We Gallop into the 4th

Yesterday was the last day of the first session of LifeCamp.  Went well, but double the kids would be nice for the balance sheet.

Fool that I am, I took an afternoon break and ran to the grocery store to figure out something quick for dinner.

I bought a grill.  Go ahead, comment.

Tomorrow after church there’s a meeting for the hospitality group in charge of the 4th.  We’ll be told which day to pre-clean the site, and kids are welcome to help pre-clean.  Yes, they’ll spend a majority of the time playing, but that’s ok with everybody.

For the picnic, I’m making Mom’s Potato Salad.  Why don’t I make that more often?  It’s SO delicious!  Oh, yeah- peeling a dozen potatoes (or, for the 4th, 2 dozen), boiling them on an already-hot day, waiting and waiting for them to cool enough to handle, etc.  It’s worth it for the 4th, though.

We’re having pie for breakfast today.  Everyone can get themselves a slice as their stomach awakens.  Since I went to bed at 7, I’m up for the day and I’ve already had my slice of Key Lime.  I’m not going to tell any grown-ups that the other choices are Oreo or Banana Cream.  (Yep, I know you claim to be a grown-up.)

Mr W says we can go back to Hastings and get more House episodes.  He’s Wonderful!

Happy 4th!

Wow- Didn’t see that one comin’!

Saturday night after 10 we get a call from a number in PA, where my mom lives.  Oh no, thinks I- an aunt is calling to tell me Mom is in the hospital/passed.  Noper!  Aunt SJ and Uncle D are in Alpharetta (North Side of Atlanta) for a wedding, would love to see us…

Got a sub for Sunday School, cleaned the house as much as possible with the 3 kiddos from 7:30 a.m.-10 a.m., then when Auntie and Uncle called back, we offered to drive up there and they were delighted.

Nice lunch at Ruby Tuesdays.  Uncle and I tried bison burger- couldn’t tell a diff from beef.  Auntie and Uncle are hovering around 80 years old, but had driven the 11 hours from PA on Thursday and headed back this afternoon.  Made Mr Wonderful laugh, since his 64-yo momma is calling herself “elderly” and refusing to drive to the grocery store (she lives with Mr W’s sister).

Auntie is coloring her hair, so I’m more grey than she.  Hmph!  No canes, walkers, complaints, pacemakers- just high blood pressure meds for both Auntie and Uncle.  Makes me wonder, since I’m physiologically similar to that side of the family (as is #1), if I might have another 40 years of good health myself. 

Whattare you gonna do for the next 40 years?

Notes

14 is too many kids on a VBS team.  We had 8 teams, and expected 70 kids.  Two teams had 12 and 14 kids.  Gotta fix that for next year.

Need to ask around for prayer re: the Sunday School class I lead (1st and 2nd graders).  I haven’t prayed for them at all recently, and I feel out of touch with them.  (Duh!)  Gotta move that onto a front burner.  They seem completely disinterested in the Word.  Yep, I see the dots connecting.

Haven’t opened the Bible, except to read along with a verse or two during sermons on Sunday mornings, in over a month.  Hereby committing to read through Mark, a section a day, and meditate on the reading.

#3 is acting very young this week.  Result of LifeCamp?  Change in schedule?  Regression related to Aspergers?  Just a phase?  He’s showing a bit more aggression over the past 3 months, too.  Since he’s almost 5 feet tall, he needs to be trained FAST in channeling disappointment, testosterone, and temper into proper channels.  Nope, Mr W is not available.

Count of Monte Cristo is getting more interesting every chapter, even though I’ve already seen 2 versions of the movie.  Was able to dump the Children’s Illustrated Classics version pretty quickly- if my students try to skip out of working through the “grown up” version by reading the CIC, it’s going to be obvious VERY quickly.  (i.e., Mercedes on her way to her betrothal feast.  Dumas discribes her in 1 sentence.  CIC gives her half a page; 3 sentences on her wedding gown alone.)

Picked up enough groceries to last the weekend, but missed dishwasher detergent.  VerriBad, since we have enough for only 1 more load, and I am no more enamored of handwashing dishes than I was pre-VBS.

I did find a better cleaner in the hall pantry and enjoyed getting some floor corners.  I’m liking cleaning more now that I don’t feel pressured to get in 4 1/2 hours of school.

The kiddos need to learn to wait quietly when I’m dealing with one or another.  Conundrum- how do I teach silence when I’m outnumbered by talkers 3:1?

#1 needs an eye exam and time with her new buddy from LifeCamp.  #2 needs her glasses fixed.  (I need an examine and contact lenses Rx renewed within the next 6 weeks.)  #3 needs an eye exam- watching a Muppet video, he mentioned the “red” muppet.  It was green.  Mr W wants to celebrate our anniversary by having the kids go away overnight.  Mr W’s parents want us to come up for a week or so this summer.  We have tix to SixFlags- can we afford parking, drinks, and lunch?  When to go?

This summer is so different.  I haven’t got a handle on it at all.  Autumn is going to be a change, too, and I’m not looking forward to it.  Duck!  Here comes another adventure!

