Weekend Happenings

Good Friday morning!

I've added one more picture from the tea, and also a picture of Mikie and the guys before they went hunting last weekend. (Can you see them in their camo?) That's it for the pictures this week.

Yesterday we went bowling with the cousins, and last night Josh and friends went to see the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. It definitely didn't sound like a chick flick to me, so Roxie, Zac (my nephew) and I opted to stay home and rent Wall-E.

Today Roxie and her cousin, Monica, are going to Painted By U while the brothers and Mikie head to the woods one more time in search of the elusive deer.

Saturday is Matthew's first birthday (our great-nephew). Brandi (his mom) called to ask me to take the pictures at the party and Mikie to video. No pressure there! Roxie's going to be on a back-up camera since I'll be using Brandi's. I've always admired wedding photographers and other photographers who are responsible for catching the one and only moment an event will ever take place. You can't recreate it. You can't call everyone back the next day when you see you didn't do a bang-up job and say, "Can we have a do-over?" Nope. This is it. The only wedding you will ever have. The only time your child will ever be baptized. The only time your baby will graduate kindergarten... or high school... or college.

That reminds me of a funny story. When I graduated high school, I was a Smith. We stood in alphabetical order and they called us up on the stage to receive our diploma. My Dad stood with some other parents on the sidelines to take pictures of me as I passed. I saw him toward the beginning of the ceremony, and I didn't pay much attention as I concentrated on walking up the steps (not falling) and getting my diploma. Later, when we had the film developed, we had 10 or 12 pictures of a girl in my class whose last name began with a P. She was about 15 people ahead of me, and for some reason (nerves, I'm sure) Dad thought it was me and took a lot of really good pictures of her getting her diploma.

I gave them to her the next week, and weakly asked if her Dad got any pictures of me getting MY diploma. "No. Why would my Dad take pictures of you graduating?" Good question!

Dad made up for it at my college graduation. Tons of pictures of just me... staring him down... daring him to turn the camera toward anyone else.

I didn't really understand how you could not know your own child until Austin walked out on the field for the first time in his band uniform. Mike found him and zoomed in with the video camera. Then the music started and the band started moving. (I guess that's where the name "Marching Band" comes from!) The whole video is Mikie darting from one kid to the next trying to find Austin with Mrs. Faulkner (Mike's mom) sitting next to him saying, "There he is over there... No, that's not him. To the right. To the right. There he is. No, that's not him."

"How could we not even know our own child?" I asked Mike later when we looked at the video. I wasn't feeling like a very good mom at that moment, so I tried to blame him as much as I could.

"It's that whole moving around thing and wearing the same uniform. It could have happened to anyone." With that said, we were determined to find Austin and keep him in our sight for the entirety of the field show. And we absolutely did... six shows (and six weeks) later. It took that long.

Not to make Brandi nervous if she's reading this, but this is who she's asked to video Matthew's first birthday. I'll let you know how everything turns out!

Now for our book of the week!

Book

This is a great family devotion book for 4th grade through 6th or 7th grade children. It is called Sticky Situations by Betsy Schmitt. It is divided into daily devotions that go with the calendar year. Instead of trying to describe it to you, I'm going to copy one of the shorter devotions so you can see how they work.

Movie Madness

Mark is not allowed to see PG-13 movies. On Friday night, he and his friends decide to see the latest G-rated movie playing at the local theater. Mark's parents give the OK and drive them to the theater.

Once they get to the theater, Mark's friends have a change of plans. They all head to the nearest PG-13 movie, leaving Mark standing in the middle of the lobby. What should Mark do?

Should he...

A. Hide in the bathroom?
B. Politely explain that he doesn't want to see a PG-13 movie and go into the G one, whether anyone joins him or not?
C. Go to the PG-13 movie but keep his eyes closed?
D. Excitedly agree and lead his friends into the worst movie showing?
E. Pretend he has a sudden stomachache and tell his friends he has to go home?

For help in knowing what Mark should do, read Romans 12:2.

That's it. You read the devotion. Read and talk about the options, and then talk about what each of your children would do or pick. Then you read and discuss what the Bible tells us we should do. In the back of the book it gives the correct answer (B) and gives you more discussion questions. It also gives the parent something to add if they are drawing a blank.

It has devotions regarding cheating, stepmothers and stepfathers, dating, peer pressure, etc., etc. It takes all of ten minutes and it can be done together as a family after supper at the table or before everyone goes to bed.

Like anything else you try to do on a daily basis with a family, be flexible. There will be some nights you cannot get to a family devotion. That's okay. Do as many a week as you possibly can, and mark those with a check mark. At the end of the year, you can go back and do the ones you missed. If three a week is the most you can do some weeks, that's great. But set a goal to try to do at least five and shoot for that.

It's a great book, and it will naturally bring up topics to talk about with your pre-teen and new teen before they happen in real life.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I'll be back next week with the best ten year-old party EVER (boy or girl), a hearty and easy recipe for those cold nights at home, and more traditions, dates and books. Talk to you on Monday!