Three weeks ago a friend accidentally ran over our well and we didn’t have water for 3 days. Then 2 weeks ago our oven broke, last week our vacuum broke.  Each of these happened on a Wednesday night, right before I was to go to church for a meeting.  I had to wonder, was this the devil’s way to get me to shift my focus away from Jesus?  Each time, I went to church anyway and dealt with the challenge at hand when I got home.

Here we are two and a half weeks later and my oven still doesn’t work.  Thank goodness for a microwave and a toaster oven.  My vacuum is being repaired for free under warranty and I have a loaner one.

So the old saying is things always come in “3’s”, so I hope this is my 3 for awhile anyway.  1 Corinthians 10:13 says “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

At first I thought of this scripture more as temptations and bad choices lurking in the dark.  But then, I realized it could also apply to the way I handled a situation?  Each of these things that would have normally pissed me off happened less than 60 minutes before I was due at a meeting a church.  Coincidence or act of God?  I believe it was God.  He was showing me it was ok and to go praise his name anyway.  The funny thing is, when I got home the problem seemed a whole lot smaller than when I left.

The same kind of thing happened today, Sunday.  My youngest son got into some poison ivy and when I say it is everywhere, I mean everywhere on this poor child.  It is on the tops of his feet, his legs, his belly and back and just about every nook and cranny in between (this is a Christian blog, so you can use your imagination!)

When we got home last night his older brother told him “you know poison ivy can kill you.” Well, that sent the child into a frenzy of tears practically leading to hyperventilation.  He was going to die, if not from the poison ivy, but from the pill I was in his words “shoving down his throat.”  In between the river of tears and gasps for air he was claiming to be on his deathbed choking on a teeny, tiny little pink pill of Benedryl.

Oh for the love of God!  He literally throws up on the kitchen floor.  This itty bitty little pill has apparently caused his sudden sickness.  So as I am on my hands and knees cleaning it up, still dressed in my cute clothes from a girls night, his brother is still pushing his buttons.   I’m yelling at the older kid, to leave his brother alone.  Where is my husband?  Why is he not helping me.  Apparently he left to go to CVS to get more stuff to treat this poison ivy.

We finally get the blonde child settled and he lays down about 10pm only to be back up at 11:30pm itching and crying.  We have slathered calamine lotion all over his skinny little body and sprayed Iverest all over.  He is back up at 4:30am thinking he is gonna die, because remember his brother told him he could.  Jason relocates to the guest room and I pull towels and sheets out of the linen closet to hunker him down in my bed.  He can hardly breathe through his tears.  He hurts and itches everywhere.  I slathered him once again with one of the many ointments we have tried.  He lays there and cries and coughs and cries and coughs.  I finally rub some oil on his neck to help him breathe.  I glance up and I can see the daylight outside.  It is 6:40am in the morning.

I was on the schedule to teach my adult Sunday School class today.  I had planned the lesson from Luke 10:23-37 about the good Samaritan who stops along the road to help a stranger in need.  My child was finally sleeping peacefully and I didn’t want to wake him.  Should I go to church or try to get in touch with someone to help me out and teach?  I thought back to the other recent challenges that had happened before my time with the Lord on Wednesday nights.  This too was another test.  Jason went to church and we switched and I went to Sunday School to teach.

When I got home from Sunday school the child was not crying and said he felt a little better.  I gave him a cool bath in some medicated scrub.  We are waiting it out to see what to do next.

Poison ivy is so much like the temptations we are faced with in life each day.  We may not even know we are in it and don’t notice it because we have grown accustomed to it in our society.  But once it is on us, it spreads until it takes us over.  And God is faithful, he will always give us a way out, but we have too look for it.  It might be in the form of a cold, medicated bath.  God never said the way out would be easy.

So be mindful of who and what you surround yourself with.  And remember “He answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and will all your mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27.

Be kind.

 

When life throws you a curve ball, how do you react?  Normally, I can keep it together and know that God is in charge and it is his will.  Last night we received a major curve ball that rocked our family to its core.

