Papa Pat Tiny Devotionals

Seems like when you are young, you have plenty of advice on how to live your life. So much advice, that you spend most of your time trying not to follow it. And the advice, most of it, comes from people who know what they are talking about. They have already lived through being young. I was young, but now I am old. And I think I find myself in unexplored country. I think I find myself with rare circumstances, which no one else has experienced. So I have no one to turn to and say "Am I doing this the right way?" I live in an unexplored country, bordered by pain, sleep, and drugs. How do I find my way here?

Kenneth has been doing so well in school. His last report card was straight A. His behavior has been exemplary as well. When I found out about the website sumdog, I thought I had found an end to the homework hassle. All I would have to do is turn the kids loose on an educational learning site, and my work was done. That's pretty attractive to an old guy with not a lot of energy. And there were other educational sites besides sumdog, like coolmath. Actually, coolmath bothered me a little, because it appeared to be more game than learning. So, when Alicia continued to struggle, I told her she must not go anywhere but sumdog; I let Kenneth run free. And on weekend, the laptops were just another entertainment tool. They could go to the Disney site, or pretty much wherever they found joy. No downloads, no for-pay, but still they were able to navigate and have fun. And it gave me a couple of teachable moments. TANSTAAFL. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Kenneth wanted this

Today is October 24, 2013. My last blog post was on June 17, 2013. I entitled this blog entry, what have THEY missed, because I haven't missed a thing. I've been through every single moment of these past nearly five months, and endured it. Might have forgotten some of it, though.  But this blog isn't really for me. It's for my grandson Heath. It's for Kenneth and Alicia. And perhaps it will also be valuable to my adult contemporaries as well. But I didn't write it down; and, if you don't write it down, it didn't happen. So, I can say: since my last post, I thought we had found the perfect pain med, a patch that managed my pain very well, and didn't goof my head. And then in September I developed an allergy to it, and had to stop it, and got to experience withdrawal again. But what I missed, by not making a daily record of my experiences. And I can also say that I was asked, once again, to serve on a Tres Dias weekend, made the last team meeting, pack