Self-Awareness Moment

Luke: You know, Mama, sometimes I wonder if, when I say that I’m a big boy, you think about me the same thing that I think about Bo-Bo when she says that she’s a big girl.
Mama: And what is that?
Luke: Well, that she’s really just a little girl, but she thinks she’s big.

I told him that I do think that he’s a big boy and that I’m very proud of all that he has learned in seven years.  And that I’m very proud of Bo-Bo and all that she has learned in three years.  I told him that yes, I can see things that he needs to learn and things that he doesn’t understand yet, but that for his age, he’s doing just fine.  And then we had a great discussion about how we will spend all of our lives being older and wiser than some people and not as old and wise as others.  It’s our job to love, protect and teach those younger than us and to honor and seek counsel from those wiser than us.  Knowing your place helps with the responsibilities and the blessings.

And then I left the room wondering what you all will think of me when you read this blog post. ;-)

Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Here’s what happens when you take a large family of sheltered, unsocialized homeschool kids out into the real world (i.e. the dentist’s office).

When each child’s name is called by the hygienist, they jump up grinning and prance forward as if they’ve just been announced on the red carpet.

While you are having your teeth cleaned, you can hear your three-year-old in the next chair explaining to the dentist and the hygienist the roll call of who in the family sucks their thumbs and who sucks their two fingers.  They can’t understand a word she is saying, but you can.

Your four-year-old hops into the chair and cheerfully announces to her hygienist, “I am sometimes a little bit shy with people that I don’t know.”

Your six-year-old explains how all five children are currently sharing a bedroom, complete with a description of who sleeps where … and who used to sleep in which locations before they were rearranged.

Your seven-year-old is mesmerized by the super hero cartoon on the waiting room TV.  When the commercials come on, he watches a whole series in a row and the remarks, “Huh.  Those were all good ones.  Not any bad ones!” (because he doesn’t understand the distinction between ‘commercials’ and ‘reviews’ – like the Dice Tower board game reviews he watches with his Daddy on YouTube, where they far prefer to watch the bad reviews because they are funnier).

The dentist assures you that showing up pregnant to every third bi-annual appointment is actually not a cost-effective alternative to just having the dental x-rays. ;-)

More of Foofie

Foofie and Bo-Bo were getting ready to go outside in the chill of the evening.
Foofie: Come on, Bo-Bo!  Don’t you want to go outside and feel the shivers!?!

Foofie and Bo-Bo were pouring water on their heads in the bathtub.
Foofie: We are becoming kings and queens!  We are pretending that the water is the anointment – like King David!
Foofie (pulling wet hair back out of her face): Who wants watery hair in their way?  Not me!

Strange Beauty

I was looking at a friend’s wedding pictures on-line.  The photographer (also a friend) took lots of shots of the bride and her attendants getting ready.  Ruth was rather mystified at the pictures.

Ruth (looking at a shot of a woman applying the bride’s make-up): What are they doing to her?
Mama: They are putting make-up on her!
Ruth: How is that going to help her if she is pregnant?
[Note: This was a shot from about the shoulders up, so I have no idea why she thought the bride was pregnant.  She definitely was not.  Maybe I spend too much time on Ina Mae Gaskins-type sites?  Maybe it was the black and white photography?]

Ruth (looking at a picture of the woman using an eyelash curler on the bride): What exactly are they doing with that small fork?

I suppose I should be a little more embarrassed at sharing that my girls have so little clue as to what make-up is for and how it could actually enhance one’s features (yes, even if you are pregnant) but at this point, I choose just to laugh!

Impossiblilities

Emma was reading Tommie De Paola’s “Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs” to the younger girls.  Near the end of the book it says:

One morning when Tommy woke up at his own house, his mother came in to talk to him.
“Nana Upstairs died last night,” she said.
“What’s ‘died’?” Tommy asked.
“Died means that Nana Upstairs won’t be here anymore,” Mother answered.

 

Later, it seemed like Ruth was having some deep thoughts about the story, so I wanted to talk to her about it.

Ruth: That is just impossible.
Mama: What is impossible?
Ruth: In the book, it says that Tommy is four and that he said, “What’s ‘died’?”  Well, I’m four and I know what “died” is, so it’s just impossible that you are four and you don’t know what “died” is.
Mama (trying to maintain the somber tone of the conversation): Well, how is it that you know what “died” is?
Ruth: Oh, right.  I guess he didn’t have people to tell him what “died” was as he was growing up.

I love the logical thinking.  I also love that she seems to view four as pretty much the end of growing up.

I'm gonna use this line ...