We were driving home from tutoring for one child and in the car celebrating the great day the other child had at school.  We were talking about building a dog bathtub in our new garage for our girls.  As I pulled into the driveway, the car behind me was pretty close.  I was halfway up the drive when I saw Jason dashing towards me, as I rolled down my window he flew past.  I heard it then.  I heard the cries of my sweet, Slinky dog.  She had been hit by the car behind me and was in the road.  Jason picked her up and ran to the garage.  The boys were going crazy.  Warren was sprinting down the road yelling at that car (it never stopped) and Tanner was standing at the road crying hysterically.  I was still in the van, trying to process what was happening.

I started calling our vet, then another vet, then the 24-hour emergency animal hospital.  They told me to bring her right in.

I could not get my seats folded down in my van.  Jason was yelling at me.  I was yelling at the boys to get in the house and get the other dogs in the house.  Then I realized we had one dog still in the van as she had rode with us to tutoring.

My mind flashed back 30 minutes.  I almost took Slinky with us.  But instead put her in her crate.  I know it was God’s will, but I can’t help but think “what-if”.

I called my Mother-In-Law and was almost shouting at her we had an emergency and needed her now to be with the boys.  I don’t even recall if she spoke on the phone.

We got Slinky loaded in my van and Jason crawled into the back with her.  I knew my MIL would be at our house soon, so we left and headed to the hospital.

I cried the whole way there.  Once we got there, they staff brought out a cart and lifted my crying dog from my husband.  I remember the woman, gently pulled a towel over her face as they wheeled her away from us.  Bless the hearts of these workers who deal with such tragedy, unfortunately on a somewhat regular basis.

They took me and Jason into a room and asked us some questions about what had happened.

When the vet came in he shared he had done some x-ray’s and she had plenty broken.  They were giving her fluids and a heavy dose of pain meds to make her comfortable.  We were not there too long.  Obviously she had to stay.  He promised to call me if her condition worsened overnight.  He said the next hours were very critical.  It was about 7:50pm when we left to go home.

We were feeling somewhat hopeful on the drive home.  Yes, she would need to undergo a few surgeries, but we were hopeful she would come home.  We prayed.

At 9:31pm, my phone rang.  It was the the animal hospital,  We had a 20 minute conversation about how her condition had significantly worsened in  short period of time.  We had some options.  The best option seemed to be to say goodbye to our beloved little Slinkers.

I told the vet I wanted to be there and would get dressed and drive there.  I got there about 10:20pm and they brought me to a room where she waited for me.  Her front right leg was wrapped in a splint and she was heavily sedated.  She was laying on a warm and cozy pallet of fleece blankets.  I crawled to the cold, tile floor and laid beside her.  I told her Sadie and Chelsea and my Pap would be waiting in Heaven for her and that she would love them.  I promised her Jesus and my Pap would take wonderful care of her until she saw me again.

While I was in there laying on the floor with her a dear friend of mime texted me Psalm 147 3-5: He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.  He determines the number of stars and calls them by name.  Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

The vet came in and as I held her she slipped away to the Rainbow Bridge.  I know she was greeted with open arms by my Savior, Jesus.

I got home about 11:45pm and cried myself to sleep.

When the boys woke up this morning, I called them into snuggle with me and and told them our Slinky was in heaven.  The tears flowed and they came fast and hard.  I decided to keep them home from school for a little while.  I had a conference call for work and when I was done, the boys were dressed and ready to go to school.  It was about 10:15am.

I physically could not get up to take them.  I realized I had not eaten since noon the day before and I was practically dehydrated from all of my tears.  I logged onto my work computer and took care of some emails.

Jason had stayed home to work on his garage.  He checked on me a few times and finally told me I needed to get it together and act like an adult.  I didn’t want to get it together.  I wanted to grieve for my beautiful red, Irish Setter. She was just a little more than a year and a half old.

