Hey there, kids! This is the notorious Tyrannosaurus Rex. Today I'll be talking about this GLOOOORIOUS specimen. Hello there.
Now it's important for me to tell you that you should always keep a safe distance-- Hold on there, Big Fella! We're just here for an innocent field trip. No one needs to get hurt!
Ah! Look at those teeth! And those piercing eyes! I just can't fight him off any longer! Cover your eyes! This is not an expedition for the faint hearted!
AAHHH!! He's chasing me! Run! SAVE YOURSELVES!!!

This stunt was performed by professionals in an elite studio. Don't ever try this at home.



Photos and Plot by Micah Sutton
Commentary by Momma Sutton

DARE to be 100

There was a time when the catch phrase was "paradigm shift". Do you remember this? I don't know if it was just in my little bubble or if it was a trend in the business world too. At any rate, those words seemed to pop up everywhere I went. A paradigm, as I understood it way back in my teenage mind, is an established set of rules or a way of thinking. Reading the book Dare to Be 100 resulted in a serious paradigm shift for me.

The basic premise of the book is that we have the physical capability to live to be one hundred years old, but most of us assume that because our parents died at a certain age, that we'll die at the same age. If our grandparents set the pattern in the generation before, it solidifies that fact; if they died at 72 and our parents died at 72, we'll die at 72. Not so, says the good doctor, Walter M Bortz, II. http://www.walterbortz.com/daretobe100.htm With all kinds of research to back himself up, the rest of the book lays out a plan for how to extend your life well past your genetic map and enjoy the second half of your life as much as the first. **Bear in mind, this is written from a secular worldview and merits no credit in regard to God's plan. I'm simply emphasizing making the best of the life God gives us.

What struck me with marked clarity was the way he segmented life.

Childhood and School Years

Childbearing, Raising Children, and Work

Retirement

Now, in our society, the first two segments are the fruit bearing times and retirement signifies check-out. In the beginning, it is enjoyable and restful but quickly the retiree begins to detach physically and emotionally, leading to compromises in their health and eventually long-term care and/or death. With this perspective, you are looking at 30-40 years after retirement which allows you to dictate what happens day in and day out in your world.

You see, I live in a small world with a lot of people to distract me from life on the other side of the these four walls. I wake up running: get a bottle, get the baby, change the baby, make breakfast for Leila. Greet Tre, answer thirty-nine questions for Tre. Iron clothes for Dale, wake the K, J, and M up for the school. "Eat your breakfast, brush your teeth, straighten your room, get out your workbooks. Sit down! Stop yelling! Take a break while I start this laundry." Make lunch, clean up lunch, little ones down for naps, big ones finish school. Clean up school, start dinner, get dressed for track. Straighten up house, go to track. Feed dinner, clean up dinner, bathe little ones, devotions, put little ones to bed, clean straighten up house, one game of cards, big ones to bed, stare mindlessly at TV, read for a few minutes, bedtime prayers, and a plea for a full nights sleep. Basically, these are my days. I'm not bragging, but they're pretty much awesome.

So the shift came in seeing my life as a big picture. This is why Marley and Me had such an impact on me; it gave me a visual to back up the intellectual transformation that was happening. Instead of seeing the minute-by-minute daily grind, I caught a glimpse of how short this season really is. We've extended the season moderately by having children every other year, but still, in light of a forty year retirement, this ain't nothing.

Knowing this part isn't forever makes it a little less burdensome. I love it, but it is exhausting. It also makes it a little easier to be nice. Someday I'll reap the rewards for all this hard work.

Here's the other thing, if I am going to live that long, I need my body to hold up for that long because I don't want to retire and move into long-term care. I've been to that circus and I'm not looking to move in. Ever. It makes me rethink the ho-ho and go for the apple. I'm making more time to read and less time to stare mindlessly at anything. I'm inspired to run again. The good doctor recommends one hour, three times a week, to keep yourself in shape. That, I can do, and am doing. So look out world, I'm sticking around for a while.

Marley and Me

I can't fully understand why at the end of the day I have this amazing resolve to start my life new the next day, and why by morning it has all faded away with the night as if it was never there to begin with until the night comes again. Tonight I feel new with a snapshot of "real life" in fast forward, thank you very much, Hollywood. I don't know how Jennifer Aniston managed to pull off playing out basically everything I've ever felt about life and marriage and motherhood, when she's never walked in my shoes; but she did it. And I don't know how after years of loathing and distain, I love my dogs like they really are part of our family, but I do.

This life can be such a head spinner... just yesterday I was wishing I could just get to next month so that we could be closer to the end of the school year and I could start making plans for the summer. Now I'm crying over how fast they days have gone and how I'm missing precious moments with my little ones who are becoming little people right before my eyes. Leila is almost as old as Tre was when we moved here! I know it's me. I know it is! But I don't know how to correct the glitch. It's like God is trying desperately to alert me to these lessons over and over and over again and I just keep skating past while waving my own agenda at Him. I don't know if I'll ever learn, but I sure hope so.

I had really determined not to watch this movie; I didn't want to watch something sad about animals. I'm not an animal lover. I had a dog that I loved once, and I mean I would've gone to the grave for her, but once I had kids, I became a "kid person" and my affinity for dogs faded. I'm pretty sure I chronicled how I felt when Max came into our lives right here. If I didn't, let me just tell you that it wasn't pretty. The thing is, the depth of this movie goes so much deeper than the dog... it makes you step back and really evaluate what matters.

I am at a crossroads in my life. I have all these kids that I've been hearding for eleven years. Get them up, dressed, fed, educated, teach them manners, keep them safe, fed, cleaned up, teach the truth, Jesus, and enough sleep, day after day after day. There is a lot in between, but I started the assembly line method of existence shortly after I had Jasmine. Now I have these budding individuals that can't squeeze into my assembly line because they're not all the same shape. Deisha is sleeping through the night, and Kennedy is waking up with strange pox on her face. Tre is creating and building and leaving a trail everywhere he goes, and Micah is swinging from chatter, to bossy, then angry, then sad, then happy-go-lucky. Jasmine is the typical middle child needing approval and trying to fit in, and Leila spends more time in the bathroom primping than anyone else in the house. I am having to switch gears and really make an effort to focus on individual needs, on top of getting them up, checking outfits, feeding, education, correcting bad behaviors, teaching them how to be safe, feeding more, teaching them hygiene, the truth, Jesus, and convincing them to go to sleep instead of giggling into the wee hours of night. It's really overwhelming sometimes.

I've spend so many years saying, "No! Don't do that! Stop doing that! Not in this house!" I want to spend the next eleven years saying, "Yes! That's a great idea! I'm happy for you! We will do this again!" I know it's far fetched, but I feel pressed to turn over a new leaf. There's certainly something to be said for setting boundaries, but at some point you have to open up the doors and let them fly a little. There must be a way to let them go and still hold the line. God, give me the grace to be like You!