The Springing of Spring
Well, as you can tell, spring has been a bit busy for us. I haven’t taken the time to write anything in quite a while now and for the usual reasons. It’s not that I have not been thinking about anything, it’s not that I haven’t had any time whatsoever; it’s just that spring has sprung and there is lots to do around the house. On top of that, work has been pretty busy and when I have had time to kill, I haven’t been thinking about posting anything.
So here we are again, after a long delay, and I have a host of things on my mind but will attempt to keep it focused at this point. Hopefully, I’ll take some more time to unleash some of these thoughts on this site in later posts. For now, here’s the skinny…
The gardens have been planted, the grass is growing, the yard has been cleaned up and cleaned out, and we are almost finished with finally getting the outside of our house actually looking like someone who cares about the place lives there. The family and I have been diligently whittling away at everything since the weather turned warm and other then some weeding and a couple of minor issues, we are just about done. Now, perhaps, we can finally get to finishing the painting inside. The joys of buying an old home. Perhaps when all is said and done, I’ll post some before and after pictures.
So between that and being swamped with reporting projects at work, which is getting very monotonous, life has remained quite busy, but very fulfilling. My lovely wife is continuing to break through many emotional issues and we as a family continue to break through with her. We decided to try and jump start the process a bit and found a nice, privately owned gym here not too far from our house where they were running a special on memberships. So I did what I could to set her up with a membership and she began her workout regimen today. She is brighter than I have seen her in a long time and very excited about getting herself in shape. The very idea is a huge shot in the arm for her confidence so it has really helped lighten the load around our household lately. You remember that old adage, “If mommy ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!”? Well our family is no exception.
My concerns only ever encompass the idea that our three oldest kids will somehow not interpret their stepmom’s humanity correctly and will miss just how hard she truly is working to take care of herself and us. It would kill me to think that they would think of her in any other way than the loving mother that I know she is. Lord willing, as they get older, they will gain a greater understanding of what that looks like and just what it has taken for her to do what she does. Until then, I hope we don’t wear them out too much…it’s not like we are soft-spoken, docile people (as much as I wish we could be sometimes). My ultimate prayer these days is that we will find a way to be a little less intense. No less passionate, but a little less intense (if not abrasive) about it.
As has been the case for the past couple of years, my prayers involve a lot of things involving the word “peace”. When you consider a second marriage, five kids, and a blended family, it’s not too hard to imagine why. We continue to be sustained by our faithful Creator, however. People can say what they want about the existence of God and the academic exercises that reason a person away from Him; I have continued to find the Scriptures speaking to our circumstances in ways too obvious to be coincidence. A bruised reed He will indeed not break and He has remained a strong tower of refuge and strength. Just wade through the Psalms a bit and you will get an idea of what our lives have been like of late. I’m pretty sure that, just like the Psalms, we have run the gamut of emotions, especially over the past year. We are still plugging away, however, God be praised.
Well, that should do it for now. I have more reporting problems to solve so work is calling. I hope the people we know and love are still peeking at this site so if you are one of them, please leave a comment to let us know you dropped by.
Peace…