I had another lengthy conference call for work.  My head felt like it was going to explode at any moment.  I got a single slice of bread and struggled to get down one bite with a sip if water.

At 3:00pm my family loaded up in the van to go pick up our girl.  We were going to bury her at home.

Once we got to the animal hospital, I went to the front desk and lost it.  I couldn’t speak.  The tears just flowed.  The girls behind the counter had no idea what to do.  Jason had to get up and tell them why we were there.  Once they realized who we were, they whisked us down the hall to a room.

The nice young lady came into our room and wanted to get us through the paperwork quickly so we cold be on our way.  I almost felt like she was an angel sent from God.  She had beautiful red hair, like our Slinky.  She had kind and heart felt words to say to us.  Me and the boys were all three sobbing.  Jason had watery eyes.

Once the paperwork was complete, she presented us with a clay paw print of our girl in a heart shaped mold.  It was beautiful.

We went outside and the young man who had wheeled her into the hospital on a cart, brought out our girl in a large white box ready to be buried.  He and Jason gently laid her in the back of my van for one last ride.

Jason bent over and hugged the box with all his might and let the tears flow.

We drove home in silence after I said a prayer for God to give us peace and comfort, with the occasional sniffle one of us was choking back from a cry.

Jason’s dad had come over earlier in the day and dug a hole in our yard.  Once we got home, we took her right to her final resting place.

We laid the box, which perfectly fit, into the deep hole.  She had her small bed and a towel in the box with her.  Warren had put a couple of her favorite toys in the hole with her.  Our little family stood out in the yard and held each other tight as Jason and I both said a prayer of thanks for the time we had with her.

All 4 of us placed some dirt over her until the white box was no longer visible.  22 hours ago our world had been turned upside down.

We loved her so much and she had unconditional love for all of us.  I know she was a dog, but she was our dog.  She slept in the bed with me and Jason every night.  She would sit on our laps.  She had a quirky personality that we understood.  She brought so much joy to our lives.

Tonight has been quiet around our house.  Our other girls know she is gone.  No one is climbing on the furniture to look out the window.  No one is banging on the door.  We have a lot of tears tonight.

Until we meet again.  Our beloved, loving, funny, Irish Setter; Sandpiper.  5/12/2014-12/8/2015.

R.I.P. our sweet girl.

What is your breaking point?  I think I might have found mine today.

I have a full time career outside of the home.  I absolutely love my job and the people I engage with on a daily basis.  I started working full-time on July 6, 1998.  I figured that to be roughly 850+/- weeks of work.  Wow.  That’s a lot.

I have worked about 520 weeks as a Mom.  Just typing that and then reading it out loud kind of makes my head want to explode.

I took a week vacation last week from work, so coming back this week it is always a little crazy playing catch-up.  I had a parent-teacher conference scheduled so I had to leave the office a little early today.  Pulling out of the parking deck the car in front of me was going slow and probably cost me about 10 seconds of time.  I was cursing her under my breath, get out of my way.  I turned left onto Wilmington Street and got in the right lane.  The light had just turned red.  Are you kidding me!!!!  That slow car in the parking deck made me miss the light.  I’m in the right lane to turn onto Morgan Street.  There was a truck straddling the middle lane and the right turn lane.  So I couldn’t get around him.  What is with people who can’t drive??  I had a busy day and no time for all this nonsense I seemed to keep encountering.

I flew over Blount Street with a green light and as I was on the curve approaching Person Street it happened.  A crash right before my eyes.  A mere 10 seconds ahead of me.  A shiny dark gray Mercedes was spinning one way and a black Ford Focus spun the other way landing right into the steel pole holding the traffic light up.  I did not see the crash actually happen, just the cars spinning in the aftermath.  I was about 6 cars back and by the time I crept up to the crash I could tell the drivers were ok.  Thank you, Lord!

So that slow car in the parking deck and the truck in both lanes, I guess I need to thank you.  God had put them there for a reason.  However, at the time I was still wound up and didn’t recognize that.

