"I am guiding you on the way of wisdom and I am leading you on the right path." Proverbs 4:11

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again running

and so she woke up
woke up from where she was
lying still
said i gotta do something
about where we’re going.

-U2

been running again.

december 26th found us at our local rec center purchasing the family pass.

december 26th also found us beginning what would be our new daily routine.  everyone goes, like it or not.

+++

Children tie the mother’s feet, the Tamils say….We knew we could not be too careful of our children’s earliest years.  So we let our feet be tied for love of Him whose feet were pierced.

-Amy Carmichael

she’s leaving, my beloved oldest girl.  for 3 months overseas.  knowing this time would come….should come, i set aside some things to have more time her last semester of high school.

the end of this season begins in 2 days.  changes ahead for sure-changes in her, changes in us here back at home.

i’ve fielded lots of questions about how i’m feeling.

everyone has been home for Christmas break-boys went back to school only this week.  and the days have been filled with holiday engagements, those trips to the gym, errands upon errands to help our girl prepare for this trip.

so i let my feet be tied.

+++

every time i run my mind writes.  the trouble is that putting pen to paper is impossible while running.  so i make cryptic notes in my phone.  there are 16 ideas there fleshed out a bit while my heart rate beats fast, recorded in hope that an hour or two will one day come to craft an essay or two that matters.

it’s 30 minutes of untied feet.

something else is happening in this running.

peace, clarity, perspective.  right there in the crowded gym, this one who spends so much time in her head is able to release a bit.

which ushers in a stillness.  a connection with the One acquainted with all the ways i’m feeling.

and my gaze shifts up.  as my thoughts tumble out there is  room for Him to speak.

+++

how am i feeling?

well, it’s hard to say really.  overwhelmed with all there is to do.  carrying a sense of urgency to make the most of this time.  tired from the early morning routine yanking us away from the restfulness of slow days.  amazed and delighted at who my daughter has become and is becoming.  excited for this gift the Lord is handing her.  aware of and grieving my daily failures; the little ones like handing my son a still frozen breakfast sandwich…in the car…on the way to school.  it’s ok mom, he says, and attempts to eat it anyway.  and the big ones that leave me in tears for hours when i should be sleeping. cause sometimes repentance is a long process.  wondering what the latest letter home from my oldest’s school means.  apologizing to my younger boy again that his violin string broke because of my idea, sorry son, maybe you won’t play any G notes today????  discussing late into the night with my man about whether we should replace our windows, how the budget shaped over the course of last year, and how we feel about where we’re all going. which is what led to the daily visits to the rec center.

these are the laces tying up my days.

but there is also the running.

singing ha, ah la la la de day…
ha la la la de day
ha la la de day
she’s running to stand still

-U2


so, friend, what is it that quiets your head and heart?  may you persevere in the finding of it, the executing of it, the embracing of it.  and in the process, the finding of Him, the embracing of Him, the being stilled by Him.

I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever.  To all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth. …Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!  They walk, O LORD in the light of Your countenance.  psalm 89:1, 15

 

fumbling pray-er

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the crisp air fills my lungs as my feet hit the pavement.  the paths are new to me since i’m running and walking while waiting to pick up my oldest from her school the next town over.  i’ve gotten lost a time or two as my mind focuses on the inner language happening in my soul rather than the names of the streets i’m on.

it is not consistent, this exercise thing, but it is important to me.   instead of quitting because of the lack of consistency, i just keep watching for the opportunities and take them when they come.

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and so it goes with everything else.   a teen who wants to talk deep and so the dishes wait and i sit. a book with words that nourish and so i take a chapter when a free ten minutes appear.  creativity springs forth and so i respond, creating a mess in an already messy space.  writing in the cracks.  exercise on car-pool days.  there is nothing controllable or predictable here, somewhat because of the season of life i’m in, but mostly because of who i am.

