April 22, 2010
So it's Earth day, and I did nothing Earth Day-ish except make a loaf of bread. We've just about given up store-bought bread around here.
Today, though, I am considering how very different each person is. Tonight, we took the kids to the Dogwood Festival, a local event that includes a bunch of carnival rides, which the kids absolutely love. There's the Ferris wheel, the Magic Carpet ride, the Rainbow, the Zipper, the flying swings, the Cliff-Hanger. It's goes on and on.
I only have two kids and they are wildly different. Joey rode every single ride offered, even the Zipper. Olivia rode the tame rides and had a blast. The look of joy on both of their faces as they raced this way and that with the wind blowing their hair back. . . .Well, that look is what parents live for, I think.
Joey doesn't care how high he goes or how fast. Olivia has a definite limit. If it goes high and fast, it is off the list! But Olivia is the one who talked a games person into letting her play a game for $2 instead of $3. She is the one who won a stuffed dog, named Dogwood, to bring home from the fair. And my husband is the one who rides motorcycles and insisted that Joey ride every ride he wanted. After all, he had an all-night wristband. It was a lot of fun. I'm grateful to the grandparents who send a monthly allowance to the kids. They used their Baboo (grandfather) money for the festival and had a great time.
I'm also grateful for the differences in people and for the flexibility in families to let each person just be.
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Gifts, hoping and waiting
Dec. 28, 2008
My excellent pastor here in VA is two for two with his homilies on Christmas Eve and the Feast of the Holy Family. Although I am still homesick for TN, I have to admit that the pastor here is wonderful and the church is absolutely beautiful.
On Christmas Eve, in a packed church where seating was, shall we say, competitive, he talked about gifts. The difference between gifts and rewards is that gifts, of course, do not need to be earned. And in Christ we have the gift of God's pure love. But then he also talked about how sometimes we can be disappointed by gifts and added that sometimes children and grownups can focus more on life's disappointments than all of the wonderful gifts we receive from God, such as peace, love joy, etc. I wonder if he chose to mention that because he had spent the previous two evenings offering extra hours of confessions for the last-chancers among us. Anyway, it was spot on, for me at least.
And today, he spoke of the Holy Family and our own families. And he said that we all hope, in our earthly families, that each person reaches the potential that God has for us in this world. We hope that, we pray that and then we wait. Again, perfect homily for me to hear on this day as we prepare to begin a new year and we wait and hope to hear about hubby's potential new job or anything else for that matter.
My excellent pastor here in VA is two for two with his homilies on Christmas Eve and the Feast of the Holy Family. Although I am still homesick for TN, I have to admit that the pastor here is wonderful and the church is absolutely beautiful.
On Christmas Eve, in a packed church where seating was, shall we say, competitive, he talked about gifts. The difference between gifts and rewards is that gifts, of course, do not need to be earned. And in Christ we have the gift of God's pure love. But then he also talked about how sometimes we can be disappointed by gifts and added that sometimes children and grownups can focus more on life's disappointments than all of the wonderful gifts we receive from God, such as peace, love joy, etc. I wonder if he chose to mention that because he had spent the previous two evenings offering extra hours of confessions for the last-chancers among us. Anyway, it was spot on, for me at least.
And today, he spoke of the Holy Family and our own families. And he said that we all hope, in our earthly families, that each person reaches the potential that God has for us in this world. We hope that, we pray that and then we wait. Again, perfect homily for me to hear on this day as we prepare to begin a new year and we wait and hope to hear about hubby's potential new job or anything else for that matter.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Nutrisystem, Homeschooling and Imagination
Jan. 31, 2008
So here we are on the last day of January and you may be wondering what the three items in the title have to do with one another. Let me explain.
My dear husband, who will be 50 in the summer, has started Nutrisystem in order to lose around 50 pounds or so. It's all in the interest of health -- and permission to purchase a new (read different....we can't afford new) motorcycle on his 50th birthday. It's amazing that one month of food can fit into a foot locker-sized cardboard box. And it's providential that my husband and father-in-law installed new cabinets in the laundry room over the holidays as that is where the Nutrisystem food is stored. All in neat little boxes. Red for dinner, green for lunch, etc.
So, hubby is sticking to the diet so far (week 1) and losing a few pounds, but the box itself is worth its weight in gold. We have two children, 7 and 8, and they have turned the box into a time machine set for different times such as the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Columbus' time, Pocahontas' time, and, of course, dinosaur time. The box is complete with buttons which are accurately labeled. During breaks in homeschooling they travel to a different time and have adventures. I have to mention that these times correspond with the history dates they have so far memorized for homeschool. And their adventures are significantly augmented by their reading of the Magic Tree House books in which a brother and sister, ages 7 and 8, go back and time and have adventures. Funny how art imitates life in this case.
So, here in the cold heart of winter as we prepare to enter Lent, I am grateful for many things: For my husband's health, for my childrens' ability to be children and avoid the consumeristic appeal of Webkins and American Idol and video games. And I am grateful for imagination -- the forerunner of hope.
So here we are on the last day of January and you may be wondering what the three items in the title have to do with one another. Let me explain.