Bo-Bo: (asked Emma a question I couldn’t understand)
Emma: You know, Bo-Bo, I don’t know.  That is a question scientists have wrestled over for years and years.
Mama (privately to Emma): What did she ask you?
Emma (privately to Mama): I have no idea.

The 20-Week Ultrasound

Today I went for my 20-week ultrasound.  The clinic has just recently moved to a new location.  We heard that the ultrasound room was rather small and we weren’t sure if there would be space for seven of us.  So Matt came up with a plan.  He sent me to the ultrasound with an index card and an envelope.  I asked the tech to write down the sex of the baby on the index card and seal it in the envelope so that I could take it home and we could open the envelope and all find out the news at the same time!

When I got home, Matt was feeding the children dinner.  He took the envelope and put it up on a shelf.  So we waited.  After dinner, he and Luke had a board game to finish.  So we waited.  Finally, Matt asked the kids to go and get ready for bed and assemble in the library.  He gave thanks to God for the part we already knew – our baby was healthy and doing well.  Then he opened the envelope …









Our working title for this little person is Hazel Naomi.  Hazel is a name we came across and liked while we were expecting Robyn.  And, in addition to being a Biblical character, Naomi was my great-grandmother’s middle name.

The girls are ecstatic.  Luke is determined to show Henry how to be a good big brother to a little sister!  J

The Hols - Day 3

Today was a slower, less active day, but another smooth day of togetherness.  We headed to the library this morning.  We wanted to get some new videos.  But also, we wanted to get some books about Colonial Williamsburg, where we are headed next week!  We also found some books of interest on the human body and ancient Egypt, two subjects we have been studying in our school time.  I know we’re supposed to be on a break from school work.  But honestly, I’ve never managed to make library time something we’ve fit into our schedule regularly, so this was a fun treat for all of us.



This afternoon, the children were eager to get some time to play in the pool.  However, it was propped up behind the shed and hadn’t been used since last summer.  I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get it out and get it cleaned up and set up for “swimming”.  I’m a slow learner, but I’m gradually realizing that I have more resources at my disposal than I regularly take advantage of.  Sir Luke went out behind the shed, armed with his saw and cut down the little up-start trees that were impeding his ability to move the pool.  He then pulled out the pool and brought it to the deck.  With the help of his sisters, he scrubbed, rinsed, scrubbed, rinsed and convinced Mama to grant it her seal of approval for filling and splashing!





The children had their version of water play …



… and I had mine!



(Who knew so much grime could build up on a deck … or that a power washer could remove it, like scraping butter off of a butter dish?)

The Hols - Day 2

When we read the Narnia books, I’ve always loved how the children refer to their break from school as “the hols” (short for holidays).  And of course, in England, “hols” doesn’t just refer to that time between Thanksgiving and New Years, but to the summer break, too.  So, without a good term for this little week-and-a-half break we have between “last year” and “next year” I think I like The Hols!

You might think from reading the title of this post that you missed “The Hols – Day 1”.  You did not.  School work was officially done on Tuesday.  So yesterday was to be our first day “off”.  And, when Mama thinks of “off” she envisions the children go “off” on their own in the school room and play creatively while she completes things like, say, blog posts, menu planning or laundry.  However, apparently the children had a very different understanding of what it meant to be “off”.  Perhaps they felt that the day was “off” in the sense that there was no routine, no structure, no schedule and no guidance from Mama.  So there really were no interesting or cute pictures to post from Day 1 of our Hols.  The one bright spot to our day was that Auntie Donna, Cousin David and Baby Ellie came to play and have lunch with us.  Bless them.  I hope they’ll consent to come back again another day.

Today, armed with the realization that there needed to be some purpose to our day, even if it wasn’t going to be school work, we had a much sweeter and smoother time.  That, and the fact that Nannie was here to help us!

First, the children painted some pictures out in the sunshine …



I didn’t get any pictures of the painting in process, because while they were out on the deck, I was in the kitchen kneading food coloring into the homemade play dough we had cooked.  (Does that count as an arm workout??)  I had planned to take the school table out onto the deck as I always do for play dough time.  But after the painting projects, everyone was feeling rather baked and wanted to come inside.  So Nannie came up with the great idea of moving the vans (hers and ours) out from under the car port and having play dough time there!  Perfect!









Next was a picnic lunch in the shade of our big oak tree.  I really can’t take credit for this as Emma spread the sheet and Nannie packed up the lunch while I took care of the bread dough that I kept forgetting throughout the day.



After the littlest two went down for a nap, the big kids got to have some sprinkler time in the front yard.





(We even found that a good number of our own grapes were ready for harvest!)



