Gratefulness

The sermon at church today was on gratefulness.  Since our pastor used to be an English teacher, I am sure she used the word gratefulness as opposed to gratitude for a reason.  The dictionary definition of both seems to be about the same.

Anyhow, today is my son John's 24th birthday.  We had breakfast at IHOP and the manager paid for our meal because we are such regular and loyal customers.  Something to be grateful for, the free breakfast and the fact that we are welcome there.  When several servers started singing a birthday song to John, he started to hit his head, so I had to grab his arms and hold him until they were finished singing.

John seems to have a hard time with special occasions.  I don't know if he is reacting to some disappointment that things don't live up to his expectations or what, but it is something that I have to work around.  Holidays are especially bad and I have to remove John to my office where he is not over stimulated.

We last for a couple of minutes at church today before I had to take John outside because he started hitting his head again.  This is one of those weeks that I am surprised that I don't get a visit from some adult protective services agency.  I am the one with the injured hand from the experience, not John.   We went for a walk and John calmed down and seemed pretty happy.  We went back into the service and I ended up holding him pretty tightly for most of the service. 

With all of that, I am sure that I did not pay 100% attention to the sermon, but I did catch a few ideas that I am going to have to think about.  

What I heard was that for a given situation, I have a choice of asking myself  "Why me?" or looking at it as an opportunity for gratefulness.  Whether or not Rev. Karen actually said what I heard or not probably doesn't make much difference.  

Since John was diagnosed with autism some 21 years ago, I have had a lot of "Why me" moments.  IHOP and  taking John from church this morning come to mind.  Not as many gratefulness moments though.  Like I said, something to pray and think about.

Love Thy Culturally Homogenous Neighbor

From Not Always Right.


(Grocery Store | Orlando, FL, USA)
Me: “I hope you’ve found everything to your liking!”
Customer: “Oh, thank you, I have! It’s so nice to meet a polite Christian girl nowadays! You know, it’s always best to love thy neighbor.”
Me: “Oh, actually, I’m not Christian. But yes, I agree.”
Customer: “Oh. Well, as long as you love Jesus our savior!”
Me: “Actually, I’m Muslim and Jewish.”
Customer: “What?”
Me: “Well, my mother is Jewish and my father is Muslim.”
Customer: “Oh. When I said ‘love thy neighbor,’ I didn’t mean you!”

Sadly, There Is No Cure For Rudeness

I have Ichthyosis, so I totally understand where this guy is coming from....

CONVENIENCE STORE | NORTH BATTLEFORD, SK, CANADA

(I have psoriasis, a hereditary condition which leaves me with large red patches on my scalp. This occurs while I am waiting in line at a convenience store with a woman standing behind me.)
Customer: “What’s wrong with you?”
Me: “I beg your pardon?”
Customer: “Those ugly blotches all over your head. What do you have?”
Me: “Oh, it’s a highly contagious flesh eating disease. Very painful.”
Customer: “Oh my gosh! Really? How contagious is it?”
Me: “Well, you probably already have it.”
Customer: *rushes out of the store in a panic*

First Things First

Police arrest man after beer found in child safety seat » Corpus Christi Caller-Times

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Getting Old(er)

The Three Joes.  My dad, brother and grandfather.

I was looking at some of my family pictures from when I was a kid today.  It is kind of fun, looking at my siblings and myself and then comparing them to photos of my grandchildren.

I then had the very frightening thought that in those pictures, me and my siblings are the age of my grandchildren, my parents are in my children's age range, and that I am closer to my grandparent's age.

For example,  in this picture, my dad would have been in his early 30s and my grandfather (his dad) would have been in his late 60s.  It is worse when I think about my maternal grandparents, they would have been several years younger than I am now.

My son leads when communion time comes

There is a terrific piece in the Austin American Statesman today written by a man who has two children with autism.   Here is an excerpt.

No, this is not an old picture of me and John. 

Jeffrey has a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified, which we call "autism" for convenience. So here's my dilemma: Jeffrey doesn't have any understanding of Communion. Zero. He's not even baptized, and in fact, he had recently summarized his theology for me as, "At the end of the Bible, Jesus finally gets to come down from the cross."

So, I defer. But the next week he springs up again, as if "The gifts of God for the people of God" were spoken to him personally. He doesn't know about the historical controversy over Transubstantiation, he doesn't know that the Early Church believed that if you took Communion in the wrong way or with the wrong attitude, in the words of a local pastor, "God could freaking kill you."

Most of all, he doesn't understand my conflict with Communion. It is so laden with expectations, with the trappings of human authority, with a presentation that emphasizes transaction, with quid pro quo. Do this and get that. It can and often does feel forced.

Most weeks, my son John goes to church with me, and he is very welcomed there. 

When he first started attending, I had a conversation with my pastor, and I said that I didn't know if John understood much about God.  She replied, 'Who does?'   And she of course is right.   What works for me and John today is to let him participate as much as he wants and is able.  Most weeks that turns out fine.

Victoria

playing with my new phone

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Victoria's Birthday Cake

Victoria totally loves avocados, so her birthday cake was made with avocado frosting.  Victoria loved it!

Victoria is such a wonderful baby.  I am so thankful for the time we have together.

playing with my phone

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This one made me cry

Will recovering from his burns and Anna on oxygen for a respiratory problem.

Knowledge is power, if you know it about the right person.

Ethel Watts Mumford (1876 or 78? - 1940) was a U.S. author, a New Yorker.

I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.

