Great Night -- Great Day Ahead

Cindy said I look great -- that I looked like I had lost weight -- etc. etc. and all I can say is that woman has a BAD MEMORY! ;-) However, SHE looks phenomenal -- she still looks 29, could outrun most of my sons, and has enough energy for 4 people -- which she needs raising those almost 40 kids.

As we talked I was thinking about how we started blogs -- it will be seven years in March -- and how I used to read her to be encouraged about how good her kids were turning out. Kids like Yolie and Daniel and Jesse are such an inspiration to me. However, the next several years have not gone so well for many of her kids because of their choices, and it has taken it's toll.

But if in reading your blog you can see the frustration, dismay, discouragement, and bitterness that has to nip at her heels 24/7, you need to know that in person she's still doing it. Sure, she's got some negative to say about the hell she's lived through, but she still gets up every day and does it for another day. She's still knowing that what she's doing matters to many of her kids -- and I see a future where she will find healing.

In fact, I see a future where we all will find that place for ourselves. I don't claim to know what your life is like or to say that mine is easier or more difficult than yours, but I do know that there is hope out there for us to put all of this junk together and make some sense of it some day. Isn't there an old hymn that says, "We'll understand it better when the mists have rolled away."?

Cindy cracked me up with a truly "DUH" moment last night when she said, "Well, you don't seem nearly as burned out or tired of it all as I do?" And I responded, "Ya think? I've been doing this with 12 kids for 15 years and you've parented 39 and been doing it for 38 years. You SHOULD be more tired than me!"

This evening I get to do a new presentation for parents that I'm calling Understanding Attachment, Anger and Arguing: How to Parent Teens with Humor. In fact, I better go finish it.

I am driving on to Central, South Carolina after I speak tonight to visit some of my favorite people, so if I don't ....

(note, Cindy called at this very moment and I left -- without hitting publish... and then this morning there was no signal for me to blog.... and so this -- written on Monday morning -- never go to you! So sorry!)