Tidbits of Busyness

     Can I just say that I hate that Satan loves to keep me busy. It's the number one thing that gets me every time! I don't see it coming! So busy with work that my kids get neglected. So busy that my spouse feel unloved & disrespected. (OUCH) So busy that family & friends feel rejected. So busy I don't have time to open God's Word. It is one of Satan's plans to busy me with other 'things'. To distract me from what is really important. Perhaps, I am the only one struggling with this?
     I can tell when I don't spend enough time in the word & praying. I get anxious and start to worry. I can tell when I am busying myself with other 'things'. I can so tell when I'm not spending enough QUALITY time with the men of the house. They get irritated, closed up, and simply don't want to listen. Which in turn makes me grumpy and it ends up in a vicious cycle. Yes, I can get grumpy on occasion, I am only human.
     However, on the flip side, I try to weed out my schedule and focus on only the things that are of most importance. I try to spend my days off with my boys and feed my hungry hubby a nice dinner from scratch on my days off. (One of his love language's is acts of kindness.) If that means having his clean underwear in his drawer and not on the laundry room counter, I will gladly have them put away. :)
     The boys and I were watching home videos the other evening. I remember thinking we are never getting out of diapers and bottles with the twins and now here they are going into second grade! I am wondering if I will ever teach them everything I want them to learn/know before they leave our home. How am I focusing today to spend time with each one? How can I teach them biblical principles and scripture? I have a couple of attack plans! I will take time out to smell the roses, put away clean underwear and make mashed potatoes from scratch!
      I hope you find yourself not to busy to smell the roses.

Life Group Trip

               This past weekend, our Life Group took a short, eventful and very hilarious work trip to Gary, West Virginia. Gary is located at the bottom of the steepest mountain (or so it seems) in one of the poorest counties in the United States. We had several work projects lined up through an organization called School for Life. A few of our projects included, re-schingling a porch roof, gutting a bathroom, tearing off 2 porches, power washing the exterior of a house and repainting it. Now I'm a list maker, get'er done kind of person and get great satisfaction to cross things off the list when completed. Let me just say, God had other plans.
                Marv and I tore into a bathroom on Friday, tearing out a pedestal sink, a toilet that sat on bricks and a couple severed 2x4's, and a full tub/shower combo. Now let me paint you a picture, minus the putrid smell (which is forever etched in my senses). Marv, is by no means, a plumber by trade. He knows that hot is on the left, cold is on the right, and that everything else flows downhill. Water gushing out of a pipe means there's a problem. The floor in the bathroom gave the Alps a run of their money, hence the reason the commode sat on bricks. I should also say that we had to move these people's 'things' out of the bathroom before we could do our work. I am very funny about hair and products that are not mine or my family's. So I could have almost started gagging moving hair pieces, sanitary napkins, and everything else under the rainbow. (I still shudder)
                After removing the tub, sink and toilet, mostly in pieces, there were 4 layers of crusted on vinyl flooring we had tear out. Marv had given the last layer of vinyl a good yank and popped off the sink pipe at floor level. Insert Old Faithful here! We had to leave to grab a few more supplies. When we returned, I immediately smelled something when we climbed the stairs to get to the house. The grandma was home babysitting and decided to dump turpentine all over the floor and down the open pipes. (Who has turpentine laying around their house?!!!) My eyes burned and I had a cough already and this was just the icing on the cake. Moving on, as Marv was trying to cut apart the shower his foot went through part of the floor. The rest of our group joined us Saturday morning to help finish what we could. Our supposedly 1 day bathroom took us 2. Saturday it was raining and so the outside projects that didn't get accomplished, will wait until someone else arrives to get finished.
                It didn't matter that we didn't get the 5+ projects done. We gave a mom a safe floor so she can give her 4 year old son a bath without having to worry about falling through the floor. Also a  toilet that won't fall over spilling it's contents. My take away: Be happy with what you have. The Jones, Smiths, Millers, Yoders, Troyers, whoever will always seem to have bigger and better. The truth is, who cares!!! If you have a roof over your head that doesnt leak, food on the table that isn't moldy and clothes on your back that aren't dirty, then you, my friend, are BLESSED! What more does one want except happiness and contentment. I find myself very happy with everything the Lord has blessed Marv and I with. I hope you are too!

Mowing Faster

I found this song- Big Daddy Weave on my ipod through my shuffle feature. I found that I drove faster on my mower when this song played! I bet I could run a lot faster too, if I played it when I ran! I can relate to the line, 'to be held so tight I've never felt so free'. Love that my Jesus holds me tightly and I have freedom through him!

                                                        

Amazed

                        Once again, I am in awe and stand amazed at how God answers prayer! During these past 40+ days, I was just blown away by little things that came to light through fasting, prayer and reading the Word! I have seen, firsthand, that God sees the bigger picture and that He cares about the little things. I'm so glad He does!!! My gator has been out of commission the past 2 1/2 weeks. Talk about frustrating! It stresses me out and makes me grumpy when I have no wheels. It's fixable, but with a hefty price tag. Marv and I were discussing about how to pay for these repairs. This past Friday, we found out of  some monies that were due us that we had forgotten about and they exceeded the amount of the repairs! Needless to say, we were dancing for joy! I'm hoping you find the joy & amazement in the little things as well.

New Song

This is a new song to me that I like. Just thought I'd share.

                   Addison Road- This little light of mine.

Spring Peepers & Flowers

                        How about this weather!!! I am loving it! I feel like I could go outside and shake all the winter dust off of myself. We were talking about the spring peepers the other day at work. A few of the guys didn't know what a peeper is. For those of you who don't know either, it's a little frog. Yesterday while driving home from work, I had the windows down and these guys were so loud!!!! I could hear them over Toby Mac! Peepers not only make their existance known, but also the arrival of Spring known! Not to mention the pretty flowers that are popping up through the ground. Last fall I had planted bulbs and I was fearing they wouldn't come up. But alas, they have shown their ever so tiny heads! Thank you Jesus for the changing of the seasons!!!! (All except winter, sorry Virginia)

A Spring Peeper

(by any other name, could be called a frog)

Praises

                      So last Friday Coleson had surgery on his face to remove skin grafts and expanders that were stretching his cheeks. Everything went so great! Thank you Jesus! Doc wanted to keep us overnight, but I told him Coleson does so much bettter at home, so we were able to leave! Coleson's face is still a little swelled up but is diminishing everytime I look at him. He has stitches from ear to ear as well as a smile as big as a cheshire cat's! His whole head looked like a mummy until yesterday when the Doc removed the gauze and mesh.  Doc had a mirror for Coleson to look at himself with and was he beaming! I can't believe the difference in this child's demeanor. He is normally a happy kid but when we walked out of the hospital he was holding his head higher. He didn't shy away from strangers when they looked. Coleson still has a large piece of tape covering the incision that will have to wear off in the shower. He also has 6 or 8 stitches in his chin that come out in about a week. Coleson is planning on returning to school tomorrow. He is excited to show his classmates and friends his 'new' face. :) I will be posting pictures of before and after at a later time. Thank you to all of you who prayed and have been praying for us as a family, especially Coleson. Some days I think God has given me (and Marv) more than we can handle. Phillipians 4:6 says- 'Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.' I have been anxious and scared (I'm human) but I am so thankful that we serve a God who is in the business of  answering prayer. In His time and the way He sees fit. This answer was better than we could have hoped for!