Ladies, Ladies…All the Ladies!!

Here are some of us Easter morning.  All the kids were really probably more on the “too sick” side to go to church today… Emma Faye (’miss smiley’—wouldn’t crack a grin to save her life in ANY of her pictures) All the kids were coughing and had a lot of “goo” in their noses…but Chris and I were desperate.  We wiped eveyone down and sterilized as best we could.  No one said anything as we were dropping off.  Oh, well.  We had a blessed time at church.  Praise the Lord…He is ALIVE!!!

So, it’s late and I’m up.  Why you ask?  Well, I forgot that my sheets from my bed are still in the dryer and even though I could put on a new pair that have been sitting in my linen closet… there is just something about fresh sheets right out of the dryer… so I wait.  It’s a little prize that I will award myself tonight on my birthday eve.  :)  I have other reasons to laden my bed with fresh scents… for the past hour I have been sterilizing my kitchen from where Josh threw up all over the floor…THREE TIMES… tonight.  I am praying that it was all an aftershock of this extensive coughing fit that erupted.  He just did it all right there… and hasn’t vomitted since.  I really don’t want to clean vomit on my birthday… I mean, I’ve had to take some exams… go have some uncomfortable physical exams performed on me, work, be sick myself….but NEVER clean vomit on my special day.  It just shouldn’t happen.  right? or wrong? 

As I surveyed the damage in my kitchen.. Emma Faye needed to be bathed and put to bed… the boys needed to go upstairs and get ready for baths… I needed to clean up the kitchen AND the floor, now… I immediately began prioritizing.  Kitchen floor(will do further sanitation later tonight)…Emma Faye in exersaucer while I bathe Josh in my bathroom downstairs…Will fetch all of Josh’s pj’s, etc… boys watch 20min of Tv while I simply put Emma Faye to bed, no bath.  There.  Done.  However, during all of this I’m thinking in my head… “Great.. here we go…I knew I couldn’t get excited about tomorrow and this weekend (Chris is off ENTIRE weekend)….I started really getting angry.  But.. something really broke my train of  thought.. and I know it to be none other than the Holy Spirit.  Just because my external circumstances are going awry…doesn’t mean my internal ones have to.  I can’t choose my external encounters… but I can choose my internal ones.  Can I still have a blessed birthday amidst vomit, coughing children, endless home tasks that need to be accomplished, tiresome husband?  Yes.  Yes because Christ is ”able” to make it happen. “Now to him who is able…” Jude 1 :24.  I love that my birthday falls on Good Friday this year.  I don’t think it ever has before.  My WORD!!!…I can clean vomit….CHRIST DIED to embody…MY sin…He sort of had to actually WEAR my vomit, if you want to know the truth…and the stench of that I KNOW was far worse than anything I experienced tonight.  So, I will have a great birthday.  I already know… because I have decided it that way… I have decided to center my thoughts on Him and all of my blessings.  I have so much to be thankful for…really I do.  

oh…dryer stopped…alas…sweet sleep!!  night-night! (as we say in our house)

“…He’s got you and me, Josh… in His Hands….He’s got the whole world in His hands…”

We spent pretty much the majority of our morning in the dr’s office today.  Praise the Lord that Chris was home and could keep the other two kids while I took Josh.  He’s been limping.. running fever… having this crazy cough..saying that it hurts to breath… AND last night when I sat him on the couch instead of his little rocking chair directly in front of the TV.. he said, “but I can’t see the TV, Mommy!!”  I was sort of like… ok, that’s it…we are going to the Dr. today.  We were in the room and Josh kept wanting me to sing “He’s got the Whole world in His hands”.  As I was softly singing those words above, I started getting a little teary-eyed.  I have to say… I was nervous at this appt.  Limping.. fever… those just aren’t good things… anyway…I wish I could see the world as always in His hands.  He is always holding us. 

