Questions I wonder about

My quickie question of the day is.......while waiting for the hospital staff to come get us for Evan's surgery, I took note, not for the first time, that an older gentleman sitting in a wheel chair, was being addressed by his wife as if he were a child. The other women who interacted with him spoke in a similar manner to him. But.......later on he struck up a conversation with us and was obviously a very intelligent, talkative, lucid person. So....my question is - why do WOMEN talk to older men as if they are children???? I hear this sort of thing pretty frequently and then I, being an over thinker, put myself in the poor man's shoes and wonder if they notice or care that they are being condescended to? I pray I don't do that to the elder men in my life. Are men really children????? I would like to think they are not. Anna mused it is the result of feminism to treat men like they are 'slow' or incapable of understand. Hmmmm.....I see her point and perhaps she is right.

More verbal

I have been over processing an interesting conversation which happened recently. I was discussing with a friend, the possibility of Erik going and living in Pennsylvania for awhile to help some farmer friends of ours. Cindy is in need of a kidney transplant and just she and her husband do all the work on their dairy farm. They work harder than anyone I know and the cows don't wait for anyone to be free to milk them. It has to be done. Cindy just found out about this although she knew it was coming someday as her mother had the same condition. She is still in the stunned state and has not put her name on the list. Anyway, Charley and I hope to talk to them about Erik coming out and getting trained so that he could be available to come and be ready to help on short notice.

I mentioned to the friend I was talking to that there is not a church there that Erik could go to easily and his reply was that church only mattered to me and didn't matter much to Erik. Heart drops to stomach. Two things.......he doesn't know Erik as well as he thinks but also this conversation is a serving as a catalyst to be a little more free to invite our friends outside the church to church. In other words perhaps be less polite about 'respecting' their lack of value for the church. I was pretty hurt initially but now see it as an opportunity to point out why the family he loves so much to spend time with are the way they are. As far as I can tell and my prayer of course is it will remain this way, my children would not have it any other way but to be in attendance at the many opportunities there are to partake in God's good gifts. I guess I take this for granted more than I should. Indiana University has NOT drawn my daughter dear away from the church but rather Christ remains central in her life and He is faithful in sustaining her in any challenges which have come her way.

I suppose the friend is correct in that it is typical for the church to be more important to the mom than the kids and the children are 'drug' to church. I don't have this problem, and I am very thankful for the faithful pastors God has provided for us and our family to teach and confess God's word to them and the importance they put in the opportunities given to receive the Lord's supper as well. The kids 'get it' and it is part of their life every day as it should be. Our prayer is they will find faithful spouses to continue the Word of God being as first as we poor miserable sinners can muster. So as we celebrate America's Thanksgiving I personally will stare at my children and thank God for His faithfulness to our family and His forgiveness of Sins. Charley and I have much to be thankful in this regard. And........I will continue to love my neighbor and not be pissed off at his comments but rather forgive and look for opportunity to help him understand without personally being defensive.

As I was was finishing up the apple pie Erik helped me with just now, I hurt my brain some more thinking about what exactly is different about Emmaus. At Emmaus there is a correct understanding that (duh) every individuals faith and life is THEIR faith and life. Each individual's confession of faith is important and emphasized no matter how old or young they are. Catechesis is for life and the emphasis is not just for those who have been 'confirmed' but also for the very youngest on up to our wonderful elders in the church. Parents teach their children why we do what we do in faith as best they can but the pastor especially communicates this to each child, youth, parent, grandparent and the same attention is given to each individual. The words confession of sins, forgiveness of sins, confession of faith are for ALL ages instead of categorized by age and maturity or lack there of. (rambling now) I have never heard my pastor categorize the people of the church as being able to 'handle or understand' this or that and each individuals faith and life IS because Jesus is and not because of what grade they are in. But.....isn't the way it should be???? So I am thankful for the Shephards given to our family who do not sugar coat our faith and decide for me that my children 'can't handle' sin, death and the grave or putting it right on the line that Jesus is EVERYTHING and in ALL they do. Thank you Pastor and Asst. Pastor for what you do!

No sweat

Thanksgiving dinner seems to be not that much more involved than any other day around here. We will most likely be just our family tomorrow as we are sort of 'skipping' the family gathering this year. Evan has outpatient surgery on Friday and then this evening we just returned from a short trip to Pennsylvania. I hope to rest as much as possible tomorrow. We will stick the turkey in, whip up some stuffing and chop up some squash to eat. I think I will just assign everyone a dish and go with it.

