Six
months until Christmas…I don’t want to think about that yet!
I just
looked over the syllabus for my final class, which starts in a week. I’ve had this professor before. He likes lots of writing with very detailed
discussion posts and sets of answered questions for each literary
selection. I remember that being time
consuming when I had him this winter for Dramatic Lit. But – there’s no final paper with this class,
either. He just has a mid term and a
final. I’m sure there will be plenty of
writing for those. So, anyway – it
appears that I have now written my final college paper. Yesterday, I got the rough draft done on my
15 page paper (that’s how long it ended up) that applies the Reader response
and Feminist analysis to A Doll’s House
and Trifles. For my class tonight we will do peer reviews
which is just a matter of reading our classmates’ papers and giving them improvement suggestions. By Thurs. I need to design and have ready a
power point presentation on the paper.
I’ll present that in class that evening.
And then next Sun. night I need to have turned in my final paper and the
final portfolio. The portfolio is done –
I just have a few things I want to “clean up” on it, per the peer reviews we
did on that a week ago. Woo-hoo – I am SO
close!
Well, Sam
and Lizzie are home from their first camp experiences. Both had such a good time and I’m glad for
that. A bad year, particularly when it’s
your first year, can sour you on camp altogether. That’s what happened to me. And I think camp is SO important. I can’t wait for Ellie to go. Maybe she’ll get saved then. Seriously.
Actually, since David was Sam’s counselor he had these info sheets on
all the boys in the cabin that he brought home.
The sheets ask the boys’ contact information, their interests, their
prayer requests, if they think they are saved, etc. So, Sam’s was in there and under prayer
requests he had written, “That my sister, Ellie, will accept Christ.” And when Lizzie got back from camp she said
that when they asked the girls to share prayer requests she shared the same
thing. Seeing their concern for their
sister – who is a real brat to them most of the time – just melts my heart. Sam also mentioned on his sheet that he
desires to “be a better Christian.” Last
night the kids gave their camp testimonies in church and Lizzie was
petrified. Of course, it didn’t help
that earlier that afternoon Ellie had informed her that she was quite sure
Lizzie would get up and do a “horrible job.”
Sigh…So, Lizzie got up and simply shared a couple of facts from one of the
messages. All the practice we had done
about sharing something fun and wrapping it up on an encouraging note, like, “I
can’t wait to go again” was completely forgotten in her nervousness. That’s fine.
I didn’t say anything about it and she didn’t either. She’ll get better with practice! But Sam – this kid got up there and talked
like a seasoned pro, complete with arm gestures. There were a couple of times that I noticed a
little hesitancy before saying words that started with “s” which is his hardest
sound with his stuttering but that was it.
Even last Jan. Pastor mentioned to me that when Sam gave his testimony
for his baptism he didn’t stutter at all.
You talk to him one on one and it’s much more apparent, but there must
be something about public speaking that pretty much erases it. I would think it would be the opposite! I told Sam a long time ago that I think God
is going to do something with his stuttering – give him some sort of
testimony. Perhaps Sam will grow up to
speak for a living.
Will told
me that he’s been asked to be a dean at
junior camp in a couple of weeks. He’s
already counseling senior high, too.
Anyway, he is pretty tickled at getting to spend an additional week at
camp. Normally, they have older people
for deans, like pastors and their wives.
Will said the other male dean is also his age. Apparently, their selection pool was lower
this year. I know not as many kids
applied to work compared to previous years.
In fact, David said everybody got weeks because the need is greater than
the available workers. I don’t know if
that means something or if it is just a cycle they go through every so often.
With
Lizzie gone last week, I saw a more fun side of Ellie. I suspect she just liked having a greater
share of my attention. Since Lizzie came
back Sat. she has been awful, though – very, very mean to her siblings. I was in Christopher and Banks with Sam and
Lizzie one night last week because I had a good coupon. So, I was looking through the racks of
clothing, trying to see if anything appealed to me. Ellie kept pointing out items and I’d shake
my head. I didn’t realize how important
it was to her that I like something she picked until finally she huffed, “Well,
if you don’t like this, I don’t know what to say, except…” She a deep breath and thundered,
“SHAME ON
YOU!”
Another
time, she was howling (not in the store, thankfully) and I asked her to please
stop because that was annoying. Ellie
saucily replied, “So, the next time you see a wolf are you going to say, ‘Please
stop howling – that’s annoying!’?”
Before I could even think of a response she continued, “No – I don’t
think so. You know why? Cuz you’ll be dead – that’s why! The wolf will eat you!”
A couple
of weeks ago was VBS. Lizzie didn’t go
one night because of Flip Squad so I just had to pick up Ellie. When I got there, one of the helpers in her
room told me that I would need to wash Ellie’s Bible case – which was handed to
me, tied up in a Walmart bag. She
explained that a little boy sitting by Ellie had vomited. By that point Ellie had found me and buried
her head in my leg and was crying – still traumatized by the events of a couple
hours ago. Apparently, some little kid
had just ralphed all over and Ellie was very unfortunate in where she was
sitting. They took her to the bathroom
and cleaned her up the best they could, but she reeked all the way home (22 min
ride). Her fabric Bible case and her
purse were soaked. Blech!
It
appears that Ben really will be moving out before too long so I’ve been making
a concentrated effort to increase his independent living skills. I used to make his lunches for him, but now I’m
having him do it all – and I don’t even check the bag when he’s done. I guess if he forgets something vital, that
will be a lesson for the next time! Last
night he had to retrieve some bread from a downstairs freezer and when he got
upstairs he complained that he had knocked his head on the pantry shelf. I asked him if he was ok and he said, “Yeah.” And then he seriously added, “At least I’m
still alive!” Well, yes, I suppose that is a good thing!
I wasn’t
going to work on Lizzie’s room until I got my schoolwork done, but I did it
anyway. And now I’m ¾ of the way
finished. I’ve just done it in small increments. It’s really coming together nicely, although
Ellie – who insisted on helping me all week long and seemed to take great pride
in what she was doing – informed her sister yesterday that her new room looks
like a “baby” room. Sigh… I’m doing stripes for the first time and I’m
really impressed with how they are turning out. We’re doing bright pink, aqua, and pale pink
– all Lizzie’s choices. To me, the room looks
like a bakery or as Lizzie said, an ice-cream parlor. But it’s cute. I imagine that when she’s a teenager, she may
want something a little older looking, but that can be done, too. I’ll finish the painting this week and then
there won’t be much else I can do until David gets her new bed assembled. I still need to order that and then when he’s
home the third weekend in July he said he could put it together. So then I’m going to get started on Sam’s
room. He’s not getting a paint job but
he has a new desk that we need to make room for and I want to move out the
things Ben will be taking with him and figure out some storage solutions for
all of Sam’s stuff. Plus, that room just
needs a good deep cleaning.
Well, I
need to keep moving. Lizzie has an audiology
appt this afternoon. It’s just supposed
to be a 6 month follow-up to her surgery she had last fall, but I think we need
some more answers. Her tube fell out not
too long ago, but even before then, she
has been having a lot of pain with that ear.
Swimming just isn’t much fun for her because it hurts so much when she
gets water in it. So, we’ll see what the
dr. says.
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