A Few Pics of the Little Guys

Luke is nice and sweaty and red-faced, after playing in the driveway and front yard.  He is obsessed with "ball."  The big kids drug the kiddie basketball goal onto the front sidewalk for him, and he'll swing at anything with his plastic wiffle ball bat (including a soccer ball).  But his favorite thing is kicking the soccer ball with me.  Throughout the day, he randomly says, "Play football," or "Kick a soccer ball." :)

Luke and Nat.  She kept her eyes MOSTLY open in this one.  She tans more than the other kiddos (more Papa Bear's color).  Her arms are getting a little brown already -- relative to the rest of us, anyway. ;)

Nat snuggled up on the couch. 

Yesterday afternoon, Nat was dreadfully whiney.  I said, "I think you're tired."  Not 5 minutes later, she was asleep on the hardwood floor.  She's been waking up early, when the big kids get up for school.

My Ju-Ju.  Her hair is getting really long.  People keep telling her how beautiful it is.  Now I don't know if she's going to want to get it all cut off in the summer.  I wanted to do a bob.   We could give it to "Locks of Love" and have the bangs (mostly) grown out, all in one whack.  Her Dad loves it long, but wow, that'd be a lot of hair to deal with in the pool every day.

J.J. just called me on his way home from work and asked what I was doing.  My answer?  "Reading about compost piles."  Apparently, they're a lot more trouble than I was hoping.  First of all, the composting in the kitchen with worms and stuff doesn't sound one bit apealling.  Yes, live worms!  Then there's the bins you can buy for outdoor composting.  I'm trying to stretch the grocery budget for another week; I'm not down with spending $100 on a recepticle for my trash.  I was just thinking of, you know, throwing my kitchen trash (minus meat, cheese and bones, I'm told) into a little pile with grass clippings and what not.  Apparently, this is called a "cold compost."  You can count me out for the one where they recommended running the lawn mower over your leaves and breaking up sticks and yard trash into 1-inch pieces.  Seriously.  How much time do these people think I have?

I was momentarily weirded out when one of the paragraphs mentioned human hair.  Then I realized that my bathroom trash can actually has hair in it, b/c I trimmed Luke's hair tonight (at like 9:45pm --When else would I trim his hair, but when the other 4 are in bed?).  As J.J. suggested when I told him my topic of research, I must really be a hippie.

Observations on Loss

I wept this morning, as I read Angie's latest post.  Why am I drawn to these blogs of sisters in Christ who have lost children?  Like all mother's, I have had the momentary fear, that God was preparing me for loss.  I mean, living on planet earth, most of us will experience deep loss, at some point in our lives.

The most practical help is that I have friends (that I know in the real world) who have lost children in the last year.  Reading about the grieving process for these women gives me not only compassion, but a deeper understanding of what my friends are going through and hopefully will teach me how to love them better.

I cry when I read Angie's words for several reasons, I think.  There is always immediate perspective, as I think about the many, sometimes overwhelming, opportunites that I have to serve my family.  Yeah, they don't always feel like opportunities.  We are currently on our third round (3rd kid, same virus) of a fever/virus kind of thing, since Saturday, and sometimes care-taking feels more like an obligation, than a privelege.  It's good to be reminded that these children (and all of the work that goes with them) are a precious, invaluable gift. 

Second, and most obvious, I cry for Angie's loss.  I've prayed that she would take comfort in the hundreds of people who come to her site, not only to pray for her family, but to grieve with her.  To confirm that Audrey Caroline's life was precious and that she mattered in this world.

Lastly, I cry because of the truth.  These stories are a confirmation to me, that the gospel is true.  That God is who He says He is.  He walks with us in the valleys, and gives His children the grace to praise him in the storms of life.  Angie used this line, in her blog:  That we live in,  "A place where God is hidden, just slightly, by the shadows of this broken life." 

