Celebrating Caleb

 

 Caleb turns 14 today!  His mother shared a super fun request for his birthday:

This week we will celebrate Caleb's birthday! While our journey with Caleb is not always an easy one, there is much to rejoice over and be thankful for. The same way I am confident our Heavenly Father rejoiced in perfectly creating Caleb! I enjoy birthdays but buying presents for Caleb has always been difficult. He is happy with simple things! So this year I thought of a different kind of present...serving and loving others by doing random acts of kindness in honor of Caleb's special day. You could pay the parking meter beside you, tape quarters to a vending machine, pay for the person behind you in the drive thru line, help someone load their groceries, return the carts to the store, send a letter to someone you love...ANYTHING...And think of Caleb! He has taught us so much about unconditional love. If you do something, please snap a pic and post it. I'd love to collect all the photos for his scrapbook. Who wants to celebrate with us this week?

Such a delightful way to celebrate the birthday of one so dear.  

We wasted no time making plans!

  

Confession:  The warm Chick Fil A chocolate chunk cookies did tempt us to eat all fourteen ourselves in his honor...

 But we decided to share them with others.

 We shared them with our pastor and his wife who dearly love Caleb.  They had never had a Chick Fil A cookie before!  Where have you been???   

(We informed them that their lives will never be the same.)

 We also shared them with our Associate pastor...

...and Mrs. Susie who makes the world go round.  (She does!)

We shared them with Mr. Greg, our local children's home director... 

and dear friend of Caleb and his family.

 And we flagged down our postman who gladly accepted this ooey gooey offer and a cold mason jar of milk.

We found all the Rosses working hard and needing a cookie break...perfect timing!

And we found two of Caleb's favorite buddies... Mrs. Jennifer and Mrs. Vicki.

And Mr. Andy got the final treat.  He has been working hard this week to make Caleb's new pool look beautiful for his first swim.  (He might have shared a bite with me!)

It was a unique way to celebrate an amazingly unique young man!  

Happy 14th Birthday, Caleb!

I'm so glad you were born! 

Eternal Perspective

Still trying to wrap my mind around the incredible devastation that  families (just like mine) are facing today in Oklahoma.  Thinking about whole classrooms of children swept away in the storm.  It makes me physically hurt.  I cautiously ask God, "Why?"

Truth is...His ways are higher.  And there is so much that He allows to pass through this temporary life that just doesn't make sense... to me.

But it does make sense to Him... and sometimes I just have to rest in that. 

Such tragedies wake me up to the reality of His word... Life is but a breath.  "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."  (James 4:14)

And how am I truly living it?   

I have been pondering over some words that Ann Voskamp offered last week:

Give away the life of polished floors and gleamy sinks, of big hair and bigger bank accounts, and let love get in and mess with you and loosen you up and make you laugh and cry and really give and really hurt because is the only way to really live. Don’t waste a minute of your life on anything less than love.

Don’t waste a minute of your life on anything less than eternity.  And that’s. what. love. is.

I once heard the story of a preacher man with a PhD — whose mother died when he was two. When he was two and they were 5 kids in poor Kansas and she had grabbed hold of her husband’s hand and whispered her 5 last words: Always keep eternity before them. 

Always keep eternity before them. 

Think of eternity — and live backwards from that. 

Praying for families in Oklahoma.

(Pictures courtesy of my girls while studying for final exams.) 

Click

My camera was broken.  Something was not working right in the automatic mode.  I was trying really hard not to be "devastated" ... after all, it's just a camera.  (Waaaah.)

I thought maybe if I just took it in to Best Buy and found a "nice camera person", maybe they could tell what was the matter.  I did find a "nice camera person", but they could not  tell what was the matter.  Bummer.

They did however suggest that it might still be under warranty.  I immediately said, "Oh no.  We never buy the extra coverage.  I'm sure it's not still under warranty."  They checked anyway.  And then proceeded to say,  "Oh yes.  It has two more months of warranty.  We will send it off and if they cannot resolve the problem, they will send you a new one."  Just like that.  (I feel sure one of God's "Warranty Angels" came down and extended it.)

 I picked it up on Friday.  Good as new.  

And now I am back taking all my silly, unnecessary photos.

In all the little details of my life... I'm so thankful He cares about the "extra coverage".

Perspective in the Lilies

 My husband isn't a blogger.  It took him about 4 years to join the Facebook world, and he rarely posts a "status".  He's what we call in our house, a "liker" and a "commenter".  So I thought I'd share with you a perspective that our family gets to enjoy on a daily basis in him. 

