Summer Photo Shoot

When we were in Ohio, we overlapped with both my brothers and their families for one beautiful afternoon on the farm where I grew up. We were all dressed up for my mother's retirement party at the hospital where she's worked as an RN since the 60's. It was a great photo op, and I'm so glad that Papa Rooster got us all to stand still long enough for him to take these photos!

Here's our family...

And here is our traditional "stairstep cousins" picture, from youngest to oldest (with one small, very cute deviation)...  You should click to enlarge this one, as the camera really captured some personalities!

And here is the whole group, including my parents!

Fall Framework

I haven't written about church in a while, but we have exciting things going on!  The big one is that after 3.5 years of operating with only a "core leadership team," we are moving towards forming a vestry and becoming an official parish, not just a mission.

Ho-hum, right? It's not an outreach to the community, it's not an exciting event...but it feels like, after concentrating for three years on pouring the basement of our church--a strong, watertight, spacious one--we are finally starting to build above ground, framing out the structure that will support growth as  it comes.

Up to this time, our leadership team has had to be staff, vestry, and prayer engine, focusing on everything from prayer for the church and the needs of its congregation, to what Sunday School curriculum to use, to how much money we have to spend on it, to prayerful discernments regarding ordinations and whether to financially support worthy causes and needs within our own congregation.  It's been amazing what our little team of 3-5 couples has accomplished, and how God has answered the prayer request I've had posted in my sidebar--for God to send others to enlarge and strengthen it with needed gifts and abilities. We have such gifted leaders on our team, with such a wide variety of strong gifts. They have served in so many ways, obvious and hidden, and been not only ministry partners, but friends to Papa Rooster and me.  Without this team, I can't imagine where we'd be!

So our core team has served its function well, but not without some frustrations.  It's been hard to have so many areas of focus and feel like we weren't able to focus on them all at once.  It might be unclear who really owned an area or a decision, and then things would stall in a particular area instead of moving forward.  Sometimes, it seemed like we had too much input on what could have been a simple decision.  Or it might feel like we lacked organization or a long-range vision because we necessarily had to focus on the most immediate practicalities--or we spent time in prayer instead of organizing the immediate.  Not serious problems, but frustrating to us all, at different times.

So when our bishop said it was time for us to form a vestry, we agreed.  It seems right and good to separate the financial and discernment issues from the every-Sunday running of the church.  We still won't have paid staff, but we will have a point-person for Sunday School, for music ministry, for altar guild, etc. who will have authority to recruit help and make decisions and recommendations to the vestry and/or rector.

However, establishing a vestry means that our "members" will vote on who the vestry members will be--which implies the existence of a membership process!  So this fall, we are offering our first-ever membership class to our teens and adults, which will describe some of the distinctives from our Anglican heritage and traditions and will outline expectations for our members in a membership covenant. 

We plan to receive our new members on All Saints' Sunday (and have some confirmations as well), and then in Epiphany--our church's birthday season--we will elect our first slate of vestry members, and our bishop will return to officially install Father Rooster as rector of the new parish, Light of Christ.

In the membership class yesterday, a teenage girl shared that when she first visited Light of Christ, she had low expectations.  It wasn't her old church, and it wouldn't have been her first choice of a church to visit.  But on their first Sunday, she said, it seemed like there was "light everywhere" and the people seemed so light-filled and "fresh" to her.  It was so encouraging to hear!  May these new structures, as we prayerfully construct them, be the framework for the Light of Christ to shine even farther.

Nourished by Prayer

You never can measure what God will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ.  Keep your relationship right with him, then whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water through you, and it is of His mercy that He does not let you know it.  

When once you are rightly related to God by salvation and sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put there by God; and by the reaction of your life on the circumstances around you, you will fulfill God's purpose, as long as you keep in the light as God is in the light.

~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (August 30)

We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it.  What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. 

...Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished.  ...We look upon prayer as a way of getting things for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (August 28)

Soccer Season

Auditions for Schoolhouse Rock were last Friday night...and we weren't there.  It would have been Chicklet's first show too.

Instead, we are playing soccer!  Bantam15 has been playing with the Christian school's JV team since before school started, and he's doing well for a kid who hasn't played in years.  He's had a couple of notable firsts:  He made the first JV goal of the season, and while playing in a varsity game for just a few minutes, he got the first yellow card of the season.

Now, you may wonder what that means...and so did my boy.  He had been running after another player who had the ball, when that player stopped suddenly with the ball.  B15 couldn't stop, plowed into him and knocked him down.  He heard the whistle and saw the yellow card, so he went over to the ref and tried to take it.  The ref stared him down and made it clear that it was HIS yellow card and he would keep it, thank you very much.  Meanwhile B15's coach and all his teammates were falling off the bench in laughter.  Then play resumed, and one of the other players had to tell B15 that he needed to get off the field, he wasn't allowed to play for a time--that's what a yellow card means.

The next day, for a joke, the coach gave him his very own yellow card, that he can keep!

He's the blondest member of the family, we like to tease him.

Bantam11 kept asking me if there was somewhere he could play soccer too.  I had just begun looking into it, when a friend called and invited him to play on the same team!  And that was that.  Then B5 said he really wanted to play soccer, and his friend wanted to play too, so his mom and I signed them up on a team together.  They missed the first game, but they were given their uniforms, and now B5 wants to wear his all the time.  He even wants to put on his shinguards and hand-me-down cleats (from B11's days on a 5-year-old team), though it takes him forever.  But he looks unbelievably cute in his red-and-black, oversized official attire.

Chicklet8 said she was fine with not playing.  I'm not sure why, since she loved the soccer camp back in June.  But I didn't press, since I really didn't want to add a third night of practice a week, and a third game time, and another fee, if she wasn't that eager.

So for a season, I guess I'm a soccer mom!

A New Car for Blondechick

Well, we bought a car for Blondechick over the weekend.

I found a lot of beater cars for sale on Craigslist, as well as some tempting ones if we'd wanted to spend a little more...but I stuck to my "under $2000" mantra and kept looking for something that wasn't too awfully old, ugly or unsafe.  Finally found a '98 Dodge Neon that sounded like it might fill the bill.  Met the seller, a college student who'd been given a second car, and took it to my mechanic, who checked it out, drove it, told me what it needed as maintenance--a tuneup and a timing belt--and told me to pay $1200 for the car.  He is a straight-shooter, my mechanic, an unsmiling Mexican man that I was referred to by another Mexican guy at Jiffy Lube, who described him as "famous." He has a very direct manner that is totally trustworthy; you feel that if he says so, then that's it, and it's fair.  In fact, when I offered $1200, the student agreed immediately and told me he'd already decided he'd take whatever my mechanic said! 

I was thrilled!  Oh, and did I mention this car only had 70,000 miles on it?

So you can imagine how my heart sank when I received a text an hour before we were coming to exchange money and title:  "I'm sorry ma'am but i just ran into family problems that concern the vehicle so i dont think i'm going to sell the car."

I told him to let me know if anything changed, and that was the end of that.

After all that time--scouring the internet, meeting up to see the car, taking it to the mechanic, back to the student's house, going to the bank--and now to start over?  I am a homeschooling mom of six kids, Lord, remember?  How much time have I already spent on the phone this week with the insurance agent, the claims guy, the storage facility, the junkyard people, not to mention a trip to a hospital in IL to pick up our kids at the trauma center and two trips to the storage facility where the wrecked car was?  And all this on a holiday weekend, in which Papa Rooster was desperately trying to write a paper for a class he took in July.  He could not ask for another extension, and we both wanted the paper off his back. So it all fell on me.

