My Village People

“I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

Everybody’s nerves, everybody's nerves.

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

and this is how it goes.

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves.

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

and this is how it goes.

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves.

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

and this is how it goes.”

Got it? Great. Repeat that for about 15 minutes. Getting the picture more clearly now? Ahh, cringing a bit aren’t you? This is the water boarding-esque torture that my uberpatient friend Amber endured while ferrying my normally sweet youngest to gymnastics today.

In her very kind way she let the madness continue due to the fact that is was “fascinating that she didn’t breathe the whole time.”

I must applaud her for the fortitude to not stop the car and leave my seven year-old, inanely singing, on the side of the road. But that’s what we do. We help our friends, even at the risk of going mad. What would we do without our friends? It truly does take a village.

With a hubby that is frequently on the road and three VERY active children, my village saves my life daily. Whether it is with a kid taxi, meal suggestion, lunch invite or an ear to listen to whining about the daily grind. All are valuable and I am blessed to receive all from my myriad of pals.

We have to help each other or we would lose our minds. We no longer live in a world where we can just send Janie and Johnny out the door with a PB&J and a smile, calling out “see you when the street lights come on sweetie!” and collect our wits (and dust bunnies) while they are gone.

We shuttle to activities, games and classes because it isn’t really that safe to let our kids run wild anymore. I try to give my three as much outdoor time as possible, but they just don’t have the type of freedom I enjoyed as a child. Consequently, there is stress. Stress to get from place to place in a timely manner. 

"Do we have the right leotard/shoes/hairband/water bottle/snack/bat/glove/bag/mouth guard/vest/etc. we need for the four places we have to be on Tuesday?" 

"Is there gas in the car?" 

"Can I be in McKinney, Flower Mound and Lewisville all at the same time?" 

The answer to those questions is very often “No!” but we do our best.

We pre-prepare, we plan, we set the phone alarm five minutes sooner, we double check, but we still slip up. Someone ripped her tights, a jersey is dirty, a water bottle spills on homework, or a snack hits the ground.

Life happens.

Often in those moments when it feels like either Mayhem or Murphy (you know, the one with the Law) is stalking you, it's a maternal angel who swoops in to save the day. A friend, a fellow mom, bringing spare bobby pins or an extra Caprisun to the rescue. A ride home or a pair of eyes on a dropped-off child to ease my worries when I leave. 

These are the folks I know will see dirt on my floor and laundry on my couch and still hang out and share a cup of joe anyway. So thankful for their grace! 

These are the ladies who are my support system and my team. They are my village and my joy. I am thankful for and blessed by all of you-this and every week. May I be there for you when you need help too. And maybe, just maybe, together we can come up with a song that gets on our kids' nerves!

"Ever feel like this?"

Faith and Hope in The Face of Tragedy

This has been a bad week. A tragic week. Historically, too, this has been a tragic week. The assassination of President Lincoln, the sinking of the Titanic, the Oklahoma City bombing and Columbine. All happened this week. Now the West, Texas factory explosion and the terrifying events in Boston make it a sad and scary time.

Having young children makes this also a week of dichotomies. On the one hand, you want to keep an eye on the events unfolding. On the other hand you want to shield your children from the questions, the pain and the innocence-robbing insanity.

You want to save them from watching the explosions-accidental and intentional. The constant barrage of images that evoke tears and questions you can’t always answer.

You want to show them, too, that America is a nation that comes together to bring fugitives to justice, to serve and protect, to donate blood and open homes. It is important to explain to the kids how we should behave in those moments of barest humanity.

On this week of tragedies, past and present, we still have reasons to celebrate. Celebrate life, family and community. Reasons to celebrate God. I tend to go out into nature, to my garden to cope with the stress. I look at the beauty God has created and the amazing ways He has designed it all to work.

We released ladybugs today and they immediately began foraging for food, devouring the gnats that were sheltering under the romaine leaves. They came out of their mesh bag, their captivity that was all they had known, and instantly went to work.

I took the kids out there to divert them from the TV crawl. They were able to release these beautiful creatures and learn about why we need them. They were able to look closely at a beautiful caterpillar on the parsley that will soon become an even more beautiful butterfly. They were able to pick fresh broccoli from the plant and snack as they observed.

Innocence and beauty and perfect design. All preferable to horror and fear, pain and sadness.

Perhaps the greatest reason to be glad this week is that the 6th graders at our church, including our own sweet girl, are being Confirmed tomorrow.  I can't think of a better time to equip these precious children with the knowledge and assurance of their God. In a time of terror and sadness, to know you can reach out and find comfort in the arms of your God is more powerful than any disaster.

Our prayers and hearts go out to the people whose lives were shattered last night in an explosion in West, to those whose victorious moments at the finish line of the Boston Marathon turned to shock and terror. To those who have huddled in their homes all night and day in Boston, unsure of the location of a madman. Prayers, too, go out to people across the nation that struggle to know why these acts of terror continue to threaten and assault us.

