Glass half full...

I feel like many times I tend to focus on the negatives.  I get so caught up in what's not going well, that I miss the blessings that are present in each day.

Going in to this week, I knew I wanted to embrace it fully!  Andy only had 1 day of travel scheduled and compared to his recent schedule, that was something to celebrate!  Monday night when he got home he shared that his Tuesday travel had just been cancelled.  It wasn't good on his work end since he had things to accomplish, so I tried not to jump up and down and shout hooray! (too loudly) :)

Since he was home, and we heard a bad sound from our car on the way home from Disney, we figured we should go ahead and take it in Tuesday morning and get it taken care of.  We never thought it would take most of the week and that Andy wouldn't be picking it up until late Thursday night.  Just an FYI...it was ready by closing, but Andy had a work event to attend first.  :) 

Soooo.....when they called Tuesday to let us know what the issues were and how much it would probably cost, I didn't even care!  That has hardly EVER been the case.  In fact, there have been times when I have asked Andy not to tell me what things cost because I can get stressed out!  But, this time when he told me, my immediate thought and response was, "thank goodness this happened on a week you are in town."  And the only week he is in town for several weeks to come.  Just look at our calendar...

 

All of those arrows represent Andy's travel, and you can barely see where this first week of October his travel was scratched through as it changed from 3 days of travel to 1 to none.  :)

 

The story doesn't end there.  On Wednesday, Andy called to let me know that the auto shop said one of our parts didn't come on the truck, so it would be a whole nother day.  Again, "Praise God, that it was a week Andy was in town."

 

Then when the auto place called at the end of the day yesterday and I realized I had to answer because Andy was at his event, I didn't stress out.  I just have to add here, that the person calling is the wife of our mechanic who we go to church with, and she sent me a text telling me that "my man was ready".  Within a few seconds I got another text saying "van".  By the time I talked with her she answered the phone laughing that she had "my man" ready.  :)  Anyway, she gave me the amount and it was even more than we thought because of some other issues.  I am telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth that I did not blink and eye and just gave my credit card and told her what a praise it was that Andy was in town this week so that our van could be fixed.

 

Once I started praising Him for this, my thoughts kept going.  "Thank you Lord that you kept us safe traveling this weekend with these car issues.  Thank you Lord that even in the midst of things on our calendar this week, we were able to work out rides to and from important events.  Thank you Lord that we could afford to fix our car.  Thank you Lord for giving me this perspective of thankfulness and not getting caught up in the negatives."

 

I found that it's so easy to start thanking Him when you start.  I hope to remember to live each day like this.  I know there will be days that bring me down, and circumstances that are difficult, but I find when I focus on the blessings my spirit is light and my joy is real.

 

I know I am always sharing songs, and I don't know if any of you listen to them, but I just connect so much through music.  Some people like styles of music, but I LOVE lyrics.  If I don't connect with the words I have a hard time connecting with a song.  This is a song I used to listen to in college called Praise the King.  When I found it last night and listened to it, it was like going back in time.  For those of you who listen, I hope you enjoy.  :)

 

 
Also, in our house this week, we praised God that this boy lost his first tooth.  He can finally eat again.  :)  He was very worried that food was going to make his loose tooth fall out, so he was being very cautious with what he ate.  I still don't quite understand all of the details, but apparently it fell out in the middle of the night, he found it, and put it in a container to show us in the morning.  What a boy.  :)

 

While I'm at it, another praise has been the house.  It's definitely been overwhelming with the many decisions and necessary communication with so many people, but lately we have had some wonderful meetings with our builder and supervisor and are thrilled with the progress made thus far.  Yesterday, we even got to sign our house!  We were signing off paint colors, but still, it made it feel even more like our future home with our names on it.  :)

 

 

I need to do an update on the house soon, but here's a picture of us driving up to it yesterday.  This is from the main entrance of our neighborhood.

 

 

One more praise.  See, I'm telling you, once you start, it's hard to stop!

We had one sick little girl yesterday.

She hadn't eaten barely anything, threw up, had a fever, and laid around.

 

When she woke up today she seemed completely fine!  We prayed for her yesterday, and when I was changing her diaper, I told her how happy I was that Jesus healed her.  I turned around and saw Davis standing there and he told me how happy he was that Jesus healed Ellie.  What a good reminder to me that little ears are always listening.  It not only helps me want to guard my mouth more, but to speak His praises OUT LOUD!

 

May you find many things to praise the Lord for today!