The Cost of Living

For over a week now, we've been without air conditioning in 90+ degree heat.  We do our best to cool things off with ceiling fans cool nights.  But overall, it's made us pretty hot -- and it's humid -- and tempers are short because we're all very uncomfortable.

Which brings me to this:  Proverbs 15.  When I read these things:

¹³ A cheerful heart brings a smile to your face;
   a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day. 

¹⁵ A miserable heart means a miserable life;
   a cheerful heart fills the day with song. 

³⁰ A twinkle in the eye means joy in the heart,
   and good news makes you feel fit as a fiddle. 

I think of my youngest child, Babydoll.  She's 14 and one of the greatest joys of my life.  And she's pleasant and easygoing even in the midst of this uncomfortable heat.  More than anyone I know -- and I know a lot of people --  she is a living example of these verses.  

Babydoll shouldn't even be here.  She was a surprise gift from God when Hunk O Man and I had decided that four children was enough.  We were done.  So when news of Babydoll came along, there was considerably less excitement and joy greeting the news.  This changed, of course, in the days that followed and especially on the day of her birth.  She has been a joyful child from the start.

I remember someone asking me just why I had to have five children.  Couldn't I have stopped at three?  It's a fair question; kids cost a lot of money.  College alone for just one child these days will send you into the poorhouse.

I honestly didn't know what to say, but I was offended at the question because I love every one of my children.  So I countered with this:  "which one would you like me to get rid of?"

I didn't have five children.  I had Rose, Bug, Barbie, JB, and Babydoll.  I had the privilege of bringing five people into the world.  They aren't nameless "kids," they are unique individuals that contribute to the world around them.  They drive me and each other crazy.  They are talented and smart.  They are thoughtless, careless, and stupid -- and the apples don't fall far from that tree!  They are sweet, kind, and generous.  They cost a fortune with their makeup and trips to Sonic and movies with friends and school fees and uniforms and Christmas and birthday gifts.  They make even me question just why I had to have five kids and not one or two or three.

But above all else, they delight God with their being.  He glories in Rose, in Bug, in Barbie, in JB, and in Babydoll.  

So there you go.  We may all be irritable with each other due to a lack of air conditioning in 90 degree heat.  We do drive one another crazy.  There are never any glasses out of which to drink.  The washer works day and night. But . . . 

Thank you God that this house has a cool basement.  And for my girly-squirrelies, cause they are priceless.

xoxox

June

Baccalaureate, Commencement, Graduation.  Have you ever noticed how many times the speakers at these events refer to "not an ending, but a beginning?"  Both things are true.

The interesting thing to me is that the end of the long climb culminates at the top of a mountain.  And if you're looking out from a high place, you can usually catch sight of other pinnacles -- other high places.  So to look out from high school graduation, it's easy to see things like college graduation, marriage, children.  These things are not in focus because they're far away.  But they are in sight, because they're all high points that stick up and are visible from the top of the graduation mountain.

What we forget is that deep valley that lies between us and them.  There is no hopping across because the distance is too great.  The easy part lies straight ahead, and that's the downhill journey.  It's often an easy slide.

The hard part comes when we're faced with the uphill climb from the flat part between the two heights.  The edge of the valley, as it were.  We've gotten comfortable with things being relatively easy and achievable.

Now comes the hard part.

The nice thing is that this climb upward always culminates in reaching the pinnacle.  It might be slow, and it will most certainly be difficult.  But it will end.  And again, all those other high places will be in sight again.

Barbie graduates from high school this Friday.  Rose and Bug graduated last year, and JB will graduate next year.  I love the top of this particular mountain, because it is so filled with possibility.  I also (at this point in my life), am able to see the tops of so many other mountains, in every direction, where my girls will go and climb but I will not.  They aren't my mountains.  And that part makes me a bit sad -- I know it's the way of things, but knowing it and feeling it are distinctly different.

So I will throw parties and celebrate and smile and laugh and photograph as much as humanly possible.  When you're on this mountain, you see an entire range ahead.  Tired?  Oh, no -- not when you're young, still a teenager, and this is the very first mountain.  Full of excitement?  Definitely.  Bring it on.

I see this shining in my daughter's eyes and I am proud.  Give me the biggest kiss and hug possible, Little Girl, and off you go.

And here, you'll need a snack.  And some money.  And don't forget to call.  And drive carefully, there are crazies on the road out there.  Do you have your pillow?  Did you remember your important papers?  Here, give me another kiss.  Oh, wait, I forgot to give you that thing . . . where's the camera?

xoxoxox

June 9-14: The Wesner Week in Review

Proud Grandma, Rose, Bug, and Proud Pappy

Happy girls, just graduated!

Hunk O Man, Rose, Bug, and Me

The grads and those beautiful sisters of theirs:

Babydoll, Rose, Bug, JB, and Barbie

Surprise visit from my sister K

** ~~ ** ~~ ** ~~ ** ~~ ** ~~ **

No, I have not died and the hogs have not eaten me.

(Thank God!)

That's what Hunk O Man always says when someone's been gone a long time; "hey, we thought you died and the hogs ate you!" Just to clarify: we have never lived on a farm, nor have we ever raised hogs or swine of any sort. And nobody has died. It's just been really busy around here -- crazy busy, if you know what I mean!

xoxox