The Small Stuff

Have you ever felt like you are having a terrible day when everything just refuses to go the way you planned? We all have those days when Murphy’s Law seems to trump everything.

My sister, Emily called me last week to chat and her first words were, “I’m having the worst day ever.” She was on her way home midday, driving a co-worker’s car so she could get an extra set of keys and then return to work to unlock her own vehicle, having spent 90 minutes in transit. Her day had already been a string of unfortunate mishaps and inconveniences when she quickly stopped in the restroom. All was going fine until she slung her purse over her shoulder and the keys sailed across the small space and plopped into the bowl……..of an already mid-flushing toilet. And all the keys, several metal keychains among them, disappeared into the great unknown…. REALLY – HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN! A visit to the janitor deepened her frustration as he tried to retrieve them with a magnetic snake apparatus all the while sharing his astonishment that she saw the keys and still flushed. She tried to make him understand it didn’t happen that way. But what was the use? The outcome was the same…..

So she called me to pass the time. I was glad. It gave me the chance to talk to her about the book she loaned me, Choosing to See by MaryBeth Chapman, wife of Steven Curtis Chapman and mother of Maria Sue, tragically lost in an accident in their driveway in May of 2008. I was surprised Emily had been able to get through the book as the mother of twin seven year olds. We talked about how real MaryBeth Chapman was and how frank she was about her struggles with things not going according to plan and her walk with God before and through the grief. And at one point my sister stopped. “God had me call you for just this. This truly is nothing like a bad day. He needed to remind me of that.”

Later she called me and laughed. She heard this song and it gave even further meaning to her day. God is so good to speak to us, through all the stuff. Even the little stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqqdA8LHN7I

Reflections from a weekend full of love

- Gracie was AWESOME. We had a blast and I will never forget what fun it was to spend time with the youngest Kimpton. We underestimate her. She was tremendous help all weekend - practically making all the lasagna, playing the computer to keep herself occupied, always remembering how to feed the pets or let out Buddy, scanning the groceries.

-Goofy conversation with Gracie at midnight to 2am while we drove home to the light of the full moon! So long since I was up at that time!


- She is capable of more than she probably gets to do because she's the youngest. I told Em she was born to be an only child :)

- "there were quite a lot of people in there" who says that at 6? :)

- I was so sad that she has such serious separation anxiety. In my typical fashion, I wanted to just fix it. But she was eventually okay going to Sunday school because a wonderful teacher stuck close to her.

- Finding the hot cocoa in the aisle was so fun! We bought the single packet and shared it after taking a shower and playing a game together in our pjs.

- She snuggled Gibson all under the covers when she went to bed and was sad that Buddy didn't join them too :)

- Emily and I had so much fun talking. Emily asked if I felt like when we got together - us or with Carrie or by herself with Mom if we practically ran out of breath saying all the things we don't get to say other times.

- Emily - "Are you going to at least put eyeliner on?" Ah yeah smarty, I just got up at oh-dark-thirty to work some before coming up to go with you to your dr's appt and thought I'd put it on in the car :)

- Laughed so many times. It was great seeing Sheri too - she's still as funny as ever.

- Awesome concert at Winter Jam 2010 - Third Day, Tenth Avenue North, Fireflight, Thousand Foot Krutch (can't believe my mom endured that one :)), Sidewalk Prophets, Robert Pierre, Revive. Just an excellent evening!

Only thing that would have made it better was having Carrie there. Good stuff. God stuff.

A Month of Kimptons

So this month has been the month of the Kimptons. Sarah came the first weekend, then came Easter and last weekend was Molly and finally this weekend we have Ben and Grace. It has really been fun. Sarah and I had so much fun. We got to talk and act silly and do fun things and I just really loved spending time with her. She's a lot of fun. Then last weekend Molly came. We did a bunch of things together and had a lot of fun too. I was a little sad that she's growing up and getting a bit adolescent - trying to not act as silly, concerned about how to behave grown up and sometimes distant. I know kids go through that but it was a bit sad for me. I guess part of me doesn't want her to grow up. However, those moments were punctuated with some great fun. We talked and hiked and goofed off. And we had a great talk after church about our yuckier selfish and mean sides. We're headed off to the zoo this weekend and it should be great fun and our first weekend with summer like weather!! I'm sure there will be pictures to post!

Inexpressible

And now it's the end of the weekend and I am far too tired to wax poetic. But I still want to get some things out while they are fresh.

- Mom and Dad were both overwhelmed. Mom said their ceremony was better than their original because she didn't remember a single thing their pastor said. This time she could appreciate every word. Lamar's message was receive each other as they are and release them to be all they can be. And years after their first vows, God is still compelling them to be more to each other for Christ's sake.

- It was so awesome to see how much mom and dad love each other - despite the bickering :).

- Our songs at their ceremony turned out awesome although none of us could look at them while we were singing.

- Carrie's cake was just beautiful and delicious too. It was a real hit.

- We got mom some flowers to hold and Emily and Carrie really hit the jackpot with some beautiful pink roses that looked just gorgeous this morning.

- Mom's friends from work and Aunt Becky and Uncle Dave and Helen and Robert and Uncle Bill were the perfect people to be there.

- I said one prayer on Thursday morning for good weather and put it in my faith jar and it was amazing. Hot enough to swim and sunny for a good part too. Pool water was only 74 but that didn't stop anyone - especially the kids :) Emma and Hope were purple:)

- More food than we needed - how unusual:)

- Newlywed game was sweet and fun. We were all the winners hearing their answers.

