Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

Every year I try really, really hard to get as much done as I possibly can so the week before Christmas is stress-free and lots of fa-la-la-la fun! Every year, I find myself running around like a crazy lady getting last-minute things done and tending to crazy surprises that have popped up to add the the chaos. I had all my big gift shopping done just after Thanksgiving.  I ordered supplies for our church Christmas events at the beginning of December.  So I thought I had everything under control.  Not so, lady.  Not by a long shot. So here I was, today, sweating bullets for my Oriental Trading box to arrive because the party is tomorrow night is the church Christmas party and this momma has got to get Santa's gift bags together and delivered to the church.  My mother-in-law came to watch the kids so I could run to three different towns to do some last-minute errands.  I'm so thankful for her! My husband has been in his own Christmas season rush...

We've been running around like crazy the last two weeks - on top of our normal daily stuff, we ordered, picked up, and assembled new children's furniture at our church.  And we put together a Valentine's party for our homeschool group (which I loved doing - it just sort of added to the busyness this week)  My husband, head pastor of a local church for less than 5 months, has had to conduct 2 funerals, one last weekend and one this, on top of his normal workload.  A very stretching experience for a man whose ministry was pastoring teenagers for the last seven years.  He did a fine job.  As a family, we tried to support him in every way we could think of.  But stress is stress - there's no two ways about it. So our Valentine's Day started out with a funeral.  Hubby came home just before nap time, so I greeted him before I headed up for my nap. Yep, I nap too.  Parenting is exhausting!  I awoke with 1/2 hour left to talk to hubby about his ...

Ah...The Game of Life!  Love this game!!  Played it back in the 90's.  Went to college and married, had a great career, huge house, 3 kids, and retired in richy-rich acres, or whatever the wealthy retirement place was called.  Perfect! Did you ever answer that question at a job interview...you know - "Where do see yourself in 5 or 10 years?" I could never answer that question. During my college years, I discovered a verse in the Bible that helped answer why I never had an answer to this question...at least, not a good one.. "Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord ’s purpose that prevails." Proverbs 19:21 In other words, "A man tells God his plans, and God laughs," so goes a Yiddish proverb. There you have it. Through all the trials of life, I have realized that I have to hold on loosely to the things of earth.  Certain things are infinitely more difficult to loosen one's grip on, such as my family members.  I th...