The Hand that Rocks the Cradle

Sarah Palin… wow.  In so many ways, I like her.  She’s me–  only smarter, and prettier and more talented.   Did I mention smarter?  She’s Supermom and Barbie all rolled into one.  I just might vote for John McCain because he has the prettiest running mate in U.S. history.  🙂  Just kidding.  I just might vote for John McCain because the Republicans seem to have a pro-life ticket now…

But it saddens my heart that a mother of five, ages 7, 13, 17, 19 AND a four-month-old WITH DOWNS SYNDROME, may be our next Commander-in-Chief!   (Sarah Palin went back to work just three days after giving birth to her child.)  Since when did becoming President of the United States become more important than fulfilling the Titus two mandate to love your husband, love your children, and be a keeper at home?   The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.  Or in this case, the hand that is too busy to rock the cradle might only be a heartbeat away from ruling the world.  How can Sarah Palin possibly “train her children up” while she’s busy creating domestic and foreign policy?

In some ways Sarah Palin is worse than Hillary Clinton.  Oh, no, I don’t mean her voting record.  I love that she’s pro-life and against gay marriage.  (And for hanging up the bad boys–  oh yeah.) 

During one debate before the primary, Palin said she was in favor of capital punishment in especially heinous cases such as the murder of a child. “My goodness, hang ’em up, yeah,” she said.

But what kind of message is she sending to young mothers and families all across America?  At least Hillary’s child is grown and gone.  Sarah’s children are still very much in need of a mother.  I’m not saying that mothers can’t work– honestly.  But being President of the United States (or even Vice) would be fairly all-consuming.  No? 

At a time when motherhood and marriage is so under attack, the message Republicans are sending is this: Winning political elections is more important than taking care of your family. 

“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, [To be] discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:4-5).

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First Day of School

All five Rays on the first day of school. Jane just woke up, but wants to go with them. Sniff. Sniff.

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Somebody Stop This Thing. I Want to Get Off.

School started a week ago, but for some reason, it seems like it has been going for much longer.

EXAMPLE ONE:

Today Truett, my fifteen year old, rushed in the door and ran back to his bedroom.  “Hey Truett!  How was your day!”

“Great Mom!  But I’m in a hurry.  I have to go back to the school for a thirty minute detention.  But don’t worry, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

EXAMPLE TWO:

At breakfast this morning, Titus, my 12 year old  said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you but yesterday I got my name put on the board for laughing.”

“What was so funny?”  I said.

“Well, Jacob said that he panned for gold all day and all that he got for all his work was 3 cents.  And then Zane started laughing and then I started laughing because, Mom, it was just really funny.   But then Mrs. Bird told me that we weren’t being sensitive to Jacob’s feelings.

I think she was concerned about his self esteem or something.  But it was still funny.”

EXAMPLE THREE:

Anna, immediately upon entering the car this afternoon said, “I puked at recess.”

“Oh, no, really?”  I said.

“No–  but,  Brandon “asked me out” [Huh?  Where are the babies 10 year olds going to go?] and that made me feel like puking.  But I punched him in the eye instead.”

It’s gearing up to be quite a year, folks.

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One Word Only

Alright, this is a meme where the stipulation is that you can only answer with one word.  It is very nearly impossible for me to keep anything to one word–  but I tried!  I cheated a bit with a few links and I also added an extra word once or twice.  Try it yourself, and you’ll see what I mean.

1.   Where is your cell phone?      Questionable

2.  Where is your significant other?  Livingroom

3.  Your hair?   Trendy

4.  What you’re not?  Lazy

5.  Your spouse?  Prayerful

6.  Your favorite thing?  Spencer

7.  Your dream last night?  Forgotten

8.  Your dream/goal?  Phillipians 3:14

9.  The room you’re in?  Dining

10. Your hobby?  Blogging

11. Your fear?  Wasting (my life.)

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?   Wedding (Abbey’s)

13. Where were you last night?    Bravo’s

14. What you’re not?   Mathmatical

15. One of your wish list items?  Boat

16. Where you grew up?  Owasso

17. The last thing you did?  Organized

18. What are you wearing?  Feminine

20. Your pet?  Irritating

21. Your computer?  iMac

22. Your mood?  Ambivalent

23.  Missing someone? Feurts

24. Your car?  Minivan

25. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes

26. Your summer? Fast

28. Love someone?    Jesus

29. Your favorite color?   Pink

30. Last time you laughed?  Car

31. Last time you cried?  Phone

32.  Your church?  Maturing

33. How many sisters?  One

34. How many brothers?  None

35.  How many children? Five

36.  Your favorite drink?  Zero

37. Your TV?  Sedative

38. Your life?  Matthew 16:24-25

39. Favorite store?  Coldwater

40.  Who will repost this?  I don’t know, but I’ll tag my sister, Megan.

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Camp

Here’s a slideshow of our week at camp. And no, the biker look is not one that Spencer and I intend on adopting full time. 🙂

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SLIDESHOW

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Refreshed

I’m back.  I’m exhausted and exhilarated and I’m back.

