Remembering the JOY in This Journey

Praise God from whom all blessings flow--big and small! It was a rough week last week, and I did my fair share of dwelling on the negative aspects of life. Sometimes it's also "fun" to find things to blame the blahs on...there WAS a full moon last week, ya know. It IS the middle of winter. School IS getting a bit tiresome. I would LOVE to be getting more sleep. I REALLY miss our old house with its huge kitchen. If ONLY we were in our old single story house with so much more floor space. Etc.

Well. Enough of that. It's time to offer a praise report, partially as a follow-up to my last post. I know I could find lots of things to complain about, but this is all about looking around and counting the blessings, big and small. So, here we go!

* I have an amazing husband! Not only did he sympathize with the myriad of little difficulties I was having last week, but he also picked up some "slack" for me when I wasn't able to get everything done before he got home. He prayed wholeheartedly for the lifting of my spirits and for strength to handle whatever came my way, and his prayers themselves did just that.

* I FOUND MY KEYS! My apologies to the short people in this house. They (the keys, that is) were in my leather coat, which I hadn't worn since the Valentine's party. I pulled it out to wear to church this morning and sang God's praises all the way there after finding my keys in the pocket.

* I ran 10 miles yesterday! It was gorgeous weather--and it's a good thing I went when I did, because storms blew in later in the day.

* Well-behaved children at the portrait studio yesterday! Yes, Tobin had problems NOT looking behind the back drops, even after we told him to stop. But let me tell you, our children were overall so well-behaved that all I could do was thank the Lord for the blessings He has given us. I saw enough bratty kids in that little area to last me for a LONG time. And trust me, I have learned not to judge someone as a parent based on a small amount of observation, because sadly we all have those difficult moments with our children when we wish other eyes weren't watching. However...I saw enough to tell me that the kids in the studio were the ones in charge ALL THE TIME, not their parents, and it was actually quite sad to see how exasperated the parents were when they could avoid so much difficulty if they only realized that their job is to be the child's PARENT, not Friend, Briber, Driver to McDonald's, etc.

* Strawberry smoothies! Ted took the kids for a surprise trip to get ice cream when pictures were finished so I could evaluate the poses and pick out which ones we wanted to order in peace. He brought me back a smoothie that was to die for. :-)

* Today I learned that there was a meth lab operating in our old neighborhood, just a house or two away from where we used to live. I don't remember if I posted this before or not, but the house right next door to where we were burned about 3 weeks after we moved out of the big house. Praise God for His protection!!

* I do, however, miss the layout (and amazing space!!) of that old house. So I have to try really hard to replace those longings with gratefulness for what we do have...a finished back yard where the kids can play (as opposed to construction dirt and rock in a hot, treeless yard)...rose bushes in the front yard...a guest bathroom (so I don't have to keep MY bedroom and bathroom completely company clean all the time!)...a bigger stamp room...space for guests to sleep in privacy.

And, lest we take it for granted...we HAVE a house. We have food. We have clothes. We have two working vehicles, one that is completely paid off. Ted has a secure job. We are healthy (sniffles and coughs notwithstanding). We have good relationships with our extended family members. We live in the greatest country in the world. Most of all, we have assurance of spending eternity with Jesus in heaven.

Aren't we blessed?!