This is gonna cost ya ...

Today, this little girl has displayed more pain and discomfort than I can remember her ever having. She has been clutching her stomach, saying things like "I can't take it!", and saying it hurt too much to sit up or stand.

So I had to take her to the doctor. But, we have just had a job change, and it turns out we didn't actually overlap our insurance coverages - our new insurance starts tomorrow. I didn't realize this, until I'm standing there with a moaning child in my arms, being told to go down and talk to the business office before I can be seen.

So, do you turn around and take the moaning, sick child back to your car and head home? Or do you go ahead and just agree to pay cash? And if you agree to pay cash, how does that affect each choice you make - get the x-ray or not? Run one more test or not?

We had to buy individual health insurance when my husband changed jobs and got this contracting gig. The cheapest full coverage we could find is still costing us $850 a month. I've just had to make that payment, and it hurt. We have to give up some of our frills to be able to afford this, and then I'm standing there wondering how I'll pay for my daughter to be seen today.

This is gonna hurt. This is gonna cost ya. I did it anyway, because I felt like I had to. The good news is that all the tests came back negative, and she didn't have appendicitis (my main fear) or an impacted bowel, or any weird blood work revealing something else wrong. She's still in pain, and they don't know why, but ruling those things out was important.

But imagine for the families that really can't find the money for those monthly premiums, or pay out of pocket for abdominal x-rays. Imagine having to carry that moaning child back out to the car. I really hope the health care reforms actually Do Something as they start to take effect. Because I don't like the way imagining those things makes me feel.

Toys I Love - Paper!

Give a kid a bunch of paper, something to draw with, and some tape, and most will be delighted and busy for hours. You could just give kids your recycling bin from work, but if you want something with a little more gift panache, here are two ideas:

Paper Doll Pads by Roylco. Every time I put these out in my SpiritPlay classroom at church, there is an explosion of creativity as kids glue and draw features and clothing onto them. The outline shape is just enough prompt, and they love it!

Picture Frame Pads by Melissa and Doug. A frame just makes artwork stand out, doesn't it? This pad of paper gives kids the frame to start with, and they can fill in the masterwork in the middle! Lots of fun.

Thank You, Thank You

On our long drive through traffic for Thanksgiving Day, I had the pleasure of listening to "Definitely Not the Opera" on NPR, and specifically an old episode from 2008 all about those two little words "Thank You".

This sparked a small discussion between my husband and I about how we like to be thanked - he would find someone reading him a "gratitude letter" out loud a horrible experience, while I thought it was sweet. There was also one fellow on the program who tried to write Thank You notes to Everyone, Every Day, who did Anything nice for him. My thought - how do you have time to be out and about where people can be nice to you!

When I first started my job at the church, the minister was engaged in an effort to write three Thank You cards a week and send them to folks in the church. He challenged me to try it also as a practice, and I have been. Sometimes it's not exactly three, but on Mondays I reflect over the week previous and write little notes to folks just telling them Thank You for what they did that week.

I love this as a practice. It makes me reflect and focus on what other people did, and honestly sometimes it's too easy to only see what you contribute, while in reality there are so many folks doing things both big and small that deserve notice. I also find that I'm happier in my job, and have an easier time asking for help and approaching people as possible volunteers.

Even if you don't have a job like mine that involves volunteer management, there are benefits to a gratitude practice of some kind. How can you say 'Thank You' more often (and mean it)?

Don't Let the Light Go Out

I've been trying to go in for the beginning of each church service, and be sitting in the front row when it's time for me to step up and tell the story for all ages. This is so much calmer and more worshipful than to be out running around seeing to last minute details and greeting latecomers until the very last minute ...

And today we got to sing this in church, a song that I love ...

Thankful for ...

This. Family. Plenty of food, all made with loving care for everyone's food sensitivities (this year I gained a new sister-in-law who cannot eat dairy, to add to our gluten-free needs and my Dad's chicken egg problem). Plenty of helpers when we couldn't get our car back up the hill in front of my Dad's house with the slushy ice on the road. The specialness of eating on the good china, and getting to drink from stemware. Hypatia was so happy having stemware, right up until she knocked it over onto her Aunt Domini and broke the glass. Thankful for everyone trying to comfort her after. Thankful for my silly brothers who both grew mustaches this month. Thankful for the delicious turkey that my family raised and killed and my father brined and smoked to perfection. Thankful for all the games of chess Carbon got to play, and the game Hypatia was playing where she pretended to be a call center and had people use catalogs to call her and order stuff. She charged someone $900 for a sweater! Thankful for my dog that behaved herself in the back of my car and didn't scratch it all up or chew on the seats (I was a bit worried about that).

I have a blessed life, and although I sometimes forget that, I am still intensely grateful for it all. I think the original meaning of these harvest festivals/Thanksgivings is that we are glad to have lived through another year, glad for the bounty we've gathered from the earth, glad to still have our loved ones around us. And I am, so glad, so thankful.

Toys We Love

Can I claim to love a toy that we don't own? Both kids, but Carbon especially, are very interested in Pokemon. But, although he has purchased quite a few Bakugans, he doesn't have any Pokemon cards yet. Still, he just makes his own cards. He's created a whole game inspired by Yugioh as well. Although I don't personally feel much interest in these collector card games with the need to calculate points and all the rest, I do see the attraction for the kids and it seems like good clean fun.

Both kids have added Pokemon cards to their lists they wrote for Santa, so I guess we will soon own a few of these addictive cards. :)

A Pause

Snow has come early to our neck-of-the-woods, and it doesn't take much to slow things down. This morning my alarm clock went off, my husband sat up and looked out the window, and then said "might as well turn off the alarm clock, honey".

Delicious. Sleeping in, letting the kids wake up on their own and then climb into bed with us for a snooze. Making hot chocolate and oatmeal for breakfast and then heading out for a romp in the snow. It was a short lived romp, as Hypatia took a very bad fall on the ice, but still a romp. Now we have blankets and movies and more hot chocolate. Board games for later. A sweet pause to our lives, a chance for just being cozy with the kids, and a good excuse for some extra rest, reflection, and renewal. I like it (provided this is short lived - it needs to melt tomorrow so I can still get some stuff done before Thanksgiving and make the drive to my Dad's house on Thursday!).