Momentum

I am thankful:

~ for MOMENTUM.  Josh got started on all those projects last week (Click here if you missed them), and just kept right on going.  The laundry room refresh was so great…but he still wasn’t satisfied.  Monday he came home from work and started putting up a white subway tile backsplash!  It turned out SO BEAUTIFUL!   I genuinely LOVE going in there to do my laundry now!  

~ Josh’s momentum inspired me to get back on scraping my beams!  That daunting project has been on the back burner for MONTHS, but I got back at it this week.  It’s going a lot slower because I am doing all the scraping by hand instead of using the planer (planer is just TOO LOUD for Tatum K and Bear ).  But I am going to PRESS ON!

~ for a nice emerging tradition: Colton joining us for dinner on Monday nights.  It’s typically his day off so it has been working well with his schedule, and we all just love having him with us.  He enjoys having a mom-cooked meal and it does my heart good to have him home just for a minute. 

~ for Tatum K’s bright and unpredictable personality.  That spicy girl keeps me on my toes, and keeps me laughing every day. 

~ for Gavin’s amazingly bright mind and creativity.  He is gobbling up the WWII for Kids book he got for Christmas, and is always sharing what he is reading in it.  He spent one afternoon creating his own “military code” inspired by something he read in the book, and got totally into writing coded messages.  Can’t wait to see what God does with that brilliant mind of his. 

~ for one of the most joyful and long-awaited days I can even imagine.  Our beloved friends Chris and Lindsay finalized the adoption of their beautiful SON, Coby Tate.  They have prayed to be parents for years, waited patiently and impatiently on the Lord, walked through agonizing heartbreak, and finally…FINALLY, the cries of their heart were answered BEYOND MEASURE!  This is the absolutely most blessed and fortunate little boy.  He hit the jackpot with the most loving parents on the planet.  Thank You God, for Your faithfulness that is always right on time!

~ for the delicious decadence of a juicy C Rojo’s Wayagu burger and indulgent sweet potato truffle fries.  I have been craving this burger for over a week, but we couldn’t ever catch the truck before they ran out of food!  It was WORTH THE WAIT!  SO GOOD!!!!

~ for the opportunity to see Kora give her speech to her class during their Toastmasters presentation.  Her eyes just sparkle when she sees that I am there in the audience. 

~ for lots of special Giddyup & Whoa pieces in the works.  We have a few items going to the Vintage & Co Valentine’s Pop Up Shop coming up this week, February 6-9.  If you are local, be sure to stop by.  Jodi and her team have impeccable taste, and they always put together the best collections of unique vintage finds.

~ for the best Goodwill find in a long time: an awesome, unique coffee table!  It was in bad shape: a blotchy, marred finish and layers of spilled glitter all over it, but it was crying out to be revamped.  We gave it a good sanding and a bleach bath, and then I tried my hand at homemade liming wax for the first time.  I am completely in love with the end result!  I actually “rescued” a little desk out of a dumpster this morning (still in my bathrobe, no less) and I can’t wait to give it a makeover!

~ for another weekend of having Carson Grace and her roommate here.  I miss her so much when she’s gone, and it just fills my heart to have her here even for a couple of days.  And it’s my prayer that she gets her “tank” full when she comes home.  

~ I’m thankful that when I backed out of my garage, not realizing that the garage door was partially down, I banged into it JUST A LITTLE, and barely dented the door instead of tearing it down completely. 

~ for a fun night of food, fellowship, and football.  East Texas has had SuperBowl fever with local hometown hero Pat Mahomes, Jr. being the talk of the press across the nation.  So it was more fun than ever to have a house full of friends and “FRAMILY” to watch the game and cheer the Chiefs to victory.  I can’t remember the last time I saw (and ate) so much good food, from spicy wings to juicy pulled pork; hot, cheesy cheese dip and rich, creamy banana pudding!  I think the food was the star and the football was the bonus!  

So many blessings, so much to give thanks for…but in all honesty, this has been a TOUGH WEEK personally.  Parenting is NO JOKE.  This stuff is Capital “H” Hard.  And I know most of you are nodding your heads right now.  Because life is full of lots of good if you choose to look for it, but positive outlook or not, life is also just plain HARD.   Often I feel like I get going in a good rhythm, get through to one of the kids, get the house organized…and then, “whack-a-mole!”  Everything falls apart.  Back to square 1, or even worse.  It’s just always something.  Parenting was hard this week: we had to work through some not-very-fun stuff and say some difficult “no”s.  But the Lord keeps pressing the word “momentum” on my heart.  The simple definition of  momentum is “mass in motion.”  And the larger the mass and the faster the motion, the more momentum is created.  Josh’s large vision and fast progression created MOMENTUM…it inspired us to GET moving and KEEP moving.  But most of the time, it’s so easy to just waffle, or drift.  Why is is SO HARD to gain and maintain POSITIVE MOMENTUM? And so easy to lose it…or even worse, pick up negative momentum? I know it’s partially because of our sinful, selfish, lazy nature…it’s just in there, whether we admit it or not. Most of the time we’d rather sidestep the hard work it takes to get moving and keep moving. But we also are subject to the negative impact of the world around us, and the enemy of Light that actively seeks to stumble us. WE CANNOT BE PASSIVE because negativity will pull us down.  When things are hard at home. Or work.  Or with the kids.  If we passively have a “good day” and it’s followed by a “rough day,” we don’t ever get anywhere.  But instead, we have to fight to press forward: through the hard AND through the “blah.” I just feel burning in my heart the challenge to PRESS IN AND PRESS ON.  UNDETERRED.  I am not by any means talking about muscling through in my own strength.  I just mean pressing in to God in trust and in prayer when things get hard instead of slinking away and throwing my hands up.  I’m not giving up!  My “mass” of faith and hope is going to keep growing and gaining speed and creating positive MOMENTUM.  When we have a rough day, I’m going to look to Jesus and believe that He is good, and He is working, and He is with me in the trial.  And together we will press on.   I’m going to scrape these beams. I’m going to raise all these kids.  I’m going to serve my husband.  And I’m going to fall on my face and make a zillion mistakes along the way.  BUT GOD! Because I’m going to keep getting back up and keep not quitting.  And by the grace of God, one day I will look back and thank Him for the perfect purposes He had for every piece.  (I’m absolutely preaching to myself here, but I hope it encourages someone else out there…)

Let’s build up some positive, Jesus-inspired MOMENTUM this week, and love others well. 

Thanks for giving thanks with me. 

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

(Philippians 3:13-14)

“For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:8-9)