Reality check...

Just a side note...


I have recently come to the conclusion that parents (especially those intending to home school) should be taking courses in college...


but not for the reasons you may be thinking...


I don't care if you have a no degree or a PhD, there is nothing as humbling as taking college courses while your child is also in the active learning phase of his or her life. It is--to say the least--a reality check....


Talk about valuable insight and perspective... 


For example:
Some courses are presented as if you are incapable of logical thought patterns. You are not permitted to skip steps, or form conclusions without having gone through all of the provided material. You are not permitted to get anything wrong (you know, experiment with inferences and deductions) because you are expected to simply ingest & regurgitate (assimilation is not an expectation). 


Other courses are just plain boring...or maybe the core subject matter would be interesting if the presentation was more applicable to something meaningful to you. 


My current inspiration is statistics...I do not hate statistics...as a matter of fact, I love research and am therefore fascinated by the concept of truly deciphering the studies I've come across...but this class is driving me nutty...really!


I totally "get" the calculations, but the theoretical situations presented are so mind-numbingly NOT what I care about, that I just keep ending up on facebook (or now, on blogger!!) 


ughhhh......


Good news is, I can now completely empathize with my son...and that's a good thing.  Last semester, when he had the bizzarro calc II instructor whose presentations sent him home with his eyes spinning in opposite directions, I just didn't get it...


Now, I get it....


(I'm sorry AJ!)


So, yeah... sign up for a class...or two...a hefty dose of reality can be a good thing...

God stuff....

It's been 22 years since I realized that Christ died for even me...and since then, I've been walking through what that means in my life.  Thankfully, Tony and I were "us" when I made that realization, so my journey has been one that we've shared. 


Stewardship. Basically, what we do with what we've been given. That concept is so all-encompassing...it kindof makes me gasp. Really!  How I treat my husband. How I walk out the marriage relationship. How we parent our son. That doesn't even begin to touch on the stuff stuff: house, money, jobs, blah blah blah...it's exhausting...


but it's part of God's gift to us


This life is so much more than what we have and what we hope to have


One day, I had the realization that the only thing in life that truly matters is that which brings glory to God.


Pretty powerful stuff! (Of course, that doesn't mean that I don't have to re-realize it on occasion, because I do...)  Just picturing God--infinitely powerful and just as loving--smiling because He is pleased with my effort, my consideration....wow....


I picture Him with dimples....

When verb returns to noun....

So, last night I kindof unloaded on a friend of mine at the coffeehouse...obviously, my mind is burdened, and sometimes it's pretty hard to restrain.


You see, I'm kindof in mourning.


Ok, maybe it's not as dramatic as it sounds, but in a way, it is.


You see, after parenting for almost 17 years, it will be coming to a close soon....and that is really hard for me.


I know, I will always be AJ's mom, but I have really enjoyed the mom-ing...the verb.


I was one of those kids who never really thought it would happen for me...you know, it. The fairy tale happily ever after where the little girl finds her true love, gets married, has babies, and...yeah. Just never thought it would happen...for me. But it did.


Tony is my buddy, my best friend, my love...the one with whom I would be happily stranded on a desert island...yep, that's my shmoopy! When he told me he loved me 21 years ago...wow...I was just, like...wow!
So then we married, and in spite of the doctors' negative prognoses, God saw fit to bless us with AJ....again...wow! I was always afraid that I would not know how to be a mom; I was too selfish, too much of a sound sleeper...you name it...but becoming AJ's mom was truly a dream come true. Our choice to teach him ourselves only intensified the magnitude of our delight in being parents...we didn't have to miss a thing! Even now I look back at videos (yes, I watched some this weekend!) and--it's not just skewed memories--raising AJ has been a blast!


And now, he's almost 17.


Please don't get me wrong, I am sooooo proud of the man he is becoming. He's fun, has a wonderful sense of humor, he's considerate and fiercely loyal to those he cares for. He is not frivolous with his affections, but carefully chooses those with whom he spends his time. He is a man of integrity, and I really like him. It's funny how well-meaning friends love to warn parents of the inevitable difficulties of the teen-age years (insert dramatic music here).

Newsflash: it's not a "given".


But I guess that's what makes this so hard...


I know I will always be AJ's mom, but I would be lying if I said that I am fine with going from a verb to a noun....

Random beginnings....

It's funny...I used to look at blogs the same way I looked at devotionals...I never understood why  people read devotionals! I thought, "why don't they just read their bibles?" No judgment; just random thought. While I personally prefer to read my bible, I have finally caught on to the value of reading an inspirational passage alongside someone's interpretation of how to apply it...good stuff! In the same way, I now "get" the blog thing.


I would think, "why would anyone want to read anyone else's diary, of sorts?" That was until I stumbled across a few blogs and found laughter, inspiration, conviction...yeah...they're pretty cool.


So, here I go...


I entitled my blog "Between the Ellipses" because I tend to use them a lot. You know...the dot-dot-dots. That's because I often feel like my thoughts are open-ended. I'm often not quite ready to settle on something as final as ending punctuation as my thoughts are still fluid...hmmmm...


So, I don't know if anyone will end up reading this, but I do love to write. And I do have sooooo many thoughts running around my brain sometimes that I feel like writing could be cathartic, to say the least, but I foresee more peace and joy than cleansing...


Yeah...this is good!


Thank you to Krista and Lisa, especially, for inspiring me to just write...