a reality check

It seems the theme for my blog is about attitude adjustments right now - obviously it's always a struggle in my mind as a parent. If you read my last post, you might find it ironic - as I did as I walked away from typing it. The irony of feeling bad about a few broken/damaged things around my house - when here we were just fighting a flood - and thankfully can say we've come through unharmed. The credit for coming through unharmed goes to the hard work of the men of this town who worked day and night to sandbag dikes and get the Army Corps in here to help. The government agreed to (after many meetings with the city council here) get the dike raised - so hopefully we won't have such a fight next time that much water comes our way. It is a relief to see the water going down - and things are getting back to normal. No one lost their home or more importantly - their life.
Speaking of loosing your life, we made a foolish decision today. The road is closed between Neche and Pembina (where we go to church) and has been for weeks. This morning we took the long way around and like I said before, we were noticing how much the water has gone down. So - on the way home, we looked down the highway that was closed (before we took the turn-off to the detour), and thought it might be safe enough to take home - it looked like the water had really gone done. We approached a strip of water that was running across the road and started through it - as we got going through it, we began to realize that it a lot deeper than we thought - and a lot longer of a stretch. The water was probably as high as our running boards. We no longer could see the lines on the road, and the only edge you could see was the lower one where the water was rushing off. The swirling of the water was confusing to your eyes - and it felt like the vehicle wasn't going straight. Thankfully we had 4WD, and such a large vehicle (and Excursion) - I'm sure a smaller one would have been swept away. There are no shoulders to that hwy - and the ditches are deep enough to have covered our Excursion if we were swept off. We couldn't see the condition of the road under us - it could have easily been broken away in spots. Garret kept asking if he could take off his seatbelt - in case we went under, and we had to make it out a window. Every seatbelt in our vehicle is full - there are 8 of us - and 2 in car-seats - one only 3 months old. As I was praying, I was trying to come up with a plan for if/when we got swept away. I would roll down the window on the side towards the sky and start unbuckling kids - I was picturing my trying to keep 3 month old Zeke up out of water while I poked kids out the window. I was planning on calling with my cell phone at the same time. It's truly out in the boonies - there wouldn't be anyone coming down the road. I kept quietly praying for forgiveness for being so foolish - and looking at my baby thinking about how God intrusted us with these children, and here we are... The stretch of water finally came to a close and we all looked at each other with relief as we drove up onto dry ground - until we came upon the next stretch. Not good. We crept along at a steady pace and the wheels stayed secured on the pavement that we couldn't see - as we began praying again. We made it home, but the nerves have hardly recovered. I am just so thankful that God was merciful to us - it really could have been tragic - and if nothing else - embarressing - Stu is fire chief of Neche - whoops - not too great of an example there...
Thank You God - thank you.

People are more important than things.

People are more important than things - or are they? I write this with a few tears remaining in my eyes from a little frustration fit I had a few minutes ago. After noticing how dusty a picture was on the wall, I took it down, and was cleaning it. This wasn't just any picture - it is a large, matted photograph of a lighthouse with a message about getting through storms in our lives - and was given to us by a dear friend after a tough time. It hangs above our staircase in the center of our house and spreads it's message like a covering over us. To me, it's priceless. I was in the process of tenderly "windexing" it, when I notice Serena trying out the hula -hoop that she just got. I remember getting one of those really going around my waist when I was in grade school - so we had a humorous session going on between Stu and I, when I hear this little voice, "I'm queaning". I than notice that Gabe has been squirting Windex on my beautiful picture - which has run down the glass and was spreading up onto the print - already discoloring it. What? I turned my back for 1 second! Instead of clowbering him, like I felt like to, I "pulled out my hair" as the tears started flowing. Garret's like, "sometimes I feel like that too."
Now, you might not notice the water stain in that picture when you come to my house, but it's there. Along with the dings in my coffee table that I've already sanded out and re-varnished once, the burn mark in my counter-top from when Kira was playing with a candle, the countless mars in the hardwood floor from carelessly dropped items, and you'll miss the $50 engraved emu egg from our trip to Australia because Damien dropped it off the bookshelf, and you'll miss the china plates that were handed down to me from my grandma because toddler hands found a way to get past that child lock on the cupboard. That's just touching on the fringe of it all.
I remember distinctly my mom saying "people are more important than things" to me, after I got up in arms when one of my siblings went in the family room to (I thought) "mess it up" after I spent hours organizing the books and toys. Apparently all she wanted was a crayon~ but can't things stay nice for a change? It's like the common bumper sticker - I won't directly quote - just say "life" happens.

