You Don't Get To Choose...

... your family.

Well, actually, that's not 100% true.  I mean, you really don't get to choose your family of origin, but if you decide, at some point, to get married, you actually do get to choose the people who will make up half of your family, for the rest of your life.

And let me tell you something.  You are not going to find perfect people!  But you can find people you love...

I am an only child.  I wanted my children to have siblings... and they do... and I love that.  But I think it was also important to me to marry into a family where I would have "siblings", too.  And now I do... and I love that, too...

This side of our family had not all been together in almost four years!  That's too long!  We had a good weekend, but I think my favorite part was going out with my sister-in-law, Sheri.  I sure wish they lived closer.

Well, here we are:

Cousins...  You'd think I could get nine kids, ages 2-15, all looking at the camera, with their eyes open, at the same time, but actually, I couldn't...  Sorry, Seth...  This was the best picture of everyone else.  As a side note, it's usually Seth who I can count on to keep looking at the camera, so this is sort of funny:

Enjoy your family!

L.

Close Only Counts...

... in horseshoes and hand grenades...

... and life.  Close counts in life.

It's been one of those...

Hmmm...  It's difficult to finish a complete thought right now.

Phil and I were talking, the other day, about how boring (and maybe insignificant) life would be if we got everything we wanted, whenever we wanted, from whomever we wanted, all the time.  And you know, if we're going to take Scripture seriously, then I think we have to think twice about the way we perceive suffering... affliction... and maybe even just not getting what we want...

Our family has had an awful lot of those "close" moments lately.  I am chuckling to myself as I write this, because I realize that there are a lot of people out there who could read this and say, "Oh, she's talking about (fill in the blank)," and they'd probably all be right!  The real irony is that if you know about one (or more) of these moments, they are probably not the ones that have hit the hardest.  And now I realize that I've probably left a few of you feeling pretty special, because you think you're the one who knows...  Ah...  this little conversation with myself could go around in circles for a long time.  But I digress...

Sometimes I am baffled that I get to mother the most amazing kids in the world.  In the midst of my  struggles, it sort of blew me away when my 12 year old daughter, who was referring to her own "close" moment, not any of mine, said to me (and I paraphrase), "Mom, I think I have a responsibility to lead from where I am."  Uh...  OK...  Maybe there's a reason that Jesus encourages us to be like little children...

Things are not always going to go the way we had hoped.  I am counting my blessings that they're close, because not everybody can say that, either.  Carry on...

L.

Celebrate Life 2014...

I honestly don't know where to begin.  I have had 13 1/2 hours of sleep in the past 3 1/2 days.  When I put it like that, it doesn't actually seem that bad, but I think that maybe it is...

I think the last time I kept such a busy schedule at Celebrate Life was my senior year of high school!  This week/weekend was so much fun, and I am blessed to be a part of the lives of so many amazing teenagers!

Some highlights...

I have a new ONU sweatshirt.  It was cold and rainy, and I finally gave in and bought one, because I decided that it would be cheaper than going to the hospital for pneumonia.  It wasn't much cheaper, but a little bit...

I have come close to perfecting a very pleasant tone of voice that helps people to understand how very important it is that they change my daughter's talent event schedule to coordinate with her quiz schedule...  Or maybe my reputation proceeds me...  I'm going to choose to go with the nice tone of voice theory...

We had 23 people from our local church who participated in this event, and I had the opportunity to have real conversations with many of them.  Most of the others, I managed to at least wave at as I ran by in my new hoodie, all tied up around my face...

Our student worship arts team had the opportunity to perform on a college stage and to be judged by excellent musicians.  They received a rating of "good" for their effort, which wasn't as well as they did at District Celebrate Life, but was pretty decent considering two of the three vocalists had throat and voice issues going on.  Mostly, I am proud of them for working together as a team and making significant progress over the past several months.  A 15 minute performance can go well or not, but building relationships and learning how to worship God, in community, cannot be judged by a score sheet.  These guys are winners in my book, hands down!

We had one student who played soccer and several students who earned ratings of good, excellent, and superior in vocal talent, art, and speech.  Grace received a perfect score on her original piano composition, which she played and sang.  Seth received a superior on his sculpture.

The MI District Bible Quizzing B team (Daniel, Cassie, Hannah, Abby, and Kyle) took 3rd place in their division.  Our A team (Grace, Amber, Kaitlyn, Seth, and Dominic) took second place in their division.  The final round came down to the last question, and Seth made a great jump, securing the chance for the win, but it just didn't go our way this time.  Seth worked as a real team player (per normal), and I couldn't be more proud of him if I tried!  He ended up placing 18th in the preliminary rounds, putting him just outside of the top 16 quiz-off.  Grace, Amber, and Kaitlyn all quizzed in the top 16.