Finally, all played-out, they came inside to snuggle and watch a movie.  Just the three of them …



… until someone trudged down from her nap to snuggle in!



(Click on any pic for more shots of our day.)

Luke's Done, Too!

Last Friday I posted about Emma finishing her school work for the 2011-2012 year and earning an outing with Mama.  On Tuesday, it was Luke’s turn!  He finished his school work in “Study Hall” (see this post) and he and I went out – also to Paneras and Target – that night.  However, as Luke eats much faster than Emma and as he really wasn’t all that interested in shopping, we decided instead to head right home and see if Daddy was available to play a board game with us.  He was, so we finished off our evening with a treasure-hunting game of Tobago!



With two very similar outings back to back, it was really fun to get to observe the differences in personality between my two oldest.  Besides the speed of eating and the level of interest in shopping, there were other observations to be made.  Emma had wanted to talk about parenting and her fears about the hard work of being a Mama.  Luke wanted to talk about Redwall and board games.  Emma chose to eat inside Paneras because outside it would be too hot and buggy.  Luke didn’t care and chose the outside seating because it looked fun!  Emma wanted us both to wear necklaces, both to order the same pastries and the same drinks.  Luke wanted us to choose different things so that we could share tastes of each others treats.  Variety is the spice of life … and especially of mothering!

P.S. Note to the Westcott Uncles: We found some really cool Marvel Superhero Lego figures in Target and we took some pictures of them for you to see.  But Mama doesn’t know how to get them from her phone to some place where you can see them.  Stay tuned.

First Day of ... um ... Study Hall!

A little over a week ago on facebook, I got to see everyone’s adorable pictures of their children all set for the First Day of School.  Handsome young men, smiling girls, new clothes, new backpacks, new adventures!  We didn’t really have anything interesting to share then because for us, it was just another school day.  But on Tuesday, we headed off to the first of a ten-week Ladies’ Bible Study at our church.  The kids were each to bring along a snack and so, finally, after shuffling them around in our pantry for ages (and considering throwing them out) I was able to give the children a chance to use the “McKesson” lunch bags that Daddy brought them from his work.

So, here are my little sweeties, ready for school … ahem, I mean “Study Hall”.



Henry napped while Robyn played in the nursery, but Luke, Emma and Ruth had the privilege of doing their school work with Katherine Bullock, our dear pastor’s wife, along side of her children and the children of a few other home schooling families whose mothers were in the study.  We are listening through a sermon series by Sinclair Ferguson followed up by a time of small group discussion.  If you think of it, please pray that the Lord would use this time to bless the mamas and the bebes!

P.S. The thing I love most about this picture is that (without really realizing it or planning it) I managed to capture a look that is totally characteristic of each of my kiddos.  Can you match the pairs of similar personalities just from their smiles??

Encouraging Note from Emma

[“Dear Mommy, Thank you for growing a baby.”]

Girls' Night Out

Today during school time, Emma worked extra hard and finished three lessons.  These just happened to be the last three lessons in her workbooks, meaning that she completed her (2011-2012) school year!  Yea, Emma!  This also means that Mama and Emma got to go out for treats and shopping.  We both had wild berry smoothies and cinnamon rolls at Paneras and then did some shopping at Target.



In the car on the way there, I told Emma that we could talk about whatever she wanted to talk about.

Mama: You chose the place, you’re going to choose the food, so you choose what we talk about.  What do you want to talk about?
Emma: Parenting
Mama (tongue in cheek): OK.  What do you want to tell me about parenting?
Emma: Well, when you first became a parent, did you think that your life would go well?

Wow.  What a conversation starter.  I told her that when I first became a parent, what I thought about parenting was what Pop-Pop (my father) told me: parenting is, at the same time, the hardest and the most wonderful thing you will ever do.  We talked about hard not necessarily being a bad thing.  Like school work, you learn to expect that when you turn the next page, you will find new things that you don’t know how to do and that you need help to master.  If that wasn’t the case, the school work would be a waste of time.  Also, like school work, what is hard for you at one time will, when you look back later, seem easy compared to what you are working on now.  This gives you courage.  If that work seemed overwhelming at one time, but now doesn’t, there is hope that today’s overwhelming will later be manageable.

In retrospect, I’m so thankful that Emma brought up this topic of conversation so that I could give myself a little pep talk on motherhood.  I hope she learned something in the process, too.

Run for Mukhanyo

A young lady from our church, Morgan Lewis, found a unique way to honor the life of her grandmother, Beth Rettig.  Beth had a heart for the needy and vulnerable children of South Africa and her vision helped to found Mukhanyo Christian Academy to serve those children.  Last year Morgan and friends from her school organized and hosted the first Run for Mukhanyo.  This year, they are hosting the second annual Run for Mukhanyo, and Luke will be participating!

