Category Archives: Day to Day

This morning my Psalm reading included two that have to do with a “problem” that is a constant recurring theme of my life – my children. Well at least 80% of my challenges in life come from the fact that I have so many children. And God says:

Children are a gift from the Lord
they are a reward from him. …
How happy is the man whose quiver is full of them!… Psalm 127: parts of 3,4,5

And look at all those children!
There they sit around your table
as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees.
This is the Lords reward
For those who fear him. Psalm 128:3b to 6

Do you sometimes feel that God is blessing you or maybe just has a good sense of humor as your children sit around your table eating every last morsel and then coming back to raid the fridge in an hour?

I guess we have chosen to fill our quiver but sometimes the arrows fight with each other and they certainly are a challenge to feed – not just with food but with the right emotional support. They seem to empty the emotional fridge as quickly as the electrical one. Restocking the emotional one is a lot more fun though as they return with a few hugs and as you watch them have a good time together – their quarrels put aside for awhile.

Today we have all the challenges of work for four of us, end of classes for another, and getting together the grandparents for an evening of celebration for our daughter who finished her GED. After there are soccer and worship practices. And I get to be the mom – the great disorganized organizer who tries to keep it all together. But I expect a few hugs at the end so it will be OK.

Sometimes it is really hard to be a mother. I want too much for and from my kids and maybe I expect just too much from them. I would love to have more harmony among all of them. I would love to see more responsible decisions made. I would like them to be more perfect. But I really don’t seem to have much control some days. Do you know what I mean? Some days I seem to be on their cases all the time and I think I must come across as an invader into their lives rather than a nurturer. I wish it were easier to parent well! I am constantly having to give them back into Gods hands when I realize I am grasping them too tightly. I think I am a pretty easy going mother but it is hard to back off, let God do his thing in their lives, when I see things going on that I don’t like!

Teach me God to trust you to care for them and at the same time to listen for your guidance as to when to intervene since you have given me the job of being a mother to all of them.

Today was downloading time for pictures. Some are good and some so-so. Michelle, Eric’s wife, is a much better photographer than I am. The lighting was not good for many of the pictures and sometimes the subjects were on the move. Patrick got his diploma and had a good time with his friends. He relates well to the exchange students so here are some of them: right to left: Cyril, the Canadian(not an exchange student); Andreas, the Dane; Felix, Indonesian; Patrick, Congolese(also not an exchange student). Some other pictures are here too if you want to link to them. At family supper , Patricks graduating class , Patrick Kongawi and Michelle Sewap , Patrick and Cyril sing

Life seems to rollercoaster between extremes at our house. If we have one person extremely happy it seems we have another extremely depressed at the same time. I think I stated in one of my past blogs that if my kids were perfect then I wouldn’t need God so desperately. I don’t know what he is trying to tell me this time but I need him desperately again – in fact there is hardly a day goes by that that is not true.

My oldest son and his wife were up for Patricks grad and it was a good thing to have them come. They got to share in the happiness of the one kid and help me out with the other.

I need to spend some quality time with God today because I think I have a tough time ahead with a couple of kids and I need him and I need wisdom.

Today begins the festivities. Patrick is graduating from High School. He still writes one last final today – French. He should do well in this one and I noticed that he sat with a beer(he is 19) in front of the TV last night instead of at the dining room table in front of his books. Tonight is the Grad Mass at St. Mary’s, tomorrow is off except for parents who are doing stuff like decorating, etc. And then Saturday is the big day with ceremonies in the morning and the big dance at night – then the all night party. Patrick’s uncle is not coming and although Patrick doesn’t say much I think he is disappointed. Patricks father cannot come and for that he is really disappointed but can’t do much about it. He does us the honor of calling us Mom and Dad so Leo and I will go with pride and pleasure. Maybe we will throw some pictures up here later.

All of us will be glad that school is over for another year. It will give us all a breather from the routines. Then we can start getting ready for the camps and CHIC and summer work that keep the kids busy during the summer. I am going to try and take a couple of days for myself somewhere out of the vacation time I will have in August – maybe find myself a quiet spot to hole up, read and rest. And come the middle of July I will be a Grandma so that will be exciting. I hope I won’t be one of those grandparents that is too busy to take time to get to know their grandchildren.

God continues to surprise me with stuff from his word. I wish I had developed this thirstiness for it years ago. I find there is so much I wish I knew better, understood better. At least it is never too late to start digging in deeper.

We are awaiting the birth of our second grandson early in July. Annette, (the mom to be) just finishing up her office management course at SIAST, is doing her work placement in my office. My staff has come to love her and are awaiting this baby’s birth with excitement. So today we booked off some time and went to Boston Pizza for lunch and a baby shower. I was even the recipient of an emergency grandmother pack containing all the things I’ll need to babysit like Robaxacet for my arthritis. Talk about how to make your boss feel old!

