On a wing and a non-prayer

I just re-read my last post, and I have to admit something: that day was rare.  All those "Prayer" inserts do not happen frequently.  When I just read that I thought "how arrogant; you don't do that all the time."  Case in point, Wednesday, when this happened:

My down-the-street neighbor, Lynn, was in our yard with her boxer, Scout.  Rosco and Scout were playing, chasing each other and practically knocking Lynn and I over.  (That's just what happens when two big dogs are owned by two small people.)  Addison was just standing on the driveway watching, laughing at the dogs, and barking at them.  Cute, right?  Well, the dogs got closer and closer, and I stepped in front of Addison when Scout ran by, but didn't even think to when Rosco came bounding towards us.  Rosco nicked her shoulder and she hit the pavement face-first, with her arms out behind her.  There was blood - so much blood!  And screaming (Addison), and running (me), and barking (the dogs), and crying (both of us).  Lynn ran in front of me into the house and got ice and towels and helped me figure out where the blood was coming from.  She told stories about her kids and their multiple facial injuries, and sang to Addison, and prayed out loud.  Not like, "okay, I'm going to pray. 'Dear Jesus'..."  In the middle of her sentence, while I was on the verge of tears and saying "what do I do? what do I do?"  Lynn just said "Sweet Jesus!  Make her feel better and help it stop bleeding!"  She simply cried out, then went on with her story.  It didn't even occur to me to pray.  In fact, I was surprised by hers.  That makes me embarrassed of myself.  I'm ashamed to admit that an acquaintance from down the street thought to pray for my child before I did.  The entire situation was so beyond my control, and while I was scurrying around trying to fix it and help my daughter, prayer didn't even cross my mind!  It did the other day, during the "small" things that happened, but not during this.

After several minutes, Lynn went back outside to track down our dogs.  I called Brad's mom to come check it out, then called the pediatrician.  That afternoon, Addison was back to trying to chase Rosco.  She looks a lot closer to normal now, and I'm trying to be a little more careful.  I'm so thankful for three things: (1) Lynn was there and taught me something.  (2) My mother in law lives close by.  (3) Kids are resilient and have short memories.

I finally finished Francis Chan's Forgotten God.  (Folks in Pensacola, it will be back in the FBCP library on Sunday for you to check out!  Sorry I've had it all summer.)  Something Chan writes in the last chapter struck me as important, and in light of my lack of prayer when I know it's power, applicable to me this week:

     "Our Scriptures teach that if you know what you are supposed to do and you don't do it, then 
     you sin (James 4:17).  In other words, when we stock up on knowledge without applying it to 
     our lives, we are actually sinning.  You would think that learning more about God would be a 
     good thing... and it can be.  But when we gain knowledge about God without responding to 
     Him or assimilating His truth into our lives, then it is not a good thing. According to the Bible it's sin."

A day in the life with a one year old

These days are hectic!  If I plan to get even half of the things on my "list" accomplished, I rarely stop to take a breath.  I feel like even on laid back days, when I don't have anything on the calendar, Addison keeps us (or me) running.  When I used to think about what motherhood would be like, I envisioned learning a lot about prayer when my kids were older, like in the terrible twos, or as teenagers or something.  Instead, I'm learning about it now.  The whole "pray without ceasing" thing is becoming necessary.

Today was one such day.  We played at the house longer than we usually do in the morning.  Before 8:00, every piece of tupperware I own was on the floor, as well as all of the pots and pans, the trashcan, trashbags, and the box of coffee I keep in the pantry.  Prayer.  Addison took all of her books out of her bookshelf in her nursery.  Prayer.  She took the blankets off the shelf in her closet while I was putting the books up.  Prayer.  Then she took the books off the shelf while I was putting the blankets up.  WHAT???  Prayer.  

