Tiny Rockstar

Our Hands of Hope ministry is promoting this cool way to help feed an orphan. By buying a tshirt from Tinyrockstar.com you can feed an orphan for a month. Here's the link to their website:

Let's see how many orphans we can feed, shall we?!

Feeling down today

As alot of people around the country are feeling the sqeeze of the economy, so am I. The company I work for is downsizing to the tune of 1/4 of their workforce. They are letting go 600 people over the course of 2 months. Their are many people I know and call friends that have been affected. I'm safe for now, but I don't feel as safe as you might think. With the economy the way it is, there's no guarantees anywhere, and that's true where I work. I was feeling okay, not great, but okay until yesterday. Yesterday I had a meeting with someone that works in my old department. She told me that she'd heard a rumor from her boss that there's going to be another round of cuts that will take effect in June 2009. She said another 25%! That means that our workforce (that's salaried workforce) will be half the size it was this summer!!! And who's to say that I won't be in the 2nd round of 25% cuts?! Oh, and the other thing she told me was that instead of the severance pay that's based on the number of years you have with the company that they offerred this time around, this next time they'll give one month severance pay - that's it!

So I'm feeling squeezed. I don't want to look for another job and give up my 5 weeks vacation and ability to work from home. But I guess that's selfish. So I need to get motivated and start seriously looking for a job. But what kind of job? I don't really "love" my job. I like it okay, but I'd give it up in a second to be a SAHM. Of course, I can't do that, so do I take my skills and try to apply them to some other field or play it safe and go with another company doing the same thing I'm doing now? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Oh, did I mention that I hate looking for job? And that's it's been 15 years since I have? Now that I've whined for awhile, I just need to suck it up and move forward, but you know I'm just not there yet.

One therapy down one to go!

Today was Gracie's last day with her developmental therapist. I should've taken a photo of them together, but of course, didn't think of it until later when it was too late. It was pretty anticlimactic really. All ther dt said was that she knew from the day she met Grace that she was going to catch up quickly, and that she has. She did say that she would miss Grace because she was such a cutie, and so smart. I can't tell you how many time her dt has told us that it's so nice to work with parents that are actively involved in their child's therapy. She's said several times to me that alot of the moms the time that she's there with their child to go have a smoke and use her as a free babysitter. I'm not saying this because I think we're better than other parents. I just don't understand how you wouldn't want to be there for your child. I do have to admit that there were times when we didn't have time to work on everything the therapist wants us to, but I'm always interested in watching Grace interact with the therapists, watch them work with her, and hear her progress. I think it must just be a matter of being overwhelmed for some parents, that they don't feel the same way. I truly feel blessed to have Gracie be casught up developmentally, and am very thankful to Laura her therapist for helping her get there so quickly!

Now she only has to finish up her pt, which her therapist has said she thinks she'll be caught up by the end of the month. She wants Grace to learn to kick better. She says she has to work on her "motion planning". Who knew that motion planning is something that's learned!? Anyway, she's almost there, and then she'll be finished with First Steps. I have to say that I'm happy with the job that First Steps has done, and again am grateful for her therapists and the care that she's received in the program!

Guaranteeing our Teens won't fail?

I read this on Mark Gregston's website, and thought it was really good. It made me think about the best way to insure that my teenage daughter and future teenage daughters won't fall away from their faith. Basically the answer is, I can't!!! We all need to remember this, do the best we can, cut ourselves some slack, and spend lots of time in prayer for our children.

Here's the article:

Wanna Know What You Can Do to Guarantee that Your Children Won’t Fall in the Teen Years?

I often see Christians who believe that parenting according to scriptural values, taking their kids to church every time the doors are open, and promoting family togetherness guarantees that all will be well in the teenage years. Like buying an insurance plan, they think that doing the right things will bring about the right result.

Sticking with the insurance policy analogy, why do we buy insurance? To help protect us if any unforeseen incidents occur, right? Car insurance to protect us from the actions of other drivers as well as our own mistakes. Health insurance to take care of anything that can happen to damage or weaken our bodies.

Do you see where I’m going? The things you did when your teen was a child WAS insurance. The problem is that insurance doesn’t guarantee safe passage through life, it just helps protect us in case something does happen. The foundation that was laid in childhood remains throughout a person’s life — good, bad or indifferent, it will always be there.

Let me tell you, based on years of experience with struggling teens and their parents, that thinking you can somehow provide safe passage through adolescence with a strong, scripturally-based parenting style is just plain wrong. Thinking you can do it all on your own is taking God and his redemptive grace completely out of the picture. So, to answer the headline of this article, there is nothing you can do to GUARANTEE your children won’t fall in the teen years.