Evan's surgery IS on my mind as I look in his cute little trusting face and think too much about telling him no and managing to get to Ft. Wayne with a hungry mad baby. I know it will be for his good and I am sure I will be doing my best to hold myself together during the procedure but am thankful his issue is not something more serious. I will be so glad when it is over with and we are back home again. We might have to chill out somewhere afterward but will SO want to be home as soon as possible too. Sigh. Jesus loves Evan so much and will hold onto that. I am also thankful Anna is home this weekend to help some with the other little people who hate it when I leave.

Sleepy tired from our journey so am stumbling off to bed now.

Vacation amusement

We are on our annual pilgrimage to Pennsylvania to see our farmer friends and stomp Charley's home stomping ground. We of course have forgotten a few vital items such as Benjamin's nebulizer, Woody and Bullseye, more than one shirt for Stefan and.......I guess that is about it. This year we did bring along an additional passenger, our neighbor Jim. He is retired, single, and comes to dinner pretty frequently at our house. Charley and Erik went over the weekend to a tool meet in Bloomington and about a week ago we invited Jim to come with on our family trip. He came with Charley last year to the family's farm auction and had a great time. He talks a mile a minute. Perhaps he is making up for all the time he spends alone as a single person with his house full of tools. His tools don't talk back to him. He is greatly amused by the family antics. He also keeps Charley in line so I don't have to! It has been pretty hilarious. Charley doesn't react to questions from the Jim. This morning Charley, Jim, Erik and Matthew are on a mission to get maple syrup sugaring supplies. Jim LOVES it out here in the sticks. He informs me of what it is like here which I also find amusing since I have been coming out here for 25 years but that is okay too.

We have thoroughly trashed the hotel room and will be taking off hopefully soon to go back to the Reese's. They are 79 years old this year with 18 Great Grandchildren so far. We go out to the Walker's dairy farm this evening for another wonderful spread of food. Fat and getting fatter.......I can not wait to get my hands on some wood to chuck!!! MUST DO SOMETHING!!!

Contest week 2

I can not say that contest week two was as successful as the first week. We did have our share of distractions with Charley's job etc. Then I kept them hopping with their school work so maybe that is why. Charley was not here Friday to 'judge' the rooms so tomorrow night will be the night when he returns. I personally got a lot done today with areas which are 'my' responsibility and the kids who were here helped with some really bad spots. I am encouraging them all to keep up with washing the floors in their areas and MAYBE our socks will not be so yucky anymore. The drawback with this is that the dirty spots seem to stick out to me more but hey, I shouldn't complain. It is better than it was. I think most of our challenge is keeping up with what Ingrid gets out. She did manage to spread chocolate pudding all over our new bedspread. It is in the washer now and I am hoping it comes out clean! I might be the winner on most improved areas this week. Woo hoo!

My challenge which I am going to dare to put on here, is to read all the Harry Potter books by the New Year. I have read one to four in the past but can't remember much of it. (Scandalous I know) Perhaps we will make reading challenges for everyone for the next month and a half or so. Sounds like a plan to me. We started this in the summer but it petered out in the end. This is also the third time I have started rereading number 1 so I will have to make myself scarce here and go work on it!

I love you mom!!!!

Stefan must tell me this 50 times a day. Well now everyone tells me this all day long. Pretty sweet eh? Well........now it goes like this....Stefan says, "I love you mom!" and I say, "I love you too Stefan." Then a few others say this and Ingrid in Ingrid talk says it and if I do not immediately acknowledge her with "I love you too Ingrid." she proceed to scream over and over and starts crying, "I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!" Love is interesting at times isn't it?

ZZZZzzzzzzz

What a week! It isn't over yet either. Today's topic of contemplation is encouraging the dad to spend more time in conversation with the children. This is not his forte but frankly the kids avoid the dad in topics concerning life Here it is one week after being informed of the dad's imminent job loss (some time next year) and their daddy dear is on top of things, not despairing and his reputation proceeds him with his colleagues. This is a good thing. So.......in conversation with the kids I suppose it has struck me to point out to them that their dad has not gotten where he is over night and building a reputation for being an awesome engineer started when he was rather young. Dads can be useful in passing this along and moms can be wimps in enforcing the kids talk to their dads about the tough stuff.......making it in life. Since the kids do not tend to drift his way, I am encouraging him to remember to drift their way. Sigh. My knowing answers to what needs to be done will not make them do it. Hhhmmmm.....where is that hockey stick?

