Christmas Traditions

‘Tis the season for Christmas traditions!  After 18 years of marriage, PWM and I have lots of traditions – some we brought from our families of origin, while others we’ve developed on our own.  In the last few years, my headaches have required us to cut back on our commitments, so we have cut out things that don’t enhance our enjoyment or understanding of the holiday.  Here are some of our favorite traditions:

1. Decorating – We put up our Christmas decorations on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Decorating is a family affair with all four of us participating and the cats getting underfoot.  We don’t do much outdoor decorating, but the kids did put up some lights right around our front door and we put icicle lights in the inside of the front room bay window that can be seen from outside.  It’s very festive!

2. Christmas program – PWM has been involved in the church Christmas Eve program almost every year since we moved up here.  In the last few years, it has become a little bit of a tradition that PWM spends most of Christmas Eve at church getting ready for the program while Wild Man goes along with him to “help”.  (I have been assured that he was rather helpful and has never been underfoot – I hope that’s true.)  This year, Rosie Girl is playing keyboards in the Christmas Eve program and is thrilled because they are doing “Christmas Eve Sarajevo” (recorded by Trans-Siberian Orchestra).

3. Christmas recitals – Having kids who like to perform means that we get to go to lots and lots of performances and recitals, particularly during Christmas and the end of the school year.  And we wouldn’t trade them for anything!  I am glad, though, that there are fewer performances this year.  Rosie Girl had her regular piano recital and a piano/ocarina performance at the Women’s Tea at the Assembly’s church.  Wild Man played with the rest of the middle school band in the school program.  Rosie Girl chose not to be involved with the high school choir this year, giving us a little more breathing room this year.

4. Books – Reading aloud is a year-round tradition for us.  We start reading Christmas books as soon after Thanksgiving as we are able.  I wrote last week about some of our favorites.

5. Christmas movies – Some of our favorite movies involve music - “Holiday Inn” and “White Christmas”.  We also usually watch “The Santa Clause” (but not usually the sequels), “Miracle on 34th Street”, and “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

6. Food – I usually try to make some kind of baked goods to give away to friends.  Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies are one kind of cookie that we only make during the holidays, so we make sure to really enjoy them!  We like to have a special meal together on the day after Christmas, but don’t have a particular menu.  This year, I’ll probably make a roast.  We all enjoyed the dressing that I made at Thanksgiving, so I’ll probably do that again.

7. The Christmas Chain – When the kids were younger, we made a paper chain every year to put across the top of the stairs to remind the kids not to go downstairs without the parents.  It’s a little more complicated now that our only bathroom is downstairs – we have to make sure that it’s easy to remove and replace the chain so that we can deal with bodily issues as needed!  This year, Rosie Girl is making things a little more interesting by making a permanent chain.  Each link is made in a different way using a different material.  She has links made of duct tape, pipe cleaners, copper wire, and lots more.

I hope to post some pictures of our fun Christmas traditions in the next few days.  In the meantime, Merry Christmas (and Happy Holidays to my non-Christian readers)!!

Rambling – 12/23/2010

1:42am and all is not quite well in our home.  I have a wicked migraine that is defying everything I throw at it.  Actually, the nausea is much calmer now that I’ve taken a bunch of Phenergan.  I’m exhausted, but can’t lie down in bed because that makes the pain worse.  PWM brought my CPAP machine down here so I can sleep on the sofa.  Right now, I’m just kind of hanging out and waiting for the pain to calm down.  And it will.  I rarely have intense pain like this for more than about 4 or 6 hours.  What’s actually worse is that the migraine sometimes settles into a low-grade headache that lasts for days – like it did last week.  But, they don’t last forever.  I just need to hang on.

Rosie Girl has been working on her gift for me, but it’s been kind of hard.  The only place that she can really work on it is in the dining room and I’m usually in and out of the dining room and kitchen pretty frequently.  Usually I go to bed before Rosie Girl, but not tonight.  So, whenever I looked that direction or passed by the table tonight, I had to shade my eyes.  Wild Man has most of his gift work done, except that he needs to make some more “coupons” which involves me cutting lots of cardstock into 2x3 inch cards for him.  Probably tomorrow.

All my gift knitting has been done for a couple of weeks now.  I’ve been working rather diligently on some Christmas stockings for me and PWM.  This was my first attempt at Fair Isle knitting and I loved it!  The only problem is that I need to tack the floating strands on the back of the work more frequently than I did on the first stocking.  On the second, I made sure to twist the yarns in the back of the work whenever I had a stretch of stitches of more than 4 in the same color.  It lies much neater and doesn’t pucker.  That being said, I think I can make the first one look just fine with a little work on blocking it.  The really hard part has been doing the duplicate stitch on the argyle section.  It sounds so easy – just knit a “v” over each stitch marked in the pattern.  But, it’s deceptively difficult.  I kept getting my number of stitches mixed up and would then have to pull out a section and start over.  By the end, I had gotten the hang of it.  I still need to duplicate stitch our initials onto them, but I think that will be a little easier now that I’ve done the duplicate stitching on the argyle section.

There’s a sweet little man who lived across the street from us and who we saw at the Nutrition Site every week because he came to pick up his lunches every day.  We’ve known since we moved here that he was a menace when he was driving, but he only drove in town and very slowly, so nobody did anything about it until recently.  A few weeks ago, the police finally did whatever was needed to get his license taken away.  And last week, he was moved into some kind of assisted living or nursing home setting.  I’m sure he’s not happy about it, but he really wasn’t doing a great job of taking care of himself.  I’m trying to figure out where he moved so that we can go visit him next week.  He has had a hard time being very sociable because of his hearing and he never would stay at the Nutrition Site for lunch; he would pick up his lunch and go home (until they took away his license – then he got Meals on Wheels).  We will surely be praying for him and trying to visit.

In the meantime, the “abuelo” next door (“abuelo” is “grandfather” in Spanish – he doesn’t speak much English) puts the rest of us to shame with his work.  While the rest of the world is out using snowblowers after a snow storm, he shovels out his family’s driveway.  I know they have a snow blower because I’ve seen his son and grandson use it, but “abuelo” prefers to shovel.  PWM uses a snow blower to do our driveway and sidewalk and Grandma’s driveway.  Sometimes, on weekdays, he’ll go ahead and do the whole sidewalk for the block so that the kids who walk to school have a clear place to walk.  Wild Man is not quite big enough to handle the snow blower yet.  However, he does do some of the shoveling of the walkways, etc.  Then he works on his snow fort in front of the house.

When the kids were decorating the Christmas tree this year, they made lots of jokes about all the angels getting their wings because the bell ornaments would ring whenever they were moved.  So, now, Wild Man will purposely ring the bells and say that he’s making up an army of angels!

A character in a book I’m reading wears a T-shirt that says, “I’m the grammarian about whom your mother warned you!”  Isn’t that great?!  Of course, now that I’ve gotten the hang of not ending sentences with prepositions, I’ve been reading that it’s probably not that big of a deal.  All that work to avoid the end of sentence preposition for naught.  It’s kind of like the spacing with typing.  I learned that you put two spaces at the end of a sentence and one space between words.  Now, they (whoever “they” is) say that you should only put one space at the end of the sentence.  I’ve been typing since I was 15 – close to 30 years of my life – and have always put two spaces after a sentence.  I’m too old to learn that new trick.

