Ghetto Bus Driver Lady

Back in May, Roy and I decided that we found the house we want and we are going to buy it. Actually, I decided this in March but I’ll pretend that this was *our* decision. So, I packed up everything in the house that I was not going to need in the near future so we could put the house up for sale. I scrubbed and cleaned, re-grouted the kitchen floor, spackled and filled holes, sanded, painted and had a daily bon fire going in my backyard. I burned up everything I thought the thrift store didn’t want and I didn’t need in the next 3 months. The poor tree in the neighbors back yard that hangs over our fence looks like a monster took a big bite out of the bottom of it. I covered up my enormous fire pit with sand. I hope the new owners don’t dig too deep!

Well, it turns out that it is impossible to show a house with 10 people living in it. Roy replaced Ben’s bedroom door that had an infinite number of holes of all shape and sizes. Within 2 weeks, my precious little man kicked a hole in it. The grout in the kitchen started to collect syrup and various liquids that are hardly ever clear, shiny water. Two kids went through the ceiling from the attic to the kitchen. The toilet came loose for no particular reason….and on and on. Now we have to resort to Plan B! We just have to be out of this house if we are going to show it. Asking my parents if we could move in only brought about laughter for a while until honest and goodness fear set in. Plan B is a no-go. On to our current Plan C which is to move into our new home and then fix this one up to sell it. Guess what that means? We will be owning 2 houses at the same time! We are very, very blessed to be in the position to own them both but as spoiled as I am, I do not like to be strapped for money. At one time, I worked for the Royal’s and Chief’s games in the concession stand. I enjoyed it but I was gone for nearly 6-7 hours with each game. That is a long time to be away from my family. After about 3 hours, I would have an aching feeling of remorse and guilt for being gone so long. I decided not to continue. I really wanted a job that would take me out of the home but not be gone any longer than 3 hours at a time. Yes, I needed to be out of the home. There is no home business on the planet that I can accomplish in the home without constant interruptions. My “3 hour” job would turn into 8-10 hours! I gave up on the idea that this kind of job was out there. 

My good friend and fellow homeschool mom, Ana, became a bus driver. She didn’t have too many nice things to say about it but it all sounded lovely to meJ All I wanted to hear is “2-3 hours in the morning” and “money”. Nothing else mattered. Lol. SO, off I went to Durham Bus Transportation on Grandview Rd. I walked in the front doors, took my 200 test full of weird questions and got hired. I am very observant when I need to be. I took a good look at everyone that worked there. I was a little worried. My first impression of my future fellow co-workers were not that great. I did not feel like I belonged there. I nudged forward, took my classes, got trained on the bus and got my license. My trainers were wonderful. They knew the bus and the rules and they genuinely cared about safety and I feel like they genuinely cared about me.

 

I was given bus #7. That is the covenant number. The perfect number! God's number. He loves me!!

I am very blessed to only have a morning route. I leave at 5:50am and I’m home by 9:30. Since the first day of school was a ½ day, I volunteered to pick the kids up from school too (the afternoon bus driver was not available). WOW!!! I am NEVER, EVER, EVER doing that again!! To make this short and sweet, the kids were RUDE!! Ok, forget that I said “sweet”. I don’t mean loud and not listening or following the rules. I mean, I was treated with more disrespect than I had ever experienced in my life. Every kid wanted to be dropped off at their front door and every kid wanted to be dropped off first and it seemed like they have never NOT gotten what they wanted when they wanted it with a big cherry on top. Me and my rose colored glasses actually believed that this only happened on TV and movies. But nope! What happens on the bus in TV and movies actually happens in real life. SOOO, that was the last day I ever worked in the afternoon. No thank you!!!!

