Dec
27
2010It’s been a long and chaotic week, but brimming full of blessings.
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- Last dreary dark day of winter ending. Hope in the sun shining longer each day.
- Making Christmas cookies each evening this week.
- Epecially the chocolate and pecan dipped short breads
- Someone in the neighborhood practicing Christmas carols on trumpet? french horn?
- Dreams still coming true
- Dinners made with random leftover
- Reading Little House on the Prairie
aloud to the girls
- Bronwyn handing me Little House to read after lunch
- Both girls putting their clean clothes up (it may be awhile before their drawers see folded laundry again. lol!)
- Aeralind retrieving books for me to put back on shelves
- Warm weather forecast for tomorrow
- Little girls staying up late with gas
- Late night time to doodle with crayons and toddlers on wrapping paper
- Going outside for a warm day without having to bundle babies
- Reading books while eating lunch
- Getting my Perrier Christmas letter-Love it!
- Sunshine!!!
- Bronwyn stalking my gratitude journal
- Bronwyn on the tabletop licking cookies
- Aerlind: Mud Princess
- My DSLR and the sweet husband who bought it for me in Feb 2009
- My sweet God who orchestrated my breaking my old point and shoot digital camera right before we found out there were 2 babies in me. We never would have spent taht money on a DSLR had we know we were having two!
- My pediatrician not questioning delaying the MMR or Hep B.
- A Day of Chaco
weather to clear out the winter drearies
- Plowing through a ton of catch-up posts on my new photography site.
- Going to bed early before a night with a lot of wake ups
- A mopped kitchen floor
- A husband who helped me mop
- Warm sunshine streaming in even when it is cold out
- A partial scholarship to the YMCA so I can swim laps whenever I want!
- Frozen meals
- Christmas crafting finished early
- Staining my paints before tossing in the last load of darks
- My ssiter arriving safe
- Sick babies waking up and playing with their Aunt Kay for awhile
- Tears of frustration because of lack of sleep and whining babies: recognizing points of weakness
- Yummy Christmas breakfast with family
- The girls ripping open packages and hand out gifts
- The generosity of my family
- Stuffed mushrooms
- Relatively smooth transition to one nap
- Playing with Cozy Coups and Giant Waffle Blocks on the floor
- Christmas naps
- The first white Christmas in South Carolina in 45 years!!!
- Dad’s famous Christmas meal.
- Blueberry Cheesecake
- Sharing memoris with mom
- A teal Dress for me
- Little girls playing in the snow
- Sick babies sleeping in my bed
- Gift Cards
- A peaceful, restful Monday
Dec
26
2010
I hope your Christmas was full of love and celebration of the God who came to inhabit flesh so that we might know real joy.
We’re enjoying a White Christmas here with an inch of snow. Why, yes, we do live in South Carolina 🙂
Dec
20
2010The gratitude journal was mostly closed this week.
Silent on top of a stack of books.
Crowded out by half-made gifts and uncompleted projects.
Only one praise was rendered down last week.
Short and sweet
1099. Little girls sleeping with momma-made dolls wearing A&B’s preemie clothing.
The longing to go back and re-record the days is great. To whisper thanks to the One who gave it all. To hold that gratitude in focus rather than the complaining and bitterness seeping forth to fight with Derek.
Oh Lord, there’s always this moment now! Firmly grasp my heart now and tune it to sing praise to You.
Dec
17
2010She was tired. After a long mid-afternoon of eating lunch, playing with pots, climbing in a fireplace, and an unexpected fully-clothed dunk in the tub, Aeralind was having a hard time coping with being awake.
Seemingly oblivious to her needs, her momma whipped out the vacuum cleaner to tidy up the sooty mess left in her living room. Aeralind watched from the stairs as she plugged in the machine and went to work. But the vacuum was big, it was loud, and it was most of all scary. Her tiny face puckered up into fear. Tears threatened. Aeralind wasn’t sure how she would ever get through that moment.
About that time momma, noticed. She turned off the vacuum cleaner and knelt down to the terrified little girl. Aeralind wouldn’t approach momma, she was too close to the scary thing. Couldn’t momma just make the scary vacuum go away? But momma wouldn’t.
Quietly, momma beckoned Aeralind to her lap and showed her that the vacuum could be pet just like a kitty. Aeralind doubted, waited until Bronwyn petted the vacuum cleaner, and then she cautiously approached her mother. Swiftly she tackled her mother in a fierce hug at the point farthest from the loud scary thing. Momma kept petting the loud beast and asking Aeralind to do the same.
Twice she extended her hand to embrace her fear and twice she withdrew it.
Aeralind clung to momma fiercely.
Finally momma took her hand and lifted it toward the now silent terror. Together they petted the vacuum and then quickly withdrew.
Aeralind waited cautiously and then extended her hand to touch it on her own. Not one but twice she touched where momma and Bronwyn had confirmed a safe spot and then she reached and touched the base. Content that the vacuum cleaner meant no harm she moved on to other important matters.
Isn’t that how all my great temptations start? When I’m weary, when I think I’m alone with an unfavorable circumstance that too terrible to bear?
But God…
He is there and, though He may not look like he’s paying attention, He’s always ready to drop everything to be available.
But God asks one thing: that we draw near to Him so that he can help.
Sometimes when we draw near, He’ll put the vacuum cleaner away and hold us tight. Sometimes He’ll sit with us while we approach our fear. Sometimes He’ll even guide our hands to embrace that hard thing.
But He is there in that situation…
if we reach for Him.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 1 John 4:18
