Coveting Stuff

Okay, we all know, Ye Shall Not Covet thy neighbors............, but we all do.  Case in point.  We had to make baskets for the Silent Auction and I had to go over to one of the ladies' homes to sort stuff and get it all together.  I knew it would be a nice home.  Nice does not come close to the majesty of this home.  I loved it and could not have designed the kitchen better.  Oh my gosh, I just wanted to move into a small corner somewhere, they never would have know I was there. That being said, I choose to celebrate that a friend has a wonderful home (in which the house I am currently living in could fit in the basement.)  

I have been on the other side, the jealous side, the "I deserve that" side.  It's not pretty.  In fact, it makes you pretty miserable.  Always wanting what you cannot have.  I used to want the perfect big house, the perfect yard, the perfect purse with matching shoes.  See, Satan does not want you to be content with what you have, he wants to keep you so busy working towards more stuff that you forget to take time for God.  When we fill our lives with stuff, we have very little room for change or growth or God.  I had to learn that the hard way.  God had to change my heart about a lot of things and I had to learn to be content no matter what my circumstances.

So many times through the years, I would say to God, "if you get me to this point, then I will have time to serve, then I will have time to be with You, then I will make time for You."  "I don't have time now because........."  I had to learn that first you come to God.  First you serve.  First you make time.  Then all things fall into place, and not necessarily the way we think it should be, but definitely the way God needs it to be.  

So what "thing" has you bogged down in "I want"  Is it a Coach purse (me too a little bit)?  Is it your friends brand new gorgeous home?  Is it that blouse you just have to have?  Is it even as small as a new pair of flip flops that you just don't need, but have to have.  When you say the words, "I have to have that" try to make it about your God time.   I have to be with God in the morning.  I have to read my bible.  I have to fast and pray.  I must do these things so that all the busy times are manageable.  Passionately pursue your Creator and watch the blessings pour out.  

No one is perfect and we all want pretty things, they just should not become our soul focus.  

Let me know what's going on in your "want" life.  

God bless you and yours.

What Mother's Day

So yesterday, in honor of Mother's Day, I worked like a dog.  Seriously.  I had to set my alarm, which should be a big no-no on Mother's Day.  I got up early, did not get my wonderful breakfast, loaded up three of my children and headed off to church.  There I proceeded to sell tickets (it was the last day to buy tickets) for the Youth Mission Trip Silent Auction and Spaghetti Dinner.  We did very well, praise God.  I also sat in second service and saw the best illustration of living your life for God I had ever seen.  If you are curious, give me a call, it was fabulous.  Then home again, home again.  Had to plant some flowers for my mother-in-law, time to get dirty.  Then I had to water said flowers.  Then I had to type up our item list for the silent auction so Pastor Tim can make up the bid sheets.  Then we went out of a simple dinner and then I went the heck to bed.

Did you see a massage or pedicure in there?  Did I go to the book store by myself and look around and have a cup of tea?  That would be a big fat no.  No rest for the mommy.  And this week doesn't look any better.  So I think I shall claim next Sunday another Mother's day, I shall eat chocolate and sit on my behind and expect to be waited on hand and foot.  That is only fair.  I shall sleep in and not take my son in early to church, there will be no signs put up because he is not there and no one will know where to go.  People will be milling about the outside of the building because I am claiming mother's day for me.  I shall have the breakfast of my dreams, eat it in bed and then casually and with no one banging on the door to get in, I shall take a long, hot, shower.  I will use my wonderful shower gels and scrub my calluses and everything.  I will put on my wonderful scented lotion, take my time to dress and then go to church.  After church, I will come home and not watch golf or a Red Wings game (which is all that was on at my house yesterday, I was on my computer and obviously did not care what was on TV).   I will watch a love story involving Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan and no one will complain about it or ask when it will be over.  Someone in my household will make me a wonderful dinner and clean up the dishes and remember to turn the dishwasher on.  I will retire early and read a book until I fall blissfully in a dream filled wonderland of sleep.  None of my children will fight and everyone will smile and tell me what a great mother I am, even when I yell.  That is my ideal mother's day, but with a pedicure thrown in for good measure and maybe a massage.  Fabulous.

