Choose Steadiness

 

Doesn't this picture look so peaceful? It was taken this past Friday morning early. I am not an early bird, but if it is the o-n-l-y way to get a moment, I can be persuaded to get on up.

Last week had been a non restful week after keeping the boys for the long weekend.  I had just poured myself a cup of coffee and had hoped to have a little moment to myself.

After the weekend mentioned in my last post, Lindsay's boys had gotten sick and run a fever which means, no daycare. She stayed home with them through that, but Palmer had to come here for one additional day of catching up on his rest. Mother was right on course for a downfall in her health. Why - you ask?

Well, if I have a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment for her, you can bank on her starting to decline in some way 2 weeks before said appointment. "Said appointment" is for tomorrow. She began to complain that her hip was hurting about 2 weeks ago. She was not too happy any day last week and called early each day to let me know how bad the night before had been.

Last Thursday morning, she called at 5:30 AM saying she couldn't wait to see a doctor, so I got her to the immediate care facility where they determined it was her sciatic nerve. Prescriptions were called in that I fretted over and did cut in half. I won't say much more about this situation other than when Mama gets down, she gets down. I am ever increasing the amount of time spent on her which is what we must do as we age. It is what it is. 

The picture above was interrupted before I got my first sip of coffee. I had just taken it thinking ---"Oh, this will make good blog talk." HAHA 

The above moment was interrupted by me having to go right over to Mama's house.

NUFF said.. we will move on from this topic.

We will get to the choice of the title of this post. Choose Steadiness is the chapter title in a book we are using for our church small group.  Sometimes at our age it isn't always easy to find something that interests us all, but occasionally we find a hit book. Uncommon Influence by Tony and Lauren Dungy has been that. My husband is the master of leading book discussions and drawing all of our conversations back to our Lord. He is quite gifted. Anyway, this week's chapter was called "Pick Your Battles: Choose Steadiness." I had finished reading and had been convicted about several things in it. I found myself mulling it over all day yesterday. One small heading in the chapter was called "Receive Reality as It Arrives." 

Let me just say, I am about over receiving reality as it arrives --------peacefully anyway!

I just want to send some of life's interruptions straight back out the door with a good swift kick in the seat of reality's pants.

To say that 2023 has been anything but chaotic is an understatement, but I think it is just our turn to go through these trials and I must indeed choose steadiness.

With that said, I won't linger on too many of them because most of them are just truly life's interruptions and meant to keep you frustrated and down, but are NOT really bad stuff. I have known bad stuff. This is just stuff that needs to be dealt with.

Here is one that you will find interesting. 

Yesterday, Wednesday was our scheduled small group meeting to discuss that chapter. We usually grab a quick bite to eat out on Wednesday nights. We had driven down close to the bridge to eat which turned out to be quite helpful. You see, Little Palmer locked himself in the bedroom with Lindsay's phone. Tyler is out of town. You might ask how did the little guy lock himself in a bedroom. Well, the previous owners had an outdoor lock on the master bedroom and Lindsay had never had a key. Yes, they should have changed that door knob long ago, but hadn't. Lindsay had been in there packing (I will tell you about that in a minute). She and Tucker walked out leaving phone, dog and Palmer in the bedroom. He closed it and it was locked. Luckily, she remembered she had some kind of thing that the in-laws gave them that they use to talk on each night that operated through Facebook Messenger. Of note, I haven't had a FB account for very long. I received a bit of frantic video call from her about what to do. She had been trying to open it with a credit card. Fortunately, Jeff and I were almost at the bridge heading to Destin so we started her way. I texted the group we would be canceling for a non life-threatening emergency. 

Turned out, Jeff had to break the doorknob with a hammer and Little Palmer was happy to be out. He only wanted Mama for a bit after that. A dear friend of Lindsay's arrived with pizza and fruit for supper. All worked out and thankfully, we closer by being down by the bridge to get to them.

Lately, each day seems to be a day of trying to navigate the chaos, but dog gone it I will persevere with the Lord's help. 

Moving on to other topics and to turn this post around...

May has been a pretty month around here. The flowers, the sunshine, the wonderful temperatures that some might call too warm, but just my cup of tea have made the chaos a little more tolerable.

Not shown in these flowers is the magnolia which has had a banner season this year.

Flowers are just another reminder that God is here even thought the world seems absolutely mad these days. I go out each day to just walk around and soak up the beauty.

I have been reading too. I read a book about the Korean War and then watched a show about it. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the show since I am an amateur history buff.

I have been stitching.

I did complete my May ornament for my SAL. 

Above is the backing fabric. This again is from the book called The Magic of Christmas. Believe it or not, I saw one on Amazon last week for $20, not the usual $400. If I had mind at that moment, I would have sent out a shout to all. I doubt it is still there.

I also have worked on my sunflowers. This is my current progress.

I would be much farther along on this if I had not had to rip out a pretty big portion. Pooh and double pooh. It occurred because I can't see anymore. I will share that story in a later post, since this one is getting long and I have a prayer request.

Yes, there was Mother's Day and I am getting too tired to write much more:)

Oh and our house insurance went up $4,500 - soooo you can imagine it is high. Help me, Lord!

That is not my prayer request!

Lindsay is having surgery next Tuesday in Atlanta. If you will please keep her in your prayers for safety and a successful surgery, I would much appreciate. I need all my prayer warriors on this. Tuesday morning- 9:45. For those of you have followed for a long time, this is to alleviate the problem caused by Palmer's birth almost 2 years ago. It has been a long wait, but hopefully Tuesday will arrive and be a good thing. 

That is all I have and I am sure you are tired of hearing me moan. I am truly ok, but I do feel like I could kick some of the realities of life right to the curb.

Choosing the steadfast love of Christ to guide me,

Sandy