Winning A Coin Toss

What's a girl to do after such a life changing event at our home?

Go to Starbucks, of course.

I've been sitting here working on school papers, listening to sometimes irritating music, and wondering about the youth of America hard at work behind the counter. And I keep pinching myself in wonderment at all that has happened.

You know, on the outside nothing has changed. I'm still waiting for that teaching position to open up. Still trying to figure out how we are going to pay for the second round of braces. Still dealing with intermittent moodiness.

But, boy, something has changed on the inside. My husband said he felt lighter yesterday; that he felt like a huge burden had been lifted. I knew exactly what he was talking about. We hauled in the trash and he took me for an ice cream. Just another Tuesday night.

And the whole time I was thinking how great life is.

We made the kids mad (or maybe just annoyed) when we shut off everything at nine o'clock last night. We had every intention of going to bed early and doing a little Bible reading together. But somehow we ended up sitting in the living room with the television off and two guitars strumming.

The oldest trying to show his dad a few tricks.
The middle presenting his viewpoint on life.
The youngest trying to stay mad but having a very hard time.

And that entire time, I was just sitting there watching it all unfold.

Once again, we announced our intentions of going to bed and wished everyone a good night and turned off all the lights and all those other end-of-the-day instructions. We put on our pj's, climbed into bed, and heard a knock at the door.

The youngest came in because it is impossible for her to stay mad.
The oldest followed because he is naturally nosy like his mom.
And the middle poked his head in to see what he was missing.

We ended up having three teenaged kids gathered around our bed. I read Ephesians 6:1 out loud just because I thought it might run them off (obey your parents and all that). Instead we listened to them tell us stories of times they got in trouble and I was given a demonstration of how I drive when I'm mad. They passed around our class rings and listened to tales of our own teenage years.

And all I could think was how blessed we are.

You know how when things are going good, you're almost holding your breath waiting for the bomb to drop? It's that this is almost too good to be true feeling? That's where I'm at. What a great place to be.

Who knows what tonight will bring. I'm only minutes away from a school car line and it's always anybody's guess how the night will unfold. The same kids we had to run off from our bedroom last night may very well want nothing to do with us tonight. It's kind of like flipping a coin: heads you win; tails you lose.

I'm just hoping to win that coin toss for a few more days.