humidity, homeownership and a little thing called change

By Mary

People may think I'm making it up or hyper-sensitive, but I can feel the moisture creeping back into the air these days--just enough to lay like a think layer of lotion on my skin and make my crackers grow stale quicker. I'm not looking forward to the sticky heat of the summer months.

Our puppy is running around with a plastic cone around her neck, thunking into walls left and right because we had the audacity to get her "fixed". I feel horribly guilty. But she gets payback frequently by using the cone as a weapon, trotting around behind me and smacking my calves with it or slamming it into my face every time she tries to give out kisses.

When we moved into our house, my husband and I were warned that we'd be spending a lot of time at the home improvement store. And sure enough just about every weekend we're wandering through Lowes, thankful for their 10% military discount.

First we decided to paint the trim on our front door, to make it stand out more. Simple. I told my husband I'd get it done in an afternoon. So I taped and painted and let it dry and painted some more. And in the evening when we took it down we discovered firstly that I'm not very good at taping anything other than a straight line. And secondly either that the paint the builder used on the door was not very good quality or we didn't let our paint dry long enough--it started peeling off with the tape. But after about an hour of damage control, the door was done and doesn't look too shabby.

We have a little front yard nicely covered in grass slowly growing green again. And we decided we wanted our backyard to match, especially after all the winter days of Allie's wet and muddy paw prints tracking all through the house. We went to our trusty Lowes to pick up the seed, rakes, hose and sprinkler for taking care of the beautiful grass we intended to have.

"It's easy!" people say. Rake it up, throw it down, lightly cover, water and wait. Five steps. Can't be too hard. Our neighbor even let us borrow his seeder. So after 8 hours of raking, spreading and covering I watered religiously every morning to keep those little seeds of potential moist and ready to germinate at the proper moment. We kept the dog off of it and my flip flops were perpetually caked in mud from moving the sprinkler through the yard of nothing but dirt and grass seeds.

The first week passed with nothing but a possible few blades here and there (which might have simply been the product of our hopeful imaginations) We decided it must need the extra week and continued to wait (slightly less patiently) That was three weeks ago now and the only thing that seems to be growing out there is the dozens of dandelion weeds I keep pulling up.

Our indoor painting projects went better and we have successfully,-without too much mess or mistake-painted our living room, dining room and kitchen.

I don't mind changing things up. I like the newness. But I like doing it my way and having control. I don't like the way life sort of does it's own thing and you have to go along with it and make the most of what you're given. And what's hardest is caring so much about the very things you have to be separated from.

Following God can be costly--but laden with such rich blessings. Everytime I think things couldn't be more wonderful, He proves me wrong. And on the days when my heart is heavy and hurting this is my hope--He is life and I could never have anything more beautiful than Him.