Little Girls, Little Girls, Night and Day...

Youth Impact Weekend is a perfect example of the body of Christ working together. Three great college leaders came to stay in our guest room, leading 13 sixth grade girls. Another adult drove them around town in a mini-bus. Youth ministers and interns gave talks. Musicians led worship. My friend made and brought over a delicious breakfast. I was the host Mom. I wiped up spilled milk, unclogged toilets, handed out towels to those who'd forgotten to pack one, and insisted that only five jump at a time on the trampoline.

There is a moment in such an event when you think, I used to have the stamina to be the leader of the group of young things. Now I am content to make snacks, sweep crumbs, and break up pillow fights after midnight. I have turned into a pumpkin. Sorry girls. No movies tonight. That's enough fun for one day.

It has warmed my heart to see our kids learning about their place in the world, their place on God's team. They are called to think about giving, and not just consuming. Perhaps in seven years a few of these girls will be leading the next generation of youth in an impact weekend.

I smile as two of the thirteen remember to say thank you, even if the other eleven are too giddy and caught up in the fun to notice. I remember to tell my husband thank you for taking our other four kids (plus three neighbors) to Skateland to give us all a little breathing room from each other.

I put my pajamas on and count the minutes until midnight when I can sleeeeeeeeeeeeep.

 

 

Eph.3.20 I pray that Christ Jesus and the church will forevermore bring praise to God. God's power at work in us can do far more than we ever dare to ask or imagine. Amen.

 

Lucky

We had fun with these Irish mustache straws found at Target.

We tried the packaged Lucky Charm cereal bars, but like these made with lime flavored Campfire marshmallows (found at Walmart) better. Or, at least, five out of six snackers preferred the lime kind. One preferred just the plain bowl of cereal.

Magically delicious

More seasonal fun on one of many baseball nights. (Kroger) It's a little bit embarrassing when the kids get all excited when you feed them mac 'n cheese from a box with a cut-up hotdog. Does organic, 100% real cheese, and whole-grain count as slightly nutritious?

In preparation for a full weekend, we delighted in a no hurry evening Thursday. Once the homework was done, we lounged. I listened to the sound of wind chimes and pondered why another member of the Crawley family was killed off season 3 of Downton Abbey.

The kids jumped on the trampoline, took walks, and played with neighbors. The calm before the storm of activity.

For rest, we are truly thankful.

 

Resting

Today I noticed things. I spent hours in quiet. Waiting in waiting rooms, stretching my hammie as perscribed, reading while waiting in carpool lines, and my soul has caught up to the rest of me.

By the entrance of the children's library

A happy upgrade from the large paper towel at a certain appointment

Stretching, stretching, stretching, rolling, rolling, rolling..."wait training"

I noticed that the flags were at half-mast and google searched to find out why. I prayed in gratitude for those who volunteer and for the families of those who are lost.

I read and gained perspective that I had lost in my own fatigue.

I remembered that my children are whiny and grouchy for a reason, and took time to listen to wails of frustration over fractions for one, and pre-algebraic expressions for another. I gave a reluctant reader a "zombie finger" (that I had saved from a Halloween cupcake in October) to mark the progress of each tedious word of a long assignment. I slid a chocolate under the door of a distraught boy and asked if I might come in and talk a while. He took the bait. We prayed that all that we say and do would honor God- sports, homework, how we speak to one another.

 

I gave my husband a kiss as he came in the door, grabbed a few bites of dinner, and headed back out to the ball field with our son. I prayed for many moments, since hours and days are not to be found. I prayed for young friends whose marriage is struggling and hoped they would remember to choose "I do" each day.

Those hours in quiet calmed me, centered me. I was able to listen better and give more and pray more when my own soul had some "white space" to breathe. I chose not to answer the plea for an emergency sub, understanding that fixing one's emergency would send my six into a tailspin and that I needed to choose them first. There will be other days when I can help others...like tomorrow when the sixth grade Sunday School girls come over for a weekend-long sleepover.

 

Today's reading:

Couple Time: Marriage is not a "done deal" at the altar, followed by happily ever after. It's a continuous, daily "I do." While it may seem impossible to spend quality time alone with your spouse, it can be done. It just takes a little planning and creativity. The following ideas can get you started:

todayschristianwoman.com

http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2013/march/couple-time.html?start=3

 

Beautiful

Today I received a real hand-written letter on handmade paper, adorned with pen and ink from a beautiful friend in a far-off land. My friend spoke of challenges that she sees as shaping her into the woman God wants her to become.

Our newest son made contact with the ball and got a single. Many of the other parents of kids on the team cheered for him wildly, recognizing this "first" accomplishment.

Our newest daughter knelt by our bed and prayed to ask Jesus to be her Savior.

Beautiful.

Art by PeggyAPLseed at blogspot, via Pinterest

 

Any way you slice it.

This is how my daughter of Latvian descent slices cucumbers. I did a a double-take and bit my lip before I could say, "I meant for you to slice them in circles, like my Mom always did." To my personal way of thinking, that is how you cut zucchini. God caught my thinking just in time to realize that a cucumber is still a cucumber any way you slice, chop, or dice it.

Adjusting to being a family of seven is full of minuscule adjustments like this. It really doesn't matter. It's simply a matter or tradition or habit, or even preference.

Lord, help me to focus on the things that really matter: issues of the heart. Help me say "Yes!" And "Great job!" much more often than "Did you leave your dirty clothes in the bathroom floor again?" Help me not to miss the beautiful by getting caught up in the trivial. Be quick to clamp your hand over my mouth when necessary.

