Stress--Cod vs. Catfish

A great email from Steve Arterburn (ETA: My mom said, WHO is Steve? http://www.newlifelive.tv/ Sorry, thought EVERYONE listened to New Life Live on Christian Radio...it's a counseling call-in-show...I cringe to hear all the people's problems, but I can't stop listening! I usually get a lot from their programs though so I try to listen daily once I put Cassie down for her nap).

Stress ...we don’t want to live with it, but if you don’t have any, your local address is probably the local cemetery. And, if you find that your conversations often begin with “Put the gun down, and then we can talk,” or if you’re trying to get your four-year-old to switch to decaf, then you probably need some help. You know, we’ve been programmed to believe that stress is bad and that we should do everything we can to eliminate it. But that’s not really true. Sure, we live in a day and age where we have more things coming at us at a faster pace than ever before, and in many instances levels of stress are out of control. But without stress, we wouldn’t be on top of our game. We wouldn’t make sure the reports we have to do were done at all, let alone on time. Without it our kids would never make their beds or clean their rooms. Without it, we’d probably end up couch potatoes with zero intellect and without a life ...looking forward to and laughing at the funny commercials on TV as the highlight of our day. But even then, we’d probably stress out over who controls the remote!

Chuck Swindoll told a story once of the cod fish. Some years ago the cod fish industry in the east was booming. So the owners of one of the processing plants decided to take the cod fish west. And they did so by freezing the fish and shipping it frozen. What they discovered though was that when the fish arrived here in the west and was thawed and cooked, it had lost its flavor. So, wanting to persevere and take advantage of the big population out west, the processor decided to ship the fish live, in big tanks of water. One shipment arrived and when they prepared the fish, it was mushy—it had lost its firm texture and some of its flavor as well. But a second shipment arrived, and when they processed it, it was firm and delicious ...it tasted just like the fish did back east. What happened? What was different in the two shipments of fish? Well they discovered that in the second shipment there was a catfish in with the cod fish, and the catfish is the natural enemy of the codfish. It seems that the presence of the catfish with the codfish caused the codfish to be on the alert—to be swimming around and not just sitting there, lethargically, turning into mush. So it is with us. Sometimes God allows or puts us into circumstances and relationships where we’re the codfish and we have a catfish in our lives. It’s a nuisance we’d rather not have, but it’s something that keeps us on our toes …alert, aware, and ready to respond. It’s a healthy stress for us.

Aunts and Doggies!

Here are a few pictures from last weekend! Cassie LOVES my sister's dog, Simon. They both wait at this door, begging to be let 'outside'! Check out the little 'tennis' dress my parents bought her...it's a Polo!

Of course, Cassie's FAVORITE dog is our own Riley! Anytime she gets upset that we have to leave somewhere, I just remind her we need to go home to check on Riley. Then she sniffs her tears away and says, "o-tay".

Check out this picture of my Dad and his sister, Ann. Tim noticed how their eyes look identical! Cassie wasn't feeling too smiley at this point in the day (WAY past her bedtime) but she managed to give us a giggle.

Sleepy Girl

Seriously, Cassie has slept more than I ever thought she could sleep in one day! We've had a really busy weekend so I'm not surprised by her exhaustion.
My dad's sister, Ann, was in town visiting for just two days, so we really pushed Cassie to enjoy Ann to the fullest! Last night we had a family get-together so we didn't get back to our house until after 10pm. Cassie went right into her bed and slumbered peacefully (and silently) until 11am! Yes, 11am! We just kept watching the clock tick this morning, realizing we had missed church and sunday school, but wanting to give Cassie a chance to sleep as long as she needed to. After playing together and eating lunch, Cassie went to the stairs and said, "upstairs--sleepy" so up we went to take a nap. She slept from 2pm to 6:30pm. I know, I'll probably be up with her all night long, but my mommy instincts just told me to let her sleep. She's had a runny nose and the startings of a cough so I figured her little immune system needed the rest. I'm the same way-and so is my Mom-...we can sleep off a sickness. We'll see if it works for Cassie.

Here are a few pictures from Aunt Ann's first day in DC...we picked her up from the airport and went straight to my sister Beka's. Here's Cassie with her sunglasses and then walking to the park with her Mimi. Whenever my sister gets a chance to upload the pictures from her camera, I'll add some of those (hint hint, Boo!).