These are a few of my favorite things...

Sometimes it's good to stop and smell the roses. :)

- making waffles for my family
- slow Saturday mornings
- being domestic at home and letting other work behind
- guilt-free relaxation when I'm under the weather
- messes in our house that reflect lots of life, not just work to be done
- keeping things simple and slowing things down
- posts from my daddy on facebook, even when we are sitting right beside each other
- a giddy mom
- successful April Fool's jokes
- notes from Matt
- being ok with not accomplishing much

Sometimes Sundays are restful; sometimes Saturday are. Sometimes there are no restful days in the week. Sometime there a several. But I can be at rest any day because of the rest I find in Christ. Even so, God knows I need the practical and tangibleness of actual days of rest and leisure.
I'm reminded of a message I posted about this summer.
Jeff Purswell said:

Labor is hard and wearisome because we are sinful. God gives us leisure to point our eyes above, to Him and the peace in Christ. I have physical rest because I have spiritual rest. Let your pursuit of rest here point your eyes to the ultimate rest you will have when the Kingdom is consummated. The restless soul is an unforgiven soul, but a soul that receives forgiveness receives rest. Let our leisure be a reminder of the forgiveness and rest for our souls that Christ has accomplished on the cross.

Am I good at receiving things? If not, what does that say about my grasp of the grace of God? What does it say about my pride? What does it say about the price Christ paid? Do I think it's not enough? Do I make God small and smear the Son of God in the dirt? Oh that I would not! And oh that God would forgive me, for that is what I do. For this too, Christ died. "Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer." My beautiful Savior died for and loves a wretch like me.

photo: Burano, Italy 2007

P.S. It feels good to write again, with so much that's been going on. It's one of my little ways of preaching to myself. And yes, I reread my own blog multiple times, because I need to remember and revisit the same exact things over and over and over....