Audrey

I was coming to the computer to post about another book give away here at Kicking It In Crazyville but instead I am going redirect you to the Smith family again.

My heart is broken for them this evening as I read the news that their little one has gone to Heaven. I am so thankful that they were blessed to spend a few precious hours with Audrey.

Please continue to pray for this family.

I will post the book tomorrow.

-Heather

Praising Him In The Storm

Tim and I separated in the summer of 1998 and didn't officially reconcile until May 2001. We lived in separate apartments, in different suburbs of Portland, Oregon and rarely came into contact, except through our attorneys, who were working out the terms of our imminent divorce. Those years are over, and--Praise The Lord, the Worker of Miracles-- we managed to stay together. Since then our relationship has grown, and we've matured. We both readily acknowledge that we are together by the direct intervention of God. Since renewing our vows in the presence of friends and family, we have had two more children and look forward to all God has for us.

But the pain of those years will never leave me. The pain I had while separated was acute, no different than if I had broken a bone or was lacerated and it never healed. I carried the pain with me at every moment. Even after our reconciliation, for years, I would recall the pain with the slightest whiff of a memory.

Now, what's left of the pain, I believe will never go away. It's a scar. In truth, I don't want it to go away. If it did I might forget what it feels like to be the one in acute pain. I value the scar as I sit beside a woman crushed in spirit, for my experiences mean I can feel her pain. I go weeks without feeling the scar, but at times it all rushes back.

It came back to me when, several visits to America ago, Heather's husband sang Praise You in This Storm by Casting Crowns. Dan has a great voice, and chose the perfect song to stir up my memories. I fought to hold back the tears as all the pain swept over me. When pain of that magnitude maims a person, turning away from God is the biggest lie the enemy will try to cause one to believe. The desire to numb the pain can outweigh everything else, even common sense. It was a forced decision to go against my human inclinations and continue to trust God during that time. And when I had had enough, my heaven-sent friends carried me back to the path God had for me. To "praise him in this storm" is to embrace the pain, and to feel the tears God cries on your behalf in the rain that falls. It hurts, but it's the best way to hurt.




~Reese

Triple the Ginger Cookies

I'm finally feeling well enough today to make a batch of ginger cookies. For the recipe, click here.

Happy Sunday!

~Reese

Tackling the Blahs

I think I am finally starting to win. I had to face them head on and go from there. Grief and I have been in this strange tug of war for three years now. Most of the time, I win...but, there are times that I let it creep in and this has been one of those times. I have realized that I will probably be fighting this tug of war battle a little harder in the next few months as we face James' 5th birthday....5 - A Whole Hand...and, I wonder how can it be? The milestones have never affected me as much as I feel this one will. At 5, he would be writing his name, going to school, laughing and playing with his sisters...the list goes on and on.

I haven't spoken much of James here and will at some point. To make an extremely long story short, he is my precious nephew who passed away at 19 months due to a genetic disorder.

Last night I had my nieces (James' sisters) ages 1 and 3 over until 9:30. When they left, I put my two youngest in bed and headed into my room where Dan had a heater cranking and he had left our personal DVD player on the bed while he went to work. I curled up in my nice warm room, watched a girly movie, drank a pepsi and cocooned myself in quiet time.

I woke up this morning to a sunny beautiful day feeling refreshed, more me and ready to take on life again. I needed to just step back, relax and take a break.

Today is crazy. It's my brother in law's birthday and then a surprise party for my mom. My mom has done daycare for 27 years and every year on her birthday I invite all her daycare families, past and present, over for a party. Well, today's the day. It was supposed to be tomorrow but she went and made plans! She's really making me work for the surprise this year.

So, I am off for a day in my wonderful crazyville life!

-Heather

Bring On The Rain

I just found this blog and this family is going through a horrible ordeal. But, they are going through it with God's grace and a big helping of faith and love.

I have not read the entire blog, but apparently they are delivering their fourth child on Monday that is expected not to live. Some of the words that this mother writes hit terribly close to home for our family and I would just ask that you pray for this family.

Please visit them if you have a moment:

http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

-Heather

Reminder

Don't forget that it's Crazyville De-Lurking Week! For your chance to win the first book giveaway of the month, comment on this post.

