One Thousand Gifts 1.31.11

Today is the last day of January.  This past week was one of extremes.  On the same day that my dear friend Laura was laboring and welcoming her new gift, David was walking employees back and forth from meetings where they were informed the company no longer needed them.

Overall, the company laid off close to fifty employees on Thursday.  We are of course thankful that David still has a place there, but sad for those who have left or are leaving in the next few months.

It was a day when I felt the weight of the extremes of the human existence so acutely -- such joy and such sadness.  A new baby's cry and a single mom's tears over how she might provide for her kids.

Thankful today for:

19. catching up with faraway friends, one in Ohio and one in Italy
20. increased courage
21. increased truth-telling
22. gracious ears
23. hope
24. faithful friends
25. growth in my children
26. pinewood derby cars, father-son bonding
27. soup, a nourishing gift from a friend
28. routines
29. fresh air and warmth -- close to 70 yesterday!
30. watching my daughter fawn over "Ella baby"
31. steady employment and favor with bosses

Finally, I wanted to include this because it's how I'm feeling this morning:

Forza Varese!

Sunday is game day for Italian basketball!  Here are some shots of the game we got to attend -- a real highlight for David and me.

Here is the opposing team's fan section.  You may notice the yellow tape and security personnel.  Those are for their protection.

Another section for the opposite team -- this one encloses them in plexiglass.

Here's a shot of the team's fan club section.  Their leader (wth the mic) looked like a small Italian Peter Furler.  This section stands and yells through the entire game.  The best comparison I can make is the student section at Chapel Hill or the Cameron Crazies, except those sections might get quiet when the ball leaves their end of the arena.  These people yell, sing, bang on drums, and cheer WITHOUT STOPPING.  They even compose little songs for each player.

The song for this man goes "Jobey! Jobey Thomas! La lalalala..."

(sung to the theme song from The Flintstones)

It was fun for us to see Jobey really play -- he's not really supposed to play when he's home here in Charlotte, so up until this time we'd only seen him shoot around.

Here is the gigantic flag that kept hitting David in the head.

The team won and Jobey scored 19!

Post-game interview

Sweet friends

To the Top of the Duomo

I promised you several months ago a photograhic journey to the top of the Duomo in Florence.  Here it is.

Beginning of the many, many stairs

We saw these fellows at a landing somewhere on the way up

Looking down from a balcony (not all the way up yet)

This is a terrible picture but it gives you an idea of how narrow some of the passageways were.

Part of the fresco on the ceiling -- painted by Vasari, I found out later

Around the corner again and again

Up the steep stone steps

The views at the top -- worth it!

Looking down

Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with some gelato

A leather purse was my souvenir

One Thousand Gifts

Last Monday, the day my oldest child turned ten, I decided to attempt to live with my eyes more open.

Living with my eyes more open to gifts in gratitude.

As we watched the video above together, my daughter took up her pen and began to write.

And as if she had been sent from above as a messenger to wake me up, she turned to me when the music finished and said, "Count, Mommy. Count."

Count. She meant the circles that she drew on the page. I took it to mean something more.

So I will begin counting today.

1. Grace
2. Dark mornings of quiet
3. Warm blankets
4. Ten years with this boy
5. An extra boy in the house this weekend
6. A husband who gives me freedom to be creative with our home
7. Teenagers who listen to the Word of God being taught
8. Repentance
9. Prayer times
10. Faithful men
11. Mason jars with candles inside
12. Guests who linger long into the afternoon
13. Potty training success
14. Milestones -- ten years exactly of diaper duty
15. Little girl giggles and dances
16. Health
17. A friend due to give birth this week
18. A date to look forward to tonight

Two wiser women than I have preceded me in this gratitude exercise.  You will be blessed if you visit Beth and Bonnie.

And special thanks to Ann, whose book I look forward to reading.