Now for the good news….they are all dead tired in the morningJ!!!! Yeah! They are probably dead tired from all the torture they are giving their afternoon bus driver. Its not my problem nowJ After my experience with picking them up from school, I went to Adoration and Benediction at my church. I prayed for my students and asked God to protect them from the wickedness and snares of the devil. I then filled up my Holy Water bottle and I was ready for the next day. I sprinkled Holy Water on every seat and said the St. Michael prayer 3 times to protect my students from harm with a small extra prayer to keep them tired and quiet for me. I say this prayer every day on the bus. If nothing else, my prayer life has improved.

It has been 2 weeks now. In that 2 weeks, I have said “Hi” or “Good morning” to every person who has gotten on the bus. On the first day, one young man said “hi” and no one else. No one. Not one kid out of the 115. 2 weeks later, nearly everyone (except the 2 girls that I wrote up) either look at me and grunt or nod or actually speaks a “Hi” or “Good Morning” to me. I am seeing some progress.

Do I like driving the bus you ask? Well, first, thanks for askingJ And second, I LOVE driving the bus! I feel powerful. I get to have the biggest bus on the lot, an 87 passenger snub nose bus. The tires are behind me so I can maneuver around corners with my front end going over the curbs and ditches. I freak out a couple girls in the front seat on one particular turn and I love it. I feel like I have skill. I also enjoy driving the bus because I know I can be a friendly and consistent face that all of the students can begin their day with. I am not influenced by their rudeness they harbor until the end of the afternoon.  

I wish I could talk every anti-homeschooling person into driving a bus for just a week. Its all I ask. Then, I will forgive you. There is no need to beg for mercy.

On the flip side, to every one of my fine friends out there.... Although we teach our children and believe ourselves that everyone has dignity, deserves respect and is made in the image of likeness of God, being a bus driver will put you to the test. I am so glad I took this test because I could see that I was no where close to where I needed to be.  I need to pray and beg for God to give me the gift to see everyone the way He see's them.

What makes a Saint?

Its Summer time! In this family, Summer time means Saints time! We may not school all year round but as a mom and teacher, I have to do something educational over the Summer. We learn about the Saints of our church during the school year but we can really focus and relax and go more in depth about their lives during these hot months.

My beloved local Catholic Church, Coronation of Our Lady, was gifted with a new priest 10 months ago who repeatedly says that he wants to be a Saint. Now, I don’t know about you but I have only heard these words come off the pages from actual Saints from hundreds of years ago.  I have not actually heard a live human being say that they want to be a Saint. Kind of strange, huh?  I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a Saint?   As our family learns about one Saint at a time, there are common threads they shared with one another. If I want to be a Saint, the best place to begin would to read and learn about other saintly wives and mothers so they can be my example. If my priest wants to be a Saint, I would guess he would emulate the lives of other canonized priests.

My kids enjoy learning about their own patron saints. I have 4 boys and all 4 of them were named after Saints that were priests. I want to briefly tell you about a handful of priestly Saints. It would take a man of very great faith and courage to want to imitate what these poor souls had to suffer.

St. Nicholas

I love reading about this Saint every year on December 5^th and then setting out the shoe’s for St. Nicholas to fill in the night with candy coins and other treats! His life was not full of treats and gift though. As a very young boy, he was disliked by his Roman neighbors. He was mocked, yelled at and threatened for loving God. When he became a priest, he was downright hated.  The only people that dared to go to Mass were only the holiest of holy people who love the Eucharist more than they feared persecution. When Christianity was outlawed, Nicholas (now a bishop) was tortured, chained and thrown into prison until the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity again. St. Nicholas attended the very first Ecumenical Council in response to the current heresy where he is to have slapped a man in the face that spread this heresy that Jesus was not really God.

St. Maximilian Kolbe

“What will become of you Raymond?!”  ~mama Kolbe.  Raymond was a mischievous boy and his mother was frustrated with him. Little Raymond was praying when he saw a vision of our Blessed Virgin Mary. She offered him 2 crowns, a white one and a red one. She asked which he would like and he said “both”! He knew that he was called to live a life of purity and die a martyr’s death.  As a priest, he used modern technology to spread the faith. He named his paper after Our Lady whom he had consecrated his entire life to.  He used his monastery as a refugee for Jews and anyone else that were being persecuted by the Nazi’s. He was eventually arrested, put in a concentration camp at Auschwitz. He never stopped ministering to all the prisoners. Even as he lay dying of starvation, he still sang songs, prayed and preached of God’s mercy and salvation to lift the spirits of the other frail men.