 




"Usually in the Spring I don't get to enjoy it as much as others since with my career I am helping others enjoy it. But today I was reminded of a simple yet profound truth. My wife cut some Daylilies and placed them on our table at dinner. This reminded me of Matthew 6:28-30 in that something as simple as a Daylily in God's eyes is more profound than Solomon in all his splendor. What a statement!  Daylilies are named as they are because each bloom lives and dies in one day. They glorify God each day that they bloom. That is all the time they have to shine, yet in that one day they are more beautiful than one of the richest kings in history and we are much more valuable than a Daylily in God's sight. Have faith my friends and remember this when you see the Daylilies blooming."

Andy Lamb

(Thanks for the rare Facebook post, Sweetheart, 

...and thanks for planting the Daylilies.)

Stains

 

My best friend's son was uniquely designed by God with one more chromosome than the rest of us.  This makes for an interesting life for her.... much different than what my life looks like.  She teaches me so much just by how she lives it... life, that is.

On Sunday, we took communion.  Her family was just down the row from us.  Her son decided to take the cup.  In her effort to help him, the cup's contents spilled all over them both. Needless to say, this all but ruined her moment of quiet with the Lord.  "Remembering" would have to wait.  They crawled over the quiet row to get to the bathroom for a "clean-up".

When they returned, with wet stained clothes,  her husband handed her her own full cup.  She laughed and said, "Are you kidding me? I am in no shape to take that right now."

Her story got me thinking.  Are any of us ever really in any shape to take it?  I think her story is just what communion is all about.  After hearing it today, I sent her this text:

I was thinking about Caleb and the spilled communion "wine" and how all of that is really a picture of what communion is all about.... how desperately we need a Savior.

And here is her precious response:

And how if my heart was "right" I wouldn't need that cup in the first place.  Desperate is right.... thankful for Grace!  

And the sweetest part of the story:

(She later texts...)  And I just knew I'd never be able to get all those stains out of his shirt... but they all washed out...perfectly clean... Now that will preach.

And "preach" it does.

  

(Thank you, friend, for permission to share a little part of your story.)

 

Life Lately

The past two weeks have been full of busy.  You know, the kind of busy that requires frequent quick trips to the grocery store to get this and that with no time for the "big shop".  You know, the kind of busy that says, "Let's scrap the grocery store and run through Chick-Fil-A instead."  You know, the kind of busy that causes your kids/husband/self to start pulling things out of the dirty clothes basket to wear.  Yeah.  That kind of busy.

 

Yesterday, I was feeling like some of that crazy was diminishing for a bit.  I thought, "Ahhhh.  Today, I can go home and get my house in order, wash some clothes, COOK dinner, and maybe even pull out my sewing machine."  We walked in the door and Caroline announced, "My project is due tomorrow."  

 

Project?  You are kidding me.  I hate projects.  I hate projects, because I cannot NOT be involved in projects.  Not because my kids involve me.  But because I involve myself.... whether they want me to or not. 

 

I suddenly slumped into a semi-depressed state.  When will it ever end???  Life is so constant.  Can't a girl just quilt!

Earlier this week, I snuck off to the coffee shop with a friend.  We soaked up thirty minutes of fellowship with a half-priced frapp.  And as we left I realized something. 

 

This hurried, scurried, crazy life is just that...LIFE.  And driving through "drive-thrus" or cooking at home, remembering projects and moms overly involved, clean clothes put away and dirty clothes worn out of the hamper... it's all just LIFE.  Soak it up and LIVE it. 

 

And every once in a while you'll get a half-priced frappacino out of it and thirty minutes with a friend.

 

Here is some of LIFE I've been grateful for over the past two weeks:

• Abundant work that has kept my husband busy and encouraged.
• A freshly planted garden...with the promise of homegrown veges and TOMATOES!
• How he remembers to plant the dahlias too.  (My favorite!)
• Beach trippin' with the Jr High and all the fun that's worth all the weariness.
• How Mary Elisabeth sang at the top of her lungs on the car ride down.... and back!
• Remembering old Amy Grant tunes with her...eyes full of compassion, seeing every pain, knowing what your going through and feeling it the same.
• Sweet Rosana...her wisdom and love for jr high kids.
• One year of chaperoning both girls on the beach trip.
• Watching them sing praises with all their heart and soul.
• How those are the tunes that they sing through the house...along with plenty of pop and country:)
• How he stays up late reading his Bible.
• Grammar school kids, Go to the Ant Program, and watching them sing the wisdom of scripture with such life and joy.
• Teacher Appreciation Week...feeling appreciated.
• Caroline and the 6th grade girls with a second place win in the NCS Talent Show...cuteness.
• Driving my girls here, there, and yonder and the joy of hearing their thoughts about life.
• How much they enjoy each others company...a gift!
• History projects, frappacinos, and fellowship.
 

 

Cockscomb, Lantana, and Purple Wave Petunias

On occasion, he surprises me with flowers.

 

Fresh bouquets are a treat...

... but window boxes full are my favorite!

Thanks Sweetheart!

(You fill my life with color.)