**Sung to the tune of the “Lambchop” theme song**
“This is the week that never ends;
it just goes on and on, my friends!
We all just started living it,
knowing what it was,
and now we’ll just keep living it
forever just because--
This is the week that never ends;
it just goes on and on my friends…”
(Be blessed while you’re hanging on!)
Ginger
Yesterday I heard someone talk about what moms really need, and while he said some good things about respect and rest and appreciation, I felt I should add a few things of my own.
In Ephesians 4, Paul writes, “ Be kind and compassionate, forgiving one another as Christ forgave you.”
As a mom, I need forgiveness.
You see, no mom has ever wanted or loved her children more than I have.
I have been a mom who sang, played, baked, made crafts, and read a million books.
Those were good days.
Then there were the other days,
the days I was (am) a selfish mom, a yelling mom, an angry mom, a disappointed mom, an embarrassed (and embarrassing) mom.
One thing I need is forgiveness.
I need to show my children grace, and I need the same from them, and my husband, and probably countless other people who’ve encountered those sides of me.
I am an imperfect mom, but I am also a mom who
has stretched out on the floor beside my babies’ cribs and my teenagers’ beds and in my living room and cried out to the Living God of love and mercy to teach my girls to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
I’ve begged Him to fill in all the places I’m lacking, to be the Perfect Parent in their lives, to teach and protect them, and to lavish His grace on them.
Anything I’ve done right as a parent goes back to those moments.
So the other thing moms need is time in the Word,
time with the Lord,
moments of refreshment in His presence.
Moms need husbands that support that.
So while we need kindness and help with laundry and maybe a word of appreciation,
what we really need most is Jesus.
Be blessed,
Ginger
Today we had an all-girls’ lunch to honor my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day.
Since my own mom lives some distance away and isn’t able to travel, she couldn’t join us.
Yet, in a way, she was here.
My mama was a homemaker in the truest sense of the word, and she loved entertaining.
There were always flowers and china and some simple, special dish, like Shrimp Creole or a tender pork roast.
The shrimp recipe is lost, I think, and I’ve never been particularly accomplished at pork roast,
but today we had chicken salad, angel biscuits, some husband-grown lettuce with a homemade buttermilk dressing, and cheesecake in a jar (amazing).
There were wildflowers and polka-dots.
I am thankful for—among countless other things--a legacy of old-fashioned, gracious, Southern hospitality, taught by an old-fashioned, gracious, Southern lady.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Be blessed,
Ginger
Hello, next-to-last Monday of the school year!
Hello, forgotten alarm clock! So glad Big Red set his, even if I did miss my morning exercise.
Hello, 10,000 steps across the computer lab today; I should look at the bright side and be thankful for you.
Hello, 10,000,000 obvious questions asked by students in said lab today. (“Bibliography??? What bibliography???)
Hello, brownie batter + german chocolate cake mix combined! You’re a match made in heaven!
Hello, yellow back door! Your first coat makes me happy!
Hello, new porch pillows! Hello, ferns!
Hello, homemade hummus! Yumm!
Hello, piles of laundry; I hear you calling my name.
I’m ignoring you!
Happy Monday,
Ginger
I had every intention of linking up with Lisa Leonard’s “Hello, Monday” party, but yesterday disappeared in a blur.
About 9:00p.m, I wondered if I should still post.
What to title it? “Goodbye, Monday”?
*sigh*
So today I say hello/goodbye to Tuesday(early hello to Wednesday, perhaps?) with apologies to all those people who got their post done on time .
Hello dead camera battery, hence a picture-less late post.
Hello, sunny day, with other sunny day friends in the forecast! That means the back steps get stained!
Hello, end-of-school-crazy-insane-calendar-starting-this-week.
Hello, deep breath-take-a-moment-of-silence before the chaos begins.
Hello, early watermelon. You’re my fav.
Hello, extra pounds. Must eat watermelon and not chocolate cake.
Hello, Creative Memories box full of finally-scrapbooked pages (now only a year behind! Yay-rah.)
Hello, baby lettuces in the garden!
Goodbye, Tuesday! You were a good, normal sort of day, and I am thankful for you.
Be blessed on your Tuesday/Wednesday,
Ginger
I’m dreaming of…
image via pinterest
an organized classroom;
of a cool porch project;
of cheesecake in a jar, for obvious reasons;
of summer vacation;
Of these muffins, which have 58 calories each;
of these, which probably have 7,543 calories each;
of the Word written on my walls;
of the Word written on my heart.
Be blessed today,
Ginger
Let’s pretend, shall we?
Let’s pretend I didn’t begin this project, oh, say, three weeks ago.
Then we can pretend that it hasn’t rained almost every weekend since then.
While we’re at it, we can imagine that all the sunny days hadn’t featured the first normal (i.e. chilly) temperatures of the whole ding-dang winter/early spring.
No, we’re just going to pick up this post as though completion is imminent any day now.
One of my spring break goals was a back door beautification.
Isn’t it sad?
I would show you our double-ugly clay “wall” that faces the door, but that’s even sadder.
We were planning a lovely-yet-oh-so-traditional red door until I spotted this beauty.
(via Southern Living; can’t get it un-blurry)
Um…our house is gray, so the turquoise door might not work, but the yellow boots got me thinking.
(Insert many hours wandering around Lowe’s here.)
Here’s the door paint test. (All paints are Valspar.)
DD#1 voted for blue.
DD#2 voted for cowslip.
Big Red voted for (you know where this is going, don’t you?) dahlia.
Mom’s tie-breaker…
None of the above.
Well, sort of.
You’ll see when I (ever) finish.
I did stain the steps.
Epic fail.
Too blue.
Boo.
(You can’t see it so much in the picture, but this was “Back to the Future”, all-I-need-now-is-a-ceramic-goose, circa 1980’s blue.
Double boo.)
Big Red kindly stripped the stain off, and the nice Lowe’s man helped me chose again, so I hold out hope for the second attempt.
Yet untried.
Because the weather won’t cooperate.
*sigh*
What’s on your undone project list?
Be blessed,
Ginger
