It’s an all too familiar scene: You walk into your kid’s school and drop them off so they can get ready for their performance. It could be anything from a preschool play, to a high school chorus concert. You wander into the auditorium with all the other parents who have a little time to kill. Everyone is talking in small groups while jockeying for the best vantage point to record their prodigy. You spy your desired spot and hurry over to it without making eye contact. Everyone knows if you make eye contact they will steal your spot. You settle into your seat. Why are the seats always uncomfortable? Ugh. As you are checking your camera vantage point a family sits behind you. You start to fiddle with your phone to entertain yourself when the family behind you starts to talk to each other. While all other groups of people are using hushed tones, this family behind you is talking very loudly. No. Not again. PLEASE let these people shut up when the performance starts. The lights are lowered and you are silently hoping they will lower their volume. Oblivious, they keep talking. The performance starts. All you can see: proud cell phones aimed at their kids, trying to catch every moment. All you can hear: loud chatter about Cousin Sally and her new boyfriend. Its obvious that their kid is not on stage yet as they are not even looking forward or paying any attention. Other parents start shooting dirty looks their way. Nothing, no reaction. Did you know Cousin Sally only knew this guy for a day before they started dating??? Oh, the scandal! My God, do they not notice... All of a sudden, phones are whipped out and all becomes quiet. Their precious snowflake is finally on stage and they want to capture it. You can feel the stress leave every person within earshot. Victory!! No one had to confront them! Oh wait. As snowflake exits stage left the cell phone is pocketed and the gossip picks up with abandon. Louder, even. Did you know that Cousin Sally already bought him an expensive watch? He’s totally using her. The dirty looks are no longer subtle. 20 people are shooting their worst death glares at the clueless crew. Oh crap. You realize that you are the closest person to these people. You have to speak up. This is on you. Everyone is counting on you. Another few minutes goes by as you imagine getting yelled at in the middle of the performance. Maybe you’ll get beat up in the parking lot. Maybe they will get louder. Maybe they will ignore you and just keep on going about Cousin Sally’s horrible taste in men. Ughhhhhhhh. Come on, just do it. Quick. Easy. You got this. You spin around in your chair “Excuse me, you are being very loud and none of us can hear our kids, can you please keep it down?” The matriarch of the bunch levels her eye at you silently. You do not avert your gaze. The other family members look uncomfortable and won’t look at you. Matriarch grunts “oh...yeah ok” and looks away from you. Satisfied you turn back around. You feel 20 parents silently cheering for you and the relief is palpable. I wish this situation had only happened to me once. But you see, I have a talent for finding myself stuck in front of these people. Every single time. Or maybe they find me? So, auditorium-dwelling loud talkers I have a few things to say to you: 1) No. Bad. *water bottle spritz* You are being rude. 2) See all these people here? We’re all here for our own kids. Yours is not the only one performing. 3) If you must speak, whisper. Quietly. Very quietly. 4) I do not want to hear the adventures of cousin Sally on my video when I rewatch it. I want to enjoy my child, not you. 5) Did I mention you should zip it? Sincerely, Every other parent
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I've been a follower of Jesus for a long time now... Since I was 14 actually. I have learned a lot about God and the nature of God in that timeframe. Most importantly I have learned that God can't be fully understood. I can't put Him in a nice neat box and call it my religion. My relationship with Him is very fluid and is very personal. He knows how to talk to me and I know how to hear Him (whether or not I do what his says all time is another post for another day).
