Choosing Joy April 24, 2008

I’ve been somewhat moody lately. I have great days and low days. Even though I know the root of it, and know I have nothing to do with it and can do nothing about it, I somehow still get trapped into a vicious thought-circle and sometimes have a hard time getting out.

Today was one of those low days. The low-day mood comes in waves and generally manifests itself in a sour-attitude more than sadness. I had made it through the whole day and was just about to lose it with my kids (my DH is out of town, which apparently in kid-language means “We have no bedtime!”), when one of them asked if we were still going to read the Bible (we go through a book on the shorter catechism at bedtime). I cannot not read them the Bible! It may have been a stall-tactic (no-question at this time of night), but I did it anyway. One of the children wanted to read Psalms 34:18 because of a song they have been learning, so we decided to read the whole chapter. To save time, here it is for your reading pleasure: (NIV) (For the sake of space I consolidated each verse to one line instead of two.)

1 I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.

2 My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

3 Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

9 Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

11 Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

12 Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days,

13 keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.

14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry;

16 the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.

18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all;

20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.

21 Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned.

22 The LORD redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.

I took such refreshment from God’s words. I had to confess immediately to giving another day to this seemingly-irreconcilable matter. My childrens’ ploy to avert a bedtime turned out to be the best part of the day.

Going forward, I must choose joy over sadness. Just like loving someone is a choice, I have to choose to have joy in the LORD; not based on my circumstances, but on who I am in Christ.

Tomorrow will be a great day- I’ve already decided.

This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Look who’s reading! February 16, 2008

All this time I thought my four year old was behind in pre-reading skills. It turns out, he can already read a lot of words. For instance:

Play

Chapter Selection

Bonus Features

Games

sigh….:-)

Pandora’s Box? December 2, 2007

If you’ve been following this blog you will know that we are about four days into a two-week kitchen redo. So far, so good, in general, but as my husband mentioned (warned) early on, this project may open Pandora’s Box. Case in point:

Just today we were at Home Depot, then Lowe’s, then Home Depot again to pick out a vanity for our downstairs bathroom. This bathroom is right off the kitchen and shared the same floor as the kitchen, so when the kitchen flooring went, so did the bathroom flooring. This was agreed upon before. No problem. The vanity was not, however, discussed at any substantial length, so it came as somewhat of a surprise (not like a birthday surprise, like a tooth-cavity surprise) to my dear husband, K.

Now my husband doesn’t verbally complain much at all (to me). He does, however, show his feelings in his posture. You know how sometimes a person’s countenance changes when he is downtrodden or hopeless? My poor spouse, while literally pacing between ‘Kitchen’s’ and ‘Bath’s’ at Lowe’s, was actually shrinking in stature. It starts with a slow kind of feet-dragging slide. It then moves to a head looking at the ceiling, shoulders down, feet still dragging “this is torture?!” kind of look. By the time we took our 5-minutes-after-we-walked-past-the-bathroom potty break (we had two kids with us), he was slumped over the gigantic carpet rolls, head between his hands.

I felt awful for doing this to him. I would have just made the decision and grabbed something if I didn’t care what he thought. I tend to second guess my decisions when they involve others, so I really wanted him to be involved on the front end to avoid buyer’s remorse later (someone to share the blame with, I guess!). Instead, I think I added to his stress level by giving him so many options and telling him more than he really cared to know. While he did ask questions and considered different angles, it came down to this conversation while in Lowe’s (my paraphrase):

K: Which one do you like the best?

Me: Well, I like the drawers on this one but I’m not sure about the bottom kick plate. Do you think it looks too cheap? Is this wood going to clash with the granite (temporarily forgetting that he hasn’t seen the actual granite being installed)? I like this one because of the fake drawer that’s actually a sink base but I’m not sure about the quality of the drawer on the bottom. Should we just get white, or wood?…”

K: Which one do you like the best?

Me: Ummm, the first one I showed you-the one at Home Depot??

K: Great. Let’s go get it.

