Welcome to the archives again this week friends.
May your turkey be delicious and your airpods, charged.
(smile)
It's almost midnight the day after thanksgiving and the 40 day cough has some of us up around here.
Okay just me.
I'm up.
Wafts of Chloraseptic remind me of grade school but for real, this stuff has stood the test of time.
With what seems to be the weirdest jump into cold/flu season to date my husband found the LAST bottle of it on our local drugstore shelf.
And tonight I sure am glad for that.
These coughs drove off our company and two sets of college kids' friends last minute found other turkey day plans.
It's either our coughs or a weird house smell that no one wants to tell us about.
I personally like to think that the green sprays of Chloraseptic are the new "pine" smell of December.
This holiday was a bit weird just having ourselves at the table.
In anticipation of three now adults coming back to the nest we decided to do our very own "Room makeover" for our oldest girl.
Her favorite color just happens to be NEON YELLOW.
While ordering bedding and the like I did get a cold sweat once or twice trying to fathom what a neon yellow wedding would look like.
It wasn't pretty.
Carpet was laid, shiny trim and new shelving, new lighting and dimmers- it was quite overwhelming.
(Sorry that little bit of Dr. Seuss was too good to pass up.)
Then we turned our attention to the two fellas coming back.
About a year ago we bought a mattress for one of the boys and opted for the "harder" less plush mattress.
Which means you spend the exact price difference between the hard and plush mattress on foam pads to bring some semblance of "plushness" back.
Word to the wise- get the better mattress. Just in case you needed the push, or no one ever tells you these things.
And head wounds bleed.
Like a WHOLE LOT.
We got new bedding for the new foam and cleaned the downstairs room like it has never been cleaned before.
And when the Pine Sol hit the floor my heart began to feel the same pangs it did last year around this time.
When the Christmas lists were going up and the spirits simultaneously going down, and the bank account too.
When the season wasn't even in full-swing and I was already ready for Easter to slow everything down a bit.
Between the deep cleaning and trips to the mall, I found that my heart was two sizes too small.
(Sorry. the Seuss just happens)
I began to wonder if these kids would appreciate all of my work for them.
Making sure to have chocolate chips for pancakes and pumpkin chip cookies,
For all the work and mess their favorite meal takes to even prep to bake.
For soup just when they were cold, the shower just when they needed it and just about everything else just when they needed it too.
I mean, this is what Moms do.
They smile at sink loads of dishes while one has to make up homework about persuasive speeches and I would like to persuade them to find my other slipper that has been AWOL since we decided to become carpet layers on the side.
Do they understand that tortilla chips do not just put themselves away?
That Mom would like a hot bath with a not thrice-used towel?
How much you have thought of them and just what would make them happy for the 3.4 days that they are actually under your roof?
That you may not have moved heaven and earth to plan for them but you did make sure their bed frame wouldn't give out and you moved enough dirt to know that they never really did clean under their bed.
Call me a mean mom, but I get there.
I get under the bed, under bad moods, under their skin and well..... under-wear.
We switched our services to Tuesday evening this week and I sat under a sermon that I truly believe was written just for yours truly.
It could've been about just about anything, you know how that is.
And it zing-ed me just where I needed it.
Right in the super-small heart that needed to give a whole truck-load of thanks for millions of toes and fingers under my roof.
For always having a can of something or other to make a meal that is always enough.
For six hearts that really want to please the Lord and their parents too.
For a faithful husband who can be found hanging on through the lean times, the stressful times, the emotional times and all the times in-between.
I'm sure it's helped that I have more to hold onto thsese days.
How quickly we move from gratitude to complaint.
From, "all the kids are coming home!" to "ALL the kids are coming home?"
From the realization that God owns it all to we have to have it all together.
A few dust bunnies frustrate the daylights out of us until we almost wish for a house with nobody in it.
Aren't we all thankful that God meets us in our Grinchy state, reminds us patiently how very loved and special we are which in turn instinctively makes us turn to those around us and love them just the same?
That in all of the changing in this season of life that you can change your heart in a moment?
So if your kidsgiving is lacking let the Lord remind you of his goodness and love that doesn't count your dust bunnies.
A mound of cool whip on a cool slice of pumpkin pie never hurts.
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