the teacher I never knew I was

I never wanted to be a teacher.

Not ever.

When I was a kid and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never said “teacher.”  I looked at my many friends pursuing teaching degrees in college with a mixture of pity and wonderment.  Pity because of all the busy work in those horrid education classes*.  And wonderment because, to me, it was the height of self-sacrifice.

When I was 10 or so and my best friend would set up “school” for us to play, it took all the enthusiasm I could muster to go along.  She’d happily stand at the front with ruler in hand pointing at the board, going over lesson after lesson, while I’d sit on the floor, the dutiful student waiting for school to get out.

Now that I’m a homeschooling mom, teaching is my life.  Let’s face it, if you’re a mom, period, teaching is a big part of your life, even if you’re not homeschooling.  Everything about having kids involves teaching.

But, shockingly, I love to teach.  There, I said it.  I love to teach my kids.  And no one could be more surprised about it than I am.  Yes, it’s hard work and yadda yadda yadda, but what I didn’t know was that it is also incredibly rewarding and exciting.

I’ve always loved to learn.  I could have stayed in school for a very long time and been quite happy, I think.  Teaching my kids gives me an opportunity to continue learning and it also has pushed my relationship with my kids to levels that I wouldn’t have anticipated.

Looking at curriculum, getting to decide what fits my kids and our family best, reading and reading and reading some more, it’s awakened the teacher in me that I never knew I was.

Having my daughter read a book to me and knowing that I had a hand, the hand, in teaching her to do that, is a reward better than any degree I could earn.  And, at least I got to avoid the busy work!

*Not all teaching degrees require horrid busy work.  That’s just my perception. :)

a blog recommendation: treasure from the junk drawer

A good friend of mine recently started a blog.

I’ve enjoyed every one of her posts, which isn’t surprising because I enjoy any bit of time I get to spend with her and reading her blog is like getting to spend a little time with her.

She calls it Treasure from the Junk Drawer and you’ll definitely find some treasure if you visit there.

What’s your favorite blog to read?  Or, what lesser-known blog would you recommend?

what keeps you up late at night?

I am frequently up late at night.

By late, I mean past 11 or midnight.  I know for some of you, that isn’t late.  And for others that’s very late.

Here are some things that keep me up late at night:

1) The olympics. duh.

2) Laundry. Another duh.

3) Researching baby strollers.  This could be considered an obsession.

4) Planning out homeschool for next year.  This could be a never-ending job if I let it be.  I feel as though I’ve researched every curriculum available to mankind.  I mean humankind.  I actually enjoy learning about them all and getting my hands on them, but at some point, I’ve got to quit and make a decision.

5) Downloading apps for the iphone my husband got me for Valentine’s Day.  Way. too. cool.

6) Reading books, articles and blogs.  I’m an information junkie.  I believe it will soon be recognized as a diagnosable condition.

7) Talking.  Once the kids are in bed and we have put away whatever we’re working on, we talk.  And talk… and talk.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I am so glad I married a man who wants to converse about all the stuff of life.

So, what keeps you up late at night?  How late do you stay up?

Anybody else out there watching tonight with a kind of strange fascination at the subculture that is men’s figure skating?

a marriage centered on worship

Mr. TommyD and I went to our church’s annual marriage retreat this past weekend.

It was wonderful.

Great friends.  Powerful speaking rooted in the Word.  Sweet time with my husband.

The speaker was Dr. Paul Tripp.  He’s written a dozen or so books, two of which I’ve read.  One I found particularly helpful called Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, and is about broken people helping broken people in the body of Christ.  I recommend it.

Here are the points that I found especially helpful and memorable from his sessions:

1) Worship is 1st an identity, not just an activity.  I am a worshipper in everything I do. (Luke 6:43-45 “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”)  Our hearts spill out of our mouths and reveal what we are worshipping.

2) The DNA of sin is selfishness and sin in its fundamental form is anti-social.

3) Sin causes us to shrink our lives to the size of our lives.  Very small, very self-absorbed.

4) The three treasure principles: 1. Everyone lives for some kind of treasure.  2. The thing that is your treasure will control your heart. 3. What controls your heart will control your behavior.

4b) Earth-bound treasures lead to anxiety-bound needs.

5) We must not turn the blessings of grace (i.e. a husband that loves us or a wife that respects us) into demands or needs.  I don’t need a husband who loves me.  It is a grace.  I need a Savior to bear my sin on the cross.

6) The love-object of marriage is not the husband or the wife, it is the LORD.

7) Love is willing self-sacrifice for the good of another that does not demand reciprocation or that the person being loved is deserving.  We can give this kind of love to others, because God first loved us.

8) A marriage rooted in worship must believe three things about God (Acts 17:22-31).  That God is Creator, He is Sovereign and He is the Savior.

9) Celebrating the Savior means not usurping His role in our spouse’s life by trying to become the primary transforming agent of change for them, but by believing that Jesus and the Spirit are able to do the redeeming transformative work in their lives.  (And sometimes He uses us as a tool for that work).

