My Tribe's Vibe: Games I Play

You've gotta do what works, right?

For me, that sometimes includes playing pretend.

I don't do it to escape or while away the hours. I use it to motivate myself.

The other day, I was dragging my feet in cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast. It was more a case of  multitasking overload and misdirection as I was trying to do my work and check social media at the same time. (We all know which of those two dogs gets fed and which one gets starved.) The kitchen clock did its best to silently warn that time-was-a-wastin', but it wasn't until I played pretend that anything really happened.

Ok, Shelley. Stop. Pretend the President is going to be at your house in 30 minutes. 

Boom. That's all it took. I was up and going and focused.

Another handy motivating game I play is If you.

I put If you into action when I think something can't be done in the time allotted. Take these blog posts, for instance. I'm writing this one at 9:19 pm on the day it's due. I've had a full day and part of me started to excuse me and cut me some slack in posting one today. Part of me was beginning to think I couldn't get this done. 

But then If you popped into my head.

If you were going to get a million dollars once you published today's post, I bet you could get it done.

Yep, I could. 

I don't know why these silly games give me the kick in the pants I need sometimes, but they do. And somedays, you've just gotta do what works.

The Merry Month of May

It's time to play "catch up."

I feel like I often spend too much time playing this game, but sometimes, you gotta do whatcha gotta do.

So, I've decided to be merry about it. Yep. It's time to spend a few minutes catching up on the merry month of May.

At the first of the month, we found ourselves in celebration mode in Rochester, MN, at the wedding of my niece, Lauren Wynn, to Ryan Residence. It was beautiful, holy, and joyful!

Delightful table/name cards

Mayowood Stone Barn was beautiful.

Succulents for centerpieces

Sweet nieces from the PNW came in for the festivities

My brother, Andy, dancing with his daughter, Lauren

Three of my beautiful nieces with a grand nephew and grand niece thrown in!

I'm a sucker for Daddy/daughter pictures

The next weekend was Mother's Day. It was the first one for me without my mom. It's still weird to know that. I miss her.

In our world of social media, it's always interesting to see what ends up there on those kind of days. Some of the kids did the IG thing, some didn't.

The ones that didn't still love me ;)

Our annual jumping pic where one of us didn't jump

The Cali kid harkened back to 2012

We also celebrated this girl's 24th bday this month! 

About 6 hours after those fun pictures....

Mayday! Mayday!

My Lou and I picked a bad time to miscommunicate. We were about 2/3 of the way through a delightful bike ride when I thought we were going left at a corner, and he thought we were going right. When you are riding side by side, that doesn't work. In the middle of our collision, I screamed and then both of us proceeded to hit very hard asphalt. Lou's right collar bone took the brunt of his fall. My right rib cage took the brunt of mine. We've both also enjoyed some bruising and road rash. Good grief. Talk about an unexpected inconvenient event! Not what we had planned, but seeking to glorify God in the midst of it.

Two weeks after our wreck, Lou had to have surgery to fix that broken collar bone and make it line up and heal correctly. Grateful to God that all went well.

The doctor is the patient

You can imagine the teasing we're now receiving as a result of our Mayday! moment. I laughed out loud when I received an email from my brother, Andy, with the following limerick.

Well, four days after the wreck, broken rib or not, I was going on a long planned for and much anticipated trip with friends to To Kill A Mockingbird land. Sue Roweton, Marla Kemp and I have been chatting about going to Monroeville, AL, the home of the author of TKAM, Nell Harper Lee, for over a year. Every spring, her home town puts on the play on weekends. We hit town to enjoy the 2nd to last show of the season. Such a great time with the dearest of friends.

And, if you haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird, stop reading this, and order a copy and read it.

So, so good.

Side trip to Selma, AL, to walk over this and remember. #bloodysunday

Lots of interesting things to see/read in the Monroe County Museum

1st act of TKAM is outside

Not gonna let a little rain stop us!

