Over the hill? Nah.

Well, I’m officially 30.  No more “2″ in front of my age.  I guess this is a big deal.  I’m not really feeling that it’s a big deal.  Being 30 doesn’t really make me feel old.  Having a child that’s already 6 and closing in on 7 is what makes me feel old.  It doesn’t seem right that I should be 30, though.  I still feel like a kid playing house.  Is it really possible that I’m a grown-up, living with my husband in our own house and have four children?  No way.  One morning I’ll wake up and still be a teenager and it will all have been a dream, right?  Well, if it is a dream, I hope I don’t wake up any time soon because I’m loving it.

I can’t say that I’m exactly where I dreamed of being, at this point in my life, because I never would have pictured the path my life has taken.  When I remember the ideas and plans we had as we looked into the future, it just makes me laugh now.  We were so clueless, as is everyone when they’re dreaming out their lives.  You get out on your own, and life smacks you around a little, and then you grow up.  Sometimes the path God lays out for you seems better than the one you imagined, and sometimes it seems worse.  But it’s always best, and I am so glad He vetoed many of our grandiose schemes.  I love where 30 finds me.  The blessings and mercies in my life far outweigh the trials, and always have–even when the trials were all I could see at the moment.

“The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.  The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance….Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure…You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  Psalm 16:5-6,9,11.

Over the hill?  No way.  I scoff at the hill.  Life is good, and since the Lord is my chosen portion and it is He who pours my cup, it can only remain good.  Bring on the 30’s.  I can’t wait to see what He has in store along this new path in my life.  After all, the best is yet to come, right?

Proper use of a Facebook status, at least in my opinion

Since I am fortunate to have Facebook on my iPod touch, and since I am fortunate to be able, on that application, to still have a page for nothing but status updates, I get to read lots and lots of status updates with just the touch of a finger.  Since I have committed to refrain from using this blog as a venue to vent frustrations, I am going to try to phrase the following “etiquette guideline” as straightforward, unsolicited advice, not just venting and whining.

1.  Do not cuss in your Facebook status.  I mean, really.  I’m scrolling down, browsing through people’s lives, and then your profanity smacks me in the face.  Just don’t do that.  It lacks class, and most people don’t want to see it.

2.  Do not use your Facebook status to complain about how bored you are.  You sound whiny and spoiled.  There is plenty for you to do, get up and go do something.  Or at least think of something a little more substantial to say on your status.

3.  It’s kind of rude to post cryptic statuses that only one or two people are going to understand.  I get it that inside jokes are fun and giggly, but most of us are on the outside.  Just saying.

4.  I don’t really need to know that you’re sitting in the living room, or watching your favorite tv show, or eating a Reese’s cup, or going to bed, or about to leave.  Tell me how you are, what you’re thinking, something funny that happened.

5.  Just a note:  when you say that you are writing a paper, doing homework, cleaning your house, doing laundry, or anything else other than typing a Facebook status, your status really isn’t true, you know.

6.    When you have a song stuck in your head, don’t do what I did the other day and post the lyrics.  I apologize from the bottom of my heart, although I’m thinking that none of you knew that song anyway.  But that same day, about five other people did that, and all they accomplished was getting their song stuck in my head, too.  Until I did that, I never noticed the effect it would have.  I’ll never do it again.  Just because one person is being tortured by some never ending song, doesn’t mean everyone else has to be.  (Posting lyrics in order to convey the message within is a different case entirely, by the way.)

7.  Maybe I’m just not in on the new cool trends, but I don’t get the new thing of repeating letterssss within or at the end of wordssss.  If there is a point to this, please enlighten me.  Otherwise, it just seems ssssilllllyyyy.

8.  Please keep in mind:  your Twitter update looks really strange and is hard to read when you import it in as your Facebook status.  Similarly, even if you’re updating your status from your phone, go on and actually spell the words out.  Don’t use text language.  We don’t all Tweet, and we don’t all speak text.

Okay, those are the main “misuses” of a Facebook status, in my maybe-not-so-humble opinion.  When you post your status, tell a story or share a thought or encourage us or give us an opportunity to encourage you.  Share an accomplishment, share a prayer request, share what God’s been doing in your life.  Tell us something funny that happened that day, or something ridiculous that happened.  There are so many possibilities, so many ways you can use your status to make someone smile, or a lot of people smile.  Basically, remember what your mama taught you:  “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

Now, I’ll be quiet, since I didn’t really follow that age old advice in this post.  And I better really think about my statuses from now on.  You guys will catch me if I slip up and break my own etiquette guidelines!!

