I'm Back!

I'm finally back! Feels good to be typing in this space again. It's been a wonderful Christmas break.... Family time, playing games, opening gifts, talking about Jesus' birth, working on a puzzle, just being together... Then, it was back home to gather up our stuff and move it to the trailer we are going to be "house sitting" for the next 2 months!!!! Sorta strange to use someone else's stuff but oh! So lovely to be just us 6 again!! Moved our stuff Monday and spent Tuesday getting everything situated. Wednesday my 2 sisters and 3 nieces came down from Holmes County for the afternoon. Wow! What a privilege to host family!! We ate chili and made tortilla snow flakes, fried them and sprinkled with powdered sugar, yum! Then played lots of games and looked at photo albums. Could have gotten really sad when they were leaving. Now all the things I was looking forward to are past and done. God sure knew what He was doing when He supplied this house just before Christmas break!!! I'm just amazed over and over at the perfectness of it all!

I'm trying to get my thoughts together on what all I've been feeling about having my own house again and what I've learned about the way God created women through this whole 5 months of living in with my in-laws. There's alot swirling around in my brain but I haven't been able to get it all together in a tidy little post yet :) We have internet access while we're here so that's new deal as I usually post from my phone and can't do anything long or "fancy". I'll have fun playing around with that :)

It's dark. Hubby is off to work and the 4 youngsters are still tucked in. Aaaahhh! Love quiet time in the morning! Which shall I do? Read blogs, read a book, hang out on Facebook, add to my list of 1,000 Gifts, curl back up in bed........ Eeenie meeenie .....

He is Faithful. Always.

I've been taught all my life that God's grace is sufficient, all things work for good, etc etc. And had anyone asked I would have sincerely said I believed it! There's nothing like experiencing it though. This whole "Abraham" experience of moving w/o a place to live has been difficult for me. I've cried and I've despaired. Yet in the midst of it all I would always find God's grace right there, like a rock, and gather up the courage to go on. I've learned something about the way God created women through all this. I never realized the deep, inborn desire God gave a woman to care for their own. I never realized the deep satisfaction in performing all the mundane tasks for one's own. Never realized how empty life is when it's not full of demands and responsibilities. I hope my eyes have been opened for good. There's so many little things that I took for granted and now realize are a privilege! God really can use all things for good. Always. Even when I can't see a bit of the "why" in the middle of it!

This Learning Path

God does such unexpected things. We've been offered a trailer to "house sit" for 2 months. Why does my human (or woman!) mind instantly go to all the cons ...it feels too weird to use someone else's stuff, someone I don't even know! Or, is it really worth all the trouble of moving belongings, food, etc for 2 measly months? And, but then I'll just have to come back to this living in business, why bother? ... All of that when I've been silently (and loudly) imploring God for some movement on His part, some parting of the waters, some WORD from Him to point the way! I think I'm scared to hope, afraid to get excited. The realization shames me! I don't want to be that person, really. I want to be that person who joyfully lives in anticipation of God's surprises and when they come accepts them with relish and excitedly waits to see what He will do next! Is such a person possible? More and more I am beginning to believe it is. Oh to learn it! To not just read about it or know it in my head, but learn it.

Selfish old me

Nothing really significant today ... just plain old me. Me with my struggles and my ups and downs. Me with my children who had stomach flu last week and gave it to me, and my in-laws who are great until you live with them for 4 months, and my new state of Ohio which is fine except nothing like my old, familiar Arkansas. Realizing anew this morning how easy it is for life to become all about me. Even to grudgingly going along to my husband's company Christmas Banquet because I hardly know the people. Selfish, old man, me! I feel rather isolated these days and that's a great excuse to focus only on me. Actually, there are 8 others living in the same house as me who would benifit from some unselfishness! So, I'm opening my eyes a bit wider and purposing to look out the window instead of in the mirror and thanking my Father for yet another nudge in His direction.

Grace Is A Husband

It's 2:30 Sunday morning and my 3 yr old has just thrown up. Pulled out of sleep, I stumble groggily from bed to give assistance and assess damage. Soothing words and clean up follow. Husband quietly carries soiled pillow and clothes down to the bathroom, and I hold and comfort. Clean up and rocking complete I snuggle 3 year old in bed and slip down to the bathroom to find everything rinsed and cleaned! Closing weary eyes I sleep. It's 10:00 a.m. in Sunday School and Husband sticks his head in my classroom door, cradling 2 yr old and beckoning. It's her turn now all over him and her and he's cleaned her up and wrapped her in a blanket. A discussion ensues and husband takes her home telling me to go ahead and take the children to a friend's house for lunch as planned. It's 2:30 p.m. and back home to baby changed twice and in an hour I'm to leave and help sing a Christmas program with the chorus. I'm torn, wanting to go but feeling a good mom would stay and Husband tells me "You're going. You can't do anything more for her then I can!" So I go. And my heart is warmed and my eyes threaten to spill for the love and grace and care. And I see a glimpse of my Father in this earthen vessel called Husband and I can't express my thankful, full heart! 

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