what I'm doing now...

It's been a long couple of days. Josh is out of town, and everyone except Abby has been sick.

There have been sweet moments of cuddling under fleece blankets and tired kids who just want to be near mama, but also moments of frayed emotions due to sickness and tired complaints from those same kids who just want to feel better.

It's just past 8pm and everyone is in bed. Abby is sleeping. Emma and Samantha are brushing up on "speaking England" while listening to the audio drama of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

I'd like to sit and blog. But I just feel too tired to think of anything creative. So I just sit here and mindlessly (well, sort of mindlessly) surf the net. Here's a random sample of things I've been clicking on...because you have nothing better to do than to surf the net with me, right?

• Read this story about a couple from the Netherlands who went to Haiti to adopt a child and were killed in the earthquake. It was such a tragic and moving story, but I loved Dr. Al Mohler's take on the whole situation:

Adoption is perhaps the most powerful depiction of the Gospel found in the Bible. We are all orphans, born under the curse of sin. By the sheer grace and mercy of God, those who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are adopted as sons. Redeemed sinners are adopted as sons "through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise and glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." [Ephesians 1:5-6]

Arno Pet began life as an orphan, but he ended life as a son. He was abandoned at his birth, but he died in the arms of his parents. He did not die as Arno, he died as Arno Pet.

• Decided to check out the Oscar buzz around Sandra Bullock's new movie The Blind Side. Have any of you seen it? What are your thoughts?

• Read another post from Dr. Mohler's blog about abortion providers switching to the pro-life side. Some friends of ours out here are big fans of Dr. Mohler and I've found that when I want a biblical opinion that's well thought-out and educated, I end up at his blog. This article amazed me and encouraged my heart.

• Fiddled around on twitter...feels like I'm eavesdropping on everyone. I can't get into it. Am I behind the times?

• Re-read the AP article on Matt Chandler's cancer. Their family, their honesty, their trust in the Lord...it's all beautiful. Here's more links: his wife, Lauren's blog and his own weekly video updates. It seems like just the other day, I was trying to convince my sister Katie to start going to his church while she was in Dallas...

• Laughing about the Mosaic entry in the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest. I love it when people can be believers and be funny too!

• Read this message by John Piper on why C.S. Lewis was so influential to him. I must first say - I think I have an theological inferiority complex when it comes to John Piper and his sermons because I have to rewind them several times to "get it". But...reading the sermons? That works much better for me. Anyway, this was a fascinating read for me because I'd been troubled in the past by some things I'd read in Lewis' stuff and wondered how he was so accepted in mainstream, conservative Christianity. This sermon beautifully reconciled those two topics and left me hungering to know Him in ways that Lewis did and Piper does. If that's not the point of a sermon, I don't know what is.

I think that's probably enough random information for you for one day. I'm off to read - does anyone else like the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series as much as I do? Just wondering...