Praising God Always...

When I am not doing well my good friend, Adrienne, reminds me to "praise God always..."

So one of the ways I do this is when I am feeling sorry for myself is to think of the following throughout the day...

When I take a shower I thank God I have running, hot water in my home instead of having to bath in a cold stream a few miles away...

When I eat, I thank God I have a stocked pantry to eat out of and a fridge/freezer that stores healthy food so I don't have to go out back and kill something to eat with my own two hands or make bread from scratch starting with harvesting the wheat...

When I am frustrated with my children (which their struggles mostly stem from my own weaknesses) I remember the barren couple that would do anything to have these frustrations...

When I am mad as hell about immoral people making decisions on our behalf in our government I thank God I live in a country where freedom does truly ring...

When I am frustrated about lazy, rude Americans I think of all the heroic Americans that make a difference every single moment of the day - our medical communities, our police and firemen, our men and women in the armed forces...

When I have a terrible pain or am sick I remind myself of my chronically sick brothers or sisters that will not know what if feels like to be free of pain or sickness on this earth...

When I am not happy about my mundane chores and daily responsibilities, I think of all the religious men and women in the world that have taken a vow of obedience to tirelessly pray and work for the glory of God, always...

When I feel like running my mouth about someone I remember this is what will most likely send me to and keep me in purgatory...

When I do not feel like saying my prayers I remember the sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross...

When I am frustrated with the people I love most I try to think of them being taken from me at the end of the day and lower my often unrealistic expectations of them...

And as another good friend, Amy, reminds me "God is good all the time, all the time God is good."

A Husband's Reminder...

My dear husband's response to my last post:

We'll get another moment with her.
That's what I am waiting for
and I know you are too!

Praise God for our faith.
Praise God for his continual grace and mercy.
Praise God for Jesus offering up His life
as a gift for our eternal salvation.

One More Moment

Oh, please don't go

Let me have just one more moment with you

Oh, all I need

All I want is just one moment more

-Mindy Smith

On Keeping House...

We dropped off dinner at a friend's house this afternoon whose family has a new little one. We showed up unannounced. I called before I came over but the phone kept ringing. My friend must be napping I thought. I brought a cooler in the car just in case they were not at home so I could leave dinner on the porch. When we got to her home I noticed the garage door was open. I approached the door to the house. Surely the alarm was not on in the middle of the day. I opened the door quietly saying, "Hello....."

Since my friend was not expecting me, she homeschools, and just had her sixth baby I quickly noticed the state of the kitchen...the lunch food was still out, the dirty dishes were on the counters, it looked as if the baby had fallen asleep and she had said to her children, "Quick, everyone go upstairs for reading and quiet time so mommy can take a nap while the baby is asleep."

Oh, what a gift for me to see another mother's house in disarray! When my friend came out of her bedroom I told her I was sorry I woke her and that I came over unannounced. Before she had a chance to say anything about her house I told her it was good to see her house looked like mine!

The good news about moms who school/live/play and constantly eat in their homes is we see and share our grief about keeping house with one another and what the latest tip is from "FLYlady!" We get one another through those, "I think I am going crazy" moments and as my friends Sally and Diana remind me that it is in these chaotic moments that we have the opportunity to crawl up into God's lap and say, "Help, I need you..." How smart our God is to not take away our struggles and allow us to call upon Him...

"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
-Matthew 11:29

For our dear husbands, the bad news about the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome :) is that they do not see the grief other families have going on in their homes and assume the chaos is just on our block and in our house.

I try to politely remind my dear husband that if he wants the kitchen counter cleared off, invite someone over...

and my favorite quote on balance I am always striving for...

Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy.
~Author Unknown

On Wasted Pain

Suffering in itself does not make us holy.
It is only when we unite it, out of love, to the suffering of Christ that it has meaning.
Suffering without love is wasted pain.
-Mother Angelica

On Niceties

So, when we moved back to town, I put a note out we had moving boxes we'd like to pass on to someone else to use. A young woman replied and asked if she could have the remainder of the boxes. Great. When can you get them out of our garage?