Runners will gather at the Lewis house on the morning of Columbus Day (the anniversary of Mrs. Rettig’s death) to run.  With the accompaniment of grown-ups, they will be running quarter-mile laps around the neighborhood block on which the Lewis family lives.  Runners raise support either by one-time donations or by per-lap support.  Runners will have an hour in which to run as many laps as they are able.  All proceeds from the race go to Mukhanyo Christian Academy.

In lieu of contacting or pressuring anyone personally, we’ll just include the relevant links below so that you can participate if you wish.  (Plus, I know that quite a few of you who read this blog have your own little people registered in the event!)  Please will you pray for Luke to train well and to run as unto the Lord?  What a good opportunity for him to see his perseverance and sacrifice being used to the service of the Kingdom!

General Information about Run for Mukhanyo, including a great video: http://www.runformukhanyo.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1037723

Luke’s Personal “Runner” Page: http://www.runformukhanyo.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1037723&lis=0&kntae1037723=3121AE5637B74F7B93366D30C9FCF6D0&supId=366384642

Classic

Mama: Mrs. Trumbo is teaching classes again.
Foofie: Oh!  What kind of classes does she teach?
Mama: Well, she teaches English classes.
Luke (screwing up his face): But … we already know English!

Possession is Nine-Tenths

Bo-Bo was caught red-handed (well, OK, brown-lipped) stealing chocolate chips from the kitchen.  Our little discussion began like this …

Mama: Bo-Bo, who do those chocolate chips belong to?
Robyn (pointing to her still-full mouth): Bo-Bo.
Mama (trying not to snicker): Well, before you took them, they did not belong to Bo-Bo.  Who did they belong to?
Robyn: God?

Wow.  What a shrewd logical move.  At this point, if I want to press the point that the chocolate chips belong to Mama, I am either missing the obvious or denying the metaphysical.  And she’s only two.  Good thing Bo-Bo belongs to God, too!

Emma's Woven Bag

Here’s another piece of old news, but one that has yet to make it to the blog.  (Yes, Nannie, I’m sorry, but this is just one more story that you’ve already heard!)  Early at the beginning of this pregnancy, my dear friend Karis White came over for a morning.  She sent me to bed for a nap.  She then kept track of all of my children (minus Henry, who was napping) and both of hers while teaching them to weave and fixing their lunch.  I’m pretty sure this is the kind of stuff James had in mind when he talked about “true religion”!

Anyway, ever since then, Emma has been enamored with the idea of craft projects.  One afternoon, she announced that she wanted to make a “woven bag” for her Daddy.  Since I am definitely NOT as “crafty” (as Emma puts it) as Mrs. White, I was pretty sure that something made out of yarn was out of the realm of possibility.  However, I did remember from my childhood the experience of making woven placemats out of construction paper.  I figured we could do that, and then fold it in half to make a bag.  Emma proved very dexterous.  And very generous.  She filled the bag with peppermint candies and left it for Daddy on his pillow!

Zitternix Pix

Finally got some picture of Bo-Bo playing Zitternix to go with this post.



Game set up …



Rolling …



And drawing carefully!

Henry on His Feet

Well, this is old news by now, but I’ve got to get it onto the blog for the sake of posterity.  As of a little over a month ago, Henry had still not discovered that he could pull himself to a standing position.  But the morning of Thursday, July 26^th, Luke brought Henry downstairs after his morning nap with the happy announcement that he had found Henry standing up in his bed.  Henry repeated the performance at the end of his afternoon nap, too.  By evening, he was pulling himself up on just about anything that was available.



But that was not all.  Oh, no.  That was not all.

Apparently, Henry decided to go immediately from standing ….



… to climbing!


Yes, those little feet are gripping on the bars of the shelving.  And don’t worry, big brother and sister are holding onto the shelving unit while I take pictures.  J

(Click on any photo for more pictures.)

Bo-Bo the Chef

Whenever I am cooking in the kitchen, it doesn’t take long before I hear a bumping, shuffling sound in the laundry room that alerts me to the fact that Robyn is pulling out the folding step stool so that she can join in on the action.  Yesterday I was cooking lentils.  She wanted to help.  Emma had already added the lentils and bay leaves, but I figured Robyn could handle unwrapping the beef bullion cubes and then dropping them in the water.  But you have to be careful what you say to a two year old.  The directions went something like this.

Mama: OK, unwrap the paper off of this cube and then put it in the water.
Mama: No, don’t put the paper in the water!
Mama: NO, don’t put the cube in your mouth!!

