Saturday, October 29, 2011

Oops. I Missed It.

After an extended season of summer, we have suddenly and decisively entered fall.  It was inevitable!

Everyday for the last week, I have marveled at the glorious changing colors of the trees of our neighborhood. The crisp temperatures have brought out the golds, reds and oranges.  Or, should I say, the Crayola colors of burnt sienna, chestnut and goldenrod.

One tree in particular stood out among all the rest.  Just across the way, an elm tree stood and turned from forest green to brick red to scarlet.  It was incredible!  The leaves blazed against the dandelion cottonwoods and canary aspen.  The color didn't actually seem real, it was so bright.  It glowed in the sunlight.  A tree robed in majesty!  It brought to mind the verses from the Bible that describe God as our King ...

 1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; 
   the LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength; 
   indeed, the world is established, firm and secure. (Psalm 93:1)

Each afternoon we left the house to pick up kids from school, I would say, "Oh!  I was going to grab the camera.  I need to get a picture of that."  And each afternoon as we came home from picking up the kids from school, I would drive right into the garage and forget all about getting a quick snapshot.

Until yesterday.

Finally, camera in hand I walked across the street and took a picture.


Kinda sad, isn't it.

I missed it.

The tree had been at its very best last week and I failed to record its beauty.  I didn't seize the moment to capture its momentary glory.

Of course, God's glory is even more majestic than this elm tree ... even at its peak, it didn't rival the beauty or majesty of our King.  How grateful I am that not only is God more worthy of adoration than this tree, but neither is He fleeting! In His sovereignty, He rules and blesses His creation with the same generosity and wisdom that He has since the beginning of time.

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

Even if I missed out on the short-lived splendor of this tree, I will never miss out on the care and favor of my Father!



Day 1:  Mom in the Midst
Day 2:  My Button is Lame
Day 3:  Splendidly Lavish
Day 4:  Keeping My Head Above Water
Day 5:  Time-Warp Wednesday ~ Little Me
Day 6:  Me, Myself & I
Day 7:  Food For Though ~ Bacon
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Friday, October 28, 2011

Food For Thought ~ Milk, It Does the Body Good

As little Baby S gulps her bottle, she splurts and sputters.  She is apparently starving!  Never mind that she ate a mere three hours ago!

As she gulps and guzzles, a smidgen of milk dribbles out of the corner of her mouth and runs toward her left ear.  I dab at it with her bib in an attempt to keep her from ending up with milk curds in the folds of her neck.

She makes little snorty noises through her nose as she tries to keep up with the flow of the bottle.  She breaks off her latch on the nipple and gasps.  Then latches right back on for more.  Little bubbles come to the surface of her milk as the creamy liquid disappears.

Her sweet little lips are splayed across the top of the bottle, working rhythmically to drain the milk.  Her upper lip is folded back, almost covering her nostrils, but she manages to breath and drink in a tempo of her own.

Her eyes are fastened on mine.  She stares at me with intense focus as if daring me to pull the nipple from between her pursed lips.  The suction she has created makes this nearly impossible, of course.

She loves her milk.
Her mommy's milk.

I breastfed my babies and so this is my first experience with heating, handling and holding bottles.  It has been a curious adventure, to say the least!

Who knew that it took so long to heat a bottle in a mug of hot water?  All the while the hungry baby grunts and tries to fit both her fists in her teeny-tiny mouth ... "Uhm ... I'm hungry!  Hello!"

Who knew that there was an upside to a bottle?  Poor little peanut spent fifteen minutes sucking on a bottle with the air vent in the wrong place ... "Who put this lady in charge?!?  She doesn't even know how to work this thing!!"

Who know that there was a two degree window of optimum temperature?  My persnickety little friend prefers her milk at a delicious temperature of 98.6.  Of course.  "You expect me to drink that?  It's far too cold ... at most it's 96.2 degrees."

But back to her passion for eating ...

This little baby is a foodie of the liquid diet!  When she's hungry, there is no distracting her.  She will follow the hand that holds the bottle - her eyes wide with anticipation, her hands fumbling with excitement, her feet kicking with expectancy.  And for good reason.

This milk is her only sustenance.  And miraculously it meets every one of her nutritional needs.  This connection that God created between a mother and her baby is still a marvelous mystery to me.

This milk is so treasured that the apostle Peter used it as an illustration in his first letter to the churches of Galatia, Asia and beyond.  He compares this valuable milk to the teaching of the Bible:

2 Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. (1 Peter 2:2-3)


When we hunger after the righteousness found in God's Word and consume His instructions - digesting the truth found there and allowing our hearts to process it - we grow and mature in our salvation.  We develop spiritually and put aside the selfishness and sin that stunts our growth.


Of course we can't just settle for milk.  Eventually we have to move on to meatier and more substantial spiritual food.  But the milk of the Word is still the building block of our soul's nutrition and nourishment.