Some quote the scripture “train up a child in the way he should go,” but that says nothing about the turbulent teenage years. In fact, you’ll want to remember that some biblical characters with seemingly perfect spiritual upbringings had difficulties themselves in their younger adult lives. So don’t forget that the passage goes on to say,”…and when he is old he will not depart from it.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider a teenager as being very “old.”

Stuff happens along the way that is out of our control as parents, and even if we do everything right, stuff still happens. One angelic teenager in our family can lead us to think that we have found the right formula, right up until we see our next child go down a completely different path. Welcome to the real world — where God gives each of our children a free will.

One parent wrote me saying,“We’ve done everything right. We took our son to church, raised him in a Christian home, sent him to a great Christian school, home-schooled for a few years, have taken him on mission trips and poured our life into him. What has gone wrong? How can he reject all that we’ve taught, and all that we’ve been striving for?”

These parents raised their teen in the church and taught him good and strong values. Then one day, he decided that those things no longer worked for him, so he started “trying on” other values - values of his peer group. He was not interested in how his behavior made his parents feel. He was “in control.” He acted as he chose to act.

Every trick in their parenting bag failed. Their arsenal was empty. Did they do everything right? Possibly.

The pain and stress comes when we, as parents, recognize that our children have chosen poorly and are clearly (at least to us) heading down the wrong path. This is not just when their choices are self-destructive — drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, etc. — but also when they begin practicing a different religion (or denomination), or to decide that after years of playing piano and winning competition after competition, Julliard no longer matters.

When your teen is struggling to discover his or her identity and trying to become independent, it can be an extremely frustrating and painful process for all involved. But it can help us better understand how God must feel when he see His children fail.

No parent is perfect, nor is perfection the answer, for even though God is perfect He still had a couple of rebellious kids. So, it’s not about the parent, and it’s not always about howthey were raised. It’s all about the child and his God-given gift of individuality and free will, which is first exercised during adolescence.

I’m sure you really did lay a firm foundation for your teen. You did a great job! You did such a great job that your teen feels safe to create his own immature views. It may not seem like it now, but that is a very good thing. This is how teens become mature, well-grounded adults, who can contribute positively to this world. They are stretching their wings and preparing to fly.

Sometimes these “first flights” are hard for parents to experience, especially when they typically involve several failed attempts. The important thing is to be there when the wounded teen wobbles back to the nest, to encourage a stronger and more skilled flight the next time around.

Being a parent of a teenager can be hard work. There is emotional pain and even feelings of betrayal when our child gets off track in the adolescent years. But I know this — it makes us parents spend a lot more time on our knees! The process is therefore worthwhile. For in our journey, no matter how bumpy the turbulence, we may learn what God is trying to teach us as well.

Does anyone else have a problem with "The Secret LIfe of An American Teenager"?

Okay. So this show "The Secret Life of An American Teenager" has been on ABC Family for several weeks. My 14 and 11 year old daughters have decided that this is one of their favorite shows on tv. Before I ever let them watch it, I found out what it was about, and decided that they could watch it if we watched together so we could talk about what was happening

So now, I hate this show. I hate the fact that I have to make a decision about whether to let my children watch a tv show on what is supposed to be "family" television on the subject of premarital sex and teenage pregnancy. I've got more to say on this, but as usual I'm getting interrupted. I'll be back!

Another lag

So this typical. I sit down to blog, and I get interrupted. I guess that shouldn't surprise me or anyone else with 3 children between the ages of 14 and 23 months. But it sure is frustrating!

So I wanted to tell you all about our trip to Colorado. Colorado is probably one of my favoritest places in the world. I absolutely love the mountains! Give me mountains over ocean anytime.

Anyway, we spent 4 days in Estes Park and 2 in Boulder. The weather at Estes Park was great, and in Boulder a little too warm. But we had a great time. We went with my dad, my brother, sister-in-law, and two of there 3 children. We stayed at YMCA of the Rockies. My first time there, although DH had stayed there years ago. If we'd know up front about all the activities that we could've signed up for, it would've been even more fun. But as it was we didn't know, so we missed out on fun things like a zip line.

The bigger kids were able to go horse back riding. Grace, my dad and I went into downtown to eat breakfast while they did. Grace was too young, and dad didn't feel well enough to go. So we had a nice relaxing breakfast at The Egg and I.

Grace enjoyed Rocky Mountain National Park, mostly because of the animals she saw. She was too cute squealing everytime we saw a chipmunk, ground squirrel, elk, and deer. We also got to spend time with my brother, his partner, and their daughter, my uncle, aunt and a few cousins that all live in the area. It was a good vacation, and Grace did great on the plane ride out and back!

We had photos, but our hard drive crashed, and we lost them all. So now we have to wait to get the others' photos to share.

Now we're back to school and more of routine.