I forgot that even though the task of unwrapping is definitely in her skill set, the rest cannot be assumed.  Apparently she thought I wanted the paper in the water and, since what’s inside the wrapping is usually the candy, she figured she could dispose of the unneeded part for me!

Bo-Bo the Gamer

As you may or may not know, as of about a year ago, Matt has become quite a fan of and expert on board games for the family.  He’s chosen many, many good titles for us to purchase, receive as gifts and play together as a family!  One of our recent gifts was the game Keep It Steady  (or Zitternix in the original, which is what the kids like to call it).  It’s a very basic game.  You have a bundle of 27 wooden sticks in three different colors held in a precarious upright position by a wooden ring.  On your turn, you roll a die and pull a stick in the color indicated.  The goal is to get as many sticks as you can without knocking down the bundle!  Guess who is best in our family at playing this game?  Robyn!

It is so funny to watch her play.  She can’t get the bundle set up by herself, but once Mama sets it up, her skills shine.  Yesterday I played several games with her.  She rolls the die (which has a colored dot on each side) and then chooses the appropriate stick.  Interestingly, she can’t even name her colors yet, but when she rolls a red, yellow or blue dot, she can identify which stick matches that color.  She comments on whether she gets a “big one” or a “tiny one” (each color stick is a different diameter).  Then, she picks her stick very carefully and announces, “Didn’t fall!” if she has been successful.  Finally, she hands the die to me and says, “Your turn!”

Yesterday the first two games we played began with Robyn announcing, “First me.”  Hey, that’s fine.  She’s two.  I can handle letting her go first.  But when the third game started the same way, I decided maybe it was time for a lesson in good gaming manners.  I said, “You know Robyn, Mama doesn’t mind letting you go first in some games.  But it’s also nice when you say to the other person, ‘Here, you can go first.”  She considered what I had said and then replied, “OK!”  She grabbed the die, took her turn and then handed it to me saying, “Here, you can go first!”  Apparently it was all semantics.

Stair Steps?

Foofie is eager to reach the 40 lb. mark so that she can transition out of a car seat into a booster chair.  After church we checked her weight, as well as the weights of a few other tagalongs.  Here’s what we found.

Ruth: 34 lbs.
Robyn: 31 lbs.
Henry: 28 lbs.

Does this mean that my cooking is getting better?  Or maybe it means that they are wising up to it as they get older!  ;-)

Henry's First Word

Not “ma-ma”.  Not “da-da”.  But “ni-ni” (as in “night-night”).  How do I know?  Because that’s what he says as he waves good-night to his siblings before his naps.

I think the fact that this became his first word might have something to do with how much he absolutely adores (I mean can-hardly-contain-himself, ridiculous-grin, wiggling-in-my-arms adores) the fact that when it is time for him to go to bed, every single person in the room stops what they are doing, looks directly at him and says this to him with smiles, waves and great enthusiasm.  Like maybe he thinks it means, “Henry, you are the most amazing and wonderful thing ever to happen to this planet!  We’re all just taking a moment to celebrate your greatness!”  Or, maybe he just likes naps.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Questioning Observer

Emma was watching me put on my make-up before leaving for the evening.

Emma: Why are you coloring your eyebrows?
Mama: Well, because it makes them darker.
Emma: So I guess darker eyebrows are attractive?
Mama: Well, I guess some people think so.
Emma: Well, I guess you think so!

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

Yes, this really just happened in our house.  This morning, Luke was eating his oatmeal when he said, “Hey!  Look!” and pulled a baby tooth out of his mouth.  I know, you’re thinking, “What’s so strange about that?  Luke’s been loosing teeth for a while now?”  Keep reading.

He asked for a paper towel to stop the bleeding.  I brought him one.  The only problem was that he couldn’t locate the new “hole” where the bleeding needed stopping.  I looked in his mouth.  He looked in his mouth in the mirror.  There just was not a new hole anywhere.  There was a hole, to be sure, but it was from the tooth he lost previously.

Just then, Emma, who had been out of the room, came to the table and when we told her the story, she said, “Oh, we must be eating steel cut oats, then.”  When I asked her why she said that, she said, “Well, on Saturday, I found Luke’s tooth on the window sill and I gave it to Bo-Bo to look at.  But she accidentally dropped it into the bucket of steel cut oats.  She and Foofie were digging and digging in the bucket, but they couldn’t find it.”

Ah ha!  Another mystery solved.  Matt had opened the bucket of steel cut oats on Saturday and we had discovered steel cut oats all over the floor of the foyer and the library … and powdery footprints and handprints on the sofa.  But in the end, the only explanation we got was “Bo-Bo”.  We had missed the back story until today.