I got to the conference and talked about my child and his year.  I am constantly seeing people post on Facebook (which you know I love) about how smart their kid is!  I read things about their kid being so smart that school is no longer a challenge and I hear people talking about how the teacher says that kid could teach the class.  Well, I’ll be honest, I’m happy for your kid (sort of.)  I guarantee if that was the case with my kids I would have it blasted all over Facebook too and have a car filled with bumper stickers.

I have been struggling lately with my kids and their academics.  However, if you know their dad and his attention span….   Just kidding, no, not really!

My kids are not those super smart kids.  Now, don’t get me wrong, they are smart, but give about 0% effort for the most part when it comes to school.  And to be completely fair, just 1 of my kids gives 0% effort.  The other one works pretty daggone hard.  As I was talking to my mom on the phone tonight telling her about the conference she almost yelled, “Welcome to my world!  You and your brother didn’t give a s#%t about education!”  Yep, she cussed at me.  And I called her out in my blog!

That was an “ah-ha” moment for me with parenting.  What goes around comes around sometimes ten-fold.  I’m burning the candle at both ends.  Tonight one kid had soccer, another kid had church and we had a parent social for school.  I was determined to figure out a way to get it all done.  When I walked in the door from work, I looked around my house.  It looked horrific, dishes piled higher than the sink, the empty crockpot sat on our counter that was supposed to be holding our dinner for tonight and my house smelled like a dirty dog kennel and pre-teen butt.  It took all I had to not burst into tears in front of the babysitter.

As I walked to the next room it became clear one of the dogs had some books for a snack.  Again.  And by the time I got to the bedrooms it appeared as if a bomb had gone off and no one survived.  Toys, clothes, towels and bedsheets littered the floor. Did we quit making our beds and quit using the laundry baskets?  The bathroom floor in the boys bath looked as if it could crash into the crawl space at any given moment.

Still in my dress I tackled the first pile of laundry as a tear slid done my face.  I could’t do it anymore.  I was exhausted.  I wanted to go to sleep.  It was 5:02pm.  I could hear the iPad dinging with some game with the kid who was here (the other was a soccer thanks to our awesome sitter who drives!)

I asked him if his home work was done and to get off the iPad and read a book.  I know I didn’t say it that nicely, however.  I got the load of laundry going and when I came back through the family room and heard that iPad ding that was it.  My breaking point.  Nice Mommy was gone.

Get off your butt and help around here!  Am I the only one who can see and smell?  I might have to move if it doesn’t get better.  He got the dishwasher unloaded while I decided it was a good time to declutter the cup and glass cabinet!  Look out, I’m throwing crap away!

As I’m pulling cups out of the cabinet it hit me, literally, a cup fell out and hit me in the head.  I’ve not opened my Bible in more than a week.  Sure, I’ve touched it, picked it up, put it back down, but I’ve not opened it to see those words that I so desperately needed today.  I also realized I had not written in my prayer journal in over a week.

The Holy Spirit sometimes has to smack you in the face with a cup.  I needed a good smack in the face today too.  Bible is open and words are in the prayer journal.  God has promised he will be faithful to us.  Why do I have such a hard time being faithful back?  Psalm 34:4 says “I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”

I cried today and I’m sorry I made my kid cry.  I am thankful I know Jesus and the joy he brings to our lives.  I was not living a Godly example for my child today and for that I pray I am forgiven.  We did miss church tonight and we did miss the parent social.  But that’s ok.  We need to remember what our true purpose is here on earth.  Psalm 89:1 tells it well “I will sing about the Lord’s faithful love forever; I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations with my mouth.”

P.S.  Because there is always more to our story… If you drove by tonight our dog did NOT get hit by a car.  She got hit by the golf cart and all is well now!  Always adds to the excitement on our corner when we lay in the front yard.

