Friday, At Long Last

It's Friday - thank you, dear Lord!

It's been a long week, though a fairly productive one.

I've gotten myself to the gym a couple times (free membership almost over), but truthfully, I've been missing running in a natural setting. That is to say that my "natural" is paved and suburban (stroller friendly, remember) versus the craziness of true trail runners. Would that I could do that, but alas, my running time is limited to those times when I have the littlest one with me and, well, I ain't gonna strap a pappoose on me and give my child shaken baby syndrome via running. (Though in the sake of full disclosure, that probably wouldn't happen anyway as my pace is none so rapid, lol). All of this to say, I miss the cold[ish - as I cannot run well when the temp drops into the teens or below), I miss being able to listen to Slacker radio on my phone (the gym is a giant deadspot and I haven't figured out how to cache my station), I miss being able to go somewhere rather than the ever-moving-but-never-going-anywhere of the treadmill, and most of all I miss the fresh air. So, I will be kind of glad to be done there (I prepaid some childcare visits, hence the continuation!).

I've been trying to figure out just how involved I wish to become re: the turmoil of an organization I used to work with. Some other concerned persons have contacted me and on the one hand, it needs to be addressed since the organization deals extensively with putting people's lives back together; on the other hand, I'm not paid personnel and really have no authority anyway - so would it be a waste of time/energy? This one has me praying for wisdom, discernment, and balance.

We have money coming soon via our tax refund and that will help us dig out of the hole. I'm praying that we can get on the right track with it, give back to God, pay up on our debts and stand on fairly steady ground once again. In the interim, I have gone into full-on penny-pinching mode. I have made our bread this week instead of buying it at the store, and I made laundry detergent last night. Per above- I have had a pretty productive week, and thus, I'm here - blogging!

We had some friends of the family who were in an awful accident almost 2 wks ago and have been following their progress and keeping them in our prayers. The mother and two children were hit as they slid into oncoming traffic. The son was killed and the daughter only recently came out of her coma. Mom and Dad are physically ok, but are of course grieving the loss of their son. It's been wearying trying to put myself in their shoes and given me some perspective about how I've been dealing [or not] with my own personal struggles.

This reads kind of like a report - and I hate that, wishing instead that my writing was back up to snuff with my potential, that words like this would appear again:

... Alien contours of the Foothills, previously only attended to by me briefly in the due-south pavement pounding trip known as “going to Denver,” spread out right before me, dotted with remnants of snow, some wispy stratus clouds above and to the south, and a continuous wall of thick, white thunderheads that stretched on for miles to the north.

As dusk overcame the mountains, they took on the appearance of burnt camp-fire wood; the mountains dark and rugged, the spots of snow becoming gray-white ashes, with the amber glow of the sun dropping behind them - lending to the image of smoldering embers. The sky was the pristine blue of topaz, with the stratus clouds becoming opalescent; white with flecks of that palest blue, fiery pink, and molten orange showing through the translucencies. The thunderheads gleamed with whiteness.

I was so moved by it – and remember making a mental note to myself to re-capture this image with words – that I quickly breathed a prayer of thanks to my Maker, Maker of this sunset...

I'll find that mojo again someday. I'm praying that God will bless me with words again, and that He can work through my words - For now, the above is what "came" to me, so I figure I'll write what I've got and eventually I'll ease back into a flow.

Have a great weekend y'all!



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