say what it is, I will just let you wonder. I have to chat with the family to see if it would be alright with them.

Hmmmm.........it was an intense day. It's over and time to go nighty, nighty. Not anything else too exciting to report today. My algebra skills are improving. That is exciting. I can at least fine the mistakes made in their problems if I can read their writing. If I can read their writing the problem is more likely to be right. Interesting concept.

Haven't biked in a few days but I think I may try tomorrow if I can find the time. Or perhaps I won't be able to find the time!!!! Argh. That's all for today..........

Muddling

The last few days have been basically good. It is nice to have Charley's parents here. The kids get more attention. It is pretty mellow around here. I've been personally less than perky but am working on that. Tonight I think I might race the kids to bed. Yawn. I have thought on and off about quitting blogging. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.

I'm counting the days till Anna is home. It will be fun to go and get her next week. I can't decide if I am taking Ingrid with or not. Maybe I will just for the mere entertainment of it. I can just see it now. Anna and I walking her around the dorm halls. Perhaps if she starts screaming we will walk to the outside of particular screaming people's doors just for kicks and giggles.

Sigh. Much of my day was obsessed with chasing after something. Three...........so far........yuck. Better three than none. Will report further numbers later........if I keep blogging.

That's all for now.

Might repost

I am contemplating reposting my posts. I deleted them in concern that perhaps I hurt someone's feelings but frankly have reread them too many times and personally just see them as having said that I need to laugh more and church atmosphere doesn't always lend itself to that. I have been thinking a lot about church life. I think a hearty, let's not take ourselves too seriously, honest look into church atmosphere can never hurt anyone or any church. I was simply contemplating my own pleasant surprise of realizing I miss ridiculous, laugh at ourselves, comiscerating, non-important conversation. I grew up in Valpo which is another one of those hubs of intellectual, theologically heavy places (whether you agree with them or not - PHD's abounded), grew up a Pastor's kid, grew up pondering the church and what it looks like, grew up being seen as that 'pure pastor's kid' who you better behave around, grew up with a dad who also graduated from college, like me, at age 20, undergrad, seminary, Master's degree, PHD under his belt...........phew. Emmaus, like it or not, is full of intellect. Intellect is not a new experience for me. Neither is pious, wonderful worship having grown up listening to God, I mean Rev. Dr. Nagel amoung others, for years at the Chapel at VU. So how to meet the balance between intellect and down to earth, we're all in this together, encourage one another relations is sort of tricky. Having grown up with plenty of intellect floating through the hallways at home, the hallways of my peers, I know that intellect does not always look outside itself. I suppose I could also say to be fair, that intellect should be cautioned to not become self-absorbed. It happens. It should be guarded against. Intellect is valuable but so are people and their ordinary lives.



I personally need to take stock in the beauty of just oridnary life. I was reading Peter the other day where they were saying how they had all heard God say "This is My Son with whom I am well pleased." Their observation and report was striking to me in that it was part of their 'ordinary life' They heard it themselves, they relayed their life experience to others. It related to me and my ordinary life. It certainly was not an ordinary experience but it was their experience and they were sharing their experience with their fellow Christians. It was again, just striking to me. I need to have time to share MY experience with others. It doesn't HAVE to be at church of course but church is not just intellect and the desire to obtain more. My church IS my family in so many ways so why wouldn't I want to share my life experience with them???? The Christian life is experience, sharing it, laughing about it, crying about it (I do enough of that to have a PHD in that subject), and caring to hear other people's experience. I value that time and can not always cope well if that opportunity does not present itself. I love how so much of God's word is God's people's life experience. What I was talking about in my deleted blog posts was a need for that time. I need time to reflect on how God's word applies to my simple life through laughing, thinking out loud with, and enjoying the experience of others and my own experience.



So I contemplate serving my neighbor by taking an interest in them. I desire, as anyone does, to be served in the same way. This can be a challenge. I do not see this post as some bad reflection on my church or the pastors. My pastors are great in taking interest in their people. I personally am contemplating who I can reach out to, laugh with etc. Who might be hurting. Who would be served by some comic relief. I am a person who honestly cares deeply for others. I think others do too but perhaps we all need a kick in the pants sometimes to remember to do that. I just pray I can remember this more than a day or two and remember to take the time to just talk with other people. That is all. I meant what I said and I said what I meant. I need to laugh and enjoy people more.