I love Facebook.  I do.  Really.  For a lot of reasons.  I’ve lived in 4 states and 3 counties over my life and have befriended people across the globe.  Facebook is a great way to connect with one of my dearest friends in Chile, my college roommates who live in Chicago, high school friends who are living in Singapore or the missionaries I met at church who are in Kenya and my best girls right here in my neighborhood!

Not only can you connect with friends but can also connect with groups that have things in common with you.  Often my top posts are something with “Disney” in it and something with “Setter” in it!  One of the Facebook sites I frequent is Save Our Setters Rescue.  I love seeing the stories of the rescued Irish Setters and the good life they are now living.    One day they had a note on there or their website that said something like “please foster!”  It seemed they were running low on foster homes when a setter was found in a shelter or in need of a foster for some other reason.  So I clicked the link and scanned the application.  It seemed pretty straight forward.  I started to fill it out while watching “House Hunters” on HGTV and clicked submit without a second thought.

A few days later I got an email from Save Our Setters saying we had been approved to be a foster home.  Awesome!

That was the last I heard from them and that was months ago.  Well, a couple of weeks ago I was at work and picked up my phone to check my email.  I get a ton of junk email and I was swiping to delete a bunch of emails.  I stopped when I saw the subject line.  The email was  from a name I did not recognize, but the subject caught my eye.  “Save Our Setters possible foster.”  What?  What did that mean?  The email was short.  Three sentences.  Was I interested?  She was a senior Irish Setter and they didn’t have much information beyond that.

The next day I got another email and they had a little more info.  The dog was at the Pitt County Animal Shelter as a stray, about an hour and a half from me.  The stray hold would be up the next day and they could release her to the SOS Rescue.  Oh my goodness.  My heart was racing.  No way would Jason agree to this.  He still gives me a hard time for bringing home dog #3.

I ran it by him during a quick phone call and he did not say “No.”  That night we ate Wednesday night dinner at church and I showed him her picture and shared what little info I had.  I told him the main reason to foster was to get her out of the shelter and we would have her about 2-4 weeks before the adoption process started.  He said “go get her.”  I about jumped in the car right there and then!

God works through us all in such different ways.  I adore Irish Setters and have my entire life.  Was this God’s work?  I wasn’t sure.

Friday afternoon I took off with the boys in tow to get to the Pitt County Animal Shelter before they closed at 5:00pm.  I had grabbed some old sheets and towels from home and put the back seats of my van down making a nice soft area for her to lay on the way home.  I prayed the whole way there.  What if she wasn’t good with my other 3 dogs or worse yet, what if she snapped at my kids?  Was I making a mistake?  I was nearly sick at my stomach with worry over this.

Once we got there, the staff was ready for us and SOS had taken care of all the paper work.  I gave the animal control officer the collar and leash we brought for her and he disappeared behind closed doors.  Shortly he emerged, leading a beautiful, white-faced Irish Setter with the biggest brown eyes.  She had strands of drool coming from both sides of her mouth but seemed to dance with the excitement of seeing us.  I asked if we could have a few moments with her before we got in the car to head the hour and half back to Raleigh.

The animal control officer led us to the back of the building to a small fenced in puppy area we were welcome to use as long as we needed.  There we learned she could sit, shake and stay.  She loved to play fetch with the tennis ball and her tail would not stop wagging.

While talking with the animal control officer, I learned more of “Ruby’s” story.  That’s what they had been calling her at the shelter.

Ruby had a short known history.  On September 9th a woman called AC from a remote part of Pitt County.  There was a large dog in her yard that was just hanging around.  The shelter picked her up from that ladies yard.  She was not wearing a collar, but he could tell she had one in the past from the indentions in her fur.  He also said she smelled clean like she had a recent bath.  She had no physical indication that she had been traveling.  No burs or cuts on her feet or legs.  She was clean and in good shape.  Just alone.

