Normalcy

Well as predicted... or at least anticipated, with the Fall season and a return to my preferred routine comes a return to normalcy for me. I'm so thankful and relieved to be on the upswing again. And that's all I really want to say, I guess. Just enjoying life, enjoying my friends, enjoying my family and getting back to really doing what I was created for... enjoying God. :)

Grace Wrestler

The Grace Whisperer hasn't been blogging here recently. That's not to say that she hasn't been very active elsewhere, though! :) But not here.... So many reasons why, really, but the bottom line has really been that the Grace Whisperer has been struggling... struggling with herself, struggling with God and struggling with the struggling, quite honestly. As Thumper would say, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." So I have chosen silence.

Experience has taught me that it's during these times that my faith grows, and I grow as a person. So I don't worry about it so much. I just don't talk about it much either, because I've also found that there's typically two reactions to such revelations. Either I am chastised for my lack of faith (not true!) or people worry about me (not necessary!).

In my christian walk, I have often found myself identifying closely with Jacob, who wrestled with God. As soon as I heard the account about him, I thought, "that is so like me!" I particularly like the part where it describes how God touched Jacob's hip causing him to limp. I am so fond of it because my hip is messed up too!! LOL!! Maybe that's why! :)

At any rate, I do sense myself coming out of the deep funk.... Certain things in life seem to be forcing me out, really, and thank God for those things... the things that keep me from focusing solely on myself... not the least of which is my two little blessings from God Himself.

Dirty hands

You ever have one of those "Aha!" moments while you're sitting there in church, or listening to a sermon on the radio or in a Bible study? I LOVE those. I love that after 24 years of reading the Bible, walking the Christian life, and after two-plus years of total immmersion studying the Bible in College... I love that it's still fresh and new. I love that there are even moments where some little in depth tidbit surprises me and amazes me.

Yesterday, I had two of those moments, maybe more. It was just one of those days. God seemed to be speaking right to me. So here's an illustration that I want to share with you. See if it touches you the way it touched me...

"...My 3 year old son loves to fingerpaint. Nothing is better than fingerpainting in his whole world. The other day, I came home from work and there he was, at his little table, pots of primary colors close at hand. In his hands he had more fingerpaint than any child should be allowed to have; in one hand a big glob of blue, in the other, a big glob of yellow. At that precise moment, he thought it would be a good idea to clap his hands.... a LOT!! Green paint went flying everywhere.... I said, "What were you thinking? Even your face has paint on it." To this, his son reached up with his paint covered right hand and tried to wipe his face clean...."

Pastor went on to ask, (as do I) how much is this like us, as we stand before a holy God, trying to clean ourselves up for Him? We see a small spot on our face, and try to clean it up with dirty hands, but all we really succeed in doing is smearing it.

While his son wasn't able to clean himself, what he needed was someone who was already clean to come alongside of him and help him. This loving father did exactly that, and in the process he found that some of his son's paint ended up on himself. How much is this a picture of Jesus who comes alongside of us in our sin, cleans us up by taking our sin upon himself?

I sat there, thinking of my four year old's winter boots and spring shoes. I can't think of anything more gross that I have to do as a mom than remove my son's muddy, sandy dirty, wet shoes after he's been out playing in the yard. I really cringe everytime I have to touch them, especially if I have to help him get them back on after a potty break!! Inevitably all the crud ends up on me, my hands, my clothes... UCK!! And here I was... all clean....

I doubt I'll ever be able to handle that job or see fingerpaints without thinking of all that Jesus has done.

A Little Rant And One Rave

First, The Rave.... I haven't been on the blogosphere much recently and that's because I've been taking an online class called, "Speed Spanish". It was a six week class and they weren't kidding when they named it!! It was fast!! :) I LOVED it, and can't wait till I can take the next session. This class deals with what the instructor calls "recipes"... basically how to put together sentences to converse with someone in Spanish. I can't believe all I've learned so far and am anxious to see how much I can use when I go to ALTECO in a couple of weeks. There will be delegates there from many South American countries and indigenous tribes, all speaking espanol! :) All just waiting for me to say something profound like "No hay agua! La agua no funciona!"

