fun kid service project

Today I had two sick kids and we were getting squirrely inside the house, and wanted to be outside, but close to home. Yesterday when I was doing some yard work, I was astounded by the amount of garbage in my yard left after the snow melted. So I decided to take the kids for a walk just down our street and pick up garbage. This was our service project today to love the earth that God has given us and maybe feel a little less ghetto in our hood.

So I loaded up the sickos in the stroller, packed a snack, seven grocery bags, and my oldest on a scooter. Off we went down the street. Just our one block. Down to the corner and back.

We were singing songs, playing eye spy, and getting our hands dirty. It was so much fun! We ended up collecting ALL seven bags full of garbage. The only reason we stopped, is we ran out of room in our bags. I couldn't believe how dirty our street was. They boys loved our activity and time together and we counted the bags as we hurled them into our garbage.

If you are interested in doing this with your kids, which again was really fun, here is what I learned. This will make it more enjoyable for you and for us next time.

1. Pack a snack and water bottles. You never know when they need refocus energy.
2. Bring hand sanitizer.
3. Wash your hands as soon as you return home.
4. Pick a bag for garbage, a bag for glass, and a bag for plastic. Its great that you can recycle too, but you don't want to dig through the garbage twice.
5. The parent gets to grab the garbage in the street, but the kids get a point if they spy it!
6. Make clear rules about what they can't touch; cigarette butts, broken glass, animal droppings, and whatever else you deem full of germs and not worth touching.
7. Give each kid a fun pair of plastic gloves. This is the fun part for them.
8. Bring enough bags, because you never know how much garbage you will find.
9. Have fun!
10. Thank and encourage your kids for taking care of the world around them.
11. Always have a plastic bag with you at this point forward. Now that they notice garbage, they will always want to pick it up!

Mike

So this morning Mike was supposed to come by at 10am. We met Mike yesterday walking down the alley while we were eating lunch outside on the back stoop. Mike is a young dad and living in a shelter downtown, not to far from our house. He was looking for work around people's yards to earn a little extra money to help pay for diapers. He also wondered if he might have a bottle of water.

Recently I have been praying for God to provide opportunities for us to serve the people around us. I heard a wonderful speaker talk about taking your kids gifts and turning them into blessings for others. Allowing them to serve others gives them a purpose, a God given purpose with their life. I have been praying for more wisdom in this area.

All of a sudden, here comes Mike right into our backyard. (we invited him in after he called me madam.) I didn't even have to leave my house, and here was someone who needed us. Needed a little assistance.

Well, we were getting ready for nap time and right after that was swim lessons, so I couldn't use his help yesterday, but I asked if he could come back tomorrow. He promised he would. That he wanted to earn his money, however he did some money for diapers today. I had just pulled cash for our groceries that day. I haven't done this in months, and this was my attempt to get us back on good financial ground. Funny how I would have cash this day, where truly, I never cash. I went in and got him $10 and instead of a disposable water bottle, I gave him a real one. If you're gonna spend your days out walking all the time looking for work, than you could use a real water bottle.

We introduced ourselves and my kids were really excited to see Mike today.

He didn't show.

We went outside and started doing yard work and we waited. The kids kept asking where he was. I said I wasn't sure. But either these two things happened:

1. I totally got played. (My husband would agree with this statement.) Some kid walking around looking for money, now he has a water bottle and $10 extra in his pocket. He's probably laughing at the stupid lady who was dumb enough to fall for his trick.

or...

2. Something happened to Mike that kept him from coming. Someone stole the money I gave him. He got another or better job offer for this morning. His kid is sick and he couldn't leave him. He got sick. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got into trouble. Couldn't find extra money for the bus.

I don't know. But you know what, the truth of what really happened doesn't matter. How I think it happened matters. If I believe I got played, than my trust in strangers and humankind in general will be jaded. I will be put off. My heart will be hardened. I will always judge and think the worst of strangers. I won't be able to trust anyone, thus leaving me full of anger and resement.

If I believe that Mike was ligit and something did really happened to him. Then my heart is softened. I pray for Mike. My kids pray for Mike. I start looking for opportunities to help others like Mike. My heart remains open to the opportunities that God puts in front of me. Literally. I can still have hope in mankind and God's ability to love all people.

See the reality is, it was only $10. Big deal. I have been blessed so much by the kindness of family and friends, that the least I can do is offer up $10. Because $10means something to Mike, but it also means something to me. It makes sure I am aware of people around me. It makes sure I continue to pass the blessing on.

I really don't care if I'm being laughed at by Mike and his friends. I am kind of bummed if I got played. But mostly, I hope nothing bad happened to Mike. I was looking forward to getting to know him. To hear his story and what happened that landed him at the homeless shelter. I'm mostly sad about the potential of meeting a new friend and expanding our ministry.

Lord, wherever he is, I pray that Mike encounters you and you move him from the place he's in, to a place of peace and healing and hope.

The whole picture

I can tell that something is wrong. My oldest isn't behaving like himself. He is more intense, angry, full of rage, anxious and over protective of things. It isn't always, and I have yet to figure out what the switch is, but somehow out of nowhere, the switch gets flipped, and out goes my sweet and funny five year old, replaced by some very angry kid I don't know very well, and don't know what to do with.

