Spring Fever

I've come & looked at my blog every day for the past week & have visited all my links to the other blogs I stalk (read) and I've had a couple posts run through my head, but those were mostly all the day to day 'what we did' sort of posts. I try to save those for summertime when I count out the days of summer. The rest of the year, it just seems boring to make everyone else read our daily journal of events. After all, summertime is FUN around our house!

You know, FUN after all the nit-picking & whining & fighting is stopped.

So the truth is....I have Spring Fever. I'm reaching that point in the year when it's harder & harder to get out of bed. And when I do, I'm dragging. And then I take the kids to school in my pajamas (with a jacket to cover them!) half the time & come home to veg a little longer before I get moving & run out the door at the last minute, only to arrive at work "just in time". Ugh...it's time for school to be out! Honestly, I love my job but I'm tired & ready for a break, and I'm sure all my students & their families are feeling it too.

So I suppose the Spring Fever thing is running over into my blog. I'm drawing a blank on something creative to write about. Anybody got any ideas? Requests? Top ten lists? Comment & let me know!

I've Got You

The song I mentioned in my post last night...I've played & replayed it since then. Seriously, I have it minimized right now & I play it over and over. Each time the song ends, I maximize the page, restart it & minimize again.

It's one of those songs that will resonate with me for a long time. Not because I know the author & singer. Not because of the story that inspired it. All of that does make it special, but that's not why.

I listen to the lyrics again and again and I feel tears welling up. I've said it before, but I'll repeat myself -- throughout my adult life, God has again & again thrown us one monkey wrench after another. He's given & He's taken away, He's had to teach us the same lesson in trusting Him over & over. He's removed people & situations from our lives. Our bank account has certainly seen the rise and fall of our financial tides. Friends have come & gone. Jobs have come & gone. Yes, Larry's been there for me through it all....but more than Larry, God has been. Larry sleeps at night and goes to work (and I'm grateful that he does both!) but God has been the one constant. Through bankruptcy, children with birth defects, marital issues, job loss, illnesses & injuries, ONLY God has remained steady & faithful.

No matter what life throws at us, we've got God.

LYRICS TO I’VE GOT YOU

I’ve Got You
Words and music by Shaun Groves
Copyright 2010 Simplicity Street Music/ASCAP

Got nothing in my hands to part these waves
Got nothing in my bank account that saves
Got no more might left to muscle through
But Oh, I’ve got you
I’ve got you

Got demons gather ’round oh laugh it up
Spreading doubts a plenty I can’t drink this cup
Got no one left who thinks I’ll make it through
But Oh, I’ve got you
I’ve got you

Got faded memories of better days
Got a prayer that they’ll come back around my way
You’ve got me and oh that gets me through
Oh, I’ve got you
I’ve got you
Oh, I’ve got you
I’ve got you

If you missed hearing the song last night, go to this site & hit the play button.
http://shaungroves.com/radio/ive-got-you/player.php

Beautiful

When I was a kid, we went to a Southern Baptist church. That church was also home to a contemporary Christian musician....we just didn't know it at the time. Shaun grew up to become a celebrity with his great voice. His music made him famous, but his heart for mission work is what makes him 'famous' in my mind.

Over the course of the past year or so, I've been able to reconnect with him over the internet. He's a couple years older than me but he remembers our family from all those years at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. I've watched him (via live video stream) while he was on mission trips with Compassion International, a Christian child-sponsor organization. He works closely with them, taking well-known bloggers on trips to the neediest countries to love the children there, play games with them, hold them & hug them and find sponsors for them. Each of the bloggers can post throughout their trip & "advertise" in a way for the organization. I've been honored to "watch" these trips the last couple of years & watch Shaun's heart. I am honored to know him & call him a friend. Even if it's been 15 or so years since I last layed eyes on him in person, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that Shaun Groves is a man of honor with a passion for Jesus.

