Ten Cents

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This is a hazardous time of year for me.  Temptations abound.  The back-to-school sales are starting and even though my children are too old and my grandchild is too young, I can’t resist the lure of brand-spanking new school supplies.  All those spiral notebooks are just waiting to be filled with knowledge —  all those pens and pencils are itching to record wise words….and creative doodles. 

In our family, it has been firmly established that if the kids want PB to do something, all they have to say is, “Aw, come on, Dad!  It’ll be fun!”  However, if I’m the one they are after, the better approach is, “Aw, Mom, come on!  You’ll probably learn something!”

So today, when faced with a store display of Mead College Ruled One Subject spiral notebooks, I caved.  And here’s the clincher: they were 10 cents apiece.  (I didn’t realize until now that there is no “cent” sign key on a laptop keyboard.  How disappointing.)  Ten cents!  My Scottish frugality kicked into high gear and I picked out two of each color.  Ten cents!  I can’t resist anything that costs 10 cents, let alone notebooks.  Unfortunately, the cashier told me there was a limit of ten, so I had to put half of them back.  I don’t know what I was going to do with 20 spiral notebooks.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with 10 spiral notebooks. 

Maybe learn something. 

(Humfph.  “Cent” is not recognized as a word on the spellchecker.  It is insisting that I change the word to “sent” or “scent”.  What is this world coming to?  Guess I just learned something.  Better write it down in one of my new notebooks.)

August Scripture Memory Verses

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Here we are in the dog days of August!  I’ve been cleaning out the storage closets in the Sunday school rooms (no air conditioning) and it’s given new meaning to Psalm 42:1, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”  May the water of the Word quench our thirsty souls.

Rain

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I love the smell of sheets that have dried on the clothesline in the summer sun.  Tonight I took my clean bedding outside to hang awhile.  It’s been so hot that I figured it wouldn’t take long for those sheets to dry and get all fresh-smelling.  Ten minutes after I made the trip to my backyard clothesline, I couldn’t believe my ears.  What a sweet sound.  It was raining.

It hasn’t rained in six weeks. 

It rained on my sheets. 

If I had known, I would have hung out my sheets a long time ago.

Fair Time

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The county fair is in town this week. 

It is that special time of year when all things are fair.

My aunt had a famous comeback to my cousins when one of them whined, “But it’s not fair!”  She would respond, “The fair comes to town once a year and the rest of the year, it’s just not fair.”  I’ve used that line many-a-time with my own kids.  For fifty one weeks out of the year, my aunt’s saying is golden.  But for that one week, when it IS fair time, the adage is trouble.

For me a sense of fairness usually comes into play when I’ve been slighted or  overlooked.  I look at someone else’s portion and compare it to mine — always a dangerous game — and feel like I’ve gotten the short end of the deal.  However, when I look at my heaping plate and compare it to someone who has less, rarely do I cry out, “It’s not fair!  I have more than they do!”

This comparing among ourselves gets us into trouble.  But when we start looking heavenward and shaking our finger at God, we’ve gone too far.  The Israelites took it to that level and God delivered a message to them through Jeremiah.  “Do I hear you saying, ‘That’s not fair! God’s not fair!’?  Listen, Israel. I’m not fair? You’re the ones who aren’t fair!”  (Jeremiah 18:25, The Message)  Gulp.  That leads to a good question: How fair am I being to God? 

Considering the cost of His own Son’s death so I could have forgiveness, how fair is it to God when I hold on to ill feelings toward others and refuse to let them go?

Considering the creative genius and intricate detail behind the creation of this world, how fair is it to God when I entertain thoughts that it all just happened by chance?

Considering the provision I enjoy (food I eat, the clothes I wear, the house I live in) how fair is it to God when I think I’ve done pretty well for myself?

I guess my aunt was wrong.  Even when the county fair is on, it’s still not fair.

Who can compare with God, our God, so majestically enthroned, surveying his magnificent heavens and earth? He picks up the poor from out of the dirt, rescues the wretched who’ve been thrown out with the trash.  Psalm 113: 5-7 

Oh yeah.  I got the long end of that deal.

10 Things I Don’t Miss

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In the spirit of the post “10 Things I Miss” (June 12,2012) here are 10 things I don’t miss, in no particular order:

1.  Dating.  I’m so glad that’s over.  It’s nice to know I can go out (or stay in) any time I want with the best guy ever.

2.  Homework.  After a busy day, sitting down to help my kids face a night of homework was sometimes overwhelming.  One kid cried over her math book regularly.  Another kid had a habit of leaving 10 page papers until the night before they were due.  Stressful stuff.

3.  Ice and snow.  Give me a hot summer day anytime.  I remember one family vacation (before air-conditioned cars) when my mother charged us a quarter if we dared to complain about the heat.  We’re from Wisconsin, remember.

4.  Rotary phones, pay phones and long distance phone bills.  I am consistently amazed at how cell phones changed life.

5.  Pantyhose.  My cousin wore stockings one day and her grandkids, who had never seen nylons, asked her why her legs looked like they were plastic. 

