Spring Joys

I think Spring is finally springing here in our town. I went away to Texas for a week during spring break and came back to beautiful white pear trees, daffodils and green grass. Ahhhhh. And allergies, sore throat, stuffy nose, dizzy head, stuffy sinuses. But that kind of goes with the territory, I guess.

Here are some things I love about Spring, in no particular order:

Birds singing in the morning. LOVE the birds. I didn't realize how much I'd missed them in the early morning until I heard them the other day when I was walking my dog in the dark hour before sunrise. There was a robin sitting on the corner of the roof just chirping and singing and I loved it. It's just such a HAPPY sound.

Green grass. It's amazing what a luscious, welcome sight green grass is after all the brown, brown, brown and white, white, white of the dead grass and snow. Every spring I'm amazed how quickly the grass greens up when the weather starts warming.

Daffodils and tulips. How I love the simple joy of seeing those cheerful flowers blooming. I drove by my old house yesterday just to see if any of the bulbs I've planted the past few years bloomed this spring. I'd forgotten just how happy those daffodils looked. It was lovely. I am thankful our house sold when it did since we have to move away this summer, but I do miss my yard and flowers and my warm, sunny back deck.

Mornings sunny and warm enough to sit on my little back porch before the sun goes over the building and leaves our back yard in shadow for the rest of the day. I've been having a lovely morning today sitting in a rocking chair on the back porch enjoying a cup of Irish Breakfast tea and reading my Bible. How I've missed sunny, warm weather.

The newness of watching the trees and flowers and grass come back to life. That never gets old. What a beautiful reminder of God's mercies, which are new every morning.

Getting to wear my capris again.

Celebrating Easter. Thinking about our Savior's great love and mercy and grace.

Talking with my little girl about how every season has it's joys when she asks me which one is my favorite. I honestly couldn't say any of them were my favorite. I love Summer with it's warmth and freedom; I love, love, love Fall when the weather cools and the air turns crisp and the leaves turn glorious colors, and camp fires and the indefinable something in the air as I walk the neighborhood and enjoy the scarecrows and corn decorations and everything that goes with Fall (ok, maybe I'm a little partial to Fall) - having grown up in Florida where we didn't really have a true Fall, I never get tired of that season; I like the first snow and the anticipation of Christmas, but I will say that winter is the one season that I do feel seems to drag on toward the end, especially in February, that longest of all short months, it's the one that I probably tire of quickest because of its overabundance of gray and dismal and COLD days, even though I'll never get over the joy of watching snow fall (Florida girl again); and back to Spring, which seems ever so much more of a relief after the harshness of winter. Florida girl again, but I didn't really appreciate the absolute joy of Spring and the anticipation of waiting for it until I experienced the real winter of the Midwest. Florida, for all the complaining about the few 'cold' days we had each year, does not experience WINTER.

And of course I mustn't forget walks with my little girl and her beautiful weed bouquets. She thinks they are beautiful flowers, and I'm not going to try to convince her otherwise today.

Happy Spring!

A Helpful Cleaning Tip

We have shiny black appliances in our kitchen, and one of my frustrations with them is that no matter how often and well I wipe them down, they always have streaks, which drives me a little batty because no matter how clean the kitchen is, it doesn’t LOOK clean if it’s all streaky. I have found something that does a very nice job of cleaning and taking care of the streaks, and it’s not a store-bought cleaner.

A few years ago a friend spoke at our MOPS group and shared some homemade cleaners she uses that are not as harsh as store bought cleaners can be. In the long run, it’s cheaper, too. Now, before I go further, I’m not weird about essential oils and homeopathic stuff or anything. There’s nothing spiritual or mystical or redemptive about essential oils and so-called natural cleaners, etc.  But I do like to look for cheaper ways to clean, and I have found that vinegar and lavender have antiseptic and antibacterial properties, plus I like the way lavender smells, so I think this cleaner is a safe way to go if you’re interested in saving a little money and making your own cleaner. Anyway, to take care of my kitchen counters and appliances I use the all-purpose cleaner she taught us to make, and if done properly, it leaves my kitchen clean, fresh, and shiny. I just spray some of this cleaner on the appliances and counters, scrub with a clean sponge ( you do know to clean your sponges or they become little germ spreaders, right?), then go over it once more with rinsed sponge, then use a clean dry towel to wipe away any excess cleaner. When you use the towel, make sure to put a little elbow grease into your wiping and when it dries, the appliances are clean and shiny, no more streaks. If you see a streak or two, just go back over with dry towel and it takes care of it. I love it. 

Also, if you spray it in your stainless steel sink and use a scrubby sponge, it easily takes care of coffee and tea stains, leaving you with a nice, shiny sink, too.

