blessed beyond measure

My beloved pastor and father-in-law said something in a sermon several years ago that I have never forgotten. Watch your toes. "Behind every complaint is a blessing." Groundbreaking. In a society of entitlement, impatience, selfishness, and general dissatisfaction, Christians are called to be set apart. To live differently. And how different would we be if we would stop complaining? Stop murmuring, bickering, whining, and instead to be thankful for the countless blessings we already have. Because they are indeed countless. Not exactly sure why this statement stuck with me the way it did. Maybe because there is such truth behind it. I don't complain all the time, but when I do, the Holy Spirit speaks right up with this, and it immediately changes my perspective. I'm so sick of unloading this dishwasher all the time. You didn't have to wash all these dishes by hand. They were dirty because your home is stocked with food, and bellies are full. And there are cabi...

Well, here goes the world's worst first-day-of-school blog post. Ever. Days late, a whopping three mostly-crummy pictures, and one mostly-crummy video chock full of one-word responses from my suddenly and very uncharacteristically quiet boys. Seriously, that's all I've got. The morning was a blur. Despite vowing all summer long that he most certainly would not be attending school this year, Trey was beyond ready to go back when the time came. Meet-the-teacher night did him in, as Trey basked in the glow of having his very own individual desk, sitting with a sweet little girl who has been with him since the beginning of preschool, and meeting his wonderful teacher who also has food allergies! The kid was pumped. Our major concern was finding out that the first grade classes met in a building behind the school, which meant that Trey would face a rather long, lonely walk on his first day. That night, as we traced the steps together until he was sure which way he s...

As you can imagine, serenity is rather an elusive thing within the six walls of our house. You know, unless no one's home. No, more often it looks and sounds as if there is an indoor hurricane going on. At any given moment, it's like this. Trey: (the loud whine) Nooooo, Aden! You're not supposed to play this, it's mine! Don't touch it! Aden: I'm playin dis with you. Trey: Maaamaaa, Aden's messing with my stuff and he's not supposed to! Mama: Trey, try and figure out the best way to handle it. Trey: (calmly) Aden, will you please go somewhere else? Aden: I don't want to. Trey: (demonically) YOU GET OUT OF HERE!! a shuffle, a thud, then Aden approaches me while fake-crying with Trey on his heels whispering "sorry sorry sorry" Aden: Mama, look. Trey did like dis to me. (demonstrates on himself) Mama: Trey, was that the right way to handle it? Trey: No, but I need to play by myself. Mama: You know, if you chose a...

After ten long years wishing and dreaming and thanks to some seriously overwhelming generosity... We have a front porch. And it's beautiful. The last several weeks have been exciting around here, from an outdoor perspective. Especially for Trey and Aden. The morning the cement truck pulled up might has well have been Christmas. It was great for the boys to watch the process from start to finish. In addition to working on the porch, our contractor replaced the siding on the side of the house above the carport. No more dingy gray for us! He also chucked the old metal storm door on the front and hung up a shiny new full-glass fellow. And a benefit we didn't even think of is that it is now five to ten degrees cooler in the living room (behind the picture window) without us having touched the thermostat. Nice. Those things combined with the landscaping and dead-tree-removal marathon we completed a couple of weeks ago, and this place is looking brand new. Had the di...