With Great Power....

"With great power comes great responsibility." These words were uttered by Peter Parker's Uncle shortly before his own demise. For those who are comic book challenged, Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

But these are true words.

I have to give them to Hunter on a regular basis. Not because he has secret super hero powers, but because he is a big brother...and big brothers might as well have super hero powers in the eyes of their little sisters. I know I certainly thought my big brother could do no wrong.

Hadyn will intently watch her brother's actions and then sure enough, mimic them. And not all of her brother's actions are worth repeating. Apparently when 7 year old boys play "kitchen/diner", there tends to be a certain amount of plastic food debauchery - stuff that 7 year old little girls may find repulsive, but a 2 year old baby sister thinks is the BOMB!! And so creates a bigger mess that does not need to happen.

When mom breaks out into song and dance, a 2 year old little girl will giggle with glee and join right in having a grand old time. However, a 7 year old boy will scream at the top of his little lungs for mom to STOP THAT and will tackle mom with a force reserved for collegiate football try-outs. Again, little eyes see and follow suit.

Sigh.

I don't want to squash the boy out of my boy, but I really don't want to find the girl gone from my girl, either. So, we resort to Spider-Man tactics. Be a super hero to her.

And to mom.

Opinions -Again.

Opinions. Yup, we all have them. Some you take with the proverbial grain of salt, some you let go in one ear and out the other, some you refute, and some you agree with. But everyone has one. Case in point, I have one today. Take it as you will.

At my bible study this morning at a church I visit (but is not my home church), our discussion was making all sorts of circles around our topic at hand. One woman offered up her opinion on the topic using last night's Presidential address as reference. This woman appeared to me, based on her viewpoint, to be a more conservative citizen of our country. Later on another woman again used the address as reference, but looking at it from another angle, seemed to be much less conservative, but not entirely liberal in her beliefs. So here were two different women, two different viewpoints of the same thing, but neither making remarks that would turn away someone who was seeking an answer.

Then enters woman #3. This woman offered up not a political reference to our topic, but a "religious" one. She proceeded to slam a very well known minister to which she had only seen on television and in an interview. She has never been to his church, nor obviously ever listened to him discuss how and why he was called into ministry. If so, I don't know if the slam would have been there. She did not like what she referred to as "feel-good-ministry". Even when I brought up that there is more to his ministry than what she is seeing on tv, she argued her point even deeper. My thinking was that he was called to do just what he is doing. He is leading people to know Jesus Christ as their personal savior and if the Lord wants him to do more, he will do more. If someone does not like this teaching, then there are thousands upon thousands of other ministries that will give a person what they are seeking.

Which made me wonder, why as "Christians" do we feel so comfortable slamming other "Christians" for doing what they are called to do? And how does that look to someone who is not a Christ follower? No one at our table was slamming President Obama or former President Bush. No, that was all very polite conversation.

My opinion is that is doesn't shed a very good light on us as a whole. Wonder what we could do about that?

Interview

Yeah, I'll bite on these things occasionally. So here goes:

Here are the "rules:"
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

These questions came from my friend at ohbutno:

1) What snippet of scripture rocks your world?
There are just so many that it's hard to point out just one, but I would probably fall back on Psalm 50:15. In this passage, God is having "issues" with His people not following His ways and doing evil things (sound familiar to today?) and He tells us what He wants from us: "Trust me in your times of trouble, and I will rescue you and you will give me glory." Simple and neat. Trust in Him. Let Him rescue you. Then praise Him for it!!

2) What is the difference between being a Boy Mama and being a Girl Mama?
Well, naturally, I love both of my kids so much it hurts, but the difference would be what I see in them. With Hunter, I see what Scott might have been a little like as a boy and I see my son - what I would hope he would become. He is my sunshine!! With Hadyn, I see me. I can see the beauty in her that God has put in me that I have let the world tell me I don't have. Of course she is most definitely her own person, but it is neat having that "girl" bond with her.

3) Which three small joys do you seek out regularly?
My morning cuddles with my kids is such a joy and treat. When they get up and aren't really awake yet, they come cuddle up on and beside me on the couch. This is my treat! Another would be cooking a good meal for us to sit down and enjoy together. We do this almost every night. It is rare that we don't sit down for lunch and dinner together. A new joy is going for my morning walk with Holly. As long as it isn't too cold. Or too hot.

4) What is your earliest memory?
I don't know, really. Seems like I've blotted so much of my childhood out at times. I have a vague "remembery" of putting my sister's glass contacts on my eyelids and calling them ton-tacts. And I remember writing a bunch of letters on a paper and giving it to my brother as a "letter". He read it and told me that I had actually spelled "hot" out in my letter. So at that point, I knew how to spell "hot". I remember standing up in the seat of the pickup behind my Dad's shoulder while driving. Wouldn't do that now, huh??

5) What possessed you to buy the 'splodin' frog soap, and what (Pray tell!) will you do with it when it arrives?
Eh, who knows. Except that my kids love to have colored foam in the tub, colored water tablets, and that type of thing so exploding frog soap just seemed appropriate. It's the little things in life that entertain us the most, isn't it? So, I'll spring a few $$ for some goofy things every now and then. When it arrives, I'm sure it will be bath time!!

Let's Go Racing - Maybe...

So, Hunter wants to race go-karts. Okay, no problem. Except for the cost, the time, the effort, blah, blah, blah. This is a kid who is not athletic or aggressive or highly competitive. Yeah, I know, he's 7. But, seems like a lot of boys around 7 are out doing something. So for a couple of years now, Hunter has been talking about racing go-karts. Alright, let's look it up.

