The Stink Coming from the Dryer

Two days ago I was tackling a serious amount of laundry.

Serious because Ellie waits until she has practically nothing left clean before she brings her hamper(s) to the laundry room.

Ellie texted me from school that it had been brought to her attention that there was a significant rip in the bottom of her jeans and she needed me to bring her a new pair.

I had lots of questions but I only asked one,

"Where should I look for jeans because I just put 

400 pair in the wash?"

She told me to look in her room.

Which ended up meaning

  in the pile of clothes on her floor.

She instructed me to send her a picture of which jeans I was bringing so she could approve.

Like she wasn't sitting at school with a large rip in the buttock region of her jeans.

I put her name on a post-it note and stuck it on the jeans in a grocery sack and drove to the school.

It wasn't until I saw the humorless face of the woman at the school office that I realized I hadn't prepared what to say.

I saw a table of teenage boys sitting within earshot.

My first instinct was to say,

"My daughter blew out her jeans so I brought another pair."

Luckily, my filter caught that in time 

since "blew out" could mean all manner of things.

Horrid things.

Ellie already is the girl that threw up in English class last year.

She can't be the girl that blew out her jeans too.

I blurted out,

"My daughter needed new pants. So… I brought her… new pants."

Frankenstein would've seemed articulate in comparison.

The lady's eyebrows went up and it dawned on me that I had not done the better thing just a different variety of bad thing.

I turned around, threw the bag on a bench with all the forgotten sacks of lunch 

and practically ran out the door.

I went home and resumed my laundry duties.

As I was pulling clothes out of the dryer I detected a stink.

These were clean clothes.

I took a sniff and they seemed to be absorbing the same stink the dryer was emitting.

Like mildew farts.

I texted Monte.

He did some research and thought maybe it was a build up of lent in our vent pipe 

and he called someone to come clean it out.

The next morning Ellie hollered down the stairs that all her jeans I had washed smelled like death and asked if she could borrow a pair of mine.

First of all, I was flattered she felt any of my jeans were borrow-worthy. 

And the halls of high school-worthy

Second of all, ALL  4 LOADS of laundry 

were a cesspool of stink.

I was busy preparing the house for a spa party some moms and I were hosting to pamper the girl Young Life leaders in our area.

I had moved some furniture in our living room to put three inflatable pool floats for lounging during facials.

I let the worker guy in and his first impression of my house was this:

The tennis ball touch was all Nigel.

My first instinct was to say nothing. Let the guy think this is our thing. A room full of inflatable pool floaties. No. Big. Deal.

But after the school secretary debacle the day before, I didn't have any confidence in my first instinct.

So I overexplained the whole party.

He was super sweet and feigned interest.

Before we even made it into the laundry room he shook his head and said we had a dead animal somewhere.

I told him I'd be upstairs if he needed me.

Shortly thereafter, he came upstairs holding a grocery sack (ironically, just like the one I brought Ellie's "new pants" in).

He said, 

"Those were two of the biggest rats 

I've ever seen."

I'm not sure why, 

but I asked if they were dead.

I think our neighbors could clearly smell that they were indeed dead but I just wanted to make sure.

The rat infestation of Summer 2017 left its mark on me.

The worker explained how the rats entered the vent on the side of our house to probably escape all the rain we'd been having and then slid down the steep vent pipe feeding into our dryer in the basement.

It was too steep and slick to climb back up.

He told me he could tell I hadn't done laundry in awhile because the dryer heat would've cooked the rats and they would not have smelled.

But before I could get mad at the jab at my laundry schedule, he said it was a good thing 

because the decomposing rats let us know they were there.

Really?! 

Roasted rat doesn't have its own kind of distinct aroma?!

It all hit me at once.

I'd been noticing lots of lint in the lint trap and even behind the dryer.

The rats were SO GINORMOUS 

they were plugging up the vent pipe.

 I had 4 loads of clothes upstairs that wreaked of 

cooked-on rat death.

I was hosting a tranquil, peaceful spa party that very night.

And you know what doesn't smell like a spa?

Decomposing rodents.

The worker then went through all the things that would need cleaned and replaced and he gave me a price and asked if he should proceed.

I told him for the love of Pete, yes. Proceed. PROCEED!

I didn't even run it by Monte because,

RATS.

Then I texted a friend who lives downtown that I might be moving in.

As I was walking the worker to the front door after he'd finished and he had been paid, he turned to me and said,

"You know, what you are doing for these girls tonight, 

you will be rewarded in heaven."

I was so caught off-guard that I was struck silent.

