Summer Showers Daybook: August 12, 2014

Outside my window:
it is rainy and grey.
I am thinking:
about addiction and mental illness and the tragic, horrific loss of Robin Williams and along with him a talent that was beyond words.  I am thinking about the fact that we don't often see parents standing up in front of throngs of people at fundraisers with their mentally sick children describing their experiences and their needs because there is still, even with all of our medical knowledge, shame and embarrassment and a society that many times points fingers before showing compassion.  I know many wonderful, beautiful, smart, loving people who have been broken by mental illness.  I am thinking that more must be done to help them lest we lose more men and women with the potential to spread light and laughter to the darkness of suicide.
I am thankful:
for a rainy day that cancelled plans and gives us a chance to catch our breath.  The lazy days of summer end in July here as the golf season kicks in full force and the fall baseball practice schedule fills up our evenings.  I am grateful to be able to take a moment to fill in the family calendar with the calm, controlled, non-superfreak positive attitude I plan to be sporting this season.  Thankful.  Yes.  Thankful.  Rain, rain, please don't go away quite yet.
In the kitchen:
coffee and that's about it.
I am wearing:
black running shorts, green Nike running top, Nike running shoes.
I am listening to:
guys upstairs installing the carpet, The Today Show's coverage of Robin Williams, the washer/dryer cleaning dirty golf clothes.
I am going:
to possibly make some popcorn and have a rainy day movie day with the boys:  Mrs. Doubtfire, Dead Poets Society, Hook, Patch Adams, Good Morning, Vietnam, Awakenings or my favorite of all time, Good Will Hunting?  Not sure which to pick.  Maybe some are not appropriate for the youngest one, but I think I could spend all week watching his brilliant performances.
I am reading:
Just about finished with Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple.  This book is quirky and odd and HILARIOUS.  Love it.
I am hoping:
to get myself registered for Community Bible Study before it fills up.
I am looking forward to:
getting the most out of summer before it leaves me.
I am learning:
that hurting people hurt people and that if I keep that in mind it is easier (although certainly not easy) to be compassionate and gracious and forgiving.  I am learning that being a Christian is not about automatically feeling those things.  It's about remembering who Jesus was and who He wants us to be.  I'm learning that all the things He wants us to be can absolutely not be done without Him.  I am learning that He gives me a chance to be all of those things again each time that He allows me to open my eyes to a new day.  I'm going to keep learning.  The lesson is never ending.
I am praying:
for the patience to deal with squabbling children.
I am wondering:
if you have ever experienced the joy of a 5 hour trip in traffic with the added benefit of listening to PGA Tour Radio's coverage of the PGA Championship FOR THE ENTIRE TRIP like I did on Sunday.(Shout out to my friend, Christine K. who I know, feels my pain) This is what happens when you notice that you cannot see the end of the bumper to bumper traffic.

And this is what happens when you have heard the commentator describe the uphill lie that Fowler and/or Mickelson and/or McElroy has for birdie in his demented, loud-whisper voice as if he has never seen anything so exciting in all of his life in hour 5 of the trip.

I am pondering:
My sister gave me a little tip that she learned at her church on Sunday.  When reading 1 Corinthians 13::4-7 replace the word "love" with "Christians".  How 'bout that?  We don't follow those rules all the time, do we?  Let's try and ask his grace when we screw it up.
A quote for today:
"Unless our lives are generous, our faith is starving to death" - Ann Voskamp
A verse for today:
"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you." - Isaiah 54:10
One of my favorite things:
sitting by the lake with Steve's Aunt Barbara talking for hours while Uncle Max teaches the boys to sail.  There is no bigger gift than to have multiple generations together.  It is worth the time.  It is worth the traffic.  It is worth listening to golf on the radio.  It is worth putting the phone in the very bottom of my purse.  For my boys and for me there are lessons they learn at a 97 year old lakehouse that the most sophisticated technology in all the world cannot teach them.  Family and love and the sharing of memories, both tragic and triumphant.  Those are gifts immeasurable.


A few plans for the week:
Compiling photos from our Colorado trip and writing about the family memories there, a BIG day of thanks for the 50th anniversary of my amazing parents this Friday, a few golf tournaments for Joe and his high school team and some baseball practices, enjoying the last weeks of summer.
A peek into my day: 
I think I've decided which movie to watch:

"No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world." - Robin Williams as John Keating in Dead Poets Society