My laundry is finally folded.  There were two big baskets of towels, socks, and underwear (mostly mine and PWMs) that needed folding.  I offered to pay one or both kids to do it after I went to bed last night, but there were no takers.  So, tonight, during Top Chef, I roped Wild Man into helping me fold the clothes – without pay (except a cookie).  So, now they’re folded so I guess it’s time to get them upstairs.  Rosie Girl did her clothes a few days ago.  I probably need to get Wild Man to do his tomorrow so he has his dress clothes for Christmas Eve service at church.

That’s all my rambling.  Pretty boring, huh?  I’ll try to be more entertaining next time.

 

Living In The Moment

One thing that chronic illness has taught me is to live in the moment.  “Carpe diem!”  “Seize the day!”  Since I never know when a migraine is going to start, I take advantage of the time that I have without pain to really enjoy life.

This wasn’t always the case.  Until recently, when I felt pretty well, I would try to scurry around doing all the stuff I had wanted to do when I had a headache.  Not only was I overly busy, but I was afraid that a headache was going to start anytime.  My life was pretty much pain during the headaches and fear and anxiety between the headaches.  I don’t encourage this approach to life!

How have things changed?  I don’t have a life-threatening illness where I am trying to capture every bit of life before I die, but I do have an illness that threatens to become my life.  I’m learning to plan to do fewer things when I feel well.  I’m also getting the hang of just enjoying the migraine-free time.

Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

I learn to “number my days aright” by abiding in Jesus.  Isaiah 26:3  reminds me “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” and in Ephesians, we read “For He Himself (Jesus) is our peace.”  Whether I have a headache or not, I am not forgotten by God.  And, in pain or not, I can find peace in Jesus.  I can relax knowing that I am loved by God whether or not I have a headache and that He is taking care of me.

Wherever you are today, remember that Jesus is our peace today and each day.  Live in the moment – tomorrow is gone and you don’t know what tomorrow holds.  In other words, life is short; eat dessert first!

How do you live in the moment?  How do you manage to keep your cares from consuming you?

Christmas Books!

We are a family that likes our books – and Christmas books are no exception.  Here are the ones we have.

1. What Happened to the Donkey after Christmas? by Joseph LoBianco – This little book was written by an acquaintance of my father-in-law.  It traces the life of Jesus through the eyes of the donkey that carried Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.

2. Mary Did You Know? by Mark Lowry – This is a little gift book that includes a CD of Mark Lowry singing the song of the same name.  It includes the lyrics to the song, some thoughts by Mark Lowry, and quotes from several other Christian writers.

3. The Best Christmas Story – This book is actually a board book with slide-out panels that tells the Nativity story.  I haven’t had the heart to get rid of it, even though the kids are “too old” for it.

4. A Season of Joy by Susan Card – Michael Card’s wife wrote this lovely book that includes such things as the story behind some Christmas carols, the Card family’s favorite books, and chapters on such things as simplifying the holidays and keeping the birth of Christ in the front of our minds.

5. The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado – This story of a lamb who was present at the birth of Christ is a lovely display of God’s love for everyone, even though we are imperfect.

6. Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien – I am pretty sure this has to rank as my favorite Christmas book!  It is a compilation of letters that Tolkien wrote to his children (from Father Christmas, of course) along with pictures.  Tolkien’s imagination and creativity come shining through this book!

7. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson – It looks like the Christmas pageant will be ruined by the Herdman kids, the worst kids in the world.  Or, maybe not.  Maybe it can actually be the best pageant ever!  A wonderful read-aloud!

8. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – I’ll be honest, we’ve never actually managed to read this book the whole way through as a read-aloud.  It’s not easy to read out loud, but the story is just wonderful.

9. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Woiciechowski – We received this book as a Christmas gift from one of my partners in the medical group when I was working.  Jonathan Toomey is a bitter widower who is asked to carve a nativity set by a widow and her son.  The miracle that occurs in Jonathan Toomey’s heart during his carving the figures is beautiful to see.

10. Santa Who? by Gail Gibbons – This book explains the various Santa and Santa-like Christmas traditions around the world and their history.  A very good read-aloud.

11. Silent Night by Margaret Hodges – This telling of the story of the hymn “Silent Night” and the accompanying illustrations are just gorgeous.

12. Jan Brett’s Christmas Treasury by Jan Brett – Five Christmas stories that are either written or adapted by Jan Brett are included, along with Brett’s wonderful illustrations.  This treasury also includes Clement Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas”.  (We also have the exact same The Night Before Christmas as a separate book that we had gotten before we received the treasury as a gift.)

Now it’s your turn – what are your family’s favorite Christmas books?

“Breathing” Jesus

I’m reading A Place of Healing by Joni Eareckson Tada (loaned to me by a dear friend – thanks, Cheryl!) and am getting a lot from it.  I’m actually reading it rather slowly because each section has given me something to think and pray about. 

Tonight, I was reading about “breathing in the love of Jesus and exhaling gratitude and graciousness”.  What a wonderful word picture!  As Christians, we have Jesus’ love surrounding us to “breathe” and the natural consequence of that is to “exhale” His love onto other people.

So often, I think about (and hear or read about) our “Christian life” or “Christian walk” – as if we have a “Christian” part to our life and a “secular” part to our life.  The reality is quite different.  As a follower of Jesus, my entire life is about Him.  I don’t have a “Christian life” – I have “life”.  There’s no way to separate out the sacred and the secular.

As I live my life, I want to think of that picture of inhaling Jesus, not having anything to separate us.  Glorifying God then comes naturally.

 

7 Quick Takes Friday – 12/17/2010

 

1. Well, this pre-Christmas headache needs to end soon.  I do have to say, though, that I have an amazing husband and family who are keeping the household moving forward!

2. Guess what!  I remembered to take pictures of my knitting projects BEFORE wrapping and mailing them.  But I won’t post them until AFTER the holidays!

3. PWM and the kids are currently wrapping all the gifts to be mailed off so PWM can send them tomorrow.  I’m giving them moral support in a migraine-medication daze!

4. Christmas movies!!  We watched Scrooged last night (I’d never seen it before – can you believe it?).  I watched Holiday Inn a few nights ago, am watching the end of White Christmas right now, and will watch Miracle on 34th Street in just a few minutes.

5. We have zillions of Christmas lights in our house – the Christmas tree, around the front window, over the piano, around the dining room window.  And the kids have now made paper chain gingerbread men and draped them over the sink.  Very festive!

6. All of the Christmas music performances are finished (except Sunday service and Christmas Eve service – but I don’t really count those as performances).  Rosie Girl played Bach Invention in D Minor at her recital a couple of weeks ago and then played beautifully as the special music for a Women’s Tea.  Wild Man played with the rest of the 7th and 8th grade band on Monday night at their Christmas concert.

7. We’ve been reading one of Wild Man’s Sonlight books at night, but we’re just about done with it, so we can start reading Christmas books!!  We have some great ones, including The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

Check out Conversion Diary to see what others have been up to!!

