The Spice of Life

Friendship. I consider it to be one of God's dearest treasures. Friends of ours who haven't been over for about a year came over last week. It was nice to laugh our faces off with them. It was also nice to have that connection that you don't have with just anyone. The kind of connection that you could just talk for hours and hours even though you've lived in a different country for a year. There was a time in our marriage that Matt and I didn't have any real close friends (outside of family). We prayed about it, and now we are blessed to have what I consider to be a greater amount of friends than I would have thought to be possible. They are people who I feel fiercly loyal to and I would do anything for. Some don't live here anymore but I couldn't imagine my life without them. They are genuine. They've sat with me in the hospital, and called me daily to see how I was doing. They love my kids and have been such a positive example in their lives. They know our faults but love us anyways. I really think I do know some of the world's greatest people. Thanks again guys for making life so full of joy!

Sending another one off

In life there are so many stages. I guess our outlook on life determines how we accept these stages. I've given much thought about these "stages of life". I think of graduations, weddings, collage and many other events. When you are as sentimental (or just mental) as I am. the fact that I have three kids make these events seem emotional.
I thought that sending my 2nd kid off to school would be easier than the first. I ended up failing miserably in this department. Today was Hannah's TRIAL day. It wasn't even her 1st day at all!!! I just didn't expect her to be asking me to stay for the morning or trembling when I dropped her off at the classroom. Now don't worry, I wasn't one of those crazy moms who sit there and make it hard on the child to go in. I would've got a medal if you saw how brave I was. The stupid part came a moment later. I saw Danielle standing ouside of her classroom and crouched down to remind her to be helpful to Hannah if she saw her. I couldn't hold it together any longer and my eyes filled up with tears. Guess what happened next? Danielle started crying . I felt like an idiot. I managed to be tough for Hannah only to make my other daughter cry in front of her peers. I'm sure our family will have many laughs over this in the future.:D
Now back to what I started with. Hannah starting school is another stage in our family's life. I actually look forward to all the stages. (even the weddings, sniff, sniff) I'm not against feeling the emotions though. I just think you can hold your children back if you don't have the confidence to let them go and leave them in the Lord's hands. I've talked to too many collage students who talk about how ther parents can't let them go, and how guilty the students feel moving forward with their "own" lives. Interestly enough, these seem like the kids who advoid going home for another guilt trip. I plan to embrace these seasons of life . I'll shed many tears along the way for certain. But that's okay! By the way, when I returned to get Hannah, she didn't want to leave! But that's okay!

These are a few of my favorite things......

COFFEE- Of all of God's wonderful creation, Coffee is for sure at the top. It makes me smile just thinking about. At bedtime, I think about how wonderful my morning coffee will taste. When I open my eyes in the morning it gets me out of bed. Mmmmmm..........

PINK- What an awesome, cheerful, feminine color. No matter where I am I always notice pretty thinks in the color pink.

FICTION ROMANCE- Not all novels are equal. It has to be excellent. (non-smutty) hint: You know it's a good one when your husband and children have been trying to get your attention for 15 minutes to no avail!

LAUGHING- The best feeling is laughing your face off until tears are streaming down your face.

CHIPS- The only thing not to love about them is calories and fat they contain. Maybe some day they will invent tasty, calorie-less chips. I'd better not hold my breath for this one. sigh

SIMON"S HUGS- It's a great feeling when that little boy wraps those little arms around my neck and squeezes and vibrates for all he's worth.

EXERCISE- For some weird reason, I do not have to force myself to exercise. I love it. That is really weird isn't it?

NATURE WALKS- My family and I go for these walks in the spring, summer and fall. Very enjoyable. (especially in the fall) It's enjoyable for so many different reasons.

This blog actually took me less than an hour. Sadly, not by much.

A final thought: For those of you that do not drink coffee- you have no idea what you are missing. I quite frankly don't know how you wake up in the morning!