So, apparently, Matt scooped out steel cut oats from the five gallon bucket this morning and cooked them (along with Luke’s tooth) which wound up in Luke’s oatmeal and discovered in Luke’s mouth!  There’s one for the books!

What We Will Do for Free Food

Well, our blog has been quiet for a while, because I’ve been a bit low on energy recently … but it’s for a good cause!  We’re excitedly expecting a new addition to our family in February (or, as we say around here, “Sometime near Foofie’s birthday”)!  Nannie (my mom) has been coming over to help, which has been a great blessing and always a highlight of our week.  But today, we used our extra “man power” in a slightly different way.

Nannie and Uncle Joshua helped us to pull off a lunchtime trip to our Chester Chick-fil-A all dressed as cows so we could each get a free meal!  I think we got about $50 worth of free food, and the children had a wonderful time.  Foofie has exclaimed a number of times that, “This was my bestest day ever!!” and at least half a dozen times before and during dinner, Bo-Bo just looked up from her food and said, “Mama!  Big cow!” (the Chick-fil-A cow came over to greet and high-five us while we were waiting in line).

Sometimes a tired mama needs help with laundry or food prep.  But sometimes she needs help making memories and having fun with her “herd”!  All in all, a wonderful day.  And as soon as I post these pictures, I’m ready to crash for the evening!


(As usual click on the link to see more pics … including a couple that include Nannie!)

May Showers ...

Mama: Emma and Foofie, did you know that you will be coming with me to the shower tonight?
Emma: Yes, I know that.  You told me.
Foofie: No, I didn’t know that!  Emma, we are going to take a shower!
Mama: No, we’re not going to take a shower, we are going to go to a shower at church.
Foofie: Oh!  I’ve never had a shower at church before!
Mama: What do you think it will be like?
Foofie: I’m not thinking of anything.
Mama: Well, what do you imagine that we will do at the shower?
Foofie: Well, get in the tub and have a shower, of course!
Mama: But you know at this shower, there will be lots of other people.
Foofie: Well, of course there will!  We can’t be alone at church!

Well, as far as I can ascertain, she knows there will be food and gift opening and other people.  But apparently she still thinks there will be a bath tub and water involved, too.  I can’t quite get a picture of what she imagines this will be like, though!

Love Letters

These are just a few of the letters the kids made so that we could put together some love message for the grandmothers and great-grandmothers!  Click on any of the photos to see the rest of the letters and the notes we made for Mother’s Day.

Fruit for Mother's Day

As I’ve mentioned before, we’re not big “holiday” people.  We don’t have anything against holidays per se, we just never wind up having things together for timely and traditional celebrations within the household.  So what I got for mother’s day was fruit.  It was the best Mother’s Day gift I have ever gotten.  But it wasn’t the kind you eat.  It was the kind you get to see God producing in your children.  And I couldn’t think of a more appropriate blessing for Mother’s Day.

Yesterday evening, the children were sitting together on the sofa after dinner.
Luke: Hey, Foofie, come here and look at this book with me.  I will show you some amazing things that animals do!
Mama: (wanting to probe his thinking) Luke, before you do that, let me ask you a question.  Why do you think that looking at amazing animals is an appropriate thing to do on the Lord’s Day?  I mean, aren’t we supposed to be worshiping the Lord, not animals?
Luke: Well, Mama, let me ask you a question.  What made these animals so amazing?
Mama: (with surprised laughter) Why, the Lord, of course!
Luke: Well, then …

Later, Matt prayed at the close of family worship.  Then Luke asked if he could pray, too.  He did.  Usually, Luke’s prayers are limited to “Thank you for this food.  Please help it to nourish our bodies.” Or “Dear God, please help so-and-so to get better.”  But last night, he prayed from his heart for a whole litany of things I had no idea were on his mind.  He prayed about the message of yesterday morning’s sermon, he thanked God for Pastor Griffith (our former minister of 23 years who was visiting and preaching yesterday morning) and for Pastor Bullock (our current minister) and for his continued ministry, he thanked God for his godly Daddy and prayed for God to give Daddy more strength and wisdom, he prayed for some elderly members of our congregation, thanked God for their long life and thanked God for the church in its ministry to these ladies.  By the time the prayer was over, I was in tears.  It was an excellent Mother’s Day!

