Packing and theTeenager Male

October 21, 2011

PackingI spent a goodly part of one week helping Pedro pack for his 10 day trip to Teen Pact Venture in Tennessee.

With 5 days on the road there and back and another 5 days at camp – it seemed to me that he needed a little guidance.

I helped him find more jeans, a suit coat, dress slacks, a outfit for golf and raided his dad’s t-shirts to make sure he had enough.

I carefully counted and folded and made nice piles for him.

I even bought him new underwear.

All the while there was this annoying little thought that kept coming back – “Why am I doing this? Pedro is a teenage boy who has been known to wear the same clothes for days at time…”

But the mother in me couldn’t let it go.

I was even kinda proud as he drove off on his adventure because I knew that he was prepared.

It didn’t last long.

I was brought back to reality within minutes of picking him up after his return trip.

He looked good and was sharing story after story of his time away – laughing and joking with his siblings.

Finally the mother in me just couldn’t wait any longer – so I asked him, “How did your clothes work out? Did you have enough of everything?”

“Well”, he responded, “I basically wore these jeans pretty much all week.”

(His sisters slide further away from him on the van seat.)

“What!” (I’m remembering all those trips up and down the attic stairs digging through his winter clothes to find enough jeans) “How about t-shirts? Did you have enough t-shirts?”

“I had way too many – I really only needed a couple.”

“A couple!” (You were gone 10 days! What about my neat little piles of carefully folded and counted shirts?!)

“Oh dear. What about your underwear? Did you have enough… No! Stop! Don’t answer that. I really don’t want to know.”

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Next time I’ll let him pack himself. :)

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Teenagers | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Adjustments

October 7, 2011

ouray coloradoMany of you have asked how I’m doing now that my first born has the flown the coop.

And the truth is – just fine!

Those of you who have already experienced this massive undertaking are smiling right now. You knew it would be like this. :)

My mom told me that the first parting is always sad but it doesn’t take long for a new normal to emerge.

She was right.

Once the car left the driveway and Matt was on his way to Colorado – we watched the dust settle. Then we went in the house, picked up the school books and kept working.

That night we set the table for 6.

We divided up his household responsibilities with some of the younger ones stepping up and doing more.

Dagmar commandeered the massive desk in his room as her new “office”.

His siblings have made free with his extensive CD collection.

We savor his weekly phone call and pass the phone around the family until everyone has had a chance to catch up.

And yes – we miss him. But as my friend Cinnamon told me, “No matter where he is, he will always be a part of you.”

I understand that now.

We pray for him at every meal, remember him in family stories and jokes, and make plans to convince him to lose the beard. :)

We’ve learned that when he’s where God wants him to be, doing what God wants him to do – there’s an incredible peace.

Even in the goodbyes.

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Teenagers | Tagged , , , | Comments (5)

And a Time to Throw Away…

September 28, 2011

ChocolateAs I brushed my teeth last night, I noticed that there were 3 empty toothpaste tubes in the bathroom.

Three.

This isn’t the only time I’ve seen something like this.

A recent sweep of the refrigerator yielded 2 ketchup bottles, 3 Ranch dressing bottles, 3 Hershey’s syrups and a couple of barbecue sauces – all empty.

There was an empty shampoo bottle in the bathtub and both toilet paper holders had a new roll sitting on top of the empty cardboard tube.

And – there was an empty corn flake box in the pantry. What’s with this? Are we expecting the corn flake fairy to refill it?

I think my kids may have an aversion to throwing things away.

Or maybe <gasp> they learned this behavior from me.

In my efforts to be super frugal I might just have gone overboard teaching them to get every little bit of chocolate out of each Hershey’s bottle before it was forever lost in the garbage.

Maybe cutting the bottles in half and using a spatula might have been a bit extreme. :)

Looks like I may need to temper my frugal lessons with a little Ecclesiastes 3:5 “…a time to keep and a time to throw away…”

Meanwhile – I have added garbage collector to my job description.

But at least I can take comfort in the fact that at least they still need me. :)

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Deep Thoughts, Teenagers | Comments (3)

Leaving the Nest

September 7, 2011

flying the coopToday my firstborn flew the coop.