Wisdom

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.  Psalm 90:12

Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Ephesians 5:16-17

I used to think that making good use of my time for God meant being busy, filling every minute of every day with some activity.  And I was good at it!  I worked full-time as a family doctor, was involved with my family, and helped out at church.  Performance-based Christianity at it’s best!!

And, honestly, there’s something very comfortable with that kind of life.  As long as I was busy, I figured I must be pleasing God.  After all, we are “created for good works”, even if we aren’t saved by those works.  This was reinforced by what I read about being a “Christian woman”.  If I was just organized enough, I could have a perfect house, perfect kids, and perfect schedule.  And isn’t that what Christianity is all about?

Ummmm, no.  In the last few years, I have had a lot more time to think about how I should “number my days aright”.  OK, to be honest, I’ve been pretty frustrated.  I can’t do the “performance Christianity” the way that I used to, and I end up feeling downright useless.  Just about the time I think I’m past my need to “do” things, something happens (like a week-long headache) to remind me that I still see myself as valuable by what I do.  And my counselor and I go through the discussions yet once again.  But, each time, we get a little deeper and I have a little more understanding of how to “be” with God instead of only “doing” for God.

I kind of feel like Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (the book, not the movie – I haven’t seen the movie).  Eustace is turned into a dragon by “sleeping on a dragon’s hoard [of treasure] with dragonish thoughts in his heart.”  He meets Aslan and is led to a garden with a well where he (Eustace) wants to get in the water.  Aslan tells Eustace that he must undress first.  So, Eustace scratched off his skin (like a snake sheds its skin) three times, but still can’t get rid of it.  Aslan tells Eustace that he (Aslan) must do it for him.  Eustace tells Edmund, “I was afraid of his claws, but I was pretty nearly desperate now.  So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.  The very first tear that he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart.  And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt.  The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off.”  I’ve been trying to figure out how to live, but only when I let God tear away all the layers of sin and wrong-thinking will I become what God wants.  But those layers are very thick.  I’ve got lots of years of bad habits, sinful behavior, and downright incorrect theology that needs to get discarded.  God changing me hurts, but yet feels good at the same time.

This week-long headache has gotten me – again – to think about how I am using my time.  My feelings of being useless – for my family, for the kingdom of God, for myself – have all come to the surface again.

How should I use my time?  I’m not able to be “busy” anymore, and I’m more and more convinced that we are not called to be “busy” for God and try to do everything, but, rather, to be obedient in whatever God puts in front of us.

What has God put in front of me?  A husband who needs to be loved.  Two wonderful children who need to be loved and taught and guided.  A few good friends to share life with.

I hate these headaches – because they’re painful for me, but also because they make life harder for the rest of the family.  But, I’m grateful that God is tearing off that thick skin of performance-based religion to reveal my genuine self who wants to love God in whatever way He puts in front of me.  And, each time we deal with this, I am closer to that “heart of wisdom”.

Knitting In The Round

I don’t generally write about knitting because I consider myself such an amateur.  I prefer to post pictures of the finished projects to share with people.  Today, though, I decided to share what I’ve learned about knitting in the round and give some opinions based on my experience.

I learned to knit by making scarves on straight needles, pretty much like everyone else.  When my husband’s sister came to visit one spring, she taught me how to make a hat by knitting in the round on 4 needles.  A whole new knitting world opened up to me!  Several months later, I decided to try my hand at socks.  My sister-in-law gave me some great advice about those: “Just follow the directions, even if you don’t understand how it’s going to work.  It all comes out in the end.”  And she was right.  I understand the theory behind making socks now, but I did the first few pairs on faith!

Knitting on 4 (or 5) DPNs (double-point needles) was lots of fun.  And, I could stick a small project, like a hat or a sock, into my purse and take it with me.  I was now a committed sock-knitter.  It was so fun to see a ball of yarn transformed into a wearable pair of socks!

Several times on knitting websites, I had seen reference to the “Magic Loop” technique of knitting in the round.  I had no idea what it was, but it sounded interesting.  After I watched a couple of videos and read some articles, I decided to give it a try with some socks.  I bought a Turbo Addi size 1 40” circular and got started.  I was initially concerned that all the maneuvering of the stitches in the middle and end of each row would take a long time, but I was pleasantly surprised that the knitting went very quickly.

I had come across other articles about knitting in the round using two circular needles.  When I ordered the yarn for my Christmas Stocking project, I also ordered two size 3 needles on long cables so that I could use the two circular needle technique as the pattern recommended.  The technique itself isn’t very difficult.  However, I didn’t end up doing the project on two circulars and went back to using Magic Loop.  The pattern has several sections of Fair Isle knitting – stranding two or more colors behind the work – and the two needles plus the two or three colors of yarn kept getting tangled up in the back of the work.  However, I have found that using the two circular needle technique is great for the headband I’m making for Rosie Girl.

So, here’s the advantages and disadvantages of each technique as I see it:

1. Double point needles

Advantages – easy to learn, the needles can be quite affordable, easy to maneuver stitches as needed over 3 or 4 needles and knit with the 4th or 5th needle

Disadvantages – it’s easy to leave “ladders” between needles (when the stitches aren’t at the same tension as the rest), can be difficult to knit a large project since most DPNs are less than 8 inches long.

2. Magic Loop

Advantages – only one needle to purchase (although the good ones can be a little pricey), easy to do once you get the hang of it.

Disadvantages - “ladders” between the needles are still possible, hard to use if you have a larger project with lots of stitches (since the loop needs to be large).

3. Two Circulars

Advantages – easy to do, if you do “Judy’s Magic Cast-on” then you already have two circular needles, good for larger projects.

Disadvantages – two needles can be a little pricey, it’s relatively easy to get needles mixed up and knit using the wrong one, tangling of yarn and cables possible when doing color work.

(You may have noticed that I did not include working with shorter cable needles.  When you work with a cable needle that’s just the size that you need, it’s hard to deal with increases and decreases.  In addition, it’s darn nigh impossible to do something as small as a sock on a cable needle without Magic Loop or some other technique.  The three techniques here are the ones I have used for socks and other projects.)

So, go out there and enjoy knitting!  What technique do you prefer?  What did I leave out?

 

Our Week – 12/12/2010

What a crazy week!!  I’m glad it’s finally Sunday!  What’s been going on?

Monday

Last week, PWM and I went to the optometrist for a “mid-term” meeting about Wild Man’s vision therapy.  It turns out that Wild Man’s brain actually shuts down input from one of his eyes when his eyes get tired.  Wild Man continues to have his regular vision therapy on Monday, but is also doing some work with a computer program on Monday and Thursday.  On Monday night, PWM and Wild Man went to TaeKwonDo as usual, but they were also getting ready for a belt test later in the week.

Tuesday

Rosie Girl was the special musical guest at the Ladies’ Christmas Tea at the local Assemblies of God church.  We had a wonderful time!  The sanctuary was filled with tables each decorated by a woman from the hosting church.  We had tea, water, and  lots of goodies.  Rosie Girl played 2 classical pieces and 2 Christmas pieces on keyboard and then played 6 short Christmas carols on her ocarina.  She did a wonderful job and the ladies in attendance were quite gracious.

