Where, oh where have I been?  A friend asked that question of me the other day.  I actually hadn’t realized I’d been missing until I came here to find that it’s been quite a number of days since I last posted.  I didn’t mean to do this.  I hope I will be forgiven.

There are those days when you find yourself so lost in circumstances that you can barely keep your head up.  Too much to do and too little time; I had succumbed to the tyranny of the schedule yet again.  We’ve been home from my parents for a week and a half and the moment we arrived we were hit with surprise after surprise.

I really thought the transition back to our regular life after my dad’s surgery was going to be an easy one.  Um, not so much!  The dog promptly conspired with an upset digestive system that caused more sleep-deprived nights.  That made the next days difficult to navigate.  The mail revealed a couple of anticipated payments to be missing; the trail to track them down was long and convoluted.  Taxes had to be paid because April 15th waits for no man.  A bill got misplaced in the myriad of paperwork from being gone for over two weeks; the recipient was not so forgiving as I’d hoped.  A few surprises resulting from renters moving out and the left behind pet aromas greeted us to mock our no pet policy.

All that left me woefully behind on cleaning my house.  A week and a half later I still haven’t gotten to cleaning and the dust layer grows.  Friends who used to live here came into town and we invited them for dinner only after demanding promises they not look at the fracas of our home.  A new Bible study I’d signed up for needed DVDs watched in order to catch up and not be left behind.  The workbook had to be answered to the tune of eight days worth.  There were staff meetings to attend at our church, texts to some folks we’ve come alongside for a time, correspondence to respond to, bills to be paid.  Ok, so in looking at all this, I realize why I’m still exhausted.

Ecclesiastes 4:5 (NLT)
⁵ “Fools fold their idle hands, leading them to ruin.”

Proverbs 16:27 (TLB)
²⁷ Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.

Whew!  I can rest easy because there has been no pause for idle hands to even exist in this schedule!  I guess I can take solace in the Ecc. 4 verse; we won’t be led to ruin for lack of anything to do the past two weeks.  The good news is we’re home.  The better news is God is still in control.  I may think I’m in control periodically, but all this is better left in His capable hands.  In the meantime, I really am praying for my productivity levels to catch up with the myriad amounts of things to do around here still; and I pray all is well with all of you.  You have been on my mind and I’m praying that your tyranny of the schedule looks more calm than mine right now!