And it works really well in the bathroom, as well. Fresh, clean bathroom without the harsh smells of store bought cleaners.

Now, I said it’s cheaper, but when you first buy your ingredients it may seem expensive, but when you figure how many bottles of cleaning solution these ingredients will produce in the long run, I think I do end up saving some money. I need to say a word of caution about buying some of the ‘natural’ ingredients, but I’ll save that for the end.

Here’s the recipe for the homemade all-purpose cleaner I’ve been using:

2 Tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp Borax

10 drops lavender essential oil

2 cups hot, filtered water

1/4 cup liquid Castile soap

Mix vinegar with borax in a 32 oz clean spray bottle. Fill with hot, filtered water and shake until all the Borax has dissolved. Add the liquid Castile soap, followed by the essential oil and shake well.

Now, a word about buying liquid Castile soap and essential oils. Unfortunately there is a whole fad market out there that is just plain weird about essential oils and ‘natural’ things that tends to make all kinds of unfounded, and dangerous spiritually, ‘wellness’ claims. Stay away from companies like that. Unfortunately sometimes when you go to buy these things you might end up having to go to new-agey kind of places to find them, so be careful. Especially with the liquid Castile soap. I had to stop making my cleaner for a while because the only liquid Castile soap I could find was the Dr. Bonner’s brand, and I bought it once without looking at what all those words on the bottle were saying. When I got it home and read the strange religious philosophies the company puts all over their bottle, I felt kind of sick. I don’t want my money going to something so overtly new age and just plain spiritually wacky as that, so I had to not buy it. In such cases, I've used other kinds of mild liquid soaps with success. I finally found another brand, and our Walgreens here carries it. It’s even lavender scented. Now, this company may be weird too, I don’t know, but at least they don’t have stuff all over their bottle that I don’t want my kids reading. Yes, it is that important to me. 

This is what I found at Walgreens, and I've been happy with it: 

And that’s my little cleaning tip for the day. Enjoy!

Status Update - December 2013

Seeing as I've let the blog lapse somewhat this year, I think I'll do a little status update in bullet points here on this first day of December:

 - Sitting in the apartment, which we have affectionately named "The Cave" due to the fact that it is on the ground floor of the building kind of built into a hill with a wall behind us leading up to the sunny land, and though it has lots of windows, it is not very sunny inside. The apartment really isn't all that bad, and I'm EXTREMELY thankful our house sold quickly, more quickly than we expected, which is why we're in The Cave, so I'm not really complaining, but of the things I miss about our house, I miss the sunny windows and back deck most…..

 - Our church family got to witness a baptism this morning. I never, never get tired of that. Rejoice with those who rejoice. I'm thankful for Sundays and for salvation and for my church family.

 - Planning to drink some decaf coffee with peppermint mocha creamer once I get the youngest child to bed, and oldest kids can help me catch up on some shows we have on DVR.

- Decorated the house for Christmas this afternoon after church, probably the earliest we've EVER decorated for Christmas, but it was good to do it while my husband was home to help me get the decorations out of storage. Now that the Nativity set is up and our little Charlie Brown tree is decorated, I'm ready to play Christmas music.

- Speaking of Christmas music, I let my 15-year-old run the iPod in the car this evening on the way home from the airport, and we got to listen to about an hour's worth of Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas music REALLY loud in the car, which is probably the best way to properly appreciate the genius that is Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas music (well, the instrumental pieces, at least; not so much the ones with lyrics).

- Since we've mentioned the airport, I have to say that for a military family, airports are pretty much the happiest places on earth or the saddest, depending on if your Army guy is coming or going. Mine was going back to school today, so…..sad.

 - But not sad for too long this time. We get to be together at Christmas, and for that I'm thankful. Yet one more reason to play that Christmas music.

- Speaking of Christmas music, my daughter gets to be in a children's Christmas musical next Sunday. She is so excited. We will be listening to her music this week, for sure.

 - And since we're discussing Christmas music, I have two band concerts to look forward to in the next few weeks as well. Band mom!

 - Not to mention the adult choir Christmas presentation I get to sing with, too! Music!!

 - As to what I'm reading these days, though I haven't been blogging much, I have tried to keep up with my list of books read, if you're interested. Currently I'm reading "Strange Fire" by John MacArthur, and finding it weighty and important, and I really, really, really wish all those critics I've seen saying those of us who are concerned and seriously so should look at a more 'balanced' view of the Strange Fire Conference would actually listen to the talks and read the book and see what is being said there and see how serious this is instead of lecturing us on what they think was said or what they've only heard about was said from the blogs they've read. I'm also reading a fiction book I found through Amazon's Kindle deals called "The Gravity of Birds" byTracy Guzeman, which I am really liking. It's one of those I have a hard time putting down and am wanting to see how it will end. I have very much enjoyed my Kindle, and I've found several books through the daily/monthly deals that I've enjoyed but probably would not have found and read otherwise.