Josh seems to be fine… but he failed his little eye test.  We are being referred to a specialist(I say that because right now I can’t spell the name of an eye dr…:)   Anyway… I’m  a little nervous about that, too.  We don’t know the extensive “damage”… but something isn’t aligning right in his eyes.  I have to say… I didn’t go to pieces… but I cried.  We want our children to be perfect.  Much more… we don’t want them to have to go through anything difficult.  I remember thinking after Chris told me that he possibly could have to wear an eye patch.. “well, I’m not sending him to preschool this year.. because those kids will “kill” him with mean comments.”  And I cried again.  I so want to protect my children from…..”life”.  But I must trust my Lord in everything…..for He truly has our best in mind… and there is nothing that is out of his sovereignty.  He’s got all of us firmly in His hands.  ……for “He’s got the whole world in His hands.”

“……A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart……”  Ecclesiastes 4:12

We live on a very unique street.  My neighbor continues to refer to it as ‘Mayberry’.  And honestly, she’s right!  I felt like I was in ‘bizarro’ land when we moved here and everyone came by to introduce themselves.  I was not used to that where we lived in Charleston.  Maybe that’s how it is once you live in a neighborhood…I don’t know.  I know that this was far different from anything I had ever been a part of.  My children learned the ropes quickly.  No one is able to come within “eye” shot of them without getting a “HEY!” (in the most southern draw possible)..and if they know your name… you best believe you are going to get a “Hey….so and so!”  My friendly little Josh waves at every car as it passes us on the corner.  I remember meeting Gina (my neighbor and DEAR friend in Birmingham) for the first time and along with an invite to her son’s birthday party coming up… she said, “let us know what we can do to help….’cause that’s what we do on this street… we all sort of take care of each other.”  Lately I’ve had on my heart the issue of community.  Our pastor preached a little on it this past Sunday, Beth Moore addressed it much in our study on the Psalms of Ascent, and just last night Chris and I were discussing our roles in OUR community.  I’ve had a heavy heart today.  Am I in community?

These two verses come to mind as I began thinking and praying through this…and yes, Beth Moore uses them in her study… but they mean something a little different to me today.

“For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder.”  Zephaniah 3:9

“How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways to Zion!….they go from strength to strength,           Every one of them appears before God in Zion.”  Psalm 84: 5,7

When I look at these passages together… I see “shoulder to shoulder”  and “strength to strength”.  I picture this little circular diagram.  You know, I used to think “I have this person to go to when I’m having issues.. this is my mentor person…. then I have this person that I sort of mentor….but never let me mix the serving with the giving.”  Never would I let my ‘mentee’ know my struggles… and never would I really ask my ‘mentor’ hers.  I am beginning to see that true community isn’t about finding someone “more experienced” or more spiritual to attach yourself to when ”the going gets tough.”  It’s being a shoulder and a strength when you are strong in the faith…. and then leaning on THEIR shoulder and strength when they are strong.  Do you see the circle now?  There’s no more hierarchy mentality… we are ALL sinners… we are ALL dealing with issues…but PRAISE THE LORD that He balances our pilgrimage to Zion!  Where one of us is down… the other is up.  The other day I got off of the phone talking to a friend of mine and just sobbed.  I was having a difficult day..with the kids…Chris was working.  She encouraged me SOOO much.  And when I told her.. she reminded me how encouraging I had been to her weeks prior.  And that’s when it hit me.  We are walking our faith shoulder to shoulder and strength to strength.  One day we will move by our own strength bestowed to us from the Lord… and the next…He will use someone to strengthen us either by prayer or service or encouragement–but it will enable us to continue moving forward.  And you know what is so amazing about it all..(once again.. another little circle visual)…Christ is always glorified.  Either by allowing you to encourage someone else… or seeing His provision as He meets your needs.  It’s beautiful.  It’s how we were wired when He created us. 

