A Bit About Us: A little about life and everything in-between
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Monday, February 2, 2015
#BLESSED
This blog has moved to chroniclesofakeeper.com
This afternoon, after a fun morning with Lil Man's CC (Classical Conversations) group, we were on our way home reviewing our new week of information as we were driving home. After about 15 minutes of it, my mind began to drift away from Theodore Roosevelt and onto the things I needed to get done today. First on the list, find someone to come pump our septic tank...because, of course that decided to go kaput on us too.
I started to let myself get frustrated and down as I began making call after call getting different quotes...from the not-so-bad to the you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me prices...I heard it all. I finally took a break and went to do a stress relieving activity. I cleaned. In the midst of sweeping and going through the house trying to find all the dirty diapers that were in all kinds of places but the trash, I began to think of the verse from Lamentations - "his mercies never come to an end".
I took a break from my little diaper Easter egg hunt and went to my Bible and opened up to the book of Lamentations, chapter 3. Instead of reading just the verse that I was thinking about, I decided to read the whole chapter. The more I read, the more I was pulled in.
The despair, though tragic, was written so beautifully. I love how God includes all forms of writing in His Word...including poetry. I was completely drawn to every word. After I was done reading, I immediately went to my computer and typed Matthew Henry's Commentary on Lamentations 3 into my Google search bar. I had to know more.
One of my favorite parts of the commentary was this paragraph - "While there is life there is hope; and instead of complaining that things are bad, we should encourage ourselves with the hope they will be better. We are sinful men, and what we complain of, is far less than our sins deserve. We should complain to God, and not of him. We are apt, in times of calamity, to reflect on other people's ways, and blame them; but our duty is to search and try our own ways, that we may turn from evil to God. Our hearts must go with our prayers. If inward impressions do not answer to outward expressions, we mock God, and deceive ourselves." (Matthew Henry Commentary)
The last couple of weeks have been difficult for my family...but not just mine. I have been surrounded by friends and loved ones who are experiencing so many types of calamities in their life. People I love dearly are carrying incredibly heavy burdens right now and it is so hard not to feel the despair.
How beautiful it is, though, to read and believe these words: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.'". - Lamentations 3:22-24
God is good. In every and all situations, He is good.
It is so easy to be #blessed and tell the world you are "feeling blessed" when things are going good and great things are happening for you. I get it. I feel totally blessed in those situations, because they are blessings from God. "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:16-17
I also know that I am not blessed because of good things. I am blessed because I have a God who loves me and is so ridiculously crazy about me that He sent a Rescuer to save me. I have the assurance that He will never leave me, nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). I am blessed because God is with me in good times and bad. I am blessed by the promises of my Redeemer...promises like these - "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18
I love the words in the song "Praise You in This Storm" by Casting Crowns..."And I'll praise You in this storm and I will lift my hands, for You are who You are no matter where I am."
I am so glad God reminded me today of His promises and His goodness. Challenge yourself along with me to let Jesus shine in your life...in all times, but especially in the dark times, the sad times, the poor times. The world needs to see that God is good, not because of what we have but what we have in Him.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Ugh...
This blog has moved to chroniclesofakeeper.com
75 degrees, minimal wind, abundant sunshine beaming down...it is a soothing balm to my soul today. I'm sitting out here with Miss Priss and Lil' Man watching them...just be. I needed this today, they needed this today.
3 sick kids, a week of doctor visits (100 unexpected dollars worth of doctor visits) with ear infections, coughs, congestion and the occasional vomit episode or two has really worn on all of us. Our household has consisted of essential oils being diffused, saturating various items with Lysol, laundry load upon laundry load being done (with an ever increasing "needs to be ironed" pile accumulating as a direct result), keeping up with medication schedules to get over said ear infections, and, of course, I would be remiss in forgetting to mention that sleep has not been much of a friend at our house...in fact, I think he is vacationing far far away from my house these days.
Friends, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have also had our refrigerator and freezer go out on us. Food was lost, liquid gold was dumped down the drain (breast milk), and a family of five is trying to live out of a mini-fridge from my old dorm room and a not-so-big deep freezer. After waiting ALL weekend...we were so excited for Mr. Fix-it to come out and mend our broken appliance. He rattled off what was wrong...I heard something about a compressor...something about having to order a special part...the only piece of information I really remember was him saying it could be 3-5 days before the part will arrive if he can find the part and order it today. The guy didn't stick around much longer after that, maybe it was because of the crazed look I got in my eyes at the thought of continuing to live a week (or more) without a fridge and freezer.