My faith is in God and I pray for comfort. For the words to tell my children. For the words to tell myself. I am thankful for the journey that over 80 kids are about to embark upon to grow their faith in Christ, and know the peace that comes with that faith. God, please grant peace.

I leave you with some images that give me peace. I hope they provide some for you.

God Bless.

  

Yesterday or Today? Maybe Both...

So, I have said before that I think I was born in the wrong century. I like to hand quilt, cook, garden and build stuff. I love that I picked an entire big bag of swiss chard, collards and romaine right out of my backyard garden today. I love that there are little peas forming on our plants and the okra is just starting to peek through the dirt. I love that my daughter woke up this morning under a blanket I made myself. I love to cook a full meal and make my own strawberry jam.

I do hearken back a bit to the “good” old days, but need to remember that there were both pros and cons to them.

Pros: No makeup, you didn’t hear people refer to their quilting companions as their “besties”, and no Justin Bieber. Cons: Having to boil many kettles of water for your kids’ weekly baths (gag), no movies, and no giant coffee mecca (gasp!).

While I like to perpetuate some old-fashioned practices, I learned this week that I really don’t wish I lived in another time.

We’ve had one of those “Texas” Aprils. The kind where it’s freezing and you’re covering the garden one minute, (remember the last blog post?) and it’s pushing 90 degrees the next. Seriously, weather? How many times can people really use the phrase “Well, that’s Texas weather for you!”? Clearly they can use it a lot of times.

Just for fun this week, our remaining 27 year-old AC unit decided to throw in the towel. Like really throw it in. Not like the other times when the warranty company has recharged it, slapped a band-aid on it and we moved on. It was D-E-D, dead. Consequently, the ambient air temp in the upstairs was a crisp 88 degrees. Ahhhh….sweating yourself to sleep…

I am not into sleeping in a sauna and neither is my family. Back in the old days we would have built our house to take advantage of the crosswind and breezes, not just stuck it wherever it would shoehorn in with the rest of the houses. We might also have a lovely sleeping porch.

We have no lovely sleeping porch, so downstairs we all trooped. Splayed out all over the living room like a dysfunctional slumber party. We have been doing this for several nights now and we all are over it.

Even the seven year-old said, “Can I sleep in my bed soon? That air mattress is really making my back hurt.” So imagine the back pain of we who are not seven. We are doubly spoiled due to our recent memory-foam acquisition. That mattress is awesome. Way better than hay or horsehair, I bet. Hmmm…seems like modern day wins another round.

Obviously modern times are better in so many ways. I like healthy, organic meat and dairy. While the old days were full of it, I would not have enjoyed the procuring process. I like to feed chickens and would love it if we could have some here for all the fresh eggs. On the flip side, my chickens to show up in my fridge already deceased and featherless. Not sure I could stomach the in between bits.

I like to crochet and knit things for fun, but having to knit dull, coarse yarn into necessary items might take the fun out of it. Perhaps not, if there were no DVR-ed episodes of NCIS or Cougartown to watch in the waning hours of the day. Maybe knitting boring yarn into socks was high entertainment at the fireside. Who knows?

Back to the AC mess. When it comes to modern day living, I think that I like the good stuff and hate the bad stuff. Novel concept, right? I’m a rocket-scientist (nobody would have used that phrase back in the day). I love my air conditioning and refrigerator. I love having electricity power my sewing machine instead of my foot.

I hate working behind a desk in an office without windows or with windows that don’t open. I love working outside in the dirt or inside at my craft table. I hate cleaning and think there was probably a lot less of that going on back in the day, with smaller houses, less stuff and no indoor plumbing…well, that last part is a serious one-up for 2013. I do like the indoor plumbing.

While there was backbreaking work and many children to keep up with (yes, probably more than I have now), there was also a simpler life. In light of recent horrific events, that seems even more idyllic that it probably was. However, there was a greater reliance on God to provide and a stronger family emphasis. Neighbors came together to bring meals, care for children, finish a barn or bring in a crop. We are blessed to have neighbors and friends who do help in so many ways, but not everyone is so lucky. It isn’t the pervasive nature of our culture anymore.

Then again, along with today comes doctors who can keep my kids healthy, schools where girls can be educated and go on to college, cars that can run us to the grocery store when something is needed. All good things. I have to think my counterparts hundreds of years ago would have enjoyed those.

I guess when it comes down to it, you should be happy wherever and whenever you are. God put you there for a reason. Embrace what you have now and borrow a bit from the past. Try to make your life the best you can make it. In the immortal words of the great philosopher Billy Joel:

"The good old days weren't always good,
 And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."

Oh, and be thankful for the AC!