Freaking Out!

Here is the conversation I was greeted with as I walked into the house after work the other day…

Josh…“Do you know what June 26^th is Mom?”

I reply, “No, what is June 26^th?”

Josh- “the last day of school” and then quickly added “Do you know what June 27^th is?”

Again I say “no”

Josh…”graduation day.”

Kaleb chimes in…”you know what else Mom?”

Me…”no, what?”

Kaleb…”I’ll be driving”

I quickly stuck my hand up and demanded they both stop talking immediately!

I wish I were an ostrich and could just stick my head in the sand but no, I have to face reality.

Reality starts today when we take a tour of Finger Lakes Community College.

My momma’s heart is freaking out.

Getting to the ROOT of it!

It's always something around here.

For the last month or so it has been septics, pipes and water.

A bit of a sink hole developed in the backyard this spring. Now, we have had a LOT of rain this spring so we weren't sure if we should be concerned or not. Just to be safe we had a septic company come out to advise us. That led to our septic tank getting emptied out. It had apparently been a loooong time since that had been done. How they can tell the age of the contents of a septic tank is both interesting and gross, lol. We wondered how our real estate agent and lawyer dropped that ball since it is a requirement when a house with a septic sells. Hmmmm. Lesson learned, move on.

The septic man was very helpful, spending a good amount of time with Greg trouble shooting the possible issues and offering suggestions for addressing them. He could do the job for a price of course, but I appreciate his honesty in telling Greg that it was probably a job he and the boys could tackle. So began the digging. And more digging. The goal was to expose the entire length of pipe running from the pump to the ditch so we could check for problems. (There really is no "we" in this gig, unless you count documenting it the most I have done is deliver a glass of cold water on occasion.) The whole process was interrupted several times by weather, work, hockey and life in general.

Tonight they finally exposed the entire length of pipe. Yep, the entire channel of dirt and stone was dug by hand. More of the "man training" as Greg calls it.

You can tell by the tall grass how long they have been working at this "little" project. The water at the end shows you just how high the water table is at the moment. It's even gone down some.

They pulled out all the sections of pipe and sure enough, just as we expected...they were stuffed like a sausage. A sausage of roots. Ick!!

At least the roots were easily pulled from the pipes. That will save a few more dollars since we can use the same pipes. Greg has a few new items to purchase before the pipes can be reassembled and put back into place and the channel covered back up. The end is in sight now.

Where did all those roots come from?? The HUGE willow tree that we had cut down a couple of years ago. Well, mostly cut down. The trunk is so big around that we don't know of anyone with a chainsaw long enough to take down what is left. The boys have fun climbing it. Any guesses on how many years it will take to rot?? This whole process confirms it was the right move to cut it down.

I am out numbered in our house. Living with boys makes for interesting conversations and eventually they all come back to bodily functions. So, what do you think they thought of the root sausage??? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count!

Yep, that is the father of my children. Pastor. Leader. Nut job!!

That is all for now. Tune in again for more trials, tribulations and other generally odd bits of news from the Ransomville Harps.

Mark the Calendar!

I am posting 2 days in a row! My dad would always say "mark the calendar" whenever we did something remarkable. Sadly, it was usually something like taking out the trash without reminders, lol.

Yesterday I told you about my little shopping obsession. I am not sure you can call it "shopping" if I don't spend money, or very little money. Not only am I saving lots of money and filling up the pantry but there is plenty of man training going on too. The boys are helping me clip and organize my coupons and I take them along occasionally so they can see the pay-off. They have become tough critics lately. If I spend more than $5 out of pocket they call me a slacker!

If you know anything at all about Greg and the boys, then you know they LOVE cereal. We go through some serious cereal and at $4-$5 a box, it could quickly put us in the poor house. When I find a good deal I stock up. This is part of our stash at the moment....

Yep, 30 boxes! None more than $1/box. I give it a month, maybe less, before it is all eaten.

This basket of snacks was completely free. Somehow they taste better than usual ;).

Over the last month I have stocked up a years worth of dish washer detergent, loads of body wash, deodorant, toothpaste and shampoo. Most of it free. You can't be brand picky if you want the best deals. Lucky for me, Greg and the boys eat or use just about anything.

This is my freebie basket I told you about. It is time to empty it out so I can start again.

It is a bit time consuming but so worth it. The lessons the boys are learning are priceless. Kaleb asked me the other day why I give stuff away rather than sell it to make money. We had a great conversation about using our gifts/talents/resources to bless others. We have taught them to tithe but giving goes beyond that. And giving isn't just about $.

We have gotten some good laughs from talking about the trunk of treasures I will gather for them when they go off to college. I hope I am that mom that other boys in the dorm love because of all the cool care packages.

Their only complaint is that they can't score these kinds of deals at Dick's or Gander Mountain.

Until next time...

Oh the Dreams...

The dreams and hopes we have for our children begin when we first learn about the life we are carrying. We pray for our children to be healthy, that they will grow up to know and love the Lord, that they will have character and heart, that they will be able to safely navigate the world and all its challenges. But we don't know exactly what form or shape their lives will ultimately take. We pour ourselves into them as best as we can, we pray for God to protect them and then we watch the wonder unfold. What will they like? dislike? what strengths and weaknesses will they possess? what talents will God gift them with? The unknowns are so great! I often feel like being a parent is like riding a roller coaster, exhilarating and frightening at the same time and to be quite honest, I often find myself screaming at the top of my lungs to get off the dang ride!! But after it is all said and done I run to the end of the line to get on the ride over and over again.

