This Morning

The alarm went off at the prearranged 5:30am, but I turned off the obnoxious clanging and climbed back into the warmth and welcoming comfort of our bed. Just fine more minutes became Just ten more minutes until I was really wondering at the logic of the wake-up call for someone such as myself. (I even went to bed early last night.)

But I was "supposed" to get up to get a heads start on the day and sit with the Lord a bit and read His Word. I spent the next twenty minutes in conversation with Him about what a bad Christian and He reminded me that salvation is not performance based. Thank God.

I eventually got up to take a shower. Afterwards I painted on very simple, but necessary, make-up while I listened to a Focus on the Family podcast. A woman my age with four small children has terminal cancer and she and her husband shared their journey as they told their children, lived the everyday, and advised on end-of-life decisions.

The podcast was sobering to say the least. I walked into the living room only to be greeted by a nearly naked three year old two minutes later asking what I was making for breakfast. "Wouldn't you just like to sit in each other's arms all day and soak up this moment of life?" He said he wanted Cheerios.

So my worship today became more of a decision to savor rather than do, to breathe rather than rush, and to love my life rather than be eager to live it at its fastest.

It's a simple decision. But necessary.

I bought a book last night called "How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare". It came highly recommended. I explained the premise of the book to the children in my eagerness to begin the lessons and Alynna gasped! Her eyes were wide and the little gap in her baby teeth seemed to gape. She declared, "I learned about Shakespeare in my class!" Well, of course you did, your little smartie! (She gets those genes from the Wilson side of my family as my grandfather used to rave about the German genes that resulted in good test grades.) "Yes! He wanted to go to the orange country, but by accident he landed in America!" I asked her if she meant Columbus. She nodded her head not realizing that Columbus and Shakespeare are not quite the same name. I picked up my new book and hastily began reading! 

Simon, under the tutelage of Super Why! and Leap Frog has learned his alphabet and the corresponding sounds. Just this week he has developed a fascination with the letters that make up his name. The above letters in orange (SIMN) is what he wrote all by himself just because he wanted to. I was shocked! But as I once again praised the German genes I have bestowed upon the children Simon gets angry at his inability to make the curves of the S well. He growls, "Ugh! I can't do it!" I took a picture of his masterpiece (who cares if he can't make the curves and forgot the O) and sent it to Brad.

Then he asked if I could help him write his name, so I wrote his name in pencil and handed him the paper as I continued texting Brad. Simon traced the letters almost perfectly, but when he stumbled on the O he growled again, smashed the green marker on the paper (seen in the large dot above the O and the N) and yelled, "Ugh! I can't do it!"

The boy has an anger problem! I am tempted to believe this has something to do with the Mexican genes of his father as I most certainly never growl in anger over not completing an O perfectly.