all seems well at this moment…

the past two weekends we’ve actually had normal people weekends… crazy, i know.  it’s been such a nice thing too… family time and friend time.  you don’t realize how much you miss a Saturday that’s a Saturday until you get one back… or two!  the pumpkin patch met it’s match last weekend and we conquered Charleston Falls too… i forgot the camera but we snagged a couple pictures on Stephen’s phone… i just need to snag the phone…

this Saturday was filled with a scavenger hunt… it was a blast.  we won.  what did we win you ask?  nothing except the honor of planning it next year…

another oddity… yesterday the only person i had to get ready for church was me.  all the kids were with grandparents.  that was strange and so very lovely… not for forever, but every once in a while… it’s nice.

the next few weeks have been spinning through my head…  they are full, full, full…  and almost all of it is stuff that i’m excited about… but it makes me a little *eh* too… it is so hard to hold onto the everyday blessings when time is slipping through your fingers and it’s those everyday things that are so incredibly precious…  seeing your husband march behind your 3-yr old singing “we’re following the leader” from Peter Pan… that is everyday precious…  grocery shopping three Friday’s in a row WITH my husband… that is a simply quite nice.  having money (even if it’s only a quarter) left in your food envelope at the end of a week… that’s a victory.  praying for families that surround us that are dealing with more life than we are right now… that is an honor.  and it is those things that sometimes get lost in the shuffle.  which is why i love the quiet that surrounds the night.

however. in ten minutes i must stop pretending it’s nighttime and get another child ready for school…  it was nice while it lasted.

Stephen, my brother, is gearing up for deployment and I headed north to fly back with my sister in law and niece. It was a sacrifice… I read two books on the way, people watched and drank a white chocolate peppermint mocha from Starbucks.

It was a different sort of trip… It was a twelve hour stint with a three hour layover in Minnesota and its the first time I’ve traveled by plane all by my lonesome.

The thing that struck me as we we were flying over Canada (probably… Not really sure) is that we fly into the sunset for over four hours. It was as if time was standing still and we were cheating the clock.

There are many times in my daily life that I wish for more time. Sometimes i need more time for big things and sometimes I need more time because I’ve wasted the time vie had. And for a moment… For a day… I had managed to gather an extra four hours.

The thing is, I could do nothing with those four hours… I didn’t have a laptop with me to squeeze some work out or work on a project. I had no craft supplies with me to whip something up. I didn’t even have phone access to catch up on calls or scheduling or anything like that. And if I’m being completely honest… It was so nice.

I function on lists the majority of my time and there are moments when I’m one step from the ledge of insanity and to a few hours where time stands still was an incredible gift.

The funny thing is though, in life there is almost always an equalizer and tomorrow I face that equalizer. The flight home. Flying home I will lose those four hours that were gained… But thats alright.

To unplug is incredibly nice but the thing is… When its time to get plugged back in ones normally ready to get at it again. List in hand. With running shoes laced up.

So… Heres to reentry… And to the man that held down the fort, did the kids hair, did the school work, made breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and got ready to serve the Word up tomorrow am and made it possible for me to enjoy three days of being unplugged.

Love it.  And with that, I knew today’s post wasn’t going to be anything significant so I called it Potpourri.  A little bit of everything.

Coffee is a great way to start off a cool fall morning, especially in a Duck, NC cup.

It also makes me say a prayer for those home owners and business owners that are in Duck right now recovering from the storm.  Craziness the amount of chaos and damage that something as simple as water… hydrogen & oxygen… can cause.

One of my favorite songs right now is God is Able by Hillsong.  Love it… the music and the message.  Another home run by Hillsong.  (I tried to post a link to it but… can’t…  oh wait…  Click here. Or at least try to… if google it )

Laundry.  I hate it. But I’m almost caught up for the week.  Do you have any major laundry quirks.  I don’t empty change from the washing machine until there’s a dollar in it.  Also, Hershey’s Chocolate Chapstick WILL come out of a Nike golf shirt with a LOT of elbow grease and a laundry soap bar.

I LOVE when kids dump CLEAN clothes in the laundry basket.  Love it.