Wishful Thinkin’

Although no one would term me a “social butterfly”, I have had some wonderful friendships so far in my life.  I have also been in relationships where what first appeared to be friendship was convenience or use- on both sides, I regret to say.

When I became a Christian in 1988, a significant percent of my life went through radical changes.  For example, I was not longer interested in doing drugs.  Friendships solely on that interest quickly faded.

One friendship went through the change intact.  From what I’ve heard, that’s a rare treasure, and I certainly consider my friendship with Rootie a treasure, too.

As I joined a Young Adults Bible Study, other friendships were forged.  After 8 years of (mostly) the same folks going through the studies, I was part of a circle of 8 friends- 4 married, 2 single ladies, 2 single guys.  (That last part is why I used “forged” to describe the friendships!)  We didn’t attend any particular church regularly; our loyalty was to the Word rather than to habit or an institution.

A year before I got married, one of the guys courted, proposed to, married, and went to Lithuania with the other single lady for missions.  Um, no pressure on the last single guy, eh?  Mr W came along, and the group broke up completely.

Now Mr W, the kiddos and I regularly attend a Home Group with 4 other families.  We’ve been in this group for more than 2 years.  We do a lot of social things together, too- at least twice a month, not including AWANA, where all the families participate.   However, I would say the group has a long way to go in forging friendships.

For one thing, no one (barring spouses) has made one of the ladies cry, or get really angry.  Maybe that’s a thing “older people” (like me) don’t do, but I’m the oldest woman in the group by 10-20 years.  (A moment of Stunned Silence.)  So far as I know, none of the adults has ever confronted another in any way. 

One of the marriages is in its 2nd year, so there’s probably still adjustment going on there, but the other 4 couples have been married for about 10 years apiece.  Still no confrontation.

Not even: “I was so angry I wanted to say horrible things, but I went home and cooled off, but now we need to talk about what you did/said that upset me so much.”

I’m not advocating fighting for the sake of thrill!  IMO, if no one gets close enough to hit a “hot spot”, however, the shell prevents growth as well as pain. 

What’s going on here?  Sometimes I feel as if our consciousness of the Church is a heavy roof over us.  It protects, but limits.  We attend a church that is amazing in its LACK of gossip, so our group’s reticence probably isn’t from fear of exposure.  Is it just, “You go first”?  Not enough time having passed together?  My imagination?  Busy with our nuclear families? 

I think we’re starving growth from lack of Accountability -and his sister, Encouragement.  I want to grow more.  Any ideas?

Cream of Anything Soup

Rootie asked for this whilst she was here, and I dropped the ball.  But not into the soup.

Melt and brown 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup flour in large soup pot.  Add 1 TBlsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper, and a dash of chili powder.  Add 3 C. milk and 4 C. chicken broth, 1 tsp Mrs Dash and 2 tsp onion bits or powder.  Choose one of the following to add:

2 C chopped asparagus, 1 tsp lemon juice, dash nutmeg

2 C chopped green beans, 1 tsp curry

2 C. chopped broccoli, 1 tsp thyme, 1 bay leaf, dash garlic powder

2 C. shredded carrots, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp parsley

2 C. chopped cauliflower, 1 tsp curry

2 C. shredded zucchini, 1 tsp nutmeg

2 C. chopped sauted mushrooms, 1 tsp nutmeg

 

I’ve tried it at various times with the cauliflower, the carrots, the mushrooms and the broccoli.  Can’t go wrong!

Mysterious Stranger Revisited

Some legal professionals showed up at my sister’s door a week or so ago looking for Mysterious Stranger’s current address/contact information.  He had given his 2 weeks’ notice just before we said, “no”, and about 10 days after he jumped on a bus for Vegas, having heard of a potential 150 jobs in that fair city.

Now, he truly did pass the bar in the state where he met my sister, so maybe they were looking for him to offer him a job??? 

Summer Begins to Race By

OK, so here’s the schedule:

Mondays Mr W goes off to LifeCamp, which is picking up in attendance.  The kiddos and I stay home and do math and chores.  Monday night is VBS for the kiddos, another episode of House and some required reading for me, class for Mr W.

Tuesdays the kiddos and Mr W go to LifeCamp, I stay home and finish chores, research #3’s therapies, outline the 9th/10th grade English texts I’ll be teaching in the fall; read, research and outline 3 novels for said class (Julius Caesar, Hind’s Feet on High Places, and The Count of Monte Cristo). (BTW, when I assign a novel that has “Cliff Notes” or Wickipedia commentary, not only do I have to read and meditate on the original, I also have to read the “Children’s Illustrated Classics” version, read the “Cliff Notes” and the Wikipedia post, to prevent plagarism and/or the students arguing as follows:

“Mrs. JerseyChick, that’s not what happened in the book!”
“Actually, Johnny, “Children’s Illustrated Classics” left out that chapter, and the Disney MovieVersion perverted the plot entirely.  If you had read the original, as I assigned….”

Reading each novel 3 or 4 times by August 1, taking extensive notes.  Yum.)

