Being Thankful

When I was a kid I used to long for Saturdays to roll around. It seemed like Saturday would never get here. On Saturday I could get up and watch cartoons all morning and play all afternoon. I would be so excited about watching cartoons I’d wake up before any TV stations signed on the air for day. (Remember when TV stations were NOT on the air 24/7?) Now it seems like weekends come and go as fast as fence posts when you are driving down the highway.

THE WEEKLY SCHEDULE. One thing that make the weeks fly by is simply the schedule for each week. I believe the extracurricular things take over. The boys have Cub Scouts on Mondays, and there’s church (with our AWANA Club) on Wednesdays. Now that Jenna is on the ball team many of her afternoons are tied up with practice and there are games on Mondays and Thursdays (as a 6th grader she plays on the B team so her games are early). When Upward Basketball starts up in a couple of weeks that will take another night and Saturdays out of the loop.

If you read this and think I am complaining you have misunderstood the spirit in which this was written. I am thankful we can do all these things. It is so easy to go through the year and take our health and opportunities for granted. It is too easy to forget how many people in the world (and throughout history) have simply struggled to survive. All the things that are a normal part of our lives -- a comfortable home, an abundance of food, good health, and leisure time to to pursue things we enjoy -- are simply an unattainable and unimaginable luxury for so many. If I am sort of down about any of this it is because of the question that keeps nagging me from the back of my mind, “Am I pleasing God with all this excess?”

BASKETBALL. As I mentioned above, Jenna’s ball schedule is on full swing. She’s played in two games so far (and gotten about two minutes of playing time in each game). I haven’t seen her play yet. I had an eye appointment scheduled on top of one game and was teaching a workshop during another. Vicki sys Jenna is discovering middle school ball is totally different from Upward ball.

THE CHEMO IS OVER. Pauline has completed this round chemotherapy! She’s had a scan after it was over and the spot they saw back in August has shrunk about 80%. She will consult with a radiologist after Thanksgiving. We’ll keep you posted.

A CLARIFICATION. I want to make a clarification here since my article about the Upward Basketball evaluation prompted a couple of you to reply to last week’s newsletter. I will agree, that really isn’t an experience a kid should have in a ministry based organization, and Ben had every right to feel the way he did that night. However I was so pleased to see Ben decide on his own to focus on playing harder and better that I never pursued it any further. I knew that kind of fight was in him somewhere, and I was glad to see it come to the surface.

I must thank Sabrina Freeland for the additional information I can give you this week. To make a long story short, Ben misread the form that night. The Upward Basketball Registration Form has a section that is filled out by a coach when the child is doing their evaluation. When Ben was done the coach handed him his form so naturally he looked to see how he did. This section has places to record left-side, right-side, and lane shooting as well as dribbling with either hand and doing the defensive slide (or shuffle). What happened was that Ben’s eyes strayed up to the section the PARENTS are supposed to fill out where he saw the question “Would you be willing to coach your child’s team?” Since I know nothing about basketball and Vicki is too busy we marked “no.”

When we pointed this out to Ben he gave us a sheepish grin. All he would say was, “I’m still going to play extra hard,” but I think he was glad to know the coach didn’t say that about him. Thanks again, Sabrina!

COMMUNITY THANKSGIVING. Our church hosted a community Thanksgiving service tonight. Five other churches participated. We kicked things off with a meal (each church was responsible for different foods) and then had our service. This is one of those things I look forward to every year and this year lived up to expectations. I was really blessed.

THE EXPRESS LANE. I didn’t run sound a church tonight, but they had so many gremlins in the sound system during rehearsal I decided to sit in the balcony to give them a hand in the service if they needed it. Ben sat with me. We served the Lord’s Supper during the service so when that started I slipped down to relieve Jeff, who was running sound, so he could go receive communion (we learned a long time ago never to leave a sound system unattended). Ben saw me get up and assumed I was going down to take communion right then.

