Refresh. Regrow. Renew.

God's presence has felt stronger in my life lately as if He feels there is something to address. I can hear him saying, "you are doing a wonderful job with the tasks I have laid before, but I believe that it is time for a challenge."

Things have been good lately. Both the kids have been playing wonderfully together, hubby and I are good too, we just got new furniture and I am making new friends. I was actually just telling a friend how much Tiffany's behavior has improved and gave her the 'things will get easier' speech since things have been going so well for us.

That's when God likes to stir things up a bit.

Tiffany had some horrible tantrums this week resulting in me dragging her to the bedroom where she cries and screams for an hour hoping I will cave but sadly for her that won't happen. Benny has also started challenging my authority and screaming at me which has resulted in spankings. I know many people feel that spankings are ineffective, cruel and the parents inability to use alternative disciplinary methods but they work well for my family and is always used as a last measure of discipline. They are also fighting with each other, hurting each other feelings and crying the majority of our time at home. This makes for a cranky, irritable mommy who ends up stuffing loads of chocolate in her mouth hoping for a temporary fix but only gets larger thighs.

It only gets more interesting.

My dog Daphne has breathing difficulties due to her weight which the vet said was morbidly obese. She just had a check up and instead of losing weight she has gained four pounds. They also discovered a new problem; she is having difficulty emptying her anal sacs (which caused a certain amount of childish laughter when I thought she said something else). So she is now on three different medications twice daily, eating expensive food and needs her anal sacs emptied once a month. The problem with the expensive food is that because of the price, my other dog Micah has to stick to the old stuff so they cannot eat together anymore which is problematic because Micah and Daphne have this love/hate/fight routine with their dog food which is the only way Micah will eat. Now I have to use the expensive wet food to train them to eat apart. Thinking about all this makes my head swell.

Wouldn't it be great if I could be pregnant trying not to throw up while emptying poop from my dog, screaming at the kids not to fight, trying to visit with my friends, popping pills down the dogs throat, dragging kids to their rooms, making sure the dogs eat the right food, blogging, throwing cats off our new couch and trying to maintain my sanity all in the same day. Sounds like fun, I can't wait!