I'm exhausted, and I've been doing paperwork (tonight) for the past two and a half hours after driving 100 miles seeing kids then going with Chris to retrieve his computer. Its only Wednesday and I've worked over 31 hours. I have full days tomorrow and Friday, and something work-related to do for part of Saturday. So why, I ask, am I still at the computer when the paperwork is mostly finished? Well, maybe because blogging isn't work-related. At least, it generally isn't. I suppose it could be. And I'm rambling. As usual. But I'm glad Chris' computer is home and working again. For one thing, I don't feel so guilty tying myself to the computer to do paperwork when he has his computer to entertain himself. And, well, because of the way our home network is set up my printer connection runs through his computer. No computer, no print. For almost a week. Which is more than irritating when I have things for work that I need to print. But his computer is back now, and hopefully it will be happy for a good long while. He did manage to drop it on his foot while dragging the tower out of the car, but hopefully there wasn't any permanent damage to either his computer OR his foot.
And, with a little bit of luck, we'll be finished with things breaking until the next millenium. In the past month or two we've fixed the AC on both our cars, replaced our water heater, fixed his computer, fixed our dishwasher, fixed something else on my car, and I'm sure done other things. Oh, and I got a ticket from a remote camera. Its ridiculous- the ticket is for something that EVERYONE here does. I'm of course opting to do traffic school (no points on my license and no notifying my insurance) instead of fighting the ticket, but even with that I still have to pay the court costs. And of course they're twice as expensive in the city I got the ticket in as they are in all of the surrounding cities. How is that fair? And more importantly, with all of the cameras ticketing drivers for things everyone does, how on earth does Arizona have a budget deficit?? Where is the money from tickets going? Does anyone know?

"I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. The decision has been made. I have stepped over the line. I'm His disciple. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight-walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap giving and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, love with patience, live by prayer and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable and my mission is clear.

I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up or slow up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up and spoken up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My banner is clear."

The Noticer- by Andy Andrews

The Noticer, by Andy Andrews is subtitled, "Sometimes all a person needs is a little perspective." Its books like these that make me wonder if I need a little perspective. Or a whack upside the head. Especially when I went to Amazon and noticed that this book has 4 reviews and that all 4 of the reviewers gave the book 5 stars. I'm not saying that this book doesn't have any merit, but for me it would be a 3, maybe 3.5 star book. At just over 150 pages of large and widely-spaced type, this definitely falls into the "gift book" genre even though Thomas Nelson categorizes it as "Spiritual Growth and Christian Thought". Maybe that's what did me in. Apparently I need to stay away from the gift books.
On the whole, the story is an interesting one, and no less so because it is supposedly true. The tale is of a man named Jones, a person with the gift of being, "a noticer". Jones is one of those people that everyone likes to have around; he's a good listener, and knows how to give just the right advice for a situation. This book is a compilation of the lessons that Jones teaches during the snippets of time that he spends with the author, a couple on the brink of divorce, an elderly widow, a businessman headed nowhere, and a group of teenagers. His advice covers love, marriage, success, honor, and hope.
The crux of this book is the advice that Jones shares. Some of it is noteworthy; the spiel on the difference between "mistakes" and "choices" should be required reading for anyone older than 12. The advice to the group of teens stands out in this "love is easy and love fixes everything" era. Some of it feels like a rehash of other books, anecdotes, or greeting cards. The advice he gives to the couple verging on divorce could have been summed up as, "read The 5 Love Languages. Do that."
The final nugget from this book is that often we neglect to "notice" (appreciate) those people who have made a difference in our lives. Andy Andrews urges readers to tell 5 significant people that they are appreciated. While this is a great idea (and I encourage everyone to do it in their own lives), I'm not quite up for putting my list out there for all to see.

I've never heard this before

but I read it today and thought it was beautiful.

The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.

