Back in June, a sweet couple we know had their home burglarized.  I remember seeing them shortly after the event and both he and his wife were smiling and joyful and it wasn't until we got home from vacation that I was reading his blog and learned of the tale of the burglary. 

An aside: Now, one of the things the kids and I have done in the past when we get anxious in situations like this is sing this song taken from Psalm 20:7, "Some may trust in horses, Some may trust in chariots, but we will trust, in the Lord our God."  Then, we put our own spins on it, for example: during tornado warnings we sing, "Some may trust in shingles, Some may trust in houses, but we will trust, in the Lord our God."  Or when thinking about "scary things," "Some believe in ghosts, Some believe in monsters, but we will trust, in the Lord our God." 

Fast forward to a week or so ago... Laying down in bed one night, I was not worried per se, but thinking on a situation and just wondering if there was something else I could do to solve an immediate problem, go sleep at the location to prevent anything further from happening, add bigger locks, etc.

It was then, that I was reminded of the previously mentioned burglary and one part of the series of events... It was the day after their burglary, the husband had re-programmed the garage door (since the hooligans had stolen the garage door opener and spare car keys) and was in his house on the phone.  He then looked out his window to see his garage door opened and car gone.  The hooligans managed to get the garage door open and speed away in the car.*

Think about it... he was in his house, he had reprogrammed the garage door, AND YET the car was stolen.

This is a God-fearing couple, they had prayed over the situation a lot, they had done everything right to prevent further attacks AND YET the car was stolen. 

This ISN'T saying we shouldn't lock our doors or wear our seatbelts and this ISN'T saying we should not pray because everything is being carelessly weilded around by God, so who cares?  This IS saying, that when I lock my house at night, I do so trusting that God is who He says He is and He is in control and it always brings me back to God is God, omnipotent, loving, merciful, just (and so much more), and that He will work it for good (Rom 8:28 / my life verse).

So, last Sunday I was woken at 12AM to a police officer telling me our car parked on the street had its rear window busted out by hooligans.** Mind you, I was not happy it happened and our pocketbook was not happy it happened, but I realized that my response to the police officer must have shocked him as I was incredibly calm, trusting but not naive, faithfilled but not careless. 

Now that we have the car back with its fixed window (so crystal clear) and parked "safely" in our driveway (with its doors locked), I had the thought, "Is it really safe here?  Should we park it somewhere else, on another block?"***

And once again, I sang, "Some may trust in locks, Some may trust in driveways, but we will trust, in the Lord our God."

*Their car was later found!  (Though I had not read if the police gave it back to them yet.)

**

*** So you also know, though my husband shares my faith, he would like to find who did this and is prepared to have a stakeout and use the Buick as a decoy.  Any others can join him in this I am sure, :)!

I was retelling this story to a friend the other day and was reminded that my husband always tells me to write these things down and I thought today, here would be a good place for that...

Last week hanging out with some friends, the mom turned to our oldest and said something along the lines of, "When you go away to college how many pet lizards will you have [implying when you move out of your mother's house, since she does not like pets, you can have a pet.]?"

Our son gave her an odd look for a moment and some silence, then he started rattling off the pets he'd like to have someday.

Now, I knew he had never heard of the concept of living in a home different than his parents.  And, I know when it even comes to high school he is not looking forward to leaving his family for a school day.  But at the same time, this was the first time a thought of, "Oh, if I did leave my parents THEN I could have all the pets I want" had been introduced to him.  I know how much he wants a pet lizard and I honestly was a little scared for this new seed planted in his mind.  He's only almost 8, I am not ready for him to move out yet.

On Monday morning eating breakfast, he looked really downcast and finally said,
"Mom, I don't want to go to college." 
"Why not?" 
"Because then I'd have to leave my mom and my dad and I don't want to move away from you."
"[mama's heart breaking]"
"And you said I could have all kinds of pets when I am 20, so I will just wait until then!"
"That sounds great to me."

Very true, I did say that.  I say that a lot.  When they are 20 they will have the resources and skills needed to take care of a pet and I have said they can all get pets when they are 20. (Though, I can see on one lizard it might be when they are a little younger than 20, but I am not ready to confirm that yet.)

Most importantly, I was so thankful to know that he loves us more than his love of pets and that he loves us even though we have silly rules like eat your vegetables, no laughing in the bathroom, and no pets until you're 20, and other rules that others allow their kids to do that we don't, etc. 

