Red Bows in the ER

It would have been such a delighted leap and ballet pirouette all in one from the sensible height of a bench at our kitchen table. But, then it ended with two front teeth ramrodded into and through a very perfectly smooth and pouty lower lip... all the way through.














SEE. They glued it.














Guess I'll smile like this now!

(Over the last couple of days her lip swolled to twice it's size and the skin peeled off in big sheets. The cavernous gouge on the inside is almost fully healed already after only four days.)

Devotions

In the mornings I have coffee and Bible devotions. Now, our kids have a creamy peppermint steamer and their own Bible time.














Most of my life I've paired the discipline of devotion with a treat. It reminds me what a privilege, treat it is to converse with my savior.

Wild Family

In the spirit of Christmas joy, let me introduce you to the new game my kidlets affectionately call Wild Family. Contest: be as jubilant and silly as possible. Rule #1: Don't break anything. Rule #2: Don't break anyone. Music optional, laughing essential. Yes, Daddy trained them well!




















Pretty much sums it up!















Who ever used a pillow for laying on?




















Dance baby, dance!















Best friends.

Goliath

The other night Janie said her prayers, and out of the blue, "God, help Momma to be strong and courageous and not be afraid at Lulu's doctor appointment."

This afternoon I confessed, yes, I was afraid. "Mom, let me pray for you," and all the confidence and courage of four years old, she prayed. She included part of David's address to Goliath before nailing him with the sling-shot. Shoulders back, legs slightly apart, she was poised for victory, her stance straight and fresh as a blade of grass.

Before we left, I told her, watch what I do when I am afraid, how I still smile, and take care of you kids, how I say, "Hi," to our doctor and visit with him, how I still do the right things I know to do. I want her to understand that we turn and face fear, that courage is strength when we are afraid.

Fear reminds us that now is the moment of courage.

Gingerbread Boys and Girls

Gingerbread!














Roll 'em out.



















Help when Momma's not looking. Flour everywhere!














Uh, oh, I think they see us...














Busted!



















That was fun.

School

Most days we do school. Maybe the best question I ask myself is, what appetites do I want my kids to have? Not everything we like is good, and many good things are not yummy at first blush. My momma has a quote in her office, "Feed what you want to grow stronger."

If only self-discipline could be setting our appetites free. How do we teach kids to point desire in the right direction? How wonderful to actually want the very thing they should do. Is there a moment when we learn to grow the good, the honorable, and starve off, shrink down the wicked?

Taste and see that the LORD is good. I suppose, maybe, then we gain an appetite for him.

Great-Gramma

I remember my Gramma making this same expression sometimes when she was thinking. One more flash of the incredible heritage we have in family. As if the antithesis to society's decay, we pass on a little bit of who we are. And like Gramma's expression, it appears in moments of its own choosing, echoes of who we came from.



















What a great work of art to be a part of - the hilarity and delight of looking like our generations, but also the elegance of souls linked together through time.














Always in motion.

Sunday Blues

We flushed goldfish number one. Did anyone else know that they are cannibals? Either that or it was just a really wild game of tag. And, then little Timmy Tiptoes got tired and took a super long nap at the bottom of the fish vase. The other guy kept giving him kisses that left little bite marks. Craig grabbed the dead one out with his bare hands and hello, toilet!




















I guess Jack won't be chiming, "I wuv you, fish. I wuv you, fish..." every half-hour for long. I can't imagine Mr. Mean Fishie will outlast our life time supply of fish flakes.














Lulu never was too impressed with the goldies.

The Measure of a Man

Here he is, the man of the house, the world, the century! Yes, God picked Incredible Hulk as king of our mountain.















I don't know where he finds the energy to whip these chillin's into such a joyful ruckus each night as I am settling in to let the rigor of the day melt away.














I suppose anyone who inspires such unguarded admiration should be the one they'll picture when they think of God.




















This guy, even fishes out slivers.














And gives big kisses!

Patchin' It

What a little trooper Lucy is. I wore one of her patches around for about 60 seconds. By then I was seasick and keeled over on the couch. How I missed that third dimension the second eye creates! Lord, knows I'd be a complete hazard on stairs wearing one of those!














You'll also be glad to know we are faithfully treating all of Janie's babies who also have congenital cataracts. It is hard to have Lulu pass on enough hand-me-down patches for them all. :) What a great mother Janie is, delighting in caring for each one.