For those of you who have not been to our church we have what’s called loge seating on either side of the sanctuary along the steps going up to the balcony. When I noticed Ben was not with me at the sound board I looked around and spotted him just as he was sitting on the handrail at the top of the loge. I could only shake my head in disbelief as I watched him slide down the rail past about ten pews of people to the foot of the loge and right to the front of the line. All I can say is that I’m trying to raise my heathens right.

Joe

Fall Is For Falling Leaves

I always wondered why autumn, of the four seasons, has a second name. I think Nate voiced the reason I had always suspected (that “fall” is for falling leaves) the other day. We were driving through town. There was a slight breeze and leaves were drifting down everywhere. Nate said, “Look! It’s snowing leaves.”

LEAF REMOVAL SERVICE. Each year I am amazed at the amount of leaves the 50 trees in our yard produce. Most of them collect between all the buildings in the back yard. Last Saturday the boys and I moved eight loads of leaves to the cornfield behind the house (the Pinsons had cut the corn the week before). The bad part of all this was that I had to have two tires patched from driving through all the corn stubble. (Too bad the soybeans haven’t been cut yet.)

A second side effect of last weekend was the sinus infection I got. As far as I’m concerned Amoxicillin is the miracle drug right now.

Yesterday afternoon Vicki and Jenna joined us in the fun. I have no idea how many loads we hauled out of the yard (to the hay field this time), but we have at least two thirds of the yard clean now. We only have two trees in the front that have yet to shed all their leaves. Hopefully we’ll have them all hauled off by Thanksgiving.

WAITING FOR THE BUS. Waiting for the school bus in the mornings is always interesting. If it’s wet there are puddles to throw rocks into. Now that the corn is cut the boys like to explore the edge of the field. Sometimes Wil is out there to catch the bus adding to the fun.

A lot of times someone will say, “There she isn’t!” And when everyone else turns their heads we get, “Ha, made you look!”

One day Ben said, “There she is!” When no one moved he said, “Really! It’s coming. I saw the blink-blink through the trees.” That’s the most creative name I’ve heard for the strobe light that flashes on the bus roof.

Speaking of the bus, Alice, the bus driver, broke her foot the other day stepping off the bus. The kids will probably have a substitute driver between now and Christmas break.

SPEAKING OF CHRISTMAS... Each year Vicki and two friends (Michelle and Tracey) go to the Christmas Village at the state fairgrounds. Vicki buys a few things for Christmas, but the trip is more about a girls night out. This year Tracey wasn’t able to go, but there were additions to the crew -- Jenna and Maegan (Michelle’s daughter) and another friend were invited along. It’s sort of a milestone to be part of a girls night out with your mom.

GOOD BIG BROTHER. This week we had to talk to Nate about the amount of food he was eating after school at Aunt Mar’s house. Mom and Aunt Mar have a good snack ready for the kids when they get off the bus, but Nate overdoes it and sneaks into the kitchen to get more -- so much so that he’s other not hungry for supper.

We confronted Nate about this, but he didn’t want to admit anything. When this came to a head and it was obvious he was not cooperating we sent him up to his room. Some time later he came down and owned up to what he’d been doing. He apologized and then said, “We should honor Ben. You should give him and honor because he came and talked to me about this.”

YOU HAVE TO ADMIRE THE ATTITUDE. Since Jenna made the ball team at school only the boys are playing Upward Basketball this year. We went Monday night for their evaluation. (This is done to try and balance ability levels across all teams.)

The evaluations included dribbling, shooting, shuffles, etc. As the coaches were watching the boys do these things they were recording their observations on the player’s signup form. When Ben was done the men who were observing him handed him his form to carry to the table out in the hall.

Later, as we were leaving, Ben commented that the coach who evaluated him didn’t want him on his team. I asked how he knew this and Ben replied, “He said so. I was reading how I did on the form and one of the questions was, ‘Would you want this child on your team?‘ The coach answered, ‘No.’ So he doesn’t want me on his team.”

