There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,

but the tongue of the wise brings healing.  Proverbs 12:18

This issue of the tongue is something I’m working on in my life.  Common sense tells us we should use nice words.  Our mothers told us, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”  But somehow we learn to neglect the power of our tongues anyway.  We set rules for ourselves like “don’t call someone stupid,” “don’t yell at people,” or “don’t use traditional curse words.”  I even go so far as to avoid using mock curse words, words which I think our culture has put in the place of harsh profane language in order to “safely” use these culturally popular words.  Some examples are frickin’ and freakin’.  Those just happen to be a couple of my biggest pet peeves. 

But while I’m concentrating on not saying the wrong word, my heart just might be slipping somewhere else.  Oh, how easy it is to lose sight of how my words make someone else feel.  This is true when I’m upset or angry, but it can just as easily happen when I think I’m being hilariously funny, entertaining, clever, and witty. Sure, I may be having a great time with my antics, but my fun should not come at the expense of the pain of others.  If I’m not attentive to my heart and speech patterns, I can easily become hardened to this painful wrong I commit against others.  This is not a pattern I wish to be prevalent in my life.

Patterns in a person’s life reveal their true heart and motives.  This is true for me, and this is true for you.  We will all reveal our innermost selves at some point to someone, especially if we come across someone we don’t easily mesh with but even still with those we love deeply.  I am appreciative and fond of the ESV study note on this verse:  “Some people’s normal speech pattern is constantly to accuse, belittle, manipulate, mock, insult, or condemn, and their rash words hurt other people and feel like sword thrusts.  This is opposite of the way of wisdom taught in Proverbs, for the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

This verse, this explanation of it, and the wise words and gentle rebuke of a godly friend have given me a lot to think about concerning these patterns in my own life.  I hope they will bring you to consider and think on your own patterns, as well.  As for me, I would rather put down my deadly weapon and use my mouth for healing and soothing instead of drawing blood when I speak to someone.

Lord, make my heart and motives pure.  Make me love others just as you do.

“One thing I’ve learned…You can pick your nose, and you can pick your belly button, but you can’t pick your in-laws.  You can write that down.”  Granddaddy Reid, 2011

Thanks for the wisdom and the laugh, Granddaddy.  You really are a HOOT!

You’ll all be happy to know that Allie passed her test and will now move on to her behind-the-wheel training.  It seems like it was just yesterday that my little Allie Kat was tooling around in her Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.  My, how time flies.

Last night the kids and I drove home from church without any out-of-the-ordinary experiences.  We drove home talking about what we all did at church last night, and I expertly dodged some of the craters in the dirt road as we went.  I also hit many of them, as usual.  Soon we pulled up at the back door of our house, and this is where the steamy adventure took place.

I exited my car only to realize that smoke was coming out of the passenger side of the hood.  I could see Russell coming toward the back door from inside the house, so I yelled for him to come quick.  He came out and told me to pop the hood.  I rarely have to pop the hood, so I fumbled around for a little bit before I found the “hood popper” in the dark of night.  I think my incompetence in this area frustrated Russell a little, but he didn’t say anything.  Instead, he began looking around to figure out where the smoke was coming from.

He quickly found the source of the smoke which was really steam.  It’s hard to tell in the dark which is which.  A hose had broken loose.  I believe he said it was a heater hose.  The fitting which connects the hose to the vehicle had broken, leaving the hose free to spray anti-freeze under the hood, thus causing steam to come out from under the hood in order to scare me half to death.  We always drive well-worn vehicles, so while I have come to expect vehicle issues and disrepair, I still don’t like them or feel comfortable with them.  It’s scary just because my ignorance of vehicle workings keeps me from knowing whether something is just a little bit bad or hugely bad.  You just never know with a vehicle that has 265,000 miles on it!  All in all, it’s still a good car.

So even though it was after 8:00 p.m. and we live 30 minutes from the nearest auto parts store that would still be open, Russell left to go to town and get the parts he needed to fix my ride.  He returned about an hour later and began the repair.  Wouldn’t you know it?  They gave him the wrong fitting.  The one he brought home was just too large to get the job done, so even though he tried, I’m still without a ride.

Then he called his dad for some back-up.  Granddaddy is retired, or “retarded” as he sometimes calls it, so Russell asked him to come over this morning and finish the repair.  I believe that the correct fitting will have to be bought from the Chevy dealership, so Ev and Granddaddy will likely be visiting the local dealership and then making the repair later this morning.  I feel really bad about this because it is Granddaddy’s birthday today.  So y’all give a shout out to Granddaddy for being a team player (okay this is an extended team) on his birthday.  And don’t pinch him if he’s not wearing green.  How would you like to wear green every year on your birthday since it fell on St. Patrick’s day?!?  Anyway, I’m really grateful for such great in-laws who are always there to back us up and help us wherever and whenever we need it.  They are a blessing to us and our kids.

