The Fish Tank

When life seems in disarray, I clean. I need time to process the atrocities of our time. I can't wrap my head around the crazy things that occur in our world daily. I need time to breath and the way I do that is by cleaning like a crazy person. I've been like this since I was little. As long as the world around me is in order, I feel better. When the throw pillows are in there place and you can see the vacuum lines on in the carpet, my soul settles down. Monday came and I was feeling uneasy. The world was in chaos, my husband was on a plane to DC, and talk of middle of the night storms with embedded tornadoes had me reeling. So, I did what any sane person does when life seems completely out of your hands, I vacuumed, did laundry, and organized the play room. As I cleaned the crumbs off the floor of our kitchen, I prayed. I cried and I prayed cleaning the mess leftover from a family that is loved and cared for. I was reminded in that moment that while I may feel like everythin...

All this talk about Christmas and keeping Christ in Christmas got me wondering: Is Christmas a Christian thing or of Pagan origin? Turns out, it's both. I started looking into the meaning and origin of the word Christmas. I enjoy looking at the meaning and origins of words. It brings life to the word and helps me understand it better. Christmas derived from the Old English word Cristemaesse which literally means, "Christ's mass." If you want to go even deeper, Crist (Cristes) is from the Greek Khristos which is a translation of the Hebrew Masiah (Messiah) meaning "anointed." If I have royally confused you, hold tight. I haven't even gotten started yet. The first Christmas celebrated took place around the middle of 4th century Rome. Romans had been celebrating Saturnalia (think a festival celebrating the winter soltice/return of the sun) around the time we celebrate Christmas present-day. The thought here was to incorporate a Christian holiday alon...

Things are about to get real here on this blog. I text the following words to a friend: "The boys are insane. Seriously. I took them to the dollar tree to get stuff for our Operation Christmas Child boxes and literally want to pound my head against the wall. I wish taking them to do stuff like that (service project stuff) was all sunshine and rainbows and everyone was happily skipping down the aisles truly understanding what it means to give and have a servants heart. But noooooooo...no. We play with plungers and ask for every ding dang toy and then act like wild banshees who have never been let out of their cages. For the love of Peter, Paul, and Mary." Y'all, parenting is no joke. I like to post the cutesy pictures of my boys sweetly snuggling by my side but real life doesn't always play out that beautifully. Don't get me wrong, we did have some fun picking stuff out to give and I did laugh when they were playing with the plungers. However, when I got home I...

Ok. Let's talk about the latest controversy in American culture: the red cup. Lord have mercy, y'all. I have two things to say about this topic. First, let me tell you how I got here. I was driving a back road to a friend's house. This road is lined with beautiful sprawling homes, pastures, farms, and a few ranch properties. I love this road. I was driving and in the distance I saw a steeple. The white structure looked stunning against the beautiful blue sky and fall foliage. That steeple literally stopped me in my tracks and got me thinking about that silly red cup. The thought that came to mind was: steady. I felt like the Lord reminded me to steady myself; to realize and understand that while I may feel like Christ is being ripped out of everything I know in my surroundings, He is still there; steady. Just because Christ isn't portrayed through the symbols of Christmas on a red cup that is sold at a non-Christian business does not mean that He is gone. He is still ...

Before I could drive, I dreamed of owning a Jeep Wrangler. I would walk outside to the driveway on my 16th birthday and there wrapped in a gigantic red bow would be my very own white Jeep Wrangler. That dream did not come true. I ended up driving a 1989 blue Volkswagen Fox. I just dated myself. The car was a hand-me-down from my sister. Unfortunately for me, by the time I got it, Volkswagen was no longer making the Fox thus, they were no longer making parts for it. So, every now and again, I would get stuck along the side of the road because my clutch cable would snap and I wouldn't be able to shift. They replaced the cable with a Jetta part but it never worked properly. I am sure Scott remembers a few desperate phone calls from me in tears. I finally got another car just not my dream car: the blessed Jeep Wrangler. Flash forward 21 years later and what before my wondering eyes appears but a shiny red Jeep Wrangler. My husband had been pining over getting a Jeep for over a year. I ...