 - As I'm getting ready to read Isaiah 40:1-5 with my kids before bed in a few minutes for the first day of Advent, I can't help but hear Handel's Messiah in my head as I read it. "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God."

Happy December, everyone!

Favorites on Friday

A few simple joys:

A cool morning with windows open. It’s hard to feel melancholy on a day crisp and cool enough to have the windows open. Listening to the birds singing is just cheerful and the kind of music that brings a kind of peace to the heart, unlike booming bass for hours which makes you feel anxious. There’s something so calming about the fresh air feeling in the house when the windows are thrown open as you listen to the birds sing that makes laundry and morning chores enjoyable. It kind of has that early Fall feeling today, and that’s one of my very favorite things. I know it’s only July and this is a fluky day weather-wise, but I’m taking advantage of it while it’s here.

Tea....iced or hot, sweet or not, I like tea. Making a pitcher of sweet tea right now. Another favorite simple treat is a large unsweet peach tea from Sonic. 

Having a friend over for a play date for my youngest child. I like hearing them enjoying each other’s company. 

Bible and prayer time in the morning, and even more so when the windows are open and the birds are chirping.

Good books to read, fiction and nonfiction. There is need for and joy in both. Reading is one of life’s sweet pleasures, and I’m thankful for it. Saw this quote the other day: “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” - Mark Twain

The desire to write. I don’t so much enjoy having to gin up that desire, but once the words and ideas start flowing, it’s sweet. Plan to work on my project today.

The feeling after I’ve exercised hard. Again, not so much the enormous amount of willpower it takes to overcome my inertia and get moving, but that exhilarating feeling when I’ve pushed past the overwhelming inertia and really worked hard and sweated is great.

Laughter.

Happy Friday, Y’all.

Time Well Spent

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4

I needed to clean the bathrooms yesterday. What I did instead was run errands and then work on a craft my daughter had been wanting to try. She had been asking for the past several days, and I had asked her to wait until I could get the supplies we needed, which was why we went on the errands yesterday morning. She had been so patient, I just didn’t think I should put her off again. So, we tried to make this cute little dolphin craft thing she saw in her Highlights magazine. My daughter was blessed with a not-very-crafty person for a mother. Let’s be honest, I actually would rather clean bathrooms than to do crafts from Highlights magazine. There’s a reason I avoid the Pinterest website like it’s a zombie infected wasteland. 

Our effort resulted in a rather pathetic end-product, but a satisfied seven-year-old because her mom sat down and spent the time with her and tried it, and we had fun together and made a good memory. That was time well-spent, even if the bathrooms had to wait another day. For a little perspective, those bathrooms get cleaned, on average, twice a week at least, so it’s not like we were teetering on the edge of toxicity yesterday or anything. 

I read this blog post from Ligonier Ministries yesterday about some parenting dangers to avoid, and I appreciate it. I want to be ever mindful of gospel-centered thinking in our home, and to remember that more than anything we need to be modeling grace for our children and pointing them to Jesus. I’ve been thinking some about what it means to frustrate, exasperate, or provoke our children to anger. I know the specific instruction is to fathers, but I believe it is for both parents to heed because we are complementary partners in the calling of parenthood. My husband bears the responsibility as the head of our home, and I have a calling to love my husband and children and therefore not exasperate my kids either.  In the situation we find ourselves for the next year, my husband is away a lot for work, and he trusts me to keep the day-to-day things running smoothly at home so he can do the work he does to provide for our family. One way I honor him and live as the helpmate I’m called to be is to join with him in raising the children in the nurture and training of the Lord, and an important part of that is learning what it means not to exasperate and frustrate them wrongly.

I’ve noticed that one way I am prone to exasperating my kids is in being always busy (or worse, not so much busy but not wanting to be bothered, and I hate admitting that) and telling them, “Wait,” “Not now,” “Later,” when often putting them off with later ends up being ‘never’ if I’m not careful. Don’t get me wrong, my kids need to learn to wait, and they need to learn that it’s not all about them and I don’t exist to answer their every whim at the moment they want it done. There’s a balance to life in the family. We are the parents, and the kids do not run the home. They do need to learn to wait and not demand things of us. But always being put off by a busy mom who doesn’t value their interests can exasperate them, too, if they are made to feel unimportant or that they don’t matter. I’m also not saying we don’t ever need to ask them to wait while we get the necessary chores done. Kids need a clean and sanitary home, too. If I don’t eventually get those bathrooms clean, I’ll be exasperating them in another way. Keep it in perspective here, as I said before, it’s not like we were filthy, just needing to be done soon. Sometimes the everyday chore here and there can be put off for a bit to make room for time spent to love a child who needs it.