She had been in the shelter 10 days by the time I picked her up and no one had called about her.  Someone was missing this lovely girl.  Why were they not looking for her?  The shelter said all signs point to her being dumped there.  That about broke my heart. Who would dump this old girl?  They said it was not uncommon.  What?  Believe it or not, people don’t want to deal with the old, aging animals and the extra care they require.  God created this beautiful red girl, how could anyone throw her away?

When it was time to leave the shelter, we walked back to the parking lot with Ruby bouncing right along.  I opened the back gate of my van as planned and tried to get this 92lb dog to get in.  Nope.  Wasn’t happening.  She couldn’t jump that high.  So I walked her around to the drivers side and helped her jump in the van behind my seat and in front of Tan’s seat.  She got is with a goose and didn’t move.  She was not going to get in the back like I wanted her to.  She was riding all the way back to Raleigh right here near us.  She finally laid down and slept for part of the ride.

When we got home the next test was about to begin.  Introducing her to my other 3 dogs.  I put Ruby in the backyard and went inside to get Sailor.  Sailor is nearly 12 and clearly the queen.  They did great.  Huge sigh of relief!  They sniffed each other and wagged their tails.  Sailor was like finally you bring home someone my speed!

Next we introduced Ellie our 7 year old Lab mix.  First of all, Ellie doesn’t even like to go outside.  I know, weirdest Lab ever!  They did good too.  I let them all do their thing for a few minutes before going inside to retrieve the Slinky dog!

Slinky is our wild one!  She is a 1.5 year Irish Setter and wild does not even begin to explain her.  She flew out the back door and slid to a stop at the top of the steps on the deck. No way was she going out there.  The fur raised on her back and she was scared.  I had to laugh.  The wild one was scared of an old lady dog. After a few minutes, they did the let me smell your butt and you can smell my butt thing and it appeared God was answering my prayers.  Friends were made.

Ruby is house trained and had a good first night.  She had a little heavy breathing, but we all made it through.

The next day we took her for a ride in the car and made a stop at Petco and over to the fairgrounds for the AKC Good Citizen Day.  She is such a social dog.

So now we wait and foster.  We are giving her lots of love and attention.  She wants to play and be brushed and craves attention.

All of us are totally in love with her.  Having 4 big dogs in the house does come with some scent challenges, but I’m keeping Yankee Candle and Febreeze in business.

Go to your local animal shelter or contact an animal rescue group and be a foster.  Just think how much happier the dog would be hanging out in the comfort of your home instead of the loud, shelter.

More on Ruby later.

You will never guess what I did today?  Well, maybe you will guess some of it.  I went to my son’s soccer game in another town this afternoon.  What I did today while I was there even surprised me a little.

This weekend Jason and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary.  It was a great weekend.  Due to a soccer rain out on Saturday we were able to take the boys to see the movie War Room on Saturday night.  Wow!  Talk about the power of prayer!  It. Will. Change. Your. Life. Period.  Yep, prayer.  Simple.

So today we went to church and Sunday School, followed by a quick lunch before heading 45 minutes away to sit in the light rain to watch my kid sit on the bench at a soccer game.  He’s not played organized soccer with real rules before.  He tried out for the team in the spring and by the grace of God, made the travel soccer team.  He thrives at practice and has the skills down.  He doesn’t know the rules of the game or the positions.  So needless to say he is not the best player on the team.  It’s not fun to watch and since he spends about 55 minutes of the game on the bench, I usually am day dreaming or playing on my phone.  Jason has complained the whole season about how much he “hates” soccer and can’t believe I let Warren play.  Oh, ok.

Well, today it hit me.  It hit me hard why God had me there.  Why God had pulled us to the soccer field.  I need to be there to pray.  Pray for the people there.  It was that simple.

Has the Holy Spirit ever spoken to you before?  It’s something you can’t ignore.  Here I am sitting in my chair-in-a-bag paying zero attention to the game (partly because I have no idea what is going on) and I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to pray.  Pray for the guy standing behind me screaming so loud I nearly jumped out of my chair, pray for the referee who was doing his job, pray for the parent who was jumping up and down screaming mean stuff at his kid, pray for the sibling who was having a meltdown because she wanted to be anywhere but here, pray for the coaches and to pray for these little kids wanting to play a sport and have fun.

