Road Trip

We're walking a bit of a hard road since I posted last.  Grandpa is sick.  Bad sick, as Grandma used to say.  Trouble breathing sent him to the hospital.  Seems he just didn't have pneumonia anymore.  The last two weeks have been filled with waiting and wondering just what road we'd be walking as a family.  The extended family has been a huge blessing taking care of grandpa over the last couple of weeks and will continue to do so as needed.  John drove to Ohio last week to check in on his Dad and line a couple of doctor appointments up.  I went this week with the kids.  While we were there, we did some outside chores around the house, laundry, dishes, made some home cooked food with some of grandpa's favorite things.  Such a treat to care for him and bring him canned  green beans and homemade bread from fresh ground wheat.  I admit I was a bit prideful when he said the bread was just like his mother's.

 My sister in law took this shot 2 weeks ago in the back yard and I'm surprised at how much cancer has changed his body since.  The picture of the kids with my finger in the way is a cute one I snapped while they were hauling wood and stacking it for Grandpa's stove in the basement.  We had some wonderful talks about intentionally living for the Kingdom the other evening on the couch.  How in our living and in Stage 4 Lung Cancer, we are a testimony to the Love of Christ and have only to embrace the hard and watch for Him.  Wait for Him.  I don't want to forget our talk, hugging each other, holding hands at meals and Grandpa saying the blessing to Creator God.  So precious.  The kids were able to hug the necks of their Great Uncles and our special Uncle Mike.  He's awesome.  (As Jman says.)  Jman wants the world to know he's the newest Skyline Chili lover.  I'm certain there will be a few more trips back to Ohio in the weeks to come.  I wish I were able to write from the depths of my hurting heart right now.  I found much comfort at www.mundanefaithfulness.com today.  Walking Cancer and Big Love and the Hard.  What a privilege it will be to walk with Grandpa through cancer and back.  

Choosing to be intentional.

I'm going to need to look it up, the formal definition that is.  There, I found it.  Gotta love dictionary.com!

Intentional:  adj.  done with intention or on purpose; intended

Done on purpose.  Choosing to do on purpose.  There's a great deal of intentional or on purpose items going on in my home recently and I'm pondering a new what intentional means in my life.  How was intentional born in me.  Purpose-filled with intent.  My memory took me back about 22 years or more.  A quiet cup-de-sac at Fort Ord, California and a very young couple raising a very chubby toddler.  

Snot crying!  That's what was going on.  I was snot crying, tired, hurt and worn out.  Working for the last 22 months and leaving behind my wee baby every day so we could survive had worn me out.  I was idealistic and young.  The last straw came a work from a co-worker.  Pushed over the edge, I quit.  Not sure how we were going to eat with my loss of income, I was snot crying.  

To my surprise, my hubby was thrilled.  WELCOME HOME, MOM!  hugs, kisses.  I was so blessed.  I was scared out of my mind.  

Next morning, as my hubby left for the start of work at the crack of dawn, I made the decision to get up and get to work to.  Stay at home mamas were very busy, right?  I needed to get busy working and moving my little family forward.  Truth was, we had so little, there wasn't much to manage, except our sweet cherub of a baby girl.  So, I started laundry at 5am.  Yet, as I look back, that early morning when I got up and started taking control of creating a home for my family was the beginning of intentional.  

The beginning of intentional for me was swinging our babe each evening after dinner in the mist, going to ladies Bible study at church, participating in VBS, story times at libraries for toddlers, cooking dinner.  Intentional caused me to pray, plan and choose.  What could we afford to do and what was best for our growing family?  As I look back on those very young days in my life of mothering I'm so grateful for them.  I'm grateful that I chose to be involved in my home, not simply watching soap operas and chatting on the phone with other women.  I chose my baby, my husband and his very young career.  We also chose jointly, our sweet church.  

During those years of not comprehending the word intentional and purposeful living, we were both building faithfulness to Him.  Compared to now, with a life racing by us at breakneck speed, purpose-filled living was a breeze.  Yet, time has taught me the principals discussed in Hebrews 10 of holding fast, not wavering, choosing to intentionally live the Gospel of Christ each day.  Our pastor used those verses in his sermon on Sunday.  It brought home the idea of intentional living and not giving up.  With this simple beginning, I hope to share more intentional living moments in my life as a wife and mom.  But tell me, what does intentional mean to you right now?  What are you doing in your home and life, On Purpose?

The Need for an Egg Tooth

A frequent comment made to me now that we are settled in the country on 2 acres goes like this, "So, how many animals are you going to have and when are you getting chickens?  They are so easy you know!"

Ummm, chickens?  Well yes, I like to roast them and enjoy Saturday morning omelets with their eggs each week.  Raise them?  Um, how many ways can we say never?

Uh-oh.  The dreaded never word.  How many times in my life never has become, "Why did I wait so long to try it?"

Pulling out my trusty computer key board I decided to research this so-easy-work and just see what's truly involved.  I found the most amazing site:  Home Grown on a Hobby Farm.  Her videos are wonderful.  I enjoyed the ones on chicken raising very much.  One thing struck me in a spiritual sense as I watched chickens hatching from eggs, their egg tooth.

In God's wisdom, he designed the chicken to have everything it needed to come out of its shell.  A simple tooth.  The chick, ready to hatch, pecks at the shell with its tooth until the shell is removed and the hatchling can emerge and welcome itself to the world.  The job completed, the egg tooth is no longer needed.  The wet, weak young one can allow the air to dry and fluff feathers.  Soon, it'll be a beautiful fluffy chicken ready for the barn yard.

On my run this morning, I found myself thinking of this powerful egg tooth again and the shell that surrounds the forming chick.  Many times circumstances in our own lives appear to surround us and keep us from the world's air and beauty of living.  What is the egg tooth for the mama worn to a frazzle, desperately wanting to escape and breathe?  Illness, finances, laundry, work, grief can all keep us surrounded and pressed in on every side.  Yet, there is a time to get beyond the circumstances and allow the transformed self to come out from the shell.  The tool is God's Word.  Corinthians tells us that the Lord will always gives us a way of escape.  The Gospels tell us to Ask, Seek, Knock and it will be given to you.

If you are feeling a bit captive today by circumstances and long for some release, run to Him alone who came to set you free indeed.

So, chickens in the yard?  Probably not.  Lessons learned from His Creation:  Always.  Have a great Monday.