Counted blessings

"In every thing, give thanks"
1 Thessalonians  5:18

It's been a rough week and today is the last day of my summer vacation.  I was feeling a bit bummed, so I decided to head outside with a cup of coffee and my laptop and enjoy the quiet of the morning on the patio swing while I try and get things into perspective.  As I closed my eyes to the sun shining in my face, I could hear the goats head butting each other as they play, a cow mooing for grain, a variety of birds chirping and the rooster crowing from the front yard.  Mixed in was an occasional tingle of wind chimes as the breeze picks up...I absolutely love these sounds!  Each one reminds me that I am HOME.  It's still quiet in the house and I know my three precious children are still asleep, snuggled together in the living room after a night of movies and popcorn.  The house is a wreck after many busy days and little motivation to clean, but we are blessed to have it, mess and all.  There is laundry to be done and dishes to wash, but that means we have clothes to wear and food to eat.  Tomorrow I go back to work. I will miss all the free time with my kids that I enjoy over the summer, but at least I'm going back to a job I love...one where I get to see my kids throughout the day while I am doing God's work.  My life IS good...God is good.  When things seem a bit dismal and I feel myself struggling hard to gain positive ground, it really does help to stop and count my blessings.  There are, after all, so many!

So long, Max

Max died today and I cried.  Seems as if I've been doing a lot of crying over animals of late. The price of living on a farm, I guess. I looked for quite awhile to find pictures of him and much to my dismay, I didn't have many. Why do we take so many pictures of pets when they are small and cute and not so many as they get older? I do have some "puppy" pictures of Max, but it was so long ago that they aren't digital! He would have been 14 years old in October...a long life for a lab-mix. Kevin got max from the Clarksville, TN Humane Society when he was just 6 weeks old. He was part of our lives before we got married, before we had children...he has been our sole obsession as well as one pet among dozens. We have had many, many pets over the years but Max has always been a constant. An obedient companion and a fierce protector. The UPS guy has been known to just drop the package over the gate because Max looked so ferocious. We never believed he could be so intimidating until we pulled up one day in a car he didn't recognize...WOW!

At any rate, Kevin and Raymond dug a hole tonight after church and we unceremoniously buried him. It's the first pet I can remember burying. Our kids took it pretty hard, especially Zachary...lots of tears. Funny how attached we can become to an animal, especially one that has truly become part of our family. We have promised them new animals, perhaps someday in the future; but for now, I'm not really up for it. Max was such a good dog, there will not be another like him and he will be mourned and missed.