Four Baths/the Discovery of the Decade/Ebay, the Evil/a Word from Steven

Four Baths Today
Count them.
Four baths in one single day.
It’s a wonder he’s not permanently prune-y!!

The first one was at 7 am because he woke up with a not-so-pleasant diaper. The second one came at 11:15 am after he dumped a cup of juice down the front of his body. Can you say "sticky"? The third one came at 3:30 pm after playing outside with his older brother. Big brother boy thought it would be funny to pour his bottled water into the dirt and they both squished the resulting mud all up and down their arms. Then, of course, g wiped something off his face, inadvertently schmere-ing mud from one side of his face to the other and up to his forehead. The fourth and final bath happened after dinner. We had chicken pot pie and let’s just say, manners are not yet his forte’. He hasn’t mastered the direct route from bowl to mouth via the spoon yet.

I have found it.
The Discovery of the Decade.
The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

How did I live my life without this gift from heaven? Seriously. I wish they came in larger quantities…like maybe by the dozen! Little boy babies should be born with one of the boogers strapped to their bodies!

Get one! Fast. You'll thank me.

Ebay, the Evil
Sarah, the Stupid.

I enjoy ebay and have for a long time. I’m normally very careful about shopping there and have always had good experiences.

Until now.

I did a stupid thing last week and to be honest, I am ashamed to tell you…but I am hoping that if I confess, I’ll feel better about it and move on. We’ll see. I have been wanting to amp up my stamping ink pad collection. With this in mind, last week I found a woman on Ebay selling 2 sets of 4 ink pads (brand new) in my favorite brand for the starting bid of $2 per set and low shipping. I watched them carefully for a while and by 5 hours before the auction end, no one else had bid on them. I realize that waiting till the last minute to bid is a popular technique but because she had a low feedback count, I thought perhaps bidders were not going to be numerous.

There were four auctions from this one woman that I really wanted. Two were the sets of four ink pads. The other 2 were individual specialty ink pads, priced well under their new retail price. I bid on all four auctions after asking if she would combine the shipping charges. My thinking was I would get the ink pad sets I really wanted, and since I was getting a package from her anyway, I would bid on the other two individual pads as well. The prices were very low and even if I didn’t like the specialty pads, at least I would have the experience of using them for myself. (Isn’t justification a beautiful thing?)

Wouldn’t ya know it? Someone else bid on three of the auctions at the very last minute.

So, fun, fun, fun…I got stuck winning *one* of the single pad auctions that I didn’t really even want. To make matters even worse, I “won” the ink pad for a price of $1 but of course, shipping is $2.75! So, I had to pay $3.75 for a $6 ink pad I didn’t even really want!

Stupid!
Stupid!
Stupid!

I should not be allowed to ebay after midnight…and no, for the record, confessing did not make me feel better.

A Word from Steven Curtis Chapman

“…time and time again Scripture reminds us that God only gives grace to the humble and the needy. His grace is most visible when our need is most obvious.”

My need for God’s grace is going to be glaringly obvious in the near future. (Well, it’s always glaringly obvious…but it’s about to get even more obvious.) We are, as a family, going to attend “Family Camp” with a group of about 20 families from our church.

To explain this dire situation…let’s just say that I am not a “camper”. I’m a hotel-with-clean-sheets-fresh-towels-and-room-service girl. This has to be the ultimate confirmation of what happens to a girl when she lives with too many boys for too long. J I don’t really remember agreeing to this “adventure”…but my signature is on the check so I guess I did.

It truly will be an outdoor boy-lovin’ three days and I am trying to look at the bright side. I won’t have to cook meals or clean up after them for three days. And um…yeah, well, that’s about the best part. For that, I will spend my days outside, in the heat, swimming, hiking, rope-climbing…well, OK, watching them rope-climb, playing ball, and all manner of other sweat-inducing "fun" tasks. Somehow, I think I’d rather make a few lunches.

I keep chanting to myself…the boys will love it, the boys will love it. The boys better love it. Hopefully, next year it will be a father/sons event!

Happy Wednesday!

PS Go check out Stacey Kingman's Blog. She has the prettiest picture of her kitchen window garden posted on her entry from 7/28. It's beautiful! She's another member of the mom-to-boys-homescooling-scrapbooker club who's blog I stalk.