Blondechick was upset, of course, that the student was backing out.  As I told her, from a parent's perspective, what was probably going on--kid forgot to communicate with parents of plan to sell car, and maybe title is still in their name--it occurred to me that perhaps, after some communication, the parents would agree, after all, to his plan.  "Let's pray and see what happens," I urged her.

We prayed, but I still spent a lot of time on Craigslist the next day, whenever Chicklet needed a little break from school.  There were several good options that I researched and decided to call on, and they were all gone, sold already.  Of the remaining listings, there was nothing to get excited about, except a couple cars that sounded good but had worse safety ratings than the Neon's, which were already borderline.  So I kept praying.

And then, I got a call (not a text, this time).  "I cleared things up with my parents, and I can sell you the car!"

Thank you, Lord!  And thank you that I didn't find anything else!  And I pray that this means she'll be safe enough in it!

She's not in love with it.  Her other car had been owned by women, so it smelled nice, and an Optima is a nicer, quieter car akin to a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord.  This one smells like a guy's gym bag, and it's a sport model Neon, with a louder engine and muffler, and with its spoiler and (non-functional) moonroof, it looks more like a guy's car.  But it's a pretty silver/champagne color, and there isn't a speck of rust on it. She'll vacuum it good and soak it in Febreze, and soon enough, it'll feel like hers.

She thinks anything is better than rollin' in the 15-passenger whale van she had to drive last week!

Thank you, God.  Protect our kids, and our investment.  This is tough, having teenage drivers--emotionally and financially.  But it's all yours--their lives, the money--and we trust You.  Amen.

Sadness, Rejoicing and a Trial

Today I signed over the title of Blondechick's car--yes, the one I was agonizing about buying just a few months ago--to a junkyard.  They gave me $250 for it.  Just enough to pay the tow and storage fees after the accident and have a whole $5 left over.

It was so emotional for me to see the wrecked car, its front end crumpled, the windshield cracked and both airbags limply filling the front seasts. I cried as I gathered her belongings out of its compartments, its back seat, its trunk.  Except for the front end, it was still a really nice car.  I couldn't believe we were junking it.

Our kids are okay.  Fine, in fact.  The airbags did their job, even though that very morning, Blondechick had told me that the airbag light had come on again, like it was when we first bought the car.  At that time, the mechanic told me that if the light was on, the whole airbag system was non-functional.  But praise God, the airbags worked perfectly when Blondechick just couldn't stop in time.

She was not following too closely.  The loooong skid marks told that story.  Nor was she texting or talking on the phone, her passengers agreed.  She was not speeding, at 40 in a 45 zone.  Both boys in the car with her--her brother and his friend--said that the car ahead did not appear to be slowing down.  No brake lights, no signal...and the section of road there sloped slightly downward, perhaps altering distance perception a bit.  At any rate, she couldn't stop quickly enough.

We rejoice that no one was seriously hurt.  The other couple have neck pain, I'm told, but are otherwise unhurt.  All five people involved were taken by ambulance to a nearby trauma center to be checked out--Illinois law for the minors involved--and our auto insurance will cover their medical expenses and car repairs.

But we didn't have collision insurance on the Optima.  For what it cost per year to have collision coverage on a vehicle on which a teen is the primary driver, we figured we could buy another cheap set of wheels with the money we'd saved, if it came to that.  But we didn't plan on it coming to that after three months.

"Why, Mom?" Blondechick asked through her tears.  "Why did God let this happen?  I don't get it.  What good can come from this?  ...What can God possibly be trying to teach me from this?  I've been GOOD!"

I knew what she meant.  If this had happened back during her rebellious days, it would have been so easy to quote Ephesians 6: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you...." 

"See?" we could have said to her, "you need to obey and respect us, that it may go well with you!"

But she's been in a good place for over a year now.  She has been trying hard to please God and to please us.  So, why did God let this happen?

"Honey, the Bible makes it clear that the trials will come.  Not if, but when they come, we have a choice to make, about how we are going to bear up under it.  We can't choose what happens to us, but when bad things happen, then we have a choice about how we will suffer.