St. Benjamin

Yeah. This is a little too gross to talk about. Persecution is an understatement.

St. Matthew the apostle

This is a man, along with all the other 11 apostles that were kicked out from town to town as he preached the Gospel. BTW, when I say “Gospel”, I am not talking about Scripture or the New Testament as it was not written yet. This was oral teaching that was handed down to him by Jesus Christ himself. After being persecuted and mocked for years on end, he was eventually axed to death.

These are the priestly patron saints of my boys. Here is another one that we will be learning more about this summer.....

St. JoseMaria Escriva

I just love this name. It makes me feel super Catholic just to say it. If you haven’t seen There Be Dragons, rent the movie! It tells the story of this remarkable saint. He founded Opus Dei, an institution to help people of every walk of life to be a Saint. We are all called to be saints. This is not just for priests and religious. He only had a small group of people to begin this mission. During the Spanish civil war, he had to celebrate Mass and listen to confessions in secret. He put his life in danger repeatedly for the Sacraments, including rescuing the Eucharist from the Tabernacle in a church before it was desecrated by soldiers.

I do not know how many priestly saints there are and googling it does not help but I am sure the number is quite high. I want to plead with my Catholic brothers and sisters to read about the lives of all of these Saints. This is what you will discover…… What these men have in common is that they spread the faith to those that didn’t want to hear it. They were unpopular in their neighborhoods. They had a small group of faithful and holy people to support them. They had a much larger group of people that hated and persecuted them. They had a great devotion and consecrated themselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary. They all desired to be a Saint.

Yes, my priest is right on track.

One down, seven more to go

“Commencement. The end of one thing, the start of something new.”  Norman Osborn/Green Goblin

Graduation, what an exciting time. While our kids are giddy and excited to be recognized for their years of grueling math problems, research papers and Science projects, the audience looks back on where all this time went. How did they get so big, so fast?  I was just holding this odd & orange colored baby in my arms just a little while ago.  As a matter of fact, wasn’t I just at my own prom? If it wasn’t for the invention of the camera, I would swear that Nick went from toddlerhood to college with no in-between. If you want to know why I have so many children, this is it. I want my parenting days to last longer than a blink of an eye. Eight blinks is a smidge better.

Where will he go from here?

GREAT question!! Nick is a home boy. He has always loved being with his family. He has been changing diapers since he was six years old…..CLOTH diapers I might add. He’s been pulling babies out of the bassinet in the wee hours of the night to sleep and care for them since he was five. He’s been cleaning up vomit, giving baths to tiny people, washing markers off the walls, etc. for years on end. And you know what? He is not one bit interested in stopping. Just today, he asked me how long he had to wait before buying me a pregnancy test (Roy just left from his 2 week R & R from Afghanistan).

Nick and Samantha

 In order to continue his desire to be home AND continue his education, he will be going to our local community college, Longview. He says he will be joining the Army reserves next year.  If I do have another baby, I’ll have to keep that a secret for a good long time or he will change his mind!

Nick's closest friend is going to Conception Seminary to
discern his vocation to the priesthood. This is a completely
"normal" vocation ;) Congratulations Jared Samson!!!!!!!!