Luke 11: 9-10 says “So I say to you, keep asking, and it will be given to you.  Keep searching, and you will find.  Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

That was from my Sunday school lesson today.  We talked about the persistence of prayer in our life.  How am I just figuring this out at 40 years old?  I can do it.  I can pray and I can be persistent in prayer.  So that’s what I’m going to do.  I’m going to pray and keep a prayer journal.

I had the opportunity to see Priscilla Shirer speak last week at a local church.  Ahhh… I have never felt that feeling like the Angels were singing and we were lifting the Lord up high.  It was a powerful night.  She said so much that I needed to hear.  One thing has really stuck with me and I keep going back to my notes.  Priscilla said “You create the environment and someone will come, be it the Devil or God.”

I want to create an environment of prayer in my life.  It’s not out of my reach and it’s not something so far fetched that it’s not attainable.

Ephesians 6:4  Fathers, do not exasperate your children, instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

I am teaching my kids to be faithful in their walk with the Lord and to pray.  I want to shake to pom-poms at them and be a cheerleader for them in all they do.  Most of all I want to cheer them on and encourage them in their walk with the Lord.  So get out those pom-poms!

P.S.  We have 4 dogs now.  More on that later!

I’ve not posted much lately.  Not much out of the ordinary has been happening.  So I get home today and there is a light blue, dump truck in our driveway.  Not totally unusual.

My hubs works on cars so people are always coming by asking him to look at different ailments on the vehicles and he love every minute of it.  I come in the house and ask what’s the story on the dump truck?  He looks at me and says “I don’t know.  They are your friends.”  Huh?  What?

So the story is these two young guys come to our house, tell Jason they know “Miss Carrie” and want to know if he can fix their work truck.  Are you kidding??  They leave the truck and the keys.  Who does that?  I asked did he get their name or number.  Nope.

Trying to get a description of these guys from Jason is like giving a cat a bath. Oh, well.

My family be-booped into the sanctuary at church this morning about 20 minutes before the service was to start.  As soon as we crossed the threshold of the back door we all stopped dead in our tracks.  There was someone sitting on our pew, in our seats.  I mentally think, we could move 1 row up or 1 row back, but then we would be in so-and-so’s seats.  We could move to another area all together, but that would for sure throw this rare, smooth morning completely into a tailspin.  The kids looked at Jason and I for the next move.  I had to act fast.  Panic set in.  I lead the way and we slid into “our” pew from the other side.

Why is change so hard for us?  Even a simple thing like the pew at church?  We like our routines and as a matter of fact, most of us thrive on routines.  We get used to the way we do and like things and while everything changes, we are usually the ones that get dragged along kicking and screaming.  Humans!

We all have a place in this world and it’s sometimes hard to give up the ground we have stacked out.  Am I really raising my kids to be such creatures of habits that they didn’t know where we were going to sit? Probably.

So why when I ask them to put the stuff away where it belongs so we can find it next time we are looking for it they look at me like I’m speaking another language?  Are we selective creatures of habit?  I would have to say yes. But, why?

Is it that much harder to hang your coat on a hook instead of the kitchen chair?  My kids lay their dirty clothes on the floor, next to the laundry hamper.  Why can’t they make it a habit to put the clothes in the actual hamper?

The Bible has a lot of insight and wisdom for us.  But do we only listen to that advice when it’s convenient for us?  We need to remember what James, the brother of Jesus told us.  “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights; who does not change like the shifting shadows.  James 1:17.

So maybe, after all, I’m not doing that bad of job with my kids.  Maybe in the grand scheme of life, they might flip out if you are sitting in their seat.  But my hope is their hearts will only change to bring a stronger love and trust for the Lord.  I know they will stray and sin, but God is the one constant for all of us that will never, change.