This birth is being anticipated with much joy. Logan, our first grandchild, also born to Dave and Annette, only lived a couple of days. He had Trisomy 18 which is not compatible with life. His birth and death drew our family around these two kids (Dave and Annette). This child shows all the signs and promise of a normal healthy birth. He (our grandson) has been the recipient of much prayer as are his Dad (our son) and Mom.

I stopped and bought a card yesterday to go with the gift I was giving Annette. It seemed just a nice simple card and somehow appropriate. The only word were “Changing the world one diaper at a time” I didn’t think about the great significance of that simple phrase till later.

“Changing the world one diaper at a time”
Parenting is not really a mundane task even though it seems like it many times. The many repeated “no’s” and occasional “yeses”. The little hands that have to be led until they are running ahead on their own and dragging you along. The countless meetings with school, lessons, sports and church that seem such an infringement on your time. The skinned knees bandaged, the tears wiped, the homework helped with, don’t seem very significant at the time yet they help shape the soul of a person created in God’s image.

Sometimes when I have to work Fridays, I am so happy when the last patient of the day cancels. ‘Twas the case today and I am so glad because it is an absolutely gorgeous day and although it is nice to be in an air conditioned building, it is also nice to be out in the yard. I could work in the garden tomorrow too but I have opted to spend the day at Waskesiu on the beach with a good book instead. Forced relaxation since I am driving Sara up there to babysit for the continuing ed course Leo is speaking at. So I have my bedding plants in and the rest of the weeds will have to wait.

I was having trouble getting my little rototiller to work so my son, David the landscaper, kindly came over and did my flower garden for me and the rest of the lawn was mowed and the weeds whacked. He smashed his finger this morning and came by my office for a Band-Aid so I guess he felt generous towards his Mom.

My philosopher son, blew up in school today I guess. He had thought about skipping a couple of periods to catch up on some rest. Finals and grad are next week and he is stressed and tired. He decided to go to class so he would not miss the revision – got there and the class was making so much noise the teacher could not keep order. Patrick stood up and yelled for everyone to “Shut the F… up” and left for the library. I guess everyone has a point at which they snap. Righteous anger? Not my choice of language but I imagine the students got the message. The teacher thanked him!

This morning I totally forgot to take my lunch to work. It turned out that I was done a few minutes early at noon and had time to run home and get something to eat. I only live about 5 minutes by car from my office. It is nice living in a city small enough for that kind of commuting time. Anyway I came home and all of a sudden a gang of teenaged guys descended upon our home. Boy can they eat! Cleaned me out of pizza pops again. They did offer me some but I had already started warming up my spinach and cheese pizza. Funny – I got to eat it all by myself. There are certain advantages to liking spinach. By the time I got home tonight it was all gone though. We must have a closet spinach lover in our house. I always try to keep my kids from eating my favorites by telling them it is an adult food and is very healthy for you. They are growing up too fast.

It is fun having a bunch of guys around talking and arguing and stuff. Good to see the guys at ease in our home with their friends. It is fun to meet the friends too. Just wish they would bring their own lunch. Have to make another grocery store run again.

The deacon meeting tonight was short and sweet. Sometimes I am so disorganized that I think I must have forgotten a whole chunk out of the agenda when the meeting only takes an hour. Not that we had any earth shattering stuff to discuss. I am sick of making up committees. It takes so long for us to set the committee up that it is summer before it is official and then you know how it goes – can’t do much over the summer then it is winter again and time to start over with a new year. Not much time to actually do anything except get organized. We spend more time spinning around in circles like this than in doing anything useful for the body of believers. We get more fruitful work done over a cup of coffee with a friend and we don’t have to publish any minutes.

Sometimes it is hard to know how much to get involved in your child’s academic life. I hate to be an interfering parent so I usually have to get really riled up before I talk to a teacher and then I’m not usually too effective, if you know what I mean. I’m ashamed to say that I actually made one of my kid’s teachers cry. Well, if she hadn’t accused my daughter of forging my signature and stealing another child’s shoes it would definitely never have happened. At least I tell myself that was “righteous anger”. After all she was talking about my well behaved kid.

Now I have had to write a letter for my daughter who is not very well behaved about her lost homework. Maybe the teacher thinks that losing a binder at a track meet is a bit on the same level as “the dog ate my homework” excuse. Grace comes across as very “cool” and cocky and because of her sometimes too expressive body language people in authority often take her to be a smart alec rebel rather than a very scared little kid longing for acceptance. Maybe I’m just too sympathetic because I love her and want things to turn out better for her. So I hope the letter gets the results which we need here – a chance to redo her lost homework. One week to finals too.

I wish God’s wisdom was more clear when it comes to how to help our kids grow up right.

Leighton Tebay over at The Heresy has an entry which struck me. He comments that we don’t give our pastors enough support and I agree. We expect them to be there for us, giving us counsel, leading us to a deeper level spiritually but are we there for them? They are human too. Maybe one of the problems comes from their professional role. I mean – Have you ever asked your dentist if she/he brushes her/his teeth? We would be shocked and maybe not accept it very well. How would you pastors take it if we asked you how your devotional life was going? These are pretty well expected activities and sometimes we fail to live up to our own expectations