Findings

I found it. The root of bitterness. Not that I had been searching for it, but I did happen to find it. And whaddya know? It grows in a flower bed in my front yard! Who knew? Worse than that, it has many friends. All growing in my yard. Imagine.

I found the nasty little thing on Sunday afternoon. Joshua and Thomas and Sarah Grace were working in the back yard, Elizabeth was lazily snoozing in her swing, and I decided it was high time to start on my TO DO list for the front yard. At the top of that list was weeding and culling out some of the mass of flora that grows out there. I don't know what most of it is, but whoever put it there laid it in way to thick and it just winds up being a mess of green. Don't get me wrong, I love flowers and beautiful yards. I do not, however, have any affections towards keeping a beautiful yard. In fact, left to my own vices, a yard would simply just grow whatever seeds landed in it. Plant me way out where 'curb appeal' has no meaning. I have not even taken the time to learn from my mom and mom-in-law, who both have gorgeous flowerbeds scattered about their yards, the ins and outs of looking after flowers. I simply do not enjoy it. Or maybe I would if I had any inkling as to what I was doing. But I don't, and right now it is just not at the top of my priority list. Not even in the top half. Actually, towards the end of the bottom half.

All that aside, I donned a pair of work gloves and ransacked the garage for a trowel. A trowel that I came by at a yard sale. Not that I was buying the trowel, but it just happened to be in a basket I had discovered and the lady would not take the trowel back. In fact, she threw in an ice cream scoop, too. Good thing, actually, that ice cream scoop. We didn't have one. But, I digress. The trowel. In the garage. Maybe, maybe not. I couldn't find it. I opted for the hammer in it's place, thinking it's non-hammer head end (what is that called anyway?) could moonlight as a trowel. Then I made my way outside for my first real go at lawn care. Aside from occasionally helping with the mowing or snatching an obvious weed from here or there. I started off pretty daintily, a bit afraid of hurting the flowers, or worse, running into a spider. Ew.

I soon found that flowers are not as delicate as they try to appear. Soon, I was jerking the things out from the base, and using my 'trowel' to dig up their roots. Bulbs. And some of the bulbs strongly resembled the spiders I was still watching out for. I can't explain them any better than that, they just looked like spiders.

I should insert here that Joshua and I had talked a little about what to do with these beds and we agreed that they needed to be thinned out. And thinning, I was.

I pulled and I jerked and I yanked and I dug with my would be trowel. And I wondered why there had been so many flowers dropped in this tiny little area. (about 3 feet by 3 feet) And in the midst of it, I found myself invigorated. Maybe it was simply the act of being active. Of course, you know I can't have been enjoying myself. I don't like gardening. But I did feel a certain amount of pride. I was cleaning up and cleaning out and making things look all neat and orderly.

And I was being wonderfully destructive.

Then I started having trouble. Those roots were getting deeper, harder to get out of the ground. Harder to clean out. Harder to deal with, and frankly, I was starting to wear out. My hands were tired of gripping and ripping. And yet, there was so much work to be done to truly make this area clean. It was looking more and more tempting to just leave things ugly, the way they were. Was it really worth all of this? I was getting frustrated and tired and there was so much work to be done.

Bitterness began to set in. Why did I start this mess anyway? A nice little brush fire would have taken care of the whole thing. It might have harmed the house in the process, but that was just a minor detail. It's funny the way the mind starts working when you are frustrated. Thoughts first turn to the easy way out, often rejecting the sane and safe and right in favor of the easy and destructive wrong.

I worked and I dug and I pulled and I huffed and I puffed and the roots and bulbs just kept coming. The harder I worked, the more satisfaction I derived from pulling out those nasty little boogers. And then I couldn't find any more.

Hooray! Could it be? Was I done? I have no idea. I am sure there are still some lurking in the ground, but if I am diligent and watchful, I can nip them in the bud (literally) when they start to poke their little green heads through the ground.

There is an amazing parallel here. Those roots that were so hard to pull up are, of course, sin. These roots get in our heart and intertwine and creep and breed in all the little dark places. It is by far harder to get these roots (sins) out of our hearts. Much easier to ignore them and let them stay put. It hurts to change our mindsets and our ways, and we grow tired of the strain of constantly monitoring our thoughts and actions in an effort to be more like Christ ( an impossible goal to attain, but one we should seek to gain daily). But, if we are watchful and careful, we can catch them and snip them off before they rear their ugly heads. It is a never ending cycle, but the rewards of a neat and clean flower bed for good things to bloom in is so worth it.

'Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.'
Colossians 2:7

Manly Boy

First off, let me make it known that this is the 100th post on the Freeman Family Blog! And now, for the rest of the story...

I am continually encouraging my children to help with things around the house (yes, except with dinner. I just cannot muster the patience to let them help around the oven at dinner, but they do bake with me. Do I get points for that?). Thomas is pretty good at making his bed, putting their books away, cleaning at his room, helping switch laundry over and carrying/pushing/pulling empty or very full baskets of laundry from place to place. He also has learned to stack his dishes, help put away laundry, and several miscellaneous things that he just does on his own.

Sarah Grace (who chooses to sleep in the floor most of the time these days) is capable of making her bed (which means piling it all back on the bed to help Mommy with when she makes it 'for real'), tossing her toys into her toy box, stacking her dishes, helping with the laundry, and picking up random stuff from the floor and putting it away. She is also our resident blood hound. If something is missing, you can pretty well count on Sarah Grace to know where it is, or look until it is found. Most of the time.