Wednesday

PWM and Rosie Girl had a rehearsal at church in the afternoon when Rosie Girl usually helps our Worship Director.  This week was complicated by the fact that Wild Man had started complaining again about a sore throat and had some evidence of recurrent infection.  PWM took him to see one of the doctors at the clinic who had Wild Man take another course of Zithromax.  Fun.

Thursday

We had our first real snowfall on Thursday – and I had the migraine to show for it!  It was a pretty quiet day for me, but PWM took Wild Man to church for a drum lesson, then to the optometrist for his vision therapy, and then (yippee!!) bought dress clothes for him.  Yes, he got dress clothes without having to resort to taking Wild Man to Appleton or Stevens Point!!  Wild Man went to Junior High group in the evening.  I wasn’t able to get to sleep because of my migraine, so I planned to sleep in on Friday.

Friday

Thursday’s migraine threw a wrench into Friday’s plans.  We had appointments to be at UW-Stevens Point for a visit starting at 8:45am.  PWM and Rosie Girl got up early and got to the University before 8:45am.  The class they were going to observe was actually taking a test, so they talked with the administrator for the Department of Music for an hour or so.  Then, they went on a campus tour from 10:30-12:30.  I slept in and was able to meet them at 12:30 in the Music Building.  PWM left for home about 1pm and Rosie Girl had a piano lesson with one of the piano professors at that time.  After the lesson, Rosie Girl and I talked with an admissions director to help us make sure that we’ve got a good curriculum plan for the rest of her high school years.  It was an excellent visit!  Rosie Girl really loved the technology room and thinks she could be very happy there and learn a lot.

PWM and Wild Man had their belt tests on Friday evening.  They are both confident that they did well, so, hopefully, they will get their yellow-tip belts next week.  They both broke board – PWM with a punch, and Wild Man with a kick!

While the boys were at belt testing, I decided to bake cookies.  I made three kinds of cookies – butter cookies that I sandwiched together with chocolate frosting, chocolate mint crinkle cookies, and swirled mint cookies.  Yummy!!

Saturday

The storm came.  We were supposed to have company for dinner last night, but we canceled it because the weather forecast was so bad.  It was snowing when PWM, Wild Man and Rosie Girl went to church at about noon for a rehearsal, but it was still early then.  By evening, it was snowing hard and the wind was blowing all kinds of directions.  Given my previous experience with a blizzard (i.e. a totally miserable migraine), I started on the migraine meds early.  Yes, the migraine came, but it wasn’t as severe as I was expecting!

Sunday

And today we have the aftermath of the storm.  Church was canceled because so many roads were impassable this morning.  The snow ended this morning, but people were out by noon running their snowblowers and using the snow shovels.  We had a good 8-12 inches here.  And it’s supposed to get bitter cold later in the week.

And somewhere during all of this week, we did manage to get some schoolwork done (mostly Sonlight).

This next week is my week to wrap and mail all the Christmas presents.  Wild Man has a band concert tomorrow night.  Otherwise, I’m going to do a lot of vegging out.  When it’s a bit warmer, I’ll see about breaking out the cross-country skis and enjoying the snow!  How was your week?  Any excitement in your life?

Our Book!!

PWM has written several “Preference Project” books for CurrClick.  Now he and I have collaborated and written “My Favorite Christmas Tradition”.  Like all the Preference Projects, students are given information about attributes of the topic and given an opportunity to rate how much they like each one.  There are also fun activities included.  This is a great way to add a little more fun to your homeschool during the Christmas season.  Enjoy!

More Messed-Up Plans

No, I’m not talking about me.  Imagine, if you will, a young woman in Judea in the first century.  She is betrothed to a man, a carpenter, but they have not had the marriage ceremony and the young woman is still a virgin.  Her life is following the typical trajectory for those times: betrothal in her late teens, marriage, children, etc.  All of the sudden, though, a wrench is thrown into the plan.  The angel Gabriel came to her.  He started his speech with “Do not be afraid.”  I’m sure she was trying not to be afraid, but having an angel standing in the same room and talking with you must have caused her some level of fear.  In any case, Gabriel continued by telling Mary that she was going to conceive and have a son who “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” 

Mary must have been pretty confused right about now.  As she told Gabriel, “How will this be . . . since I am a virgin?”  Gabriel assured her that God was most capable of making the pregnancy happen through the Holy Spirit.  As good and faithful as Mary was, she had to have had some seriously churning feelings right about that time.  All of her plans were completely scrapped.  Even if Joseph didn’t divorce her (as he had every right to), there would surely be talk in the village.  Nonetheless, her answer to Gabriel was “I am the Lord’s servant . . . may it be to me as you have said.”  Wow.  We don’t know what Mary was thinking and praying right then, but, whatever it was, she was immediately obedient.  She saw that the road was swerving in a different direction, but she trusted that God could get her through.  Barclay’s commentary on Luke has a wonderful statement about Mary’s response – she didn’t ask “Thy will be changed”, but rather “Thy will be done.”

Fast forward about 40 weeks, give or take a couple.  Mary and Joseph are told that they must return to Bethlehem to be counted in the census.  Wait a minute!!  Didn’t God see that Mary was in her last month of pregnancy?  And maternal and infant mortality in the first century couldn’t have been real great.  Again, I imagine Mary wondering what this new plan was – and what are we on now?  Plan B, C, D, whatever.  We aren’t told Mary’s reaction to this, but given her response to Gabriel, I imagine that she handled this situation with grace.  The trip was 80 miles – probably not too bad for most people on foot, maybe with a donkey.  But, Mary’s in that stage of pregnancy where walking across the room is a challenge.  And now, she has to accompany Joseph 80 miles.  Did God really know what He was up to?

Yes, indeed He did.  It had been prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, so he was.  But, there was one more little swerve in the road before Jesus’ birth.  When Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem, there was no room for them in the inn.  Instead, they stayed with the animals, either in a cave or a courtyard.  Yet, what looked like a crazy plan to Mary and Joseph was exactly what God had ordered.  We aren’t told Mary’s disposition or reaction at the birth, but I think she did what she had done with all the other odd things that had happened – she trusted God.

I find this story strangely refreshing.  I have a hard time understanding God’s plan for my life.  I can’t see the big picture, and things aren’t exactly working out the way I expected.  Yet, the mother of Jesus was in a similar situation.  Right about the time it seems that things are under control, the rug gets pulled out from under her and she is forced again to rely solely on God and His promises.  About the time people stop talking about the ill-timed pregnancy, she has to travel to Bethlehem in late pregnancy (when any woman would rather be “nesting”).  They reach Bethlehem and are probably getting excited about stopping and getting a place to stay for the night – until they’re told that they have to stay with the animals because all the rooms are taken.

And at the end of God’s “crazy” plan, the Messiah was born.

What kind of roadmap does God have planned out for me?  No idea.  But, I make each step in obedience and prayer (or at least I try).