Tonight on Facebook, he posted a link to his 2 new radio hits. I went to the site & played one of them over & over & over & over. Before you hear it, read the story behind the song:

THE STORY BEHIND I’VE GOT YOU

I met Kiran a few months ago, but if I live a hundred years I’ll still remember her. Her house is a box six feet wide and four feet deep with a roof made from sheets of plastic held in place with rocks and sticks. There’s not enough room for Kiran’s two brothers and father to sleep inside so they bed down on the street. There’s also no room for furniture or a closet. All they own is pinned to the ceiling by a sheet stretched tight overhead and pegged to the walls with sticks jammed into holes.

Kiran’s house was about four and a half feet tall so the neighbors all came out to laugh at the giant Americans cramming themselves through the miniature doorway. Once inside, my friends and I sat on the ground asking questions and listening to Kiran’s story. Then it was Kiran’s turn to ask us a question.

She stood straighter than before, a big smile on her face. “How do you like my home?” she asked.

We all held tears behind wide grins. “It’s beautiful,” we said.

Then Kiran took Keely by the hand and walked us through her neighborhood. The sudden presence of white faces had drawn a handful of beggars to Kiran’s street. There they sat, one with hands and feet eaten by leprosy, pleading for food. The shifting winds blew the unmistakable smell of human waste into our noses then mercifully pulled them away. Together we crossed a bridge that spanned polluted waters shimmering in the midday sun.

As we stepped off the bridge Kiran began to cry.

“I’m just so very happy,” she said.

What could make a girl living in twenty-four square feet so happy? What could make an eleven year-old without a closet, a car, a television or a cell phone so happy? What could make a girl who walks past beggars and through so much filth every day so very happy?

“I have God and my sponsor,” she said.

Then we turned a corner into a brothel where women tricked and trapped into prostitution stood waiting to pleasure sweaty strangers for fifty cents an hour. Men stared at us. At Kiran. Seemingly oblivious to the danger and lust all around us on the crowded street, Kiran began to sing.

“Lord, I lift your name on high.”

She swung Keely’s hands in hers.

“Lord, I love to sing your praises.”

Almost skipping, Kiran floated through the darkness like a firefly.

“I’m so glad you’re in my life. I’m so glad you came to save us.”

I don’t believe God loves the poor more than he loves rich folks like me. But I do believe they’re often better at loving him back. “Blessed are the poor,” Jesus said. To those with nothing Jesus is everything. That’s something to sing about.

I remember this story. It was from one of the Compassion trips. And out of that, he wrote this amazing song that will no doubt become a major hit. Go to THIS site & click play. I promise you will be blessed.

Sometimes it takes so little to make me happy.

Last week when I went grocery shopping I bought a cheapie raspberry scented air freshener for the van.


I get the same kind every summer. The smell reminds me of a snowcone stand.


We don't hang out at snowcone stands during the summer by any means, but we do visit it 1 or 2 times over the course of the summer. Something about that smell takes me back to childhood. I vividly remember going to the lake with my mom & sisters in the summer, then stopping at the snowcone stand on the way home. Those high fructose corn syrup concoctions of summery goodness were such a treat for us. Today I got in the van after work & that smell overwhelmed me. I had to run some errands & the pollen covering my van had finally shoved me over the edge. I had to get it off the car, so I drove through a car wash. As I sat there in the peaceful quiet van, listening to the spray of the jets & smelling the wax and the raspberry snowcone scented air freshener, I was just about pushed over the blissdom threshold. Such a peaceful moment. I thought about reclining my chair & taking a nap right there in the car wash, but I figured I might get kicked out.

I am definitely a sensory girl and the smells, tastes & sounds of things from my childhood are the things that bring me the most vivid memories.

"Deep Woods" scented Off at church camp....


Love's Baby Soft at the same church camp....

that pina-colada scent of our Suntan Oil (you know, back before we were all concerned about skin cancer & oiled ourselves up to get a tan while we layed on a big piece of foil)....

the taste of my mom's red velvet cake...


plums straight off the tree from our orchard...


and here's a weird one. My dad worked in a mechanic's shop now & then when I was a kid. He was a fireman by trade, but on his days off, he wore a number of hats, mechanic being one of them. To this day, when I smell a greasy garage, I think of my dad. Sure, it's kind of a gross smell, but it reminds me of my Daddy!