Prayer update

Just wanted to post a quick update on our current situation.  Our Lafayette house is back on the market, listed $8,000 lower and has already shown twice in the past two days.  We are praying hard for a quick sell.  We will be taking a loss with it at this price, but to sell it we had no other option.  We have a couple different options for how to meet that loss:  lots of people have recommended a short sale, in which the lender eats the loss, we pay taxes on the loss, and it hurts our credit, although not nearly as much as a foreclosure; or if we can go on and get approved for the mortgage on the Salem house, the banker said we can probably lump the loss from the Lafayette house into the new mortgage, having no negative effect on our credit.  This would obviously be our preference.  There are lots of other details that would be very confusing if I tried to type them all out, but that’s the gist of the situation.  Please be in prayer with us.  The most urgent issue is just that our house would sell, like, yesterday.  Our Realtor picked the new listing price, sounding pretty confident that this is a price that will move the house.  We cannot pay the mortgage on it once our renter leaves, and that may be at the end of this month.  So please please please pray with us!!

Yes, we’re still here!

When summer was busy, I did better at posting.  When summer slowed down, I guess my brain did too!  But we’re all still here, all still well.  We had an extremely busy June that flew by, and a very not-busy July that dragged on and on.  I am so excited that it’s August and we can start getting back into the daily routines that help me keep my sanity.  Lazy days of summer are nice for a little while, but my whole family does better with the structure of the school year.

Abigail and Catherine are both really excited about starting homeschool in a few weeks.  We’re not starting until the 24th because we’re going on vacation next week!!!  Not a real, hotel, beach, or other exotic vacation, but it works for us.  Heading to Somerset for a few days, spending time with family, celebrating Samuel’s birthday early, going to Cumberland Falls.  Then we’ll head to Louisville via Lexington where we’ll hit the Children’s Museum.  In Louisville we’ll enjoy a free day at the zoo, and a day at Six Flags, while staying with a friend from our Beechmont days.  Nothing fancy, but we’re good at making simple turn out fun.

We’ve enjoyed some visits from family and friends.  We’ve enjoyed meeting up with family and friends for fun days elsewhere.  We even managed to squeeze in a couple of dates, albeit with baby in tow.  Spent some time in the sand box, sliding on the slip’n’slide, and just eating popsicles outside under the shade tree.  Visited a few playgrounds.  Discovered the joy of chapter books at the library, especially American Girls and Betsy books.  Hit the zoo a few times, loving our family passes that get us into Evansville, Nashville, and Louisville.  Enjoyed ice cream way too many evenings!  Just milked every drop out of summer as we could.

Now we’re looking to fall, getting into school mode and a more structured mindset.  We’ve got all our homeschool curriculum, and I spent a few hours sorting and organizing and roughly scheduling out the year.  We hit Target in Nashville, where the girls had a great time picking out folders and pencils and notebooks and such.  Catherine is super excited to start preschool and learn to read.  Abigail is excited, and a little nervous, about first grade.  Mommy is nervous about the fact that school no longer fits neatly into naptime, and we have to figure out how to do school while Elisabeth is awake!  I’m extremely excited about this homeschool year, both because I’m moving on and starting with my second child, and because Abigail is moving up into more subjects, including spelling, geography, and grammar.

We’ve also enjoyed the summer with our new church family, all with an eye toward fall.  Summer activities have been great, but Clay and I are both ready to jump into the new fall happenings at Salem Baptist Church.  We’re beginning this coming weekend with the fall purity retreat for the youth and their parents.  Clay is really encouraged by all the parents that are taking the weekend to go with us and spend time with their students, urging them to live pure lives.  It’s truly a big step in the direction of the family focus he desires for his ministry.  He and I will both be teaching, and we’re looking forward to Eric and Kelly joining us to lead worship.   Another exciting new development this fall is the Discipleship Training semester starting in September, which will find both Clay and myself teaching classes.  Clay’s teaching a class on parenting teenagers and I’m going to lead the women through Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ Lies Women Believe.  It’s my first opportunity to teach “grown-ups” on my own, so I’m slightly nervous, but there is a passion in my heart to share with other women the resources that God has graciously placed in my path to spur me onto Godliness, so I am eagerly anticipating this ten week course.

So there’s a little bit of our lives over the past little bit.  We’re looking forward to seeing what God has in store for fall!

Meet Lucy

We have a new family member:  Lucy the kitten.  We got her from friends at church, and she is absolutely adorable.  It’s been a long time since we had a kitten in our family, too long if you ask me.  Lucy is only about 2 1/2 months old so she is still tiny, still frisky, still funny.  She can jump a mile in the air at the slightest movement, and can attack a pair of socks or a ponytail holder with a vengeance found nowhere except in a new kitten.  Our family is now safe from all renegade ponytail holders.  The kids just love her, although I’m not certain the feeling is mutual, since they constantly “love” her.  Elliot tolerates her as long as she doesn’t jump up into his personal space.

We’re looking forward to watching Lucy the kitten grow into Lucy the cat and being part of our family for a nice long time.