Bits: Monster Panties

Several weeks back the big girls were having some trouble going to sleep at night.  It was actually pretty frustrating, but still we tried to help them process a few "scary dream" {turned "ooh! this can really stall some bedtime."}  issues.  Oh we talked about prayer, thinking on good things, real vs. overactive imaginations, and on, and on.  We may or may not have tried a few, "Just go to bed already, sisters!"

We strongly exhorted talked a lot.

Then finally, in a most sleep deprived stupor, I gave them what would turn out to be my finest piece of advice.

"Girls why don't you just picture those scary looking things, whatever they may be, in their underwear?"

Yep, went there.  And we laughed and laughed and laughed.

We had everything from snakes to mean airplanes down to their skivvies.  Or at tea parties or singing silly songs or swimming in pools of pudding.

The points being that:

a.)  When you are tired, be careful dispensing advice.  Or, maybe, let down your guard and have an unconventional stroke of genius.

b.)  Sometimes we have the choice.  We can rewrite the ugly, the hard in our lives.  With God's help, we can renew our minds- find joy and freedom in the most unexpected places and in the middle of the super frustrating circumstances.

c.) Laugh. When at all possible.  Laugh.



Bits.

::  Glitter is a commitment.  Shaking out those sparkly contents is signing onto at least a week's worth of finding the stuff on random eyelids, embedded in the rug, or on your toast.  But boy, for all the mess, it sure does make things pretty.

I'm certain there are all kinds of metaphors for life hidden in this simple observation.

:: That play writing, teachery teaching, passionate little Katrina?  Why, there she is.  Blows me away.

Setting up a a "Jesus Class" we were all required to participate in* Finishing a robot family for yet another play

:: PBJ.  The girls have taken to always wanting to make their own.  And I am left to wonder, "What did the moms of yesteryear do without these staples?"

:: I love good weekends, the gift of adventure and homebodied-ness in equal'ish doses.
:: Sometimes I'm on my game.  A dear family invites us to come do worship with theirs and I bake up double decker brownies.  Whip my cream by hand and slice strawberries.  But, all too often, my kitchen counter and sink look an awful lot like this:

 
Yeah, it usually gets a good cleaning at some point during the day-- sometimes only because Joe tackles it after dinner.  But I like to think the mess speaks perhaps to a similar string of life metaphors.  To things that were chosen instead for that particular day.

Prettier things like glitter covered eyelids and fear overcome by polka dotted boxers.
~Katrina