Regular school was called on account of chaos.  I was greeted yesterday morning by a frantic knock on my bedroom door.  My daughter had woken up to discover that the birthstone ring she got for her birthday was no longer on her hand.  Where in the world could it have gone?  She had it on when I put her to bed, so somewhere in between it disappeared. So we proceeded to take her bed apart bit by bit searching carefully through everything.  Then we moved onto the rest of the room.  We weren’t finding the ring, but my temperature began to rise at what I was finding.  She had been doing an excellent job of hiding what seemed like 10 or 15 mini-pie boxes and miscellaneous other food wrappers.  I found them under the bed, in the closet, behind books on her bookshelf, and even under clothes in her drawers.  It was like she was saving them for some mysterious reason.  Anyways, our search turned into a clean up mission.  Her room was totally cleaned out, then we moved on to the rest of the house searching for the missing ring.  All this time I was interrogating her trying to find any clue as to what could have happened to it.  I even gave consideration to the fact that maybe the cat took it, though sensibility told me that it was crazy to even think it.  We spent over five hours carefully cleaning every room, searching them meticulously, moving and turning over furniture and leaving no place unexplored. The whole time I was praying to find the thing.  I finally sent the kids to their rooms to finish cleaning them.  I had just about given in to the frustration of the unknown when my son came down to where I was putting the living room back together.  Lo and behold, he had found the ring.  Where you ask? It had been on his bed under his covers.  His was the only room we hadn’t dissected because I couldn’t imagine it being in there.  Then the pieces began to fall into place as my children gave their explanation of what must have happened.  Apparently the night before, after they were put to bed, my daughter had gone in to say good night to him.  Being children and prone to horseplay at any given time, he had grabbed her hand to squeeze it and as she pulled away, he must have slipped the ring off without either of them noticing.  By the time we found the ring it was noontime. 

Meantime, earlier in the morning my oldest had called for a ride to work.  His fuel pump went.  He had just begun his new position in the company that he works for as IT Specialist in charge of hardware and projects and was concerned about being late his first week.  He had chosen not to go to college after graduating and had been working on the loading dock for a few years, but his self-taught knowledge of computers and his go-get-it attitude landed him the position.  We are so very proud of his accomplishment.  But I digress from the story.  My husband’s schedule has been messed up for weeks, so he was home and able to give him a ride.  Later that morning, my oldest called to ask for a ride home and I asked him if he had made himself a lunch.  He normally steps out for a bite and I wasn’t sure if he had thought about taking a lunch that day.  He hadn’t. So I offered to bring him something. The kids and I made a few sandwiches and packed them with a few treats. We ran them over to where he works and stayed with him while he ate.  Then we ran a few errands and returned home to finish the overhaul of the house.  We returned to pick him up at 6:00 when he got out.  He had asked to borrow my husband’s truck so he could get back and forth to work so after a bit of unnecessary driving on my part (that’s a whole other chapter in this day, brain was not working too good for this one) we swapped my car for hubby’s truck and he drove us home.  He wasn’t going to stay for supper, but I had some leftover pasta Alfredo he couldn’t resist.  So all the kids and I sat down to a dinner of leftovers.  As I looked at my children, I was struck by how much they had grown, not just in stature but also in character.  I have known this for a while but just having them there at the dinner table for no special occasion except that they are family, listening to their conversations with each other, and enjoying the laughter, it seemed so clear.  Normally this would make me sad that my babies were growing up, but at that moment I was happy.  I was happy that I had opportunities like today to go from chaos to calm, from frustration to peace, from craziness to normal.  Sometimes we’d like to hide from the annoyance of things gone array but if we seek His hand in every moment we reap tremendous benefits. God has seen fit to throw situations into our paths that strengthen the family bond and for this I am so grateful.