Mother's Day

I had a strange Mother's Day today.

Last night, I went to bed before dinner.  I prepped most of the meal, and then Dave offered to finish up for me since I wasn't feeling well.  I think I slept for 12 hours (which is why I'm awake now at 1:30 AM).

When I awoke, Dave had already left to do camp promotion at a church north of Milwaukee.  I felt a little better, but I've got a sinus thing going on where I wake up with a head full of gunk, a sore throat, and a sinus headache.  This morning I had some vertigo too.

That being said, I had a pretty good Mother's Day!  Weird, I know.  But after a hot shower to clear out my head a little, I put on some fresh pajamas and read books in bed--all day.  The kids were really sweet about letting me rest.  I got up now and then to do a little laundry, eat, and even clean my room a bit--since it was also Clean Your Room Day today.  Whenever the vertigo acted up, I just went back to bed.  I closed my eyes for a few minutes while the room stopped spinning, and then I cracked my book open again.

I love days when I'm sick enough to stay in my jammies, but not too sick to read.

When Dave got home, most of us watched Fiddler on the Roof followed by the season finale of Once Upon a Time.  So, a really nice and laid-back Mother's Day, though I was disappointed we missed church.

Also, Dave the kids got me this lovely Willow Tree figurine.  I'm not usually one for tchotchkes, but I do really like these.  They have a simple beauty.  This one is called "Quietly".  It's perfect because all of my kids are so quiet.  Kidding!  They're all so snuggly--and these two kiddos look so cuddly, don't they?  *sigh*  Kind of makes me miss those toddler days.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sam's Thoughts on Communion

In my last post, I mentioned how I was going through old papers.  I emptied over half of a filing cabinet so I'd have room to sort homeschool papers in there.  

As I was sorting through the piles of homeschool papers in the stackable letter trays I'd been using, I found this gem tucked in there from November.  We have communion on the first Sunday of each month, and this is what Samuel (7 years old) drew after reflecting on what Christ did for him on the cross.  The front of the card is a self-portrait.  He feels sad, yet full of love for God and feeling loved by Him.  The back of the card is Jesus dying on the cross.  

Front of Card

Back of Card

I love how the Gospel is so profound, yet a child can understand it well enough to be saved from sin.  I guess that comprehension sort of grows with a person as he matures in his faith.  Hmm...as he matures in his child-like faith.   Paradoxes everywhere....

If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.  Romans 12:9-10 (HCSB)

Maps Bring People Together

The last couple of weekends, I've been doing some deep cleaning and purging. (Yes...again.  The clutter keeps coming back!)  But this time it was really old clutter.

I knew we had an ancient filing cabinet out in the garage, and I needed a better way to sort & store our homeschool papers--papers still to use, papers to grade, papers to save for record-keeping.  That almost-full filing cabinet would be perfect for the job, but I would have to go through it.  And clean it up.  It was going to take a while.  

After vacuuming up a few drowsy spiders and wiping it all down, it looked pretty good.

That part didn't take too long, but the next part did--going through all of those files!  I had copies of my taxes from high school in that thing (not too smart since those have my SSN on them and our garage is not the most secure spot).  Most of the files were notes, papers, and exams from college, though, and those were pretty fun to go through.  Dave didn't want for me to get rid of any of his things yet...and that's fine.  I recycled all of mine except for a few favorite classes and/or notes I knew I'd use for homeschooling.  Dave and I took many of the same classes.

Bible 101 ~ Old Testament Survey

(I wish I'd found these before Emma & Jeffrey did this course in our homeschool.)

S.J. Bedmizan, Mgr.

(12 Tribes of Israel w/ land assignments)

"Minor Prophets" Question on the Exam

*snicker*

And these are from my favorite class of all--Bible 308 "Acts".

I loved that class.  It really made me think...and study...and think...and write.  I don't believe I've ever had 100's on two papers in the same class besides this one.  And it's because I threw myself into it.

I also loved this class because of the black outline map at the bottom of the picture.  Sure...it's a great map and all, and I'll likely use it with my kids when we study Paul's missionary journeys, but that's not why this map is special.  The day I make those copies for the kids, I'll tell them how this isn't the only time I've copied this map.  The first time was in my college's library--where their Dad was working--way back in 1992.  And that's the day when he and I first started to think of one another in a more-than-just-friends way.

Awwwww....

Lemons, Matches, and Gas

Lydia has really taken to baking lately, largely in part to The Great British Baking Show recommended by a friend.  She found a kids' baking book at the library.  Yesterday, she made Lemon Spiral Cookies.  She had to zest a lemon, color and roll out two rectangles of dough, layer them on top of each other, roll them up, chill the dough, then slice them and finally bake.  I meant to get a shot of the final product, but they went too fast.

Anyway, I felt like that was an ambitious baking project for a ten-year-old, but that may be due to the fact that I had never zested a lemon (or anything else, for that matter) until I was in my 30's.  

Today, she's working on Iced Lemon Cookies--to use up the lemon.  My taste buds are really liking her new hobby, but it's not getting me ready for a spring/summer wardrobe.  (That's if spring will ever come.  You know, come to think of it...I'm probably safe for a while.)

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Our science experiment yesterday involved dropping lit matches into room temperature water and very hot water and observing the difference in results.  It looked like the hot water match made a lot more smoke than the room temp water.  

I asked Lydia what we made in the glass.  After giving it some thought, she guessed, "...match soup?"