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the God i love has been distant, quiet, and so my footing feels shaky.  doubts attack  and the unpredictability in the day to day threatens to wear me out.  i have a son who needs routine and predictability and to know what is happening tomorrow and what exactly is a macadamia nut that is in this different granola bar you decided to get this time??   and i have a family who need to be fed by a mom who is present,  and a body that needs exercise and a soul that needs books and creativity and words written on a page.  through the distance, there is still the constant; “help me here Lord,” along with the deep “thank yous”  of the day to day sort, but the predictable solid  ‘quiet times’ disappeared so very long ago.

i fumble through the opportunities snatched to be still and quiet with my Savior, aware of the dullness i feel, i puzzle at the way He is present in all the above situations; giving me words to say, words to type, patience to respond.  how can He be so present and seemingly so far away all at the same time?  i don’t know. i don’t understand this struggle.

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i am a fumbling exercis-er, fumbling writ-er, fumbling pray-er.  just like on those paths one town over, i feel lost.  but instead of quitting i remind myself that the One who sits on the Throne has invited me to call Him Father, has promised that He never leaves nor forsakes.

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and He knows the way home.


 

to draw further in:  Revelation 4 with Rev 7:9-14 and Romans 8.

 

waiting through the dark night of the soul

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…in the early days of spiritual life, the soul often finds delight in devotional activities:  We love to read the Bible, we hunger for worship we long to pray.”

-John Ortberg, Soul Keeping

i sit with my Bible, Daily Light and my journal, and stare off into space.  i have experienced the life found in saturating my soul with His words, and yet, here i sit and there is nothing.  i attempt to read and it all just goes right out into space and i can’t take hold of anything.  i, the one who has been writing words since i learned to write, cannot form a sentence, cannot find words to pray.

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“But there will come a time when God will bid them to grow deeper.  He will remove the previous consolation of the soul in order to teach it….” In the dark night, my prayers feel like they reach no higher than the ceiling. In the dark night, the Bible I read turns to ashes.  In the dark night, words and books and songs that once spoke to my soul now leave me cold.”

-John Orgberg, Soul Keeping (quoting The Dark Night of the Soul by Saint John of the Cross. This Saint John of the Cross describes the dark night of the soul as not just the experience of suffering, but the suffering in what feels like the silence of God.)

my Rock has been silent.  for quite a long time.  He’s not a tame lion you see, as CS Lewis would say.  and yet, He hasn’t been altogether silent.  there have been the middle of the night awakenings, where His word pinpoints and brings comfort and conviction.  The moments of standing at the sink of dishes and being overcome with prayers that bring me straight to my knees.  He’s just been uncontrollable.  and i’ve been thirsty.

O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

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all summer long i’ve been sitting with Psalm 19

pondering what it means that nothing is hidden from the heat of the sun and the correlation between that and “the law of the LORD, the statues of the LORD, the precepts of the LORD, the commands, the fear, the ordinances of the LORD.

pondering that and wholeheartedly declaring as if it was my own pen which penned the words; Who can discern his errors?  Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins, may they not rule over me. and oh, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD my Rock and my Redeemer.

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When the soul begins to enjoy the benefits of the spiritual life and then has them taken away, it becomes embittered and angry.  There are some who become angry at themselves at this point, thinking that their loss of joy is a result of something they have done or have neglected to do.  They will fuss and fret and do all they can to recover this consolation….Their problem is that they lack the patience that waits for whatever God would give them and when God chooses to give.

-John Ortberg Soul Keeping

as i’ve wrestled with this silence and distance, and then sudden nearness and loudness of my God-i’ve longed to tame Him.  i’ve longed to figure out what caused this riff and distance between us, i’ve longed to capture His nearness that i could control it and bring it forth when i need it.

because i need Thee every hour.

because He is my strength, i cannot make it without Him.

as if His silence means His absence.

except that it doesn’t.

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Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.

and so, as i wait on Him in the darkness, i continue to show up with my Bible and Journal and pen, knowing that He is present whether i feel Him or not, whether i hear from Him or not.  and when my deep longings and deepest fears wake me in the middle of the night and He meets me there with balm and communion and connection-i drink as if a child in Uganda at a freshly drilled well.  i join my fellow sojourners on Sunday morning and close my eyes and breath in His word as it is spoken by them.  i receive His living water when He gives it, and flip over from psalm 19 to psalm 37, where He quiets me with; “Trust – Commit – Rest – do not fret”

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and i say to my soul; “Surely the darkness cannot overwhelm me, for my God is near.”