His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

(From "Divine Hymns & Spiritual Songs", collected by Joshua Smith, NH, 1784)

Summer is Coming

We went hiking today (more pictures later, I hope), and even though the thermometer only said 79*, it felt warmer than that. I realized that I'm starting to tick off the milestones towards summer. I'm not so sure I like this, but the evidence is not in my favor.
*According to the weather, we're supposed to have our first 100* day of the season this Tuesday.
*Its getting to the point where when I get in the car I have to hold my sunglasses in front of the AC vent for a minute or two in order to cool them down enough so they don't burn me when I put them on.
*My water bottle (which starts mostly frozen), is too warm to drink by the end of the day and I need to start packing a second one in my cooler.
*I'm getting my uneven tan again. Contrary to popular belief, one CAN get a tan through the window of a car. Unfortunately, only my left shoulder gets darker since its closest to the window.
Here are some of the milestones that are still ahead of us:
*Burning the bottoms of my feet running outside to throw something in the trash. Without fail, I do this AT LEAST once each year. Keep in mind that its fewer than a dozen steps from our front door to the trash can.
*Going outside at midnight and having it STILL be over 100*.
*Burn myself grabbing the seat belt buckle or by bumping it against my side while putting on my seat belt.
*Having the AC in the house run all through the night.
*Having warm or hot water come out of the tap, even when you have it turned all the way to cold.
I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones that come immediately to mind. I know all of my friends who live in places that actually HAVE winter are looking forward to summer, but we do it a bit backwards here. Everyone takes advantage of the winter weather, and all but the very brave (or foolish) essentially hibernate during the summer. Chris and I are hoping to be able to keep doing at least short hikes through the summer, but we'll take it one week at a time. We will definitely have to learn to be up and out EARLY though.

I think I've reached maximum capacity

in my car.
As an early interventionist, I have quite a large collection of kid's toys. I think its an occupational hazard. I happen to love kids toys. That may be an occupational hazard too, I'm not sure. It does seem to be a common characteristic though. I don't bring toys in at all of my visits, but I do with quite a few. Most therapists that I know carry a large toy bag of one sort or another, but I don't. What I do is choose 3 or 4 toys that are at a particular child's level, and bring them into the house with me. The child gets to choose what to work on from those toys, or from whatever else they are interested in that day. I find that this tends to help their attention spans because even if they move from one thing to another very quickly, we often end up returning to an activity before the end of a session. Its also good practice for getting out and putting away one thing at a time. Most of my toys are stored in ziploc bags of various sizes. Gallon-sized bags are perfect for storing most puzzles, and keep the pieces contained.
Since I work out of my car, that's where most of my toys are, and it had gotten a bit...um...disorganized.This is the before picture, but it still doesn't get the full effect even if you zoom in. Most of the piles have things UNDER them. Proof positive that when I say my car is a mess, I'm not exaggerating. Pretty much everything in there gets used on a regular basis, although its almost time to retire my Play-Doh for the summer. With the heat here, it gets really sticky and actually retains enough heat to be unusable. The thing that looks like it might be a bedsheet is. I bring it in when we do Play-Doh or play with dry pasta as a way of keeping the mess somewhat contained (and avoiding the Play-Doh ground into the carpet issue).
I've been meaning to clean this all out for quite a while, but I was waiting until the AC was fixed since I was still shuffling things between cars. Or at least that's what I've been telling myself. Really, I just haven't had time, and I didn't have a good concept of how I wanted to organize it all. It needed to be reasonably stable, and at the same time I needed to be able to get at everything easily. At any rate, I've been having trouble finding what I was looking for, my AC was fixed, and I remembered that we have a rather impressive collection of boxes in the garage. I brought a few boxes into the house, where they sat until today while I mulled things over.Here's what it looked like when I started taking things out. Keep in mind that I drive a '96 Escort- this is not a large car. I was a bit shocked at how much stuff actually came OUT of the car. I'd also forgotten just how many puzzles I have. They didn't all fit in the first box, so I had to go find a few more.
This is what was left IN the car when everything in the previous picture was taken out. Remember I said that there more stuff underneath what you could see? This is the second layer. It got to the point where there were toys that weren't getting used because I had forgotten they were even in the car.
6 boxes (and quite a bit of juggling later), this is the finished product.My grand total is 2 boxes of puzzles, 1 box of artsy stuff, 1 box of books and touch/feel cards, 1 big box of fine-motor type toys, 1 box of toys for my really little ones (under the ball), and the miscellaneous stuff that sits behind my seat. Oh, and under the miscellaneous stuff is a big box of Lincoln Logs that I got at a garage sale. They're a bit fiddly and frustrate most of my kids, but I have a few who like them. The smaller plastic bin behind the driver's seat has dry pasta along with some scoops. Much fun. :) The puzzles are in the boxes behind the purple ball. I store them with the backs facing out to lessen the fading from the sun. There are also a few more odds and ends in that area that you see when you look through the back windshield.
Overall, I think this should work well. I'm not sure what I'll do if I get more toys, which of course is inevitable. I already have a Lite Brite that's waiting to get into my rotation, but it needs pegs (and probably a light bulb). I tried ordering some pegs on Amazon, but the seller stiffed me, and I can't seem to find anywhere else that sells just the pegs.
Oh, and the reason I don't store all of my toys in the trunk (other than the fact that I think I cram more into my back seat) is that after getting rear-ended last year my trunk is a bit smunched and I figure the less I open it the better.
You can visit here for more Tackle it Tuesday posts.

