Dumpster Fire.

It’s a really fun, trendy phrase to use to describe 2020, right?

I used it in a poem I wrote a few months ago for a writing group. Seemed appropriate.

It’s been a very hard year for a lot of people – and not just for the obvious reasons of all things political and pandemical.

Last week one precious reader-friend sent me an email that brought me to tears, where she shared about her Mom’s cancer diagnosis.

Another friend has been dealing with the aftermath of a heartbreaking car accident.

I can’t even get into that one – suffice it to say my heart starts beating a bit faster when I think of her.

How do we start looking up when the world around us feels so… down?

Laugh if you want, but I have a new practice in my own heart I want to share with you today. 

I like to call it “Lowest Common Denominator Gratitude.”

{If you’re new around here… uh, yes, I’m a homeschool Mama.}

With LCD gratitude, I like to start out by thinking of the simplest thing I can that I can be grateful for – something big enough to still put a smile on my face – but easy enough for me to remember that I can keep coming back to it daily.

Since we had a kid in the hospital for quite a while in 2019 (and a pretty touch-and-go situation for a while there) my perspective of the challenges of 2020 has been framed in such a way that I’ve been pretty grateful to face this year – compared with last year, ya know, there has been no serious feeling that death was personally imminent.

So, my LCD Gratitude often starts with, “Today is a good day, because the six of us are still alive and no one is in the hospital.”

Your LCD Gratitude might gravitate toward your friend who just lost their job, so you might say, “Today is a good day, because I still have a job.”

“My dog is still here.”

“I have a roof over my head.” 

“I have someone to talk to on a daily basis.”

“I’m not worried about where my next meal is coming from.” 

The great thing about LCD gratitude is that it’s really easy to build on. You’re not aiming for depth or profundity. You’re not a second-century Theologian trying to pinpoint the essential gifts of Christianity, as expressed in an understanding of the Trinity.

You simply look at your life, a glass of water, a dishwasher, shoes, electricity, deodorant, or a pair of underwear and say, “Today is a good day. I have ______.”

“Today is a good day. I have deodorant.” {And your co-workers said, Amen.}

“Today is a good day. I have underwear.” {And your co-workers said, Amen.}

Will it build from there?

Probably so. You might start thinking about deep and serious things that you’re so profoundly grateful for, it brings you to tears. That’s good.

It’s also wonderful to laugh, to take to heart that “freely and lightly” thing we talked about last week.

But for now, how about joining me in just starting somewhere simple?

Take a moment to lean over today and tell someone “Today is a Good Day because of your underwear.” 

You don’t have to pick that one, but it would sure be funny.

I welcome you to bring LCD gratitude to your Thanksgiving tables this week, friends. 

Light and fun, deep and meaningful: there is space to be grateful for everything. Like Paul encouraged the Thessalonians – in all circumstances.

Today has a good reason to be a good day. And? I kinda hope maybe you’ll never see your underwear the same way again.

P.S. I mentioned last week that my friend Bethany’s Podcast When God Breaks Through launched. Now that I’ve had a chance to listen to more episodes, I want to recommend it EVEN MORE. Parents in the crowd, and anyone who wants some wise teaching, look for it on Apple Podcasts! (You can find it by clicking here!) 

P.P.S. If shopping is on your to-do list, but you’d like some fun ideas or some help getting organized, please check out my 2020 Holiday Gift Guide full of ideas to take care of your list. (click here to check it out!) Or click below to grab my Hassle-Free Holiday Guide and get organized with a plan for gifts, menus, stocking stuffers and more!!

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!

Not all invitations come in foil-lined envelopes with embossed lettering. 

I’m now convinced the most important ones don’t come in envelopes at all.

If you’re not familiar with the story of our family’s journey in the fall of 2019, let me give you a three sentence summary so this will make sense:

On Sept. 1, 2019, we rushed our eight-year old son to the ER for a severe headache, which turned out to be a brain aneurism called by an AVM (a tiny tangle of vessels in his brain). The bleeding was severe, but after more than two weeks in a coma, heaps of prayer, 23 days in the Pediatric ICU and 25 more in therapy, relearning to walk, talk, and even use the bathroom, Blake came home from the hospital. A few weeks later, we gathered our recovering little walking miracle and headed back to the hospital for Gamma Radiation – a slow-working, very targeted type of radiation intended to eradicate the AVM that caused the bleed.

Last week, you may have seen me mention Blake’s MRI – this was an opportunity to see whether the Gamma Radiation was effective.