Never gonna happen, but a gal has to dream.  What is your ideal Mother's Day?  Share the love.

God bless you and yours.

Happy Mother's Day

So I will not be blogging tomorrow, in honor of mother's day.  I don't know all the details, but I think some president declared this day back about 100 years ago.  If I were more ambitious, I could look all that up, when, where, who, but honestly, I am just glad someone thought of it.  A day to honor your mother.  Great Idea. 

Inevitably, every mother's day, I hear from my children, "they don't have a "kids" day."  To which I reply, "every day is kids day".  They still grumble.  I am going to be selling tickets to the Spaghetti dinner/ Silent Auction this sunday at church, so really, my day won't begin until about 1:00p.m.  I will get  breakfast and all that.  I don't know what is for dinner, I am doing the Daniel Fast, no bread, no meat, no sweets, until the Silent Auction.  I have been told by my mother-in-law that I can take Mother's day off, but I am sticking to it until 6:00p.m. the day of the dinner.  If you think I am crazy, read Jentezen Franklin's book called "fasting", it will change your prayer life and the rest of your life. 

So what do you do for Mother's day?  I find it amazing that we are usually hosting some kind of brunch or dinner and running around like crazy person making sure everyone is happy on Mother's Day.  What the heck?  I firmly sit my bottom down and get waited on.  It's my day to chill out and not worry.  I mean, whatever I am going to eat, it should be fine and if not, I will eat it and smile and worry about my digestive system later.

My funniest Mother's day moment was about five years ago.  It was in Arizona, so picture a 100 degree day.  Scott wanted to take me out to dinner (fool), and we thought we would "outsmart" everyone and go at like 3:00p.m.  We go to a nice restaurant, three hour wait, next restaurant, three hour wait, next restaurant, three hour wait.  We ended up at Denny's on the west side of town.  I actually ordered a steak at Denny's, what was I thinking?  Anyways, the sun was beating into the room we were in and all of sudden, Tyler, who is sitting in the center of our booth, tells me he does not feel well.  And he starts barfing, right in the middle of Denny's.  Being a mom, I catch the barf in his little basket that held his dinner.  He keeps on barfing and I keep catching it and using every napkin on the table (of course, at the beginning of the dinner I had asked for extras).  I literally saved the day by keeping it on the down low, wiping it up as it came out and by the time the waitress came over to see if he was okay, I had wrapped it all up in the basket.  Some other patrons who were close by did not even know he was barfing, they thought he might be choking.  See what a great mom I am?  I saved the day for all the other idiot father's who waited until the last minute to make plans and ended up at Denny's on Mother's Day.  

So I hope your Mother's Day is free of barf and has a little charm mixed in.  Nothing beats burnt toast in bed or a wonderful hand made gift from the kiddos. 

God bless you and yours.

Life in The Fastlane

Busy, busy, busy.  Life here in the spring is chaos time, as I mentioned a lot lately, we are in the middle of baseball season for two of my children.  So add to that the Spaghetti dinner/ Silent Auction fundraiser on May 16th (did I mention that I volunteered to head up this thing?) and girlscouts, the school talent show and the fact that I work and I feel as if I never get to sit down.  

I like to sit.  I need to sit.  Sitting is good.  I stand all day at work and I am too old for this stuff.  Seriously.  Sitting and reading a book or watching a little TV is truly a necessary part of my life.  Yesterday, my total sit time, not including driving and meetings, was only about half an  hour.  That is not enough sit time.  Sitting time is when no one needs anything from you that requires you to get up.  Sitting time is curled up on the couch, maybe a blanket and a dog for comfort.  Sitting is not to be taken lightly, it must be enjoyed.  

As mothers, we tend to not take care of ourselves as we should.  I find it truly amazing that the minute I sit, my kids need something.  Thankfully, they are at the age that I can usually direct them to what they need from my little corner of the couch.  When all the kids were under the age of five, I remember my wake up routine.  Scott would always ask why it took so long for me to get out of bed.  I firmly told him that I knew I would not sit down until I went to bed that night.  Those were the days of constant need from my children.  I don't remember much, except juice cups and paper plates.  All the rest is a blur.  I do remember crying when the twins gave up their naps.  I cried for a month, I used to get so much done during that time.  I actually painted a bathroom during a nap one day.  Then I firmly locked the door until the paint was dry.  Amazing.  

