Hot September Air is nothing really all that new...

It is the day after my 16th Wedding Anniversary. Sixteen years ago...it was a day like any ordinary day. I mean, don't get me wrong. I was a "newly wed". And I had that newly wed glow. Inside and out. However, truth be known...which it WAS, and is, ...we all know I was about to give BIRTH at any moment. HUGE I was.

Off to the weekly doctor appointment Brian and I went. Fresh rings on, Brian and I...haha!!

NOT!

OH, Brian had his golden band wrapped around his finger. Me..not so much. My fingers weren't AS fat as my ankles, but water was cursing me. The lovely band that was to be on left hand, ...didn't even cross over the first knuckle. It was okay. I didn't need the band...I had my man on my left side walking me down the hall to see the doc.

Baby Boy Brody, I was so ready for you. Baby Boy Brody was ready as well. It was just time now...it could be an hour, it could be a week. "Just do what you always do" so said the doc.

OKAY then...so off I waddled with Brian through downtown Charleston to get our weekly fill of chicken wings or mexican food. The NORM after the appt. Soon after, just as the day before when I was just a "Miss", off to the beach for yet another hot September day doing nothing but enjoying the sand, the roar of the ocean, and the rolls and pushes of Baby Boy Brody. This time I was "Mrs. Brian Harper". ...that huge tummy of mine even FELT more "real" being a "Mrs." I felt right. I felt secure. I felt like I "had arrived".

I can close my eyes today. Sixteen years later and remember that season of my life. There was stress, but never in my life was I more happy. More at peace. I didn't know I had peace, love and joy all at once...I was not experienced enough in my life to fully comprehend that those were some of the best days of my life.

I am so glad I remember them. I am SO glad I can feel the hot air, the hot sand. I am so glad I can hear the roar of the water and the whip of the winds that descend on the inlet of the Isle of Palms. I am so glad I can still remember what it felt like to feel Brody stretch and bend...he was so ready to experience the new life that was waiting...I just would hold onto him, rub his back through my belly and talk and sing to him.

For THAT season was meant for ME. God gave me that time to soak up and enjoy just for ME. I was so grateful. I wanted each day to last forever.

1 Chronicles 4:10. This part of the bible tells us of Jabez’s plea for God to bless him with abundance and how God granted his request.

• Matthew 7:7-8. This scripture encourages us to knock on heaven’s door and ask for God’s blessing because God gives to those who ask.

• 3 John 1:2. In the New Testament, John tells us of how the Father wishes, above all, for man to prosper and to be in health so that his soul may also prosper.

Daily word...to yourself.

Read this on another blog (45+ and aspiring).

I find it really inspiring, and encouraging to know I am not alone getting "older", ...and not alone in feeling like there are new, different and better things to be aspiring for. Ten years ago, I didn't really think I would be aspiring for the more simple things in life at the age of forty. Funny...I want life to be far more simple than what it is now...had I had the wisdom 10 years ago, I would have NOT been aspiring for the things I aspired for then...but started THEN for the things I am aspiring for NOW!

;-)

Each day is a new opportunity to respond calmly, seek beauty, and appreciate the warmth in yourself and others.

Embrace your dreams.

You have accomplished so much and have the potential to do all you desire.

Have courage to step forward.

Each breath is a new beginning.

You deserve to have a great day.

Every Season - Nichole Nordeman

Cabin FEVER and the Great Physician...

Summer. Sweet Summer....why do you FORSAKE US SO??? TOO HOT at noon to even GO to the pool. And, thunder keeps us out at night. The end of July in South Carolina is as predictable as the geysers in Yellowstone. Temperature over a hundred without the humidity...and smokin' HOT on your skin due to the humidity. Kids getting the cabin fever I remember desperately suffering in the month of February living in Iowa. OH! You can see daylight through the window pane...yet LONG to enjoy it. The window gives you one impression...but the reality of heat or cold KEEP you from being a part of what you see. One of those odd situations of being surrounded by what you love, crave and enjoy and...but you simply can not take part in it. Weather...predictable, but totally OUT of your control. God designed it that way...