Sara Groves Music Video

Heather Has the Blahs

Heather told me yesterday via email that she has the blahs. That's entirely understandable, having so recently exited the humdrum month of March, a month that can't make up its mind as to whether it wants to be winter or spring, gray or bright, warm or chilly. Chances are it will only take another week or so for her body and mind to catch up to the realities of April and she'll be just fine. But in the mean time, I think it would be nice if we, as a community of caring sisters and friends, could offer her some suggestions to shake the blahs. Here's my contribution:

• I think you need something extreme to shock yourself out of it. Nothing illegal or immoral or exceedingly dangerous. Maybe bungee jumping, rolling yourself in snow then jumping into a hot springs pool, or sky diving.
• A really good, long laugh would probably do the trick, the kind that makes your sides hurt and you gasp for air.
• You won't like this one: stop drinking Pepsi for one week and exchange it for a non-pop form of caffeine (to avoid the withdrawal headache), and in that time drink a whole box worth of detox tea. You might need to flush out your liver and kidneys of toxins. (If you go with this one, we need to see pictures of your face as you down the yucky tea!) If you want to really detox, you might consider homeopathic enemas, but we don't want to hear about it.
  

Anyone have an suggestions? How do you shake the blahs?


~Reese

Nicknames

Reese's post down below got me thinking (and, for those of you who have not read it..go look!) She says she calls one of her boys "Dude" and "Bud". I call my son those same names (and have yet to combine them..but, may try that).

Don't you find it interesting the little names we make for our children and loved ones? I wonder what in us makes us do that. I call my girls "Girlfriend" and try to think up any name that will make my son laugh. He has the best laugh. The other day I called him something (can't remember what) and he thought I called him "Dude Me Poob". Well, he laughed FOREVER about that. So, that's my name for him right now. And, he calls me "Mother Me Poob". Somehow it's all funny! LOL!

I don't have a lot of nick names for my kids now. I know that when my son was a baby I had lots of nicknames for him including "Bubba" "Little Man" "Bubbs".

What about you guys? What are some of the nicknames you have for your kids? Or better yet, what were your nicknames as children?

-Heather

Blabbety-Blab-Blab

Don't forget! It's Crazyville De-Lurking Week!

The Excuse: I'm sick

Since the weekend Tim said he was coming down with a cold, one that was creeping up on him slowly but bearing generous gifts of a soar throat, cough, runny and stuffy nose and a headache. When we woke up yesterday morning, he said he was feeling worse.

I felt perfectly well.

Until noon. Then it hit me faster than Heather downs a six pack of Pepsi: burning, swollen throat, aching muscles, stuffy nose. It lasted all day and through the night and still it rages on. I’m so, so very sleepy. If I wasn’t the sole human in charge of 2 preschoolers at the moment, I’d surely be in bed.

My favorite comfort for a cold is ginger-lemon-honey tea, made fresh in a pot and left over a tea light to be enjoyed throughout the day. I think I drank 3 pots of it yesterday, maybe 4. I’m on my second for today.

The Dastardly Deed: A Drive-By Posting, not well developed or thought out.

I’m going to ramble now. You’ve been forewarned.

1. My 8^th grader came home from school yesterday with rather shocking information: a kid in his guitar class was showing off his…. um… John Thomas. (For those of you unfamiliar with UK euphemisms, that’s a male’s outdoor plumbing.) In class, while the teacher was out of the room. What is the world coming to? I remember JB running around my high school with a fake John Thomas, but look where he ended up…jail. When I reported it to the teacher, he was speechless.

Anyone else ever experienced anything like this, either themselves or with one of their kids?

2. I’ve been thinking a lot about forgiveness. I had a dream several nights ago that someone who had hurt me in the past suddenly appeared and apologized. My heart and emotions fell in a heap and cried, though my body stood perfectly still and I couldn’t bring myself to look this person in their eyes. When I woke up I suddenly saw everything clearly: that the injury I had received from this person was less that this person didn’t care about me, but more that I saw the injury as confirmation that I was indeed the awful person I thought I was. Someone doesn’t like me. I knew I was ugly, lacking talent, a no-good friend, poor, and stupid. Now it’s confirmed. On this side of it all, it seems ridiculous that I allowed it to hurt me.

But in this revelation God has also spoken to me about forgiveness in general. That forgiveness is freely given, with a foundation of grace, not because someone else needs to be forgiven, but because I need to forgive. I NEED TO FORGIVE. The Bible tells of a person forgiven who refuses to forgive, then warns that if we aren’t willing to forgive those who have wronged us, we won’t be forgiven by God. That’s motivation in itself to forgive, but it goes deeper. I need to forgive to move on, to heal, and to embrace my life and my Lord without being weighted down by my past. For the first time in my life I feel that it’s impossible that I not forgive those who have hurt me.