Right now, Stephen and I have been talking and dreaming and it’s so hard… no, it simply takes  a lot of self control and restraint to remember that vision/dreams/goals have phases.  A, B, C.  But just as important each phase has steps… 1, 2, 3.  And it’s better all the way around to go in order.  Something that Andy Stanley shared on a podcast that Truett Cathy had said in a board meeting is so true not just in business, not just in church life, but in home life, in every area…  (and I’m not quoting exactly…)  The goal should be to get bigger.  It should be to get better because once we’re better customers will demand we get bigger.  Love it.  That statement leads to one word that is my dad’s favorite.

Focus.

(Which this post had none of… but that’s what I’ve got for today!)

Ten years ago though I was a new mom. Maddie was six months old (or she would be tomorrow…) I remember feeling like I was babysitting because at that age I didn’t feel like it was parenting… more like caring for a child. (I still feel that way… and as my kids continue to get older I continue to think, “I THOUGHT I was parenting when they were ?? age, nope… that was nothing. THIS is parenting.”)

We were working in a business and doing really well for ourselves. We were experiencing a blessed time in our life. We drove two cars that were less than two years old, we were in the process of remodeling our newly purchased home, we were serving in the church I grew up in… it was simply a positive time.

Looking back… (isn’t that a phrase… it’s an accurate one too. The only thing we can do is look back. We can’t repeat the past. We can’t undo it. We can’t change it. We can simply look back.)

Ten years ago had we known what the years ahead would hold I’m sure we would’ve acted differently. We didn’t know that we were in the calm before the storm. We didn’t realize that a few of the waves that we would feel in the next year would only be a ripple compared to the monsoon we’d face the year after. We had no clue how much our lives would be shaken up. No clue.

Looking back I’m completely torn up over that year. There were things that if I’m honest I’d probably do differently. Would we have redone the entire house from top to bottom knowing that we’d be completely broke within two years and we’d be moving out of it in three… probably not. But, that would mean giving up the hours of working together on that house… everyone in our family helped us on that house. We spent hours together and I loved it…

The list could go on but the bottom line is. We can never look back and redo. Today I don’t miss that house. I don’t regret that house but I don’t pine for it. I do cherish the memories in that house though. It was the calm before a storm and it was ten years ago. Ten years seems like an eternity. I feel like I can accurately say I’ve lived an entire life in our past ten years from highest highs to lowest lows… literally.

And yet here I sit on my couch, in a parsonage in a town that I barely knew existed, serving in a church that I love with people I love, and we now have three children. I don’t think that God purposefully orchestrates terrible things and events in our lives but I do think he allows and leverages them to His glory. Would we be here in the parsonage without our past. Nope. Probably not. Why not? I don’t know… I simply know that my past has shaped my current stage and my future days… and I will continue to thank Him for the blessings, whether big or small.

(If you are in the position to get a speaker into your local school system Joel would be an excellent guy to consider. )

He went to the schools on Thursday during the day and spoke in an all school assembly and then a guy that travels with him sings a couple songs and they invite them back for a concert that evening at the school. They give the kids tickets and when the kids present the tickets that evening they are given a free book. During the concert is where Joel shares the rest of his story about being a Christian and extends the opportunity to ask Christ to a part of their lives to the kids.

I digress… as I ‘ve mentioned Madeline is now in the middle school so she saw Joel at school. She got her ticket to the concert that night… made plans with friends to go, got on the bus and headed home. When she got home she came straight in asking if she could go to the concert tonight and said she had an extra ticket for Charlie if he wanted to go.

The next part is what cracked me up (not in front of her but inside of me…) She said, “Mom… you wouldn’t believe how many tickets were on the floor of the bus! There were like 5 or 6 tickets laying there… As soon as I got mine I put it in a real safe place because I didn’t want to lose it. I can’t believe they were dropped…”

I loved it. She hadn’t a clue that they were thrown down. It never crossed her mind that someone wouldn’t want to go that night to the concert. I loved the innocence. I know that it will fade all too quickly… (she has also came off the bus saying that the high schoolers say ‘really bad words’. When she used to refer to ‘really bad words’ I never knew if meant butt, fart or hate… unfortunately in this case I already know those are NOT the words they are using.)

