Father's Day--part 3

Ready for another dad story? Ready or not, here it goes. We are going to flash back to my kindergarten year, so I was 5 years old. Dad, I'm sure can guess what story this is going to be. My mother taught school in a town a few (don't remember) minutes away, and my sisters went to that school as well. I, on the other hand, went to a private school kindergarten just half a day, so I got to go to my favorite babysitter, Sonja's house after school. Well, we were getting ready to head out the door one morning, and dad had forgotten something in his room and asked me to run and get it. My parents' room was like a loft in the den and had a spiral kind of staircase going up to it. There was not wall, just chains, so you could see up into it from the den. My dad could reach up and touch the bottom of the floor, so we used to sit down on the floor of their loft room, scoot to the edge between the chains, and jump to him. I hope I am explaining the room and everything right...that is how I remember it anyway.


So dad asked me to go up and get whatever it was he needed. I said sure, and asked if I could jump to him. So he went to the edge of the loft and waited for me. I eagerly and excitedly ran upstairs, got the thing (I think it was a book), gave it to him, then sat down to jump to him. The thing that was different about this time than any other of the hundreds of times I jumped to him was that I was wearing a cool vest this time. Not just any vest. I was wearing a jacket vest. Remember that it was the 1980's, which was the coolest time in fashion (hahaha). My cool jacket was a winter coat that......get ready for this......if you wanted to.....you could unZIP the sleeves off to make it a vest. And you BET I was proud of that thing. I loved it, and on this particular day, it was obviously too hot for the full jacket, so I zipped those babies off and went for the vest.
Sitting on the edge of the loft looking down did not scare me. I had jumped to dad a thousand times and he caught me every time. So....one, two three....jump! And that's when my fashion statement of the year failed me. My lovely jacket/vest got caught in the chains, which turned me upside down and sent me plunging to the ground...head first! Yes, head first. Lucky for me, my dad is very quick to react. He grabbed my leg and saved my life (that makes the story better to say he saved my life), only my left arm hit the ground right at the moment he caught me by the leg. I cried of course, and he layed me on the couch, put ice on it I think and then asked me to squeeze his finger. I remember laying on the couch thinking it was so mean that he would have me squeeze his finger with my hurt hand...what was he thinking?
Apparently, I squeezed the finger good enough not to go to the doctor, but not good enough to go to school, so dad took me to Sonja's house for the whole day! I also remember a not so happy mom coming to pick me up...she took me to the doctor and yep, it was broken! And when we got home that evening...me and my broken arm, dad told Autumn to go get up in the loft and show mom what happened and why I fell. In my memory, mom wasn't so sure that was a good idea!
So why, you ask, would I share the story of when dad broke my arm for Father's Day? Ok, well dad didn't break my arm, but you know what I mean. Well, here is the cool thing about that whole story. My dad was a pastor, which meant we as his children were always used as sermon illustrations. Now, dad never used things that would make us angry...he was considerate in that. Dad used that broken arm story several times as an illustration of trusting the Lord. After breaking my arm, I (and my sisters) got back on the loft and jumped to him again...trusting him fully. What I got from the whole story....is that my dad is not afraid to be seen as a real person. I know of many pastors who feel like they have to put on a front for people. They feel like they have to live up to this person that people build up in their minds...that they can't fail or make mistakes. What I remember from this broken arm story...my dad isn't perfect, we all know that...but he doesn't pretend to be perfect. He takes his not perfect life and uses it to point others to Christ. I LOVE him!!!!

Father's Day--part 2

I love seeing life from different people's perspectives. I think that is why I love my camera so much...I can capture life from a different perspective. I can capture a moment that might otherwise be overlooked or forgotten. I love sitting with my four girls after we have done something or gone somewhere and let them each tell me about it. Hmmm....kind of like the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible....each of them giving their own perspective sometimes on the same things. Anyway, I love hearing my girls talk about something we all experienced together because sure enough, each of them saw something, talked to someone, or did something that I didn't. Each of them had something different that was special or important to them. And then you have A who will have a thought about the whole thing that NO ONE would have ever thought of!


