My Early Morning Wake Up Call

I remember hearing once that some mathematician calculated the cost of raising a child in Western civilization. He came up with this staggering number in the millions, I think - a price tag so astronomical, I'm sure it sent many a newlywed husband off to the surgeon's office for an immediate and hasty vasectomy.
It's true, though, the fact that kids are expensive. I, for one, am not keeping a running tally on the moola John and I have shelled out so far in order to keep this family machine in motion, but there's no doubt that our three little treasures are hard on the bankbook. We were driving to Emma's horseback riding class the other night and, as I was scratching out the cheque on my lap (John was driving - safety first), I decided to peruse the entries in the register booky-thing ... you know, just curious as to where we spend most of our money. Bottom line: We spend most of our money on the kids. Piano lessons, drum lessons, school lunches, class trips, karate, hockey and church youth events. Yikes, I thought. These guys make up the biggest chunk of our investment portfolio!
But this morning I was the one on the receiving end. Still in that muffled world of half sleep and dreamy cobwebs, with my arm thrown over my face, I heard seven-year-old footsteps pad across my bedroom floor. I sensed a presence beside me, heard the soft breathing of a child (couldn't smell it, thank goodness, seeing as it was morning breath) and knew it had to be Ben. Being our youngest, he still loves to come and visit us first thing in the morning, more often than not climbing in between his parents for a start-of-the-day cuddle. Today's agenda, however, did not include any cuddling. No. Today, for some reason unbeknownst to all but Ben himself, my son was focused on his mother's beauty regimen. For as I lay quietly in the early morning shadows, as I continued to pretend I was sleeping for just a few more minutes of peace and quiet, I felt .... not his soft little arms reaching around me for a hug ... not a kiss on the tip of my nose. I felt a COMB begin to work its way through my tangled, flat-on-the-left-side, rat's nest of a bedhead.
I think I deserve some credit for the self-control it required to lay there quietly for the five minutes or so that he took to finish the job. Without laughing, might I add. I mean, no self-respecting hairstylist wants to see their client start shaking with laughter in the middle of an appointment. He'd never have allowed me back in his salon had I insulted him that way!
I'd like to say that I climbed out of bed glowing with beauty and sveltness. I'd like to say that, but I cannot tell a lie. No fault of the hairdresser's of course ... imagine what he had to work with! No, I wasn't aglow with beauty or sveltness, but my early morning wake up call was exactly what I needed to start my day off right. Thanks, Ben! You're worth the million dollar investment ... and so much more!

The End of an Era

Today my three kids marched out the door to walk to school together. For the last time. This is Duncan's last day of Grade 8 and in two years Emma will start high school as well. Then Benji will finish elementary school all on his own and go solo for his high school years. So today was it. The last "all together" day.

It's strange how these milestone moments can feel so normal. I mean, I still had to rush around making lunches for everyone. Benji's hair required a little extra attention seeing as he woke up with a big wing across the front. The cookies I'd baked for Emma's class party barely fit into the Rubbermaid I dug out of the cupboard. And, horror of horrors, Duncan's new Aeropostale t-shirt was nowhere to be found! Dig, dig, dig through the baskets of unfolded laundry.

And yet as normal as it "felt", I knew it was a morning to be savoured. I parked myself at the back window and watched them toodle out the gate and down the street to meet their friends on the way. I thanked the Lord for watching over them thus far and thanked Him for what He has in store for the future. I could almost see His mighty hand cupped behind the three of them there on the road - providing protection, guidance and the occasional poke to keep them all in line! And although the tears well up in my eyes and my heart aches just a little for the door that is now swinging silently closed on this season of our family's life, at the same time I say, "Thank You Jesus!" for carrying us to this point. And for promising to carry us all the way to the end.

