Confessional Sunday: Not Much To Confess Edition

a little joy: home canned food cooling on the counter, listening to the 'tinks' they make as they seal.

a little joy, knowing the food I make for us is local, healthy, and homemade.

a little joy, to watch the cat lay claim to the merino wool sweater I just bought (with plans to unravel it for the yarn). She thinks it makes the Best Bed.....

Hugs to you, and glad the sun is shining again for you.

Ivy - it's nice that you share your ups and downs as they pertain to household life! It is refreshing to read - because it is so relatable. Thanks.

Ivy, we're so glad for you that you are out of the darkness and into the light. Blessings!
I've been there, too, but know the power of joy ......... joy in a husband who loves unloveable me, for married daughters who are loved and full of laughter, for a new grandson, for sons who are becoming good men, for a Lord who loves and forgives me. Life is good ....... not in spite of the problems but even in the midst of them
Be well. Enjoy life

I had a horrendous day on Thursday. It was one of those where nothing truly catastrophic happened, but enough minor calamities piled on top of each other to be quite discouraging.
4:45am dog that isn't ours has to go out.
8am power goes out (for several hours)
10:15 dead battery in the car (I discover this as I'm trying to take the kids to the library for story time)
1pm something stinks in the kitchen, I realize it's the trash compactor. I pull the heavy bag out, take two steps and the bottom disintegrated. Of course I hadn't been composting that week. Ugh.
This is when I notice we are completely out of trash bags. Thankfully I have a nice neighbors.
Naturally none of the children napped.
Like I said, it was nothing serious, just a pile up of inconveniences.

Great story...My joy comes from my family and success in my business. I know what its like to be in a rut, but good for you for pulling out and taking the bull by the horns. Keep it going!

Well, we're in the middle of a big house project--finishing the hardwood floors that cover most of the downstairs and the hallway upstairs. They were installed three years ago and we've been living with them unfinished all this time. The upside, we're finally finally finally going to have finished floors AND we're halfway through. The downside, we're only halfway through! The sanding has taken a week, and the rest will take about another week. When we started out I just told myself to hold on because in two weeks it would all be done. Since I'm feeling pregnant and barfy, I needed to give myself that peptalk.

In the big picture, I am grateful for my son, Gabriel and how much he's growing up. He's almost two, and is changing so much these days. In just the past week or two he has added about five new words, including his most recent, "vacuum," which he says something like "AK-um." Okay, so maybe I'm biased, but I think he's the cutest boy in the world. He also has a very close relationship with his Daddy, which means a lot to me since I didn't grow up with a dad who was there for me.

Ivy, I'm happy for you! :o)

This weekend was spent moving my office out of my living room now that I can reclaim the half of the house a friend had been living in for the past few years after he finally got his bills caught up and got a place of his own. He left a mess (wishing I hadn't been such a good friend and had charged him a cleaning deposit!), so Saturday was spent cleaning and moving one desk, which required disassembling it because it wouldn't fit through the door otherwise...but hey, it's vintage Danish Modern teak, and is made to disassemble! Saturday evening, I resurrected a laptop that's been dead for months due to a bad Windows patch.

Today I moved the identical twin desk the same way and set up a corner shelf between them to make them into an L In setting up the electricals, I found yet another of the former owners' bizarre and dangerous wiring jobs - an entire wall, light switches and outlets connected to a single outlet via a cheap extension cord wired to the back of an outlet on another wall and hidden in the insulation! It took me about an hour to rip that out and rewire it a little more safely with some spare flexible conduit. I'm going to tear out that wall anyway, so a substantial patch is good enough until all new wiring can be run. At least it's now grounded!

Then I started to reclaim my living room as a living room, which involved moving the couch and a large sisal rug. For those of you who have never had a sisal rug, it doesn't matter how often you vacuum the things, they always trap a ton of dirt under them, leaving a real mess underneath when you move them. I put a new bag in the vacuum and started cleaning up the mess, and BAM! the new bag blew out catastrophically (one side wasn't glued properly). The vacuum is now down until I take it apart, take it outside, blow out the cup or so of fine dust in there with compressed air, and reassemble it. It was after dinner when this happened, so that's not happening today. I swept up as much as I could with a broom, but it still need vacuuming. Then I moved the couch and smashed my left index finger, and my husband yelled at me (?!). I called it a day at that point. Yelling doesn't do.

Bad day? Not really. I am now sitting in my new office space, which is mostly set up, typing on the laptop I fixed, drinking a glass of port, and not really noticing my smashed finger any more (although the bruise is pretty interesting to look at). I got a lot done, and that will do.

My joy is that my husband and I were finally able to close on our first house! Our new carpet will be installed tomorrow, painting after that. We have wonderful neighbors who were extremely excited for our family to move in and are willing to help us out wherever possible.

My happy thing? I just moved from LA to Knoxville. The storm just rolled in. I've never lived in a place with thunderstorms before. The lightning was a bit scary, but I survived and now it is pouring rain and oh so cool. Back home, we rarely got rain, and NEVER in the summer.

My joy is in my baby's fat little thighs. My joy is in my 9yo's chiklet tooth grin. My joy is in my toddler's refusal to wear her shoes on the right feet. My joy is in my 7yo's finally being able to succeed because we have him on the medication that he needs. My joy is in being a wife to a man who loves me no matter what. My joy is being a beloved daughter of the King Most High. Thank you for allowing me to share my joy with you.