Makin' Angels

The snowfall totals in my neck of the woods have been lackluster.

Downright paltry.

It leads the children to do things like this:

They were desperate to sled.  Can you tell?

And then today, it was in the mid 40s.  All of the white stuff is melted.  So very wrong.

My kids, however are resourceful and creative sorts.

Do you see it there in the mud?  Do you see the mud angel?  You've heard when life gives you lemons, make lemonade and apparently, my 4 yo thinks when life gives you mud...make an angel.

It could have been so much worse, don't you think?

Lord, today I thank you for creativity, resilience and patience.  Thank You, Lord for your patience with me as I am not always good at giving you my stuff and leaving it with you.

Praying that you see angels in your snow and mud and rain.  Today, I saw one in the mud and it was amazing. :)

-Peace

Side-effects

Sometimes I see the commercials for prescription medications on television and when they speak in hushed tones about the possible side-effects I wonder if the medication is worth it.

Yesterday I took some migraine medication and we ended up reading the pamphlet, err the Husband read it and I listened for matching symptoms accompanied by phrases like "seek immediate medical care.  The beauty of the medication is my migraine went away.  The  problem was I became incredibly weak and anything touching my skin hurt like the dickens (including the tender kiss of my 4 yo who actually gave a tender kiss,not a tackle hug.).

Fortunately, I did not experience a heart attack (possible side-effect) nor did I get a headache (another side effect), to which the Husband asked, "Isn't this medication to get rid of your headache?" or even nausea.

The side-effects were odd but not frightening and while the pamphlet was full of doctor-ese making me want to ask a medical professional friend to decipher it for me. I apparently didn't require medical attention.  (At least I didn't seek any and I'm writing to you today, so let's assume I am fine.)

Side-effects can be minor or major.  They can be a wrinkle in the day or a major event in life.  Sometimes we have to weigh the possible side-effects versus the expected benefit.

With medications, we usually can read (or attempt to translate) the side-effect information and be warned of the possibilities.  Often in life we can anticipate some of the side-effects (aka consequences) of our behavior and weigh the outcomes.  However, sometimes we are faced with what the Husband refers to as unintended consequences (the things you do not anticipate biting you on the backside).

When we are experiencing side-effects, we can learn from them.  In this case, I will think about how bad my head really hurts before taking a pill because either way, I will be out of commission.  I didn't know this from reading about possible side-effect, only from my experience.

My experience in life has been that I can try to anticipate every possibility and even keep my expectations low but things will not usually happen just as I expect or plan or rehearse them in my head.  Only hindsight is 20/20.

Thankfully, no matter how it shakes down, no matter what the side-effects are or whether I anticipate them or not, I can count on God to be right there with me and you and all of us.

Lord, thank you for walking through all the side-effects in life with us.

-Peace

Mirror,Mirror On the Wall...

I am not the fairest of them all.  I don't need a mirror to tell me that or to tell me who is.

I am not the smartest, most fashionable or wittiest.  I am not sure I am the most anything.

Yesterday at MOPS (Mothers Of PreSchoolers if you don't know and have wondered every time you've seen me mention it before)  I said how I tell my kids I wished they could see themselves the way we see them and a friend ~E~ suggested we would all benefit from seeing ourselves through other's eyes.

She has a point.  I don't know how other people view me and I bet there are a lot of opinions about me that I don't want or need to know.  It is none of my business, I've said before, what people think of me.  However, there are times when seeing ourselves through another's eyes could be beneficial.

What if we could see ourselves through another person's eyes; not their opinions or judgments, but ourselves, our good and bad, the things we do well, and the things that are not so great, the gifts we don't recognize and the flaws we are unaware of?

What if I could say, "Mirror , mirror on the wall...?"  Would I listen with an open heart and mind and grow in humility and confidence or would I bring poisoned apples to those who were better or break the mirror?  Would I give equal credence to the positives and the negatives? I tend to shrink the positives until they are microscopic and I inflate the negatives to the size of a hot air balloon.

What if the mirror I looked in was one of God's grace?  What if instead of seeing myself through a mirror of human reality, I was able to look at myself as forgiven, saved, precious and valuable because I was created by God for a purpose?  Better yet, what if when I was looking at others, I looked at them through that lens of God's grace instead of my opinions, judgments, irritations and yes,  crankiness?

