Mess and Miracles

I admit I have on a few occasions succumbed to the car selfie. But more often than not what usually is happening in the car is that I am listening to songs by Calee Reed. She is a Christian artist, and because of how frequently I am listening to her stuff in the car, my son will more often than not ask why we are listening to "church music" when it isn't Sunday. One of the songs that I constantly am circling back to is her song "The Waiting Place" on her album by the same name. (Look at that promotion flex! J/K she doesn't even know I exist). The song talks about those phases in life where we are just waiting. Now more than globally we are feeling "the wait" as we collectively hold our breathe and hope this pandemic will pass. As a single mom I feel like I am waiting for a lot of things. I am waiting for this "being the only adult in the room" thing to get easier. I am waiting for the sensation to pass that I am drowning. And ...

For those of you who are reading, this is BIG Miracle #3. To read about Miracle #1 click here and Miracle #2 click here . This is my neighbor's house catching on fire story. It was late. My kids were in bed, and I was sitting at my kitchen counter with a kettle on to boil making me some tea. (If you read my last post, you would assume that that is how I spend most evenings...when in actuality I hate most tea... and instead drink this night time cold care tea to help me sleep, and am usually in my bed reading to decompress). But I digress. So there I was at my kitchen counter, when I smell something funny. It was a burnt toast smell, so I checked my kettle and it was fine, and no weird smells were coming from my tenant's apartment, so I opened the door, and a wave of campfire smoke smell hit me like a ton of bricks! (That is a simile folks for all of you with 9th and 10th grade English folks in the house!) I ran around to the side of my house and saw the smoke and fla...

To read about Miracle #1 click here . Some of you may follow me on my instagram @shortformadeline and heard of the recent fire we had in our neighborhood.... this is not that story. My son was two weeks out from surgery and I had been back to work for about a week coordinating the army of people who were helping take care of him when I couldn't. This was actually a shorter list, because my son only felt comfortable with a few people helping him go to the bathroom. On that list was my Dad, who came over that Thursday to babysit. I wish everyone could have a Dad like I do. He is the father of 6 (yes SIX) daughters, and he is the ultimate handy-man. He is a doer by nature and doesn't like to sit still very long. So after getting my son breakfast and watching a few shows with him, my Dad did what he always does, and went to work on completing little projects around my house. It is a revelatory experience when either of my parents come over while I am at work, and I relish...