In which I speak of inelegant things

We have a dog who is very old, deaf, and vomits frequently. Given my squeamish nature, this can be somewhat inconvenient. For instance, the dog puked up a stunning Mount Everest of grossness the other day, and I left. I left a note for Tim saying something to the effect of, "Your dog threw up. I do not attend to such things. Good luck with that. And also, I love you." Which went over better than you might expect. We are, in fact, still happily married.
My Daddy came to visit today. Approximately three seconds after his arrival, the dog...Tim's Dog...ralphed at his feet. Unfortunately, Tim was not home at the time, and I could not leave Daddy, the dog, and the vomit. Therefore, I did that which was my most surprising act of selflessness for the day: I cleaned it up.
It won't happen again.
Dogs suck.

Aren't you glad I chose this event to blog about?

The 'H' word

Tuesday has arrived with sunshine, and a messy house. I'm a-workin' on my coffee, and listening to the local Christian radio station.

Tim and I have been doing a daily devotion for couples. It's been a great source of discussion. We've been using this nearly a year already, which will have us done with the book the first week of September.
Todays discussion is on the evils of TV, which I suspect will be a robust conversation. In case you haven't heard, I have raised my boys without a TV, and my dearly beloved man owns six or eight of the things.
I hate TV.
HATE it.
Except for 24. That's now my show. See, this Summer, while it's not on, Tim and I have been getting the old seasons of the show for me to watch. I'm all sucked in like it's a soap opera. Now I've seen seasons 6 and 7, and I think we're going to get season 5 next.
But, as I was saying....I hate TV.
Well.
Perhaps you would like to be a fly on the wall for that discussion.

We have still not found our dog. Don is out hanging signs all over the place, in the hope that someone will return her to us. That poor kid. Years ago, when we moved into this house, our dog ran away and was killed by a car a week before we moved. Now my kids think we're jinxed.
We are moving in two weeks.
I should pack something. Which is a whole 'nother topic. Don't you hate it when people say "whole 'nother"? I hate that, too. Bad English should not be tolerated.

Do you know what else I hate?
Hay fever.
Teenagers who drink milk from the carton.
Photos in which I am fat.
Dark roots in my hair.
Car trouble.
Weeds.
A busy schedule.
Video games.
Complainers....Umm.

I have no witty title

It's a sad day in our home, because our dog died this morning. We were planning it, but that doesn't make it easier. We had to put him down. M' is particularly sad, as this was his dog.

You can't really get away from death. Unfortunately, it's very interwoven into our lives.
Which makes me lively company today. Don't I sound cheery and uplifting?

I am still thinking on the book I read. There are all of these provocative concepts rolling about in my limited brain. One which struck me, is that God doesn't get disappointed with me, as I understand disappointment, because He doesn't expect me to be different than I am. This sure flies in the face of the guilt I so often cloak myself with, for being less than perfect.
I so often try to be polite and appropriate with God. Like a hypocritical propriety. It's quite ridiculous, really. God is neither surprised, nor shocked, at who I am. Sometimes I try so hard to hide myself from others, or to hide from myself....but to hide from God seems so bizarre. I suppose it's what they tried to do back in the garden of Eden. It didn't work for them, either.

Now, the kids are going to go watch a movie, and I am going to take a nap. I love naps. Do you think we'll have nap time in Heaven?

Lessons from Cujo

My past 48 hours have been an erratic parade of emotional experiences. Most of the melee involved a dog bite. Fortunately, the consequences seem to be working themselves out, with very little to worry about it the rabies department. And that is about all I am going to say on that matter, because frankly, it's already taken way more of my breathless anxiety that I could spare.

One thing I've noticed, is that God really enjoys having my undivided attention. He does seem to orchestrate my circumstances to keep me rather desperate for Him. I keep finding myself in uniquely appointed situations, where I am hanging on the hem of His Robe, so to speak. That awareness of my own need for Him is really priceless.
Nobody in their right mind chooses to suffer, yet God weaves suffering into the fiber of our existence so that we can grow. It's that analogy of "pruning" we so often find in Scripture. He has to trim away those parts which are impeding the health of the whole.
I think of the process of His discipline with a cringe, largely because I expect punishment. However, punishment is not the lot of those of us who have been purchased by His Blood. "Discipline" as we experience it is not punishment, but a series of consequences which train us to behave, and believe, differently. It's quite productive, actually.

In thinking about my weekend, I am struck by the fact that God has used my circumstances, which were not even a matter of personal disobedience, as a means by which to discipline me. No punishment at all, simply training.

