Warning: Long-Winded Woman on the Loose
Not blogging for the past month or more has been a lot like holding my breath for a really long time while crossing over a bridge. That should explain why this post will probably read like one long exhale, like random pools of thoughts dripping down a page...
The New House
I love our house. I love all the things I expected to love about it, but even more, I love the completely unexpected things. We're kind of in the country now. Papa Johns and Pizza Hut don't deliver here. That should speak volumes. But I'm surprised by how much I love living in "the country."
I love driving past land every time I go somewhere. I love passing the farm across the street in the morning light, with the water sparkling and the horses drinking, and the dots of trees across the pasture with their leaves changing color, like bright brush dabs across a canvas.
I love the marsh land I pass, the lily pads and the hermitesque home that's nestled discreet and solitary upon its shore. I love to imagine who lives there. I love the hills and curves and bumps in the road that runs alongside it.
I love the sunsets that settle over our subdivision in the evenings in the wide open sky; sunsets I missed when I was further into the city. I love the brightness of the stars at night without the city lights. I love that we heard a horse whinny from our front yard the other day, just carrying on and having a temper tantrum with some frustrated keeper across the way.
I love that our attic is so easily accessible with stairs and a light on a string. I love that I have a separate closet from Shaun. I love that my kitchen counter us unusually low and very accommodating to my height; how I enjoy being in the kitchen more on that basis alone. I love how Madalyn will stay on the stairs and climb them and stay up them not because she's good at entertaining herself but because there are stairs! I love the closet maid set-up in my pantry that allows me to see each cans label and keeps them single file. I love that most messes land on tiled floor. I love that We have a long driveway for riding toys and sidewalk chalk and sidewalks; that we're on a cul-de-sac. I love the trees in our backyard. I love the dirt and grass and almost the weeds because it's been so long since we've had a yard. ALMOST the weeds.
If this sounds as bragging I'm misrepresenting my heart. These are praises. Praises sung to a God most deserving because I am most undeserving. In fact I can't believe how much I've been complaining about how overwhelmed and tired I am with the move. It's high time for some praise! Time to declare the sacredness I feel about this place, this decision of God's not ours (although He didn't have to drag me kicking and screaming.) I'm realizing that the expected joys about this home aren't as loved as the unexpected because the unexpected are what show us how hand-selected this place is for our family. And in this provision I feel so loved and taken care of and spoken for by a God Who cares this specifically for me.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Acts 17: 26
He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. Isa. 40: 11
On Television
2 shows I watch to make fun of:
Jericho
Vanished
2 shows I watch to watch:
Standoff
House
Recent Conversation
Shaun: Why don't you just do it this way?
Me: Because I think outside the box, you should be proud.
Shaun: No with you, there is no box.
Shaun: Mommy’s hair’s got something weird going on.
Me: It’s sexy
Shaun: It is kind of sexy
Me: I know. I see how people look at me.
Shaun: No, Katie, (as though he hates to be the one to break this to me,) that’s fear.
Evan: No, I can't eat my broccoli.
Me: Why not?
Evan: Because a tree will grow out of my ear.
Me: Who told you that?
Evan: You. In my scary dream.
Recent Discoveries
1. The Scooba floor scrubbing robot is possibly the best invention. More impressive than a space shuttle. More practical than a mop. More efficient than a Swiffer. And a husband who loves buttons means you get a robotic maid and a house-cleaning husband all at once.
2. There was a very good reason my life used to be governed by "to do" lists. It was the only way anything ever got done.
Like Poetry to Me (over just me over-thinking life again)
The local Christian radio station sends out bumper stickers to whoever donates money because they are a listener-supported station. I love that. Not just that they're listener-supported but that they give away the stickers. I love knowing who's on the road with me. I see the sticker everywhere and it makes me feel so connected with the people around me. That sounds cheesy. But it's true. Every time I'm on a particular road it seems I end up behind a car with that sticker and I love that.
The other day I was driving down this certain road and thinking about how "fall" it looked outside. Even in Florida, someone dropped randomly alongside that road would have to know the season from the deep blue of the sky and the changing leaves. And something about fall has always made me excited. Maybe because the fall is to winter and Christmas as an appetizer is to the main course. And as I was noticing this, I found myself behind a small blue convertible carrying a middle aged balding man who couldn't seem to keep his eyes from his reflection in the rear view mirror, couldn't keep his hands from his hair. It was that or his nails. His cuticles apparently an object of beauty to him. And at the risk of sounding judgmentalntal, but by all obvious appearances, he was the most important thing in his universe. (At least while he was in that car... away from his family... where he could pretend to be anything and anyone he wanted to be.) Look, we've all had these moments, okay? (See recent post titled "The Italian Chick.")
Now better still, directly in front of him I noticed an oversized van wearing a "choose life" license plate donningning "that bumper sticker" I'm so fond of. It seemed a great contrast, quite an image, these two lined up like that. And if just the sight of them weren't contrast enough, when the van pulled into a church parking lot without a blinker, (probably because a small passenger was drawing on the driver's neck with her lipstick so that she was slightly distracted from proper blinker action,) Mr. Mid-Life Crisis Waiting to Happen honked and threw his hands up in disgust. As if my heart weren't already warmed over towards that van! I then fell madly in love with its entire family of passengers right then and there, faces I'll probably never see till Heaven, so tell me how can they then be so dear to my heart?
Shortly after this, I sat at a light with these thoughts swirling (which is what happens when I don't blog regularly and it's not always a pretty thing,) and another car with not just a sticker but a whole plate advertising "that station" turned by me and a beautiful fall leaf floated off of the hood much slower than the car's speed, drifted right down in front of my window. It happened as if on cue, as though a camera was shooting a scene somewhere nearby and the leaf was a special effect. maybemabe it was divinely on cue, because it tied all these fighting thoughts together, these thoughts about the season and the people in the world around me. We're all connected more than we know, you know? And something about that is really poetic to me.
The Kids
So I'm sure you're wondering how I've written this much with very little mention of the three people who rule my life right now. Well it's coming. But I'll save it for another post. Next time. Surely I've bottled up some good stories over all this time, right? So keep tuning in. Like my friend Dana says, I'm "always good for making other people feel better about themselves." You got a crazy story? Had a bad day? I can top it. And if I can't, my husband or kids can. Guaranteed.
