In the summertime...

Wow, I cannot believe another school year has come and almost gone! Wednesday is the girls' LAST DAY! And starting next Thursday: Ten weeks of sweet, blissful FREEDOM!!!

(and even more importantly,

ten weeks of sleeping in!)

The last three years, I've formulated specific goals for the summer ~ mostly things to do with the girls ~ and posted bi-weekly check-ins to help keep myself on track and share some of the things we've been up to. This year, I've decided not to.

Not that I don't have things in mind that I'd like to accomplish; not that I don't have plans; just... I want to relax. I want to not worry about whether or not we've been to the library the "right" amount of times or gotten in the number of swims I said I wanted to aim for. Goals are good and I think they've been good for me in past summers, but I'm really trying to be a little more spontaneous. Of course, then I run the risk of doing NOTHING, but my girls are old enough already that I can't always provide satisfactory excuses for not doing something anymore. They tend to see through those a little more quickly than they used to!!

I do have a few goals, but they're not necessarily very concrete or measurable.

Two weeks ago, one of the presents we gave AJ for her 8th birthday was a Bible just like her big sister's. This summer, I want to memorize the books of the Bible with them so that they will easily be able to find passages on their own. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'd bought the book Big Truths for Young Hearts ~ I want to go through that with them, too. I've looked through it a bit already on my own, and I think it will be valuable for all of us!

Other than that, The Man and I would like to do a few projects around the house and yard that we've been putting off for far too long, but I'm a little hesitant to actually put them in writing. It's bad enough that we've been TALKING about them for years already without actually doing anything!

The girls will be at camp again for a week in July.  We'll hopefully spend two long-ish weekends at the lake, a few days in The Big City, and the girls have two weeks of swimming lessons in August.  Then I will turn 40 quickly yet before school starts up again, and I think that's about enough for one summer.

Sheesh, if we add much more, I'll have to postpone my birthday till next year! ;)

  * In my original post this morning, I had also included some math work with Mack over the summer to better prepare her for Gr. 5. I actually spoke with her principal this morning, who phoned me back after I left a message for the Gr. 5 teacher. She has no idea why many of us are under the impression that there will be an E.A. to help the new Gr. 5 students catch up with math this fall or that it's because the current Gr. 4 teacher didn't get through the curriculum. She said both statements are false! Seems if others aren't going to research the credibility of their information before they pass it along, I'm going to have to be more contentious about doing so myself...

The Girls Get Away

Or, "The Girls' Get-Away." Either way, that's what my girls and I did two weekends ago. I pulled them out of school Thursday afternoon at their last recess and we headed down to my parents' place in The Big City for a whirlwind weekend of fun!

There is one particular annual community garage sale down there that had become a bit of a tradition with my mother- and sisters-in-law and I before we moved out here to the Valley that I hadn't attended in quite a few years already. Either at Christmas or Spring break ~ I don't quite remember which ~ one of my sisters-in-law and I decided this year we were both going to make an effort to get into the city for it again and the others could join us if they could. She now lives 3 hours outside the city, so for both of us, this garage sale required some commitment!

But the big deal, really, was what we did on Friday. After spending a beautiful morning with my dad at a local park that has a great playground, duck pond, and hiking trails, we headed off to the mall to meet with my sister-in-law for the appointment my girls have been begging for for at least the last 3 years...

EAR-PIERCING!!

Mack's been asking ever since she started school, I think, and for the last couple of years, AJ's joined in with the begging. So as an end-of-the-school-year kind of gift, The Man and I decided they could FINALLY have it done this weekend.

Both girls were nervous beforehand, but Mack surprised me by almost panicking as she sat in the stylist's chair, me and her aunt holding her hands, and a stylist at each ear, guns loaded. But she managed to stay put, and once it was over, in the blink of an eye, it had obviously not been as bad as she expected. Her reaction, however, seemed to give AJ the impression that it was nothing at all and so her tears came AFTER the piercing, which clearly had hurt more than she had anticipated! Either way, both girls were all smiles within moments and feeling quite proud of themselves. And going out for DQ Blizzards afterwards certainly helped, too!

The garage sale the next day was a little disappointing stuff-wise, but I had a GREAT time with my sister-in-law all day long. Mom-in-law joined us for a short while in the morning, but left before lunch ~ when I discovered the deliciousness that is sauerkraut on hotdogs!

After a day of sauntering around, my sister and I ran a few errands and then picked up the girls at my parents' house, heading to another sister-in-law's home just outside the city for supper and a cousin playdate. It was a really perfect day for being outside all day and spending it with good friends and family. They have a great little playground near their house, so naturally, we had to check it out.

