Five Minute Friday: Change

It's Friday. It's another five minutes of free writing with Lisa-Jo Baker.



Change.


I'm not really a fan, but you'd never believe it, if you know me.  That's because the only thing constant in my world, change.

And I learned early on that change can make or break your spirit. 
When the Daddy leaves home for good.
When the job is re-org'd.
When the house is foreclosed on.
When the doggy dies.
When the body is altered permanently for life's sake.
When the kids you prayed for- really become yours.
When the home grows and the family multiplies.

When the relationships you treasure and the church you called home nearly two decades changes-
your spirit can break,  Or not.

I don't like change, but I refuse to let it break me.

Change- is good!

Happy Birthday to Me.

Today's my birthday.

I'm 4- teeee- 5.

It's true.

Nuff said.

Happy Wednesday y'all.

Cause We Wouldn't Ever Want Things to Stay the Same!

Rex has a new job.

Old job.

New old job.

After 4 years of being a "custodial pastor" Rex is going back to work at Superior. 

He already invested nearly 20 years of his life there.

It's kind of like going home.

And the timing is perfect, you know, with the rodents taunting my sister and all. 

He starts Monday- so bright and early tomorrow morning we (as in he and me and no kids of 3) are heading out of town for our later than the actual date but earlier than planned annual trip for our anniversay get-away. 

We're excited.

About the job.  And the trip.

Happy Wednesday (and possibly weekend) y'all!

Meet Jake.

He became part of our family July 29th, just a couple of days after we moved into the new house. Crazy huh.




Jake

We already love him.

Happy Tuesday y'all!

Back to School 2012

Two of my sons home school, so they've been doing school on and off all summer.  But for Isaiah, today was the first day of school.  Officially.  New grade. New friends.  New Class.  New School.

Garden City Elementary- lookout, here we come!

He may have been nervous, or excited or both.  The boy was up at 3:13am- full of chatter and asking for breakfast. 

Bacon.  The boy has to have his bacon.  And some yogurt.  We like to eat a balanced diet in our house.  :)

I walked him in, and he squeezed my hand a little tighter as we neared his classroom and he said, "Mommy, I didn't know there would be this many people."

He is brave.  And so stinkin' cute.

getting Monkey ready for the day 

getting a hug from 'bubby'

saying goodbye to Elijah- who gets to sleep in

and out the door, on time!

having some of mommy's coffee on the way

his classroom, and Ms. Gills

And he told us at dinner that his friend Bruce, who used to go to Burlington, who used to be in his class, who used to be his friend- is his friend in his new class at his new school. 

We decided God did that for him- cause God is cool that way.

It was a good day.

I will not lie - knowing this chart is coming home every day makes me all 'wiggly' inside.

My early riser, well he was sound asleep by 7:50 pm. 

Happy Monday y'all!

Five Minute Friday: Stretch

It's Friday. It's another five minutes of free writing with Lisa-Jo Baker.



Stretch.

Life is moving at a speed never intended and try as we may the brakes don't seem to be catching.  So we try to keep up.

Not in a sinful I want what you have way.

In a -
there are people to love on, and jobs to be done, and meals to be cooked and laundry to be washed, and kids who want to paly and parents to catch up with and schools to register for and God to be served and worshipped
kind of way.

And our bodies tighten and our souls begin to ache. 

So we put our hands together and reach for the God Daddy in the sky, and bend in ways we wouldn't want captured by Kodak, and we S-T-R-E-T-C-H.

And our God Daddy stretches back- and touches us with all we need to slow the pace.

And we do.

Happy Friday y'all, reach for sky!

I'm out of Sorts, I tell you.

Sometime between move 20 and move 23, I lost some things.

moving expertise.

experience.

drive.

energy.

I'm sad to report it's been 2 1/2 weeks since the big move, and I still have boxes.

and bags.

and box springs.

and pictures.

and coat hangers.  oh the coat hangers.  I think they were fruitful and multiplied on the moving van.

and a trunk full of stuff I don't know where it will go yet.

and plastic lids escaping from most any cabinet door in my kitchen.

It's gone. 

My ability to unpack all boxes, hang pictures and convince the world we hadn't moved in the last 24 hours-

that is so 20 years ago. 

Not just the boxes and the hangers, I'm behind on the things I enjoy--like blogging.  There's so much  to tell you.

Things like-

• if you're going to take Pinterest's idea for writing notes on your washin' machine for the one coming behind you to correctly toss wet clothes in the dryer.. be sure it's not the Permanent marker you grab from the kids art easel.

• having a sister who is a  rodent virgin, is, well - entertaining.   How do you get to be 40 something having never seen or heard a mouse before?

• having wide open spaces for my kids to explore, and hunt, and shoot guns (Nerf and Pop) and corral creatures makes this momma smile.

• the friends who keep coming back and staying till midnight to fix holes from leaky bathtubs and move thermostats, well what a blessing they are. 

I look at the mess to be dealt with and just want to put on my PJ's, snuggle in my front porch rocking chair and watch the traffic go by. 
There's plenty of  time right?  Right.  because I'm surely not planning another move anytime soon.  EVER.

But, sometimes great wisdom is found hiding inside a box that's been screaming my name for weeks.  Like tonight, when I got really motivated, for a minute, and found the scribbled note - this quote from Shayne, dated 9-12-04, 8:11 p.m.

"I know the way to live because I do what y'all do."

No pressure, huh.

Happy Wednesday y'all, my front porch is calling my name.

Five Minute Friday: Connect

It's Friday. It's another five minutes of free writing with Lisa-Jo Baker.



Connect.

They were strangers the first time we met.  Two little black babies that came into our house like a storm, tornado, hurricane, all of the above :)

We were a family of three. 

He was an only child- learning to share his mom and dad with two more. Strangers. 

Time passed.

Out hearts connected.



Strangers no more.

And the brothers three, well, this pretty much says it all.

Happy Friday y'all!

Be Still.

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still

Exodus 14:14(NIV)

Happy Wednesday y'all!

The Big Move of 2012

A week ago today we officially began living in our dream house.  In that time, we did not:

move our clothes not once, but twice into the same closets
hire movers for the first time in 23 moves and know beyond knowing it was the best thing ever
leave the sunroof open on our packed full van during not one but 3 rainstorms on moving day
tear carpet off the stairs out from under the feet of the movers we instantly adored while they carried our furniture up the same stairs
get a new puppy 2 days after moving in, 'cause that would be just crazy
sleep less than 20 hours in 6 nights
visit, purchase from and return items to Lowe's at least once, sometimes twice a day for the past week
take advantage of our handy friend JJ and his creative wife Teri
mow two yards
paint the patio
paint the bench
have a 7 yr old ride and wreck a dirt bike for the first time
have a 17 yr old ride too fast and flip same dirt bike leaving a trail of scabs from elbow to wrist
hang cabinets in the laundry room
discover a leak in our upstairs bathroom, which led to a stain and a hole in our new dining room ceiling
miss the first days of the Olympics because Cox cable somehow messed up our work order leaving us without Internet, phone or cable for nearly 4 days and still waiting for total correction
get a new phone number without being told
love on Peanut in the middle of chaos
discover the toad who has lived in the closet on the porch for like, ever
meet our new mailman, Jeff who was hand delivering mail to my kitchen door since we didn't have a mailbox yet
install a new garbage disposal
put in a safe place that we can no longer find brand new wall decals
catch my kids having fun
and start painting the living room, dining room and main bathroom. 

Oh, YES WE DID!

Happy Friday y'all!