Often, I find that He is teaching me something that seems to be unrelated.

Yesterday, I was praying, and I said, "God, I really need You to speak to me today," and I opened my bible at random. It said something about how whether I live or die, I belong to Him.
So, I said, "Thanks, Lord, but I was actually needing something more...Psalm-ish. Tell me You love me, and that every thing's going to be ok." So I turned again at random, and fell upon almost the exact same words in another passage. And, because I am really Spiritually astute, I thought, "hmmmmm, I'll bet that's no mistake."
The lesson?
I am not my own, He bought me. I belong to Him. Any circumstances that flow into my existence, are His Divine right to allow. It's up to me to keep my eyes fast upon Him, and to refuse anxiety.
So, off I go to meet the day's giants and dragons. I am armed with the assurance that whether I live or die, I am the Lord's!

What the dog did

It may be hard for you to imagine how happy I'm not. Don't get me wrong, the weekend has been fun. I'll tell you about it in a minute.
The reason I am unhappy has to do with a certain little puppy and her fecal matter. I know it's not nice to discuss such things in polite society, but what are you going to do?
The puppy, who seems to have some extraordinary ability to store such grossness on her otherwise lovely fur, distributed it all over the house.
She is an outside dog, mind you. I allow her to sleep in a crate in D's room. When D let her in tonight, the fun began.
It lasted an hour. We had the unpleasant stuff on the carpet, the linoleum, the kitchen, the bathroom, and on all three of us.
I used a swear word in context. Several times.
And then I began indiscriminately bleaching surfaces. It was really imperative that I do so.

This is now two weekends in a row that I have gotten nothing done around the house. The lawn needs to be cut. I need to go to the grocery store. The oil in the car needs to be changed. I need to get some sleep, and possibly squeeze in a work-out.

We went to the scenic town of Pocatello Friday night for a lacrosse tournament. That was a blast! M played in 4 games, and won them all. We stayed up late, slept in a hotel, and ran amok among a host of other teen aged boys. It's a bit of a drive, like 3+ hours. We arrived home late Saturday night.
Sunday we set off for house church at Jenine and Mike's new house. It was an all day event, as they now live an hour away, up in the mountains. We hiked and ate and talked on the porch. The children swam in the pond, picked off leeches, chased the dogs, and had a mud fight. We never did discuss the week's lesson, but we had some fantastic fellowship! It was Redneck Bible Study, I suppose, without the "Bible".... or the "study."

Now I'm finally winding down. Thanks for letting me get all that off my chest.

I hate Dogs

Puppies, however, are an entirely different matter. We brought one home last night. It's a tiny little fluff of black, and her name is Onyx. "Oni", for short. She's no bigger than lint.

D' rescued some dogs a week ago. There was a male and a female, and they were running down the street. The female was rather obviously a recent Momma. D' brought them home and fed them and watched over them, until we could find the owners. The owners were so grateful that they offered him a puppy as a reward. What could I say? D' has been praying for a little puppy of his own. Jenine and co had generously offered one of theirs to us, but them's big dogs. I told D' he needed to pray for one that would stay small.
He did.
So, we picked her up last night.
The funny thing was that M' has been praying for something, too. Specifically, electric bass lessons. (I have a wannabe rock star.) So, we were there looking at the puppies, and the man of the house struck up a conversation with the boys. Then, he offers to give M' free bass lessons. Really. Turns out this couple, they have a band. They play rock and roll, and they are Christians...and pastors , too! He's kind of a Harley/Davidson-Charismatic-Radical kind of pastor. But, I am cool with that.

So, this morning, I was talking to God about my prayer requests. I figured that He is in a Santa Claus mood, what with giving the boys their hearts desire. I was telling God about this one thing I needed really bad. Money. Because I did a stupid thing. I wrote out these bills, and I thought that I'd just throw them in the mail one at a time, as I deposited adequate funds. Over the next couple weeks I should make enough to cover them. Only, in a moment of efficiency, I threw all 5 in the mail at once.
This is bad.
I was telling God today that I was going to incur these overdraft fees because of my mistake, and would He please somehow get me a chunk of money to cover this? And He did!!! I got money and it's quite enough to cover my error, and to purchase toilet paper, (which we are on the last roll of) and I am so amazingly thankful.
This money came anonymously, and so whoever you are THANK YOU!!!

God is good.
Even if we are now the owners of two dogs and a lizard.