Happy Thursday, friends! I am up to my eyeballs in boxes that I need to unpack and laundry that is waaaaay behind.
BUT, I come to you as I take a break and my mind sits still for the first time in...well, forever.
God always speaks to me during storms. The thunder and lightning kind AND the life-kind that make it feel like you are barely hanging on.
Rewind 2(ish) weeks, my family and I were in the midst of packing our house to move when a thunder & lightning storm rolled in where I live in Spokane, Washington. As I got out of my car to come inside from running errands, I heard The Lord speak to me and tell me to stop. Taken aback, I stopped walking and looked around. God highlighted all the trees as they shook, the earth vulnerable to mother nature. But they stood strongly, with their roots set deep in the ground. All the dead leaves and particles falling out of them and blowing away. And He said this, "Do you trust me?" A tear slipped out of one of my eyes, taking with it my pride. The part of me that wants to prove to everyone that I am capable. That I have a plan. That I have my life figured out. That I can manage my finances well. That I am a good wife. That I am a good mom. I responded with a "yes", hoping that my faith would follow. It slowly showed up. He continued to speak to me throughout the night, reminding me of all the times that He has provided. And I thought of all the times that I struggled to find my own way and it only turned out sloppy. His ways are always better. He knows that in order to talk to me, to really get ahold of me, is to take a walk with me outside of my comfort zone. To put me in the eye of the storm and then throw me an umbrella and tell me to hang in there, and to TRUST. Trust Him with my kids. Trust Him with my relationships. Trust Him with my finances. Trust Him with my circumstances. So my question to you is this: Do you trust Him? Do you truly believe that He has a plan for you? Be encouraged, friends. This life is not a walk in the park but it is doable with Him by your side. Allowing Him in & giving Him permission to be in the driver's seat with you as a co-captain. Instead of the reverse. So here I am, under that umbrella and taking my best stab at trusting...
Fast forward a couple days to moving day...my husband receives some difficult news about one of his (our) loved ones. Literally as we were hauling boxes to our new house. As we collapsed (literally) into our bed that night after everything was moved, I remembered what The Lord had spoke to me just days before during the storm. I reminded Luke, as I had explained to him the story before. I am always humbled by how God works things together for good. And I am clinging to that, friends. That instead of my will, His will be done. It is not easy. It sucks, frankly. But I am learning to rest in Him. It has only taken me 30 years to figure this out...:)
Switching gears and lightening the mood...
Who in the actual heck has been brave enough (and successful) in transitioning 2 kids from their own rooms into the same room? Anybody?
Okay, now feeeeed me all your secrets you sorcerers! Because I legit cannot for the life of me conquer this one. My oldest son has currently taken shelter on a mattress shoved into our basement family room closet, and if I was being honest, after what we went through trying for a couple nights to get our boys to fall asleep in the same room, he may end up taking permanent residence there. No joke. Like we are actually considering it. #parentsoftheyear
Have you ever noticed that a lot of the "classic" movies we watched as kids, are actually wildly inappropriate, and even terrifying for a kid (I am going somewhere with this...hang in there)? Luke and I recently discovered this whilst trying to do a marathon with our kids of all the movies that we loved when we were young. Among those chosen were (to name a few) Harry and the Hendersons, Home Alone, Harriet the Spy etc. (you get the picture). We started our marathon and stumbled upon a whole slew of reasons we wouldn't be watching these movies together as a family again for many, many years. For starters, holy bejesus is Harriet the Spy craaazy disrespectful to her parents, but also who in the heck puts swearing into a family film? Get it together, Harry and the Hendersons. Psssh. ;) All this to say, we watched Home Alone and my daughter took up the glamorous habit of saying, "What the Hell" and my oldest child, Leeland, now has an intense fear of our furnace. (Remember the scene where the furnace creepily lights up in the basement when poor little Kevin McCallister is home alone in Home Alone?) This fact makes my job transitioning our boys into the same room that much harder because Leeland insists on having some kind of fort on his bed to protect him from the furnace (hence, the closet works well as "shelter") and he doesn't want to be in close proximity to said furnace. Which can be heard from their room. Ugh! We scarred that poor kid for life lol! Walking away from that experience, Luke and I couldn't help but wonder where our parents were when WE watched these movies. Then, it dawned on us...they probably threw a movie in the VCR and took a desperate nap;)
Having kids of my own has definitely changed my perception of life. And my parents! lol...
Anyways...I am signing off for today. Thank you for listening to my banter & I literally just had a flood happen in my new bathroom as I typed this from my daughter trying to flush a roll of toilet paper down the toilet. A whole roll. Who does that?! Disgruntled, exhausted 3 year olds, that's who. #ilovemykidsilovemykids
XO
