While Away

"Mom, guess what we learned today, about how people and animals and stuff have science names for the scientists to tell everything apart. We are.....wait....is it reptiles? (Snicker from big brother) Yeah. Humans are called reptiles, I think."

"No, Sweetie. Reptiles are lizards and crocodiles and stuff like that. We, human beings, are called homosapiens."

"Oh."

A couple of minutes pass as big brother shows his superior knowledge in the subject and Justice eats it all up learning everything he can. Then it dawns on him once more. I can hear him telling his brother, "Yeah, but that's just weird - HOMELESS APES - I don't really want to be called that. Shouldn't that be the name for the monkeys or something? I mean, we are not monkeys and we DO live in houses!"

I am loving that they still act little and they're so stinkin' cute.

In fact, it has a lot to do with my absence lately. Well, actually, I have been blogging more than ever lately with all of the wonderful excitement and trying new changes that have been taking place around here. But they have all been kept private for now due to the dishonest cheater who felt it their right to delve into our personal information. This time, though, we have much better leads and I would advise said person that we have a good idea who you are and how to deal with you.

Other than that, I am shifting around a lot of priorities right now due to some major life re-organization. I have been working a lot (as in, for income) and I've decided that if anyone truly wants to stay in touch with me via my blog, they will. And if not, that's perfectly understandable and O.K. as well.

Local relationships, meanwhile, have been growing fantastically. I have been enjoying very much the women of my church and a new dynamic that seems to have all of us trying harder to fellowship and understand one another. This is a direct answer to prayers and I am loving getting to know everyone more intimately. Greg and I have been enjoying one another more than ever. And I am thanking God eagerly and often for my children and the opportunity I have to not miss a moment with them, especially lately. We have had some FANTASTIC talks and a little fun at the expense of homework, per my mandate.

Until I make it back again..........

P.S.

I say all those things in the post below more for my own memory and encouragement of all God got us through in so short a time, than to sound like we're stressed out. After my AWESOME date, there was a peace that permeated everything else that took placed, planned and unplanned. I would have ammended the last post to say this, but blogger won't let me get to my archives! ARGH, Matey! Have a great day.

Issues

I spent 35 minutes Sunday night writing a post about our wild and wooly weekend (the best date with my hubby EVER!, a wedding shower for my new niece, torrential rainfall, house guests, a funeral, news of another death while on the way to the funeral, another child cousin diagnosed with cancer, a stolen credit card, and one of our children hospitalized - with no way to pay due to the canceled credit card - and released in time for graduation.) It was kind of a long post (and certainly also a very long weekend!) Then I hit Publish and it all disappeared. Also Spell check is shot and Template and Layout are down. I can't comment on most sites right now either. So, if I am not able to remove the post that directs you to another site that is now not the post I was so interested in, then please realize that it is no longer the post that I thought you might also be so interested in. Have a nice day. I have a house to clean up!!!

Go Here...

I very much related to this when I read it.

Loved And Disheveled

The day didn't start out so well for my sweet little girl. Last night, I had gotten up to tend to one of my boys, who are sick, and then returned to bed at what I thought was 4:00. Apparently, though, it was actually closer to 7:00. I guess in my fatigue I read the clock wrong. So when my husband woke me up with alarm in his voice 10 minutes later, there was a reason. We were late getting ready for school.

I rushed my daughter to get dressed, which she hates, and we were out the door. She was unusually quiet on the way to school. As I checked on her in the rear view mirror, she had her mouth full of toast. Usually breakfast happens at the table before leaving for school. I smiled and with complete forgiveness for the morning, she smiled back. Just a few minutes earlier, we had had a duscussion about choosing whether to believe Truth or lies. Lies were easier to believe (that the whole day was going to go badly), but with my reminder, partly spoken out loud for my own benefit, she had chosen to believe otherwise - and it made me so proud of her.

I made her come to the front seat for a big hug before walking in. We hadn't spent our normal cuddle time in waking up this morning and since we were running late, there were no cars behind me in line to rush me through. So I sat there a good long while, watching her walk away. The clothes that she had picked out herself the night before were perfectly matched, but one of her pant legs was hung up on her boot and her sweater was hanging crooked off her right shoulder. A tremendous pride welled up inside of me and a broad smile overtook my face.

As I hurried to return home to the boys, I couldn't help but consider that scene and think about God.

What had made me so very proud and protective of my daughter in that moment? I know full well that the very things I see about her that make me swoon are also the very things most likely to cause some kid in a bad mood to redicule. That the ends of her pigtails were frizzing in the mist. That she may have had a few crumbs of toast still around the corner her mouth. Sure, I am very proud of her that I can trust her to pick out an outfit that is nice-looking and appropriate, as she had this morning. But it was the little idiosyncrisies she committed that caused me to love her even more.

