Thinking Out Loud Thursday

Is it REALLY Thursday again?  This week has been super busy and the weekend is going to be as well!  I am linking up again today with Penny and Vanessa - please be sure to check out who has linked up with us!

Today's post is a bit of a hodge podge, but that about sums up my week, so we're gonna roll with it.

My heart is a bit heavy this week due to a close friend suffering from some health and family issues, another couple whose daughter has made some questionable decisions that will likely lead to consequences she hasn't even thought about yet and a bit of a pity party for myself, which is likely fueled by PMS and stress, but nonetheless it's there.  These things are in my daily prayers and something my husband said this week stuck with me...even as much as I love my friend, as much as the daughter's parents love her and even as much as I want to take a day and wallow in my overwhelmedness (yes, I just made that word up)....God loves us all more.  More than the love of a friend, a parent, a husband, a wife.  He just does.  The relationship we have with Him "should" far exceed that to our spouse, our child, our friends...and even on the days we mix it up, He still loves us.  God loved US enough that He gave up His child as a sacrifice.  That brings tears to my eyes just typing it.  That's a big kind of love.  Romans 5:8 addresses this a bit - we don't deserve it, we didn't earn it, we spend a good bit of our lives acting as if it isn't true, but even in our biggest, weakest, darkest place, He loves us more than we even can fathom.  We can trust God to take care of the people in our lives.  Our obedience in taking it to Him in prayer is our responsibility.  Not fixing the situation, rescuing those who need to bear consequences or even huddling in a corner trying to hide from life.

On a lighter note...It's a fact that I live in a rural SC town with a yard backing up to a cow pasture on a street that is mostly wooded in a area surrounded by untouched land.  It's to be expected that we have critters among us.  In my time here in town, IN my yard, I've seen cows (yes, cows) deer, rabbits, squirrels, hawks, possums, dogs, frogs, lizards wolf spiders, palmetto bugs (which is "sweet Southern" way of renaming a cockroach - some that might able to be ridden on a saddle (thankfully that's an exaggeration, but still) a large male peacock (yep, you read that right) and multiple snakes that I can recall, though there are probably more.  Well this week's snake watch is alarming.  My husband killed this copperhead at the beginning of the week, as you can see, it lost it's head in the ordeal, but with 2 dogs (sometimes 4 if I am watching my sister's dogs) and 6 chickens - we just can't have poisonous snakes running around.  Fast forward to Thursday morning, my husband goes out to take the trash out and I see him go grab the shovel and think, oh crap, what now? So I ask and he calmly replies "a snake skin" - I look out the side door a little further and see this - SERIOUSLY?!?!?!  That skin stretches across the whole hood of my Suburban and when I held it up was taller than me (I'm 5'5").  I don't care if it's a non-poisonous snake (I don't know what kind and seriously don't care) - that's a big dang snake....ACK!

I am soooooo over the whole green acres everyone living happily in harmony...and I need to know where the snake that shed this skin is living at in my yard!  I know these animals live all over the place, even in cities, but I swear this year they are all in my yard!!!  However, if I didn't live where I do, I wouldn't have the green garden, the chicken coop and be able to go outside looking like this in my gardening/chicken farming boots covered in polka dotted duct tape because of the cracks - so I guess there has to be a balance, right...because THIS picture does make me happy!

How's that for a random Thinking Out Loud Post?  Join me tomorrow for some more Friday Favorites from my Etsy shop!

Stephanie