And with that, I’ve been set free of so many chains of the past. My heart is lighter and I feel joy. I have committed to pray daily for several people who come to mind that have caused me pain in the past. I pray that God blesses them as he has blessed me.

3. I’ve been reminded that when I believe God it doesn’t matter how I feel. Have you ever prayed for, say, healing and kept praying till you felt like it might happen? Or prayed for forgiveness until you felt forgiven? How often we try to conjure up the emotions that we think we should feel when asking God for something, eh? But the reality is that God makes promises to us (By His stripes we are healed. We have only to ask and we are forgiven and the offense is forgotten forever, etc.), and they are true no matter if our emotions line up with those promises or not. There isn’t any part of a promise made by God that I am obligated to fulfill. How awesome is that?!

4. Now that I’m sick and should be avoiding all things bad for my body, I am craving cake, pie, cookies, pudding, Peanut M&M’s, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (my favorites, of course!), those yummy nougat pecan rolls from Christmas, banoffee pie, Triple The Ginger Cookies. If only I could keep my eyes open to read a recipe…

5. I was giddy with excitement a couple of weeks ago when Tim told me about Hulu dot com, a new site where we can see a bunch of tv shows with really good quality picture. Then I was way bummed when I discovered that I can't watch any of them here in the UK. I saw Lost season 4 slip right through my finger tips and shatter on my bedroom floor. Then Tim came home bearing good tidings of another site where I could watch Lost, Watch TV Sitcoms dot com. I spent my sick day yesterday divided between cat naps, reading, and watching 3 episodes of Lost and 2 episodes of House. I'm absolutely convinced that if Jack knew me (and I was single) he'd dump beautiful Kate in favor of me (or if I could just get an interview with JJ Abrams he'd hire me for a staring roll on the spot). I'm also quite sure that Dr House would hire me in an instant, if I was actually a doctor. Ah, the joys of escaping reality.

6. I call my four year-old both "Dude", "Bub" and "Bud." Somehow, since I've been sick, I keep mixing them up,combining them, and calling him "Boob". This has got to stop.

~Reese, who begs your forgiveness if she made any major boo-boos in her post and asks you to try to make sense of those things she wrote that didn't make sense. (Did that make sense?...)

The Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;

Put me to doing, put me to suffering;

Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,

Exalted for you or brought low for you;

Let me be full, let me be empty;

Let me have all things, let me have nothing;

I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

You are mine, and I am yours.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

I saw this on Lora's blog My Blessed Life. It's such a beautiful prayer of surrender to God and I had to share it.

~Reese

De-Lurking Week!

OK, all you regular visitors to Crazyville! Heather and I are declaring it Crazyville De-Lurking Week! If you are a lurker who visits us regularly but we don't yet know you... Leave us a comment and introduce yourself! If you are a regular commenter-- practically a resident of Crazyville yourself-- you can comment too. We'd love to hear from you!

What was that? What's in it for you? Well, let's see:

• You get the joy of being known, even as we are known (rather a biblical way of putting it, don't ya think?!)!
• The chance to win a free book!

That's right, every week in April we will be giving away a free book. It might not be a new release, it likely won't be signed by the author, it won't be one either one of us have authored, and it might even be a secondhand store gem, but it will be a good book AND it will be free! WOOHOO! Can't beat free things.

This week I've chosen one of my favorite devotionals as the Crazyville Free Book of the Week: The Frazzled Female by Cindi Wood. Anyone who comments, lurkers or old friends, will be eligible to win the book.

Feel free to send friends, family, and readers of your own blogs over for their chance to win as well!

PS. This is NOT an April Fool's Day joke!


On a personal note THANK GOD that March is over! It's been my least favorite month for as long as I can remember. I'm so glad it's April-- the first full month of spring this year! I love it!

~Reese

MRI

As the time for my MRI nears (just 3 hours away as I type this), I am increasingly in a tizzy. (I am definitely feeling flibbertigibbety.) It looks so darn intimidating in that huge, sterile chamber. I have been advised to allow for two whole hours for this appointment. I wonder how much of that time will be spent in there. I shudder to think.

It's not that I'm claustrophobic, but maybe I have watched one-too-many episodes of House. Thankfully, I'm not one of his patients, though, as my chances of convulsing while having an MRI would double or triple at least. Convulsing is great for dramatic television, but less so for your run-of-the-mill mom.

Anyone want to send some prayers or calm vibes my way? They would be much appreciated.


UPDATE: I'm back from my MRI. Everything A-OK! It was a MRI of my neck to investigate the ongoing pain there. Results in 7-10 days.


~Reese