Edward Verrall Lucas (11 June/12 June 1868 – 26 June 1938) was a versatile and popular English writer. His nearly 100 books demonstrate great facility with style, and are generally acknowledged^{[by whom?]} as humorous by contemporary readers and critics.

Fun with Victoria

While Barbara was off to Utah and Idaho to help with Will, along with Will's parents and siblings, I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful granddaughter, Victoria.

Victoria and Will - June 2010.

My son Russell, his wife Sarah Jane, and Victoria are living with us right now.  Russell graduated from UT law school last spring, and has been very busy since getting ready for the bar exam which will be held at the end of July.  When Sarah Jane is at work, Barbara has been taking care of Victoria.  Victoria will start day care next month after she turns one.

Russell needs to keep his full attention on his bar exam review, so I happily volunteered to watch Victoria during the day.  I will have to say that it has been a long time since I spent so much time with an 11 month old.  I now have an even greater appreciation for those who regularly take care of small children. Victoria is literally into everything that she can think of, so it has been a lot of fun keeping up with her.

This is how my last week went:

• Get myself and John up and ready for the day before Sarah Jane handed over Victoria.
• Drive John and Victoria to John's adult care.  I discovered that the snaps in children's car seats were not designed for older fingers.
• Run short errands before returning home.
• Feed Victoria.   Change Victoria.  Repeat as needed.
• Put Victoria down for a nap.  Pick up Victoria because she doesn't want to nap. 
• Feed Victoria.  
• Put Victoria back down for a nap.  I discovered if I lay down on the bed next to her crib, she eventually decides that if Grandpa is tired, she must be too.  
• Log into work and try to get some work done while Victoria naps.
• Pick up Victoria when she wakes up for nap and feed her again.  I found if I put the high chair next to my laptop on the kitchen table, I can answer emails while Victoria and I are eating.
• Take Victoria to pick up John from his adult care.
• Kill some time by going to Target and buying baby things.
• Bring John and Victoria to the office.  Get John signed on and then take Victoria around for visits.  Victoria is very popular among my co-workers, some of whom do very odd things trying to get her to smile.
• Change Victoria.  One of the days she had a super poopie diaper that required a trip to the men's room.  Luckily, one of my co-workers took her off my hands so I could wash those hands and dispose of the diaper.  The same co-worker said he doubted if his grandfather ever changed any of his grandchildren's diapers.  We discussed how things have changed, and for the better.
• Follow Victoria as she crawled down the hall way.  The elderly mother of a co-worker in the next office from mine passed away, so my co-worker has been out.  She decided to come back into the office yesterday afternoon just so she could do something besides deal with her mother's death.  In her absence, Victoria has been crawling up to her door and was irritated that she couldn't crawl in.  She was happy that the door was open yesterday and my co-worker was very happy to have Victoria visit.  I think it brightened up both their days.
• Sarah Jane comes by on her way home from work and picks up Victoria.  I then spent a few more hours at work with John trying to keep caught up.

This has been probably one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for me, spending so much great time with Victoria.  I know she won't remember when she gets older, but I don't think I will ever forget it.

Wonderful News About Will

Will's checkup went much better than anticipated.   Short version, Will only needs skin grafts on some of his fingers on one hand.  This is totally amazing considering what was anticipated only a few weeks ago.

Click on James' blog for all the details.  He was trying to tell me some of the medical details on the phone until I had to remind him who he was speaking with.  There is a reason I work with computers.

Thanks for everyones kind thoughts and prayers.

Power to the iPod People

My favorite podcast is Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me from NPR.  


I was listening to the July 10th 'best of edition' in my car, and when I heard the 'Power to the iPod People' segment,  I laughed so hard I had to pull off the side of the road.


At church this morning I heard the message that I needed to lighten up.  This helped a lot.

More on my Grandson Will

The old adage of a picture being worth a thousand words is certainly still true.  In this day and age, it is so much easier to get those pictures out there also.   My imagination was certainly running wild, so even though I am the last person who wants to see these kind of pictures, I was glad to see for myself the extent of the burn damage.  Ever since I got word of his accident, I had been imagining much worse.

I have to hand it to him, he is certainly a lot more chipper than I would be.  I suppose being 3 rather than 59 has a lot to do with it.

Barbara left yesterday (Friday) for Salt Lake City.  As I understand it, James and Emily will drive down from Idaho on Monday to take Will back to the burn center at the University of Utah.  The doctors will determine whether or not Will needs skin grafts on his fingers and back.  If so, Barbara will stay with Emily and Will while he recovers at the hospital.  If not, she will go back to Idaho Falls with them.

My small part in this is to stay home and keep tabs on John.  I am also watching my granddaughter Victoria during the weekdays so her mom Sarah Jane can go to work and her day Russell can study for the Texas bar exam at the end of this month.

Continued good thoughts and prayers on Will's behalf are much appreciated.

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. The view of human conduct his writings describe has been summed up by the words "everything is reducible to the motive of self-interest," though the term "gently cynical" has also been applied.^[1] Born in Paris in the Rue des Petits Champs, at a time when the royal court was oscillating between aiding the nobility and threatening it, he was considered an exemplar of the accomplished 17th-Century nobleman. Until 1650, he bore the title of Prince de Marcillac.

If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress, talk-show host, and bon vivant.^[1]

Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes

My lovely daughter-in-law Emily posted this earlier today.

I don't have what it takes to visit people in a burn unit  and sing to them (composure or vocal talent), but I am glad that are folks who do.

I wasn't familiar with the song, but I liked it.

Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter (September 16, 1919 - January 12, 1990) was an educator and "hierarchiologist," best known to the general public for the formulation of the Peter Principle.