After being sick all last weekend, I had a busy week catching up from behind. I have been trying to reestablish our “anchors” so that things can run somewhat smoothly even if something unexpected comes along. (Anchors are those things that remain the same every day, day in and day out.) It has gone okay. The kids are finding that they have a lot more free time than they realized was available to them. This is so different than the survival mode we’re used to when The Dad is away.

Dub received a word of encouragement from his guitar teacher the other day. When he arrived for his lesson, one of the first things his teacher asked was how much practice time he got in since the previous lesson. Dub said, “Not very much. I think I only practiced about twice.” I didn’t catch what the teacher said, but I did catch what he said later, after he and Dub played one of the pieces Dub was supposed to have practiced. He said, “Wow. I would give you an A on that, if I gave grades! If you had told me you practiced every day, I would’ve believed you!” That was really nice to hear. He didn’t have a great practice week last week, but in general, he has been practicing more consistently, and it shows.

One of the things I’ve been trying to emphasize with the boys, something that has been sadly lacking for way too long, is the fact that God has a plan for each of them, and they need to work hard so they can be ready to do whatever it is that He has for them. You might be amazed at the difference in attitudes when I remind them of the eternal perspective. They are no longer striving after things that aren’t going to matter in a hundred years, but are more contentedly working toward something that has eternal value. I have got to work on helping them keep that perspective in focus. I’m not sure when I slacked off on that, but I did, and now I pray that God will help me get back on track. Time is going so fast and before I know it, these men-in-training will be all grown up and these prime opportunities will be gone. But let’s move on to slightly less heavy things …

Some of us in this family have weight issues. A while back, I had a great menu/grocery shopping/cooking system that worked well for us. Somehow we got into shopping in such a way that I can’t make a menu ahead of time. Women who are more culinarily talented than I could throw a two week menu together in 5 minutes, but I am not one of those women, so, when someone in this house decides to try to improve upon what works for me in the kitchen, that usually throws things into a state of chaos, and several waistlines tend to suffer. Tomorrow, I’m going to sit down and straighten this mess out. [whine] Oh, how I hate almost everything involved in meal planning with food issues! It’s soooo confusing and frustrating and discouraging and haaaaaaard!! [/whine]

I can’t remember, at this late hour in which I can hardly keep my eyes open, if I’ve shared about my attempt to read through the Bible in a year. If not, this time I’m using The Daily Bible. It is a chronological reading of the Bible. The format is similar to a “regular” book. Each chapter and verse is not numbered the way that it is in most Bibles, but the references are for a range of verses and are located in the margins next to the corresponding passages. There is some commentary and background information within each day’s reading for added insight.

Most Bible reading plans that get through the whole Bible in a year have the reader reading from 3 or 4 different books of the Bible each day. The Daily Bible sticks with the chronology and doesn’t skip around. For me, this has been a really good thing. In the past, I have had a very hard time sticking with Bible reading plans that have you read from multiple books at once. Maybe it’s just me, but I like the way The Daily Bible is set up, in that it’s read like a book, and I highly recommend it.

It seems like there was something else, but I’m going cross eyed, so I’ll just have to share whatever profound and utterly important thing it was some other time.

Good night!