  

"Ummmm...no.  A cloud.  We made a cloud, honey." 

Then we all laughed.  

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Samuel had to make up a word problem that added up to nine.  Here it is:

"Queen Isabella farted four times on Saturday and five times on Sunday.  How many times did she fart over the weekend altogether?"

Boys.

MDA Pictures

Here are some photos I snagged off of the MDA Green Bay Facebook page:

Emma & Abbie (her counselor)

I think they made posters to decorate their cabins the first night.

The girl in the blue shirt is Savannah.  That whole row is Dragonfly Cabin.

You can't see Emma very well, but she's holding a stuffed animal cat on her lap.

Decorating old records?

This is Emma, Abbie, and possibly Abbie's brother.  She said that her brother was counseling too, but I didn't get the chance to meet him.

Wednesday was Firefighters Day.  So, everyone wore red, and some real firefighters came with a truck.  The campers all had a parade (I think) with each cabin devising a theme. 

I'm not exactly sure what the theme was for Emma's cabin.

But this one was pretty cool!

MDA Camp

I dropped Emma off yesterday at MDA camp.  It's already weird without her home.  We usually talk for a little while in her room before she goes to bed, and we didn't do that last night.  I miss her.

They do a really nice job of welcoming the kids and getting them registered.

Each of the counselors writes some kind of a welcome message to their camper on the sidewalk outside of the main building.  (Each camper gets their own personal counselor at MDA camp.  Lots of these kids have specialized equipment or need help with everyday things, so this way works best.  Some kids even have two counselors.)

Emma has a new counselor this year: Abbie.  Her favorite counselor (Kate) was unable to come again this year, but I have a good feeling about Abbie.  The thing is, she's only a year older than Emma!  This is Abbie's first year helping out, and they usually pair a new counselor with a veteran camper.  (Likewise, new campers get a veteran counselor.)  So that's why they're so close in age.  I'm praying that it won't be awkward, and that they'll just end up being good friends.  Emma doesn't need as much help as most of the other kids, so I think it'll work out that way.

Also, Emma's friend, Savannah,  pulled into the parking lot at the same time we did.  Savannah is in her cabin (yay!), and Abbie told me that she and Savannah's counselor are friends.  I'm imagining that the four of them will just buddy around all week long.  It should be a good time.

The cabin is shaped like a T, and Emma's bunk is in the vertical part of the T by the back door.  Abbie's bed is just across it--on Emma's right in this picture.  Dragonfly is one of the older cabins, but it's still pretty nice.  Besides Savannah and her counselor, there will be one other camper/counselor set in this cabin, but we didn't meet them.  (I meant to get a shot of Savannah & Emma, but Savannah was still busy getting settled.)

After leaving Emma & Abbie, the kids and I went back to the main building to write letters to Emma.  (That's new this year.  Great idea!)  You can choose which day you want for them to receive it.  She'll get it today.  Dave mailed her a letter on Saturday, and we'll mail another one today.

Anyway, while we were writing the letters, one of the staff guys was putting up this poster:

One thing the counselors need to watch for in their campers is constipation.  Fun, eh?  Since this can be embarrassing for the campers, the staff takes a light-hearted approach, as you can see.

Edited to add: 

They put up pictures every day on Facebook.  If you like "MDA Green Bay", then you can see what they're up to each day.

Like I said, they really do a good job.  = )

Dads

Today I drove Emma down to MDA camp.  We took some back roads this time since there were sections of road construction along our regular route.  As I passed by a small country cemetery on my left, a maroon sedan coming from the other direction was pulling into it.

"I bet they're putting flowers on their dad's grave, " I said to myself.  "I can't even do that because the grave is too far away."

I cried silently for a few minutes behind my sunglasses.

I miss him.  So much.  I'm blessed to have had him as long as I did, though.  (I was 31 when he died.)  And I'm so thankful that he and my mom worked on their marriage.  Dave and I have been married for 20 years now (yes, I was a child bride), so I know--and Dave especially knows--how hard marriage can be.  And how wonderful it can be, too.

Anyway, I'm deeply grateful that my parents worked at their relationship so I could have my dad in my life in a consistent way.  I saw several of my friends' lives, whose parents were divorced (or at best, their dads were apathetic), and they didn't have great relationships with their fathers.  And you know what?  It showed.  These friends of mine made poor, foolish choices.

I still see it today.  And it breaks my heart.

I can't thank God enough for Dave!  Yes, he's a great provider and all of that, but more importantly...he's available.  He's available to me, to the kids, and to the Lord.  I really love that guy.  I hope my kids realize how good they've got it.

Well, I'm just going to tell them how good they've got it.

The following is a quote from Dr. James Dobson's book Bringing Up Boys.  I think I've shared this before, but it's profound, so bear with me if it's familiar.

"Some years ago, executives of a greeting-card company decided to do something special for Mother's Day. They set up a table in a federal prison, inviting any inmate who so desired to send a free card to his mom. The lines were so long they had to make another trip to the factory to get more cards. Due to the success of the event, they decided to do the same thing on Father's Day, but this time no one came. Not one prisoner felt the need to send a card to his dad. Many had no idea who their dads even were. What a sobering illustration of a father's importance to his children."

My theory is that when a child has a father (or father figure) whom they respect, then that translates more easily into a respect for other authorities, such as: teachers, police officers, the law in general, and God.

Can I just say that I'm really glad I'm not a father?  That's a lot of pressure.