*Sigh* I love our family too.

OH MY!  That, is an Interjection.

Today, started at 12AM with quiet knocking at our door.  Drugged up from allergy medication, I stumble in my skivvies to the door to find a police officer telling me our car window has been busted out.  I will write more on that later... but there started our first day of school! Hooray!

Zeke summed it up best, "This was the best day of school EV-ER!"  Sweeter words to a home schoolin' mama have never been spoken in our house!  I am COMPLETELY attributing it to all my dear friends praying for me and this day.  Keep it up friends, hopefully tomorrow we'll continue this trend!

After school we trekked it out to the garden for some carrots and onions.  I must say, I have been so impressed by our onions.  I learned this year that all I did last year for them was wrong and doing things right this year has produced amazing results.  They still range in size from big to small, but their flavor is unmatched by anything I have gotten at the store.  Yummy!

Here's our boy (who writes his own fashion codes, :)!) ...

Then, the kids saw that the brussel sprouts were ready for harvesting and wa-la, smiles and brussel sprouts... who knew!

Let's see what happens at 12AM tonight!  If tomorrow goes like today, I am not worried at all.

Our group of friends noticed a common thread of wanting to eat healthy... and knowing it'll taste good... and, let's face it, be inexpensive.  We started this discussion over email and are now trying to turn it into a useable format, ie Lovely Ladies Dish on the Dish. 

We don't want to be controlled by the food we eat or have it be our major priority in our lives.  We want God, our husband and kid(s) to be our top priorities.  If this (or other distraction thing: tv, olympics, etc.) becomes too big a distraction for any of us, I pray we notice it and take a few steps back and focus on the things that truly matter. 

We do however, want to be wise (and not live in fear) with our bodies (and our families bodies), our time and our budgets (we have been blessed with).

Truth be told, it's new and under construction and an experiment in progress... what fun! 

(And maybe if this works and serves a good purpose, we can get switched to Markup Factory, hooray!)

Connecting three seemingly random thoughts...

1. I am roughly paraphrasing here, but part of a husband's role is to cover his wife with the Word of God, teach her and admoish her, love her as Christ loves His church. 
2. Again roughly paraphrasing, listening to a teaching yesterday about the Holy Spirit's work in our lives can show itself in (he had 5 points) one of them being a spirit of gratefulness and thankfullness.
3. I have an amazing husband.

Today, about to leave for the garden, I was kind of bummed and really didn't want to go because it has been taken over by weeds, creepy crawly insects, bunnies, blight, etc.  I was expressing this to Josh before heading out and he gently and lovingly brought me back to a spirit of gratefulness and thankfulness with simple words of Truth. 

Wo/man, did that do my soul good!  It took me out of a pit of destruction and into a spirit of thankfulness and a wonderful commune with God.  It also made me thankful, once again, for the amazing man God has given me that knows what to say to encourage me in a path of righteousness, not grumpiness.

And then, this is what I brought home...

First off, this is amazing and it is downright s-t-u-p-i-d for me to complain here.  (If only you could see how deep each of the bowls are!)  Second, this does not count all the frozen veggies still in my freezer, the countless tubs of salsa in the freezer and in our tummies, and the countless meals I have already made.  Third, this does not include the onions or carrots we harvested and all the hundreds of everything that still remains waiting to be picked.  I may have lost the battle with the beans, zucchini, corn, cucumbers & edamame, but really, I have so much to be thankful for this garden!

Hmmm... just so you know, regarding the whole crashing van into garage thing, worrying, being grumpy, etc... I do have a lot of joyful times as well, I tend to learn a lot from my mistakes so I write them out here.  (I keep most of the joyful goody-goody stuff in a seperate offline journal, :)!)

Did your parents have rules that you never understood as a child, but now, if you were to think about them you'd say, "Yep, that makes sense?"

I tried to explain that fact to our oldest son the other day as he was asking me why we had so many "strange" rules... so I explained to him when I was a child we had all kinds of "strange" rules...

1. No using the front door - ever
2. No shoes in the house - ever
3. No food in the living room - ever
4. No rough-housing in the living room - ever
5. 5 min. showers
6. Toss dishwater outside
7. Don't spend any money...etc, etc, etc.

