Keep Your Perspective...

This picture was taken by my oldest daughter E while we were driving along a country road in our new state of West Virginia. I think she has a good eye.

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Here's my thought: I get grumpy every day because.......why.....? Funny, it's hard to identify the reason but I think at the root of it I feel like a failure anytime the family doesn't meet the ideal that I have in my head that is my blueprint of "The Successful Family."

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Examples:

-bickering sisters

-breakfast at noon (not exaggerating)

-dirty kitchen

-school still being done at 8 pm (again not exaggerating)

-missing devotions

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My mental blueprint does not have these elements in it. Every time I miss the mark I label it as "FAILURE". I know this is irrational but there it is. Here is where I need to think about this picture and "Keep My Perspective." Things may be dark, they may be imperfect, but in spite of all "failures" am I still looking upward to Christ and pointing my children upward to Him too? If all else fails, is that happening? If I get all bent out of shape because of every shortfall I will not be looking upward or pointing upward, I will just be an irritable shrew that people want to get away from.

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So. I will relaaaax. I will major on the majors. I will ask God for direction (back to that cool picture again...God can speak to us in spite of our weaknesses, He can point the way and be certain we get the message).

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And, when faced with a perspective, I will look up...I will choose joy.

La-La-La-La-Laundry

My husband's been laid off and we have a dryer that vents INTO the house AND we don't have air conditioning.  So, I think hanging our laundry out on the line would be a good idea for the summer. 

Here's my cute, artsy picture that represents doing laundry on the line:

Did you know that when clothespins stay out in the rain that they turn grey?  Neither did I.  Now I do...although I doubt that the ones made during the 50's and before did.  They probably made the clothespins out of better wood back when they figured people would actually use them outdoors.

Okay, here's my sweet little "I'm hanging my laundry out on the line!" Picture:

Aww....it looks so sweet, so idyllic, so...out of balance!  Why didn't I stick the pants in the MIDDLE of the two shorts?!  How is it I didn't notice that?!  Okay, anyhow, wouldn't you like to believe that my laundry line looks that cute and sweet out in the dappled sunlight like that?  Yeah, I'd like to believe that too.

Here's a picture of what my laundry line REALLY looks like:  (Brace yourself)

Crazy, huh?  We literally just strung line from deck post to tree to tree to deck post to tree and back again to deck post.  There's no symmetry, no balance, no attention to asthetics.  It looks like someone did it while in an...um..."altered state".  It's the junkiest thing!  But, hey, whadda you want me to do?  Spend $150 on a laundry "tree" (just as ugly in my opinion) or $450 for a set of laundry "T's"?  I'm doing this to SAVE money, so I gotta hang the line wherever I find stuff strong enough to hold it!  

Ugly but functional.  What can you do?