We are pretty spoiled. We get passes to everything and we always love to go and do things. My aunt Jan will call and get our schedule of events just to laugh at me because after I have named of 50 things for one day, I usually say, "We're not doing a whole lot...just a little of this and that." We love going to plays, movies, amusement parks, etc. What is so funny is even experiencing all of those fun things, the things we spend money on are not necessarily what stands out the most to them! With all of the places we have gone to and things we have done, place we have eaten at, and things we buy, one of the stories the girls bring up the most is when I ate a mushy mango at lunch one time and got it all over my face. Yeah...great for me huh? Of all the things we do together and they remember the messy mango? You know why? Because we laughed and laughed and laughed at that mango. We had so much fun just enjoying the moment together, and that is what they remember.


So you are probably wondering how in the world this is a Father's Day post. Me too! Just kidding. Just in case you are wondering, I get an idea in my head of a post I want to write, then I just start writing, so that is why they end up a little crazy and all over the place sometimes. So.........on to the story about dad that I want to tell. My dad obviously did so many things for us in life. He took us places, taught us things, explained EVERYTHING to us very logically, but one of the things that makes me think of him.....butterscotch pudding!


You might be thinking that he ate butterscotch pudding every night, or at least every week. Nope. Dad isn't much of a sweets eater. He loves a good chocolate pie, and in MY eyes, butterscotch pudding is his favorite. Let me tell you why I said MY eyes.


When I was probably in the eighth grade (I'm thinking it was pretty soon after mom had passed away), dad decided we were going to make a snack together. The way I remember the story, he was so excited to make butterscotch pudding for us because it was his favorite thing as a kid. He took us to the store and got the ingredients, then made butterscotch pudding on the stove top, NOT instant. He put nilla wafers in each of our bowls then the pudding. It was the best pudding in the world!
So a few years ago, I had butterscotch pudding somewhere. I don't remember where I was or who gave me the pudding....I don't even remember eating the pudding. I just remember calling my dad and the conversation went something like this:
Dad: Hello?
Me: Hi dad! I'm having your favorite thing to eat right now!
Dad: Oh...ok (ugh...he never shows much excitement the way I do!)
Me: Guess what it is!
Dad: ummm...tamales
Me: nope...it's a dessert
Dad: umm....chocolate pie
Me: No...it's your FAVORITE....you used to eat it all the time as a kid!
Dad: ummm....I have no idea.
Me: BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING!!!!!!! (I was very excited about it)
Dad: oh....I didn't realize butterscotch pudding was my favorite. I guess I do like it.
Me: DAAAAAAD. You LOVE it...remember? You made it for us and cause you had it all the time as a kid and you LOVE it. It's your favorite!
Dad: Oh, I guess I vaguely remember making it for you girls one time. Yeah, I do like it, I just don't remember that it was my favorite.
Me: Well I remembered for you and it IS your favorite!
Dad: haha....ok

And there you have it...dad loves butterscotch pudding....it's his favorite, just ask me. I laugh thinking about that butterscotch pudding and for some reason that memory really stood out to me. Loooking back at it, I'm thinking that we had just experienced a really hard and traumatic time with my mom having just passed away, and dad had decided to have a fun experience together. I'm thinking that was probably one of the first times after my mom's death that we just relaxed together and had a good time and our hearts were happy. I'm thinking that is why the butterscotch pudding tasted so good. Yep, I love butterscotch pudding....it's my dad's favorite!!!

Father's Day part 1

In honor of Father's Day coming up on Sunday, I figured I would do a few posts about my dad. I love him. The end....JUST KIDDING!!! Just kidding about the end, not kidding that I love him! I have done a few posts already about my dad...telling you what a great man of God he is...so in these next few posts, I just want to tell you a few stories about him. Oh yeah, and dad, I did get you some really sweet Father's Day cards, but I can't find them right now, but you will eventually get them. Eventually. Sorry about that.