Soon we noticed some harps and ornate tops from the lamps were missing. My dear husband (super duper fast but not so thorough guy) must have missed these items in the unwrapped papers.

My husband finds this woman's number, we give her a call and ask if she has these items. She says she does. I ask her if she doesn't mind putting them in the mail for me. She says it would be easier for her to have me pick them up. Bummer. We just gave her a few hundred dollars worth of boxes and she can't drop off these items when she gets the chance and she is not willing to put them in the mail. I ask my husband to forward me her contact info and I will get in touch with her.

Things are busy here from the move. We are trying to catch up with school. The new baby arrives. I ask my husband, "Do you think that woman still has the lamp parts?" "Can you find her number for me again?"

Then, when we are getting ready for bed the other night my husband out of the blue says, "You will never guess who I interviewed today at work..." I can't think of any surprising person it might be. Then he says, "The woman who we didn't get the lamp parts back from." I say, "No way! Are you kidding?" "No." he says. "Well, did you ask if she still has the parts?" "Yes, I did and she said she doesn't think she has them." "Bummer for her..." I say.

Then I ask, "Well, are you going to hire her?" My husband says, "Unfortunately, she is not the right person for the position."

Well, at least she has my husband's number in case she finds the parts...

:)

I know this is a little harsh but I mean really, just what are the odds???

On Protection...

Yesterday we found a terrifying insect in our home climbing up the kitchen wall...

One of my daughters came around the corner looking for me. From the look on her face and the pitch of her scream I knew it was a whopper. What could it be? A spider? A scorpion? Then, my son started to scream as well. Could it be a snake? Could a snake be in our house? As I rounded the corner I understood why everyone was hysterical. There was a mammoth, tremendously scary looking, red-headed centipede wiggling all of its mean parts at us. Yuck and yikes!

I told my son to watch him and I'd go into the garage to get a tool to "git" him. The screams continued as I looked for the pic ax. I thought my husband had already left for work but he was getting off the phone wondering what was going on. By this time I was hollering myself...

My husband came around the corner seeing me with the raised pic ax thinking it must be a snake! He saw the centipede and said, "Why are you all screaming?" He scooped the centipede into the dust pan to take it outside. I thought what do you mean why were we all screaming? Did you see the size of that thing? They move fast, too, hence the necessary pic ax.

My children discussed the centipede with me for the remainder of the day...

"Mom, what if they travel in pairs?"
"Mom, what if that was one of many spring centipedes."
"Mom, I accidently left the garage door open for a few minutes. Do you think another one came in?"

And I am thinking, I wonder what people do for entertainment without sweet children at home?

Then, comes the painful part of the story...

"Mom, what if while I am sleeping, he crawls up my wall and gets on me and I wake up with him on my chest?!?"

It is hard not to laugh at this particular child since he is such a worrier...

"Well, I said, if there is another centipede then Jesus will protect you from it."

Silence on my son's part as he is thinking this through.

Then comes the question I have been painfully dreading.

"Well, if Jesus will protect me from the centipede then why was Rose not protected from the accident?"

His question is met with my silence. I have to choke back the tears and the anger.

"Well," I said. "I don't know why God allowed the accident to happen to Rose. All I know is that God was with her every second she needed Him. God was there to protect Rose."

This answer would sound too simple and stupid for a non-believer but for one who has faith it is an invitation for trusting God when it seems impossible to accept what one has been dealt...

All I can say about faith is God has revealed Himself to me in many ways over my life so I know without a doubt He exists. Since I know for a fact He exists I can then focus my energy on trusting and loving Him instead of spending it on doubting and trying to convince others He is not here.

Our amazing counselor, Diana, reminded me that faith is trusting when we do not have the answers. She reminded me there is some reason why the God of the Universe who can do ANYTHING did not spare our daughter's life here on earth. Since I do not know now or probably ever will while I am here on this earth why our sweetest Rose was taken from us I have to trust that God had a reason for why she was allowed to pass from us.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

-Proverbs 3:5