Danny ChaiI’ve been deathly sick the last few days. Wednesday and Thursday, I barely got out of bed. Insane headache, sore muscles, extreme fatigue, bitter taste in my mouth, cough, sore throat, snot, the works. I have no clue if this is swine flu but if it is, I don’t recommend getting it. I still have all the symptoms, just milder, and man, it sucks.
The June 8 issue of Newsweek has a full-page ad that reads:
“What if church wasn’t just a place to go on Sunday, but helped you have a place to go on Monday?
Rethink church at 10thousanddoors.org.
Thousands of Job Training Programs
Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors. The people of The United Methodist Church”
I was blown away. Who would have ever thought that the Methodist church would ever come up with something innovative or interesting? Just kidding. Kind of.
Random stats from Christianity Today:
Number of the 11 American Idol finalists who regularly perform at places of worship: 6
Number who have worked as worship leaders at a church: 3
So we finally have a little more free time. I don’t know what it is. A lot has to do with Joshua sleeping the night, something we couldn’t have happen until after Korea. The fact that he can somewhat play by himself has helped a lot also. Plus the Korea experience seems to have trained Abby to entertain herself. So more free time.
Parenthood is interesting. For me at least, it feels I reach a point where I can’t take it anymore and right then, it gets better. And I don’t even have a right to complain, as Jieun does the lion’s share of everything. I’m actually kind of complaining on her behalf. But like, after some point you can’t take having to carry the baby all the time – then he learns to sit up / crawl by himself. You get so sleep-deprived you think you’re going to die – then the baby finally sleeps the night. It’s as if child-development is timed so that each critical stage happens right at the emotional breaking point.
I dunno, either I’m doing it wrong or I’m not a natural parent. I think it’s the latter. Because as rewarding as it is (and it truly is), it never ceases to feel like hard work. And it’s exhausting. I literally don’t know how parents of multiple children have any free time at all. For a long while, I didn’t. My daily schedule was: wake up at 7 (or whenever Abby got up), get her ready for the day, feed her breakfast, on certain days take her to preschool. Then go straight to work. Come home around 7, finish dinner with the kids, have nighttime duty with Abby. We typically ate dinner after the kids went down, at like 9. Then we’d watch one TV show, do chores, then go to sleep. Every single day. Literally no free time at all.
Another reason I think I’m not a natural parent is because everything else in my life has suffered for it – I’m less effective at work (largely because I’m tired), my relationships have suffered, my spiritual life has suffered (a ton). That can’t be how parenthood is supposed to be.
But yeah, like my sickness, it’s slowly getting better.
Wow, kind of a downer.