 

Gifts!!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is gifts!!  I used to feel kind of guilty about that – like I should be “above” all that.  Certainly, Christmas has become overly commercialized with people adding to their debt to buy the latest and greatest gifts for friends and family (and don’t even get me started on “self-gifting”)!  But the idea of giving and receiving gifts is, in itself, not a bad thing.

When I was working, I bought most of the Christmas gifts.  I loved to pore through catalogs and go to the mall to find just the “perfect” gift.  I LOVE watching people open gifts that I’ve chosen for them.  Now that I’m not working, I make most of my gifts.  One way isn’t necessarily better than the other – my lifestyle right now is more conducive to making things than buying things.  I love seeing the look on the recipients face when they see what I’ve chosen (at least if it was something they liked).  And I enjoy seeing people use or wear or play with the items I gave them.  Rosie Girl has been wearing the owl mittens I made for her last year and I feel so happy whenever I see them on her.

Gift-giving is not my primary love language, but it is probably my secondary love language.  I feel loved when I receive gifts, especially useful things.  I like to show love by giving gifts.  I know that my parents (especially my mom) are the same way, at least when it comes to giving gifts.  Christmas and birthdays were always big deals growing up and I think part of it was because my parents loved to see our faces when we opened our gifts.

So, doesn’t all this emphasis on gifts during Christmas lead to materialism?  I’m sure that it’s possible.  I know that I’ve struggled with materialism myself, but I think that a large part of the reason was simply living in a materialistic culture.

How can we avoid becoming materialistic or help keep our kids from becoming materialistic?  I don’t have all the answers, but I’ve got a few ideas.

1. As we are buying and making gifts, it’s important to keep in mind the person for whom we are preparing the gift.  Focusing on our relationships instead of the  “stuff” is what is key.

2. Remember the “reason for the season”.  Although gift-giving was part of pagan celebrations in Rome and other parts of Europe before Christianity reached them, we, as Christians, can and should focus on the ultimate gift of all: Jesus.  It’s easy to get overwhelmed, even with “good” church activities and forget why we celebrate.  Doing Advent devotionals with the family during this time of year is one way of keeping ourselves focused on Jesus.

3. Don’t go overboard.  Gifts are not bad.  Going into debt to get our kids (or others) the latest and greatest gadget isn’t in anyone’s best interest, though.  Our children may not understand this when they are young, but they can certainly understand the concept of having a budget as they get older.  In our family, our children buy gifts with money they have saved from allowances and odd jobs or they make gifts with our (large) cache of art supplies.

4. Give to charities.  We should be supporting our churches and other charities throughout the year, but giving sacrificially during the Christmas season is a good “inoculation” against materialism.

5. Give the gift of time.  This is a hard one in our society.  Nonetheless, it’s important for us  to keep our calendars from becoming so full during the holiday season that we aren’t nurturing the important relationships in our lives.

Check out Advent Conspiracy for more great ideas and thoughts about keeping the Christmas season sane!  And enjoy giving and receiving this Christmas season while remembering the ultimate gift God gave us!!

Lagniappe 12/5/2010

1. The Christmas tree and most of the decorations are up!!  We bought some more lights last night and Rosie Girl and PWM are going to put them up in the living room and dining room.

2. Rosie Girl had her piano recital yesterday and played a Bach Invention.  She did wonderfully!!  We went out to dinner and to buy her a Christmas outfit afterwards.

3. Wild Man played in the church’s Youth Band for the Children’s service today.  I’d post a picture, but I couldn’t get one because the drummer sits behind everyone else!

4. Rosie Girl and PWM are very excited about learning and playing Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Eve Sarajevo” for our church’s Christmas Eve service.  I just love to listen to them practice!

5. With the cold weather has come migraines, but, on a happy note, also the chance to wear my Uggs!

6. I painted my fingernails blue with sparkles today.  Last week, they were burgundy and Wild Man expressed displeasure.  He prefers the blue sparkles.  Besides, I’m wearing an outfit with blue on Tuesday night, so it will match.

7. I suppose I should question the appropriateness of a 43 year old woman with blue sparkly fingernails.  But I won’t.

8. While we were decorating the tree, we ran out of ornament hangers, so I used our last few paper clips to make hangers.  The next day, Rosie Girl found a whole bag of hangers in the tin with extra bulbs.  Sigh.  So we need to buy some more paper clips.

9. I’m almost finished with my Christmas knitting for gifts.  When that’s done, it’s time for blocking and then packing.

10. I’m watching a Harry Potter marathon today.  Just thought you might be interested.

11. I grew up in the South where dry skin wasn’t an issue for me.  It was so humid that I was more concerned about oily skin.  Now that I’m living in the Great White North, I have dry skin, like everyone else!  During Thanksgiving week, I got a crack in the skin of my right index finger so I ended up wearing Nitrile gloves in the kitchen and white cotton gloves the rest of the time so I could keep lots of lotion on my hands.  They’re back to normal, but I have to moisturize my hands every couple of hours.

12. PWM, Rosie Girl and I are going for a tour of a local college on Friday.  Rosie Girl will get to sit in on a couple of classes as well as have a practice lesson.  I’m so  not ready for this.

13. I sent in the registration for Rosie Girl to take Driver’s Education (required in our state).  I’m soooooo not ready for this!!

14. I don’t have anything else, but I’d prefer not to end with number 13.  Not that I’m superstitious.  ‘Cause I’m not.  Really.

That’s all.  I’m sure I’ll have some great inspiration later – whether or not I blog them is questionable.

What’s The Plan?

God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life.  I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this statement.  Not only is it the beginning of “The Four Spiritual Laws” developed by Bill Bright and used by Campus Crusade for Christ, but it is one of my father’s favorite sayings.  And it’s true, but not in the way I thought about it in my teens.

When I was younger, I thought that it was my job to find God’s will for my life and then do it.  Pretty simple, huh?  At 17 or 18, I would sort out what God wanted me to do then just proceed along that plan.  And this fit with my tendency towards organization and control.  Remember, I was the college student who made study schedules and stuck with them!  That was the way my life was going to go.  I would go to medical school, become a doctor, get married, have kids (above-average, of course), etc.

But life, apparently, doesn’t always go according to plan.  I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the last few years trying to figure out what God is trying to teach me with the headaches so I can learn the lesson and get back on the plan.  After all, I “knew” what God wanted from me, and these headaches are just getting in the way.  I “need” to get rid of the headaches so I can get back into God’s plan!

But maybe not.  Could the headaches actually be the plan?  Could my pain be part of a larger picture – one that I can only see a fraction of?  Could God have allowed these headaches into my life for a reason – and maybe not even a reason to do with me?

I think about the apostle Paul.  Did he have a great plan for his missionary journeys that were derailed by his being taken to prison?  How did he feel when he was imprisoned?  After all, it’s hard to go around planting churches when you’re stuck in jail!

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia.  we were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our  hearts, we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.  On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us . . .”  2 Corinthians 1:8-10

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ;s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  2 Corinthians 12:9-10

I have grown up a lot since high school and college.  I now understand that God’s ways are higher than my ways.  And that complete surrender to God and His plan is my goal.  There are many days (like today) when I can’t see the path in front of me.  My normal goal-setting ways are becoming more and more flexible.  I have learned that following God’s will involves taking the next step every minute of every day.  It means obedience in whatever task is in front of me.

