Teenagers

I am a youth leader at our church. Technically in "charge" of high school girls, but I will love on any of those kids. Our youth group runs the gamut of new believers to kid with a faith so huge, I am humbled. I never set out to be a leader, but God usually puts you where He needs you, so here I am.

Teenagers today face a world with no moral compass. None, except their parents. And a lot of parents want to be their friend, not their parent, with horrifying results. Again, no moral compass. We are upon prom season and graduation party season. Only one of my children is going to prom and it is as a good friend, not a boyfriend/girlfriend situation, so I am okay with that. Tyler's faith and walk with God is so amazing to me, that even if he was going as boyfriend/girlfriend, I would not be worried. That is not me putting my head in the sand, that is me being fully involved in my child's life.

Knowing his friends, where he stands, what he's doing, all those things lead his father and I to trust him. It is not as if he has never messed up, he has and will again, but he is working on his faith on a daily basis and has it more together at 16 than I did at 35. Again, I am humbled.

Back to Prom. Mothers of girls, please, please, please, go shopping with your daughter for her dress. Please do not encourage her to buy the "sexiest one". Please do not encourage her to go bra-less. Please do not give her permission to stay out all night. If you are going to do all of these things and your daughter's dress has more holes in than swiss cheese, don't be shocked by anything that happens that night. Be a parent, not a friend.

Mothers of boys, talk about honor and respecting girls. Talk to them about the fact that the girl they are going out with is someone's daughter, someone's sister and a child of God. Do not get them a hotel room for the night. Send a message of respect and principles to your son and expect great things of him. Be a parent and not a friend.

I am telling you, by someone who is around teenagers all the time and twice on Sundays, these kids are crying out for guidance. Crying out for rules and regulations. They will fight you and say you are not fair, but in ten years, they will thank you for sticking to your guns. As much as they might gripe about it, these kids crave structure.

Do your kids know about the consequences for their actions? Good and bad? Are you having hard discussions? I hate it too, but it is a necessity. These children (and they are still children) are facing things in their lives that were always on the fringes of our lives. If we knew potheads in school, they know heroin addicts. If we knew "that" girl who got in trouble, there are seven in the sophomore class who are pregnant. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. It's not different anywhere else and there is no perfect utopia where everyone is just fine. We are all struggling.

So, if you don't own a teenager, is there one in your life who you can lead? Mentor? Be a part of their lives? Speaking into their lives positively?

Where is the teenage chaos in your life? Share the love.

God bless you and yours.

Little Ducky

Well, our new house is on a lake (pond really, but whose counting?) and we have ducks and geese. Actually, they fire off these noisy flare gun type things to scare away the geese because they poop so much. But I digress. Ducks are everywhere. We have had this group of one female and three males on our lake, but no ducklings. Kind of weird.

As I was coming home from taking the kids to school, I see a lone duckling wandering in the middle of the street. No momma duck, no daddy duck, just baby duck. So, I stop my mini-van in the middle of the street, put on my flashers and get out to help the baby duck. It promptly waddles right under my mini-van, yikes. I get it out and drive home with it, not really sure what to do. I have three dogs, so the trick was to get inside, to my mother-in-law for help, without alerting the doggies.

I get inside, swoop into my mom-in-law's bedroom and we decide what to do. You are probably asking yourself why I went home with the duckling. I was in my pajamas to drive the kids to school and didn't want to walk around the neighborhood in my PJ's when I haven't yet met most of the neighbors, carrying a duck. That's just me. We put the baby duck in a box and proceed (after I get dressed) to go back to where I found him to see if there are any ducks around. There are, but we don't want to get too close, so we let the little guy go nearby and back away.

Here's my problem. What if that wasn't his family? What if those ducks hurt my duck? What if it was a baby goose? What happened to my little duck? I don't have the answers and I don't want to go looking and find a dead baby duck, so I will live with my fantasy that he is re-united with his family and living large on worms and grass.