I realize these are mostly scents & tastes. Sounds are a little harder for me to pinpoint, but I think the biggest ones are the theme songs to the shows my parents & I watched. Do any of these take you back?

Miami Vice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZQe3fQcS6U&feature=related
Hawaii 5-0: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w
Magnum PI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CquMO3vJvo
(I must add Tom Selleck...purrr)
Knight Rider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbnCQnDnfjs&feature=related
TJ Hooker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7S6JW5EfD8&feature=related
CHIPS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSzEmPEnYxo&feature=related
Love Boat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_wFEB4Oxlo&feature=related
Fantasy Island: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x_QbVDlLbI&feature=related
Mork & Mindy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbEBErvW-Uc&feature=related
Brady Bunch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou-FeOoKDq4&feature=related
One Day at a Time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M82CUd6isyY
Alice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoDlkYPVNic&feature=related
Bosom Buddies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKyyHBy6JQ&feature=related
Laverne & Shirley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRmKzxhMzwo&feature=related
Happy Days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLt7clQbBzo&feature=related
Ok, I'm just going to stop........I could go on & on!!!!

There are sooo many sound/scent/smell memories I could name. I know that most of these are only special to me. What are some of your favorite sensory-related memories?

Easter at our house

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know that Easter is a special day at our house. It's one of the many things in life that was changed when A&K lived with us. You see, prior to their moving in, my kids had never done anything for Easter that wasn't Christ-centered. We preferred to focus them on the truth of the holiday & not bring in anything 'worldly'. At that time, Savannah & Samuel were the only ones who had been to school & heard about egg hunts & bunnies & baby chicks. I wasn't so much opposed to them doing that AT SCHOOL but I didn't really want to go there at home. Like so many other things in my life, I'm an all or nothing sort of girl. I couldn't see how there could possibly be a balance between the spiritual & the worldly stuff, so I just completely skipped the worldly stuff.

And then Andrew & Kourtney joined our family. These two precious babies who had been through, well, Hell & back....their dad was in prison, their mom was gone, they'd been homeless & witnessed some of the most God-awful stuff you can imagine. They had so little in their life that had been constant and when Easter approached, they talked with excitement about the upcoming day...with egg hunts & bunnies & all those things. I cringed. I wrinkled my nose. My eyebrows furrowed. And then I went to Walmart & bought 5 Easter baskets, a bunch of plastic eggs & candy and a heap load of that plastic grass stuff.

Having the kids with us that year led me to seek out a way to find a balance between the spiritual & the worldly stuff. New traditions were formed and we found a way to make it work...and even though A&K moved out in March of 2007, three years later, the balance is still working. While I never imagined my kids would learn about dying eggs and chocolate bunnies, I am sooo very happy to say that if asked to tell you the REAL Easter story, all three of my kids could do it without a second's hesitation!

One of my favorite 'tools' for our Easter celebration are the Resurrection Eggs created by FamilyLife. You can find & buy them by clicking here.




The eggs are a great visual tool to share the Easter story with kids. Each egg contains one small item that represents something from the story. For example, one egg contains a few (fake) coins. These represent the coins Judas was payed by the government to lead them to Jesus. Another holds a tiny plastic donkey (the triumphal entry), another one holds a little piece of leather (the whip). As you go through each egg, there are Scriptures to read to explain the story to the children. The final egg (Sarah's holding it above) is empty--to symbolize the empty tomb. Our kids hunt eggs as well, but before they dig into those eggs, we open the Resurrection Eggs. It is important to us to help them remember the real reason for this holiday before they go head-first into a sugar high.

This morning we went to church. We came home & had devilled eggs with ham and cheese sandwiches before we hunted eggs. Yesterday, we dyed eggs. (Those became the devilled eggs that we ate today!)

I'll leave you with a few pictures we took this morning of everyone in their Easter clothes. Enjoy! I hope you & yours had a fabulous Easter!

Samuel's birthday sleepover

We had a ball Friday night with our sweet little friend, Coleman. We went bowling, ate yummy junk food, watched movies & hung out to play video games. Perfect night for my favorite 10 year old!

Are you ready for Sunday?