The Gift of Forgetfulness

The New Year started out at a very leisurely pace in our household. Slowly putting Christmas items away. Robert was up early off to the gym; then off to work.

Then came the phone call. "I'm coming home, I'm still on vacation." Yes, he had forgotten exactly how long his vacation was. He had the rest of the week off! Many times forgetting something is a bad thing - this time a reward of a few more days off.

It struck me as a vivid contrast of years past. When vacations were clearly marked on our calendar. We counted the days until they arrived. We aimed and held on for the time off. It took a few days to finally relax and enjoy the time off; I could sense when the end of vacation was coming by the change in mood. It was like I could see all the issues and problems coming and resting on his shoulders again. What a wonderful place in life we are now that vacations days and work days move seamlessly with no dread or distraction.

Life is good.....and now we have a few more days to enjoy!

Adventures with Uruguay

It started out as it always seems to, a school project for a child. This time my son needing to make a food from Uruguay (who thinks of these projects?). Thankfully we live in the Internet age and he found a recipe we had all the ingredients for. A simple tortilla like bread needing to be cooked in hot oil.

The instructions were vague, but we felt we would have no problem. That was our first mistake ("our" because no mother in their right mind would allow the son work with hot oil). Being from California and not frying anything in hot oil, I soon learned that it melts plastic utensils. Since our oil now had plastic in it we switched to another pot. Still no luck producing anything edible, then the finish seemed to be boiling off the inside of my pot onto our Uruguayan dish. I wrote a passionate letter to his teacher explaining our dilemma and was ready to call it a night.

My son however was off on the Internet again. So at 9 p.m. we had produced some rather delicious meatballs. We also learned a valuable lesson. It doesn't really matter if you have all the ingredients, if the instructions are bad.

In an epiphany I realized my experience was kind of like life. We may have all the abilities and ingredients for a successful life, but without good instructions we make a mess of it. I'm so glad God provided the best instruction book of all.

An Easy Life vs. Reality

When life goes smoothly we take things for granted. We smile at our to-do list as things systematically get checked off. Life goes by easily, just as we planned, and we are able to enjoy and savor each day. I have no idea if that is really true -I am afterall a parent!

Yes the past few weeks I did have plans - a party, some baking, Christmas shopping, Christmas cards, readying the house for Christmas. The reality was helping gather supplies for school projects, three trips to the orthodontist for broken brackets (another trip next week), the stomach flu, and a broken washing machine. Not exactly a wild, fun, invigorating time to savor.

But I will savor it. This week we put a package in the mail to friends who lost their home in the fires. A fun animated Christmas decoration. Their home used to have many of them. They are gone. We wanted to help them start new.

I can be thankful for having a washing machine that can break, friends that I should send cards to, orthodonture for my kids, and projects that need helping with. My life would be so dull and predictable without them. The stomach flu? Yeah, not so thankful for that - but it did allow me to rest!

Life's Surprises

We didn't think it could be done. Three out of four of our children knew of the surprise - and the fourth was the person to be surprised. There were close calls, but everyone kept their lips sealed.

What better way to celebrate our daughter's 25th birthday than with flying in her boyfriend. She even accomodated by running errands (some provided by us). She walked in the door totally surprised and to our amazement began backing out of the door. Sometimes your body just doesn't know what to do when you're in shock. So much for those Hollywood movies where people are surprised by a visit and run towards each other - not our girl.

Surprises are fun, not only for the person being surprised but for everyone involved. There is something exhilerating about keeping a secret and being part of a surprise.

May this season bring many happy surprises.

Entitlement

Calling "shotgun". I'm not sure which household this originated in. It is probably centuries old....or at least as old as the shotgun. In my household it is alive and well. Without fail if more than one child is to accompany me, the chaos of "I call shotgun" begins. Trying to keep order I came up with the system "oldest child gets shotgun". This of course becomes problematic with twins and birth order. Everyone seems to feel they are entitled to the front seat position.

The concept of entitlement, "I am special and can do what I want" became very visual on a recent shopping trip. We were not the brave souls who woke up at dawn to stand in line for bargains the day after Thanksgiving - but we were brave enough to venture out after breakfast. As we entered Kohl's I was shocked to see someone wheeling in a Toys R' Us shopping cart passed me and charge into the store. More than once we had to pin ourselves against a display so a rogue shopping cart could maneuver past. For some reason these people decided the the Kohl's shopping carts weren't good enough them (even though they are made to FIT in the aisles), no they had to have a Target or Toys R' Us shopping cart. They needed big. They were entitled to big, no matter how crowded and uncomfortable it made shopping for everyone else.

Perhaps these people always got to ride shotgun - hard to say. Wouldn't it be nice if the only thing people felt entitled to was humility and a gracious and giving spirit. That is a dream. For my part, I will try to be less entitled, more gracious, and train at least four children (no matter how exhausting) that riding shotgun isn't always the best.

Connections

I could hardly believe my eyes, $65 in text messages. We are archaic parents who do not believe in the text messaging. We believe that if two people want to communicate, maybe they should try talking - in person or on the phone. After many exorbitant bills we had just blocked one child's phone from text messages, now another one has gone bad. It is amazing the high cost to stay connected.

In the "old days", if you moved you communicated by a large long distance bill or wrote letters. (Pieces of paper, placed in items called envelopes that required stamps). It is much easier to stay connected now. I am so thankful we moved to Texas in the age of technology. We are able to read the local paper and watch local news via the Internet - even when "local" means half way across the country. Through e-mail I have connected with people in Colorado, Oregon, Illinois, California and Guam just this week.

I marvel at the fact that I can have a friend share a concern, prayer request, problem and I can respond almost instantaneously. I don't have to worry if they're not home, or the time difference. I can write and connect. Connections make far away friends and family seem closer.

In a way we are catching up to God. He has always had the best technology. We pray - instantly He hears us. We're connected. We feel his closeness. I'm thankful for connections.

Time moves too quickly....

Time moves much too quickly. In fact I planned to write this blog three days ago. Where does the time go?

I was thinking that thought on Halloween. It was a noteworthy day for our family. It was the first time I can remember no Sherrill children donned costumes and went trick-or-treating. Though our son tried to rally some friends to venture out - no one was home, and thus our streak ended. There was no rush to finish dinner, no last minute costume crisis, no sifting through sack fulls of candy to make sure it was safe, no secret stash to occasionally "visit" during the week. We had a good run, with many great costumes: clowns, 50's girls (that skirt lasted years), a hippy (wearing MY dress....also lasting years), a scientist, a tourist complete with white socks and camera, and the alien abduction costume which will go down in history as the all time best. I have photos of all these - somewhere, in a box, waiting to be organized and scrap booked.

I smiled as we were overrun on Halloween by trick-or-treaters: a two foot Yoda, Dorothy and Toto too, princesses and pumpkins. There were camera flashes as parents took pictures on our doorstep, posing their costumed kids with the inflatable Snoopy we had on our porch.

Perhaps I should have spoken to them to enjoy and savor the night. To remind them that time slips away quickly. Or at least to print and file away their pictures so they can find them if they should become nostalgic and sentimental.