"Think about trials greater than this one.  Think of losing a child.  Imagine Bantam5 getting hit by a car.  Would we try to figure out why we deserved that?  Would we look for someone to blame?  Would we blame God, and turn our backs on Him?  Or will we choose faith and trust, that God is bigger than our suffering, than our little vantage point in time, compared to eternity and to His all-knowing kingdom perspective?

The Bible is clear that suffering is something we learn and grow from: 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  (James 1:2-4)  

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.  ...God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  (Hebrews 12:7, 10-11)

And I didn't mention this to her, but:

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.  (Proverbs 16:18)

This is the one that haunts me.  Looking back, I think I was overly confident that going without collision insurance was a good decision.  Yes, we got the car cheap, but by the time we fixed it up, it was quite a nice car, and an investment we probably should have protected better.  There was a certain pride in assuming that we wouldn't need that coverage, and I am regretting it now.

So we're car-shopping again, and this time we are looking at not-so-nice cars, since we don't have another $3500 to put towards one.  And it's sad.  It's humbling.  So much to rejoice in...but it's a trial.

Chicklet Turns Eight

Look at that Mona Lisa smile!  My baby girl appears even older and wiser than her eight years in this shot, taken by Papa Rooster at Mount Vernon.  One can almost imagine it as an oil painting, a study in shades of wheat, with the Grand Master symbolically placing her by the harvested but unthreshed wheat to indicate a maturity that is both now and not-yet.

I can't believe how old she is, how quickly she has reached this age.  It seems such a short time since she was born--a second daughter to delight us all.  She has a sweetness and a joy about her that blesses and encourages my heart every day.

Thank you, Lord, for this precious gift. Help me to be a gentle steward, a wise and loving mother, to bring to maturity the gift you have entrusted.  And at the harvest, may the glory be all Yours!

Yes, We Started School...

...and that's about all I have time to say!

Bantam11 is enrolled in an online public school, iQ Academy.  So far, so good!  He's been able to work independently, for the most part, and he has really enjoyed his two virtual classroom sessions so far.

Chicklet7 is doing the Little Lincoln second-grade program through Wisconsin Virtual Learning (another public online school), and overall, I am impressed and pleased with it.  (I was really delighted with the large bin full of school supplies that they sent to go along with it, including math manipulatives, a microscope with mounted slides, a wooden geometry 3-D set, markers, colored pencils, paper of all sorts, letter and blend cubes, maps, workbooks, reading books, scissors, an ink pad, thermometer, calibrated scales--and waaay more.) However, it's been a challenging amount of reading and writing for Chicklet, who is a little behind, I know.  So this is really good for her, and she's enjoying it, but it's been time-consuming.

Bantam5 is just starting kindergarten, and he's been working through a numbers workbook, and coloring, and watching Chicklet's Little Lincoln videos.  I'm eager to spend more time with him once we have the hang of things with the online schools. 

Blondechick 17 and Bantam15 both started school last week and are settling in nicely to their senior and freshman years at the private Christian school they attended last year.  B15 is playing soccer on the JV team, and Blondechick is on the chapel worship team as a singer.  She was excited to also be selected to co-lead the worship team that ministers at the elementary school chapel time.  She decided to do show choir again, and she managed to convince B15 to do it too, which I could hardly believe. (When he stopped doing musical theater, I think he thought he was done with choreography forever!)  They are both in regular choir together and think it's fun to have one class together; they've started fundraising together for a March choir trip and competition in San Diego.  Blondechick is driving them back and forth to school and bringing B15 home after practices, and I am sooooo grateful.

Bantam19 is doing well at college--yay! He hasn't missed a class or an assignment yet--yay!  He's making friends and he sounds so happy--YAY!!!  He's coming home for Labor Day weekend, and we are eager to see him and hopefully hear more from him.  ("It's going well" is about as much as he volunteers, without my stream of questions.)

Well, back to school....