iWait

The Imp is part of a newly forming group of iWait. iWait is a program that teaches abstinence first and foremost, but it's much more than that. It is really about healthy relationships and strong sense of self. There was a parent meeting (translate: mother's meeting) before the first kids' meeting and a former member came to speak to us. He was a very cute, exceptionally articulate 22-year old guy who was quite open and honest about the group. He admitted that pledging to abstinence is really easy before you're in a relationship, but becomes much harder once you're going out with someone you are attracted to. He also said, had he not pledged ahead of time, he's not sure if he would have been able to resist the very real temptation of physical pleasure. He's planning on going to one or two of the early meetings of the new group, and I think he'll be a big hit. I'm very hopeful for this group and it being a source of Christian support for the Imp. The biggest issue from her point of view is that at this time, all the other members know each other and the Imp only knows 2 of the girls.

Saturday I got to scrap at an all-day crop, but I didn't get done near what I had hoped. That was disappointing. I went into the crop tired. Friday was a really long day with me presenting at Career day at the Imp's old school, then teaching my home school class and ended with running the marriage ministry meeting at our church. The marriage ministry was a blast! We held a "Not-so-Newlywed Game." Everyone had a great time and it was just loads of fun telling and hearing stories of first dates and strangest presents. Everyone was having such a good time, that when Hubby and I tried to rush through the last round to make sure we finished on time they voted to slow down and not worry about the time. Of course, that put us home later. Saturday I got to the crop 10 minutes after starting time, but had to leave at 11:45 to go pick up the Imp from crew practice (the practice was announced on Friday and Hubby had plans to go to a USF basketball game). I sat for 35 minutes waiting for the Imp. The coach held them later than he said...and with crew they're out on the river. It's not like the Imp could just leave. So I was gone for almost 2 hours. Ugh. Then I had to leave for another 1 1/2 to be sacristan at the 4:30 Mass. So what should have been an 11 hour crop ended up being closer to 7 hours when you take into account start up time after each 'break'. But as another scrapper said, "a little time at a crop is better than no time at all."

This Friday I'm off with the Singer to SC to see my parents. It should be fun, albeit a swift trip. We'll be back home by Monday afternoon. The Singer hasn't seen my parents for a while and she's looking forward to it. Also, she wants to say "good-bye" to their house. My parents are trying to sell their house and downsize while they are both healthy enough to actively participate. They're planning on moving to a retirement/assisted living facility/nursing home in town. It's a difficult task, as they had the house built after 30 years of military moves and almost as many houses. It's a gorgeous house and my girls are both sad that visiting grandma and grandpa won't always mean going to that house (which is quite amusing as they both think going to Sumter is anything but fun). When we were there at Christmas, the Imp was quite melancholy about her probable last night in their house.




I'm really enjoying a book I'm reading for Lent, "Praying Scripture for a Change" I'm still on the first chapter, after reading the intro multiple times. I think this will be a book I reread numerous times and will go back to when I hit 'desert' times in my faith journey.

Hubby just realized that he gets an extra week of vacation this year. Yea! So he's planning on taking time off during the Imp's Spring Break. So last night I spent time on the internet looking for a beach place on the gulf that week. Anything reasonably priced is booked through April, and even many of the unreasonably priced places. That's a good thing for our state economy, but bad news for us. Not that we won't relish the time to work in the yard and sit back and relax. Between now and Easter, I don't think we have a single weekend with nothing to do. So I guess the week after Easter will do some serious Spring cleaning in the house and the yard.

Speaking of our yard, my potatoes arrived Saturday. I can't wait to plant them Thursday...gotta do it before I leave town. My cucumber seeds "drown" during our downpour last week. My lettuce and beans are sprouting. I'm so ready for warm weather. I went to wear a dress to church and was embarrassed by my white-white legs. While I'm always pale...especially compared to other Floridians, I'm not usually pasty. But between the cold and rain, I really haven't been outside as much as past winters. Yesterday and today we actually had warm temperatures, but another cold front is coming through before the weekend.

Are you B.U.S.Y., B.U.S.Y.?

I've so many thoughts swirling in my head, I almost didn't write again today. Seems contradictory, but I know the time to get all my thoughts down is longer than the time I have to spend on the computer today.
The Imp is sleeping in, but I need to wake her shortly so we can go driving. She got her permit over the summer and we went out a few times over the summer but haven't been since. When she's at school until 7 pm each night, there's not a lot of time for driving. She's not quite ready for driving to and from school, which is what our goal is. Once she's able to do that, she'll have plenty of 'practice' time.
Saturday, Hubby and I went to a Jeff Cavin's information day
(for lack of a better description). During one of our discussions about how to help participants in the Great Adventure Bible Study
create time for daily Scripture reading and reflection, the idea of how busy everyone is these days. Another participant said, "Ahh, if you find yourself saying you're too busy for anything that's really important (i.e. spending time in God's Word) than remember what BUSY really stands for: Being Under Satan's Yoke." Wow. "We're too busy to eat together" "I'm too busy to really spend time with my... (child, husband, parents)" "Too busy to meet the neighbors" and on and on. Obviously, it's stuck with me. Being Under Satan's Yoke. I really like that and will hold onto that one. With Lent approaching this Wednesday, it's an idea to remember when thinking of how best to utilize this time of spiritual Boot Camp the Church has wisely set up for us.
On a totally different topic, I read the Yoder and Son column in the Sunday paper. Yesterday, the dad said "Just because you have the money doesn't mean you can afford it." Again, I literally sat there and said "WOW! That's SOO true." For years I've said that parents today (i.e. ME) have a harder time saying no to material requests from the children because we have more disposable income than our parents tended to have. When you have 8 kids like my parents and only 1 employed parent (notice I did not say 'working parent') there simply wasn't any extra money available. So their response to requests were honestly 'we don't have the money' For Hubby and I, we use to say that and then our kids asked if we were poor. So our response became, "We choose to spend our money differently" (You know...give to the Church and other charities, save for retirement, save for emergencies, save for college, etc) How I wish I'd had the gem of "Just cause we have the money doesn't mean we can afford it" these past 19 years.
So all day yesterday I had these two sayings whirling through my head...each prompting many different threads of thought. More on that later.