So, did I pass or fail as a parent? This is the deciding moment! When kids are a disappointment to their parents, Mom & Dad can usually blame school and friends whether it’s true or not. Since I have been his teacher his whole life,  I have no one to blame but myself. That is a hefty responsibility. No wonder parents do not want to homeschool!  It is so much easier to pass the buck and blame on someone else. I will gladly take credit for Nick! Lucky for him, his salvation will not depend on his gradesJ He is a pure and innocent young man. This is one reason why I am grateful that he is staying home for college. The life I wanted him and my other children to have is a life that makes purity, intact-mom & dad families and strong faith in God seem completely normal. I remember telling my parents, “everyone else is doing it!” in order to get my way. I wanted Nick to see that everyone else is pure. Everyone else has a strong faith. Not everyone has a girlfriend. Everyone else is doing their homework!! That may not be what everyone else was really doing but now that he is 18 and in the work place, he sees the hurt that impurity causes and the effects to a child that a broken home brings. If he would have grown up seeing all of this hurt and pain, he would think that THIS is normal and THIS is what he can expect for himself.  He has developed a maturity and strong foundation that only years upon years can build and make strong and sturdy. An 18 year old is not as interested in being like everyone else as a 10 year old is. A 10 year old cannot fight off a wolf as well as an 18 year old can. Don’t throw your kids to the wolves and tell yourself that it will build character! Nick is reluctant but he is ready. He has the tools he needs not only to keep himself pure and pleasing to God but he has the tools to lead other people in that direction too. I am SO proud of him.

I would like to take full credit for this young man. LOL. Yes, yes. It was ALL me. Calm down, I’m JUST kidding. Thanks to having kids, my prayer life and penance has GREATLY increased. Everything good in me and you and Nick and each member of the human race is because of God’s gift. The ONLY thing we can call our own is our sin. Everything else belongs to God.

To give credit where credit is due….Thank you GOD for the gift of my son, for listening to my prayers, for excepting my sufferings in exchange for Nick’s strong faith and for gifting him with faith to love and serve you. This is a never ending battle. Never will I be able to say, “I’ve arrived! I’m finally perfect!” I pray that I never let go of the wheel, that I pray unceasingly for all of my children and halt any moans and groans of suffering and offer them up for my children and my own poor and unworthy soul.

Its late. I get sappy when its late.

Teenagers

I cannot count the number of times that I have been warned about having a teenager.  I am sure you can relate. Not only am I warned all of the time but I remember being a teenager myself and listening to my parents friends, family and acquaintances give them the oh-no- a- teenager  look and the better-get- off-the-road, she-has-her-license comments. Why is this? Why do teenagers get such a bad rap?

As I was teaching Theology of the Body to the teenagers, one main point that I stress is that they are at the age of training themselves in faithfulness. I thought, why would they only be training themselves in faithfulness? Why not train themselves in every virtue? Of course, it was making sense now. The strong urges that teenagers have do not have to be limited to sexual urges. Have you noticed your teenager may have an urge to snap at you easier than they had, say, when they were 10? They have an urge to cry faster and easier.  Their patience is wearing thin. They begin to have desires for material things that they have turned into a need. Maybe some self-centeredness is trying to rear its ugly head?

I had a talk with my 13 year old, Samantha, today. I talked with her about what the teenage years would bring but they were not full of doom and gloom. It was full of excitement and challenges that I wanted to motivate her to conquer. The teenage years are not a phase that we have to put up with and just get through. This is an exciting time in their lives! This is the time that God knows your child is ready to be challenged and trained. We don’t hand an 18 year old a tank in the time of war and say “good luck”. They have a period of training and it is extremely exhilarating to finally be allowed the responsibility with something so valuable and destructive and even lifesaving. This is what teenagers are being given.  They are being entrusted with vices that can destroy other people including themselves or they can be conquered with the virtues they have grown up. It reminds me of vaccines that carry a mild dose of the ugly virus to build up the immune system.  This is the time they transform themselves to outstanding, responsible, patient, generous and exceptional human beings. What an exciting time! It is not so exciting if they have never been taught these virtues growing up. Waiting until they are teenagers to finally bring this up will make this experience much more painful for them and you. If you have young ones, start now! Even a little baby can learn to wait for their milk. A toddler can be taught generosity.   A child can learn to choose the carrot over the cookie. Ok, I failed with the carrot/cookie exampleL  You get the idea. Our family spent the year working on PACE virtues. We worked, studied and practiced one virtue every month. I would put sayings up all around the house for the kids to read while they walked down the hallway or got into the refrigerator or spent time in the bathroom.  By the way, if you want your child to memorize ANYTHING, put the quote in front of the toilet. They will memorize it whether they want to or not. This year was the perfect time to go through these virtues and practice them. They were fresh in Samantha’s mind as we had our talk. It was time to put these virtue’s to work. Will she fall into her vices or will she conquer them with these virtues?! We are both excited to go through this adventure! This is not doom & gloom!! We will not stand by and quietly (or not so quietly) suffer.  Bring it on!!

