Love in Any Language

Love in Any Language, God help us to complete the meals for your project.

Band concert 2012

We dressed, as though we were going on a date. It was a date. A date with my favorite boughs. I can't remember a more exciting concert that I went to. Every child of mine whose concert I am able to attend, gives me chills and thrills. I remember the squeels and chills that rang down our necks in the beginning of this clarinet journey. Will he ever get past this squeekie season? Days ag

o, Emma {our dog} and I looked at eachother in front of the practicing protege and winked that we are glad to be able to sit in the same room now. It was real musical sounds coming from his clarinet. Delightful. Well, the concert was last night and I always imagine my Grandma Monica and adorned myself in makeup and some acrylic nails to remind myself of the significance of the day for me. Very little else is a documented ambition of mine for my children other than to enjoy the sense of concert with a group of others. A very similar feeling to the family life that we enjoy, but to a more tangible and appetizing end. Appetizing to me, who am satiated at the musical endeavors. He did his part. He is not a glutton for music, as his mother, but he appreciates it and that is all that I can ask from my artistically bent brood. I was delighted, Ben was impressed at the effort and Ezra soaks the enjoyments of these last little bears being reared in our den, with all of the sweetness of the youngest brother in the family. I think that youth is not wasted on the young;)

Frustration, Do I need tutoring.

Long talk with dad about the algebra grades.  I love my dad.  Mom.

25 Or 6-2-4

NOT IN THE MORNING--- We discussed this. I cannot deal with that music in the morning. What a nice funny time we had talking about the distractions of life and music. I was being funny and really didn't mean that you are not a preacher. You know that. You fellows make me laugh so hard sometimes with your thoroughly Biblical world view. I just have to inject some levity for you to see the balance. Reminders to keep our mind on the task is so much more important in Church than anywhere else. I keep telling you the story of my father who had no father to guide his conscience and his attentions. So many little boys grow up like that and you cannot imagine it. So I tell you of my dad to emphasize it. God loves their souls just as much and wants you to use some of your attention from father and grandfathers to share with those who have none of that. I hope that everytime you hear 25 or 6-2-4 you remember that.

Who is on the Lord's Side? Who is voting for LIFE?

Where were you this weekend, Ethan?

Haven't you any homework? No, I can't think of anything that I have to do, was the reply. Time and time again. Was it a slip of the tongue or of thought? Fully engaged in entertainment and time swept by you and Monday came as surely as it does each week. It was a lie that you and I both believed and now we must unravel the consequences, get to the truth and get the science homework completed and handed in. Punishment: No Wii for a month? We will see. Uh, Oh!

Mother, you are not on key!

I love the day when my children express that they hear my off notes. It means that they are not tone deaf, like their father. It was a great delight to hear your critique,this morning. You are learning to discern from a good music teacher and I hope that this discernment will do you good. I hope that you will blow your clarinet for God's glory. I hope that you will be severe on yourself to practice and make music for the glory of God. There is always praise and worship, in heaven. We are always preparing to meet the Lord and to worship Him in the knowledge of His infinite perfection. We won't have a choice to praise. His perfection will draw it out of us. Neither will we have a critical word for the fellow worshippers. We will all be perfectly tuned to sing God's praise. Flat or sharp is now our constant struggle. Where is the note? Where is the song? Those are the questions for time. Repetition seems tedious now, especially in the eighth grade. Why do we have to do the same thing over and over again? Why are we just repeating lessons and trying to get it just right? We are learning and growing and getting tuned to sing God's praise, on key, when we get there. Do you think I'll get on key, in time? :)

We did not forget you!

Everybody has a waiting escapade in our family. Yesterday was yours. My sister Amy would always tell me that these things make a man out of you. I don't know, yet. I was livid. Why can't we go and get my baby, first? I would certainly keep you from being the last one picked up. I am your mother. There are other things that need to be done, sometimes and we are sorry that you had to wait and be a burden to others. When I did that to Emily, she was sitting and crying on the side of the school. Mother, you forgot me. I really think I did forget her {that she had to be picked up after school, instead of taking the bus}. You seemed to take it alot better than she did. But, everybody has had that experience in our family. Cooperation and coordination is not easy, with 8 people in 2 cars and 3 buses. Sometimes somebody gets caught in the squeeze and has to wait longer than usual. I think you took it well. Well, one hour of volunteering down, how many to go? :)

Whose Birthday is it?

Ethan-- strong- second wisest in the kingdom of Solomon--eg. Psalm 89---

I will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord Forever

James supplanter---Brother of the Lord, Brother of John the Revelator, Disciple and Elder of the Church. Nicknames--Ethan, James, Montgomery, Isaac, Neutron, Walker. We have tucked all of our wishes for you into your names and it is for you to unpack the meanings and pray these prayers into your own soul for your profit and encouragement in the Kingdom of Christ. We love you and expect great things for you and in you. Happy Birthday!

Why do we celebrate the fourth of July?

