WEEK 3 - We're only human!

Okay so we've made it this far and this week everyone seemed to stay healthy. The weather was great! Spring has finally made it's way to Franklin, TN!

Monday - Faith had volleyball playoffs in Nashville and her team took first place (it was a rec league with a team formed by her middle school coach). Go Faith! I didn't actually get to see her play because Laura and I split the driving and taxi services. I picked up
Cathy from Lacrosse practice, Sandra from her friend's house, and got Cathy fed before she had to run off to her ACT prep class (the test is on the first Saturday in April). However, Laura said that Faith played really well.

Tuesday - Sandra had her dance lessons which she absolutely loves. She is completely in her element when she is dancing and singing. She does get a little discouraged sometimes because this is her first year in this professional dance class and keeps comparing her skills to other girls who have been taking these classes since they were toddlers. I keep telling her not to be so hard on herself, but I'm afraid she has my perfectionistic tendencies when it comes to the arts.

Wednesday - Lexi, Faith, Sandra, and Laura went to ward Choir practice and worked on songs for the Easter program while I taught my regular screenwriting class at the Williamson County Recreational Center. It's a fun class because I get to share the fruits of my years laboring to learn how to write and it forces me to learn more about storytelling.

Thurday - We had "New Beginnings" program for the Young Women. Cathy helped plan the refreshments, and Faith and Sandra helped with the presentations of the new girls. What a great leadership experience for the girls. Laura especially loved it because everyone came dressed in their P.J.'s She was delighted the she could come right home and jump in bed. Lexi had her achievement night activity as well and while I taught the Webelos cub scouts. Whew! Thursday nights are always a busy one.

Friday - The weekend at last!! What a relief when Friday rolled around. We could finally relax a little, or so we thought. After running the kids around to their various practices and birthday parties and friends houses, Laura and I tried to squeeze in a little date. But after the 27th phone call from the girls, we gave up on any semblance of a complete conversation. Aye ca rumba! Next time we are turning off the phones! The girls just don't understand that they should only call in the case of an emergency. Obviously we need to go over the definition of what an "emergency" really is. We actually had to cut our date night short so coordinate more late night activities such as the midnight "Twilight" DVD release party at our local Borders. I would have rather slept, but I've come to realize that sleeping on a weekend only happens on Sunday afternoons...sometimes. The girls and their friends had fun and I guess someones parents got to sleep on Friday night. I got to be at 2am. Ouch!

Saturday - we had to be up fairly early for Cathy's Lacrosse game at the high school. They finally won a game against a team from Chattanooga, TN and I know Cathy was rather pleased to finally play for a winning team. Of course after that we were on a dead run between our weekend job of cleaning apartments, redesigning Cathy and Sandra's bedroom (in a teen vintage style) and getting Cathy and Sandra and friends off to the youth dance. We even squeezed in a little grocery shopping, house cleaning and laundry. (Tired yet?) And since we just could not stand to have even one free minute of quiet time, we invited our new neighbors, their kids, and their parents over for dinner. Though it was a little frenzied, we loved their company. They are definitely friends worth keeping. And that brings us to...

Sunday! - It's so nice to finally have a Sunday. But with church at 9am, we still have to get up. We started our new adventure in the Nursery today and it went well. How can you beat a place where you get to play with toys and eat snacks. Way more fun than those stuffy Sunday School classes! Afterwards, Laura decided to skip the coveted Sunday afternoon nap and took a quick trip to Kentucky. She took Faith Lexi and Victoria with her. Her sister, Gina, needed some help with their new home so she took a few housewarming gifts to help with decorating the new digs and Gina was delighted. I know Laura enjoys serving and helping her sisters, so it's nice that we are close enough to help.

Of course some of my greatest sanity comes from sneaking a few moments to read a good book.

I actually ran into an interesting quote this week in a book I was reading called Good Omens co-written by Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite authors) & Terry Pratchett. It's filled with English humor and centers on angels, demons and a host of human characters all trying to start or avert the Apocalypse. Sort of a Monty Python-esque satire of The Omen. However, it seems the Anti-Christ has been mis-identified and everyone is trying to find him before the world ends. And it takes place in England.

The book really is funny (Laura heard my frequent LOLs) and not too sacrilegious, but the Anti-Christ (who happens to be a 11-year-old boy named Adam) decides he's not too happy with the efforts of either Heaven or Hell and turns to the representatives of both sides and states:

“I don’t see what’s so t’riffic about creating people as people and then gettin’ upset ‘cos they act like people,” said Adam severely. “Anyway, if you stop tellin’ people it’s all sorted out after they’re dead, they might try sorting it all out while they’re alive.”

If I got nothing else out of reading this book, this was exactly what I needed to hear. In our personal efforts to become more like Christ, we sometimes feel the need to point out the imperfections in others and ourselves, leaving very little room to be "human". I've been guilty of this FAR too many times. But this particular quote was an answer to my prayers on what to do with one of my favorite little people, Victoria.

During the past few weeks, Victoria has had a rough time trying to be "perfect" at school. There they have a system where there's a card with their picture on it and if they keep all the class rules that day, they get a "white" card. If you get three white cards you get to go to the treasure chest!!

Poor Victoria is just too human for this system to work very well. She sings in the bathroom, gets excited and talks out of turn, and sometimes gets angry with a playmate and tells her "You're not my friend!" For these offences, she gets her card pulled so trips to the treasure box are rare.

Her teacher actually called me up in frustration this week because Victoria wouldn't read a book from her grade level. Seems she wanted to read a 4th grade book (which she tested on and passed with a perfect score) and this was not to be allowed. Yep, you guessed it. Her card was pulled again (of course she was a being a bit sassy).

I told her teacher that I didn't have an answer for her. Victoria is just...Victoria. She is such a fun kid, but she can also be a real rat at times. Like we all are. Why? Because we're human. So this week, take it easy on your fellow humans, large and small, old and young alike (this includes yourself). If we were perfect, we wouldn't need to be here and we certainly wouldn't need a Savior. There would be nothing to save us from. God understands. He knew it would be this way.

As for Victoria, I don't care what card she gets anymore. She's one of my favorite little humans and I love her! Below is a little video so you can more fully appreciate her "human-ness".

See 'ya next week!