It’s always surprising to me – though it shouldn’t surprise me at all – that summer can get away from me if I’m not careful. Our “lazy days” with no plans quickly turn into a calendar filled with playdates, and commitments, and projects, and trips. Because I constantly battle busy-ness, sometimes I have to deliberately slow down, take stock, and breathe.

There are a couple of things coming up at church, and I need to plan. I need some uninterrupted time with Alex (the child? At Plattapalooza? Not a fan of waiting in line or taking turns. We need to work on that). I need to sit on my front porch and drink diet Coke and watch the moon creep up over the trees. I need to hang out with my husband without trying to fold laundry or make lists or blog at the same time.

In short, I need to get away from this computer for a couple of days. A girl can’t keep up the pace of posting sixteen times a day without an occasional break, you know. :-)

I’ll see y’all Wednesday-ish.

About an hour ago I got a frantic phone call from my sister-in-law, Janie. Janie is always so laid-back and calm that I knew immediately something horrible had happened. Sadly, I was right.

She called to request prayer. Lauren and Norris, two of Janie and Stacy’s closest friends, have a weekend place on a river in Arkansas. Their precious little boy, Norris, drowned there today. He was their oldest child – six years old. Just typing that brings tears to my eyes.

Please lift them up in prayer as you feel led. And if you think about it, pray for them in your Sunday School classes and churches tomorrow. They are an adorable, fun-loving family – and I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the loss and the grief and the heartache that they’re facing right now.

Pray for Janie and Stacy, too – especially that they would have incredible discernment about how to comfort and minister to Lauren and Norris during this horrific time.

I know that there are some fierce prayer warriors who read this blog, and it means so much to be able to put this request before you. Thanks, y’all.

D. has decided that he needs a new cell phone. I feel this is a reasonable request since his current phone is only slightly more reliable and effective than the two empty soup cans I connected with string so that Laura and I could “talk” when I was about five years old. Since BIL is here as well, a trip to a store filled with electronic devices seemed to be a near-perfect Saturday morning excursion for the guys. It could only be more perfect if they could play videogames on the way to the phone store, purchase The Coolest Phones Imaginable, then walk straight out of the store into a skybox at an SEC football game. And kill aliens afterwards. While eating fried chicken.

I’m always a little concerned when D. goes shopping for electronics, because he gets a slightly glazed-over gleam in his eye that’s reserved only for things that beep and ring, and my fear is that he left the house planning to buy a small phone but will return to the house with a large television set or new video game system or, you know, a car.

I, on the other hand, am almost completely unaffected by things with plugs. I love my computer because it’s cute, not because of any features that it has. Truth be told, I don’t even KNOW what features it has. I do know it has an apple on the top of it, and when my computer is on the apple glows, and that makes me happy.

D., however, speaks a different electronic language. He knows all about tubes and resolutions and giga/mega/eleventy bytes; he knows that he needs this cable or that wire to achieve maximum sound in a space that measures 12 feet wide by 15.4987 feet long. And while I might say, oh, just round down to 15 feet, he would say, NO, you can’t do that, NO, don’t you know that the cable requirements are completely different for a room of that size?

A little over a year ago we finished out part of our basement and moved D.’s office down there. His office had previously been in the bonus room upstairs, but it was increasingly hard for him to find peace and quiet up there once A. came along (and let me tell you: after this last week of non-stop toddler talking, I wouldn’t mind finishing out an office for me so that I could have a little peace and quiet my OWN self – but that’s another story for another day). ANYWAY, when the sheetrock finally went up downstairs, D. spent hours figuring out exactly where the speakers should go in the walls.

All that to say: do you know where I would have put the speakers? Inside the television set. Where they belong.

So I’m curious to see what my husband brings back from the phone store. It could be nothing. It could be just a phone. But my guess – and this is based on knowing him for almost 30 years and being married to him for 9 – is that at the VERY least there will be a phone and some form of phone accessory. Because a gadget-y husband is one thing…but a gadget-y husband accompanied by a gadget-y brother-in-law is a recipe for an electronics shopping spree.

And the garage door is opening right now. Via remote control, of course.

More later.

Updated to add:

Oh, I SO know him. Looks like I have a new phone, too.
:-)

Okay. I was trying to register my blog with Christian Women Online, and I got to the part where I had to write a description of my blog.

