Blessings

As I do the last minute preparations for driving back to LA, (Lower Alabama - I know its obvious, but you never know who might not get it.) I find myself thinking of all the blessings in my life. Not necessarily in order though close:

The #1 obvious blessing: My Heavenly Father from whom they all originate:

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. " James 1:7

• My sweet, strong, precious husband who got off a plane after 16 hours of travel to take over with our three kids so that I could be available to my Mom and Dad after Daddy's knee surgery. ( I can't wait to see my husband.)
• A Mom and Dad who love the Lord and each other, and have loved their children and grandchildren so well.
• Sisters in Christ who love Him and love me.
• Starbucks ;D) A place to go hang with my Sisters and fellowship. ( And drink Caramel Macchiatos - or maybe next time that Pumpkin Spice Latte that Gayle had....mmmm.)
• Friendship that may be complicated by busy lives and miles between, but can pick up right where it left off....even with late notice. (Thanks for joining us even though it was late Dee Dee!)
• Fellowship in Christ....there is nothing sweeter.
• The sovereignty of God - those moments when an awareness overwhelms, of being in a certain place at a certain time to either be available to someone, or just to pray....HARD.

These bless Me, and I am refreshed. My Jesus knows how very much I needed this.

On a different note,

I just have to say also for the record that I am blessed when technology fails and Gayle can't post a truly heinous video we made last night. Any one reading this who follows her blog (and that is probably any one reading this..)should consider it a blessing as well. This too is the sovereignty of God!

Blessings to you today,

Leisl

Me 'n my Daddy

I'm sitting here blogging beside my Daddy, who is recovering from knee replacement surgery and his second day of physical therapy. He was so worn out! But he is such an amazingly tough guy. He will stick it out, and he will overcome this so that he can then have his other knee replaced. His "good knee," the one he will depend upon to stand on while rehabing the left one, was viewed recently on x-ray by an orthopedic surgeon who said, "I've been doing this for 16 years, and that is the worst knee I have ever seen." Kind of daunting isn't it? But my "God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all that we can ask or imagine"

To continue: It's now three days later. Or, three and a half seeing as how it is 3:20 a.m. on Saturday morning. I'm hanging here at the hospital with Daddy, again. He has had a tough time here for the last few days. This infection that is causing him to spike a fever every afternoon has worn him out. It has me pretty worn out too. I can't sleep because he is snoring like there is no tomorrow, which he cannot help because he is forced to sleep flat on his back.

I am too tired to attempt anything further with this post. Suffice it to say that the preceding comments were not intended to be a complaint. On the contrary, my entire purpose for posting at all was to communicate what a precious Daddy I have, and how, no matter what inconveniences, embarrassing moments, or frustrations are to be endured here, this man is one of the kindest, most giving men God ever created. It is my pleasure and honor to sit beside him and listen to him snore and offer whatever little comfort or help I can.

It is the least I can do, especially when I recognize the fact that throughout my lifetime as his daughter, I have no doubt caused him many inconveniences, embarassing moments, and frustrations.....not to mention bills. :D At least I increased his prayer life.

Leisl

Sir Kurt

Who says chivalry is dead? Certainly no one who saw my peacemaking husband attempt to break up an all out cat fight!

Just when you thought it was safe to go to Chuckie Cheese... We were celebrating my precious nephews 6th birthday. The pizza was good, the tokens were flowing, a delectable chocolate cake was served....we were all laughing and having a wonderful time. The big mouse came over to visit and all the kids hugged him or gave him a high five. Fun, fun, fun.

Well suddenly this rather strange chick starts yelling at this other girl who had gone up the steps to one of the tunnels to retrieve her little girl. It seems the first chick was offended because the second girl had a dress on and revealed a little more of herself than rather strange chick wanted to see. So they start screaming at each other in Chuckie Cheese. The interaction became more and more heated. Kurt just happened to be leaning against a table between the two unhappy girls as their fury grew. He attempted to calm them and it appeared that it had worked. The original instigator chick, who appeared to be totally methed and her "so very methed out that he could hardly walk" companion left the premises. Or so we thought.

