I’m Blessed

I’m having a rough morning.  Everyone is so loud.  Ingrid didn’t sleep well last night.  My house didn’t get clean this weekend as I’ve been hoping.

It was actually a really fun weekend following a tough week.  You see, not yesterday, but the weekend before, Knut was gone for a long weekend.  It was his yearly Birkie ski race in Wisconsin, and it was the first year that I didn’t go with him.  I stayed home with the kids.  The trouble with that is I’m not as much of a grown up as he is, so when he’s gone, we eat maccaroni and cheese the whole time…or popcorn.  I stay up until 2 in the morning because I’m a night owl, and no one is here to tell me to go to sleep.  On top of that, the kids aren’t themselves either when their daddy is gone.  I took them to the Burger King play land a little too often.

So needless to say, when he got back, I was not in good shape.  A mom of 5 needs to do better than that.  I spent a good deal of time last week not blogging, but just recovering.  I had a big knitting submission due last week as well that I was working hard on.

This last weekend was fun, and I got to get out of the house by myself a bit and be with some friends.  Also, Knut’s grandparents celebrated their birthday.  They turned 95 and 98 I think.  I love them so much.  We had to wake the little girls up from their nap in order to make the party, so before I picked them up, I took some pictures of the sleeping girls.  I want to remember what a sleeping babe looks like for the rest of my life.

They’re getting so big.  I’m just so amazed I get to be their mom.  I’m so blessed to be called “Mommy.”

But last night, Ingrid woke up multiple times.  This winter is just so cold, and keeping the house warm is a challenge.  I think she was just cold even though the heat was at full blast and she was wearing a few layers.

I think when I’m this tired, it’s easy for me to forget how much I’m blessed.  It’s almost like I want to say,”If this is blessed, I need to get un-blessed.”  I see all over the internet conversations about how Christians talk about their blessings too much, and what does being blessed mean anyway, and how come you are blessed and someone else isn’t? (Not that I disagree completely with what that author said, though I don’t agree completely either.  Most of all I just wanted to clarify what these “I’m Blessed” Monday posts are about.)

So I thought I’d take a quick moment to talk about this turn of phrase that I use so often.  I was influenced a lot by Ann Voskamp’s book “One Thousand Gifts” but I felt the need to “count my blessings” before then.

Talking about blessings doesn’t mean that we have a lot of stuff, that our life is perfect or that we avoided crisis when others did not.  It means that we are giving thanks for what we have, good and bad.  It’s an act of thankfulness.  It’s an act of worship.  Sometimes, (in fact, more often than not) being blessed doesn’t mean your house got missed by the tornado, but that you lost your house in a tornado, realize are so grateful that you can at least hold your family, and are overwhelmed by the community outpour in helping you.  As seen in the beatitudes, being blessed is often referred to as being comforted, or even acknowledging that God has not left us.  He has not left us.

So, as I have snapped at my children already too many times this morning,
I’m forgiven.

As I’m tired and am not on top of things.
I’m given second, third, twentieth chances….and coffee.  I love coffee.

My children hug me.
I get to snuggle warm cheeks in the middle of the night.
I have food to nourish me.
We have wood for our fire.

Spring will come.

I have no idea how I have deserved all of these blessings, but you better believe that I’m not going to let a chance to praise God pass by.  It’s not smug, it’s not self-praise.  Really it’s not about me…or about you, or about stuff for that matter.  It’s not a comparison game of all the stuff we have.  This is about God.  This is about acknowledging him in whatever our situation is.  Sometimes he in fact does bless us with stuff.  I know this to be true.  Other times he blesses us by taking stuff away.  I also know this to be true.  I know from Scripture and from experience, that I am most blessed by God in the darkest, hardest times.

He is here.  I am blessed.

How had God blessed you this last week?