Splash the Puddles

I've been working this week to select the recipients for my end of the year awards at school. Some are selected by meeting a certain criteria, and some are selected at my discretion. It's hard, this task of choosing who deserves which honor. In my eyes, they're all deserving of an honor in one sense or another. I try each year, to disperse as evenly as possible. It's not that I'm a proponent of everyone gets a cookie. Sometimes, not everyone deserves the cookie. Everyone does deserve to have their value recognized though, whether or not they happen to be high achievers or the best behaved. Sometimes, you are amazing and still fail to fit into one of the defined categories of recognition available. It's hard. But school rewards are a thing. A good thing. A thing to be celebrated. Just not the most important thing. Not the only thing. As I rationalize to myself who truly worked hard for and earned each award, sometimes loathing the task before me, my mind wander...

I witnessed recently, a small child wrongly accused by another child's parent of breaking in line at a public event. I'd seen the entire situation play out and knew the child was innocent. I watched them try to defend their self only to have the adult cut them off with a harsh, "oh yes, you did..." I spoke up once and quickly let it go, deciding it wasn't worth the confrontation that was about to play out. I winked at the child, gave a quick side hug and said "it's ok. Let it go." I could tell it was hard for the child to just take it, to be wrongly accused of such an offense. It's a big deal to cut in line at that age. A bigger deal to be accused of doing such a thing when you actually didn't. It's difficult when we have to take the heat for things we didn't actually do, isn't it? Maybe you've been there. Perhaps you've been the victim of an ugly rumor, maybe your spoken words were received in a way other than how you...

Today was an ugly day. And by that, I mean today was an unbelievably beautiful day and I brought a lot of ugly into it. There were interruptions to my "happy" all day long, and instead of seizing the opportunity to find the good and look for God, I let my feathers get a little ruffled. Okay, a lot ruffled. I found much wrong with many things, people, circumstances...whatever today. I griped a lot. Everyone and everything was at fault. Everyone and everything except me, of course. Only I knew better. It was me. I brought the ugly. The late afternoon and evening hours saw a peppy spike in my poorly clad mood, and all ended on a prettier note. I only wish I hadn't let unplanned circumstances and minor interruptions to my agenda rob me of so much joy. I knew better. It was me. I brought the ugly. I'm wrapping up this evening, basking in the redemption of undeserved grace, the comfort of unmerited favor. Thankful that even when I bring the ugly, God is still beautifully g...

Earlier this week,  I aired all my dirty laundry for all to see.  Actually,the laundry was clean, and technically I didn’t air it.  I folded and put it on hangers.  Then, I took a picture and posted it on Instagram.  My caption alluded to how far behind I was and said something along the lines of “this is real life” with a few hashtags saying #justbereal and #laundryfordays. Shortly after posting, something profound happened.  I began to get text messages and private messages thanking me for posting something that helped someone else feel normal, like they weren’t alone. One even said they’d felt so defeated that they couldn’t stay on top, when it seemed everyone else had it all together.  There were  6 or so brave posters, who openly admitted on my post that they too were in the same situation.  Some even confided with all my Insta followers, where their pile o’ laundry resides. Privately sent words like “it made me feel so good to know t...

Friday morning, I took a solitary stroll around my neighborhood. Normally I'm already at work just as the sky is turning light, by this particular day I was home. And I was all alone. As I walked, lost in my own thoughts, during this rare quiet moment I began to notice all the sounds around me. Sounds I don't normally get to soak in. A light mist was falling, cars shuffling down the road through the school zone just outside our neighborhood, the sound of their tires slowing on the wet road as they approached the line of cars waiting to turn into the elementary school. Ignitions cranking in the surrounding driveways (reminding me how much earlier I have to be at work than all of civilization), the pitter patter of my dog's feet on the pavement below me. The neighbor dogs barking their jealousy of his apparent freedom from their locked fences. I took in the sights, felt the cool rain fall on my face and looked up. That's when I noticed for the first time, the beautiful ba...

We were on our way home from Mansfield tonight, which is where our Wednesday night church gathering is held temporarily. As we approached our church land, Will said, "Mommy are we going to go by and see the church?" I reminded him that we had gone by to see the "church" (aka GA red dirt, some newly laid pipes and some wooden frames that I'm sure there's a name for, but I don't know it, as well as some flagged off areas waiting in preparation for slab to be poured) already. "Remember we saw the bobcat thingy digging just before church? And also we went yesterday. And Monday. We've seen the church a lot this week." He replied, "Yes, but it's Wednesday night. It's what we do. We go see the church." He's right, it's Wednesday night and it's what we do. Every single Wednesday night on the way home we go by there and shine the headlights all across the land to "see what we can see," even though we've ...

One night recently, after he'd been asleep several hours, my baby boy became very restless in his slumber.  After determining he had no fever, but watching him continue to moan, thrash and shudder in his sleep I grew concerned and asked his daddy to come observe for a few moments.  We noticed he was reaching for his legs and squeezing them, while still caught in an uncomfortable state of not being awake, but certainly not fully asleep either. This is when I learned that earlier in the evening, he'd complained of his legs hurting. I'd been out of the house that evening, and daddy had done bedtime without me. Growing pains, we assumed, as this has been a sporadic occurance throughout this little one's life.  Eventually, after some more flailing and when whimpers turned to real cries and tears, he awakened. He was so delirious from his sleep being interrupted so abuptly, that he couldn't effectively answer our questions about what was bothering him. He supplied several...