CRAZY Mommy-ing Days & James?

So I read a blog entry this morning from one of best friends and Fellow-Mom-With-Two-Little-Boys this afternoon, and started to comment on her blog...and I kept writing and writing...so I decided to turn my response to HER blog entry into my own blog entry.  And I'm not going to go back and edit it at all, because that's not how I roll.  If I back track I'll lose my train of thought and that would be tragic.  No editing for me, thank you!  Here goes...

(Stacey wrote about a CRAZY morning she had with her boys including swollen limbs, tantrums, noise violations, a key scavenger hunt, comfort food, and {legal} drugs/  Intrigued?  Read her entry here)(http://mensiks.blogspot.com/2012/03/one-of-those-mornings.html)(I don't know how to do the link within a word thing. Get over it.  Maybe Jen will teach me how to blog properly one day...)

(here's my response)

Haha love this!  What a rough morning!!!!!!  Way to have a good attitude (at least after the fact...I don't know how you were in the thick of it...) because it's so great to laugh at those moments!  And what an opportunity to grow - both for you and for the kids.  I always think of James 1 when I'm having a rough day or hour or few minutes as a mom: 

Count it all joy, my brothers, (and mommies) when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

I have to remind myself that raising little kids brings trials of many kinds - and that even though they can be frustrating and try my patience like crazy, it's an opportunity to actually find JOY because it's a test.  

Will I get angry at my kids or my situation and sin in my anger?  Will I be impatient and harsh and yell at my kids? Will I have my own melt down?  Will I act out of not wanting to be embarrassed in front of others and have veryone think my kids are out of control and I'm a failure of a mom?  

OR

Will I pray and ask God for wisdom - asking Him to help me in this situation? Will I look my Father to guide me and give me a gentleness with my kids, even when they are going crazy? Will I rely on Him to keep me calm and see frustrating times like this as an incredibly important part of my God-given responsibilities as a mom, and to ask Him for wisdom in how to deal with this situation right now?

I do both...but I know the second list is what I should be striving for.  

Crazy days like Stacey's are definitely a test of our faith.  Sanctification, or the process of being molded into the shape of holiness (loooong process!), is where our fruit is displayed.  What kind of fruit are we bearing?  It relates directly to our faith.  If I believe that God is in control, and that He will in fact give me wisdom if I ask, and that He is intimately involved in the process of raising my kids and has a way and attitude in which He would like me to raise them - if I truly believe that, then when days like this come along...and they certainly will...it is a test of my faith.  My reaction to it is showing what kind of fruit I am bearing.  When my kids are going nuts, am I remaining calm and trusting in Him?  Am I demonstrating to my kids that I will remain constant, I will let my gentleness be shown to them (even when they are not doing the same to me), I will not get angry with them and sin towards them and God, I will act in a loving way towards them even when they are exhausted, or drugged, or tired, hungry, cranky, not getting their way, being defiant, etc...

I'm making lots of lists.  

Anyway, our little ones test our faith every day.  And it will lead us to sin, or it will lead us to godliness by testing our faith, and leading us to steadfastness.  When our steadfastness has its full effect, we will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing!  How great is that!  AND when we fail to reach this goal (which we will because we are in the PROCESS of sanctification and will not yet attain this until we are glorified in Heaven), we can ask God for wisdom - even in our most frustrated moments - and He is there with us, and He will give it to us generously.  HOW GREAT IS THAT PROMISE?!?!?!

Ah, parenting.  It's so hard and so awesome and such a challenge and so rewarding.  Moms of the world, mornings like Stacey's are ones that we can actually find joy in if we are in Christ.  Our God is pretty cool.  