Another one of Thomas's responsibilities is helping to gather the trash and take it out to the outside can, then on garbage nights, help wheel the can to the road and return it later that day. He is very grown up about all of this. Today, he added to his list of accomplishments, the title of Trash Can Liner Putter Inner. Joshua was making the rounds, gathering the trash to take out, and Thomas was right on his heels, helping. Thomas wanted to return the kitchen trash can to its home under the sink, but it did not have a liner in it. I grabbed a liner out of the cabinet, showed him how to pull the top open and then shake it until it ballooned out, then he expertly put it in the pail on his own. Below is his description of his feat, in his own words.

"I oped it and shaked it and putted it in the twash can. All around, then pushed it and it putted there and under da sink and close da door."

As he was telling all of this, he relived the event with all the actions that his little body actually took to get the liner into the can. My little man!

Friday's Fun

Last night we went out for a picnic dinner with our friends, the Williams family. The kids had a ball, and we adults enjoyed the light hearted visit. Friends are such a wonderful blessing!

Elizabeth

Thomas & Jeremiah

Elisabeth & Sarah Grace

Sarah Grace

Sarah Grace

Thomas

Thomas & Jeremiah

Sunny Girls

It's a lazy day here. Thomas is with my parents for the day. Elizabeth and I went to a ladies prayer breakfast this morning, and Joshua and Sarah Grace slept until 9:15. Spring is turning to summer, and though it is about ten degrees cooler than it was this time last week, we are drinking in the warm sun beams.

Elizabeth had a few minutes of sunning on her Daddy's chest this morning. She seemed to enjoy the sunshine, lifting her little face up and smiling a bit. I caught her with her head up, but managed to miss the sweet smile every time.





While Elizabeth relaxed in her Daddy's arms, Sarah Grace kept my arms, er, legs occupied. She was only slightly impressed with her stint as an airplane, and preferred to cuddle instead. No arguments here!

Last Saturday

I am behind, as usual. But here are some pics from last weekend.

We went to Granny & Papa Joe's for the day. They are involved in a Senior Spirit group that stays active in the community, and on Saturday the group was singing at a local park festival. There was entertainment throughout the day, a car show that boasted everything from true classics to some young guy's souped up suburban (complete with a massive sound system). There was an entire fleet of those inflatable jump things for kids, concessions, games, crafts, and face painting. All set out in the sun.

We wandered around a bit until it was time for Granny and Papa Joe to sing, then we listened as the group sang several beautiful Southern Gospel numbers. After that, there was a young girls clogging group that captivated our attention, then we went of in search of some shade to enjoy our lunch.

It was a fun day, and the kids had a ball. They also had a great nap!

My Best Friend

You know you aren't paying enough attention to your blog when your best friend nags you to update it. My best friend, who shall remain nameless in case her status changes, has done just that. It was only one short sentence, but it counts. Trust me. If I don't respond, she will follow up, bringing out the heavy ammunition.

In an effort to please this precious person in my life, let me make a blog entry. In fact, let me just tell you about her. She knows first hand the hectic-ness that is my life right now, she understands my need to try to juggle way to many things at once (yet still supports me), she loves me despite all my faults, doesn't mind when I cut her off in mid-sentence to, shall we say, talk to my children, she has spent hours (perhaps we should measure this one in weeks, or even months...) laughing and crying with me, and is currently winning the child bearing competition (just cuz she managed twins the first time!). She listens to my gripes and complaints and doesn't feel the need to solve it for me. She is an amazing source of information (due to her researching habits), has a wonderful sense of humor, and lets me 'shop' in her closet. She has great taste in clothes (though I am still waiting for the arches in her feet to flatten a tad so that I can share her shoes, too!) She prays for me even when I don't ask her to, because she loves me. She calls for a one minute conversation just to say she was thinking about me and my family. Are we okay? She (okay, with help from her wonderful husband Andrew) manages to find the coolest board/card games and they and Joshua and I entertain ourselves for hours with these games and a bowl of diced peaches or watermelon or bottles of different flavored sparkling ciders. When, er, IF my kids were ever to make me crazy, I can call her and vent for a couple minutes and then promptly say thank you and hang up. She is not offended. She dropped everything to come live with me the week before my wedding, even though she was pregnant (with the twins), and make sure that my sanity stayed in tact. She is a wonderful cook, has the coolest socks (and yes, this is important), and gives great book recommendations. She listens to good music, loves chocolate (also very important), and gives her vehicles funny names. She is an amazing Mommy to her four kids, a splendid surrogate aunt to my children, and the best sister a girl could ask for. (I have often wished she were my real sister...then again, I might not like her quite so much...hmmm) She was the best room mate, then a great neighbor. There is tons more, and I could write for quite a while on some of the things we have shared over the last ten years or so.

Don't get me wrong...she has her faults. She won't watch movies or read books that make her cry, thus missing out on some of my favorite chic flicks. Her foot is smaller than mine (I am sure I mentioned that already) so I cannot take advantage of her massive shoe collection. Oh, and she lives several states away. And has the audacity to nag me about posting pictures or words or whatever on some webpage. Imagine that. Despite these obvious flaws, I am looking forward to the next ten years (and more).

Aubrey & Lora Lynn (with two babies in her belly!)

Pictures, Please.

My email box is collecting hate mail. Or at least as close as I hope I ever come to hate mail. A few folks (you know who you are!) have sent me some bothersome messages concerning their lack of concern for the written word. 'We want pictures' is the outcry I am getting. Sorry. I haven't had the camera strapped to my hip, but here are a couple we have taken this past week.

Here are Thomas and Sarah Grace playing in our new compost bin that Joshua built around them. It made a great 'cage' and I entertained thoughts of leaving them there for a few hours...but, alas, I didn't.

And here's a quick pose from Elizabeth and me. There ya have it. Pictures.