Mother of the year

May is a big birthday month for us:  My dad, Robert, Joshua, Christianne - those are just the immediate-ish family.  We also have Jackie, Angelo, another Jackie, Heather, and my Grandma D. 

Poor little Grace pulls up the rear with a June 8th birthday.  Hey, not my fault: I did everything I could to get her to be born in May.

Everything.

But she was stubborn, remember?, holding out until the 8th of June, and even then when I was in labor she refused to come down the eerie canal to see the light and her mother's shining smiling face.  Eventually they got out the big tweezers and grabbed her by the ears and pulled her small head (thanks for that at least!) right out after hours of waiting for her to decide herself to join us.  And then, I think she hated me for the next two weeks because she cried incessantly, but only for me.  After about two weeks it was like she finally figured she was stuck here and began to finally suck it up and deal with it. 

So anyway, our little Grace is just 4 years old, and when you're 4 years old it's hard to celebrate everyone else's birthday... your best friend's, most of your family's... and the waiting has been hard on her.  Often she'd ask, "How many more days?"

Finally I got the bright idea to make a count-down paper chain like kids sometimes do at Christmas.  It would give her a visual image of how long she'd have to wait, help her practice counting, and even practice the days of the week since we wrote each day on each link.  At the top of the chain, the final link reads Happy Birthday Monday!

Yes, Monday.  As in today.

Today, as in June the 6th.  Not June the 8th.

Her birthday is Wednesday.

So a few days ago when I discovered I didn't even have my kid's birthday right on her chain, that I was a few links short (no jabs there, please), I quietly moved it aside and she has lost interest in plucking a paper link off each day. 

Which is good, because today we'd be out of linkage, and there ain't no cake.

Humbled, buoyed, and blessed

This sobered me up a little today.  I finally got around to watching the raw video footage of the Japanese tsunami (March, 2011) that Audrey sent me a week or so ago.  We complain about the wind, the rain, the SNOW - but Lord, thank You for having mercy on us and sparing us from tsunamis, tornadoes, and flooding like in Japan, Missouri, and along the Mississippi River.  Wow.

That said, there has been much to be encouraged about in our lives lately... most notably what God is doing in some lives close to us; indeed, what He is doing in our own!  We have been discipling a couple through a chapter of the Bible that was referenced in the sermon today - don't you love when God does that?  To me, it's like a gentle confirmation that we are doing what He wants, what He's led us to do.  It's an incredibly exciting time, although we're beginning to see first-hand that when doing what you're supposed to be doing in God's work, you open yourself up to attack by the enemy.  In a way, it's kind of fun.  He surprised us this week and got us pretty good, but now that we're aware of what's happening, I almost feel like shouting, "Bring it on!" 

In a most humble way, of course.  ;)

I'm counting my blessings at the moment, too, trying to implement a common theme from my BSF study over the past 8 or so months: remember what God has done.  Boy, the list is long and I am thankful.  The kids are out of school; everyone's healthy; Ro's new job is going fairly well; our LifeGroup is amazing; our church is strong; we get some family time for a camping trip next weekend; I have incredible, prayerful friends; I have a loving, forgiving husband; good health; beauty all around me.

To borrow a phrase from my friend Kim, today I feel humbled, buoyed, and blessed.

My girls

Me:   What are you doing up there, Grace?  It's so quiet.
Grace:  Watching TV.
Me:  Oh? What are you watching?
Grace:  I don't know - I can't read the titles!




For awhile I was doing "pre-school" with Grace just about every day.  Life has gotten in the way and it's been set aside.
Grace:  Do you know what we need to do today, Mom?
Me:  What?
Grace:  We need to do pre-school.  Because if we don't start doing pre-school again, I'm going to SUCK at kindergarten!




Christianne, after leaving a store:  Mom, have you ever seen those LEAVE A PENNY - TAKE A PENNY bowls at cash registers?
Me:  Yes.
Chris:  I don't get it!!!  Wouldn't you still just have one cent?

Unplugged

I missed the royal wedding.

I missed hearing the breaking news of OBL's demise (although thanks to Facebook, it didn't take me long to be caught up).

I miss watching live baseball.

What I don't miss, however, is paying $100 a month to watch mostly garbage on the tele. 

And it hasn't been too bad... the kids have yet to complain.  We do, of course, have a ton of videos and have become recent subscribers to NetFlix (at less than $10 a month), but no one has complained.

Ro has been asking me, patiently, for years, to cut the TV service.  Just like he asked me, patiently, for years, to move away from Cali.  No surprises in that I'm a bit slow to obey. 

And just like he promised, we are better off without it.

Even if I can barely take my eyes off the TV when we go to restaurants these days.