It's been emotionally draining around my house lately - a certain small someone is acting up to get more attention, and honey, I'm already giving 1000%. There's no more to give!

It's in times like this I try to keep in mind something I heard at church last week from a visiting priest. He said that the two most common prayers are "Gimme gimme" and "I'm not worthy." But that instead of beating ourselves up all the time, we should be wallowing in God's love, like a pig in the mud.

Isn't that the most fantastic visual? Imagine how a pig joyfully rolls around, getting just completely covered in layers of thick squishy mud. And that word, wallow. That's a marvelous word - it means you don't jump in and then jump out and have a shower, you linger in it for as long as you can. That's how completely covered I picture myself in God's love, and then I put myself in the mood to change every "please help" prayer to a "thank you" instead.

Please make them stop yelling at each other all the time turns into a reminder: Thank you that my children are healthy.

Why does everything have to happen right now turns into Thank you that we both have jobs we love.

Lord, help me get everything done for the holidays turns into Thank you for the talents you've given me and the energy to put them to work.

And in that vein, I'd better sign off and go work on the Christmas paintings... and wallow while I do.