even if it is still technically night here.

As I type this, Dub is at a lock-in with the youth group. It’s a rather huge lock-in which I wasn’t keen on him attending. He really wanted to go so we let him. I can’t sleep because I keep thinking of 1) my a) lone 12 year old among hundreds of 12 year olds b) in the middle of the city c) in the middle of the night and 2) the quirks that could make my lone 12 year old among hundreds of 12 year olds stick out. Quirky people or their mothers most assuredly understand this! It’s not only him and his quirks, but the world we live in and the predators who share it with us who have likely seen the ads for Zero Hour and think with delight about the buffet of victims.

Mr. Nicklebee said he hates to think of Dub being utterly crushed by some punk kid who picked up on the ocd tendencies while he, Mr. Nicklebee, isn’t their to take care of it. I keep thinking of all of the terrible things that could happen, the least of which is being made fun of, and praying, “LORD, please take care of my baby!” We’re not believers in isolating ourselves from the outside world, or rescuing our kids every time we think they need to be rescued, but there are times when the temptations are certainly there!

Dub is thoroughly enjoying youth group. He hates to miss anything. He was really excited to get to help out with the Halloween party at church. It was an outreach event. We usually try to pass out tracts’n'treats on Halloween night at our house but we were flat broke. I was so disappointed to not do that this year, but I was really glad Homer and Dub got to do something like it with their youth group. I have a strong distaste for pretty much everything Halloween stands for, except the fun parts like the eating of excessive amounts of candy. Otoh, we have had a blast at our house, and this year at our church, reclaiming the day.

I will never forget the first year we did our own ministry on Halloween night. Wait. I don’t mean “our own”, as if we were glorifying ourselves. I mean that we did it ourselves independent of our church at that time.

Long story short, we decided to ditch the traditional Halloween activities and do something else. The first year we did it, we passed out candy canes with the legend of the candy can attached to them.  Do you know how hard it is to find candy canes in October??  Incredibly shy Homer, at the age of 5, wait … 4 ,  showed great courage in the face of werewolves, witches, the Scream face thing, and Barney. He couldn’t stand the thought of all of those masks from the pit of hell in the store when we were grocery shopping, but he was willing to face them all to tell others about Jesus. Funny how even little kids have their priorities!

Speaking of priorities, check out Dot’s Halloween post, Living Next to Mr. Halloween, especially about the kid and the crawling mummy. I’m sorry, I just don’t see the point of scaring little kids to death like that and trying to convince them it’s fun. Why stop there? Why not show them Vincent Price movies and read a little Edgar Allan Poe right before bed, too! As long as they know it’s not real and that it is really quite enjoyable once they get past the initial hysteria! Let me tell ya, people: You can never, never, never, ever get some of that stuff out of your head, ever! Why not fill it with good stuff??

Moving on to something else …

I have been so tired and dragged out for so long that I can’t remember the last time I had a sustained burst of normal energy. Thursday morning, I decided to take my sister’s advice and give caffeine a chance. JulieBaby inspired me to figure out how to make pumpkin cappuccino that is free of milk products. Rice milk does not foam, but the flavor of pumpkin pie was there, and the Very Freaking Disgusting flavor of coffee was not. I didn’t realize I had been constipated but apparently I was! By Thursday afternoon, I had lost 23 pounds! Woo hoo! Caffeinated Beverages Worked for Me!

A picture is worth a thousand words …

The Little Guy was about 15 feet over my head here.

Dub was about a Little Guy length below him, holding branches out of the way so I could see his face.

These leaves are on a Sweet Gum tree.

And this is the Nicklebee Picture of the Day, which I have decided that I love more than the header image even:

A Righteous Man has regard for the life of his animals.

(I know, I’ve used that verse before.)

I hope that you have a great weekend and a blessed Lord’s Day!

Epilogue

I have just retrieved Dub from church and he had a great time! Thank You, God!!

I expected him to be on the brink of collapse by the time he got home but he was surprisingly perky and full of tales of dodgeball and collisions. He saw a few kids he knew from other places, including a couple of former teammates.

It would be really easy for me to put on a good show and backspace over half of this post, eliminating my silliness about worrying about my kid, but I won’t.  I know there are other people out there like us who are concerned about their quirky offspring.  The bottom line is that new situations area little unnerving sometimes but God cares and He is in control.