Comfort for the sick and tired

Since my last post entitled, "Sick and Tired" was a bit of a downer, I would like to use this post to share encouraging comforts along the way.

Bunny
When dark clouds come, it's amazing what God will use in our lives to bring sunny smiles back to one's countenance. As we've been stranded at home with everyone passing around viruses and chasing the next injury, our rascally rabbit has been such a comfort to us all. (Gift #750)  It seems silly that the same creature used to feed hungry travelers, early settlers, or connoisseurs of wild game over the millennia could become such a great companion to the weary and sick, but that funny bunny has done just that.  If anything, she makes us laugh.

You know how toddlers like to lean back when you hold them in your arms, so they can look at the world upside down? Well, apparently, adolescent bunnies like to do the same thing. I can't hold that critter upright anymore without her leaning back.

Note what looks like a smile on her face in the photo in the lower left corner.

She cracks me us when she "works" on my laptop. 

 

She's curious about anything new she sees.  My aunt gave us a portable stair climber which she tried out briefly before showing her personal trainer exactly what she thought about it.

Now that the weather is finally cooler, she loves hopping around outside on her leash.  That 2 lb.15 oz bunny dragged our 65 pound girl with a broken toe and a stress fracture all around the yard. At one point, our girl face planted while trying to keep hold of the leash. 

 

A snippet of Muffin on the move:

Muffin keeps me company in the workout room, too.  She usually gets in the way, though, and significantly increases the amount of time it takes me to complete a workout because of the way she begs for me to pet her.  No matter what I'm doing, she'll find a way to position herself such that some part of me rubs across her head.  She knows I always begin with the rumble roller so she runs right underneath me to get stroked as I work on tight muscles and seems to have no fear that I could roll right on top of her.  The other day, she poked her head through my push-up power stands so that my fingers would rub against her head with each repetition.  She certainly isn't the smartest bunny I've ever known (whereas Cody was too smart for his own good), but she sure is social.  

Hubby
Our bunny is a funny diversion, but my husband is the primary comforter in our family, at least in the flesh, for ultimate comfort only comes from Christ as His Spirit lives in us. When my husband travels on business, the kids and I are perpetually on edge, but when he enters the door upon his return, a calm sweeps into the house. Just a simple touch on the hand or nestling me in his arms pulls the pins out of my tight muscles and releases all the tension. 

He brings balance in wide variety of ways, for he and I are so very different.  For example, we were quite the team making breakfast on Saturday morning. He made yummy buttery blueberry pancakes (refined white flour version), while I made high protein, fruit & flax & spinach smoothies. He helps me enjoy life (Gift #751), while I seek to preserve our lives, so we can enjoy life together longer. And that is why the kids always prefer that Daddy make breakfast!

Buddies
During my long hours of adjusting to teaching, learning new subjects, and prepping for four subjects, I feel like my kids have gotten the short end of the stick.  It's hard to take them to play dates after school because I usually have tutoring sessions and/or meetings.  But they don't always miss out because they've made so many new friends, and the parents of their friends have gladly given them rides to various after school socials when I could not take them.  I'm so thankful for our hospitable, generous new friends. (Gift #752)

Play date at one of (if not the) most impressive country club pools in the state

School Fellowship at an awesome park (My daughter spent her time with at the adjacent lake so she isn't pictured here.)

Sunsets
Is it a sign that I'm getting older if I have grown more interested in the weather and exceedingly more appreciative of sunsets?  It's almost as if I NEED to see at least one nice sunset each week, and preferably the sunset should be viewed across a large expanse of water. I love to bike to a nearby lake near sundown, so I can watch the sky turn crimson as the sun dips near the horizon. It is so soothing for me that I now dream of retiring to a simple, low maintenance lake or beach home with a big back deck and/or dock where I can watch the sun come up and go down over the water every day.

With a world so completely upside down, it's good to remember that the same God who set the earth at the precise rotation and orbit to sustain life and create the sunset views I love so much is still holding all things together in His hands. Sunsets give me peace, (Gift #753) so I have been taking more photos of sunsets over the past year  Here are some sunset pics from this past week.

The view from my bike last weekend

Bike view on Sept 20

As we shuttle our kids to their many activities each evening, we are regularly reminded that it was worth all five years of emotional & financial house selling agony to move into the center of town (Gift #754).  But when the sky lit up pinkish orange as shown above and all I could see from my yard of it was this strip above the rooftops and trees, I longed once again for wide open spaces.   As I rushed outside to take a closer look at the sky, I saw neighbors with tripods and cameras set up in their driveways.  But they missed the best part thanks to suburbia living.

Finished Projects
All home improvement projects have been on-hold since I began teaching and school / extracurricular activities ramped up again. Besides, discouragement over my craft ineptitude began seeping in again.  Whenever I attempt anything crafty, the results are disastrous, but I'll never get better if I don't keep trying, right? So, when we needed a piece of furniture for a corner of the music room to hold our sheet music and smaller instruments, I decided to attempt an update of my husband's old entertainment center from his navy years which we had been storing in the garage. I chose a bold (for me) blue color to match the adjacent accent wall since I wanted more color on that wall. After getting Kilz all over my arms, legs, feet, shoes, hair, and hands and all over the garage floor, hardwood floor, stairs, arm rail, and doorknob and doing misc. other damage, I realized that it would have been far cheaper and ever so much easier to have just bought a new piece of furniture for the music room. 

 Thankfully, my knight in shining armor came to my rescue and finished the project for me (Gift #755). Checking a project off the to-do lists always makes me smile.

A big project we did not get to this year was building cabinetry around our island.  We use that island all the time for seating, so I wondered if cabinetry would get in the way or get beat up from all the feet around it all the time.  When a carpenter came to give us a quote on the project, he recommended that we paint it instead.  He gave up an expensive job to offer us his honest opinion.  It's nice to have a carpenter you can trust.  He recommended a wood grain approach with paint in an accent color we were using since I wanted more color in the mostly monochrome kitchen.  We tried adding color with blue pendants, but those never looked right even after buying very expensive LED lights to offset the darkening effect that the blue fixtures create.  So, we finally settled on some silver pendants that look like satin with an orbit pattern to match our curtains.  

 

Since the light fixtures continued the monochrome color scheme of the kitchen color, we decided to go with a blue island. However the island wood grain painting effect did not turn out as we had hoped.  So we painted it blue, but the glaze turned the blue into a very subtle blue that looks gray during daylight and only slightly blue after dark.


Top left:  Before
Lower left:  Unsuccessful wood grain attempt
Right:  Current glazed blue/gray island with molding painted the same color to make it all look more like one piece.

My attempt to fix our island disaster was somewhat successful, so that gave me confidence to attempt the entertainment center refinishing project disaster described above.  At some point, we probably do need to add the wood cabinetry trim around the island, though.

We also finished staining our deck this summer after going back to Lowe's for more stain at least three different times.  Next year I would love to enlarge the deck or add a porch or patio for outdoor entertaining. 

Teaching Update
I have lots of encouragements to share about teaching, but I'll save those updates for the next post.  

I'll close with a few quotes and links I want to remember for future reference:

"Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. . . . Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. . . . Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair."   -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Excellent replies to give to the question of  Why God Allows Suffering can be found here.

"It’s only your own sacrifices that show up at your funeral.
Am I making any of the right ones?...." - Ann Voskamp