Follow Up and Realization!

Well, after so much excitement yesterday, i had an epiphany! I know that the Lord works in me every day. I know even when i'm not listening, He is still there watching over me and guiding me. Well, i realized late last night, while dwelling on the fact that every. inch. of. my. house. had been seen yesterday by the law enforcement officers that entered it, that i am SO glad that i listened to that little bug in my ear over Christmas break.

Jeff and i moved into the house we're in almost 4 years ago. We had never owned a home with a basement before that time. We bought this home in order to have a place to expand our home business and work. Two years ago we moved the "workroom" from one space in the basement to another. And for the almost 4 years we've been living here, i have been quite the "collector" and have not been good at getting rid of things. Now - don't freak out - my house is NOT like any of that weird stuff you see on Hoarders. THAT freaks me out. But, i will admit, that up until Christmas, my basement was disorganized, cluttered, and had too much stuff in it. Outgrown clothes, boxed up and piled in one room. Holiday decorations - two different rooms. Business stuff - - not even organized - in three different rooms. Kids toys --- ALL OVER THE PLACE. Well, Christmas break changed all that. I honestly, couldn't stand going to the basement, so we worked tirelessly and cleaned out the whole thing. Every bit of holiday decor is organized and boxed and labeled in a room. The toy room is cleaned out and organized (or at least it was over Christmas break), workroom stuff is now much more "central" and not spread between old and new workrooms. One room is a large pile of garage sale stuff. One room is for all the lawn and garden stuff we have.Two car-fulls went to goodwill. One truckload went to the dump. (Yes, I might add - that sounds like a lot of rooms - our basement is as large as the upper part of our home.)

SO, here's my epiphany!!!! WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE YESTERDAY IF THAT BASEMENT HADN'T BEEN CLEANED OUT OVER CHRISTMAS???? WHAT IF I HADN'T OF LISTENED TO THAT LITTLE VOICE IN MY HEAD TELLING ME TO JUST TACKLE THE PROBLEM AND THEN IT WON'T BE A PROBLEM ANYMORE!!!??? Well, here's what i think. You know, the Lord is the only being that knows exactly how your life is going to play out. . . even before things happen. And you might think it's petty that i bring the Lord into this, but he MUST have been watching out for me. He MUST have known that those officers were going to enter my house. If that basement hadn't of been cleaned out, i swear i would have had Jeff drop me on the side of the road - with the children - and leave me there! If i was worried about the piles of clean laundry not being folded in my bedroom, i can't imagine my worries about that basement had it not been cleaned out. I know, i know - we're talking safety of my family, cops making sure no one has broken into our home, and here i am worried about the what-if's of clutter . . . serious, not something to worry about. But when you realize that someone who doesn't have unconditional love for you, has just seen every. inch. of. your. home. . . . those things do pop into mind - at least my crazy little mind.

Now that i got that out on the table - let me give you something to laugh about. Our church is on the corner of a somewhat busy road. Therefore, every Sunday morning, there is a police officer stationed at the corner to help with traffic flow. Every now and then when adults and/or older children in my house see a police officer, we refer to them as the "popo!" I'm sure i'm not the only one in the world that does this. For example, when the kids are being super poorly behaved in the car, i have passed a police officer before and used that little leverage to help me. . . "Kids, do you see the 'Popo' over there? If he sees you behaving like this, he's likely to arrest all of us!" I joke a LOT in our house, and when we see cops, i will often say, "Be good, there's the POPO!" I really mean no disrespect, it's just a term of endearment in our home, but when i think about it, i realize the police themselves probably wouldn't be so 'endeared' to it! Well, today as we left church, not a soul had mentioned anything about the police officer, nor the laymen directing traffic. But lo and behold, the precious, barely 3 year old in my car says, with as much gusto as one can imagine, "HEY!!! SEE THE POPO OVER THERE???" And then just roars laughing because he knows he is funny! I'm sure it's a had-to-be-there-moment, but if you know our C, you know how animated he can be. Now, it's time for me to realize, that every word that escapes my mouth WILL BE repeated, and typically, in context! Better mind my P's and Q's from here forward! The POPO are watching!