I haven't experience anything CLOSE to the pain of these sisters in Christ, but I think we all feel the brokeness of this life, if we're honest.  I know I do.  I get tired of the daily burden of my own sin and all of the other consequences of living on a fallen planet.  But hearing Angie testify that she screams at God, makes me think of Jacob wrestling with the angel and getting his blessing.  God will take our pain and our weakness and our brokeness and grow our faith.  Being carried by "the peace that passes understanding" doesn't mean that God takes away the pain.  But Angie proclaims in her storm that God is good, because she has the great treasure -- Jesus. . .and He is enough.

Wow, it's been over a week, since I posted to say that I wasn't posting.   I don't know where the time is going exactly.  I haven't been doing much structured school work with Julia lately, so I can't blame it on our studiousness.  We went to the library last week and checked out about 25 books that we've been reading.  So that counts for something.  We also checked out the DVD of "Where the Wild Things Are."  Luke loves it.  When I worked in daycare with 1 and 2 yr olds (I was about 16), we used to show it to them every day.  I now realize that I read, "Where the Wild Things Are" in the same voice as the narrator on the movie.   

Other fun things that have transpired this week:

On Wednesday, about 8 moms had a luncheon at a new restaurant, here on the East side.  It's called "Mirko Pasta.". .Dont' know if it's a chain or local, but it was WONDERFUL.  I had ricotta cheese and spinach ravioli, with shrimp and zuchinni (tossed in lemon juice and olive oil) on top.  Yum!  It was a b'day celebration for a dear friend.  Even more exciting, I'm going again on Saturday, for an informal wedding shower for a girl who used to babysit for us, before she graduated, moved away to Atlanta, and got engaged.  Yay!  Maybe I'll try the lump crab ravioli this time. :)

I went to "Pump it Up" yesterday morning.  The girls had a blast, but poor Luke couldn't get over the rule about having to wear socks.  [It's hard to be 2.]  They also had some play cars and four wheelers for the toddlers to play with.  Luke has a love/hate relationship with those "Little Tykes" cars (they look like Flintstone cars).  He cries if anyone else is in one, because you know, he's two.  So everything belongs to him.  But when he has the chance to ride in one, he often cries, because it's hard to make it go.  And heaven FORBID another child should touch or try to push the car while he's in it!  On the bright side, all of the fans that blow to keep the bouncy things full make a nice, loud white noise, that made his fussing much less unnerving.  The day was redeemed for Luke, when we went to Chic-fil-a for lunch.  He played on THAT playground, after he ate LOTS of "chicken/fwies."  It was the first time he has ever climbed up into the tunnels and gone down the big slide, and he was really proud of himself. . .And all of this before 12:30pm.  I felt like those army commercials.  "We get more accomplished before noon, than most people do all day."  ;)

On Tuesday morning, Papa Bear changed his own radiator -- less than $100, and his car is running again!  This wouldn't have been possible without the direction of his friend and the use of his friend's garage, tools, etc.  But he changed it himself.  Thank you friend!

Papa Bear was energized on Tuesday afternoon, when I was crashing and burning, after keeping the L.G. toddlers.  We always play outside for a while, which pretty much guarantees that my head will be trying to implode from the pollen by early evening.  Anyway, Papa Bear took the kids over to the playground at the elementary school, AND put the three little ones in the bath when they got home. . .while I rested before dinner.

Yesterday, I started a new allergy medicine for the headaches.  Either way, pollen season will be over soon.  I just hate to wish spring away, b/c the weather is still bearable.  We're just beginning to creep into the 80's.  

O.K. I guess that's enough info for one day.   Hope everyone has a great weekend.

. . .Still here

. . .Just telling you that I'm still around.  I wrote something on Monday, that I actually spent some time and brain energy on, and then it got erased by either the kids or me.   I haven't quite had the ambition to try to recreate it.  What gets erased is always something good, right?  It's like the one that got away.  I'm sure it was better in my mind, than it was in real life. ;)

Also, thank you, Lord, that today I don't have a head-crushing, sinus headache like I did yesterday.