Sunday, April 22, 2012

Cupcake Blues

My children, sad to say, are going through what I hope is just a season of lying, sneaking, and stealing. No parent wants to discover this, yet somehow I must find a way to consider all joy!It is difficult to not feel like a complete failure as a parent when I have been charged by God with their moral and spiritual training.

Sadly this time it took the form of sneaking Easter candy and even frozen Gigi's cupcakes from the garage freezer before dinner. For those unfamiliar with Gigi's cupcakes, they are not ordinary cupcakes, not in any way. They are cupcakes on steroids, huge in size with equally huge mounds of super sweet butter cream frosting piled on top. I myself can only eat approximately 1/4 in one sitting and I love cupcakes! They were left over from Kristen's wedding which makes it doubly sad since they had to be trashed to make a point.

By God's providence, the culprits were discovered by their older sister who happened to to be looking out the window as they were hastily trying to consume them outside in the culdesac. Fortunately, they are still not great at hiding the evidence. I see this as precious time to pray for the conviction of the Holy Spirit to kick in as I will not always be around. I began with the spiritual implications of sneaking, etc. which brought no contriteness whatsoever. It wasn't until the brand new box of ice cream sandwiches along with any other sweet treat I could find went into the garbage that produced weeping and gnashing of teeth from one and a very long sad face from the other. This escalated into a full blown fit which brought Daddy onto the scene which is never good, So much angst was displayed that it honestly reminded me of when Esau traded his blessing for a bowl of soup in Genesis.  I'm starting to see the signs of a serious sugar addiction that must be addressed. This of course is just an aside to the more serious sneaking issue.

The discovery again of the sinfulness of my children while disappointing and discouraging, should not be surprising. God's word speaks of our sinfulness a lot. Sin is not pretty and it looks different for everyone of us. Yet, God still hates it and we should hate it too. Our only hope is to pray for God's grace every single day. I pray that my children would hate sin and love God and his word, that they would desire to do what is right in His eyes. In the meantime, it's fruit for dessert.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Finger Lickin Good


With Kristen's wedding came out of town guests of various eating/drinking/living persuasions who would all be at my house at the same time. There was my diabetic extremely healthy eating/never tasted a drop of liquor Dad and his wife with my Bud light drinking/carnivore brother and his wife. Throw in my niece who as an aside was packing challenged, bless her heart, and the usual suspects which are literally growing (can't wait for Lucy!) by the day, all hungry. I packed my refrigerator as much as I could, made everything I could think of ahead of time and hoped for the best. As far as I know everyone got fed even though I wasn't present for every meal since I was also busy with hair appointments and various other Mother of the Bride duties. 


A brightly colored bridal luncheon
On a sugar high!

We are family, Can you tell!

 I love my family with my whole entire heart. Since I am the child who moved away, I usually do the visiting. It's a penance of some sort that must be paid and paid. This was a rare time when my family came to my house for a change. And I do mean change. Many things were different around my house with my visiting family, God love them. My sweet sister-in-law is fond of indulging my children with candy, and anything else that comes to mind, like how about dying their hair hot pink and neon green and piling it on top of their heads wrapped around a standing coke bottle. Why didn't I ever think of that? The kids loved it with a capital L! She also succeeded in helping them catch a fish. It could have been the sugar emanating from their pores or the can of dog food that they punctured and floated in the water, who knows. She absolutely wins the gold medal for indulging! Everyone should have an aunt like her.


Trying to be accommodating to my brother, I also found my person physically inside a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant since I don't know, the year 1978. I can trace this directly back to when I would pick him up from working at Church's Fried Chicken reeking of grease and poultry. Apparently, it did not have the same effect on him.  I decided to go with the flow and act like KFC was a perfectly fine place to eat lunch. They do now serve grilled chicken which I did eat, but it has to be the only restaurant on the planet without any kind of salad! I was trying desperately to blend in, but this proved difficult when my son kept exclaiming,"We have never been here before!" and "Wow,this chicken is greasy!" The things we do for love...




I  did get my brother out on the kayak! He's more accustomed to larger, motor powered water craft out on the gulf, but he was a good sport.  A good time was had by all and Eric now has one less child to assemble things for.

Friday, April 6, 2012

A Perfect Day

My daughter Kristen became a married woman on Saturday. Escorted by her father to Here Comes the Sun exactly at the moment the sun peeked from behind the clouds has to be my favorite moment of the day. Or it could be when her daddy serenaded her on his violin. Or it could be when my daddy admonished Kristen and Ben from God's word so beautifully. I definitely got off easy, only making myself presentable as the mother of the Bride and greeting people which honestly I love to do.

How many prayers have I prayed for this child, for her marriage, for this day? Prayers to pass an Algebra test and prayers for safety as she jumped her horse come to mind immediately. God's faithfulness surely brought her to this day!  The day your daughter marries is a turning point, when her focus turns to her husband and her life with him instead of life with us. Aside from her decision to become a Christian, it is the most important decision she will make.

Kristen's wedding took me back to my own wedding 29 years ago now when I married up and married Mr. Jakstadt. Turns out, it's who you marry that makes a happy marriage and somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good as Maria sang in the Sound of Music. Marrying Mr. Jakstadt was one of the best decisions of my life!. Of course I had no way of knowing this at the tender age of 22, but God knew exactly who He wanted me to marry and He told me so. Thank goodness I listened!

As Kristen and Ben drove away and the balloons floated into the sky, she looked the same but she was Mrs. Benjamin Small. I pray that life for her and her new husband will be as beautiful as her wedding day.