sick and tired | february recap

Isn't that just the jolliest blog title? As I was trying to come up with one, the general consensus about February is that most people are sick, and if they're not sick, they're tired. In our town, RSV was visiting the little ones, including Lena and a few other barely out babies, but thankfully they're all on the mend, just keep them in your prayers! Every child in the nursery has runny noses. Amie has had mono this winter, which means several other sicknesses that have been passed around as well. Other things I've heard going around is colds (obviously), H1N1, strep, bronchitis.... how I have managed to stay this healthy I do not know! Dreaming of warm weather and brighter days ahead, let's review February...

February 2 the children's choir at church sang in our not quite yet completed sanctuary.

February 5 was my dad's 54th birthday. We had something going on every night the week of his birthday, so Wednesday night after church everyone came over to the house for dessert. It looked very similar to last year...

February 10th we had a baby shower for Miss Lena Rae. It was so much fun to plan and decorate, and she got so many beautiful things!

 February 13 we got to keep Jace, Jackson, and Tanner for a few hours. We played and ate supper, they took a bath in the jacuzzi, we played, and then they ate popcorn while they watched The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

February 14 was not only Valentine's Day, but also the day we had our annual Sweetheart Banquet at church. I was able to decorate and plan some games, but totally forgot to take pictures, which makes me very sad because it was beautiful! (In my opinion. ;)) Then I helped keep the nursery and I'm pretty sure all the couples had a fun time. My sister and her friend Grace prepared all the food and did a marvelous job!

February 15 my friend Hannah and her husband Jacob announced that they're expecting a baby girl, Amelia Kate. I don't have any pictures of their reveal party because I wasn't able to make it, but here's a picture she sent me of her baby's little hand...

February 20 - 21 our basketball team was in a tournament, which was also their last two games of the season. They didn't win this year, but came in third place.

At least we won that last game in a big way!

 At some point, the sanctuary was completed!

♥ February snapshots...

I hope everyone had a great February! It sure has been cold these last few days, so hopefully warm weather is just around the corner and will chase all this sickness away! Have a lovely March, dear readers!

Summer Dreaming

The last few days here have spoiled me. Saturday the temps got into the upper 60's and I spent my time reading in the sunshine, cleaning my room with the windows open, and dreaming of summer.

Today it's back to the low 40's and I'm depressed (not really, but the bubble has been burst).

"Sunny day, chasing the clouds away..." Back in my day, Sesame Street was a good show for kids to watch. That's not the case now, but I still like that old theme song!

So how DO you chase the clouds away when it's cold and you pull your boots and thick socks on and your office is freezing and the space heater by your desk doesn't work very well? Brrr....I need a blanket.

To get my mind off of my cold fingers, I'm going to do my Seven Smiles on Saturday on Monday because everyone likes Saturday better than Monday and also it was sunny and warm and I want it to be like that again.

♥ Seven Smiles on Saturday on Monday:

1. Sunshine!

Stating the obvious, but it was glorious. Not that we haven't had any sunny days this winter, but it was warm and not too breezy, and it smelled good.

2. The smell of vanilla.

This is random, but my mom bought some Dr. Pepper the other day, and in celebration of the beauty of Saturday I had one. (Saturdays are cheat days anyway, ok? ;)) I pulled a page from my childhood and added a splash of vanilla to it, and it is an unspoken law that you cannot take the lid off of the vanilla without smelling it once or twice. As many lotion, soap, and candle companies have tried to get the vanilla essence in their products, they just haven't quite got it yet. That stuff smells heavenly!

3. Lena Rae.

There is nothing, nothing, nothing, like a newborn baby. Jacob, Christine, and their crew came over for a little while Saturday afternoon and I got to hold Lena while they were here. Definitely a big smile on Saturday!

4. Breakfast "mountains".

A biscuit with crumbled up sausage, scrambled eggs, and gravy piled on top. "Give me this mountain, and I will eat all of it."

5. Reading.

I guess we should have seen that one coming from me! I recently finished The Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers (a birthday gift from my mom). A fictional telling of the persecution of the Christians and Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem. (The last book in the series is set about 40 years after Jesus' resurrection.) The books are set in Jerusalem, Rome, Ephesus, Germania, and several different places in Israel. While it was fictional, it really affected me and prompted me to do my own research and digging about those places in this time period, so I filled my mind with truth vs. fiction, and she did a really good job! It opened my eyes to how weak my faith is, and convicted me to strengthen it. I've enjoyed several of her books, and Saturday I began another one, but I can't tell if I'm going to like it much yet or not.  