10) A marriage of unity, understanding, and love is not rooted in romance, but in worship.

Paul Tripp is very gifted at uncovering the sinful heart.  It was exhausting and convicting to peel back some layers on the sinfulness of my heart this weekend.  It is a sign of God’s incalculable kindness that He revealed more of my ugliness to me.

He loves me.  He is working good for me.

And even as God shows me the wickedness inside myself, He simultaneously holds out the outrageous cross before my eyes and bids me come and rest under its atoning grace.  We serve the most unimaginable Savior.  His kindness knows no bounds.

do you want to live to be 100?

An interesting article from the UK’s Daily Express says that in three years you may be able to take a pill that gets your body to mimic the “super-genes” found in people who live to be 100+.

The breakthrough has come after scientists identified three “super-genes”.

People born with the genes are 20 times more likely to reach a century – and 80 per cent less likely to develop the senility disease Alzheimer’s.

Even being overweight or a heavy smoker does not stop a third of those with the genes living to 100.

Now US researchers are working to produce a drug that can mimic the genetic benefits and hope it will be ready for testing within three years. Their work features tonight on a BBC TV ­documentary.

First off, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to live to be 100.

I can’t say that with complete certainty.  How I feel about it at 28 and how I’ll feel later in life may be very different.  BUT, have you ever spent time with someone in their late 90′s or older?  My experience has been that they want to be done.  They’ve outlived all their friends and lots of family.

I hope that if I have been given the “super-genes” that I’ll wear old-age gracefully and with purpose.  I pray I won’t wish it away.

However, just pondering what my thoughts are on an ideal time of death, prior to 100 sounds good to me.

One thing I love about this article is that it acknowledges that for 1/3 of people with the super-genes, weight and smoking have not kept them from reaching 100.

This flies in the face of most of the conventional wisdom out there that has pervaded our culture and our church.  This wisdom says that we have ultimate control over our health if only we do this, don’t do that, eat this, don’t eat that and on and on and on.

Oh, and by the way, the rules for perfecting your health change every year or month or week.  So, you better spend a significant portion of your time researching and following all the health experts.  And if you do everything they say, viola: you will have good health.

Except for when you don’t.  Except for when you get a cancer diagnosis, or discover you have high blood pressure, or seem to catch every cold virus that comes around.

So maybe the discovery of these “super-genes” will knock some common sense into us in regard to our health.  Maybe it will help us to stop obsessing about every piece of hard candy we consume.*  Maybe.  But I doubt it.

It’s too enticing to believe that we have control over our long lives and then we also get the credit for maintaining our good health.  But if we accept the credit, we also have to take the heat for everything gone wrong.  I just can’t live that way.  Talk about a prescription for anxiety!

So I resolve to do what I can to make my body useful to the Lord, while embracing the Biblical worldview that says our bodies are under a curse until their final redemption.  Whether I’ll be granted to do this 5 more years, 50 more years or 75 more, that’s up to the Lord.  He has numbered my days.

*Shameless jab at Jamsco’s post from a few days ago.

a laundry tip and a tip for bathroom mirrors

Yes, laugh all you want.

Who blogs about laundry and bathroom mirrors?

I do, that’s who.  And probably lots of other people, too.

Plus, I am so pleased with this one discovery that I made a couple months ago that I will share it and take credit for it.

I do lots of laundry.  Don’t we all?

We buy large containers of liquid laundry detergent.  The kind that dispenses by pushing a button and holding the small plastic cup underneath, as though it were summertime and I was getting water from a big orange water cooler, only it’s thick and soapy and comes out at half the speed.

It’s a good system.  BUT, I loathe how the plastic cup gets all gooey with detergent every time.  It inevitably drips down one side and gets on my fingers, then the detergent oozes onto whatever surface the cup is left to rest on.  Or you put the cup back on the dispenser and it drips down to whatever surface is below it.

My usual remedy has been to rinse the cup with water from the washer as it fills up.  Works OK, but then my arm gets kind of wet and the cup is drippy when I’m done, so I have to dry it off.

The NEW thing I do, which works wonderfully, is I just toss the cup in the washer with the clothes after pouring the detergent in.  The cup gets washed, and, at the end of the cycle, it isn’t even wet.  Just clean and dry after a good spin, not gooey or sticky or drippy.*

It’s the little things in life.

The only other tip I have is that I’ve started dusting the tops of my bathroom mirrors before windexing them.

Thrilling, I know.

Not that I’m implying any of you would wait long enough for dust to gather on your mirrors before they get cleaned, but, just in case.  I’m amazed at how much dust gathers on the mirrors in one week!  (Not that I always clean the mirrors every week, but definitely every two.. :)

Dusting them beforehand makes the windexing much easier because you don’t have to move any dust around.

So, that’s it for now.  I’m obviously no household expert.  But when you’ve got a great tip, why not share?

How about you?  Any delightful tips you’ve picked up over the years that we all could benefit from?

*Please inform me if this is common knowledge and I’ll gladly relinquish credit to the appropriate parties.