Living long. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I’ve been wondering to my self: what would I be doing today if I had been living long for the last thirty-some-odd years? What would I have accomplished or done differently had I been living long all these years of marriage and motherhood? This train of thought is the sort of along the same track of thinking as the question: How would God have used me (or my life) had my whole life been yielded to Him? Where would I be today if my whole life had been yielded to…
-
-
Have you ever had a dream plan or a dream idea you’ve imagined so long that you actually hope it never happens — for if it comes to pass, then you’ll no longer have the dream to dream? We’ve had such a dream… well, maybe better said, we long ago had such a dream. A dream that was actually a plan. I never noticed that because so much time had passed and that dream never materialized, I’d stopped dreaming about it and I’d even quit hoping it would happen. In fact, until recently, I hadn’t even realized that I’d sort…
-
I received such a beautiful card yesterday. It was a birthday card — but yesterday was not my birthday — well, not technically, anyway. But in a way, it was my birth-day, for twenty-five years ago yesterday I gave birth to our first daughter — third child, first daughter. As I look back, nothing and everything prepared me for that day. O, it wasn’t the gap between her birth and the birth of the son five years previous — though it was. It wasn’t that I knew I was to have a daughter — I didn’t know that; it…
-
You’re never as right as you think you are — and — you’re never as wrong as you think you are. Deep down, I know this — and you probably know this, too. But we, too often, get stuck dwelling on our dilemmas or grieving over our losses. We get stuck, too, in maintaining our ‘rightness’ and fail to stop and consider our ‘wrong-ness’ about a matter. And then someone comes along and after hearing part of the story, illuminates the darkened or obscured side of the matter. And then we see, much to our regret, that maybe, just maybe,…
-
My husband and I were invited to a dinner at a large church in Seattle… it was sort of charity dinner or some such thing. I don’t remember. So, anyway, we were directed to specific tables with assigned seating. Later, when I would tell my co-workers about that evening, I recall commenting that I didn’t know why in the world we were seated at that particular table. There was a couple, seated across the table from Wes and me, who seemed like they were straight out of some parenting/outdoorsman/selectric typewriter magazine or something. Everyone thing was going along fine, very…
-
Well, I’m thinking that no April Fool’s Day would be complete without first agreeing with the Psalmist: The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” And then, including an admonishment from the Proverbs: He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” –13.20 April Fool’s Day has long been a day of silly tricks and pranks at our house — the one day a year that shenanigans can be played and everyone’s on the lookout…
-
So, I’m drinking my tea… browsing the news (okay, yes, and checking in on Facebook), and I noticed an article about new food packaging. Arrggghh! If there’s a subject that’s really gotten me going lately, it is this!! Less food in “better” packaging for more money! Arrggghh! Bought a box – bag – whatever, package of bathroom tissue from Costco — the marketing! Omy. These rolls were giant rolls = like getting two regular rolls in one. A week or so later, I’m standing there looking at the two packages. One package contained x number of rolls, x square-inches of…
-
Today is not my birthday. Yesterday was not my birthday. The day before yesterday… was. Yet, I woke up yesterday expecting that it should still be my birthday – you know, treats, party hats and special treatment. I call this the birthday-princess mentality. It happens. The birthday princess mentality is kin to other princess mentalities — you know, the date-princess, the shopping-princess, the napping-princess. You get the idea. It’s as if whenever some delightful thing/event/outing happens, it ought to continue happening, I mean, I am the birthday (or whatever) princess after all. I woke up this morning to the reality…
-
I snapped this photo one day when one of our little boys was doing dishes for me and when I came in to check his progress, I noticed the dishes weren’t loaded properly — an error that was glaringly obvious to me. Funny thing was, it wasn’t obvious to him. He was actually very proud of how neatly he had put the cups and glasses into the dishwasher rack. I showed him that, while they were neat, they weren’t going to get clean inside because they would only fill with water, they would not be washed out by the sprayer…
-
The lacy green leaves are slowly appearing and daffodils are beginning to bloom around the old willow tree. Isn’t it an awesome wonder: Every year, every passing season, has its marvelous reminders of the lavish mercy and everlasting kindness of the Lord. May I never take this for granted nor think it not majestic. Passing through many seasons in thirty-three years of marriage, I so hope I never again take for granted my husband’s care and thoughtful gestures. You know, it’s something we all do — take for granted things that are or have been long present with us. …