Contraptions, Sunsets and Rainbows.

Yesterday was a typical "we need a day at home to breathe" day. I woke up to a beautiful blue sky yesterday morning and really wanted to take the boys somewhere, but soon realized that I had laundry to do, camping gear to put away and a house that desperately needed some attention, so we stayed put. I stayed in my Mickey Mouse PJ's until 4:30. They boys begged me for some real clothes at around 1 p.m., and by that time I actually had some they could put on because I had done 3 out of the 5 loads of laundry at that point.

As I was attending to the house, doing laundry and paying bills, the boys tried to keep themselves amused. Most days I play with them them, but yesterday, I had a lot to do and just couldn't. After redirecting them and giving them several ideas, they finally decided that they were going to play spies again, but with a twist. They were going to barricade themselves into the living room by setting traps. That way if there were any "bad guys" that tried to break into the house, we would be safe and protected. Their barricades consisted of moving all of my small, portable furniture like chairs, small end tables and the shoe rack in front of the door way. In our vestibule, they made a fort. They had furniture blocking the door but they also had room to hide so they could attack the person trying to gain access to our home.



Of course, all of this was going on as I was trying to CLEAN the house. It made bringing laundry up and down the stairs a challenge and at one point we actually had someone come to the door and we had a little bit of an ordeal getting to them. As they finished the game, I made them put everything back and I got thinking about how I can be a lot like the boys. I but up barriers in my life for protection. I use one little piece of something I own at a time and build this contraption who's only purpose is to hinder my progress, keep other's out and generally, mess up my life. It's easy, comforting and sometimes fun to build these contraptions. It makes me feel that I have a false sense of security and control, but in reality, I really don't have any control. I need to realize that God is in control of my life. He will protect me and He will do it with more power than throwing and end table in front of the door will allow. Psalm 18:2 says "The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety." If God is protecting me, my little contraptions will serve no purpose other than to hinder my growth.

In the end, I made the boys disassemble their contraptions and put the pieces back. They really didn't want to as it was a lot of work. When they were making the contraptions, they were having fun; it didn't seem like work, but having to undo the chaos was hard. I wasn't going to help but ended up giving them some assistance. I know that there are a lot of contraptions in my life. Hopefully, God will help me take them down so I can live the life He has for me.

On another note, my cousin Kelsie came over to hang out with the boys and me last night. We went for our nightly walk and here are some of the pictures.