The Sense of Community

We had a minor crisis this month while I was away. It is nothing I will go into here, but suffice it to say that my inner circle was penetrated. My sense of reality was challenged. Someone came from the outside and tried to drag my family into her need for chaos. We are still dealing with it, but we are dealing with it. The first few days were exceptionally hard. That sense of attack has passed. Now we are simply on alert.

What I have found surprising during this time is my sense of community.

I have shared that we are a bit adrift right now. We left the congregation we had been apart of for 20 years. With that, we left seeing some of our dearest friends on a regular basis. While we are content at the neighborhood church we are now attending, we haven't really immersed ourselves in that community yet. Of course, we have family. And a few very close friends. We aren't alone, just not thick with friends right now.

However, despite this feeling of disconnectedness, when we were attacked I felt very connected. Although 99.9% of the people I know have no idea what we have been through, I felt during this time that I could have called on any number of them for help or support and they would have readily come to our aid. Both from the old and new community. I have felt protected by my network of people who love me and trust God. Together we would get through this.

We still don't know what the outcome of this whole mess will be, but I do know that God will get us through it. I know that I can lean on my friends, old and new, as well as my family. As hard as it has been, I wouldn't trade that renewed sense of community that I have felt for anything.

Thank you all for being there. Whether you are called on or not.

Fun in the Sun

Another fun August event was an RV trip to the Galveston. We piled into our big bus and headed down to the island.

While we were there we pier fished.


Nothing worth saving was caught, but we saw lots of pelicans, jellyfish, and stingrays and had a good time.

We stayed at the state park down there. It was right across the dune from the beach. The kids didn't seem to mind the seaweed and had a great time. We flew kites.

Made Polly Pocket a sand castle.


Made a drip castle.


And played in the waves.



We also went to Schlitterbahn. Malibu Barbie Junior had a great time playing in the water.

I was more than happy to rest my tootsies in the water and watch the fun.



*Sigh* I miss summer already.

I'm Baaaack!

So, how was your August?

Mine was...interesting. It was mostly good. I'll spend the next couple of posts updating you on where I have been and what I have done.

I will start with this week!

I went to dinner with my dear friend, jac. (I would love to highlight that and send you to her blog, but SHE WON'T START ONE!!) Our birthdays are right next to each other. Hers is the day after mine. We go out every year to celebrate "our birthdays". We were both swamped this year, so we didn't get to go out until this week.

We went to a lovely restaurant called Shade. We had a de. li. cious. meal. And some lovely adult conversation. How rare is that?

We don't usually exchange gifts, but this year we did. You'll never guess what we spontaneously gave each other. Preserves! I gave her figs and she brought me some of her yummy orange marmalade. I'm already almost halfway through the first jar. She is my big-city-simple-living buddy. She named our chicken, Scarlet. She lives but a mile down the road and we hardly ever see each other. : (

But we saw each other this week and it was fun!

I originally posted this in August, 2007.

I mowed my lawn today. I don’t normally do that particular chore. Either my son or my husband does. But as I was enjoying my iced beverage from the shade of my porch, I began to contemplate the length of the grass, the busy schedules of my husband and son, and the prospects of the lawn being cut in the near future. What the heck. I could use some exercise. I decided to be particularly hard on myself and pull out the old, rotary, manual mower. No motor!

And exercise I did. I didn’t get far into my endeavor when sweat began dripping from my brow. OK, it was dripping from lots of places. About that time a truck and trailer pulled up across the street. Four men of Hispanic decent jumped out, mowed, edged, swept, and left while I made a couple of more passes with my pitiful little mower.

That set me to thinking. It certainly would be easier to just walk across the street and get those guys to do this. After all, “immigrants do the jobs Americans don’t want to do!”

Now wait just a cotton-picking minute. What is that all about? The jobs we don’t want to do? That sounds like something my kids yell at me, “But Mom! I don’t want to!” What do I tell them? “Too bad, it needs to be done, and it’s your job to do it.”

Just because we don’t want to mow our own lawns, wash our own dishes, raise our own children, fill in the blank, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing it anyway. It needs to be done, and it’s our job to do it.

Back in my day, sonny, we mowed our own lawns, we did our own housework, and mothers cared for their own children. When the children were old enough, they did chores and mowed the lawn. The really industrious ones mowed the neighbor’s yards, made a few bucks, and learned to respect the dollar in their hand. They learned a little about business, scheduling, and priorities. And they learned about being responsible.

We have gone soft. I’m as guilty as anyone. Not to toot my own horn (toot, toot), but I am a really good cook. I can bake, fry, sauté, roast, or otherwise cook anything I set my mind to. My cabinets and fridge are full of endless mealtime possibilities. How many times have I opted to just “pick something up” because it was easier. I’m sure I have compromised my health and that of my children more times than I care to admit. When did it become OK to always do things the easy way?

