I haven’t written in the last couple of weeks because we’ve been unbelievably busy!  3rd grade home days are whipping us and we don’t have time for much else it seems.  Add soccer and gymnastics into the mix and you’re left with some seriously exhausted kiddos and their mama by the end of the week!  On top of all that, we had 3 birthday parties and a soccer game last weekend and this past weekend we had a small party for P’s 9th birthday, baby dedication, and Baptism at church!

More than all the busyness though, I haven’t written because I’ve been struggling with some negativity.  When I started this blog, I was making a commitment to myself and my readers for it to be a source of encouragement and positive posting. Mama taught me if I didn’t have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all so I battled with my negative inner demons alone.  We’ve been hit hard the last couple of weeks with misfortunes and bad news that it’s been tough to maintain a positive attitude.  First with all the fiascos of the last post and then it seemed that slowly but surely everything else began to go wrong!

We found out my mother in law’s tumor had begun to grow back and we just aren’t sure what all of it means.  Waiting for weeks for test results, hoping to get her into a clinical trial, her not feeling well.  The kids want to see Grandma and it’s tough for her when she’s not feeling well so it’s been a stressful situation for my father in law and everyone else involved.  Then, after Dave’s blowout situation a couple of weeks ago, we had another truck mishap.  Last week he called and said he hit a cow and messed his truck up pretty badly.  Thank God he was okay, that big ole’ grill guard really helped block the impact of the 2,000 lb bovine but caused pretty severe damage to the truck.  We were waiting on the insurance representative to contact us so we could see what the next step would be.  We were pretty confident it was totaled because of the amount of damage that was done but after meeting with the insurance company yesterday, their preliminary estimates don’t point in the direction of totaled.  This is a bit disappointing to us as we are concerned about the condition of the truck after so many extensive repairs.  With as much as he travels, we just can’t risk him being in a vehicle that is in anything less than pristine running condition.  In between all this we got a contract on our home but it fell through when the buyers were offered a promotion that included a relocation, there was a misunderstanding that lead to some family tension, one of my very best friends had to admit her 5 year old daughter to the hospital for pneumonia and I can’t be there with her, and we discovered that our oldest daughter’s severe dyslexia was really giving her some problems in school.

With all of this bad news and tension surrounding our family, I was finding it extremely difficult to be positive!  But this morning, I was sitting around sulking about my bad series of misfortunes and attempting to sort through and purge some of my memos, texts, photos, etc from my phone.  I stumbled upon some church notes I had taken several months ago and decided to revisit the lesson.  Something my pastor said, as silly as it may have sounded at the time, stuck with me that day and made a profound effect on negative lil’ ole me.  He said “are you the type of person who sees the glass as half empty or half full, or are just happy that you have a glass at all?”  Wow!  Certainly on my negative days, I knew I was looking at the glass as half empty when I should be looking at it as half full but here I was patting myself on the back for doing great on my “positive” days because I was viewing the glass as half full.  HALF full!  Let’s analyze that for a second.

Half (as defined by dictionary.com): one of two equal or approximately equal parts of a divisible whole, as an object, or unit of measurer time; a part of a whole equal or almost equal to the remainder.

So when I say my glass is half full, I’m stating that my life is equally good and equally bad.  Let me review.  I’ve got 3 gorgeous children, amazing parents, a handsome hard working husband, 5 beautiful nieces, 1 handsome nephew, more incredible God fearing close friends than I can count on both hands, a roof over my head, a dependable vehicle to drive, clean clothes on my back, hot coffee in my cup, too much food on my plate, clean water to drink, and an amazing, wonderful, incredibly miraculous, all-knowing God to serve and that’s not enough for my cup to be more than “half full”?  I would say all that good in my life far outweighs the bad little bumps in the road.  Bad things happen, they’re inevitable.  Life isn’t always going to be peachy and that’s okay.  I’ll cling to the good and surrender the bad to God because he knows my strength more than I do and when I run out, he gives me His.  So today, I won’t see my glass as half empty, nor will I see it as half full.  Today I’m just going to be happy to have a glass at all!

Proverbs 3:5  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”

What is your glass looking like today?  Running a little low?  It’s okay, tomorrow is a new day and there are free refills all around!  Cheers!