I found a track not too far from here that races kid karts - his age group with slower, easier karts. After watching and talking with other parents, Hunter was sold and we were interested in learning more. In asking around about a chance for Hunter to try out a kart, we met Go-Kart Dad with one for sale. We went out yesterday to meet up with him and his son and try out the kart. Christopher jumped on the kart and ran it up and down the practice lot warming the engine up. Zip, zip, zip, figure 8's around cones and zip, zip, zip some more. Then it was Hunter's turn. Hunter donned the helmet and neck brace, squeezed down into the kart and then........putt, putt, puttery-putt. Nope. No zip, zip, zip for my boy. No sir, Mr. Cautious wasn't about to apply the gas to this death machine. But he did find the brake pedal right away.

So after a few minutes of coaching from Mr. Go-Kart Dad, our current decision of "not right now" started showing signs of "well, maybe." We could hear the engine actually starting to get gas to it and watching him take the corners showed a little sign of hope. Then Go-Kart Dad told us how his son (and many others) did the same thing on the first few times. He coached us on how to teach him and described the very frustrations that I was thinking would arise should we jump into this. Hearing these shared feelings reassured me that our little boy would probably fit right in eventually.

We are still praying and discussing the pros and cons of getting into this. Given that the races are on weekends, I would be responsible for taking Hunter to the track, unloading, tweaking, and getting him ready for race time, at which Daddy might be there.

We'll see. Keep praying for us!!

Lessons

Learning lessons can be hard. Teaching them can be harder, sometimes.

I have started going for morning walks with a good friend. The plan is that I take Hadyn with me and when Scott has early morning meetings or something, Hunter will go with us and ride his bike. On the mornings Hunter does not go, he will stay here with Dad and do his "morning routine" which is:

1. get dressed
2. brush teeth/hair
3. make up your bed (and put the pillows on it)
4. straighten up your room
5. do your journal
6. and do your Spanish (on the computer)

So, this morning, he was at home with Dad and was told to do his "routine". I came home from our walk and asked him if he did everything. "Yes." "Did you do your Spanish?" knowing how he hates doing this. "Ummmmm.......yes, I did part of it." "Really?" "Ummmmmmm....yes, I did a little until Daddy said he needed me." So I just smiled and walked into Scott's office and asked him what he needed Hunter for. He, of course, was confused so I told him what was going on and we both called Hunter in to confront him with his lie.

Ouch. I really hate this. Such a simple little fib. No, he didn't do his Spanish, but he did do everything else. Good Mama should just let it go, right? Nope. Not this Mama. I hit where it hurt - I grounded him from not only any video game he may want to play, but also his computer and then the kicker - all of his toys for the day. That was the one that hurt. He can do his schoolwork and read and if he doesn't whine and scream, I will allow him to watch some TV with us today. But if the neighbor friend comes over after school to play, Hunter can't go out to play.

Wow. But we are hoping to send a very strong message - Lying is not tolerated in our home!!

So it is hard on him, but I feel so badly for him, too. Yeah, lessons are hard to learn...and teach.

Masks - UPDATE FEB 18th

*update Feb 18th at bottom
Blogs are good for keeping family and friends in touch with what's going on in your life, sharing a special skill with others in the blogging community, and sometimes to reach out for help or advice through therapeutic writing.

The latter is where I find myself today.

Do you ever find yourself in a rut, knowing what needs to be done, but no motivation to do it? For example, I know that to be healthier and to lose my inches, I need to exercise. But I seem to make excuses - good ones - for not doing it. I need to engage my children in more play activities, but I find myself getting involved in time consuming nonsense instead. I need to stay on top of our monthly bills and budget - and I do a pretty good job of that in that nothing is ever late - but I could do better in planning and budgeting. I am now doing menu planning, and I really enjoy cooking and preparing meals, so that is getting better. I have fabulous ideas in my head, but cannot seem to muster up the motivation to get them out.

Anyway, all of that and more to say I think I'm depressed. And I can say this because I recognize the pattern of it from my Mother who now, in her 70's realizes she battles depression. My sister and I look back at our lives and our Mom's behavior and it is clearly there. But it wasn't discussed back then. So she just dealt with it by wearing a mask of routine. Get up, fix breakfast, get the kids off to school, get ready, go to work, do the same thing every day, come home, fix supper, clean up, kids in bed, watch tv, go to bed. Every day. Weekends, were a little more stressful. The unpredictability of the weekend removed the weekday mask.

I love my Mom, but I don't want to live my life with this. I want to remove my mask.

Health wise, I feel good. I'm not sick. My family is rarely sick. And when someone is sick, it's not for long. We eat healthy foods. I need to remove my mask on eating too much, but it is healthy food...but too much none-the-less.

Now, before you instruct me to go pray, believe me, I DO. I have NO masks on there. And I have a faith like you wouldn't believe. I am strong and secure in my walk. Which is why I would be able to post something like this for potentially the whole world to see. Hey! Jonah and Moses both battled depression. I think they did a pretty good job of "communicating" with God, don't you?

So, it is strength and accountability that I think I need to pull this mask off for good. I need someone with which to work out (either for real or virtually) that won't flake out on me (I don't know that Scott is that good of a work out partner). I need someone to help me by just checking in on me every now and then. Let me know you are out there and care. I am horrible with feeling like a burden in other peoples lives since everyone else seems to be so busy and I'm at home...all day...with my children...the education of one in my hands...and the development of the other on my heart.

Anyone have any ideas??
thank you!

*UPDATE February 18th - My local friend Holly and I have gotten together to walk out our respective woes and get some exercise to boot! We meet every morning and walk 3 miles at a pretty good clip (between 45-48 minutes depending on hitches in our git-a-longs). Praise God and thank you to all who supported me in my transparency!!