So as I speed through my day, Grant and Tyler both have baseball games at opposite ends of our town, of course.  I work this morning, have to pack lunches etc., check backpacks, make sure uniforms are clean and cups can be found (not the kind you drink out of).  I have to email Pastor Tim with stuff in the auction so we can get the 600 people there that we need to make this event a success.  I will attempt a sit down at 9:00p.m.  But I think I will just go the heck to bed.

What's on your schedule?  Let me know, I know I am not alone in this.

God bless you and yours.

Cover Me.....

You know in all those cop shows, where two partners are pinned down and one is going to make a run for it???  He barks out, "Cover me" and his partner comes up, starts shooting and the other guy runs for it for whatever reason.  This, for whatever reason, probably a God moment, came to me when I was thinking about praying this morning.  Actually, while I was praying this morning.  I was going down my list (if I don't have a list, I may forget someone) and I felt like I was covering them in prayer.  How many of us need to shout out, "Cover Me!!!!!!" to our friends and family to pray for us. 

In so many religions prayer has become tedious or just recited by memory.  Prayer, in my most humble opinion, was never meant to be this.  Prayer is a conversation with our God, who is passionately in love with us and wants us to come to Him.  Just us showing up to talk to our God.  I pray throughout my day, in little ways, but always start my day with my bible and some alone time with God.  It just sets the mood of my day.  It's like my barometer.  Usually if my day is in the crapper, it is because I was so rushed, I forgot to converse with God.  Then I find a quiet space, calm myself and give everything over to God.  

I am not saying that with prayer every day, I don't still have hectic and crazy days.  But when God is in charge, I handle things differently and even really bad things don't seem so bad.  

At Grant's baseball game last night (they won 18 to 8) I was sitting next to a gal I just met last week.  She was on the phone and kept saying, "I cannot imagine that, Oh my gosh."  She explained when she got off the phone, she explained.  Her babysitter, who is nineteen, was driving with friends and saw someone on the railroad tracks, and the train was coming.  They drove up to yell at the person to get off the tracks, the train was coming.  She arrived just in time to recognize her father, who was committing suicide, get hit by the train.  Her mother, upon hearing the news, had a mental breakdown and had to be committed.  She has a younger, ten year old sister that she had to go to court yesterday to get custody of.  They have no real family to help them through this horrible, awful time.  It is time for her Christian family to "cover her" in prayer.  The road before this child (I don't care if she is legal, she is a child) is one most of us cannot fathom.  So I covered this girl in prayer, I ask you to do the same.

While most of us do not deal with such huge issues on a daily basis, God wants all our issues.  He wants us to rely solely on Him, and not on our own understanding.  All things great and small, we need to go to our Heavenly Father and sit on his lap and talk.  When I ask my friends to pray for me, I know they will, and there is comfort in that.

So today, Cover Me!  And I will Cover you.  We are all in this together.

God bless you and yours.

The Whole Swine Flu thingy

So, our neighbor drives a school bus.  She came over yesterday after church to tell us that our high school was closed for two weeks due to possible, I'll repeat, possible, swine flu outbreak.  I am not making light of this situation, it is serious.  That being said, it's the flu and we do not live in a third world country.  It is tragic that a small child in our country has died from this, and it can be scary, but I have to wonder if we are going slightly overboard.  Over 35,000 people a year die from the flu, if the Today show is to be trusted.  As of this morning, there were 1001 cases of swine flue in the world.  Not our country, the world.

Yes is contagious.  Yes it can be fatal.  Yes, a bunch of high schoolers went to Mexico for Spring Break.  But wash your hands, use some sanitizer and be done with it.  I work with the public every day.  A young man I work with is seriously concerned about this, freaking out when someone coughs when paying for their latte.  So I told him to turn around and wash his hands.  He was two steps away from being rid of it.  I am keeping a small bottle of hand sanitizer at the cash registers, and I use it.  My sister-in-law works in the ER of a hospital, she was actually in a room with a possible swine flu patient.  She is not freaking out, she followed protocol and is fine, so is her family.  