As I write this I can hear a saw of some sort in the background.  I look out the window and see my husband on top of the big, wooden swing set, playhouse thing, sawing it in half?  Even this thing that was meant to be one, is now two at the hands of my love.  Everything changes, all the time.  It’s called life.  The best we can do, is to prepare our children for it.  Arm them with words of hope, faith, love, confidence and encouragement.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  Hebrews 13:8

And that’s a great thing, because my husband just caught the yard on fire (I’m guessing with sparks from the saw).  And I know Jesus loves me and will keep me calm.

Yes, I think I deserve a medal today.  Probably a Gold one too.  I kept everyone alive.  And believe me, there were a couple of times it was questionable.

So when I started this blog I really thought I was just the by-stander to all the craziness here.  Just innocently watching from the sidelines, not really involved in the said shenanigans,  Well, let me tell you, the last few days have made me think about that?  The last couple of days, I’ve been smack dab in the middle of what was going on.  Has it been this way all along and I’ve just been blind to it?  Surely not?  So here’s the latest story.

Let me set the scene for you first.  Yesterday afternoon I came home from work a little early with a stomach bug.  I wasn’t home 30 minutes and Jason got home and he was not feeling good.  Then the boys get home from school and Warren has a headache and a fever.  Tanner is the last man standing.  With 75% of us sick, it was a rough night.

Jason took Tanner to school today and I stayed home with Warren.  I still was not feeling well and Warren still had a headache.  I logged onto my work computer and knocked out a bunch of work while Warren napped.  He started to feel better and I could tell because he was running around the house.  I asked him to take the puppy out and he said he didn’t want to.  Let’s be honest.  That made me a little mad.  I was not feeling good.  Had my pajamas, robe and slippers on along with yesterday’s make-up and hair piled on top of my head in desperate need of a shampoo and a brush.

I take the puppy out (she is 9 months and is lucky she is going to see tomorrow) without a leash.  Mistake numero uno.  There are people across the side road cutting down a tree or something.  Well if that crazy dog didn’t run off, cross the road to meet them.  I go back in the house and ditch the slippers and robe for a more polished look of Jason’s Muck boots and his Lands’ End jacket.  Mind you, I still have my jammie bottoms in full view.  I get back out side and she is now on our side of the road again.  She is so lucky she didn’t get run over twice.  But she won’t come to me and I’m really not feeling well.

Warren comes out and is trying to help me get her.  She was getting pretty close and even was starting to calm down a bit when low and behold someone pulls in the driveway.  I turn around to see a big, white box style truck parked at the end of the drive.  The dog takes off and is now in the road in front of our house.  The poor guy driving didn’t stand a chance.  He could have been there to kidnap me or rob me or more than likely was there to look at the car for sale in the front yard.

I lost my cool and about lost my stuff.  I yelled at him (and when I say yelled, I mean I raised my voice loudly) to stay in his truck.  I was getting ready to throw-up and I needed to catch the dog.  Then I turned and started yelling at Warren.  If he would just do what I say we would not bee going through this.  The dog is darting from one side of the truck to the other.  The guy driving is really not sure what to do.  So he says out the window he would just leave and he starts the engine.  Holy cow!  I flipped out then.  I was yelling even louder at him to turn it off and not move.  He immediately turned it back off and sat there.  I was waving my hands at him like a crazy person.  I know he was thinking he was being detained against his will at this point.

About then Warren caught the dog and I got the leash on her.  I then yelled at the guy.  “ok, what do you need?”  He said, “I just wanna look at the car?”  You could tell he was scared now.  I said I was sick, the kid was sick and the dog ran off.  He started to ask me a question about the car and I told him to call the number on it.  He said “Ma’am, are you ok, Can I get you some help?”

I get the kid and the dog inside and Warren just looks at me and says “You know he is probably calling the nine one one on you. I think you scared that guy.”

Give me a medal.  We are all alive and no one got kidnapped and no one called Jason about the car.