Christmas 2011

     This year has been incredible for our family. Just incredible! I love to read all of my past Christmas letters and see how different each year is. I am deliriously happy that I have chosen to trust God and let Him be in control of my life and my family. I got the opportunity to take a Bible Study that went through the entire salvation History of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation back in 2005. I am now teaching this Bible Study to a group of 15 teenagers. I love reliving this study. If the Bible could be broken down to one central theme, it would be, “Do you trust God?” One story after the other puts the Israelites in a position that seem impossible to overcome (conquering a populated city of giants….Surviving 40 years in the desert with no sign of food or water…etc.). Do they trust God? Most of the time, the answer was no. Those consequences usually ended up with God handing them over to their enemies. But, when they said yes, it was a glorious story, a miraculous story. Bread would rain from heaven, water would flow from a rock, walls would come tumbling down on their own, babies would be conceived from barren women (old grandma type women!). So, when people respectfully ask me questions of concern that a large family is commonly asked (What about paying for college?....What if you have another special needs child?....What if something happens to your husband, or you?), I just have to smile. Well, what if I give up all of my control, die to myself, and let God have all of me? It’s a scary thought but to me, it’s even scarier not to. The graces pour over our family and I so want everyone else to see and experience it too.

Roy finished off another year of Theology of the Body (TOB) for Teens and began planning to teach it again for three different classes this Fall. Those plans had to be delegated out due to an unforeseen deployment to Afghanistan. He left in September and scheduled to come back for 2 weeks in May. He will be home for good in September, 2012. He loves his job. He is in charge of the northern ½ of Afghanistan’s equipment. He recently gave up all of the military vehicles to the Afghan army and now puts around in tiny little civilian cars. I giggle at the thought. We get to talk to him on the computer a couple times a week. We can call him whenever we want using a regular phone number and not that long 21 digit number I had to use back in 2003.

I got to facilitate a Theology of the Body class for adults over the Lenten season. I loved it! I wanted to continue in the Fall but, thanks to Roys deployment, I couldn’t add one more thing to my list. Instead, I use some of my time to take some Catholic classes with the Bishop Helmsing Institute . They have been great! They are classes for adults to continue their education. It didn’t end after Confirmation you know! I took on Roy’s TOB class for the homeschoolers on Fridays. It has been great. So great, in fact, that this is one of my biggest obstacles when Roy comes back! I don’t want to give up teaching this and Roy will NOT give it up either and I think teaching together will just be an interrupting contest between the two of us. Pray for us!

This is the first year that I have had all 8 kids home for homeschooling. I have a few different avenues for schooling them so I don’t have to do it all and the kids get to travel around, meeting other people and having different teachers. We have a large and religiously diverse co-op that meets at my church, Coronation of Our Lady. It is so nice to only live a few blocks away. Not only do we do school there on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, but we are able to take turns going to daily Mass and volunteering whenever we want. Travel time has no effect. The kids also take a Writing class on Wednesday and Thursday in Overland Park with the finest, nicest and most productive teacher on the planet. Every Monday, I do a co-op with 3 other families. We rotate our homes each week. My dad teaches the teenage boys Physics and I teach the elementary Chemistry class and the High School Personal Finance class. Actually, Dave Ramsey teaches the class, I just pop in the video.

