School Will Go Great!

Several of the readers of this blog are aware of the fact that I am joining the ranks of students starting a new semester. I am starting (technically: in the process of being fully accepted) a Ph.D. program in Higher Education Administration at Texas Tech. Classes start tonight and so I asked Luke to pray for me last night during our prayer time. He did and of course did so with the sweet spirit that characterizes his prayers. (I have said publicly that he is the most astute theologian of the family.)

Well, today on the way to drop him off at school, he suddenly said: "Dad, turn down the radio. I need to pray for you starting school today." And he did. And somehow I managed to see through the tears and not wreck us on the way to school.

I continue to be amazed at the way God has blessed us with such a thoughtful and deeply spiritual child. We are blessed beyond our wildest expectations and for that, I am extremely, extremely grateful. Although I am nervous about starting classes tonight, I know that it will be fine - I have been covered in sweet, sweet prayer.

This and That

I have completed the first two days of school. Everyone looked so clean and shiny and rested--I hated to tell them that at about week 7, we'll all start looking really tired and sort of wrinkled. Maybe that's just me.

I am teaching a night class this semester--Mondays from 6-9 p.m. It went well, but 3 hours is a LONG time to talk about writing--especially when they don't have textbooks yet, and even one student didn't have a pen. I don't think he's ready for what he is about to be required to do. AND--three hours is A LOT of me. I even got tired of hearing my own voice. :-)

Luke stories:
Yesterday morning, Grace was still zonked, and it was about time for us to leave for school. I asked Luke to go check on her, and he came running back in a few minutes, shouting, "Mom, Grace is SMASHED!" (meaning, Grace is crashed)

He got his folder signed at school yesterday, and for his punishment, has to miss recess tomorrow. The crime: A large bag of packing peanuts was on the playground. Luke found them, opened the bag, and proceeded to throw the peanuts in the air like confetti. The playground monitor (not his teacher) was very upset that he set the peanuts free and had scattered them to the winds. She left the playground, reported this heinous crime to his teacher, and then returned and required him to pick up all the happily dancing packing peanuts who were quickly escaping the playground.
He was VERY upset with himself. He takes great pride in never getting his folder signed. We think the "no recess" consequence was punishment enough. What do you think? :-)

I met with his teacher today for "Goals Day." She reviews his progress, goes over the plans for the year, etc. She was very complimentary, but she said two things that made me laugh out loud:
1. She mentioned how curious he is, and how he always wants to know what she is doing and why. "He really just likes to visit with me and find out what's been going on in my life." Our Luke? Really?! (Ha--anyone who knows Luke knows this is SO TRUE. He loves talking to adults.)

2. On the schedule, she pointed to the first big project--an Egyptian feast in which each student will be required to wear an Egyptian costume. "The mom's usually just make one for their child." Insert my laughter. My response: "You don't know me, but it would be easier for me to saw off my leg than make a costume." I break out in a sweat anytime I get a note from school that begins with the statement: "Please make a ___________________." Auggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh! Anyone have an Egyptian costume they would like to get rid of? I'll pay big bucks . . . !!


Life is just plain funny. Sometimes you just look at it all and laugh--and that's a very good thing to do. :-)

Blessings,
Jana

Tomorrow

It really is beginning early tomorrow morning.

Many students have already been on campus for a week, either participating in Fish Camp or helping with it in some way.

I've seen them on campus, and I have even had some time to visit with a few. They've looked eager and excited, and some have looked lost. They've looked anxious in the cafeteria, when they see a sea of faces and recognize no one; who will they eat with? Will someone ask them to join their newly-formed group?

They are cool and they are crazy-scared. They need you to pray for them, along with every teacher and student who begins school tomorrow. (I still get a knot in my stomach before school starts every year. It doesn't matter how long I've been doing this--the knot and the nerves always appear.)

They are walking into a story already in motion.

"In a way that's the story of our lives . . . Before we ever arrive, God is on the scene carrying out His plan and causing all things to work for His fame.

So often we think that everything happens when we step through the door.

We think the project happened because we had the brilliant idea, and are convinced that the mission was accomplished because we chose to participate. But things don't start when we have a 'vision,' or when we think of a new way of doing things . . .

God's Story is the already-in-motion story, a story that was happening just fine before we arrived and is going to go on just fine with or without you and me.

That's why we should wake up each day on the lookout for the Story of God, constantly thinking to ourselves, 'God is already here. What's He up to?'" --Louie Giglio

So tomorrow continues an eternal story, and we're all stepping into it. I wonder what He will do tomorrow?

Blessings,
Jana

Beginning again

Today was the first day of the fall semester for faculty; we were in meetings all day (and will continue to be in various meetings) for the remainder of the week. Freshman arrived last Saturday for their week of orientation (my sweet husband helped unload cars, carry boxes, climb stairs, etc. at the freshman dorms all day); classes for all students begin on Monday.

Life is a constant cycle of beginnings and endings, and both bring challenges and opportunities.

The challenge today was leaving Grace again after a nice, long summer at home with her and with Luke. I almost made it to the door today before I felt the tears. Her babysitter provides very good care, and we are blessed to have her. But . . . the stay-at-home mom vs. working away from home battle is waged in no more violent a place than in my own heart.

I will end this with one of my favorite Thomas Merton prayers:

"My Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you."

