What A Christmas!

 

In case you haven't noticed, I've had a rough stretch in the last month or so. For starters, at least one person in The Fam has been sick since mid-November.
From croup to bronchitis to sinusitis...our immunities have been severely attacked this winter!

This, along with other irritating and upsetting circumstances (a horrible computer virus, a HEATED mis-understanding with my dear friend's husband, etc.) has left me DESPERATELY on the edge of "The Cliffs of Insanity." (It's inconceivable, I know.)

Well, one week before Christmas, the s*!& REALLY hit the fan...(Is that appropriate?...I think, in this case friends, it really is. I'm honest... not perfect, just honest.)

Anyway, one week before Christmas, I, THE Mary Poppins of Law-Abiding and Tightwad Extraordinaire, received a $175 ticket (SORRY, AFRICA!!!!) for running a red light.

I looked that cop (the same man who had come to my door a year ago to announce my dear neighbor's suicide) in the face, and I said, "I know. I'm sorry."

There was no arguing my case, friends. I was distracted by a screaming, tired Little Man and the SECOND broken bubble gun we had received from JC Penney's. It was a Christmas gift we had purchased for an exchange and luckily The Artist ended up with it. However, she was very distraught over having received the broken merchandise in the first place. I NEEDED the thing to work! It HAD to work! And it was ten o'clock at night and I was NOT going back for a new one.

So, while we were stopped at a light about a mile away from home, I was trying to help The Hub MAKE it work. I saw the light turn green. I went. And some frantic lunatic started honking while attempting to sideswipe us.

That's when I looked up to see the red light. Apparently, I had seen another light turn green in my peripheral, because ours wasn't even "pink."

I didn't have time to be relieved about the nearly missed collision, because I immediately saw the red and blue swirling in my rearview.

You know...sometimes words can sound so nice while simultaneous, corresponding actions are so cruel. "Have you ever had a ticket? There was nothing on your record." NOTHING, reader. NOTHING.

"It just had to be while I was sitting there," he smiled sympathetically as he handed me the first in over 15 years.

Fortunately, I managed to bite my tongue and didn't include the bit about how come he couldn't just extend a little grace?...For once, Thank God! I managed to shut my own mouth (more likely, HE did it for me).

After this little incident, I plummeted off the cliff...(I don't tend to take judgment and criticism too well). I pleaded with The Hub, who knows my needs by now, and he let me walk the rest of the way home. It was a cold and lonely mile, though I was well bundled in his hat and gloves, and I trudged along sobbing the whole way. (Elicit sympathy.)

When I got home, I went in to soothe The Sisters' concern. They prayed for their poor mother. (The Artist prayed that I would KNOW God loves me and so does she :)

Still, I had a hard time recovering. I had to lean on my friends Ecclesiastes 4:9-10-style...Thank God for Facebook (turns out it isn't the Anti-Christ, as I had previously suspected).

With enough people praying for me, I finally had THE revelation I needed: "AHA!!!! It's not MY money anyway. It's all YOURS." (I know, we've heard it a million times, but until God speaks it into my heart I don't REALLY get it and I certainly don't LIVE it.) "It's ALL Yours, and the sooner I quit believing it's mine, the sooner I will stop feeling like someone is always trying to take it away from me."

Problem solved. I forgave myself and moved on. (It's still irritating, and I get worked up talking about it...but it isn't the gut-wrenching-OCD-gnawing at me 24/7-kind of thing. Rather, it's the irritating-but-oh-well-God's-got-my-back kind of thing.

Thank God for revelation, because I would never have been able to get through THIS Christmas without it. On Monday night (12/20/2010) Little Man started vomiting, and by Thursday (12/23) The Hub was violently ill. Begin the fateful domino effect through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after.

We had very little celebration. The Artist was so laid up, she stayed in a make shift bed and barely managed to open her presents late Christmas morning...so much for a "Merry" Christmas.

But, dear reader, we managed to make the best of it, and I, for one, had an AMAZING attitude throughout...much better than the down-and-out-whiny-head I've been lately!

Revelation hath sustained my soul...even through our "tragic" daily trials...and God really does have my back.

As of today (12-27-2010), we are all well and clean, and my house is VERY clean and ordered...oh, that it could remain so