Tuesday, September 29, 2009

A Lovely Day

Today was an awesome day. I'd been kind of down because we haven't had just a regular week in at least three weeks. I'm just missing some normalcy and routine. Anyway, I was checking on field trip stuff and e-mail and facebooking my cousin, and a friend, a Happy Birthday, when Ellie came down to say "It's time to start school!" We didn't start school just then and she wandered off back upstairs to her room. I should've stopped what I was doing and headed off to the school room right then, but I had "stuff" to do...that I thought couldn't wait.

Wyatt then came downstairs begging to do Math. I was basically done by that time, so I headed up to help him start Math (his Math books get carried everywhere...he has even taken them in the car). I took the opportunity to make my big announcement. I received the Pizza Hut Book It! Reading Program kit in the mail yesterday and for some reason was thinking today was the big kick off day (it's actually Thursday, October 1). This is the third year we've participated in Book It!, but we really only half-heatedly did the chart before. I was always left with useless coupons (past expiration).

Well, my announcement got every ones attention (all two of them!). Ellie asked how the program works and promptly got a paper set up to write down the books she reads to earn her Pizza Hut coupon for October. She got out a couple of books, while Wyatt began his Math. Shortly after, she declared that Reading was her new favorite subject! You can't imagine what a relief that was to hear. I LOVE READING! Honestly, I've been worried that I ruined reading for her. I know she loves books, and listening to me read, but after the torture of trying to teach her phonics with 100 Easy Lessons in Kindergarten...realizing that I was not teaching her using her learning style...finally seeing the pieces come together...much nerves when asked to read aloud (which I only asked her to do when it was just the two of us)...I'm just a worry-wort. We had many discussions on how it's okay to make mistakes...that making mistakes are a good learning experience. I'm afraid I bore a little perfectionist...much like myself before I had children. So, ah, I can breath now.

Today has many wonderful moments. Wyatt petitioned me to ask to move up a grade in our Co-op. He has always been a year ahead in Math, but I have been reluctant to say he is a grade ahead. He did wonderful with the 100 Easy Lessons (pre-pre-Kindergarten) at the same time I was trying to teach Ellie. The style made sense to him. He could sound letters out, but he had no idea what he was saying. They made a pretty good team, because then she knew what the word was. I have not worked too hard on reading with him, so I wasn't sure if I could really say he was in the next grade. I also hated to move him up a grade and keep Ellie in the same grade. They are two years and two weeks apart in age...they should be two grades apart...right? Anyway, he made a valid argument about Co-op...that he know how to sew (yet is stuck with the little kids doing crafts)...that he is a grade ahead in Math...that he can do most things his sister can...that he know the 50 States song her group is singing (and I think the younger group, too, but they didn't sing it this last class time). Anyway, I told him he would have to prove himself in Reading (which he tends to avoid when possible). Well, he did! With Sister tutoring him! Oh, if I could just capture that moment. Honestly, I don't think I'll ever forget it. The two of them on the couch. When he got stuck, she helped him sound the word out (she was sounding out words!!! out loud!!! and reading out loud today, with confidence!!!). Brother was really trying, doing well, and not getting frustrated either.

When we had group read aloud time today (when I read out loud to the kids and sometimes the Daddy, too), Ellie asked for me to read Moonlight on the Magic Flute, a Magic Tree House series book, by Mary Pope Osborne. Ellie interrupted me once, asking to read aloud one of her stories to count for the Book It! So, I stopped and let her read. As we continued the story, I realized we were reading about Mozart as a child. A little bit later, the kids realized who we were reading about. They were so excited and Wyatt asked if he was a real person. I said "Yes, and I might have a CD with his music on it." Oh, did they get excited then! I can't blame them, I love music almost as much as I love reading. So, I search a bit and found a CD with Mozart's Symphony No. 40 on it. Well, Wyatt just had to dance with me. What a little dancer he is. He is not quite 7, but he can actually lead! He was twirling me (well, having me twirl by his hand position, I still have to duck under his arm) and moving me around the floor. I was impressed. Ellie was dancing a bit herself, but mostly she was conducting (she learned about conducting from watching the new season of Fetch! on PBS kids).

Today was just lovely. We didn't go anywhere! That was lovely in itself. I just got to enjoy my kids and homeschooling. I didn't get all the chores done today that are behind, but I don't care. The dishes can be done anytime; my kids will be a whole day older tomorrow. If Jesus comes back and we all leave this earth tonight, I will not be taking my dirty dishes with me, but I will be taking my beautiful children. We had a fabulous day.

So, now we're working on baths, switching laundry, and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow's another crazy day. Sometime before 3:30pm, we need to head to the library to pick up borrowed period clothing for Saturday (they joined the Civil War Kid's Club...but that's a whole other post!), go to the Poppy Seed health food store to pick up my special soap and Wyatt's favorite toothpaste, and pick up the ice cream cake that I'm buying myself for my birthday...and I get to work tomorrow evening at my part-time job (yes, on my birthday). Sigh. Thank you, Lord, for another day.

