Love and Compassion

One of the sad things about having pets is that they don't always live as long as we would like them to live.  This is especially true of small pets.  Over the years we have had several sets of gerbils.  Most lived a regular gerbil lifespan (2-3 years), but Hope's last gerbil, Inka III, lived around 4 years!  After it died, we got 4 new gerbils, one for each girl.  

We'd had the gerbils for only 2 or 3 months when Hope realized that her new gerbil, Inka IV, was sick.  We hand fed it and loved on it and prayed for it, but it didn't make it.  Hope was so sad!  I was sad, too.  I so wanted to spare her from this pain.  But I couldn't.  

After Joy found out she told Hope that Hope could share her gerbil and could even call it Inka.  Then Hope gave Joy the sweetest hug!  I try to teach and model compassion to my girls, but sometimes I wonder if they are getting it.  That night I saw that, at least some times, they do.  It touched me to see these two girls, who are the ones who are at odds the most out of all the girls, share such a sweet moment of love and compassion.

Hope is doing well now.  And I think that Joy's compassion played a part in soothing her pain.  I pray that as my girls grow and experience other pain and difficulties that they will be there for each other and comfort one another with compassion and love.  

When Fun Is Work

It's funny.  I always thought that by the time I reached the age and stage of life I now am that I would have things figured out.  Or that I would at least have myself figured out.  Not so!  I'm still learning so much about God, about the world around me, and even about how I am wired.

Last night I finally realized something.  Sometimes what seems like fun for Paul seems like work for me.  No wonder we don't understand each other sometimes!  Yesterday Paul casually mentioned the possibility of eating out with a family he's trying to get more connected to Jesus and to The City Church.  To him, this sounded like something easy and fun.  But to me it is work.  

Having dinner with some established friends would be fun, and I would be up for that on the spur of the moment almost any time.  But meeting with people I don't know, particularly people with whom I seem to have little in common (at least on the surface) is hard for me.  I want them to have a good impression of me, of our church, of Jesus, so I spend way more time than I should worrying about what to say, how to say it, whether they like me, etc.  

That's not really a good quality.  But it is where I'm at right now.  Now that I've identified this, maybe I can seek God's healing for my insecurity in this area.  But I think that I am always going to have to work harder at initiating conversations and meeting new people than Paul does.  Barring a supernatural change from God, I'm never going to get to know people as easily as Paul does.  It's always going to be at least a little more work for me. 

I don't know that either of us has made that connection before.  I think it's the opposite of shopping.  Shopping is fun for me but is work for Paul, even when he's shopping for himself with a gift card from someone else.  (That is so much fun for me!)  And just like he doesn't always want to go on a spur-of-the moment shopping trip after a long week of work, I don't look forward to the surprise of more work at the end of my week.  That doesn't mean I shouldn't do it.  Some of the best things in life are hard work!  And Paul has been very gracious about going shopping with me even when he's tired.   


I pray that God would make getting to know people more fun than work for me, and that He would help Paul understand that any initial hesitation on my part isn't just stubbornness or uncaring, but is often just tiredness!

Write Like an Egyptian

One of the things I really like about homeschooling is how my children are freed up to use their creativity.  (Another thing I really like is getting to sleep later!)  Faith has been writing a story to send in for an American Girl Magazine story contest.  She finished it today, and I was impressed with her writing.  

As we were talking about the story contest, Hope said she would not want to enter a story because, as she said, "I only write books...and hieroglyphics."   Love that girl!

Things That Go Bump (or Deafening Siren or Clank) in the Night

Last week the night the cold front came through my bladder woke me up.  (Not unusual!) After returning to bed, I noticed how windy it had become.  Soon after that our home alarm system went off!  I immediately knew that the wind had blown open the back door.  It's happened before (in the daytime!), and I told Paul to check for that first.  Sure enough, the still-locked back door was open.  Paul closed the door, turned off the alarm, checked just to make sure it was only the wind, and went back to sleep.  I, however, spent a few sleepless hours worrying about burglars.  Because I have a totally-unfounded but lifelong fear of burglars breaking in my home when I'm sleeping.   Don't know where it came from, but it's REAL!

So, even though my mind knew the wind had blown the door open, even though I have seen the wind open the door several times before (in the daytime!), and even though I looked around our house just to check, my fear was screaming, "Burglar!" at me.  My mind said that I would surely hear someone walking on our laminate floors (I can even hear the cat walking if the heat isn't on!); my fear said, "What if they're really quiet?"  My mind said that an intruder would leave when they heard the alarm shrieking; my fear said, "What if they didn't?"  My husband reassured me that no one was in our home; my fear said, "What if they were hiding?"  The dog reinforced my fear by being more restless in her kennel than she's ever been.  My mind told me she was restless because of the wind, but, of course, my fear said - you guessed it- "Burglar!"

By the light of day the next day, my fears seemed silly and overblown, but they had been very real to me in the dark.