I was trying to think of how to respond to this when Ben said, “Well, I’ll show him. If he doesn’t want me on his team I don’t want to be on his team and I’ll play extra hard when I play his team.” That’s better than anything I could have said.

Joe

Anakin Skywalker Had a Great Fall

We have been enjoying the best fall weather! It seems like the fall colors have lasted longer this year (it appears the trees didn’t all peak at one time). I’ve really enjoyed taking some walks around Springfield on my lunch break.

TRUNK OR TREAT. We had our third annual Trunk or Treat in the church parking lot this year. Vicki got the idea that she and the kids would dress up as bees and I would be the bee keeper. Vicki made an awesome queen bee and I borrowed a bee keeper’s suit from a friend (complete with dry ice in the smoker), however, the kids didn’t go for the idea. Jenna dressed as a witch, Ben was an alien, and Nate was Anakin Skywalker.

There were a lot of people at our trunk or treat. I was behind our van most of the time and could hardly look up from passing out candy, Vicki was working a table where she was passing out information about AWANA, and the kids were hanging out with their friends. Everything was going really well until someone ran up to me to say that Nate had fallen off a wall.

Nate and Ben were with several of their friends playing in the grass right behind the church building. The yard does not slope down to the back door so there is a retaining wall to hold everything in place. Nate was near the wall and backing up when his foot caught on the top of the wall and he tripped over it. He fell about five feet to the asphalt below. Vicki got to him before I did and helped him walk inside the church. When we didn’t see any external swelling we decided he needed to go to the emergency room.

To be brief, the CT scan showed no damage so he simply had a hard lick to the head. Nate was lucky that he fell on his left side which softened the blow to his head. He was also lucky that he didn’t have his arms out trying to break his fall. By the next morning his headache was gone and he was a bit worn out with everyone at church asking him if he was okay. I am thankful to God that it came out like it did and I can crack jokes like “the Force sure wasn’t with young Skywalker that time” or “we’re looking for a Humpy Dumpty costume for next year.”

INSULATED. The walls in our house are insulated now. This is something I’ve wanted to do for years. One thing that held me back was knowing that many old houses like ours were built with cross bracing in the walls making it hard to blow insulation in. After pulling some clapboards off we discovered our house was built with storm bracing making the cavity between each wall stud completely empty from top to bottom. Storm bracing is where 3/4 inch tongue and groove flooring was nailed up to the outside of the wall studs before the clapboards were put on. These boards are set diagonally eliminating the need for cross bracing through the wall studs. The storm bracing had the side benefit of allowing us to pull a row of clapboards off right under the eave, blow in the insulation, and easily put the clapboard back. We didn’t even have to plug any holes like you see on some houses where the insulation is blown in later!

Our house feels cozier now, but the true tests will be seeing our heat bills through the winter and sitting in the living room on a 20° night when the wind is blowing.

A TASTE OF TURKEY. Why is it every year I feel like we’re ramping up for holiday activities earlier than the year before? Mom invited Pauline. the boys, and myself to the Byrum-Porter Senior Center in Orlinda last night for their annual Fall Harvest Dinner (which is a fund raiser for the center). They served turkey and dressing with all the trimmings. I enjoyed it, but the boys and I felt a little out of place -- we were among the youngest people eating there (most of the people my age were getting take out plates).

If you are wondering where the rest of the family was, Aunt Mar was a little under the weather and stayed home, Jenna was spending the night with her friend Mackenzie, and Vicki was in Chattanooga for an AWANA Commanders College. (From the sound of it Vicki has had a great time and has picked up a lot of ideas.)

I had to laugh at me and the boys as I went to bed. We came back from our meal at the Senior Center, watched a movie, and turned in by 9:30. Maybe we were in better company at the Senior Center than I first thought.

Joe