Right Now

I thought I would balance my flashback post with a current events.

Right now I am:
very sleepy.
Should be completing my homework or sleeping.
Having a sleepover.
Excited to be staying in the Minnie Mouse room at the Cross Family B&B in Sacramento.
Wondering if I will feel Minnie Mouse staring at me all night like she is right now.
Hoping I get to sleep a little.
Praying for confirming dreams for me and my husband.
Proud of my brother for stepping into the gifts God intended for him since he was little.
So grateful for my giftings.
Overwhelmed that God is answering prayers and giving me avenues to use those gifts.
Honored to know the Cross family.
Thrilled to be working with Jessica the pot stirrer.
So encouraged on my road less traveled.
Outtie like a belly button.

Speaking of Beef Jerky

(Yes, I realize the title has zero to do with my post,

but I couldn't come up with a different segue,

and one time a child neighbor said those very words

when we weren't at all speaking of beef jerky.

This has obviously affected my life greatly.)

One second ago I was working on homework.

One minute ago I was recounting how much junk food I have eaten in the last two days.

It wasn't pretty.

One hour ago I was at the grocery store with Miss Layla Grace enjoying her company and realizing for about the hundredth time how beautiful she is.

One day ago I was visiting The Man at the fire station wishing

he could be home for Father's Day, but grateful to God that he has a job to go to.

One week ago I thinking of Africa and wondering how God wants me to love all things African.

One month ago I was thanking God for confirming how little I want to work away from my children and counting the days until the evils of student teaching were over. I was also walking down the graduation aisle blubbering like a girl.

One year ago I was fighting a nervous breakdown as we faced what we thought was a pending layoff. I was addressing the City Council members picturing my self punching our mayor in the neck. I am better now. You can trust me with your children again.

One decade ago I was a mother of one little peanut wishing so much that I lived in Reno, that my husband would grow a beard and listen to country music, and that God would give us more children. BINGO.

Tid Bits

I have so little to say and so much time-wait reverse that. I have LOADS to share, but I am on the last chapter of my incredibly tiresome teacher work sample which contains no less than 1/3 of my blood and a few hours of my tears. College Schmollege. Okay, I don't mean that, but these big projects schedule at the end of the four grueling years can wear a person right out.

Summer is in full swing and we have been lazy, oooh boy! I was going to transition us from life full speed ahead to a relaxing summer, but sometimes you just need to jump in. We spent a week watching nonsense television, running errands together, cheering on The Man while he finished the back patio, cleaning, decluttering, and getting on track in the house. My house is getting pretty. My closets are cleaned, my cabinets are organized, and my pantries are decluttered (that is NOT a euphamism). I mean to say there is nothing wrong with my pantries...never mind.

We gave the kids a Christmas present called the 12 months of Christmas. Each month we spend time together being a purposeful family. This month we took the kids on a shoe shopping spree. I got silverware. I was thrilled as I have wanted new, REAL, silverware since we got married.

I have felt challenged lately to live all of my life with more purpose. I do a lot. I accomplish much. I can make a list of it all and it will be full! The regularly missing element is my purpose. So, we are being a purposeful family.

Currently we are praying about how to give to the Redeemer House. Hands of Hope Missions is heading there in the spring of 2011, and we will be a part of that mission; we just do not know in what capacity just yet. For now, we are supporting them in prayer and choosing to listen to live a more purposeful life. Wanna join us? Who knows, maybe you have been created for such a time as this. I know I have.

Roads Less Traveled

Sometimes you know what the plan is.

Sometimes you think you know what the plan is.

Sometimes you tell people you know what the plan is knowing the whole time

you don't really know what the plan is.

And, sometimes you thought you knew the plan, but then people talk,

and God makes the tiniest wind blow, and as you look to enjoy the breeze,

you turn your head off of that self-determined path long

enough to see that road less traveled.

Sometimes you follow that path-rarely, but sometimes.

And then your life is changed forever.

The devil's greatest weapon is confusion.

We can become so confused in life that we forget to use the

common sense God gives us to focus on him.

His second greatest weapon is all things that sparkle.

If the devil can put enough sparkly things in front of us,

we will chase after those suckers like mice in a cheese maze.

But, let's face it. Cheese is stinky. Cheese isn't what God has planned for us.

I challenge you to avert your eyes from the sparkly.

Turn your gaze just long enough to see that road not taken,

enjoy the still small breeze, and take a step outside of the maze.

It's in this place that we begin to see the iceberg tips of miracles

God is conducting at every step.

It's difficult to see miracles when we are staring at the sparkly.

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I— I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

She

This was Addison a year ago.

Now:

She is hilarious.

She has straighter hair, which makes me sad.

She is beautiful, not just cute.

She is willing to smile at our pastor. This is a big change.

She is graduating from preschool. Sigh.

She is incredibly smart.

She is able to read, add, write, and figure out much on her own.

She needs me less.

She makes me sad and happy all at the same time because

She is growing up.