My dear husband, who will be 50 in the summer, has started Nutrisystem in order to lose around 50 pounds or so. It's all in the interest of health -- and permission to purchase a new (read different....we can't afford new) motorcycle on his 50th birthday. It's amazing that one month of food can fit into a foot locker-sized cardboard box. And it's providential that my husband and father-in-law installed new cabinets in the laundry room over the holidays as that is where the Nutrisystem food is stored. All in neat little boxes. Red for dinner, green for lunch, etc.
So, hubby is sticking to the diet so far (week 1) and losing a few pounds, but the box itself is worth its weight in gold. We have two children, 7 and 8, and they have turned the box into a time machine set for different times such as the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Columbus' time, Pocahontas' time, and, of course, dinosaur time. The box is complete with buttons which are accurately labeled. During breaks in homeschooling they travel to a different time and have adventures. I have to mention that these times correspond with the history dates they have so far memorized for homeschool. And their adventures are significantly augmented by their reading of the Magic Tree House books in which a brother and sister, ages 7 and 8, go back and time and have adventures. Funny how art imitates life in this case.
So, here in the cold heart of winter as we prepare to enter Lent, I am grateful for many things: For my husband's health, for my childrens' ability to be children and avoid the consumeristic appeal of Webkins and American Idol and video games. And I am grateful for imagination -- the forerunner of hope.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
School's Out!
Dec. 20, 2007
School's out, school's out, teacher let the monkeys out. My monkeys went out and played in the mud when the bell of freedom rang.
I paid bills and wrote out Christmas cards. I'm glad for a break, I have to admit. Homeschooling is great, but sometimes you just need a break.
We learned about constellations this week, thanks to Prima Latina. It is really interesting. I find that I learn a lot along with the kids. I never knew the zodiac was in Latin, or even how to define the zodiac -- the constellations through which the sun passes.
I read an article this week that said only 47.8% of parents read to their children, ages 0-5, daily. What a shame.
I remember going out to buy some of my favorite children's books to read to Olivia when I was just pregnant with her. And then reading one to her when I was on maternity leave, so I'm sure she did not get the gist of it. But she listened as I rocked and read.
Although my kids read really well for their age, I do read to them for at least 30 minutes each day - usually on a topic we are studying. Maybe it is a Greek Myth or Story of the World.
Our latest is The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean. I can't say enough positive things about this book. It presents the major Bible stories in an engaging and extremely well-written way. My kids always want two chapters, if not three, when we sit down to read it.
And I learn. I never knew much about the prophet Elijah, but we read about him today. And his great faith really captivated me. Knowing you are but a tool in the hands of God, and that with God anything can be done.
Good to know.. if only we can believe that when the rubber hits the road.
Well, the rubber is hitting the road. My sister does have cancer -- papillary carcinoma. It apparently is very treatable with a radioactive iodine that you drink. But it's just a terribly hard time for her with a new baby and her husband in a new job and in one of those very Northern states where it snows all winter.
I'll be flying up sometime in January, whenever she says she needs me to come. I'm glad I get to go, but I pray that this road to recovery is not too trying for her, because she has hit a lot of rough spots in the past few years. None of them of her own making. That is where faith comes in. We never know why difficulty comes to certain people, but we know always that God is with us in our trials and in our triumphs.
School's out, school's out, teacher let the monkeys out. My monkeys went out and played in the mud when the bell of freedom rang.
I paid bills and wrote out Christmas cards. I'm glad for a break, I have to admit. Homeschooling is great, but sometimes you just need a break.
We learned about constellations this week, thanks to Prima Latina. It is really interesting. I find that I learn a lot along with the kids. I never knew the zodiac was in Latin, or even how to define the zodiac -- the constellations through which the sun passes.
I read an article this week that said only 47.8% of parents read to their children, ages 0-5, daily. What a shame.
I remember going out to buy some of my favorite children's books to read to Olivia when I was just pregnant with her. And then reading one to her when I was on maternity leave, so I'm sure she did not get the gist of it. But she listened as I rocked and read.
Although my kids read really well for their age, I do read to them for at least 30 minutes each day - usually on a topic we are studying. Maybe it is a Greek Myth or Story of the World.
Our latest is The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean. I can't say enough positive things about this book. It presents the major Bible stories in an engaging and extremely well-written way. My kids always want two chapters, if not three, when we sit down to read it.
And I learn. I never knew much about the prophet Elijah, but we read about him today. And his great faith really captivated me. Knowing you are but a tool in the hands of God, and that with God anything can be done.
Good to know.. if only we can believe that when the rubber hits the road.
Well, the rubber is hitting the road. My sister does have cancer -- papillary carcinoma. It apparently is very treatable with a radioactive iodine that you drink. But it's just a terribly hard time for her with a new baby and her husband in a new job and in one of those very Northern states where it snows all winter.
I'll be flying up sometime in January, whenever she says she needs me to come. I'm glad I get to go, but I pray that this road to recovery is not too trying for her, because she has hit a lot of rough spots in the past few years. None of them of her own making. That is where faith comes in. We never know why difficulty comes to certain people, but we know always that God is with us in our trials and in our triumphs.
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