Can the name of Jesus fix a furnace?

I'm gonna have to go with "yes."

My husband and I are trying to make a go of getting up earlier than we already do to walk a couple of miles together in the dark, peaceful morning before he's off for work for the day. I keep reminding him that if I don't get enough sleep "at the end of the day I start to feel anxious, overwhelmed, and cry at just about anything." "You don't need eight hours of sleep, you just think you do" he says. Well I'm not sure if I speak it into existence or if I just know myself really well. But last night I started hand sewing some things that have piled up and wanted to finish it so I didn't have to come back to it today (I dislike unfinished projects). That kept me up until 12:30 a.m. I was so tired when I went up to my room last night my mind was playing tricks on me and I swear I was hearing things. My heart began to race and I started to panic but I calmly told myself God did not give me a spirit of fear but of sound mind and no weapon formed against me shall prosper. I started to relax but continued talking to myself and finally settled on the idea that if a stranger were to appear in my home I'd just rebuke him/her in the name of Jesus and command them to leave. I imagined they'd run and probably rebuke me in return. That managed to settle me enough to get to sleep. Although now it sounds pretty funny and I'm laughing out loud at myself which reminds me of two funny things about my son that I'll share below.

I got up about 6:30 a.m. to a furnace that quit working...again. I'm not worried though it's been warming up to 60+ degrees and we can handle the evenings if we have an evening fire and bundle appropriately before bed. I did call and let my dad know what was going on because my hubby worked all day and goes right from work to school until at least 9:00 p.m. My dad offered to come over and mess with it. So now I'm hopeful we'll get the thing to work and it's going down to 47 degrees tonight and I've got toddlers so it would be great to have heat this evening. We thought we got it working, but when we checked it again before my dad left it wasn't working. Ugh! So I'm now completely defeated at this point because I ran errands most of the day today and transported children from here to high heaven, made dinner which my husband typically does and haven't had my husband to talk to in the last few hours because he's in class. I dragged my sorry butt to the top of the stairs one final time to mess with the thermostat and realized (ding, ding, ding) I don't have to be defeated! So I stood over the furnace below and angry pointed at the thing and commanded that it work immediately in the name of Jesus! I turned up the thermostat and a few moments later my dad was up to tell me it was working! I can still hear it humming now. So lovely!

A bit of good news, Mallory managed to stay dressed in what I put on her this morning all day and only took off her shoes once. We were in and out all day and my two least favorite, okay three least favorite things to do are put sneakers on toddlers, buckle seat belts, and tell Hailey to put her clothes back on for the 50th time in one day! She doesn't run around naked or anything but she wants to wear everything except what I've chosen for that day. Even if she chooses her outfit she still wants something different! Yes mother! I know where she gets it from. Oy!

I'm not sure this will sound as funny on my blog as it was when it happened but our son came into the front room last night after his shower and threw his hands in my husbands face (up his nose practically) and said "smell my finger." I'm over tired and slap-happy folding towels in my laundry room as I overhear my husband now in total awe at the prospect that someone would insist he smell their finger. My eyes watered and ran down my face from laughing so hysterically as I listen to them banter about the situation. My husband gets this bright idea that he'll smell it if I smell it first! What! Okay this isn't funny anymore! But I pretend I don't hear this light bulb click in his mind as he begins to call me from the other room. I was still laughing (quietly) so hard that I couldn't talk or answer him so when I did it was a dead give-a-way that I was falling apart in the laundry room by myself over this "smell my finger" drama. So the two of them had a quick kick while they watched my laugh hysterically at the two of them. Turns out Tyler took a shower using some new "manly" shower gel that he must have enjoyed and just wanted to share the fragrance with his dad.

While attempting to go through an intersection I heard sirens and slowed to see which direction it was coming from. The fire engine was going to need to cross through the same section I was going to cross so I and the other traffic stopped. As the truck got closer and the siren louder it reminded Tyler of something he learned in Science class. Our car full got a not-so-quick lesson in the "Doppler Effect." I just smiled as he eloquently explained what it was and how it works. How many kids do you know that repeat what they've learned in science? I'm a proud mamma!

Hubby's home, furnace is working, kids are sleeping, peach tea is ready, and those Morely Candy pecan turtles are calling my name!