Doing the best we can

I have spent so much time in the last few days thinking/praying/meditating on the tragedy of the Chapman family. I have a friend that attended the memorial service over the weekend. (Emily is not up to show me how to link you to my friend's blog.) This evening, after reading my friend's blog and listening to Steven Curtis Chapman sing a beautiful song he had written for a friend that had expectantly lost a child and watching news clips and video tributes to his daughter I was struck by the huge responsibility we have as parents. The Chapman's have to grieve under a microscope - the world waiting for them to fail; waiting for them to blame Christ; waiting for them to blame each other. How often do we wait for others to fail? Maybe not intentionally but how often do we question or judge or turn our noses up at things that are different. I do not mean wrong - I mean different. This past weekend, Ryan and I went to the Homeschool convention. This was our 9th year going - out of homeschooling ten years. I have to be vain a minute and confess that I agonize (usually even buy a new outfit) over what I am going to wear. I don't want to look too old, too young, too conservative, too liberal, etc. I don't want to fit the homeschool mom "model." Yet, that is who I am. I watched what seemed like zillions of people buy curriculum after curriculum. I went to conference after conference listening to topics like mentoring my daughter, raising world leaders, how to disciple/structure my family. And even though the mechanics of how we do things differ; we all (the vast majority) have the same goal in mind; We all want the very best for our children. I cannot imagine that there is a single parent; whether they wear jean dresses, only dresses, bonnets on their heads - whether they use Bob Jones, Sonlight, or Tapestry - that doesn't want their child to succeed. We want our children to succeed to be the very best God designed them to be. I want my children to grow up and first love the Lord my God with all their heart, soul and mind; second, I want them to love life and all it encompasses - the good and the bad. I want to encourage others around me to not take the things of this life for granted; to not get caught up in comparing our selves to others, to lift others up when they fall, to be a true friend, to be transparent so that others may see our weaknesses, to laugh with one another, to give one another true praise, to know that we are not alone on this journey.

Getting ready

Well, there is less than 3 days left until the big event. My sister will be getting married on Saturday evening at six pm. I am not sure who is more ready - my sister or my mom. My mom is fretting terribly over her dress and the weather. First, she has a beautiful pink formal dress to wear. At first, she didn't like the straps (or lack there of) so she had straps added (luckily we are all short and there was PLENTY left after the hemming). Then, she decided it was too loose in the bust so, she had it taken in. Well now, three trips to the dress shop later - she has a heine crack down the middle of her back. The problem with all of this is that the dress has a JACKET. So, you would not see whether it had straps or not and my mother is a very petite lady - so you would never guess she had a back crack under the jacket. Oh well,.... The next problem is the weather; at first, it was sunny skies and mild temperature. Then it changed to 90 degree thundershowers. I am more worried about the 90 degrees than the thundershowers. You want to watch somebody melt - imagine the sight of my two Popsicle/water dependent boys baking in a full, three piece tux! (while trying to be cute, kind, respectful, polite, etc.) Irregardless of the weather, my mom's dress, my boy's temperature issues, and all the other things that will be a challenge / go wrong - next to the day they prayed to receive Christ, this will be the most important day of their lives. So, for the next three days those of us that love them dearly will sacrifice our blood, sweat and tears to make their dream day a reality; so that Sunday morning and every other morning for the rest of their lives they will wake up "Mr. & Mrs."

Mother's Day

This year for Mother's Day we did something a little different. On Friday, the kids and I went to Rocky Mount to take care of some wedding details (my sister's wedding) and Ryan went down after work to visit his mom for Mother's Day and do some things for her. Then, Saturday, we all got up and went over to my grandparent's house for a "paint the house party." My grandparents have five children (four still living) and three of the four families were represented in the efforts. My grandfather was a carpenter by trade and built this house nearly fifty years ago. Most of my extended family (aunt, uncles and cousins) are quite the tradesmen. They are electricians, cabinet makers, jack-of-all trade kinds of people. However, my mother has two teachers, one train engineer , one person who draws blood and two that sit behind a desk and four smaller versions just along for the ride! :) Anyway, we got out there and worked our behinds off. We scraped, caulked, primed, painted, whatever needed to be done. I was pleased with our family effort. My aunt, the "foreman" still had some cleaning up to do and some touch up places and my uncle still had some rotten wood to replace on some windows but for the most part, we finished. My grandfather has dementia and is not able to keep up with the house repairs as he would like to. My grandmother fixed a big 'ole lunch - ham, sweet potatoes, squash casserole, crowder peas. It was yummy. Of course, all my kids ate only the ham. They don't know what they are missing. Then, we left my grandmother's house and my brother, sister, and I, ordered out for my mom's Mother's Day supper. After showers, we all had a wonderful supper all together at nine o'clock! We got home about 11:15pm and I awoke to breakfast in bed and gifts and homemade cards. We went to church, came home and had lunch and I took a NAP! We ate homemade pizza for supper (I got a new bread machine for Mother's Day; my old one had seen better days.) and had family night. Overall, it was an Excellent Mother's Day.

