the tindog coffeehouse

Today Christy takes her last final exam of her first semester of nursing school. It’s been a long three and a half months.

To her credit, she’s done a fantastic job. We knew it was gonna be tough — and it was — but she rocked it out, getting A’s and B’s in all her classes. Well, except for Pharmacology, which nearly sunk not just her but several in her class. To pass, she had to make a 75 on the final. Anything below that, and she would be forced to retake the class in the spring at a different campus before she could continue on in the program, setting her back at least a semester. But it would also mean she wouldn’t be able to return to the campus where she had started and where she had bonded with her teacher and fellow students. We were both emotionally wrecked all day yesterday as we waited for the outcome. And then about 8:00pm we got the answer: She had made an 80. She was moving on.

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“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

– Matthew 11:28-30

It’s been a tough week. As I mentioned previously, not only did my kids start school last week, so did my wife, beginning her arduous journey through nursing school. With three different people in three different schools, we’ve had to make a lot of adjustments to stay on top of everything. Chaos, it seems, is the new normal.

With so many demands of our time and energy, it’s all just seems so overwhelming, not just physically but emotionally as well. All four of us are exhausted, and it’s only been one week. Surely, it has to get easier.

Right?

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As I write this, Hurricane Isaac is barreling its way through the Gulf of Mexico, heading straight for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, seven years to the day after Katrina did the same thing, leaving the coast ravaged and New Orleans underwater.

Here in north Texas the weather is calm, but a different kind of storm is brewing, at least at our house. You see, it’s back-to-school time, which is usually pretty chaotic in and of itself. But this year, it might as well be a hurricane. Christy started nursing school yesterday and the girls start fourth and sixth grades today. Three different people in our house in three different schools (elementary, middle school, and college) on three different schedules.

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Father’s Day may just be another holiday manufactured by the greeting card companies (and sponsored by Home Depot), but it could just be the key to ending poverty as we know it.

According to a new study by the Heritage Foundation, having a married father in the household “has the same effect in reducing poverty as adding five to six years to a parent’s education level”:

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