I haven't mentioned any of my kids yet! Oh well, they don’t have to make every letter do they?? Just look at the picture. They are bigger and one year older than last year. Enjoy.

In July, our church was blessed with a new priest. I had been praying so hard for a particular priest to come and God answered my prayers with a priest that I believed was too unattainable to even pray for! Wow. Have I learned nothing in my Bible Study!! Fr. Stephen Hansen. What a man! What a priest! What a saint! This is a man who is on fire for his Catholic Faith, so much so, that he has even made it contagious. He ran up to me in my car with an arm full of candles to show them off to me. Sometimes he will yell across the hall to say a Hail Mary for him on my way to the car. He stops me and asks me how I am doing and how Roy is doing. For the first time ever, I feel like I have a real spiritual father. He makes me want to be a saint. He makes me want to be a better wife and mother and teacher and child to my parents and to God.

The day before Roy flew off to Afghanistan was one of the most exciting days of my life. Sounds bad right? Well, not if you’re me! LOL. On September 8^th, the homeschoolers had our back to school Mass at our church with MY new priest. Yes, he’s mine and everyone should be jealous. The church was packed from front to back. Our family was sitting in the front row and got to witness my father make his very first Holy Communion. Yes, he is a Catholic now. I am no longer a child in a divided home. Haha. What a beautiful night. It was a perfect way to end Roy’s time at home. The very next morning, we drove Roy to the airport. Our van got sniffed by dogs for bombs because it was so close to 9-11. Makes me worried about why we are leaving Iraq and Afghanistan. I fear that we are inviting them over here. We have too many “Israelites” complaining, “We can’t afford the war….We should just talk out our problems with the enemies….We could never win….there are too many of them….they are giants!” Ok, well, I haven’t heard anyone complain about the terrorists being giants but you get the idea. Do you trust God or not? If we are to be handed over to the enemy, maybe it’s not because we couldn’t afford it or they are giants and we could never have won. Maybe it’s because of our own disobedience to God and His Law.   

On that note, Merry Christmas!!!

                                                                                                Love,

                                                                                            The Christy’s

Roy, Katy, Nick, Mary Kate, Samantha, Max, Theresa, Benjamin, Josephine, Matthew

Embracing my Interruptions

If I could give one secret to keeping my sanity, it would be this...Embrace my interruptions. This is on my mind every so often but now that my interruptions have multiplied, it is worth blogging about. Years ago, a friend of mine told me, "your interruptions are your life's most important work." I had to really experience this for a time before the light bulb went on. I began to identify every time I was interrupted and evaluate whether it was really important. Writing just a day's worth of interruptions would be impossible. I would probably get interrupted just trying to do that! Here are some examples that I had recently...

My Saturday is FREE! I can actually catch up on laundry, clean my room and maybe even give it a good steam vacuuming. If I can catch a break, I can write out the next quiz for the teen Bible class I'm teaching. I can't wait!

7 or 8 something  a.m.. Maybe 9. Who cares, its Saturday!  - The first interruption has already begun. I'm woken up by my 4 year old, Josie, asking me a question about having candy for breakfast." Uh...no.  Go away.  I'm tired. Why would you wake up your poor mother to ask if you can have candy for breakfast?" 

Just as my feet hit the floor, Matthew says, "Mom! Mom! Mommy! Watch." He is on my headboard, getting ready to jump onto my bed. It was nice for him to wait for me to sit up this time. I don't really put my feet onto the floor. They are actually on a carpet of socks. I am determined that today is the day that all laundry will be found and washed and every sock will meet its match and the rest pitched! I know, I know, I can't do this in one day. I've actually been working on this goal for a week now. The wonderful  children keep dumping out the sock basket several times a day for no other reason than they just passed it and it was there.