The Hospitality Commands

One of the ways in which the Lord has been making me rearrange the furniture a bit in my life is in the area of teaching.  He granted me a teaching slot at the reatreat this past fall, and now for the coming year I'll be teaching our ladies' ministry once a month.

The down side to this is that my sin is ever before me -- whoopee!!  Hello, failures and shortcomings.  Nice to see ya.  I guess if you look at it the right way, this is an up side -- a hard up side, but an up side nonetheless.

The (easy) up side to this is that I get to pick what book we study.  Oh, really?!   Do I have to?!  (Just one book?!)

Here's my choice for the spring:  The Hospitality Commands by Alexander Strauch.  I'll probably be posting now and then to let you in on how it's going.

A Compendium of Religious Music

My dad sent me this gem today....

And the Denim Jumper Award Goes To...

If you know me at all, you know I like to poke a little fun at the stereotypical homeschool mom sporting a denim jumper and churning her own butter.  I do this for a few reasons:  to show the world that all homeschooling moms are not like that (i.e. superwoman); because I am probably more like those women than I would like to admit (i.e. frugal and loving all things natural); and to remind us all that preconceived notions do nothing to help us.  I have learned a lot from women in denim jumpers, and I hope to meet more of them in the future.  Amen.

However, sometimes I do something SO stereotypically "homeschool mom" that I have to step back and laugh at myself.  This post is about one of those moments.

Let me reinforce this by saying that I now share something specific in common with Michelle Duggar.  If you are familiar with Michelle, you know that she is like The Queen of Denim Jumper Homeschooling Moms.  She has birthed half a million children and homeschooled them all, while maintaining a sweet and wholesome demeanor and never raising her voice.

(Can I interject something here?  I have watched a few episodes of "18 Kids and Counting"  -- OK, who am I kidding, I watched the entire series on Netflix while I worked on Maddie's coat late at night -- and Michelle and JimBob have an intercom in their house.  I feel I would raise my voice far less often if I had one of those things.)

/rationalization

Anyway, my friend Suni helped me see the wisdom of Michelle's ways in choosing LAUNDRY DETERGENT.  The Duggars make their own soap, and they have published the recipe right here for all to see. 

Let me say something about this recipe, friends.  IT IS CHEAP and IT WORKS.

Yes, there is a little upfront labor in making it...but this morning I just ran out of soap from my first bucket, and I made it in June.  So it looks like I will be spending some time doing this every six months or so.  The initial setup cost was maybe around $12-15 for me.  I will not spend that much again, because I still have Borax and Washing Soda left from last time, and I won't need to buy a bucket again.

Stereotypical, yes?

Yes.  And smart.

Some other helpful details:

• If you plan to do this, save a detergent bottle from the soap you're using right now.
• You will need a funnel.
• If you miss the smell of your detergent, buy some essential oil and pour some of that in.  I have used lavender with much success.
• Local peeps, you can find Fels-Naptha at Harris Teeter.  The other ingredients you can find at Target or Walmart -- if you can't find them, my friend Suni purchased a whole kit to make this detergent at Soaps Gone Buy.  Her kit came with the soap already grated, which is the most labor-intensive part.
• I have one child who has extremely sensitive skin and flares up with eczema if I use regular detergent (up until this time, I was using All Free & Clear).  This detergent does not bother him.

NOTE:  My friend Amber says that this detergent may have been responsible for her HE washer breaking.  The repairman advised against using anything except detergents marked "he".

Double Digits

This boy...