Upon our exit from the building we were discussing which cousin was riding back with who, and just generally trying to get everyone safely loaded in the cars. Our van was parked kind of far across the parking lot. Just as we headed to "Green Van" with the birthday boy in tow, (he loves Green Van,) we heard screaming from the side parking area. Psycho meth chick was lying in wait for the young woman who had so profoundly offended her by climbing up the tunnel in a dress. As we even more quickly now headed to our car, the obscenities began to fly and girl in dress decides she has had enough and she, along with her companion, (who I originally thought was a guy, but wasn't,) begin to pound Original Instigator Meth Woman. So, enter Sir Kurt, in an attempt to rescue all these violent women from themselves, he goes running over to break up the fight. Unfortunately, he had the keys to Green Van. So here I stand with my three kids, and my nephew, outside the relative safety of the car, watching my husband,and their father and uncle dive into the middle of these totally irrational people.

It was not pretty. Now, all of the kids start crying, thinking Daddy/BooDaddy (Jackson's name for his uncle,) might not make it safely out of this melee. He does make it out just fine and at least for the moment seperates the three women from each other.

This scene was actually pretty traumatic for our children. They have talked of very little otherwise since we left tonight and are fearful of bad dreams. This is completely understandable.

While I appreciate my husband's chivalrous concern for these women, and I am hopeful we won't often face these types of situations, I am encouraging him to remember to see the children and me safely into a relatively secure place before he intervenes on behalf of total nutcases who could be carrying a gun or knife.

The worst part of the whole thing to me, beyond the trauma these events caused my own children, is the knowledge that each of the women involved in this pretty serious altercation, had small children with them. That troubles me profoundly. Why? Why do grown people inflict their irrational, selfish attitudes on their innocent children. Why do grown people allow their own pride to rule over their concern for the needs of their own flesh and blood?

I'm reminded of Jesus' prayer to his Daddy, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do!" What a gracious Savior! Way more gracious than me. My prayer is this: Lord, open their eyes to the precious little lives in their care. Those children are totally dependent on them for their every need and for safety. Father help them to stop inflicting their foolish choices upon those with the unfortunate predicament of being in their presence, and help them please Lord, to find You, the one true God and Jesus whom you sent .

Oh, and Thank you Lord, for protecting my knight in shining armor.


Most sincerely,


Leisl

Hurricanes,Lemonade, and Roaches

Gustav. He didn't come here, exactly, but he certainly took over my Labor Day weekend. I am very grateful that down here in Daphne, AL we have just had a lot of rain, a few wind gusts and not much else. We have got a little bit of cabin fever, but really it has just been a great excuse to lie around on the couch and watch the weather channel all day. How lazy! I know. I needed it.

Yesterday, in anticipation of the onslaught of Gustav, I:

• went to church
• led a Sunday School class
• experienced a great time of worship with a great message
• helped move a chicken coop
• helped move a bunny hutch
• watched my husband and daughter chase and catch chickens
• came home
• cleaned off the carport of objects that potentially go airborne
• by myself
• reordered our storage area to make a place for our kitty cats to hide in case it got really rough here
• by myself
• did laundry
• pondered and discussed the decision to stay and ride out the storm vs. leave and go hang out with my parents
• way too many times
• with my husband :)
• decided I was entirely too exhasted to pack and drive.

All of that is why I didn't feel too badly about the profound laziness that took over today.

As I sit here with my fingers on the keyboard of my laptop, I am just grateful to be blogging.

You know, being still is a good thing. I really should do it more often. It gave me the opportunity to recognize so many blessings: the love of my family, the security of knowing that regardless of the weather...."my times are in His hands," food and shelter, friendship...basic and beautiful blessings.

Oh, and laughter......my brother and his family.....also in the area of potential hurricane threat...well, anyway....so...my nephew decides to have a lemonade stand. John tells him that they probably wouldn't get much business. He sets it up anyway, in the house, complete with the sign: LEMONADE 50 CENTS! Poor little guy can't figure out why nobody is buying his lemonade so he packs up the whole stand and moves it from the kitchen....to the front door. Every good business man knows its all about location, location, location. Sweet buddy, he is on his way but doesn't quite have his Daddy's business sense yet.

Okay, so about the roach. At this point I simply cannot qualify roaches as a blessing. I just can't do it. Do I dare tell about this roach? I am not sure I should completely gross out my "vast" readership. Let's just say there was a roach. It was gross. Why did God make roaches? And how do I segue to a new subject? And how do you spell segue, segway, segweigh? Still in lazy mode, I just don't want to get up and find the dictionary to look it up. I am sure I could look it up on the internet but....whatever.