Planning and goals are not wrong, but true faith in Jesus means that we can “roll with the punches” because we can trust that following Jesus is always the right thing to do, even when it doesn’t fit with our life trajectory.  When our weaknesses are exposed, we become stronger by trusting in Jesus for every bit  of strength that we need.

- I started this post two days ago, but didn’t finish it until tonight because of a two day raging migraine.  This is one of the times when I find that I have no strength.  My only sustenance is Jesus (although the ice cream didn’t hurt!).  I still don’t understand why this is happening, but I know that God is bigger than my migraines, yet still cares enough to love me through them.  And the Christmas decorations will get put up eventually – LOL!

 

Reminder

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”  C.S. Lewis

Yet another reminder that God’s ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts are higher than my thoughts.  My plans for my life are so puny and misguided compared to what God wants and expects from me as He puts together the beautiful tapestry of our lives.

Being Doctor Mom

I enjoyed working as a doctor.  And I think I was pretty good – at least a lot of people said they missed me when I was gone.  When I was working, I tried very hard not to diagnose and treat my own kids.  This actually wasn’t too hard when they were little because they were hardly ever sick. 

But, there was the time that Rosie Girl had Salmonella that didn’t get diagnosed until it had been going on for 5 days and I took her to the ER on a Sunday night because she was dehydrated!  Wild Man, being so wild, had the bottom of his chin glued together once by the ER doctor and once by me (on a Friday afternoon).  He has been less sick, but more injury prone.  When he broke his collarbone, I had him see the Nurse-Practitioner with whom I shared an office and hallway (while I tried to finish seeing my last few patients and not hyperventilate!).

Things are more complicated now that I’m not part of a medical practice and have let my licensure lapse.  My biggest frustration is trying to sort out when to take them in to the clinic and when to just treat at home.  About 2 years ago, Rosie Girl had a sore throat that ended up becoming severe exudative tonsillitis by the time I finally took her to the clinic.  I’m so sure that most things are caused by viruses and so determined not to contribute to antibiotic resistance that I treat them at home as much as possible.  But, I’m still paying for that bit of “maternal malpractice” in not-so-funny jokes and remarks from Rosie Girl!

And we had to deal with the same issue again this week.  Wild Man has been sick until Tuesday.  It looked like just a virus until yesterday (Thanksgiving!) when it was clear he had tonsillitis and bacterial conjunctivitis.  Ugh!  Well, it was easy enough to diagnose without any special equipment and we had some leftover antibiotics (yeah, I know, you should throw away unused antibiotics) so I started him on Zithromax.  Wild Man is improved today, but still thinks I should have taken him to the doctor today and that I’m once again guilty of maternal malpractice!

What’s the lesson here?  I have no idea.  There is a balance between running to clinic for every sniffle (I’ve seen these families) and not taking them to see the doctor until they are very ill (and I’ve seen these families, too).  And I think we all end up on both sides of the line at various times.  I guess I’ll use the information and skills I have (which are more than moms who aren’t doctors) and take them to the clinic when they need something I don’t have (otoscope, XRay machine, prescribing ability!).

Nonetheless, we had a lovely Thanksgiving day – more about that later!  So, how do you handle sick kids?  Is one parent or the other “responsible” for dealing with the illness?  Are you able to call your doctor’s office for advice?

 

I Can’t Teach My High Schooler!!

PWM and I have generally been pretty confident about our ability to educate our kids at home.  Unfortunately, part of that confidence has been because we were unimpressed with the academic achievement of so many kids coming out of the public schools.  In any case, we always figured that if we could potty train toddlers, we could certainly teach them academic stuff.

But, then came high school.  Overall, PWM and I have remained confident of our ability to teach our kids, even with most high school topics.  After all, between the two of us, we have three bachelor’s degrees and a doctoral degree!  In this second year of Rosie Girl’s high school years, I think I’m learning as much as she is – and not just academics.

Lots of parents teach their kids at home until high school and then have them attend a public or private school.  Other families work to make sure that their kids can teach themselves during the high school years so that the student can learn things that the parent may not know.  I leaned toward the self-teaching concept.  But, I’m starting to re-think this position – or at least the idea that teens should be able to self-teach anything.

Rosie Girl is a visual learner and a great reader.  She learns things like History and Biology very well from textbooks.  We are finding, though, that she is having real trouble with Chemistry because she doesn’t need to learn a set of facts, but a set of skills.  No problem.  I’ve taken lots of Chemistry classes over the years, so I figured I’d just teach her.  Unfortunately, knowing Chemistry doesn’t translate into being able to TEACH Chemistry!  PWM, though, is a great teacher.  He can figure out where a student is struggling and explain that particular section until the student understands.  So, I worked all the end-of-chapter problems step by step and gave it to Rosie Girl.  When she still didn’t understand something, she and PWM would use the textbook and the worked out problems to work on it together.  And now she understands the sections that were giving her trouble.

From my vast experience of one high school student and one middle school student (along with lots of reading), I have learned some lessons for parents who are going to homeschool their teens.

1. Don’t expect to have to teach your teen everything, but also don’t expect them to be able to learn everything on their own.

2. Help your student learn how to learn.  Rosie Girl did a study skills workbook last year which has helped her figure out the ways that she learns best.  Since she’s a visual learner, reading tends to be her best bet.  Wild Man is very much an auditory learner, so he may do better with online or DVD lectures instead of/in addition to textbooks for subjects like History.  Remember that there are tons of resources available online or at the library.  Rosie Girl has used Khan Academy on YouTube to get a different perspective on some Chemistry topics.

3. When your teen is learning something that you (the parent) don’t know, help them find ways to learn it.  Rosie Girl wants to learn Japanese, but I have not the first clue about it!  Another parent clued me in to the BYU online courses.  Rosie Girl is getting her 2 credits of foreign language with my involvement being to just check in to make sure she’s keeping up.

4. When it comes to learning skills, your teen may need some one-on-one help.  This can be particularly true in Math and sciences like Chemistry and Physics.  In our case, we’re quite fortunate that PWM is an excellent teacher of things related to Math.  Other families may find that signing a student up for a course at the local high school or community college or even an online course with real-time interaction is the answer.  Rosie Girl is learning quite a bit at her Art class at the local high school that she would never have gotten to learn from a book (or from her parents!).

No, I can’t really teach my high schooler, but that doesn’t mean that she can’t learn successfully at home.  We just have to figure out what works for her.  And she’ll be that much ahead when she gets to college.

 

7 Quick Takes Friday – 11/19/2010

1. I capitulated to the children about the location of the Christmas tree.  But, as part of the deal, they have to clean the living room and move the furniture.

2. Deer (gun) season starts tomorrow.  Normally, this means nothing to me, but a good friend is taking Wild Man out on Monday.  I’d love to have some fresh venison!

3. Mint M&Ms are available !!  One of the myriad reasons to love this time of year!

4. I think Wild Man has grown 4-6 inches since last year.  We’re going to have to get him some new dress clothes and shoes for his band concert and church services.  Deep sigh.

