Dusting or Resting

My coffee cup sits steaming on the kitchen table in front of me, reheated in the microwave for the third time since 9 a.m.  I lean in close to hear a seven-year-old read the part of the story where the Boxcar Children are reunited with their Grandfather.  His monotone, slightly-halting cadence is soft and steady, but he stumbles on fewer words these days.  He's learning fast.

To my right in the family room, a young percussionist is practicing pages 9 and 10 from his band book on the xylophone-like bells.  His audience is the ever-attentive puppy, who is sitting in her crate gnawing on a rawhide bone with little puppy teeth.  I hear the boy keeping time under his breath as his head bobs up and down and his hands tap with the green-tipped mallets.

"One, two, three, four, rest, rest, rest, rest."

Behind me in the dining room-- an altogether different sound.  A beginning baritone player is trying to figure out how much air needs to go down the mouthpiece in order to get an F instead of a B flat.  Warbled notes and multiple tones are slowly beginning to give way to sounds that are more musical, and he's doing his best to work his way through pages 9 and 10 too.

"Boom, boom, (warbly) boom, boom, rest, rest, rest, rest."

Upstairs I can hear a girl on a flute, probably sitting on the toy chest at the end of her bed with a music stand in front of her.  She's fluting away on a B flat scale and trying to hold a note for ten counts today, because yesterday she could hold it for nine.  One more count a day is her goal.  Last week she could only hold it for four, but the band director knows a girl that can hold it for twenty-one, so the blowing and breathing and practice continues.

"Toot, toot, toot, toot, rest, rest, rest, rest."

This indoor cacophany-- this blowing and tooting and tapping and huffing and puffing and reading-- all melds together as I gaze out the window on a gorgeous fall day.  The leaves are blazing gold and red, fluttering their way to the ground in the sunshine, making their own kind of music.

"Flutter, flutter, flutter, flutter, rest, rest, rest, rest."

But then this melody of sound and movement and practicing and resting goes quickly out of tune as I gaze around the kitchen.  Every pot I own is in the sink, waiting to be washed.  Library books, school books, and shoes clutter my view.  The couch is covered with laundry waiting to be folded.  Up on my bed, there is a pile of unmatched socks.  Did I even make the bed this morning?  An epic battle of Axis and Allies between dad and boys is ongoing on the dining room table, waiting for dad to get home from work.  A little bag of popcorn from last night's snack sits on the counter, along with the mail and the ads and the last couple of jalapenos from our garden.  And the dust.  All that dust.  Isn't company coming today?  And piano students? How do I get that dusting done?  What about the bathrooms, and the mopping, and the laundry, and the academics?"

And the cadence of my heart is very different now.  How do I ever keep up with all of these things?

"Teach, cook, wash, clean, stressed, stressed, stressed, stressed."

The booming and puffing and tapping and reading continue, and in my heart there is this banging and clanging and dissonance.

Next to me, I hear the next sentence, read by a small boy oblivious to all of the other noise.

Ah, but then the Conductor of the universe breaks through the noise in my heart and reminds me again of the words that brought life and melody out of the chaos just this morning.

"For He knows our frame.  He remembers that we are dust." Ps. 103: 14

The Composer of life and music and golden leaves doesn't just know I'm dust.  He remembers.  Knowing and remembering are two altogether different things.  Knowing is important, but remembering is active and conscious and gives way to life and grace and help.

And I suppose that if Almighty God, maker of Heaven and Earth has dust, maybe it's ok that I have some too.  Maybe the never-ending dust glorifies God by reminding me that I am just dust too-- that I am so dependent on Him for everything, and that I can't do this mammoth job of mothering without His help.

Oh, but He knows.  He remembers.  He remembers that I am just weak and frail with a heart easily stressed.  He tells me that His power is made perfect in my weakness.  That promise changes everything, doesn't it?

My gaze falls back on my steaming coffee cup.  I look around at my children, engaged in their little lives and activities, happily making noise and messes, mistakes and music.  And God lovingly gazes down on His daughter, engaged in life and activities, making noise and messes, mistakes and music.

The minor melody in my heart a few minutes ago has given way to an altogether different tune.

"He knows, He remembers, He knows, He remembers....

Rest, rest, rest, rest."

Talking to Myself

This is the conversation that I had with myself yesterday as I was once again working my way through the laundry pile:

"Swim trunks????? What in the world are swim trunks doing in the laundry on October 17th?  The pool closed seven weeks ago!"

"I can't be that far behind on laundry, can I?"

"Hmmmm.... Oh, wait.  That's right.  Now I remember..."

"Last Sunday, the boys spent the afternoon building Lego boats and testing them in the tub.  They must have needed to get in with the boats.  After all, that's what any good scientist would do, right?"

"Whew!!!"

"I'm not as far behind as I thought.  I think I'll celebrate with coffee..."

                "...No, may be dark chocolate..."

                                   "No, there's none in the house."

"Maybe I'll just take a nap."

A Week of Pictures- Day 7: Puppy Math

A little bit of puppy math:

6 (the number of people in our family that wanted a dog)

+18 (the number of months we prayed for one that would be "just the right dog that wouldn't bother our allergies and asthma".)