Selfie stick fun

A short week after my Alabama jaunt, my man and I journeyed to Fayetteville, AR, with 4 of our buddies to celebrate our friends, Marla and Wes Kemp, birthdays. We toured around the town and the University of Arkansas, where we've sent 4 of our kids and a ton of our money. Then, we spent a bunch of time geocaching!

If you haven't Geocached, you should. With the help of a handy dandy app, wave points, and clues, you go on a "treasure" hunt for the caches. Once you find them, you write your name in the log in the cache and, of course, take a picture. I think we found 6 while there. Tons of fun!

Marla, Wes, Lou, me, Connie, and Kerrick

We called ourselves the Liber8ors :)

I actually didn't travel the entire month. I stayed home long enough this week to watch our good friend, Lane Nutt, plow up our garden spot. Talk about a good neighbor!! 

He and his wife even ran over later that day with some extra corn seeds and planted a couple of rows of that for me! I think I'm going to garden like this every year!

Well, here we are at the end of the month. I've included so much - and left out so much.

Each full, busy, hard, easy, happy day is such a gift from God, isn't it? Each marriage, each Mayday!, each trip, each friend - all gifts of grace.

I'm grateful. Just as I know you are for the gifts of grace in your life.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my merry month of May with me.

Blessings!

Spring Break 2015

You know all the energy and excitement that surrounds the first day of Spring Break?

Last night - the very last hours of Spring Break - were exactly the opposite.

It was low key around our home. The college kids had gone back to their colleges, and our high schooler had checked her books to see if she had any loose ends to tie up before today.

Today we are back to the routine and rhythm of "normal" life.  When I read a Lent devotional this morning, I came across these lines describing the Monday of Holy Week:

This particular Monday may have felt like the proverbial Monday morning in the modern Western world — a time to reengage the grind and get back to work. Jesus, indeed, walked into Jerusalem to take care of business.

To hear that twist on a 2000 year ago time made me pause, but I liked thinking through it. Today, 2000 years later, felt more Monday-ish than usual, though, because we were coming off Spring Break.

Spring break is such a welcome event. It doesn't even matter whether you travel anywhere or not. The focus has shifted from winter and doldrums, to spring and break.

We planned a little trip to warmer climes - that "whole nuther country," Texas. After packing our faithful 2004 suburban here in Bolivar, MO, with luggage and two beautiful daughters, we hit the road toward Fayetteville, AR. It was time to pick up another beautiful daughter, who was going with us, and to say adios to our David, who was going skiing. Of course, I made them pose for a picture.

Then we headed southwest toward Dallas.

As I was planning this trip, I looked at the little towns we'd be passing through in OK, and googled "interesting things to see in ____, in hopes of finding something that was Instagram worthy in at least one of the HWY 69 towns.

Durant, OK, boasted:
The "World's Largest Peanut" is located on the Southeast Corner of the Durant City Hall. The monument is a must see for visitors to the Durant area. 

Alrighty then! To make the event even more exciting, I bought peanuts and was going to pass them out in the car a few miles out of Durant to add tasty drama to such a must see.

Well, it turned out, nobody was in the mood for peanuts when I offered them and the statue was a little farther off 69 than I'd thought. Questions like, "What exactly are we going to see?" were coming from the back seat. Sitting at my kitchen table, this had seemed like such fun, clever planning on my part. Sitting in the front seat of the suburban describing what we were detouring for felt like the dumbest suggestion I had ever had.

I still felt pretty lame when we eventually found it, but we ended up laughing about it. I'm sure it will find its way into future teasing when I tell them I've found something worth detouring for.

Dallas was our first stop and we packed good stuff in those 3 nights and 2 days. First order of business was dropping our Mary Grace off at the home of a Kanakuk friend, Nicole. We'd shown Nicole all around Bolivar for a couple of days at Thanksgiving, and now she was returning the favor with Mary Grace.

We don't have Cupcake ATMs in Bolivar

We don't have Alamo Drafthouses in Bolivar, either. #dinnerandamovie

Nicole's family not only treated Mary Grace like royalty, but us, too! They took us up 48 floors and let us see Dallas in all its nighttime glory.

