She is so calm

I got it! All of you who have been digging in to the book; I’ve finally caved in. I’m going to use it for a ‘I’d rather be sleeping nursing the  nine month old with teeth  baby’ kind of book.

PASSIONATE HOUSEWIVES DESPERATE FOR GOD. How does that title grab ya?

I’ll write a book review later, Lord willing…

The Johnson & Johnson Company supports abortion.

Johnson and Johnson has an extremely popular globally recognized baby care line.

Weird.

I was thinking about all the things that people compare life to. Some say it is a box of chocolates…some say life is like a boat…it’s like a magnet (never quite got that one)…life is like a roller coaster…

I can identify with a roller coaster. Especially the loops that defy gravity. Life seems to be going so fast to me lately. The months are flying by. The days are breezing past me at an alarming speed.

In the midst of this flying by the seat of my pants, it is very important for me to reevaluate  my priorities. I am in the loops of the roller coaster right now (which seem scary and overwhelming, but go extremely fast).

I need to make sure that I am not wasting time. My days are numbered-a number which I can’t possibly fool, fake or ignore. I’ve wasted a lot of my life worrying, self-loathing, pitying the mere existance of certain circumstances and pridefully desiring the glory that comes with ‘having it all together’. Sure, these are common and everyone on earth does these things.

Our lives are but a vapor. Our children’s and husband’s lives are a vapor, too. Are you teaching them what matters? Are you serving those around you to the best of your abilities? Are you holding grudges against your husband?  How have you spent it… this life… this gift? It will be over before you know it.

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Phone calls, fighting children, ‘favors’ for our husbands, the door bell ringing, unanticipated messes…the list goes on and on.

When I first got married I had time to accomplish several tasks; I just didn’t know it After children however, my time became preciously gaurded. Interruptions and the expectations of those around me (children, extended family, friends, ministries, etc…) became unbearable. I was given the same 24 hours as everyone else in the world and yet I was extremely overwhelmed with all that I needed to get done.

I soon learned (through a wise friend) that I should make a plan/schedule, but to expect interruptions.

Life comes with interruptions. There are deaths, illnesses, births, sudden house fires, appliances that cease to work, cars in the shop, unexpected snow storms…etc. That is how things go in life. “Why have a plan then?” one might wonder. Well, a plan helps the ‘expected’ moments in life to go smoother. Schedules and plans are not meant to rule your life, but to make things easier and more time efficient.

Something else that I learned was to ask the Lord to guide me in what he would have me to get accomplished each day. Notice that I didn’t say ‘God, please help me get done with all that I need to do today”, I said ‘God, have me get done all that you would have me accomplish today.” This works wonders.

There have been times that I have prayed this prayer and without realizing it, God brought to my mind to do something that was not at all at the top of my list…ie…picking up extra laundry soap or getting all the cups in the buffet cabinet rewashed. The laundry soap was needed, because my two year old dumped the bottle on the kitchen floor while I was making dinner. Unanticipated mess, right? The cups needed washing, because some how a bunch of dust got in there and we had  thirsty guests drop by.

(more…)

Oh…you know what I’m talking about. The fears that rise up in your mind…”I’m screwing up my kids’, “I don’t love them enough”, “am I feeding them right?”

I grew up in a home with and abusive father who had an ‘issue’ with being faithful to my mom. He ended up messing us all up to a certain degree. However, God has got the glue to put us all back together (not that we were complete or perfect before my father’s choices). It is the same with any mistakes I make. I have to trust that if any choices I make have lasting consequences, that God will super glue my kids back together.

I listened to something today. A speaker said that when we look around us and not up, we take our focus off of Jesus. If I look at my children and their interesting opinion of me or my mom’s opinion or my in-laws opinion or my friend’s opinion, it is likely to be a bit jaded. God is the only one who can tell me if I’m doing a good job without any bias. If there are some things that I need to ‘tweak’ in my parenting, he will let me know.

We start out imperfect in this life only to have imperfect parents, governments, houses, jobs, spouses and children. Even on the very day we die, we will be imperfect. I believe that God offers a lot of grace to us that covers a multitude of parenting issues.

Jesus does not expect perfection. We will all fall sometimes. There is nothing we can do about it. If we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, the small things don’t seem so big and the big things start to seem small.

My prayer for any of you facing the same problem as I am right now is that we can keep our focus on the prize…that we strive not to be perfect, but to be pleasing to the Lord. He’s not sitting there with a tally. He has forgiven us as far as the east is from the west. May we rest in that!

It snowed today. For a long time. In light of this, I thought that I would post some summer pictures to, you know…encourage all of you out there who don’t particulary enjoy the cold wet stuff. The first pic is of my oldest peanut and his homemade slingshot. Following the creation of his magnificent weapon, I nervously watched as he tried to hurl stones in the air like David (did to Goliath) in the general direction of his younger brothers. Thankfully, his task didn’t succeed. Boys will be boys.

The above (middle picture) is our very beautiful, very knotty old tree in the front yard. A little bit of absess growth. Why can trees have absess growth and everything’s just peachy? If a human has any excessive growth, it is considered a bad thing. Hmmm…

The last picture is of our thriving cherry tomato plants. We successfully grew ten ripe cherry tomatoes. When I said ‘thriving’ I was hoping that you would pick up on the sense of sarcasim in my voice.