Laura’s Imperfect Blog

Saturday was the annual Loch Normal Highland Games at Rural Hill. I’ve been to the games once at Grandfather Mountain and once at Rural Hill. I was looking forward to this year’s games and Scottish Festival and scheduled the date with my aunt.

The night before, my mom and my aunt came over, along with her husband and 2 step grand-children ages 5 and 8. There was much laughter, jicama and humus (or is that hicama and jumus?), the movie Cars on the big screen, flames in the fire-pit and tiki torches by the patio, wine and Guiness, and the usual refusals to go to sleep at a decent hour.

The next morning we tempted everyone out of bed with bacon on the grill (the good news – no bacon smell in the house 2 days later, the bad news – no bacon smell in the house that morning), French toast with powdered sugar, fresh strawberries, eggs cooked to order, and lots of coffee. We loaded the dishwasher, packed up some of the stuff, and headed out!

We parked and waited in line to buy tickets (the cash line moves faster than the credit line, just a suggestion). First thing in the gate was a booth from the Raptor Center so we got to see a hawk and owl. Then the boys got to do a bungee/trampoline thing. By now we’d missed the opening ceremonies (pretty cool if you get a chance to see them) so we headed off to get something to drink for the wee one. I had forgotten to pack water bottles as planned. I bought my first haggis pocket of the day (yum!).

We got passports for the kids and had them start working around the clan tents getting the passports stamped. We were briefly stumped by the Clan Donnachaidh (or something like that) but were happy to see Duncan on the same banner. Then it was time to walk back toward the entrance to the rock music tent where Albannach was playing. The music was loud and rowdy but wonderful! The 5 year old loved all the drum work.

As that performance ended we began the walk back toward the field to see the massed pipe bands. This is a wonderful display, but we missed it this year. We got to the field after the crowds had thinned out a bit, in time to see a bit of the Heavy stone Lift & Carry and the flag retirement ceremony. This went well until the 8 year old made the 5 year old think about how sad it was the flags were burning and made him cry. We quickly left the field and went in search of some distraction. The boys were interested in the pieces of the kilt uniform, especially the sporran (a purse that hangs around the waist, like a fanny pack but cooler). Due to our wandering and trying to chase down the boys, we also missed the sheep herding demonstration, a truly fascinating skill to watch (think Babe).

The boys’ parents still hadn’t arrived, it was getting close to time for Albannach to perform again but neither boy wanted to sit still for that again, so we headed to the car for lunch. We could hear the band from there and I made sandwiches for everyone, including the parents as they showed up with the baby (food works like a magnet every time).

We did pass a fairy a few times – the 5 year old was very well aware that it was just “a costume” but he let me call her a fairy anyway. (The Irn-Bru wagon is where you buy haggis pockets. And Irn-Bru, a softdrink.)

After lunch, the boys and their parents headed in to explore. We who had been with the boys headed to find a seat and listen to some traditional music and eat another haggis pocket. Then one more set with Albannach, no more haggis pockets (they sold out), and the boys were heading home, so we did too. Tired and happy and carrying 4 cans of haggis.

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. The past few years we’ve either gone to a friend’s house or traveled to my family. This year looked like it would be quiet and we’d just spend the day with our friend and her family.

Then Anthony’s family started making plans to come to our house. We had 3 from Atlanta and 3 local come Thursday. Then 5 from Raleigh and the 3 local back on Friday. Then my 3 nephews came Friday night through Sunday. That meant I was cooking to have meals to feed 8 to 10 each day for 3 days.

I left Anthony in charge of the meat. He got a ham and a turkey breast plus bison meat for burgers (yum). I made a dressing, sweet potatoes, and slaw. Sister-in-law made a great salad. Plus a few desserts. The food was well taken care of and the teenagers here on Saturday finished up our leftovers.

The holiday was a great success for visiting with family too. We got to see some relatives that we haven’t seen in years. We had all 4 Navarro siblings together. I got to see Anthony’s 3 nephews who have grown quite a bit since the last time we got together. And we set plans for Christmas visiting too.

Saturday we even got the Christmas tree up while I had teenage boys to carry boxes down and up the stairs and a 6 year old to help put the ornaments on the tree. All told, a very fun weekend.

I picked this up after reading the review on Tim Challies’ blog. My teenager isn’t angry, but he can be unmotivated. I ordered it from Monergism books while getting a Bible study for us to complete this Spring.

The premise is to help adults (parents, counselors) see teenagers and spend time seeing things from their perspective. He begins in the introduction presenting eight ways to see teenagers with a biblical lense. This includes treating them with respect and recognizing that they are sinners, as are we all. Also that there are “wise wants” within each of us, including angry teenagers. He uses this fact to bring hope to the situation. We can help them identify their wise wants, encourage those good things, and then help them find their own solutions to help take actions that will achieve those good things.

The author does a good job of reminding us that teenagers are old enough to take responsibility for their own actions and to be trusted with this growing maturity, but also points out that many things we see as obvious are not obvious to them. The section on helping them see that actions and consequences do connect was helpful for me. For example, not recognizing how actions can have results can lead to hopelessness, and feeling there is no control over anything.

He also stresses that the teenager does have choices, even though one of those choices is to continue the same behavior that has resulted in the bad results they have gotten so far. This is brought out well in a page talking about how change is hard (don’t we all know that) and it “can seem easier to them at times to just stay the way they are and pay the price. So you have to keep before these teens their own words about how the unpleasantness they are getting has been messing everything up.”

The main section talks about listening to identify the things they don’t want, then helping them clarify where they do have control and why they would want to make the effort to change. After that you help them find times they have taken good actions and had good consequences and using those experiences to craft solutions to current issues and then planning small steps to begin to make those changes.

He ends with a reminder that all of this is good and useful and biblical, but the main goal should be to point the teenager to Christ as their Lord and Savior.

The author uses the book of Proverbs to show the biblical wisdom in the approach and actions to help guide a young person to their own self-evaluation and actions. I look forward to reading this one again and using the information to change how I interact with teenagers.

I found this over at Mt Hope Chronicles and wanted to share it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU&eurl

Check out Advent Conspiracy for more information and ways to get involved.

I’ve been thinking about this myself. I have some gifts for just about everyone on the list. Maybe this will be a transition year for some of those people with a WorldVision or Samaritan’s Purse gift included and a discussion about how to do even more next year.

Join the conspiracy!

I had this dream last Wednesday, but then I left for the beach for the weekend so I haven’t written about it yet. I tend to have strange dreams and I can pull in random people into strange situations. It’s usually an interesting look into what I’m thinking about at the time. Anthony has some scale he judges my dreams by and lets me know how weird they are. He says this one isn’t that strange but it felt weird when I woke up.

I dreamed that I was at my dad’s house talking with his wife Judy and my aunt and cousin. Someone else was with me, I think it was my sister Nancy or Anthony. It turns out that Judy had my dad’s body laid out on a bed or a counter. We didn’t see anything strange about this and sat around him having our conversation. Then he started mumbling something in response to our conversation. At that point we all got up to go. Now, we weren’t leaving because we were spooked or scared, but because we thought Judy might want to be alone with him. (This is totally how I felt every time I visited him the hospital. I also have issues with not wanting to impose on people. Therefore, this action makes total sense to me.)

After my aunt and cousin headed to their car, I decided to head back in one more time just to see if Judy needed anything. She was helping Dad get up, apparently they go for a walk every afternoon. I noticed that his hair was black, like it was a few years ago before the chemo. They asked me to stay so we three (or four?) went for a walk in the yard and talked (not about anything in particular).

Then I woke up.

I guess I miss him.

Love you sis.