We're MOVING AGAIN!

But this time? This time it's not furniture... no moving van required. We're simply moving the blog from Blogger to Wordpress.  If you're following us on Bloglovin you should be good to go. If you're on RSS feed, make sure you go to the new site (same on the web) www.perhapsthis.com and click on the newsletter link! Hope to see you there!

Cheering for you,

XOXO,
Karen

To Hear God's Heart...

This year has started off fabulously. 

Mostly fabulously. 

Kinda fabulously? Nah, I'll stick with fabulously.

The kids are adjusting so well I can hardly believe it. LH brought home a stack full of tests with A's on them. In fact they're adjusting so well that I launched into my very own pity party.

"Okay Lord. We have some friends for them. Now where are mine?"

As women... how do I put this without stepping on toes... sometimes we're kinda mean. And kinda unforgiving. Unmerciful. And judgmental! It's no secret that I miss my circle of friends dearly. I want to scoop them all up into a giant

The Newest Enrollees In The Witness Protection Program

SEVEN times in seventeen years. That's how many times the hubs and I have moved.

We're not in the military. We don't have an aversion to staying put that I'm aware of.

I'm starting to wonder if the hubs is secretly enrolled in the witness protection program. What did he witness? Me vacuuming the house that one time in 1997? (I couldn't tell you how to work our vacuum. Perhaps if there were a mafia person in my living room that said, "Vacuum up these cheerios or say goodbye to Twitchy Bigglesworth," then I could probably at least figure out how to turn it on. Probably.)

Who moves that many times?

It was all for good reason.

Do You Need A Second Chance?

Ahhh, Jonah. You know him. You love him. The whole "stuck in a whale belly for three days" gig. Who doesn't know the story of Jonah? Well just in case you don't, here's the scoop. In Jonah 1:2-3, God told Jonah,

2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Calming Your Anxious Heart's To Do List

Does anyone else get anxious when you realize you are entering the "last part" of your daily planner for the year?  As in, that moment when you realize that you only have this small fraction of an inch left to accomplish the goals you set for yourself in January?

For me, it's the part to the right of the orange divider. Everything to the left is the year-to-date.Yes, it makes me anxious. It makes me want a bigger to-do-list. Subconsciously, I begin calculating how many hours I need to cut out of my sleep each night to make the rest of the year count. My throat swells up and literally, my brain starts racing with thoughts of what to do and when.

{Blessed are the anxious for they shall inherit many grey hairs... }

Even worse, I start thinking about what's undone. 

You know,  what I "should have" accomplished by now. 

When You Can't Hear God

Sometimes I call out to my kids in another room and there is no answer. Deafening silence. Surely, there's a great reason for completely ignoring the angelic voice of their mother, right? As I traipse off the their rooms to find the reason they're ignoring my calls, I see right away what the problem is. They've got these giant headphones strapped onto their noggins, the volume of whichs drowns out the voice of the one who birthed them. 

As soon as they take off the headphones, they can hear me loud and clear.

On Being A Shoe Noticer...

My heart is sad over the loss of Robin Williams this morning. For my friends in other countries who may not recognize the name, he was an American actor and comedian who recently committed suicide. The nation was shocked because he played roles that were funny. He was known for playing family roles, heartwarming roles, and roles that were both. No one could understand why or how this happened, since he has had a successful long-standing career and even had four future films that are already complete waiting for the world to see them. Without an enemy in the world, you'd think he'd have it all, yet here was this icon who was battling depression. What did he have to be depressed about?

Yes, You Can Weather The Storm You're In Right Now

This week I felt like melting into a puddle of tears and... well, tears. The straw that broke the proverbial camel's back was when the landlord for our current home told me he has on file that our contract is a year longer than I have on file. A stinking YEAR! Pile that on to existing stress of living in two households (and desiring to be in one, just to clarify), PAYING for two households, hearing my children ask "but why can't you come to parent night at VBS, mommy? Do you think you could drive home for the night?" Which is an adorably endearing request but in reality looks like this: get off at 3:30, drive 3.5 hours home to be two hours late for a program, watch the last 20 minutes, give kisses and hugs, and turn back around to make the 3.5 hour trip back to my temporary home, get in at midnight, sleep 5 hours, get up for work, work 8 hours, and drive back home 3.5 hours for the weekend. 

