This past Friday I had the privilege of hearing another popular speaker, Sheila Wray Gregoire. I certainly did not expect to hear what I heard that night. I went in with the understanding that it was going to be about "Girl Talk" as that was the name of her tour she was on, and that it was going to be about marriage and possibly even alude to the "S" word, but I had noooooo idea that that was, in fact, going to be the focus.....the whole night was pretty much about, uh.....sex.
Absolutely shocking. Why? Because no one talks about it. She dared to. She even dared to write several books on the topic, specifically for Christian women. I asked her how she ever got permission from her husband to write books like that, but she explained he was a doctor....it's a medical thing to him, so it didn't bother him in the least. It bothered her younger daughters at first, but now one of them is married and she said, "I'm just so grateful you wrote this book so that now we don't have to talk about it!" Ironically, now that same daughter works for her and they talk about it every single day.
It is clearly a sensitive issue for so many women and the fact that it appeared nearly sold out says a lot! What struck me wasn't all the laughter that was going on all night (we were killing ourselves laughing most of the time!). I was more aware of the pain in a lot of women through the questions they anonymously asked. Pornography was a big topic. No longer just for men anymore, but now for women through certain kinds of "literature", I use the term loosely....
Little House on the Prairie women would never have had a talk like this one, but clearly the time has come for women to be able to talk about it, hear about it and get issues out of the dark and into the light. I was very impressed with Sheila's boldness and sensitivity and how she handled such a potentially squeamish topic.
This week for us will be a full one, literally. I have 17 people under my roof. Fourteen of them are under 18. Nine of them are under 11. And, here's the big "wow"....nine of them are BOYS!!!!!!! Last night we decorated a tree with this visiting family and, big mistake, we used popcorn. It looks like we popped the popcorn in the family room with the lid off the machine! It's incredible, the mess. It will be a fun week for the kids. We'll see if the Mommies survive.
I was determined to keep some semblance of order and fortunately they all brought their schoolbooks, so at one point, they were all sitting around the table doing their school. It was amazing. When I used to teach I realized that was how many I had in my classroom at one point (because it was a small private school). So yes, it was a small private school here yesterday and will be all week.
Today 4 of them will actually go to "school" at a historical museum where they will act out what school was like 100 years ago in the "Strict but Nice" program they offer. My dad went to a one-room schoolhouse and that's just what this will be like. It's a program I've done with all the kids and they love it.
So we've given ourselves a bit of a challenge. We're going to see if we can make it a month without the extra car. It is a bit of an inconvenience, but the only time we really need the extra car is when we go somewhere as a family and that's only once in a while now. We haven't even needed it for church because I've been home watching my friend's kids. We'll see how that goes!
We're well into the Christmas season now. The house is decorated, though messy. There's no question about gifts anymore. We just know that we don't fall for the insanity anymore. Such a relief as it would put me in a tailspin every year. However......this year will be a little different. We're hosting my friend and her family on Christmas day and they do exchange gifts, so in the spirit of making it a fun day for them and not being grinches, we will do a gift exchange with her kids. We'll keep it simple, but each kid will open something that they get from the other family. It's getting us creative as we'll probably make things and if we do purchase something it'll be on the small scale.
So every year is a little different. I never know just how it will look, but I'm grateful that we are still very much trying to not lose the focus of the season which can get eaten up in the world's view of Christmas. That makes the decorating, cookies and music even more meaningful as I can really enjoy all of those fun elements without being caught up and distracted by the stress that usually accompanies all those things. Whew!
grt
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