Happy Birthday to My Sweetheart

It's late at night (which is when I always find myself sitting down to the computer, darn it all) and I really should be running off to bed, but I must take a second to send out a Happy Birthday to my very own Johnny Boy. He, of course, will never know I even did this because he doesn't read my blog, but for all you faithful followers, I must tell you that my husband is celebrating number 43 tomorrow and he is PUMPED!
John is always pumped about his birthday. He's not one of those grown ups who modestly tries to downplay the celebration. Nope. "Bring on the party," is his motto, and so we do. Now if it were up to him (which it's not) we'd have a huge bash every year, but seeing as his wife is a little more low key, we've learned to strike a balance and alternate between "everyone parties" and smaller get-togethers. This year he starts with breakfast in bed (bacon and eggs), then garage saling (please don't even ask me why anyone would want to kick off their birthday this way) in the morning with good buddy Deve; then we'll have good friends over for dinner and a games night; then Sunday night is his "date night"with moi, complete with dinner out and a movie.
Happy Birthday, honey bunnicula! You are my best friend in the world and the one who makes me laugh the hardest. I told you tonight you were a great "consolation" to me and that, I think, is one of the best words I can think of to describe you. You listen to me when I need to talk, rub my head when I have a headache, calm my fears when I'm stressing and basically turn my days from black-and-white to colour.
We've had our ups and downs, of course, in the 22 years we've known each other, but you truly are God's gift to me.


Happy Birthday!

It's the little things in life...

It's a beautiful clear Saturday morning and my heart is full. John snuck into Benji's room this morning and woke him up with the words this little 7-year-old has been dying to hear.
"Wanna go fishing, buddy?"
When the little things so often mean the most, why does it take such an effort to do them? I seriously don't know. When all my daughter wants to do is make a raspberry cheesecake with me, is it just my pure laziness that has kept me from it? When our fourteen year old son has been asking to watch the newest action movie for three weeks now, why does it take so long for us to get around to it?
The little things: going for a bike ride together, playing Wii Sports as a family, working on the scrapbook we started last month, baking cookies or playing a board game. These are the kinds of things I want to do with my kids.
And from the look on Benji's face this morning and the spring in his step, it seems the kids are pretty pumped about the little things, too!

Looking for a summer project???

No? Me neither. I always start the summer so optimistically, with a project list as long as my arm - "paint basement, pull out dried-up shrubs in front yard, lay flagstone path by shed, sign kids up for swimming lessons, book one more camping weekend, start jogging" (that's on my list all year long).
But then a dear friend e-mailed me today to say that God had been challenging her to keep her mind more focused on His truth. Would I be interested in memorizing some Scripture together this summer?
Would I?! You bet I would.
Here's why. Since I began seriously working at Scripture memorization about five years ago, God has honestly and truly rocked my world in ways I never could have imagined. Now don't get me wrong ... it's not like it's been back-to-back mountaintop experiences, sunshine and roses, or floating on cloud nine with not a care in the world. Nope. Life has gone on and, in some ways, it's gotten harder. We've had our same share of frustrations, disappointments, questions, losses and failures. Life continues to be tedious and mundane a lot of the time, no doubt about it. But in the midst of all that, God has CHANGED ME! And I know for a fact that a big part of that change is due to the verses and passages He's helped me to memorize. It's like He's taken those verses and made them a part of me... so much so that I find the words, HIS Word, coming to my mind or my lips right in the middle of a prayer or in the midst of a crap-ola situation that I have no idea how to handle. I can't count the times I've asked for His wisdom when I'm at a total loss for what to do ... and just as I learned from James 3:17, I've found that "the wisdom from above is first of all pure ... peaceloving ... gentle at all times and willing to yield to others." You think we can work up that kind of wisdom on our own? Not a chance, my friend, not over here in my world anyway. It's all Him, and only Him.

So if you're interested, but not sure how to start, here are a few things that helped me along the way:

1. Choose a verse or passage that MEANS something to you. It's a lot easier to work at memorizing something that God is currently using in your life or speaking to you about.


