The View From Behind Home Plate: Still Giving Thanks Daybook: Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Outside my window:
it's very dark and very early.
I am thinking:
about our family's amazingly wonderful, funny, beautiful, blessed Thanksgiving week and how the post I write about it later this week might just be very similar to when Aunt Edna got out the slides from the trip she and Uncle Albert took to the Poconos. I actually don't have an Aunt Edna or an Uncle Albert, but it just sounds right. And the Poconos? I'm not even sure where that is. In any event, you get the gist and now and you've been warned.
I am thankful:
for the faithfulness of God who brings my family together from both coasts and lavishes so much grace and mercy on us that it takes my breath away. I am keenly aware that it is a rare thing to have a family go through trials and heartache and joy and blessings while being far away from each other and yet to cling to each other with as much enduring love and commitment as my family does. I am thankful for the force that is my original family of five and how we have grown to an even bigger force with new members through marriage of siblings and cousins and through births of nieces and nephews. He has shown us great favor and His faithfulness to us knows no end.
In the kitchen:
Vegetables and fruit and fiber, oh my!
I am wearing:
pjs and my husband's sweatshirt.
I am listening to:
the dryer spin and the coffee brew.
I am reading:
The kids and I finished Wonder by RJ Palacio finally. OH.MY.WORD. Please get it. I am now reading The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.
On my Ipod:
I Want Crazy by Hunter Hayes (Note to my boys: It's a fun song and all, but I'd much prefer that that you avoid the crazy. Please do us all a favor and choose the stable and mentally sound.)
I am wondering:
if heaven might be just exactly like the Hyatt Lost Pines in Bastrop, Texas
I am hoping:
for the peace of God that transcends understanding for so many people who felt unbearable absences in their homes during Thanksgiving and might not be looking forward to Christmas this year.
I am looking forward to:
the first basketball game of the season this weekend.
I am learning:
that His love does not fail. Even when I am scared and anxious and unsure He is there. Even when I am angry, He makes me soften. And again, I am learning that the love of a family is a force greater than any evil this world can dish out.
I am praying:
for comfort and peace for the family and friends of my high school classmate, Kim, who passed away suddenly last week and who will be laid to rest today. Please be near them, Lord.
A quote for today:
"Shall we make a new rule of life . . . always to be kinder than is necessary?" - JM Barrie
A verse for today:
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" - Lamentations 3:22-23
One of my favorite things:
the moment when my mom and sister and I were all together for the first time in a year. We stood, all three in a group hug, arms tight around each other, and I could've stayed there forever.
I am pondering:
my sister, about whom I thought I knew absolutely everything. But apparently, she is some kind of bowling phenom. She beat the pants off our entire family which included cousins and cousins' husbands equaling about twenty people. I am quite certain she would have been invited to be on Laverne and Shirley's bowling team.

I am going:
to go ahead and post this ridiculous picture of myself to hopefully get out of trouble with Sister for posting that bowling photo. YEE-HAW

A few plans for the week:
Catching up on the book of Romans, the last of my Beth Moore Book of James study sessions, six basketball practices (was that me who said basketball season was easy?), and some serious basement clutter clean out which has to happen if I'm going to find my Nativity.
A peek into my day:
missing my people, especially my girls.