Train up a chil in the way he should go...

…and it will take every ounce of your strength. That is how that phrase should read. Never having been to an actual war, I can only imagine, but it seems to me there are some deep comparisons there.  Daily skirmishes.  Bone wary struggles.  Blood, sweat and tears.  Post traumatic stress.  Financial drain.  Lack of sleep.  And the lack of ability to tell while in the trenches if you are winning.

Take last night for example. Faith and Isaac wanted to watch a movie in Isaac’s room.  (Yes, there are TVs in the bedrooms. Don’t judge me. It affords me 15 minutes of peace and quiet every other Tuesday or so. It is worth it.)  I said sure.  They are not allowed to take up food or drinks.  They are not allowed to jump on the bed.  And lacking the foresight, I neglected to make a rule about taking all of the clothes out of the dresser and tossing them about the room all willy -nilly.  And there was not a rule about taking apart lamps.  Now there is.  I went up to put David to bed and found bowls, every stitch of Isaac’s clothing, cups, DVDs, sheets, and stuffed animals all over the place.  There was a lamp shade hanging from the fan blade.  Which apparently took three tries.  The mattress was off the bed in one direction, and the boards holding it up were knocked out of place. I called for them to come clean it up, and Andy brought them up.  He took one look around, kicked the stuff out of the way and took the bed apart.  He put the box springs and mattress on the floor. This might upset some people, but not Isaac.  Now he just can fall right into bed.  And we won’t know if he jumps on it.  Totally missed the point.

This was only one of our skirmishes yesterday.  And I can never tell if they are “getting it” on a daily basis.  However, something must be sinking in because everyday Faith and Isaac (in our home the Faith and Isaac phenomenon has begun to be called Fisaac for short) dump out every single Lego- I estimate there are now 3,834 due to a rare moment of vacuuming rage during which I vacuumed one up- all over the dining room table and floor.  And everyday they are surprised that they have to clean them up.  Not today.  For on this lovely morning, when they came down to play,and as Isaac was about to dump them out Faith shouted “Remember yesterday!!!” and they dug through for the ones they wanted instead.  I have no idea what yesterday had to do with Lego clean up.  I have only said not to dump them all out or they will have to clean it up for the past 932 yesterdays.  One of those must have sunk in.  I hope.  Tomorrow is another day.

And with a not quite two year old, I estimate there are only about 7,305 tomorrows of this, if I accurately counted leap years, before the Lego’s can be sold on eBay, or even better, be packed up and given to Faith or Isaac’s children.  And then I can sit here, sipping hot coffee, cause I hear that’s how it tastes best, and read Facebook messages and blogs from them and their spouses about Lego’s, lampshades and other trauma.  And then I will know I have won, even if it is a last man standing type of victory.  And I hear that the revenge, I mean, grandchildren are rather wonderful.

My Buddy Max

I love Max Lucado, and jumped at the chance to get one of his books, Outlive Your Life, via Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program.  And my buddy Max did not disappoint!  His book is based on a series of sermons on the book of Acts.  His message?  Outlive your life through your words and actions.  Do not only contribute to make your life better, but to make the world better.  Live beyond your personal ambition that will die when you do for something greater, live your faith in ways the world can see.

Through his normal conversational style and questions for reflection located in the back of the book, Lucado challenges us all to pray, think, and act with greater compassion.  To become aware of and attempt to met the needs of others.  To become the hands and feet of Jesus to this world.  And you can not read his writings, any of them, and not be changed.  You do not read Lucado to be entertained, you read his writings to be changed.

I highly recommend How to outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make a Difference, or any Max Lucado book, to anyone who wants to grow in their faith, to be encouraged, to be transformed.  And then, live your faith out loud.

Algebra

I am two days into my algebra class, but have done so much work by way of assessments, assignments, and reading.  I have to work everyday to stay on top of my classes, and I was really afraid of this class because math of any kind if not my strong suit.  I have found that I am enjoying it, however.

There are answers.  Correct ones.  And specific ways to get those answers.  I spend so much of my time struggling in my life to find answers to daily problems, like how to have a clean house and home school.  How to get my children to where they need to be.  How to pay our bills with only one income.  Where am I going to get clothes and a coat for David?   Problems with no easy answers, maybe even no right answers.  But I keep trying, keep plugging away trying to find our way through this journey.

And then comes College Algebra.  With complexities, sure, but I already deal with those.  With problems and variables and inequalities.  Deal with those daily too.  But now there are formulas to help, specific and correct answers that are achievable by even me if only I follow the specific directions.  Wow.  What a relief!  Instead of open ended questions and never ending problems, there is one specific thing I am looking for.  One right answer that is out there somewhere, I just have to get it.