BUT...just in case we didn't have enough going on...we had another little incident. One that infuriated me as much as it almost made me cry. We have this utterly obnoxious coyote that likes to come around every few months or so and, well, pretty much wipe-out my little brood of chickens. He decided to come by yesterday and take two of my laying hens, which in turn led me to Google "coyote problems", "how to get rid of coyotes", and "who to hire to trap and kill a coyote that is killing off my chickens". Although this incident greatly frustrated all of us and made us sad...no one was more affected and angered by this than, Lucky, our rooster (having escaped the last 5 attacks from the coyote, hence the name, Lucky). The coyote took away his manly rooster pride.
He also took away two of his lady friends and left him with just Bertha, who I'm pretty sure is bigger than Lucky.
To say he is outraged, is an understatement.
So, yes, it has not been very fun around here. I find it interesting (laughable, maybe?) that this week my Read Through the Bible in a Year reading plan started me in the book of Job. Seriously, it did. Talk about perspective check.
So, as I sit here enjoying the last few moments of sunshine and warmth, I won't worry about how I am going to come up 3 meals a day (plus snacks) for my family without breaking the bank eating out and only having a mini-fridge and deep freezer to work with...instead I will enjoy watching two of my kiddos finally getting some time outside to play and pray that this beautiful day and glorious sunshine will be just the medicine they need to kick this yucky cold to the curb.
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100:5
75 degrees, minimal wind, abundant sunshine beaming down...it is a soothing balm to my soul today. I'm sitting out here with Miss Priss and Lil' Man watching them...just be. I needed this today, they needed this today.
3 sick kids, a week of doctor visits (100 unexpected dollars worth of doctor visits) with ear infections, coughs, congestion and the occasional vomit episode or two has really worn on all of us. Our household has consisted of essential oils being diffused, saturating various items with Lysol, laundry load upon laundry load being done (with an ever increasing "needs to be ironed" pile accumulating as a direct result), keeping up with medication schedules to get over said ear infections, and, of course, I would be remiss in forgetting to mention that sleep has not been much of a friend at our house...in fact, I think he is vacationing far far away from my house these days.
Friends, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have also had our refrigerator and freezer go out on us. Food was lost, liquid gold was dumped down the drain (breast milk), and a family of five is trying to live out of a mini-fridge from my old dorm room and a not-so-big deep freezer. After waiting ALL weekend...we were so excited for Mr. Fix-it to come out and mend our broken appliance. He rattled off what was wrong...I heard something about a compressor...something about having to order a special part...the only piece of information I really remember was him saying it could be 3-5 days before the part will arrive if he can find the part and order it today. The guy didn't stick around much longer after that, maybe it was because of the crazed look I got in my eyes at the thought of continuing to live a week (or more) without a fridge and freezer.
BUT...just in case we didn't have enough going on...we had another little incident. One that infuriated me as much as it almost made me cry. We have this utterly obnoxious coyote that likes to come around every few months or so and, well, pretty much wipe-out my little brood of chickens. He decided to come by yesterday and take two of my laying hens, which in turn led me to Google "coyote problems", "how to get rid of coyotes", and "who to hire to trap and kill a coyote that is killing off my chickens". Although this incident greatly frustrated all of us and made us sad...no one was more affected and angered by this than, Lucky, our rooster (having escaped the last 5 attacks from the coyote, hence the name, Lucky). The coyote took away his manly rooster pride.
He also took away two of his lady friends and left him with just Bertha, who I'm pretty sure is bigger than Lucky.
To say he is outraged, is an understatement.
So, yes, it has not been very fun around here. I find it interesting (laughable, maybe?) that this week my Read Through the Bible in a Year reading plan started me in the book of Job. Seriously, it did. Talk about perspective check.
So, as I sit here enjoying the last few moments of sunshine and warmth, I won't worry about how I am going to come up 3 meals a day (plus snacks) for my family without breaking the bank eating out and only having a mini-fridge and deep freezer to work with...instead I will enjoy watching two of my kiddos finally getting some time outside to play and pray that this beautiful day and glorious sunshine will be just the medicine they need to kick this yucky cold to the curb.
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100:5
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