This morning, in my quiet time with God, I read Psalm 127. Verse 1 says,

"Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain."

It got me thinking that in my efforts to meet people and make friends, (I miss all my old Ames buddies :( ) I had been trusting God kinda in blips, but really not walking with Him moment by moment. So I made it my goal to stop scrambling to build something, but to let God build and rely on Him more--moment by moment--at least for today, and hopefully it's something I can grow in for the rest of my life. I don't want to be building in vain.

It was an eventful day. My small group didn't meet today so I decided to try a Mom's Meet-Up group--it would be the only time I could make it since I'm usually busy with small group. So Joy and I rushed out the door and over to the park for this group. Turns out the only people there were me and the lady that organized it and our kids. The woman was very friendly, and we sat and talked for a while, then I took Joy to the sandbox. She loves the sandbox; only problem is sometimes she tries to eat the sand. She loves practicing walking, too, so I took her hands and tried to hold her really lightly so it's almost like she's walking by herself, but she crashes forward, headfirst into the base of one of those sand crane toys (metal.) At which point I freak out. Her mouth is all bloody and she's very upset. I'm trying to calm her down a little bit, but all of the blood and being a little dehydrated (sometimes I just forget to drink!) made me really light headed and I could feel myself starting to pass out. Fortunately the lady took Joy so I could put my head down for a while. And then we eventually made it to our car, where I threw Joy in the car seat and had to put my head down again. Then I'm starting to leave and feel myself blacking out again so I pull over and call Mike. I'm so thankful for his voice of reason when I'm freaking out. Anyway, Joy and I eventually made it. We were going to go straight to the pediatrician but she stopped crying and seemed okay, so we just went home so I could try to wash things off a bit and assess the situation, or more like have Mike assess the situation since I felt completely out of it and was a wreck. Joy seemed okay, besides an oober puffy lip that makes her look like a different kid, a scratch in her lip, and a little bit of blood around her front teeth. We put her down for a nap and when she woke up she had a mouthful of blood so we rushed off to the doctor to see if we needed to get stitches. The nurses said she didn't need stitches. Praise God!

Anyway, throughout all this, I'm definitely having to lean on God. I don't know what happened to me, but I was a crying wreck. Only God could get me to stand up and take her to the doctor when I felt sick. I was wondering if Joy's teeth were going to fall out, or if she was going to have to get stitches, both made me very sad to think about. And she was so scared. But, as it were, I really think God was watching out for us. I was watching out for Joy, and she fell and hurt herself. But because God was watching out for her, she was able to come away with some bad wounds, but no permanent damage. (If she would have hit the metal base differently, she could have broken something or knocked out her teeth.) I was really thankful to experience God's watchfulness.

So I sent an e-mail to the lady from the park--she was really worried. And I mentioned the Bible verse and how I thought God came through for us. And she wrote back thanking me for sharing the Bible verse--saying she has been wanting to read the Bible again--that she hasn't read it since Catholic school and that hearing from me gave her encouragement to do it. She also said she's been really wanting to figure out what she believes. I think that's pretty cool; God took one verse and touched us both in a scary situation. That this scary situation ended up with us talking about God. Be praying this woman finds God!

Okay, switch gears...

this is completely different.

I really like beans. High in protein, iron and fiber. And cheap! So I've been looking into a lot of bean recipes. I found one that was supposed to taste like indian food, so I decided to try it. Moreover, this grocery store I now shop at (the one that sells cows heads for $24.99) also has a row of indian food, so I bought some masala. Word to the wise: if you are cooking foreign food, read the directions completely. I made chicken tikka masala to go with our beans and mustard greens, but what I didn't see is that the recipe only called for 2 T of the masala mix. I thought it was like mac'n'cheese and put the whole packet in with the chicken (the packet is about 4X the size of a mac'n'cheese cheese packet.) Needless to say, Mike said it was the hottest (spiciest) thing he's ever had. I know this one will go down in family history--the day I made extremely hot Indian food. The curry mustard greens and kidney beans turned out really well, though. Thankfully! We had something to eat. Yum! And I am going to try again with my chicken tikka masala.