Very cool

Sunday morning, we visited The Village Church, where we ran into a friend from Bolivar! I love completely unplanned, unexpected happy reunions!

J.L. West and the girls!

The afternoon was spent touring the The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza. It's worth a visit.

That open window...

Early Monday morning, we hit the road again - this time for Austin.

First order of business there? A nap by the pool and a dip in the pool.

Then, we saw the capitol,

Another unexpected happy meeting with Kaden Burlison

hiked the Barton Creek Greenbelt,

checked out the bats on the Congress Avenue Bridge,

Daughters are more fun to take pictures of than bats

and played putt putt with our dear friends from Llano, who drove to Austin hang with us.

That's a seriously big Peter Pan

All that looks pretty fun, right? It was. But it was mainly fun because I was with some of my people. If I'd spent my Spring Break doing the exact same things, but all alone, this blog post would have a decidedly different vibe. It might be a little more Edgar Allen Poe.

Thanking God on this post Spring Break Monday for the gift of time away with people I love. We made some good memories and ate a lot of desserts.

I hope you're making good memories with those you love, too.

And...before we're done, here's another thing we (thankfully!) don't have in Bolivar, MO.

Blessings!

March 4th Mary Grace!

Yesterday was March 4th.

I like March 4th.

I like it because when you say the date you've got a little word play going on. Believe it or not, I'm not the first person to pick up on this. One of the national day calendars I checked said yesterday was

March Forth (Do Something Day)!

Who doesn't want to march forth and do something good and meaningful and helpful? Just saying the date spurs you to get up and get going! Cue some grand march music!

Even more, I like  March 4th because it reminds me of the caboose of our little family train - Mary Grace.

I think of her because "March forth" is an imperative sentence, and when I think of imperative sentences, I think of Mary Grace.

Here's why.

Back when I was homeschooling, grammar time often consisted of quizzing her about the four kinds of sentences. One day, when I asked her to name them for me, she replied:

"The four kinds of sentences are declarative, interrogative, exclamatory...and....(pause....thinking)...   demandatory?

Demandatory. She may not have named it correctly, but she understood it perfectly.

It's actually a better name than "imperative." We laugh about her cleverness to this day.

There was also snow on the ground yesterday, which spurred my memory about a little barefoot marching forth that a preschool Mary Grace did on a similar snowy day many years ago.

On that particular day, I was in the thick of homeschooling the 5 oldest. Mary Grace was still too young to "do school."  She was, however, old enough to play by herself for periods of time while I was teaching one of the others. One day, while I was on the main floor working with one of the kids, she went down to play in the basement. 

She played there for a while, but I guess the beautiful white snow on the other side of the glass door was beckoning. She ventured out the basement door, coatless, barefooted, and took a little trek through the snow. For whatever reason, she didn't turn around and go back in the door she'd just exited, but walked around to the front of the house to the locked front door and started crying for someone to let her in. I remember stopping what I was teaching and saying, "Do y'all hear something?"

I felt like a terrible, negligent mother when I saw my preschooler standing outside our locked front door barefooted and in nothing but her play clothes. That passed pretty quickly, though, because after we scooped her up, warmed her up, and dried her tears, I headed out to take a picture of her adorable tracks in the snow.

I was lucky to capture these sweet footprints in the snow - and this before the handy cell phone camera. I actually had to go to the trouble to get the "real" camera. I'm glad I did.

I'm glad these fun stories marched forth from the back of my mind yesterday and made me smile.

You've got some of your own stories that are just waiting to be summoned. I hope you can take some time in the next few days to remember them and smile.

Blessings!

The Preschooler - complete with scratched up nose;)

The Homeschooler

The High schooler

Love.

This Week, I've Found Myself Thinking...

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I’ve been feeling an itch to blog about it - or at least to blog about what I've been thinking about in this week leading up to it.

Last year, I took a lighter, yet darker, more chocolate approach to the day and wrote Valentine's Day.

But this year - this week - I’m feeling a little more thoughtful. And, slightly all over the map. I've felt a little nostalgic, a little weak, a little (a lot) thankful, a little prayerful, a little serious, a little Snoopy.

