Just wait

I have always struggled with praying for unbelievers - not about them coming to salvation.  I pray for that all the time for those I know and love who are lost.  But I struggle with praying specific prayers for them, like asking God to reveal His will for them, show them what decision to make, and to bless them.  I have kind of thought...what's the point?  God can't work in their lives anyway, if they have not let Him in.  And if good things happen in their lives without God, they won't know it's God doing it, and they won't see a need for Him either.  After all, things are going great without Him!  Shouldn't we be praying for their lives to be miserable without God??

But now I see it totally differently.  Vince and I are taking a class at church on Wednesday nights, and we are going through a book that our pastor has written about finding your true identity in Christ.  We broke up into small groups and shared our stories about how each of us came to Christ.  After hearing people's stories, I had a "light bulb moment".  God sees our lives as a whole...past, present and future.  He may know that down the road, that person will believe, and our prayers for them now may be setting the stage for their future...one that does include God.  They will someday be able to look back on their lives and see all the ways that God loved them, protected them, blessed them....even when they were yet sinners.   His love and care for us does not need to be preceded by an acceptance of Him.  God doesn't need the glory right away...He's not like us.  He is patient, and loving, and faithful...all the time.  Even when we don't recognize Him and appreciate His faithfulness at the time.

We may not see the roots growing deep under the soil...but God does.  He sees the seeds that are sown, through our prayers and in the way we bless others with the blessings that He showers on us.  We may not see the fruit for many years to come, but God sees that single seed burried deep in the ground.  He tends to it, nurtures it, and already sees the tall, strong tree that will mature and the fruit that it will bear.   

Have you ever looked back on your life, maybe even back before you were following Christ, and been able to see ways that God intervened - even before you knew Him?  He was there.  He saw your future.  He knew your past.  And He knew that it would be a while before you "got it".  But He was patient.  And those who may have been praying for you - the prayers that brought about the very blessings that you were oblivious to, probably were wondering if their prayers were doing any good at all. 

But all the while, God was watching...and working...and saying, "Just wait.  Wait 'til you see what I've done.  It really will be quite amazing." 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity."  Jeremiah 29:11-14

I now remember why I have the urge to kill someone...

You'd think after 25ish years or so, I would remember that "PMS week" (aka "stay out of my path" week) typically makes me homicidal for a few days until the hormones level out.  "It 'splains the events of yesterday a little better, no?  Because I don't go around slamming and breaking things on a normal day.  Really, I don't.  I like to believe that I have alot more patience and self control than that.

Today is somewhat better.  I'm not angry at any particular person or situation, but I am feeling a bit lethargic and unmotivated today, even with a full 8 hours of sleep.  I'd hate to see how I'd be feeling if I had not gone to bed early last night.  So glad I did THAT!

I am very needy... 
I need adequate sleep. 
I need some Midol (does that really work?)
I need a date with Mr. Wonderful this weekend.
I need more of Jesus. 

What happens when mama loses it...

...when she hasn't had enought sleep for many nights in a row, when she doesn't get home until almost 8pm and then has to face dishes and laundry and homework not done, and when the kids' fighting gets on her last frazzled nerve and she yells like a velociraptor and everyone scatters. Except for her husband who comes to her rescue with his calm, patient demeanor. But not in time to stop her from slamming carelessly dropping her beloved Pampered Chef Batter Bowl in the dishwasher whilst emotionally compromised and thus shattering it.

Hmmph.

I'm just being real.

I could pretend that I'm "mom of the year" and never lose it, but what good would that do, really?  Just to keep things in perspective, I don't go around berating my husband or my children, or swear at them, or hit them with objects.  When I say "lose it", I mean I raise my voice a little too much, close doors a little too harshly and say things like "if I have to say it ONE MORE TIME I'm going to FREAK OUT!"  Oh, and apparantly I put the dishes into the dishwasher a little too hard as well. 

Sigh.

Am I alone here?

Someone make me laugh please.  I really need it. 

Here, this will do the trick...and give you a little insight into why I sometimes turn into crazy mom.  I'm going to watch this about three more times and then I'm going to bed.  Both will be good therapy for me.

Once upon a weekend...

Saturday afternoon, we were watching (and freezing) from the sidelines as Kyle and his team played a great game!  No injuries (praise the Lord).  I'm not as nervous as I was when Nick started tackle football, which is a good thing.  It's about time that I chill a little.

Our grandson Jaden (who is almost one year of sweetness) spent the day with us...

And Hope and Kyle were busy creating these masterpieces early this morning...

We took a trip to the big town this afternoon, where we rocked Sam's club to the tune of $430 (gulp!), which incidently is about 2 weeks worth of food for our family.  Our trip also included a stop at Best Buy, where I spent some time drooling over my new crush...

*Sigh*  It's gonna be a while for that baby, but a girl can dream, can't she?

Upon returning home, Hope decided to make a "baby", using a plastic bagel bag stuffed with lots of stuffing.  Then she decided to create an outfit for her baby using a shirt of hers that she has outgrown...

