Well isn't that Eerie.

This was my devotional email for today. Brothers and sisters in California and Pennsylvania? A baby named Mary Lou?! It caught my eye, that's for sure. And it's fairly stream of consciousness, which I know everyone loves.


The Way Things Should Be

So Dad comes off the mountain that he was wintering on.  And big sister flies out on spring break from California.  And little sister and her husband fly out from Washington, and I walk over from my apartment four blocks away.

I don’t know when it happened, but sometime ago it became normal for a nuclear family to live in four different states.  Sure, sister’s in Cali, brother is in Pennsylvania.  Sure, we see each other every few years and shake hands like strangers who happen to be in the same compartment of a train.  I don’t know when it became the way things are, but I don’t like it.

Maybe it’s because twenty years ago the anchor of this family was buried in a Grand Rapids cemetery.

This February a little baby girl was born, name of Mary Lou, same as her grandma’s was.  And by March the far-flung clan was all here.  Dad was sleeping in my apartment; the girls were over with the baby.

The time passes fast and then it is the last night and with one sister already gone we go to dinner at a nice Italian place and there are two decent bottles of wine and it’s two weeks to Dad’s birthday so we sing happy birthday in the restaurant, like any family does, except we’ve never done this before.  We didn’t really do birthdays after a while.

Afterwards we go home and there is the lazy debate over what we should do, but we don’t really do anything.  We end up with the two blonde-haired girls and the dark-haired girl playing a banjo and a piano and singing old hymns, and Dad being Grandpa on the couch with Mary Lou on his knee, and the boys sitting around with books.

I’ve got Faulkner in my hand but I’m not really reading it; I’m listening to the beautiful voices and I take a sip of the wine and man, I feel good.  Like this is the way things are supposed to be.  Like this little miracle baby is what the family needs: a new heart, a fresh and pretty thing to gather around and to take that name, Mary Lou, and not make us forget, no never to forget, but change it around somehow so that the sorrow enhances the joy she brings, making it more true, more honest.  Not a joy of ignoring or naiveté or even innocence, but a joy of full-eyed measure.

Sitting there, I knew that things can get better, and I get an idea of what is meant by heaven.

"And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new!'" (Revelation 21:5).

Whatever is Wonderful Wednesday

Ignore the fact that I have probably failed to post this for the last 4 or 5 Wednesdays. I blame the internet. WHICH starts me off on my first most very wonderful thing that has ever happened to me ever:

1. The internet is back on, home skillets!!

This is how I felt yesterday when I finally sat down with the confidence that I could finish a blog post and a conversation with my brother without having to be interrupted by the worst internet ever. I asked the technician fellow what was wrong with it and he said, "What wasn't wrong with it is the better question." Apparently the wire going from our house to the nearby telephone pole was all sorts of beat up and had water in it and shorts in the wire. Well good! I like it when they can actually find a problem, not just keep fixing random things and "hoping it helps." But I am a little worried that someone took off their shorts on our property...;-)

2. It was Matthew's birthday and he is just the wunnerfullest. I sure do like him a lot. I think I may marry that guy. We both consume too much coffee for our young age, love Top Gear, and know all the words to a wide selection of Weird Al Yankovic songs. If that's not the ABC's for a happy marriage, then I don't know what is!

3. Need I say more? Well alrighty, I shall. On Sunday I got to be at church for like...4 hours. Which I kind of missed. When I get home on Sunday afternoon after morning service it's hard for me to not feel obligated to clean up the weekend messes from hanging out with T+L or work on the yard or something. (Or help Matt with the Datsun, since Sunday is normally his big day to do a good chunk of work on it) So it was sort of refreshing to know I could just go back to church at 4:00 PM this last week! I decided to try out choir practice, which is why I went back for an evening service which I do not normally attend. And I'm really glad I did! Between choir practice and evening service, they do Discipleship Training, which really goes back into the morning's sermon and picks it apart in a more scholarly fashion. I felt like I was actually learning the backstory of the sermon, which is pretty interesting to me. So I think I'll go again. Matt came with me and read a book during choir practice, and we stayed for the whole Discipleship Training and evening service. He said he liked it too, but I do feel bad that we would be taking such a huge chunk out of his day of rest/productivity if we made a regular thing out of it. :-) We'll see.

