Tuesday, February 08, 2005

I had such an encouraging conversation yesterday. I called my friend M because I heard that her older son had been sick and we ended up talking for probably 20-30 minutes (I know it doesn’t sound long, but in the middle of the afternoon that is a long time for moms with two boys each). It was the most honest and open conversation I have had since being in MS. Nothing terribly earth shattering, but it was real and for that I am thankful.

I had a friend in Charlotte who was the type of friend that one is always looking for, but that does not come very often. She was a few years older than I am and shared her life openly. We talked about our marriages, spiritual struggles, and sin, and we encouraged one another to keep on striving towards Christ and not to settle into the mold of the world. To have that kind of relationship, there is risk as you open your heart to rejection. As you share more of your thoughts, it is more likely as well that you will disagree. It is easy to get along when the conversation sticks to fluffy topics, but as you delve deeper clashes will occur—how they are handled will be telling. Early on, C’s disarming authenticity set the stage for a remarkable friendship. I can still count on her candor and genuineness even though we are continents away from each other now.

One person has to be willing to take that first step and be real. For those of you that have this kind of close friend, be thankful and continue to “spur one another on towards love and good deeds.” For those that don’t, pray and look for those in your life who could be that friend. Then, step out and be real.

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Why we ever try to do home improvement projects I don’t know! Today, we started on the next step of the kitchen cabinets and it did not go well. We are covering ugly green 1970s formica with granite tile. It will look awesome when we are done, but today everything that could go wrong did. We didn’t have enough of the right type of tiles, the tile saw blade was dull, I chipped off and broke tiles, and the children were a bit fractious. We aren’t even close to being done and so it will be about a week before I have a kitchen sink again since we took the old one out to lay tile and will replace it. At least my stove is back to normal since we did that counter the last two weekends.

Joe and I still don’t handle days like today very well, and it is a challenge to keep our relationship right during stressful times. We need to communicate better and I know that I need to keep a better attitude towards him when I am frustrated.

This afternoon, we got things ready around the house for Sunday and then went to a high school basketball game after an early dinner. Lots of Joe’s students were playing, and so it was good for him to be there. They were losing terribly when we left at halftime so that we could put the boys to bed. Tonight, we’ve taken it easy—watching TV, picking up around the house, laundry, etc.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

I feel like we are finally coming out of the woods. Will is on an antibiotic and a prescription decongestant and so he is slowly recovering. Joe and I were talking yesterday and realized that it had been more than a month since we’ve slept through the night since Will has been up so much. We let him cry some last night when he was up at 3:30 and hopefully can retrain him to sleep more at night now that he is getting better.

My parents are coming to visit next week and I am looking forward to having them here. The boys have changed a lot since they saw them at Christmas, and I am looking forward to them getting to see how. Then, the week after that Joe’s mom and sister are coming. Our next few weeks are going to be busy with guests and so that will be fun. It is always hard to have family time though and to feel settled when we have houseguests. I am going to have to try to keep up with some of my household routines while everyone is here so that it won’t be too different.

I haven’t had much time to be online and feel out of touch with everyone’s lives since I haven’t been reading my subscriptions much either! I miss it!!