It is said ‘that which does no kill you will make you stronger’. As I finished up the last of my sizable yard with my manual mower, I wasn’t sure which way it was going to go. After a few minutes back in the shade of my porch with another iced beverage, I felt good. A little shaky but good. Maybe even a little stronger. How much stronger would we all be, our kids be, our country be, if we would just do what needs to be done?

I’m not against getting some help when you need it. I’m not against immigration. Our country was built by people who came to this country from another because they wanted to be Americans. I am against breaking the law. I’m against telling people it is OK to break the law. And I am against coming to America if you don’t want to be an American. But mostly, I’m against turning over our responsibilities, and our country, to others simply because it’s easy and cheap to do so.

If you want to come to our country and join us in the American dream, we would love to have you. If not, stay where you are. We can take care of our own kids, cook our own food, clean our own houses, and mow our own lawns. We may not always want to, but we can. I know I can. My mom and dad taught me. I am teaching my kids. And I hope they are stronger because of it.

A reminder

This post was from November, 2007. Since I always need to be reminded of the lessons I have already learned, I thought I would run this again.

Last night, I went with a group of people to a weekly "street event". I don't know what else to call it. It was in a parking lot. There were a bunch of homeless people there and a bunch of other people trying to minister to them. There was a praise band complete with sound system singing some great music. People prayed. They had little contests for fun and profit, such as a donut eating contest to give the homeless a chance to win $5. There was clothing for them to go through and choose what they could use. There was even an area blocked off and staffed with volunteers for small children to play while their mothers got a break for a couple of hours. After the message, dinner was served.

It was quite an amazing scene. The people who were running this event do it every week for whomever shows up at their parking lot. They obviously have a deep love and compassion for these people. They are doing what Jesus would do.

The people who came to this event were a mix of people. Mix of races, interest, addictions, and sexual persuasions. Some were there to sit through whatever they had to sit through to get a meal. Some were there to cultivate some semblance of family or community. There were lots of hugs and "Hi, so good to see yous." There were some who looked lost and confused.

I felt a little like that myself. I was out of my element. I'm a Christian. I have boatloads of compassion and love for most of humanity. I was even there to see what I could do for the effort. I feel like I should be doing this sort of thing. But it was brought home to me again that that was not my ministry. It takes a special kind of love, a special kind of calling to do what these people do every week. Probably every day in some capacity.

For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. (1 Cor. 12:14-21, 27)

From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph. 4:16).

Once I learned that God only wants us to use the talents he gave us, I started sleeping a lot better. It's hard enough for me make good use of what I have been given without trying to do well at things He has given to someone else. Not that I can't stick my foot in someone else's pool every now and again to see what they are doing, but I'm grateful that He doesn't expect me to do their jobs. I want to do my part for the body. I'm glad to see other people are doing theirs as well.

We still live in a construction zone.

I originally ran this post in September, 2007. Things are still booming in our area, so I thought I would encourage myself to keep moving forward with getting the house ready.

I hear there is a housing slump.

This is the view from my front porch.



Of course, you noticed the backhoe and obvious goings on at the first house. Did you notice the framing of a new house going on 2 doors down? That is another new house.

This is the view from my back fence.


The first thing you will notice is that there is no house behind my house. It was torn down to make room for a new house. Across from the lot are 2 actually under construction. The one on the left is new and almost done. The one on the right is a major redo. They have more than doubled the size of the house. There is another one to the left of the one on the left that you can't see. It is also new. And that is not counting the 5 other new houses on that block, 2 of which are actually 3 (4?) story duplexes. There used to be 8 addresses on that block. When all is said and done, there will be 15.

You see why we want to move. It is going to be as crowded here as it is in the suburbs soon!

Tuesday's Tip

Today's tip: know your limits.

I have reached mine. At least, for awhile.

We are in the last few days of summer. That means a couple of things, not the least of which is a trip to the beach and some planning for next year's homeschooling.

As if that weren't enough, we have decided to put the house on the market September 1st. We have been playing around with getting the house ready to sell for...well... awhile now. But we have decided we want our farm and we want it now. Despite the reports of doom and gloom, the housing market in Houston (and our inner city neighborhood in particular) is doing well. There was even a report I read a week or so ago that had the first line of the story as, "Houston, we don't have a housing problem."

But that means that I need to spend more time cleaning out and throwing out and generally preparing us for what we hope are the hoards of people who will descend upon us with offers to buy our home for exorbitant sums of money.

I will therefore being taking a blogging break. I will probably stop in now and then. I may even run an old post or two. I will certainly be checking in on my bloggy friends. But I will be concentrating my efforts on getting things a little more under control here.

Don't forget about me. Send me notes of encouragement! And enjoy these last few days of summer.

TTFN