Grace finished 6th, individually, missing the A Team for Q by just 2 points.  I am struggling a little bit with this, because my intuition was telling me to tell her to sit on the last few questions, and if I had gone with that instinct, she would not have made a second error in the round, which cost her 10 points.  But coaching at this level is not easy, and we all make mistakes...  I'm not going to say there weren't any tears, and quite frankly, I think it's OK for a 12 year old who has worked hard all year long to memorize the entire books of Romans and James to feel a little disappointed at this outcome.  But what I can't get over is how quickly she recovered and moved on with a good attitude.  Grace spoke, during testimony time, about the importance of not only knowing what Scripture says for the sake of competition but for the sake of living a Christian life.  I told her earlier in the week that your true character comes out much more clearly when you lose than when you win.  Her character shines, and I am so blessed to be her Mom.  I am thankful, everyday, that my kids love Jesus and want to follow him.  I can't think of anything that matters more.  If you don't think that I was the one crying, while she was talking (happy tears), then you don't know me very well.  She comes by the tears honestly...

I have to admit, though, that there were some more tears for me, and if anybody thinks that was about Grace's score and final placement, they don't know me either.  Actually, what happened was that another quizzer, one whom I have seen growing in leaps and bounds, as a person, over the past two seasons, and one for whom I pray often, came up to me and spoke some words that caused me to feel a little overwhelmed at how amazing these teenagers really are.  I love what God is doing in their lives.

And then, as if that wasn't enough crying for the day, I felt compelled to cry when another teenager gave her testimony about quizzing, because she is someone who meant an awful lot to Grace in her first season (and this season, as well)...

And I might also have cried when I realized that Grace was on the phone with yet another quizzer, hundreds of miles away, who was speaking encouragement and helping Grace through her disappointment!

This is why I love Teen Bible Quizzing.

Well, we finally got all of the teens home safely and picked up our little ones at Grandma's house.  I should probably try for a couple more hours of sleep tonight.

L.

Mother's Day...

Well, this was surely an interesting one!  I got to preach for the first time.  If you would like to hear my sermon, click on the link below.  I think it went fairly well.  In the future, I need to remember to have everything scripted, so I don't say "um" half a dozen times in the first minute, and it was slightly awkward when my earring fell out of my ear, but other than that, it's all good:

Link to My Mother's Day Sermon: "It's Not What You Think"

I love these guys!  I can't imagine what would be better than being their mom!

L.

I Try Really Hard...

... to never step on my children.

I have this thing about special days and making sure that they are reserved for the people for whom they were intended.

That's why, in a rare break from my normal protocol, I am posting twice on this day.

Today, it was time for Caleb's 10th birthday party.  And, birthday parties are really important, special days in the life of our family.  I don't want to steal his spotlight... at all...

But today was a big day for me, as well...

Today I graduated from Northwest Nazarene University with my Master's degree in Theology/Spiritual Formation.  And I am proud of myself.  I worked hard.  I finished strong with a 3.85 GPA.  It wasn't easy.  And I am happy.

In my ideal world, I would have been there, in Nampa, to walk across that stage, but let's be real...  most of the time we don't get to live in our ideal worlds...  However, I am feeling blessed beyond measure that NNU has a conscientious faculty who did everything possible to make the commencement activities available, via a live stream, for those of us who couldn't be there in person.

Yesterday, I watched as my name was called at the graduate lunch.  This afternoon, I participated in the baccalaureate service, and late tonight, as I was getting Miah to sleep, I sat down to watch the commencement address.  It was actually a pretty cool feature to fast forward through all the graduates I didn't know, but I did stop to watch my friends from my cohort cross the stage!

The messages in these events were amazing, and at many points I felt that they were just for me.  Let me share a few quotes:

From Dr. Alexander:

"Seek to serve.  Don't spend your life on yourself."

And the next several quotes, from Dr. Schandorff:

"Embrace your real life.  Your real life is the one you're actually living.  Not the one you imagined or even the one you dreamed you might be living.  Your real life does not start tomorrow.

"Build community...  No matter what your mother told you, you are not special.  Today is about you.  Tomorrow needs to be about someone else."

                

"This is not only a call to invest yourself in the lives of others but also a call to allow others to invest their lives in you.  Community happens when gifts are given and received."

"Keep learning.  You are a learner.  Our ongoing education is more about the way we see others than the way we see ourselves.  There is no one in this world from whom you cannot learn something.  The day you decide this is not true is the day you begin to become a smaller, less relevant version of yourself."

