It's the Big Payback!

I just finished putting my seven month old grandson to sleep! 

Whew! 

Today was supposed to be the last day of his summer visit here in America but their flight back to St. Maarten got cancelled.  We didn't find that out until we had arrived all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the airport at O'dark-thirty this morning.  No sweat off our backs. One more day was an unexpected blessing!  

We threw the luggage back in the van, sped home and ate a hearty breakfast.  Unfortunately, as the eyelids of everyone over the age of thirteen around the table began to droop and every final slide of pancakes across puddles of syrup met slowing lips, the little tyke increased in energy. 

SOURCE:musicmookreview.com

My mother in-law and I chuckled at the exasperation on my daughter's face and traded stories of how our kids had defied the moral code of sleeping during decent hours...well my kids did, hers slept from 9-3.  I reminisced about how car rides didn't work for one, closing the door while they went to sleep on their own didn't work for another (she would climb out the crib and find me...creepy #shudders) and how my mom said I deserved everything I got since I happened to be part bat and secretly conspired to suck years from her youth when I was just a wee tot.  So I volunteered to take him with me to drop off his two young aunties at summer camp so everyone could catch forty winks without interruption.

I intended to have a white noise fest and knock him out cold. We headed off down the road, AC pumping and windows down; which didn't turn out as well as I anticipated. Today happened to be trash day and the sanitation truck drivers around here must have been told to leave a Hansel and Gretel trail of garbage juice on all of the roads so they could find their way back to the dump. 

SOURCE:lemurandbushbaby.wikia.com

"How's he doing?" I asked, wrinkling up my nose.   
"He's not sleep yet," my eleven year old said, curling her top lip in disgust.  
Ten minutes later, I dropped them off and headed over to the gas station....  blink, blink, kick, kick, grin, grin.

I looked at him and thought,  "You may be tough, but grandma is the original queen of "I'm up now and I ain't going down without a fight!"

I stared at him through the side window while I pumped gas... blink, blink, kick, kick, grin, grin.  

Hmmm, what's the best way to put down a third generation strong willed baby bat who believes the main objective of every adult is to put him to sleep?

Harps and guitars playing Baptist hymns!!! 

SOURCE:pastorjoe.me

All gassed up now, I look in the back and see the feet still kicking and press play on my iTunes playlist featuring a CD I got from Our Daily Bread.  Needless to say, after smelling the winding trails of lost trash trucks and cleaning plastered gnats off my glasses as I took the looooong way home through my county, the kicking wound down to an occasional head roll and soft snore.  Victory is mine...at least until he wakes up!

While this battle of the wills and quest for utter dominance of babies over mothers seems to be on repeat for my family, it's nothing I would wish as payback on my daughters when they have children of their own. Figuring out how to bribe the Sand Man to increase his dosage on your kids is not a Girl Scout patch that has to be earned by every mother. Just like having the class from H- E double hockey sticks during your first year teaching isn't a badge that new teachers should have to earn either.

As educators, we all know that class lists are either generated by computers or handpicked with fairness or devilish intentions.  Whatever the case may be, it often seems that new teachers get the pick of the liter that everyone is glad they don't have. Then, the seasoned teachers and administrators sit back and rip the new teacher to shreds for not having any classroom management. Really?

SOURCE:mosoulfood.wordpress.com

So, this is what I propose to you who have the heart of Jesus pumping His mercy and grace giving blood through your veins.  Remember Proverbs 11:25 NIV.

A generous person will prosper;

    whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

If you're looking to have a good year, make sure to look for those who are not having one.  Take the lesser experienced teacher or administrator under your wings. You know with God all things are possible.  So, it could be possible that this year your job is to teach, but your assignment is the teacher down the hall.  1 Peter 4: 10 says that each of us is to use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 

As I quoted in a previous blog, you may be the only bible some people ever read.  Therefore, this school year, make it a point to fill your pages with love and truth.

SOURCE: faithgateway.com

The Lord is with you and you are loved,

Toni

P.S.  Don't forget to join me on www.educatordominion.com by clicking on the Home link at the top of this page starting July 27th for our Forty Days of Prayer for Education campaign.  Get a copy of the ebook today! 

P.S.S.     He's up!!!