But if I see him again today, I am keeping him and raising him as one of the family. Just sayin'.

God bless you and yours.

What's New with You?

So many things happening in the last couple of months. We moved into the Disco house and we love it. We lived in a construction zone for three months, had more "pop ups" than we could count and finally, finally, there are no noises when I get home from work. I can walk through my house without my contractor walking in another door. As great a job as our contractor did, I am not sorry to not see his truck in my driveway. If you need any and all repairs/work done on your home and you live in the Detroit metro area, email me for Mark Harrop's number, he does exceptional work and is very reasonable.

I also went back to work full time. I don't work at Starbucks anymore and once my "free" pounds of coffee run out, I will have to find a cost effective solution to my addiction. I am scared for that day.

Back before I had kids, I was a licensed optician. So, I got re-certified and went looking for a job. And I actually got one. No one was more shocked than me. And I love it, another shocker. I am working more hours, but have more energy and love my new job. Working full time does have some drawbacks, like planning dinners, instead of picking something up every day, but I really, really love it.

I think one of the reasons I truly love it is that I really prayed, for months before, for God to put me in the job He needed me to be at. I dropped off so many resumes to so many places and ended up in the perfect one for me. That brings me such peace.

The kids are adjusting pretty well, and I don't have to work as late as at Starbucks, I am home by 8pm at the latest and home every morning to get them off to school, so that's good. The crock pot is getting a work out, and if you have any exceptional recipes for that, post those too.

I am back to blogging, which I love. So what's new with your crew? New jobs? New babies? New empty-nesters? Share the love. God bless you and yours.

Gone too long

Sorry folks, I guess living in a construction zone took the best from me. I am back and will be blogging starting tomorrow, so much to share. Hope everyone out there is doing well and praising God for all the blessings in their lives. See you manana.

Construction Zone Living

So, for the last three weeks, in the new house, we live with the sights, sounds and smells of construction. To say I am flustered is an understatement. You see, I know these things need to get done. We need two more bedrooms in the basement. Which means we need an egress window in the basement. We need another bathroom in the basement. We needed to turn the front living room (which real people never really use anyways) into our master bedroom. We are making the house fit our family, which is great.

And I know it's a blessing that we are able to do this. And a blessing that our contractor is a Christian, honest and reliable and a friend. I get all of that. I really do. But coming home from work to nail guns and saws and dust is making me a little crazy.

Also, the boxes.........oh the boxes. We cannot unpack everything because no one is in their right bedrooms yet. Every time I go downstairs, I face the boxes. The boxes are mocking me. They laugh at me behind my back, I am sure of it. Plus, when I need something, I must go a digging. Not fun.

So, I will keep trying to be positive and they will keep on building. Hopefully, by March we will all be settled. If you know this won't be true, LIE TO ME.

God bless you and yours.

I'm Back!!!!!

We have moved into the new house and now the fun begins. Who knew there could be so many boxes in such a small space? The things we cannot find are hilarious. We cannot find the big blue tub of dog food. We cannot find a box that had the toothbrushes and apparently Scott's belt in it. The toothbrushes are in the bathroom, the box is missing and here we go!!!

The garage is packed, the pod is packed and I have got to tackle these things pronto. The cable is hooked up, so we did not miss American Idol last night! Well, I missed it because I was doing stuff, but the kids saw it.

I have made the pledge never to move again. Ever. I hate it. I hate being unsettled. I hate the last minute packing that has to be last minute or no one would have clothes. I hate the never ending job of unpacking, finding a place for it, and then breaking down boxes. YUCK.

But I love our new house. Every day I look out my back door wall (arcadia door for those of you in the Southwest) and see a lake and various wildlife. Love it. We will still have construction for about a month to get the bedrooms in the basement done. So dust will be a constant companion, but that's okay. This too shall pass.

Any funny moving stories out there? Share the love.

God bless you and yours.

Taking some time off....

A little time off to move and strip wallpaper. God bless everyone.