This has been going on a few weeks, and truthfully I haven't any energy left for anything else. We pray, we try to stay calm, we talk, we punish, we are trying everything, and we are exhausted. When signs like this started happening a year ago, we discovered that our oldest was sensitive to artificial food coloring. It is completely out of our house now. However, my phone conversations with my mother are really starting to sound the same. He's angry and I don't know what to do. He is full of rage, and I can't take anymore.

My husband and I are looking into all sorts of options and reasons for the change in our son. There is a theory of the half year. That kids struggle more during their half year because there isn't as much attention on how big and old you are getting. They are out of whack. There is also the struggle of starting school soon. They know change is coming, they want it but don't know how to process that. There is a tight schedule for kids and in the opposite corner, the idea that kids should be free to be bored and use their imagination. There was the parents crazy schedule, but we have settled down. Then there is looking at the food you are putting into your body. That is where we are sitting right now. I am scheduling our son for an evaluation on allergies and low vitamin intake. We are also reading a ton on shepherding the child's heart, how to love the wildness in boys, dealing with parent/child power struggles.

I wish there was a book that really addressed ALL issues that affect kids. The books either claim its all health, all spiritual, or all emotional. I believe that they all work together. That's the book I want. I am conviced that each of these do NOT work seperate, but together. When one is out of balance, the rest suffers, so how come we only address one aspect of the issue in all the parenting books out there.

I miss my sweet son. I see glimpses of him, and then he is gone. We are fighting again. We are at odds. We can't figure out how to meet in the middle, but I will use every ounce of energy I have to try until we can find each other again.

A bit out of balance

I miss my husband. I am usually the one leaving my family behind and it always feels different when I am the one left behind.

Yesterday was our Sabbath. A day of rest, family time, and reconnection, but Paul wasn't here. So me being with the kids all day just feels normal. I was trying to figure out a way to make our weekend special without spending money. We were going to take a walk around a new park, or visit a pet store for fun, or something different.

Then I woke up and my baby had thrown up all over. Then after little while, she threw up all over the boys fort. Then she threw up all over me. I didn't feel much like cooking the day before so we planned on having all leftovers on Saturday. That means the sink was full of Tupperware dishes that were waiting to be washed. On my sabbath, I was now staring at a hallway full of laundry, and a sink full of dishes, a sweet baby who can't leave the house because she's sick and a cold morning. I was alone in my day and it didn't feel like rest.

There are a only a few things that really make my Sabbath really restful. No dishes, no chores, and time together as a family. I didn't want to turn my Sabbath into something legalistic. So I turned my laundry chore into a way to serve my daughter and love her through her sickness. The boys and I pulled out old toys and turned our whole living room into Gotham city which was something fun for them, even though not want I wanted. I wanted to go out and into an adventure. I had to choose to bring the adventure into our home. I made sure we all took a rest/nap then played outside for the rest of the afternoon. I got to hold my baby, which she doesn't really let me do much anymore, till she fell asleep. She slept most of the day.

Even with the good things in the midst of my day, it felt off. I felt out of balance in my day because it didn't look like it normally does. I was feeling the full weight of missing my helper and partner. I was missing the full day of rest. But I had great restful moments in my day. The boys and I had a beautiful devotional time at night before bed, and they were both asleep by 730pm. I sat there. I didn't want to check email or get on the computer. I didn't want to do laundry or dishes. All the things I am normally doing at night. This was a special day. Set apart for rest. I visited with our housemate and caught up on life. It was good, and brought renewal to my day. To share ups and downs with another believer. Then I went to bed at 1030. It was glorious and unusual.

So my Sabbath didn't last a whole day. I was missing my favorite part, my husband and reading. But God blessed me in other ways. Time with my daughter. Special play time with my kids. Wonderful devotional time and sleep.

A Sabbath is about rest. Rejuvenating life. Putting a pause button on life to remember what's most important. Even though it didn't look like it, that is what God blessed me with yesterday. Today I have been working hard on restoring our house and getting projects done because I got rest. Thank you Lord for knowing what I need.

How do you know?

You know what I'm struggling with right now? How do you know that the way you interpret scripture is correct? There are some that read the Bible literally and all that it says is exactly what it means. For others, there are bigger meanings and theologies and ideas behind it. The pieces represent a whole. Here is why I struggle. There are people in my life, people I respect. People I love. People I know who love the Lord. They also stand on very different ground regarding issues of faith and obedience. (Those issues in a nutshell to start with are love and obedience, the Sabbath, eating pork, those being on the path to heaven being drastically narrow, the second coming, the role of the body of Christ, law and gospel etc.) I am confident. Truly confident that both sides pray, research, read, struggle, ask questions, dig to find truth, and then they come up with different answers. Both sides confident their discovery is correct. Both confident that God has spoken truth to them, and yet their outcomes are different. Different to a point of altering how you approach, read and understand scripture and ultimately God himself. There is a war of words in my mind. I can hear all sides while I read the Bible myself, and then when I pray through it and strive to hear only the one voice that matters, there is a slightly different answer. How can we all be coming up with different answers? And where can I find my confidence in understanding faith enough to teach it to my children? This is I feel paralyzed. When I living out my faith, I want to be confident in what I believe. I want to teach it to my children, as I know it shapes their lives. I don't want to be filled with the words of a false prophet or teacher. I want to live in truth. Yet when I see others that I know also want to live in truth, truly want to live in truth and actively seek it, then their conclusions are different, I am left very confused. Lord, tonight I ask that you would grant peace in this process of discovering you and all the truths that you have hidden in your word for us. Reveal yourself to me, and give me the courage to hear your voice and fight to find your truth.