Teaching the kids to wait is another side of that balance. I think another way to exasperate a child is to never have order or discipline - flying by the seat of our pants, lack of order in the home, bathrooms that are never cleaned, rooms that are constantly chaotic, jumping whenever the kid whines and never training them to respect others will also exasperate them and everyone else who spends time with them. It’s good to teach kids that we do our work first, then play. I just have a hard time remembering to stop and play sometimes. Do kids need to be told to wait and to learn that sometimes we must get our things done first? Of course they do. But here’s an example from my own life. I may spend most of the day putting my daughter off so I can get done what I need to, then, finally, after I’ve pushed it pretty far into the evening finally sit down and start to read to her when the phone rings. And it’s someone I really need to talk to, so I ask her again to wait. And by then, she’s frustrated. The person on the other end of the phone hears a whiny kid who doesn’t want her mom on the phone at that moment. I feel guilty because I’ve put her off all day, and just when I was ready to finally say, “Yes,” rather than, “Wait,” I’m telling her to wait again. So, I understand the frustration. Not that it excuses the whining, but I can’t say I don’t bear some of the blame, either. If I’m ALWAYS too busy, then, well, I’m too busy. Some things can wait.

So, I’m not advocating letting the chores go and letting the children set the agenda. I’m also reminding myself that I need to watch how often I’m putting the kids off for things that I could maybe rearrange and do after what they need from me. Kids need order, and they need parents to be PARENTS, and sometimes that does mean they must wait. And for my part, I need to balance how that looks on a day-to-day basis, letting them know I love them and value them and want to spend real time with them, even if that means doing a craft I don’t enjoy or talking Legos with a boy who really likes Legos or explaining politics to a kid who has lots of questions when all I want to do is sit down and read a book and not think about solving the problems of the world. 

And, honestly,the actual chores that need to be done end up taking a lot shorter time in this new place now that we’ve downsized - I can clean the bathrooms and vacuum the whole place in about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, tops. Especially if I put the three kids to work and we all do our part. 

And as for those bathrooms? Got ‘em done this morning. 

Status Update - July 2013

Sitting.....in my new dining room/computer area, which is basically one with my new living room area, too. I think I mentioned that we are in the process of selling our house and have moved into an apartment for the next year. 

Drinking....chocolate mocha coffee with fat free hazelnut creamer. Needed a little caffeine coffee break this afternoon.

Feeling.....a mixture of things....tired, thankful, a little melancholy, a little frustrated - though I think the reason for that may be on the way toward being mended hopefully, mostly, though, overall fairly content, in spite of it all.

Why tired and frustrated? Remember how I mentioned that we have moved into an apartment? WELL, our upstairs neighbors seem to have a love for loud, booming bass music played loudly for hours and hours and hours and hours on end, into the night. Long story short, first night we were here my husband had to go upstairs and ask them to please turn it down in the middle of the night, things got better for a few weeks, then things got loud again, I finally reported it to the office, things got better again, until last night. Cue music - over the heads of our bedrooms, VERY loud - we were hearing more than just the bass, but the words even, from early afternoon until after I went to bed last night. We had a little excitement around 9PM, too, when two very nice police officers knocked on our door and asked, “Are you by chance playing music in here, maybe in that back bedroom?” I said, “No sir, it’s upstairs,” and explained that we had complained about it at the office before. He told me no one was answering up there and it was like they had turned it on and left. Great, I’m thinking. We all have to get up early in the morning. He advised us to make a formal, written complaint today at our office because it is obviously bothering other neighbors now too, so I did. I was hesitant to do that because I didn’t really want to be the complaining neighbor, but we tried to ask nicely, and it’s common sense, really, don’t you think? Then again, we are living in an increasingly ruder society by the day, in my opinion, so what’s common sense got to do with anything?So. Here we are. It’s quiet up there since 10:45 this morning anyway.

Why thankful? Well, when we put our house on the market it was with the thinking that it would probably take a long time to sell it, and now is as good a time as any to downsize a little. We've seen houses sit for months and months in our neighborhood, but we had a contract in a little over a month. Not what we were expecting, but we are grateful. Very grateful. But now we’re back to apartment living, which really isn’t bad as long as our neighbors will pipe down up there. When they are quiet, we like it here just fine. We have a pool and a treadmill. I like that part.

