Knee Socks

Where have all the knee socks gone?

The evil sock makers decided that they could make more money by switching to "trouser" socks. I hate trouser socks and I want my knee socks back!

Black Cat

I was sitting in my chair in the living room working on my NYT crossword -- when quietly down the hall walks a black cat (probably from my bedroom)! We own a white cat which lives upstairs and we own a gray cat. We do not own a black cat. I called dd and she put the gray cat in her bedroom, white cat is already in ds's bedroom and dd comes to help.

We open the door and black cat runs away.

Being Alive

It is 2008 and this is my first blog of the new year. Hopefully, I'll remember to add more this year (thanks Kat for the reminder)

I check blogs too. One of my favorite blogs is about a guy who graduated from Texas Tech a couple years ago and is now a banker in Dallas. I found his blog in a rather weird way and I started reading it when he was still in graduate school. I had googled Texas Tech and Lubbock and found another blog and this guy was on her friend's list.

I knew my son had a blog, but I didn't really read it very often -- actually very seldom -- because I don't always want to know everything that is going on in his life -- Ignorance is bliss. However, last month in an unusual conversation with his ex's parents, I was forced to read something on his blog and ask him about it. I also had to ask him to remove something that I had said -- so the secret was out -- His mother knew of his blog and his ex was still reading it and so were her parents!

So my very smart son has moved his blog to livejournal and has private posts (which I can't access) as well as public posts which I am allowed to read. Son, please put those esoteric thoughts like "the tyranny of the commonplace" on a public post occasionally. I Ike to think that the money going toward your degree is causing you to think like a scholar (which it is).

My daughter finished her semester at TCC with A's -- Yea! She now has 10 hours of college credit (she already had 3 from SMU summer program). She begins Spanish 2 and History on Monday. I sometimes forget how very smart she really is. She didn't score high enough on the PSAT to be a merit scholar but she doesn't have an asterisk so she is in the running. (I checked online what it really takes, and she wasn't there -- but she was a few points higher than her brother when he took it at the same age). She also made a perfect score on the reading section of the ACT. -- enough bragging.

I am back at work at Knowledgepoints and I am constantly amazed at parents who can't do homework with their kids. They end up fighting instead -- that just didn't happen here. I understand it does happen, and God Bless them, it gives me a job to go to! So I spend my evenings doing math mostly with middle school or high school kids. Sometimes I even get to tutor reading to younger ones -- but I definitely do more math than reading. One kid comes 9 hours a week! We (and I mean I) do all of his homework with him!!!!

That's it for today! Hopefully it won't be months again before I post.

Worry

Do you know some things that the bible says about worry?

Matthew 6:25-26
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:34
34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Proverbs 24:19-20
19 Do not fret because of evil men

or be envious of the wicked,

20 for the evil man has no future hope,
and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

I like the one in Proverbs -- I don't have to get back at anyone evil -- he has no future hope anyway!

However, I do tend to worry too much! I give my worries to God and then I TAKE them back again. Do I seriously think that God can't handle them? Do I think that He is taking too long to handle them? Do I really think I can handle them better????? No, no (ok sometimes I don't like waiting on HIS perfect timing), and emphatically no!

I don't know what is wrong with me sometimes -- do I enjoy worrying? I don't think so! But I do need to remember to give my worries to God and leave them with him!

Lord, Help me to replace worry with joy in my life.

Sorry About That

It has recently come to my attention that there are two books about marriage published by Augsburg Books. Augsburg Books is a Lutheran publishing company and they have published The Lutheran Handbook on Marriage as well as The Christian Handbook on Marriage.

I'm Lutheran and married -- and I never realized that there may be a difference in a Lutheran marriage and a Christian marriage. After all, I am a Christian that has always attended and been active in a Lutheran church. I don't really want to buy both books and compare them. According to comments on Amazon, the Lutheran book was published first and then the "Lutheran things" were taken out to create the Christian book. I think both of these books are written with an amusing theme! I'm married to a Baptist who attends a Lutheran church -- so I don't even know if I truly have a Lutheran marriage! :)

Bridge Over Troubled Water

In the last few weeks I have truly seen prayers answered. Some would say that the way one prayer was answered was just a series of coincidences. However, the series started last summer with Kevin storing a phone number in his cell phone. Then there was a text message requesting prayers sent to this number. Then that person got in touch with another person which led to postings on an email list. This led to a phone call. This led to a turning point! The whole incident had the fingerprints of God all over it.

I have also had prayers that were not answered as I had hoped or anticipated. These are still answered prayers. Usually in time (sometimes a LONG time) we see why they were answered in the way that they were answered. Sometimes we will never understand why. I will probably never understand why a teenager at Grapevine High was hit by a baseball and later died. I do know that God is sovereign and sometimes that's all I can lean on.

Kathryn has a driver’s license. More prayers! She drives an ex-police car. It is a white Crown Victoria complete with spotlight. She needs a job to help pay for gas. More prayers.

We went to Lubbock to see Pillowman performed by the Theatre Dept of TTU. Kevin was in parts of it. It is a weird creepy comedy set in a totalitarian state. Some people were offended and left after the first scene. Kathryn liked it a lot, Mark liked it, and I thought it was fun to see Kevin on stage and I liked it ok. He, of course, did a superb job with his part.

I am so grateful to have the gift of prayer to turn to – not just when I need it but all the time!

Opening Night from the Producers

So I haven’t posted for a while. To catch up, Kathryn and I thoroughly enjoyed our cruise. On the way back, she started getting a sore throat and proceeded to be sick for a couple weeks. Then I got it and I got it worse! I was so tired! But I feel that I am now on the road to recovery.

The night we got back from the cruise I found out that my son was no longer part of a couple. I would write more about it, but as it is more about him than it is about me; I don’t want to betray any confidences about it. Suffice it to say though that a mother’s heart does hurt when a child is hurting, regardless that the child is a 20 year old man!

Kevin came home last weekend and we went to see Assassins in Coppell and he and his dad saw Picasso at the Lapin Agile (at the Runway theatre). I had seen Picasso the week before. Kevin is in the right major of Theatre Arts. He had such a reaction to Assassins and could relate details afterward that I had already forgotten. I didn’t get to talk to him much about Picasso because I was pretty sick by then. I am so proud of him for figuring that out and deciding to get a teaching certificate so he can make a living doing what he loves.

I did venture to the Runway Theatre on Valentine’s Day for their Valentine’s Vignettes. This was difficult for me because I wasn’t feeling very good but I wanted to see Kevin’s play produced. It was to be the second vignette of the second act. I originally planned on only going to the second act but decided that since I had paid full price I would go to all of it. His was definitely the best – had more depth and feeling than any of the others. I know I am prejudiced but he really is a good writer. I left after his and skipped out on the last one because I just didn’t feel like talking to anyone afterward. Mark was in the last one and told me that it didn’t compare to Kevin’s anyway.

Last night Kathryn had 4 girls over for a sleepover for her 16^th birthday which is coming up. She realized last year that it is much easier to have her party before Lent begins as some give up chocolate, some give up sweets, etc etc. So she won’t be 16 for another few days, but she got to party in style!