Apathetic

I'm not normally the type to be apathetic. As a matter of fact, I am rarely lukewarm about life. I find joy in many things...our kids, our home, our church, my marriage. I have much to be grateful for, and much to appreciate. But the last few months I have found myself on a bit of a downward emotional slant. You know when your're going down a slide with shorts on a hot day and your legs kinda stick so you don't go flying down? That's kinda how I feel. Not like I'm on a big roller coaster of emotions, but that I'm just kind of slipping downward a bit. I've been exhausted. That could be related to the five children running mad around our house and constantly needing attention. Or, it could be something else.

The other night as I was reading my Bible, I got to thinking about where I'm at in my relationship with God. I realized that maybe the melancholy I am feeling should be attributed to my stagnant faith life right now. I think I may have slipped into complacency. During the school year, I am involved in an inductive Bible study that keeps me digging through scripture for answers and seeking out a deeper relationship with the Lord. I am balancing schooling and cooking and cleaning and being a wife and a mom with my number one priority...God. But this summer has been nothing but enjoyment with my family. That's not a bad thing, though. I mean, how many people would do just about anything to have a husband home for 2 months and loads of fun activities planned all summer long? We've been thoroughly enjoying the time off. But what did I do with the Lord? I'm ashamed to admit I have fallen into the trap of "bare bones." I read my Bible each night, but then what? I'm not stretching my faith. I'm not actively seeking Him out throughout the day. I'm not being persecuted or forced into deepening my faith.

Yesterday after I told Superman how I was feeling, he insisted that I hide for 30 minutes and spend some quality time with God. That was in the morning...all day things came up. The kids needed tending to, dishes needed to be washed (or the pile would quickly grow into a mountain), laundry needed to be done, we had errands to run. Finally, almost at bed time, he forced me into our room and told me not to come out for a 1/2 hour.

I sat there staring at the wall for the first five minutes. I flipped through my Bible, trying to find something applicable to how I was feeling. I went to the back and looked up all the verses related to "discouragement," "faith," "separation" and "God's love." Nothing was really hitting home for me. I put my Bible down and decided to write out a prayer to the Lord. I laid it all out...I apologized for my selfishness and for letting my worldly responsibilities take over my life. And I begged Him to draw me close so I could feel that same fire I often feel when I am right in my walk with Him.

It was nice. I think I realized just how much life's responsibilities can interfere with my relationship with God. Now, I just need to remember how to put my daily tasks onto the back burner and deepening my relationship with Him to the front. I think it's time for me to make a change.

Chicken Little {{Graphic}}, My birthday, and 12 years of wedded bliss

So once again, two weeks has gone by and I'm not sure how. There's been lots of activity around here...

As promised, here is a visual account of our adventurous chicken slaughter a few weeks back.
My brother and I really had no idea what we were doing. We watched some tutorials online, but there's no real understanding until you've actually done the deed.

We were a bit worried that he wouldn't get the head cut off with one swoop, but in the end, he did a great job...

I just couldn't keep my eyes open. It's like how eyes automatically shut when you sneeze...it was just an automatic reflex. But, as you can see, he cut clean through!

People always use the term "running around like a chicken with its head cut off," but I really underestimated just how much she would be flopping around. She was flopping so much I couldn't hold her down and had to take off running!

Yes, she made it all the way over there all by herself...and with no head, to boot!

Airborne!

Finally done.

Draining.


Placing her into a scalding bath to loosen the feathers.

She was only supposed to be in there for 90 seconds, but it ended up being close to 3 minutes...I think that may have played a role in the toughness of the meat.

Plucking the feathers was actually quite a bit easier than I thought!




All the icky stuff.

My bro with his finished product:

Aw, she was a good little chicken...


My 32nd birthday was on July 1st.

We spent the morning picking blackberries and got $1 large sodas (which our kids never get!) at McDonald's.

Miss G just got water. Shh, she doesn't know!

My running partners gave me a gift certificate to a local cupcake shop. You know what these are? ROOT BEER FLOAT cupcakes! I kid you not. Seriously divine. I threw my "no sugar" vow out the window for my birthday. I figured I'd enjoy it while I could.

Superman's grandparents were really generous and gave me some spending money for my birthday. I decided to get a food dehydrator with some of the dough, and it's my new best friend (aside from my Kindle). =) We've dried some plums, and I'm making plum/blackberry fruit rolls as I type.


Kids eat free at Carrows every day for the summer, so we decided to go out one night. You get one free kids meal for every adult entree purchased, so Mr. C decided to draw a mustache on himself so he could pass as a grown up. It must have worked, because the waitress didn't even question us. He is pretty convincing, afterall...

And being that yesterday was 7/11, it was free Slurpee day at 7-11. It's become a tradition that every year for our anniversary (which just happens to fall on that day), we really splurge and go get the whole family free Slurpees. Mmmm....watermelon.

I'm really excited about a speaker who we are flying out to speak to our adoption network in November. I'll share more about her next week!