• was born on his due date, like only 5% of babies
• lived in the hospital under one presidential administration and at home under another (he was released at noon on Inauguration Day, 2001)
• was watched carefully during the time he was in utero -- we heard words like "emergency," "heart failure," "heavy medication," and "complications."
• had an EKG on his second day of life that showed his heart beating perfectly
• watched the planes hit the Twin Towers while he played with Mom on the floor in front of the TV
• had surgery at eight months of age to correct a cleft palate
• taught his parents a great deal about the concept of children belonging to the Lord
• was a big brother before he could walk
• had lived at five different addresses before his fourth birthday
• is a natural leader
• is a quick study
• is intense in everything he does
• prefers reading his Bible to any school book
• resembles his father the most -- in personality and appearance
• is shorter than his closest younger brother, but still has the largest feet
• can build Lego structures in record time
• is a very concrete, serious thinker
• asks hard questions
• is TEN YEARS OLD TODAY

Cameron, we thank the Lord for His faithfulness in giving you life together with us for ten years!  You are a blessing.

Winter Beauty

The neighborhood is still coated today, but the sun came peeking out this morning to play off the glassy branches.

The birds came out this morning, too.  The following pictures were all taken in the span of five minutes....

you can see the sad state of our birdfeeder after the ice storm.  I went out and set it to rights this morning.

You can see Mrs. Bluebird in the shadow here.  This was the first morning I'd seen the pair.  I hope they stay and raise their kids here.

The End of the Matter

Because I am very on top of things, I have decided to close the two-month-old bedskirt/dustruffle issue with the following earth-shattering conclusions:

1. Some people call it a dustruffle.
2. Some other people call it a bedskirt.
3. Some people call it both names, depending on where it's used.
4. Some people call it both names, regardless of where it is used.

There now.  Doesn't closure feel good?

First This Millennium

Remember all the hoopla surrounding the turn of the millennium?  Apart from finally being officially entitled to Party Like It's 1999, everyone speculated on the millennium error in computers and what we would all do while we sat in the dark waiting for the lights to come back on.

There was also a rush of people wishing they could be the first to do something -- ANYTHING -- after the year 2000 rolled in.  There were midnight weddings.  Women were excited to be giving birth on December 31, thinking their babies might be in the running for a year's supply of diapers or a college scholarship.

I am not proud to say that my husband was amongst those who rushed to be the first to do something.  However, everything good was already taken.  So on the morning of January 1, 2000, he walked to the kitchen of our first apartment, in Worcester, Massachusetts, and made history.

He was the first person in the New Millennium -- to our knowledge -- to put a jar of Spanish olives upside-down on a bottle of Ruby Red Grapefruit juice.  Why was the press not notified?

See, the trick to being a history maker is to pick something so unimportant and random that no one else even wants to do it.

This past New Year's Day we reenacted it as we rolled from one decade to another.  It was a heartwarming moment.

Rearranging

We've been doing quite a bit of rearranging here at our home over the last few months.  There was the reversal of the bedrooms -- David and I are back in the master now, and the boys are split up two and two again -- and then on New Year's Eve day we switched the schoolroom with the den.  That means our schoolroom is a little bigger but the clutter is better disguised, and David now has a nice homey library with two armchairs to call his own. 

There was of course a good bit of rearranging that went with the celebration of our Lord's birth.  We had the largest tree in our family's history in our entryway this year and we had to get some furniture out of its way.  It was also the first one in our family's history to fall over. 

What is it about rearranging that is so energizing?  It forces us to take stock of what we have, whether we really need it, and take a fresh view on what we must keep.  Can the table sit in a different direction?  What if we had more lamps in this room?  Where can my planbook live so that I can reach it in a moment but it's safely out of harm's way?

Rearranging is also exhausting!  Just ask my husband who had to move our entire library with the help of one motivated boy -- who earned a cool five dollars for his efforts.  Shelves didn't fit the way we'd hoped, so down came the books one more time, and the shelf moved.  Now we rearrange the books to go back the order we had painstakingly established before the move.

Major details, minor details.  Balance.  Order.  Serenity.  Comfort.

As we moved things around, I thought about all the rearranging the Lord has to do with us....how we get locked into bad habits.  We think always in the same way.  We don't pray big enough.  We have huge blind spots of sinfulness.  We need to throw stuff out.

What rearranging does He have for me in 2011?

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,
in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:29