A little Jesus and a little play-doh.  Some mushing here and some shaping there.  I know He's molding me with this study because I feel His gentle prodding with passages like this one.  I'm thankful He can still get my attention, but I have a long way to go.  It's like anything learned, really.  We hear the words, we try the steps, we make progress, and then we falter.  Ella is learning to sit and roll these days.  She can sit unassisted for about twenty seconds before she begins to topple. She leans too far forward or to the left or right, and then she loses her balance.  We do that, I do that, too.  I know what I need to do. I know what's healthy. I know what's right. And yet. I lean too far toward anger or bitterness, and I've stumbled off the path.  I'm learning. Im getting there. I haven't finished the race yet, so I will continue moving forward, trying my best not to take too many steps back along the way. 

Well another few busy days have passed, and I'm just now finding time to post about the latest craziness.  Monday night, after everyone had gone to bed except me, I noticed a funny smell. The heater had kicked on, and there was a definite, almost-chemical smell coming from the vents. I turned the heater off, prayed for God to protect us while we slept, and went to sleep. The next morning, The Husband, up early for a correctional officer course he's taking for three weeks, turned on the heat. I immediately noticed the smell, and asked him if he smelled it, too. He did, and he told me not to run the heater at all. He'd check it that evening when he got home. About 45 minutes before Jack's bedtime that night, The Husband was able to take a look. The wires were burning right through the electrical tape. Again. He called his dad and his grandpa, and they came up with a solution. But because he's in school and working full time, he had no time to fix it before the latest ...