GRATITUESDAY

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.Gal 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.


This week, I am so grateful for the fruit of the Spirit.
Can I just get real with you a minute and tell ya why?

Alright, we're all moms here right? So we all go through some really crazy days, right?

Well, today, I mean yesterday, what day is it?.....I'm working away, trying to get soooo much done (not that that's unusual for us moms) and for about 2 hours I worked side by side with some of the kids, the whole time having to keep up with several conversations at once. (If you've got at least 2 kids, you know what I'm talking about here. You know?, one kid is talking to you, another comes up demanding to be heard RIGHT THEN and the other one keeps talking and you have to answer child two while still keeping up with child one because child one can't even take a breath until he gets out his point and if you don't answer child two RIGHT THEN he gets his feelings hurt...? Yeah, you know.) And in the midst of this chaos, I'm trying to slice banana peppers to can and I'm half freakin' because these MILD peppers are setting my hands on fire.

Ok, so at least two solid hours of that with me trying to remind them of manners, when I really did not feel like using any myself, got me a teeny bit frazzled. Not to mention, giving everyone specific jobs along with the little details of what I expected them to do. And then repeating that all over again three times.

Ok, so then lunch time, and you know what happens right? Yep, a couple of things that I had planned to serve were nowhere to be found! So, a-scrapping I will go. That's always fun.

Ok, so lunch is served and over and somehow I didn't notice that the dishwasher was full of clean dishes and never got empty so now I have half a truck load of dirty dishes and all the clean ones to put up too. Sigh..."kids come help me"....."It's not my turn".....blah blah blah

Then comes the "can you go run this errand and that errand". Uhh, but I was umm, ..surrrrre.
So I leave chicken boiling, with instructions... and off to town we go. (Keep in mind 'to town' is not a small matter. Just to drive there and back takes right at an hour.)

Well, oldest dear son wants to drive. "I gotta get my hours in" blah blah blah. Now, for those of you who have not taught Driver's Ed, WARNING--WARNING--WARNING, it is the MOST difficult and nerve-racking course that you will ever teach. Huh? Ok, I warned you.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that riding with a teenager is not a 'Sunday drive' and hardly relaxing. "You gotta do this" "You gotta do that" "Come to a complete stop not a rolling stop" "Leave the radio alone when you are driving" "Always watch for..." "Look for..." "Are you blind?!?!? That was a stop sign!"

Now the one good thing about the drive was that we got to see a buck, a doe (yes a female deer), and some wild turkeys! Told ya we lived far out and I don't mean in a 'right on' sense.

We made it safely back without any wrecks and I had to get right in to supper. The whole while my dear, dear daughter was reminding me of how bored she was because she didn't have a sister and my youngest dear son was rolling in the floor in the bedroom whining about how bored he was, but at least he couldn't complain to me that I didn't give him any brothers. Hmmp!

Finally, after the 100th time of telling her that even if I had 50 more kids that I couldn't promise a sister, I called alllllllllll of her brothers to come play with her. (well, what would you have done at this point?!?! I had already given her all the 'little jobs' to prepare for the meal and I couldn't answer that 'sister question' thing not one more time!)

You know that I didn't have all the ingredients for the main dish at supper too, right? Mm, hmm. I'm really winging it this week.:-)

But during supper, I cooked the last of the pumpkins from the garden (the last because I killed the vine but I won't go into that story). Dishes are cleared and I make the pumpkin pie filling and I get into my freezer to find my prepared pie crust and it's all broken. No not cracked, no- not 3 pieces. I'm talking trampled. Someone, somehow, must have played frisbee or kick the can with this crust when I wasn't looking.

So, I had to set out to 'modify' the recipe to make it into a 'crustless- make it's own crust' pie. Which is my preference but DH had been requesting a crust...so needless to say, I was bummed out about that cuz I really like to meet his request, few as they are. :-)

Well, pie is cooking, I'm trying to clean up the mess and everyone else appears happy so I have this INSANE notion that I am going to have a little teeny tiny bit of peace for just a moment. Ha! Here comes dear daughter to tell me that her little brother is being mean to her. Sigh. "Little brother, come here. Sissy says you're being mean, what did you say?" "I told her that I didn't want to hear what she was saying and she kept talking and I told her that I didn't care."
(I knew exactly how he felt at this point, but my feelings were on a much broader scale.) And you know this turns into a 'he said she said' argument, right? And you also know that daddy is hollering from his chair "what on earth is all that about in there!".

I've tried to tell the kids that they are 'fired' from arguing, but that doesn't work.

So I get everyone ready for bed and then I'm told, 'we need you to go here, there, and yonder' tomorrow because blah blah blah. Ok people, don't you know that we already have to...blah blah blah... and I'm outta hair spray!?

You guys know that I can't even begin to type you alllllllllll the rest of the little quirky things that happened today, this is only a SAMPLE!

But on these kind of days, when you FEEL like you've just about 'had it' and you may even wanna cry or have your own little hissy fit.....there is the fruit of the Spirit. There is temperance!

I am so thankful that the Holy Spirit is there to offer patience and temperance when human flesh can't find any in itself. I'm so thankful that He, through the Spirit, can offer gentleness to our children when we may feel as rough as sandpaper on the inside. He is so wonderful and merciful and His ways are so beautiful!

May God help us to lean on Him more ...and praise His name for His precious fruit to us!

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