We got the results and let’s be really honest now: they weren’t what we wanted to hear.

It turns out Blake still has an AVM – that tangle of vessels is still there. And while it’s a teensy bit smaller than before, it still poses a risk which is difficult to quantify. If he has an AVM, there’s a risk that he could experience another bleed – and that? Well, it’s pretty darn terrifying.

You know what my brain likes?

Road maps. Straight paths. Clear expectations. Guidelines. Lists. Rules. Even plans.

My brain, heart and soul all wanted one thing: to hear the news that the AVM was gone, that we could put that concern behind us, and move on with our lives.

But when we got the news that wasn’t the answer to prayer we were looking for? Well, I sensed an invitation. 

“Come to me, weary one. Come to me. You’re never going to fully understand what I’m doing this side of heaven. You’re not really supposed to. Instead, I’m inviting you to learn to trust Me. I’m inviting you to learn to walk with Me.”

A few years ago, I felt God really impressing upon me a fresh understanding of the importance of considering my perspective – that perspective is often a gift, and it’s truly priceless.

So I’m turning the picture over, and looking at it from different sides, trying to see it from more than one angle.

What if this daily reminder that this day could be our last is what I need – to really live?

What if our family’s willingness to endure these circumstances with faith and trust is going to pave the way for someone else to come to know Jesus?

What if there is so much more to the unfathomable, unsearchable, wonderful depths of God, and my willingness to walk this out, trying to hold onto Jesus, will take me to new depths in the richness of understanding His goodness? 

For me, for my Hero Hubs, for Blake, for each of our children: what if the path of walking on the heights with our Savior looks like walking through the valley of the shadow of death?

I’m trusting that somehow the invitation of Jesus to come, lay our burdens on Him and find that we can walk freely and lightly – that Word will be made flesh in our lives, right here in the midst of these difficult circumstances.

I’d love to turn to you, friend, with that same whisper: even with the struggles of 2020. Even with the politics and the pandemic. Even with the fear and the frustration.

Jesus came from outside of this world, to be the Truth that sets us free from the burdens of this world. He invites us to give Him our every worry. He invites us to lay our every burden on His able shoulders.

You and I? We’re warmly invited. And while the invitation might not arrive in your mailbox with gold-stamped lettering on a lovely textured envelope, it’s the most important invitation we could ever receive, open and RSVP to.

Whatever you’re carrying this week? Can I encourage you to lay it at His feet? You’ll be in good company – I’ll be there, too.

P.S. My dear friend Bethany Kimsey is launching a podcast today! If you are a mother with kids at home, hoping to learn more about applying the Gospel to your parenting, not with band-aids and quick fixes, but with deep and enduring truth, I can’t recommend Bethany’s words highly enough. She is a mother of eight with so much wisdom. Look for When God Breaks Through by Bethany Kimsey on Apple Podcasts! (You can find it by clicking here!) I’m so looking forward to listening in!

P.P.S. The Holidays are almost here, and I’d love to help you feel less frenetic and more focused as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach! Head over to my Holiday Gift Guide Page to  grab the 2020 Hassle-Free Holiday Guide I created just for you! It will help you plan menus and events, choose gifts and make lists, NOT feel like you’re forgetting everything and enJOY the days ahead so much more! I’ve already used it sitting down with my Mom to plan Thanksgiving and man, that was a good feeling!

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!

I saw Jesus in two cups of powdered sugar Saturday morning.

Not in one of those unusual miraculous appearances like when a bunch of birds flock together and form a face in the sky. 

More in the way I’m often looking for Him: in a whisper, a change in perspective, an “aha” that makes me feel one step closer to understanding.

You’ve maybe seen this miracle for yourself. You start with a couple of cups of sifted powdered sugar – they look like tiny snow drifts in your mixing bowl. 

You add just one little teaspoon of vanilla, and one little tablespoon of milk.

When the liquids first hit the sugar, it just makes a few drops in those powdery mountains, but then the mountains seem to sort of collapse from within, right in front of you.

You start stirring, thinking that tiny bit of liquid will never be enough to touch all that sugar, and get it moist enough all the way through to be icing for you.

But you stir anyway, and that’s when the miracle happens.

In case you haven’t witnessed this miracle for yourself yet, I’ll tell you: a teaspoon of vanilla and a tablespoon of milk? They truly are enough. 

Enough for you and your wide-eyed seven-year-old to marvel: sometimes what seems like too little can be more than enough.

