Guilt Free Blogging Moment…

Does spending time on blogs ever make you feel guilty?  Like, you start settling in to reading an inspiring update by one of your blogging friends, and you hear the dryer go off… or the dishwasher stop… or a child scream for help…or ya know… mommy guilt kicks in that you somehow just haven’t done enough… then your seventeen year old accuses you of being on the computer all the time, just because he is angry that you wouldn’t let him play until his room is clean…

Hold that thought… the washer just quit.

Anyway… I am going to have a guilt free moment!  Now! 

Dinner in the crock pot.  check.

Cleaned two bathrooms.  Check.

Mopped a dirty floor.  Check.

Dishes.  Beds. Laundry. Shower.  Check.  Check. Check. Check.

I am even letting my children swim while I write! Yes, Jadon just asked me to get out their swimming pool… and after discussing the weather with him… they settled for this…

They are entertained…

Like Jadon’s hair cut? 

The weather… we are enjoying a beautiful day. 

I really can’t complain… yes it is –1 degree F outside… but the sun is shining… the snow is gorgeous… the fire is going in the wood burner… kids went to school… and some are even swimming… life is good.

You will much more likely hear me complain come March with it’s mud, no sun, and I am oh so tired of seeing brown, days.

The Riggs Family (praying for Abby) is hosting a new blog carnival… Hi/Lo Thursday. 

They are asking us to share with them a High and a Low from the previous week… in light of who is hosting it, and the lows they are enduring, and the fact that they can still find the grace to call anything a high… that’s a tough one.

I sat here this morning with my 4-year-old adopted daughter on my lap, tears in my eyes as we watched Abby's Video… and they prayed for her with me… How could anything be low for me?  Then I followed a link on McKMamma’s Twitter Post, to pray for another family… rip my heart out… Linn @ A Place Called Simplicity writes about their recent house fire.  Oh. My. Wow.

I just sit here thinking.  How dare I?  How can I complain?  How?  My healthy daughter is sitting on my lap, (well, she’s swimming in the tub, drenching my bathroom at the moment)… my house is warm, dry… I have clothes to wash… a floor to clean…

Lows?  I wish I’d have handled a confrontation with my son better last night.  I wish I wouldn’t lose hope that God is going to work miracles in our family so often, and didn’t have to repent for my lack of faith so often.

Highs?  Outside of having healthy, happy, active children?  Outside of having a warm, toasty, semi-clean house?  I guess if I need to choose specifically… getting a call from a friend today asking about helping me more with my electric bill.  getting a call from another friend, just to chat… making a very cheap plane reservation to go visit another friend in February, and finding I had the funds in Pay Pal to cover the entire ticket…  Having parents who are healthy, young and willing to care for my children and give me breaks… shall I go back more than 24 hours?

Lord, I am a blessed person.  May I learn from those I am watching walk out tragedy… and may others see a glimmer of You in me, as I see in them.  I don’t know that I have handled tragedy in my life nearly as well as I could have.  I do know this.  Walking out what I have, reading about The Riggs Family, Linn's Family, or McKMamma's Family… it is so hard to imagine experiencing that level of grace until you’ve been there… I pray it has looked 1/2 as good on me as it does on them.

So, there is my first Hi/Lo Thursday post.  Go to the The Riggs Family and check out their post, and the others who joined them.  Pray for little Abby… Pray for Linn @ A Place Called Simplicity … pray that when trials come, each of us can walk them out as gracefully as these.

Pam

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