How to play “catch-up”…

The mere thought of trying to play catch up is daunting and one that has paralyzed me from logging into my blog and even saying a quick “hi”, “I’m still here”, “The holidays didn’t actually kill me”, or a simple “HELP ME…”!  I know it sounds ridiculous… but with the amount of new things to write about, along with the speed in which they have been hopping on life’s train;  my head is spinning and my stomach was in knots!  A little too dramatic for everyone?  I’ll admit it sounds like it… but here is a brief summary of life since I last signed on:

Christmas 2013 was one we shared with family and friends.  Our railing was lined with 25 stockings, and don’t forget Jake, Sammy Sosa, Chance, and Rudy’s too… the pet ones of course!  The richest blessings in our lives are these zany people that we are somehow related to.  Starting with “Happy Birthday Jesus”, paper shredding, 7 littles running around in pure excitement, a soccer game in the field (almost 60 on Christmas Day), yummy dinner bursting with lively conversations, our huge family photo shoot of the year, and more family coming and going for the next 10-ish days!  It was a wonderful time of really celebrating how blessed we are.  God is so good!

Bringing Lucy home to teach her is one of the best things we ever could have done.  She is re-gaining her self-confidence, beginning to enjoy reading again, believing that she is great at math, and enjoying that her history, science, and reading are Bible based and founded on truths!  I have known that God would ask me to school our kiddos at home for sometime now… all I can say is; He is so very Good and His ways are perfect.  Now, if I want to pull my hair out tomorrow and throw in the “teacher” towel… let me blow off some stream and re-gain my composure.  But I assure you, He is always good!

We found out that the kiddos have a water born parasite in their gut.   Our poor little ladies were really uncomfortable for two whole weeks.  Now the boys have this plague, though we are beginning to see light at the end (we think!)  I had mentioned to hubby man that buying stock in 3 year old undies would have been a wonderful idea as I could not keep up on the laundry… I have never seen anything like it.  But again, with two weeks of poop up to my elbows and sleepless nights on end;  I can confidently say that our God is always incredibly good!

This last week let down the hammer…  Cory woke me up Wednesday morning after a work call and relayed that the Corporate office that he has worked in for these last 6 plus years was closing and he would be without a job soon.  Out of the blue.  No warning.  Not something we had even really considered.  For a job… this was the bomb-digity… we hadn’t imagined life without it… didn’t really want to try.  All I knew to do was pray.  The kind of prayer where it was raw, half empty of words, and yet a prayer of thanksgiving.  Thankful for the job, thankful for the adventure ahead, and thankful that my best friend, myself, and God were there together in that moment.  We are still wading through the questions, the possibilities, the opportunities, but are resting in the arms of the One writing the words of this novel.  A story that one day we will see beauty in, chapters that lead to life abundantly in Him!  While using the brains he has given us, we are also resting in His promises, waiting on His timing, seeking His direction, and knowing that He has “plans to prosper us, and not to harm us.  Plans to give us hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11  He is good time after time.

I feel God saying; “There is much beauty in this mess.”  And I choose to trust Him for He is good!

-Sincerely, dani