7 Quick Takes Sunday (Better Late Than Never)

1 Small Town Life

Statue of Local Hero and Airport Namesake, Rick Husband

We had an early morning adventure yesterday taking my husband to the airport. Our Daddy works there so everyone on staff knows our kids and it was so early we were the only people in the entire section other than airport employees, so this was a fairly "safe" adventure of negotiating the escalators. We all wound up in the same place eventually, but at one point, I had one child at the bottom of the escalator, one on the escalator, and three descending the adjacent stairway. My husband called me to laugh about the fact that he'd heard all about it prior to boarding his flight. News travels fast in a small town airport!

2 Coupons from Betty Beguiles!

Shabby Apple, Modcloth, and other retailers some of my friends just love (but can't afford) are running discounts through Betty Beguiles. Head on over to get the coupon codes and some awesome end of season savings!

3 Models of Grief

My grandmother in February. My friend in April. Andy's sister in June. His grandmother just this week. Almost every family goes through those times when the losses seem to come in like the tide. When the latest call stopped me in my tracks, my kids alerted to the tone of my voice and clustered around silently to comfort me as I tried to comfort my mother-in-law. How do we know how to do this? How do we find the words when words won't do? Comforting another seems like an impossible task, yet how necessary it is to try.

Because of all this, the grieving process has been front and center around here lately, and as a family we stumbled across some new information we'd like to share. I'm sure everyone has heard of the stages of grief. Come to find out, those stages actually observed and documented the stages the dying person went through. It was applied only anecdotally to the family members grieving the loss. So, those documented stages of grief that we all know like the back of our hand may be undergoing some revisions soon. Here's the link to the article I stumbled across. It is calling for a new grief model. You just might find it interesting.

4 *Cough Hack*

We have all succumbed to a summer cold around here. Two days ago my son used his iPad to complain "Sick and Tired" on his Proloque2go app. I passed it off as a fluke. Today, when the other four came down with swollen glands, sniffles, and sneezes, he flashed me his patented "I told you so!" smirk. The little smarty pants!

5

I came across this and loved it. You may see this one again as it has generated plenty of pondering. Had to share it!

6 How It Is Supposed to Work

1. God
2. Spouse
3. Kids
4. Me

Looks simple enough, doesn't it? Sensible. Regardless of what my good intentions are I keep slipping up to the number one slot. I don't know how I keep managing to wind up there. I just seem to reset to the pre-Galileo I'm-at-the-center-of-the-Universe-self-esteeming mindset. Then, if that's not bad enough, I'm missing a whole class of people: my neighbor. The "Love Thy Neighbor" thing has to fit in there somewhere, doesn't it? I haven't even begun to add them to my "Supposed to Do" list!


My actual list looks more like this...

1. Me
2. Me
3. Why are you bugging me?
4. Oh, whoops.
5. Confession.
6. Repeat.


Why do I seem to continually get this whole Christian Life thing wrong? Le sigh.

7 Prayer Request

Please pray for the repose of the souls of my sister-in-law Catherine and my husband's grandmother Julia and all who love and miss them. Thank you so much.




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Thanks to Jennifer Fulwiler, a fellow Texan, for hosting

7 Quick Takes Friday 

over at Conversion Diary.com