I am not saying to not be cautious.  But we do need to realize that we live in a country where raw sewage is not running down our streets.  We don't have piles of garbage sitting for days.  We are blessed enough to probably not have to go through said garbage for our dinner or cans to pay for dinner.  Soap and hand sanitizer and doctors are readily available to us, so are medications and anything else we may need to combat the swine flu.  All cases, with the exception of one, have been mild in this country.

If I can avoid getting the stomach flu when I am catching puke in my hands, I think I can avoid this.  We are taking some precautions.  I tell my kids not to drink from the drinking fountains at school.  But I tell them that all the time to avoid getting strep throat.  We wash our hands when we get home from school, after we have been outside to play, all that jazz.  We use hand sanitizer when necessary.

I think we are very blessed that this comes at a time when we can open our windows and air out our houses.  So can the schools.  Utica High School is spending ten days sanitizing every locker, door knob, desk, etc.  That being said, the district shares buses between schools, so if any of those kids took the bus, we need to shut down those busses to kill it there too.  Amazing the man power that will go into this, not only here, but in the rest of the country.   I guess that is why I don't fear it, I think we are taking steps to prevent it and educate people and clean it the heck up.

Didn't our mothers say all these things?  Wash your hands, clean your room, cover your mouth.

I guess I am not completely sold that this is a pandemic of epic proportions.  In today's instant news society, maybe we are too informed.  I definitely am not fearful about it, at least not in a chaotic way.  Take precautions and wash your hands and bleach your house if need be.  Wash your sheets and air your house out.  

Am I wrong or not concerned enough?  Am I not reacting enough?  Am I alone in my almost casualness of this?  Are you and your family doing anything different?  Let me know.

God bless you and yours and wash your hands.

Cooper and the Talent Show

If you know me or read my blog, you know I have a son with Aspberger's Syndrome.  This is a form of autism, on the mild side of the spectrum.  Cooper is Cooper and we love him for exactly who he is.  We regulate his diet and do detox foot pads for him and all these things seem to help him immensely.  Aspberger's kids are not social butterflies.  Social situations are tough on them and they do not have the social skills to recognize many boundaries in our society.  That being said, Coop has come a long way.  He is amazing and I am blessed to be the mother of this wondrous little man.

Cooper came home yesterday and said he wanted to be in the school talent show.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  He tells jokes.  He has only done this at family get-togethers, but he is pretty funny.  He finishes his jokes with, "am I right or am I right?"  Hilarious.  Or he gives is own little drum beat, "Baddadumpda".  I love it.  I can only hope that the other kids and parents will get his little sense of humor.

The talent show may seem like no big deal for most kids.  They want to get up there, sing, play an instrument, all those "normal" things.  That this even showed up on Cooper's radar is huge.  That he wants to do it is beyond any kind of range I can think about.  This is a child, who up to three years ago, I had to force to go outside and play.  This is a child who refers to his best friend at school as his "classmate, I don't really know his name, but he is my best friend".  This is a child who would yell at other children for not playing video games the "right" way.  My Cooper is going to try out for the talent show and tell jokes.  Miracles happen in every day life. 

So as I celebrate my small miracle, I say rejoice.  We all face challenges in our children.  Some great, some small.  All challenges that our children face are huge to us.  We as adults sometimes feel we know the outcome of them reaching out and want to protect them above all else.  I know in some areas, I am overprotective of Cooper.  I have had to recognize this and let go.  Letting go allows my Coop-de-doop to fly.  He can soar if I let go.  Through my tears I will watch him conquer his world.  

If you are facing anything involving your child, I implore you to pray about everything going on.  "Knee" mail to God accomplishes so many things, the least of which is a peace in your spirit.  We cannot shield our children for all harmful things, they have to touch the stove to know what "hot" means.  We can always shelter them with prayer, love, and understanding.  We are our children's soft place to land when life is bumpy.  

So life is good and I am blessed and Cooper is hysterical......

God bless you and yours.