The Last of the Tea kettles...

Linking up at Mama Kats. Go here to participate.

  (Can you guess the movie reference in my title)?

 

Prompt #4: The last thing you lost:The top off of the tea kettle. 

I know, how in the...do you lose that? 

It all started with a move two years ago. Pack, pack and pack more of our junk stuff. Sometimes in an orderly fashion with department style wrapping of newspaper. Mostly, if the kitchen items made it into the boxes labeled "kitchen," some organization was happening and you'd think unpacking would be a breeze. Nope.

   While ripping open and removing items from newspaper, my inked fingertips happily held my beloved tea kettle...only to be confused by a missing top. A top that fits tight so no steam escapes while a most unpleasant, high-pitched steel pot screams at you that the water is hot enough to cause it to whistle. Pure bliss on a cold day when hot chocolate awaits. I know I could use a microwave, but it just doesn't have the same appeal.

Back to the top. I unpacked every box. Even boxes that said, "toys or tools." Nothing. 

I'll admit to you that I decided to white-trash it (please forgive my unkind label, but it truly captures what I did here)...I put aluminum foil over the gaping whole so that my tea kettle would work. I didn't have the heart to throw it away. I thought of ways to up-cycle it. Okay, I broke down a bought a cheap one at that "W" store. 

Then seriously, a year later, the dumb thing shows up. Out of nowhere, somehow I find it stuck in an old ceramic, disaster of a piece I made in my second attempt at becoming a ceramist! Now, I have two tea kettles to torture my ear drums or to put humidity in the air since I live in a very dry climate.

I know, lucky me.

Your turn, what have you lost?

 

Almost wordless

My friend Jody Collins gave this gift to me. She used the first line from my blog and encouraged me with the second line! Love it! Thank you Jody!
What a wonderful symbol of God carrying me through my weaknesses with his strength.

Gratefulness, sickness and Free Will isn't an obstacle...

I'm gonna praise God first and then below you will see my Hannah (Biblical Sarah's nemesis) sized temper tantrum after that...

-God healed my friend's Placenta Abruption, but baby will probably be born early because my dear friend is already 3 cm and 90% effaced. Yet, baby is already 4.4 lbs at 32 weeks and healthy thus far. Praise! The Lord is carrying my friend and his creation.

-The Lord helped me finish my MOPS year strong...he continues to deeply change my perspective and patience on how waiting is good, trust shouldn't be an option and that as God is faithful so my faith deeps. Can I get a Hallelujah, amen?

And of course, my veggies are growing, I have two sweet boys, a hubby who treats me well and loves me, a home, and all my true needs met...shouldn't my praise never cease?

So why do I complain below? I am human and I love and care deeply.

NOW for my brattiness ( I don't care if that isn't a word):
                  -Someone in my family has had trouble getting pregnant and no one understands and well, they've told us that they have seen why God has made them wait, but I admit that I understand their struggle and now none of us get why they are waiting (2 years) and possibly longer. I want to see  them blessed with a child and I find my self begging God and teary-eyed for them.

I AM SO OVER SICKNESS and health issues that as I type this I role my eyes and question if I am a sitting duck since hubby has had the flu (one not covered with the vaccine) since Wed. night and I will get to enjoy this misery in a few days? UGH!!! Hubby had a 24 day headache that he just fixed only to be plagued by the flu, but he is in his second year as a teacher (all teachers are nodding in understanding right now).
   Hubby has seriously been sick, some of which was food-induced headaches and nausea since October. Nope, not kidding. Of course, may I add that I got sick and so did my kids over Christmas and it lasted a month for all of us with two of us on antibiotics?

 ********

Then, I realize how powerful prayer is...how life is just hard and why anyone wouldn't hand over at least some of life's hurdles to a loyal, loving God is beyond me. The fact that my friend and family member can still say (despite scary, hard stuff) God is good, still follow him and trust Him shows me that prayer and true faith is powerful. 

Then, I read about the Lord, and somehow, I come to this understanding that I have at times believed that prayer isn't as powerful as I think it is. What a lie! How can I believe that when I have seen 

it's power?

Oh, my heart and head are traders, thieves...

Then, God speaks to me and I admit that I know why I struggle and I feel his grace once again. My brother and dad...they haven't changed...actually my relationship with them and their choices have actually gotten worse, not better. That's it. I see impossible and I fly a kite called, doubt. 

Another whisper:

Free Will is not an obstacle for Me.

Somehow, I forget that although we always have a choice, that doesn't stop God from intervening or pursuing us. Think of Paul, God struck him with blindness (no choice there), but of course Paul had a choice to respond to God (free will). He could have ignored the flash of light on the road to  Damascus. Who says that God won't flash a light or "blind" my brother or father? Why do I limit God as if free will is some wall in God's way? Really, where do I get this false stuff ?

Mark 10:27 says, "With man this is impossible, but not with God, because nothing is impossible for God."

No. Thing. Is. Impossible. For.God!

I feel faith and hope increasing in my head and heart.

  


Linking up with Soli De Gloria. Go to findingheaventoday.com 
and join the party.