For anyone like me...

who missed this the first time around.
Susan Boyle. The singer who was a surprise smash hit on Britain's version of American Idol. I think I found one that I can embed, but click the link if it doesn't work.
I think my favorite part is watching everyone's jaw drop as soon as she started singing. They were obviously fully prepared to ridicule her.

Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent
Uploaded by dwarthy

For everyone who tends to judge a book by its cover.

The Rivers Run Dry- Sibella Giorello

Ultimately, the reason that I requested The Rivers Run Dry from Thomas Nelson is that I've been reading a lot of non-fiction and I decided it was time to start dipping back into fiction. I've always liked suspense/mysteries, but almost all of them seem like a letdown at the end. Nearly always the hero or heroine gets into some sort of crisis, and the bad guy gets got, even though he's not who everyone figured he was. Its not necessarily a flaw in the books so much as a requirement of the genre, but it takes a really, really, really good book to overcome it. Books that don't manage aren't necessarily bad books, they just don't get beyond being a good ride.
For me, The Rivers Run Dry was just that- a good ride. The main character is an FBI agent named Raleigh Harmon. She's recently transferred from Richmond to Seattle for disciplinary reasons- apparently she doesn't follow rules well. As could be expected, she's experiencing a but of culture shock from the move, and not quite getting along with her colleagues yet. In the midst of all of this, a wealthy college student disappears, and her parents insist she's been kidnapped. Things get sticky when the girl's parents decide that the FBI isn't doing enough and call in a few political favors. The rest of the story continues from there.
Overall, this was a book that I enjoyed reading. The plot was solid, and the story was full of interesting characters who were much more fleshed out than in most suspense novels. There are a few side plots that keep things interesting without taking too much from the main story. This book is the second novel about Raleigh Harmon, but I didn't find it troublesome to not have read the first book. It would have been helpful, but it wasn't essential. I would probably read the first book if I found it somewhere, but wouldn't buy it new.

Even more hiking pictures

Most of these are from last week out at South Mountain, which ended up being about a 6 mile hike round trip if we were reading the maps correctly. I'm too tired to add much commentary, but this is for the 2 people on the planet who aren't sick of seeing our hiking pictures.I like the city when its far away like this. :)
Even though I never would have thought there'd be so much cool scenery so close to a big city.This one is for my dad- I do NOT look grumpy when I hike!
I tried to take some pictures today, but didn't get anything worth posting. We went out to Pinnacle Peak, but Chris' knee was bothering him so we didn't make it too far. We'll have to try again another week.

