Living on a lake

Our new house is on a small subdivision lake. The kind with paddle boats and little docks. I love it. Tatum has turned out to be our little water baby. Every day after school, she is swimming with her friends. They put on life vests and swim back and forth from Emily's house to our house. Or beach to beach if you will.

We looked long and hard for house. We prayed even harder. Our church prayed. Our family and friends prayed. At times I was so discouraged and downtrodden. The lowest of the lows. But through it all, even the tears, I trusted God. I prayed for the house He wanted for us. I prayed that He would put us where He needed us to be. We looked at nicer houses. We looked at bigger houses. We put in offers and counter offers and everything in between.

In the end, we got the disco house and we love it. As I sit on my deck drinking coffee or down at the beach watching the kids swim, I know we are exactly where we need to be. Where God wants us to be. I have a peace in my heart that I have never had before. I love it.

How many times do we forget to wait on God and try to handle things ourselves? How's that working for us? Not good usually. Waiting on God is the hardest thing I have ever done and the most rewarding. Patience is not my strong point, but I am finally getting it. God in charge of your life is humbling and life changing and hard. God's time is not our time. But had I not waited on Him, I would not have this house.

So what are you putting in God's hands today? Do you have the strength to leave it there????

God bless you and yours.

Five Staples later....

So, as you all know, we bought a foreclosed house that needed a lot of work. The backyard is on a hill and there is this waterfall thing that we could not figure out how to work. My brother-in-law looked at it a different way and got it going on Saturday. Hooray! We were all down there cleaning it out and rearranging rocks so it would flow properly. Then, as I stepped on our little landing, where we had just placed a small, wrought iron and tile mosaic table, one of the tiles on the landing tipped. The sand had eroded away underneath it. I fell down, my head whipped back and I cracked it on the very sturdy small table.

I saw stars, little flying birdies, and grabbed the back of my head. I had scraped the back of my calf on the way down too. Landed pretty hard. In all the times I have cracked my head, I have never cracked it open, until now. Take my hand away from the back of my head and it is covered in blood. Head wounds bleed a LOT. It can be scary. Tatum, my daughter, is already crying and her cousin is trying to be brave and hug her. I tell them I am fine. My mother in law gets me a wet rag, Scott gets me a bag of ice and I decide we better get to urgent care.

When you crack your head open, you always feel like your head is going to explode, but this was so painful. We get to urgent care, they are not sure if they want to take a head wound, did I pass out? No? Okay, come on back. The doctor has a thick accent and asks me what happened. I tell him we were down on the beach. Beach? Like I have lost my mind or my brains were seeping out. I explain that we live on a lake and we have a beach. I didn't think I was at the ocean or anything. He then tells me he is going to put in staples.

He also explains that it hurts more to numb the area than to just staple away. Okay, after five staples, and the first one "not sitting right" so it was taken out and put back in. I say, next time, numb away. Scott has bruises where I squeezed his leg as the staples were going in, it was not fun. I also was crying my eyes out and since I was laying on my side, snot and tears were sliding down my face.

Prescriptions for motrin and anti-biotics and instructions that if I start vomitting or seeing double to take me to the hospital and we are on our way home.

I get the staples out on Thursday, all I wanted to do was clean out the waterfall and make it look nice. Yucko. Oh well, better me than one of my kids. My head is still ringing.

Any trips to the urgent care or ER for you this weekend?? Share the love and pass the tylenol.

God bless you and yours.

Man Trip

So my baby, I should say my first baby, who just turned sixteen is on a man trip. Six friends, all Christians, going out to explore the "mitten" that is Michigan. They leave this morning, are headed across the state and then they are doing the perimeter of the mitten. Home on Sunday.

I have to say, I was not crazy about this trip. Six boys, ages 22-16 in two cars, exploring Michigan together. Most would think it was a drinking, girl chasing trip. Most would be wrong. If I even had a doubt, which I do not, something that happened a couple of weeks ago would have squashed it.

The trip involves one of Tyler's small groups. That is our church's name for bible study. Tyler is involved in two and usually is reading another on the side. It humbles me how much he is on fire for God. They were meeting in our basement and I went downstairs to see if they needed snacks. I figured they would be mostly goofing off with a little bible stuff thrown in for good measure. I was wrong. They were diving into the book of Revelation and discussing and arguing points and really getting into the Word.

