Thankful, anyway

My minivan is middle-aged. Eleven years, 150,000 miles. The air still works (and for that I am very thankful in these upper nineties days). The CD player/radio does not. We just got the door fixed, the window fixed, the horn fixed, and now we need a seatbelt replaced too. Middle-age maintenance.

Our fridge is also on the blink. The curdled milk in my morning coffee led us to recognize that it was not cooling as it should. So now, I am reminded to thank God for mornings when I have a working refrigerator, and nonspoilt cream in my decaf. When is the last time I remembered to be thankful for such small things as morning coffee, or being able to listen to a CD on the long, long carpool routes? I take so many things for granted, and am annoyed when my routine experience glitches. Perhaps I need to be annoyed a little more often to fully recognize all the gifts I've been given.

One blogger calls this reflection making a "nectar list". It's the same concept of a gratitude list. Instead of focusing on all the goals not yet attained (bucket list), it is a pausing to give thanks for all the blessings received, all the moments in life already experienced. A reminder that it's not so bad after all.

 

 

The ladies in my Sunday School class and I are doing a Beth Moore Bible Study in which we're challenged to let God love us fully, so that we can love others entrusted to us well. Yesterday was the first day of journal reflection. I counted three times (so far) that day when I had not loved so well. Flustered by a child who had wandered off to a friend's house without telling me. Annoyed by my husband's playful wrestling that left me with a crick in my neck. Flat out incensed by another child's disrespectful remark.

 

Beth teaches that some people are a joy to love...and others are a little "testier". We go back and forth between joy and testy all day. It can change in the blink of an eye. A moment of harmony savored, or sucking in my breath so that I will not explode violently all over my middle-aged minivan. My "testy" loved ones assuredly find me rather testy as well. Like the moment when I slammed on the brakes and gave squabbling children a what-for in the middle of our neighborhood for God and all the construction workers to see. I am praying for greater awareness of my own testiness, and a greater sense of relying on God to love through me when my patience has long run out.

 

Still trying to do better in the kitchen. Waiting for the joy to come after surrender. Still have some emergency peanut m&m's in my closet.

 

Ambush from the topiaries

If you look closely enough around our house, you will see signs of life in the oddest places, like these Lego battles being staged in my topiary vignette. I don't think we will ever be magazine photoshoot clean or tidy, as much as we try. Life happens here. Sand under my bare feet tracked in from someone's baseball cleats, miniscule hamster bedding particles left over from a dropped cage, chargers plugged into various outlets charging various electronic devices, memos of field trips and forms to be signed on display so that I will (try) not to forget them, the beginnings of science fair projects, apple cider vinegar traps set to lure fruit flies on the counter. Life.

When you humbly say, "Sure! look around," when the social worker comes for the two-year-post-placement visit, not quite sure what she may find lurking in the boys room since you last spot-checked it.

The kids participating in backyard ice bucket challenges to raise awareness for ALS.

Collards, stewed tomatoes, and other southern yummies that my kids won't eat - enjoying lunch and thrifting with my beautiful mom

$5 finds. I don't know what this says, but I like it. It kind of looks like a medieval illuminated letter D if you want it to. My man thinks we should have this translated before we hang it on the wall, but I don't figure that anyone else will know what it says either.

Visions of angels dancing in my head, choreography for this year's Singing Christmas Tree began in August. First Christmas presents bought and stashed in the few moments of alone shopping time when our kids are in school.

 

Daddy-daughter dates bowling. What to do when your animated eight year old starts referring to herself as M-swizzle?

Life in the carpool lane.

 

Roaches in the freezer...the school year begins

Even as young as third grade, kids have first day jitters, wanting everything to be just right on the first day of school.

We use hairspray about twice a year. We call this boing-boing spray.

I have roaches in the freezer. They didn't get there on their own. School is back in session, and the wacky science teacher has assigned an insect collection first thing. The collection will stay in a plastic yogurt container until sent off to class at a later date. It has begun. I have tried to pray not to let stress levels escalate. A girlfriend from the "boo-hoo yahoo" sent this link and we all laughed. I have been to both Target and Starbucks in these first few moments of the new schedule. See if you can relate.

 

http://www.scarymommy.com/back-school-video

 

The other moments have been a whirlwind of crack-of-dawn carpools, meet-the-teacher nights, filling out forms, searching for violin books, youth group, replacing glasses ruined by spray-on sunscreen (beware!), and planning for this year's Singing Christmas Tree (yes, in August!). Two days in and I'm exhausted. Not to mention that my man was away on business and baseball practice begins this Saturday. Can't think about that quite yet.