This was the man that pulled TWO HUGE DEAD RATS from my dryer vent.

I hope God has an extra-special reward planned for him!

Then I noticed he left the vent piece he had to replace in one of my flower pots by the front door.

It smelled exactly like the graveyard of two huge rats.

Monte came home with the biggest rat traps legally sold and a large bottle of Febreeze.

I quickly rewashed all the wash cloths I intended to steam in the crock pot for facials, 

because the stench of hot, wet, dead rodent all up in your face 

would not bring out ones best calm or relaxing self.

I sent Monte to the garage to get some ice from the refrigerator when his nose figured out where the worker had disposed of the dead rats.

The scent wafted right into the house with him when he said he was walking to the field close to our house.

Yes, he chucked the rats right back from whence they came.

Then he Febreezed the garage like it was his job.

Later, after much diffusing of essential oils and liberal squirts of Febreeze, someone asked me how I got the house to smell just like a spa.

Again, my first instinct was to say something like,

"Well, you start with two huge dead rats and end with Febreeze."

But, I still didn't trust those first instincts so I just said,

"Essential oils. LOTS of essential oils."

Just

I love my prayer group. 

We laugh, cry and lean on one another.

We are a group of high school moms who gather once a week to pray for our kids, the school, the community and each other.

There's been a lot to pray about in the last two weeks.

While we were praying this morning, one of the ladies got a text from a friend asking for prayer because her son's school was on lockdown due to a threat. Her friend's son texted her that they'd moved a heavy cabinet in front of his classroom's door and he thought he was safe.

Thought he was safe?!

We immediately redirected our prayers.

We usually pray around a different attribute of God each week.

This week was "Just".

As in, God is just.

One who is right or fair, impartial, 

correct, true and upright.

In a climate where a teenage boy "thinks" he is safe locked in a classroom with a cabinet in front of the door,

where parents have to get panicked texts from kids huddled together in a classroom closet,

and some who don't 

because the worst has already happened,

it is hard to find the fairness 

or right of it all.

But we kept praying.

When we finished, one of our dear sweet friends pointed out that the word "Just" is the 'J' of Jesus and the 't' is the cross, with us in the middle.

I jumped up to write it down so I wouldn't forget.

God knows this is all too much for us to understand.

That's why He sent His son.

He sent him to die for us on the cross 

so we could be forgiven of our sins 

and have eternal life.

Jesus is for us.

He's with us.

And He is Just.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5-6

"The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

25-26 God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness."

Romans 3:23-26 MSG

* The teenage boy we prayed for is fine and a juvenile is in custody after the incident.

Stranger Things Have Happened in a Waffle House Parking Lot I'm Sure

I met a friend for breakfast this morning at Waffle House.

As I was heading to my car afterward,  

I noticed a plastic skeleton hand lying in the parking lot 

next to a cigarette butt.

It seemed to tell a complete story.

I wanted to take a picture of it 

but it was raining hard

and the point was pretty much already made.

Although I still have a few follow up questions.

Why just the skeleton hand?

Is there a full skeleton sitting in the passenger seat of a car 

RIGHT NOW missing its right hand?

Why the skeleton in February?

Is this about more than cigarettes and Waffle House?

Anyhoo…

I thought I'd mention a few things I've been digging lately.

1. Stranger Things

Ellie suggested we watch this as a family back in January. My brother told me I'd love it since it's set in the 80s and a small town in Indiana. (So basically, my life.)

It's soooo good! 

Like E.T. and Goonies good, except Ellie likes it. 

(We could never get our girls interested in 

watching The Goonies and they HATED E.T.)

The writing is funny, thrilling and just flat-out entertaining. And it has the best theme music EVER.

I will warn you:  this isn't for kids. There's language and situations that's intense. It's not horror scary; it's suspenseful. There's some jump moments and I had to watch the next to last episode of season 2 alternating between crouching down behind my kitchen island and hiding behind the living room French doors. (Because I'm THAT brave.)

But it's SO WORTH IT. You will love the cast. 

I'm not sure how we are going to be able to wait 

until the next season comes out 

since they haven't even started filming it yet!

CONS: Monte and I did have a few nightmares and we've become super suspicious of a few buildings near our house that we've never really paid attention to before. But I always have crazy dreams and maybe it's high time we start wondering what those satellites are for by that building so close to our house. And maybe that skeleton hand in the parking lot of Waffle House was a signal to me from the Upside Down.