Breathe In, Breathe Out

God is still in control.
That's what I've been telling myself all week. In addition to the craziness of my schedule, we've had craziness at home too.
Sunday night, Chris came to bed saying he'd just taken a cold shower because there was no hot water. Being only half awake, I figured it was just that we'd done laundry and dishes during the day and the tank hadn't filled up again. At any rate, I groggily decided that we'd just have to deal with it in the morning and told him to go to bed. I don't know whether he did or not because I just went back to sleep.
The next morning, I realized that the dishwasher STILL wasn't draining water out the bottom. My theory was that the filter was clogged, and I'd been trying to clean it out the best I could, without much success. We'd borrowed a set of star-shaped screwdrivers to try and take the filter off, but while I was messing with the screws I dropped one down into the dishwasher. Even with my small hands, I couldn't get it back out again, and I figured that meant the dishwasher was dead. My thinking was that the screw would get wedged into something and burn out the pump, which apparently isn't the case, but anyways. My dad set me straight on that one.
I left for work, and Chris called a few hours later to tell me that there still wasn't any hot water. Great. I called in a favor with the dad of a kiddo that I work with, and he arrived at our house pretty much when I did (late afternoon). He took one look at the water heater and declared it dead. Apparently water heaters have an expected lifespan of 5-8 years; our water heater was 22 years old. It also leaked. Off to Home Depot we went. $300, 6 months no interest, and some good work on my friend's part later, we got to take a hot shower.
Even better, the dishwasher probably isn't dead- just needs a good cleaning out. Granted, that means that we have to take it outside and rinse it with the hose, but that's do-able.
Normally, the water heater would have been an annoyance, but not a crisis. However, this month we ALSO got the AC in both our cars working, have to pay our state taxes (we end up owing every year) AND had to replace the windshield in my car. Yes, it was cracked all the way across the top, but really I could still see out of it. Oh, and I had a lovely gift in the mail today- I got dinged by a red light camera for something that is almost unavoidable here- making a left turn on a red/yellow light because I was already pulled into the intersection when the light turned. Whoop de doo...defensive driving class, here I come. Of course, the fees for that are nearly as much as just paying the ticket, but taking the class lets me avoid points on my license. Really, how is there a state budget deficit with all of those cameras mailing tickets to people?
Breathe in, breathe out.

Now Entering Invisibility Mode

I have one of those "better eat my spinach" weeks coming up this week. If no one cancels, I will be doing 23 visits this week. My average is somewhere around 15-19 depending on the week. I'll be at one house 3 different times- once for a makeup session, once for my usual double session (its a sibling group), and once for an IFSP meeting. I still have one more possible session to schedule, depending on if they're back from vacation yet. I'm also switching to twice weekly visits for one of my kiddos. They requested it, and we have extra units to use because he's spent so much time in the hospital recently. Besides that, I'm doing 3 intakes, which means I get more kids. Which is typically a good thing, but 2 of them are really far away (and in different directions of course). Although after the recent excitement, I suppose I'm in no position to complain about new kids, no matter the driving involved. I'm just glad to be getting intakes again. And now that the Escort has air conditioning and I'm driving it full time again, I can go back to listening to books on tape. I take periodic breaks from them, but I know its time to start again when I get to feeling like I'm just driving in circles all day. While its often true, books go a long ways towards making the driving tolerable.
We did end up going hiking today after a rest day yesterday. Hopefully I'll get the pictures posted this week. We did the same trail we've been working on, but still didn't make it to the top. If we were reading the map correctly, though, we hiked a bit over 6 miles today. We probably had another 1/2 mile to a mile to make it to the top, but judging from the fact that we're both wiped out now, we made it as far as we could.Here's a teaser picture until I get the rest of them up. This is a view of Phoenix with mountains in the background. I'm not good enough at geography to tell WHICH mountains they are though. If you look closely, you can see a plane coming into the airport.

Not in a mood to be politically correct

I jotted this down in the car a while ago, but never got around to posting it.

First they came for the babies,
But I didn't speak up because, after all, its a woman's choice.

Then they came for the large families
But I didn't speak up because I only have 2 kids.

Then they came for the capitalists
But I didn't speak up because I'm not rich like they are.

Then they came for the disabled
But I didn't speak up because everyone I know is healthy.

Then they came for me
But by that time there was no one left to speak up.

*With apologies to Martin Neimoller