I love setting clocks back. I don’t like darkness settling in so early.

Jim’s mom’s house sold in Idaho this week. That is a relief on many fronts: we don’t have to worry about the upkeep or electric bills or keeping it heated during the winter while unattended. Plus this should help finance her expenses for years to come, hopefully until the Lord takes her home. Her other sources of income ran a few hundred dollars short of monthly expenses, so part of her savings was being used to supplement that. This, barring some unforeseen expense, should take care of things.

She has mixed emotions, of course. She loved seeing the check for the house! And she is relieved that it is sold. But there is sadness, too, at this last tie being severed with a place that holds such memories. Jim allowed time for her to talk through all of that and encouraged her that the place that had been a blessing to her for years can now bless others.

One frustration we have experienced is that a Power of Attorney doesn’t mean what we thought it meant. We thought that gave Jim consent to take care of her legalities. But some businesses and agencies will not deal with him. He’s had to go to her place and call some of these places, put them on speaker phone, explain to her what they’re asking and what information they want without telling her what to say (one guy from the VA yelled at him for that), all the while she can’t hear well and she gets very agitated at this kind of thing, which causes more confusion and agitation. I understand they want to protect the elderly from people who would bilk them out of their money and such. But the people who make these regulations would benefit from actual experience with elderly people who can’t hear, get easily confused, and suffer from some degree of dementia. He has to take her with him for a few things, and she not only really dislikes going places, but she can’t walk far even with her walker. We’re looking for a used wheelchair for her.

Mittu’s mom is here visiting, and we enjoyed spending time with her.

Finally saw Facing the Giants this weekend. It’s not bad. I had heard that the acting was not good, but it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. The message about right priorities and making sure one is right with God were good, but it is a little misleading that all your hopes and dreams are going to come true as a result of God’s blessing when your heart is right. I do share the concern Challies mentioned (I finally subscribed to him — a good many of the bloggers I read quote or link back to him, so I figured it was time to get it straight from the source 🙂 ) here that the producers of it and Fireproof were praying that their next film not be “a good movie [but] a God movie…” Those two should not be mutually exclusive: it should not be either/or. If it is a film for God, it should be made as well as possible. Christian films have a reputation for being a little hokey. Ironically, one of the messages of Facing the Giants was giving your best effort. Psalm 33:3 says, “Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.” Instrumentalists were to be skillful in their playing. Colossians 3:23 says, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men,” and Ecclesiastes 9:10a says, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” We may be limited by experience, finances, etc. but within that framework our work needs to be the best it can possibly be.

(Stepping off soapbox now.)

Our church ladies’ newsletter/booklet was due out this past weekend. I just want to testify again of the grace God provides when doing anything for Him. I keep thinking I need to finish this newsletter a week or so ahead of time so it can “incubate” — that would relieve some pressure and enable me to catch mistakes and see better ways to phrase things. But it just doesn’t seem to come together until the last week,  especially the last few days. This past week it seemed innumerable things came up those last few days (including an unexpected run to Jim’s Mom’s audiologist when her hearing aid wasn’t working right), yet on the busiest day, in the 30-45 minutes I had to work on it, several big pieces just fell together beautifully. I was able to get them printed off and distributed Friday, which I was hoping to do, because Mittu’s mom was coming in Saturday and I needed to get some things done at home. Thank you, Lord!

I wish you all a good week. I’ve been adding to my to-do list all morning — guess I’d better get to it!

Since my youngest just turned 16 and isn’t into “toys” so much these days, I don’t go to Toys Are Them much any more. But I went there this week looking for a couple of things on the birthday list (video games) they have there. That triggered several stray thoughts, some nostalgic.

• One of my all-time favorite comic strips was one from “For Better or Worse” in which the oldest boy had a friend come to visit, and the friend picked up the boy’s teddy bear and made a comment about it. The boy said something like, “That old thing?” and tossed it aside. Then after his friend left, the boy picked up his teddy bear and hugged it. That just perfectly encapsulated the sometimes boy/sometimes becoming a man aspect of boys growing up.

• A few years ago I was going through my youngest son’s room trying to clear some of the clutter and get rid of things he no longer played with. He had a big basket full of stuffed animals, and he had a friend over at the time, so I thought that might be a good time to go through the animals — with his friend there he might be more likely to think of them as “childish” and get rid of them. But as we went through them one by one, his friend, very much an all-boy, rough and tumble type, kept saying, “No, you can’t get rid of that! That’s so cute!”

• I don’t know if all of the Toys Are Them stores are like this, but with ours you have to go down the whole length of the store and then through the seasonal stuff to get to the main part of the store. Hate that. Especially when what I want is near the entrance, but I’ve got to go all over the place to get to it.

• When my kids were little they thought of the toy store almost like an amusement park. It was fun just looking through things and going to all the different departments.

• I generally avoid going there on Saturdays when it is crowded and noisy. Weekday mornings are ideal.

• I miss Little Tykes and Fisher Price. I get wistful just walking by their aisles.

• The things our kids played with long after other toys were laid aside were Legos, Transformers (even before the current revival due to the movies), and Nerf guns. They had a Nerf bow and arrow set they played with for years. I looked at Nerf stuff that day at the store, but I think interest in them has been replaced by paintball and airsoft guns. I almost got a little wistful walking by the Lego stuff. One Jesse wanted but never got was a big Star Wars ship. I looked at it yesterday and it was $129. Cough, cough, cough. Much as we loved Legos, I just never could justify that amount.

• Must everything be branded? I didn’t mind buying some things with their favorite characters on them when they were little, but good grief. Everything has current popular TV characters or stars on it.  Years ago a friend decorated her daughter’s room all in the current Disney film stuff, and I thought, “What are you going to do when the next film comes out?”

• We use “wish lists.” A family that I admired and respected did that, and I thought it was a good idea. I love to give what people want and would like. The kids were made to understand they wouldn’t get everything on the list and they might get some things not on the list, but the list was a general guideline. I used to be able to stray off the list with some good guesses when they were younger, but not so much these days. Part of that is due to the more technological stuff they’re into now, part of it is that the stuff they’re interested in now is more expensive, so I am less likely to take a chance on it.

• My mom loved to give as well — I am sure that was her “love language,” though I don’t know if I would say it is mine. One of the most memorable gifts we received from her for the kids was a heap of Little People stuff — the old fashioned kind before they started making the squatty-bodied ones to avoid little kids choking on them. When Mom had asked me for ideas, I mentioned maybe one of the sets for the boys as a group — a Little People Farm, Little People Garage, Little People Main Street, etc. But she got one set for each boy instead of one for all of them to share, and then got a bunch of sets of just the people, which my sister Shelly wrapped individually as stocking stuffers. That was fun. My husband said we needed a whole room just for the Little People.

I know that  “putting away childish things” is a part of growing up, and I am enjoying the young men our boys are becoming, but I have to admit I do miss buying toys. And the little girls’ aisles — I only got to go through those when my guys were going to a birthday party or when my nieces were small. That is one aspect of having grandchildren that I am going to love….someday….though not the most important aspect, of course. Meanwhile, I’ll just wax a little wistful in the toy store.