"Don't let these years become the best years of your life."

And last, from John Wesley, quoted by Dr. Schandorff:

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, in all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can" -John Wesley

This is exactly why I am proud to call NNU my Alma Mater...  although, as long as I'm being honest, I wish they would do something about the school song...

L.  M.A.

Build A Better Lego Party...

Well, it's party time at our house!  Early on, we decided that we would only do birthday parties at certain ages, because, let's face it, with five children, you could be throwing parties almost all year long!  Anyway, 10 is a party year, so we set out to create an awesome Lego party for Caleb!  I think we did pretty well!

Food:

Fun:

 

I Cannot Believe Angel Guessed the Number Exactly!  137:

 

And Party Favors:

The Crayons & Soap Were Fun and Easy to Make:

And Most Importantly, Friends and Family:

This is One Happy and Blessed 10 Year Old:

 L.

Happy 10th Birthday, Caleb!

It never ceases to surprise me how fast a decade goes...

You might know the whole story... And you might only know part of it... Or maybe you don't know it at all...  But this kid...  He's really special...

It's a party year (more on that later), so today we had a smaller celebration with pizza and brownies and presents from just Mom and Dad. 

And like those little green aliens in Toy Story, I am eternally grateful...

I love you, Cay-Bee, Baby...

Mama

This is My Prayer of Thanks...

I just submitted my final paper for my Master's Degree in Theology/Spiritual Formation from Northwest Nazarene University.  Commencement will take place on Saturday.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you.

Thank you for giving me the capacity to tackle another degree program when I really didn't know if I could do it or not.  Thank you for helping me to decide on the right program... the one I needed, desperately, for this place and time of my life.  Thank you for helping me to keep it a secret from most of the world for the first year and for helping me to not drive everybody crazy in the second year, when it got exhausting.

Thank you for Phil, the most awesome husband in the world who listened to me say, "I am exhausted" at least a hundred thousand times over the course of the past two school years.  Thank you that he cared enough to wake me up from "naps" at midnight when he knew I had assignments due at 2:00am.  Thank you that he let me borrow his books and he only complained a little bit when I asked him to go dig them out of boxes in the garage, just moments before I needed them.

Thank you for the five most amazing children in the whole world, Seth, Grace, Caleb, Ian, and Miah, who celebrated loudly, just now, when I announced that it is "Mommy's summer vacation".  Thank you for a 13 year old son who isn't too old to hug me tightly and for a 4 year old daughter who wants to know if we can "go on a date now".  I know they want to do really important stuff, at this point, like finding star coins and drawing with sidewalk chalk.  Please give me the energy to jump right back in to that part of my life.

Thank you for an incredible cohort of people with whom to make this journey.  Bless Talitha and Rich and Earle and Henry and Katie, as they graduate this weekend, as well.  Bless LeAnn and Bethanie and Carol as they go on for the M.Div.  And, Lord, I can't even remember if Sherri and Amy and Faith are graduating or going on, but bless them, too!  Help all of these wonderful friends to not be too sad that they will no longer see Facebook updates from me regarding the number of words I have left to finish a paper or the slightly OCD ways in which I report my GPA.  Maybe we can come up with better conversations to have!

Thank you for godly professors who have challenged me at every turn.  Thank you for Dr. Waller, who started us off on a good note and for Dr. Milburn, and Dr. Leclerc and Dr. Carrim and Dr. Thompson.  Thank you for Dr. Oord, whose class I thought I would never survive.  Thank you that my head did not explode, because if it had, I never would have been able to make it through Dr. Bankard's class.  And thank you for Dr. Gorman, who liked my writing style enough that I didn't have to re-invent myself every week.  This was a wonderful reprieve!

Thank you for Nancy, a wonderful spiritual director who really didn't know what she was getting into when she said yes.  Thank you that she said yes, anyway, and that she has helped me through this process and taught me so very much.  It was so important to have someone who was willing to listen to me and willing to listen to God with me.

Thank you for Vicki, who probably keeps more things running smoothly than I can even imagine and for Sally who kept the financial aid straight and sent the checks out.  Thank you, also, that if I don't land a job with a tremendous salary, there are programs that will allow me to pay back these loans over the next 25 years at reasonable rates!

Thank you that I have a couple of moths to figure out whether I want to enroll in another program or write another book or just focus on things like making macaroni and cheese and taking more pictures and blogging more consistently.

Thank you for your faithfulness.  You have never failed me yet.  I don't expect today to be the day you start.

I love you, Jesus.

Amen.