Why melancholy? Same as the reason I’m thankful. We really enjoyed that house. It’s probably the house we’ve liked best of all we’ve lived in yet. We made a lot of sweet memories there. It’s harder to leave a house and move across town, knowing after closing day I’ll never have a reason to drive down that street again. That makes me a little sad, even though I am convinced it’s right. I went over there to the empty house today and enjoyed the quiet (oh, the blessed quiet) one last time and remembered some sweet times there and prayed - I thanked God that we got to live in that house for 3 years, I thanked Him for the memories we made there, and I prayed for the people who are buying it and will take ownership of it on Wednesday. I prayed they will have as happy a time in that house as we did, and I asked God that if they haven’t yet heard the gospel that please sometime during their living here that they will hear it.

Why content? Because God is good all the time, and I know that this is where He has us now and I’m thankful for my family and the incredible attitudes the kids have had throughout all these changes. And I"m very thankful for my husband and how hard he works and the sacrifices he makes to love and support the kids and me. 

Reading......The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - I have recently discovered this author through some free (yes, I said free!) Kindle books, and I’m enjoying what I’ve read so far. You can look at the Books Read 2013 tab for other books I’ve read recently if you are interested.

Pondering.....the future of this blog. I don’t seem to find time, energy or ideas to post much here these days. Is it time for the blogging season of my life to end, or am I just in a slow-down period? I’m not sure. I’ve had slumps before, but they never seemed to last this long. Maybe my blogging is just evolving. Time will tell, I suppose.

Hmm. I guess that’s enough about me for today. Happy July, everyone!

Everyday Mercies

Have you ever been overwhelmed, blown away, speechless, just in amazed awe at the kindness and compassion and mercy of God? I had such a moment today. 

To give a little background, I’ve just finished reading a book called The Gospel is For Christians by Mitchell Chase. I was encouraged by that book and recommend it, and I think the biggest take away I got from it is the reminder to be preaching the gospel to myself, reminding myself, daily, moment by moment. The gospel isn’t just something we teach as an entry point into the Christian life then we move on to pulling up our bootstraps and attempting to live that life by sheer act of our own will. No. The gospel that saves us is the same gospel that sanctifies us. As we focus on and remember the gospel, we grow ever more aware of the love of God for the world in that He saves sinners, and He’s not a reluctant savior! He delights to save sinners! He LOVES His redeemed ones. And that changes us. 

Something I subtly struggle with, and I’m being painfully transparent in this, is in truly believing that God loves me. I believe He loves me, believe He sent His Son to save me from my sin, but something in me has a hard time truly resting in the understanding that it is not a grudging love. I do not deserve grace. I am a sinner, still. I fail Him daily. As I’ve been reading through 1 Kings in my daily Bible reading, I notice that a statement about King Solomon that is devastatingly heartbreaking when I read it is, “So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.” (You can read more about it in 1 Kings 11) That makes me cry whenever I read it. And I’ve been thinking about what it means to love God with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength, and I realize I fall short.

And the awesome thing is, that’s the point about grace, isn’t it? That we don’t deserve it? What does it say in Romans 5:8-11? “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” 

God loves us so much He gave us Jesus to save us and reconcile us to Himself. It isn’t because I’m so wonderful that He loves me. He loves me for the sake of Jesus. His love for me is lavish and secure and solid because Jesus died to reconcile me to Him. Jesus is precious. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. And that, my friends is real, and truly secure love. The favor of God rests on those who are hid in Christ, who place their hope and trust in Him alone. Now that I am reconciled to God, He doesn’t roll His eyes and sigh and reluctantly accept me. No. It was all His initiative. I am His and He is mine and He delights to save me. That’s awesome, truly.

Now, in light of that understanding, here’s where I’ve been in the nitty gritty everyday part of life recently. We’ve had a lot of stuff and changes going on in our lives here, the details of which I don’t think I need to go into here for the purposes of the post, but which are ultimately all good things, but hard in the short term, nonetheless, and part of that has involved selling our house and moving into something smaller for the next year while the Army stores a lot of our stuff for the year until we find out what the next adventure for our family will be.

Anyway in the midst of the upheaval of the past few months and my trying not to get depressed over things that I don’t think I should, but change, any change, is hard sometimes, now that we’re settling into our new place, I had to make decisions about what to keep with us and what could go to storage for the next year. The other night I was having a particularly low time, feeling lonely and blue and just downright down, my husband was out of town on top of it all for temporary Army assignment (not a deployment), and I thought, “You know, a nice pot of tea sure would be comforting right now.” Then it occurred to me that I was pretty sure that I had not opted to bring it with me to the smaller place. I sure didn’t remember packing it, anyway, and it’s the kind of thing I could see myself deciding I could do without for a while. Feeling bummed, I checked the cabinet just in case. There it was. My cheerful little teapot was right there. And I cried, and thanked God for allowing me sometime in the past few weeks, not even remembering I’d done it, to have the forethought to pack and bring it. You might think that’s a small, silly thing. But I don’t. I'm not trying to be all weird or make more of the little things than I ought to, but I believe God is sovereign in all things, and I believe He granted that to me, not from a wonky prosperity gospel kind of perspective, but from His kindness.