But what about our lives? You know in your head how things are supposed to be. Time spent with family, spiritual life, efforts put toward school, time with friends...but for one reason or another, you are separated from it. We find ourselves looking out "the window" . Are you suffering from CABIN FEVER with the things that make your life WORTH LIVING???? Are you surrounded by all the things you KNOW you LOVE, need, care for...but the window pane is playing a dirty trick on you?

God designed for us to be IN life, enjoying it, taking part in it, spending time with people we love, enjoying places we love, doing activities we love...God designed us to be arm and arm with Christ enjoying all of these things...when we take life on our own,....life becomes like the weather! UNCONTROLLABLE! We become SLAVES to the window panes LONGING for the things we can't have. But with the most awesome physician of Christ...that ol' cabin fever is healed.

...just writing on the fly today. Little RANDOM. It is hot outside...hot hot hot hot hot. FLAMING hot.

been gone...

Been gone? nope. Just not here...This summer is going so fast, I am in total shock. With my parents here, VBS, family vacation, and just plain stuff, I have ignored allowing the inspirations to come. Had all the chances, just didn't take the time. Going to change that!

Seasons come and seasons go. I was not looking forward to summer coming, but as I look forward and I am staring school down I think, wow. Time is flying by. Our family vacation to TN was peppered with all the UNtourist memories. I am blessed beyond reproach. I wanna see double rainbows from a mountain side every day. My boys will remember this the rest of their lives

Drama and the Pack...

Sure, ...boys in the world that we see in our faces every day are able to move and groove on like dogs in a pack. It is my faith filled belief that God did this on purpose. One gets out of line...another bites the neck of the one who is misbehaving. OH...there might be a scuffle, some growls, a short split. But soon enough, they all get to barking and loving life, running along and grudges are not really held.

But, they are still human.

Teen age boys have drama.

They aren't dogs with instincts.

My teenager bit one who was misbehaving. His MORAL compass was DEAD ON right. However, ...my teen has yet to realize he isn't the leader of the pack yet. He is having to take a little chastising from the rest of the pack for doing so...he is being taught that he may have stepped a few rungs higher on the ladder than he should have at this time...

.

Ahh....drama and the pack life. Girls don't have this "pack life". Another God given thing...and it is good.

Wow...this one is hard for me to watch. But I know that I have to let it happen. I have to watch him fall to the wayside, lick his wounds...and figure it out how to pull himself back into the pack.

God made them this way, but it doesn't stop the tears. He looks for help, but just like any good "momma dog", ...I am out. I let him know I love him, but I have to turn away...I can't step in on this one. I can't save him from anything...the best I can do is behind the scene...nudge him back and walk away.

Proverbs 22:6

Train a child in the way he should go,and when he is old he will not turn from it.

OH Brother! ...and the beloved "front seat".

...who are these people? And what is it about the front seat of a car? This story is short...and it is something I am learning about 'brotherly love'. And I truly mean the love of sibling brothers.

Coming home from the ball field the other night...my youngest two were laughing, tossing the ball around. Walking to the car, telling tales of how the games went down. Then as I sat behind the wheel I looked to my right and I heard 'its my turn'.

Within seconds, I was out the door and running twenty feet into the parking lot to break up what appeared to be an episode of "Tap Out". Arms punching, feet squashing, and eyes on FIRE!

The whole thing was started, played out and over within 20 seconds...jokes about underwear continued in the back seat on the way home.

Yea...did you catch that. From the BACK SEAT!

Brothers...baseball, punches and underwear.

11:02 PM.

It's 11:02 PM. All I really wanted after a week of driving everywhere was to hang out and watch TV. ....wait, ...NO! I didn't drive everywhere...not at all. I drove from work, to Aiken El, to Aiken High to the Ball field.

Every day.

A couple of times a day.

...By Wednesday, I was laughing. Thursday I was crying. Tonight...I am numb. Forward Motion. Forward Motion is a mantra. It is a VIRTUE. It is a quest. When even the slightest movement in a relatively FORWARD Motion is enough to keep motivated! Am I speakin' to somebody?? :-)

...Now, now I am laying me down to sleep. I am praying the souls of my KIDS the Lord is to keep. And if I die before I should wake...Lord bless my kids dearly for GOODNESS sakes!