And, um, well.

I had no idea what to say.

I mean, I keep reading posts where people say that a blog should have a mission statement, and I’m beginning to think that I have no bloggy purpose. At least as far as an “official statement” goes.

Because “Read by tens of people…” is not exactly a description. Neither is the stuff from the “About Me” section of the sidebar.

So I tried. I really did. I got as far as “A Southern wife and mama who loves the Lord, loves to write, and loves to laugh” – but I think that’s sort of, well, lame. There’s no personality in that…I was SO hoping to use the phrase “wacky shenanigans.” :-)

And I know that the people at CWO aren’t going to be judging my blurb and ranking it on a scale of 1-10. But I’m OCD, you know, and I want whatever I write down to be accurate, and true, and a real reflection of what goes on in this little corner of the interweb.

So.

I’m curious.

If you blog, do you have a mission statement? Or a purpose statement? Or even a clear description in your head?

‘Cause I’m clueless. And feeling sort of stupid.

Because I don’t know if you know it or not, but I actually write this thing.

And if you want to write my blog description for me, I’ll be eternally grateful.

Is that cheating?

Okay – I had to do a bit of post re-structuring because there was too much linky goodness buried in a post that was way too long. So, I now give you all the linkage in a more condensed format.

Heather has a couple of great ideas for a new Bible study and a book club, too. Click on over and check it out. For the Bible study they’re reading Stasi Eldridge’s Captivating, which I actually picked up yesterday. Last summer I read her hubby’s book, Wild At Heart, in ONE DAY. Good stuff. If you’re married to a man or the mother of a man or have only seen a man from a distance, it’s a must-read. I can’t tell you how much it helped me understand and appreciate my husband. I’m hoping that time-wise I can handle joining Heather’s group…I think it’ll be a great study.

This post at Lori’s blog really made me think. If you’re intentional about having some real “teachable moments” as you discipline and encourage your kids, you’ll appreciate Lori’s list of great, easy-to-remember verses that address many of the heart issues we face with little ones.

This post by Judith (Sarah‘s grandmother; Bev and Barb‘s mother – it really is a Blogging Dynasty) demands that there be a part 2, and a part 3, and a part 14. :-) If you get a chance, encourage Judith to keep telling the tale…it reads like a movie script. Can’t wait to read more.

You have to read this post of Sarah’s, too. It’s beautiful.

I feel much better now. Link away, internets. :-)

A little bit of technical difficulty of this end of things today because OUR POWER HAS BEEN OUT since about 10 this morning.

I am now blogging from an undisclosed safehouse. With the thermostat on about 68.

Mercifully, Alex and I had just headed out on some errands when Billy Jack Bubba at the power company got a guide wire crossed with a main wire and blew out a grid that covers a good third of the county where we live. In the meantime, there was a three-alarm fire in downtown that knocked out service for 25,000 people in that area. So they’ve been a little strained, the folks at Alabama Power. Wouldn’t you love to be answering the phones there today?

And y’all know me – I do NOT do heat – so we’ve been to Walmart, bookstore, lunch, two libraries, the church, etc. The outage didn’t affect any of our “stomping grounds,” and for that I am more grateful than I can tell you. I ran home and got all of my meat out of the refrigerator and freezer – no sense in adding a little salmonella to the un-air conditioned festivities – and all our perishables are now safely squared away.

So we’re staying put, Alex and I, until we get the word not just that the power is back on, but that the house is cool. I don’t know about y’all, but the second, the very INSTANT that a power outage happens, I’m immediately just smothering to death from the imagined heat. Can’t breathe at all.

(I’m so not kidding about my aversion to being hot indoors. I grew up in Mississippi. I lived in south Louisiana for three years. I have deep-seeded heat and humidity issues. You people in Texas have to know what I’m talking about.)

Hey, good news. D. just called to tell me that we’re back in air conditioned business at home. Hopefully by the time Alex and I get there it’ll be nice and chilly inside…I just may get to post that Thursday Thirteen after all. See y’all in a little bit.

Updated to add: Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that on top of the power being out for most of the day, now Blogger won’t publish? Or save? AAAAAAAAAAARGH. I flail at ye, computer gods. And smite thee. Verily. :-)