$11,277.00 Mistake

I am so scatter-brained lately.  Because I haven’t been able to find the right person to work in our office, I have been forced to attempt to run both our household and our business simultaneously. This really isn’t working very well for me at all. My heart definitely is in the house while my body is in the office and my mind is on vacation.

Last Wednesday, I ran a customer’s credit card.  There is a box where you are supposed to input the address and one where you are supposed to input the amount. Instead of putting $400 in the amount box, I put her street address - 11277. This transaction settled, they took the money out of her account and instead of putting it in our account, it is now floating around in cyberspace somewhere. The customer is really unhappy (and I don’t blame her) and I am unhappy because they also are refusing to put all of the credit card receipts that we have ran after than into our account. I did not become aware of this situation until today. I have been writing checks on money that was supposed to be in our account. I shudder to think what this will do with our checking account.

We have spent all morning receiving and sending faxes with our merchant account to try to resolve this. They guy who is in charge and can make the final decision to set everything right, will not pick up his phone. His underlings have done all they can do. I have done all I can do. It is incredibly frustrating.

Lost Sock World

One of the most difficult things that I have to manage in my home are socks. I am so happy that it is almost summer and flip flops (we ALWAYS referred to them as thongs growing up, but my children want to die everytime I say that) rule. Everyone makes fun of Elissa for wearing thongs (aka flip flops) in the winter - but it is truly a gift not having her raid my sock drawer as often as she would if she wore normal shoes. Anyway back to socks. . .

We have a place in our home called lost sock world. I was going to take a photo of how pathetic it was and post it here, but I can no longer do it because ELISSA tackled the enormous job of sorting through it, throwing away the socks with gigantic holes and adding dramatically to the availability of this precious resource for every member of our family.

I was actually quietly savings this terrible chore for the next child that really made me angry. Elissa did this without me even starting to complain about it. She is truly amazing.

Now, my big problem remains . . . what will I use for punishment the next time someone really deserves it? Any ideas?

Passover Seder

Sunday night, Brian and Jeanie Kochis hosted an incredible passover supper for around 30 people.  It was a wonderful experience that I will always remember. Almost the whole family (not sure about little Phoebe) spent hours and hours cooking and preparing for it. Sure, I have gone to church Passover celebrations before but this was the first time I have ever celebrated it as a guest in someone’s home.  They celebrate it every year together as a family and this year they blessed a lot of people by sharing their normal experiences.

The children searched the house for little pieces of leavened bread. (The leaven represents sins.) When they found the hidden pieces, they used a feather and a spoon to scoop it up. Then they took it outside where the fathers helped them burn it.

A piece of matza bread was wrapped in a cloth and hidden from the children. (This represented Jesus.) They searched the house and Sarah and Michaela were the ones to find it.  As a prize, they got five coins.

We ate the things that were Biblically prescribed. One of the Kochis children asked Brian all of the traditional questions and Brian answered them. We drank all the cups and sang the blessings as we did so.

Laurel Cohen explained everything that was happening and the meaning behind it as we went through. She is one of the most amazing women that I know. Her heart belongs to God first and Israel next.  I am excited to see what God will do through her in the future.

She had a power point presentation that included a lot of different depictions of the last supper. We spent a lot of time analazing discussing them. (Yeah - Annette actually got to have an adult conversation!) Of course, there was Davinci’s portrayal. Which we are all so familiar with so I didn’t post it here. Then we looked at some very old artwork. And Laurel explained why so many of these images are so offensive to the Jews. I had never thought about that before. She showed us the following three images, which I find very offensive.

After looking at these, I understood why many Jews are so offended by Christian art. Much of the symbolism in portrayals of the last supper are as offensive to Jews as the above photos are offensive to Christians.  It really made me think. I had never understood it before.

To end on a more positive note: She also showed the photo below to us. I love it.  It is such an incredible understanding of who Jesus really is. 

Almost Spring

Dan Hoff just sent me this photo -

You know that it is almost spring when the girls start to show off their belly buttons!

Poem

Cleaning the house

When children are growing,

Is like shoveling snow

While it is still snowing!