Back to the Drudge: Wednesdays are a repeat of Mondays.  Ditto the VBS all week, in fact.

Thursdays the whole JerseyChick family packs a lunch and heads to LifeCamp.  I’m volunteering (and supervising my kiddos’ developing friendships- Did I mention #1 has made a truly delightful friend named Hannah?  We’re hoping this friendship will continue for years, but the start may be somewhat impaired by the medical therapies schedule of Hannah’s 3-year-old brother, who has a rare (he’s the first kid ever known to have inherited it) kidney disease.  Or, several sleepovers at our house may reduce Hannah’s mom’s stress and move the friendship along nicely!)(Did I mention major quirks pop up a lot in my life?)

Fridays the JerseyChick family plods to LifeCamp (Did I mention, since Mr W is in charge of AfterCare (Don’t you just love all the double-capitalized compound nouns?)(Can you tell I’ve been watching House from my facetious tone?), that he/we come in at 7:45 a.m. and stay until 6 p.m.?), but, PTL! pizza-and-cola lunches can be purchased for $3, so no packing is involved during the plodding.

Saturdays Mr W and I sleep in.  #2 gets up at 7 as usual and plays a computer game until Mousetrap wakes me for her morning Out, then #2 and I make pancakes.  Getting enough clean clothes to last through the next week into each family member’s closet is the goal on Saturdays.

Sundays, after an egg sandwich breakfast, we roll to church from 9 until noon, lunch, nap, head to LifeGroup (not to be confused with LifeCamp or LifeSavers) at 5:30, get home by 9, and go to SLEEP.

You should get some sleep, too.  What are you doing, reading blogs at midnight?

6 Quirks Meme

I was tagged by Rootie, who prefers to be link-less, to do a meme of 6 non-extreme quirks.  It was actually fairly difficult, because all the extreme quirks are so obvious it’s hard to get past them to the minor quirks.  Hmmm…..

1. I put mayonaisse on my French Fries.  Sometimes ketchup, too, but always mayo.  Major quirk associated with this: I learned to eat fries with mayo whilst living in Belgium under an assumed name, hiding from the Feds.  See what I mean about the minor quirks being overshadowed?

2. I wear sunglasses to drive year-round.  Otherwise, I squint, get a headache that day and wrinkles long-term.

3. I love every kind of cooked shellfish and dislike every kind of cooked fish.

4. My personal life’s goal is to get a PhD in Antiquities and write a truly great Latin high school textbook.  Studying Latin and/or Greek does so many good things for your brain it ought to be required again, IMO.

5. My fingernails break when I ovulate and I have a crying jag 3 days pre-menstruation.

6. I have an IQ of 136.

I’m tagging anybody who wants to do it. 

A Long Good-bye

Mr W and I were looking at letting #1 go to public school next year.  #1 tells us she wants to be part of a “normal” family: iPods, shopping for designer clothes, decorating the house and yard for Christmas.  OK, we don’t want her to feel so trapped that she runs away, physically or emotionally.  It may be too late anyway, emotionally, from what I’ve seen over the past 2 years.  It’s like a quiet fading into the background, then away to another place entirely.

Tonight I think, however, there is a better way than giving her to the school for 8 hours a day.  Maybe I should give her heaps more attention, more expressive love, more obvious approval of her as an individual.  I think what she really feels is ‘unloved’, and she believes she’ll get it from school peers.  But I’m afraid giving more attention is feeding an addiction- that’s what my mom and grandmom would have said. 

Yeah, she should get all her needs met from God.  She’s not.  I should be training her on how to turn to Him.  I’m not sure I’m doing it myself, and I certainly don’t have a clue how to find those “teachable moments” everyone keeps talking about. 

I don’t want to pull her into my adult world before I have to.  I want her to enjoy her pre-teen years with wholesome friends, Nancy Drew books, making cookies. 

But how do I find the time to pull myself into her world long enough to fill her loneliness?  I have 2 other kids and a husband with big needs, too.  Supposedly, the middle child always feels short-changed on love and attention.  #3 needs help as soon as possible with therapies for his AS, before the “hard subjects” get introduced in 3rd grade- aka, August.  I’m trying to eke a month’s worth of meals on a fortnight’s grocery budget.  Mr W would like all my attention from the minute he walks in the door every night of the week.

Look, it’s not like I don’t want her to have friends, or interests outside our house.  But it’s not 1950 anymore- if she picks the wrong friends, they won’t be teaching her to shoot spitballs at the teacher, these days they could easily teach her to shoot the teacher. 

I don’t want to lose my daughter at age 10 only to have her drop off a granddaughter when she’s 16.  The mistakes made by hanging out with the “wrong crowd” have a much higher chance of proving fatal in the 21st centure.  Fatal doesn’t have a “do-over”.

I’m going to fight for my daughter.  God help me not lose the other 2 in the fray.  I can’t keep all the balls in the air by myself.

House

OK, so I’m really liking “House”, just as Rootie predicted, but I’m thinking it’s a good thing we’re on a strict budget re: Hastings videos, because I have this itchy place on my arm, see, and just the first 4 episodes have me kinda worried, see…..