(I add the ever because, these were the strictest of rules imagineable and ones that you wouldn't dare break... unless you were home alone from school and then after breaking said rules you'd clean like mad to hide all evidence... sorry Mom!)

Now, as an adult, I understand all these rules and they make perfect sense... back door saves wear on the nice carpet by front door, shoes are dirty, food always ends up in cushions, couches last longer when not jumped on, water saved, less liquid in septic tank, and good money management.  All logical.

It is my turn to have the "strange" rules and my favorite... No laughing in the bathroom.

Why?  When laughing in the bathroom occurs, accidents happen, water gets spilled or, as was the case a little while ago... toothbrushes end up in the toilet. 

One kid starts getting goofy, the other follows suit, the giggles commence, things start getting thrown and wa-la, the open toilet lid (another rule that was broken in the course of the goofiness) makes a perfect basketball hoop for your brother's toothbrush.  Laughing can take place other places, but not in the bathroom.

"Stranger" rules have been broken, my son... just imagine what rules you'll create someday.

Today, was almost one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.... almost.

It all started with a brilliant idea to go to the beach - 94 degrees out, 105 heat index, perfect beach day.  All loaded and ready to go, I start to pull the van out of the garage... SCREEEEECCCCHHHH, CRAAASSSSSHHH, CHHUUUUNNNCCCK!!!!!!!

That was the sound of me crashing my van into the 1/2 open garage door... needless-to-say, I busted the garage door and scratched up the van something nice too.  The garage door was stuck about 4' open and wouldn't budge.

Slightly daunted, I begin working to fix the broken garage door, hammering out the metal frame, having a child crying/fussing around me because they want to go to the beach, another child running to bring me tools, and another child singing me songs that it is going to be all right.  At this same time, the mail lady comes and the kids rush to get the mail from her and hand it to me while I have a crowbar in one hand and a hammer in the other.  Me, in my brilliance, toss the mail ON TOP OF the van.

The mom responsibility of the fussiness takes priority over fixing the door.  Then, during that, Miriam steps on an old 80's earring of mine and the whole thing goes in her foot and gets stuck.  Then, I have to call our doctor and find out if her tetnus is up to date.  Then, double checking everyone's hearts/attitudes to make sure we're all ok.  Then, we go back to fixing the garage door... it works, dented/askew but works.

For some crazy, next move of brilliance, I decide we should still head to the beach.  After an hour there it strikes me like a bolt of lightning - I left the mail ON TOP OF the van when I pulled out of the driveway. AHHHH!  In our current day of ID theft and knowing we had some important stuff in the stack, I was getting worried, very worried.

To calm down before we left the beach I was praying the mail would be safe, but I also pulled out my bible to read because I needed truth.  It was the story of King Josiah and the final kings before exile to Babylon and then God calling them back to Isreal.  I was comforted by these stories in so many ways but mostly because of how much they display the character of God.

Even with the Word fresh in me, the drive home was long and I still struggled to pray and trust God and to not worry and not freak out, I grunted in frustration at myself, kept asking why... "Why what Mom?"  My humbling... so wrapped up in my worries, I had 6 little eyes and 6 little ears watching and listening to my every move.  We have been working with one chlid in specific in not worrying and trying to equip them but it wasn't quite sinking in yet but now, here was Mom - worrying.  What a perfect time to teach them how to respond in the right way to worry through mom's example - true brilliance, God ordained.

I started by having us all pray for the situation and for us to trust God no matter what.  Then I began reciting outloud verses about trusting God, not worrying, God's goodness in all things and had the kids tell me some of their favorites.  Then, we started singing songs of truth about God being in control.  By the time we got to home, my heart was calmed down and at peace and ready to deal with what should come next and the kids got to watch Mom step by step respond to worry.

And the mail? Yes, the mail was scattered and run over, all over our very busy street, but we found most of it.  We didn't find the wedding invite I knew we had received, but I am so thankful for what we did find.  And in the mix, I got to share my story of trusting God with my neighbor as the kids and I walked up and down the street.

Though the van, garage door and mail all have their scars of the days drama, the kids came away unscarred and with a honest to goodness example.  So much of parenting is object lessons and the funny thing is that object is generally you.

FYI... for some reason my comments section has not been working lately.  So sorry!  I'll let you know when they are up and running again.  Thanks for emailing me your comments though!  I appreciate them very much!

UPDATE!  Comments fixed!  Yeah!