How’s that for a steamy adventure?  So long until adventure strikes again……

Jim Elliot

“Wherever you are, be all there.  Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”

Yesterday’s adventure included a Bobcat, a small steam roller, a dump truck, three other work trucks, lots of workers with rakes and shovels, and some other kind of asphalt equipment which I don’t know the name of.  Yesterday we got a great amount of asphalt driveway work done at Reid Ranch.  It takes a great amount of anything to work on our driveway since it is very, very long.  I would estimate about 1/4 mile, but then I’m not really very good at distances.  :)

This adventure had a few adventurous consequences.  The kids were not easily focused on their school work.  They were more interested in watching the show going on outside.  Everett also found another career possibility, paving driveways.  He thought it would be a great job to drive those machines.  But then again, he has mentioned a few other career possibilities this week, as well.  He appears to be searching.  Another result of the asphalt adventure was that the crew was still working on the driveway when we needed to leave to take Allie and BB to piano lessons.  We couldn’t get down the driveway, so we went off-road and drove through the pasture, hitting a couple of small ditches at an angle to avoid getting stuck or getting vehicle damage, and then getting out to the road at the very end of the driveway.  Sounds like fun, huh?

So now we have a wonderful new driveway with no huge holes, but better yet, we have a new racetrack for Ev to ride the gocart on.  He had to get over the fact that he wouldn’t be able to “drift” or spin out anymore after the gravel was covered up.  It’s a trade-off, you know.

So there is my story of Thursday’s adventure.  Today was not very adventurous, which is really a blessing in disguise…or an outright blessing not disguised at all!  But, as I see it, Thursday’s adventure was enough adventure to cover two days at least.

Til the next adventure occurs…

Today’s extra-special adventure was of the automotive nature.  It was actually a continuation of a problem we have been having for quite some time, but today was worse than ever.  A weaker woman may have sat on the side of the road and cried.  ;)

Our Suburban has about 266,000 miles on it.  How many people do you know who drive a car with that many miles on it?  And this is our family vehicle.  It is the only thing we have that will seat all of us.  We bought it from a friend whose company owned this vehicle.  When he got a new company Suburban, we bought this 2004.  We paid cash for it a couple of years ago because we got such a good price that we otherwise would not have been able to get a car this new.  It has been a really good car for the most part, but we have had to make a few repairs.  This fall we had to have the transfer case replaced after it was towed from the Fifth Ward in Houston, but thankfully the transmission was still okay.  It could have been worse even though it cost us a lot of money but still less than car payments.  That’s the only major repair so far.

Until the one we’re facing now.  This crazy car has a quirk that causes it to just lose power while we’re driving down the road.  No noise or anything, well other than a beep warning me that my little screen is saying “Reduced Engine Power.”  DUH!  We eventually figured out that if we pull over and turn it off, wait and then restart it, we can be on our way again with the only damage being that we are often late wherever we are going because of this. 

Russell has had a time trying to figure out what the cause of this is so that he can fix it.  We’ve been given different diagnoses, so we are never sure which way to go.  We finally were told a few weeks ago that we could approach the problem with two solutions, but we would not know which was causing the problem until we tried.  One would be about $125 for the part, and the other would be $600-700.  So Russell brought home the cheaper part, a new accelerator, and quickly put the part on.  We had no problem for a few days, so we thought we had made the right choice, but soon we found out we did not.  We were back in the same boat with our reduced engine power making us stop on the side of the road.  It was then that we knew we woul need to try the more expensive part.

That’s been a few weeks ago.  We need to do it, but our oldest daughter’s car also needs to be fixed, and our second oldest daughter is getting braces very soon which requires a healthy down payment.  Add to that all the other expenses a family of six has, and we just haven’t jumped in there and tried the more expensive repair.  Well, after today, I guess we will just have to take the risk and hope we get it right this time.

Today I decided to go to town to check out a 50% off sale at a resale shop, but this trip was not without adventure.  In fact, I never made it to the shop.  I chickened out after the sixth time my car went to reduced engine power within less than 20 miles.  It restarted without trouble each time, but it usually never repeats itself on the same day, so I decided to give it up.  I made it back home after two more unplanned stops and a planned stop to get an oil change and inspection on the way.  That was part of my agenda anyway, so at least I got that done.  The oil change was the easy part.  Now, let’s see what Russell does when I tell him the story about our jalopy.  ;)  And, no, I haven’t even cried once today…yet.

Due to the wet weather, baseball practice for his team, The Rice Owls, was moved to some local indoor batting cages.  The neat thing about this place is that it is owned by past and present pro baseball players and even more of them give various lessons there.  In fact, Everett once got a private catching lesson from Astros catcher J. R. Towles.  He’s met pitcher Chris Sampson who is one of the owners, as well.  You never can tell who might be in there when you go.