Hmm, titling this just reminded me of the song Lovely Day, by Out of Eden, which is so appropriate: "When I wake up in the morning, Lord, and the sunlight hurts my eyes, and something without warning, Lord, bears heavy on my mind. When the day that lies ahead of me seems impossible to face and when someone else instead of me always seems to know the way....then I look to you and the world is alright...just one look to you and the world is alright with me....just one look to you and I know it's gonna be...a Lovely Day!" We've just got to get the right focus, and it's gonna be a Lovely Day!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Ten Years




Ten years ago, July 4, 1999 Thomas and I were wed in holy matrimony. We wrote our own vows. This year, July 4, 2009, we renewed our vows. Both ceremonies were held at my parents' house. Many people who've seen these pictures have asked, "Do you think you've changed much since then?"
In case you can't tell when we were ten years younger, the lower picture is from 1999 and the above picture is from this year. I can see the passing of youth, but I will take the compliments of those who say my appearance has barely changed. I will also tell you that those two people have changed very much. We are not the same people we were ten years ago. I'm not saying, "the honeymoon is over" dunt, dunt, dunt, dunn (that's the bad music...I'm not so good at sounds in writing). Ten years have passed, how could we be the same people? We've both grown and changed...in many more ways than the physical.
These are the vows we wrote more than ten years ago:
Bride: I promise to love, encourage you, and help you achieve your full potential as God's creation.
Groom: I promise to love, encourage you, and help you achieve your full potential as God's creation.
Bride: I vow to take time to share with you, communicate, respect and care for you.
Groom: I vow to listen to, care for, respect you, and be conscious of your needs.
Bride: We will share our burdens and they will seem lighter.
Groom: We will share our joys together, so they will be multiplied.
Bride: I give myself to you as I am and as I will be.
Groom: I give myself to you as I am and as I will be.
Bride: I promise to be your best friend and lover for all eternity.
Groom: I promise to be your best friend and lover for all eternity.
We worked on those vows for quite a long time. We checked out books at the library. I will admit I come from a family of poets (including my dad and his mom). I think we got a bit poetic on that last line about eternity...not exactly Biblical, but it sounds really good.
You can see that we really thought about what we needed from each other when we wrote these. In retrospect, I should have asked Thomas to vow to love me, not respect me. That's one of the things that have changed though, I realize the place God gave to me in our relationship.
We dated for nearly four years before we were married. We met in high school and went to Senior Prom together. We dated through most of college (different universities). We talked a lot about our desires and expectations. We had a lot of time to get to know each other.
I recently had someone tell me that God uses the marriage relationship more than any other to grow and shape us into the people he wants us to be. I definitely agree with that. I like the first line of our vows, because I think we're both really fulfilling that vow: to help you achieve your full potential as God's creation.
I have learned so much in the last ten years. One of the most important is that even if I think my husband is not being "the man" I think he is supposed to be, it is not my job to take over his! Oh, the pitfalls of being inoculated with the feminazi propaganda. I grew up with "Girl's can do anything boys can do, only better!" and the like. I thank the Lord that he gave me a Mr. Steady Man (from Debi Pearl's book: Created To Be His Help Meet), because any other man would have probably left me long ago. I'm not saying that my dear husband is or was perfect, but I was not either.
When I read the teaser for Debi Pearl's book, Created To Be His Help Meet, I was in tears. I knew I had done wrong against my husband and my God. Something I learned from her, and was reiterated in our recent Fireproof Couples Study is that when we make our wedding vows, we are accountable to God for those vows. That means that no matter how my spouse messes up, I am still responsible for keeping my vows. I am answerable to God for not keeping my vows, just as my husband is accountable to God for his vows. My job is not to be a scorekeeper, or to punish my husband.
Ecclesiastes 5: 4-5 says, "When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed-- Better not to vow than to vow and not pay." The Fireproof Couples study used that verse, and the verse really made me think. I went into our marriage ten years ago thinking a marriage was 50-50. I now realize a marriage is 100% me, and whatever I get back is whatever I get back.
Within a week of reading Created to be His Help Meet, and implementing some of the things she teaches in the book, Thomas said to me, "What happened? You're fun again." Wow! Sigh. I want my husband to always think I'm fun. I took an interest in my husband again, the things he enjoys, and I made myself and our home a joyful place to be. I responded to him in a positive manner in all things. You'd be amazed how God can work a change in your spouse when you let God work a change in you first. My dear hubby learned that we he started doing the Love Dare on me!
There was another verse used in the couples study that keeps popping up. Funny, when we were working on this part of the study, I was using the first Bible that my parents gave Thomas before we were married. In that Bible, which he seldom uses now, was underlined Ephesians 5:22-33, "Wives submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,...let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." There is a lot more in between the dots there, but the main point is that the wife respect her husband (whether he deserves respect or not), and the husband must love the wife (even if she is unlovable). Again, the most important thing to remember is that I am responsible only for myself! I also want to note that thanks to Created To Be His Help Meet, I understand that the only man God has ordered me to submit to is my own husband.
Our pastor (the same one who married us ten years ago) used that verse in our renewal vows. We let him write them this time. Here is the vow portion of the ceremony:
Thomas do you vow to continue to take this woman, whose hands you hold as your wife, as your own flesh, to love her even as Christ loves the Church, to protect her and care for her the rest of your lives? (Answer I Do)
Turn to her and make this profession of your faith: I, Thomas, according to the Word of God, vow before God and these witnesses, to continue to be joined to you, to be husband to you and we two are of one flesh.
Misty do you vow to continue to take this man, whose hands you hold as your husband, loving him as unto the Lord, showing him respect and tenderness for the rest of your lives? (Answer I Do)
Turn to him and make this profession of your faith: I, Misty, according to the Word of God, vow before God and these witnesses to continue to be joined with you, to be a wife to you and we two are of one flesh.
This is a bit of a spoiler for the Fireproof Couples Study, at the end of the Third Session, the Fireproofing Couples Challenge for the Week was to consider renewing your vows to each other. I had already decided that I wanted to take pictures in our wedding clothes for our tenth anniversary. When Thomas offered to renew our vows, I heartily agreed.
So, here we are ten years, two kids, some hard work, and a lot of God shaping later. We have changed. We have changed for the better. Thanks be to God. Without His love, we have no love to give. With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).