Post Thought:

My kids have taught me SO MUCH about what it means that we can call the God of the Universe our Abba Father.  We are so often like two- and three-year olds.  We don't listen, we don't obey, we're not very mature, we often do things that don't make much sense, we want what we want, when we want it, how we want it and in what cup we want it.  We are selfish and sinful and it is so hard for us to understand our Father (and mother, for the sake of the parallel...if you're following) sometimes.  But He is so patient with us, He provides for us, cares for us, loves us unconditionally - no less when we act like crap, no more when we behave "perfectly" - he is always there for us, is firm but kind, is just to punish our sins (through Jesus' blood if we are in Christ), rewards us for obedience, blesses us, imparts wisdom to us...

The list goes on.  What an honor and blessing it is to be a mom and to get to experience a whole new facet of our Lord.  I pray that you can see the beauty in it as well, especially on the really difficult days!

AMEN!

I Ran Over Two Sheep...

Yep.  I hit two sheep with my car. 

My favorite supermarket here is Bambis and it's not too far from my house - 7 to 20 (or more) minutes from my house, depending on the traffic.  They have some good stuff, it's relatively well organized, and they have a parking lot in the back for customers only - meaning you're not hit up by all the people trying to sell you "RoyBam" sunglasses and phone cards, and begging for money, or trying to "help" you park (for a tip), wanting to shine your shoes, sell you gum, wash your car (with water from the gutter on the side of the road), etc.  Bambis just has a clean atmosphere, you can pay by credit card, and they play Christmas music the whole month of December!  But on your way there from my house you have to go through a messy intersection with loads of traffic (created by the Traffic Police who are substituting themselves for the Traffic Light...which never works), right past an orthodox church, which means there are tons of beggars and blind men and women with babies (who are often not their own, but are strapped on to make more money), and people selling RoyBams and sun shades and tissues, and begging for your money, and getting insanely close to your car while you're trying to drive forward when the traffic finally moves...whew!  

Anyway, I got through all that and turned left to go down the next street a bit and take a left into the Bambis parking lot - nay, parking sanctuary.  I'm heading down the street when I notice that the herd of sheep who are grazing in the median of this busy street (a common sight here) decide to bolt out into the street for some reason.  They're sheep, right, so the reason is moot.  The car in front of me swerved and thankfully I was far enough behind him to see this unfolding - so I hit the brakes and veered to the right.  But those sheep, they just kept running into the street.  

They're sheep.  They're dumb.  

In that last second that my car came to a full stop, I watched the "shepherd" put both hands on his head as he threw it back and covered his eyes.  He turned the other way, unable to watch (even though he wasn't too upset about them running into the street in the first place).  Two dirty, dumb (not cute and fluffy) little sheep disappeared under my car with a little sheep-thud.  Oops.  What was I thinking at this point?  Well, I watched the "shepherd" not care for his sheep, and then watched him turn away, unable to watch.  So I felt a tiny bit badly about the possibility of killing two of his sheep in front of him.  BUT then is VERY quickly remembered that actually, these guys do not actually take much care of their sheep.  These Urban "shepherds" bring them in, graze them on medians, let them run out in front of cars without chasing after them, and then once they're sold (to be slaughtered), they LITERALLY drag them off.  

Since I'm chasing a rabbit trail and leaving my story for a minute, allow me to give you a little idea of what happens once a sheep is sold:  

-often they are hog-tied (all fours tied together) and strapped (alive) onto the top of a taxi or car  

-they might be hog-tied and (alive) thrown into the hot trunk of a car and driven to their destination on the bump addis roads

-hog-tied and carried upside down, dangling between two men

-a man grabs the two front legs of the sheep while said sheep is facing forward (head in the guy's butt), and he pulls the sheep long with him...but the sheep does not want to go so he's dragging those back legs as best he can

-same as above, but the man holds the two back legs and s the sheep backwards, behind him

-same as above but the man holds the hind legs and the sheep is in front of him (think man/sheep wheelbarrow race)

-(maybe my favorite) a man ties a little rope around the sheep's hind (or front) leg (just one) and then just pulls...so the sheep is now three-legged, once again resisting as best he can, with one leg up

-(my least favorite) sometimes the sheep will REALLY put up a fight and refuse to walk, so I've seen sheep dragged on their knees before.  I appreciate the protesting, but I think I would just give in at that point.

