Friday, November 30, 2007

Happy Happy Joy Joy


I woke up and jumped out of bed today before I was even awake. Why? Lee's coming home! Yes, he travels to Nashville a good deal. Yes, this time was even a day shorter than usual. Yes, we've been married over 15 years. YES.........I still miss him terribly when he's gone and SO look forward to his coming back.

OK, since I've become a parent, every single time I teach, explain, fuss, encourage, even just talk to my children I hear this voice in my head saying, "that's what God is saying to you." Weird, I know, but it happens ALL the time. Anyway, this morning as I was thinking about it being Friday and Lee coming home, and basically doing the happy dance, I just stopped. Does God feel like this when he knows one of His family is coming home? Was last January 26th a "happy" day for Him, looking forward to seeing my Dad? That just gave me a chill..........the good kind.

Psalm 116:15................."precious in the eye of the Lord is the death of one of His saints."

Awwww........I just now got an email from Lee and it sounds like he's looking forward to coming home to us, too.

Gotta get kids to school!!
Mel

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

On Mission!


Earlier in the week, Lee blogged about feeling like a missionary to China (one of his Christmas musicals is being used there) and it got me thinking about where my mission field is. I told someone recently that I didn't feel called to travel to Africa with our church because "for right now, my family is my mission field." That impressed my friend. That sounded good to my ears, too. But what does that mean?

We have WONDERFUL kids. I know, I know, they're mine.....I have to say that. But really, they are great. They're respectful (most of the time). They're obedient (most of the time). They get along well (most of the time). The older three, Maggie, Reese and Elijah all accepted Jesus as their Savior in January of 2006 and Anabel, age 5, is already asking some deep questions. I want to be able to add to their descriptive................."they love Jesus (all of the time)." What can I be doing now to make that true for them? Dictionary.com defines a missionary as "a group or committee of persons sent to a foreign country to conduct negotiations, establish relations, provide scientific and technical assistance, or the like. " Crossing over into my kids' world is a lot like going to a foreign country. I want to learn to speak their language...........the one that lets them know that I love them and that Jesus loves them even more. I want them to see me love and respect their father. I want them to see me put others first. I want them to see me do the right thing, so that they will do the right thing even when no one else is around. Going to Africa sounds pretty easy sometimes. After a week or so over there, you come home and they never know for sure if you really "walk the talk." Not so here on the home front. These kids see everything! the good, the bad and the ugly. Lord, let there be more good than anything else!!

Oops, back to the trenches...........the dog just threw up!

Mel

Sunday, November 25, 2007

I love a rainy night..........


What a great storm outside right now. Satellite's already knocked out. Thunder's booming. I keep expecting the kids to come out of their rooms any minute now. That brings back memories of when the older three were babies and we lived in TN. They all slept upstairs while our room was down. Maggie had a huge, uncovered arched window in her room, so anytime a thunderstorm came through, she'd wake up screaming, "I don't like the funder!!" In the middle of the night, I'd be half-way up the stairs before I even woke up. They're all growing up now, and I'm trying to instill in them a love for a good storm. There's just something so wonderful about cycling through sleeping/waking/sleeping during the rain and thunder. Oh, and I HATE when a good storm comes through right before the alarm goes off..........what a waste!!

Lee's sitting five feet away on the couch typing away on his own blog. What a weird world we live in, huh? Maybe we'll learn things about each other that we wouldn't have learned otherwise.
We had a good Thanksgiving break, but I'm still tired. It's going to be hard to get back into that getting-ready-for-school routine in the morning. But hey, only 3 weeks and 2 days til Christmas Break!!

Mel

Friday, November 23, 2007

If someone blogs, but no one reads it..............




does it make any noise? what? I guess that's just the voice (one of them) in my head, saying, "why in the world would you want to waste any time at all writing a blog when no one's going to ever read it?" But.... when I was a young girl, I kept a diary. When I got older, I kept a journal. No one read those (I hope), but I still wrote. So, here goes.

All is quiet here tonight. Girls at a sleep-over. Boys in bed after watching "Transformers." Hubby asleep in bed. (after sleeping on the couch during "Transformers.") It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here. We spent most of the day making the transition from Fall/Thanksgiving to Christmas decorations. It helped that a cold front blew through yesterday and it's beginnning to feel a lot like Christmas, too. It's my absolute favorite time. I love everything that Christmas is. The sounds, the smells, the twinkling lights, the counting down the days, the wonder in my kids' eyes. But right now, even though our "prettiest tree ever" is twinkling away, my heart hurts for what this Christmas is......my first without my Dad. This whole year has been full of "firsts" without him, but the next month will be the hardest by far. Each day gets a little closer to Dec. 26th, the day he went back into the hospital and never came back home. He loved Christmas, too. Picking out a great tree. Seeing his three girls (and all of our families) coming in with tons of presents. (and knowing that we'd be leaving again, too!) Mostly, he loved all the food. He's just such a big part of all my Christmas Past, that I'm not sure how my Christmas Present is supposed to look. But God is good and faithful and He's helping me figure it all out. See? Writing this has been cathartic tonight. So, there is good in this blogging thing. Now, I'm going to join the rest of my snoozing family.

I miss you, Dad.
Mel