6.  Staying up late at night.  I love crawling into bed early with a book.  And PB.

7.  The American League.  I’m glad the Brewers left the AL for the NL.  DHs are chubby old guys.  Pitchers should bat.

8.  Detasseling. It was my summer job on the farm, rain or shine, in the heat and humidity. I had a great tan from the waist up, though.

9.   Trying to be perfect. I gave up perfectionism and have been much happier ever since.

Just to prove that #9 is indeed true, I will leave this list incomplete.  Actually, I can’t think of another thing I don’t miss.  Maybe you can help round out the list — offer a suggestion!

10.

Merry-Go-Round

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PB and I took a few days off last week.  We decided to drive north until the temperature was below 100 degrees.  It proved to be a long drive, but a lovely time away together.  PB is a great travel partner.  He does all the driving and lets me read out loud to him. 

Going on vacation is like jumping off a twirling merry-go-round.  Suddenly the spinning gives way to stillness with open space and time.  It’s dangerous — you begin to entertain thoughts about what life would be like without the constant whirl of work and responsibilities.  You flirt with the idea of moving to a little cabin on a northern lake and writing the next great American novel.  It makes perfect sense at the time — it only seems ludicrous in retrospect.

Turning toward home, you know you have to jump back on the merry-go-round.  There is no gradual slide in — you must begin to run and fling yourself on the dizzying platform.  It’s not long before it feels right to be spinning around again, but the initial plunge is brutal.  Still, at some point, while working up speed to jump back on, the thought crosses your mind, “Do I really want to get back on this thing?  Why not go over and swing awhile longer?”

Tale of Two Gardens

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PB built some nice little raised beds for our gardening pleasure a few years ago. And they are indeed a pleasure. There are hardly any weeds, and when one does pop up, we don’t even have to bend over to pluck it out. That’s my kind of gardening.

This year we decided to plant green beans in all four beds. We like green beans. My grandfather, who was a good gardener, used to plant Kentucky Wonder beans. When he was in his declining years, we asked him what kind of birthday cake he wanted and he said, “Kentucky Wonder Cake.” I always smile when I see the packets of Kentucky Wonder green beans each spring. However, we plant Blue Lake Bush beans. Maybe someday I’ll request a Blue Lake birthday cake.

This year, our garden boxes have a curious look about them. I’m befuddled. Same dirt, same seeds, same amount of sun and water. Same guy planted the seeds on the same day. So much the same, yet the results are so different.

I find a great truth in this picture. All we can do as we serve the Lord in ministry is put the seed out there. Some seeds take and others just don’t. Jesus told a story about the four different kinds of soil (Mark 4:1-20) — in his illustration, only 25% of the seeds produced a harvest. I think about the two criminals crucified on either side of Jesus — one took hold and the other took offense. So I wonder about the people sitting in church yesterday and all the kids at VBS last week. Which ones have hearts open and ready to receive the good news?

What a relief that I’m not responsible for the result.

What a privilege to have the chance to sow a few seeds.

Summer Reads

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It is June 22 which means VBS is over and my summer begins!  As I promised in the “10 Things I Miss” post (June 12, 2012) I have a list of books and my fingers are itching to hit the “Buy Now With One Click” button to load my Kindle.  Here’s my line up:

1. The God Box: Sharing My Mother’s Gift of Faith, Love and Letting Go by Mary Lou Quinlan — After her mother’s death, Mary Lou found boxes full of little scraps of paper with her mother’s prayers written on them.  How lovely.  I might start my own box this summer.

2.  On Writing Well by William Knowlton Zinsser — We’ll see if things improve around here after reading this.

3.  The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy —  I like history, I like presidents and I like getting inside exclusive places.

4.  Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)  by Suzanne Collins — Because I read the first book and heard this one is even better.

5.  A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty by Joni Eareckson Tada —  I have great respect for someone who has been in a wheelchair for decades, wrestles with suffering, yet still has a vital faith in God.

6.  A Week in the Life of Corinth by Ben Witherington III — I’ve read First Corinthians and Second Corinthians, but not this one.  I’m hoping this book will give depth to the other two.

7.  The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles  by Steven Pressfield and Shawn Coyne — I love books that have really long subtitles.  I don’t really know if I have inner creative battles, but I probably will after reading this book.  Then I will be able to break through them.  And win.

8.  Lit!  A Christian Guide to Reading Books by Tony Reinke —  Once I read a book titled “How to Read a Book”.  I loved it.  Books about how to read books are almost as good as reading real books.

9.  Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard —  I heard this is a trendy book.  Then I saw LeBron on SportsCenter reading it in the locker room before an NBA finals game and things turned out pretty good for him.

10.  I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman by Nora Ephron —  I sometimes feel bad about my middle age midriff bulge and grey hair.  So far, my neck hasn’t been a problem, so I’m thinking I’d better be ready if that’s the next thing to go. 

See?   I wasn’t kidding when I said I was going to get ten new books.  Yay for summer!  What are  you reading?