You know us Southerners. A little ice on the roads and we’re a mess.
Believe it or not, I do actually know what NOT to do while driving on ice. I’m not really all that skilled at what TO do.

Like, what do you do if:

The roads are solid sheets of ice, you go through a dip in the road, through “the one” melty spot, get your tires wet, and then lose traction halfway up the hill on the other side? In a standard. Front wheel drive. Little car, little engine.

The answer is probably “STAY HOME.”

If I did, I wouldn’t be sharing this story with you — now would I??

So as I’m driving up the incline I feel the tires slipping, I try to stay on the gas and keep the car moving at a steady speed but slipping changes to spinning and I’m going no where. I didn’t want to add skidding and turning to spinning in place so I stop. Brake. Take a breath and say, “PleaseGodPleaseGodPleaseGodPleaseGod PLEASE help me get up this hill!”

I try again. It’s not working.

“PleaseGodPleaseGodPleaseGodPleaseGod PLEASE help me get up this hill!”

Nada.

I call hubs, “Um? Any advice?” Not really. Not anything that was working. I didn’t want to slide back down the hill because the bottom of the hill was a “culvert bridge” over a creek with no guard rails — I didn’t want to accidentally slide OFF. And besides, when I did let the car slide back, it kept slipping back and to the left. I figured I was better able to be helped it I was still mostly straight and on the road.

So I stopped again.

In the middle of the road. At an angle. Almost but not quite blocking the other lane’s passage.

Nice, huh?

I called my friend, whose house I just left, who had a 4X4 truck and a tow chain and a bag of sand. She was hopping in her truck right away to come help me. Hubs called in (at home with the kids) and I let him know she was on her way and we hung up.

And I’m not kidding that within 30 seconds, another 4X4 truck came pulling onto the little county road coming towards me and stopped to help me.

Praise God for Good Samaritans, right?

He didn’t have a tow chain but he wanted to wait until my friend showed up in case we needed help. So he sat in the other lane across from me and we chatted a few minutes.

And I’m not kidding that within a few minutes ANOTHER 4X4 truck pulled into the county road coming toward me.

Good Samaritan #1 pulled forward and off to the side of the road so the truck could pass by us, but would you believe that he didn’t? He turned off the road right in front of me, backed up right in front of my car as close as he dared and hopped out with a tow strap in his hand and began hooking it to his tow hitch without saying a word.

By this point my friend is pulling up behind us, I mean, I was only a few minutes from her house so it didn’t take long for her to get there. She’s looking at all my help and says “I brought sand! You want it?” Good Samaritan #2 says, “Yeah, we might need it. Let me see if I can get her up the hill without it first.”

Well, it didn’t work, because I still had no traction and he lost traction once the tow strap was taut and I wasn’t going anywhere. So Good Samaritan #1 carried the bag of across the little culvert bridge for my friend so she didn’t have to.

At this point I should mention that walking on this stuff was like ice skating in sneakers!

Well that sand was just the trick and a little sprinkle in front of his 4 tires and my front 2 got me up that hill on the very next try. I was free!!

You’d better believe I said “Thank you” about a million times!! My friend was still looking around at the two Good Samaritans and telling me, “I got here as fast as I could,” as if to say, “Wow, it didn’t take me that long to get here, how did these people even have time to happen to pass by??”

Hopping back in my car I gave it gas gently and was able to get moving on that icy road. It felt so good. And I couldn’t help bursting out in my car, “ThankYouGodThankYouGodThankYouGod!” I mean, God is good ALWAYS, but I was just bursting praise and thankfulness!

Then I remembered the bewildered look on my friend’s face and I just started laughing to myself. God DID answer my initial prayer, “help me get up this hill.” I had kinda meant, like, on my own four tires. But God doesn’t always give us the answer we expect right? He didn’t just send me help. He sent THREE 4X4 trucks, a man with a tow strap and a friend with a bag of sand to my rescue.

~~

I realized after the fact that this post is perfect for Michelle’s Popinjay photo prompt this week, BEWILDERED.

bewilder

1 : to cause to lose one’s bearings

2 : to perplex or confuse especially by a complexity, variety, or multitude of objects or considerations

To say that yesterday “sucked” would be an understatement. I realize that’s probably the strongest language ever I’ve used on this blog, but, yesterday completely sucked. A series of unfortunate events. A very bad day.

It started off that way, so what should have been a VERY GOOD DAY really never stood a chance. No matter that I tried to get a handle on my mood constantly throughout the whole day. No matter that I did manage to improve my mood, briefly, several times throughout the day. It didn’t matter, the bad just came rolling in like waves.

It was the kind of day where you’re brushing your kid’s hair, trying to get out the door because you wanted to leave 15 minutes ago and the hairbrush literally breaks in your hand.

It was the kind of day where you’re running late to get your husband from the airport and when you get to the north entrance you find that construction has made it virtually impossible to go where you want to go. And so after circling 3 times and still not finding a way through the construction, you spend AN HOUR driving to the south side of the airport because you don’t know what to do.

The kind of day where we SHOULD have been home at 10pm but you’re all crashing silently, crankily, into bed at midnight.

It was the kind of day that could easily bleed over into today. And the kind of day that makes me pray:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24

Say it with me: “It’s a brand new day.”

Photo Credits: Lightning Some rights reserved by flickrimglas and Sunrise: Some rights reserved by jjjj56cp

Crashing, rain pounded into age-torn siding, wind ripping brittle shingles from the roof. Noise carried by wind and felt through the ground caused the home to tremble-jitter while three helpless babes slept inside. Innocent. Unaware.

