Today I have a giant can of soup in my house.

Yup, today I have a 3 foot tall can of soup in my house. Doesn't everyone? You know you want one too! OK, I may not have obtained the huge soup can by completely legitimate means, but you have to admit that it looks kinda cool in my son's room.

You see, we were innocently traveling down the interstate yesterday (*days may have been changed to protect the not so innocent) looking forward to a happy family day. Suddenly, I spotted this gigantic soup can lying on the side of the road. I asked my husband about it and he said "Gigantic soup can, what soup can???". Yes, he was the one driving at the time but honestly how do you miss such a large soup can?

Well naturally I had to go on and describe this unusual site to him and I was pretty excited at this turn of events. My husband, being the good husband that he is, asked "do you want to go back and get it?" I looked at him stunned; I couldn't believe that he even asked me this; .... OF COURSE I wanted to go back and get it. What was he thinking?

So we took the next exit and got back on the interstate heading the other direction. At this point my kids are starting to ask me why we turned around. I simply tell them that we are going back to pick up a large soup can. I was hoping for a little more than an "OH". Seriously, you would think these kids have strange things happen to them everyday- then again, they do live with me...

As we were heading in the wrong direction on the interstate, we saw someone stopping at the exact same spot, getting out of their truck, and walk to the side of the road. I was devastated. I really wanted that humongous soup can for my house. We then had to get off at the next exit and turn around again. As I was chatting with my husband, I suddenly yelled. Not knowing what was wrong, he gave me one of those looks. I quickly explained that we just drove by the gigantic soup can AGAIN! I'll ask you again, how can you miss a giant soup can on the side of the road??? Well my devoted husband pulled his Avalanche over to the side of the road and backed up to the soup can (luckily he saw it this time). Apparently, the other people couldn't get it strapped to their truck so we are now the lucky owners of an enormous soup can. I'm a happy camper.

My husband jumps out and I quickly give my kids a very, very stern lecture about never getting out of the car on the interstate because it is very, very dangerous. Then I jump out. We get the can in the back of the truck and I hop back in. You know what is coming next. My precious daughter asks "mommy, if it is so dangerous to get out then why did you get out?" Thanks. I really just wanted to tell her to ask her father. Instead I redirect her by explaining how much practice my husband has had walking on the interstate because of his job and soon she forgets the original question (whew). We really did have a happy family day.

At this point I began to wonder about the 100's of people who drove by the very large soup can that didn't give it another thought. I can't believe that it was still there waiting for me. Why didn't anyone else take this opportunity to grab a super cool, super big soup can (say that 10 times fast). This makes me think about all of the other opportunities I have not taken note of this week. How many times did I loose the chance to encourage someone? How many nice words did I not say? How many good works did God set before me that I just chose to drive right by and never do? I think there are probably a lot. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:9-11 Today I am going to look for those good works and thank God that he has prepared them for me. How about you? Have you completed any good works that God has prepared for you today?

Today I believe that my behind has deflated.

I told you that I would post the good, the bad, and the ugly on my blog and today is the ugly. And before you ask, NO there will be no pictures posted of my posterior!!! You see I recently had a reason to take a very close look at my backside in a mirror and quite frankly was shocked at what I saw. OK, I admit it- you can even call me vain- but I have always been somewhat proud of my rear end. It was one of my better features, and when I saw the cold ugly truth, it hit me pretty hard. After all, I am in my mid thirties and I have had two children but if the truth be told, I never even contemplated the idea that gravity would actually take affect on MY derriere. Those things just happen to other people, right??? OK, so maybe over the summer I did not exercise as much as I had before. It is possible that I was a little lazy, but could things really change that fast???

At some point in the last few days, I must have been bitten by a spider on the back of my leg. It itched. I mean it really itched, and I probably looked rather ridiculous to the man at the red light watching me squirm around on my seat trying to drive my car- but that is another story... So once I had the chance, I decided to look in my full length mirror and see exactly what was causing me so much discomfort. At first my attention was placed only on the red itchy bump, but then I noticed it, I had that sinking feeling- no wait, it wasn't a sinking feeling- it was a sinking body part! Not just any body part but my best body part. (Yes, I realize that we have already covered that- but it really did surprise me.) I realized that things really can change fast.

Well, I went to talk to my next door neighbor about this complaint, as I do with all complaints, hoping she could give me some comfort. She did give me some encouragement and hope. We talked about the fact that all was not lost. For instance, we have been walking together in the morning wearing our "special" shoes. These shoes have a rounded sole that really does help get your gluteus maximus working hard but they sure are ugly! Thankfully, I talked my neighbor into buying a pair for our walks so that now I am not the only one on the road looking "special". Between walking, more Pilate's, and squats, we determined that I can indeed get that junk out of my trunk. In truth, it will take a little time to build up the muscle again but it can be done.

