Six Sweets & Me

Friday, February 10, 2012

Oceans of Love

A sleep-eyed blonde headed seven years old interrupted my sleep early this morning. She tearfully explained that in her dream a deep dark ocean full of sharks had surrounded her. I wrapped my arms around her and told her it was only a dream. After I got my barring and the burgers out of my eyes we went to the kitchen for some toast and hot cocoa. In my mind as we descended the stairs together I thought of her life and all those real “sharks” and “dark oceans” she will see. As her parent with Christian beliefs I have taught her about God’s unconditional love. His grace and wisdom. Will it be enough to battle these sharks? She starts second grade in a week. I think of how she will handle rejection. I wonder how she will handle herself when asked to leave some else out of the kick ball game. With grace and kindness? I pray so. Have you heard some of those boys? They are ruthless. Did I mention they are smelly? They can swarm and draw blood with their words. Will she try out some hurtful words or have patience and charity? Everyday she has the chance to choose Christ. When I held her in my arms years ago I knew these days of sweet innocence were numbered. I hope we have a few more. While we finished our toast I held her close to me. Her hair surrounding her face and smelling of chorine from our swim the night before. She grabbed my face with her hands, her mouth full of toast, and gave me what we call a nose kiss. You get nose to nose and rub noses back and forth. She told me that she loved me too much to help clean up. Cleaver. She got that phrase from one of my parenting bibles “Parenting with love and logic “. One of the suggestions in this book is that when a child argues with a parent, the parent needs to say with sincerity “ I love you to much to argue”. I guess I must say this a lot during the day. It’s nice to see that some of the tools of this book are paying off. Maybe when the sharks of second grade gather in the deep ocean of the “plays ground” she will respond with “ I love you too much to argue” or “ I love you too much to help”. Could be a good thing could be a bad thing. I will continue praying for good.

Just a taste of what I sent to Kansas City Star Sunday Faith Column, it was never published. I will keep trying though. What do you think? I really enjoy writing its one of my favorite outlets.

FYI Friday

There are times when Silence

has the loudest voice.

Leroy Brownlow

I have learned this wisdom with children and with my husband, for that

matter. There are times to just be silent and listen.

You may learn something astounding.

Simple advice, but hard to master.
Enjoy This weekend!

Country Corner

Magic Carpet Ride

I grew up a third generation farm girl in Eastern Utah. Our farm grew hardy cattle and strong girls. I was the youngest of five children. It was important to work hard and finish our chores. It was also important to play and to learn to play hard. I celebrated my birthday in mid January. The Uintah Basin can be mighty cold during that time of year. Nevertheless, my father knew how to throw his daughter a country charming good time. Farmers are resourceful, it’s in their blood. He would take the hood of an old chevy truck and turn it over, cover it in thick Navajo blankets. He would back up the tracker to it in the middle of our wide open frozen farm ground. Then he would carefully tie a rope from the hood to the tracker and we were ready for a screaming fun afternoon in the field. I remember climbing onto the rug and being amazed at how fast and furious the thing would fly. My friends and I would scream in anticipation as we would pick up speed rounding the corners at the bottom of the property. We could only be persuaded to give my dad a break by the mugs of hot cocoa my mother would have waiting for us inside. The Magic Carpet is such a sweet memory of my childhood.

My parents celebrated their 60^th wedding anniversary this past summer in that same beautiful field. Of course that day would not have been the same without my seventy nine year old father smiling that grin at me that said without words, “Don’t you think it’s time to bring out the magic carpet ride?” So with the energy of someone in their youth he attached the four wheeler in the yard to the turned over chevy pick up hood. My six children along with other cousins piled on and took off down through the country. You could hear their laughter for miles. They too could only be persuaded to give their grand father a break by the tall pile of water melon slices prepared by my mother. There are no words to express the joy of watching three generations of farm girls ride the magic carpet. One thing I can say for sure is that growing up a country girl was magic.