The Life series will continue-just as those thoughts come, not necessarily in series.  i know i’ve been quiet here, a by-product of this season i’m in.  thank you for grace.

to draw further in Psalm 37, 139, Isaiah 40, especially vs. 26-31

on leadership

dandilion

One of my volunteers standing in the kitchen says to me;

“shall i put the strawberries in the fridge?”

“uh….sure?”

And i walk away shaking my head at the both of us.  If she thinks the strawberries should go in the fridge, then just put them there-why ask me for permission?  And me?  Why when the question comes my way do i find myself stuck completely unsure of the answer?  It’s the simplest question ever.  But, of course.  i must begin thinking about how i just discovered that tomatoes are better if not refrigerated…hmm…is that true about strawberries?  i don’t know.  What. In. the. World. Is. Wrong. With. Me? Just pick an answer-yes or no-it doesn’t matter! It’s just strawberries for crying out loud!

There are bigger decisions to make this week and bigger areas of leadership than the strawberries.  And i seem to fumble along the same in all the scenarios. It’s all a bit much.

Driving home i ponder who’s brilliant idea it was anyway to put me in charge.

Oh yeah
It was Him-the One who names the stars.

if you are obeying only when it makes sense, you’re refusing to admit the wisdom differential between you and God.  That’s not obedience, that’s agreement. -Gary Glover

When i’m asking Him to make sense of the assignment, i want to both understand the wisdom in it and see tangible fruit in the outcome.  To get to really see that it ‘worked!’

And this is a joy-sucker

Because there are way too many variables in life to insure or predict outcomes of anything.

And if my satisfaction and joy come solely from results?  Than the lack there-of will suck the joy right away.  And if results happen?  Then my joy will be resting on shaky ground.

And as to making sense of the assignment?  That for me often means agreeing that i am the one for the job.  and if i lose sight of my dependence, then my joy will be resting on shaky ground.

And anyway, the words the Lord continues to whisper to me day in and day out are these:

You don’t know. You don’t need to know.

He’s not asking me for agreement; He’s asking me for obedience….He’s asking me to Trust. Him.

becuse this Trust of Him
is a link to Joy.
To the Joy of simply having obeyed.

How?

It boils down to that whole wisdom differential-
trust of the One who does really know everything.
trust rested on the solid ground of Who God Is and What He has Promised.

For He who promised is Faithful.

And that’s really all i need to know.

tidings of comfort and joy

bench on a street corner in North Carolina

 

tomorrow is the last day of school before break.  half a year of 3rd, 5th, and 9th grade over.  2 weeks off to play legos and worship and rest….and maybe if the forecast is accurate a snow fort?  of course there will be bickering and finding ourselves in eachothers way and the smallness of this house will feel too tight at times.  and at other’s the smallness of this house will feel cozy and just right.  

as we all enter in with extra food and family and time together….

may we find places of rest where we least expect them, a bench to sit on and someone who speaks our language.  may the wonder of it all, the Love that came down to free us from the vows we take and the prisons we make….. oh this Christmas…. may there be just a little more freedom and a lot more grasping of the height and depth and width and breadth of a Father who loves like no other.  

and the thing i’ve been praying for the 5 of us under this roof is many many moments of
      gut wrenching
            stomach hurting
                  pants peeing
                           laughter!      may you have the same??

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came
                  that they may have life
                  and have it abundantly.
 
I am the good shepherd.   (john 10)

Unwrapping Hope in a story of a golf ball

it’s been a long time of pouring out into lives with the hope that they too could come to know the Only One who can heal their wounds and bind up their broken hearts and give them real peace.

and no one has.

the program that we are connected with is faulty.

we want our programs to work.

the methods we use are weak.

we want our methods to work.

our prayers are genuine….if infrequent.

we want our prayers to work.

some of them have come and sat in our Sanctuary and heard the gospel preached in a beautiful way.

we want our preaching to work.

i remember sitting next to one holding my bible-that i had given to her when she said she wished she had one. and there she sat with the book that had in it all my little notes and milestones of my kids and our life and in that Bible i knew exactly where on a page the particular word i was looking for was. it pained me to give it to her-but i knew what she held in her hands was life. eventually she gave it back to me.

we want our offerings and sacrifices to work.