It is all relative

Today is not a lot different than any other day in my life. I have my Benjamin who consumes most of the day with his lessons in school. He is pretty dyslexic as far as I can tell and I have to repeat and repeat and repeat the instruction. The obvious to others is something I need to reteach again and again. What is the difference between a big B and a little b. I think I might be over 10,000 times now. Sigh. It is SOOOOO time consuming. I love this little boy. I have been here and done this with another child and tell myself every day that a few years from now, Benjamin too might want to read Harry Potter or whatever strikes his fancy.

In the meantime the two year old spends much of her day frustrated and the older kids try to pick up the slack in paying attention to her. I would love to take time to just sit and read to her more or even play with her. Evan is starting to play with toys and is pretty much adorable but he still spends much of his day interested in his stomach.

My dear husband is facing the big unemployment thing. We know it is true now, the question is how much longer. His severance package will be pretty good and we hope he can hang in there till June for his 25th anniversary at Bosch. Hmmmm.....I will get tired of thinking about that. I am trying to make things pleasant at home and yes, sometimes I do feel like crying because I know how much both of us hate red tape and we will have to use up a few rolls of that. We basically suck at red tape but are trying to improve. Resumes......yuck.

There are bright spots. I won't elaborate but at least there are some. Regular life without the stressors can be a bright spot too. I felt well enough about the job thing yesterday and today but I suppose having to witness Charley go through the end of everything he has known is hard to watch. Sigh. I suppose I wouldn't feel half this way if some of the kids would see to their responsibilities without so much parental encouragement and also the pain of the tedium of Benjamin's school lessons.

This is getting too long, but we are also sort of canceling Thanksgiving gatherings as we will be visiting friends earlier in the week and then Evan has outpatient surgery on Friday. We will do something small at home and be glad Anna is home for a few days. All of this leaves little time to breath.

Get over the poor me Karin. It will all be okay.

Holding onto God's promises

The rumor mill at work is nicely cranked up again and Charley says 'the' announcement will be later this week. Oh joy. Now we will find out the very likely news that we will be unemployed people soon. Good thing we went out to dinner last night as I doubt he will be in the mood to do that any time soon. God richly and daily provides all that we need to support this body and life. I will be sharing that A LOT with him in the days to come. We have some ideas. I will get a job if I have to. This is probably sharing more than needed but I have to get it out somehow. I pretty much hate this but I also know a few other families who have no idea what lies ahead so I can't be too discouraged. Guess what is for dinner!? Squash! God richly provided it and it fills our tummies so we are glad and thankful. Pray for Charley this week as I have no doubt this will be a very stressful week at Bosch. Sigh. Holding onto God's promises more and more with every passing day. Too bad I was normal and didn't remember this as much when we felt comfortably employed.......

Biking and the weird

Biking was rather nice today. I got to the end of the road where I either turn back or turn the corner and go further and.......I went further. It was a good work out to be sure. Contrary to some poeple's opinions, my fatness will need some serious wood chucking too to rid myself of a lot of it. Then there is pacing it all. Let us see here, there are the kids, food, laundry, cleaning etc., drinking enough, eating enough, not eating too much, the basic every day check list. Resting happens while teaching and simply having the little guy need me again....this rest does not seem to be enough I guess. Sigh..I will start again tomorrow and maybe fit in some biking during the week. But......biking was good mentally and physically. Amazing the changes in the scenery since March. The squeaky windmill is gone, some people put in roads, and some woods were cleared. The hills are the same and I think I was a little stronger today. Duh. I guess I just realized why I was able to hit the hills as hard as I did - I am not expecting a baby! Hmmmmm......that does make a difference.

My dear children have been focusing on our oddities.....again. We are normal for us I guess. There are some silly, cute reasons behind this focusing. I will just learn to appreciate our oddities more I guess. I am assured that it is okay for me to be 'different' so okay.....

Was that fuzzy enough???? Time to hit the hay. The little cherub who went to bed early last night, got up a lot in the night. Here's hoping he sleeps for a little while tonight so I can catch some z's.