2. The Crown/Victoria

Monte and I started watching both of these shows before Ellie suggested Stranger Things. Our viewing was almost exclusively Victoria on PBS and The Crown on Netflix when I started dreaming in a British accent.

First of all, both of these shows prove how little we know about global history--especially the history of the monarch. 

And boy, England didn't like Ireland much.

The acting in both shows is superb. Both queens are young when they take over the throne and until recently, Queen Victoria was the longest reigning monarch in the United Kingdom's history. Now it is Queen Elizabeth.

It's so interesting how both characters, almost a century apart, struggled with the sovereignty of their position and the submission of being a wife. Neither of their husbands handled that well--especially Phillip. What a cry sack! 

John Lithgow as Winston Churchill in The Crown is fantastic!

 I actually might seek out a biography to learn more about Churchill.

We haven't finished season 2 yet of The Crown because, THE OLYMPICS, but hope to soon. We are all caught up on Victoria as it is on PBS and we have to wait a week between each episode like we are Neanderthal man.

CONS:  The Crown seems hopelessly slow after Stranger Things. Victoria is slightly more fast paced. But my heart (and my dreams) needed the slow down. The accents make some of the dialogue tough to keep up with so we finally started using closed captioning so we could read what they were saying. Game changer. Again, it has helped our lessons in history. For example, the potato famine was a real thing!

3. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

This is an Amazon series with only one season currently out. Monte and I blew through the first season very quickly. It's that good! It's set in 1950s New York with a young Jewish mom who's husband just left her. She quickly realizes her college degree in Russian literature probably isn't going to get her a lucrative job so through a series of interesting events, she tries out stand-up comedy. 

It's very interesting how they show what was happening in comedy at the time. Comedians were getting arrested for language and certain topics. And the idea of a female comedian was not well received. 

This show is very funny. The main character is so charming and her quick delivery of lines is perfect. Her wardrobe is the stuff Barbie dreams of.

Tony Shalhoub plays the father and steals many a scene.

CONS:  This has some serious language in it. It's so not necessary and I hope there's less of it next season. Because of course I'll be watching.

4. Hart of Dixie

Ok. I have to just call this what it is. And this is a slightly racier version of a Hallmark movie except in a series format. 

There's a city slicker New York doctor who finds herself in a small southern town called Bluebell. There's tons of town festivals and traditions. There's likable quirky characters like the southern belle snot named Lemon and an ex-NFL player mayor who also just happens to own an alligator named Burt Reynolds. Hilarity ensues.

It checks a lot of boxes for me. 

Mainly that I don't have to hide behind the kitchen island to watch it. Ever. 

And I don't have to worry about learning a lesson in history. 

Unless you count that Bluebell celebrates Planksgiving instead of Thanksgiving 

because of their rich pirate history, frying up a bunch of fish in the town square 

instead of the traditional turkey.

Except you really shouldn't.

CONS:  It's cheesy. We are two seasons into the 4-series show and we still aren't sure we like the main character. But, just like a Hallmark Christmas movie, you keep watching to see what happens because it's relaxing in a mind-numbing non challenging way. 

Just to prove that I haven't been exclusively watching television, I want to mention some movies and books I've enjoyed too but I'll have to save that for another post since dinner isn't going to make itself. 

That's Love

This isn't about Valentine's Day.

Or sappy songs.

But this notion that we can love 

yet not accept God.

We are in a season where I think we all need to just take a minute and remember to love.

Not because it's February.

But because we were first loved.

God IS love.

Not just, God is loving.

Or God is a great example of love.

GOD. IS. LOVE.

His entire being is wrapped up in and all about love.

Therefore, we cannot love anything or anyone apart from Him.

He is the source.

He is love.

"We love because he first loved us."

1 John 4:19

My study notes in the NIV bible says about this verse that all love comes ultimately from God; genuine love is never self-generated by his creatures.

So, whether you want to acknowledge God or not, 

love comes from Him.

"And now these three remain:  faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

1 Corinthians 13:13

Since God IS love, it stands to reason that love will outrank and outlast anything else.

It is the guiding principle of EVERYTHING we are called to do.

When we let fear, anger or pride take the wheel, things take a turn and we end up somewhere we never intended to go.

We can speak eloquently,

possess incredible intelligence 

and have powerful faith 

but if we do not have love?

We are a just a loud clanging noise.

We are NOTHING. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

Because the greatest thing we can do is love.

How do we love?

Get to know the source.

Read God's love letter to us in His word.

Talk to him through prayer.

Accept his love for you 

and feel it overflow in your heart so it spills over into 

how you love those around you.