Autumn is very much like my dad and I am very much like my mom. Dad and Autumn are calm, even-tempered, logical, precise, thinkers.....not me. Mom and I, well we are animated, creative, not so logical, feelers. That's just how it is, which is probably the reason Autumn and I do so well living together...we are opposite, but can work well together. However, I did not always understand these differences growing up. I remember lots and lots of conversations where dad would explain how something works and why it does what it does...yeah, well those details never stayed in my brain. It meant nothing to me. However, I now very much appreciate him and people like him who think it is fun to figure those kinds of things out!
Anyway...that is not a story, just some extra information I guess! When I started thinking about stories I wanted to share about dad on here, a few came to mind, but one of the best memories I have of my dad were in the mornings. My mom taught school and usually she taught at a school in a different town than we lived in, so she had to leave the house much earlier than us, which left dad in charge of getting us ready and to school. Remember that I don't have a great memory, so I can't recall who picked out our clothes and that kind of thing, although my guess is mom did, but I do remember a few things about those mornings. I remember dad always fixing us breakfast. To this day I am not a good breakfast fixer...probably because dad always fixed it, so we didn't ever have to. Even when we were in middle school and high school, dad fixed us breakfast. He knew just how to make the oatmeal...how much butter and sugar should go in. He fixed the BEST eggs...he just knew how to fix a good breakfast....I'm sure he still knows how to fix a good breakfast, but with so many of us now, Cracker Barrel fixes a fine breakfast too when we are all together! But breakfast made by dad will always be very special to me.
With three girls to get ready in the morning, guess what else he had to do.....hair! Yes, dad had to fix our hair. I know mom fixed it some, so I don't really know how much he fixed it, but I do remember him fixing our hair quite often. It is so funny to see just how much dad and Autumn are alike....fixing hair isn't her favorite thing either. She does a fine job when she does it, but it isn't her favorite thing. Dad was the same way. Remember I told you that he is precise? Well, even in doing hair, it had to be precise. I loved having my hair done in fun creative ways like pigtails and braids. My dad, however, could only do a few things with my hair: down, low pony tail and parted (exactly perfect) down the middle and low pigtails. I, however, wanted braids or a high ponytail. So...what does dad do? I'm sure he told me no a few times, but decided to give it a go. Not knowing how to get the ponytail high on my head, he made up his own way...he would have us lay down on our back on the bed and hang our head off of the edge of the bed, so our hair would hang down just perfectly where he could gather it together, put a ponytail holder in, and there you have it...a high ponytail!
I laugh so hard thinking about it. I love you dad! Thank you for everything you did for us!

Life in the Ocean

Our sweet H loves random facts. She asks questions about things all the time: how much does that cost? How long does it take to get there? Where were those made? etc. She loves finding out about things and she remembers facts really well. Now, common sense isn't her strong point, but she loves facts. When her class studied the unit on ocean life this spring, it made her eyes bright with excitement to learn more about something. Let me tell you, she has not stopped telling us random facts about whales, and other ocean life. If she is around someone for very long, they too get the joy of learning things about the ocean. Did you know that whales are never fully asleep? Half of their brain sleeps and one eye closes while the other side is awake. Yes, I now know this kind of stuff!
So...the other day we were watching the show on tlc, the Little Couple. At the beginning of the show, they tell how tall they are..."My name is Bill and I am 4 feet tall. And my name is Jen and I am 3 feet 2 inches tall....."
H matter of factly said, "Hmmm....wow....she is just barely taller than an Emperor Penguin!"

Oh man this girl is funny. I love to see things through their eyes!

A Legacy

What do you want to be remembered for? What legacy do you want to leave behind? We went to my aunt's house (mom's sister) this weekend, and she had gotten my grandmother's journal and other things of hers. While going through those things, I started thinking about the legacy she left.


