Thank you Vision Forum!

Doug Phillips is showing the trailer to Monstrous Regiment of Women on his blog today. He also wrote a nice little review of Shaky Town.

Go See!

http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/blogs/dwp/

House it going?

That's the punch line to one of my kids' favorite knock knock jokes. They're developing quite the repertoire of these lately.

Well, dear husband got back in town safely. We're so glad to have him back, but he, and consequently we, are busier than ever. On top of his regular work, he is trying to help with the kids so that I can finally get over this nursing infection, mow the lawn, unpack boxes, refinish floors, and now he is gearing up for the SAICFF coming up in a few weeks. He doesn't have an official entry this time but they are showing his trailer to his upcoming flick, "The Monstrous Regiment of Women." He's got a blog up for this new project and is letting me post on there as well. So, if you don't see me in this neck of the woods, wander on over to www.monstrousregiment.com

See you there!

Where is your faith?

As we moved into our new house, I excitedly prepared for my first major appliance purchase - a brand new washer and dryer! I researched all over the web, and the stores around town, as well as consumer reports. I found a top of the line Maytag set for a really good deal at Discount Vacuum and Appliance, plunked down my money, and voila! I had a fantastic laundry system that I was going to put to some serious use. Or so I thought. Three days ago I noticed that my clothes were sopping wet at the end of the cycle. So, thinking it was a minor issue with the installation, I called in the company that sold it to me. Come to find out it is the transmission that is out and will be at least a week to order the parts, etc. I am truly upset.

Just to give a bit of background to this, for the past three years we rented a duplex with a small stackable washer/dryer system in it. The system was at least twenty years old and was under a warranty through sears. This thing would break down every few months and I would have to call up Sears for an appointment which was usually two weeks away. After that appointment, the technician would have to special order parts because of the age of the machines, and deliver them to my house. When I got the parts I would have to call Sears and make another appointment which was again about two weeks away. Finally when number three was born and I was in the hospital, it broke again, and I was without a washer machine for two months. I got sick of this method of doing things and for the last year we lived there I would just hold the washer mahcine together, literally, while it washed a set of clothes. Keep in mind that it was so small it wouldn't wash more than two towels at a time, then would take over two and a half hours to dry it all.

Needless to say, I was so excited about my brand new washer machine.

So, as it breaks down these last few days, and I look to God for guidance in this, for I know that everything is for my good and for His glory, I realize I had misplaced my trust and foolishly squandered it on the things of this world. I should've relied upon my Lord for my hope for providing clean clothes for my family and not this new state of the art washer machine. I have put my trust in the chariots and the horses of technology and not in the all encompassing power and love of my God. Thank you Lord that you have guided me back and used this experience to remind me of Your goodness, sovereignty, and love for me.

Psalm 20:7

Lonely

My husband is in San Francisco this week for business. I just wanted to say, in my biggest pouty voice ever, I don't like it one little bit! I miss him terribly, and I get madder everyday that this dumb company took him away from his family for five days. What a bunch of meanies! Hopefully I'll get a lot done so that he'll be pleased with my progress on the house while he was away. Keeping busy also helps the time go by faster, btw. Tonight I went to the store and bought some of his favorite foods so he'll have a nice homecoming. Two more days and counting!

Before/Nearly After

Getting started painting the girls room. Gracie has been talking about having a pink room for about as long as I can remember. She loves it so far. So do I! I'll post a fully "after" picture later.

You can call me Nancy

I love it when someone says exactly what I was trying to say. So, I'll just pretend I'm Nancy Wilson and wrote this wonderful article about motherhood, because it's what I would've said if I could, but didn't. Does that make sense? :)

http://credenda.org/issues/17-3femina.php

Sorry, folks don't know how to do that pretty link where you just click on one word kind-of-thing.

Blessings to all the mothers and their constant soul feeding.- read the article, you'll know what that means.

Life is messy

Well, true to my previous post, I have been spending a shameful amount of time in Home Depot and an obscene amount of money. Once we started moving our things into our house, we realized that it was horrendously dirty and began cleaning and ripping out old shag carpet. We originally thought the carpet was brown, apparently it was supposed to be peach. So, we've been redoing hard wood floors this past week, and didn't officially move in until yesterday.

Today I began cleaning out the master bath's shower. For a little bit of background, the couple that owned this house before had been old and deteriorating in health over the last few years. The wife passed a few years back, and the husband from Parkinsons in just the past few months. The shower stall I cleaned today, looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the wife had been in good health. I'm not faulting the sweet family that lived here, it is after all a consequence of growing old, and I know they did their best while they could. But, tonight I had to scrape soap scum off of fifty year old tile with a knife scraper and heavy duty lime-away cleaner. It was so very gross! Really! I was trying to think of this terrible task as an honor in that it was a way to serve my family in love. I started thinking about how so much of being a woman is really messy and gross. First off there's childbirth, which, while a glorious miracle, is also icky and embarassing - during the delivery of my second, I was being wheeled into the delivery room and managed to announce to a very crowded hallway that I was pooping on the table :). Then there's our wonderful monthly periods, which make you feel completely unglamorous and like you want to shower five times a day. Then there's the poopy diapers we deal with on an hourly basis, wiping up toilets from potty training toddlers, spit up from our beautiful newborns, snotty noses that I'm still wondering when they start taking care of for themselves, and the list goes on. But, while these tasks look degrading and disgusting on the outside, they are just a part of the fallen world God has placed us in, and called us to be servants for our families. God promises that the lowly will be lifted high, and so it is in these seeminly base duties. While we are knee deep in soap scum and boogers, God promises that we are truly esteemed. It is a wonderful honor and privilege to love others in these tasks and part of our purpose on earth is not to run around with maids and nannies, but to glorify God by cleaning up messes.