Aaaaahhhh, there's nothing like getting up early on a Saturday morning and driving to scenic Irmo, South Carolina, where your daughter attends a conference for young writers and you, my friend, drive to Panera Bread and read for two hours. I guess there's worst ways to spend your day. BUT even better, tonight is the the night of the annual Church Basketball Games, pitting the women against the girls, and the men against the boys.
I have been asked to participate, but I am hoping for a lot of bench warming, since the art of dribbling a basketball still eludes me. I am 5'2", so I never thought to add basketball to my renaissance woman-like collection of skills. I am only looking forward to it because I want to wear knee socks and put my hair up in pig-tails. I meant to buy sweat bands, but never got around to it. You gotta look the part, right?
Wish me and my sore shins luck! I'm bringing my C+ game, high school girls, look out!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Shin Splints
Have any of you ever had shin splints? I have been running a lot lately, trying to get past 5.5 miles so I can crush the Cooper River Bridge Run in just a couple of weeks now. Instead of becoming a gazelle-like sprinter, however, my pace has slowed and I am having horrific, I-can't-run-through-it-must-walk-type pain in my shins. Debilitating! Demoralizing! Might as well pick up the Valu-pak of Snickers and some elastic-waist pants the next time at Wal-mart, because I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.
I iced my shins last night. Everything online (O blessed fount of wisdom!) says rest, ice, time to replace the shoes, cross-train...I bought new shoes today and paid $9.99 for a single pair of socks (are you kidding?), so I better be good to go. Any other ideas, other than quitting running which is out of the question?!
I iced my shins last night. Everything online (O blessed fount of wisdom!) says rest, ice, time to replace the shoes, cross-train...I bought new shoes today and paid $9.99 for a single pair of socks (are you kidding?), so I better be good to go. Any other ideas, other than quitting running which is out of the question?!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
idolatry
The info cards arrived! Yippee! and I misspelled Justin's email address on them. All 200 of them. All $52.00 worth of them. I have never ever in my life felt so pushed around by a 4x6 piece of laminated cardstock.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Tuesday already?
I have a good reason for not being able to post for a week...really, I do. On Thursday of last week, I left for a girls' weekend with three of my sweetest sisters in Christ. When I left, the chicken pot pie was in the oven and I had just handed Justin his cheat sheet for the next three days. Included entries were:
1. Give Jack stomach meds every morning.
2. Here's the recipe for waffles for breakfast Saturday.
3. Don't forget about the birthday party Saturday afternoon.
4. Be sure and feed the dog.
He survived and when I got home Sunday, the dog was still alive and all of the children were clothed and fed. Success!
On the church plant front, we finally got the cards done to our liking and I placed the order today. (Insert sigh of relief here!) Justin spends his days meeting with every community or non-profit organization in downtown Spartanburg. He said you can tell that most of the people he meets are glad to have someone interested in what they do, and they are passionate about their causes. He also got to talk with the guy who's going to start RUF at Wofford College next Fall, and he and his wife are coming from St. Louis sometime this month to house hunt. We are looking forward to meeting them and hope this is the beginning of a great friendship.
1. Give Jack stomach meds every morning.
2. Here's the recipe for waffles for breakfast Saturday.
3. Don't forget about the birthday party Saturday afternoon.
4. Be sure and feed the dog.
He survived and when I got home Sunday, the dog was still alive and all of the children were clothed and fed. Success!
On the church plant front, we finally got the cards done to our liking and I placed the order today. (Insert sigh of relief here!) Justin spends his days meeting with every community or non-profit organization in downtown Spartanburg. He said you can tell that most of the people he meets are glad to have someone interested in what they do, and they are passionate about their causes. He also got to talk with the guy who's going to start RUF at Wofford College next Fall, and he and his wife are coming from St. Louis sometime this month to house hunt. We are looking forward to meeting them and hope this is the beginning of a great friendship.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Reading and Writing and Homeschooling
Jack the 1st grader is on an all-out campaign to be homeschooled. His reasons, so far, are that school is too long, the math is not challenging enough, and recess only happens twice a day. This morning I reminded him that even though he would definitely get to play outside more often if he was at home with me all day, there would be no one with whom to play. He did not respond, either because he had moved on mentally to a new topic or my point was a valid one, I don't know.
There are days I would love to homeschool my children. They are three of my favorite people, and I care about what they are learning and the influences on their little minds and hearts at school. It does not escape me that my children spend more time each week with their teachers and classmates than with their father and me. And I think (perhaps idealistically) that they could get more school work accomplished in less time if they were doing it at home, and not waiting on the rest of the class to finish up. I love the idea of us all tromping to the library or out in the woods together, researching whatever they are passionate about at the moment...though that would probably be winning American Idol, secret passageways in Super Mario Brothers, and how to make it to the NBA without practicing too much.
I wonder, however, about the isolating aspect of homeschool. I tried to homeschool our eldest child when she was in first grade, and the result was me banging my head against the wall of her bedroom when I could not convince her that I knew more about first grade math than she did. The boys, who were four and three at the time, just wandered around the house by themselves, making sure the toys were evenly distributed to every room and unoccupied toilet they could find. The whole scenario was not quite what I had envisioned when I was picking out curricula a few months back. Emma and I made it one semester, and we were both relieved when I dropped her off at the elementary school in January.
Before Emma went to school, I agonized over her schooling. Were the public school teachers really the Priests of Baal, as some have suggested? What would homeschool look like for us? Would we survive it?
When the Bible talks about children, there are very few mandates to parents. Sometimes we make up more because we want a formula for raising happy, successful, God-fearing children, but homeschooling + Catechism questions + long skirts does not always equal Christians advancing God's kingdom. We are told to teach them about God and His law (Deut 4:9, 6:7, 11:19, among others), to correct and train them in the way they should go (Prov. 22:6, 22:15, 13:24, among others) and not to embitter or exasperate them (Eph 6:4, Col. 3:21). This training, teaching, correcting, and disciplining looks different from parent to parent, and that is because we are all different (one body, many parts). While we may not have a formula, we do have a mandate for child-rearing, and here is what it boils down to:
1. Guard against foolishness by consistent, loving discipline.
2. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.
3. Teach your children, at every opportunity, to do the same.
This is our job as parents, regardless of our schooling methodology.
PS. Will the 3rd grader just came and read this as I was proofreading it and wants to point out that he practices for the NBA a lot. He also asked me what he should do this afternoon since he did his chores and used his screen time this morning (school was on a two-hour delay), and I said, "Go read your Bible."
There are days I would love to homeschool my children. They are three of my favorite people, and I care about what they are learning and the influences on their little minds and hearts at school. It does not escape me that my children spend more time each week with their teachers and classmates than with their father and me. And I think (perhaps idealistically) that they could get more school work accomplished in less time if they were doing it at home, and not waiting on the rest of the class to finish up. I love the idea of us all tromping to the library or out in the woods together, researching whatever they are passionate about at the moment...though that would probably be winning American Idol, secret passageways in Super Mario Brothers, and how to make it to the NBA without practicing too much.
I wonder, however, about the isolating aspect of homeschool. I tried to homeschool our eldest child when she was in first grade, and the result was me banging my head against the wall of her bedroom when I could not convince her that I knew more about first grade math than she did. The boys, who were four and three at the time, just wandered around the house by themselves, making sure the toys were evenly distributed to every room and unoccupied toilet they could find. The whole scenario was not quite what I had envisioned when I was picking out curricula a few months back. Emma and I made it one semester, and we were both relieved when I dropped her off at the elementary school in January.
Before Emma went to school, I agonized over her schooling. Were the public school teachers really the Priests of Baal, as some have suggested? What would homeschool look like for us? Would we survive it?
When the Bible talks about children, there are very few mandates to parents. Sometimes we make up more because we want a formula for raising happy, successful, God-fearing children, but homeschooling + Catechism questions + long skirts does not always equal Christians advancing God's kingdom. We are told to teach them about God and His law (Deut 4:9, 6:7, 11:19, among others), to correct and train them in the way they should go (Prov. 22:6, 22:15, 13:24, among others) and not to embitter or exasperate them (Eph 6:4, Col. 3:21). This training, teaching, correcting, and disciplining looks different from parent to parent, and that is because we are all different (one body, many parts). While we may not have a formula, we do have a mandate for child-rearing, and here is what it boils down to:
1. Guard against foolishness by consistent, loving discipline.
2. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.
3. Teach your children, at every opportunity, to do the same.
This is our job as parents, regardless of our schooling methodology.
PS. Will the 3rd grader just came and read this as I was proofreading it and wants to point out that he practices for the NBA a lot. He also asked me what he should do this afternoon since he did his chores and used his screen time this morning (school was on a two-hour delay), and I said, "Go read your Bible."
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Snow, snow go away
That's right, people, I am officially a snow grouch. I don't even care if it sticks. The best part of the snow event was seeing my happy children's faces at 11:30 today, when school let out and the snow was flying fast and furious.
Emma invited Sam over to spend the afternoon with us. Sam's dad is the man in our church who was killed in a car accident a week and a half ago. Sam's mom dropped her off and said she was going to write thank you notes and then take a long nap in her quiet house. I just saw Sam and Emma walking together to Sam's dad's grave (we live next to the church cemetery) and wondered what they were talking about.
The dog and I went for a long run this morning. It is cold and wet, but I just don't have time to go up to the Y to run indoors. So I used my inhaler before I went running today, and I hate to admit it, but it made a huge difference. The reason I hate to admit that is because my husband often suggests I do the inhaler before I run, and I brush him off. For some reason, I seem to think that I should not need medicine like mere mortals do, and so I'm constantly trying to ween myself off of my various daily medications. I only do the inhaler for emergencies, and to me, if your lips aren't turning blue and you're not on the floor gasping for breath, it's not an emergency. But because it's been cold and only turning colder and because I did not want to turn into a zombie this afternoon, I did some preventative steroid inhaling and ran for 55 minutes which I haven't done in several weeks now. Amazing! Maybe Justin (and the doctor who prescribed the inhaler for precisely this purpose) knows something after all.
Happy wet, cold March!
Emma invited Sam over to spend the afternoon with us. Sam's dad is the man in our church who was killed in a car accident a week and a half ago. Sam's mom dropped her off and said she was going to write thank you notes and then take a long nap in her quiet house. I just saw Sam and Emma walking together to Sam's dad's grave (we live next to the church cemetery) and wondered what they were talking about.
The dog and I went for a long run this morning. It is cold and wet, but I just don't have time to go up to the Y to run indoors. So I used my inhaler before I went running today, and I hate to admit it, but it made a huge difference. The reason I hate to admit that is because my husband often suggests I do the inhaler before I run, and I brush him off. For some reason, I seem to think that I should not need medicine like mere mortals do, and so I'm constantly trying to ween myself off of my various daily medications. I only do the inhaler for emergencies, and to me, if your lips aren't turning blue and you're not on the floor gasping for breath, it's not an emergency. But because it's been cold and only turning colder and because I did not want to turn into a zombie this afternoon, I did some preventative steroid inhaling and ran for 55 minutes which I haven't done in several weeks now. Amazing! Maybe Justin (and the doctor who prescribed the inhaler for precisely this purpose) knows something after all.
Happy wet, cold March!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Joy
"And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Gal. 2:20b
This morning as I was reading my Bible and writing in my prayer journal, I could not focus. So instead of praying I started flipping back through prayers of years past. And I was startled to read this from February 2006 (forgive the grammar):
Wow. I would like to take the Me of 2006 in my arms and just give her a big, long hug, because she is one depressed, frightened little soul. Nowhere in that prayer does she "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ..this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you maybe filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:19) No, I was convinced that God was out to get me, and that life this side of eternity was hopeless.
It amazes me that during this time I was counseling and discipling college girls and being about the ministry when inside, I was quietly waiting for God to drop the hammer. And I probably gave those girls good counsel because I knew the good news of the gospel and could explain God's grace and forgiveness to anyone who needed it, but the truth was only in my mind and had yet to take root in my heart and soul.
The reason I tell you all of this is because that prayer, though so sad to read, was a source of encouragement for me this morning. For get this: I am not who I once was. I no longer believe that God can't use me because of my sin, because I know that Jesus has taken it away, so far away I couldn't go get it to use as a testimony against myself even if I tried. And not only can He use me, but He loves me. He loves me with a love that "surpasses knowledge" and invites me to "taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8a)
He was with me through those dark times of doubt and self-loathing, and He is still with me now. And so I can say today with good ol' King David (who had his fair share of dark times):
This morning as I was reading my Bible and writing in my prayer journal, I could not focus. So instead of praying I started flipping back through prayers of years past. And I was startled to read this from February 2006 (forgive the grammar):
Lord honestly I look at my life and think - how could God use me, so mired in my own sin? And I am scared, almost terrified that your going to kill one of the kids or take us through some horrible ordeal to sanctify us. Is that warped? God, I still don't trust you, and I'm sorry. I'm scared of what you are going to do to me. I think of Jeremiah about the plans you have, plans to give a future and a hope, and I think, oh, that's heaven. Heaven is our future, and Jesus is our hope; but Lord, I do not look forward to anything -- except visits from relatives, nap time, and the possibility of moving from Boone.
Wow. I would like to take the Me of 2006 in my arms and just give her a big, long hug, because she is one depressed, frightened little soul. Nowhere in that prayer does she "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ..this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you maybe filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:19) No, I was convinced that God was out to get me, and that life this side of eternity was hopeless.
It amazes me that during this time I was counseling and discipling college girls and being about the ministry when inside, I was quietly waiting for God to drop the hammer. And I probably gave those girls good counsel because I knew the good news of the gospel and could explain God's grace and forgiveness to anyone who needed it, but the truth was only in my mind and had yet to take root in my heart and soul.
The reason I tell you all of this is because that prayer, though so sad to read, was a source of encouragement for me this morning. For get this: I am not who I once was. I no longer believe that God can't use me because of my sin, because I know that Jesus has taken it away, so far away I couldn't go get it to use as a testimony against myself even if I tried. And not only can He use me, but He loves me. He loves me with a love that "surpasses knowledge" and invites me to "taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8a)
He was with me through those dark times of doubt and self-loathing, and He is still with me now. And so I can say today with good ol' King David (who had his fair share of dark times):
"I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears."
Psalm 34:4
Amen.
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