Day Six - February 6, 2010

The weather was the main story of the day today! We had continuous rain from yesterday up until noon today. The city had requested everyone stay off the roads after 11am today as they were forecasting a sudden, rapid drop in the temperatures so they anticipated freezing roads. Our ditches were full of water and the road by our house had minor flooding - nothing like what we had in November but enough to slow the traffic down some though. I looked out the window around 11:15am and noticed the ditches had suddenly dropped then at 11:30am the snow started flying. At first it was a combination of rain and snow. Gave me enough warning to run outside and lift the windshield wipers on the cars though. By noon the wind had picked up and was driving the snow sideways - the side of our house and cars caught the brunt of the snow. As the snow thickened up and got heavier it started sticking to the grass and the back deck. Never did stick to the roads or sidewalks.

We did venture out for a few minutes today so the teenager could go into the library to get a couple of books. Instead of putting the dog in her cage for a few minutes, we put her jacket on her and took her - I always regret taking her because she just has a hard time calming down. But we made it home safely - the creek about a half mile from our house was just about to go over the bridge so our timing was good.

My wife had the chance to relax a little today as her group didn’t have class - but first she had the unfortunate chore of cleaning the bathrooms in the barracks. Even in the best of situations, few things fall lower on the yucky scale than cleaning the bathrooms and trust me, in the military there is no worse chore! But she sounded well rested. A little later in the day we were able to try Skype and that was very nice getting to see her. One warning about Skype though – your video tends to freeze in some rather unnatural positions!! It was also kind of weird talking to her and seeing her at the same time – had kind of a Jetson’s feel to it (yep, dating myself now!). I had read an article that some parents locally were using Skype during last week’s snow storm so their kids could talk and see their friends – pretty good idea there! But the girls enjoyed seeing their mom and she enjoyed seeing all of us! Once again, I am just amazed at what teenagers find important to talk about!!

Since we didn’t get out too long today, we had plenty of time to take care of things around the house. We started the day with a good breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, bacon and milk. Both girls got their own vitamins this morning without being reminded! In fact, the teenager had a great day where she was actually looking for things to do!! The dog got a bath, the bathrooms were cleaned and I cleaned under the sink in the kitchen and re-organized a couple of drawers in the kitchen as well. I didn’t touch the treasure drawer – you might call it a junk drawer – that’ll have to happen another day!

After a lunch of hotdogs and chili fries, the girls went outside to play in the snow for awhile. I told them it was quite cold out there and bundled them both up rather well – the youngest daughter is just over having the snotty nose so I don’t want a repeat of that – was almost like she was producing 2 times her body weight in snot daily!! No fever or anything though. They took the dog outside with them and they went in the field next door to build a snowman. Sure enough, 20 minutes later I heard them in the garage and they were done for the day. Before they went outside I made them put a change of clothes, socks and house shoes in the garage – that way they could strip down, put on the dry clothes and leave the wet clothes and boots out there until I could deal with them. If I didn’t do that, there would have been a puddle or two on the hardwood floors and I would have had to mop again – I don’t mind if the concrete floor gets wet, different story inside.

Had a chance to watch a little of the Kentucky basketball game but it was a blowout. After supper (girls had pizza and I had a salad with chicken on it – not a big pizza fan) we worked on the 2nd grader’s project on Eleanor Roosevelt. Did you know her maiden name was also Roosevelt? Her father was her husband’s 5th cousin – sounds like a country song, doesn’t it? As my wife jokes “I’m my own grandpa” – must be a Kentucky joke because I can’t figure it out but it cracks her up so that’s okay! But after researching Mrs. Roosevelt, I’m quite impressed with her and all she accomplished. My daughter did all of her own research and decided what she was going to put on the “walking through time board” – I just helped her with the popsicle puppets of Mrs. Roosevelt and gave her some ideas on what to draw. It was a three paneled board – she started when she was born in New York City so she drew a skyline and the statue of Liberty (she used the Liberty Tax lady as her character motivation – they have those people dressed like Lady Liberty dancing on quite a few street corners); when Eleanor was 8, her mom passed away and she stayed with her grandma who sent her to boarding school in England so she drew Big Ben and a boarding school. I was hurt; she said the boarding school looked like my grade school with those big scary windows!! St. Lawrence does have boards on many windows now, it is quite rundown. For the puppet we took two photos of Eleanor from when she was 3 or 4 and one when she was 16 – we glued them on each side of the sticks. The middle board had their White House years so she drew that. Since Mr. Roosevelt had a form of polio and couldn’t travel much, Mrs. Roosevelt did most of his traveling – we found an old cartoon from the 1933 New Yorker magazine and put that on there as well (they were making fun of her going everywhere and it had two coal miners saying “Gosh, here comes Mrs. Roosevelt). I guess that cartoon really did tick her off; she visited the coal mines in 1935!! The last panel was after FDR passed away. This was the time Mrs. Roosevelt became more of an advocate as well as the ambassador to the United Nations. She was one of the forces behind getting the US to join the UN as well. She received 45 honorary degrees and she was an advocate for civil rights. My daughter drew the United Nations building and a diploma to represent this time period. Mrs. Roosevelt was also named one of the most important figures of the 20th century – not bad for a lady who thought she was ugly and craved attention and affection when she was a little girl! The puppet for the last two panels was a photo of Mrs. Roosevelt in the White House on one side and the other side had her at the podium of the United Nations. After a couple of practice presentations, my daughter has it down very well so off to school it goes on Monday!

Our devotions tonight were very good. The girls read about “Second Chances” from Matthew 18:21-22 and that one was how God gives all of us second chances plus how we should be forgiving. My devotion was a continuance of yesterday’s “Are you ready to be offered” but this time it was 2 Timothy 4:6. My devotions are from Oswald Chambers lectures from 1911-1915 – they are a little hard to understand sometimes but he must have really been a man of God. I doubt Oswald Chambers ever felt his words would live on into 2010 and beyond but they have. It makes me think and wonder if anything I am doing will be influencing people in 2110 and beyond? And if not, why not? A dear friend of mine dropped me an e-mail the other day – we both subscribe to the same daily motivational e-mail and this particular day she paid me a compliment by saying it reminded her of me – I was thinking the same exact thing about her! The quote was from Bob Nelson and it said “You get the best efforts from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.” If I had to sum up the intention of our leadership programs at The Arc, this statement would be the one.

Day Six is in the books. Tomorrow morning will be a rough one personally – Wednesday night services and Friday teen programs are one thing to get through, but Sunday morning service is something completely different. I can still see my good friend Roger from Central Baptist sitting alone one Sunday morning without his wife as she was at home sick; we sat in the same row but he sat on the right side of the church and we sat in the center; 4 rows from the back, 12 rows from the front - I loved that seat, I never heard God's word clearer than from that seat. Roger looked rather sad and during the handshake I made it over to him where we shook hands and this particular mornihg he hugged me and said "nothing tougher in life than a missing spouse on Sunday morning” – I have to agree with Roger - 35 Sunday’s worth.