Whew… I’m so tired!

Yesterday I began tackling a HUGE project. Since I got sick so soon after we got married I still had boxes that needed to be unpacked and gone through. (oh, that is so nice that I have something to blame unpacked boxes on!! Haha.) They were the “nasty” boxes. You know the ones; the boxes that are filled to the brim with old papers, receipts, memorabilia, school projects, etc. Well, I’ve been pretty productive today but to look at my living room you wouldn’t think so. It’s a MESS of piles of papers, odds and ends, and trash bags as I try to begin organizing it all.
Now call me crazy or not but this is actually something that I’m really having a good time doing! Cleaning, purging, and organizing give me a little thrill :) I absolutely love it! I’ve been going through a lot of Joe’s things recently and have found some fun surprises.

One of those fun items was this little shoe box. I opened it up and inside was a hodge-podge of knick-knacks and papers. I began looking through it and began seeing some things that were familiar to me… a couple movie tickets, a little dried yellow rose, a couple Chuckie-Cheese souvenirs… I asked Joe about them and sure enough… my boy is a romantic! He saved every little something no matter what it was from when we were just friends, before I knew he liked me. If I was at an event that he was also, he saved something from it. Awww!! How SWEET!!!

I also found funny things… like pictures of Joe from high school that someone had sent to be made into stamps. You got it, postage stamps! Haha, funniest little things. Definitely going to be black mail one day.

And then I found some items that made me cry… like letters from his little siblings to him on his birthdays or from when he went away to Costa Rica for a summer for school. Those kids adore him and it shows. One of the letters had a poem in it that really stuck out to me. Rebecca, the oldest Catoe girl, wrote him a letter to encourage him in a trial. In that letter she included a poem that ministered to me today:

He Giveth More Grace
By Annie Johnson Flint

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater
He sendeth more grace when the labours increase
To added afflictions he addeth more mercy
To multiplied trials, his multiplied peace

When we have exhausted our store of endurance
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limits, his grace has no measure
His power has no boundary known unto men
For out of his infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

So on that note, I’m back to diving into the pile of chaos… see, I told you it was a mess!!