a bit of ease

this post is going to be full of random thoughts, but i promise there is something will jump out and grab your heart when you least expect it, so read on:

                                                                         pic courtesy of robin lawson

i made an amazing soup a couple days ago after roasting our pumpkin and getting 11 cups of pumpkin puree from one pumpkin!  here is a link to my favorite recipe site online called simply recipes.  it is a blog and everything i have made from there, well over a dozen different things, are now family favorites and i have made all of them again and again and again.  this spicy pumpkin soup will be one of those family favorites in the fall time.  yummy!

we cut all of our boys hair this weekend.  well, my brother nathan actually cut their hair.  asher, my 5 year old, has had a forever obsession with my brother as his hero.  sunday morning he was looking at old family pictures with me and saw some of when he was a baby loving on his uncle nathan.  he asked me, "mom, why do i love uncle naynee so much?"  i asked him why, knowing his reasoning was bound to be classic.  he responded, "i think it is because we have the same hair."  he is obsessed with having his hair look like my brother's, even down to putting product in it in the morning and styling it the same.  so funny.

since we did haircuts, my sweet uriah with the surfer blond long wavy "crazy" hair decided to go with the more "cool look" and opted for rock star hair.  (basically uncle naynee style).  so... his beautiful locks are gone, making the number of occasions on which i am told i have a beautiful little girl greatly decreased.  (terrible huh?  he would get so mad!)  he was so excited and proud of his new hair style.  however when we got home and it was time for bed he told me tearfully, "i don't want rock star hair anymore!"  i asked him why not and he said, "i want my crazy hair!"  oh my.  the indecisive 3 year old.

so i guess we are potty training david.  this decision is quite unofficial, and mostly because he has been wanting to sit on the toilet once a day and actually goes.  he is very influenced by his girl cousin havyn, who is completely potty trained and in undies but only 6 weeks older than him.  i have no desire to potty train a 20 month old, but the money saved from not having to buy diapers and wipes... well, even i am tempted in ways i don't know how to resist.

finally, a passage i was reading... how could i ever end a blog without bringing up scripture, you may ask?!!!  but really, this is good stuff.  i was reading psalms 73 and it is all about how the guy who wrote the psalm was getting envious of all the stuff everyone else had as far as material wealth and apparent ease of life.  he was especially envious of the wicked, who had no fear of God and took advantage of everyone around them but seemed completely unpunished in their ways.  then he looked at his life:  he tried to obey and follow God and struggled so much with nothing coming easily.  sounds kinda familiar to this gal right here at times.

as i read i was thinking... how many times is that so true and so unfair!  what is up with that?  how is it that those who try to follow the Lord and do what is right seem to have tough times and those who do everything the wrong, dishonest, selfish way seem to coast through life?  (of course this is an exaggeration, but go with me here)  then the end of the psalm hit me as i kept reading:  they don't go unpunished.

life doesn't end here in these 70 or 80 years (psalm 90) we may be around to enjoy.  we will all stand before our Maker one day and have to give an account of our lives and on that day i want to be found faithful to Him.  the trials i may or may not have had here in this life won't matter as much as the fact that i have a relationship with the Almighty God.

all the things of this world... sure they make life easier.  i am not going to have you believe that i wouldn't love a bit of easier.   i would love a bit of ease some days!  of course there are seasons where things seem a lot harder or easier than other times, but the fact remains that all this stuff here ends.  when everything else fades away, all that matters is i have Him.   this alone can get me through the really tough seasons of life.

whom have i in heaven but You?
and besides You, i desire nothing on earth.
my flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
psalm 73:25-26

charis