I begin with my morning ritual...fill my mug with water and one peppermint. Heat it up for exactly 2.35 minutes in the microwave and proceed to pull out the ingredients for French Toast. As they cook on my  enormous family reunion size griddle, Max runs inside with another chicken egg. He has to show me and tell me where he found it and what chicken it came from. He is all smiles. I hope this excitement of finding an egg never ends.

Next up, I hear complaints from the other room that someone needs a new diaper. Now it is time for some delegating. "Max, will you finish up the French Toast while I take care of the baby?"

Oops. Wait,  the baby just woke up! I'll be right back to finish this blog....

Ok. He is so cute! I think I will nurse him until he's in Kindergarten. Moses mommy probably nursed longer than that right?

After the diaper, Josie reminds me that her night time diaper is still on. While I am with her, Theresa and Ben come running in with big eye's and smiles and insist that I go downstairs to listen to their duet on the piano. I listen to it over and over since they have to start over every time a mistake is made.  I rush them upstairs to eat before breakfast gets cold. Everyone is eating except me:( I have to make another batch for the little piggy's and myself just as Roy calls on Skype. All the kids bolt from their seats and fight to squeeze their little heads into the web cam screen. Ben accidently pushes the wrong button on the computer and hangs up on him. The fighting has begun! I come to the poor boys defense and call Daddy back. All the breakfast is getting cold on the island while I am making another batch that the kids won't eat now because they are distracted by Dad.

Here we go again. I'll be right back. Nick just got home from work and a bon fire at his friends house. I have to find out how his day was and see if I can squeeze out some teenage drama stories out of him. In the homeschool world, it's a little boring. LOL.

I'm back. No drama. Just clean fun with 27 of his closest friends out in the country.

I better speed this up or I will be blogging for 15 more pages. I can't even get passed breakfast. I forgot about my hot chocolate!! Its not hot any more but at least the mint got completely dissolved. See? God has a plan for everything. He gifted me with an even mintier tasting hot chocolate.

My point? Oh yes, I had a point to this other than the daily grind of my Saturday morning.

How I embraced my interruptions will be a determining factor in my salvation, I can assure you. If you are the type of person that hates to be interrupted, you would not want to be me for even an hour. As a matter of fact, you probably wouldn't even want to call and talk to me for more than 2 minutes. The interruptions are endless...BUT, are they really my most important work?

Lets review. I opened my eyes this morning to see the cutest little red head with eyes bulging out in anticipation of what my answer will be about candy for breakfast. I choose this over any annoying alarm clock.

I look at my baby smiling from ear to ear because he is about to show off to his mommy how high he can jump and bounce.

I see the excitement in Max's face as he shows me another egg that you would think was made of gold. What is he really more excited about?  Finding the egg? Or showing his mom so I can share in his excitement? Oh, how much power I have!

When I change my baby's diaper, he plops himself on the floor, awaiting our allotted time together. About 5 times a day, we both can expect to be together just for this occasion. I sing or play peek-a-boo and he smiles and giggles.

I watch the smiles and giggles coming from Ben and Theresa as they play their piece again and again and again. They will never be this little again. I soak it all up and are grateful they didn't pull out their violins instead. It could have been worse.

I made all of this French Toast that no one is going to finish eating because Dad called. I could be upset but remembering my motto, I just take a deep sigh and start cleaning up last nights mess of a kitchen.

In the end, all my kids are happy that they talked to Dad. Theresa and Ben told him about their duet, Max told him about another egg sighting, Matthew says "Hi Daddy" 15 times. Samantha and Mary Kate get to talk to him without being annoyed with the baby's diaper fiasco from earlier.

The bear that lives downstairs awakens (Nick), gobbles up all the French Toast and I finally reheat my hot chocolate and get to drink all of its peppermint taste, in peace. The entire morning all worked out thanks to the interruptions.  