I am one blessed girl. I've said it before on here, and I will say it again. I have been so truly blessed to have Godly parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins....pretty much my whole family. Now, I realize that having family that loves and trusts the Lord does not mean that I automatically trust the Lord. I realize that. I have a choice to make on my own...we all do. We can choose to trust God or to reject Him. However, with the family that I have, I have had AMAZING examples to follow! I could spend so much time talking about each one of my family members and how they have impacted my life in an awesome way, but that would be one super long post, so I won't. So.....back to the things my aunt found...sorry for chasing that rabbit!

I did not get to spend a long time going through the journal and poems that my grandmother wrote, but the little bit that I did get to see made me realize what an awesome legacy she left in all of us. Her heart and love of people and life was so evident in her writings. It was truly incredible. As I sat and read the detailed entries of her journal, I could feel her love in a new way. My grandmother is still with us, but her health isn't great, and we connect with her in a different way now. It was awesome to read her thoughts and read EVERYTHING they did. I mean EVERYTHING.....it told where they ate that day, how much it cost, who they visited, who she talked to on the phone...everything. I realized a few things. I realized that details are important to her. She appreciated all of those little things in life. I realized that their ministry never stopped. They took every opportunity to minister to people and to share Christ with people. Wow! What a legacy! Because I didn't have time to read every entry, I looked at the dates of our birthdays to see what she had written...oh it was so funny. She told what kind of cake she had ordered for us. I found out that (or remembered again) she try to call me for an hour on my 18th birthday, which was my first year at college. She couldn't get through the lines...because we didn't have cell phones. After an hour, she finally got through to the WRONG number! I am so glad she wrote that down because I never would have remembered that!

There was also a pouch of little poems that my grandmother either wrote or found and kept. She was so creative and expressive....I'm thinking I might take after her a little bit! Her love for her family and friends was so evident in her poems. Some of them were funny, and some were kind of sad. She wrote on each one the reason why she wrote the poem at that time....such insight to an amazing woman!

Thank you LORD for this gift! Thank you for the legacy she is leaving in so many people! Thank you that I get to experience your love through her!!!

Trust Me

Trust is a hard thing for me. To let go completely...not even holding on a little...that is hard. Really hard. I've been learning a lot about trust and thinking about trust lately, then at camp the Lord spoke through a story the pastor told. I'll get to the story in a minute. I don't know why I have a hard time trusting people completely and trusting the Lord completely....when I look at my life, I have been so blessed with a heritage of Godly people in both sides of my family. I did not realize growing up how rare it is to have such a rich and deep Godly heritage. My parents loved me, showed me a Godly example....I have no real reason to not trust people, except that I guess it is just our human nature to not trust. Then I look at my girls...they have every reason in the world to not trust. People have failed them over and over. They have been abandoned, left, neglected, hurt....they have every reason to not trust people. And I can't sit here and tell you that they trust every person whole-heartedly every time. Nope. And each girl is different....some of them have their guard up much more than others. However, I can tell you that I have learned so much about trusting people from them. I look at their lives...and I am amazed at how they choose to trust...trust the Lord, trust Autumn and I, trust others in their lives. It is beautiful. It inspires me.
At camp, the pastor told a story about a father and son...the son was born with a condition that he was bound to a wheel chair and he could not speak at all. He was helpless. But the doctors somehow hooked up machines to his brain and could interpret his thoughts into words through a computer. I know I am missing some details of how it all happened, but this is what ended up happening...the son wanted to run, so the dad made it happen. He got into shape, and this father/son pair have run in countless marathons and triathlons. Here is how they do it: the father runs/swims/bikes while pulling or pushing his son. The son is totally and fully dependent on the father. And the dad proudly, selflessly, and strongly carries his son through these races. I know I was at camp as a sponsor to help the kids, but the Lord spoke so strongly to me through this illustration (and the video of them racing). This is a beautiful beautiful picture of trusting the Lord. Trusting isn't telling God what you want and hoping he listens, which is often what my bossy self does. Trusting isn't walking around blindfolded with one hand holding onto God and the other hand feeling around for what might be in the way. Nope...it is fully letting him carry us. Being completely helpless to Him. And what is so beautiful about the picture of this father and son is that every time, the son had a HUGE smile on his face. There was no worry, no hesitation, no doubt. He was so happy, knowing that his father was going to carry him to the end, and he could enjoy it the whole way. Thank you Lord for this lesson! I needed it!!!

