Moved to donnajostone.com

In an attempt to simplify something about my life, I have decided to consolidate all of my blogs into one. The Random Musings blog archives will still be here, but all fresh content will be posted at donnajostone.com 

Come find me! 

Listen, Mamas of Specials

Listen, Mamas of Specials,

It will happen. You must be ready. Ready to stop. Stop pushing. Stop trying. Stop fighting the giants. Stop doing.

Be ready to stand still and let everything you keep clenched so tightly in your fists slide away. Your hands must be empty and open when the moment comes, so you can cup the fragile peace.

Hold it as long as you can.

Donna

Deep Water

Put the boat into deep water, and put your nets in the water to catch some fish.

I’ve worked hard all night to catch some fish. I did my level best. The rowing was hard, and slinging those heavy nets wasn’t easy either, but I cast and cast all night long without success. I moved my boat to different spots that other fishermen recommended and tried again. Nothing. Still, I kept fishing.

The sky grayed and the stars began to fade. So I threw the nets harder, farther, and dragged them in as fast as I could, again and again, ignoring the ache in my back and shoulders. Every single time, they came up empty. The last star winked out.

My miracle never came.

I’ve packed it in. My nets are washed.

Fishing time is over and the sun is high in the sky. If nothing was there when the conditions were prime, how can I have faith of anything being there now? But you say to put the nets in the water, so I will.

When the fishermen did what Jesus told them, they caught so many fish the nets began to break.

Luke 5:1-8

Blessings

I have been to that place. That hard place, the devastating situation and found myself asking, “Is there any good in this?”

Yesterday my son shared a song with me. The message of the lyrics are that the answers we receive to our prayers don’t always take the form we want them to, but we are blessed even through the hard places. I want the easy solution, the immediate healing, the comfortable way. No one wants to suffer. No mother wants to watch her child suffer.

Hard places make us grow. My flesh resists this concept, but it’s true. It is not an easy thing to stand in faith when faith is all you have.

If we had not traveled the difficult path that was destined, we would not be where we are today. I try to remember that saying, ‘You have to go through some stuff to get to where you are going.’

My son told me that he felt that our trying experiences had been a blessing to him. He said, “It makes me know what’s real, what's important.”

In the evening, when we gather together, my children and I, my sons pray for me. They pray for their father, and their siblings, for each other. I am still and listen to the voices of these men of God. Mighty men of God who live in my house.

My blessing.

Laura Story - Blessings.mp3

How I Look

I have been fighting a virus for going on two weeks now. I am recovering, but still tired and worn down from a combination of sickness and mom duty, tending everyone else.

It's time to get back on track now. I have a meeting today.

I was getting ready and looked in the mirror. I frowned at my reflection. "I hate to go out looking like this, " I said out loud, then shrugged. "But it's how I look!"

Some days all you can do is accept that it is what it is.

Math Problem

I grew up on
Schoolhouse Rock
singing Lucky Seven
and Naughty Number Nine.
I know numbers and all their tricks.
But Seventy times Seven always trips
me
up.

Matthew 18:22

Special Delivery

If you've followed my blog you know a little about my part lab, part blue-tick hounddog, Thunder. He is what he is--an ADHD furry kid.

Thunder has a little friend. She is glossy black and obviously has some lab in her. She loves to bring Thunder assorted gifts, such as: boots, empty dog food bags, and my all time not-so-favorite, dirty diapers. She is also very hyper.

Little girl likes to wander. She likes to wander fast. Thunder likes to go with her.

The other day my pup had been cooped up for too long, and by the time he got to go play with Little Girl, it was late in the afternoon. After a while, Little Girl showed up half covered with mud, but Thunder was not with her. Pretty soon it was dark. We called and called.

Thunder did not come home.

I told myself not to worry. If he was stuck somewhere he would get unstuck. And if he got into a fight with another critter he'd probably win. Dogs were part wolf, right? I'd seen him beat a pit bull before. Never mind that he acted like it was a game the whole time and likely was too, well, let's say 'inexperienced' to know it was a fight. If he was lost he'd make his way back. I mean, dogs find their way home from hundreds of miles away all the time. Like in Homeward Bound.

Did I mention before that Thunder is scared of the dark?

We called and called, yelling, "Treat!" about every five minutes. At 11:00 p.m. or so I told the kids he must have found a nice place to sleep and couldn't hear us. We would try again in the morning.

Thunder did not come home.

I assured my daughter that he would return. The day dragged on. Periodically we would holler for him. Little Girl, with tailed tucked and mournful eyes, haunted our back door.

The we heard a familiar honk in the driveway. Our mail lady always honked if she had a package for us. She was early. My son went out to get the mail, but this was a special delivery. Thunder! He had ended up at some nice lady's house a couple of roads over. The nice lady had met the mail carrier and asked her if she knew who this dog belonged to. The answer was yes! Thunder hopped into the back of the mail lady's jeep and she brought him to us.

And so, Thunder came home.

Some people say my dog is really dumb, what with him not being able to find his way home from two streets down and being scared of the dark. But, he was smart enough to find a human friend who fed him meat pies before he caught a taxi ride home.

Techie Trap

The power went out today due to a winter storm.

I had worried about that. All morning I ran around the house preparing, just in case. I stuffed laundry in the washer, tried to get dishes done and put a pot of soup on. My efforts to enlist the help of my kids were of no avail.

The two who could have been the most helpful were more concerned about keeping the computers running than filling jugs with water. Both are both very technically inclined and can fix anything wrong with your computer or electronic device. They did not share my perpective on the order of priorties.

Then the lights went out. I asked them if they had any ideas about an alternate source of heat since the electricity had failed. One boy went and found a camp heater, but parts of it were missing. They sat on the couch.

I was totally disgusted. "You guys are no use at all," I told them.

"Of course not," retorted son number one. "The power's out."

Meeting the Governor

It's not every day you get to meet the governor, but last week I did. I listened to him speak to a smallish group, wishing my daughter could be in the room. This is an important man.

He was very personable. I enjoyed his talk immensely and told him so. I got to shake his hand and have my picture taken with him. Right before the picture was snapped I wished I had worn something else, but was pleased just the same thinking about how I could say to my friends, "Guess what? I met the Governor!"

Here it is week later and I didn't mention it to a soul. It's been a hectic week. We are trying to get ready for a trip my daughter is taking. Performances are involved, so there are practices, costumes to get ready, hotel reservations to make, the list goes on. One of the boys is sick with some sort of virus again. It has been raining quite a bit lately and my car sprung a leak. A good six inches of water collected in the bottom of the trunk before we noticed it. There has been some upheaval in other areas of life as well. I think the most disrupting thing has been the addition of a new puppy to our family.

He is an eight week old mixed darling who came to us needing medical care and grooming. Now that he is feeling better we have discovered he obviously has some ADHD heritage. While our new pup Thunder is a joy, like some of the human boys in this family who also have ADHD heritage, he is an exhausting joy. He is going to be l a r g e. It is imperative that he learn commands like 'down' as soon as possible. Anyone who has ever had a pup knows there is a massive time investment in the cleaning and scooping areas as well. So I've been busy. Too busy to think about name dropping at all.

Yesterday my hands were in a sink of dirty dishes and I was day dreaming about being a famous novelist someday. Perhaps people would line up just to shake my hand and smile at me. That's when I remembered meeting the Governor. If I ever do get famous I will certainly not be as important or vital as he is, and I had forgotten all about my big moment of meeting the governor.

Should my day in the spotlight ever come and my head start to swell, I will remind myself that people might have other things on their minds besides thinking about how great I am. Like getting on back to the house in hopes there won't be extra puppy messes to clean up.