Its Friday, at 11:20. I am staring at the ceiling hearing the bumps and footsteps of kids who know that there are no alarms tomorrow. No hurry ups. No where are my shoes. No book bags, badges, lunch monies...They will be up at the crack of dawn though. God love 'em. It will be Saturday and they might just MISS something if they don't get up early on a Saturday morning...

I was the very same way at their age. Couldn't help it. Wouldn't have traded early Saturday mornings in front of the tv for anything. I still wouldn't trade the early Saturday mornings in this season of my life either...I can't see as well. Watching different cartoons. Wearing bigger clothes...but just "not missing" Saturday morning what it is all about!

SPOILED I say..spoiled.

....AND, that would be me. Spoiled rotten by the lot I have been given. Sure, I am not always Susie Sunshine and I sure as HECK am not always smelling LIKE a rose, nor am I always smelling the roses. But yesterday, I worked...

TIL FIVE o'CLOCK PM!!

No, I did not like that one tiny little BIT!

Fourteen YEARS of being an ""at home"" mom really shaped me. God really has designed a Mom's heart to desire to be "at home" with her kids or husbands or moms and siblings... where ever that may be.

I have joked in the past that my real day begins at two-thirty after I leave the "job". And I will STRIVE to keep it that way. As wacky, crazy, homework filled, sports crazed, percussion minded my household is...it is better and more fulfilling than any "day at the office".

Bravo for those who put in all day...I pray you truly appreciate how much that belongs to the birds. Keep ON STRIVING to keep your Real life starting at five, or two-thirty (like me) or seven PM like my grand hubby...OR whenEVER you are driving home to your family and friends when your "job" ends!

Less than THIRTY hours...

"What are we going to do while you are gone?" "What are we going to eat?" These are the questions coming out of my nine year old Wesley's mouth.

Why? Because I am up and leaving town. I am going to be GONE. Gone I say...and my youngest was feeling the burn knowing I am going to be gone. They know Gramma is coming and will be here, but...MOM,( yea me )...I will be gone.

*gasp*. Wide eyes staring at me.

For how long you ask? To be worried about "what to do", or "what will I eat"...you would think I am leaving for a week? Nope.

A weekend? Nope.

I am leaving for LESS than thirty hours. From Five PM on Friday evening to 9 PM on Saturday night.

I will have dinner laid out on Friday before I go. But the thought of breakfast, lunch and DINNER without MOM here to make it? I don't think at this time Wes is really caring for it. As much as he loves his gramma, and knows Dad will be home in a matter of hours after he wakes up on Saturday morning...it just isn't right that MOM is going to be (**gulp**) GONE for an entire day!

I want to soak up this season, for it will be my last. He is my youngest, but he won't be "young" for long. He won't worry about what to eat, or what to wear or what to do when Mom is gone for much longer. It makes my heart sick a bit...but I know it is a right of passage for us all...

Listen to clh1217s Playlist

Another fresh start, because in life, all comes back around in every season.

Sitting here, looking at something I have no clue.

NO clue at all how to do. But I have friends that are blogging, I read their blog, ...and I laugh my tail off. Do I sit here and think "I can do that." Uh, no. But I love paralleling things that have happened to me, with what I am doing, with what is to come. Hence the title of my blog..."For Every Season". The "WAS", the "IS", and "IS TO COME" in my life, anyones life. We are always IN a season. A place. A time. A position.

I am not, and have never truly been inspired by a lot of simple things. Music makes me think. Books help me escape. And knowing I am saved by Jesus Christ puts me at rest for anything that is beyond death...I don't even think about that though. I am not worried about it. I just want others to know that their "WAS", their "IS", and their "IS TO COME" is worth every breath that has been taken, that is being breathed, and will be taken in the future.

Making it worthy of being laughed about, cried over and shaped...is up to all of us. For Every Season of our life....God has, IS, and will make it worthy.