Random Muses of Megret

Sara, Skye and I braved the threatening thunderstorms this morning, and fought with our alarm clocks, as we awoke and met at 6:25 a.m. to go yard saleing. Oh, my. That's early. I know I'm a new mom, and I'm typically up at this time anyway, but I always put Gardner back down for a couple of hours and get a few more zz's. However, I surprised myself by being able to jump up, wide awake, ready to go. Alas, I returned from this weekend's pursuits empty-handed. Yard saleing is a hit or miss hobby.....some days you can't fit it all into your car, some days you don't see one thing that grabs you. Today was that kind of day. Yet it was so much fun to engage in fellowship with friends as we trekked all over town. That makes it all worth it. (That and the splurge of a Dunkin Donut!) The rain is coming down harder now....thunder rumbles continuously. My husband and son are both napping. It's a lazy Saturday, and we all needed one of those.

I am horrible (no, make that really horrible) when it comes to making decisions. I have gotten better in the last few years, though, thanks to the gentle prodding of my husband to be more bold and decisive about many things (such as restaurant choosing). But my overall indecisiveness leaves me in so many half-done situations. Take for instance, if you will, the pair of curtains which now find themselves safety-pinned onto the window shades in my dining room. We have lived in this current house for over two years, and I still do not have curtains on all of my windows (or at least ones that I put there, not the previous owners). Pitiful. I tell Ken that I feel "so transient" without complete windows in our home. "Well, then, go buy some curtains for them," he says sweetly. What's absurd is the fact that I have already bought and returned three other pairs of panels within the past two months. When I finally get up the nerve and gumption to actually WORK on ...

"Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now." (I Corinthians 13:12, NLT) This verse follows the verse about childishness. Both verses spotlight my life three-and-a-half years ago, when we were relocated to Columbia through Ken's job. It was right after September 11th that we received news of us having to make a choice of whether to stay here (and be laid off) or move 140 miles away from all things familiar. The hardest pill to swallow was that we couldn't tell a soul; it was top secret except for company employees. We had to go an entire month seeing our families and friends but not being able to share with them the burden we carried. I questioned God then more than I ever questioned Him in my entire life. I asked Him, "Why?" along with the rest of the nation after we were targets ...

There are two parts of I Corinthians 13 that speak to me so clearly...and no, the verses I am referring to are not in the "love section" that we are all so familiar with. Near the end of that chapter are a few key verses which hold within them insurmountable truths....and wonderful wisdom. " It's like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things." (I Corinthians 13:11, NLT) What is the difference, exactly, between childish and childlike? Hm. I happened upon this verse the same week that I happened upon a devotional about the same topic (coincidene? I think not.). One is definitely preferred over the other. Childish is something that we see out in public, but certainly don't want to attach to our own personalities. We see childish behavior all the time....primarily in children themselves. It may be a toddler throwing an all-out tantrum in the toy department....or a child who...

Good friends, deep conversation....a wonderful evening. Sara, Skye, and me, home group, 4.26.05.

Chris, Jennie, Sara and Matt....home group, 4.26.05.

It is really, really late, and I'm seriously about to turn into a pumpkin if I don't slumber soon. But let me just say how awesome it is to have Godly friends, awesome couples who are in the same spot you are, people who are genuinely interested in you and in whom you can find something interesting as well. I thank God for community. It is something I thought I would never find again if you'd asked me three years ago. I never knew how much I could miss something that I had never actually experienced for real....that is, until now.

"Be happy, young man, while you are young,and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.... Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them..." (Ecclesiastes 11:9, 12:1) ________________________________________ Sometimes it hits me....that certain things I wished for and dreamed about as a young child have already come and gone. It hits me with solemnness, but also with awe....that this life on earth is so short, and that only means we are nearer to the eternal life awaiting us with the Lord. I remember planning my career goals as a youngster. I always told everyone, with utmost seriousness, that I was going to be "a missionary to Japan" when I grew up. I wanted to do something for God, for sure, but I also really wanted t...

Ever had a bad dream that made you wake up feeling tingly all over, cold and clammy, and reaching for something or someone to hold onto for reassurance? Some are worse than others and create a worse sensation than others. I had a dream last night that caused a mild tingly feeling....but still, it's not fun. Dreaming that I'm being kept held hostage by a lunatic mama's boy with poor social skills is not on my list of things I would like to dream about....but it's exactly the scenario that greeted me last night as I slumbered. I know that dreams are the mind's way of dumping out extra information that needs processing, or maybe even a subconscious expression of some sort. But what about dreams such as this one that have no rhyme or reason whatsoever....just total randomness and eccentricity? Hm. Guess that's one of the things I'll make a note of to ask God when I get up to heaven one day. That list keeps getting longer and longer....

Sometimes, when we are severely lacking sleep and don't feel well, our tempers get the best of us. I am pointing at myself when I say this. I am one who needs at least 8 hours of sleep a night, and if it is cut short, or especially if it is cut nearly in half, I am worthless and frustrated (to put it lightly). Sadly, those whom I love are sometimes the brunt of my irritability. Last night, our son woke up twice (at 11:30pm and 4:15am) because of, we're figuring, sore gums due to his first tooth coming in this week. We had just gotten into bed at 11:15, so we were barely asleep. I am a person whose motto is, "If it was like this before, it should be like this from now on." By this, I am referring to Gardner's ability to sleep 10-11 consecutive hours at night. One of the things I am learning as a mother is managing to crumble away that untrue motto piece by piece....babies are NOT predictable, and they DO change....rapidly and without warning. Ken and I awoke...