These are the same kids that went for a Pond run when it was 45 degrees out. A pond run involves only boys, in the middle of the night, and they swim and they don't wear suits. This is a part of male bonding I don't even pretend to understand. Much like peeing in the woods together and other uniquely male things I don't want to discuss that involve noises from various body parts.

So, my kid is off on his first real man trip. The company he is keeping is awesome, so I guess I am okay with this. I am just remembering when we traded his pacifiers for a batmobile. So grown up.

Anyone in your house taking a trip and growing up? Share the love.

God bless you and yours.

It's starting.....

We already have one teenage boy who insists on showering in the morning. Now we have two. Now my daughter wants to shower in the morning. That would be five of us showering in the morning. Oh the humanity.

I have to shower in the morning, I have short hair. Those of us with short hair know that you wake up looking very scary. I call it the curse of the short hair. Spikes are everywhere followed by flat spots, it truly is lovely. My husband has always showered in the mornings. Let's face it, the older we get, the more we need something to wake us up in the morning. Added to that fact is that we are now walking at 5:00 a.m. every morning and we need to wash off the funk.

Grant has recently discovered girls actually exist in junior high and started taking showers every morning. Between that and the Axe cologne/deodorant, he smells quite nice. Tatum is hitting that sixth grade mark where she wants to shave her legs (I let her), wear make-up (light mascara only) and do her hair. The hair for a tweenage girl is a little nuts. Could be great, could be horrible, you never know. Go figure.

So now, the quest has become who can shower first and how much hot water is left. Yucko. I usually shower last and to a tepidness I have come to embrace. I just cannot shave my legs because of the goosebumps. The resulting big foot sightings are not helpful.

When Cooper discovers girls, and because he has aspberger's, this may never happen, we are in trouble. Six showers in the morning. This could get ugly.

Who is hogging all the hot water at your house?

God bless you and yours.

Thirteen year old boys..

Okay, I have posted my angst at the teenage boy phenomenon. The testosterone, the man hair sprouting up, all those things. I have gone through this with one of my children. Here comes the second one. All I can say is WHY? Why would you do your assignments and not turn them in? Why would you talk back about everything. I mean everything, from ketchup to not having his older brother's curfew. Why would you punch a wall and fracture your hand?

Which just happened over the weekend. My oldest was going to prom and they starting scrapping at each other and I called a stop to it so the suit would not get messed up. Older brother got in the last hit. Apparently I did not yell enough at the older one. Never mind that the girl and her mother were driving up the street, to our home, to take pictures. Never mind that it's my first prom as a mom. Never mind that the thirteen year old started it all by taking the sunglasses that perfected the "look" for prom. It's still my fault that Grant punched a wall because I did not do anything about Tyler hitting him.

I really want to get inside his mind sometimes and do some spring cleaning. The stuff that comes out of his mouth sometimes. It's my fault his hand is broken.......Hmmmmmm, I did not punch a wall in frustration. He did.

So now, after urgent care and the chaos, we must go to the orthopedic surgeon to get a cast. He has a boxer's fracture of the fifth knuckle. Fabulous. Love it. No more baseball, no more track. Period. The end. No more sports until it is healed. Now I will have to sit on him to allow himself to heal. Great.

Who's punched what in your world? Share the fisticuffs.

God bless you and yours.

Sunburn, oh the agony

Okay, so I am foolish. I used to live in Arizona, so when I am out working in the yard in Michigan, for some unknown reason, I do not think to put on sunscreen. The sun just is not that intense. Or so I think. I am horribly wrong by the way.

Our new house is on a lake. You have to rake algae out of the lake, in addition to leaves, crawdads, and various other stuff. We also had to weed the beach. So after church yesterday, I donned my bathing suit top and board shorts and off to rake I went. The whole family was working in the yard, but I actually got into the water and raked. Three hours worth. From one in the afternoon to four in the afternoon. Then I took a shower and noticed a little bit of burn.

This "little" bit of burn progressed into a flaming wall of ouchiness on my shoulders. The thought of wearing a bra today may send me over the edge. I have to go to work, so I have to wear a bra, but it's not going to be a fun day.

Why do I do this? Why not just put on sunscreen? Why does the sun in Michigan fool me, one time, every summer? Why? I do not know, but I am sure I will do it again next year.

Pass the aloe vera gel and avoid patting me on the back today. Thanks.

God bless you and yours.

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.