- Communion at Iron City this morning was a fitting end to our weekend.

- Not our best worship service but Carrie loved every second of it so somehow, it made it worth it.

- Carrie and Emily were awesome. I could not have done it without both of them and the cooperation and love of their families (especially Dan and Ray), it would have been absolutely impossible. Carrie's creativity was so great with the cake and the book and the frame. And both of them stepped up at the end when I was completely out of gas, and did a huge part of the clean up.

- Bob stepped up too. He was just awesome on Saturday. He was helping to set up with things that I hadn't even got to thinking about. And he began cleaning up when all of us were still numbed by the events of the day.

- Some mean games of cornhole were played. That game rocks.

- I love those those kids with all my heart. And I love my family. God has blessed the daylights out of us.

I was ridiculously emotional all this weekend - some of which was okay and at other times wasn't. Not sure if it was the intensity of the weekend or hormones but there were a few times when I was overwhelmed resulting in either frustration or tears.

That's all I have for now. I'm about as spent as I can remember being. In a good way. In a beautiful way.

PS - I figured out how to load my slideshow of the pictures onto the blog. If you want a bigger view then double click on the pictures. I didn't get the very best photos but they will do for now. Enjoy!

0 - 6 kids in 1 day

As I type this blog, six children lie in my livingroom desperate to calm down after an interesting day of firsts and a fun night of play in the yard. Molly, Sarah, Ben and Grace and Emma and Hope are fighting the noise of fireworks and the joy of cousin sleepover to get to sleep. It's still fairly early for me but for these little ones, it is late late late. I just hope they can get over it and fall asleep. If not, tomorrow is going to be a long day for everyone..... A little blip of a prayer goes up for all of them.

And for me too. Today was not easy for me since Bob kind of lost it and in the process, I lost it a little too. And because of that, I was upset that I lost focus on the importance of who this day was about - mom and dad. They had fun and that's what counts. I just really hope that I can restart tomorrow fresh and Bob can too.

Will the real Nana please come forward….

From Emily 4/7/08:

“Everything is pretty ok here for now. I had Nana come out of her room today for the entertainment. She was out for 45 minutes without her oxygen on. She did ok and seemed to have fun. She even had strawberry short cake - all of it! Here is the real kicker to show you she is not herself (though it is a good ‘not herself’) - she had curlers in her hair! I put a scarf on her but 3 months ago she would have been horrified! She did not care. Aunt Becky thinks the ativan is helping her ‘break free” from what was holding her back and that now she is being more like her mother was - which was funny and silly and having fun. Yesterday we took her for a ride in the car. She did not hold her face once. We should have had her on 4mg of ativan for years. E”

God has reasons for allowing her to stay with us for now. :)

The Least of These

Some of the most endearing memories have been like my previous post about Emma. Hearing how the kids react to all of this is heart-breaking but amazing – especially if you don’t know if they’ll remember Nana. Here are a few of the others from the Kimpton kids.

Molly and Sarah
Emily shared this with me a last weekend. On Saturday, March 8, Northeast Ohio got hammered with a snowstorm. I was actually supposed to go up and see Nana but I was encouraged to stay home as it was going to be B-A-D. I think it turns out that they got 24 inches of snow around the nursing home and the Kimpton house south of it. Since Emily is the director of nursing at Blossom Hill, she started getting the phone calls from the facility that everyone was calling off due to the weather. Can’t have that. The people living there have needs and someone has to be there to meet them. So sometime that day, Emily packed up the girls and herself and made the trek up to the nursing home. As it turns out, they got snowed in and had to stay the night. Molly and Sarah helped when they could emptying garbage or whatever little things they could do. One of Emily’s nurses told her later that every 15 minutes – without fail – Molly would run back to Nana’s room and check on her. And if she was doing something she couldn’t get away from – she sent Sarah. Nana’s that important to them. The next morning they were going to leave Nana sleep instead of waking her up before they left for home. Em said she looked at Molly and she just knew she was about to cry. Em asked what was wrong. “I told Nana I’d make sure to say goodbye to her. But that’s okay, we can just go. I know she needs rest.”

Emily held her by the shoulders, “No – you go back there right now and give her a hug and say goodbye. Because you said you would.”

Ben
Nana told me this. When the Kimpton family came up together last week, Ben noticed how much Nana was coughing. On his own without anyone noticing, Ben took a cup and got a glass of water from the bathroom and brought it to Nana. Nana had been on thickened liquids but because she wanted Ben to know how much she appreciated it, she took a little sip and asked him to put it on her table. And he did. Some time passed and they were all talking and Nana began to cough again. And Ben grabbed the water and offered it again to Nana. He’s four for goodness sake. And what a compassionate heart he has.

I don't imagine this will be the last of the things but it's a start. This is touching all of us very deeply and the kids are no exception.

A Sense of Humor

I hope you don't mind Em, but I don't want to forget this. Em's lost some weight and she is on course for a major life change for her health and her family's. I guess she was talking to Nana about it and Nana told her she has to send her a cell phone picture when she gets to her goal weight. :) How great was that?

After our visit on Saturday, I have to confess that I didn't realize what an awesome sense of humor Nana has. She had both of us cracking up a couple of times.

Maybe I'll post her picture on here. Wonder if you can read blogs from heaven :)????