A few nights ago, as I began to drift off to sleep, I heard a clanking noise.  I had never heard it before, and I thought it sounded like someone dropping a heavy metal something on the concrete.  Probably a neighbor.  After an interval I heard it again.  And again.  So, my fear again began shouting, "Burglar!" at me.  I could just picture someone with some sort of crowbar or crowbar-like device ready to bash in my window.  My mind said it was not a burglar, but my fear wasn't buying it!  I finally woke Paul up.  He assured me there was no burglar outside with a crowbar, but, since he hadn't actually heard the noise, my fear was not quieted.  Finally, he heard it and realized it was some noise the heating system was making.  (One neither of us had ever heard before.)  Then I realized that the noise always happened after the heat came on.  And I was able to sleep without fear.

The next morning I felt pretty silly.  My fears seemed so far-fetched in the brightness of the daytime.

As I pondered these silly fears, I realized that so often I voluntarily remain in the dark and allow all sorts of fears to assault me.  Not so much fears about burglars, but fears about things like rejection, being a bad mom, messing up, our church, and on and on it goes.  God's Word is a light to my feet and a lamp for my path, but when I spend little time reading, meditating on, and memorizing it, I am in the dark and more vulnerable to fear.  Jesus is the Light of the World, but when I am not spending time connecting with Him, I am living in the dark.  I want to stay in Jesus and in God's Word, because I know when I do, I will see things much more clearly and be able to refute the baseless fears and worries that sometimes come.  And even those fears and worries that aren't baseless will be no match for my Jesus!

The LORD is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?  ~Psalm 27:1

 

Things That Go Bump (or Siren Sound or Clang) in the Night

Last week I my bladder woke me up in the wee hours of the morning when the cold front came through.

Smile!

Now that I finished blogging about 2010, I can start blogging about 2011!  Hey, January's not even over yet.  Pretty good for a chronic procrastinator!

We've spent more time this month visiting oral health professionals than at any other time in my adult life.  (I did have braces as a child, so I spent some time at the dentist and orthodontist.)  The girls had a routine cleaning early in the month.  We've known fro some time that Grace would need some orthodontic work because of an underbite, and our dentist said it was finally time.  We got an appointment the next day for the orthodontist who just began practicing with our dentist.  After the x-rays and the icky-tasting tooth molds, we learned that her bottom jaw is growing faster than her top jaw.  So not only will she need braces, she'll also need a type of head gear!

They put in some spacers, and we made an appointment for the braces.  She got her braces last Monday.  She was really excited about them!  She chose green bands to go around her brackets, and she really does look cute.  They have to make some kind of device that will attach to her head gear, so she doesn't have that yet.  And the braces make it difficult for her to suck on her tongue, which is what either led to or exacerbated her underbite.  Yay!  They are already helping!

After hearing my friends talk about the pain of getting braces, I was surprised that Grace only had minimal discomfort.  Cutting her food into small pieces and taking ibuprofen controlled it.  And she told me today that she could bite into pizza again without pain or discomfort.

I was very surprised by the financial pain of braces!  I had no idea that eight months to a year of braces would cost more than several used cars we have purchased!  And when I asked the going rate for a full set, I couldn't believe it!  Unfortunately for us, Hope will be needing braces in the near future, and Grace may need another set when she's older.  I'm glad we took our Disney trip last year!  

But a healthy smile is worth it.  And Grace is such a happy child that we see that smile often!

More Magic!

We planned to meet the princesses on our final day at Magic Kingdom.  And while it would have been nice to get the boutique princess make-over for the girls, it was definitely NOT in our already-stretched budget.  So my oldest daughter and her friend did the younger girls make-up and hair so they could feel like princesses!  I brought sparkly make-up and hair spray and had purchased each of my girls a tiara at Claire's before we left.  My younger girls wore cute dresses instead of the hot dress-up costumes that we had.  I think they looked fabulous!

We got to the park in time to see Mickey and Minnie sing and dance at Cinderella's castle.  Then we went to Belle's story time.  After that we went to see the princesses!  Faith's favorite princess is Cinderella; Hope and Grace's favorite is Belle (She's my favorite, too!); and Joy's favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty. All three of them were there when we went to meet them, take pictures, and get their autographs!  They were all so gracious, and it was a special time for my girls.

We then toured Mickey and Minnie's houses, and I made the big mistake of riding the Goofy roller coaster.  It wasn't scary, but it was so jerky that my back hurt for several hours!  After lunch, we met Mickey and Minnie and got pictures with them.  We hid out from one of the daily rain showers, and rode some more rides.  The younger three girls loved Space Mountain, and all the girls loved Big Thunder Mountain.  (I had planned to ride that one until my back started hurting.)  


One of the most fun surprises was the Jungle Cruise.  Our guide was hysterical!  The girls loved it when she poked fun at the Hall of Presidents!  The older kids and Paul rode Splash Mountain again.  They were disappointed that somehow he managed to stay dry.

We finished our day by watching the Parade of Lights and the fireworks show from Main Street.  It was a terrific ending to a fabulous vacation!