I actually saw a man carrying a hog-tied sheep upside down with one hand, and then when he came to the edge of the road to wait for the bus, he set it down like it was a hand bag.  I couldn't help but bust out laughing.  It was just all so matter-of-fact!

ANYWAY.  So there were these two sheep under my car... I though for sure I had killed at least one if not both of them, I didn't feel any remorse once i remembered how the "shepherds" treat their sheep (merchandise) here, so I was actually pretty annoyed that I was probably going to have to spend a while apologizing and negotiating the price of these sheep - and I had no idea how much a sheep went for.  Who would know?  whom could I call?  Dorothy.  But she was in the US.  Andrew.  He can find out.  He can ask Tariku to go up the street to some guys who sell sheep and he'll tell me the going rate and I'll attempt to negotiate something close to that, then they'll want more money for having to strap the dead sheep(s?) to my luggage rack and there will be a big crowd gathered to watch the whole thing because this white lady is providing some lovely mid-day entertainment for the whole neighborhood.  And then, of course, after all that drama (with Jackson in the car), I would pull into my Bambis Parking Sanctuary with dead sheep(s?) strapped to my roof.  I would do my shopping as usual and would drive home and then figure out what to do with my fresh purchases.  Perhaps a neighborhood sheep roast?  Throw a big impromptu party?  What would the car look like after driving all the way home with my kill strapped to the roof?  Getting less annoying, more humorous.  

But alas.  I watched the "shepherd's" reaction as he turned back around and opened his eyes...and his sheep scrambled to their feet and kept awkwardly hobbling along.  I started driving again after honking at the negligent caretaker (it's how we communicate on the road here), and drove on, watching my side mirror as the sheep scrambled across the road - and get hit by the taxi behind me!  One of the sheep I hit got hit by a taxi! Then he got up again and scrambled off.  Again.  it was HILARIOUS.  I pulled into Bambis and went in - and found about half of my grocery list.

You know.  Just a trip to the supermarket.  Life is not really boring around here!

A Live Chicken I Bring, pa rum pa pum pummm

Tomorrow is January 7, Christmas on the Ethiopian calendar.  Everyone (who can afford it) cooks a local chicken dish called Doro Wat and party party party... What better way to celebrate Jesus' birthday than to buy a live chicken at the market (or 3)?  Andrew and Jackson went with Tariku and Eyerus to the market and brought the chickens home.  We wanted to leave the chickens at our house for a bit before handing them off to the neighbors. Naturally.  Turns out chickens are LOADS of fun.  Jackson kept wanting to "water" them, but instead we just chased them around.  Andrew caught two of them when it was time to wrangle them and tie them back together.  Yes.  Tie them back together.  When you get chickens at the market, they tie their two (nasty) chicken feet together and you just carry it home upside down by the feet!  It's great!  They chill out when they're upside down.  Since we brought three home, they were all tied to each other.  Best activity of EthioChristmas? Six-legged chicken race.  Yes, please.

So we spent the afternoon at our neighbor's house having loads of fun just visiting while everyone was making preparations.  Felt like Christmas!  Jackson loves hanging out over there, bossing everyone around and running amuck.  It's great!  But boy does it drain him!  Can't do it every day...Maybe I'll get around to posting pics or video someday.  Not as easy as words from over here!

I Hesitate to say it's a "Resolution"

I don't really make resolutions.  I know myself better than that.  I make resolutions and goals all the time and don't keep them (part of my "creative" personality).  So I won't call this a resolution.  I'll just say it's something I want to try to do.  Until I get out of the habit.  Like I said, I know myself.  I've been thinking about writing on this blog more often and tonight after catching up on friends' blogs, I'm doing it!  I won't more records of my kids' lives and of our crazy adventure we are living here.  Most days aren't that nutty, but there's some stuff that I want to log.  Why not make a weblog?  

Warning: I will ramble a lot.  Deal.

Testing Testing...

Does this work?