Day 338: God is Good, All the Time

"God is good, all the time" is a phrase that can be really difficult to believe when you are going through hard times like we have this past year.  It's taken me months to even consider it again.  And yet, it's truth, right?  It's God who is good, not us, not this fallen world.  It's God that sticks with us when we walk away.  But lately, I have seen the goodness of God through a brighter perspective.  Life is becoming more normal again.  Sure it's busy, but relationships are growing, healing is taking place, and life moves on.  I guess you can say I have finally "settled" for now.  Until next spring/summer at least.  At least I know what our life will most likely look like until then.  Beyond that, well, I don't dare dream too much because I just don't have a clue.  And I don't have time to dream.  December is a busy month, and I've had a lot of late nights to prove that.  God has sustained me, but some bad habits of staying up way past my normal bedtime have crept in.  I was able to get a 2 hr nap in this afternoon, but that means I have to work tonight instead of watch my TV show.  Boohoo, right?

Well, today was full again with Benaiah serving at the volunteer kiosk, Keturah singing during the services, Justin and Abishai wandering the house while I put up more Christmas lights, and then finally naptime.  We had to wake up quickly (and earlier than we really wanted to) in order to meet up with Gary and Leah before they had to head to small group and we had choir rehearsal and youth group.  Being out tonight, meant clean laundry is still sitting in baskets.  Lesson plans aren't typed out.  And my business supplies aren't put away yet.  But we had such a great time at the in laws and at church, that it's all worth it.  Abishai is such a hoot anywhere we go, so he makes life more bearable.  As you will see, he enjoyed having full run of the balcony in the auditorium, going up and down the stairs, and up and down the hallways at church.  He wandered throughout Gary and Leah's house, even running in circles at times getting everyone's attention, including Socks.  The kids played together, we had some serious conversation with the oldest (that didn't end up in a fight, yeah!), and somewhere along the way, we ate random bits of food, lol.  Nutrition has definitely suffered as of late, partly because we are trying to stretch our budget so we are eating up what we have on hand and not immediately replacing it.  We have food, but we might not hit all the right food groups in the right ways.

So, here's the rest of the story in pictures.

Here are a couple of pics of Bible Bowl that were posted to Facebook yesterday.  Justin and the girls (and a brother of the girls?)

Justin won the team mascot this time of a minion cup because he was very helpful to everyone, his team and other teams.

Fun times between teams!

Keturah had her second to last rehearsal tonight before the big performance of the musical next weekend, on the 11th, at 6 pm at Indian Creek Christian Church.  They got our of rehearsal a few minutes early, so it must have gone well!  Join us next week!  

Little man can walk up and down the stairs all by himself and had a system of holding onto the pew railings.

Cute baby.

I'm so glad Benaiah has a bunch of friends here in Indiana.  He was reminiscing with the guy in the middle about their days in children's choir.  The red headed guy on the right is David, and Benaiah and he have been friend since they were babies.  Sweet kids.

This picture is proof that I played a board game with Justin tonight.  And I won!  This game is a version of  "Sorry".  What was fun was that I never had to go around the board.  I had enough cards (where you get the numbers to advance or backtrack) with the number 4 on them, meaning I could go back 4 spaces from home, that I used them to go backwards and then used other small numbered cards to get into home.  Cool!

My boys.

This kid and his smiles.

He was smiling because he was hiding the gameboy in our bed.

I had Socks wear his Santa hat and jingle bell collar for all of 2 minutes.  He really doesn't like this kind of stuff.  But Keturah especially thinks it's cute.

Playing a game, with Christmas hats on.

Boys need to build!

Grandma has said that Abishai never lines up the cars at her house.  Well, he finally did.  And there they sit until he moves them again.

Abishai's turn at the "Bored Game."

Brother and sister building time.

Now the whole family got involved.

Benaiah wasn't sure what he would end up building, but it came out to be similar to the newer Batman's mechanical punching glove thing.  Benaiah's hand is inside the contraption.

Keturah's creation was a Sith Lord light saber from Star Wars.

But it also looks like antlers when she put it on her head.

Have nerf guns, will play, "pew pews."  Jared was providing cover fire for Abishai.

Another picture of Benaiah and his friends.  Don't they all look huge to you?  They do to me.  Can they all really be that close to adulthood?  Where did the time go?

2nd to last rehearsal.  Keturah is smack dab in the middle with the Santa hat and green shirt.

Aw, it looks like he's praying!  But it was just him watching the rehearsal and trying to do the hand motions.  He also thought it was hilarious to bang his head on the glass.

And a funny for you.  You'll have to listen very carefully, and wait a few seconds, but you'll find Benaiah "honking" while he sleeps.  It starts around :30. And the big noise is me trying not to laugh.  But it was hilarious.  I've never heard a snore like that.