……………………………..

today, this Tuesday Emily’s gathering has my eyes looking for the gift to be unwrapped.

it’s almost 1:00 and 5 phone calls into the day and my joy just keeps growing. The first couple were from dear ones that deposit joy, not suck it away. the other 3 could have been joy suckers.

because so much of what we want to work isn’t working.

so it seems.

but as i’m filling in one of my co-laborers on the latest developments and latest ‘response wisdom’ he tells me a story. and he doesn’t even know what the Lord is planning to do with this story. it’s just a story about a golf ball and a friend and speaking of Christ and how God worked in a way that they both just stood there for a moment speechless. but the current chapter-these 20 or so year later and that friend still rejects the God who worked that day leaving him speechless.

but it hits me.

That is who our God is!

He pursues so. He orchestrates even the landing of a golf ball. and He never stops. It’s back to that story of the chess game and He still has moves left and He will continue on with His moves. He doesn’t stop.

He won’t make us choose Him.

But He will love us to the very end.

oh, our methods fail and succeed, our prayers, our sacrifices. but if we’ve been around the block a few times we know how utterly powerless we are to really save a life.

But God?

He works. He keeps working.

He doesn’t stop.

He promises that our toils are not in vain, and they will produce a harvest if we do not lose heart.

But seriously, there is every reason to lose heart. Don’t you know it too? the person you have poured love into and prayed over and before your eyes on a regular basis is all the reasons to lose heart.

the gift given today was not in an uplifting story with a happy fruitful ending. if that’s how the golf ball story had gone i would be sitting here discouraged i think. the beauty of that story (and if you are wondering why i’m not telling it it’s because it wasn’t my story and i don’t remember all the details.) the beauty is in the way it reveals the way in which our Father loves.

the gift of joy today is the opening of my eyes to how to keep heart. (find heart? what would be the opposite of losing heart??)

how to keep heart is to remember the One who works. Who loves. Who suffers long. Who is utterly faithful.

Oh the Depths of the riches of the wisdom of God…….

I’m beginning to grasp that there is a hope candle at advent and a peace candle at advent and a joy candle at advent…….because of, and only because of the last candle we light-

Love
that comes down
and Loves……








linking up with emily freeman’s
tuesday’s unwrapped

the blog looks a little wonky right now.  i just needed to say that.  you can read more about that  here.



not consumed

so plowing forth and letting God use the words even tho the blog looks ugly now and the text might be wonky…..and i can’t make links work so you’ll have to go back to the post titled ‘facelift’ to see what i’m talking about. but i did at least figure out how to paste from MS Word without an error…..but the formatting is still a little wonky and not how i like it.  oh well.  giving myself grace! 


“How are you doing?”
“all i have is Jesus….He’s the only thing that is sure/secure.”
ahhh, giving a concerned look.
because we both know when a person says that, it usually means things are going rough.

and i’ve been thinking about that all morning.
the truth is…..Jesus as the only rock secure- is always the truth. rough times or not.
and i’d like to remember that

What i long for in growth is that the good things won’t compete for my affections, and the hard things won’t steal my joy.
the beautiful thing that wrought peace to my heart and brought sleep to my body earlier in the week was this. so the decision was the wrong one and the response was the wrong one, and maybe my children will go down the wrong way tho i have striven so to point them to the right way, and maybe in the work i do, i will do it all wrong and it all may just not work. regardless of my failures real and failures percieved…..

Jesus is my only hope. Jesus is sure. because of Jesus and who He is and what He does,

i can rest secure. i can cease striving because i know that He is God.

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before You!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil,
come down to make Your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before You!

For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
You came down and the mountains trembled before You.
Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived, no eye has seen

any God besides You,

who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember Your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them, You were angry.

How then can we be saved?

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Yet

O LORD,
You. are. our. Father.

Yet
this I call to mind
and therefore have hope:

Because of the LORD’s great love
we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;

Great
is Your Faithfulness.

I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for Him.’
The LORD delights in those who fear Him,
who put their hope in
His
Unfailing
Love…..