Hold on. I'll show you what I mean.

This week, I’ve found myself thinking about Valentine’s Days past. 

When we were homeschooling, we threw some fun Valentine’s Day parties for the girls. We planned and decorated and celebrated and always bought a big balloon.

I’m sure those were some slightly stressful “how am I going to get it all done” days, but I don’t remember a bit of that. I just look at these pictures and remember perfection. Isn’t that what we do? Why do we do that? Is it because we are so busy navigating today’s “hard," that yesterdays all seem relatively easy? That selective memory gig is so interesting.

This week, I’ve found myself thinking about my Mom. 

Mom died 7 months ago on July 13, 2014. She was 88 and sick and tired, and tired of being sick and tired. She was ready. Knowing that gave (and gives) great comfort, but for some reason, especially yesterday, I missed my mother. I wanted to talk to her. I missed her voice. I replayed a couple of voicemails that I've kept on my phone where she asked me to pick up some juice for her at the grocery store. "It's real good juice, not watered down like some of them..."

It’s good to have loved someone so much that you miss them, isn’t it?

This week, I’ve found myself thinking about my Lou. 

He’s a good man. A really good man. He loves the Lord and me and our crew so well. 

1987 - I've always liked this pic of us

A few completely random things about him that make me smile are:

His voice.

How much he loves tennis.

His knowledge and love of cars.

How he loves technology and all it does for us.

How he can't stand still.

His love of bike riding.

His cooking!

How much his patients love him. When they tell me they love him, I think I'm pretty clever when I come back with, "I do too!!" 

This week, I found myself thinking about my kids.

This week, I found myself praying for my kids.

How I love our crew. Five of the six are scattered to the four winds, but all are in the thick of figuring out what is what, and where they want to be, and how to do what they want to do, and can they really even do what they think they want to do? God has gifted each one of them so uniquely, and I long for them to know how to be and what to do with the gifts given to them. Even more, I pray that they know the Giver of the gifts and love Him with all their heart, and soul, and mind.

The almost ready pic

This week, I've found myself thinking about Kara Tippetts.  

Her blog, Mundane Faithfulness, is chronicling her journey from life to death, which is more imminent for her than most of us think is imminent for us, as she is on hospice care. I first became aware of Kara back in October 2014 when I read this post she wrote on Ann Voskamp's blog, A Holy Experience. I am drawn to Kara's beautiful faith-filled life. I want to love and trust my Jesus like she does when the suffering coming my way comes. We are told in John 16:33 

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." 

Suffering - tribulation - and death are coming to all of us eventually. I don't know if we are ever ready for it. The coming of most of the really hard things that I've gone through have completely blind-sided me. But so far, in these 53 years God has given me to live, He has been faithful in and through the tough times. He has helped. He has loved. God has given the strength and hope needed. He has kept His word.

That's heavy stuff, and I know sometimes our tendency is to shy away from heavy stuff. It's not fun. If fun is our goal, we are going to have a life time of fake. It's only in really dealing with and thinking through the heavy stuff of life and death can we be authentic and have the joy, peace and stamina to live out each day. We lean hard into the truths of God's word knowing He will give all of Him and the truth and the hope and the joy that is promised. When we do that, we will have all that we need for a real, authentic, joy filled life. The weight and wonder of it all astounds me sometimes.

This week I've found myself thinking about how I procrastinate.

How can I ever procrastinate after writing the previous paragraphs? I'm ridiculous. Aren't you glad God's love and faithfulness is rock solid through all our ridiculousness?

I still haven't bought my Lou's Valentine's Day card (or gift). I think I put a little pressure on myself to outdo all other Valentine's Days to date. Good grief. Just stop.

This does, however, take me back to some previous Valentine's from my Lou that I've kept. I really liked Lou's Snoopy phase...

I'm seriously impressed that you've hung with me through all these meanderings. Well done. Here's some parting Snoopy wisdom - not from my stash of Lou cards, but from the internet after I googled, "Snoopy wisdom."

Many, many blessings to you as you love on those nearest and dearest to you.