Remaining Grateful

Today as I was done dropping kids off at school I was thinking about the fact that in about a week I should be driving my Ford Expedtion again(thanks to my amazing hubby and his generous parents). Anyway, I started to imagine for the first time the warmth, size and comforts of this modern car. I know that after some time has gone by all the luxuries will soon wear of , the kids will have made it their own, and I won't be as grateful to drive this car as I will be in a few days.
This same thought or feeling occurs often times when you go away from your home for a few days. You come home and have fresh eyes to look around the place or when your spouse or family member has been gone for a few days , weeks or even months. You have a new appreciation for something or someone that you might otherwise take for granted. It is something that is also talked about a great deal in a new book that I just read , "Living the Resurrection" by Eugene H. Peterson. In this book he talks about how we can try to cultivate the amazement and wonder that the disciples had upon seeing Jesus alive again after they had just seen Him crucified. He talks about how children are one of the greatest cultivators for wonder and amazement because they literally do see everything with fresh eyes and a completely new perspective. I am sure this is one of the reasons that Jesus said we must have a childlike faith. I started thinking about how often I have taken for granted my beautiful relationship that I have with Jesus and how I don't want that to become the norm.
My thought is how do we continue to keep looking at life in this way when the mundane of day to day comes everyday and takes over. I really don't know that we can except to make a commitment to not allow the mundane to take over and to pray that God change our heart and attitude about what we might otherwise take for granted.

I have a confession to make...

The other night when I was cooking up a mean pot of cheeseburger soup I found myself talking to a pretend studio audience. I knew I was pretending and talking to myself and I still kept on doing it until Chloe came in and said, "Mom, who are you talking to?"
I think between the food network and HGTV I am watching a little bit too much cable television. I am learning some pretty great meals and crafty house ideas but I think I need to get out of this house soon or I might start scaring my children.

I have become an HGTV junkie

We got cable for the first time in the 11+ years of marriage that we have had . I think we never owned cable before because we thought that we would turn into couch potatoes yet we would still watch television just through a fuzzy screen. We now have more channels than we will ever watch and I have to say that in some ways I feel I have missed out on the world of cable. Anyway, my favorite channel is HGTV. I could watch this channel 24/7. It really has become a problem, kinda like Myspace was at first. Well, I guess realizing that you have a problem is half the battle right??

The Lord wasn't willing

Well, our tripped has been canceled due to a storm that would be traveling with us down to Arizona. I am pretty bummed. I was looking forward to this trip in more ways than one. Time with my best friend, time with some other very good friends, time in our vw camper, other good vw sightings, going to a new town and lots more reasons. Although I was very, very disappointed earlier today I am quickly taking the giants lead and trying to look ahead and also with other disappointments much more meaningful that occured to some other very good friends it puts my lil trip all in to perspective.
Maybe next year.

Here we come, Lord willing

Pray that our Bus makes it.