But that wasn’t all.  As I put the kids to bed, I looked around their room and, in my prepare-yourselves-to-work-cheerfully-because-I-don’t-want-to-deal-with-fussing voice, I pointed out that their room was quite messy and that we would need to tackle that problem first thing this morning.  This morning, we heard thumps and bumps upstairs (Matt and I have “coffee time” in the library in the mornings) and Matt went up to check.  He came back down and said that a surprise was taking place.  A few minutes later, all four kids walked in the room two abreast and said (more or less in unison), “Oh my most gracious mother and oh the delight of my eyes, Happy Mothers Day!  We cleaned up our room!” (followed by Bo-Bo echoing, “Kee Up Moom!”).  Amazing.

My kids are not perfect.  And there are plenty of days that do not look rosy and sweet like this.  (And there are plenty more days where my kids are nice and helpful and I just don’t notice or am not thankful for it).  But on this day, the Lord not only provided evidence of the fruit he is working in them, but he opened my eyes to see it.  Thank you, Lord.  And thank you, Lovey and kids.  I am living my dream life (when I take the time to realize it)!

(Oh, and by the way, lest you think any the worse of my husband, my “official” Mother’s Day gift is coming in a couple of weeks.  At my request, we are spending Memorial Day in our pajamas, playing board games and cooking together and accomplishing absolutely no projects what so ever!  Yea!!)

Change?

Yesterday our next-door-neighbors had a yard sale.  Luke picked out a few items and was able to calculate that he would owe $2.50 total.  When I handed him three dollar bills with which to pay, I realized that he didn’t have any concept of getting change back (in a world where most of our purchases are done with plastic).  Our neighbor was very kind in talking him through how much he owed, how much he was paying and how much he should get in change.  When we got home, I was attempting to explain the concept of change and why it is that you might over-pay for an item.

Mama: Well, sometimes if you don’t have the exact amount you owe, you have to pay more than you owe.  If you pay less than what you owe, you won’t have paid enough.  So you pay too much, and then they give you back the amount that was extra.

Daddy: Except when you buy Apple products.  Then you pay too much but they don’t give you back anything.

(Luke, with a puzzled expression on his face, looks back and forth between Mama and Daddy while they laugh.)

Recent funnies ...

Luke: (discussing the plot of Journey to the Center of the Earth) Then, Axel fell and hit his head and lost his conscience.

Foofie: (getting ready for afternoon rest time) Oh!  I have to go and ask Lukey if I can borrow his head-bones so I can listen to this CD!

Chunky Love

Here’s our version of a blogroll …













Now, don’t you feel slim and trim? J

Our Cousin David

On Tuesday evening, Ryan and Donna had an appointment with (at) the Birth Center where they hope to deliver Ellie (um, YEA!!!) and so David got to come and hang out with us for a while.  He is the sweetest and cutest little boy.  His Uncle Matt says that he has very handsome eyes.  His Auntie Lynna says that he is a smart little man.  And his cousins just love to be with him!  Here are some pics from his visit.


Here are David and Robyn putting silverware into the dishwasher.


He’s wearing a very manly apron (from Home Depot) which originally belonged to Cousin Gregory (Risavi).  If I had thought about it, I would have given him the one that said “David” on it!  (Which Emma was wearing.)


And, speaking of, here she is spreading hummus on bread for dinner. (Luke is in the background reading “Luke’s Loose Tooth” to Foofie.)


Bo-bo insisted on sitting by David for dinner.


And later when Henry began to escape. Emma found a good way to contain him … literally!

All in all, it was a warm, cheerful time – a kitchen full of people I love working, eating and playing together.  Oh, the joy of little people … times six!  (No, this is not a hint or an announcement … but the kids have started praying again!)

Perspective

Luke: So you were the first-born in your family?
Mama: That’s right.
Luke: Wow.  It’s really funny to think of you being older than Uncle Ryan.
Mama: (thinking this is an obvious comment on the height difference) Oh, why’s that?
Luke:  Oh, because you’re a girl.

All Quiet on the Sutherland Front

I’ve been out of the loop recently with social contacts for the most part, because our family has been in the middle of some house projects – most notably getting our garden up and running!  Only the Lord knows if it will be a success or not, because this is really my transition from book learnin’ into actual practice.  We started most of the seeds inside throughout March and April.  It took us about five days of Daddy being off work to get the ground ready, build the boxes, etc. (which really isn’t as bad as it sounds, because realistically with kids, one “day” means “two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon”.)

Also, in the midst of growing little green things, some other notable growth was happening.  Matt has been slowly teaching me (mostly by example, but occasionally with some carefully worded reminders and encouragement) about the value of allowing children to work along side of us.  I get so uptight about things being done “right” and nothing being “messed up”.  But he put it this way, “If you went to Lowe’s at the start of this project and they told you, ‘The materials for this project will cost you $500 if you do it alone or $550 if you involve your kids and there is some resultant waste,’ would you include the children?”  Of course I would.  And we did.  And as it turns out, they are marvelous little workers, and they loved it.

