Life this Week

We have been BUSY! As summer comes to a close, we are trying to stuff lots of summer activity and fun into the days we have left. Here's a little of what we have been up to ...



* Zane is in the final weeks of his yearly training to start the football season. To ref, he has to attend class one night a week all through the summer. The exam is coming up and he is studying hard. This year will be a year of adding on-field experience for JV games and probably doing some sideline/clock work at Varsity games. While football season means I am a single mom a lot, it also fullfills something in Zane that is very valuable. His love for the sport and for what he is doing is a big source of happiness for him. It is well worth the extra responsibility on my part in order for him to connect with other guys who love the sport as much as he does. He has found a new friend in the process and believe it or not, I think that the football field will be a great mission field for him to live his faith out as he works with the players and other officials. This week holds three events for Zane in his football life, so our evenings have been a bit crazy. Who knows- one day you may see him on the field doing college ball! That would be a dream come true for him!!!



* The kids and I have been trying to catch summer and hold on to it! We spent a day at my sister's pool with the cousins and became raisins in the sun. Graham can finally touch the bottom of the pool and was a whole new swimmer. He was turning flips under water and swimming like a fish. That has been a cool thing to watch. Karis became less like a leach and was venturing out enough to have about 12 inches between her body and mine. Being born in January was a huge detriment to her love of the water. Graham started swimming at Trish's house when he was 8 weeks old. Karis was much older and never developed the same love for the water. Bath time has even become quite a struggle as we face the meltdown when it comes to washing her hair. Perhaps I should cut it shorter, but I can't do that just yet.

* School is around the corner. I spent two days at Mom's house in the mountains with two of my team members to get a up-start on the school year this past week. It was wonderful to spend time with them and toss around ideas and plans for the year, but it really brought in the reality of the fact that life is about to take some drastic changes for our family. It has been a challenge for me this summer to be home with the kids all day, every day. But at the same time, we have bonded and had some incredible fun together. In some ways, I am hungry to go back and return to what I feel called to do- teach. In others, I know that I will miss the care-free days of the summer that we have enjoyed. My stress level has been drastically different this summer. Looking forward, I know that there is going to be an extreme need for me to PRIORITIZE things in my life. My obligations are about to triple in about a week, and I don't want to lose hold of what is important. It makes me crazy when we are away from home 4 nights a week and the list of things to do never gets any shorter. Where do I draw the lines and say "No more?" As I have thought about these things, here is a short list of some things I plan to "put in place" once school is back in session.

1. I must work hard to accomplish as much as possible at school to minimize how much work I bring home. It is not unusual for me to have between 2 and 4 hours of work to do at night. That usually translates into time spent after the kids are in bed. My goal is to reduce this amount of time as much as possible so that I have time and energy left to spend with Zane.
2. I want to meal plan and prep on the weekends so that dinners can be as quick as possible while still being healthy. One of the shows I saw a few times this summer while folding laundry, was a lady on the Food Network who prepped for her meals and put all components in ziplocks on the weekend. Each meal was ready to eat within 20 minutes or so.
3. Zane and I have to establish a "Date Night". With him gone so often doing football, our "us" time becomes non-existant. When he is home, I want the kids to spend time with him and what happens is that there isn't any time left for us. Ideally, I'd love for this to be once every two weeks, but I'd be ok if it was at least once a month that we had a sitter and went somewhere by ourselves.
4. I have to make time for me. Since Karis came along and our routine changed to include an infant, time for myself ceased to exist. I became last on the list. As she is older and more independent, it is time for that to change. On a small scale, I would like to earn the right to go to the bathroom alone. On a larger scale, I'd like to take time to do some of the things I need to/want to do for myself.

The list of things that needs to happen before school starts is long... but I will start the endless journey with one step. If I can accomplish these things, then others can be tackled at a later date.

* Finally, as an end to this rambling post, I will share with you a little about the series that we are currently involved in at The River. It is called "OverFlow" and it is about how we are called to allow Christ to flow from us into the world we live in. Last week we focused on abiding in Christ so that we might be full of life as he promises. This week, Joey asked us to focus on sharing the love of Christ in our Jerusalem- our close circle of family, friends and co-workers. We were challenged to select someone within that group that we were going to FLOW onto. We are then to pray for them, listen to them (develop a deeper relationship with them), love them (in a way that isn't obvious or ostentatious) and then to share with them. The first three are going to be very easy for me... the last one will be the challenge. I'll keep you posted on how things go!

We have a busy week ahead. Monday is the week of BULK ITEM PICK UP in our zone. This means that we need to really spend some time tonight in our garage and purge the big junk that needs to take a hike. If you are in the market for some junk, come ride through our neighborhood... looks like there is a bunch out there! Tuesday is a workshop for me at school and I planned to "open" my classroom. I'll work a full day while my dear, dear mother has my kids. Zane has a scrimmage game on Tuesday night, so he'll be gone all evening. Wednesday and Thursday will be mad cleaning days as we work to evict the dust bunnies who have declared squatter's rights in our house in preparation for our Life Group to come to our house while Smitty and Meredith move. (Those of you in Life Group, we are thrilled to have you... we just don't want to scare any of you away with our clutter!) Friday, Zane has another football game and then we are into the LAST weekend of the summer before school starts! In between all of that, I hope that we can go swimming at least one more day and that we can inhale the sweet smell of summer before the rat race begins!!