teach.run.pray.

This blog topic is not on my list of ideas to write about. This blog post came to me today after a visit with my sister-in-law, Jenny. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I made a promise to my God to be more present and to listen to His calling, and this blog post is a calling. So, I will start by telling you a few stories I shared with Jenny today. Story One My brother, Miles, has been on my mind an incredible amount of time lately. It started around my birthday, and this year it was really hard to celebrate my birthday without feeling absolutely emotional and quite frankly sad. The yearning to see Miles and talk to him hasn't been this strong in a really long time!  His birthday is May 24th and mine is May 25th, as you all know, if you read the blog post about it. On my birthday, I woke up feeling pretty heartbroken, because the desire to spend it with Miles was so bewitching. It was one of the last few days of school, so I decided I'd take my morning at a little...

Saturday morning my alarm blared at 6:30 a.m. It was a real struggle to get my ass out of bed. All I really wanted to do was sleep! I've been non-stop for over a month now, and my body has been attacking me for over a week. Abdominal and pelvic pain - GI issues - low back pain and swelling - bathroom problems - bloating - fatigue...misery. When I woke up, my stomach was still feeling out of sorts from Friday, and I just really wanted to be a sack of potatoes and forget about being healthy - my mind has a been in a bad place along with my body - so, I'm not sure what motivated me out of my bed Saturday morning, but something did; it had to be God, because it took Divine strength to get me out of that bed. I stumbled around our dark bedroom getting dressed, brushed my teeth, put my hair back, mixed my hydration powder with some water, put on my shoes, grabbed my watch and a towel (because I sweat like the dickens), and out the door I went. As I arrived at the traditional meetin...

Friday evening, we were standing on the walkway outside our front door chatting with our neighbors. Somehow the course of our conversation navigated back to last year when Matt & I got our concealed weapons permit (CWP), which conjured up a memory I'd like to share with you. Until meeting Matt, I had never really shot a gun before and had really never ever planned on shooting one. To be honest, I was a little afraid of them. I knew guns had to be respected and handled carefully. I grew up around other people shooting guns, but I always stood way back and just watched. Then, Matt decided he wanted to buy a gun to keep in our home. As soon as the words plopped out of his mouth, I responded with, "Well, you've got to teach me how to handle it and shoot it. Otherwise, no gun." I felt it would be irresponsible to have a gun in the house and not know anything about it. And, let's face it, our world is depressingly cray-cray, and I'm a lover, but I also want to...