“So, whatever box you have put God into…. trust me, He doesn’t fit. He’s way way bigger than you think. He keeps blowing my socks off when I turn around and find that he has once again popped out of that box I thought I had him in, and BAM … I need a bigger box”

Soooo, that was a quote from my blog a few weeks ago on November 7th. And, I had NOOOOOOO idea what was coming next. NONE! God answers prayers, even the “groanings of our heart” when we don’t know what to say.

On November 7th I was feeling tremendous tension in my marriage, we were looking for a counselor. Today things are going great after a weekend away at a marriage conference and a renewed commitment and feelings of tenacity to making things work and to compromise and find solutions and to put the emphasis back on each other and on our relationship and off of ourselves or the kids.

On November 7th I didn’t know we were going to start thinking about buying a house. I didn’t think it was a possibility. Yet, here I am on November 28th, and we are going to be closing on a house in two weeks! And not just any house that we could find that fit our admittedly low budget for the area. No, we found a house that feels PERFECT for us!  The house inspection went through with flying colors, and not only that, but the original builders spent extra to upgrade on lots of little items that mean a lot now, 27 years after it was built. Like, copper plumbing, insulation under the house, extra insulation in the attic. Stuff that lasts over the long term instead of what’s affordable but will fail. We went looking for a house that we could live in for at least 5 years in order for the kids to be out of school, and we found a house that at this moment I feel I could live in for the rest of my life.

Our house has 3 bedrooms (necessary since we have 3 teenagers: 2 girls and a boy) and 2 full baths, a sunken living room, a small family room (soon to be our computer room), a dining room, and a nicely laid out kitchen (though small). It has a two-car garage with shelves built in on one side for organization. It has a great newish hot tub and a nice big deck with a bench built in all around the edge. It has enough land on the bedroom side of the house that we could actually build on to the house very easily without having to go UP, if we wanted to and could afford it. The rooms already have been painted in nice colors. I’m pretty sure the kids will want to paint their rooms because they aren’t the right colors for them, but they are currently nice colors, just not what we’ll probably keep. We got to keep the refrigerator and the washer and dryer. And, my mom loaned us enough money to put a down payment on the house AND pay off some credit cards AND buy new furniture for the living room and dining room, and all at 4% interest over 15 years, which if you’ve had to borrow money for anything other than school loans you will know is an AMAZING deal.

I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!! What an incredible Christmas this will be, regardless of what presents show up under the tree.
I am so grateful, I am overwhelmed with the incredibleness of it all.

Last week I was limping around on a sprained foot. I went to the doctor and she couldn’t do much other than recommend icing it 4x a day. Then I went to my small group that night and they prayed for healing. Then I went to my chiropractor and he worked on it and it felt much better, but still hurt. Then two days later, it stopped hurting. Not lessened, stopped. My chiropractor says that in the area that he could feel was sprained, it’s now fine. There is no sign of a sprain. Natural Healing or Spiritual Healing? I don’t know, but I’m happy to be walking around without the pain.

I used to think Spiritual healing was a crock of you know what. A bunch of bogus crap to bilk people out of their money. But in the last two years I have seen numerous (several, not MANY) acts of healing coming from prayer. Mind over matter? Psychological placebo effect? or God healing today as he was said to heal in the Bible many times throughout thousands and thousands of years. I don’t know. I choose to believe in God’s healing by now. Not that he heals all who ask for it, but that he CAN heal.

Conan O’ Doyle’s fictional character Sherlock Holmes’ theory says:
   When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, is the truth.
I can see some problems with this theorem, yet it resonates for me in mysterious ways. The mind over matter and placebo effects are not impossible, but neither is God’s healing.  Whether you believe in God or not, that doesn’t stop his ability to heal you. I believe that God is still “in the Miracle business” as Don Piper says.

I should probably start working today and stop philosophizing. Have a great day if you see this, and I hope that God blesses you in some entirely unforeseen way that will bring you joy and peace.

It’s not that things are going slow and I have nothing to say, it’s that things are going so fast I don’t have time to say it all.

We got the house! I’m so happy!

We got new furniture! I’m thrilled!

We’re getting rid of a ton of stuff that we don’t need! I’m relieved!

My husband is going to play WoW on his new laptop with me while he’s out of town! I’m ecstatic!

Life is good right now! 😀

I’m grateful.

So yesterday we put in an offer on a house to buy, and I’m SOOOO excited, but I’m remaining very calm because I’ve been through the heartbreak of not getting the house I fell in love with before.

I’ll tell allllll about it if we get it… musn’t…. get…. too…. excited! (heehee)

Happy Monday!

I got to work this morning and I thought…. “is it a vacation day and nobody told me??”  None of my coworkers’ cars were here! I’m usually the 6th or 7th person here. Turns out I was the 3rd one here, but their cars were around the side of the building. Then I was kind of disappointed.  Hehe. Oh well.