Boy, do I feel better! Thanks for listening!

Feeling a little stranded

Looking north towards the Canadian border.

First entrance into town...

You can get out of town if you have to - you can get a ride through the 8" of water flowing over hwy. 18 - or if you have a 4WD vehicle, I think you can go yourself. I'm trying to make my groceries last...

Second entrance into town...

The south entrance that turns to gravel...

Governor John Hoeven's visit into town.

The governor at the fire hall.

Governor "shaking hands" with Zeke.

Governor discussing with the menfolk.

Our kids got to sit in the black hawk helicoptor - very cool.

Grand Forks Herald Friday April 17th

Lee Beattie, mayor of Neche, N.D., drives through floodwaters from the Pembina River west of the Pembina County city this evening on county Highway 55. The river can be seen in background of the photo. About a dozen people placed sandbags, seen on the right in the photo, on a driveway to the Newell farm to keep the water from washing it and the culvert out. County officials closed the highway here shortly after Beattie drove through, as the water levels rose.

A volunteer sandbaging crew Thursday afternoon attempts to stabelize the ground around two culverts west of Neche, N.D., that are in danger of washing out and causing a flood threat to Neche. Herald photo by John Stennes.

Stu is the guy on the far right in the red cap.

most rewarding job on the face of the planet...

“What is Motherhood? Smiles and giggles, endless hugs and kisses, chance to be amazed by how someone so little can be so much better at seeing the beauty in everything, huge lesson in not sweating the small stuff, your life revolves around giving and receiving unconditional love beyond measure, an opportunity to be trusted with God’s most precious gift and mold that being into an honorable person, an eye opening experience to prove that mothers are the ones that should be thankful for the blessings given….Most rewarding job on the face of the planet”
–Veena, Mother of Bindiya, 5, (India)

Now to add my own thoughts:
part of my personality is that I LOVE to see accomplishments - improvements around the house, making something that brings joy, getting something done... yet reading thoughts like those above, I ask myself - "am I getting something done, without getting something done?" So many times at the end of the day, you can't see anything accomplished. The clothes were washed, but hampers have clothes in them again - the meal was made, but eaten and gone - the house was cleaned, and was that way for a moment... so today I am thinking of the things that are getting done. If any of you are on facebook, you would know that our town is fighting a flood - and my husband, being the fire chief, is greatly involved. He is hardly home. Our kids make comments at the end of the day that they miss him. He comes in late and leaves early - and seeing each other for lunch has fallen by the wayside also. It won't last forever - in fact, since we've got the government to acknowledge our situation, they are building up our dikes in preparation for more water coming our way. Good news! Anyway, it has left me alone with our 6 kids. Saturday is here, and the projects that we were working on, are on hold, and any extra family activities aren't happening because Dad's away. It's me and the kids.
But - we are getting something done. The baby is getting held and talked to. He's growing so much it's happy and sad - I love to see him learn - he's smiling, cooing, and starting to use his hands - yet I'm sad because he's not a tiny baby anymore! It's over SO fast, it's crazy. It's been an incredible eye opening experience to have a baby when you didn't think you needed another one - and discover you did need him! He has brought our family so much joy ~! The older kids are learning to get along - we had one session today of boys having to go to their rooms for 15 minutes because they were calling each other names - but that's learning, isn't it? They said sorry when they were done, and were ready to get back to playing right afterward. Serena, Kira and I played Crazy 8's - that's getting something done too, I think. And joy of joys, Kira is reading now - and loves it - she has a little kids Bible, and has read 240 pages so far today. She asks - "did David ever sin?" So we went into a big discussion about that - "wheww" - that was a bit difficult - thankfully she was pretty easily satisfied. Her precious comment was that none of us are perfect - the devil just tries to make us do bad stuff. Another joy for me is to look outside and see an almost proper baseball game going with my kids making up half the kids - and actually seeing a lot of teamwork and connections with the ball - so in some views we might not be accomplish much, but when you look at the big picture - we ARE getting something done - and the best part about investing in lives, is it's for eternity.

spring is here - easter egg hunt

Zeke looking intelligent - but quickly falls to the side once the picture was taken...

Kira waiting for her neighbor friend to have a "picnic" with her.banana splits anyone? finding what the "easter bunny" brought them.

Damien helping cousin Luke find easter eggs.
Kira and Luke with their treats.