Decorate Your Soul

my pumpkin had the cool design and his jack o’lantern turned out better? Arg.

photos tomorrow.

Everyday, I ask God for a daily dose of patience. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old and trust me, the daily dose doesn’t cut it by noon when I have asked for a 25th dose.

I wonder if I will ever have enough of it to combat my little girl’s needs. What if a dose of patience was as easy as running to the drugstore and buying another bottle off the shelf. Yes, an over-the-counter medicine of sorts that I could keep in a very easy to reach spot in my house, grab on the go as I am off to meet the daily needs of my daughter. Grab, twist, squeeze a dose out, and release into my mouth for a calm, serene attitude when I am wiping feces off the carpet because she decided to change her own diaper again while mom was in the other room. Grab, twist, squeeze, release.

In 1 Corinthians, it says "Love is patient." Yes, I love my Sarah. But I am not patient enough with her. I admittedly have had to put her in her room time to time and leave for an emergency prayer, or quick breather. Today, I sat at the kitchen table and lovingly left her alone because I needed to inhale AGAIN a renewed spirit of patience.

One of the fruits of the spirit also happens to be patience. Galatians 5:22 lists patience, or longsuffering, as an appealing character for the church members to exemplify. As someone who growls when the car in front of me doesn’t move when the light turns green, I can’t say that I’m a patient gal. I live in a fast-paced world and have been brainwashed to demand instant action. How relevant is this to being a mommy? When I ask the little girl that inhabits the first room on the left to stop washing her hands in the sink for the 34th time that day, I WANT HER TO DO IT NOW! When I ask the song-and-dance-princess to stop touching her little siters head, I WANT HER TO DO IT NOW! When I ask for patience, I WANT IT NOW!

So how does one combat this impatience until a nice, obedient, laid back, do-what-my-mommy-tells me-to-do little girl emerges? I know the Spirit counsels patience like this: you have all of eternity, and all that is not joy today will pass away someday. And that I should relish in my antics of this beautiful daughter God has put into my keeping because in a blink of an eye, she will be 16.

I might be a little more joyful at noon, though.

Until then, if you find the magical bottle labeled Daily Dose of Patience in a drugstore near you, send a shipment down my way.

Grab, twist, squeeze, release.

Final Scrabble game score:

Andy: 230

Susie: 241

hee. hee. I win again. barely.

Our mailbox is a communal metal box that is located about six houses due west of our abode. This was a little bizarre at the beginning, but I have gotten used to the fact that you cannot peak out the window and see if the mail has been delivered simply because the red flag is down. I have also discovered that anytime after 3PM is game for the mailbox to be checked. I sound like my grandma watching for the mail… hee-hee!

Each day is a mini-adventure to fetch our small stack of mail and usually the highlight of the late afternoon- especially when it has "fun" mail in the pile. Fun mail is anything not bill or junk mail related, so notes, cards, announcements and magazines are included in this category. Those people that look forward everyday to the possibility of "fun" snail mail knows exactly what I mean… oh yes, small packages, too.

Let’s see, ah yes, Sarah has to have some shoes on before we go and today she grabbed her new fancy, purple glitteries:

proceeded to refuse to look directly at the camera,

we reached the mail hub for this half of the street,

then were reminded that our neighbor’s house is undergoing some remodeling. Guess what? There is a toilet in their front yard.

How ghetto is this?

P.S. No fun mail today. Maybe tomorrow.

Finally reading a really good book… can’t seem to get enough time to dedicate to just read the book, but when I do, I am SO into it.

So what makes a good book? I think there must be some type of tragedy that the reader can relate to. Also, when the author decides to make a statement so bold, so out there, so out-of-the-blue and catches the reader off guard, yet captures him, piques his interest enough to leave the reader wanting more. More I say! I want more. Finally, when the writer creates characters that are realistic, people that could be you or me, or the kid down the street. So far, this book includes all of those elements.

I love that the author of The Kite Runner writes in the first person- it has left me wondering if he actually lived out part of this adventure in his growing up years. Indeed this would be very tragic if he has. I saw on the front cover of the book it says "A Novel," but still, there is an element of pure honesty in here that makes me fear a person actually lived out what is described.

Okay, don’t tell me the end, I just wanted to say that I am loving this book. And if you haven’t read it, or are my wonderful husband patiently waiting for me to finish this book, just go get a copy for yourself. And prepare yourself for sentences that are put together so well, you just want to read them out loud to hear the melody of words run off your tongue.