Kudos to my husband, Ken , for redesigning the look of my blog(s), making them smoother, sleeker, and kitchier (don'tcha think?)! I am even more inspired now to write each day....let's hope the motivation keeps up. Days have a way of filling your time before you want it to be filled....but certain things must be prioritized. For me, those things include daily time with God, family time, and writing. If those three things exist in my 24-hour-day, everything else fits so seamlessly into place.

What really goes on within the mind of a mother? I can't explain how your thought processes immediately shift to a whole new paradigm once parenthood embraces you....but they do. Let me give you a snippet of what might be going on in the minds of many a mother you pass today.... (Scene: In a busy grocery store.) A young mother walks along with her 3-month-old infant sleeping peacefully in his infant seat set on top of her cart. A 70-year-old woman approaches, who genteely peers over to catch a glimpse of the sleeping child. (Verbal exchange:) Lady: "Oooohh, what a pretty baby. Isn't she sweet? Look how sweet she's sleeping. Look at all of that hair!" (She brushes at the infant's hair with her fingers.) Mother: "Thank you. Thank you very much." (Smiles sweetly.) (What the mother is REALLY thinking:) "Are you crazy? Who do you think you are, a complete stranger, coming up and presumptiously touching my baby? Don't you know it...

Ok, ok, I know I'm getting crazy with this blogging thing, but it's just that I have so much to share with the world. Yeah. Anyway, I did start up a blog today that deals with one of my life's loves, cooking and epicurious treasures. Check this one out, as well as any of the others you might not have found yet....enjoy: (*NEW!*) Morsels of Megret Baby Wilson (a site dedicated to our son...from day one (and I mean day ONE)) Photos of Megret

How cool....the first wall of our new church building.

Ken's dad tilling the garden...we are sharing in the work (and reaping some crops) from this garden, as well.

I'm currently smack dab in the middle of a Southern fiction work recommended to me by my fellow home group girls, entitled "The Secret Life of Bees." Upon hearing that the author, Sue Monk Kidd, has ties to Anderson (and South Carolina as a whole), I delved right in to find it at my local library, and then delved into its pages. Though I am only 110 pages into it, I have found thus far that I am hooked, helplessly hooked. Overlooking the bad language and cruelty that flashes up now and then, I am taken aback at the lush, emotion-evoking word pictures that this lady paints in her pages. I mean, the scenes seem to drip with life off of the pages and into my brain. It is an easy read....by that, I mean it doesn't require as much concentration and brain power as some other books do....but it is still a notable read due to the graphic intensity with which Kidd writes. Though I was not an abused or abandoned child, and though I never ran away from my home, I still see ...

Now...what made this happen? I tried to make some fat-free, healthy cocoa meringue nests to serve fruit in tonight for dessert....when I pulled them out of the oven, they looked like this....deflated tires.... Just goes to show that you can't always count on something to work that used to work before. ;0)

A wasp flew into my Jeep while I was trying to pull out of a shopping center just an hour ago. I lurched out and flung open the door immediately; don't even remember unfastening my seatbelt. I waved the creature on its way with a scrap piece of paper from my passenger seat, hoping it would not retaliate and come back at me boomerang-style, stinger out and ready to pierce. Thankfully, it surrendered and flew on out of my open door, and I tore out of there before he knew what happened. I looked back at Gardner, who was oblivious to the threat I had just then thwarted. I had to laugh out loud at this point, because that plus the hot weather we are having today raced my memory right back to a movie I remember from childhood summers. It is a stupid-silly comedy written by the late author Jean Shepherd, whose book of another title inspired the movie "The Christmas Story." The movie I'm referring to is "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss." If you will wat...

I don't have much time today to blog....it is a crazy one. But I just wanted to comment on the gorgeous weather outdoors and persuade you to leave your cubicle, house, car, whatever and just GET OUT IN IT. The cookout season is upon us....we are preparing for a big one tonight here at the house with our home group. Is anyone else plagued with those little worm-looking pollen spores that fall off of oak trees (I think it's the oak tree)? Wow. Those things look like mounds of caterpillars plopped all over the place (sorry for the disgusting imagery). I enjoyed a wonderful walk this morning, and I happened upon so many retirees out in their yards, tending to their azaleas or raking up the last of the decaying leaves from the fall. The smells of the azaleas take me right back to Easter Sundays at Grandma and Grandpa's....where mom and her sisters would prop up us cousins in front of those bee-swarmed bushes to get a quick snapshot or two. We would twist and squirm, squin...

I would consider myself a highly self-motivated individual. I usually don't have to be told to do anything; I find things which need doing and do them. I also have a hard time delegating tasks. I find myself looking over that person's shoulder, not quite approving, and then sneaking back to do it myself the way I think it should be done! I guess this would also label me a perfectionist. My husband gingerly laid it down for me this weekend that he believes that I do TOO much. He finds it a rarity to see me actually sitting down and not working on some sort of task....unless I am sleeping at night (and even then, I am known to come up with elaborate plans or ideas within my dreams....crazy, I know). I am a person who also needs 8 hours of sleep in order to feel my best the next morning, and throughout that subsequent day. Even 7-1/2 hours, a tiny sliver of sleep shaved off of that time, and I can feel the effects. Yet if I awaken after 6 or 7 hours of sleep and something ...