And this morning, before church, now I know these are ‘first-world’ kinds of things, but I have been really feeling low this week, and I was looking for a computer disc that went with a keyboard I’d gotten for my daughter for her birthday. It’s loaded with lessons I was going to use to help her learn to play her piano, and when I couldn’t find it, I realized I was pretty sure I’d forgotten to get it out of the office cabinet at the house - which had been packed and loaded by the movers on Friday. I sighed, sucked up my lower lip and realized that there was nothing I could do about it, so just accepted I won’t have it this year. Then I found it in the basket it was supposed to be in on my kitchen desk here with me in the new place. And again, I cried. It was such a small thing, really, an insignificant little thing, but seeing that disc there just reminded me that not only does God delight to save us from sin, but He loves us in the everyday things of life, too. Whether I’d found that disc or not, it’s true that He loves me in the everyday things of life, and I recognize that, but finding it when I was feeling so low and lonely and blue, that was a mercy and it reminded me to thank Him for His kindness and grace once again.

I’m not saying that believing in Christ means I’ll always find lost things or that everything will always be sunshine and roses and there will never be any problems. If you’ve read my blog long at all you know I don’t think that way. Life can be hard sometimes, and being a Christian doesn’t guarantee a problem free life. Like I said, I know the teapot and the lost disc are not deep and abiding and serious problems. It’s not the teapot and the disc I needed, but the reminder that I must worship and rejoice and delight in God in the everyday moments of life that I needed so much this week, and by allowing me to look to Him when I found those little things, He granted me that reminder. 

As we worshiped God together with our church family this morning, I was overwhelmed by God’s great and awesome kindness. He has saved me, not only has He reconciled me to Himself, but He LOVES me and has made me His own. It is not reluctant love, but agape love that transcends even my low days. I don’t deserve such love, but He lavishes it anyway, for the sake of my Savior, Jesus. It is enough and more than enough that He has saved me and reconciled me to Himself. I don’t even deserve that, but He goes even beyond and continues to grant His mercies which are new every day, and today, I couldn’t even sing I was so overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude for His daily mercies. 

We talked in Sunday School today about remembering the great truth that Jesus is coming again. When we are tempted to get bogged down in the tyranny of the everyday things, REMEMBER that we can and must worship Him and remember His coming as we go about those everyday things and live in the light of the fact that this is not all there is - live a life of expectant anticipation, day in and day out. 

Today I am thankful for simple, seemingly insignificant little things in the everyday that remind me to worship such a kind and compassionate and saving God. 

Status Report December 2009

Lisa’s status report format is a fun way to encourage blogging for those of us who find we are more and more sporadic about posting and more and more in need of a boost for post ideas. She graciously shares the idea, so I’m borrowing it again today. Hers are always fun to read, too.

Sitting….in my dining room/living room listening to Boo watch Emmett Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, a childhood favorite of mine. I was so excited when I found it on DVD a couple of years ago, and now I get to share it with my guys. Boo has a stuffed otter named Baby Otter, and she’s enjoying these Muppets.

Drinking…..coffee, mostly decaf with just a tad of regular and lots of hazelnut creamer and Splenda.

Thankful….for a heated house. It was 13 degrees this morning. That’s beyond cold. I didn’t have to convince anyone to wear a coat today! The extreme cold spurred an interesting discussion with the boys as we shivered our way to school wishing the heater in the car would crank up sooner. We were talking about how hard it must have been on the pioneers and settlers when winter came here. So bitterly cold. Then we started talking about how hard it must have been in the hot summer, too. We came to the conclusion that we are quite spoiled and extremely thankful for what we have.

Anticipating….an evening at “Star Wars in Concert” with the boys tonight. They are so excited. This is part of our Christmas gift to them, and a cool benefit to living in a real city where these kinds of things come in concert. Boo gets an evening with her favorite babysitter, and she’s excited, too.

Thinking….that I am not going to do Christmas cards or a letter this year. Maybe I’ll try to do something early in the year instead. I just let it go too long, plus it will cost an arm and a leg on postage and copying.

Needing…to get a picture of the kids made. My mom gave Boo the cutest little Christmas dress, and I need to get them photographed together. Sure would be nice if my camera hadn’t died. Guess what I’ve requested for Christmas.