Those who put their hope
in God’s love to not fail?
bring Him delight.
delight!

Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD
The Only One Who faithfully, faithfully gives

pardon for sin
and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear Presence
to cheer and to guide
strength for today
and bright Hope for tomorrow

Great.
is.
Thy.
Faithfulness.

Isaiah 64 (from this morning’s advent reading at church); Lamentations 3; Psalm 147; 144; a Hymn

 

 

a facelift??

well i was trying to post yesterday.  first the computer crashed.  upon reboot i praised the auto save feature on MS Word and moved the text (again) over to this space and worked and worked on the formatting and decided to add one more picture and when i returned to the saved post with the new picture the whole thing had dissappeared.  as i’m muttering in frustration on how i have to start over again and take out all the extra spaces that this blog software defalts to and maybe i shouldn’t be so picky about spaces but shell silverstien cared about the spaces and for some reason it matters to me and how do i know now if this is a really good post that the enemy wants to block or a really bad post that the Lord is saving me from publishing?  

when my wonderful husband comes over to work with his computer skills to fix it.  he cares about the spaces only because i seem to care about it so much.  and there is an update to the software-so we decide to try that.  and in doing so lose all the work he did a year or so ago to make the colors work and the title work (if you squint there at the top right you can almost see the words).  and some of the text now in my other posts looks a little wonky.

so now we’re looking at some other things behind the scenes with the domain and interface and other stuff i don’t really understand.  i get to try out wordpress to replace whatever the current interface is to see if i like it better.  at first glance it has the auto double space defalt too.  and that leads to a question on the name-and it can be whatever i want and do i want to change it??

so…..

thank you for grace??

and come back later???

and if you happen to have any blogging advice related to wordpress or some such technical thing you can e-mail me at;

mel at lucashome dot net

and yesterday’s post???

it seems that every time i paste from Word i get an error-we’re working on that too.  

in This place?

Surely the Lord was in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it! Genesis 28:16

i come in the door grumbling grumbling.

we’ve been spending ourselves this week on behalf of Isaiah 58 people.

the exhaustion is beginning to take it’s toll.

Wednesday, i was at the dentist sitting in the chair next to my daughter and the hygienist completely lost in October’s National Geographic.  So much so that they kept asking me questions and talking to me and i was completely oblivious with my head in the pictures of N. Korea and the Congo.  Finally my daughter yells out; “MOM! It’s time to go!”  i look up and they are both staring at me as if they maybe had mentioned this already a couple of times??

late last night, somewhere between pulling into the driveway and my front door, i lost the car keys.

still, i left that to the light of the next day and attempted to make a birthday cake for my daughter.  the pan tipped and spilled half-baked cake all over the oven.

i plop myself down on the couch to try that too again tomorrow and look out my window…..no lights.

those dang squirrels chewed a bulb off-now only ¼ of them light up. 

after rehearsing spelling words with my 3rd grader in the car this morning and shooing him off with a story to remember why there is a silent K in front of Knight, i drive home and the grumbling begins to rumble and spill out within. 

pulling into the driveway and i remember those dang lights.  and in my grumbling profanity over the lights welled up within and dang wasn’t the word i wanted to use. 

i told myself it was silly to speak so about Christmas lights. 

i am a complete mess.

last night driving home the words to myself were instead; “i am a complete fool.”

 all the volunteers for this week are looking to me to lead them.  my children are looking to me to lead them.  profanity wells up within about that.

grumbling all the way i plop myself down and am irritated that the whole wide world seems to go on without needing to stop in front of the King of Kings, the Wonder of a Counselor, but no, not i. i am desperate and needy.  and completely irritated at that fact.  (do you see it?  those lies that are such nonsense, but man, in the moment they seem so true.)

and he’s working hard, that infuriated accuser.  he’s giving it all he’s got to keep me right here.  exhausted and irritated. profaning the Son of God and His provision….or perceived lack there of.

flipping over the promise chart-i read these words:

The Promise of Victory

“Who is it that overcomes the world?  Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 john 5:5

oh and those words begin to do their work.

i make my tea and block out the rest of the accusations about how this chai has too much sugar and i’m on December 8th in ‘The Greatest Gift” so i should just give it up. 

