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Missions and Corona

Huge stretch to practice being grateful.  HUGE!  And yet....I am.....so.....grateful.  This corona virus pandemic is crazy.  We have joked that we feel like its a dream we will wake up from....but every morning when I wake up it persists....and gets a bit more surreal.  So I guess I own it.  The boys and I had planned to go to LA for a long weekend missions trip the end of March.  It was to be their first mission experience.  That's been postponed of course.  I was reflecting lately on the effect of a missions trip for me.  Often, it is an exercise in being uncomfortable and out of my routine.  Often it is a challenge to seek the Lord and His will and His plan and purpose and set aside my thoughts and plans and goals.  The few missions trips I have taken all required me to find Jesus in hard things and work hard in His name.  So here we are....on a mission field in our own homes, at our places of work and worship and play.  Here we are.  What are we to do here?  Yesterday I
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Resilience

I've been learning more and more about the care and keeping of bearded dragons.  Folks.  It's a good thing I didn't do my research ahead of time.  If I had had any idea about how involved this would be I am sure I would have made a different plan for Josiah's 7th birthday.  Absolutely....positively.....sure.  But.  That's now how it went.  I decided we should get him one and convinced his dad and the rest is in the story. I'm glad we get to learn and adjust as we go.  With bearded dragons, with children, with our careers.....with all of it.  Resilience is a beautiful word.  Spike is about 4 months old.  He eats mostly bugs and some salad and veggies every day.  If he doesn't like the salad he throws it all over his tank.  Today he got some strawberries and he ate every little nibble and had pink lips the rest of the day.  I didn't think he was drinking enough so I tried to syringe feed him some and it worked.  Now I am dripping water into his mouth
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a prayerful plea

I named this Practicing Gratitude because it takes practice.  Being grateful.....I am so grateful for that list that is right on the surface.....the automatics, the "gimme's".....I truly and reverently am.  I am grateful for my family, my health, my work, my life...... Tonight I am grateful and hopeful for prayer.  I need some prayers, people.  I know that if my kiddo sees this post he is gonna be mad so please just don't comment on it (as much as I like the comments).  Please just pray.  This is not a life or death request....its just a mama asking for prayers for her kiddo kind of request. Jeremiah got hurt last fall ice skating.  He tweeked his knee and it swelled up and hurt and he was at state volleyball and not home.  I freaked out....the mamas that were there took care of him....I called our local physical therapist but it ended up being ok.  His knee injury that day re-occured a few different times....and this past week while I was in Arizona he let me kn
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top 10 list that makes me feel good

I haven't done much writing lately.....and I'm finding that this is not so good for me.  I do better when I am writing....I need to do more writing....and walking.  I also feel better and think better and function better when I am going for long, brisk, therapeutic walks every day.....what does it for you?  What makes everything run more smoothly?  What is the go to thing that makes you feel like you at your best? I've been making a list of things that make me feel very good about myself.  Wholesome.  Earth-keeping.  Responsible.  Colorful and vibrant even.....I'm gonna share my list and challenge you all to come up with one too. 1.  Re-usable grocery bags.  I love these things.  You buy it once and use it over and over again.  I have a variety of shapes and sizes and I stuff them all in a big Trader Joe's one and when I get to the store I shove the whole bag under the bottom shelf of the shopping cart.  When I finish shopping I haul it out and put it on top of
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on Love

My friend  texted me last night and asked if I could keep her toddler while she attended an older child's wrestling event.....my answer was easy and quick.  "Bring him on over".  I was kind of laughing to myself because it's been a crazy chaotic holiday here.  We got Precious a puppy.  We had family here from out of town, we did respite care for a toddler and the fam ran into some bad weather so she stayed longer.  They boys went out to push snow the other night and then brought a couch to a family in need before they crashed to sleep this morning.....and I've been slowly trying to clean up and put away after our Christmas parties and gifting....and people..my garbage is insanely full and overflowing.....and so is my heart. Claire and her long-standing boyfriend Jonah got engaged the day after Christmas and I was invited to participate in the surprise.....my heart is so, so full.  Our little foster love this weekend is showing me how fragile the heart is and
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on Sacred Spaces....

I'm thinking tonight about sacred spaces.  The dictionary calls them:  defined places, a space distinguished from other spaces....a sacred place focuses attention on the forms, objects and actions in it and reveals them as bearers of religious meaning.  (dictionary.com) Today I found myself in several different sacred spaces. I knew that they were sacred because I was moved there.  I was changed.  I understood something new and deep about someone else that caused me to know God better.  Several times.  Today.  How lucky am I?  How grateful am I to get to live a life that takes me to sacred spaces over and over again.....do you get to go there too?  If not, please figure out how to live this life too.  It is so worth it. Here are just a few of the sacred spaces I found today. 1.  Tonight we cleaned out Spike the Bearded Dragon's tank.  It was pretty nasty....and Roger and I tackled it together.  Once cleaned, we decorated it a bit for Christmas and then called out to Josia
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I'm grateful for Christmas trees

Today I took a phone call from a friend.  She works at a second hand store and was helping someone (another friend, actually) look for a nice, second-hand Christmas tree.  My friend couldn't remember what the social media page was that had posted a tree to be gifted.....so we discussed how the site had a new name and so she was gonna try again.  I was driving so I couldn't check.  We hung up and I wondered for a moment why my other friend was shopping for a tree again.  You see, I had given her one just Sunday evening.  She had a client who wanted to put up a Christmas tree this year but didn't have free money to buy one.  I happened to have an extra.  I had purchased some small trees from Walmart a few weeks ago to put in the kids' rooms....and I had one left.  Turns out Isaac didn't want a tree in his room.  I also had some ornaments that I didn't put on any of the little trees.  I bagged up these things and she picked them up.   She called me right after I h
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