This is the full view of my grandparents house and the "work crew."

This is my granddaddy (the one who built the house) "supervising" the kids painting the swing; for their first painting project - they did pretty good. They are very excited about having "painting clothes!" I wish I had gotten a picture of my grandmother too. Oh well, maybe next time...

Pictures of the 80s:

I did the post and pictures backwards. I should have put the pictures in and then the post. Sorry, remember I am new at this blogging thing and Emily is in the bed so I was on my own! :) Read the back to the 80s post first and the pictures will make much more sense.


Here are the pjs were were trying to match up. The first two were major ice breakers at the speculation "who sleeps in THAT!" and the middle was the empty bag. Nothing like jumping in with both feet getting to know people at the party. Everyone was a very good sport. I didn't get a picture but my mother has this hideous moo-moo she used to wear all the time so she wrapped it up and gave it to my sister as "lingerie." It was quite funny; she even put a tissue in the pocket! I wish I had gotten a picture of it.

Here are the toilet paper "brides"

Here are the girls from the party "brave" enough to dress. There were a few fuddy duddies who later wished they would have at least TRIED to come up with an 80s attire! (The hot pink parachute pants Alexa has on were mine from the 7th grade. I was the only one in my school with "hot pink" parachute pants!

Back to the 80s

Well, last weekend was my sister's bachelorette party. We did a combo shower/bachelorette. We did a lingerie shower from 2 -4 and then an 80's sleepover bachelorette. For the lingerie shower, I had asked everyone to bring their pajamas in a paper sack. We were going to attempt to match the pjs with the people. It was great fun and a wonderful "ice breaker." (I have to say, I was getting a little nervous about the quietness of the group at the beginning.) My sister had a great combination of old friends she had known forever, new friends from college, and family. Anyway, back to the pjs; it was harder than I thought it would be. Of course a few of us had to throw some things into the mix we would never sleep in and someone brought an empty bag! We had a great time speculating who slept in what in the privacy of their own home. Then, we played a few "who knows the bride the best" type games and of course my sister cried at all the bittersweet memories. While supper was cooking, I divided the group into "teams." (I tried to separate out all of the art majors so they would not have an unfair advantage.) I gave each team a package of toilet paper and tape. Each group had thirty minutes to create a wedding dress. Their designs got quite complex. Alexa and Olivia got to be the "official judges." They decided it was a tie! One "bride" had a headpiece they especially liked and the other "bride" had little buttons (balls of toilet paper) all down the back that equally impressed the judges. After supper, we transitioned into our 80s garb. What was funny is most of these girls were barely born in the 80s. My sister was born in 83. Anyway, most of us went for the Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna look. My mom says she never saw anyone dress like we did in the "80s". We decided we most likely would have had our mother's allowed it! Anyway, I know I was made for the 80s. I love the fishnet hose and high heels and big fluffy hair. I was running out of time before the "contest" and didn't have a lot of time to fix my hair; I turned my everyday hair upside down, added a clip and there you go! We posed for pictures and then danced the night away. We did the electric slide, the macarana, the chicken dance, m c hammer, the robot, even the hokey pokey. By this time it was midnight. I had rented lots of 80s movies: Top Gun, Risky Business, Pretty in Pink, Footloose, Sixteen Candles, Back to the Future. Unfortunately, we were all pooped and didn't watch any movies. (I had a private back to the 80s movie marathon the rest of the week.) We got up Sunday morning and my mom had made a breakfast casserole and had fruit and stuff left over from the night before. Most people left around noon. My mom, sister and sister-in-law stayed around a while longer to talk about how much fun the party was! Now, on to the next thing....