God, Out Of The Box.

I finally figured it out. I have been in a funk for the past week, but couldn't quite put my finger on why.

There's a guy at work, I'll call him Mr. W. He told me about a book that he read where the author was a pastor of a certain denominational congregation, and he converted from his existing congregation to join this new church. His book encourages others to do the same, and he's very good at persuasion - so much so that my friend at work is now prompting me to purchase this book and join the movement.  To be fair, I listened to him tell the story of why this book was fabulous. I probably shouldn't have listened or nodded as much as I did, but I listened.

Waiting on God's Plan For You... STILL?

My kids LOVE baking cookies. Yes, I know you can make them from scratch, and every Christmas season we get out the mixing bowls, chocolate chips, and end up covered in flour from head to toe. But for normal everyday life, we go for the good ol’ roll of cookie dough that comes from the grocery store. We’ve got a plan: cookie sheets, cookies, spatula, and a pre-set oven. We slice some dough off the roll (sometimes sneaking a nibble from one or two) and lay the chunks neatly in rows on the cookie sheet. Into the oven they go, with expectant eyes peering through the glass on the oven door.

Dance Like Nobody's Watching... Part 2

Dress rehearsals. They're the final run-through before the big show. If you don't have it by then you're probably not gonna get er done. Unless...

****************

ACT I: The Arrival

Friday afternoon, I left work early and drove the 3.5 miles home with all intentions of arriving at the rehearsal early. After stopping at the dance supply store to get a last-minute item, I headed over to the concert hall, changed clothes and had about 20 minutes to spare. I am not normally the one who gets ANYWHERE early, so to intentionally leave early with the intent of arriving early is crazy in and of itself. 

ACT II: The Rehearsal

Dance Like Nobody's Watching...

Last year, I must have gone absolutely crazy because I did something I've never done before. I signed up for an adult dance class, and danced in my first recital. My daughter dances there, and our studio offers several classes for moms. Mind you, I dance in the kitchen with the broom, or around the living room with the kids, but I'd never put on a ballet slipper. Ever.

Well last year, I did. And I loved it. This year, I decided to be brave and sign up for two. Why not, right? So I picked jazz (not the best idea for someone who is as uncoordinated as I am) and lyrical (it looked pretty, why not?)... at least, that was my logic at the time.

Fast forward 9 months.

Just-In-Case Faith

Have you ever truly examined your faith? No matter what it is, whether moving across the country, starting a new business, applying to college, or even looking for God to provide daily needs, it all needs faith.

This week has been immensely stressful. First I was on the island, then booted off the island. We keep searching for houses in our new town, even though we've already found the one we love. Why?

Just. In. Case.

Just in case... what? Hubs asked me why I was still looking when I'd already found one I loved. Well,

The Post-Christmas Tree

I am a bit sad today. You see, here it is January 29th, and the hubs sent me a picture of a barren corner of the living room today.

Barren, as in, no Christmas tree, because he took it down.

Now I know what you're thinking. "Karen, it's almost February!" But we're a whole MONTH ahead of schedule compared to last year.

Life From The Confines of a Monkey Backpack

You know those kids. You see 'em at theme parks and shopping malls. They're about three feet tall, and have a leash strapped to their monkey backpack.

Moms seem to be split 50/50 as to whether or not it's a good idea. Parents who want to allow freedom while still keeping the children close by are pro-monkey. Those who think the idea is ridiculous, and leashes should be left to the dogs? Anti-monkey, no doubt. 

I never had an opinion... your kid, your tethered monkey-backpack. There are much bigger battles for me to get involved in, like why there is gum stuck to my daughter's hair. Or how 18 nerf bullets are entangled in the Christmas tree, right next to the fragile glass nativity. 