5. I painted my nails dark blue and then added some sparkly polish on top.  It’s not really a great look for a 43 year old woman, but it makes me happy anyway!

6. Grandma took the kids to the midnight showing of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1” last night/early this morning.  PWM and I are going to see it at a more rational time of day.  But, the kids loved it and I can’t wait to see it!

7. In the meantime, we got “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” from Netflix, so PWM and I enjoyed that for our little “date night” last night!

Check out 7 Quick Takes Friday to see what’s happening with other bloggers!

Mutiny In The Bungalow?

So last night, I told my kids that I thought we should put the Christmas tree in the dining room this year.  Our living room and dining room are almost one room, but the dining room area has vinyl flooring and the living room has wood.  Right now, our living room seems a little crowded to add a Christmas tree, so I figured that we could put it in the dining room with less inconvenience.

You would have thought that I told the kids I wanted to cut off one of their arms!  They proceeded to mutiny – at 10pm.  I told them that mutiny could only be considered between noon and 5pm, so they had to wait until today.  But, I woke up with a migraine, so I told them no mutiny when I have a migraine.

So they’ve changed tactics.  They are now engaging in non-violent resistance (a la Gandhi) as evidenced by these signs placed throughout the house.

(Note: the 143 means “I love you” while the “pr” means “passive resistance”.)

Well, if they feel so strongly about having the Christmas tree in the living room, I think they can be the ones to move the furniture, clean up, and vacuum before we bring the tree upstairs.  And I can call their protest educational since we’ll be learning about Gandhi later in the year.  Now, as long as they don’t decide to protest their schoolwork . . .

 

Our Week In Review – The Super-Late Edition

So, how’s your week been?  Ours has been it’s usual craziness.  When I quit working, I thought for some reason, that my days would be boring and all the same.  Hah!  Life is never dull around here!  So, what did we do?

Wild Man

Wild Man is really doing quite well with reading and spelling.  Is it an effect of the Vision Therapy already, or are we just lucky?  Don’t know, don’t care.  I’m happy with it.  I did have Wild Man do a few pages in his new Easy Grammar book.  He thought they were painfully easy.  Fine.  Next week, we move on to subjects and verbs.

We’ve been studying China this week.  I had a number of significant headaches, so I didn’t read a whole lot to him.  We did, however, watch several Netflix shows about China and Tibet.  Several of the shows were Wild China, which I decided is also Science, so I don’t feel bad about how lonely the Science book is getting.  Wild Man’s paper this week was about his book on Hudson Taylor.

Wednesdays, Wild Man still does the Nutrition Site without me and is enjoying himself.  He’s also been busy on Sunday mornings helping do kids’ church.  They do a skit almost every week and Wild Man has played various Old Testament characters in the last few months.  After church on Sunday, Wild Man practices with the youth band and then has a separate drum lesson with the youth pastor (who is a drummer) on Thursday afternoon.  He’s getting the hang of using a drum kit – good for him!

Rosie Girl

Chemistry is still problematic, but I think the total volume of tears shed this week was definitely less than previously.  I’ve done the problems from the book into a notebook that she can use as a study guide, and PWM and I have both helped her with various concepts.  We will get through this!

Rosie Girl wrote a rough draft this week of a paper about the Papal Schism.  Medieval church history isn’t really her “thing”, but she’s managing.

Otherwise, Rosie Girl is being her usual creative self: playing piano, making Christmas presents, and writing.

Some choice nuggets from her journal:

• A good friend will tell you their dad’s about to kill you.  A best friend will run away with you.  (About David and Jonathan)
• And, so, as a result of peer pressure, Israel asked for a king.  Now who do they pick?  Saul the idiot, of course.
• I guess three popes are better than one.  NOT!!!  (About the papal schism)
• And now we have Samson.  Most pathetic man in the Bible.  (Rosie Girl is a woman of strong opinions!)

And, me?  Well, considering that I’m writing a weekly wrap-up at 1:30 on Monday morning, I think it’s safe to conclude that I really don’t have things under control.  And I just realized a few minutes ago that Rosie Girl is on Week 13 of Sonlight while Wild Man is on Week 12.  Apparently, Rosie Girl skipped Week 10 because I took it out of the binder too early.  ACK!  I may have her go back and do the reading from Week 10 that she missed and start Week 13 after Thanksgiving.

I really need a holiday – and I’m very thankful that we have a week off starting next Monday.  As it is, Grandma is taking the kids to the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter film on Thursday night/Friday morning, so I doubt I’ll get much work out of them on Friday.  Whatever.  We’re all looking forward to Thanksgiving!

So, what’s up at your house?

Hope

I’m not having a good night.  I’m sitting in my rocking chair with an ice pack on my head, having maxed out on all my meds.  Unlike many of my migraines, I actually have an idea of the cluster of things that triggered this one.  First of all, I’m in a headache-prone time in my cycle.  Second, this is happening in Western Sahara right now.  (It’s too long to explain, but our church has been involved along with a church in a larger city in outreach and humanitarian work with the Saharawi people who live in refugee camps in Algeria.  The violence is heart-wrenching.)  Third, I had my CT scan of the neck today and it was normal.

Why would having a normal neck CT be a headache trigger?  Good question.  My doctor and I agreed that my symptoms are not at all typical of disc problems in my neck.  Nonetheless, since my migraines have been so resistant to treatment, we decided that we should  at least take a look at my neck and verify that I don’t have any herniating discs causing my headache issues.  The scan itself was short and sweet – well, the position I was in was starting to worsen my usual headache a little bit, but since the scan takes so little time, it wasn’t a big deal.  I got my results by computer a couple of hours after I got home.  And I can’t say I was surprised that it was normal.

But I’m almost disappointed.  I think that, deep down, I was starting to have hope that we might find something treatable.  Not that I was all that thrilled with the idea of someone carving on my neck.  Yet, if there was a decent chance it would help with the headaches, I would have done it.

Another great idea goes by the wayside.

As I ponder this situation, though, I am reminded that my hope for a joyful and contented life is not found in headache relief.  Yes, I really, really want the headaches to go away.  But, I can have a good life despite them.

No, my hope is in Jesus who gives me abundant life through my headaches. Romans 5:3-5 says “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”  Pretty much the whole book of Philippians is Paul reminding the church of God’s sovereignty and the joy we have in Jesus.

I know that God is using my pain somehow for His glory, even if I can’t see how.  And so, by His grace (for I can do nothing by myself), I keep moving forward.  The headaches might go away or they might not.  But, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  He is the Solid Rock on which I can build my life.  And He is himself eternal and provides me with the hope of eternal life.

I’ll get up tomorrow and keep moving forward, obeying Jesus, and living life with the joy that He gives – even if I have a headache.

Rambling

Be prepared: this post is going to just be a ramble of stuff that I’ve thought of in the last several hours.  You’ve been warned.

So, I went to church this morning – Yippee!  It helped that I got an extra hour of sleep.  This morning was the Sunday this month for Communion.  Honestly, I’ve tended to approach it as just one of the “things we do” in church.  Whether or not I was there for Communion never really made much difference in my life.  That’s changing, though.  The more that I experience God’s grace, the more “reality” there is in Communion.  No, I’m not going Catholic with transubstantiation or anything; the act of remembrance during Communion is more meaningful now than it has been in the past.