We honor the traditions that were handed to us as an extension of the commandment to honor our father and mother.  Not because we can't see the reality of our hypocrisy and that of our parents, but because, by faith we are holding on to history, praying for God to come to us and cleanse our attempts at making one out of many.   Can we be unified in anything?  Can we be one person?  Can we be one family?  Can we be one city, state, country?  God can help us abide, on earth with some semblance of unity and love.

13 is a time where mother and father's inconsistencies seem all that you can see.  Pray for us, son.  Learn the lessons of honoring from God.  Learn the reality of the "well with you" promise. 



Great is God's faithfulness.  Our faithfulness and all of the institutions that we believe in on earth are flawed imitations of the one true and living God.  He is faithful and true.  If you take all of the institutions of the earth and put them together, they would still all have holes in them and be flawed.   We attempt to put the pieces of a fallen world, back together, as God has given us stewardship to uphold and occupy until His return.  In the meantime, we celebrate the baton passed to us, by our forefathers.  We lament and repent for our sins and the sinful handling of our parts of the puzzle.  We celebrate any level of unity that can be gleaned by the effort of being one nation under God.  Happy Fourth!

This is Mommy?

Thirty or so years ago, my most important posession was my serve.  Aces and becoming more precise in service was my consuming passion.  It seems so minute now, with husband and children to concern me. 
Years after Highschool, I went back and told the athletes that there was one thing that I took from school that I use every single day and that is the service.   The whistle blows in life and you say "I do" and the referee is counting every service, ace and fault.  It is certainly not as easy as serving 15 aces in a row to win the game.  It is more delicate, but it does boil down to the service and the teamwork.   I hope that you are learning to serve well.   I hope that you will understand the metaphor.

So Sorry you fell today, this song should pick us up from our tears:)

Maturing and growing is full of tears and cheers

Today is the water fight at AWANA. Tomorrow is the concert and then it is somewhat downhill to the years end. 7th grade is a growth process for the both of us. Glasses are needed by you, to see the world clearly and by me, to see you. Some emotional discussions you pick up so swiftly. Some visual distinctions are very foggy to you. I can see that your vision is a real concern to us, as usual. You see very deeply into the emotional, but not so much of the things around you. I am hoping that we can remedy the situation asap. Love you!

Webinar musings

What a cyberventure it was to go to a "Webinar".  I was so struck with the beauty and cybervenience and delight, that some of the information flew between my radar screens.
This is the second time that I signed up to go to a Webinar.  I missed the first one, because I forgot and fell asleep.  I was so upset that I had missed it. 
An hour before, I started to go into a panic attack.  How should I dress for a Webinar?  Should I eat before or after.  What happens if I don't have a webcam, {which I don't}.  What should I say, if they ask me if I had been to a Webinar before?  There were loads of questions of cyberactivity flooding my brain and I could have missed this one on purpose because of the hullaballoo.  I said, maybe I need to have Emily's newer and more loaded computer or her I{whatever}pad, pod, etc.  She wouldn't have it.  She wouldn't lend it to me for the meeting.   Maybe I needed to call the phone number for sound, since, I haven't a webcam.  The phone number looked like a number from China.  How much would that cost?   Do they charge you for all of the numbers that you put into the phone.   Now this is getting too complicated in my mind.  I am only slightly exagerating the emotional tumult. 
At 15 minutes before the meeting, I decided not to make any other arrangements other than worrying and getting upset that I already was.   I would do the long directions and see if my computer would allow me to attend the webinar, without having to call China on the phone for simulcast.  I was shocked to find out that they let you into the webinar, even if you don't have a webcam or a microphone or haven't called China.  They didn't care if you hadn't put on your makeup and weren't dressed like a moviestar.  You didn't have to be seen and see all of the people that were at the meeting.  
The information was well worth the effort.  But the anxiety attack before the meeting was laughable after.
I felt empowered.  I felt cyberpowered.  I felt State of the Arts.  I was a new millenium mommy, at last.

Dogpile on Precision!

The Life I Lead, from Mary Poppins

I feel a surge of deep satisfaction
Much as a king astride his noble steed
When I return from daily strife to heart and wife
How pleasant is the life I lead!

Mrs. Banks:
[Spoken]
Dear, it's about the children...

Mr. Banks:
Yes, yes, yes!

[Sung]
I run my home precisely on schedule
At 6:01, I march through my door
My slippers, sherry, and pipe are due at 6:02
Consistent is the life I lead!

It's grand to be an Englishman in 1910
King Edward's on the throne;
It's the age of men
I'm the lord of my castle
The sov'reign, the liege!
I treat my subjects: servants, children, wife
With a firm but gentle hand
Noblesse oblige!

It's 6:03 and the heirs to my dominion
Are scrubbed and tubbed and adequately fed
And so I'll pat them on the head
And send them off to bed
Ah! Lordly is the life I lead!

A British nanny must be a gen'ral!
The future empire lies within her hands
And so the person that we need to mold the breed
Is a nanny who can give commands!

A British bank is run with precision
A British home requires nothing less!
Tradition, discipline, and rules must be the tools
Without them - disorder!
Catastrophe! Anarchy! -
In short, we have a ghastly mess!

