January - where did it go?

For a girl who was so pumped to almost be caught up on blog posts, I sure did let the month get away from me. But I have noticed, due to the small number on my google reader each day, that January seemed to do the same thing for everyone else as well. And I STILL haven't done a post about Christmas. Oh well, it will come in it's own due time. I just haven't had the motivation, time, energy, etc. to get around to editing my own photos from Christmas, much less all that went on in January. That's the problem with shooting in RAW - I have to edit the photos to put them on the web, and an album of 70 photos always seems a bit daunting. Wah, wah, wah, right?

And that's the irony - I almost got a post ready of our laidback January in the middle of last month and then everything just started to slowly come to pieces. January was of of the most relaxed months I have had in the past 2 years. I kid you not - until the end of the month the three of us have never spent so much time together on the weekends with just us. Somewhat sad when you think of it. And just when I thought I could go on forever in this world of no commitments, nothing on the social calendar, and no worries, well, there were other plans for this family.

It all seems small, but when you write it all down you can see why the stress of it all can just weigh on you. Our downstairs heater became quite the entertainer for about 2 weeks. This was during the really cold weeks in January, with lows in the teens here in Houston. It would work starting about 10am each morning, and would start to act up around 5pm each evening. My heater guy would get to my house every day at, you guessed it, about 10am, and it would miraculously be working. We would think that everything was fine, and then would come downstairs each morning and it would be 56 degrees downstairs. Never has the Michaelis household bought so much firewood. After fixing the flame starter, the thermostat, and finally the blower, we got the heater to work on its own all day long.

In that process of never feeling warm for half the month, I started taking uncharacteristically hot showers. It was the only time of the day where I just felt the thaw come out of my frozzzzzen toes. So imagine my surprise when I go to the doctor to check out a spot on my collarbone that I thought might be a Staph infection that would never clear up to get a diagnosis of eczema. I literally whipped my head around at the physician's assistant. I had not had the dry itchy skin disease since I was 14 years old. So not only do I have a steroid medicine I have to put on everyday, but now I have to take lukewarm showers. Brutal - back to frozen toes, and now I am having lesions pop up on my scalp. So not use the hairdryer maybe?

Then my sweet dog, Roxy, keeps me up all night itching. I literally want to banish her from my room for the day when I look at her belly and see fleas. All. over. her. And did I mention I was sitting on my bed when I saw this? All my bedding goes to the cleaners, we get our carpets cleaned, treat our whole house with lovely insecticides, and even bathed Roxy in Dawn dish soap. I still imagine little black bugs crawling on me at night in my bed.

Derek last minute got a new pacemaker put in. And in case you are in shock that he even had one, you are not alone. He got one when he was 16 years old in high school. With this surgery he now has his third pacemaker to keep his heart ticking. Justin now tells us that when he grows up he wants to be a daddy and get a pacemaker as well. He can't wait to have surgery. Might need to pull him aside and tell him there are other aspirations in life than wanting a pacemaker.

Justin's school has an auction in March and somehow I got the job of taking all 70+ kids' photos, editing them, and developing them into 8x10s to make money for the school. That, my friends, is why you have not seen a single photo on this blog in almost a month. I wanted to be done with it, and just finished editing on Friday. Freedom! My biggest helper in getting every single one of those kids to smile was mini marshmallows. Go buy you a bag and strap them onto your camera strap. And get a personality and tickle the little fellas as well. That always helps. But seriously, I had kids following me around the playground, begging for a smile in exchange for a marshmallow. I haven't never thought anything was more funny.

One of the harder children to photograph was....drumroll...my son. Not because he was uncooperative but because he gave me too much of a pose. I had to crop this photo vertically to get rid of the arm he had slung on the fence. I finally got the photo that Justin chose for the auction, but not without trying very hard to get a relaxed pose.


And no, that was not THE photo.

Once again, I know that I still have to post about Christmas, but the least I could do is share what my sister-in-law, Kaki, talked me into making. Now remember that I am not crafty, but I have to admit that this Valentine's Day wreath was so easy to make!


