The good life.....with a donkey and a refridgerator.

We are starting to plan for building again!

Steve has been busily making changes to our original design (of over a year ago) and I must say that I am starting to get really excited again. It really feels right this time and I ...eh hem.....have had to have a little attitude adjustment. Before, when we were planning the house, I got sort of OCD. I know, I know, hard to believe. Me? Obsessed or compulsive about something? It's so far off base it's hard to even imagine. Just try.

So, now that I decided to take a more Marian approach, things are going MUCH better. I am finding changes here and there to be fine, even, dare I say, great. I'm open to them all--well, I did have to veto someone's suggestion of having TWO refrigerators in the kitchen. That, quite honestly, seemed a bit excessive. I could see a mini fridge for all of our Schmidt, but to have a whole other full size refrigerator? Come on, now.

So...on with the house plans, and the three months that it take to get a permit to build in this county, and we'll be rockin'! Life is so good, so busy and so blessed. We really are truly blessed. It's really not fair. I don't think we have done anything to deserve all of the gifts God has given us. In fact, I can think of a few things I have done in my lifetime that make a good case for God to smite me.

So, in aspiring to take a more Marian approach in my life, I am leading the group (hopefully) of people who will be outside our local Family Planning clinic tomorrow. The American Life League and many bishops throughout the country have pushed for the first Monday in October to become the official Pro-Life Memorial Day, where we gather in silence to remember those lost to abortion and those mothers suffering the effects of abortion. Not a day to picket, or to be a loud presence at all. Just a day to wear red and gather outside these clinics. I sent out an email to about 30 people. I am a realist. I am fully aware that we'll be lucky if we get 10 people out there in total. But, we will trudge on--we'll trudge on for the 47,000,000 children we will never have the pleasure to know.

I'm not in the clouds. I know this is a really, really, really tough subject. It's tough to get people to even talk about, let alone stand outside a clinic. I truly don't expect everyone to feel excited about it or even just okay with it. My own husband seems really nervous. He has never done anything like this before and, frankly, I have only done it twice myself. But, I know that we can't grow toward God as long as everything always feels good and comfortable. We just can't. That's a relationship with God of our making, not of His. He wants us to stretch high, reach for Him. Reach higher than we think our arms can stretch. He'll meet us the rest of the way, easing the load somewhat, but we just can't ever stop reaching.

So, I am going to go now, get on the donkey that Joseph, I mean Steve, wants me to ride and prepare for an amazing life.

....a humble life, with only one refridgerator in the kitchen.