I am so thrilled with the outcome of the elections, though not necessarily all the voting….. It is interesting that the Republicans leaders have said they didn’t get the turn out they expected, yet some measures were overwhelmingly voted in (Bans on gay marriage), and I seriously doubt all the Democrats voted to ban it, so they must have gotten a fairly large turnout of conservatives who STILL didn’t vote for a Republican Congress.  Muahahaha!

In my opinion, a List:

Things that are overrated:
1. Talking – idle chatter
2. Staying up all night
3. Getting drunk
4. Household chores
5. Television
6. High heels
7. New Year’s Eve
8. Lace lingerie
9. Quality time with the kids
10. Sex without commitment & love

Things that are underrated:
1. Silence
2. Spending time alone
3. Deep discussions
4. Honesty & integrity
5. Sleep
6. Ritual / Tradition
7. Work that feeds our souls
8. Remembering people’s names
9. Having fun / playtime
10. Quality time with spouse or significant other

Becauuuuse, God doesn’t fit in any of these little boxes I can find. Even the box that the TV came in… that box is WAYYYY too small.

I find it soooo hard to let myself trust in God, but in giving my thoughts to others, the words just flow out without my having to think of what to say, like a conduit. And no, it’s not a learned thing, because sometimes I say things that I didn’t even know until I said them… or typed them.

So, whatever box you have put God into…. trust me, He doesn’t fit. He’s way way bigger than you think. He keeps blowing my socks off when I turn around and find that he has once again popped out of that box I thought I had him in, and BAM … I need a bigger box.

PLUS, I think the Democrats are winning the elections! WAHOOOOOOOO! So, in your face GWB, you schmuck! I know we’re not supposed to hate people, but dang… I don’t think he counts, that would be like loving the Devil. And you know, that doesn’t really sound good.  To be avoided, I’m thinking…. just sayin.

p.s. I miss my husband.

p.p.s. My weekend at the coast by myself was FANTASTIC!!!!!!  Worth Every PENNY, twice over probably.  Talking is overrated.  Being alone to think without being “busy” so you don’t think…. priceless.

Friday morning, I am going to my weekend away after work! The people I talk to about it all seem a little confused as to why I would want to do such a thing, EXCEPT a couple of other moms and stepmoms. I think stepmothers have one of the hardest jobs in the world. I’m lucky. My story is so much happier than lots of other stories I read and hear.  But mom’s in general I think understand the need to get away, and stepmothers even more so because the mother-baby bond isn’t usually there to make it hard to leave them behind.

If it wasn’t for my need to be alone, I’d bring my older stepdaughter with me. I’m sure she needs to “get away” too. Another time, my dear, we’ll have a girls weekend. Let’s plan on it.

Last night DH and I watched Corpse Bride. I can understand why my kids were like, “eh, it’s okay”, but I thought it was great!! Danny Elfman and Tim Burton work so well together. The stop-motion animation, just like in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” that they also did, was just incredible. I actually think that movie was marketed wrong. The Corpse Bride is much more a movie for adults than children. Both of those movies are. And, as a HUGE fan in the 80’s of Oingo Boingo it was awesome to hear Danny making music reminscent of those days, but different. All the brass horns and it was Danny singing which he doesn’t normally do anymore. So, M, if you haven’t seen it yet, you gotta!! I’m glad I bought it because I’ll definitely be watching it again!

Today is Thursday. Thursdays are good days for various reasons.
1.  It’s almost Friday, so it’s almost the weekend.
2.  My husband comes home from his week at work.
3.  It’s usually a night that I pretty much can do whatever I want.
4.  I slept like a rock last night. That’s only for THIS Thursday, but whatever.

I’m also happy today because I am so excited about taking my first vacation in which I will be all alone. No family, no friends, no kids, no chores for two days. Just me and the ocean. God might show up too. Who knows?  I will be gone for two nights and then I will go home; renewed and refreshed I hope!

Tomorrow night I’m going to the coast and staying in a lovely hotel  in a room that has a big ocean view window and a porch that goes down to the Promenade above the beach. ere is a gas fireplace by the sitting area in front of the window. There is supposed to be rain and wind, mild storm, so not too many people running about on the Promenade. I am going to sit in my jammies and a big fluffy robe with slippers and look at the water and the waves and the sunset;  I will have my journal, my bible, some magazines, and a book about neuropsychology that is pretty fascinating, and maybe my knitting; I will eat a couple few of the free chocolate chip cookies that they home bake daily. I will drink some hot tea. I will go out for breakfast and find waffles, i will go out for dinner and find something yummy, maybe just clam chowder or maybe a steak or crab legs. In the evening I may drink some wine, or I might just go for water or some fancy sparkly juice stuff. I don’t have to decide what I want to do until I decide to do it, I don’t have to arrange meeting up with a friend, I don’t have to have the TV on because I hate the noise of it, I can listen to soft soothing music at whatever level I like, which could be JUST over conversational voice levels.  There will be no computer to keep me distracted and losing all hours of the day. I’ll take a nap. Maybe two.