Tonight brought a chance for Russell and Everett to be in the presence of another ex-professional ball player.  During the years Brandon Backe pitched for the Astros, one member of our clan paid extra-special attention to him.  Although her all-time favorite Astro is probably Jeff Bagwell, and third baseman Dave Magadan once handed her a baseball before a game and told her how cute she was (she was 2 or 3), I would say that Backe still got quite a bit of research time and attention from this Reid girl a few years back.  Needless to say, the boys couldn’t wait to fill her in on their adventure as soon as practice was over.

It was a neat experience for the guys.  Russell even proudly told us he eaves dropped on Brandon Backe and got the scoop on his injury that keeps him from pitching these days.  I think, though, that sister was not too heartbroken about missing out on this opportunity.  I suppose she’s outgrown such things.  Time marches on and so do the adventures.

“X” is for x-ray.  That’s what every set of alphabet flash cards we’ve ever owned told us.  So I’ll call today’s adventure “Adventure X.”

I spent a good portion of the day at the doctor and at the hospital getting Everett’s hand checked out.  The doctor was actually a second opinion since our good friend and high school trainer who is affectionately known as Doc already suggested that Everett have his hand x-rayed.  I had to agree with him when Everett’s right hand was even more purple and swollen this morning when he got up.  X-ray it is.

Everett actually got hurt at baseball practice Friday night when he dove back in to a base and his hand got stepped on by a player wearing steel spikes.  These 13 and 14-year-old boys are not a bunch of sissies.  They can play hard and get rough.  I thought maybe he should go to urgent care Saturday, but since Father Knows Best, I listened to him and waited it out.  Everett has been bruised, swollen, and in pain since Friday night, but Russell really did know best this time.  I’m happy to have spent hours tied up with the doctor and x-ray technician today even if there is no sign of fracture. 

Sometimes you just don’t know until you get it checked out.  Now we’ll just wait for the swelling to go down, the pain, bruising and stiffness to go away, and see how it goes.  If it’s not better in a week or two, the doctor wants to see him back.  But at least he can use that hand now…for baseball and for writing in school!

Well, that was Mama Angela’s adventure for Saturday.  That story was not the one I intended to tell today as you can see by the picture on the left.  The story on my mind is the one that turned my Sunday afternoon, my day of rest, into a frenzied disaster clean-up.  Sometimes I wonder where these things come from.  I have honestly never heard of this happening, nor would I have ever thought of it or prepared for it.

I was preparing to try to take a little nap yesterday afternoon, but I decided I would go out on the back porch and fill up my two pot plants with potting soil before I allowed myself to rest.  Yes, I said two.  I’m not much on growing plants, but these I have nurtured and kept alive since my sister’s funeral in September.  They are my first successful plant projects.  Maybe I’m on to something new.  So, I got that done and returned to the house to put the plants back where I got them in the living room.  On the way, a couple of my senses were alerted to the fact that something could be wrong.

First, my bionic nose sensed trouble.  There were two other people sitting right there who didn’t notice a thing, yet I could smell trouble.  I started using my noggin and my nose to figure out what was going on.  I was sniffing everywhere I could think of, as I often do, to try to find out what I was smelling that was so out-of-place.  I even sniffed my pot plant that I was carrying thinking it might be that fancy new potting soil I had just used.  Nope, that wasn’t it, but soon my attention was directed to the source of the problem. 

This time I realized I could hear a hissing sound.  I looked around, and soon I saw the problem.  Not only did I see a large puddle of oil pooling on the rug, I could also see that this oil had come from my oil heater.  It had sprung a leak and was spraying oil out like a geyser.  We had struck oil, but it didn’t make Mama A too happy.  This discovery of oil did not mean a fortune was coming my way.  Instead it meant that I’d better unplug that goofy heater and get it outside with as small a trail of oil as possible.  Then, I’d better get busy since the oil had gone through the rug and was spreading fast.  Never mind, nap.  Check you next Sunday.  This Sunday was apparently meant for cleaning.

Looking on the positive side, the heater had leaked on a rug instead of on the carpet so I could remove the ruined rug and clean under it.  Also on a positive note is the fact that I got this heater on clearance for about $15 and have had it for a couple of years, so I guess I got my money’s worth out of it.  The loss wasn’t really great at all.  Not much harm done, but nonetheless, I had an adventure to tell about for Sunday.  I can say that now that the oil spill is successfully cleaned up.

Today I’m thinking that my life is so full of episodes and adventures that I ought to just pick one out each day and post it.  I may not have much time to fill in all the details, but I think each of these happenings is meant for a reason.  I think I’ll see what lessons are in each one as I go.  If I find out, then I’ll share that, too.  If not, then I’ll just let you all laugh at me and my family’s shenanigans.

Maybe the “A” in Mama A doesn’t stand for Angela after all.  Maybe I’m really Mama Adventure.  With a name like that, you know my life is never boring!