Blessings,
Jana

A Prayer

Luke happily completed his first few days of school. First grade is everything he had hoped for: he gets to sit by his friend, Noah; he got to be the "line leader"--complete with all the privileges--on the first day of school. (Being an Anderson has its perks in an alphabetized world. Growing up as Jana Wall, I was always at the end of every line, every row, and every attendance chart. Raymond Zuniga and I competed for last place. Oh the stories I could tell you . . .) And best of all: in first grade, you get to sharpen your pencil with an electric pencil sharpener. You cannot imagine the joy of this until you have a chance to hear Luke talking about it. Forget climbing Mt. Everest or winning the Pulitzer--there is apparently nothing quite as fulfilling as grinding your pencil in an electric box. Who knew?!

We are thankful for all the blessings he is experiencing, and I wish I paid more attention to all the really great "little" things in my own world.

On that note, I'm borrowing a prayer, written by Ina Hughes for the Children's Defense fund; Judy Thomas posted this on her blog, and it reminded me that all the joys of our lives AREN'T experienced by SO MANY. Here's a portion of the prayer:

We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

We pray for children
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
and whose monsters are real.

(Judy notes that the complete prayer can be read by googling Ina Hughes.)

I'm glad my children have pictures on lots of people's dressers. I bet yours do, too.

Blessings,
Jana

1st Day

Pure in heart

Sometimes my children take my breath away.

This week, I have felt particularly crabby. You can sum it up in one sentence: School is about to start, and I am not ready.

My crabbiness rose to the surface a couple of days ago, when Luke came around the corner with this pile of toys and cars while I was in the middle of a cleaning frenzy. I spoke harshly to him, and when I finished my lecture, we both looked at each other quietly.

I was instantly ashamed. Luke did not deserve this outburst--he was not disobeying, he was not intentionally doing anything annoying. He was just playing.

I apologized, saying something like, "I am so sorry I said that. I spoke to you with hard words, and you did nothing wrong. Would you please forgive me?"

He looked me directly in the eye, and in a very sweet voice, he replied, "Mom! I love you. Don't you know I'll always forgive you?"

I knew the tears were there before I even felt them. Thank you, dear Lord, for my children.

Jana

And finally...

This is my picture entitled: Pure Joy.

I have left it original size because it makes a great desktop wallpaper. It also makes it easier to see Luke's face, which is where the title comes from...

Surprise Back Home

I opened the door after returning from Abilene to an awful racket in the chimney. Upon further inspection, I see a nest with three very baby birds...


...down in the bottom of the fireplace. I watched for a while and decided the mother could not get all the way down the chimney, so very carefully, without touching the birds, moved the nest to one of my hanging plants that had been repositioned slightly under the eave next to the fireplace. It would have been easier to just pick them up with my hands, which come to find out, is highly permissible since birds have a terrible sense of smell. That "don't touch the birds or the mother will abandon them" is an old wives tale.

That was Saturday and we have not seen any sign of any parental activity, but are still holding out hope. Birds may also be hard of hearing, because that would be the only way any parent bird within the South Plains or Panhandle of Texas could not hear this birds chirp. We hear them and run to the window, which may be why we never see any parents - we may be scaring them off.

As of Monday night, they are still the the basket - we will keep you posted.

Christian Homes Picnic

After the lake trip, we came back for a day and then it was off to Abilene for Christian Home's bi-annual adoption picnic. It was held at the park across the parking lot from the zoo. CH did a great job of providing lots of entertainment for the kids -- climby things, slidey things, a mini-train, face painting, balloon clown. They had hamburgers and hot dogs for us to eat and most of the staff from CH were there. It was nice to be able to see some of them again and for them to see Grace.

We had gone Friday and spent the night in a hotel - continuation of the vacation - and then Saturday after the picnic went to the zoo. They have built a very nice new entrance, complete with new shop and some classrooms, but it was not yet open.

Here is a visual report of that trip:

This is the vice president of social services. He drove this tractor most of the day.


She looks happy here, but did not really like the ride.


Here is Luke doing "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" karaoke. He really wanted some country, but they did not have any - whew! Not sure how to explain to all of those case workers what is going on when he breaks out into Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green or Tim McGraw.


Here Luke enjoys a snack and a drink on his way back home...


...and here is Grace literally less than a minute from pulling out of the zoo parking lot.

Random Vacation Pictures

Here are some more pictures from vacation that did not make the previous post.


Here is Grace wearing Bo-Bo's (that's brother, for the uninformed) shoes and socks. The socks go up to just above her knees. "She's a maniac ... maniac..."


Grace just being cute.


This is Grace showing us what the fishy's say.

Vacation Slides

I suppose that blogs have taken the place of going over to people's houses to view their vacation slides. And since some of you have commented that my/our lack of posting indicated we were out of town, I will give you a vacation update.

We went out to the lake two Fridays ago to spend a few days just hanging around doing nothing ... well, not entirely nothing. We did two puzzles:



(I can tell how much Luke has grown since the last time we were there in that he can find the pieces and actually put them in place. Last time it was more "make them fit." And I love the lake hair!)

We fished:



(This is actually two of three for Luke. If you are keeping score at home, it would be Luke - 3, Dad - 0!)

We played in the wading pool:


We looked at bugs:


(Big bugs!)

We swam:


(The lake was as high as it has been for some time, which was nice because it is hard to convince your child he needs to wear a life jacket on the dock when there is no water below the dock!)

Speaking of life jackets:


(Too cute!)

We played Uno:


(Again, we want to be sure to impress upon our children that competition is way over rated so I guess I do not need to post here that this picture was taken after Luke beat Jana and I 10-4-3.)

Events not pictured would be cookouts, nature hikes, looking at the many, many buzzards who have made the cabin their home, conversations about crazy cousin Bill. It was a great time and one we were able to relax. Thanks Aunt Patsy for letting us use the place!