Praying for Laura

I'm sorry, dear blog, that I have neglected you. Facebook has been taking up most of my computer time, but I am determined to get back to writing and recording here.

Much of the rest of my time has been spent praying for a friend, Laura, who is very ill and hospitalized, suffering from hypermania. She is literally fighting for her life, and her husband {of less than two years--he could use some extra prayers} and parents are seeking guidance in getting her the best care possible so that she can "turn the corner" and come out of this. She has not slept in thirteen plus days, except for a few short bursts, and her mind will not slow down. She is a danger to herself and has had to be shackled once. The nurses are on guard at all times.

I am embarrassingly naive about spiritual warfare, but I cannot help but believe {as does her mother, at the least} that there is a war going on in her. Maybe not for her soul, because I do know that the Bible says we are "sealed with the Holy Spirit", but for her mind and body. And it seems that the more fiercely she is prayed for, and there are thousands praying for her, the more desperate Satan becomes and the more he throws her way. We are trusting that God has the victory! But that saying about "waiting is the hardest part"? Totally true.

So please join me in praying {for Laura, for her husband Clinton, for her parents, and family} for healing, for guidance, for peace, for patience. However you are led. God is already receiving glory through this situation as SO many are united in prayer and seeking Him more than we had been before. Lord, we know YOU CAN, and we believe You when you say, "I AM".

Wild Olive Tees

Check out the great Tees at Wild Olive! They are a fun way to share scripture and encourage others while looking stylish :) Win-Win!! I heard about them from MckMama, who has her own tee, called "Unfolding" in white and chili. Gotta get me one soon!

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days where you went to bed relieved that your house is so totally clean much cleaner than the disaster area it usually is that you actually think you might just manage to keep it that way for more than a few hours minutes?

And then on that very next morning, your husband takes the 2 school-age kids to school without waking you up? And before he leaves, he sets the preschooler up with marathon episodes of educational programming Scooby Doo?

And by some miracle the baby sleeps until 7:00 8:00 9:00? And what are the chances that said preschooler would be quiet and not wake you up asking for a snack, a drink, to help him in the bathroom, to exclaim that Scooby just said, “Ruh-roh!” and isn’t that soooo funny!?

And so after sleeping until NINE in the morning, and waking up to a relatively clean house, and realizing that there is a strange glow streaming in your windows that has not been there for several weeks {hello, sun!}, could you even imagine that both of your boys would take simultaneous naps from 11am-1pm?

Then during that magical 11am-1pm timeframe, you have the luxury of checking email and reading blogs, while eating the last of the delicious tabouli leftover from the weekend {that no one else in the family would touch with a ten foot pole! score!}?

And then you even have time for a nice uninterrupted phone conversation with your husband while he is eating his lunch in his car because it’s nice outside and there’s nowhere else at his office to eat outside?

And then you sit down to do your meditation for today {in peace and quiet, which is kind of important when trying to, you know, meditate} and are totally blessed by studying a single word {praise} for no less than a whole hour?

Have you ever had one of those days where even though your day was surprisingly relaxing and wonderful, you still have no idea what to write about for your first “Mommy Moments” post*?

No? *blush* Umm, me neither…

*If you’re a woman who is on Facebook, please join us in The Titus 2 Group, led by Teresa Kimbel! This was my first “contribution” to the group.

Not Me! Monday

Time once again to take a look at what for sure did not happen in my world this week! Head over to MckMama’s and read more Not Me! tales…

This week I did not agree to start writing a column for a women’s group on Facebook that I’m a part of. Nope, that would be crazy. And I certainly do not have NO idea what I’ll write about this week, or even what this column is going to be in general. And I’m definitely not confessing this on my blog now so that members of said group will now know how clueless I really am! Obviously, I’m totally capable and confident in this venture. I’m not absolutely inadequate and I’m surely not just going to have to totally trust God to lend me some inspiration here!

I have not been so overwhelmed by this precious Mother’s Day gift Jared gave me that I can’t even process it, so I haven’t been trying my best not to get emotional and fall apart. I was not so emotional Thursday night when he surprised me with it early {not because my mama and brother and sister were there} that I totally forgot to even thank him because all I could do was sit there and try not to totally lose it.

This is a family necklace he got me after Ruby was born, showing 2 parents with 4 children, but he had a jeweler add a RUBY to it, to represent ALL of us. And even more precious that the ruby is right on the daddy’s heart. To say I kinda love it is like saying the grass is kinda green right now in southcentral KY!

I was not giddy with excitement when my friend, Sarah K, after hearing me comment on a friend’s teenage daughter who is the spitting image of her at that age, told me that Maddy would someday be my spitting image. I also do not love love love Maddy’s hair and her gorgeously shaped mouth.

Okay, maybe she already looks a little bit like me!

I did not make approximately 12 trips to 3 different Walmarts this week {okay, only 6} because I did not make any lists for anything and just went whenever I thought of something else I needed. I also did not stop by the town where baby Georgia {and her lovely parents} lives, without having called her lovely parents beforehand, only to find out they weren’t home! And then I did not proceed to drive around that town {where we used to live}, amazed at all the changes, for no less than 2 hours without actually going anywhere! Gas isn’t that cheap!

I did not take this picture fully intending to someday have an entire series of “brothers kissing Maddy” pictures…because I have one of my brothers kissing me like this at my wedding. I also did not make my sister-in-law get one taken with her brothers kissing her at her wedding! And Maddy and I did not spend several minutes plotting how to arrange it next time so that all three of her brothers can be in the picture :)

And since you’re dying to know, of course, Noah will be behind her kissing the top of her head and Luke will be kissing the cheek. Oh but wait, she forgot that she absolutely hates when her brothers do this! Can’t you tell??

Not Me! Mondays are back!

They're baaaaaack! Now that MckMuffin and MckMama are home, Not Me! Mondays have returned. So join me in being brutally honest and living to tell about it!

I absolutely, most certainly, without a doubt did NOT. . .

. . . listen to "The Ten Commandment Boogie" on a sampler kids DVD I bought at Lifeway for 75 cents and laugh uncontrollably for two hours ten minutes forty-five full seconds after hearing, for commandment #7, "Seven feels like heaven, but only with your husband or wife"!

. . . eat chocolate cake (followed by a piece of Easter candy) with Jack for breakfast this morning! I'm more health-conscious than that! And by health-conscious, I mean that if there are any unhealthy foods in the house, I am constantly conscious of them. And cannot rest until they are consumed.

. . . let little Lukey (almost 11 mos) eat about 10 bites of my pb&j sandwich last night before remembering (he's the fourth child, for crying out loud) that nuts are a no-no under age one, so really it's only one month off two, so I'm a year and a month early. I guess I can now say that he does not have a nut allergy. I also did not let him eat a baleada on his own and get it in most every nook and cranny he could find, and then document it in pictures because he is just that cute! . . . help my hilarious husband record the gradual shaving of his winter beard in photographs and video clips (some of which will certainly be used against him at some point in the future because they are THAT funny). He did not wrestle rope wrangle the kids into his Tombstone-esque hilarity and end up with a picture like this: