Life Unseen

Several years ago my husband got very sick. He was in the hospital for a week, came home to recuperate only to wind up back in the hospital 5 days later. After another week stay he came back home for a few days. By this point he had lost 40 pounds in 3 weeks and we were both getting scared.

We had a 5 year old getting ready to start school and a one year old. Clyde had just finished graduate school and had only been working 5 weeks when he got sick. Then a surgeon friend made arrangements for him to see a specialist at a bigger hospital. He was there for a week as well.

During that time, I started having an irregular heartbeat and was worried I was having a heart attack. It was also the week that Garrett started Kindergarten.
To top it all off, I got a ticket for running  a stop sign (which, I still don't think I did, the cop was there all week giving tickets). But I had been up most of the night with my one year old who was teething and at the hospital all morning for a test that was supposed to take an hour and going in to 3 hours I knew the news wasn't good.

I will never forget an experience I had that week. I was strapped up to a mobile heart monitor that was hidden under my clothes which I had to wear nonstop for 24 hours. I was pushing my cart through the store with my 2 little boys, short of breath, worried about my husband who was now 2 hours away, getting some food and some school supplies and wondering how we were going to pay for all this. As I was pushing my cart and feeling very burdened, I looked up and noticed people all around me doing their everyday things as well.

But suddenly, that man reaching for the milk may be a man who just lost his wife. And the young woman  yelling at her kids may have been single, tired from work and worried about finances. What about the lady in line who is staring at the wall? Did she just get a cancer diagnosis? What about that very happy young couple, did they just get engaged?

There were people all around me doing their everyday things, but I could not see what was going on in their lives any more than they could see what was going on in mine.


We survived that time in our lives. My husband got diagnosed with Crohn's disease and we have learned to adjust to new eating issues. I got my heart diagnosis and know what symptoms will always be there and which ones are a problem. It seems like a lifetime ago, but I hope what I learned from it will stay with me forever.

We will never know what is going on behind the faces of those around us, happy or sad. Sometimes we need to just cut people a little slack.

Sometimes we just need grace.

Eating at 2

I love watching my 2 year old eat. He does it with such gusto!

I love how his eyebrows raise up as he brings his spoon up to his mouth, clearly overloaded. But does this stop my little snarfer?
 No way!
 In it mostly goes with either his shirt catching it, sometimes his hand, often the table and if we are all lucky his cute little pointy tongue does windshield wiper detail above and below his mouth.

He somehow manages to close his mouth and his whole jaw begins its magical work of mastication.
Meanwhile his eyebrows continue this cute little dance sometimes expressing pleasure (yes! yogurt) or disgust (Mom, what is this?).

Then of course being the  youngest he tries to get in on all the conversations or jokes going on around the table (Mom approved or not).
Last week he tried to get in on the knock knock joke fest we had which went something like this: Knock Knock, who's there, Smartypants, smartypants who?, hahahahheeheehee end of joke!

And often we hear a little voice saying , "Let me talk, guys, let me talk." When they do, he usually remembers what he was going to say.

I watch his chubby little hands grip the small sized fork as he navigates the bite of meat ball to his mouth and silently laugh as it drops just before his mouth. Sometimes he remains blissfully unaware as he is too busy watching everyone else to notice.

The funny thing is, watching him is better than eating sometimes. He isn't too concerned about manners or propriety although he does understand that saying please and thank you will get things passed to him. He likes the food to taste good (and at two, his palate is pretty easy), he likes to feel that his belly gets full and that his voice is heard. He wants to be part of it all.

Hmm, I am pretty much a "cleaner" 2 year old!

Being sick

My entire family has the flu.
I mean everyone.
Including me. Which is unusual, because Moms aren't allowed to get sick. If we do, it has to be while everyone is at school and we have to be done before they get home, also making sure the laundry still gets done and there is some kind of edible product in the house.
This time I feel like a zombie, and am thankful that last week I actually got the laundry washed and folded because we are currently living out of the baskets of folded clothes.
And I feel a little guilty that we are all sick, because it might be my fault.
See, a few weeks ago everyone we knew was sick and my friends were making comments about losing anywhere from 8-10lbs. And I made the mistake of briefly thinking "I should get the flu, it would be a whole lot easier than actually practicing self control." But that was the ever briefest thought, because I am the mother of  4 children and I know what the consequences are of fevers and hacking up lungs and such. Not fun, and very tiring!
I had also made the mistake of telling a friend that we don't get flu shots, because "they don't usually prevent the strain that is going around at the time".
So, I pretty much jinxed us!
But, I have to say that Garrett did a super great job of taking care of me at my worst. Bringing me medication and cool cloths for my fever. Getting me cool drinks and blankets. What a comfort it is when one of your own children takes it upon themselves to take care of you! It also helped to know that he does still love me. It's tough sometimes raising a teenager, but he showed me by his tender care that in spite of the oft seen surliness, he does care.
Kinda makes it worth being sick.

What a Little Week!

I don't know about you, but in moments, this week was amazing.
Truthfully most of it was ordinary.
Taking the kids where they needed to be, helping with homework, teaching a class, etc.

It was a week of the absolute ordinary that our lives are made up of, the daily minutia that somehow becomes a life.

Yet, there were those moments, you know, the little ones. It came in saying "thank you", or just acknowledging someone by name, or teaching my little ones to look in the person's eye and say "Thanks for the sticker."

It came in hearing the voices of friends rarely spoken to but loved just the same.

It came in emails sent and received.

It came in the loving thoughts of those women who have made a difference in my life.
It came in prayers of thanks for and blessings to be poured out on those women.

Do you know Mother Teresa's mom's name? Offhand I don't, but how many thousands of people have been thankful for what she taught her daughter.

I don't know who sparked Marie Curie's love of science but ---Thank you!

In his song "Do Everything" Steven Curtis Chapman reminds us that it really doesn't matter if our days are spent sweeping up lost cheerios or feeding the poor as long as we do it for the glory of The One Who made us.

I believe that ultimately God has made us to be amazing in big and small ways. But He will never force us to be kind, teach our kids, choose modesty, speak cleanly, or anything else. He leaves it up to us to listen to His Spirit and act on promptings.

I know that with each choice to do as He would have us do adds to our "amazingness".
To have others thanking God that we were there with a hug, pushed us to do what we thought we couldn't, smiled at us, encouraged us, and sometimes told us what we didn't want to hear, brings Him glory.

As Francesca Batistelli says in her song "He Knows My Name," We don't need our names in lights, we are famous in Our Father's eyes. He does know our name, he knows each and every time we act on a prompting from Him.

He also gives us lots of opportunities each day, so if we blow it once, twice or a bunch, He will give us lots more chances. Yay!

I certainly didn't have time this week to do all the recognizing and thanking that I need to do. But it was a good start of a habit I hope will stick with me.

Keep Going!

What is this challenge doing for you?

Are you noticing more and more the amazing women in your life?

If you are a woman are you recognizing how powerful it is to others as you appreciate and honor true womanhood?

Isn't it interesting what showing gratitude does to your heart and your mental state?

This may not be a real comfortable challenge for some people. Sometimes it is hard to express our feelings, especially when they are deep.

We may even be frustrated by not being able to express those feelings to that specific person. Maybe we can't find them, remember their name, or perhaps they have passed on. Whatever the reason we may not be able to express it to them personally, we can thank God for putting them in our lives.
And we can thank Him for putting a woman who would glorify Him by doing good, in our life.

Continue on with your effort to thank good women! Don't give up! I know that it is making a powerful difference for even a few women!


For myself, there are a few women I would love to thank and have no idea where to find them.

Denise Scripzinski. You made a big impact on my life when I was about 10. You were a young married woman teaching school. You let me come over that summer and made homemade playdough, and we made cutouts with it. You introduced me to the book Peter Potts which my kids now love. Thank you!

Ms. Schlater. You were my 6th,7th, and 8th grade English teacher. You worked two jobs because you loved to teach, but it just didn't pay well. I will never forget how you took a popular book of the time and pointed out just by reading a bit of it aloud to the class that there were some books that were more like reading garbage than reading gourmet and that no matter how young we were we should read the good.

Let Me Be Gracious

I was teaching Preston how to do laundry when one of my other kids came running in with a pool noodle. He wanted to hit Preston with it. I told him not to throw it, but of course he insisted that he had good aim. I asked him to go away, and he again proclaimed his ability to hit his mark. I told him that I was pretty sure he would get me with it and asked him not to throw it. Once more, I told him not to throw it, and sure enough, he did.

And as you can guess, he got me.

 Right in the face.

I would love to report that I handled it well and laughed, but I would be lying. Instead, I scolded with "I told you you would get me."
He left the room, head hanging and me following.

When we got up to his room. I told him that I had asked him several times not to do that.
 I had even explained why I didn't want him to do it. Then he chose to do it anyway.

Then I told him that I forgave him.

 At that moment, he didn't "deserve" to be forgiven.

 He was told repeatedly not to do something, he was even told why and he did it anyway. But it gave me a great opportunity to teach him about grace.

Every single one of us makes mistakes, we do what we have been asked not to do, or told not to do.  Sometimes, not always, we don't know why. Then we realize our mistake, and we hope to receive grace. That forgiveness that comes from a loving God, when we don't deserve it.

I am now glad he made that mistake. It gave me a chance to teach him and learn for myself, again, about this amazing gift.
I am a big believer in grace, because I find myself needing it all the time.
I really hope that I will learn to always be gracious.

GO!

Today is the BIG Day!
Have you thought of the women throughout your life that have honored womanhood just by who they are?
Have you looked anyone up?
Have you already put something on your Facebook feed?
You are now ready to text, message, post, call, write, and do something small to say thanks.
As I was getting crazy excited about this by the end of last week I noticed something interesting.
I realized that I was becoming more aware of the little things.
The woman at the store giving stickers to my kids.
The woman who offered to give my kids her lemons for their lemon juice money making project.
The 3 women who let me go ahead of them in line because I only had 1 item.
As you look around this week, I am sure you will find yourself seeing the same thing.
Go with it! A simple thanks or just acknowledgement of an act will make a difference.
Even if that difference is only in you!
Make it a great day ladies!