 

How to mess with the mind of a suburban housewife

 

How to mess with the mind of a suburban housewife:

Remodel her go-to grocery store in the middle of the week.

Tonight we were running low on a certain family member's favorite toilet paper, so I went to our local Kroger to discover that they were in the process of flipping the entire shelving system and rearranging the rows from horizontal to vertical. They have been remodeling for some time, taking small sections and refinishing the floor. So, when I ran in tonight, I fully expected to be able to function as I have for several weeks. I was wrong.

It was apocalyptic to wander through aisle after aisle searching for things that were just there last week, but were now missing. I almost expected a few zombies to pop out from behind the frozen foods as people maneuvered around tight corners and read handprinted signs on poster board ignoring the now useless professional signs hanging overhead.

People had the weirdest expressions on their faces as they concentrated to figure out the problem of securing the family groceries. The kind of look that moves complete strangers to speak to one another and help one another solve the mysteries of the universe such as "Where did they put the Sunchips that are 2 for $5?"

I discovered that there is a special type of community bonding when everyone is confused and perplexed together. Perhaps a little bit like when there is a natural disaster and everyone has to come out of their houses and actually converse with their neighbors. I helped a woman with a dazed look on her face locate the little baggies of chips...which were no longer on the chips aisle but next to the peanut butter half the store over. The only reason I could help her was that I had passed down that aisle three times in search of sandwich baggies pondering "this must be the let's make a lunch aisle." A man stopped to tell me that one of my economy rolls of T.P had fallen out from underneath my buggy. Another man laughed at me when I slid around the corner in my slick soled shoes on the newly finished floor, but I didn't take offense. I must have looked pretty funny with my near bust-my-booty moves.

 

I rocked on the sale of Tide Sport HE but missed out on the T.P. I had actually come for. Better couponing luck next time. Some other frugalista got there ahead of me!

I found this sign over the Easter display quite humorous considering all the searching that was going on below:

 

 

 

We thought there was a break-in

I love order and organization.

But somedays, I can't keep up with the pace of life and seven moving bodies in our home.

We were out of eggs, so I ran through Publix to replenish our supply and stock up on the sale items (saved 75 dollars today) immediately after drop off at school. Then I came home and put the perishables away, but left all the other recyclable bags full of no perishables on the floor by the door.

I had exactly enough time to get across town for my PT appointment. After my PT appointment I had exactly enough time to find my middle schooler in the craziness that is half-day, then back across town to pick up the elementary schoolers.

I declared that we were going on a family adventure, and in response four cheered and one declared that she would rather stay home. We drove the non-enthusiastic child home only to discover that she had changed her mind, and going on the family adventure might actually be "okay". We made a ten minute pit-stop and got back in the car with a handful of legal documents since we were headed in the same direction as the federal building.

We played at Edventure and had a great couple of hours. As I sat on a bench and looked up the address of the federal building, I was alarmed to see that their office closed at 3:00 and not 5:00, so we got back in the car and looked for a parking space. There weren't any, but a nice uniformed man pointed us down the street to a nearby parking garage. There was a sign that said the parking garage only took cash. I prayed I had enough ones stashed in the side pocket of my purse, grabbed the 5 kids by a few hands and took off running to the building. The security guards made a comment about our educational field trip to the federal building when he saw all the Edventure admission stickers still stuck on our jackets.

We arrived at the 11th floor to take a number behind a room full of people and I wondered how much battery power we had on the iPad. We played rock-paper-scissors, braided hair, drew secret messages on each others backs, doodled on scrap paper from the bottom of my purse, chewed gum, and waited of our number to be called. The people sitting behind us had been there two and a half hours and had to leave and come back. Somehow we were called before they were. I think someone must have been peering through the windows and thinking we have got to get those six outta here!

Our government official was friendly, and although unfamiliar with our adoption application, assured us that what we needed had been processed correctly and that all was well. I noted that the official paperwork said that only people older than twelve need apply in person and wondered why on earth we had been told to take the kids down there. Seriously!

I did a quick eeeny-meanie-miney-mo to determine who got to push the elevator button and only a few scowled at the results. I wondered if I had any change at the bottom of my purse to pay the parking garage attendant. By the mercy of God we had just enough.

But not enough time to go back to our side of town before reporting to baseball practice. My son had boots on and no equipment, but I sent an apology text to the coach and went on to the field.

We had a thirty minute wait so I told the kids that they could play on the school playground. Apparently, they could not as they were shooed away by a school official. I found a bag of apples and some apple juice pouches in the trunk and we had a snack while listening to a book on CD. I looked the other way while one of my boys peed in the woods by school property.

I got a call from my husband asking where we were. When I told him, he sighed. The alarm was going off at the house. It had been a windy day, so we were fairly certain that the kids had not shut and locked one of the back doors (in that ten minute window that we were home all day), and that set off the alarm and alerted the police.

The moment the coach got there, we left our baseball boy with him and headed back to our house. As we were still 30 minutes away, two officers beat us there and met us with this news:

When we saw all the stuff in the floor, we definitely thought there was a break-in...but we've walked through the house, and you're all clear.

How embarrassing! The piles of coats, book bags, lunch boxes, and groceries times seven must look like a crime scene at first glance.

Another call from my husband let me know that there had been a scheduling snafu and practice had been called off....and what was for dinner? I told him I was boiling some chicken, but dinner would still be a ways off, so he picked up take out for us instead. We ate from styrofoam boxes with plastic utensils and told Jesus that were were truly grateful.

I unpacked the groceries, pushed back the book bags, sorted out the homework, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and clothes washer, read some bedtime stories and put on my pajamas by 7:30.

Please, no more half-days anytime soon.