It was stinkin’ hot y’all.  It was so hot I could have warmed up my morning coffee on my forehead.  None of the rooms were air-conditioned.   The heat was so stifling, that I started to panic on Sunday night.  Could I really endure seven days of this?  As we walked up the hill to my cabin (Rule #372 about camp:  all camps are built on hills.  I’m pretty sure this is verifiable.) I said silently, “One down, six to go.”

But the Holy Spirit met me.  Met all of us.  And the Spirit’s refreshment overshadowed the heat and the sweat and the dirt.  As we drove back on Saturday afternoon, I felt like my soul had had a true retreat.   The Lord knows I’ve done my fair share of camping.   As a kid, and then as a youth intern and as a ministry wife, I’ve been both camper and counselor at more camps than I can shake a stick at.  But it had been a while, because I don’t do camp if I’m pregnant, or nursing a baby or toting a toddler and I’ve been doing one of those three things for, well, for a long time.  It was hard for me to leave my three year old behind for an entire week and I wouldn’t have done it this year if my husband had not asked me to.  I went to be his helper and to be a blessing for our youth.  I did go into the week prayed up–  I had been praying over our kids for weeks.  But I did not expect the blessing that I personally received.

My husband preached on the need for solitude on the Sunday morning before we left for camp.  It wasn’t planned that way–  he’s been preaching on the spiritual disciplines all summer.  I was reminded last week that I don’t get enough of this kind of solitude.  My soul needed a week of Bible preaching and prayer and time to think and reflect. Yours does too.  A week away from the world and from the daily grind was good for the soul.  A week to meet new friends who love the Lord and love His Word was good for the heart.  A week away from a demanding toddler was good for the mind.  It was a good week.

I think I may even go back next year.

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Five Hours ‘Til Take Off…

There are fourteen bags sitting at the foot of the stairs in the basement, waiting to be loaded onto the camp trailer. And I feel ready.

“O God, do not keep silent. Do not be quiet, O God, do not be still.” Psalm 83:1

May God do a mighty work in the lives of all of the campers this week, and that includes me. See you in 7.

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Kodak Moments

The good news is: The Ray family photos have been taken for this year– you can thank me at Christmas.

The other good news is: Everyone had a matching white shirt and a dark pair of shoes; we found belts for both of the boys and a friend of mine saved the day by making a white hair bow for Jane when I realized that our own white hair bow was apparently in the same place in which half of our socks currently reside. And we arrived on time. And it only took an hour.

The bad news is: MY HAIR DOESN’T LIKE HUMIDITY. And I’m guessing yours doesn’t either, so you might want to take my advice and schedule your own outdoor family photo-op during any other month rather than August. When we got back in the car after our hour-long photo shoot, I flipped the car visor down, looked at myself in the mirror and cringed. I looked like I had just walked through the Amazon rain forest. But I consoled myself with the thought that maybe, just maybe, those pictures that we took during the first ten minutes turned out well. A girl can hope, can’t she?

The kids were real troopers. I warned them ahead of time that this was going to take some time. I told them that they would be hot and uncomfortable and at times frustrated, but to please, for pity’s sake, NOT COMPLAIN IN FRONT OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER and to just KEEP SMILING! And they did. The photographer was great too and worked very, very hard with our family. She deserves an award or something. Her hardest task was to keep Jane looking at the camera while at the same time making sure that the other six family members had their hands in the right position, their chins tilted just so and their knees pointing the right way. And to remember all seven of our names. “Hey guy… Brother. The other brother. Could you scoot just a tad closer to your sister? No, your little sister. No, your OTHER little sister.” Fun times.

The highlight had to be when she asked if Jane had a favorite song or something– something to sing to her to keep her attention. So another real highlight was singing the theme song to Dora the Explorer all while wearing our matching white shirts and kneeling in a rocky creek bottom.

But it’s behind us and so now I can focus on more relaxing things like looking for seven sleeping bags, finding Truett’s swimsuit and getting all of our suitcases packed and ready to load BEFORE SUNDAY SCHOOL AT 9:15AM TOMORROW. Ahhhh. What a relief. This really is the life.

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