For the love of Curtis...

I have a little girl

who is madly in love

with a black cat
that just wandered in to our garage
one day
he's been here ever since
and ever since

Curtis the cat

has been Kaitlyn's best friend

as I type

she is pushing him around in

his turkey burger box

covered with pink blankets

and she is speaking ever so

sweetly as she slowly

moves him down the hall

to the bathroom

where she turns on the water

so he can drink

out of the faucet

and she sets up his bed in the corner

while she uses the potty

so he doesn't have to

"lay on the dirty floor"

with all this said

it was no surprise to me

that when I uploaded a few pictures

I found ones that she took

of her beloved cat

and herself

I should really get one

of the two of them together

frame it

and hang in on her wall in her room

The North Face : Not giving up.

The enemy has never been more relentless, never more cunning, never more ruthless. A daunting decision stands between us and that enemy.

We can sheathe our swords in retreat. We can lay down our swords in surrender. We can fall on our swords in despair. Or we can, with the brave who have gone before us, draw our swords and ride with full fury into the enemy's ranks.

A day may come when your courage and mine will fail.

But it will not be this day!

A day may come when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship.

But it will not be this day!

This day we fight!

And though we may not win the battle or even survive it, it will be remembered that we did not turn back. It will be remembered that we drew our swords. And that though we died, we died fighting.

The North Face of God, pg 196

A bit of a green thumb..

This was waiting for me when I got home...

My very first home grown cucumber. I was so very excited! My plants grew like crazy while I was gone. And take a look at this...

There next to my hostas, that's my tomato plant that wasn't doing so hot in the beginning. Now it's taller than my children...it's enormous and has little green balls on it.

Now I wait patiently.

Time Away

I was blessed to be able to spend 8 days in Michigan with my family. It was such a great time away. Rather than describing the week here are some highlights in pictures:


The gigantic slip n slide that Poppy made for the kids

Up north at my grandparents place...my kids with my Papa on the Ranger

My Nana talking with the kids about rocks

Out on the boat

Mask painting!

His New Shoes

My middle man has been long overdue for a new pair of shoes. I was holding out and knew I would have to get him a new pair before he starts kindergarten. It's been a long, long time since he's had a new pair of shoes...probably before Dan lost his job. All of his tennis shoes have been "new-to-him" and we have been so thankful for that. He has been asking for gym shoes. Today we were at Walmart and he asked again. I told him we would look to see what they had. Well, we found these on clearance for $7 and I couldn't pass them up. Landon tends to get lost in the shuffle. So, today was his day. The other two didn't get anything from the store and he felt so special. He wore his shoes all day (in the 90 something degree heat) and chose to run around the pool in them instead of getting in because he wanted to wear them so bad. He eventually went swimming, but continued to talk about his new shoes. These $7 pair of shoes from Walmart made his day...and his smile and excitement made mine.

Wordless Wednesday : My male look alike.

Rest

The strangest thing happened this week.
My husband went to work
and got up the next morning and went to work again.
Something I will never take for granted.
It's like a huge weight has been lifted.
I am so thankful for the rest He has given us.
We have some "cleaning up" to do.
The past twenty-two months has left us feeling battered
We have battle wounds
Unemployment can bring out the worst in a lot of areas in ones life
marriage being one of them
We held on tight
and on Monday night
the night before his first day of work
I looked at him
and sighed
We made it.

Wordless Wednesday

The North Face : Waiting

"Weeping may last through the night, "the psalmist writes, "but joy comes with the morning." (Psalm 30:5)

Which raises the question we all want answered.

How do we get to the morning, to the sunshine, to the joy?

There is only one way.

By waiting for it. We can't hurry the dawn, no matter how anxiously we pace the floor or how impatiently we watch the clock. And so the question is not do we wait or not wait, because waiting is all we can do. The question is, How will we wait? Will we wait well...or will we wait poorly?

Although we can't choose how long we will wait in the darkness, we can choose how well we will wait.

~The Northface of God, pg 99

On this day...

I should be jumping up and down
and I am hoping soon I can
this is the post I have been waiting to write
news I have been waiting to share
the day I have been dreaming about
for the past 22 months and 3 days
and finally on this day, I can

I can tell all of you
who have encouraged
or who have just been silent
those who have offered up prayer after prayer
or even those who have visited just long enough
to ask God to help me and my family
I can tell you all that my husband is
starting his first day of work
tomorrow morning at seven

The road has been incredibly long
it's been the most difficult 22 months of my life
it has exhausted me, changed me, and made me know
the meaning of trusting, the meaning of waiting on my God
He has never left me
I have a God who keeps his promises
It was so hard to walk in His silence
but just when I thought I couldn't go any farther
He would send something or someone
to let me know that he remembered
and I will never forget
We are not going to "get back to normal" around here
we've changed so much
that there is no going back

As I try and wrap my head around this news
it seems strange to think this is it
It's kind of unbelievable
I am sure I will post more...



You turned my wailing into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.

O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever

Psalms 30:11-12

How We Eat Our Corn on the Cob

We had corn on the cob tonight for the first time this year. I don't know if how a person eats corn on the cob has anything to do with personality or temperament, but here is how we tear it up:

Dan - He starts about 1 inch in on the left and eats until about 1 inch before the end on the right. It seems measured somehow because he eats centered in the middle. The ends are left and he moves on to the next ear.

Me - I start on the left and make my way down. When that row is gone, I move on to the next and down I go again until I reach the end. I need to eat every kernel on the ear or it really bothers me.

Kaitlyn - She starts on the very left of the ear and chomps across until she reaches the end on the right...repeat until the whole ear is gone...every last kernel...very particular...with *a lot* of salt.

Landon (the funniest to watch in my opinion) - He looks the ear over and bites in where ever he chooses. After that bite, he looks around again for another spot to bite. His ear ends up looking like a patchwork quilt, eaten and uneaten squares everywhere. He doesn't have to finish the ear he just stops when he feels like it and asks for another.

Collin - He bites and bites hard. He bites the very tip off the ear. It's surprising to me that he even likes corn on the cob...the husk can't taste good. He, like Landon, eats away with no particular plan or rhyme to his madness, but it seems like every other bite he gets a chunk of husk.

How does your family tear it up??