Practicing Gratitude

Well, it was much easier to be thankful this week!  The literal and figurative clouds rolled away, the sun rose hot and high each day, and we spent a glorious 3-day weekend at the lake with my dad's family.

I love my dad's family ~ every last one of them!!  There were 81 uncles, aunts, cousins, and cousins' kids in attendance (which is actually only 55% of the entire family!!), plus an additional 4 "honorary" family members, and 2 special guests all the way from Costa Rica!!  I'm so grateful to have such a huge, awesome family!

Most of us see each other only once or twice a year ~ now and/or at the Christmas gathering ~ but there's definitely more time over a weekend to catch up with many people.  And of course, it's virtually impossible to catch up with ALL of them!  But I'm thankful Facebook has made it so much easier to keep up to date with all the goings-on in everyone's lives!!  Plus, it provides conversation starters with relatives you're not necessarily very close with, but want to reconnect with or just express interest in.

The coolest thing about this whole gathering for me was seeing and hearing how God had answered my prayers for my family.  After last year's gathering, I made a promise to myself to pray for each and every single person in my family by name once a week.  I'm thankful for the discovery of exactly how helpful a prayer journal can be ~ with a family that size, it would be easy to forget MANY people without writing their names down each week!

Many times, I really didn't know what to pray ~ I have plenty of family members (roughly the 45% that weren't at the gathering) whom I haven't seen in YEARS or just have very little to do with because of our age differences, etc.  And many times, I prayed just getting a feeling from something I may have heard from another relative or the types of things that got posted on FB.  And yet, God is so good!!

In several random conversations I had where the other party had no knowledge of my prayer resolution, I discovered God had answered my prayers about them or their son, daughter, or spouse!  It was just such an incredible feeling to know that even though I wasn't necessarily praying about something or someone I really knew, what was laid on my heart to talk to God about was heard and the requests granted!  It was wonderful!!

I'm so thankful God hears and answers prayer.  I'm so thankful He's been so good to my family, even though we have many who've decided He isn't the most important thing in life anymore and there are several who've never had a personal relationship with Him.  I'm trusting that someday we will all not only be one huge biological family, but spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ as well.

...Oh, and though I'm not always very thankful for a large garden (I'm not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination ~ it all just feels like WORK to me!), man, oh man, am I ever grateful to be eating fresh, sweet, juicy, home-grown tomatoes and corn on the cob these days!  :)

 

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The Weekend in Pictures

Every year, my dad's family gets together for their traditional summer gathering either the last or second-last weekend in August.  He comes from a large family (13 surviving siblings!), so there are uncles, aunts, cousins, cousins-in-law, and cousins' kids like you would not believe!!



The last dozen or so years, we've used the same Bible camp to hold our shindig, and it just so happens to be nice and close to our place ~ only about a 45 minute drive away up into the hills south of us.



Up here on the Canadian prairies, the weather generally starts to cool noticeably in the second half of August, and up in the hills by the lake, it's sometimes quite chilly already.  The last several years have ranged from "okay" weather to downright miserable.



But this year? Other than the coolness overnight, you'd have thought it was much earlier in summer! The weather was absolutely amazing! None of us could remember the last time we'd had a full weekend of great weather at this particular camp the end of August like we had this year.  It was incredible.



The girls were in the water virtually from the moment we arrived Friday afternoon until everything was packed up Monday morning.  They really took to using the camp's kayaks.



Even my dad, who doesn't often even don swimtrunks ~ let alone go swimming ~ went TUBING, of all things!!!



And canoeing, of course. It's one of my parents' favourite pastimes ~ and the girls love the rides, too!



Muskrats and beavers were both spotted, usually in the evenings, paddling around our lakefront.



Monday morning dawned warm and beautiful.  The lake was still as glass ~ too bad everything was packed away already!!



The mist was just clearing off the lake in the morning sun...



the reflections spectacular and completely unmarred by even the tiniest ripple.



Until I couldn't resist dipping my feet in one last time!

Counselling my heart...

I'm not particularly thrilled with the quality of this video, but I hope the song ministers to you. I need to remember to tell myself this a little more often...

The clouds are rolling away and the sun is shining through, and it looks like it will be a beautiful weekend! Hope yours is, too!!

 * Of course, the ACTUAL forecast isn't really that great, but I'm still going to enjoy a great weekend at the lake with my extended family!!

Practicing Gratitude

I'm gonna be real honest here: today it really IS a matter of PRACTICING gratitude. I am just not feelin' it this week, my friends.

I KNOW I have much to be thankful for; I just don't FEEL it.

I'm struggling to "laugh at the future" right now.

