Wednesday Rambling

Remember that time I returned to my blog and said, "I'll be back soon!"? And then remember how almost a month went by?

Here's the deal, friends. Winter is hard for me as I suppose it is for a lot of people. It's easy for me to look up at the bleak skies and wince at the cold wind thinking that everything now and forever will be stark and empty and grey. It's easier for me to feel God and remember His blessings when the sun breaks through the clouds and I can walk my dog without feeling like we'll both turn to ice.

So sometimes when I am sitting down to write, I think there isn't anything good that's happening to write about right now. I focus on things that have worried me or upset me or made me want to hit the bed for awhile and frankly, those thoughts show up a lot more frequently for me in the winter.

But often when I just start typing here, I realize the lesson that this space brings me again and again. The ordinary life can be the extraordinary life if we just take time to look at it through the right lens. I looked back at what I thought was a cold, boring, depressing month and realized that there was a lot of goodness there. A whole lot of it.

There really always is and that's why I'm grateful that He keeps nudging me back to this space to recap the extraordinary blessings He offers even when my mind is clouded with doubt. It really isn't to bore you with details of my life. It's to remind me and you (and most importantly my children for whom I ultimately am writing) that we must daily open our eyes to what He is trying desperately to show us. The truth of Psalm 27:13-14 pushes out the lie that my mind tries to tell me every winter.

"I am confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord."

He has good things for you and for me. We just have to watch, wait, and when necessary, write that stuff down. :-)

So here's some of the random and not so random goodness that's been happening that I remembered when I started tapping on this trusty little laptop.

Much of January and the first part of February, as I've mentioned numerous times, has found me stuck in a basketball gym.

We've had anywhere from two to five basketball games a week lately for both Kyle and Drew. A week or so ago, we had senior night for Kyle which was fun and surreal and emotional.

Over this season, we've seen some bad games, some good games, and some amazing games. As we were on the way to the first district play off game on Monday night, which could have very well been Kyle's final game forever, I kept repeating all kinds of stuff to myself about God's timing being the right timing. I was really giving it my best shot to convince myself that if the season was about to be over, that I would trust and feel peace that this was exactly the way it was meant to be and blah, blah, blah.

Then I went ahead and clasped my hands and sent shaky texts to my friend, Jen, while I prayed bold prayers that the Lord might see fit to give us a win and thus a couple more games. I'm so grateful that every single player on our team played his tail off, staying in control of the entire game, securing a victory and guaranteeing that I get to sit in the bleachers at least two more times to watch them play. It was pretty sweet.

Big shout out to the sweet grandmom of one of Kyle's teammates who takes these amazing shots. I'm so grateful. 

While at home in the past few weeks, I found that I sort of fell into a Netflix hole and couldn't stop watching Schitt's Creek. I think it might have stolen my brain for a bit.

This show is ridiculous and funny, but seriously, I don't even know if it's all that good. This is what winter does to my brain. I watch and then I think, "Is it really funny? Is it kinda funny? Is it really dumb? I just have to watch one more and see if I can decide." Then suddenly, I'm in Season 3 and I want to be best friends with David Rose.

Over MLK weekend, we went to Nashville with a bunch of jokers who drank all the drinks and ate all the southern food with me and made me laugh until I cried.

The city was amazing even though they were having a major cold front. It felt like it was 30 below zero outside and was snowing part of the time, but we had no problem finding adequate warmth and shelter inside a whole mess of bars and restaurants where we could eat, drink, eat, drink, and eat some more. Friends are good. Hang on to them tight and whenever possible sing Garth Brooks songs with them while drinking out of a glass shaped like a boot.

Speaking of boots, I bought some cowboy boots at a store in Nashville that had a buy one pair, get two pairs free deal. I mean, my girls and I really had no choice, but to scoop up three identical pairs. I love them with my whole heart - almost as much as I loved the last pair of cowboy boots I owned which were part of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader uniform I wore on the regular back in the 70s when my lofty hopes and dreams for my future career on the sidelines made my parents incredibly proud.

Also, if you must know I ate biscuits, sausage gravy, and fried chicken for breakfast two days in a row and also cheesy grits at every single meal while in Tennessee. We ate at Puckett's twice where I obviously chose the Bubba's Eggs Benedict because I am classy and treat my body as a temple.

The week after we got back from Nashville it snowed a whole lot and the kids were off of school for almost an entire week. The first night the snow fell, I couldn't even complain. Even though I told my kids that they'd missed so much school they were getting dumber by the minute, it sure was a pretty sight to see when Mack and I bundled up and went for an evening walk.

At the end of January, our church family lost one of our most cherished members, Ruth Dowden, who died at the age of 94.

I was a member of a Wednesday morning Bible study with Ruth this year and it was one of the greatest joys of my life to hear her wisdom and her laughter. It is so important for us to love and know and listen to the women who have come before us and to then turn around and love and know and listen to the women who will come behind us. I'm so sad to have lost Ruth when I was just getting to know her better, but in just a few months of studying the Gospel of Luke with her, I learned more than I could have ever imagined.

You can watch Ruth's service HERE. The timing of her funeral landed right at the same time as most of the country was tuned in to here an "apology" from Virginia's governor which could be found on a multitude of television and radio channels. How it grieved me to know that the world would have been much better off hearing about the life of this amazing woman than the debacle that was being played out in our state capital. I promise you that even if you didn't know her, you will learn from this life well lived. It's worth your time. I sure will miss you, Ms. Ruth. What a gift you were to us.

My parents were here last week and we had such a great time together gathering around the table for dinners, watching basketball, driving through the horse farms and eating lunch in Middleburg and even inviting Mack to play cards with us.

When I look back on the past few weeks, I vividly see some of the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living . . . even though that living was kinda cold and dreary at times.

I hope you, too, can take some time today to recognize some goodness - whether it's giggling at a silly sitcom, cheering a 3 point shot, playing cards with your grandma, drinking a fun drink out of a cowboy boot glass or even just sipping coffee out of a styrofoam cup with a girlfriend while you reassure each other that everything is going to okay.

Watch for Him, wait for Him. He always shows up.

Happy Wednesday.