Our pastor once said that many of the ways we behave as parents (when they are positive) are because we are made in God's image. Apart from our sins, we have hearts to love our kids because in His mercy He made us to be like Him, with hearts turned toward those we love. When He resides in our hearts, He spends the rest of our lives shaping our hearts to more purely resemble His own.

Those little things my daughter did that were imperfect, yet not rebellious, are proof of her NEED for me. I smile because when she falters, I get to be the one to reassure her how loved she is anyway. I get to be the one she looks up to for an example when she tries again the next time. I get to help her through the process of practicing her skills until she improves. Since I was not awake early this morning brushing her hair and straightening her outfit, she looked a little less "put together" than usual. And watching her walk away was a reminder of that. She needs my help in this world because she is not yet where I am at in terms of skills or knowledge. How much more true that is of myself and God!

I spend so much of my time trying to DO the right things and THINK the right things and PRAY the right things and I wonder if God isn't also looking down on me, shaking his head with a smile and thinking the same thing. "I'm so glad I'm needed." I am not talking about disobedience here (I believe also in God's chastisement because I have at times needed and received it). But what if, when I am feeling so very spiritually inadequate, God is more glad that I realize it than disappointed for all I don't get? In fact, if I theoretically ever got to the point where I did have it all together, spiritually speaking (yeah, right), how would I even know that I still needed Him? Thousands of people do make that assumption, I think - that they are fine enough without Him.

Maybe this is why in the Bible, believers are so continually referred to as the "children of God." Just as a reminder that we will NEVER become fully independent in this life. There will always be more for Him to teach us. There will continue to be a need for his love and guidance, in fact in the world to come as well.

My brother blogged last night about his frustration that he "felt like he was doing it all wrong." I assumed he meant either his prayers or in the choices he was having to make for his tiny daughter. He and his wife are so tired, I'm amazed they can string together three words between them, much less meaningful coherent ones. And I think his statement was likely just an effect of that exhaustion. But I feel like this glimpse of the Father's heart this morning was to show that we don't have to "do it all right." Only HE is capable of that. He just wants to love us because we CAN'T do it all right. And to encourage us to keep trying. Because He is there to help us with that too.

From now on, I will have a new picture of His love for me. Each day as I get dressed and go out into the world and "go to school," - spiritually - I will picture Him smiling at my crooked clothes and messy hair and happy that I still need Him. And I'll try to remember that the same way that my daughter melts my heart with all her efforts that don't quite accomplish what she had meant for them to, God is loving me in that same way. Not only proud of what I get right, but also compassionate for all of the things that I don't yet understand. I, in turn, just want to make Him proud.

Precious In HIS Sight....And Mine

Ashley needs our prayers.........please.

Hillbilly Snobbery

Yesterday, in trying to prevent the kids from asking further questions, I masked a statement to my husband that I hoped our new dog didn't get "kn*ck*ed up" during her one stint of escape while she was off the leash for 20 minutes. (We've had her just over a week and we're still needing to schedule the, ahem, surgery.) His only reply was that my choice of words made me "sound like a redneck."

Tonight, he continued the theme. Our neighbor who frequently hangs out around the "firepit" decided he also needed a dog, who he brought to "play" with ours and our next door neighbor's. Combine this with my teasing for having attatched an old license plate to the wheelbarrow, and again my husband laughed, "we have TOTALLY become rednecks living out here in the country."

"WE?" I protested. "I still have a fair measure of sophistication, and remember, YOU are the one who drug me out here."

"Yeah," he said. "But you're still becoming a redneck. I admit it; you're part of the upper equalance of rednecks - but still a redneck."

Well, I never!

(fanning myself with a pork wrap. Just kidding!)

Ha ha! And naturally, the spell check is not working, so I can't check my spelling of "esqualanche." What are the odds?!

For Posterity

Last night we went out with some good friends of ours that we hadn't spent good relaxing time with in far too long. We caught up and laughed and shared bowling alley pizza. We also told each other even more details of our testimonies than we had ever shared before. It's wonderful to have conversation with like-minded people who understand God's miraculous presence in the tough times and equally joyful to praise Him that both our families are enjoying time out of "that" as well.

And if all that wasn't enough, guess what? I bowled my highest game EVER! A 155! O.K., I don't know were that falls on other scales, but it beat my own previous life time high by nearly 30 points! I just want to remember that. It took four strikes, four spares, a nine frame and a seven. I'm so happy!

And you would be amazed at how competitive my own husband is with me. He ended up the next game bowling a 153 (to my 90 - I choked). But he did let me enjoy my big win and in turn, I didn't gloat. At least until now. :) Happy Saturday.