I open Ann’s new book to page 65

The only words on the page staring up at me are these:

Surely the Lord was in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it.  Genesis 28:16

 

and i sit and let these tidings of comfort wash over me, lingering before turning the page for more.

(if you don’t have the book-the focus on the reading is Genesis 28:10-16-read that and the rest will make sense i think?)

You can feel it…..like life’s this stairway that you just never stop climbing…..Like all these lists are rungs, like your failures stretch from earth to heaven, like all your rest feels like lying down on one unforgiving stone.

-Ann Voskamp The Greatest Gift p.68

and the tears that fill my eyes blur the rest of the words on the page.

the bugs and the foolishness and the cake and the congo and it all does feel like rest* on one unforgiving stone. 

and today, i need my King to be a Victorious King, and my Shepherd to be a gentle Shepherd, and my Counselor to be a Wonder of a Counselor.  He is all those things and so very much more.

Love has come.

daily rescuing.

daily saving.

daily strengthening.

daily quenching.

daily loving, oh how deeply loving with the very word needed-even if it’s ‘technically’ days behind schedule.

sigh.  the grumbling and profanity** has stopped.  although i would not complain if the neighborhood boys did some target practice on some squirrels.

Holy Holy Holy

Lord God Almighty

Merciful and Mighty

in This very place

Holy Holy Holy

are You,

my Love.

my only Hope.

my only source of Strength.

my true Rest.

 

*He taught me about rest.  I sat in Matthew pondering these two verses side by side (11:28-30 and 13:22) and i did think of blogging on it-but the words have been hard to pin down these days-maybe soon?

** Also quoted in Ann’s book these word of Elizabeth Elliot; “[Profanity] is treating as meaningless that which is freighted with meaning.  Treating as common that which is hallowed.  Regarding as a mere triviality what is really a divine design.  Profanity is failure to see the inner mystery.”  p.69 in The Greatest Gift.
my profanity was actually not in the words i wanted to speak over the Christmas lights, it went so much deeper than that. 

 

Love and Lights on a Tuesday

i wish i could have captured the depth of color of these lights

tuesdays have become my one day to be alone in my house.  all the kids at school and the one day a week my husband takes a temporary seat at the office instead of working from home.  i have come to look forward to this day-it?s my Sabbath in a way. but today jeremy had the day off. 

Sunday his mom made chex-mix.  Monday he came home from dropping hannah off at school in the morning a little late with grocery sacks full of chex and pretzels and peanuts.

chex-mix is one of his most favorite things.  you?d think he was 10 again.  but monday came with lots of work, so there was no time to oblige.

***~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~***

i mentioned Saturday that i wished we had put up lights.  jeremy reminded me that his ladder is in the mountains.  we haven?t gotten lights up for a couple of years now.  we didn?t get to it this weekend.  snow is headed our way this week. typically once the snow comes-that?s that.

Christmas lights are one of my most favorite things.  you?d think i was 10 again.  but the weekend came with lots of other stuff so there was no time to oblige.

***~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~***

this tuesday morning, jeremy?s out in his office.  he was supposed to have yesterday off too-but things come up and sometimes it doesn?t happen as planned.  i figure today will be the same, i make my tea and heat up the oven to 200.  today is a slower-paced day and there?s time for chex-mix.  it will bring him joy. 

out in his office jeremy calls his dad to borrow his ladder.  today is mostly a day off and there?s time for lights before the weather turns this afternoon.  it will bring me joy.

he comes in to the smells of chili powder and worcestershire sauce.  he peaks around the corner and his eyes light up- ?chex-mix?!  yeah!?

he heads down under the house and comes up with the outside lights- ?Christmas lights?! yeah!?

***~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~***

by pick-up the sky has turned and the snow has begun to fall.  it is freeeeezing.  but the joy of the lights already twinkling amidst the flakes falling consumes me.  knowing that because tuesday worked out to be a day off after all and the weather waited till late afternoon to turn and my husband?s delight to bring me joy- all added up to this.

on this ordinary day, of this ordinary life…..

getting to love and being loved…..

oh the joy!

  linking up with Emily Freeman:

 







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