Forget Me Not

You know how it goes. You’re sitting there in traffic, or washing the shampoo out of your hair, or grabbing two silent minutes alone in the locked bathroom before tiny little fingers feel beneath the door (What are they looking for anyway? Are they hoping they can grab ahold of you and rip you back out of the bathroom via that 1.5 inch tall space?)… where was I? Oh yes. You know how it goes. When you forget something. Usually you’re in the middle of something completely unrelated and you remember you were supposed to do something else. Like sign a permission slip. Or pay a bill. Or donate a kidney. Something really really important, and you totally forgot.  It’ll go on your to-do list, if you can remember it all the way through your shower.

Sometimes I think that God forgets when I’ve asked Him for stuff. Like that book query I sent off to

Seasons of the Proverbs 31 Woman

I've had this picture in my head for the last six months. It's a woman, and she's walking through a wheat field - breeze blowing, gauzy white cotton dress flowing. I saw her in my dreams, and I longed to be her.

Little did I know - she was longing to be me too.  

My life has been one crazy cycle of gathering and sloughing. Gathering something... and then years later, that whatever it is, is broken... shattered... sloughed. When I was in my 20's, and even early 30's, I gathered degrees. First one. Then another. And another. I gathered them like a child grabs up handfuls of m&ms. Not because they were necessary,

No One Goes To The Altar Alone

It was like an unwritten rule at my last church. No one goes to the altar alone.

I loved that about them. It was one of the first things that pricked my heart about the church when I was visiting. No matter who you were, when you went to the altar, there was always someone who followed you up there to put their arm around you and just be. It wasn't creepy, it just happened. They crossed genders, ages barriers, and races. In seven years, I never once saw someone alone at the alter. And I was never alone at the altar.

We're at a new church now. It's a great church. There is a lady that frequents the second row pew with me. Last week, she'd gone up to the altar, and that's when I realized: nobody's with her. Nobody

What God Does When We Aren't Looking

To say I work a lot is an understatement, but let's face it - who doesn't? Between work, church, recreation, birthday parties, volunteer opportunities... we barely have time to eat, let alone rest, right?

For the past week, I've been working some, resting and playing some, and attending a conference for Disney travel agents. Our family tries to take an official "family vacation" every fall, where I'm suppose to leave the laptop and cell behind, and we all rediscover what we like about each other. Except this year, the conference fell right around our family trip time, and frankly, I couldn't afford two trips so we combined them into one. On the last full day of our trip, we made zero plans. We spent the day swimming in the pool, going to our favorite quick eatery, making new friends wandering along the beach, and even swinging in the hammock.

Missed Blessings

Some of you that know me know my "God-thing" is deer. You may have a God-thing. It's something that connects you to God, gives you peace or affirmation of a decision. For my friend Denise, it's blue birds and red birds. For me, it's deer.

Ever since we moved out to a more rural area, I had been hoping to see some deer. My confirmation that we were right where we needed to be! The neighbors say they see them. You'd think they were nearby, solely based on the number of woods, lakes, and ponds we have around. But we're going on 4 months here with not a single hooved animal in site.

Then today, at lunch, I was in a rush to get to work. I'd worked until almost midnight last night, and

When You Feel Like You Can't Do It All... You Probably Shouldn't

Do you ever feel like you just can’t do it all? Like the demands of the day are more than you can possibly stand? This morning I woke up feeling seriously overwhelmed. In part due to the fact that a 4-day weekend had just passed, and rather than relax and enjoy it, I’d spent much of it working. On house projects, on cleaning out the garage so I can actually park in it someday, on a 31 Gifts party with my best customers, and even on rearranging the kids’ homeschool schedule to add a bit more content. I finished the must-to-do’s, but still have some want-to-do’s, and Lord willing, I’ll get them done tonight.

But I look around and see the house that is still messy from a sale I haven’t put products away for yet, and literally 8 loads of laundry that were in the garage from our last move that are either outgrown or a different season (which after laundering, will need to be sorted for Goodwill or put away), I look at the email of a person who wants to know why I didn’t work on their project on a holiday (I did work,