...to hear the angels sing.

dear emily,

one of the most rewarding roles of motherhood is rescuing our children.
unfortunately, we can't always...and shouldn't always, but when we
can, it just doesn't get better than that.  here's a special rescue story.

a mom overheard her eight year old son and his friends regretting that
they couldn't sing in the school Christmas program.  apparently, they
didn't sing well enough.  imagine her outrage!

so she marched them to the piano and had them sing  'it came upon a
midnight clear' from the program.  afterward, she sympathized with the
teacher.  they not only could not sing the notes, they could not sing any
note.  she had to start at the very beginning...

every afternoon after school she spent time teaching them to find a note,
by playing it and having them try to sing it.  eventually, they progressed
to linking two notes, three notes, and finally, the entire song.  the boys
especially loved the line, "the world in solemn stillness lay to hear the
angels sing."

after watching the boys do a wonderful job in the school program,
though thrilled for them, the mother was feeling a little glum for not
having been a little appreciated for her hard work.

walking home, hand in hand with her son on that still, snowy night,
she heard him say, "mom, i think i heard them."

"heard who, honey?"

"the angels sing..."

thanks received.

love,
lea

Christmas anorexia

dear emily,

when all the kids left to go back to school after thanksgiving, i had two
choices:  feel sorry for myself or decorate for their return.  so, i threw
myself into the Christmas spirit and worked diligently for days.  when i
came up for air, i was pretty pleased with myself.  the house had never
looked more festive.

after many days of living with it, though, i walked into the family room
and whined, "i can't see any Christmas anymore."

hans and hailey's jaws dropped open, and hailey said, "mom,
every corner, table, and surface of our entire house has a Christmas
decoration on it.  there are lights everywhere, santas everywhere, angels
everywhere, and mangers everywhere!  i think you have Christmas
anorexia!"

i hope they don't check me into one of those clinics...

merry Christmas,
lea

saved by the carol

dear emily,

hans and the kids have teased me a lot through the years, because i
don't really understand sports.  all i have ever known is music and
literature.  imagine my delight at receiving this clandestine phone
call.

"mom?" one of my sons was on the other line and i could barely hear
him.

"honey, are you ok?" i ask worriedly.

"mom, i don't have much time and may have to hang up on you."

"honey, are you in trouble?"

"how do you finish this line, 'angels we have heard...'?" whispered my son.

" 'on high'...but"

"awesome!  now how about, 'o little town of bethlehem...'?"

" 'how still we see thee lie! ' what is going on?" beginning to get a
little frustrated.

"sweet!  what comes after this? 'angels from the realms of glory'?"

"'wing your flight o'er all the earth'...  do you need me to call the
police?"

"oh no, i gotta hang up!  stay by the phone!"  now i had visions of
kidnappers with my precious baby wrapped up in duct tape.

the phone rang again.

"mom?"

"oh honey, are you hurt?  where are you?"

"no worries, mom.  mr. mccoy was just walking by and i didn't want
him to see me on the phone."

"what????"

"just fill this line in:  'what child is this?...' "

"'who laid to rest on mary's lap is sleeping'  will you please tell me
what is going on?"

"thanks, mom!  you're a life saver!  i told my buddies that no one
knew more Christmas songs than you!"

dial tone...

turns out his physics teacher gave the class a bonus pre-Christmas
test, that i helped them cheat their way through.  a better mom
would have made them 'fess up, but i was just so proud...

...that my superior knowledge of Chrismas carols won the game!

love,
lea

grandma goldie's coming to town!

dear emily,

shelby said that your parents are coming to town, and i can't
imagine how excited asa, phin, samara, and ilo are!  well,
actually, i can, because i lived and breathed for my grandma
goldie's visits.

if grandma calhoon was truth, then grandma goldie was grace.
between the two of them, i had a pretty clear picture of Jesus!
one taught me how to read the bible and live uprightly.  the
other showed me how to care for the poor and love the down
trodden.

i have lost track of how many abandoned kitties and puppies she
took in or how many old ladies she visited at the nursing home.
it is shameful to me to remember that i never wanted to go with
her to wash and 'set' their hair, because i didn't like how they
smelled.

i did love every other minute with her...sneaking the car out at
5:00 a.m. when i was five years old,  eating as much candy as
i wanted, reading as long as i wanted, even helping her clean
the rooms in her little motel.  it probably made her work take
longer with me tagging along, but we both enjoyed it so much,
we didn't care.

then, joy of joys, we got to take our coffee break at the motel
restaurant.  she let me have real coffee with lots of cream and
sugar . . . heaven!

at Christmas, all my siblings would get so excited to anticipate
what santa might bring them.  i was more interested in  how
long grandma goldie could stay.  when i was only four i sat on
the curb and cried for the longest  time because i realized we
only had one more day...

i wish i still had one more day,
lea

four year old, beer drinking burglar

dear emily,

i just heard a news report about a 4 year old who was discovered at 1:45
in the morning, drinking beer and lugging packages that he had stolen
from neighborhood homes.

this is disturbing on so many points that i don't even know where to
begin.

how did he open the beer can?  i don't think four year old thumbs are
strong or nimble enough to do that.

what was he doing outside, alone, at that time?

how did he break into the homes?

the story proceeded to say that he was trying to get caught so he could
go to jail and see his daddy.  so we know where his daddy was, but...

where was his mommy?

poor little guy.  it breaks my heart.  i pray that some kind soul will cross
his path and lead him to the One who will never leave or forsake him.

love,
lea

"everything seems hopeless...i'm completely depressed."-charlie brown

dear emily,

linus prodded me to do some investigating into the life of his creator,
charles schulz

when your kids suffer failure and humiliation, you can tell them that
the world's most famous cartoonist had more than his share, too.

good grief!

his high school paper turned down every single cartoon he ever sub-
mitted, but he eventually made $30 million a year from 'peanuts.'

his first love, a beautiful red-head, refused his marriage proposal.
charlie brown used to say, "nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter
quite like unrequited love," when referring to his beautiful red-haired
girl.

he was sent to war the day after his mother died of cancer.  when
ordered to throw a grenade into a camp, he refused, because he saw
a little dog in it....snoopy!

he flunked countless subjects in school, coming to the realization that
"in the book of life the answers aren't in the back."

"happiness is anyone or anything that loves you,"
lea

keeping pappy, happy!

cdear emily,

another way to keep a rewarding, loving marriage is to have a
consistent date night.  my mom gave me this advice not long after
we brought our first baby, isaac, home from the hospital.

she told me to brush my hair, put on some make up and a pretty
dress, and go out to dinner with hans.  moms are so bossy!  she also
admonished us to not talk the entire time about our beautiful,
wonderful baby.  that was the hardest part, because we were so
enthralled with him.

instead, we talked about each other and our dreams for the future.
we kept the coals of our pre-children love burning by investing in
that relationship.

as our covey expanded, it became harder to find the time.  basketball
games, ballet and piano recitals, school programs all competed with
our weekly date, but we held fast and firm to it.  we had to get very
creative and that made it more valuable and fun.

after 30 years, we still have that standing date.

what you do after the date, is up to you....but we have a saying in our
house, "keep pappy, happy!"   1 corinthians 7:3-5

love,
lea