no heart attacks or codes tomorrow, ok?

tomorrow is dr honey bunny's first day in the hospital (he has been in orientation for the last week and a half). he starts out in the cardiac care unit, which happens to be the busiest unit in the hospital. AND his first shift as a physician will be a 30 hour one. that's right, he has overnight call in the unit on day one. and guess what else? as of today, the hospital has just switched to computerized order entry (instead of paper charts...welcome to the 21st century), so chaos reigns at the moment. if you can help it, i would stay out of the hospital for a bit. and also, adam appreciates your prayers. in his words: "it is going to be so stinking CRAZY!!"

ps:
i'll make sure he wears shoes and rolls his pants down.

What a gift

our yard has been sodded...a very generous gift from adam's grandparents. what a blessing to have a space for our little ones to run and play. we are thrilled with the transformation. shrubs and bulbs go in in the fall, other flowers and maybe veggies and herbs in the spring!

before the kudzu was subdued


after the kudzu was subdued and replaced

sense of entitlement?

since we moved into our new house and have begun the process of landscaping our jungle of a yard, we have produced much yard trash. in our neighborhood trash is sometimes picked up once a week by the city. after our bags of vines and branches cluttered the front of our yard for a week, we were so thankful to the hardworking men who picked it up. also, it is soooooooooo hot and i told adam that we should give them something cold to drink...a friendly gesture of thankfulness. all we had was precious diet dr pepper, but they took it and went on their way. the next week, we had more bags to pick up and the doorbell rang during naptime (which always irritates me as i fear my children are much lighter sleepers than they really are). the trash man at the door had no greeting or anything, but simply said "got anything to drink in there?" i offered some bottled water and he said with a scowl "got any soda or anything? there are three of us now!" he hollered as i went to get ddp for them. he took them and muttered some half-hearted thank you and left. i was REALLY annoyed. i mean kindness really means little when it is demanded. though i was probably justly irritated, it got me thinking about my own sinful heart that demands grace and blessings from God. i act like i am entitled to something good in the first place when really i deserve death and hell. instead God has blessed me with sweet communion with Him, righteousness through Jesus, promise of eternal life, and even some pretty amazing earthly joys like precious children and husband. truly all good gifts are God's grace to us and i need to be reminded of this pretty much every hour of every day as i get frustrated with small things like fussiness or mess or dr honey bunny's busy schedule or whatever (pretty much all my "problems" are pretty small) and throw myself a pity party and allow my heart to be hard a ungrateful. oh that i would look with wonder and awe upon God's abundant goodness and grace to me every moment of every day!

this is a lovely poem

Music

by Anne Porter

When I was a child
I once sat sobbing on the floor
Beside my mother's piano
As she played and sang
For there was in her singing
A shy yet solemn glory
My smallness could not hold

And when I was asked
Why I was crying
I had no words for it
I only shook my head
And went on crying

Why is it that music
At its most beautiful
Opens a wound in us
An ache a desolation
Deep as a homesickness
For some far-off
And half-forgotten country

I've never understood
Why this is so

Bur there's an ancient legend
From the other side of the world
That gives away the secret
Of this mysterious sorrow

For centuries on centuries
We have been wandering
But we were made for Paradise
As deer for the forest

And when music comes to us
With its heavenly beauty
It brings us desolation
For when we hear it
We half remember
That lost native country

We dimly remember the fields
Their fragrant windswept clover
The birdsongs in the orchards
The wild white violets in the moss
By the transparent streams

And shining at the heart of it
Is the longed-for beauty
Of the One who waits for us
Who will always wait for us
In those radiant meadows

Yet also came to live with us
And wanders where we wander.

"Music" by Anne Porter from Living Things: Collected Poems. © Steerforth Press, 2006. Reprinted with permission.
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the unimportant

sweetie pie lauren tagged me for this little post about six unimportant things that make me happy...so here we go!

1. maryjane shoes. they get bonus points if they are either green or red and if they are comfortable. i must note that marit likes maryjanes too!

2. diet dr pepper. this caffeinated beverage is not quite so necessary now that adam taught me to enjoy a good cup of coffee, but i do so enjoy a cold ddp on a hot day...other "gateway" diet drinks include diet sunkist and coke zero

3. the colors red and grass green...not necessarily together, but i usually end up decorating or dressing with one or both of these colors

4. the original cowtail candy. i started eating these when i was 12 and road the bike ride across georgia with some friends. only old fashioned gas stations carry them and they are delish...

5. lamp lighting...so much more ambiance than overhead (esp if the overhead is fluorescent). and on the decor subject, i love throw pillows of any color shape or size...instant cozy!

6. old houses with tall ceilings and wood floors...certainly not a necessity by any means, but i am drawn to them...we are "old house people."

ok, i tag nicole, tara, and kelly to blog 6 of their own unimportant pleasures. no pressure, but it would be fun to read. it is good for us to enjoy even the mundane.

this guy has such a nice sound

recently introduced to me by sweet char bar...she has good taste

settling in

sorry bloggity blog for my long absence. we have moved to our new-to-us house and have been slowly but surely unpacking and settling into this 108 year old beauty. although we have been making many repairs and changes to it (including a toilet-replacing kerfuffle that required not one, but TWO plumbers) already, i cannot express our overwhelming joy and gratefulness to be living where we are...crack house across the street included... and to be able to spend some money and time on our home in faith that this is the place God has for our little family.



adam has been slaving away in the back yard against the stubborn kudzu to prepare for sod (a generous gift from his grandmother) and we found a source of old brick we are using to line the beds where we will plant shrubs and bulbs this fall. we also have been admiring this beautiful 150yr old pecan tree that pretty much shades the whole yard.



adam starts residency orientation next week and we are already mourning the end of the breather we have so enjoyed between school and work. however, we are so thankful that he does have a job to work...and one that he enjoys at that.

our house has 3 bedrooms with potential for 4 in time with a little remodeling. only 2 are upstairs and they are huge, so we have been using this as an opportunity to put the munchkins in the same room! graham still wakes up at times to eat (his appetite rages i tell you!) so they do not always stay in the same room the whole night. marit really enjoys the company when it works out and greets her little brother with a cheerful "hey gam!" in the morning. they are slowly falling into the same schedule.


i would be remiss if i did not mention that the actual moving part was such a blessing. so many of our friends and some family came to help load the truck and then we discovered that the previous owners were not out of the house yet...took longer than they expected to move...so we sent all our helpers home and to evening church hoping we would be able to gather a crowd to unload after church. after church, a few folks came back and about 10 college students who live down the street for the summer volunteered their time as well. these selfless students had not even met us yet, but they are here to love on the neighborhood kids this summer and are just super kind and considerate as they have allowed Christ to work in their hearts and lives. the truck was completely unloaded (pretty much all of our stuff) in less than an hour. so last night we had them all over for dinner to thank them...14 extra people in our house and it was such fun. i love a house full of people! thank you dear friends and family for your steadfast help and encouragement in all seasons of life, but particularly lately. we love you!!