Ready….for our Christmas musical this weekend. My 11-year-old son is in the drama and I’m singing in the choir. J is doing a great job with his part, and our youth pastor has written a sweet play to go with the music we’re singing. Last night was our first practice with the stage and props and it looks like it’s going to be very nice and I love that the focus is on worshiping Jesus. Last year, Drew had moved up here the first of December and I and the kids came after school let out the week before Christmas. I came up to visit him before bringing the kids and our stuff, though, and that week we visited our church for the first time. It was the week of the Christmas musical, and we never felt the need to visit anywhere else. This church has really become home and we love our church family here. I’m amazed how quickly St. Louis, and especially our church, has become home, and at the tight friendships we’ve formed. We really needed that after the desert of the past few years.

Planning….to do a bunch of baking next week. I want to do several different cookies and mini cranberry bread loaves to give to people. Looking forward to it.

Working….on a goal to go from being a couch-potato to being able to run 3 miles in 30 minutes. I found a plan that I’m following and so far I’ve stayed with it better than I ever have before. Also working to lose about 20 pounds. Hoping the baking next week doesn’t put a damper on my resolve. Moderation….

Reading….The Jesus You Can’t Ignore by John MacArthur. Good stuff. I had to not check out anything else from the library, though, so I could focus on finishing it because Drew wants to read it next and he keeps mentioning that he really would like to read it soon. Also reading Because the Time is Near by John MacArthur because I got to Revelation early in my through the Bible in a year reading plan and I have been wanting to read this verse by verse look at Revelation.

Preparing….for our January Bible study, Hoping for Something Better by Nancy Guthrie. Planning to start today to really focus on our first meeting’s reading. Looking so forward to digging into the book of Hebrews with the sweet ladies who meet together on Tuesdays!

Enjoying….our little Charlie Brown tree this year. We decided not to spend the money on a real tree this year and, besides, we don’t have much room in this apartment. We’re using the little tree Drew put up last December to make our furniture-less apartment more cheery when we moved in the week before Christmas and had to wait until after New Year’s for our furniture. While decorating it the other night, it fell over as we were putting the ornaments on. It's because our floor is slanted. Drew, my hero, was able to stuff some paper under one side of the pot it's in and evened it out so it at least won't fall over anymore. Memories….

Reminiscing....as we watch favorite Christmas movies with the kids....Charlie Brown's Christmas, the Grinch, A Christmas Story. And we have a new favorite read-aloud book that we're going to read together: The Shepherd, The Angel and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry.

Also enjoying...reading through an Advent devotional with the kids in the evenings as we seek to make the Christmas season worshipful.

Time….to end this post and go get some work done.

I Have Internet Again

I have internet, cable and phone again. Hooray! Wednesday afternoon I was, ummmm, working, on the computer (okay, I was playing on Facebook), I heard some banging and bumping on the wall where the cable box is located outside and some banging next door where we share a wall with our neighbors and then I lost my internet connection. When I went to check the modem, I found that we had also lost phone and cable at the same time since we have one of those bundle packages, and the usual solution of rebooting the modem had no effect whatsoever.

And now, today, after a couple of days of being told a different story every time we called the provider, and not having a working phone in the house besides my cell phone which is long distance for people here to call, we finally had someone come out this morning. Turns out that when they rewired our building a few months ago, the wires were mislabeled , and on Wednesday when they meant to be disconnecting our neighbor, they disconnected us instead. Gotta love apartment living.

Anyway, I had been praying that I would better learn to exercise discipline about the time I waste on the computer. This forcing of computer silence has been a good thing. My fingers didn’t fall off or anything, and I managed okay without being connected for a little while. Though I am glad to have it back, I do need to not be on the computer as much as I have been recently.

I have to say, however, that the aspect of apartment living that led to being disconnected suddenly and being given the runaround for two days by the phone operators who were either clueless, lying or both about what was going on with our system is even more annoying than having to experience the mysterious tator tot smell from next door periodically. I also have to say that it is really disturbing how disconnected I felt without phone, internet and cable. These things probably shouldn’t be quite so important to me, I am thinking.

The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of

For years I have had a recurring dream, nightmare, whatever you want to call it. I am in a house, it is not always the same house in every dream, but it always an interesting house where I want to be and want to feel safe. In this house there is always a large window or door that, for some reason, I cannot properly close or manage to lock, and there is some undefined danger ‘out there’ that makes me sure I very much need that door or window to be locked. I spend the whole dream working on locking the door or window while the sense of unease and danger mounts and I become more and more frantic about getting that thing closed and locked until I finally wake up and find myself safe in the real world again.