So don't be bashful ... just like Baby S, get into the Bible and guzzle it up!  It does the body (and soul) good!


Day 1:  Mom in the Midst
Day 2:  My Button is Lame
Day 3:  Splendidly Lavish
Day 4:  Keeping My Head Above Water
Day 5:  Time-Warp Wednesday ~ Little Me
Day 6:  Me, Myself & I
Day 7:  Food For Though ~ Bacon
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Thursday, October 27, 2011

I'm on the Hunt

I'm standing at the bottom of the stairs leading into the garage.  The herd of kids has unloaded from the van and I'm waiting for the dust from the stampede into the house to die down.  And to muster the courage to go into the fray and help the kids settled back into being home.  I'm also on the hunt for a smile from my boy ... they've been scarce today.

As I walk in the house, the family room is littered with school parts:  backpacks, paper, lunch boxes and a few shoes.  Aaron is plopped on the couch with his coat still on, browsing the newest Lego Magazine he just snagged from the mailbox.

"Hey, Buddy ... can you please finish your "I'm home from school" business before getting sucked in?"

"Sure."

... 10 minutes later ...

I head to the garage to get the bread out of the freezer and find that the floors are still covered in school stuff.  And Aaron has made himself comfortable on the couch.  Grrr ...

"Aaron, please take care of your school stuff.  Do you have homework to do?"

"Yeah.  I'll do it."

"Hey.  You already said that.  I need you to help me out."

"Okay."

"Yes, Mom?"

"Yes, Mom."

Aaron crawls off the couch and with the magazine in one hand he reads and rounds up his stuff.  As I watch him, he manages to hang his backpack on the hook (still packed with his old lunch), drop his sweatshirt behind the laundry room door and kick half of his shoes into the shoe bin.  That would leave one shoe sitting alone by the washing machine.  I'm good at math, eh?

As he heads back to the couch, I raise my eyebrows at him and clear my throat.

"ahem ... Is that job done well?  100%?"

"What?  Oh, sorry, Mom."

I swallow my overwhelming need to nag and head back to the kitchen, leaving him to finish his job.  A few minutes later he dumps his lunch box on the counter and plops down at the kitchen.

"Can I have a snack?"

"Sure.  We have granola bars or fruit.  Or octopus legs."

"I want some yogurt."  He pulls out his math homework.

"Sorry, Dude.  No yogurt.  I have fruit or granola .... ewww!  What is slimy inside your lunch box?"

"Oh, yeah.  I couldn't get the thermos lid back on.  I guess I'll wait for dinner."

"Okay ... just don't faint from hunger.  I'd hate for you to melt into a puddle."  He is not amused by my teasing.

He mumbles through his first math problem, writing, erasing, counting, erasing again.

"I don't get this!  Where's the calculator?"

"You can't use a calculator ... you need to figure this out.   The iPod already knows how to do math."  Still no smile.

"Can I help you out?  I'm pretty good at multiplication."

"How many times does 18 go into 90?  I have no idea."

I sit across from him at the table and peek at his work.  They are teaching this "new" math where they don't just learn the long division, they have to take the numbers apart and put the equations together in different ways.  I'm still unsure of the methods, but I jump right in.

"Well ... how many times does 15 go into 90?  And then we can do something with the other left-overs."

He grunts and doodles on his page.

"Uh ... 6?"

"Right.  Okay then how many do we have left over?"

"Three from each set of 6 ... that makes 18."

"Great.  I guess that means one more set of 18."

"Which means the answer is seven."

"Yep.  Now you just need to write that out so your teacher knows how we got there."

Aaron sighs and grumbles about "not knowing" and "too hard" and "how do I do that?"

I go back to my cooking and wonder if I'm ever going to get a smile out of my boy this afternoon.

"Uh, Mom.  I double-checked my work and you were totally wrong.  The answer is five, not seven!"

I turn to my boy ... who is beaming.  And laughing.  And holding his side.  And smiling.

"You were totally off!"

More laughter and head shaking and smiling.

"Well," I gather up my pride, "That's what you get for asking your mom for help with math.  You get the wrong answer, but the smile is free!"

Sometimes I get afraid that I will fall out of touch with my big guy.  Perhaps someday I won't be cool enough for him to enjoy hanging out with me.  Apparently, however, if I lose my coolness, I still have my faulty math skills to fall back on!

 13 A happy heart makes the face cheerful, 
   but heartache (and long division) crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:13, addition mine)


I'm so glad I found his smile ... it made my whole day.  


Even if it was at my expense!
_____________________________



Prompt #2 ~  Write about the last item you looked for. Why did you need it?

Mama’s Losin’ It






Day 1:  Mom in the Midst
Day 2:  My Button is Lame
Day 3:  Splendidly Lavish
Day 4:  Keeping My Head Above Water
Day 5:  Time-Warp Wednesday ~ Little Me
Day 6:  Me, Myself & I
Day 7:  Food For Though ~ Bacon


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