In case your wondering, I did finish the socks. I watch episodes of Murder She Wrote on Netflix when I do laundry. I pause it every time I am interrupted. It took me 3 hours to watch one episode because of my interruptions.  As long as I run my motto in my head several times an hour, I not only remain calm but it free's me to relish these important moments that I will so quickly forget. It keeps me happy. It keeps me sane. God Bless my interruptions!!

 

God is the Magnet

In my Theology of the Body class for Teens, we are working on the chapter called Naked Without Shame. It is about what life was like before sin entered the world. Why were Adam and Eve naked without shame? It seems unfathomable to us to have a world where everyone is buck naked. It could make a sane person be grateful for the Fall. lol. Well, I hope not.

There is a skit that is recommended to bring home this topic. It is called God is the Magnet. I personally like to call it the Naked-Without-Shame skit because it makes my teenagers giggle at the thought of what they may be asked to do. I love their reaction!! I don't get any volunteers but I get a lot of kids trying to volunteer their friends. Love it. Love it.

I need 2 boys and a girl. God, Adam and Eve. Adam lies on the floor. God takes a rib & makes Eve. Adam (played by my darling son, Nick) wakes up & see's God's gift. He's drawn to her and uses the common pick up line used all over the Power and Light district on Friday and Saturday night..."Alas! Bone of my bone! Flesh of my flesh!" Nick circles her, sniffs her and has to add "Hey, baby girl." That is NOT what Adam said! Time to move on. ...

I ask the class...What is going on here? What did Adam really see? What was Adam drawn to that fascinated him so much? What Adam (and Eve) saw was God. Yes, they saw God IN each other's nakedness. God is the magnet that drew Adam towards Eve. God is the magnet that drew Eve towards Adam. The difference between them and us is that Adam and Eve were able to see God clearly through their nakedness because they had a purity of heart.  There was no sin, therefore, there was no shame. There was no fear that they would see each other's body impurely.

Time for Eve (Jessica Neiderhiser) to ruin all humanity:( Eve pulls the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (played by Annika Darby). Now, Adam and Eve cover themselves in shame. Again...What just happened? Now, they each have a fear that they will see each other with lustful eyes and lustful hearts. Now, this purity of heart and being able to see clearly has been clouded by original sin. We fail to see the original innocence that Adam and Eve had which is why we clothe ourselves.  God gave us a defense mechanism to protect ourselves, called shame.

How does this relate to the relationship between and man and a woman now?  When a man see's the beauty of a woman, he is drawn to her. So, what is really going on in the bottom of these desires?....As a man is drawn to a woman, he cannot see God because He is invisible. He cannot see His love either. It is not actually the beautiful woman who is drawing this desire. It is God, through the woman's body.

What happens when a person does not realize that it is God magnetizing us? If you do not see God, you will become dissatisfied with each other and move on.....and on.....and on, waiting and searching to find someone that fulfills your desire that only God can fill.

The kids sit down in groups and I ask them to come up with a list of ways that God's plan to live out our call to love one another can be blocked or even destroyed. This can be blocked by the devil, sin, pride, lust and selfishness. Since the body expresses the person, when the person becomes destroyed, so does our image of God.

Their lists included examples such as abortion (destroying a person who was a visible sign of God's love), Racism/Prejudice (buying into the lie that only some people show the face of God), Pornography (seeing a person as a collection of body parts rather than the visible sign of God that they are), Prostitution and sexual abuse (a type of slavery whose only purpose is to physically gratify others). There were many more examples but these were the big dogs. These examples are not the kind that merely darken our fog that was already there from original sin.  These examples are the kind that destroy, block and blind how we should see God and see God in each other.

Recently, a few people have been trying to convince me that they can see more clearly than I do about Bishop Finn because they have been sexually abused. This could not be further from the truth. Would God really create us in such a way where we see more clear when we are entangled in this kind of a sin? It makes me think that sexual abuse is being recommended to me so I can "see" with more clarity.

    This TOB skit could not have come at a more perfect time for me.  I love God. I just love how He comforts me and gives me little and big reminders about how He works just when I need to hear it.