See? It could have been simple. Just make a decision! It was simple for me to find a new dishwasher I wanted (today at Lowe’s). And the faucets we “need” to get? Not difficult to choose. And the special-order low-profile slide-in gas stove that will provide a great view of the new backsplash? Easy to order. Let’s don’t forget that ratty carpet and abused walls…

See how easy it is to lose control?! None of these things in themselves are wrong, which adds to the difficulty.

The interesting thing about all these decisions is that, although I am thinking about what still needs to be done, I am not dreaming about this kitchen! It has stayed in it’s rightful place in my heart as a physical space with tools for me and my family to honor and serve each other, not a thing to idolize (see previous post). And, you know, I could really serve my family well with a quiet dishwasher and a new special-order slide-in gas stove…

Me and Mine November 28, 2007

Learning a little bit about me may be in order. Yeah, I think there’s a page on this blog-thing somewhere that I could fill out and you could just read my bio and be done with it, but this just may be more fun. Or not. We’ll see..

I’m a mom of four and a wife of one. We have a boy-8, a girl-6, a boy-4, and a girl-2. It is rarely completely quiet or completely clean. I home school the older two (2nd and 1st grades). Unfortunately Nick, Jr., Noggin, the Wiggles, and Mary Poppins (well, she’s not so bad!) school the other ones a lot of the time, but we are still working out the kinks. The children generally get along well. They share rooms by gender and like it- most of the time. Some of the time. Occasionally?! No, they are really good about it. It builds character to have to share a space-as far as they know.

We are very involved in a local church and just love it. The teaching is God-centered and straight out of the Bible. I love the curriculum used for the children-it’s totally God-focused, not man-focused, and to be honest, that is probably one of the largest differences in modern churches. My husband and I (and the children’s ministry at church) hope to instill in our children an accurate view of the one true God- the God of the Bible-the God that is totally able to make whatever he wants to happen, happen. Without our help! A God that doesn’t “need” us to do anything for Him or make Him feel loved, but will have us (despite our yucky sinful selves) because of what Jesus did on the cross. And it’s not because we want what God wants. He shows Himself to us. We pray that our children will know and trust Him fully one day and stand firm to a world that desperately needs God.

We live within 30 minutes of both sets of grandparents. We love this! Really! My kids could see their grandparents any day (if schedules would allow) and we love that they can learn from them. True, there are some lessons learned that have to be unlearned at home (and that can happen anywhere), but all in all, it’s a wonderful opportunity and blessing to have everyone so close!

I have a little brother who is a firefighter in our town but lives about 30 minutes away with his wife and two daughters. I’m proud to say that I can now set my house on fire and feel at ease knowing he’s just a 911 phone call away.

I have a sister who is married with kids in Philadelphia, PA. She is a high school math teacher and singer. They have three kids and love it up there. Her husband owns a business and his family lives up there so they will probably never move down here. Sad for me, but good for them.

My devastatingly good-looking husband is the youngest of two boys. He is an IT manager (no clue what that means) for a major food production company. He is also a very gifted musician. His brother is recently single again (but dating a sweet girl) and is currently in the home renovation business (a.k.a., the man in charge of destroying- I mean- remodeling my kitchen over the next two weeks). He does good work so I’m not worried. Really.

I have three hermit crabs. Well, my kids have three hermit crabs. Come to think of it, I don’t let my kids hold the crabs because I’m afraid the crabs will snap their fingertips right off. I don’t let them clean the crab cage because, well, it’s got lots of crab “stuff” in it and I don’t want it on the kids. And I rarely let them feed the crabs because I’m afraid they’ll make a big mess and waste the food (’cause, you know, $4 for a year of food is crazy!). Yeah, I guess I have three hermit crabs.

There’s not a whole lot more to tell. I have a van. Big whoop. We actually have two vans. Bigger whoop. Try not to die of jealousy.

OK, so I might have left out a few thoughts. I do tend to ramble (you have been warned!). The “About” page definitely would have been a shorter read, but, hey, any shorter entry and you wouldn’t have known about my vans.

..I know, your joy abounds because of all the new information you have gleaned from my post. Your head must be throbbing- you’re so smart now! Unless you already knew this stuff. Then there goes five minutes you’ll never get back. So sorry.