Friday, August 14, 2015

one time there was a great great grandpa

Dear Middle,

Today you told your little sister a Bible story and it went something like this.  (I was so glad I was in the next room and could hear it.)

"One time there was a great great grandpa - and he was so great - he was God.  And he was Strong.  He was Holy and he Knowed Everything.  And the people did Not know everything."

I wish I had the inflection and expression in your voice recorded!

Later you told another Bible story.  This is how you began:

"I am going to tell you a Bible story.  It has a very happy ending!"

Maybe one day you will read this and know that God really encouraged me through you today. Because He does know everything and we don't know everything.  And there is a very happy ending for those that know that.


Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Howunsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Romans 11:33

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:9

And pretty much all of Job 38 


The Lord Speaks

38 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
“Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone
while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?
“Who shut up the sea behind doors
    when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
    and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
    and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
    here is where your proud waves halt’?
12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
    or shown the dawn its place,
13 that it might take the earth by the edges
    and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
    its features stand out like those of a garment.
15 The wicked are denied their light,
    and their upraised arm is broken.
16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
    Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
    Tell me, if you know all this.
19 “What is the way to the abode of light?
    And where does darkness reside?
20 Can you take them to their places?
    Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born!
    You have lived so many years!
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
    or seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I reserve for times of trouble,
    for days of war and battle?
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
    or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
    and a path for the thunderstorm,
26 to water a land where no one lives,
    an uninhabited desert,
27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland
    and make it sprout with grass?
28 Does the rain have a father?
    Who fathers the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb comes the ice?
    Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
30 when the waters become hard as stone,
    when the surface of the deep is frozen?
31 “Can you bind the chains[b] of the Pleiades?
    Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons[c]
    or lead out the Bear[d] with its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
    Can you set up God’s[e] dominion over the earth?
34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
    and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
    Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who gives the ibis wisdom[f]
    or gives the rooster understanding?[g]
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
    Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
38 when the dust becomes hard
    and the clods of earth stick together?
39 “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
    and satisfy the hunger of the lions
40 when they crouch in their dens
    or lie in wait in a thicket?
41 Who provides food for the raven
    when its young cry out to God
    and wander about for lack of food?

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

hold together

I texted a friend today, saying, "i feel like i'm falling apart."
I had just found out that what i thought was ringworm, was really an autoimmune skin thing.
She was encouraging and responded with the fact that i'm a mom and i've just moved (again) and trying to settle in.
The nurse at the clinic asked if i had been under a lot of stress.  I said, no.
Really, i think i am crazy,delusional.  I was equating stress with anxiety and depression i have struggled with in the past.  And while i am no longer in that dark place, i am in a chaotic place.
Thank you, God for encouragement today.  The tears came.  And the holy spirit was there.
The pharmacist saw me and my stir crazy, not listening kids and even said things like, you are doing a good job, be strong, only you can be their mom.
I am falling apart.
But Christ holds me together.
Colossians 1:17
"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

Saturday, May 16, 2015

scavenger hunt

i don't keep a very clean house.  i just don't.  when i had one kid i feel like i really kept things together.  i could keep the house clean and things in their place.  i was never behind on laundry.  i cooked and then cleaned up the kitchen.  that feels like another lifetime.  and something happened when i had two kids.  i started getting behind.  and then throw in a third child and i was hopeless....still trying to remember how to have good habits two years later.

anyway...

wednesday night, i was actually trying to clean something.  i was scrubbing marker out of the carpet.  the baby - she's 2 and not potty trained - was going around the house diaperless because the doc had recommended that to help with a certain irritation she was dealing with.  so while i am scrubbing the marker stain, my middle runs to me and says that baby's bottom hurts.  i check her bare bottom and notice the signs that she has done number 2.  where?  i have no idea.

"cora, where did you poo poo?"

she has no idea and cannot show me.

lee yells from the kitchen - "poo poo scavenger hunt"

i walked around our 1400 sq. feet and could not find it.

we are moving in about 10 days so i thought, well, i guess we'll find it when we move!

a little bit later, i found it.  and i was scrubbing another stain out of the carpet.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

a mother's day story

a mother's day story...

on mother's day i found myself in a very small bathroom at a chinese restaurant with my 6 year old son and 4 year old daughter.  we all had to go.  one toilet.  typical situation when we go out to eat.  4 year old girl hops on the potty first.  6 year old boy says with lots of little boy attitude, "you should have let mommy go first.  it's mother's day, ya know.  it's not sister's day!"

when will i get to go pee by myself again on a regular basis?

this year, my kids are 2, 4, 6.  this means i am usually outnumbered.  i am often overwhelmed.   my house is always dirty.

i want to be real, and i also don't want to take any of it for granted. 

they are the cutest, funniest, and most forgiving people i know.  (include my husband in that list.)

so yeah, life is fun.  i'm moving for the second time in less than a year with 3 small kids.
everything is under control.  nothing to see here.  :-)


Wednesday, January 21, 2015

he's 35! shhh!

today is hubby's birthday.  he's 35!  shhh!  he's not sure how he feels about that. 

i am laughing right now, because he is one of about 3 people who read this.

lee, i love you.  as we start another year together, i can't help but think of last year.  one day i'm gonna write about it.  i think we missed both of our birthdays as we were apart so much.  i'm glad you are with me and that really you always were. 

today is a wednesday, and you have a meeting this evening.  so we will "celebrate" tomorrow i hope.  i will try to cook a decent dinner to make up for last night's "oh, shoot, there's no meat in the freezer like i thought there was."  and then we will go to chick fil a for your fave, a milkshake.

phoebe is very sad that you will not have a birthday cake.  it's okay, her birthday is next and only 2 weeks away.

thanks for building the retaining wall near the road so that i have a level spot for the garbage can that is bigger than me.  now i don't have to worry about the garbage can forcing me down into the gulley and dumping last week's trash all over me.  hahaha.  it really is a big deal.

happy birthday!  i blogged.