Life lately has looked like…

…small snippets of time in the garden, trying to make some dent in the weeds.  It mostly seems to be a fruitless endeavor, but we have plants growing nonetheless.  Everything we planted except for cauliflower and peppers have at least sprouted.  While this is far from a guarantee they will actually produce anything edible, I am always amazed at how clearly gardens reveal God’s creativity and provision (to me, anyway).

…a kitchen that is slightly torn-apart.  Believe it or not, this is a necessary step to remodeling our upstairs bathroom…something to do with a header that needs to be added to the kitchen ceiling, before we can jack up the floor(s) and put new support posts in the basement so that we no longer have slanted floors in our upstairs…which we would like done before remodeling the bathroom (which includes moving a wall) so that we can have proper measurements and angles and such.

…the discovery of [more] faulty wiring in the house (thanks to the mild bit of demolition in the kitchen), which has resulted in yet another circuit being switched off for the time being.  This means our entire upstairs has about one outlet that works and our kitchen has one outlet and just the light over the sink.  Tim has always said he would have liked to live a hundred years ago, so I joke that we’re living more and more like people did then all the time ;).  I think I would have to draw the line at chamber pots, though.

…lots of thinking about God’s expectations of me, and realizing how little they actually have to do with me.  I can’t say I love the frequent reminders that have come lately about how self-centered I really am, and how God-centered I tend to not be, but they are obviously needed, so I am thankful for them.

…trying to clean my house.  It’s slow.  I’m trying to set realistic expectations so that I can maintain motivation from day-to-day.  This means I get about one room really clean each day.  I’m not sure how that works for a long-term goal of keeping the whole house clean, but it’s a start.

…mentally preparing for starting the next school year in about a month.  I had hoped to get a jump start on phonics with Nathanael before then, but I’m not sure if that will happen…even with his frequent requests to do so.

…lots of baseball practices and games.  We tend to just take everyone to all of them.  It may be more effort than it’s worth, but by the time 6pm rolls around, the thought of being outside seems so much more pleasant than being inside doing something productive, that we go.  It has its fun moments.

…getting big, and not just my belly.  It always happens, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it, right?  I just remind myself that there’s a good reason for it all, and will try to continue to remind myself for the 18 months or so after delivery it will take me to get not big again.

…looking forward to 3 months from now (or so) when I will have a precious new baby in my arms.  There’s a lot to get done between now and then…most of which I don’t remember on any kind of normal basis because my brain is functioning at about half its normal capacity…but even if things don’t quite get done “in time”, I’m pretty sure the baby won’t know or care.

And, that’s life.