Awake

Where do you see God in your everyday life?  I'm finding Him in the new life of spring. 

 The daffodils are a visual reminder of how God can bring hope, beauty, and life.  Where just a few weeks ago I saw only a snow bank, completely unaware of what was waiting there, now the same spot has come alive with daffodils, tulips, and the beginning of hostas.  New life is coming.  New life is here!  The dead parts of me, He can bring to life.  He can make things new.

~Kate 
 

I've also been loving this song... 

I’m linking up with this week’s Found: a photography challenge on Beautifully Rooted.

Painting Therapy

I love to paint.  For me, it is therapy.  With all the things in life that are beyond my control, I can paint.  I know how to take a room and, in a matter of hours, transform it with paint.  At certain times in my life it has been especially therapeutic.  I have painted hundreds of gallons [my own homes, pro-bono work, friends' homes, for-hire jobs].  Processing life and all its complexities over that much paint has got to have moved me closer to emotional health.  [I hope.]

We traveled to Africa in December 2010 and met our [soon-to-be] daughter.  We then left her, came back to the states, and waited for our adoption case to pass court.  We didn't pass court in December.  Or January.  Meanwhile, we were receiving concerning reports about her health.  I felt like banging my head against the wall.  I remember my sister inviting me to come and paint her kitchen with her.  She knew. 

I couldn't do a single thing to move things along in the adoption process but I could have a fantastic day with my sister transforming her kitchen.  We worked on it all day.  I remember her scrubbing the top of her cabinets with her Norwex cleaning cloths.  I hogged the edging task.  And we painted.  When I drove the hours home that night, I was happy.  There was still life.  Waiting.  Difficulties.  Uncertainties.  
But my sister had a lovely new putty colored kitchen. 

What is your therapy?

~Kate  

Modeling

My husband has Fridays off work.  It’s quickly becoming my favorite day of the week.

Today, after Gracie-Lou-Who was dropped off at school, we headed out of town with the younger two. 

Hit the outlet mall because our older kids are desperately in need of spring/summer clothes.  I had one of those, “I am a horrible mom”, feelings when I picked up Grace from school last week.  Temp was 85 degrees and she was outside waiting for me with her pants rolled up so high they only came down about 8 inches.  She didn’t have any shorts to wear, poor honey.

In my defense, it felt like we switched from winter to summer in the blink of an eye and I wasn’t prepared with clothes.  I am not the mom who buys clothes in advance and has a “grow bin” in existence for my kids.  It might be a good idea.  Grace and Jude have grown like weeds since last year so hardly anything from last year is back.  

We took a break at 11:30 a.m. for Chipotle.  Chicken burrito bowl=Divine.  [Is it just me or does it seem the place is always full of men?]

Tonight Grace and Jude “modeled” their new duds.  It was quite a theatrical performance, full of smiles, jumping and dancing from both of them.    

If you are looking for a five year old male model, here he is:

 

~Kate 

A Golden Day & I'm Not Even Irish

Happy Saturday, friends!

It was 80 degrees and sunny today...in Wisconsin...in MARCH!

We did exciting things like unpack the garage.  My husband did mostly, to be honest. 

The kids played outside 'til they were so red faced they had to come inside and have ice cream to "cool off".  They played at one of the neighbor's swing sets and in our yard for hours.  I hung my first loads of laundry on the clothesline.  We also had our first grill out of the season!  Juicy hamburgers and I loaded mine with black bean salsa.  Definitely a high point in my day.

I went grocery shopping and am attempting to make better choices more often.  I am trying to buy more from the peripheral sections of the store and less from the middle aisles.  Although there was no way I was passing up the Dove chocolates for $1.50.  I intended to save them for the kiddos' Easter baskets but it's not looking very good on them lasting that long.  Three weeks...who am I kidding?  Oh, yes, I also bought M&Ms.

 

I found this taped to Grace's bedroom door. 

 

Tim also hung the dala horse today.  I love it...it was a gift from a dear friend.  

It was on the porch of our old house [I'm really going to miss that porch this summer] and now it welcomes you to our new address.  It makes me happy.

~Kate 

Eat Food

Just finished reading In Defense of Food . One of my goals for 2012 was to read at least one book a month and, so far, I'm doing well with this one.  I've also read quite an assortment.

I got a little bogged down with all the facts, history, science, studies...but the author provides a very thorough explanation and argument for his approach to eating.  He recommends returning to traditional ways of eating real, well-grown and unprocessed foods.  He elaborates on how all of the processing of food is depleting them of nutrients.  As a result of eating a diet of processed foods, we are overfed but undernourished.  From the book...

A loaf of bread is one of the traditional foods that everyone knows.  Bread is traditionally made using a remarkably small number of familiar ingredients: flour, yeast, water, and a pinch of salt.  But industrial bread has become a far more complicated product of modern food science.  As an example, he lists the complete ingredients list for Sara Lee's Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread.  It lists over forty ingredients, many unfamiliar [ethoxylated monoglycerides?] and unpronounceable ingredients [azodicarbonamide]. 

 

The main point is to return to eating whole foods.  The type of foods, according to the author, that your great-grandmother would recognize as food.  In summary, return to eating food, and enjoying food, not food products.  Not eating things that are incapable of rotting might be a good place to begin.  Eat food.  Not just to be healthy but to bring pleasure back to eating.  

~Kate 

Nothing I Can Do

I realize there is nothing I can do to right certain things.  As much as I might want something…it eludes me.  It’s difficult living with hope and disappointment.  The wait for resolution is long.  No amount of kicking or screaming is going to make it happen.  I am powerless.  I can’t take care of it and I can’t make it better.  No amount of desire or even my best efforts will change things.  

In these moments, I have to trust God.  I have to leave it to Him.  I can’t fix it and I admit it.  I choose to hope and believe for things I do not currently see.  I choose to do the next thing.  It’s all I can do. I will keep moving forward.  I am asking God for help and strength.  I need Him.
  

 ~Kate 

 

“Anything God has ever done, He can do now.  Anything that God has done anywhere else, He can do here.  Anything that God has done for anyone else, He can do for you.”  [A.W. Tozer]

We're Compatible

We’re in!  If you’ve wondered where I’ve been, I’ve been internet-less at the new home.  I am experiencing major withdrawal on that front and I’m eagerly awaiting connection this week.

We moved into the new place a week ago today on a rather wet, snowy day with the assistance of a half dozen strapping young [and not quite as young] men.  I’m so thankful to share life’s moments with friends.  A good moment, at the end of unloading the moving truck, was sitting around our kitchen table, our stuff piled high all around us, with two of the college age guys [Andy & Tony].  We polished off the last of the cookies.  

[Here we are on moving day morning- last photo at the swell old place.]

Week one at the new place was good.  I taped paint swatches to the living room wall and when my husband came home from work I had him sit on the couch and tell me his favorite of the [12] choices.  He so happened to narrow it down to my #1 pick.  We are so compatible.  Maybe not on the 1,400 levels of E-Harmony’s compatibility but we did pick the same paint color.  I kissed him after this…as if it was a major positive sign.

He also removed three unpleasant spindles and a shelf that were an ugly decorative barricade between the kitchen and living room.  The bottom half was a planter, complete with plants, which were growing up the spindles nearly reaching the ceiling. 

I love him for this.
  

~Kate