4.  I taught myself how to play Freecell while our internet was down, no big deal. :P

5. My wedding is in 1 month, 1 year, and 1 day. ^_^ Be there or be LAAAAAAAME, BRO.

Well there ya go!
See Y'all!
TFMM

That Reminds Me...

This email I received as part of a devotional reminded me very much of a group of people that thought women were responsible for controlling the weak minds of men by dressing in potato sacks and jean skirts. This post has zero personal updates in it, but I thought some of you that may know a bit about the group to which I'm referring would find it interesting. :-)

The guy is never really blamed. It’s the two women trying to sort out (to put it nicely) which of them were in the wrong. Makes sense. A guy can hardly be held responsible for following his sex drive, right?

The truth is, I fall into that line of thinking pretty easily. If I’m staring at a girl’s legs, then I blame her for buying such short skirts. If I’m staring at a billboard, then I blame the American marketing industry. Pornography, the degradation of family values, etc., etc…  And I, crippled as I am with a hyperactive sex drive, can’t be expected to take responsibility for my thoughts and eyes.

But then, I’m told in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that “the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out, so that you can endure.”

Sure, women need to be aware that their bodies are special and modesty is important. And, of course, the sexualization of the advertising industry is a concern. But I can’t use those as scapegoats for my own flaws either, or I’m saying God hasn’t been faithful. When I own up to my faults, then I’m actually saying, “God, you’re always faithful. The mistakes are mine.  Show me the way out.” And that, I think, is glorifying God in all circumstances.  

See Y'all!
TFMM

PS I have Internet again! It is coming up on the very witching hour when it normally goes out every day, so we'll see what happens in the next 40-60 minutes! Keep a look out for the avalanche of blog posts that will be coming out of my lack of internet for more than a week!

Easter Eggscapades

I promise you I have an excuse! Don't be angry with me! In the last ten days, our internet has been super shoddy - apparently it's supposed to be fixed now! Yay! Also, it was this big important holiday, so we were a little caught up in family visits and festivities. The kids had three or four Easter egg hunts I think! Even right now I'm a bit distracted because it's Spring Break for Thomas and Lara and we're hanging out all day while Daddy's at work. After this episode of Veggietales is over we all have to get dressed and clean and ready for our day!

On Easter Saturday we went over to the church for all kinds of awesome kids' activities. Firstly there was pizza, which had Matthew and me sold automatically of course. After pizza the kids all decorated cookies with icing and sprinkles and M&Ms and jelly beans...all at the same time in Lara's case.

And none of the above in Thomas' case.

Then we got to work hunting some eggs!

Lara after her age group's successful hunt!

Carson with his football basket bursting at the seams!

Thomas checking out his spoils!

Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend Easter Sunday with the chillin's, so we did lowkey Easter baskets on Saturday instead. We skipped dying eggs as well. On Sunday we went to a sunrise service and spent the rest of the day working on the car and spending time with our matchmakers/best friends/cousins at Aunt Regina and Uncle Bubba's house. More on that later. Veggietales is over!!

See Y'all!

TFMM

Think on these things.

Positive thinking - putting things into perspective and realizing which mountains are really molehills - is one of the most important parts of my life. I am not one to dwell or hold grudges for even a second longer than I have to. The title of this blog, not to mention my whole life, blossoms from my very favorite Bible verse that encourages believers to put that into practice, Philippians 4:8.

Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

The next two years are going to be full of adventure for me, so I thought a blog covering the many things I'm  figuring out would be fun documentation as well as an excellent way to keep in touch with all of the many many friends I have all over the world. I can't wait to see where God takes us next.

Until next time,

The future Mrs. McCaslin