I knew this would happen eventually and I must admit that I even dreaded it a little – but it was a surprisingly blessed event.

But really – how could it be anything else?

After months of prayer and seeking what God would have him do, Matt decided the first of August to apply for Summit Semester – an intensive 3 month study program in the mountains of Colorado fashioned after Francis Schaeffer’s L’Abri in Switzerland.

After a whirlwind of applications, references and interviews – he was accepted and the money he needed was provided.

In the span of 3 weeks, God opened the door and Matt was so excited to walk through!

We had very little time to figure out how to get him out there, what to pack (just how many bars of soap does one need for 3 months – assuming you actually shower?), and how to tie up the loose ends (like Matt’s on-line business.)

But in the end all the details worked themselves out.

He took off this morning, heading west on the adventure of a lifetime!

Will we miss him? Oh yes. We already do – although his siblings are in heated discussions about who gets his room! ;)

But we are so excited for him!

What will he do when the three months are over? Good question. I wish I knew the answer. But God didn’t give Matt a 5-year plan – just enough light for the next step.

But then – that’s all we really need.

Just walking in faith – one step at a time.

Go with God son. We’re proud of you. And we’re praying.

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Home School | Tagged , | Comments (6)

Jinxed

August 31, 2011

CDs
I don’t think CD players like me.

Maybe I’m jinxed or something – but this is getting kind of crazy.

I like to have a CD player in the kitchen so I can listen to music while I work. Sounds simple – right? Ha!

Things started to go wrong when we were still living in the hovel. I had left my windows open one Sunday when we went to church and a freak rain storm blew in.

Of course my CD player was sitting right under the open window.  It was history.

My wonderful sister Sandy got me a new one for Christmas and I greatly enjoyed having music to work by – for a while – until one of the kids ran through the kitchen really fast and knocked it down.  It, too, was history.

Things didn’t get any better in the new house. My sweet husband got me a wonderful new one. It was all silver with a sleek modern design – really nice! It worked pretty well, too.

Well – at least most of the time.

But then one day I went to switch on the radio and it wasn’t there. The whole player had simply vanished. I found it later in one of the kid’s rooms. Their CD player had broken and they just couldn’t go to sleep without listening to Adventures in Odyssey or Jonathon Parks – so they borrowed mine. Long term.

My dear husband felt sorry for me  and offered to share one of the CD players he had in the shop. I don’t even want to know how many layers of dust he had to remove to make it presentable!  I took one look at that behemoth and said, “We’ve got us a Boom Box!”

This thing is old it still has a cassette player. Remember cassettes? They’re those square plastic things that you have to rewind to listen to. Oh yeah – it’s old.

It’s also a monster. The speakers alone as a big as dinner plates!

I smiled.  This thing wasn’t just gonna play music – no – it was going to blast music!

There was just one problem. It didn’t like me.

Jan put a CD in and it played beautifully. A few nights later I put a CD in and that monstrosity wouldn’t even turn on. So I asked Dagmar to fix it for me. She simple walks in the room and the silly thing lights up.

She laughing says, “Wow, all I have to do is walk in the room and it works!”

I laughed too. But it wasn’t really funny.

I push the buttons to start the first song – nothing.

Jan walks in the room – pushes the same button and the room is full of music.

He walks out of the room and it stops.

Seriously people. It stopped. I am not kidding.

It doesn’t like me. It seems the only way I can listen to music is if Dagmar or Jan are standing in the room beside it!

This just isn’t fair.

So – if any of my dear and wonderful children are actually reading Mommy’s blog post – please know that all I really want for Christmas is a new CD player for my kitchen. With a radio. And  a clock.  Maybe an under counter model. And if it could remind me to water the plants or put sugar on the grocery list that would be even better! :)

Okay – who am I kidding.   With my luck the whole thing will explode – or not pick up any radio stations unless you stand in a certain way with one foot touching the south window and the other one over your head.

Maybe all I really want is my fancy silver CD player back. At least it played music on Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Sunday.

I’m jinxed – I tell you. Jinxed.

(Did I ever tell you about the set of three cordless phones I got for Christmas that got zapped in a freak  lightening storm? It was about 2 AM…)

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Home Making, Teenagers | Tagged , , | Comments (5)