Mirror, mirror on the wall, help me to see a world of beauty God created, not the imperfections that sin emphasizes.  Lord, help me to see the truth and not be deceived by fun house mirror reflections.

-Peace

Enough

The other day I was making a cake and I went in the drawer looking for my favorite spatula.

It's nothing fancy, but it works the best and it's cute.  I have another rubber spatula but it's too soft and doesn't work well for scraping the side of the bowls.  I found myself thinking, I really need to get more of these.  And then I stopped.  Literally stopped as in stood still, holding the prized gadget in my hand and in my mind I rephrased my statement.  I would like more of these but do I really need them?  No.

This one great working spatula is enough.

How many other things in life do I think I need more of?  Think is the key word.  What I think is not necessarily reality, but how I perceive reality.  Big difference.

Life would be easier with another spatula, I could argue.  Maybe. But that is one more gadget in the drawer and I wonder if I would still reach for the happy snowman spatula I received for Christmas in 2008. Life would be easier with more money.  Would it?  How many people win the lottery and end up miserable.

Life would be easier if...  fill in the blanks we can find all sorts of ways our current situation could change.

But we don't make one change in a vacuum, do we?  If I change X then it will impact Y.  (This from a self-proclaimed mathphobe..but I did love science...)  Perhaps sometimes instead of always wanting more, better, different, it is more appropriate to be content, to allow ourselves to experience a situation fully rather than seek to tweak it.

As happens to me frequently, in that moment where I literally stopped and asked myself if I needed a spatula, I thought of a Bible verse that has nothing to do with food or cooking but everything to do with having enough.

2 Corinthians 12:9, But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (NIV)

I don't need more of anything else because with God's grace, what else is there to need?

If only I could be that satisfied, content and appreciative of all that I do have. Instead, I want another this and more of that. More and different would change the current situation and perhaps in that change whatever unrest I felt would go away?  If I let myself be still, accepting and content, there might be times of anxiety or frustration.  (What if I need to use the spatula and it's dirty?  Gasp!  I would have to wash it..by hand.)

My challenge in life right now is to relax into the knowledge that I can choose to trust in God and His grace to provide rather than trying to fill my life with widgets which will only get in the way.  I can choose to pray and believe and accept that I have a purpose and that God can use all for good and that yes, His grace is sufficient for me.

May you also feel that freedom to trust that there will be enough of what you need.

-Peace

Snow Country Dreamin'

I live in an area maligned for its weather.  Whenever the Bills play and the weather is cold and ahem snowy, the announcers highlight the area's weather like it's a bad thing.

I have to tell you, I grew up in the Adirondack mountains and the cold and snow make me happy.

This year, the Snow Miser has been noticeably absent from my scene and it has made me and the rest of my little family sad.  We have waited for the forecaster's predictions of snow only to be disappointed.  Sunday night and Monday they were predicting we might get 4 - 8 inches of the glorious frozen whiteness...we got a dusting.  This morning we woke up to a couple of inches.  The snow band went south of us.  (I need to move south to get snow...)

When I was a little girl, I would go to sleep imagining I was camping in the wilderness or something like that as I went to sleep.  I was always pretending something, being a mom or a doctor or one of Charlie's Angels, so I guess pretending to be camping out under the stars wasn't so odd.  (It wasn't!)

Last night I wasn't pretending, but as I drifted off to sleep I thought about how wonderful it would be to be falling asleep in a more rural setting, more snowy and more self-sufficient.  I thought about how I would love to spend my days knitting, sewing, cooking and homeschooling, wearing cozy sweaters and wool socks (that I knit myself. :) ) and working toward common goals as a family.  I'm sure in my mind I romanticized the self-sufficiency a little (or a lot).