+1 (e-mail we got from a friend telling us she had met a family that needed to give away a puppy that was part the breed we had been looking for -Rhodesian Ridgeback)

+31 (the day in August that we met that family and the puppy and brought her home!)

+0 (the number of people whose allergies and asthma were bothered by this new puppy-- Nothing short of miraculous and a specific answer to a specific prayer!)

+2 (expensive vet visits-- one for several ailments she had when she came to us, and one for a bad limp that started 2 weeks after she came.)

+1 (expensive surgery needed to repair a torn ACL in the puppy's knee.)

+1 (week of intense prayer about what to do-- What is the path of faith?  What is the path of logic?  Should we keep her or give her away knowing that we had already spent several hundred dollars on vet bills and had no money for the surgery?)

+4 (long phone calls with rescue organizations and a dear friend who was a professional dog trainer.)

+6 (family members that were absolutely heartbroken that we might have to give her up.)

+1 (generous, gracious, anonymous animal-lover that has offered to pay for the surgery.  Again, nothing short of miraculous.)

+ 6 (people in our house who have fallen completely in love with this darling, good-tempered Rhodesian Ridgeback/Springer Spaniel mix that fits our family so well.)

=

1 puppy who is here to stay and

1 faithful God to Whom we trust our future and hers.

Meet our sweet little Leeli:

A Week of Pictures- Day 6: The Nintendo 3DS Cake

Josiah asked for a Nintendo 3DS cake for his 12th birthday.  The cake was a large sheet cake literally bent in half, propped up, and frosted.  We used Skittles, Twizzlers, a Starburst, and frosting to add the details.  Here are a couple of pictures:

A Week of Pictures- Day 5: Sugar Rush

Over Labor Day weekend, we hosted a large gathering for the family fantasy football draft.  We had a fantastic day with two of Paul's siblings and their families, and two of his uncles and their families.

This was the scene on the table and kitchen counter at some point during the day.  I think someone counted more than twenty 2-liters of pop! Talk about a sugar rush!

A Week of Pictures- Day 4: Growing Up at the Beach

When Paul's uncle died, we drove to South Carolina for the funeral.  It was a blessing to be there to support Paul's aunt, and we had the joy of seeing many other family members that we hadn't seen for quite awhile.  Since we were so close to the coast, we took a little time one morning to go play on the beach.

I now have quite a few pictures of our kids sitting in the sand on our various visits throughout the last several years.  To look at these photos side by side is bittersweet.  Same beach, same kids, same girl with a handful of sand, and in some cases even the same swimsuits on different boys, but time marches forward, and these precious ones get bigger all the time.

2007

2012

A Week of Pictures- Day 3: Blueberry Picking

"Berry Picking" was one of the items on our Summer Bucket List.  One day in August, some friends took us to their favorite blueberry farm, and we came home with fifteen pounds of berries!  A few of them even made it to the freezer!  Here are a few pictures...

I've given a lot of thought to the sign pictured above.  We tend to see bees as a nuisance or difficulty, but without them to pollinate the flowers on the bushes, no fruit would grow.  It's true for my life too.  I've often seen the Lord produce fruit through the difficult times and the hard circumstances. 

Isn't it just like the Lord to continue to teach me important things about Himself-- even through unexpected things like a small sign taped to a counter at a blueberry farm?  

A Week of Pictures- Day 2: The Window Herb-Garden

I have a sunny kitchen window that has almost no window sill.  I have always wanted to grow herbs in that window, but I never knew how to accomplish it.  Last spring, I started researching herb gardens and finally found what I was looking for-- an idea for a way to hang them in the window.

Paul grew the herbs from seed for me.  I saved coffee cans, wrapped them in some twine I found in the garage, and purchased two $3 tension rods.  I had some small chip-board letters that someone had given me, so Sarah and I made little tags for the cans.  We also used the letters to spell "Grow in Grace" in the middle of the rods.

I started out with dill, oregano, basil, and parsley.  The dill got really tall and went to seed recently, but the oregano, parsley, and basil are still going strong.  I think next year instead of dill, I'm going to try thyme!

A Week of Pictures- Day 1: Summer Sewing

I haven't posted pictures for awhile, so I thought I would recap some of the things we've done recently by posting a few pictures each day for the next week.  

I love to sew but don't get much time during the school year.  I am also still learning, so each new project is a good challenge to expand my skills.  Amazingly enough, I actually completed nine or ten projects this summer, although I don't have pictures of all of them.   Here are just a couple of the completed projects:

I needed pot holders, so I made some!
 (You know you've been married awhile when you cut up the raggedy towels that were once a plush wedding gift and use them as insulation in pot holders.)  Life is just too short not to have a set of red polka-dotty pot holders, right?

This is a bag I made for a birthday gift, and with a few modifications, it turned out to be completely reversible.
 It was a new pattern for me, but it is a keeper!  I love the black and white.

Here you can see a bit of the inside with a big pocket!

If you have worked on developing a skill, I'd love to hear about it!  As one dear friend said to me once, "God is the Creator, and because we are made in His image, He made us with the innate desire to create."

That's something I'll probably continue to ponder for the rest of my life...