Jennifer Groft

This is my first 7 Quick Takes.  I feel like one of those people on the radio who feel the need to start out with, “Longtime listener, first time caller…” and I guess that is actually what I am doing.

Diving in:

I was reading John 1 this week and came across a passage that made me laugh out loud.  It is a long chapter, and I was reading it as a prelude to a devotional that my moms group is doing this summer.  So I was just kind of going through it quickly.  I’ve read it all before and felt pretty familiar with it.  But then I got to verse 45 (and following):

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”  Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

I can almost hear Jesus saying, “Really, you were impressed by THAT?  Oh man, just WAIT and see what I have in store for you!”  And maybe even thinking to himself, “This guy is going to be easy!”  Maybe I was just getting punchy at the time, but I laughed anyway.  I just think that Jesus must have enjoyed at least a little bit when people were really impressed. (Provided, of course, that they eventually got the true point of His wonders and miracles.)

This Summer I am reading Watership Down for the first time.  I have always loved the movie, and wanted to read the book, so here I am, 2/3rd of the way through.  I watched the movie again, during this reading. Um, I think I have had my fill of the movie.  But I am loving the book, and one of the things that I love about it is that Hazel is so perfectly my husband.  He is a faithful leader, not by brute force but by sheer will to do the right thing and responsibility for those around him.  It has made me love both the story and my husband even more.

My kids loved the movie, but seeing my disgust at it are clamoring to have me read them the book next.  But considering we have already spent 2 months and are not even halfway through Black Beauty, we’ll see if we can tackle Watership.  I’m afraid I don’t have the same follow through for reading books aloud as I used to.

I have a confession to make.

I love McDonalds.
No matter how many food documentaries I watch or books about nutrition I read, (and I do read a lot of them!) I still love McDonalds.  Their food make be fake and poison for my body, but it sure is yummy.  And the Sweet Tea… ooooohh!  I realize it is lightly tea flavored sugar water.  Really, I do.  But it is so good.  And they have the best playlands too.

My schedule is so messed up due to summer.  I have been staying up at least 3 hours past my school year bed time and it is not a pretty picture when I need to get up in the morning.  It is so nice not to have to be out the door with six kids at 7am, but I still have 3 kids who get up at the crack of dawn.  And I really am enjoying my time at night, even if I am just watching reruns while folding laundry.  Right now it just means that I don’t have to jump straight from bed to a shower and breakfast.  Soon though.  Just a couple more weeks and we will be back to the school year in earnest and I need to get my body to start switching back.  Which should I start first – going to bed earlier or getting up earllier?

As a mom, I have tried so many different plans for getting my house in order: Managers of Their Homes, Flylady, Motivated Moms, and other random plans found in magazine articles.  Somehow though, none of the plans work for me.  Could it be my eight kids making things harder?  Maybe.  But for me to follow an exterior plan like that, I find I would be working 14 hours a day to keep my house clean.  The end result is only a little cleaner than if I’m not doing all that and stressing.  So right now it boils down to just needing to do whatever needs to be done next.  In my effort to bring my kitchen up a step though, I am filling the sink with soapy water as I make my breakfast.  The dishes don’t usually get washed until the water is fully cold, but at least they have been soaking for a while.  And then they usually get done before dinner.  Now if I could just get the dinner dishes done before breakfast…

My 8 month old has found her voice.  She has always been a loud crier, even as a newborn she could cry loud enough to be heard across the house without a baby monitor.  But her cry has lately taken a turn for the worse.  She is most likely to use it immediately upon waking, on being put down, when we try to give her solids in the high chair (food on the floor is completely fair game), when the wind changes, when the lights are turned off, when the lights are turned on, when there is air in the room… you get the idea.  There is no “fuss” setting on this child.  She goes straight from happy as a clam to Oh My the World is ENDING!  I have heard a LOT of crying in my time.  She is a Zero-to-sixty crier.  One moment she is calm, the next moment she belts out this blood curdling, ear piercing, Oh-God-make-it-stop wail.  Her cry sounds a lot like a home fire alarm, alternated with Ringwraith screeching, she throws in the raptor sounds just to keep things interesting.

This past week we celebrated out 20th wedding anniversary.  We got married so young, but still that was 20 years ago.  It’s hard to believe I have been doing anything for 20 years.  But parenting and being married are now in that category.  When I look back at how clueless we were when we started out, I can tell you that it is absolutely by the Grace of God that we have made it this far and have the marriage we have today.  We have stumbled along, making many mistakes along the way, and mostly loving the whole process.  I would never have dared to hope to have a husband as amazing as Jay is.  But here we are, 20 years later.  I hope the next 20 years is as great!  (Although I would certainly accept a 20 years with less drama, I’m not holding my breath for it.)

So there you have it, a relatively disjointed 7 Quick takes.  Maybe next week I can pull it together a little more.  My whole goal this week was to get my blog writing juices flowing again, so I can get this blog up off the ground and work a little harder on my Family Blog as well.  Now, go check out the originator of 7 quick takes at Conversion Diary!