On Lunch

I had the most fabulous lunch today. It wasn't the food (though the food was excellent, I had Panko crusted eggplant, fresh spinach, roasted red peppers, basil ricotta Parmesan on toasted flatbread, topped with fresh mozzarella and drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette - yummy!) it was the company that made lunch so fabulous. I lunched with someone I haven't seen in over 20 years in a nice little restaurant outside of town. She even went so far as to say I looked exactly as I did 22 years ago - boy, oh boy, I love that woman. Are you wondering who she is? Have you guessed? It was Tina, the social worker who matched me and my little brother together all those years ago. She is the woman responsible for creating a bond between two strangers that has never been broken. It was wonderful to thank her and confirm to her that she did a great thing when she matched us as Big Sister and Little Brother. We laughed and shared stories and ate and laughed some more. My heart explodes with joy thinking of it. In the year that Tina was our social worker, I learned so much from her. She encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone, she supported me, she signed me up for a parenting class to teach me how to best deal with my little brother, (I am still using those techniques today) and she applauded my successes. I would not be the woman nor the mother I am today if not for having known her. She was thrilled to hear about my successes as a wife, a mother and a mentor but would take no credit for it. Isn't it funny how some people will never know how much influence they bestow on others? Again, I ask, how great is our God?

Is It A Sin To Kill A Bug In Heaven?

I am a very peaceful person. That is why I was trying to peacefully co-exist with the stink bugs. But that was before I learned a little known fact about them. It's not that they stink when you kill them, but God knows they do. It's not that they fly into my food sometimes (I confessed the first time that happened . . .). It's not even that one landed in the lap of a lady who was attending my little Bible study. It's the fact that they reproduce like crazy! One stink bug lays 30 eggs! I stopped worrying about them for a short while and now my house is invaded! That's what happens, you give a stinker an inch and they take the house! I was okay with a few of those buggers in my front hall and some buzzing around the kitchen sink (I wash them down the drain but in half an hour they come crawling back up!), but not in the whole house. I'm done, or should I say they're done! I flush them down the toilet while humming taps in my head. I don't know if God will see fit to have stink bugs in Heaven, but I won't co-exist with them on Earth anymore. Maybe in Heaven God will give them a sweet aroma when you kill them and rename them perfume bugs. I wonder, is it a sin to kill a bug in Heaven?

They're Watching You

This is a story for anyone who has a mother . . . or even worse . . . a mother-in-law.

There was a family that consisted of a father, a mother, a son and a daughter. The father's mother (I'll call her Grams) became ill and needed to move in with her son's family. Grams shook and when the family ate dinner together, Grams chipped the china with her spoon. The mother gave Grams a wooden bowl at the next meal. Grams didn't chip the wooden bowl, but it made such a clatter every time her spoon hit the bowl. The mother set up a small table and chair in the pantry and Grams ate her dinner in there where she would not disturb anyone. Mother found her son in the workroom of the basement the next day whittling a block of wood. Mother asked, "Son, what are you working on?" He said, "A gift for you." "Awww," Mother said, "what for?" Her son answered her while he worked the block of wood, "For when you are old and need to live with me, I am making you a wooden bowl and you can eat in my pantry." At dinner that night, Grams sat at the head of the table using the family's best china.

There are two important points here. First, "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." Ex 20:12 They're not called commandments for nothing. And second, the kids - they're watching you . . .

Cupid's Arrow

I know, Valentine's Day is a corny little holiday with history in horrible pagan rituals. But, I love Valentine's Day. And there are some sweet stories about the lengths people have gone through to declare their love to that someone special and I'm a sap - what can I say? My husband took me to see my favorite performer last night for Valentine's Day. We saw Michael Amante. He sings Italian Opera. It was a wonderful concert! My husband gets double the points because 1. he got us 5th row seats, 2. even though he wanted to go out to dinner he agreed to have dinner at home so we could eat with the kids, 3. he complimented my one nice outfit that I wear whenever we go out, 4. he bought me a Bailey's Irish Cream at intermission and when I only took 3 little sips of the $7.00 drink, he only smiled when I had to throw it away before we could see the second half of the concert, and 5. because he's an all-around nice guy. I know what some of you are thinking. Y'all thinking, I should give my husband 5 times the points, not just double. But Cupid hit me in the heart with that arrow, not the head! Happy Valentine's Day dear ones!