After basically copying this post on every little detail, like buying the same ribbon with the white piping to cover the wreath with, we had ourselves a winner. I do admit that I ran out of ribbon and finished the rest of the wreath with red, yes red, duck tape.


These fun damask cupcake liners came from Hobby Lobby. I bought 6 packages of 50 each each, and we used almost every single one of them. Kaki has never been a wreath girl, whereas I have 10 of them, sitting in my attic, just waiting their turn to be used. I love having a creative member of the family to help spur me on in these areas! And I even bought my first glue gun to commiserate this firsts of making a wreath.


I know this post is all over the place, but I had to throw this in the randomness of it all. My neighbor, Dawn, owns Pickles and Ice Cream, a super fun maternity store in the galleria. She does booths at a lot of markets around town, and recently had a booth next to Angie's Cake. I know a lot of you make cake balls (and actually enjoy the process), but I have never had the urge to make them myself. And why would I after tasting these pretty puppies?

Dawn gave me a sampler box with a dozen cake balls, chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate mint. Derek, Justin, and I have never made more affirming noises while eating our bitesize desserts. She makes all sorts of themed balls, like these that would have been fun for the Super Bowl. Anyways, me thinks I am going to have to place an order of these sometime soon.


And then I will end with a complete 180 from most of this post. This past month has brought my family an enormous amount of spiritual oppression. A friend at our Sunday School women's dinner termed her life with that phrase, spiritual oppression, and I thought it was a most appropriate phrase. I am not going to go into much detail, but my heart has been so heavy for the last several weeks. I cannot remember the last time I have been on my knees so many times each day. I was talking with a buddy at the park today about it, and she and I were talking about how so many families right now are going through the same thing. So many prayer requests of people just feeling beat down. And then she said what I have been feeling for almost 2 years now: "The Spirit is on the move, so the Enemy knows his time is short."

The Spirit is on the move. But so is the Enemy. So families like mine are just crying out to the Lord, begging for mercy. I knew that this semester needed something different out of me. I knew it when I felt the need to only do one biblestudy, to start to pull out of some of my social obligations, and to just be still. I have been telling some of you for a couple months that the Lord wants me to be still in the beginning of the new year. It was to prepare me for the fight that my soul has been dealing with. My mom has always joked that I am the Advocate for the family. If anyone says anything or messes with anyone that is dear to my heart, then watch out. Shani is going to be all over it. And that's how I feel right now - almost like I need to bare my teeth at the devil as he keeps messing with those that I love so much.

The one study I have been involved in this semester is Beth Moore's Heart Like His. I have been craving some Beth homework, and I finally got a study with one. Ironically, every single day of homework there is a verse that speaks to me that directly relates to this darkness that has come over my family. The Lord is going to get so much Glory from this, as He always does. He will work it out.

My buddy Jenn gave me a CD for Christmas from the church we used to attend. Faithbridge has always had great worship, and their new CD, You Alone are God, has been the CD that I will associate this season of life with. When a song is running through my head these days, it's one of the ones off this CD. Today Justin and I were driving home from a birthday party in Spring when a huge thunderstorm hit. The rain was so loud that Justin asked if I could turn up the music louder. My local KSBJ was not doing it for me, so I put this CD in. I think the Holy Spirit was giving me a chance to crank the music with Justin along for the ride. I gratefully turned up the volume and just worshipped to my favorite song on the CD, Healer. With one hand in the air and tears in my eyes, I just spent a few great minutes of quality time with the Lord.

I am just asking for prayer. The Spirit is on the move, and the Body has never been more important to stand together to fight the mess that keeps coming out way. I finish this very long post with the words from the CD. I will catch up on posts later. Story of my life. But for now I need to go back into the battle. Isn't it great that we know who will win in the end?

Healer
We are people in need of grace
We are bound by all our mistakes
Here in our weakness can You bring your strength
We are in need, we are in need

We lift our song to You, the healer of our soul
Would You come and restore the things that have been lost
We have no life except the life You give
Healer, heal us

You are gracious in all Your ways
Your compassion, it never fails

As we draw near to You we cannot help but say,
"We are amazed, we are amazed!"

Calling for grace, calling for mercy
Calling for love, calling for You