2. Give yourself some kind of timeline. (eg. "I want to memorize a verse a month for the summer - June to September.")
   
3. Find someone you can be accountable to ... someone who will ask you to recite your verse to them at the end of the month!


4. Buy yourself some index cards or, even better, a set of them already prebound in a spiral set. Set them somewhere visible. (I prop mine right up on the counter by the kitchen sink so I can practice that month's verse while I wash dishes. Needless to say, the cards are kind of ugly and wrinkled from all the dishwater I've splattered on them, but such is life.)

One more thing. Maybe you'd like to memorize a whole chapter or passage that's meant something to you along the way - like the twenty-third Psalm maybe. I'm actually memorizing Psalm 103 right now and all I'm doing is taking it two verses per month, just flipping to the next blank card in my spiral at the beginning of each month and writing out the next two verses from the chapter. It's working!

So, I hope this has inspired you to add one more teensy, tiny little thing to your summer project list. It's a teensy, tiny little thing, but the rewards are huge!

We're Heading South!

Well, we're doing it! We've bitten the proverbial bullet and we are heading down to Florida. Orlando, to be exact. Disneyworld to be exact-er. It was no small feat, convincing my sweetheart that our family NEEDED to spend our income tax return in this way ... but he eventually ran out of excuses and most likely got so tired of the pathetic, pleading look in my eyes that he figured it would be easier to cave and just do the thing than it would be to live under that kind of pressure much longer. I love that about him.

So, in exactly 48 hours we will be rolling down the 1-75, probably with our van scraping the pavement it will be so loaded down with "diversions" for the children. How exactly are we going to survive a 22-hour ride straight through the night and into the next afternoon? I have no earthly idea. Seriously, I don't. But "everyone" does this, apparently. I've lost count of the number of people who casually shrug it off. "Oh yeah, we do it all the time." "We drove straight through every year when our kids were young." Clearly this is within the realm of the possible. And so, I forge ahead with my packing, planning, organizing .... all the things I love to do. And I try not to think about the reality of what I've talked my husband into. Will we actually arrive in that far-off land? The hordes of tourists we will encounter at Disneyworld are the least of my concern right now. I just want to GET THERE!

Signing off in the hopes that we shall meet again...

It's a "Marvel-ous" Life

Have you ever stepped back and taken a look at your life and marvelled at the things you see there? I use the word "marvel" on a couple of different levels. It could be "marvel" in the sense that you can't believe your own good fortune. Or it could be "marvel" as in "This is more bizarre than anything I could ever have imagined being a part of my earthly existence!"



Being the rather introspective, pensive person that I am, I tend to do this quite regularly. Here are some things in my life that cause me to "marvel" from time to time:

• I have a snake living in my house. Right across the hall from my bedroom, actually. Atticus is a one-year-old rainbow boa belonging to my 13-year-old son Duncan.


• This fact alone causes me to shake my head, but even more bizarre is my willingness to participate in the weekly "feeding" of said snake. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I actually remind Duncan to defrost the frozen little mouse that he has removed from my chest freezer and then watch with morbid interest to see whether or not the sacrificial offering has been accepted.


• I marvel at the fact that we are not financially free and independent. I really thought by this time in our lives we'd have more of a handle on the money thing, but, well, we just don't.


• I find myself in awe over the love I have for my children. Of course, I knew I would love them like crazy, but sometimes I look at them and feel an ache in my chest for all the tenderness I feel. (Other times I feel an ache in my head for all the stress they cause, but that's for another post.)


• I am amazed at the faithfulness of God throughout my life. I really am. I look back and see His hand in so many situations; His patience with me as I try to walk closely with Him; His wisdom in the way He's guided me and taught me such important life lessons; and His power as He's delivered me from debilitating anxiety and fear. He is truly the biggest, greatest thing in my life. He is more than I'll ever be able to fully comprehend. And He is love. For all of us.

Have a marvel-ous day, wherever you are!