Just a bunch of words

Big Daddy and I send each other multiple texts during the day. I usually end mine with a heart or some sort of smiley.

Cousin Callie writes Taylor Swift-ish love songs. Maggie writes Taylor Swift-ish love songs, but they are to or about God. It's quiet sweet. I made the decision a year or more ago to really censor what music was playing in the car. While we listened to mostly country music, (which I thought was pretty tame) I realized that a lot of the lyrics were suggestive and almost made me throw up in my mouth when they were being sung from my daughter's lips. (I tried to let her watch a country music awards show one time, but you quickly realize that can't happen when the first song was "Kiss My Country A$$".) So, we we started listening to only Contemporary Christian music in the car and the occasional children's cd. We also have a Taylor Swift cd (which I censor what songs we listen too) and a couple of Big Daddy's cd's in the car. Maggie is a big fan of Casting Crown and David Crowder Band. She loves that the songs we sing at church are also on our radio.

Lots of people don't agree with the way that we parent and think that we are too strict, but I think it has become painfully obvious that too many parents and families aren't strict enough these days. Of course, I also let my children dress like clowns more often than not. I like to think that I'm keeping the balance right.

I write love notes to my best mommy friends. Nine times out of ten, we end our messages to each other with "I Love You" or "xoxoxo". Sometimes I blush. Since Ms. A is dealing with all of the cancer-stuff, I realize how much it means to tell even your friends that you love them. I have spent more time than I can count praying for her, worrying about her and trying to explain all of this to Maggie. Maggie knows so many people that have died from cancer, so it's hard to explain that Ms. A will have treatments that will not be fun (she's going to have a stronger chemo than we thought), she will feel bad, she may look different and yes, she may be bald.

The thought of A losing her hair has been hard for us. I finally talked with her about it on Tuesday night. It's very possoble that she may lose her hair and she's taking that news very well. She's not doing well with all of the other stuff. I told her I would do anything that I could and I told her that I'd totally let her shave my head. She is a beautician, after all. She laughed and then said, "really" in the sweetest tone. And yes, I would. In a heartbeat. Maggie overheard all of this and doesn't want anyone to lose their hair. I think that may be one of her most sincere prayers now! Many times when I have heard that someone was facing a potentially life threatening illness, I would think about how it would impact their, spouse, family or me. With A being sick and especially after talking with her last night, I worry about how she feels and what she fears.

There was a mass shooting just a few miles from our church on the Sunday before last. It happened while we were in church and we only found out about it later that evening. I'll keep the details short, but a lady shot the married man that she had been having a multi-year affair with, two of her children, her son's girlfriend, and two children that had been left in her custody after their mother had passed away and then shot herself. The shootings happened at three different locations, so there was some confusion. There was only one survivor, the married man and five children between 8 and 17 were lost.

Our church is quiet large and literally center of this community and it has been the location of a candlelight vigil and counseling provided by the local school that most of the older children attended. Our pastor shared lots of details about what had been going on at church behind the scenes. None of the families involved had a church family. Some of the youth in our church coordinated the vigil and even picked out and lead the songs for the vigil. The pastor has spent time with all of the families and I can only imagine how hard that has been for him. The visitation for all of the victims will be at our church on Thursday starting in the afternoon. On Friday morning, our pastor will conducting the funeral for the six people that lost their lives and the church will be feeding their families on both days. In all of this, the saddest part for me was that none of these people were affiliated with a church. I have had lots of people say critical things because we don't go to the church that I grew up in and because we go to such a large church, but there is a big reason.