That is when I started thinking about other areas of my life that have become deflated. The truth is that when we do not work on our relationship with God, it too will loose its strength. Let me tell you- it can happen fast! When I don't set aside time for prayer, Bible reading, or even meditation on the holiness of God, my spiritual life will inevitably deflate too. Our relationship with God needs to be deliberate and something we work on. It is hard to be reminded of but just like lack of exercise can cause certain body parts to droop, not spending time with God will cause our strength in Christ to droop. So how are you doing today? Is your spiritual life deflated or are you strong in Christ? Set aside that time to keep yourself strong because finding yourself deflated is a surprise you don't want.

Today I killed my son's frog- oops!

Yes, I have missed another mother of the year opportunity by killing my son's pet frog. For those of you who have been following this blog for a while, you already know I have long history with animal tragedies (just one example would be when our beagle completely consumed my daughter guinea pig last year). If you haven't already read these accounts, you can find them in the archives of the blog. I believe the sheer number of problems I have had with animals really isn't my fault. After all, anyone who has so many animals would statistically have the same number of problems as me - right???



OK, I won't lie... I don't really miss the frog. This thing was ugly, I mean really ugly. So ugly that kids would come over for play dates just to look at this strange looking frog. It was some sort of albino, African, bumpy, paper-like skinned water frog. Thankfully it didn't smell, but the tank would grow a lot of algae, this frog laid copious amount of eggs almost every month and once the frog food somehow hatched these ugly white worms in the water!!! With all of that being said, would you believe me when I tell you I honest forgot that you aren't supposed to use soap to clean the tank? I'm telling you the truth, really!!!



You see, I like to use OxiClean. It works pretty well and I had mixed up a bucket to clean some spots on the carpet. Well, I had some left over and being Dutch meant I was required to use the rest of the bucket- I couldn't throw it away (the horror). I looked around my house and saw a filthy frog tank. It was perfect. I knew the OxiClean would go right to work on all of that algae. Somewhere in the back of my mind said that this was not a good idea, but why on earth should I waste the half full bucket of soap?



I carefully scooped the slithering, jerky, frog out of the tank and put it in a container for holding. I (OK, really my husband- that tank was heavy) moved the tank to our shower so I could fully wash it out. Let me tell you, I was feeling rather brilliant when that algae just disappeared with the mix of OxiClean and the tank virtually sparkled! I did have a little trouble rinsing it though, and that is when I remembered that these frogs have very fragile skin that absorbs any chemical present in the habitat (by the way, habitat is a third grade vocabulary word- you are impressed aren't you?). I did try and give the tank an extra rinse and thought it would be OK. I returned everything to the tank, including the frog, and all seemed well.



Now the tragedy, later I went into my son's room and actually said to him "Whew, look at how clean that tank is! I don't think I have ever seen it so clean!!!" At this point I was feeling pretty good about myself. I have never claimed to be able to cook, but I can get things clean if they need to be. I was thrilled with myself, that is until I noticed that the frog was swollen to about two times its normal size. Oh, no. I told my son that "mommy may have done something to hurt your frog accidentally." He asked "do you think it might die?" I had to respond "NO, it might not die, I think it already did". Fortunately, he was not too upset. We are currently in negotiations with Daddy about getting another animal for the fish tank. He thinks we have too many animals already- can't understand why...



Since my son's frog croaked (you knew I had to throw that joke in there), I started thinking about how, as mothers, our houses may look clean but we are all hiding a lot of junk. You see, I thought having a clean looking tank was best, but it really ended up killing the frog. I am studying the book The Power of a Positive Mom with a good friend on Wednesday nights. Last night we looked at the idea that a positive mom is not a perfect mom! What? Is that idea Biblical? You bet, and we need to tell each other that more often! How often do we clean our "tanks" trying to show everyone how good things are at our house, only to discover later that the very act of sparkling our houses up caused more harm than good. We need to be honest with our friends, we need people to support us, we need people to pray for us. I deeply value my time with this very good friend each week because she knows the dirt in my life and loves me anyway. It is because she knows the dirt in my life that our relationship is so deep! The strength that God has provided for me through this relationship is amazing. I encourage you to let the dirt show in your house because God will bless that vulnerability. Don't be tempted to just let people see a sparkling life today, not showing the dirt might just hurt you even more.