because my life verse is in this chapter of proverbs....

i think i will start signing my name and add proverbs 26:11 (just the address, not the verse and let people look it up on their own...)

which reminds me of a story about LIVE VERSES... i was at a youth camp and there was the ONE guy that EVERYONE who has ever been to youth camp knows will be there...

SUPER RELIGIOUS in a really obnoxious way guy. HOLIER THAN THOU guy. FIRST IN THE LINE TO HEAVEN guy (and pushing you out of his way to get there).

(and i know sometimes it isn’t a guy, it is a girl, but at this camp and this time, it was a guy).

he annoyed me (and everyone else) with his pithy interjections of Bible verses for every situation and his whole attitude of religious one-up-manship. one time i made a comment about how i didn’t like something in the meal and he busted out with “judge not, lest ye be judged”. like me judging the icky steamed broccoli was going to be on my permanent record...

“so lea why should i let you into my glorious heavenly home when you detested my creation of broccoli that one night at camp?” spaketh the LORD (like i think God doesn’t use capitals either).

so that last night we all sat around the campfire and signed each others t-shirts and were supposed to add our “LIFE VERSE” reference under our signature. and a bunch of us (yes, me included) were running for our Bibles to find a “LIFE VERSE” and this HOLY ROLLER guy was making fun of us for not KNOWING where our LIFE VERSE was in the Bible. and so he confidently wrote GALATIANS 5:2-3 under his name on every t-shirt. without checking his Bible because he was SUPER HOLY guy.

and that night they had a special ceremony where everyone walked in one by one holding a lit candle and it was all serious and someone was playing “just as i am” on the piano and they read that person’s LIFE VERSE as they were walking in...

and this is what they read for that boy...

Galatians 5:2-3

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

He had meant to put some other verses in galatians and he had gotten the address wrong. and it made us all do that really bad “in church and we shouldn’t be laughing” laugh. and i burned myself with hot wax dripping off of my candle but it was SO worth it to see that boy’s face when they read that verse.

and i wish i had thought to put this proverb as my life verse because that would have be AWESOME to walk into the room holding a lit candle and hear this verse read...

proverbs 26:11

As a dog returns to its vomit,

so a fool repeats his folly.

however it is not that awesome to be that fool returning to her folly time and time again. because i do so smell the stench of my own vomit sometimes as i return again and again to my folly.

stong’s concordance gives this definition of “folly”...

despising wisdom
quarrelsome
mocking when guilty
licentious (lacking moral, especially sexual, restraints)

oh, yes. i recognize that kind of folly. and definition #3 is my personal favorite type of vomit to return to...

i find that the more i mock something, the more i point out the sins of others, the MORE it is that i am trying to cover up my own guilty spirit.

and again, if i will just link a few visual emotional reminders in my mind during this month of living proverbially it will help me to remember some of these proverbs and maybe just maybe help me to live wiser...

when i despise correction, it is like despising the person pulling my skirt over my underwear

if i do not discipline and limit my children, i am leading them to their executions

and when i mock others sins, i am returning to my own vomit.

ugh. just. ugh.

so sorry that i mocked HOLLY ROLLER guy’s sins because i had PLENTY of my own sins that i could have mocked. but it does make a nice point for those of you trying to find LIFE VERSES.... know where yours is before you write it on a tshirt... or don’t be too proud to double check those kinds of things....

so i am going to avoid my own folly for a while, stay away from my own vomit. stop pointing out other’s sins so that i can try to hide my own for a while.

and i am not judging icky steamed broccoli. because i would not want that on my permanent record either....

today is friday (see i told you i had little brain activity left) and i am going to atlanta to take two children back to their home (the two boys in all the below photos that are not typically in our family photos, except during the summer time) and then on to north carolina to take two children to camp for two weeks (my two eldest children).

then i will take two tylenol and call you in the morning after i had two naps. and two cups of tea. because i am two tired twoday.

last night as we were packing up and doing laundry, that teenage boy pictured below realized that he couldn’t find his cell phone. so we commenced on a two hour cell phone hunt and tore up this house to no avail.

when i threw my weary phone hunting body into bed it was almost 1 a.m. (i was trying to get one last load of laundry done and folded). then at 1:30 a.m. that same eldest boy was beside my bed and he spoke the words that NO parent wants to hear at 1:30 a.m. (of course there are NO words that anyone wants to hear from a child at 1:30 a.m.), but especially not these words...

he spoke, “maxx is throwing up........ a lot”.

and truer words were never spoken by a teenage boy.

maxx had thrown up.... a lot.

maxx NEVER throws up. like once or twice in his life and both times directly into the toilet, not ALL OVER his bed and room. it was horrible.

i rushed a wide eyed maxx into the shower, set up josiah a bed in the playroom so he could go back to sleep. and begin stripping the bed and trying not to throw up..... a lot. adam realized that there was some activity and roused himself, began helping, and said not a word.

i tried to talk to him to ask if he had seen josiah’s cell phone (he had gone to bed before josiah made that revelation about his phone) and adam said, “shhh, no talking.” he silently cleaned up his part. i started the first of three loads of laundry of sheets, comforter, blanket, pillows, bedskirt, etc.... adam wordlessly finished cleaning the floor and went back to bed. i love how a man can get up, ask no questions, want no explanations, clean up vomit, and be back asleep in 5 seconds flat.

i fussed over maxx, took his temp (he was normal as could be) and finished up two out of three loads of laundry. i set the last load outside (because it STUNK) and went to be around 3 a.m. then i woke at 5 and switched out the last load of laundry and went back to sleep until 7 a.m. just in time for load #3 to go into the laundry.

see why i have no brain cells left? we are leaving this morning for atlanta. i do have a greene girl (sarah) going with me, so in case i am too tired to drive, she can take over. but i should be fine.

we had fun with the kids this week. i will post photos of our activities later.

i won’t post photos of the throw up... a lot. i have enough brain power to know that would be wrong... a lot of wrong.