A Lesson Learned . . . The Hard Way, Part II

My son has an iron stomach. That boy can eat! He'll try anything. He even ate a cat treat once. It was one of the ones that is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. It was gross and he and his friend looked a little green afterwards. This particular day, the day my son learned a lesson, was a typical day; studies, snack food, more studies, lunch, more studies, more snack food, sports, dinner and more snack food. We all went to bed satisfied in the day's work, play and food. Sometime after midnight I heard some noise in the bathroom. I got up to see my son with that same green look on his face like after he ate the cat treat. I said, "Son, have you been eating cat treats? Are you okay?" "No mom, I think I'm going to be sick." I grabbed a towel and some Clorox wipes and sat on the tub while he hung his head over the toilet. As he vomited the day's food, I began to pray. "Oh Lord, how great You are! Our bodies are wonderfully and fearfully made. Thank you that my son is getting rid of the poison in his body. Thank you for creating us in a way that we vomit the germs out of our system . . . (you get the idea)." My son looked up at me with his body still leaning over the toilet bowl and said, very slowly, "Mom, . . . do . . . you . . . MIND?!" "Sheesh," I said, "I was just trying to help. And by the way, try chewing your food next time, that is some chunky vomit." He continued to hurl for about an hour, got rid of all the germs and woke up in the morning hungry. I ask you, "How great is our God?!"

A Lesson Learned . . . The Hard Way, Part I

When my son was in the 8th grade and we were homeschooling we did a unit in health on the human body. We looked at all the body parts and systems and marveled at the miracle of life. We learned Psalm 139:13-14, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." We talked about health and nutrition and how everything we need God has provided. We talked about how really fragile we are in that our body temperatures can only go up or down 6 degrees or else we would be facing death. We talked about Genesis 2:7 ". . .then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." We talked about how we can have all the parts of the human body, but never could we breathe life into it. We talked about our cat, Boz, who died after 17 years and no matter what we did, we could never breathe life back into him. We talked about viruses and bacteria and our immune system. We talked about how our bodies fight germs that invade it and how we are created to get rid of our waste. I really wanted to drive home to my son these valuable lessons and how we should be praising God everyday for our health. I prayed he would understand how great our God is. Well, an opportunity arose and he wasn't pleased . . .

If You Like The Snow, I Did It ~ If Not, My Bad

Most of you know I was in Tennessee this weekend with my daughter looking at a college. Most of you know I get travel anxiety. Most of you know that I love my home in New Jersey. So, at our final session at the college (way to go Sweetie, you did a fabulous job!) the admission counselor said, "So, it looks like you'll be getting some snow in New Jersey this week." I said, very casually, trying to hide the anxiety, "Yes, but as long as we can get home okay I don't care if it snows a foot!" Well, guess what folks? It snowed a foot!!

A Homsechooling Story

When my kids were homeschooling and in 4th, 6th and 8th grade I wanted to teach them the 6 steps to the scientific method. I handled the first step which is ask a question. The other steps are:

- do background research

- construct a hypothesis

- test your hypothesis with an experiment (test until you get the same result at least 2 times)

- analyze your data and draw a conclusion

- report your results

I told them I would pose a question to them, give them the list of steps and then told them I would not interfere until they reported the results. When reporting the results they needed to supply a photo or an illustration of their experiment. They were pretty excited about the whole thing as I built it up before I posed the question. The end results were not disappointing. And the only one to suffer was the cat. Yes, poor Boz. The question was this: Is Boz, our beloved cat, left pawed or right pawed?

The results - 2 concluded he was left pawed, 1 was inconclusive.

New Boots For The Queen, From The King Of Kings

This is really the truth. I don't make this stuff up. My daughter, the queen of purple, got boots from God, the King of Kings. This is how it happened. When I got home from the dentist who found boots on-line for my daughter, I was happily willing to spend the $100 + for her new boots. She said, "Mom, it goes against my principles to spend that much money on boots." I said, "I get you one nice thing a year, I want you to have them." She said, "No thank you." We decided we would look at discount stores and see what was left on the shelves. In the meantime, I got an email from a friend that said she had boots for anyone who wanted them. They are free. The email said they are a size 9, purple swede ankle boots - first come first serve. I called my friend and asked, "Am I first?'' Much to my delight, I was. I met her in town and she gave me the boots. I asked, "Where did you get them?" She said her son, who is a roofer, was working on a building and he found these boots, brand new with tags and all, on the roof. I said, "As if they dropped out of the sky from Heaven." "Yes," she said, "a gift from God." And this is the best part - they fit the queen, I mean, my daughter like a glove and she loves them. But who wouldn't love purple boots from God?