Do you remember the book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader from the Chronicles of Narnia? Do you remember the island where dreams come true? People thought they wanted to go there, because when you think about a place where dreams come true you are thinking about your personal wishes and deepest desires being fulfilled. This island, however, is not like that. This island is the place where your REAL dreams come true, the creatures and emotions that inhabit your nightmares come to life. It is not a place where you would want to find yourself marooned.

Today, I think I have found myself on my own island of dreams. This morning when I went to let Roscoe out, I went out the back sliding glass door because I was still in my pajamas since we were out really late at the home of some friends last night and we slept in this morning, but the dog still needed to attend to his morning business, so I just thought I’d slip out back where the chances of being seen in my pajamas were slim to none. Anyway, when I undid the three locks on that sliding glass door, essentially a large window, and tried to slide it open, it began falling toward me. The top of this door that is essentially a large window (notice it combines both elements of my dream just so I cannot possibly miss the connection) is off the track and I don’t know how to fix it, and it’s heavy. I leaned it over and let Roscoe out and realized I have entered the heart of darkness of my own imagining. I feel like there ought to be eerie music and an ominous voice over saying, “…You’ve just crossed over into….the Twilight Zone.”

My son sleeps downstairs, and I started wondering if this door has been unsafe since the last time it was opened, and that bothers me a lot. My Facebook friends may remember the day I mentioned that there were policemen out back several times and how nervous I was when one asked if I’d seen someone walking back there who looked like they didn't belong. You may also remember the refrigerator door incident.

I am not loving this apartment. The office will be receiving a call this morning, and I am glad Drew got home yesterday and can probably reset the door until the maintenance people can get here to look at it.

Somebody pinch me so I can wake up….

Baked With Love

I have issues with my kitchen. The floor is slanted. Remember the TV show, “Mad About You”? Drew and I consider that our show. We used to watch it together when we were dating and newlyweds. It was just so funny. Anyway, Jamie, the wife on the show, was always trying to convince the husband, Paul, that there was a slant to the kitchen floor. When we moved in here, Drew was actually the first to notice our slant since he lived here without us and without furniture for a couple of weeks before I and the kids were able to come out.

When he showed me the slant we both started laughing because he slid on it the same way Jamie does in the show and we both said, “This is what I’m saying.” You had to be there. You had to be a fan of the show to get it, I guess.

So, why am I blabbering about this now? I just made a cake for tomorrow night. We are having friends over, and I thought a lemon cake might be nice for dessert after an authentic South Carolina shrimp boil. (I’m actually having a hamburger. This Florida girl hates seafood. But that’s beside the point.) Anyway, I lovingly mixed the cake (from a mix – I’m not Martha Stewart), let Boo and J lick the beaters (of course J had to ask about raw eggs and salmonella – we don’t call him Monk for nothing….I told him I licked a ton of beaters as a kid and never got sick….but that’s beside the point, too), put the cake in the oven, and assessed the results once I took it out. The two layers are slanted. Just like my floor. I’m not making this up. My slanty kitchen seriously slants my food. It’s even hard to measure liquids because when I put the measuring cup on the counter, the right side of the liquid is higher than the left. It’s a leftward down slant in my kitchen. Go figure.

Anyway, my cake may not be the prettiest I’ve ever baked, but it was baked with love. I lovingly thought of my family and the friends who will share it with us tomorrow night as I baked it. I’m pretty sure that will be good enough.

Apartment Living

Living in an apartment isn't really all that bad. We knew when we moved here that, Drew being Army and all, we're only here temporarily, so rather than buy a house while our SC house is STILL on the market (come October it will be a year), we decided to just rent an apartment. And as apartments go, ours is spacious and pretty nice.

But. One thing I don't so much like is that when my neighbors cook a certain something, my house smells like tator tots for days. I'm not sure what it is they are cooking over there, but, somehow what starts coming through our air vents is distinctly "tator tot." And, whatever it is that they are cooking, they must like it a lot because my house fairly regularly smells of tator tots. Especially the guest bathroom. It seems to have the strongest blast of tator totliness smell.

Drew thinks I'm weird. Well, a lot of people think I'm weird, but that's another post for another day. He thinks I'm weird on this issue, because he doesn't smell the tator tots. I am constantly asking if he smells it, and he thinks I am losing my mind. Then again, he doesn't smell poop (dog or Boo variety) nearly as soon as I do, either. I am blessed, nay cursed, with a very sensitive sense of smell.

Speaking of poop, you would think that with two children successfully potty trained by the age of three that I would be something of a potty training expert. You would think wrongly. While Boo is beginning to get it and we are seeing some hope, we are slow going in that department. I do lots of laundry.

Maybe she just doesn't like the tator tot smell in the bathroom.