The Monday After

April 26, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

What does the Monday after Easter look like? The day after hours filled with study led by a radical? The day after moments cherished and remembered and sanctified? The day after I didn’t go to church because my baby was sick, but while at home felt God speaking to my heart through words that are more than letters and syllables and affixes of Latin and Greek. Words that calm the soul and break the heart…….

“For in that day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and….I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them day after day.” Jeremiah 7:21-26

I don’t need to try harder. God is trying more than enough.

He commands me to obey and walk. Persistently he reminds.

But so often I ignore and limp. Everyday a trial for a weary soul that knows it should be rejoicing rather than restricting life to a grinding whine.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

It’s not my own doing. It’s a gift.

A gift I can choose each day to open and receive. And then share with others.

A dear friend who is mentoring me through the end of my career and the beginning of a new journey shared this experience with me.

Because to read this and ponder and wonder and delight in the words is to surrender myself to something I have perhaps never truly experienced.

The unyielding, unchanging, unfathomable grace and goodness of God.

My list began today….

1. fresh bathmats that tickle my feet

2. laundry warm from the dryer

3. Easter bunny cookie my mama made

4. vacuums that get hard boiled egg out of carpet

5. hugging Madelynne her head beneath my chin

6. silliness of six years old

7. saying “it’s a blessing” and meaning it…thank you new bank for taking away that choice…

we truly are grateful

so many Thursdays I have linked up with Julia and struggled to find something to be thankful for, so today I made myself look around and see the goodness in the everyday.

Please, God, let me unwrap tomorrow and treasure the gift.

For it is by faith….grace….hope….names I chose because I believe.

Names I must choose to live by.

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Birthday Belle

March 22, 2011 Lindsey P. Brackett3 Comments

A year ago one of my first posts was about the Belle. Now she’s five and feisty. We celebrated with a family day that started with breakfast at IHOP where birthday girl proceeded to eat a bowl of macaroni and cheese.

It’s what she wanted and I figured it couldn’t be any worse for breakfast than chocolate chip pancakes.

Then it was on to the zoo on an afternoon more suitable for June than March.

What more does a 5-year-old need?

Why, a cookie cake of course!

http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post · madelynne · motherhood

Careful What You Tell Them…

March 7, 2011 Lindsey P. Brackett4 Comments

Everyone knows you have to watch what you say around children because they have the most uncanny knack of helping your words come back to haunt you.

Saturday morning we were actually managing to accomplish the task of sleeping late. This was due in part to the rain, in part to the fact that I’d already been up for an hour at the crack of dawn with fussy baby, and due in part to the lovely childhood development of my big girls who are finally old enough to entertain themselves.

Which they did.

So there we were, me, Joshua, Amelia all snuggled up in the bed (this is not a regular occurrence but is the reason we were able to get her back to sleep) when I heard the pitter-pattery stomp of four little feet.

“Mommy!” Very loud whisper. “Me and Annabelle are bleeding!”

What?!?

Giggles. “See?” Holding up a foot covered in red stickers. A way to circumvent Mommy’s don’t-come-out-of-your-room-unless-your-bleeding rule for naptime and early mornings. Ha, ha.

I’m just thankful for the next antidote of wisdom I shared once I recovered from my shock. Wonder how long before this one haunts me?

“Mommy, we’re hungry,” says the girl who cried blood.

My response?

“You know where the cereal is.”

http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post · motherhood · perfectly imperfect

Because Nobody’s Perfect

February 24, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett5 Comments

Because I like to stalk Julia on a pretty regular basis, I get a lot of great ideas for blogs and link ups and I find lots of wonderful folks I enjoy following.

Folks who aren’t afraid to admit they don’t quite have it all together and that’s okay.

I definitely don’t have it together and I hope I’ve treated you to some of those moments over the past year. The raw truth of it is sometimes I scream at my kids, lose it over the dirty laundry, and have to put myself in time out until I calm down and realize that life’s not about perfect moments.

Tonight’s imperfectly perfect snapshot?

It’s 8:06. Six minutes past bedtime and they’re still watching a movie (102 Dalmations) that I’m not stopping ten minutes before the end because the whining is just not worth it.

The deal was they would fold their laundry while they watched.

Notice that this wasn’t done. A perfect mom wouldn’t even have her kids folding laundry because she’d have had it done in the time I spent blogging about this. Or she would have stopped the movie and enforced their end of the bargain.

Well, thank God I’m not perfect because otherwise I wouldn’t have chosen to stay at the kitchen table, sip coffee, check my email and listen to Annabelle say things like, “Madelynne, we would never steal puppies to bake them, would we?”

Well, let’s hope not 🙂

Capturing Motherhood..check her out and link up. Let’s all be imperfect together.

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Where are the Bracketts?

February 18, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett3 Comments

I know this has been a burning question in your mind this week. Where are they? What are they doing? When will we get a new blog?

So maybe it’s just my sisters who were messaging me about not keeping them updated, but I’d like to believe others care about hearing all about the randomness too.

And if you don’t, why are you reading this?

Anyway, we’ve been enjoying a little mini-vacation this week. We headed up to Gatlinburg on Saturday, and by “we” I mean Joshua and I. That’s right. We escaped for 36 whole hours sans girls. For awhile we didn’t even talk. Just enjoyed the silence.

On Sunday, the girls were delivered via Mimi and Grandpa who stayed to hang out for a couple of days and watch Amelia while we took the girls skiing for the first time…and that’s a whole other blog. In the meantime, here’s some pics.