Our back-to-school tradition is decorating a chocolate chip cookie with the number of the grade they are entering. We did a big cookie to start with, but over time have reduced the portion size to splitting a package of break and bakes by seven to make it more reasonable. Then we had a Just Dance party on the wii. Nothing like shaking your booty with five kids who are jacked up on cookies!

When we are not eating chocolate chip cookies, we are experimenting with green smoothies, and eating miniscule amounts of kale and spinach along with our fruit and yogurt standards. It's a small step, but I'm excited to be taking small steps in a healthy direction.

We call this recipe for 2 "The Aunt Christina" because we learned it from her. We make a blenderfull and split it amongst us for snack in the afternoon, or share it with someone for breakfast.

Handful of kale

Handful of spinach

Half an avocado

Tall glass of crushed ice

Cup of vanilla yogurt or coconut water (guess which one we picked?)

Tsp. honey

Cup of blueberries

Green apple

Banana

Very fruity, and surprisingly very yummy. My kids even asked if I would make them green smoothies for breakfast! Astonishing.

Our artsy moment was to redeem a Groupon at Redbird pottery studio. The kids really enjoyed squishing the clay and attempting to craft a cereal bowl on the wheel. Many thanks to Bree for her patience and repeated instruction.

Being creative like the Creator

Can't help but think of the scriptures that remind me that He is the potter, and I am the clay. He is shaping me as best seems fit to Him for the purposes He desires. Pressure from within, held and guided from without, and a vessel takes shape.

Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:4

 

Family Adventure

Today we drove to Rock Hill for the Canaan Ziplining Adventure. This was our last hurrah before all the kids are back in school and we are in full swing with homework and traveling in circles around Columbia.

 

Pilates en l'air

This is the "Fred Flintstone" technique where you pedal with your legs before coming in for a landing.

We had a great outdoorsy time. The kids still fought over where to sit on the drive home, but some good memories were made, and I hope that they will continue to adventure when they are grown-ups.

 

Painful Dinner Conversations

 

Last night we watched the news together as a family. We saw a brief heart-breaking glimpse of a man being crucified, of bodies strewn around, and people reportedly buried alive. We heard traumatic reports of heads being severed and attached to poles and cars. We watched as men were miserably roped together and forced to hunch over into submission as they were carried away to execution. We heard of children who had fled terror and were dying of starvation and dehydration in the wilderness...of grave crimes against women and children. We heard discussions of Robin Williams' suicide and the darkness of depression.

My beautiful eight year old daughter tenderly said, "Mom, why are they doing that?" and we talked about evil and suicide and suicide-attempts close to us (four that we know of in our family), and why we are so thankful to have our hope in Christ. We talked about death, and depression, and evil around the dinner table, as natural as breathing. My daughters responded in deep compassion, my son in righteous anger. I saw little glimpses of their developing characters as empathizers and warriors. It was a bit surreal, and not what I had planned when I woke up this morning, but am I glad that we can talk to our kids and pray that they will choose to talk to us when they need to.

I recognize that it is easier to stay in suburban mom-world than to face and discuss the harsh realities that many face every day. It is easier to pretend that conquered peoples were only treated so heinously in times gone by, in other parts of the world. It is easier to stay busy in carpooling kids' activities and fussing over what to make for dinner and our own well-being, than to engage in brokenness and gut-wrenching conversations about other's pain and suffering.

Although I grieve in prayer over world events, and it is painful to have to my innocent ones begin to be aware of the deep level of sin in the world, I am thankful that we can talk, and pray, and even act, like my friend Brenda who returns to Syrian refugee camps in September. I am thankful for conversations about pain, and pray that my babies will be well-prepared to face the ugly parts of living in a fallen world with hope and conviction. I recognize that it is now time to begin praying as a family for peace in our broken world. I pray that God will use our family to somehow shed his light in the dark places around us, and around the world, and that we will continue to trust him for things we can't understand.

The Cousins

One of the things I love most about the beach is the opportunity to reconnect with family.

"Yoo-hoo! Family!" Sending love from the sauna cracked us up after viewing Frozen

Mystery photo bomber...couldn't be someone related to us, could it?

Out to eat at our favorite restaurant where all the servers are addressed as "cousins"

My wishes for family harmony granted...especially around the table with Mimi's cookin'

Eating in

Poolside picnic

Don't let this sourpuss face fool you. Aunt Debbie has a heart of gold and the kids are always delighted to receive the treasures she brings.

Who doesn't love a little sparkle?

This year we enjoyed glitter 'tattoos'

Many thanks to the last batch of cousins who left us their rain-check waterpark tickets

Glad to see this guy smiling after a week of earaches

Brennan learned some new moves at a wake boarding clinic, despite an earache, sunburn, and being the youngest kid and only American

Getting road-trip snugly on

Slurping up the last few days of summer at a pit stop