Oh, and by the way.... Pity the poor hostess on The Biggest Loser! I do! Poor Alison Sweeney. She clearly tries to make for compelling conversation, ala Jeff Probst on Survivor or even Julie Chen on Big Brother. Alas she fails!! People keep attacking her!! Is it because she's skinny? Beautiful? Annoying? All the above? Did you watch it tonight? Did you? I thought Jillian was going to take her out!! Now, I'm not normally one who goes in for cussing, but I just wanted to applaude Jillian for standing up for Brittany.

I should say that I have NOT followed this show religiously, so maybe I'm not getting the whole picture. It just seems to me that Alison has no real rapport with the Losers. They don't seem to enjoy her banter or her commentary during challenges. She just seems a bad fit to me. Is it just me? Tell me people, and I will repent!

And gee, while I'm on my rant.... What happened to Moonlight on CBS' website? I have been in Moonlight withdrawal for weeks. I admit it!! Last week I went online looking to watch a full episode and the only episode offered was "Arrested Development". Not my favorite episode, but I clicked on it anyway and never could get it to run! Now? Watching a full episode isn't even an option!! Geez!

Time Travel Made Easy

So yesterday I was at my local Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) meeting.

Love this group for the fellowship, support and the great breakfasts too!! I miss my old MOPS group though. It was awesome on every level and it's hard not to compare the two.

Anyway, at the end of the meeting, we all pulled numbers from a basket for a drawing. My number was 24. As I mosied toward my discussion group, I heard my number being called.

So, with great excitement and much humor, I got to yell, "I'm 24! I'm 24!!" It's been awhile since I've been able to say that!! It made my day even more than the Bath & Body Works Peaberry Moisturizing Hand Soap I picked from the prize basket.

Happy Birthday

Today the Little Man turned 4. Yeah, Ian!! Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!"

Since everyone has been passing THE BUG and a cold back and forth for the last three weeks, we've been a bit low key about the birthday this year. I'm exhausted from little boys waking me up 2 hours early and not going back to sleep. The birthday boy has been doing this for two weeks or so. I keep putting him back in his bed and he returns about every 15-30 minutes or so just to let me know that he can't sleep! Since he shares his room with Lumpadump (aka Shane), all this walking back and forth and opening doors has been waking up Shane as well.

In other news, Hubbie & I have started to take a class online called "Speed Spanish". It's really great for me. I know next to NO Spanish, but am regularly meeting Spanish-speaking people! Hubs on the other hand speaks Spanish very well, but hasn't studied it before, so he decided to take the class with me. Unfortunately, we are two lessons behind and this week we get two more lessons! What's the Spanish term for "YIKES!"?

A Wake Up Call

Today was such a beautiful day: blue sky, bright sunshine, a few clouds. A perfectly crisp, cold winter's day. Perfect for those of us who actually enjoy northern winters! But it wasn't the weather that gave me chills as I drove down the road with Little Man (almost 4!). Nope, it was this comment from the backseat: "Mom, I see a trumpet in the clouds!" Whoa!! I said, "What?!" My mind was racing! Where the heck did that come from?! What's he talking about?! Is this it?! Is Jesus coming back RIGHT NOW?!! Then Ian explained that the cloud he saw was in the shape of a trumpet.... Oh. Kind of a let down. :)

So here's my question, dear reader, when was the last time you thought, "Maybe today...."? Do you know that there is a crown reserved in Heaven for "all who have LOVED His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:8c)?

