I am very excited for another opportunity to guestblog for North Point Community Church! Check out the website for thoughts on the Guardrails series that Andy Stanley just finished (incredible!): http://northpointonline.tv/blog/posts . I would love to hear your thoughts, so don’t forget to leave a comment on the site and check out all the other information posted while you are there….
I read this post on facebook by Chuck Little and thought it was worth sharing today. Chuck is the Deputy Director of Public Affairs for the Marines and he is stationed in Honolulu, HI. His post is about the meaning of Memorial Day. It’s not barbeques or beach trips or even a day off of work, although all of these are lovely ways to spend a day. Read on and don’t forget to take a minute today to fly your flag and remember those who taught us freedom is not free.
I had an unexpected day to myself yesterday other than a two hour meeting for summer school. I ran a bunch of necessary errands, took a long nap and had popcorn and iced tea for dinner. Did I mention that I didn’t get to the grocery store this week? Even if I had, I probably would have eaten the same thing. I settled into the couch for a TV night, the first in a very long time, and hit the “my dvr” button to catch up on the finales of Parenthood (genius!) and Community (hilarious and awkward!).
My high schooler also seemed to change and grow up this week as well. The fuzzy edges of maturity are coming into sharper contrast lately and it always takes me by surprise. He called me as soon as he finished his Literature final and proudly announced he had gotten an A on it and his end of course test, saving him from the terror of summer school by the skin of his teeth. This class had turned both his teachers and myself grey as he struggled through it. I could hear the relief and pride in his voice over the phone and it mirrored my feelings completely.
The past week has been a roller coaster of emotion with the last week of elementary school for my younger son. It was also finals week for my older son’s first year of high school. We have been running full steam ahead this week in all directions with the house and our poor dog being woefully neglected. Lately I have had something akin to panic bubbling in my head as time seems to have sped up exponentially. I don’t like it one bit and I want to push pause for just a little while to savor time with them while we are all happy and healthy and here together.
Have you heard about Silly Bandz yet? Chances are if you have a child under the age of 12, you know what they are. These colorful rubber bands come in a variety of themed shapes (rock and roll, space, animals, beachtime, etc..) and have the amazing ability to be stretched and worn around the wrist and then snap back into whatever incredible shape they were initially. I don’t know how this works. If I did, I would test the technology on my post-baby stomach and snap it back into it’s pre-baby state.
We had our fifth grade dance last week at the height of the last week of school frenzy that occurs in May each year. My youngest son was looking forward to the dance, even though he couldn’t ask the girl he has had a crush on since forever ( see Check Yes or Yes ). Several of his buddies were going too, although a few deemed a fifth grade Jam ”stupid” and decided to stay home and play Xbox instead. The dance this year had a Hawaiian theme and as we pulled up, the girls were all taking pictures in groups, decked out in adorable floral sundresses and wearing just a hint of make-up.
She has stood like a smiling sentinel at the corner of the fourth/fifth grade hallway for 16 years, never a different room. The hat she has worn as a fourth grade teacher is not her only hat, literally or figuratively. She has been a school superintendent and a principal in her past lives. She is a mother, a grandmother, a wife for half a century and a teacher just shy of that length of time, 49 years. Mrs. Evans is a legend in our building. You will hear her infectious laugh in the hallways and her lovingly calling everyone from our Assistant Principal to parents to the child being a bit naughty in her class “Sugar” , in a lovely southern drawl. No one knows how old she is (a lady never tells) but her heart and wit are that of a twenty year old. When asked the secret to her longevity in the teaching profession, she smiles with a twinkle in her eye and simply states, “endurance”.
I ran across an article about a new web application called In20years. This allows a user to upload a current picture of one’s self AND it automatically ages your face 20 years AND it’s free! Now the only idiots people who would have the desire for this would have to be under twenty years old themselves. Who in their right mind would want to see their future in HD? Wrinkles, crows feet and sagging jowls, oh my! The author of the article was herself barely older than a fetus (19) and aged herself to the horrific late thirties. She equated how she looked to something that “would make wee babes weep in fear.” Nice.
The phone call came with a request for pizza for four, hungry teenage boys and a twenty minute warning that they were coming in. I panicked as I looked around at what could pass for the aftermath of a blitzkrieg in my kitchen. There were no weapons of mass destruction in my home other than two boys and a dog, but you could have fooled me as I gazed at the dishes strewn across counter tops and jackets draped over chairs. There were also intermittent piles of size 14 shoes rising like bunkers in the middle of the family room floor. No, this was simply the aftermath of life in the midst of end of school chaos and spring football season. Cleaning the house was on my to do list this weekend, but the more I looked at the mess, the better bulldozing the entire kitchen and rebuilding sounded to me.
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