Hopping Mad Mama

I picked Kendra up from work today around 5. She had texted me saying that it was time to pick her up, and that it was the worst day ever in the history of waitressing. When I picked her up, she proceeded to tell me about the busy-ness of her day, and the pressure she was under, and with a sigh said, "I hate working on Sundays!" Oh my. I've heard this before.
Kendra said that people flooded into the restaurant after church, hungry and demanding. She was also feeling bad with some pretty severe cramps and said she was so busy she didn't have a chance to stop and take anything for it. At one point, she had half a dozen full tables going, and a woman at one of her tables had asked for coffee that she hadn't had a chance to get, and she grabbed my daughter by the arm and said, "Get my coffee. Go get it RIGHT NOW!" Excuse me? I have had all kinds of bad service at restaurants, and I have never felt that it would be appropriate to physically get the attention of my waiter or waitress.
Here's the thing - that "Sunday crowd" often cause the biggest rush of the week. They are hungry and often demanding. They expect magic from the people who are working hard to take care of all of the customers. They are often even the lowest tippers. I even heard a story once of a preacher who would leave a tract as a tip. What message did this leave the waitress who was working hard to earn a living? If you feel it necessary to leave a tract, leave it with a tip, not instead of a tip. People that work in service positions work hard and make a meager income.
Here is a repeat plea - those of you calling yourself by the name of Christ, please remember Who you represent. And if you touch my daughter again, you can deal with me!

Song Lyric Sunday Contest

My friend Dwayne has been hosting "Song Lyric Sundays" at his blog for a month or two now and he decided to have a contest, which I think is pretty nifty. He shoots out a few lines from a tune from lots of different genres, and asks his visitors to name that tune, so to speak! It has been a lot of fun. Not long ago, he decided to host a bigger contest and I decided that I wanted to make him a "button" (even though I had never done it before!) If you like music, you might want to click on over there and check this contest out. There are prizes and everything!
We are having a little trouble with the button - can you please comment here and let me know if you can see it? Thanks!
Thank you Kaitlyn for holding my hand as I learned to make these blinking buttons!

No Day of Rest

It is after midnight and I am still up and going strong. I have been trying to get a PDF file made of the More of Him, Less of Me Bible Study that is starting up this week. I was happy to do it, but it seems that whenever I attempt this kind of project, everything possible fights me! Word was giving me a fit, spitting out formatting symbols, etc.
That is really the least of our problems, however. Yesterday afternoon, I got my husband into our bathroom to show him a spot on the wall in the closet that backs up to the bathtub that seemed to be continually wet. It was also right next to the towel hamper, so I wasn't sure if the kids were maybe putting really wet towels against it, and it just wasn't getting a chance to dry out. Well, he pulled the wallboard off and saw it drip, drip, dripping from the last shower. Ugh. We had to turn the water off immediately. I washed my hair in the kitchen sink this morning before church (which is another post altogether), the dishwasher is full, there is a pile of laundry in every hamper, and the kitchen sink is piled high with dishes. Thankfully the neighbors have been letting us fill up buckets with water so we can flush the toilets. Travis did some repairs, but as soon as he turned the water back on, it shot out everywhere! He is going to have to stay home tomorrow to work on it some more. You don't realize how much you take running water for granted until you don't have it.

East Texas Weather

I had complained so much about the large amount of rain we had here in Texas - but then we were blessed with a couple of weeks of sunshiny weather, great temperatures, and the first signs of spring - blooming flowers, tweeting birds, gentle breezes. I have enjoyed it so much.
Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours on my porch swing with a good book. Kullen came out for a while and we read some Shel Silverstein poetry. He cannot get enough of it! The weather was absolutely perfect. It was an idyllic lazy Sunday afternoon. Not even the cars driving by seemed in any hurry.
This morning when I woke, it was not daylight. I would have thought it was just the time change if it hadn't been for my husband calling on his way to work to let me know a serious storm system was headed our way. Now it is almost 9 am and it is PITCH BLACK. There are thunder claps and lightning zaps everywhere. I don't mind the storm as much as the idea of tornadoes. I got online specifically to look up tornado warning signs and found this great website from NOAA weather service. It had a lot of pictures, warning signs, and ideas of how to be prepared and what to do. So here I sit, looking for green clouds! (Did you know that was one of the warning signs of a tornado?)

I'll post our most recent favorite Shel Silverstein poems in another post later!

This is the day that the Lord has made!

The girls and I sang as a trio in church this morning. It was the first time since I can't remember when and I was nervous. After church we went to my mother-in-laws. She made a nice lunch. Unfortunately my lower back was hurting so badly I could barely stand to sit and visit. At one point, I stretched my feet out on the couch and played Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Kullen's Gameboy while I waited for my back to feel better. I hope that it eases up through the week. I was hurting so much last night that Travis tried to put me on "bed rest". Ha ha! This place would fall apart. It wasn't too difficult to make the hours drive, but when I tried to get out of the car, I could barely stand. Please pray, because I don't do sedentary very well.
Another issue for prayer is our neighborhood. It seems like a nice, quiet, Mayberry kind of town. But, the other day, a neighbor's storm door was shot with a BB gun, and it shattered the glass. I heard it from across the street, and ran over to see what was going on. He came out and we walked back and forth in front of his house - and noticed it had been shot at least five times across the front. Then this morning in Sunday school, someone said that the door of the little BBQ restaurant in our town had been kicked in. THEN, I went to my friend DeeDee's blog, and heard her van break-in story. I know we live in a fallen world, but sometimes it is more apparent than others.