(In case you're wondering, yes, I've also read several non-fictional books and stories about that time period, not just feel-good fiction!)

• Side note: The mentioning of these books is not a personal recommendation from me. They deal with dark times and several controversial topics that I don't feel comfortable discussing on this blog. They are definitely for a mature reader, and because of my own beliefs and convictions, I simply cannot recommend them. I do however recommend learning as much about the persecution of Christians and Jews as your heart can handle. Our walk with the Lord in 2014 is nowhere near that of those who lived in the days after Jesus ascended. Broaden your mind, increase your faith!

6. Laundry from the line.

Laundry days at our house are usually Monday and Thursday, but because it was so pretty Saturday we did several loads so we could hang them on the clothesline to dry. They smell like fresh air and sunshine and I just can't understand why more people don't do this! It's wonderful!

7. Sunday Smile - This thought on prayer:

What if God had a shelf with all the things you've ever prayed for and He wanted to give you, but when the time was right for you to have it, you had stopped trying to please Him, stopped reading your Bible, praying, walking with Him? What kind of things is He waiting to bless you with if only you'd get back into step with Him, increase your faith, and make Him your number one priority?

The Bible shows us that God answers more prayers than He doesn't. He wants to answer our prayers, but the number one hindrance to that is sin. What would happen if we truly believed in the power of prayer?

"Satan tries to limit your praying, because he knows your praying will limit him."

Reckless Abandon

Lately several people have mentioned how I've been slacking on my blog posts. It's not for lack of trying, but rather lack of the proper amount of time that I need to overcome writer's block. I have a lot of old articles and letters I've written saved on my laptop, so I went through several of them today to see if I could use any of them as a blog post. Sometimes I'll run across something I wrote months ago and have no recollection of writing it whatsoever, and it's like some part of me in my past comes back to help me in my present. I found this document today titled "Reckless Abandon", and I didn't have any memory of writing it until I got halfway through and realized it's a letter I wrote Faith while she was in Papua New Guinea this summer. I know it's a letter, so I hope she doesn't mind me sharing! I definitely poured my heart into this one, and I'll try to scale this high wall that separates me from writing again soon and have some new stuff for you. Now, on to the letter...

I was just reading Robin Jones Gunn's latest blog post, and it was titled "Reckless Abandon". It was about when the Lord calls us to do something, to just do it, and don't worry about it. You may have already read it, I know you get her newsletters, too.

It reminded me of Lady in Waiting, when they pointed out that Ruth followed Naomi, and then the Lord, with reckless abandon. I think that's my new favorite phrase. It's so much wrapped into 2 little words.

We do so much in our lives with reckless abandon and label it "spontaneity". Sometimes even dangerous, thoughtless things that could end our lives. Wouldn't following the Lord with this same abandonment be so much more rewarding?

What if the Disciples had not dropped what they were doing to recklessly follow the Man who told them to? Where would we be without the Gospels? The Bible wouldn't be complete if John had not abandoned his net, his career and livelihood, to follow Jesus. We wouldn't be sitting in church on Sunday nights studying the book of Revelation if he had said "I should probably think about this for a few days..."

I have this thought so engrained in my mind that when the Lord doesn't ask me to recklessly abandon for Him, I feel confused and a bit misplaced. Like why doesn't He think He can use me? What's wrong with me? But I know that it's in the willingness to be a reckless abandon-er that He's using me. Being here, putting out newsletters, editing and mailing prayer letters, helping with the 3 camps and working in the nursery, is me getting more accomplished for the work of God than I could in a third world country. It's in His calling where we recklessly abandon our dreams and wishes that we get the most done.

You, too, have recklessly abandoned for the work of Christ. You've put your life on hold for six months, because He's given you the burden for PNG, which is a way of asking you to recklessly abandon some things for His cause. You don't know if you'll marry someone called to the mission field, you don't know if you're going to keep going back and back to New Guinea. And that is reckless abandonment. Setting those thoughts and worries aside and working for the glory of God.

Being a Reckless Abandon[er] isn't the same for everyone, I think that is abundantly clear. Some of us will be asked to give up material items and comforts, some of us will be told that our dreams and desires are all wrong. And we will change, we will be reckless in doing so.

But, just maybe, those of us who are reckless enough to abandon will be the ones who, when people look back years after we are gone, they will say "Where would we be today if they hadn't recklessly abandoned for the Lord?"