I know what I said about tough times just a few posts ago, and how if we just always seek to fix things instead of endure them, we may be missing God's richest blessings and the sweetest moments in His arms. I really do believe that.  I know the benefits of waiting on God far outweigh the benefits of rushing on ahead of Him.

I KNOW it; I just don't FEEL it.

But I know faith isn't based on feelings. Like love or self-discipline or joy, faith is a decision. A decision to counsel my heart instead of following it; to talk some sense into myself instead of listening to the made-up half-truths and lies in my mind. It's a conscious decision to place my life and my future in the hands of God and trust that whatever comes will be what I would have chosen for myself if I were Him.

I'm thankful for friends who, unknowingly, have provided encouragement. And distractions like thoughtful gifts and impromptu birthday parties!

I'm so grateful for divine "coincidences."  I don't think it's any accident that this week's Revive Our Hearts series on Psalm 37 was scheduled perfectly to begin on my birthday.  Today's broadcast on being STILL before God was particularly fitting ~ exactly the wise, encouraging counsel I needed to hear.

I'm thankful for passages like Psalm 27:4-5, 13-14 and Habbakuk 3:14-19 and Isaiah 40:27-31 ~ and so many others ~ that offer the beautiful, reassuring reminders that God is GOOD regardless of my current circumstances...

That He is in control regardless of how I FEEL.

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39 Reflections

Today is my birthday.  I am now officially 39 years old.
But I don't look a day over 28.  (come on, why are you laughing?)
I have a good life.  Some days it takes more convincing than others to believe it, but I really do.
The Almighty God is a good Friend of mine.  My Best Friend, actually.
I still struggle a lot with making Him LORD of my life though.
So I'm extremely grateful for His grace and mercy.
I love that even though I've heard about Him all my life, I still hunger to know more.
And the more I study, the more I realize I never knew before.
My husband is my other vey best friend.  We've had almost 15 years together.
Sometimes it seems like we just go from one crisis to the next, year after year.
But our commitment is constant.
Most days, I really take that for granted.
I have two amazing and beautiful little girls.  Who aren't so little anymore.
I'd like to say they keep me young, but let's face it, I'm usually exhausted just watching them.
I love how they're each other's best friend.
I have the most important job in the world ~ raising and training future adults.
It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!
Most days, I love being a housewife and stay-at-home mom.
Some days, I feel very forgotten.
But then I remember I'm serving the King of Kings. And that it was an honour for Him to appoint me to this position.
I love my church family and I'm growing to love "church" more and more.
One thing I'd love to see in such a small church family is more intimacy.
It frustrates me that we've adopted the mentality of the world and view vulnerability as weakness.
I pray I'll see a revival in my lifetime.  REAL revival, not just a week of evening meetings called that.
I'll confess I'm a little worried what that might demand of me, but I know it will be worth it.
I talk to God about it on my daily walks. Among many other things.
I love my mile road and starting out my day without a walk is tough.
Feeling unsettled and unfocused the rest of the day is a common occurence.
Well, I guess if I'm being honest, focus is something I struggle with almost EVERY day!
I keep talking about wanting to be a deliberate wife and mother, but it's easier said than done.
Especially when you're lazy like me.
I also keep talking about wanting to be a better friend, but I feel like that hasn't happened yet either.
Which is why the few that hang in there with me are so very special.
In our day of convenience, making time for "real life" friends is hard when Facebook and blogging are so much easier.
I want to get better at having a more flexible agenda.
And just doing things that need doing when they need doing instead of thinking and planning and rearranging my schedule and then deciding they're just too much work. And having wasted valuable time in the process.
I want to quit spending my time and start INVESTING it.
I want to have a mission statement for my home and my life so that I can visually remind myself of my purpose to be a blessing to others in a more practical way.
Because I have been blessed.  For 39 years.

 

Practicing Gratitude

Ahhh, I love summer!

I'm so thankful we've had an incredible summer, weather-wise this year ~ it's been LONG overdue!! I think in the 10 summers we've had here in The Valley, this is only the second time I can remember feeling we'd had a long, hot summer! And it's not even quite over yet!! Yay, for long, hot summers! (and by long, I mean at least the full two months they occupy on the calendar ~ that's bordering on miraculous up here on the Canadian prairies!)

I'm thankful yesterday was the first full rainy day since about June!  We didn't really need a day of rain ~ we've had several showers over the last two weeks ~ but I'm thankful it's been a good two months since our last dark, damp day!  That's pretty amazing, considering how the last few summers have gone!