With a little bit of faith, and the will to keep on stirring, you get icing.

In the moment with the sugar Saturday morning, I thought about those loaves and fishes that didn’t seem like enough. I thought about the disciples furrowing their brows into question marks when Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” 

I thought about myself, and so many of my friends these days, who feel like we don’t have enough. And maybe? We are not enough.

Maybe it’s not enough time. Maybe it’s not enough patience. It’s not enough love. It’s not enough money. It’s not enough intelligence. 

Sometime, somehow we all look at ourselves, who we are or what we have, and we hear that whisper “It’s not enough. You’re not enough.”

But this is the beauty and Truth of walking by faith:

God takes mustard seeds and moves mountains.

He builds His church with flawed fisherman.  

And He feeds 5,000 with five loaves and two fish.

So I invite you today to speak louder than that not-enough whisper, maybe even right there to yourself in the mirror: 

God IS enough. He has enough. And if I give Him my teaspoon and my tablespoon of faith or time or finance or wisdom – He is able to make it more than enough. 

More than enough to parent well. More than enough to love well. More than enough to serve well, in our families, at our jobs, in our communities.

This is the miracle of the powdered sugar icing, and it’s the Truth worth holding onto:

We bring what we have to Jesus, and He makes it more than enough.

P.S. The Holidays are almost here, and I’d love to help you feel less frenetic and more focused as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach! Head over to my Holiday Gift Guide Page to  grab the 2020 Hassle-Free Holiday Guide I created just for you! It will help you plan menus and events, choose gifts and make lists, NOT feel like you’re forgetting everything and enJOY the days ahead so much more!

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!

“Is it a wash-sumfin day?”

As she’s rounded the corner on age 5, my youngest’s pronunciation of the question has become slightly clearer, but for a while I might’ve had to translate for you. At the start of many-a-morning, I have two kids who ask:

“Is it a school day?”

And a third that asks, “Is it a wash-sumfin day?”

Translation: “Is it a watch-something day?” or, better put, “Am I allowed screen time today, and if so, how soon can I get it?”

I have this crazy privilege/responsibility: managing to a very large extent the comings and goings of the lives of my children.

So naturally, morning by morning, they stumble downstairs, wrinkled pajamas and wild hair, and they begin looking up, into the face of the people determining their day to get some expectations for what’s ahead. Maybe we could go so far as to say marching orders, but I don’t run quite that tight of a ship. 

In the midst of the big problems, the big questions, the big ordeals of the world these days, I’ve been thinking about what Jesus meant when He said we had to become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Perhaps we’ll chat about this a bit more in the weeks to come, but I think one point is especially poignant for us at this very moment in November of 2020.

My kids show an impressive amount of trust while the Hero Hubs and I stand in a position of sovereignty in their lives.

They ask permission, of course. They make requests, absolutely. They complain from time to time. Alas.

But they mostly show up in the morning with an innate understanding that they’re not really in control of what is going to happen with their day. When they have the freedom to get out in the backyard and play, or head upstairs to the land filled with Legos… well, they go wild and enjoy it as best they can.

For the most part it’s more of a follow-the-leader affair.

So what about you and me?

Well someone is going to win an election this week. And, yeah, there’s still this pandemic thing happening. Maybe for you it’s a job thing, a relationship struggle, a bank account or health concern. We’ve all got our struggles, our fights, our discomforts, don’t we?

Maybe becoming more like little children means settling into an understanding that there is a small and finite amount of our lives over which we have control.

Maybe we can settle into the idea that we should do our best with the aspects of our lives we can control.

And maybe we could show up wide-eyed and wrinkled looking up at our Father in the morning, too, to ask for guidance, to place our trust back in His sovereignty, maybe even to ask our own versions of that very important question: “Is it a wash-sumfin day?”

Let’s hold tightly to this wisdom from Corrie Ten Boom this week, with the innocent trust we ought to have, because you and I? We are the children of God.

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

Keep walking, and keep trusting, friends. He’s got the whole world in His hands.

P.S. Last week I shared that I was working on a free gift and it is HERE! The 2020 Hassle-Free Holiday Guide is a gift I created to help YOU…

• think through menus
• plan events
• schedule tasks AHEAD of time
• organize the gift-giving process (and more, of course)

It will definitely simplify holiday preparation for you! You can click here to grab your copy! Or mosey over to my 2020 Holiday Gift Guide, and you can grab it there!

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!