Mother pacing, praying, peering through rain streaked windows watching clouds illuminated by lightening – seeking every ounce of information stormy skies could offer. Seeking God to guide and comfort the storm within throughout the storm without.

After terror wanes and storm passes, sunrise comes and light illumines havoc-torn trees. Morning reveals the close proximity of the twisting tempest, powerful and destructive. Mother, relieved, Father surprised, 3 little babes innocent and unaware.

A few miles from our house.

Two years past and many storms ago, and yet this still imprinted on my mind as yesterday, cautions and bids us to remember HIM who works all forces for HIS will. To GOD be the glory, more powerful than all eye can see or hand touch close and feel. To God be the glory as Mother faces forces colliding and tempest turning as Texas rides through tornado season once again.

In my front yard.

(A tribute to tornado season, here once again! The original tornado of 2008 story can be found here.)

This week’s Popinjay photo prompt was “Powerful.” Nothing is more powerful than God himself. I see his power in the might and strength of creation – in waterfalls, mountains, and yes, even tornadoes. For more Popinjay, visit Karina who is hosting for Michelle!

Heart urchins, clam steinkurns, snail steinkurns, round sea urchins -- click for larger.

Yesterday found me standing in the rain, collecting garbage from a wayward bag that had gotten lost on the way up the hill to the dumpster and then had the courtesy to spill its trash all over the side of the hill.

Hubs was off on a Sunday afternoon computer call, Little Prince was napping and the girls were given instructions to “be nice” while Momma was outside getting wet and dirty. And then I was off on a trek up the hill in the light rain with nothing but me and my trashbag and my thoughts.

Collecting the trash wasn’t easy – the wind was strong and it kept blowing my trashbag shut or sideways. I asked myself several times why I didn’t think to bring any gloves along with me. And I realized I was wearing my super cute shoes and hoping I didn’t get them muddy. I didn’t, but still it would have been very easy for me to be very cross by the time the chore was over.

Instead, I realized that outside – wind and rain and all – was very quiet. And when you’ve got three kids, silence really is golden.

If you’ve got several children, you know what I’m talking about.

After lugging the bag of trash the rest of the way up the hill I threw it up into the dumpster and turned to leave. But then I stopped and looked over my shoulder.

The day before, Drama Queen had done a science fair project on fossils, most of which had been collected from the area around our landlord’s stock pond a few hundred feet away. My 6 year old is CRAZY into fossils and has been for years. She’s often bringing rocks and fossils to me with eyes wide round open and a grin across her face, “Momma, look at THIS cool rock I found!!” I’m constantly telling her to leave other people’s rocks alone – otherwise our neighborhood churches, restaurants and friend’s houses wouldn’t have any rocks left – they’d be at our house instead.

I confess that I usually nod and say, “yes, yes, now go play some more.” Usually I do look at the rock, but not very closely. I couldn’t say that I really paid any attention to it. I can say that I didn’t REALLY see it the way my daughter did.

Image collected from the internet - Shows snails (C&D), Round & Heart Sea Urchins (I&J) and Clams (H.) Click for Larger.

But that was before.

• Before learning more about different kinds of fossils with Drama Queen.
• Before finding a list and some pictures of the many different kinds of fossils that our part of Texas is loaded with.
• Before going through our collection (aka bucket) of fossils on top of the bookcase.
• Before finding some really cool fossils in there that I didn’t even know we had.

I confess that “before” I stopped to pay attention, I wouldn’t have been able to tell a difference in some of the tiny little fossils and plain boring rocks.

But that was before. And this was now. Looking back in the direction of home, I turned toward the stock pond and walked about ten feet past the dumpster where the rocky terrain began. I didn’t have to go far. I didn’t have to look long.

I stooped there for about five minutes, scanning the surface of the ground with my eyes and skimming the surface of the limestone debris with my fingers. Picking up small rocks and turning others over I worked quickly – assessing and discarding, assessing and keeping. My hands flew over the small patch of ground as I collected over a dozen small fossils, including two tiny sea urchins – something we didn’t have yet.

In five minutes. Just off the top of the ground. TEN FEET FROM THE DUMPSTER.

They’d been there all along. Undisturbed. Waiting to be discovered.

I had just never looked that closely before.

I felt so very blessed on the walk back down the hill. And this time I was the one, running up to my girls, eyes wide open round saying “Look what I found!” And I can’t help but wonder what other lessons there are for me in this. How many other details, tiny wonders of God’s creation, little blessings in my day, do I not see because I’m not looking?

These round sea urchins looks like round rocks but are covered in bumpy "spines."

About the size of a blueberry.

Amazing little finds.

You may or may not regularly participate in Thankful Thursday at Grace Alone, but seeing as how we’re celebrating the biggest thing to be thankful for tomorrow, I encourage you to stop and think a moment and thank God for his wonders and blessings. And if you feel like it, schedule a post in advance for Christmas Day. Tomorrow, spend time with your family, and then when you come back on Friday, browse around and read everyone’s thankful posts.

Have a VERY merry Christmas, y’all!!

I’ve got a lot to be thankful for, it’s just that everything I’ve tried to write so far has sounded insincere or cheezy. Truth is, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

It’s hard to put it all into words. But sometimes, we don’t have to. Sometimes we can just praise God and thank Him. Just for being God. Just for doing what he does. Sometimes, we can just lift our faces to God and smile.

Thank you God, for the blessings you’ve given, the trials you’ve allowed, the successes you’ve brought, the growth you’ve given. Thank you God, for all that you are and all that you do.

Amber

Thankful Thursday is hosted by Grace Alone.