I'm thankful this week has been relaxing.  No unpacking and cleaning up, no preparing to go away, no company coming for the weekend... While I enjoy being gone, and visits from family, summer almost always feels like there are too many weekends "spoken for" even before it technically begins. This coming weekend is the only one this month and one of only two this summer where we are home all weekend and aren't getting overnight company.

I'm so grateful The 'Man ran into a construction foreman friend of his in town the other day.  Work for the trucks has been somewhat hard to come by this summer and though hubby co-owns and manages the company, he really only gets paid when he drives.  Which hasn't happened a whole lot this summer.  So when his friend offered him work, he jumped at the chance.  I'm thankful he's making money this week, even though the company is still struggling.  And that he's working 9 hrs each day but still comes home for supper each evening ~ I could see myself getting used to this!!

I'm grateful for almost 39 great years!  By the time Thankful Thursday rolls around next week, I expect to have celebrated one more birthday, God willing!  He's given me so many more years, blessings, and joys than I could ever have earned.  While I sometimes grow weary of His endless refining process, I'm so thankful He keeps giving me chance after chance, day after day, year after year...

And I'll confess, I'm kinda countin' on many more!!

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Not just for sailors

After a dark, damp, windy day,



a calm, peaceful evening...



with a red sky like this...



delights ME, too!

Blessings

So often, when things are not going well in our lives, the tendency is to try to fix them instead of endure them. Somehow we feel this can't be right, it can't be what God wants for us. And yet in stubbornly gritting our teeth and fixing rather than enduring in brokenness and surrender, I fear we sometimes short-change ourselves as we blaze right past the evidences of God's goodness along the way, the assurances of His presence at our side...

We miss the blessings.

Over and over, this is something that's been driven home for me over the last year.

I had no idea there was a song that put it all into words and music so perfectly until one of my sisters-in-law told me about her new favourite song last week. She'd printed out the words and randomly sang a few bars. It very quickly became mine, too, and I bought and downloaded the sheet music the day after we got home. I had the crazy idea to sing it in church today, since I'm up for special music.

Problem is, I can't sing and play piano at the same time, and certainly not with only a week to learn and practice it.

Coincidentally, that same sister-in-law was coming out for a visit this weekend. And she had said the next time she sang in church, she wanted it to be this song...

And so this morning, with her voice and my fingers at the piano, my little church family will hear it. We both feel like we were sort of somehow prompted to do it and so we believe it bears a message God wanted someone else to hear and that the Holy Spirit will use it to minister hope and encouragement.

I hope the song holds a special blessing for you, too.

Summer Goals Checkpoint #3

This week has been filled with unpacking, laundry, and getting caught up with the yard and garden after being away from a week, so I almost forgot to check in.  The "official" day would have been Tuesday, so I'm not THAT far behind!!

In the last 2-week period, the girls were at camp for a week which affected our results, and in this 2-week period, we were away from home for a week, which ALSO affected our efforts...  Attaining these goals has been a bit of a joke so far this summer!!

• Get to the local library and school playground once a week ~ July 12, Aug 9 (library only)
• Spend 20 minutes a day in the garden ~ Jun 28, 29, (away from home the 1st to 3rd) Jul 4, 7, (away 15-17), July 25... clearly I'm not doing well with this one again!!  In my defence, hubby's been home a fair bit this summer, so he's been doing much of this.  It really is HIS hobby, not mine!

• Teach girls some simple chore routines:
  • swish'n'swipe bathroom: every morning since July 5!! (except weekends, and their/our absences from July 18-23 and Jul 29-Aug 6)
  • make beds: ditto
  • 10-minute "fling boogie":  still waiting... although we've tidied up the front porch/toy room twice last month and this week they're doing their bedroom.
• Involve girls with meal prep and dishes once a week each:
  • Peanut: Jun 29; Aug 9, 10 
  • Fidget:
  • Ugh ~ EPIC FAIL!
• Weekly piano lessons for Peanut ~ Jun 30, Jul 11, (not doing so great here either, but all our comings and goings over the last four weeks made lessons sort of pointless since she hasn't been home to practice!  Hoping to resume next week, but I'm considering just giving it up till school starts again.)