Looking at the earlier examples of masculinity, we must put our scaffolding on securely and beware of the despising of our fathers.
I find this song, from Mary Poppins, though a stereotype, it is an accurate depiction of the aim of earlier European generations.
Time management and Money stewardship were dominant and Husbanding and Fathering were smaller wheels on the vehicle, if on the vehicle at all.
There was a folly in looking at the masculinity of the past that viewed femininity as inferior in personhood, as opposed to, in office.
As we look at the image of God, reflected in the lyrics of our elders about their elders; some of the expressions are in anger, because they were the ones who lost their fathers to the industrial revolution. They cry, in the lyrics of mimicking their elders. Was their way right? Could we ever get back to some of those ambitions, from this side of the Feministic revolution? I think not. I think that there are diamonds in their study, but that for the most part Chauvenism created Feminism.
In Chauvinism or in Feminism, we are called to look at God's standards and not the standards that our forefathers encrypted on the walls of the caves of civilization that is around us. God is Sovereign and He is to be imitated in His loving servant leadership. But, we must take the diamonds out of the cave of prior civilizations before they collapse around us.
This diamond is the diamond of time management and control of the home and the how's of this that was passed down in the journals of time.
This means making a schedule for the morning and for the evening time. This means controlling yourself first, so that you will be the man that God wants to use to manage a family in the fear of God.
Some men major in precision and some major in the loving service. God calls men to be merciful, loving and precise in our leadership.
Lets start with the scheduling.

My Big Brother is a man of few words.

I am so glad that you respect your brother. I hope that God will give you much fellowship with eachother, as the age difference lessens in significance.
I love the loyalty that you have forged.

Math fair, wearing a tie and handing things in on time!

We are such absent-minded professor type people. Where is your other sock? Where is your progress report? Where is your...?
I loved telling you about "Carmen Jones" from the old days when you weren't born. I told you there are women who will take advantage of a handsome young sweet fellow like you. Dorothy Dandridge played the part very well. Nobody could have resisted her. She was a "femme-fatale" in that movie. Don't you watch it, just take my word for it.
Love means telling you the good parts of being a man and the difficulties. Wear your tie. Remember your assignments and watch out for the "femme-fatales".

A Middle School spanking!

You boys get away with an aweful lot, because you are the children of our older years. You cry at a spank on the hand. I used to say to the older ones, before every spanking at this age, this may be the last spanking you ever get from me. I thought over and over that they are getting too old to spank. I don't mean to jip you guys from intense instruction and care, but I miss it very often and you are not around us as much as the older ones were.
Asking permission to get on the computer in the morning is not too much to ask. You are a child and you are supposed to have so many other things done in the morning, there really is no time for frivolity and cartoons, even good enjoyments of the morning hours. You go to school and you haven't done some very important things and yet you have been on this or that site. I don't like it and that is why I spanked you. You may not ever get the meaning of this blog post, and think it is another one of the peculiarities of my mother; but I do hope not. God is first, our self care is important and the computer is a tool and not a right. Think about it!

I always say the Ethan made me reach across the sky to get him!

Everytime I hear this song I think about the birth of my third son! What a precious baby. How far can I go to get this one? I asked God this everyday. I didn't think there was any more of me to go around and God gives strength to the weak. When I look into the eyes of my precious prayed for son, I see the future, I see the past, All of the men that I have admired and all of the men that I am rearing. I can't see the places, I can just see the spirit that will influence the future.

Races

At 3 am this morning, Ethan became a man!

The angels guided me around the house yesterday. You need to sleep, mommy. Somebody's pituitary gland is going to pop tonight, they said. Oh, what a beautiful conversation we {Ethy and I} had, over the weekend, about Jacob in the bible. In my mind, I think Jacob and Grandpa have Ethan to monitor from heaven. That is just my imagination. The angels may be too, but I don't think so. I was flying in my dream, which is angel for we wouldn't miss this moving up ceremony for anything. Of course, the water was turned off, which is Walker for, we become a man when the house is roughing it {That was Ben's participation in the ceremony}. I awoke and was impressed to start cleaning the silverware{which is Bodden for, something unusual is happening}, in our primitive makeshift sink. Things have to be clean as they can be for the little fellow. You don't want to miss the look on his face. This is the last baby day. We are going to start seeing his man face develop. I know you know this, mommy. The nosebleed came like, childbirth. Like everybody knew it was coming. All our house and our heavenly worship community in mystic sweet communion with us. Don't miss the fireworks for Walker men, when they grow into manhood.
The dream was so graphic and warlike and smoke and planes and flight patterns. I woke up, just to get out of it. Maybe, they were letting me pick his grown up features as they set them in the glands. We thanked God for Dr. Fricht and reminisced about the deliverances that brought him to this point as I wiped the blood off his face and hands with the warm water and paper towels, that we rarely have on hand. But did, because "Ethan was becoming a man, today!"
Take his picture, mommy, you don't have enough pictures of that face and the grown face is going to surprise you, soon enough.
Thank you for reminding me that boys gallop swiftly into manhood, without as much pomp and circumstance. That is what my daddy was saying to me, when he talked about how it looked like I was being blown up like a balloon. They grow as you watch them. You are not going to want to miss this. I'll try to be aware.