And this is what used to drive me crazy about math in general.  I had opinions and thoughts that did not fit a formula.  I had multiple opportunities that would energize me.  And you want me to settle on only one method, the search for only one answer that is not even important in my life?  HA!  And then I grew up.  Got married.  Had children.  Had more children.  And now those opportunities and thoughts and opinions can seem overwhelming.  There are too many questions and no “right” answers or methods.  And the most math I do is trying to balance my checkbook, which resembles an upside-down funnel.  (Just take a second to picture that…)

I know that God is good, that He is in control, and that He loves me abundantly.  I see His hand daily in our lives.  I do not know the answers, and I know He does.  It is simply nice to do something that there are correct answers for and that I can know them.

A Moment of Sheer Terror

So I just had one of the most terrifying moments of my life.  The kids were all in bed.  Andy had gone upstairs a while ago.  Faith came to me complaining about hearing a weird scratching sound.  I told her she was imagining it.  I sent her back to bed so I could go back to watching a creepy episode of Destination Truth on You Tube.  Stress on the word creepy.

All of a sudden there was a horrid noise, accompanied by scratching and scrambling around, then pierced by a terrifying scream. I almost swallowed my tongue.  I turned around slowly, thankful I was not in the broken chair, in time to see Faith and Isaac chasing the cat and screaming.

Our local escape artist, Cheeky Cheeser the hamster, got free of his cage and was captured by Ferocious the cat, who earlier today brought a mostly dead mouse to Angel.  We scared the cat enough that he dropped Cheeky Cheeser who began running all over and biting us.  We finally caught him in a toy bathtub from Angel’s doll house- do not let her know that- and got him back into his cage.  In doing so I had to wake up Andy to fix the door.  Then for good measure I duct taped it shut- in red, which is all the rage in rodent decor this year.

This moment was only second in terror, being topped by the night I was up late typing a paper in my basement/school room and heard a scurrying above my head, some thumping, and then the ceiling tiles fell on my head, complete with the cat.  Same cat.  Fell on my head.  In the middle of the night.  FELL ON MY HEAD.  I almost had a heart attack.  I jumped up pretty high and actually threw the whole mess across the room with ninja like reflexes while screaming in terror before realizing it was the cat.

Giving Thanks!!

So there have been lots of status updates, emails, and posts about thankfulness.  Some people are daily listing things they are thankful for, some are listing them in ABC order.  I know that kind of list, a daily one, is way more follow through than I have at this point in my life, so I have hesitated to even begin.  Classic case of perfectionist procrastination.  So here, handily located in one very thankful, very alphabetized blog post are the things I am thankful for this year.

A- Andy, Angel, Amber, apples, alligators, and antibiotics

B- Boys that play so rough and tumble (of which I have two and many nephews- HI LUKE!!), bon bons, books, and bedtime

C- Chocolate, cookies, coffee, and chocolate coffee. The best things in life start with “C”

D- Dads, Dan, dominoes, door bells that work, Doritos, and dinosaurs

E- everything God has given me (a cop-out, I know)

F- Faith (both my daughter and the in God variety), finger foods, firefighters and friends

G- God, grandparents, grapes, glue and Gatorade

H- my home, healing, hamburgers, humor and happiness

I- Isaac, iguanas, ice cream, Italian Sweet Cram coffee creamer, and igloos (because I would love to see one)

J- Jesus, Josh, Jesse (*grin*), joy, jammies and jelly, especially strawberry

K- kids, kites on the beach, Kit Kats and kettle corn

L- lollipops, love, lights, lipstick, and language arts (just kidding!!)

M- mothers, movies, MP3 players, music, maids (on my Christmas list, by the way)and monkeys

N- Ninjas, night, new books, naps, Nintendo, and noodles

O- old friends, old comfy slippers, online school, and open doors- the figurative ones

P- Pepsi, pizza, pastors, police, pasta salad, and pie

Q- quiet (at least from what I remember of it), quilts, and quill pens

R- Raehls, roots (of people, not plants), reading, robes, and rubber bands

S- Scott, silly string, socks, snakes, and superheros

T- Theresa, tigers, teeth, and I would say Tony, but he changed his name

U- unicycles, unicorns, and uniqueness

V- vehicles that run, values, and villages

W- water, worship, and watermelon

X- x-rays and X Files

Y- yaks (the dream kind), yogurt, you tube, youth, and Yahoo groups

Z- zippers, zeros, zebras, and ziggurats

And there is a completely incomplete list of all the things I am thankful for today.