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Vampire Bugs and Menu Plans

Here at Whispers of Grace, our family is still fighting the little bug that the Little Men brought home with them. It sure is strange. I'm going to call it the Vampire Bug. Except for a general loss of appetite, this thing only manifests it's symptoms at night! For the first 3 nights that Ian-almost 4 years- was ill, he woke up around 11:45 at night with a fever. The rest of the day he was "fine"! If he hadn't been waking up with a fever and aches, I'd never have known he was really sick. (See previous post!) Since then, he just wants a little extra sleep, but that's about it. The last two nights, just before bed, he's had some other symptoms running thru his body, if you get my meaning. But again, I say, that's it!

So with that lovely segue, I'm contemplating this menu for the week. But I'm not going to be very strict about it, feeling rather blah myself.

Monday: Pasta with vodka sauce
Tuesday: Fish & Potatoes
Wednesday: Teriyaki Pork & Rice
Thursday: Chicken Pot Pie
Friday: Homemade pizza
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Breakfast! :)

Check out what else is cooking at "I'm an organizing junkie"

Plagued by Whining?

The problem with 3 year olds is that they whine. Some days they whine A LOT! Some days they whine to get out of things. Some days they whine for no reason at all. So when one of them whines at breakfast and tells you that his arm hurts and his leg hurts, you take a look, give it a smooch and then tell him it will feel better when he eats something. Then at lunch, when he whines that his eyes hurt, you kind of roll your eyes privately and then tell him to eat his lunch.

Okay, that was my "full of compassion" mothering moment for the day. Turns out though his eyes really were bothering him. They were red and stingy, so I figured he had rubbed them with his fingers. Dutifully, we washed them. We rinsed them several times over the coarse of an hour. Then we sent the Little Man to preschool with instruction to tell his teacher to call me if he wanted to come home.

They didn't call. He didn't want to come home. Now don't get me wrong. I think it's great that he loves school so much, but when Daddy picked him up, the child looked like he had the plague! All around his eyes and lips, the skin was RED! By the time we got him home and into the bath/shower, we realized he had a fever as well.

So there you have it! First illness of the year! Yay. :P As you may imagine, I am feeling like a "bad" mom today. For not believing the boy in the morning, for not believing the boy at lunch, and for sending him to school (against my better judgment) to infect the whole class. Go Mom!

Brotherly Love

Little Man (aka Ian-almost 4) and Lumpadump (aka Shane-1yr) were riding in the back of our car this morning. As I pulled into the parking lot of the local Dunkin Donuts, Ian said, for no apparent reason, "I love you, Shane!! You're my BEST friend!" I looked back and saw that they were holding hands between their carseats. Aw!

Happy New Year!

This year all my resolutions are related to simplifying my life with a goal to become more Christlike. We live in a great age. Everything is at our fingertips. Anything we want to know, research, read or buy is just a click away. I LOVE it. I HATE it!

Meanwhile, I have unfinished (and unstarted) projects filling up cabinets, closets and our pantry! Yes, our pantry!! Some of these were started before our first son was even a glimmer in our eyes. I never found the time to work on things then, but somehow I continue to deceive myself into believing that I will NOW, two kids later, suddenly find some free hours to cross-stitch the Christmas tree skirt, rubberstamp birthday cards and Christmas cards, scrapbook the last 10 years of my life (thousands of pictures), organize and try the new recipes buried in a folder, order wedding pictures (from almost 10 years ago.... Yep, haven't even gotten a wedding album yet). Don't even get me started about all the programming books I have stacked on my bookshelf, half-read.

So the goal this year? SIMPLIFY, Simplify, simplify!! I need to kill the clutter in my home. I need to be ruthless in tossing out the projects gathering dust. I need to focus on my goals, and rid my life of just about everything that does not help me reach them! I find that I can't even THINK at times, as the physical clutter (carefully and tastefully squirreled away, mind you) seems to lead into mental clutter.

To that end, I am determined to Simplify my life, organize the stuff that survives the cut, sell or toss the stuff that doesn't, and beautify my surroundings.

How about you? Any resolutions to share?