Wednesday, April 18, 2012

socks and sandals

this morning when i put raiden's clothes out for school, i laid a pair of socks on top. i could only find one tennis shoe, though (a common problem around our house), so i grabbed her sandals. after she got dressed, she started to put her shoes on. i told here she didn't need the socks since she was going to wear sandals.

her reaction?

bottom lip sticks out. she starts and huffing and pouting, whining that she wants to wear socks.

okay--easy solution.
i grab a different pair of shoes, a pair she can wear with socks.
my easy solution, though, doesn't work for her.
she doesn't want those shoes. she wants the little white sandals.

looking back, this probably should have been one of those "pick your battles" moments. i probably should have just let her wear socks with the strappy white sandals. she is, after all, only in preschool. in the long run, it wouldn't have mattered.


but come on--socks with little white sandals?
really?
(just as an aside, apparently i know nothing about fashion. while searching for a "bad" picture of a girl wearing socks and sandals, i kept finding pictures of what is apparently a "good thing" in the fashion world. whod-a-thunk-it?)


she's pouting, sitting on the couch. we are running through the whole rigmarole (wow, i never knew that was a real, defined word...you learn something new everyday!)--
you have to make a choice, and you have to make it now.
it is time for us to go to school, and you are about to make us late.
either wear the sandals or put on the socks and change your shoes.


that doesn't end the pouting, and now i'm really getting agitated.
i run through her options one last time, and she's still pouting.


i may have then proceeded to take the sandals off her feet and put the socks and other shoes on her.
she may have then proceeded to remove said shoes and socks in the car on the way to school.
we may have had a few words, including but not limited to one of those parent exaggeration statements: "i better not hear about you doing one thing wrong at school today, because you have already pushed too far and you know what will happen..."
            (...for those of you who know our family stories, what comes to mind here is pop famously telling sarah, "i don't care if a meteorite falls on your big toe--i better not hear you whining!")


some days, raiden thinks she knows more than i do. she, for some reason, gets it in her head that her 5 years have taught her so much more than my almost 28 years have taught me.


isn't that annoying? you know what's best, but somebody still challenges it.


it makes me wonder how God puts up with me like He does.
some days, i think i know more than He does. i, for some reason, get it in my head that my almost 28 years have taught me so much more than God's eternity...

at those moments, my favorite passage to read is job 38-42:6
i'm not going to put 4 1/2 chapters on here, but that passage starts like this:

"who is this that darkens My counsel with words without knowledge? brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me." (niv)


i like how it is put in the message. i've taken the liberty to put my own name in place of job's--feel free to do the same.
"why do you confuse the issue? why do you talk without knowing what you're talking about? pull yourself together, mandy! up on your feet! stand tall! I have some questions for you, and I want some straight answers."

sometimes, i need to be reminded that i really don't know anything.

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~Mandy

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