And now....it's late and I have to get to bed.  Every night I say that I'm going to go to bed early, and every night I don't.  That is all.

What is my PROBLEM???

GAH!  There are a plethora of directions I could take with an open ended question like that, I know.  But the problem I'm specifically having right now is wondering how I can fit a few more hours into a day.

That's it.  It's a small problem, really.  I just need to figure out a way to reallign the planets, or whatever it is exactly that controls time, and come up with a few more hours.  Heck, it wouldn't even have to be everyday, just a couple hours a week would seem to help me out alot.  Am I asking too much here?

 I just recently learned that "email" stands for "electronic mail". All this time, I never knew what the "e" meant. Now I do. Whew, now I can go on with my life.

So here we go....I think it's time for another edition of "Things our kids have said recently".  At the risk of getting myself into trouble, I'm going to throw restraint to the wind and share some of the hilarity that has gone on around here of late.  Please feel free to laugh out loud, just don't tell our kids that I told you what I'm about to tell you.  You'll see why...

There is a certain little girl in our house, who shall remain nameless, who may be approaching the age of enlightenment, so to speak, much sooner than her father and I would like.  Living with 4 brothers (including two pubescent ones) sometimes necessitates some explanation of things that she otherwise would not be exposed to.  Case in point...the other day she approached her father (with me nearby) very concerned about her brother's pants.  Apparantly sometimes when this (nameless) brother wakes up, his pajama pants sometimes "stick out" in front, so she was concerned that there may be something wrong with his, eh-hem, pants. 

Hopefully you didn't just spit your coffee all over your computer screen as I nearly did.  Vince remained very composed, told her not to worry about it, and she went off on her merry way....while the two of us did the silent crack up that we parents do when our kids are just in the next room.  I seriously thought I would pee my pants.  Later on, I asked Vince if he'd like me to explain it to her rather than him, and with a big sigh he replied "YES!  Would you?  That would be awesome!"  I got this one, hon. 

I typically tuck our kids into bed every night...with the exception of Vinny.  Sometimes I just crawl right into bed with him, which cracks him up, but usually he prefers to just say goodnight and head off to bed on his own.  But last night I was super tired.  I crashed on my bed early and asked each of the kids to come into our room to say goodnight to me.  Kyle protested greatly to this because he was sure that he would not be able to sufficiently cover himself up without me.  I assured him that he could, and since our bedrooms are right across the hall from eachother, I could watch him and give him play by play commentary if he so needed it.  He declined my offer, and voiced his displeasure all the way to his room..."I guess I'll just get FROSTBITE tonight!  And you don't even CARE!" 

Again with the silent crack up.

5 minutes later, we hear him yell from his room, "Just so you know, I'm still FREEZING!"

I expected to find a blue, frozen little boy this morning with icecicles dripping from his nose, but he survived and was quite cozy warm under his blanket so he must have figured things out.  Thank goodness because I have absolutely no idea how to defrost a boy.  I have enough trouble with chicken.

Wicked awesome!

I'm blogging!  I'm blogging!  HELLO!!!  It feels like fall, I have the day off, and I'm blogging!!!  I'm also scrapping (are ya ' a scrapper?), watching HGTV, eating nutty butter & nutella with bananas, and listening to Hope and Kyle playing together...without fighting (hallelujia!).  Is this an awesome day or WHAT?!!  It's long overdue...a day off where I can just lay around and do my own thing.  It is/was actually the first day of school for our kids...but the grade schools only have orientation in the morning and then they are off the rest of the day, so here we are veggin' out and enjoying life today! 

I'm about 4 years behind in scrapbooking.  So last night I decided to organize all my stuff, set up a card table in the corner of the living room, and get serious about it.  This was all spawned by my recent experience at my favorite scrappin' store evah....Archivers!  This past weekend, Vince and I had a wonderfully awesome little getaway in Minneapolis with his sister and brother-in-law.  Besides spending a day at the Mall of America, and thus a visit to Archivers (where incidently, I fell in love with a cricut and have put that at the top of my Christmas wish list), we went to WICKED!  This was my first real deal Broadway show experiece and let me just say, it was a-ma-zing.  If you have not seen it, do it.  Seriously.  Whatever you have to do, go.  Just go.  The music was fantastic.  The set and costuming was phenominal.  The story was intriguing and touching and hilarious!  Aside from the fact that we were packed in like sardines in that old, but very beautiful 89 year old theater (seriously, was no one fat in 1921? Those seats made airplane seating feel like you are sprawled out on your living room couch.  Even the skinny people were shoulder to shoulder).   But the show was so good that I was able to stave off having a claustrophobic panic attack for three hours, and enjoyed every single minute of it.

So here I am with some new scrappin' supplies, a renewed passion for preserving memories, songs from the Wicked soundtrack playing in the background and a few hours of "me time"...aaaaaah!  I'll write more later...