• One playdate or special activity each week:
  • July 1-3 ~ visited some relatives (incl. the girls' favourite second-cousin) 4 hrs away on the July long wknd
  • July 6 ~ had a friend and her two young children over for a morning playdate
  • July 7 ~ swimming at the lake with school friends
  • July 14/15 ~ Fidget was at a friend's place for the day and a sleepover; Peanut and I had a special supper and movie night.
  • July 15-17 ~ camping with the 'Man's family
  • July 18-23 ~ girls first ever week at Bible Camp!
  • July 22-25 ~ one of the 'Man's sisters came to visit
  • July 29 ~ rodeo parade in the morning and the midway and grandstands for the rest of the day!
  • July 30-Aug 1 ~ extended family gathering at the lake
  
  • Aug 1-6 ~ visiting all the grandparents, aunties, and cousins in The Big City, which included a sleep-over, several trips to local school playgrounds, an IMAX movie, and two trips to a nearby outdoor pool
• Try to head to the lake or pool once a week:
  • July 3 ~ swimmin' in the creek on my uncle's farm
  • July 7 ~ the girls and I went to the lake (some of the girls' school friends were there, too, it turns out, so this also counts as a playdate!)
  • July 15-17 ~ swimming in the lake each day while camping
  • July 19-22 ~ girls swam in the pool each full day at camp
  • July 30-Aug 1 ~ we were all swimming (or skiing or tubing) all day, every day at the family gathering!
  • Aug 4 & 5 ~ girls went to the pool in The Big City with grandpa both afternoons (once with their dad along, and once with grandma along)
• MORE PICNICS!
  • at home: Jun 29, Jul 11
  • away: Jul 3 weiner roast by the creek; each day had at least one outdoor meal at the family gathering Jul 30-Aug 1!

Again, if not for the fact that we were away from home for just over a week, these stats would look like we were failing miserably, but thankfully, statistics don't always present a very accurate picture!  When I first laid out these goals, I didn't really figure in how busy July was going to be.  I'm looking forward to being able to work on them a little more now in August.  My calendar is remarkably empty-looking, so it might actually work this month!!

 

Practicing Gratitude

It's been two weeks again since I posted for TT last and there has been MUCH to be grateful for in the mean time!

I'm thankful for an awesome day at the local rodeo ~ I don't seem to tire of walking with the girls from one ride to the next for hours on end.  I love watching their faces, especially when they go from concentrated and anxious to carefree and laughing.

I'm thankful for an incredible weekend at the lake with The 'Man's extended family.  They have an annual gathering and it's been 4-5 years since we were at the last one, so I'm grateful we finally got to go again.  He has some really great cousins, aunts, and uncles!

I'm thankful for perfect lake weather while we were there.  It was so hot I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do than swim!  I'm not much of a water person ~ I can swim relatively well, but it's not a necessity just because we're in close proximity with water, but it was a necessity that weekend!!  And oh, it felt so good!  I'm so thankful for opportunities to enjoy nature like that.

I'm grateful our visit with our immediate families was wonderful, too.  Sometimes I wish we didn't have to have such extended, concentrated visits with our families.  I'd rather have an evening/afternoon visit once or twice each week, but since we just don't live close enough for that, I'm thankful we can still see them all at least a half-dozen times a year, either at our home or theirs.  I'm thankful we don't live so far away that we can only afford to travel home once every few years!

I'm thankful that though our truck was broken into one night while in The Big Bad City, there was no damage.  I'm thankful all the hudlums really got was a cheap, cruddy, temperamental portable DVD player, a few old DVDs, and about $5.  They did take hubby's wallet (which he doesn't normally leave behind like that!!), but none of the cards were used before he reported them all.  His drivers licence ~ a pretty important document for a professional trucker!! ~ was quickly replaced without any hassle even with the complete absence of ID, thanks to a police report file number. We hadn't actually intended to report it, since we knew there was really nothing that could be done about it, and since nothing of great value was taken, but we found out later that without that file number, getting replacement IDs would have been much tougher and more expensive!  So we're thankful we decided to report it anyway.  Most of all, we're so VERY grateful the villains never noticed that the spare truck key was in the same cubby hole the wallet had been in!!

I'm thankful for date nights! Especially out of the ordinary ones!! While in the city, The 'Man took me out for a casual supper (to a little fish 'n' chips place his sister had recommended) and then on the spur of the moment, we popped in at the local ballpark and caught most of the baseball game ~ in really great seats for cheap! Because the game was already in progress when we bought our tickets, they told us we could buy the cheapest tickets and just find empty seats wherever we wanted to. It was a perfect evening to watch a ball game and so much fun to be out with my best friend. I'm thankful that we still have such a great time together!

I'm grateful for travel safety and that we could bring home a semi-truck from the city again without having to make an extra trip.  The girls, of course, chose to ride home with their dad in the semi, and I enjoyed 5 hours of very-alone time!

I'm thankful my garden is starting to really produce.  Y'all know I'm not fond of gardening ~ it's more hubby's thing ~ but I do love eating the fresh veggies!  And even though it feels like it takes FAR too long, I'm grateful there's garden beans and peas in the freezer now, too!!

I'm thankful for my house, my bed, my yard... my HOME.

 

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