Spring Cleaning

I love Spring; the newness, the songbirds that live in our trees (and on the top of my chimney flue), even the mowing and yard work because it smells and looks so good after.  I don't even mind the housework.  There is always a sense of accomplishment to have something really scrubbed to a shine and things in their place.  Even if only for an hour.  Yesterday was that day in the kitchen and my arms and back are protesting that I should do it more often and it would be less work.

I could say the same for diet and exercise - when I do it regularly, I love the way I feel and the results are easier to maintain.  As I get complacent and skip a day (or week), it takes monumental effort to regain what would have been so much easier to maintain.

Bible study is the same way.  When I open The Word every day I feel fulfillment and the desire to learn more - come back again tomorrow.  Then I go out of town, miss a week with my small group, or break the cycle and get out of the habit.  Why is it so hard to keep doing those things that are good for us?

Today we start a new sermon series on the book by David Platt, Radical - Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream.  I was asked to research some study guides for our small group to use and have found a couple that seem to be good.  In reading the first two chapters of this book, it is clear that I will have the opportunity to do some "Spiritual Spring Cleaning" over the next 6 weeks and this is exciting!  I hope to share my observations and changes that I make in the routines and complacency that have settled over me and in doing so, to carry that into all the areas of my life where little dust bunnies linger.

I can smell that spring freshness now!

Little Miss Pouty

If there were an award for pouting, we would have a winner in the following categories:

• getting out of bed
• getting dressed
• brushing hair
• eating breakfast
• clearing dishes
• going to school
• coming home
• doing homework
• doing chores
• running errands
• friends not home to play
• fixing dinner
• clearing dishes
• getting ready for bed
• brushing teeth
• anything in between that I may have forgotten

And that is just on the weekdays.  Weekends are a separate category but closely resemble M-F.

Miss Pouty is also a contender for most likely to argue about nothing, attitude of the week, slower than molasses, and most likely to be grounded until she is 30.

I live for those 1 in 10 days that Miss Pouty is on vacation. 

Winter Texas Photography

January 20, 2012
Sunset near Giddings, Texas
Can you feel the warmth?

Same time of day, different angle.

Beautiful winter weather.

God all around us.