so like God....

Dan and I have been very aware, and very careful to not pull out our "wish lists" just yet. Dan is only 1 1/2 weeks into employment and we struggle with the temptation to celebrate by all the possibilities we can now "afford" to do/buy, which a week and a half ago were not a reality. Before you think I'm crying poverty here, I'm not. It's just that we WERE faced with the reality of really looking at our lives and the "dreams" and "plans" we had for our recreation, our home beautification project (aka bottemless pit). It was a great place to be. Nothing like a dwindling savings to really get your wants/needs into perspective. I digress... So now that secure (this is relative, I know) employment is now again in our lives, we started to resurrect our lists. Then crazy me.....I put window wiper fluid in our radiator. Not once, but realized that I had done it the last time I "topped off" my wiper fluid. Call it hormone craziness, not sure - I"ve had A LOT of absentmindedness lately. So I took my vehicle in to get flushed out, and $600+ later.... I'm back humbled by our savings numbers. What???? I know I can be guilty of over spiritualizing things. But I do think in this case, God did want to get my attention before I got too far ahead of Him. Fortunately all our landscaping plants have not been purchased yet, and the travel plans to Old Faithful and Mount Rushmore have not yet been booked. Sigh. FYI, the radiator flushing did not cost us $600, but you know how it goes when a mechanic gets a hold of your car, especially one with 75K miles on it. Wah. I do, however, celebrate that I do have a Father that DOES care about His Children, and DOES reel me back in when I step out in traffic. Sheesh. For the record, God, I'd rather not put our $ into our vehicle - can you call on Your Spirit to pull me back BEFORE I pour that wiper fluid???? Thank you.
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Today was our last day with our small group Bible Study. With the exception of one gal, all 12 of us were present today (and that gal has a busy busy busy ministry, and near impossible for her to attend). In my history of Women's Bible study, at our church as well as others, by this time of the year/season, life just gets the best of us - the numbers dwindle. These ladies were so awesome. They came hungry to learn God's Word. We had such lively talks about the subjects at hand (1 & 2 Thessalonians/Ruth) and those books are not easy ones to grapple with at times. We had ladies from the full spectrum of "maturity in their faith". And yet the "wise" as well as the "apprentices" asked such profound, real questions throughout the past 9 months. It's group like these that keep me excited to come back for more (and of course His word too). Ladies, what a privilege it was to Study along side you these months. My life is much richer because of our time together. Sweet sweet times. My heart is full. (and I'm sure God's is as well)
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Another shout out. When we see parenting done "right" it deserves a huge shout out. Last weekend our Sunday School class enjoyed an afternoon of fellowship with our families. Pot luck and a little Easter Egg hunt for the kiddos. Because our crazy Colorado weather, seldom do we get to enjoy Easter Egg Hunts outdoors, so we're confined to make do indoors. Let me set this up for you. I'd say we've got upwards of about 20 couples in our SS class. Most in the life stage of grade school age and younger families. Most with 2-6 kids. You do the math. LOTS of munchkins running around crazy seeking out plastic eggs filled with candy and the sorts. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Recipe for disaster. I know myself well enough to just stay CLEAR of the room where all the eggs were hidden. I sent Dan in. God Bless all the parents who ventured through those double doors. Steffen is not my aggressive type, so I knew he'd probably be safe in there and I wouldn't have to closely watch him (he was with the older group). With Ryan (almost 5YO), I knew it'd be a "teachable moment". Aggressive would probably be a bit strong, but his personality would be one to fill his basket at all risk to limb of others. So, I had a little talk with my youngest that there were plenty of eggs, he need not FILL his basket and once he had perhaps 10 or so, to please step in and help the younger ones (he was with the 1-4YOs) find some for their baskets. Good parenting right??? Because I was too cowardly to follow through to see how he "did" with these marching orders. I just had to trust that my words would ring through his head and head to his heart and just accept the outcome and hopefully his father would intervene if he got too ugly. I have no idea how he did. He did emerge with 10-12 eggs. However, Dan did experience one child do exactly what I had hoped my child would do. His basket was full, and he was starting to "hand out" his eggs to the little ones. Dan wasn't' sure whose child this was, but I think we figured out it was one of the Wilson kids. So today's shout out goes to Dan and Marcea Wilson to a job well done my friends. It does this mom's heart good to know that once in awhile we do get it right, and our kids do hear us. Even with the formidable temptation to all that candy!!!!!
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Go hug your kids, smooch your hubby and GET OFF THIS COMPUTER!