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK HOPEFULLY ENJOYING YOUR FAVORITE THINGS. TTFN

That's when I'll know I'm home

Everyone's talking about it. The Virginia Tech shootings. The media is having a hay day with it. Students are feeling unsafe in their environment. Dads and moms are holding their children a little tighter and longer. Family and friends are grieving. People are angry and trying to figure out what happened.
When I heard what had happened the first thing I did was email my brother Junior and his wife Emily. They live in Virginia and Emily happens to be a crime scene investigator. I was wondering if she had been called to the scene. Junior emailed back and said that she hadn't. He did say that they knew some people who attend VT and that he had been glued to the TV all day. My brother is normally one of those very positive people, so his response kind of surprised me. He then said that he was having a moment that he was wishing that God would come back because there was so much pain and hate in the world. He said all of this before any of the circumstances surrounding the shooting was known. It was a reaction. I must admit that even though I love living, (please believe that I do, I have another wonderful sister in law who happens to be a psychologist and I don't want her to feel worried) that I have felt the same way at different times in this life. You do get overwhelmed with the amount of pain and suffering that is in this world. When Junior emailed me this it reminded me of a song that Matt sang in church once that I love. I want to share the lyrics with you.

THERE IS A PLACE MORE PRECIOUS THAN ANY OTHER
THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN'S DOOR
A PLACE WHERE WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER
A SHELTER IN TIME OF STORM
AND THO' IT'S A TREASURE THIS HOME'S NOT FOREVER
I LONG FOR THE LIFE THAT'S WAITING FOR ME
chorus
WHERE NO ONE WILL EVER BE HUNGRY OR COLD
AND NO ONE WILL HURT OR WILL EVER GROW OLD
NO ONE WILL DIE AND LEAVE SOMEONE ALONE
THAT'S WHEN I'LL KNOW I'M HOME
verse 2
THERE IS A PLACE WHERE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS BE SPOKEN
PROMISES WILL BE BELIEVED
A PLACE WHERE YOUR HEART CAN'T BE BROKEN
AND LOVED ONES WILL NEVER LEAVE
SO IF YOU ARE LONGING FOR A PLACE OF BELONGING
THE HOME YOU'VE DREAMED OF IS WAITING FOR YOU
repeat chorus
THAT'S WHEN I'LL KNOW I'M HOME FOREVER NO PAIN OR DISEASE
ALL WILL BE EQUAL
ALL WILL BE FREE
TRUE LOVE WILL COME AND WE'LL FALL AT HIS FEET
THAT'S WHEN I'LL KNOW I'M HOME
bridge
AND FINALLY I'LL SEE WITH THE DARKNESS ERASED
NOT THROUGH A GLASS, BUT THEN FACE TO FACE......................
THAT'S WHEN I'LL KNOW I'M HOME.

One of my favorites: "Now the dwelling place of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:3b-4

Mind Your Mouth

I really have something I want to blog about but I don't have a whole lot of time. (bad combination for a slow typer like myself) I wanted to share two incidents from the two past days in our family.

Incident #1: I overheard Matt (my husband) say something to my son Simon. You need to 1st understand that Simon LOVES Matt above all others. I'm sure many of you have seen this in action! When Simon sees Matt he runs up to him and squeezes him around the neck really, really hard and vibrates with excitement. It is really cute. Matt usually says something profound and heart warming like "Hey buddy". This time when it happened Matt said something completly different. He said, "It's nice that you love me so much even with all my faults.". Tears welled up in my eyes because I knew that he had been having a kind of rotten week because of things that others had said to him. It's not that easy to catch Matt in that kind of moment and now here I am blogging about it. It really hit me though. Matt knows his faults. I know most of mine. There are times to correct and teach people. So many times though we just tear and nit pick apart about unimportant matters. I'm really tired of it.

Incident#2: Matt and I were lucky enough to get over to Fredericton for a couple of days last week to visit dear friends of ours. The last night we were there was Friday and Matt, Danielle, Simon, and I ALL got sick. Barfing and such things kind of sick. The whole night will be one we will be talking about for a while. It was very difficult to clean Danielle's throw up at 2:00 in the morning. It was on Murray and Val's mattress, sheets, blankets, comforter, both pillows, both of us. It was twice as difficult because I was very ill. Everybody (but Murray) was still sleeping. Anyhow, that is probably too much detail for some of you. That's okay though. The night was worse than that. I've gone easy on you. Wait until you hear Matt's version!! On the way home Matt stopped at Sobey's for some stomach coating medicine. While he was inside, right out of the blue, Danielle said something to me that I'll treasure forever. "Mommy, you take such good care of us when we're sick-even when you're really sick." It sounded like she was going to cry. I did. My daughter said one nice thing and it literally did make my day. Hannah would want me to say that she feels the same as well:)

So lets start the change today. We can only do it one at a time. God wants us to do it. It feels great when someone does it to you. Let's focus in on picking one another up. That's what I'm gonna do.

Ephesians 4:29- Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

PS- Matt I love you just as much as Simon!! (warts and all!)

"True Beauty"

I saw one of my two favorite cartoons last night. Beauty and the Beast. What a great movie! I find myself tearing up during the whole movie. For one thing Belle (the main character) loves to read. A girl who loves to read as much as her is a girl after my own heart. She also sacrifices her own well being for that of her father's. A selfless act of love for her family. I'd like to imagine if I was put in a situation that I had to choose between myself and that of my family-I'd choose them. My favorite, favorite part of the movie is that Belle falls in love with the beast even though she has no idea that he is really a prince. There is also a really dorky guy named Gaston (who is supposedly attractive) in the movie. He is conceited and really wants to marry Belle. She knows he is a loser and refuses to give in to his advances. There aren't that many movies made that I know of that have this kind of a moral. If only more of us chose to be like Belle. If only you and I would always choose to look past the exterior. The world would instantly become a better place. I try with everything in me to teach this to our children. The sad part is that no matter how hard you try to teach it, for most people it is somewhat of struggle. We are so saturated with it as a culture. What happens if my kids grow up to be not the most attractive people (by society's standards)? Does this make them any less valuable to society. No way. I'm so sick of seeing commercials that purposely make you fell inadequate looking so you'll by a stupid product. Then maybe you or I will attain a 5'11", 117 pound body(which, by the way, is the average size model). Then maybe we'll be worth something. Boy, this has got to be my most depressing blog to date! You get my drift. Take care of your shell. Don't be obsessed with yours or anybody else's. It just that-a shell. Who and what you are is inside of that shell. Spend your time (I'm speaking to myself as well) grooming and changing inside of you for the better. Don't waste your precious time.
Even though I know that my kids will have to deal with all these issues, I'm hoping that what we try to teach them will stick with them. They are already such beautiful people-where it counts.
Oh yeah. The other cartoon I love is "The Incredibles". It's awesome.
Oh yeah again: Galatians 2:6b- God does not judge by external appearance.

Letting things go

Do you know my daughter Danielle? If you know her at all, you know she is slightly clumsy. That is a nice way of putting it. I don't think she'll ever become a ballerina. Well, Danielle fell down during gym class on March 15th. She went over on her ankle and hurt it quite badly. She stayed in school the whole day. When we picked her up she burst into tears and told us what happened. When we wanted to look at her ankle the tears fell because it had hurt so bad to put her boot on. When we looked at it we headed over to emergency right away. When the doctor saw us, she sent us right up to x-ray. When the doctor looked at the x-ray she told us that nothing was broken and that she had a bad sprain. So we packed up and took her home. The ankle hurt all week, but we didn't think about it a whole lot. Exactly one week later there was a call for me to call our own doctor. Turns out that Danielle has a fracture in what's called her"growth plate". Thankfully, it is a fracture that casting would not have helped in the first place and she is expected to make a full recovery. I don't know what your reaction has been to this long winded blog. Maybe it's like mine initially was. Why did the school not call us? The doctor read her x-ray wrong? This should not have happened. This is a little example of what happens quite often. Events, mistakes, and unfortunately tragedy occurs and whamo- we seem to have this need to find somebody to blame. The funny thing is, it never changes the outcome of what has already taken place. It makes me think a lot about my own life. The wrongs I've committed, the judgments I've screwed up, the people I've hurt. The truth is-intentionally or unintentionally we have all done wrong. I know what I want for my screw ups. I want grace. I don't deserve it but I get it. My family and friends give it to me daily. More incredibly -God gives it to me-over and over and over again. It is totally undeserved and it feels really good. God's Word puts it this way-"Do to others as you would have them do to you.".Luke 6:31

Have a great day!