just a random list of things rolling around in my brain

It seems as if I've been home a LOT lately, and when I was thinking why that was, I remembered yesterday that we are short two cars right now.  Todd's truck has been in the shop forever and right now, Graham's Bronco needs a new fuel pump.  I was just thinking I was being lazy by staying home all the time, and while that may be partly true, it's not ALL that I'm just being introverted and lazy.  It has felt really great being at home, though.  I'm caught up on laundry and house work and I've done my part at freeing up more space on our DVR.  :)  (Did anyone else love watching the Christmas in July on the Hallmark channel as much as I did?)

Yesterday I spent a good portion of my day getting things organized for our upcoming school year.  I started cleaning off the bookshelves in the living room, but there are still books everywhere.  I gave up and called it a day, because I wasn't in the mood to finish that project.  I'll try again tomorrow, maybe.  (I'm still not in the mood to do that today.)

My fingernails are bugging me.  I realize most women love to have long fingernails, but mine are so long that they're getting in the way.  For instance, I do not like the feel of them as I type out this blog post.  I've been getting my nails done this summer with gel polish so the polish will last on my trips, and the one thing that the polish helps is nail growth.  I keep filing them, and making them short again.  When I look at the backs of my fingers, I don't like to see them too much.  Weird, I know.  I found a little place out here in The Ville that charges twenty dollars for a polish change.  I do that once every two weeks.  Not too shabby, huh?  And I've loved not having chipped nails all summer.  (First world problems, I know.)

I hate politics.  I mean, I REALLY HATE politics and all the junk this brings about on social media.  I almost can't stand being on Facebook anymore and I've been reading a lot, instead.  Or, browsing Instagram or Snapchat.  I don't use Snapchat a lot, except for my family and Alex, but I see things that other people send.

I am not one to wish away the days or present times of my boys, but I know I've said on here before how glad I will be when Jonah and Noah are out of middle school.  You would not BELIEVE the drama that can occur with middle school boys.  There are so many things that are said that are taken the wrong way, or there is something someone will say through a text that gets misinterpreted.  I've forbidden my boys (all four) to talk about serious things over text.  I told them that there are just some things that warrant a phone call.

Speaking of this, did you know that I'm raising a teenaged son with the mindset of an eighty year old man?  I am.  His name is Noah.  I love him so much, and I love that HE HATES texts and just calls everyone instead.  God bless him.  

God has allowed me moments of sweet fellowship with Jonah, Noah and Alex over the course of this week.  There have been some really great talks that we have had, and I am so thankful for moments that He gives me to pour into them.  Some of them have been little growth opportunities (because sometimes they just get on each other's nerves), and some of them have been me giving me them advice.  I always ask that the Lord would give me moments to serve my husband and these boys that are always here, and He does that often.

I am ready for school to start.  I love summer, but too long of no routine starts to grate on my nerves, and I am always ready for a new routine again by this time of summer every year.  And I am saying that, knowing full well of how emotional of a year this is going to be with me having a senior.  It doesn't seem possible, and I'm finding myself letting go a little more each day, as Graham starts to grow into the man of God that he is becoming.  I don't mean that I'm not parenting him anymore, because that won't stop until the day he marries (or EVER), I just mean that I'm letting him make more and more decisions on his own and get to an area of thinking by himself.  Every once in a blue moon, he will come to me for advice, but that's rare.  Thankfully, though, he tells his dad everything and gets advice from him all the time.  It needs to be that way.

I have a couple of things that I'm waiting on right now, responses to emails that I have sent.  I know that God has placed a love of writing on my heart.  He did that a long time ago, I've been writing short stories since I was a young girl, but He is growing it more and more the older I get.  I don't know what He plans on doing with this love of mine, but He is giving me more and more opportunities to get to know others that are like me through social media.  I'll get an opportunity to be on a launch team for a favorite author's new book, I'll randomly get a friend request from an author I've read, I'll get emails telling me about writer's conferences that I'm invited to, or I'll get asked to submit an entry for a future publication in a magazine or online forum.

I don't say that to brag, but those are all opportunities that God has given me, I've not sought them out.  On Tuesday of this week, I submitted an excerpt from something I've written to be considered for a future issue of a Christian magazine.  I've done this before and have never heard back, and I may not hear back this time either, but I know that something will eventually fall into the right hands, if that is what God so desires for my life.  He has given me this blog to write on for now, with people who faithfully read it, and I pray I always use it in the right way.  I know that God is in all these little details.  I'm content with life as I know it right now, but I don't want to be too comfortable or stagnant.

So I may continue to submit pieces of things I've written, and I may continually be turned down.  That's okay.  I want to use the talents that God has given me, though, and I know that writing is one of them.  I know that because I love to do this and because people have always said to me that I should write a book.  Well, someday, I may just do that.  I have no idea about any of it, though, or what it would be about, but I know if God wants me to write, He will give me something to write about.

For now, it's about Jesus and how amazing He is, or our sweet little life, or our homeschooling journey, or our church life and family, or about these random lists I always have in my head.  I am thankful for this life that the Lord allows us to live, and I pray I never take any of it for granted.  I don't really know why I put all this out there for people to read, because I may continue to be turned down, but know that I have things that I am attaining to as well, and I have to remind myself to trust in the Lord.  And in His timing.  Maybe someone else needed to read that today.

And don't you love how these posts of mine always start out funny (maybe) and light hearted, then end on a serious note?  Story of my life.

I need a picture for Pinterest, so I'll post the book I started reading last night.

Two separate blogs that I read both mentioned this book, and Amazon recommended it to me.  I figured I needed to check it out for myself since that way the case.

Love to all.