I don't know if this is a fight for anyone else, but the
girls and I have really been struggling with keeping their room clean. I put
together a list that I'm hoping will help and I thought I'd share :) I did a
boy one and a girl one; let me know if they help you!
Social media can be a wonderful thing. I enjoy seeing what
different people have to say on Instagram and the little insights some of them
offer into my day.
But at some point the ‘ideal and beautiful’ posts turn my
stomach. Posts like “Find the good. Notice what catches the light and let the
rest get blurry” make me want to scream. Sometimes I want to comment that those words are lovely and all, but the rest of us live in the real world where
the muggy air is less about the promise of beautiful rain and more about the
fact that my hair is going to frizz like crazy.
It’s like those old ladies who say to cherish every moment
with your baby. I’m really sorry, y’all, but the only way us sucker moms have
more than one kid is to forget about the screaming/crying/throwing up/biting of
the first one. Those memories are skipping the ‘cherish and remember’ file and
hopping right on back to the ‘shred then set on fire then bury in the middle of
nowhere’ file.
All this to say—I’m taking some time off from the ‘grasping
every bit of time’ stuff and indulging in the ‘name that movie quote’ stuff.
That’s about all I have the energy for.
We skipped showers
tonight. We try to have the kids shower every night—the girls are getting to an
age where it’s just a good idea. But tonight Mr. Bug was gone and I had a headache
and it simply wasn’t going to happen.
We shoot for 8:00 for
bedtime on school nights, and tonight after dinner I just told them to put on
their pajamas, get in their beds and read. The girls each had books they’re in
the middle of and Buddy just grabbed a yearbook to look through. They all sat
in their beds and read and I enjoyed about 30 minutes of quiet.
I didn’t do what I was ‘supposed
to do’ tonight. Heck, I didn’t even do the dishes after dinner. But some nights
are just that way. It’s not ‘survival’ mode necessarily; at times it’s just
good to remember that some things really aren’t that big of a deal.
I've written about music
before (here and here) and the impact it has on my heart. I think that's a very human thing--to
be moved by beautiful music. This one is speaking to me very deeply right now
and I thought I'd share.
Here's the link to the song. Take a listen.
We live our lives in seasons. Some seasons are for rejoicing, and some are for
mourning. Some we feel like we sail through on a cloud. Then there are those
seasons where the only way we get to the other side is to crawl through on our
hands and knees.
"I want to believe there's beauty here." Even in the darkest of
times, we have Someone with us. Even Jesus in the garden asked that the cup be
taken from him (Mt 26:39.) We don't have to want
the suffering, but we can trust that God can do beautiful things with our
broken pieces.
Isaiah 61:3 (NKJV)
“To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
The term ‘beauty for
ashes’ isn’t talking about just replacing something that’s been burned. I
thought that for a long time. What it’s referring to is replacing the ashes of
mourning with a ‘garland’ or beauty. That thought is a balm to me. That means
instead of mourning and weeping for what was, God can adorn us with a new
beauty only He can create!
"How many times have you given me strength to just keep breathing?"
During the darkest times, I just need to get through one moment at a time. I
don't need to finish the marathon. I need to take one more step, and that step
is all I can manage.
Psalm 18:32 (NIV)
“It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.”
Last one. "Standing on a road I didn't plan. Wondering how I got to where
I am." I don't think any of us aim for those dark times. Sometimes we're
not even there because of us. Sometimes we've been dragged there by someone
else's choices. The long and the short of it is that there is darkness in this
world. There is an evil one (whether you believe he's real or not doesn't
matter), and he'd like nothing more than for us to drag one another down to the
blackest holes there are.
John 10:10 (NIV)
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come
that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Standing on that road and bleeding. Wondering where the strength for that next
breath is coming from. Wanting to believe that our Creator can bring beauty and
light out of something dark and ugly.
There really is beauty here. We may have to dig for it. But I'll dig until my
fingers bleed to find His purpose for this and He can help clean us up on the other side.
I don’t know if anyone has seen the previews for the new
superhero movie, ‘Deadpool,’ but from the regular trailer it looks like it
could be funny. I appreciate the occasional dark humor and Ryan Reynolds has
good comedic chops, so I initially thought this was just going to be another
superhero movie we would see.
We just watched the red band trailer—which I will not link
to here—and by the time it ended I was just so…angry. This was me:
In the ten or so seconds following the preview I tried to
process just what it was that made me so mad and it was this: why on earth is there a superhero movie in
which the f-word is used at least a half-dozen times in just the trailer. In the trailer, people! To say nothing about the nudity and violence.
Aren’t superhero movies for kids? How did we get here? What happened
to these superheroes? When did superheroes stop being about silly humor and
jokes for kids?!
And then it hit me.
There is a whole generation of ‘adults’ who are chomping at
the bit to see this movie. A whole slew of legal adults who can’t wait to see a
superhero movie with ‘their kind of humor’ and what appear to be (from the
trailer) a few steamy sex scenes. I enjoy a superhero movie as much as the next
gal who’s married to a comic book fan, but ultimately the movies should be
geared toward their original audience. Teenagers.
Let’s call a spade a spade here, y’all. ‘Deadpool’ is a kids'
movie with adult humor. Why was it even made? Because a lot of so-called ‘grown-ups’
have the attitude and sense of humor of a teenage boy, but a birthdate that
allows them to buy booze, vote, and gain entrance to R-rated movies.
There’s a possibility that I’m making too much of this.
There’s a possibility that the expectation I have for ‘adult humor/entertainment’
includes too much actual thinking and not enough nudity or references to body
parts and sex acts. Silly me for appreciating dry humor and intelligent
comments. But I tell you what. I’ll keep ‘The Newsroom,’ ‘Downton Abbey’ and ‘The
King’s Speech,’ and all those man-boys can enjoy ‘The League,’ ‘Archer’ and ‘Deadpool.’