Ok, so I’m going to get really real with you all.  I’m a nasty person in my core.  I mean I just am… that is why I NEED Jesus SOOO MUCH!!  Anyway.. We moved here three weeks before Emma Faye was born.  My world was pretty much flipped on top of itself that first month.  Still dealing with moving so far away from my family and friends during such an emotional, hormonally unstable time (ya’ll getting me here)..well, I didn’t want to meet anyone.  I didn’t want to talk to anyone.  Everyone on our street was SOO friendly that on my –I call them “selfish and nasty Jenny” days –when I didn’t feel like getting all dressed up and talking to people.. I would make sure that we didn’t play in the front yard… that way I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone.  And they wouldn’t have to see my dirty clothes and circles under my eyes and my greasy hair.  Isn’t that ugly(not just the visual you got of me in my first weeks postpartum..but the actual act)  :)….  But I did that.  I soon realized when my sweet neighbor from behind came up to my fence and asked to come in and “see the baby”… that this wasn’t going to work here.  and you know what… it shouldn’t work in my “relationship” department either. Do you ever do that?  Do you withdraw from people when things aren’t going well in your life?  Do you stay in your backyard? And it’s in those times that I NEED my friends the most!  That I need my “three strands.” I SOO crack and snap all over the place out on my little “Jenny island”.  Well as I said earlier we weren’t intended for that.  While on the cross Jesus looked at his sweet mother and said “Woman, behold, your son!”  Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!”  From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.”  John 19:26-27.  Jesus doesn’t want us alone.  He’s not the one isolating us when we feel isolated.

Bless my sweet neighbor “Miss Lynn”  for asking to come into my backyard.  Praise the Lord for my friends who come in through my back door as well.  I guess the saying is true “Backdoor guests ARE best.”  I pray for more friends like these and I pray that I will be this kind of friend. 

So we play a lot in the front yard… no contingencies.  My neighbors have seen my hair in “interesting” do’s (as my husband once said), my pajamas, now to think of it… I’m not sure they’ve EVER seen me in makeup…. but what a comfort to be accepted regardless.  I pray that all of us venture out of our backyards and reach out when we are in need-and reach out to THOSE in need….let’s make our policy the same as that on my street…

strength to strength and shoulder to shoulder

“’cause that’s what we do here….we take care of each other”

God bless you all!

“Mommy….come see, come see…”

I hear Will from upstairs calling me to come look at his poo in the toilet.  Yes, I know that sounds disgusting…..and yes… we are sort of WELL PAST our potty training…(that means that we no longer bestow rewards for using the potty)… but we are still receiving residuals from the entire experience(meaning we still have to look at it before it’s flushed)… and as gross as it may seem… I’d rather look at it from afar than have to get my hands all in it… if you know what I mean.  So I leave my comfy couch (it’s room time/rest time–the only time of the day i get to sit down, really… the kids are ONLY allowed out of their rooms if they have to use the bathroom….just FYI before you start to think that I sit on my couch and eat bon-bons all day….jk!)  Anyway… so I go upstairs…the butterflies are aflyin’ inside… I’m always trying to prepare myself for what lies awaiting my approval.  I make it to the top of the stairs… a bright blue eyed little boy…all smiles…is waiting… “come on”…(giggle, giggle…)… he runs along ahead….  I turn the corner.  He’s now pointing into the potty.

My jaw drops.  literally.  And this reaction is not as an overproduction for my four year old son.  It has dropped in sheer amazement.  I honestly don’t know how he managed to birth this thing.  I would have needed at least an epidural to even give it a shot.  I’m not going to go into any further detail because my mamma taught me better than to literally write about poop…. but there are few times in my life when I’ve been rendered speechless.  This was one of those times.  A very proud four year old  interrupted my silenced moment with “Mom, It’s the biggest poop of my life!”  Sensing that he wanted a verbal response from me….I responded with the only words I could find, “Will, I think it’s the biggest poop of MY life.”

Later that day at bath time Josh runs into the bathroom and says “Poopie”  then belly laughs and runs away.

What did I do?  I died laughing.  Such is our life. 

I just have the sillies tonight.  My brain is having issues today.  Chris has been off all day… he worked all weekend… I keep thinking it’s Friday.  I’ve been telling everyone to have a good weekend.  My precious neighbor brought the boys some chocolate bunnies for Easter and when she left I said, “Have a great weekend.”  She said… “oh, I’ll probably see you before then.”  I was like, what’s she going to do..stalk me all weekend… then I realized that it’s MONDAY.  ok… so nothing enlightening or spiritual in this blog…. just me.  me and my hubs are sitting on the couch eatin’  some honey wheat braided twists pretzels… I think some kind of sports thing is on… we just be hangin’.  ok… I really need to head on outta here….. bye peeps