Baking, Making, and Taking

Do you ever wonder if you're teaching your kids all the stuff they need to know for when they go away, or for when they start believing their friends more than they believe you?

Maybe it's because we have not eaten around the table together all year (aka Bob's diva liver) I'm thinking about this. Ten-years-old today seems older than it used to be. Like it's really 15. Or like 15 on the outside and 5 on the inside. That awkward inbetween time of growing up. You just really start to think about how much kids need, especially the ones who look mature, but really are not. They are just still little kids, but are treated with much higher expectations because they seem so much older. But they are not. They are just children. And they need so much from all of us.

I'm thinking about the fresh idealistic college students I met at Gustavus last Saturday, including the President of the Fair Trade Club who made a special effort to meet me. I'm realizing that Amanda also took in all the information about the cocoa farmers in Ghana. I'm thinking about the boy who is getting kicked out of a church because he started a fight, wondering what he is taking in about the unconditional love of God that is bigger than everything. I'm thinking about the adults who are afraid of the noise and the confusion of the kids. And how we adults teach stuff all the time, whether we want to or not.

Amanda says that her mom makes beds really good. She asked me if I could make her bed today so that it's pretty. I am wishing I could make some kind of a cushion to take us through this stage, which I think will be too long. And yet when it's over, my little girl will be grown up.

Just thinking for today. Thanks so much for coming over to the liver blog. Cheers to all of you.

With love, T