crazed kittens and the normal chaos

This morning at about 5am I got to drag this sick and flu aching body outside in my robe and rubber boots to watch my husband climb what appeared to be a 50 foot evergreen.  I stood there at the bottom holding two flashlights in awkward positions and praying. Asking God to keep those branches strong and his feet firm...that he wouldn't die trying to save this stupid, tree climbing cat. Climbing trees on pitch black, cold mornings is never a good idea [clearly]. I'm embarrassed to even say how high he got.

Did I mention all this fuss and life risking was to save a kitten? !!!  Derek fought so hard for life this year...to see it end for a fluffy black cat named Batman...now THAT would be something. Needless to say, my precious husband and our frisky furball are still with us.

THANK.YOU.LORD.

We joke a lot around here that Derek has more than 9 lives. It's fair to say the angels God has surrounding this man are never bored. Just a few days ago he was sitting in his car unloading our overflowing mailbox when he looked up to to find a pair of headlights about to smash him to pieces. At the last second, the car made a miraculous swerve and demolished our mailbox. I have more stories...but I'm sure you get the point. We = drama.

Shortly after this chaos, I crawled back into my warm bed to finish sleeping away this sickness. Then I heard something hit our front bedroom window. I looked up...and THIS.

These windows are at least 3 feet above the ground. This cat has some serious jump. 

I think it's time we start picking better names around here. Instead of Batman, we should have named him DIRT. Just in case he's somehow personifying his name. Dirt doesn't leap from roof to roof (see below). I decided it was time to get up and go pet this crazed kitten, before she ruined any of our brand new window screens. Ugh. But by the time I got to our dining room, she was scaling those windows and ended up on the roof, jumping from one to the other. ? Well, I at least I didn't have to go far for the ladder. It was already out.

After all this madness, I decided I wasn't feeling sick anymore. The cold air had healed me. So I went out and gathered some of the branches that hit me in the face as Derek climbed his way to hero this morning. I'm using them as garland...why not? It's a fun reminder of the life we live and the creative ways God dishes out His grace. Even on flu filled Sundays when I'd rather be worshiping than climbing trees and dealing with the chaos of kids, and the flu, and crazy climbing kittens.

Nothing like some garland to adorn our deer rack. The two together just scream MAN HERO. 

I even stashed a few pieces into the top of our kitchen blinds. It's clearly not my best work, but it does make me chuckle. And it smells great :) 

So of course while I had my camera out I decided to snap a few more festive shots.

I finally hung my burlap wreath I made last year. Every little bit helps.

And this is something that's a work in progress. For the moment, this old frame is being used as photo collage for our Christmas cards (or mostly Christmas cards)...Rage's birth announcement found it's way up there too. Eventually it will be home to one of our family pictures from this year. 

Here is what is looked like before. And no I didn't scrap the artwork. This is totally my Dad, so it's now adorning his walls.

Who knows what else will be strung up around here by the time Christmas arrives. Oh what a day can bring. !