Our pastor preached on “What Happens After We Die?” today.  Can I just say that our pastor is an amazing preacher?!  We are so fortunate to have someone who really researches his topics and then is able to explain them quite well.

But, of course, I have an issue.  Why?  Why can’t I just listen and keep my “mouth” shut?  I don’t know.  (I feel like Pippin in “The Return of the King” when Merry says - “Why do you have to look, Pippin?  Why do you always have to look?”)  Our pastor (very correctly, I believe) said that not only does the Bible tell us to not go to spiritists or mediums, but that they are just fraudulent.  Our souls don’t hang out here on Earth to talk to living humans after we die. 

But . . .  what about when Saul consults a medium and the spirit of Samuel talks to him?  (I Samuel 28:3-24)  In this case, Saul disguises himself and consults a medium, which he knows is forbidden by God.  Apparently, though, Samuel himself does appear to Saul and pretty much tells Saul that his armies will be defeated because Saul has disobeyed God (in more ways than just consulting a medium).  Was this a real visitation?  Was it a one-time deal that God allowed?  Was the medium herself being used by God and Samuel didn’t really appear?  I have no idea.  But, clearly, Saul was sinning simply by consulting the medium.

My favorite quote from today’s sermon is “The believer is as close to Hell as he will ever get while  he’s on earth; the unbeliever is as close to Heaven as he will ever get while he’s on earth.”  Very true.

During the sermon, I was reminded of Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.  I’ve read The Inferno and part of The Paradiso.  What came to my mind, though, is that Hell is immeasurably worse than Dante imagines (and Dante has quite the imagination) and Heaven is immeasurably better than Dante imagines.

The author whom I think does the best job of getting the “sense” of Heaven right is C.S. Lewis.  (You aren’t surprised, are you?)  The very end of The Last Battle in which Aslan encourages the characters to go “further up and further in” and the garden that is larger on the inside than on the outside are powerful descriptions.  I also like his description in The Great Divorce of the area actually right around Heaven.  (The premise of the book is that souls in Hell, which is just dull and gray, can get on a train to visit the outside of Heaven.  I don’t think Lewis imagined this as reality, but as an analogy.  The real point is that the souls of people who aren’t interested in or can’t handle the wonders of true love in Heaven are already living in Hell.)  To Lewis, being near or in Heaven is like reality being more “real”.  The grass is hard, like glass and the sun is brighter than normal, but the souls in Heaven don’t feel anything different because their bodies are also more “real”, yet a soul visiting from the train finds this “real reality” painful.  Confusing?  Yeah.  Read the book.  Lewis is a master of description.

I hope you enjoyed your worship time today!

Our Week In Review – 11/6/2010

 

 

Just two more weeks till Thanksgiving break!!  Yes, this teacher/mom is ready for a break.  This was a tough week for me because of my migraine Monday through Wednesday.  But, we also had some educational “challenges”!

Wild Man

Wild Man and PWM are having a great time at Tae Kwon Do.  Their first belt test is in the first part of December.  I’ve been quite impressed with Wild Man’s diligence in practicing his forms, but even more impressed with his efforts to memorize the manners, and other pieces of information (‘cause memorization is NOT his strong suit!).

Vision Therapy is going quite well for Wild Man.  The therapist is impressed with the amount of progress he is making.  It is a bit early to see a change in his academics, but we’re optimistic.

In his study of Eastern Hemisphere countries, Wild Man has made it to China.  Because of my migraines, we watched several episodes of Wild China, but we’re also reading the China book in the Enchantment of the World series of books.

Wild Man is doing quite well with learning grammar.  I had him start working in his Easy Grammar workbook this week and he did just fine.  He’s also reading about Hudson Taylor this week.  I’m debating about watching “Chariots of Fire”.  It’s a good movie, but I’m not sure it will hold his interest.  However, when we did Core 5 several years ago, he loved watching “Gandhi”, so I guess I’ll try it and see.

Rosie Girl

This week’s paper by Rosie Girl was a “rant” about the fact that the author of The Trumpeter Of Krakow did not include sheet music of the trumpeter’s song.  She read Pilgrim’s Progress this last week, but didn’t enjoy it as much as some of her other books.  She is studying the time of the Western Schism when there were two competing papacies – one in Rome and the other in Avignon.

Rosie Girl is working on her music for the Christmas tea where she will play.  She is also playing keyboards at church for Christmas, for which she is really excited since they are playing Christmas Eve/Sarajevo (by Trans-Siberian Orchestra).

The real “challenge” this week was Chemistry – again.  I love that Singapore Chemistry teaches kids to really think instead of just learn formulas, but Rosie Girl has been getting very easily frustrated.  This is probably the first course that she’s had real trouble with.  I ordered the Teacher’s edition of the workbook, which should help some.  The most helpful thing that I’m doing is to make a solutions manual for the questions in the book.  This way, when Rosie Girl and I work on them together, I’ve already done it and know how to approach it.  But, there was some wailing and gnashing of teeth this week.  I’m still having trouble believing that one of my children hates science so much!

That was our week!  How was yours?  Anything exciting happen?  Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see how others have done!

7 Quick Takes Friday

 

Ahhh, Friday!  Truly one of the most stressful days of the week around here as we try to get all the “schoolwork” done so we can have the weekend free!

1. I had a migraine from Monday through Wednesday.  On Tuesday, I was supposed to go see my doctor for a regular visit.  I was already feeling poorly and had taken some potent medications, so my mother-in-law drove me to the appointment.  By the time I saw the doctor, my headache was well into the 9-10 (out of 10) range.  So, for the first time in close to two years, I ended up with shots of Toradol and morphine.  Within 30 minutes, I had significant relief!  Special thanks to my mother-in-law for driving me so I could get the “good” meds!  Yeah, the headache continued into Wednesday, but I’m so grateful that I got a few hours of relief on Tuesday.

2. One other thing that we decided on at my doctor’s visit is to do a CT scan of my neck next week.  My headaches don’t at all fit the description of cervicogenic or discogenic pain, but we all know of some person whose symptoms didn’t fit the final diagnosis.

3. Wild Man goes over to Grandma’s just about every day.  I called him back yesterday to do some schoolwork and he brought his mug of hot chocolate with him.  He had helped Grandma do some work on the shed and then chased off some squirrels for her.  After that, he stayed for “tea”!

4. Rosie Girl is hard into NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  I’m betting she’s going to be happy that we have a full week off school on Thanksgiving week!

5. It’s becoming winter!  Our heater is set at 65-68 degrees and we’re having to wear warm clothes again.

6. The downside of becoming winter is that we still need to get the back yard ready – take the trampoline pad down, mulch the plants, and figure out what do with our Topsy Turvy’s.

7. I’m starting to enjoy a little Christmas music.  Rosie Girl is playing a concert for a Women’s Tea in December and is playing on the church worship team for Christmas Eve, so we’ve already got some Christmas music around the house.  But, right after Thanksgiving, you can bet it’s going to be all Christmas music, all the time!!

Check out 7 Quick Takes Friday to see what others have been up to!