Sunday ~ departure day ~ came all too quickly and after visiting our old church for the morning service, we had a quick lunch with The Man's parents and headed back home. We encountered a serious rainstorm, complete with hail just as we left the city, but fortunately, that only lasted about 15 minutes and then the skies were clear the rest of the way home. Sadly, our DVD player quit working about that time and the a/c quit just moments later, but all things considered, the trip home went fairly well, too. Just a little warmer than usual!  (And a few more whiny "how many more minutes?" than usual, too, I guess, but nothing as aggravating as I was expecting!!)

It was a quick, fun trip and as always, kinda tough to leave, but OH, SO GOOD to come home!!

 

First Song That I Sing

About two years ago, I vowed to begin each day asking for God's guidance and priorities for my day. I promised to ask Him to show me how He wanted me to invest my time, and while it sounds a little different every day, essentially, I have kept that promise.

The problem, I've come to realize, is not remembering to spend that time with Him each morning or to ask for His annointing for the tasks I face, or even to ask Him to reveal what HE wants done that day...

The problem is remembering I've done so!!

So often I find I say the words in the early morning stillness, but by the time everyone's up and the before-school rush is on, I've already forgotten. I've forgotten that just moments before I asked God to help me slow down and focus on what's truly important rather than just all the immediately urgent-seeming stuff; that I asked Him to place HIS priorities on my heart and my mind. I complain, I get impatient, I speak unkindly...

This song is a good reminder. Not only to try and shift my focus to HIS plans and HIS desires, but to His goodness, His mercy, His all-sufficient grace, too.

Happy weekend!!

 

Weaponless Warriors

(don't win battles.)

Last week, our school's parent council met for its final meeting of the year. Our committee has struggled a lot with tension and arguing these last nine months, and I have prayed so often, especially before each meeting, that I would be a light, that I would speak truth and wisdom, that I would disgree and accept disagreement gracefully and respectfully. Coming into this last meeting, I even sent out a last-minute prayer request to a few people because I knew it would likely not be a pleasant meeting. I was right.  We managed to be civil until the very end when it all unravelled very suddenly.

I could have held my tongue. What many felt was calmly and rationally voiced by one woman and I could have just left it at that. SHOULD have.  But when the arguing started, I didn't stop myself and I joined in. I don't believe I said any words I shouldn't have said, but I know the WAY in which I said them was wrong. I allowed my extreme frustration to boil over and take control of my mouth and my body language.

While in a way, I feel my words were justified and I know I voiced what others have been feeling, I could not escape the conviction afterwards that all the prayer warriors rallying at my side had been let down. I had neglected their presence in that meeting. I had turned my back on them spiritually and thought only of myself as I fought verbally.  I had stilled their weapons of prayer and loosed my tongue instead to do my own avenging.

This is an aspect of corporate prayer I never knew before. Had I not asked for it, I would be only concerned with what the others in that meeting might think of ME. But that night, for the first time I can ever remember, I was ONLY concerned with how they had seen God as a result of my words and actions. And I knew it wasn't a pretty picture.  I made a mockery of God in that meeting whether or not anyone else realized it.

I surely got off easy for "trampling the Son of God underfoot and treating as an unholy thing the blood of the convenant which sanctified me, and insulting the spirit of grace."  I deserved to fall into the hands of the living God that night. (Heb 10:26-31)

I never realized this before, but while there is great comfort in the prayer support of others, there comes also a much greater responsibility placed on my shoulders because I am not alone. I lead the charge into the fray and they follow me, defending me, guarding me, upholding me.  But when they pray I will have wisdom and I speak foolishly, I have wrested a weapon from their hands. When they pray I will be loving and I speak hatefully, I have removed another. When they pray I will be patient and I speak in frustration, I tear yet another from their grasp. Before long, I have stripped my own army of their weapons and I have rendered them completely ineffective against the enemy.

And I fall.

I become my "old self," the one that was crucified with Christ. (Rom 6:5-7) The one that, eternally, I am no longer a slave to, but in this life, still struggle to free myself from in order to draw others to Him. (Eph 4:21-23; Col 3:8-10)  Which is why I so desperately NEED my prayer warriors to have ALL their weapons at the ready, to guard me against a weak and ineffective Christianity that makes God very UNappealing to others.

And so of those who'd prayed for me, I felt compelled to humbly ask forgiveness as I picked myself up and sheepishly handed them back their armaments.

They will surely need them again on my behalf in the future.