The great wink

Nothing in life is certain. Except one thing. We will one day wink out of this existence and into another. I took time this morning to really think about that. What will it be like? Does the thought scare me? Terrify me? Or bring me peace?
My assurance of where I stand with God brings me peace. But mostly I was reminded how fleeting life really is. All the daily interruptions that consume us- houses, finances, jobs, weather, sports, needs, food, all of it doesn't matter much in the light of an existence that in an instant will change. Our economy of living very often does not reflect the very truth that everything passes away except the soul.
It makes me question, "What are you doing today, Alyssa, to invest in your own soul and those around you or is today all about worldly things?"

The Abishai

Chris: "I need a four year old girl. Is there a four year old girl around here?"

Anibel: "I am one of those! Me!"

Chris: "Awesome. Ok, I need a two year old little boy. Is there one of those?"

Abishai: "No"

Chris: "Well, then what are you?"

Abishai: "The Abishai."

Awesome.

Well said.

The Macky Mac

If anyone knows who or what the macky mack is and how to kill it please let me know...

It began innocently a few weeks ago. Anibel referred to some friends of ours as the macky mac. We all laughed. Big mistake.

Her brother has since jumped on board the Macky mac train. According to the two youngest I make "macky dinners," play at "macky parks," and drive in the "macky mac blue van." Ezzie is also known as "the macky muff" or the "macky mac muffin". Their most favorite game is to run squeeling through the house yelling, "macky mac macky mac macky mac!"

Apparently, tomorrow night we are going to do the "macky mac" all the way to Lindy's house and have dinner with the Lowes...

I repeat. If anyone knows who or what the macky mac is or from whence it came, please let me know so I can go about exterminating it in the cleanest and quickest fashion.

Days and ways

Here are my favorite things about my days:
- getting time alone with my husband before the kids wake up ( if I wake up that is)

-watching the kids play gas station with their Strider bikes

-Abishai's pronunciation of "whoop-de-doos"; more like "oooop de DOOOOOOOOS!"

-Ezzie's smiles

-Anibel: "First I am going to brush my teeth so they don't fall out, then I am going to do my hair with first a barrette and then a headband and a hat on top of it all cause if I get good at doing my hair Mom and Dad will let me cut Abs hair..."

-Waking up to my husband reading his bible and making me coffee :)

-That my kids are finally starting to play off by themselves at parks or in the yard without me having to be there.

-The way Abs licks his lips and inserts a finger in the mouth when he is uncertain about something.

-Watching Abs eat. Always the enthusiast. And when he is done he says, "Don't like it" which comes out "ike it!" even if he just devoured his entire plate. He learned that phrase from his sister....

- Anibel hopping and dancing around the room just to make Ezzie laugh. And Ezzie just lovin' it.

-That Anibel is a "mom" to Nia her baby doll and puts old rags in her diapers cause they are just like the cloth diapers mom uses.

- That Mom is currently Ezzie's 'happy place!' Especially when she is hungry...

-"I love you Abs." "Thank you (Dink u) mom."

-The way Ezzie's butt gets stuck in the bumbo and Anibel helps me pull it off when I am pulling her out of it.

-"Band practice" in the Erickson household.

Patience

I hate waiting.

I'm also not Alyssa. I'm her husband who has hijacked her blog. (Don't tell)

Our house has been on the market for 18 days and we've had 6 showings (although they've stopped altogether recently). While to some, or even most, this would be good or encouraging, I fight frustration and depression over the fact we've not sold yet. Someone reminded me that it takes an average of 130 days to sell right now. My response is to ponder drinking...

The reality is, I HATE waiting. And I don't think patience for the sake of patience is inherently righteous. There is room for debate there, but I really think that patiences as a righteousness blanket probably has some holes. It's not good to be hasty and miss the way, but once you've figured out the way, lets get on with it!

Anyway, in the midst of all of this I've walked in and out of faith several times as to my view on selling our house. I was talking with the Lord last night though and was just struck by the reality of this:

God (ironically in His patience), has been unbelievably tender and purposeful in all of the timing, conversations and events leading up to us moving. I'm honestly blown away and humbled by it. The obvious extension (which Alyss reminds me of) is that He isn't stopping now by this 'incredibly long' period of time we're having to wait for our house to sell.

But I want to push on this thought -- God, the creator of every atom in the universe, the engineer of the human body, the inventor of gravity and the atomic forces, knows me. He doesn't just know of me, but he intimately knows me. My weaknesses. My personality. I think of PS 139 -- "... you discern my thoughts from afar ... even before a word is on my tongue, you know it altogether."

Also, God doesn't just know of me, or know facts about me. HE is purposely focused and invested in engaging with and discipling me.

I think of Adam - God could have just said 'dude, you need a wife' - but instead he had him look through all the animals first. Why!? Because he had to walk him through a process. Because God doesn't just bark down orders telling us what to do - he works with us, 'like a father with his children, ...exhorting...encouraging...'

There are a lot of times I hear platitudes about 'God is in control', or 'God has a plan'....turns out that they might be true, even if we've reduced them to that.

By the way, if anyone wants a house, I'm selling one...