There's something we did the other night that we talked all summer about doing. Now that the weather's cooling off and the bugs are finding other places to go, it was just perfect for......the drive-in movie theater!! The last time I did this I was 7 and we saw 'Grease'. I watched that movie again not too long ago, by the way, and found myself wondering about my mother's good judgement. Back then, all I wanted to do was wail 'Hopelessly Devoted To You' in my bedroom with my record player but, oh well. Anyway! This time we saw 'G-Force' -- not that great, but at least no hoochie-mamas come out of the closet.

Here we are with 10 different blankets and pillows in the back of the car. We snuggled all evening and enjoyed the wonder of a child amazed that the sound was coming from our own radio. Try it sometime!

 

 

Oh, and Mom, I love you! I was just joking earlier. I know I twisted your arm to take me......

Good Doggie

Give me a spider....no big deal. Crickets? Anything amphibeous? Bring 'em on! But put a praying mantis near me and I'm gonna come out of my skin. WHY do their heads have to swivel?!? Ooaueh!! I'm creeping out just thinking about it. Not too long ago I almost wrecked the car when Joshua screamed, "LOOK, MOM, WHAT'S OVER YOUR HEAD!!". Yep. I pulled right over, jumped out of the car and had a head-swivelling battle with that thing MUCH to my son's delight. I looked at, it looked at me, I whipped my head away trying not to gag, it turned back to it's business as well, I went back to it, it looked back at me......and so we went.

Back in the car a few minutes later (without the bug) I did have to ask, "Josh, sweetie, how did that thing get in the car?" Hmmmm.

So yesterday, Kodiak's got his vicious growl and bark going and I had to see WHAT we were being so threatened by (keep in mind that the day before it had been an unfamiliar flashlight). But, oh, how I thrilled to see that he was saving us from a very large praying mantis on the window!!

 

If Kodiak was so brave then I could be too! So I swiped the nasty thing down for him and that was it. It had no chance. Whew.

 

Anyone else want to come pray and swivel on my window???

I've been pondering alot about something lately. I'm not confident I'll be able to word my thoughts correctly so I hope I muddle through it half-right. It's about being a mom. When I was pregnant, every other mother that saw my belly told me to enjoy every moment of motherhood because it would all fly by way too soon. The most alarming was from my own mother who said, "Jenny, now it seems like it was all in the span of a good night's sleep". That's alarming because she had 3 of us well-spaced in age, so she was doing this for a "long" time. I heard this enough that I did take it seriously and vowed to never take for granted a single moment. A vow like that requires a self-check every now and then and for some reason, catching sight of this collection of stuff on my kitchen floor did it for me.

 

So big deal, huh? Well, I guess God can use whatever He wants and He used this to stop me in my tracks and remember who I am and why I do what I do. I am Joshua's mother. When I wonder what I'm suppose to do with my life, right now I need not look any further than that. Of all the people on the planet, God put this person unmistakably in my home. Is it any wonder that I should be about the business of raising him -- purposefully? How is it that we get so distracted about that?

I have my theories.

For one thing, it's not very glamorous. I don't see the covergirl of 'Vogue' with the subtitle of 'How does this stay-at-home-mom teach Bible verses to her little ones?'. But maybe, instead of hours in the gym, I should be showing my son what Jesus would do in our home and community.

Another thing is, this job doesn't pay much. I've heard many moms say with guilt that they don't feel like they're contributing equally to the home. Wow. I say without throwing a stone that, unless the situation is downright dire, this is a sad sellout. Is there a price to putting your life into the next generation? For millions of dollars, no one could do what I do because no one else loves my son the way I do. Goes back to that 'specially placed in my home' thing....

Third, but not lastly, I think there is a very strong message out there that this job is not a very smart one. Are you intelligent? Do you have a college degree? Then why are you wasting all that at home? I know women with graduate degrees and beyond that are choosing to lay that aside for awhile to make home their place of career and I want to cheer for them! With that kind of resume, isn't she even more qualified to raise a child in the way he should go?

The truth is, and this is what sobers me, on the timeline of the average 80 years of life, our kiddos are in our home only 18 of those. For me, having a son with a backpack THAT full, it's a bittersweet reminder that my time is getting shorter. Did I waste precious time on anything that doesn't go into eternity with me? Is HE going into eternity with me? Thankfully, I can answer yes to the second question but, unfortunately, I can answer yes to the first one, too. I have a vow to myself that I need to keep so thanks, God, I needed to know that.....

Happy 40th, Shannon!!

 

Though bowling wasn't as fun as our original plan of boating (thank you rain), I am seeing in retrospect why it may have been a good idea. First of all, you know you have a group of GIRLS when all we are doing is standing around and gabbing. If pins could talk they would have shouted, "Hey, who's next? We've been waiting to get hit for ten minutes now!" If we'd been skiing, the man down would have drowned waiting to be picked up again. Next, I noticed that more balls than not went in the gutter. And if this was a sign of our aim, it's very possible that the boat may have ended up in the trees. Then last of all, peculiarly, Shannon, the birthday girl, produced her own cake, the candles upon it and the lighter from which she lit them. She was singing to herself very briefly.....

I have no boating analogy for this but it was pretty funny.

Thank you, Shannon, for being my good friend -- and thanks for having a birthday! The cake was delicious.:)