A neighbor who crossed the street to see what we were up to asked all about the boxes and soil mixing (we spent a LOT of time mixing bags and bags of soil enrichers).  She said she’d be really eager to see what we were growing.  I told her I wasn’t totally sure that we’d be growing anything!  She responded (and this has become, in my mind, the summary of the project), “If you’ve got the kids involved, then you are growing something.”  I love it.  Lord, grant me the grace to see the bigger picture! (Btw, this “growth-spurt” coincided nicely with my reading of “Loving the Little Years” by Rachel Janckovic.  Perfect timing, Lord.)

Also, in the spirit of working and helping, here’s perhaps my favorite story from Daddy’s time off.  It has less to do with planting and more to do with, ahem, composting. ;-)  On Friday, I sent Emma upstairs to tell Robyn that she could get up from her nap.  After a while, I realized that I hadn’t heard from them in a while and (with trepidation) went up stairs to find out what was happening.  I found Emma trying to button the back of Robyn’s dress.  They were facing the wall opposite the door, so I was able to stand and listen without being noticed.  Emma was talking to Robyn all about her siblings and how much they loved her and how much she loved them.  When they turned around and saw me, Emma told me what it was that had taken so long.

Apparently when Emma arrived to get Robyn, Robyn said that she needed to go potty (which she has been doing semi-sporadically but not at all consistently over the past couple of weeks).  However, when Emma checked her diaper, she was poopie, so Emma cleaned her (yes, there was the dirty diaper with about half a dozen well used wipes tucked neatly inside – no mess on the carpet) and took her to the potty.  She sat with her, helped her up, put a fresh diaper on her and was in the process of buttoning her dress when I arrived.  Amazing.  Apparently I should give my kids more credit.

So, for any of you who are interested, here are a few shots of the garden and of the kids getting playtime at the end of the day yesterday.  (I wish I had gotten some pictures of the kids at work – hoeing, mixing soil, carrying tools and buckets, etc. but that will have to wait for another time.)


What you see in the background are actually our neighbors’ house and vehicles.  The garden beds are to the left of the house if you are facing it from the street.  The two frames on the back of two of the beds will eventually hold trellis netting for climbing plants.


The strawberry bed.  This definitely will need a bird-net covering.  We’re hoping to build a frame for it so that it can be easily removed and replaced for harvesting (yummy)!  The strawberry plants arrived from Burpee in a manila mailer.  They were in a plastic bag and looked shriveled and rotten.  But a few weeks in potting soil in SOLO cups and they’re lookin’ quite lovely!  The Square Foot garden can support four per square, but we’ve left room for them to self-propagate with runners (i.e. free plants and a rotation system).


Tomatoes and peppers are in this bed.  We planted three varieties of tomatoes: a slicer-sized one, a roma-sized one and a cherry-sized one.  But I love the names: Big Boy, Little Mama and Sweet Baby Girl.  Perfect.  Now we just need tomatoes named for Foofie and Henry!


Squash (back left) and bush beans (direct-sow in the back right) and Jalapenos.


This is the front border with the new box we built for it (to replace the rotting landscape timbers).  In the foreground you can see our blackberry bush flowering.  As this is the second year, we’re hoping for some fruit!  (Just have to get to it before the birds do, I guess!)


This is the grapevine (also from last year) right in the middle of the front border.  We added the wires on hooks attached to the frame and porch and trained it to grow up onto the porch.  Are we naïve to think that we’ll be able to sit in our lovely porch chairs and pluck grapes?  Maybe so, but it’s fun to imagine!  Also, you can see that we took down the white lattice that covered the space beneath the porch.  We are hoping to build hinged frames to put it on so that I can lift the frames and have access to the plants from the back for weeding (which is really hard to do by leaning across a three-foot-deep bed).


This is one of the two blueberry plants, another tomato plant (under the mason jar) and the raspberry bush.  (You can see the white lattice laying in wait under the porch for its forth-coming frames.)


Marike Mericle gave me this idea.  I put the little seedlings under a mason jar so that they’d have a chance to get a good hold in their new home, especially considering all of the rain and wind that was in the forecast for today.


While Mommy finished up the fine-motor-skills gardening jobs, the kids played in the sprinkler and then flew a kite with Daddy. 


It was almost windy enough.  Rather more comical than technically successful, but what does it matter.  They had a grand old time! 


A few more pics and the video of Luke being knocked over by the kite can be found by clicking on any photo.

Well, we’ve been out of the loop, but we’re back!!