My boys are fast becoming men and though I try not to blink, life is marching on anyway. When kids are younger they are by your side day and night. You know their comings and goings, what goes in and quite literally, what comes out, lol. But as they get older they are away from you more and more. They start becoming more independent with personalities all their own. They start deciding what they will eat and where they will go, who they will befriend and how they will spend their time. Joshua is well on the road to being his own person. More and more these days I am having flashes of my little blonde boy and wondering where did he go?

Although neither Greg or I fish, Joshua loves fishing!! He has caught some monster sized fish over the past few years.

For the second, or perhaps third year, he has gone duck hunting with my brother. You have never caught Greg or I in waders waist deep in a swamp! I can pretty much promise you that you will never catch me in waders waist deep in a swamp. Well, maybe for some really big money and 100% guarantee of no holes in my waders, lol. But Joshua loves it, even with an occasional hole.

And no one in our family, with the exception of my brother, has ever gotten a deer!! But Josh can tell you all about his adventure this past Thanksgiving when he took his FIRST shot at a deer and got it!! He even helped to gut it before taking it to the deer processor.

I seriously don't know where this kid came from some days! He was the only baby on the unit when he was born, so I know he IS mine and he looks too much like us for anyone to ever claim otherwise. Yet, he is definitely his own person. His favorite thing to wear is anything camouflage and I have to remind him there are other clothes in his closet! He does however, have my admiration. I have little to nothing to do with his love of hunting or fishing but he gets lots of high fives for his passion, skill and determination.

If we are ever hurting for food, I know who I will be calling upon!!

M.I.T.

Are you a parent with children still at home? Bless you! Are you hanging in there? Each day is a challenge isn't it? Some days you want to hug 'em to death and other days you want to throttle them. Well, maybe you don't, but I do. If someone had told me exactly how hard parenting would be I am not sure I would have jumped in with both feet. But despite how difficult it can be sometimes, I would never trade it!

As I look around our community and the nation at large, I see so many broken homes. So many struggling parents. So many hurting kids. So many out of control kids! The level of disrespect and unkindness in kids is mind blowing. I often make the mistake of thinking that kids inside the church should be better. Truth is they are not.

A while back at one of the youth group meetings, Greg had planned for the teens to do some clean up outdoors after an event. Nothing too difficult, clean up some trash, put back some equipment. He told them this was their opportunity to "serve". The concept of serving, especially in the context of church, is huge. And one I thought was well understood. Jesus came to serve. The bible is filled with images of Jesus serving. We hear it over and over in church and Sunday School. This one is a no-brainer right? Well, let me finish the story. Josh got up from his seat and began to move the grill back to the garage. Kaleb got up and began to pick up trash. The rest of the kids sat there. Greg started to get on their case, prodding them to get up and serve! One of the teens chimed back that he wasn't anyone's slave. Gulp!! To them serving=slavery.

I don't tell this story to brag on my kids (though I was so proud of them!) but rather to show how far off base things have gotten. These were the regulars, at church and youth group. Most of them from families that have attended church for years. If they don't get it, how can we expect the world to get it?

At my new job I go into a lot of homes and I am continually saddened by what I see. Homes with 2 year olds and no toys in sight (but a 52" flat screen on the wall). Homes where the mom is threatening to drop her naughty child off at the Salvation Army like a sack of unwanted clothes. Homes where the kids are out of control yet the parents offer no discipline. Brokenness. Lack of love. Lack of knowledge. Lack of parents taking the responsibility of parenting seriously.

Whether in the church or out, it is clear to me the problem is not a little one anymore. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Training our children is the primary job we have as parents. Training is a non-stop job, from sun up to sun down, from birth to ..... job. That is the part they didn't tell you before you had kids. Some training happens naturally as our children observe us going to church, tithing, offering a kind word to another (and on the flip side, observing us being unkind, untrustworthy or unfaithful). But most of the training does not come naturally, we have to to be intentional.

Let's say that this morning I woke up and decided it was a good day to run the Boston Marathon. I showered, put on some jeans and a t-shirt, slid into my Birkenstocks and made my way to the starting line. You would call me a FOOL. Improper dress would be the least of my offenses. You can't run a marathon without training. And running to the mailbox somehow wouldn't cut it. The idea of running the Boston Marathon seems quite funny to me and though it is quite improbable it is not impossible. I could set a goal and work towards it everyday. I could build up from 1 mile to 5 to 26.2. With the right training and equipment I could one day be a runner in a marathon.

Parenting is not much different. We need to have a goal. We need to be intentional. We have to work at it every single day. And at the end of each day when we have done all these things, we need to be on our knees praying for our children. Praying that God will watch over them, that He will cover our mistakes and short comings because we will surely come up short.

We refer to our boys as M.I.T.-Men In Training. The goal: to have 2 boys that leave our home as men equipped for life, employment and marriage. Each day is a new opportunity for training. The school of parenting is like the school of life, the diploma won't come until we are called heavenward. There will be pop quizzes, some we will ace and some we will flunk BIG time. But we can not quit. We are by no means experts but God has impressed upon Greg and I that He desires us to share our journey, our successes and failures. So, as I have time and stories, I will post about this job of parenting. Will you be sitting at the desk that has your name on it???