Monday's coming...

I never thought I'd be one to wait for Monday.  Expectantly wait.

I've always been a weekend kind of girl.

Since meeting the Gratitude Community, Monday has taken on a whole new meaning.  One that is evolving for me still.

I'm reading One Thousand Gifts.  Her words transport me to a very quiet and still place.  And in her small and humble voice, I hear Him speak loudly.

Eucharisteo.  

I've only scratched the surface here.  I cannot yet speak of it intelligently.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to explain it.

My greatest hope is to practice it.

Blessings to the East

Today, I am recording a few blessings, gifts as I sit now on the right side of things
(as opposed to the left! ;>)

#'s  520-536

Safe flights
Ibuprofen and the power of God-blessed prayer for ear pain
calm, Florida winter weather

a husband that runs out the middle of the night for cold medicine
sleep
mother-in-love's home cooking

red velvet cake that I can eat

the way she shares stories

the sun and shade variegated river frontage
the sound of the owl hooting
the waters lapping
the driftwood I sit on

being alone with my thoughts, but not
because He was there too

Him telling me how some of the things I think that are big, and matter a whole lot,
don't
but that if they matter to me,
that's OK too.

The Multitude of Gifts: 499-519

Sometimes I am silent here, but I am counting in my heart and in the life He gives me to live.


So thankful for:

my boy's mind stretching, now beyond things I can teach.....
the delightful music he makes
his way of speaking truth plainly

my little girl, still being my "little" girl
her passion for life
how she takes such joy in life's simplest pleasures and everyday tasks

that He has given me enough wisdom to know I can learn a lot from them

a story of God's faithfulness in great darkness

the humility of others that remind me, too, of my own deep need for Grace

friends to keep puppy and teach sunday school and watch the house while we are away

that there is warmth and sun on the other side of the country

that I will be there, God willing, soon

that those who love us make a place for us, and

we will break bread together

that friends stop by because they want to

the dutch girl that likes to play board games

the smiles and laughter while she is here

a mother that loves me as only a mother can

my dear friend becoming "Mom" to someone who really needed a mom

watching the Lord do his work in her

how it's beautiful

Multitude Monday in 2011 Gifts#485- 498

Here I am, in my sunny kitchen,  sipping my coffee, listening to the sounds of my kiddos bundling up to take the pup for his walk.  Sunshine is kissing the eastern face of the western hills and life is happening down below.
Life is not perfect.  We or someone we love is struggling with health, learning difficulty, job loss, depression, exceedingly expensive home repair, single parenting, middle school, uncertainty of the future and I could go on.   But there is beauty in the here too.  Beauty, grace, forgiveness, love, mercy, power.

So I count.....

Kids on Christmas

A new friend from far away (Holland)

Puppy rain gear

warm beds

a brother I've never met praying for me

a husband who can fix a  computer

the beauty of numbers

that God speaks our language

funny birthday cards that sing

the sister who sends them

good friends

fancy dinners that I don't cook

the view from our kitchen at sunset

His mercy is new each morning

The Year of Practice

I am going to copy Ann Voskamp.  I'm naming the new year.  2011.  I've never named a year before, though I have made countless New Year's declarations and resolutions.  I like the idea.

I always end up looking at my resolutions like some sort of check-off list.  While I like lists and they have a place in my life, a list of resolutions seems never to be able to get "checked-off".  So it bugs me and ends up feeling like failure... even if I've done a relatively good job of keeping a resolution.  Naming the year, now that is something I can live with peacefully.  When my dear Tobitha wrote Impact, I knew then what I would be naming 2011.

Practice.  The Year of Practice.

You see, I am one of those little people that like to flit from one thing to the next.  I am going on to the next thing before I have even begun to master the last one.  I'm not proud of this.  Some people think I have a wealth of knowledge on a variety of subjects.  It's not true.  In reality, I know a little bit about a lot of things.  In a way, I am a quintessential Jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none.  I'm a curious soul, interested in all sorts of things.  I don't stay on one road for too long.

But I wouldn't characterize myself as flaky.  :)

Anyway, I feel compelled by none other than the Holy Spirit Himself, to rest in the solid and un-shifting for awhile.  For me, it's a shift in from creating and pursuing to practicing.  Practicing what?  The stuff I already know.  This year is one for me to focus on God's perfecting work.

Lest anyone think I really am flaky, and have no clue as to how to actualize this grandiose idea, I will list some practical areas of practice:

remembering my many loved ones on their birthdays and anniversaries with cards and calls
choosing recipes from one of my many cook books as opposed to finding them from the internet
studying scripture
exercising my body daily but not legalistically or obsessively
making music in the way I know how
praying
smiling
deep breathing
hugging
speaking sweetly
playing
kissing
reading
counting blessings
listening
cleaning
teaching
loving
giving

See, I know how to do these things.  I don't have to research how to do any of them.  I just need to practice them.  There is nothing wrong with books that challenge us in a new way, like Radical for instance.  But I don't need to read a book right now about how to arrange my life in a way that will prove what Jesus really means to me.  I know what Jesus means to me and I have at least 19 ways to show it everyday.  This is my basic training, my boot camp.  Anything beyond that is like special ops training, and I'm just a foot soldier.

So I probably won't be learning a new art form this next year.  To be sure, there were some creative endeavors I had in mind that are now on the back burner.   No self-help or how-to or sweeping, this-is-the-new-big-idea books.
There's too much old wisdom I have yet to crack.

I can learn to be faithful in the small and ordinary.

Productivity will be birthed through practice.

Practice.

Counting 468-484

I had to chuckle yesterday.  At us.  It occurred  to me,  people are funny.  As smart as some of us are, we are still so very feeble minded.
How many times do we get the wrong answer on the test?
Take a wrong turn?
Miscommunicate with our words what our heads are thinking so clearly?
Misunderstand?

Often we can see a bookishly smart person who is socially inept or vice versa.

Yes, we are feeble minded, no matter the IQ.

And yet in all our creating and figuring and measuring and thinking and analyzing we can fool ourselves into thinking we are starting to figure IT out.

But I think she is asking a great question today.

How are you and the King enjoying each other today?

A question even the most simple of us can ponder.




Let me count some blessings,

a quiet house

the company of a sweet dutch girl
her sharing
me learning

comfort food
that I got to make it
satisfaction

children's cold medicine
snuggling in early morning hours with my girl

dog groomers

giving hearts

despite our best efforts... too many presents
realizing the blessing in that, and
making peace with it

Jesus, our Most Special Gift
being at peace with Him

Counting 434-467

My counting is inadequate.  It doesn't begin to define His grace and mercy and lovingkindness.


But it's good for me, and I hope it blesses Him.


friends that know you are there for them

an amazing story of God's grace in saving a marriage, and a soul

a freezer full of grass-fed, organic beef

a glass of wine and a late night spent with my love

him pulling me close in church

the grace given me from Him, and him and him and her

that our puppy didn't get sick after eating a whole stick of butter, wrapper and all

reuniting with my beautiful persian friend

making friends with a Dutch girl, and


having a Christmas guest

my god daughter praising Him

her sharing that with me

the promise of my oatmeal with apples and cinnamon

that on this cold, blustery day I have

Him
him
him
her
the pup
warm clothes
heat
a stove and oven
gas in the car
glasses with which to see
books to learn from
pencils and paper
internet
phone

and us....
my love and me
we and the kids
my friends and I
the gratitude community