Making Lemonade...

We've all heard the phrase a thousand times before: When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade! Well, the past week and 1/2 has reminded me:

# 1- to do just that.
# 2- I control about 1% and God has the other 99%
# 3- I go into panic mode when stress arrives.
# 4- There are usually a lot of phone calls to my Mom.
# 5- ...and a lot of tears.
# 6- She reminds me that this is life, it isn't the end of the world, it will all be alright, I am stronger than I think, there are lessons to be learned, she loves me and so does the Lord, so let go and give it to him.
# 7-I pray my guts out and plead for help.
# 8- I listen to what my Mom said, I repeate it over a million times in my head, and then I admit I am powerless and I need help.
# 9- I finally surrender and hand it over to God.
# 10- and then, when it settles down, and life is ok again, I see that God carried me through it and I survived!

It's usually a 10 step process with me, I've realized.
The past week and 1/2 I've felt like everything around me has been falling apart and I've been swrilling around in panic mode. I finally feel like I'm starting to unwind a little.

*Thinking Trav lost his job really turned life upside down for a few days. I was a wreck. My stomach was in knots and I felt sick. I just knew we would lose the house and who knew what else. We were overjoyed when everything turned out.

*I had Mastitus again and felt terrible for days, but thankfully got medicine right away this time,making this experience a million times better than all my previous infections.(still crappy though!)

*Our van stopped working. I went out Saturday to go to yard sales BY MYSELF (because Trav was home for the first time in years!) to find the van completely dead. I just cried. I was so mad that I couldn't control anything around me. I felt helpless. So I just cried. Trav took the battery in, found out it wouldn't hold a charge, bought a new one, and it started working. Yeah! And only $ 100.00 later!

*I thought I was getting strep throat again. I fought that for days,it came on so fast and my throat was TERRIBLE. I just knew I was going to have it. I took lots of stuff, stayed home from church, laid in bed, and wondered what other nasty infection my body was going to catch, but finally, it started to get better. So no Dr. visit, and no real drugs needed!

*And then the beloved bug ... Trav left for work Monday morning, barely got down the street when it died! He had to push it back by himself at 5:30 in the morning to the front of our house. I woke up to find Trav took the van with Willows car seat inside, so I was stuck at home and with a dead bug. Luckily, Angie picked me up with an extra baby seat, and we were able to run our errands.I called Max to help charge the battery (Trav said the dome light was left on, probably by Grace who loves to climb in the car, push all the buttons and then leave them all on, causing the battery to die ALL. THE. TIME!) After charging for a few hours, I started it, and sure enough- SHE WORKED! I was so relieved!

It was just a bunch of little things that all added up within a few days of each other and I realized that God is in control, I'm sure not. I am so grateful for prayer, and friends who help listen when everything is falling apart. Hopefully, I'll calm down now and get some laundry done!