Busy, Busy, Busy

Aren't we all? Today is the beginning of my 4th week as a Junior at the University of Illinois. I'm a full-time student working toward my BA in English. I want to write when I'm finished—well, I write now, but I want to write a book.

All of my classes are online but believe me, I have discovered that online classes can be harder and require more work and discipline than campus-based classes. I'm taking Intro to the Discipline which is basically an orientation to upper-level English criticism. This class has really stretched me already. We have been reading and commenting on poetry on the critical level. I'm not so good at this. Then I'm taking a class in The British Victorian Novel. We will be finishing up Jane Eyre this week. This one hasn't been so bad except that the book has over 500 pages! And finally, I'm taking a class in HTML and Web Page Development. That class has been easy so far.

Of course, I still have my husband and family to care for and my church duties to fulfill and . . .

I say all that to say this: we need to rest. I was reading through Genesis 1 and it struck me that God rested. He wasn't tired. He rested to set an example for us. Sadly, most of us do not follow His example and we justify it by pointing out how much we are doing for God. Kinda ironic isn't it?

Our whole culture is spinning wildly 24/7! Electric lights, automobiles, and electronics have freed us from the dark of night. We are shocked when we decide to run to the store at 2 a.m. and find it closed. When I was a kid (back in the day), at 11 p.m. the television went to a test pattern for the night and people went to bed.

I can't fix the whole culture, but I can work on me and mine. For years, we have had "Quiet Time" on Sunday afternoon. My kids have never liked it, but I can tell a difference in their spirit and attitude when they have spent 3 hours in their rooms doing quiet things.

Here's some other things I'm going to work on:

1. Stay off the internet after dinner. This is going to be hard for me, but I need to do it. I find myself checking my class sites, bulletin boards I frequent, and other favorites repeatedly and for no real purpose. I need to quiet myself in the evenings to prepare for sleep. I know I'll sleep better.

2. Take more frequent breaks in my schedule. When I do this, I feel so much more refreshed and ready to tackle the next task.

3. Set aside more time to "be still" and "know that He is God."

I think if I make myself less busy, I'll be more productive.

Another chickie has left the nest

I dropped Marcy off at college in Indiana yesterday. I didn't cry but she did. I had my grandson with me and when she told him goodbye she broke down and sobbed. It was hard.

We adopted Marcy when she was 10. She was the youngest of a sibling group of three we adopted. Jessica was 12 and Jesse was 11. Had we not adopted her, they were going to institutionalize her. Marcy has FAS or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She was born addicted to cocaine and legally drunk. She was an emergency c-section at 30 weeks. She weighed 2 lbs. 3 oz. and her heart stopped twice in the delivery room.

A great deal of prayer and Bible reading and Bible memorization has gone into Marcy in the past 10 years. Her dad and I have shed tears and held on for one of the wildest rides of our lives. But, when she is doing well, she is the sweetest of our children. Mark is really going to miss her because every night, she made his lunch for the next day and at 4:30 every morning, she got up to have coffee with her dad before he went to work.

Going away to college is a BIG victory for her. She has struggled all through school and will probably struggle through college. We chose a college that willingly accepts "marginal" students and works with them. I don't know the exact statistic but I know that at least 75% of people with FAS never live independently. Marcy will always need counsel but she has come so much farther than anyone ever dreamed.

Pray for Marcy.

Suprise! It's Me!

Since I haven't blogged for a while, it's time for an update. I had my doctor's appointment and I'm going to have surgery sometime in October or November. It may sound silly but I'm looking forward to it. I've had endometriosis for 23 years and this should be an end to it!

All else is well with my house. We took a vacation to Texas a few weeks ago to visit my husband's family and attend our home church, Trinity Baptist Church in Arlington. Our other children joined us there and for the first time in almost three years all my children were together. That's us in the picture. The young man in the green shirt is my new son-in-law.

I've started my classes at the University of Illinois Springfield and I have my work cut out for me. I'm a junior working on my BA in English and all my classes are online.

Tomorrow, I will be taking my daughter Marcy to Hyles-Anderson college to begin her freshmen year. My daughter Wendy is already hard at work in her classes towards her nursing degree and hopefully this week, Peggy's books will come and she can start homeschooling her sophomore year in high school.

We're busy I guess but nothing monumental. Truthfully, I like busy because it gives me less time to get in trouble.