The truth is, cold weather and snow inspire me to create and dream and embrace life.  Maybe the cold makes me more snuggly or maybe I'm just a cold weather type woman.  In the heat of summer, I'm crabby and sluggish.  In the winter, even with less sunlight, I am energized by the brisk air, the crunch of the snow and the quiet of a world wrapped in white.  (And my allergies aren't going haywire either. ;) )

I know that we should all bloom where we are planted.  I love the cold and snow and while my situation isn't exactly what I dream about, it is close enough. (I can knit and cook and play in the snow with my beasties, even if I'm not in a secluded cabin.) If we had to, I would find a way to make the best of a more temperate climate, but it would not be something I would choose.

However...I'm dreamin' of a little more snow, so if someone could direct the Snow Miser this way, I would be grateful.

-Peace

Tub Scrubbin' Monday

That's right, Monday is officially bathroom cleaning day in our house.

Aren't you so excited to know that?  I could have taken a picture of myself wielding the toilet brush but I didn't have a camera or my ipod handy. (Sounds unsanitary.)  I know it's sad for you, but buck up and just imagine it.

Last night I sat down with some paper and made a list of  all the little things I want and need to accomplish in a day, a week and a month and then I applied them to my handy dandy handmade chart.

Just making the chart made me a little bit twitchy, not the drawing it up with my trusty ruler and mechanical pencil.  No, it was the actual act of assigning chores and actions to times that made me pause and umm wonder if I really want to do this.

The truth is I'm not so sure I want to have a list of tasks for each day, but instead of lamenting what I don't get done, I decided to take a little responsibility and see what I can get accomplished each day.  I penciled in chores and exercise, making menus and cooking meals.  I wrote in hitting the instrument of torture treadmill and I wrote in homework and have not planned anything for my MOPS mornings.

Most importantly, I planned time with the littles who are not in school, time I will be sure to do crafts and activities with them.  That sounds bad doesn't it, that I have to make a note to do that?  It's not that I don't usually, but that part of living my life more intentionally is recognizing the things I value and making sure I do them.  Too frequently I go to bed and realize the missed opportunities, the games not played, the crafts undone, the laughter not shared and all because I am distracted and wasting time.

Tub Scrubbing Monday is symbolic of the new goals and the new plan and the desire to live intentionally and well. It is the desire to do the small things I do for my family faithfully and to the best of my ability.

 Luke 16:10 states,  "If you are faithful in small things you will be faithful in large things." My goal is to be faithful in the little things because they all add up to the big things, which is the life I have been given.

Can I tell you how good it feels to site here typing, in my apron, barefoot at my kitchen counter while chocolate chip cookies cool, knowing my bathrooms are sparkly clean?  It feels awesome.  Maybe all I need to get out of my funk is to do the little things.

-Peace

My 2012 Theme..

This morning I decided that this song, "Do Everything" by Steven Curtis Chapman, should be my theme song for 2012.

If I do this, do everything I do for the glory of the One who made me...I will be on the right track, or at least heading in a better direction.

I started off the new year with a new One Year Bible and the plan to read it every day.  I like that it has readings from the Old Testament, New testament, Proverbs, and Psalm each day.  I like that I haven't missed a day yet.

I have been reading online about different schedules people follow to get their lives organized.  I need that.  It will help me stop feeling like I'm in crisis mode all the time.  I do laundry every day and dishes (well, the Husband does most of the dishes), but there are other chores I don't do frequently enough and I waste a lot of time that could be better spent so I need to get my act together.

My goals for the coming year are to stay on track with the One Year Bible, to do the treadmill daily (fell off that wagon), get the house more organized through schedules and planning and to just see the gifts in each day.

One of those gifts is connecting with you here.  I hope to write more and to here from you more. (I love feedback and I love hearing your perspective, too.)  I hope to write more on some other projects, too which is one of the reasons I need to become a better manager of the 24 hours I am given each day.

More than anything, I hope to do everything I do to please God.  It really isn't complicated but it can be difficult to recognize that what I want may not be pleasing to Him nor is it truly beneficial to me or anyone else in the long run.  What we do, in the little and big things, really does matter.  We touch so many people and we don't even realize our impact.  I pray that I make more positive impacts than negative.

I pray that 2012 is full of gifts and opportunities and blessings for you and me and all of us.  May we love each other as He loves us.

"..Do everything you do for the glory of the One who made you, cuz He made you to do every little thing that you do to bring a smile to his face, tell the story of grace with every move that you make.."

-Peace