There are times I wish I could shield all of them from life. Guard their ears, eyes and mouths… but the reality is I can’t. If I homeschool them, they will hear it, see it, do it at church… (sidenote… I am a fan of homeschooling… I however am not called to homeschooling. I will not say never but I do know it’s not for this season in our lives…)

Anyways… the thing is… I was exposed to those things on the bus, at school and at church BUT I knew there was a safety zone at home and that safety kept me innocent for a while and then provided a safe haven once that innocence was lost and that’s what I hope we can provide for our kids so that they can make wise choices in any situation and circumstance. And if they make unwise choices that like the younger brother in the Bible they will know they can come home…

I have not gotten up this regularly since my Senior Year of high school.  BUT… on the positive side… it’s now 10 am and I have been dressed for over 3 hrs.  My dish washer is running, as is my washer and dryer, everyone ate breakfast… and honestly no one was crabby this am either.  All of that… is pretty nice.  I’m just hoping that at some point my body will be reprogrammed.  I’m a night owl and love, love, LOVE the peacefulness of a house at night… a normal bedtime (for me… not the kids!) was between 11 and 12.  (The perfect time at night is between 11 and 2 BUT… that only happens on rare occasions…) So recently I’ve been tired around 9:30 and headed in around 10 but my body still doesn’t know it’s supposed to sleep then…  given time I think it’ll work.

Anyways, this post was useless so I’ll upgrade it by posting a picture from vacation…

In front of the candy store that literally has the worlds best pralines... promised! (It's in Savannah)

Madeline... the 5th Grader

Charles... the mighty 2nd Grader

I love the ages that are kids are right now… I remember my childhood at their ages.  (However, as a side note I seriously have almost gone more crazy this summer at times because of the sibling wars.  It’s insane how stupid a fight can be and how often they can happen.  No joke, one night they sat at the kitchen table and wrote out one Bible for over an hour and a half… “Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgiving each other just as Christ forgave you.”  Anyways!)  The fighting aside… I have memories from these  years in my life and I love it!

Second grade was probably one of my best in elementary.  I can’t really say that because honestly, I LOVED, seriously LOVED my elementary days… except first grade.  But second grade contained Mrs. Stahler.  A dear teacher that I loved and still to this day exchange Christmas cards with.  My only fear with Charlie this year is… he has a friend of ours, April, and Lord have mercy on her… I hope we’re friends at the end of the year.  Charlie’s a good kid but he’s a boy and sometimes his brain leaves his body.  Examples from last year would be… smoke bombs in his backpack… stealing pencil grips… and saying he saw someone get shot during the summer.  We’re hoping for a less exciting year.

Madeline just started 5th grade but out here that’s middle school… which while I sincerely love our school district… do not like.  It’s alright because they are segregated from the older grades however after spending years in children’s ministry and having different school districts represented the kids that stayed in elementary longer stayed kids longer and I want my kids to be kids… But… it is what it is.  So, I’m kinda of split on my feelings of this year for her.  My fifth grade year was absolutely terrific.  I had a teacher by the name of Mr. Grothaus and my best friend was in my class, Stacey.  We went on our overnight field trip to Camp Kern (which Maddie did last year…)  My sixth grade year was when middle school started and it was an alright year.  I never felt very confident that year (or the next…) and never had a solid group of friends in my classes.  However, I started band and that was the first year of 7 years where it played a major part in my life.  I loved it… and Madeline has gotten to start band this past week.  She’s playing my mom’s flute… that I played…

I suppose a new school year means I’m getting older… the only thing for certain at this moment is I hate… HATE… 6:00 am.  I have not gotten up more than one day every now and then at 6:00 am since my senior year of high school and quite honestly, I don’t think I got up at 6:00 am then either… I was kinda of over the every hair in place phase and was quite secure so I pretty much rolled out of bed at the last possible minute.

Oh well…  it’s a new season…

Life incredibly busy right now… not so busy that it’s chaotic… but just busy enough to not be able to sit and savor wordpress… which is alright except I’d really like to be able to track my life a little better… but… obadee, obada… life goes on… yeah…

There will probably be a few posts today… simply because it works better in my mind to break them up by subject instead of going all together…

On the way back to the car,  Stephen made a confession.  He’s becoming, or at least contemplating become a Reds fan.  He’s from Cleveland… and yes will still be rooting for the Indians however… we live near Cincy and that’s where we can get to for a few games a year and… it’ll just be more fun to be a fan.

I realized I didn’t really get any good pictures of the boy…  oh well, we’ll just have to go back!

While they danced the night away I had to throw together a dress for the princess that was left at home so she could take her picture “with daddy on the porch and dance with him”.  I heard that sentence about 20 times in the two and a half hrs that they were gone…

Here’s Princess Sophia…

And both of them with their prince… (the only one they are allowed to have for at least 20 more years!!!)

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