Today (Monday, August 6, 2012) is the first day of the new school year for Melissa and our kids, but not for me. I turned in my keys last Saturday. I am cleaned out of my classroom and someone else will be teaching sophomore English at the school. It was quite a strange feeling, walking out the door and leaving a perfectly good job behind. As I drove away, I was looking for a fitting soundtrack from the radio, but it was Saturday afternoon and that's a lousy time to listen to the radio. ZZ Top singing "She's got leeeeeeegs. She knows how to use them" didn't quite fit the mood. The closest I got was Tom Petty: "You don't ... have ... to live like a refugee."
I feel a bit refugee-ish. I'm living in someone else' house, I'm unemployed, and I am just trying to get out of the country! ;-)
So this morning felt very odd, too. Melissa needed to be out the door by 7:00 AM with the kids in tow. The alarm went off at 5:45 (much better than last year's 5:00 alarm!). Melissa got herself ready while I worked on breakfast - we're one of those minority families who have a hot breakfast together, even when things get rushed - and then started assembling lunches. Lunches will be a bit more challenging this year as we attempt to continue our recent habits of severely curtailing processed foods and grains. (And we really don't want our kids eating the school lunches!) So the lunch today: peanut butter and jelly on homemade bread, cheese stick, cherries, grapes, a small baggie of kettle corn and water. Breakfast: omelets and the banana bread Melissa made last night.
The kids were roused out of bed at 6:30. Melissa and I both worked to keep them on task as they ate breakfast, dressed and groomed for school.
I drove them to school at about 7:10. We prayed on the way. A couple of years ago, I had started a daily routine of praying for the three oldest each day before they headed off to their classes. Now all four are in school and we are definitely needing to keep that habit alive.
Before I could get back home (it's only a mile and a half), Melissa was calling to ask me to bring something she had forgotten, so I made a second trip. Once fully home, I did some push-ups and sit-ups and went for a two mile run. I was out of the shower a little after 8:00, made the bed, cleaned the kitchen and then sat down with my new prayer journal and my Bible.
The idea for dropping my job is for me to give myself fully to funding. But it has been impressed upon my heart that a big part of that process MUST be the strengthening of the foundation of my faith and spiritual life. If I don't emerge from this semester much closer to my God and Savior, a great opportunity will have been squandered. Don't we always make the excuse of "too little time" to justify our lack of serious attention to prayer and Bible study? I know I have - plenty of times. Well, that excuse is gone.
And I must say, I am thoroughly enjoying my prayer and study time. I have been missing out. When I have shortchanged my spiritual disciplines, I have shortchanged myself.
Obviously, I need to get to work now. I have a list of things to do - including everything from making an orthodontist appointment for The Drama Queen (who managed to lose her retainer over the weekend) to getting sermon information to Shelbyville First United Methodist Church where we will be preaching and sharing next Sunday.
It may seem like a weird prayer request, but if you think of it, could you pray that we would locate Drama Queen's retainer? We have confirmed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was not among the chicken bones, coffee grounds and used kleenex of the past several days, and we have no idea where else it could be. I desperately want to find it before her appointment. Replacement will be expensive ... and I'm unemployed! ;-)
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