Friday again already? Where'd the week go? Lessee:
Saturday: Valentine's Day. Two of three kids low-grade ill. Cancelled date.
Sunday: Church. Congregational meeting. Something else. Don't remember what now.
Monday: Call from preschool mid-morning. Middle child threw up. Not as better as we thought. I do much laundry. Husband out of town visiting parishioner due for open-heart surgery.
Tuesday: Oldest is balky about going to school. Decide to keep her home. She's not behind. Then she balks about missing school. I take her in to school mid-morning. I get my only work-out of the week. Husband out of town in stressful presbytery meeting most of the day. I disinfect house from weekend's bug.
Tuesday: Oldest is balky about going to school. Decide to keep her home. She's not behind. Then she balks about missing school. I take her in to school mid-morning. I get my only work-out of the week. Husband out of town in stressful presbytery meeting most of the day. I disinfect house from weekend's bug.
Wednesday: Oldest is really and truly sick this time. Stays home. I pack the truck with cardboard and soup cans drop at the recycling depot.
Thursday: Husband off to funeral of a different parishioner. Truck battery won't start. Deal with AAA. And the mechanic. With the truck still packed with recycling. Husband goes out of town again for post-surgical visit. Session on anger in parenting class at church proves timely. I have not managed to keep my temper today.
Friday: truck back. Verdict--bent latch in the glove box. The light wasn't turning off. That's . . . pathetic. Bill--$118 for labor. Ack. Well, I suppose our mechanic has his taxes to pay too. Timely call from good friend. (Exercise--yay! Okay, didn't expect that to make it in again this week.) Music lessons. Over-stressed husband catching whatever the kids have had all week.
Lessons learned this week:
1. On the P to J scale of the Meyers-Briggs inventory, I knew I was J, but I thought I was less J than that. I want things decided. Planned. I realize that I am not easy-going . . . I just plan a fair amount of flex into a schedule with small kids. Make no mistake--it's a schedule, and when the chaos passes the allotted amount of flex, I start to freak.
2. As per the Kevin Leman curriculum we're using for our parenting class: anger is the response to things not going as I expect. Wow--that sounds . . . um, selfish.
3. When I don't spend time in prayer things go south in a real hurry. Starting with the length of my fuse. All that nice stuff I like to think about myself . . . credit where credit's due. Holy Spirit. Not me. I think it's a really good thing God grabbed me early. I think he needs all the time he can get.
4. I hadn't realized the degree that I was letting this "getting enough exercise" thing drift off its focus. It was supposed to be in service to the rest of my life--so that I'd have the strength and health that I need to live the life God's called me to. Also, an exercise in obedience. The degree to which I was getting upset about getting my exercise skewed tells me that it's maybe becoming too much of an end in itself.
5. And that I've been forgetting my early reminders to myself that it's not about results. My job is to work at it, in obedience, to the best of my ability. God's job is the results. Or not. To keep sane about this thing I need to let the chips fall where they may in terms of results. Why was I upset about this week? Because I've been excited to see a little in the way of actual results and don't want to lose it. I forgot that though this week screwed up my plans, it didn't screw up God's . . . and the results are not mine to control or own.
6. Prayer. The results are not ours to control or own.
7. Chocolate malts are one of God's great blessings in life.
7 quick takes is hosted by Jennifer at Conversion Diary.
Lessons learned this week:
1. On the P to J scale of the Meyers-Briggs inventory, I knew I was J, but I thought I was less J than that. I want things decided. Planned. I realize that I am not easy-going . . . I just plan a fair amount of flex into a schedule with small kids. Make no mistake--it's a schedule, and when the chaos passes the allotted amount of flex, I start to freak.
2. As per the Kevin Leman curriculum we're using for our parenting class: anger is the response to things not going as I expect. Wow--that sounds . . . um, selfish.
3. When I don't spend time in prayer things go south in a real hurry. Starting with the length of my fuse. All that nice stuff I like to think about myself . . . credit where credit's due. Holy Spirit. Not me. I think it's a really good thing God grabbed me early. I think he needs all the time he can get.
4. I hadn't realized the degree that I was letting this "getting enough exercise" thing drift off its focus. It was supposed to be in service to the rest of my life--so that I'd have the strength and health that I need to live the life God's called me to. Also, an exercise in obedience. The degree to which I was getting upset about getting my exercise skewed tells me that it's maybe becoming too much of an end in itself.
5. And that I've been forgetting my early reminders to myself that it's not about results. My job is to work at it, in obedience, to the best of my ability. God's job is the results. Or not. To keep sane about this thing I need to let the chips fall where they may in terms of results. Why was I upset about this week? Because I've been excited to see a little in the way of actual results and don't want to lose it. I forgot that though this week screwed up my plans, it didn't screw up God's . . . and the results are not mine to control or own.
6. Prayer. The results are not ours to control or own.
7. Chocolate malts are one of God's great blessings in life.
7 quick takes is hosted by Jennifer at Conversion Diary.
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