We met some friends at the Naval Aviation Museum on Pensacola NAS.  If you're in the area and haven't checked this out, you should!  Addison's new word is "airplane" (which actually sounds like "aipai"), so that made it a little more fun.  We walked around the museum and the kiddos were good in their strollers for almost an hour.  The museum has a neat play area for little kids, with a slide and pretend airplanes.  The area for tiny ones had a one-year-old size steering wheel and buttons (Addison's favorite toys all have LOTS of buttons).  Of course, these three munchkins were not satisfied with the little kid toys; they wanted to climb up the stairs with the big kids and tackle the scary stuff.  (I actually laughed at my friend Stephanie and I as we broke the rules to follow our kids around; no prayer needed, just a good friend.)  Addison and her two friends Henry and Clayton played there for a while, with the mommies scurrying and crawling after them, before we sat them down for a quick lunch and headed home.  (Now, a "quick lunch" included her not eating half of what I brought for her, and screeching while trying to crawl out of the stroller.  Prayer.)  It was a great inside activity for the day!

Nap time did not go so well: Addie fell asleep in the car and did not transfer into the house.  She sang and played in the crib for an hour or so, while I stewed about how the rest of the day would be tainted by a sleepy baby.  Prayer.  I had just gotten some things done when Addison's singing turned in to "maaamaaa," so it was on to the next activity: get Rosco to go outside.  (He's been on an outside strike lately, since it's so hot.)  This involved Addison walking towards the street, stepping on an ant bed, and Rosco refusing to come back.  Prayer.  Then off to the grocery store, and home.

Running away from Mommy, naked except for the
towel on her head.

This is actually from yesterday; she threw every single piece
of green beans on the floor during dinner!

This is what I saw after I put her to bed.  Please note the
scooter standing upside down.  How did that even happen?

I guess what I'm getting at with all of this, is that I'm learning that we're constantly being prepared for what's to come.  I can only imagine how many tiny prayers I'll have to say when my sweet, loving, independent red-head turns up the volume on her temper tantrums, and pitches toddler-sized fits in Target, and one day (gasp) breaks curfew.  Or if / when there's two of them tag-teaming on the whole pulling blankets and books out.  Haha!  Crazy fun.
Right now it is thundering and lightning and the electricity just flashed and I wish Brad was here.  Prayer.  There's water seeping under my backdoor.  Augh!  Prayer.

What a day!

So, my heart has gotten quite a workout today.  It started out fairly normal: I had several errands to run this morning and a gym class planned.  We walked into the living room to find a HUGE ROACH in the kitchen!  In case you don't know, I freak out over the three "Rs" - rodents, roaches, and reptiles (and amphibians, but that's a different story).  He was upside down, so I thought it was dead.  I was in the process of scooping him up with a big cup (I can't touch it, of course), when his legs started going and he tried to run away!  I screeched and grabbed the broom from the garage to sweep him out.  Once I got him in the broom, he, of course started crawling up the handle towards me!  I am glad it was just Addie and I at the house, because I'm sure I looked outrageous: I was hopping from one foot to the other, in my pajamas, trying to get the broom out of the house, while holding it as far away from me as possible.  By the time I got that stupid, disgusting, enormous roach outside and dead, both Rosco and Addison were considering leaving... probably together.  They're the cutest pair; I'm sure they could find some nice, sane woman to take them in and love them.  (By the way, I killed it by banging the broom handle against the house; I'm pretty sure the neighbor saw and also thinks I'm nuts.  Get in line.)

That is crazy, you might think.  Maile is nuts.  You'd be correct.  But it got worse... way worse.  After the Roach Incident, I made breakfast and sat down with Addison.  We finished and I cleaned her up.  I'd just poured my coffee and put Addie down to play.  I turned around to go back and grab my coffee when I saw it: A TINY BABY LIZARD!  What?  Two of the "big three," and I hadn't even had my coffee to cope yet!  It wasn't even 7:30!  Back to the broom!  (Because although they gross me out, how can you kill a lizard?)  This poor, unintelligent thing was trying to blend into the rug; close, little guy, but not quite.  I moved all the chairs, and tried to gently sweep him towards the door.  After a few minutes of slowly getting closer and closer to outside,  I must have hit him too hard, because his tail came off!  Seriously - there was a tiny, tiny, wriggling thing about two inches from the actual lizard, who was too stunned to move for a second.  So was I!!!  Again,  there was screeching and hopping... way more than with a simple in-tact roach.  Addison thought I was dancing and started swaying with me.  It eventually took a cup and a large envelope to get that stupid little thing outside.  Then I had to hunt down his tail.  GROSS!
I'm pretty sure my sweet gal thought I was possessed this morning.  Then again, she might think that every day.