Camp

I love Children's Camp...I really love it and look forward to it each year. Our camp is at Falls Creek, which is near and dear to my heart because my grandpa was the director there a long time ago, and I have so many sweet memories there. Because we leave pretty much right after school gets out, it is hard for me each year to transition from school mode to summer mode. This year was pretty special because M got to go to camp...I can NOT believe she is actually old enough, but sure enough she is! This was my 9th (yes 9th....I am old) camp to take campers to, but my very FIRST one to SEND a camper to! And although Autumn and I both went to camp, I have a rule that while we are at camp, I am NOT mom and she is NOT my child...that's the way it goes, and we both did pretty good with those roles. It was kind of weird actually, because after the parent-camper meeting (which I was in charge of and wrote up all of the papers for), M went home and wanted to pack. Sure, that's fine...pack away. Yeah...that's fine until she starts to argue with me about what they were supposed to or not supposed to bring. "They SAID we couldn't do that!!" Umm....if you remember, I AM "they"! She did so good at separating me as her mom and her children's minister, that she forgot I am both! It was so funny how she did that, but it worked I guess!


It was kind of a weird couple of weeks for me before camp. I was struggling with some things and just having a hard time in life in general....it was hard for me to concentrate and get things done. Of course the Lord provided a way...he always does. Autumn ALWAYS does all of the behind the scenes work that nobody notices. Well, after 9 camps, people are finally noticing a little bit of how much Autumn does. My friend Emily was the other blessing HE provided. Emily was SUCH a blessing. She helped me in so many ways to get things organized, going shopping for everything, and just listening to me. Thank you Lord that you provide people to walk this journey with!

Emily and I had talked the night before camp as we were both packing, and we decided to bring some matching shirts, HOWEVER, we got these purple shirts that day, so Autumn and I wore them. We had no idea Emily had gotten the same shirt! The shirts are from supporting the house fm radio station...we had no clue Emily's family supports them and she would have the shirt...it made me very happy!

M did so good at camp. I was really expecting to find all of her stuff all over the cabin, to have to remind her to do things and I really wasn't sure how she was going to do in that setting. I was so so proud of her! She was so grown up, and she even showered AND brushed her teeth without me asking her too....my baby is growing right up!!! There is a memorial pavilion in honor of my mother at Falls Creek, but we didn't go take a picture by it! Emily even reminded us and we forgot!

I was so proud of all of my 4th and 5th graders. The first morning there, the Bible Study was about David and Goliath. David was a small boy whom God called to fight this giant Goliath. Of all the strong men, God called David, a scrawny, small shepherd boy. Why in the world would God want the little fella to fight the giant? I am sure David was a little doubtful...well...let's just say that I would be a LOT doubtful if I was David. I would be so scared and asking God over and over if he was sure that is really what he wanted me to do. But David faced the giant...gathered 5 stones and his slingshot, and hit that big man right in the head with one stone and brought him to the ground. Though most of the kids had heard this story before, Emily (she taught the Bible study) brought it to a more personal level. She asked them to share that day some of the giants that they face in their lives. A couple of them shared with the whole group, but most did not. As the day went on, very few had shared. They really didn't have time to think about it! So that night, we gave them some time. It was amazing and heart breaking to hear these kiddos pour their hearts out. They became so open and vulnerable.

From that point on, the focus went from the things that we were doing at camp to the things that we were learning and what God was doing in our lives. It was so so beautiful to see! yes, we still played volleyball, got icees, and such, but these kids were so open to what the Lord wanted to do in their lives....it was awesome!

Thank you Lord for this opportunity you gave me with these kiddos! I pray that we as adults would be that open and vulnerable to let the Lord do what he wants in our lives!