The Busy Life of a Kindergartener

Just this week:

Grace started Daisy Scouts!

(Pre Brownie & Girl Scouts)

She learned to spot the good apples,

pick them,

and press them for apple cider!

Delicious!

And then there's dance ♪ ♫ ♫ ♪ ♫

Whoa!!!!!

And the tooth she lost on the way to dance...

It's hard to get pictures of those bottom teeth!

And then the Tooth Fairy came!

 

She got $2 for her first tooth from the Tooth Fairy

but when she woke me up in the middle of the night,

yelling that the Tooth Fairy had been there,

it was $4, thanks to big bro Micah.

We explained that it was a special bonus

because it was the first tooth. =0)

And then there was a birthday!

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 !

OH! And picnik.com has fun Halloween effect right now.

You should go try them.

I'm Neked (adj. ne'kid)... and other inadequate metaphors

We have a friend who said, " There's 'naked' and then there's 'neked'. Naked means you aren't wearing any clothes, neked means you aren't wearing any clothes... and you're up to something!"

Maybe it's too much information, but I'm neked, just not quite in the way that quote implies.

We have a whole list of hard stuff going on. Name a family member, I'll give you a list. It's just life, the kind of  "In this world you will have trouble" life that you most likely have, too. And somehow, through all the hard stuff, I feel like God is and has stripped me bare. Sometimes I feel so raw I can hardly walk down the street, the eyes of strangers too abrasive for my sensitive soul, crushed feelings.

I feel like I am a faucet that I have previously allowed to only dribble water, slowly and suddenly the Hand of God has turned the handle as far as it will go. Out of control, I am a drowned rat, struggling to turn it back to a more manageable stream.

Or the big boat of a 70's car your dad would take to the highway, driving 90-100 miles per hour, just to 'blow the gunk out the carburetor'. Out of control, I am helpless to stop the speed, the plans of a God bigger than me.

I am stripped neked, and God is up to something. It's the best kind of naked. In the mysterious way the Living God works, it doesn't feel safe, but it's the safest, it doesn't feel survivable, but I can feel His resurrection power, I can't control anything, but I feel Him freeing, healing, wooing, loving.

Walking a path I can't see, I cling to Jesus as He holds me.

School Pics

The Power of 'YES'

I don't want to help anyone else.

No, that's not true. It's just that I couldn't possibly. I can't.

How could I? I'm a working wife and mother. I cook and clean, do laundry and try to squeeze in time for my husband. There's homework to check, kids to drop off and pick up from lessons, school, and church. Then there's lead small group, plan lessons and worship team... And that's just the stuff for everyone else. What about me? I want to have time to exercise, read in silence, learn something new, take a long steamy shower without running out of hot water or someone banging on the door, and I'd like to sleep and get up rested, too. I have a long list that never gets fully crossed off, I can't add to it.

You can see why I can't possibly say yes to one. more. thing. I can't do one more thing. That's the problem with trying to do everything myself, relying only on the short supply of Kathy-power. And living like that, it's true that I can't help anyone. I can't even help myself. We have learned the lesson of boundaries so well that the first thing we think is, 'No. I have to look out for me. I don't have time for that. I can't do it. I won't do it.' You've got to look out for number one, after all. Just say no.

But every time I say YES to God, it changes me. Saying YES, instead of adding one more thing to the hastily scrawled to-do list, actually empowers me. YES revitalizes me, YES puts me in a place that allows God to come.

And it's when God comes that I have power, when I am the hands and feet of Jesus, when I have something to give. If "out of the overflow of (our) heart (our) mouth speaks" [Luke 6.45] and "The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." [Romans 15.13], how much will I overflow with my YES.

God is not a cheat. He's not a thief come to steal my free time, my money, my time or my will. He's a loving God who wants to fill me up to overflowing, bringing abundant life, life so full I overflow onto the people around me, to neighbors here or around the globe.

It starts by saying YES.

God, help me say YES.

To You.