There is one very important thing I have learned: He will redeem it. To clarify: God will redeem everything you lost by being obedient to his direction. The most dangerous and beautiful prayer you can ever say is "I'm yours God. I trust you. Use me." It's dangerous because God will then use you! It's terrifying and God will tell you to do things out of your comfort zone. He will stretch you and mold you into His likeness as you do the things He says. Sometimes though, obedience causes you pain. I grew up in California and when I graduated highschool at 17 years old I used my graduation money to visit my mom, sister and step dad in New Hampshire. I was supposed to be there for a month, which was how long I would usually visit. After about a week I heard God tell me to stay in New Hampshire. Surely God was joking! My entire life was in CA, my dad, my family, my friends, my church. Plus, rural NH was not high on my list for places to live. Seriously, i was a suburban California girl. Where would I find a boyfriend?? (I was 17, these things were important) So I argued with God for a week. God got louder. And louder. AND LOUDER. Finally I gave in. I didn't take the plane home. I broke my dad's heart when I told him I was staying, which broke mine as well. I left my closest friends and a gaping hole was left in their place. I left my whole life, my church, and started over completely. It hurt... badly. Amidst all this chaos and pain I just clung to the trust I had in God that He knew what he was doing. i really hoped He knew what He was doing. I am here to say...God redeemed it. I joined an Assembly of God church which showed my fundamentalist Baptist self a whole other side of God I had not previously seen. He revealed more if himself to me and my relationship with God really flourished. I made new friends whom I am still close to, and still kept the old ones through the miles separating us. My relationship with my step mom was improved by the distance so we could begin to work on healing. This relationship was eventually totally healed before she passed away. I met my husband at the Creation Festival trip my youth group went on. How's THAT for finding a boyfriend :) He redeemed it all. It was my first giant step of faith and I learned so much about trusting God through it. It was painful. It was hard. But trusting God was the right choice. My entire life as I know it right now hinged on that once decision. I thank God every day I trusted him through the pain. Since then I have done many scary things at His request. Things that caused my heart to hurt. I've left churches and lost friends because of God. I've quit jobs He told me to. I've obeyed God and gone where he told me to, knowing I wasn't wanted there. I'm currently sad because recently listening to God caused a situation where budding friendships were cut short and I miss them. It's still raw. But God will redeem it. He already is. I can tell you that if you hear God, obey. He will take care of you. He will heal your heart. It will still be hard. It will still hurt. But trust him in the situation and see what he can do with your life. It's worth it. Just close your eyes, take that trusting leap and trust that God will redeem it. Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I spent the last day of 2015 busting my butt in the kitchen doing another 20 dinner prep. If you didn't see my last one, check this out for reference http://www.sonottired.com/blog/how-to-prep-20-dinners-at-once. I was using a different meal plan this time although it is still from http://www.5dollardinner.com so prep was a little different. This is also a slow cooker plan because after running out of my previous stash of dinners, I'm tired of thinking about dinner. First you get an obligatory ingredients shot. I shopped the day before. I find shopping and prepping the same day to be too much for me... I've got tiny people! Thankfully DJ and Trinity are home so I have help this time. After gathering everything I label all the bags and set out my pans for the chopped veggies. I also use these pans when I put the bags together. The meal plan is awesome, it give you the shopping list, recipes and prep instructions. Its nearly impossible to mess up if you follow the directions. Also, I do not have a huge kitchen by any means. You can do this is any sized kitchen. Hint: before you begin, clean your kitchen, empty the dishwasher, have an empty garbage bag in the can and a recycling bag ready to go. Once you get going you don't want to have to deal with these things. I strap the tiniest helper onto my back and begin! First I wash and chop the veggies. This plan has less veggie chopping than my last one so I am hoping it will take less time overall. As I chop things I put them in pans and bowls. Freakiest looking mushroom. I realize that 1) I have to cook two sauces and 2) I need to peel 10 lbs of sweet potatoes. So I call for backup in the form of child labor. Trinity gets to work while I prepare the maple sauce and creamy mushroom sauce for two of the dinners. They have to be cooked and cooled before putting the bags together so I need to get them done first. Seriously you guys, this mushroom sauce was a homeade cream of mushroom soup for cooking so you don't need to use the canned stuff. I hate using the canned stuff. (By the way I just ate the ranch chicken tonight that used the soup and it was so good. Never using cans again) Trinity is still diligently peeling sweet potatoes while I brown and cool all the beef. Veggie prep done! Cans all opened and ready to go! At this point the baby is done. She's been chillen on my back this whole time and she needs a nap. So I take a break to nurse her and try to get her down. After an unsuccessful attempt at getting the baby down, I give her to DJ and try to finish. We have a New Year's Eve party to attend and time is running short! I go recipe by recipe and bag up each one. And done! I am wiped out! Look at all those dinners! You will notice that there are paper towels between each bag. You see last time a bunch of my bags stuck together. Imagine me trying to seperate giant bags of frozen stuff without ripping the bags or defrosting them. Really not fun. So the paper towels prevent that. Highly recommended. We have a "new to us" fridge in the utility room now. The fridge is DJs for his beer, the freezer is mine for my dinners. He really wanted me to show a pic of his kegs.. We currently have his Juice Box IPA on tap and a pear strawberry cider I made on tap. It pleases me. In total the prep took me approximately 4 hours. This was with Trinity helping with the peeling and chopping, but also included the baby break. I think those things balance each other out. I learned a few important things this time around. It's my third time doing this so I have figured out what works best for me. 1) I need to do this when everyone is home. It takes way less time when I have trinity to help and others to care for the baby. 2) Put paper towels between the bags in the freezer. Really happy about this one. It has made fishing the dinners out so much easier. We have eaten 3 of the dinners so far by the way and I think this is my favorite plan we have done. Delicious. 3) I need to wear good shoes. I don't usually wear shoes in the house but I am on my feet forever. That plus the baby on my back required some serious foot padding. 4) As I empty prep bowls and pans I put them immediately into the dishwasher (unless they are disposable, then just toss them) As you empty cans toss them in your recycling bag. By doing this it didn't look like my kitchen got destroyed by the time I was done. It just looked like I had cooked one dinner not twenty. When you are done with this you will be exhausted. No joke. But the benefits are so worth it. Come on! Try it! |
AuthorI'm so tired. The children are so not tired. |