This and That

The past several days have passed in a blur of activity.

For the last few weeks, we have been meeting Sunday evenings with a few other families for what we have casually named Coffee and Jesus. Everyone brings a dessert and we make a couple pots of coffee, and I get to try out fancy schmancy flavored creamers since I rarely ever buy them myself but the Easons always have them. I happen to know the best ones are always hidden by Jessie in the back of the refrigerator and that she'll share if I ask nicely. ;)

Anyway, we sing a few songs together, usually accompanied by Gabi on the piano or Trever on the guitar, and we pray together and have a little bible study. We are currently going through the book of Ephesians. It's been good. It's church.

We had an interesting discussion about what fellowship really IS. In other words, if two men, both believers in Jesus, went golfing and didn't spend a whole lot of time specifically talking about their faith, is that fellowship? Or just friendship? There was a disagreement, followed by some studying, but the conclusion we all arrived at was that any time two {or more} believers are together, that's fellowship. Takes a lot of pressure off, really.

The truth is, when you're in relationship with Jesus, that usually DOES show up in your conversation. But I believe it is an untruth to believe that there is a separation of sacred and secular. Buchanan says it well: "The Bible makes no room for the idea of the secular. In biblical worldview, there is only the sacred and the profane, and the profane is just the sacred abused, unkempt, trampled down, trivialized, turned inside out. It is just the holy treated in an unholy way.”

I've been to the movies three times in the last two weeks, which is like a record for me, since I hardly ever frequent the cinema. I am usually content to wait for the movie to come out on video and watch it from the comfort of my own home. Liberty and I went to see Maleficent, which we adored. I, of course, bawled like a baby. It doesn't take much these days to activate the water works. Incidentally, my heart actually ached in my chest when I watched The Fault In Our Stars. It was a beautiful movie and stayed {mostly} true to the book. Last night, Trever and I went to see the Xmen movie. That was part of our agreement, he would take me to see TFIOS if I'd go along with him to see Xmen.

I have to admit, I was not overly impressed with it.

But we got to kiss like teenagers in a dimly lit theater and afterwards we got margaritas and nachos, so overall it wasn't too shabby, as far as date nights go.

Tuesday nights, we meet for Bible study, and we are going through the Sermon in the Mount. {Matthew 5-7} We just finished up the Beatitudes. Good stuff.

Tonight we are meeting some friends for dessert and games, and then tomorrow after Trever gets off work, we are headed down to Florida to see my family. My brother is out visiting my mom, and I haven't seen him in two years, since I was pregnant with Ella Grace. He hasn't met her yet. Hopefully I will remember to use my camera and I will have lots of pictures to share here early next week.

I've taken to writing everything down so I won't forget everything.

I've started new medication for my rheumatoid arthritis. It's been almost two weeks now. No changes. I'm hopeful though. We shall see. I was tremendously blessed by a friend who gifted me some supplements to try. I really wanted to try them since they had such fabulous testimonials from people with RA, but they are costly, and I just can't afford taking a chance on something that may not work for me. We are struggling to pay off our debt and the bills have been increasing. I am doing my best not to stress out about it because, honestly, God always takes care of us. So many times He has used His people to help take care of us. Just a couple of months ago we had friends of ours hand us an envelope stuffed with cash, telling us God had put it on their hearts to give it to us. It had come right on time, when we had unexpected expenses, bills and water leaks we couldn't have afforded to pay for otherwise. We always pray, asking God to provide for us, and He always does. We have always had shelter from the rain and have never once had to put our babies to bed hungry.

My mother told me yesterday that she bought a new pair of shoes and two outfits each for all of my children. This too is a huge blessing. This Sunday, we could not find Owen's right shoe {or was it the left? I can't remember...} Anyway, he only has this one pair at the moment. I got into the van and as we pulled up to the church, I turned around and was mortified to discover he was barefoot. When I inquired as to why this was, I was told by my husband and older children that they could not find his shoe so they just brought him without. Needless to say, new shoes will provide us with a bit of insurance against this kind of thing recurring.

I've watched about a million episodes of Charlie and Lola with Ella this week, and was actually happy to see her branch out and start watching a new show occasionally, except she likes Peppa Pig, which makes me want to slit my wrists. Super annoying. It does NOT help AT ALL that my husband glanced over at the screen once and declared that the pig faces looked like penises. And now that's all I can think about when I look at them. Thanks for that, honey. Sigh.

I managed to get my hands on a few back copies of Taproot magazine, which I am utterly in love with. Such a beautiful periodical. I am adding a subscription to my birthday wishlist. I am still working on finishing Take This Bread, by Sara Miles. I'm making slow progress. When I finish, I intend to begin Half The Church, by Carolyn Custis James. I know that it heavily influenced Sarah Bessey's Jesus Feminist, which was lovely. It wasn't angry or cynical or man-hating. It was coherent and gentle and beautiful. I especially loved the chapter she titled Dancing Warriors. What a beautiful vision for marriage.

In other news, my husband's bleeding heart compelled him to rescue a wee kitten from the highway and imminent doom. It's an orange and white tabby, likely only four or five weeks old. It's a bit of a fixer-upper; it looks like it's either had some sort of eye injury or else it is blind in one eye. But it's very sweet and my children have been feeding it kitty formula and carrying it around like an infant and the kitten has purred and played and tolerated all the attention very well. I have a friend who is going to take it to an animal sanctuary for me. We didn't want to drop it off at the humane society as they are a high kill facility, and as much as I DO NOT want another animal to care for, I want even less for it to be put down. This way, I know she will be with folks who will care for her and are committed to finding her a nice home.

I need to do some haircutting this afternoon, but I am feeling zero motivation. I think I'll probably just do Riley's today. He has asked the most. And then I'll take a nice, long shower and try to make myself presentable for our friends. I've been feeling really tired today, and I'm not sure if it's adjusting to new meds, my illness, the weather, or what... but I'm hoping I'll find some pep to get me through the evening. I think I feel a bit too affectionate towards my queen sized bed.

I'm really looking forward to swimming this weekend. If my area had a water Zumba class, I'd totally sign up. Being in the water takes all the strain off of my joints and feels glorious. I get out and feel all loose and relaxed. I wish I could live in the water. I often catch Josiah watching me swim; he tells me I look like a mermaid.

And that is why he is my current favorite.



 amy danielle