Now Showing...

Andy and I like to watch movies.  Our whole family does.  We do not have cable or anything, so we watch movies or episodes of shows on DVD or the computer.  We have been quite discouraged at the quality of entertainment that can be found today. There are lots of great stories out there, but they are bogged down with either gruesome violence, sexual images, off color jokes, or profanity.  Shows that interest our whole family fare better, but when Andy and I are ready to watch a grown up movie, we have been quite discouraged at the choices that we can find.  We settle for something that ends up with some things in it that we would rather not see or hear.  It is not only one genre of movies either, as I love action adventure, romance, comedy, and even some scary stuff.  They all leave a bit to be desired and the Christian versions are lacking the budget to compete, or are too far between.

Every once in a while I am surprised at what we can rent at the local Redbox, however.  Last night we watched a movie called Rust.  Incredible. It started out kind of slow, but soon I was intrigued by the mystery surrounding a fire that killed a family in the town, and the role an outcast citizen had to play in the fire.  And as the story unfolded that characters began to fill out and I was hooked.  It was a great movie.

Even better were the special features.  There were several that told the story of how local people were cast as leading roles in the story, the meaning behind the dedication at the end of the film, and the story of Lloyd.  After seeing the man who plays the character of Travis in the story, I fell in love with him.  His life story brought tears to my eyes, and his determination, courage, and integrity are unparalleled.  If you want to be inspired, to be moved to tears, to be encouraged, to be challenged, as well as entertained, check out Rust.  And watch the special feature about Lloyd.  And I will guarantee that he will change your outlook on life and on people.  And he will become your favorite hero.  I know he is now mine.

Things I Do Not Understand

There are somethings that my kids do that I totally understand, like avoiding bedtime.  They don’t want to miss anything, which I  understand since I frequently stay up late doing all kids of crazy fun stuff like writing papers on illegal immigration, stripping paint, washing dishes, folding laundry, and , if I am feeling all kinds of crazy, scrubbing the kitchen floor, a type of fun that I can only handle every so often.  Who could sleep with all that fun and excitement occurring under the same roof?  (In all honesty I do have to confess that as soon as we tuck them in Andy runs for the ice cream.)

They avoid school like it may in fact give them the plague.  That I also understand, as evidenced by the fact that David is taking a rare morning nap so I am blogging.  Instead of doing school, mine or theirs.

And I even understand the avoidance of certain activities that I enjoy, such as napping, taking a bath, and reading.  These things all take away from the job they should be doing, playing.  I get that, because most of those things I do for play, especially reading.  And yet, there are some activities others do for play that I do not enjoy, such as bungee jumping, sky diving, cooking, and golf.
What I do not understand is the effort some of my children will go to to avoid the things they are required to do.  For example, putting dirty laundry in the hamper.  To me, it takes much more effort to hide dirty underpants in creative locations than to toss them in a laundry basket that is conveniently located directly beside you.  Or to running to a different floor of the house to toss a toy into the closet instead of walking to the next room and putting it in the bin.  Or putting the trash in your hand directly outside of the trash can when it is the same amount of effort to put it in.  Or using a napkin that is right by your elbow to clean up the four drops of milk on the table instead of running to the bathroom and getting four bath towels that are still warm from the dryer and tossing them somewhere close to the spill.

The same children who spent ten minutes jumping on bubble wrap are too tired to run to the bathroom to get a baby wipe refill when I am up to my elbows in a dirty diaper.  They jump on the couch while watching a movie but can not get up to push play on the DVD player.  I have a child who will get out bread, peanut butter, a plate, and a knife and come find me instead of making her own sandwich.  I have a child who will bring a gallon of milk and a cup all over the house looking for me instead of pouring it himself.  This is the same child who will climb to the top of the fridge to get a piece of gum, but will not open the fridge to get his own yogurt.

I was never the child who would rather do something half way.  I was always a perfectionist.  It was all or nothing.  Now, most cleaning activities were nothing, but if I had to do them I certainly did not hide my toys in a different room.  I hide them in the same room, like under my bed.  I would never exert more effort to avoid an activity than it took to complete it.  I had a brother who would have walked to the ends of the earth for a new video game, but would not walk to the trash can to put anything in.  (Oh, you, and your wife, know who you are…)  He would do anything to get out of something he was supposed to do, no matter how much effort it took to avoid it.  That always drove me crazy.  Apparently I was standing too close to him when my mother cursed him to have children just like him, cause it effected me as well.  And it still drives me crazy.