Find Your Ninevah

WOW!  [I really just wanted to get your attention....there isn't anything terribly exciting that deserves an interjection.  It worked - you are reading.] What a crazy few weeks its been here at Casa de la Shortie.  Between softball and dance and softball and laundry and softball and tball and softball and dishes and softball and softball we haven't really had time to do anything else.  Did I mention there's been a lot of softball? Weather and other circumstances shifted the schedule around and these last three weeks we've been super busy.  Last regular season game tomorrow and playoffs start on Friday. I love seeing my favorite shortstop doing her thing while my favorite coach stands at third base.  My favorite 13 year old runs the music and the smallest Shorties work the crowd.  It really is a family affair :)

2 Short up to bat!  She has the coolest walk up song ever....Dr. Feelgood!!

Of course I cannot forget to include the "other" ball player in the Short house....Gabe.  When he's not playing in the dirt or spinning on the base he is conversing with EVERYONE around him. [The boy is just like his daddy...never met a conversation he didn't like.]  His games, though not quite as exciting and nail biting as Molly's are pretty funny.  We are discovering that Gabe really thinks baseball is super cool.

Atta boy!!!  Look at that bat speed....he's got skills!

Cooper and Emma have been equally as busy.  Cooper is not playing a sport at the moment but he finds lots of things to do [one of his favorite things to do is give me a hard time and he's really good at that].  He's really enjoying playing disc golf, most every afternoon, with several friends from school.  And [note the lack of sarcasm and only pure enjoyment on my part] he plays his drums EVERY day.  He is actually very good and has taught himself.  I am so glad they are not loud [sarcasm duly noted] and that the neighbors have not yet called the cops on us [notice I said yet].   He loves them so we can deal with it [most days anyway .  Tonight he was inducted into the Beta Club at school and willingly under duress dressed in his "business casual" [and yes, I had to clarify exactly what that meant today...call me redneck and unsophisticated....I don't care] to mark the occasion.  He is just so darn cute:)

Love that boy to pieces:) He is sitting with Awesome - his BFF!!

And then there is the DIVA. [Trust me, she is the one Short kid that loves the spotlight and will not be left out of anything!]   She is my hip baby [you know, that one kid that ALWAYS wants mom's attention?] and definitely the most headstrong [glad I'm not like that] of all four of the Shorties.  Her thing is dancing and dressing up and jewelry and makeup and girly girl stuff. [In case you haven't noticed I am sort of the plain Jane type and Molly's the athlete....Emma teaches us how to dress!!]  She had her dance recital [aka "Oh My Gosh is This Thing Ever Going to End" show] this past Sunday.

That's Flossie there on the left....Walking the Dinosaur:)  Love her!

I really, really, REALLY want to attend the SheSpeaks Women's Conference in July.  So much so that I have sent letters to family and friends, asking them to sponsor me.  I love this blogging thing.  I love Bible study.  I want to put the two together.  I would love to do what Beth Moore or Priscilla Shirer do for women.  [There is alot of "I" in all of that....].  With God's urging, your prayers, a little bit of money, and a huge leap of faith this might just happen.  If I am able to attend the conference I am hoping to learn more about using my abilities [not sure if sarcasm and colorfully bracketed thoughts are gifts....] to reach women who are sisters, moms, daughters, friends, wives, and passionate about God's calling for their lives. Please pray with me and I know that God will help provide a way if this is what he wants me to do with my life.

On that note, I also ask that you continue to pray for me and the request from last's post.  I am struggling right now.  I don't want to be upset.  In fact, our Sunday school theme for this month is forgiveness - could God be speaking to me any louder?  I am not angry and I almost kind of understand the "why".  What I don't understand is how to forget.  I need your prayers to just get over this and move on.

I am part of a phenomenal study of Jonah and this is what I've learned so far: Jonah had one simple task from God  [yes, God usually ask the very simple things of us and yet we still find His requests difficult] -  Chapter 1, verse 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." We know that Jonah did what many of us do [pointing finger at self] - he ran.  Only, instead of getting swallowed by a large fish [the Bible never says whale], we get swallowed by greed or despair or pride.  God says, "Yes. You." and we say, "Ummm...yeah God....we need to talk.  You see, I've got plans" or "I can't do that God.  Why would you ask that of me?"  Then we jump on our boats and attempt to sail away...only to find that the water isn't what we'd hoped it would be...then we fall overboard.  I have asked myself, a lot today, [I like to talk to me because I typically agree with myself, am refreshed at my own ideas, and have no need to worry about what I might think about me] about my Ninevah.  Where is God asking me to go?  Sometimes, I believe, God's requests couldn't be any louder and we just block it out.  Sometimes [this would be more my case] we are too busy to listen.  Sometimes we hear it but we just don't listen ...much like Jonah.  I've tried those fish [and I am not a seafood lover] of despair and anger and greed and discontent and selfishness and pity - not one of them was worth falling overboard.  I want to listen.  I want to find my Ninevah.

I will conclude my post with something from my Cooper.  Out of respect for him I will not divulge personal information other than to say the mountaintop is wonderful and well worth the valley it takes to get there:) 

I don't even know what happened today... CRAZY day... But God's here right? Of course. Has been forever. But i've been too blind to see... i realized.... with God... no worries. Ain't worried bout' a thing:) Best Dad ever if you ask.. right next to Craig Short. Stuff has happened lately that now is out. I'll use to prove that I'Mthe proof of a liv...ing testimony. I'll pull a Josh Hamilton. Because with Jesus around.. I am Second.

WOW! [Yes, it is that exciting my friends!]