If you haven't noticed, the world is filled with evil.

People are hurting.

People are shouting.

People are angry.

I actually read today on social media that someone was demanding others to stop saying to hurting people that they are in their "thoughts and prayers."

Because it didn't "do anything."

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

James 5:16b

Please join me in praying for all those involved in the school shooting in Ft. Lauderdale AND for those who want us NOT to pray. 

Not to be spiteful

but to be loving.

Whether you love God or not, 

He is already, 

right now, 

loving YOU.

In fact, He loves you so much that he's engraved your name on the palms of his hands. (Isaiah 49:16)

And he delights over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

And he loved this crazy world with you in it so much that he gave his only son to die for us so we can have eternal life. (John 3:16)

That's forever.

That's love.

SOURCE

My Eye and the Lamp

I came home from church last Sunday and got all set to read on the couch. My eye started to bother me so I decided to take my contacts out.

Even with my contacts out, my right eye felt like there was something in it.

Something like glass, 

jagged rocks 

or gasoline.

My eye would not stop tearing up.

It hurt to open it and it hurt to close it.

I would like to go on the record to say that pain in the eye is STOP THE WORLD pain.

I couldn't do anything. 

I have tennis elbow and it hurts CONSTANTLY.

But I still live my life.

This eye situation had me at a standstill.

Luckily, we have an eye doctor for a neighbor but she wasn't home. She was able to tell Monte a type of natural tears eye drops to purchase at the pharmacy.

Monte decided to go ahead and ask about an eye patch 

while he was there.

I totally would've worn it. 

I was that desperate and in pain.

Isn't it interesting that our first instinct in pain 

is to cover it up?

The pharmacist did not recommend the eye patch in case I had an infection and bacteria would certainly spread under the warm conditions of a patch over the eye.

The eye drops helped me stop tearing up constantly but my eye was pretty swollen and sore.

I went to the eye doctor in the morning.

He kept asking me questions trying to figure out what happened to me.

I couldn't help because I had no idea.

He asked me to number my pain.

I gave it a 10 and he reacted like I had just answered with a letter.

I dislike any question that seems like 

there are no wrong answers 

until you answer it 

and get a wrong answer reaction.

I wanted to point out that I'd had two babies and would gladly have 12 more to not have one more second of that eye pain.

But I wanted to move on to the part where my eye was going to get fixed.

It was determined that I had two divots in my eye.

"Like golf," the doctor explained.

Not good.

Especially since I CANNOT THINK 

of what whacked two holes in my eyeball.

He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic eye drop and told me to wear my glasses exclusively.

He told me to change out all my makeup just in case there was a reaction.

As I was leaving, he asked if I had prescription sunglasses, I said no but that I had big sunglasses and I'd just stick them over my glasses.

I got the wrong answer face again.

For the record, he was right about that not working. 

I pulled into the grocery store on a sunny day 

and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. 

My sunglasses didn't quite fit over my regular glasses and were pretty crooked.

I looked like I had either just had a liquid lunch 

or had been in a fight.

Or both.

When I went in for my follow up eye appointment I told the doctor the sunglasses over top of the glasses wasn't cutting it.

He gave me a role of sun blocking film to slide under my lenses.

He told me it wasn't a super great look 

but I was just going for something other than 

"drunken bar brawler" 

so it was all FINE BY ME.

During the follow up visit, the doctor was amazed at my progress. He commented that I shouldn't be this far along in my recovery and I fell in the 1% of people whose body healed quickly.

I was about to explain that 1% in my family's medical history meant something 

entirely different but I just took the win.

I walked outside this morning to see our street light looked a little different.

It was a post with no lamp on it.

The lamp was at the base of the post. I inspected to see if the glass was broken from a fall.

It wasn't.

It was then that I looked down the street to see ALL the lamp posts missing their lamps.

It was SO EERIE.

And not just because we've been watching Stranger Things.

But partly.

Clearly the city is doing some maintenance on the lamp posts but a street full of lampless posts is just, lacking.

[Anyone else humming "This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine?"]

We depend on that light to guide us home and help light our way on dog walks.

Just like I depended on my right eye to, 

you know, 

SEE.

It's not until it doesn't that we notice.

I certainly have taken eyesight for granted.

And well-lit streets.

And many other things, 

I'm sure.

It made me think of the verse in Psalm 119:105

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."

David had it right when he said in 2 Samuel 22:26, 

"You are my lamp, O LORD;

the LORD turns my darkness into light."

"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. when your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness."

Luke 11:33-34

["Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."]