Ok, ok...I get the hint!

This week my theme verse is Psalm 94:19. Lots of stuff going on, anxiety is all around me, but I am running to the consolation of the Lord.

So apparently I need a little bit of help on this. Instead of attending Bible Study and then shopping for a get-together at our house tonight, I am home sick with a stomach thing. Ok, I get the hint. I will slow down. I am running to You!!!

Anxiety and Consolation

Hey girls,

It has been a really long and busy week. And just a bit stressful. C'est la vie! But that doesn't make the anxiety in my life any more right! Which is stressful!

At any rate, I did get some stuff done. For example:
*a couple Bible studies
*one skit re-written to a 5th grade level
*four VBS skit rough drafts scripted out
*A few emergency children's ministry meetings
*An all day track meet ( by 1:00 we were betting on and cheering for various random kids who were competing and who we had no clue who they were but there was nothing else to do).
*A pedicure along with my book club girls (which was pretty tough but I gutted it out...ministry, you know).
*A cook out (not so bad a thing all by itself, but I had to clean the house before they got here).
*And driving 2 hours a day because my son's carpool was out of town all week. (Gas prices are enough to stress anyone out!)
Plus the normal list...laundry, etc. And there was so, so, so much more I had on my to-do list!!!! Like putting the laundry actually in the drawers. Like blogging. Like reading your blogs. And it was stressful to not check everything off the list. I didn't even have a written list, which I obviously love, but had to do mentally which is stressful in and of itself!

I had the luxury of a few moments tonight and so I decided to catch up with you via internet. It was good to just sit and read and catch up with my sisters in Christ. Having a few moments to be quiet and alone reminds me that this stress thing just doesn't work. It is going to be another busy week. Stressing and anxiety won't change any of that. It doesn't really help me accomplish anything extra. And there is certainly no joy in it.

"When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought joy to my soul." Psalm 94:19

I am going to run to His consolation this week when that busy, stressy feeling approaches my heart. I am committing to that!

Will let you know how that goes! (: Have a good week!

meh

Beautiful Simplicity!!!!!!

The daffodils are up!

Opportunities

I am pretty much a pessimist. Wait, I mean realist! When the challenging stuff happens around me I have to discipline myself to look at circumstances with a glass half full mindset. I squint hard to catch a glimpse of silver lining somewhere. It isn't always easy and I don't always succeed, but sometimes some pretty cool things come out of this discipline. Opportunities!

We live next door to the people who sold us our house two years ago. It wasn't part of their plan to become our neighbors. They didn't even want to move in the first place. When we moved in, they reluctantly moved on to another state because that was where he could find a contract job. On his first day at work, he fell and broke his back. Their family eventually moved back to live in his Dad's home so he could rehab and look for a new career and she could work two part time jobs.

And so they live next door to the home he built and they loved and we now live in. Awkward? Deeply! An opportunity? Definitely!

Last Fall, the wife came to me and apologized for all the tension. It was hard to wave at us and be friendly when they were drowning, she told us. She said that she would ask me to pray except she had lost hope. I told her I would pray anyways if it was ok with her. Over the past months, we have reached out to the family gradually. Their youngest girl and our girls became friends and the little girl accepted my girls' invitation to attend church with us. She now attends almost weekly with her parent's approval, though they don't come. A month ago, the little girl trusted in Christ! She reads her new kid level Bible daily (she had never opened a Bible before) and loves doing the projects they suggest (journals and all sorts of fun stuff). I am excited to see what God has planned next for their family! Maybe the parents and the big sister will begin to have a spiritual stirring in their hearts!

D and I were just finishing our run yesterday. My legs were like lead and we both only had about enough energy to drag our out of shape selves back into the house.

But a neighbor who was getting her mail a couple houses down stopped us to talk. She is one of those "wave at" neighbors who you maybe chat with briefly twice a year. But today she wanted to talk. She asked us to pray for her husband who was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. So sad? Deeply! An opportunity? Definitely!

Oh, Hail!!!

Yes I did too just type that!!

It is storming this evening and I am home with 2 little girlies, J and a little friend of hers. They are watching a movie and I am trying to sort out a 5th grade Sunday School lesson. The rest of the crew are at a pro b-ball game to which we were given 4 great tickets, and it just so happens that today is C's big 12th. (Crazy!!!)

So it started to rain really, really, really hard. In fact, we are in a tornado watch, which is vaguely amusing now that we no longer live in tornado alley. A brief thought flashed through my mind about the back windows in D3's car being open, then I dismissed it. They surely got rolled up. Right! And then came the wind and hail as a compliment to the blinding rain. So I ran out into the storm in my pj's (yep!) and socks to pull in the car (stick shift), quickly see that the back left window is indeed down as I try and back up, promptly kill the car, apparently because the emergency break is still on, restart, peel out and skid forward into the garage.

Next Big D's truck. (Still not sold, by the way.) I run into the house to grab his keys, then back out only to realize I first have to move 2 bikes and a kennel with a big 90 lb scaredy-cat black lab in it, and then back into the storm. Parking a dooley in a garage aint easy, especially when there is already a car in there. Congratulating myself on successfully not scratching any paint, and collapsed against the wall in wet muddy socks with the cat calmly looking at me like I am a complete loon, I watch the garage door go down and note that it is not only no longer hailing, but it has also stopped blowing and raining. In fact, the sun is shining quite brightly again.

Oh, hail!!!

Editors note: If you find it offensive that it sounded a whole lot like I just cussed on the internet, please note that the spell check option has been used and that certain voice inflections can drastically alter the meaning of a given phrase. Besides, I am anonymous. (:

What is Popping Up In My Garden?

Not much...yet. But I am so excited that Spring is lurking close by. I can't plant anything up here with any level of confidence until after Memorial Day, but I already have some seeds picked out and some good ideas of what I want to do.

So for now, Truck is all that is popping up in my garden:



Usually he is curled up on the rocking chair, but I guess he just felt the need of someplace soft for his big behiney!!

Refrigerator Lit. 201

When my children were small we had little colorful alphabet magnets that I stuck on the refrigerator. It was just my little way of helping along the education of our next generation and besides my kids thought it was fun. But we are now well past that phase...sigh. But on the upside, we have graduated up to Refrigerator Lit. 201!




We like to think of it as a more mature method of creative magnet education on the refrigerator.



At various points in time we will see a new arrangement and we will pause to read what incredible literary genius has been born in some family member's mind.



As you can see, they come welling up from the depths of our hearts and minds. Don't worry, you will be the first to know when I compile and publish our work!

A Monday Phenomena

I just got back to my house from dropping the girls off at the bus stop.

Some mornings this little ritual is murder. Nothing goes right. They are running late as soon as their little feet hit the floor. The bathroom is too small for two little girls. Lunches are such a pain to make. Backpacks are heavy and unwieldy. Tempers rise. Mom gets tense. We pray together and the bus arrives. Those days are often Mondays.

But this Monday, everything has turned out right. C's alarm didn't go off and I woke them up 10 minutes late, but no big deal. The outfit J had picked out didn't match so Mom had to make an adjustments, but that was ok too. The bathroom was the perfect size for two little girls this morning. The backpacks didn't occasion one comment. The lunches were made before I even reminded them. No one was tense. We prayed together and the bus arrived.

So what happened? New duds! New Spring duds, no less! I am pretty sure that is the answer. It is going to be 67 degrees here today (we are told) and bless their little girly hearts they are both in new white capri's and loving it!! And honestly, I can't blame them. I feel the exact same way about new clothes. So now I just need to figure out how to provide the girls with something new to wear for the next 6 Mondays of school so this Monday phenomena can continue.

The Bible According to C

Last week when my parents came in town during Spring Break, my Dad thought he would create some healthy conversation at the lunch table. So he asked the kids who knew of a Bible story where someone asked for something but got something else that was even better.

Fairly quickly, one of them hit on the story of Peter and John meeting up with the beggar at the Gate Beautiful from Acts 3:6. Papa agreed that was the story he had in mind and asked the kids what Peter had said to the beggar. In a matter of fact tone, and without skipping a beat, C responded with, "Peter told him to get up and get a job!". I was in mid-chew at that point and it took me a good 3 minutes to stop laughing enough to swallow. It was just so darn unexpected!

Nothing daunted, my Dad pursued the Bible story conversation-starter idea. He asked if anyone knew of a story where someone gave something away but was punished because of how they did it. Ananias and Saphira giving money from their real estate deal was the answer and C once again contributed her interpretation of the Scripture. "Peter said, You little liars, now you are going to die."

I don't think I have ever laughed so hard through a lunch in my entire life. And even more so because it is not usually C who comes up with these hilarious things. And in addition, I will vouch for her that she was not being sacriligous or even trying to be funny, she was just putting the stories into her own words. But oh, my, it was SO FUNNY!!

Dad gave up at that point and we just finished our lunch with smiles on our faces.

NEVER!!!!!!!

My kids, like most toddlers, had their own funny little ways of saying things as they learned how to communicate. For instance, D3 would add an extra "i" into words, like panicakes and pianio. M would just say funny things in general....he has always had an incredibly great sense of humor. C named one of her grandpa's Pookie, which was pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. And then came along the littlest animal in our forest. Whenever there was an emphatic "no" on anything, J would say in a very serious voice and with a very serious expression on her face, "NEVER to hit the dog" or whatever was the current issue at the time. For some reason, that phrase will still pop up in our family's conversation when ever we feel very strongly in the negative about something. Today that happened to me. Only I was by myself. But it still needed to be said.

NEVER to run outside in 42 degree weather with a wind gusting at around 100 mph, give or take!!!

I am still in pain an hour later and I think I have done irreparable damage to my lungs.

NEVER, I tell you, NEVER!!!!!!!

Jelly bean jar

A very fun thing happened for C during Spring Break week. She actually won something...a very large jar of jelly beans from a grocery store. My young mathematician calculated the number of jelly beans by looking at the serving size on the package the store had laying out and estimating. She came within 15 beans. The actual number was something like 1122 beans. And she was so-o-o excited to win!!! We were too since she generously shared all week long.

Jelly bean jar then (we had already dipped into it by the time I took the pic) ...







Jelly bean jar now...




I like the purples. The girls like the pastels. M prefers the black. D and D3 pretty much just grabbed by the handful and didn't worry about the color, unless it was black. As you can see, you pretty much don't want to be a jelly bean in our house. And M gets the last laugh as black are the only ones left.