How tremendous, that the eye can actually learn to create a perfect image with a partly clouded lens. Perfection out of disaster, sounds like the life of my Savior. Maybe I should embrace each disaster with the expectation of tremendous glory, as a child awaiting a fireworks display. My God, we never know what he will do, or how his plan may explode in unexpected splendor. They always say, "No pain, no gain." Yes, the greater the cost the more spectacular the result. Oh, what a strange world where we are made better by all we endure.

Sand Timers

First official duo dentist appointment yielded the holy grail of tooth brushing: the coveted sand timer. This mythical artifact can actually turn tooth brushing into the carnival ride we've always dreamed it could be.















Add some blue sparkle toothpaste, bubble gum flavor, and then dispense it yourself and you might as well have won the lottery. So far we have only fudged a little on the recommended "pea-sized" amount of toothpaste mentioned by our dentist.















I do seem to recall something about not actually eating the toothpaste, but I can only assume this refers to sucking it right from the bottle, but hey, once it is on the bristles what else are they going to do with it for two minutes worth of sand?

Peter Pan

On Saturday Janie and I had a girls' night out. We went to the play of Peter Pan put on by a local youth theater. What a total blast. After deciding not the wear the pink and purple Crocs that Jane thought would look lovely with my dress, we picked matching flowers for extra pizzaz and headed out to a fresh market for dinner. Lemon tart pie, yay! We also bought a honey stick.




















At the show we sat second row balcony - great view. Besides being totally mesmerized and swaying to the songs, Janie was obsessed with Captain Hook. First quiet moment after his grand entrance she, in a not really whisper voice, asked, "Is he going to kill me?" Totally serious, not scared, just wondering, as if this must be what happens at all plays. Next pause in the action she wants to know, " Is he going to kill everyone?" Followed by, "Where did he go?" and, "Is he going to stay down there? Will he jump out if we go down there?" At the end just before a spectacular, yet tasteful, sword fight she wanted to know, "Is he going to cut my head off with that?"















During the scene when Wendy is shot by the Lost Boys with an arrow, she asked if it was heaven now. I couldn't quit laughing at how matter of fact and not scary death is to her as if just a change of scene. Maybe that's not such a bad perspective.

Sunday Blues

Well, our family has expanded again. The newest members arrived a week ago Friday at the church Fall Festival. Not twins, though strikingly identical: generic goldfish. Jane and Jack received small orange, and quite ugly goldfish on our way out of the festival. Yes, the children love these little fishies with all their hearts.

On the way home we made some stops and completely forgot about the fish. We left the little buggers in our vehicle for a full week, until their bags began to leak all over. No kidding, the fish were still alive and doing fine, wonderful, no swimming on their sides or back floating. I still pitched the big-fishie-bowl-in-the-sky idea, but Craig brought 'em in and gave them my giant hurricane vase. Oh man! Old softie. Well, I guess if you are going to try and like something it is a good idea to place it in a giant hurricane vase.

~~~

At lunch, I did break down and give the little orangies a sandwich crumb which they very ungratefully would not eat. Jack tried dripping a little cereal milk in at breakfast the next day.

After a week of dieting they remained on hunger strike, so we broke down and splurged on a lifetime (we hope) supply of food for $1.99.

Influence

Last night Lucy laughed and laughed when I kissed her soft little cheeks. How sobering that she adores me so much, in fact measures perfection by, "Is it as good as Momma?" The weight of influence is enormous.

Statistically, no one will probably influence our children more than Craig and I. Wow! Most influential players of the year or rather life! Really makes me evaluate how I am spending my time, attitude, strength, joy. If more is actually caught than taught I better get busy on really being the person God created me to be!

Cleaning Day

Lesson of the day: If you want them to clean, get 'em a squirt bottle!
Jack thinks he's gonna get to spray it. Haha, not on your life! "Wax on, wax off, baby!"



















Enter Momma armed with basil scented cleaning spray that gave her a warm happy feeling about cleaning. Never had that before!? Haha!














Smells good, nice stout spray, yes, we'll clean!



















Jack is wondering if he gets to keep the rag at the end. Most days he plows through a dozen wet wipes "cleaning" around the house. Our rule: if the wet wipe is dirty it means you were cleaning. I'm beginning to think this could back fire!



















Now, do squirt bottles work on laundry?!

Jane, Jack, and Lulie

"Say, 'Jesus, will you come live in my heart?'" I hear Janie in the back seat of the suburban a couple of days ago. She then announces that Jack is going to be in heaven too when we die. Lulu, she's on to you next.




















"I'm just sitting here with my heart listening to Jesus...God is in the sky and in my heart," she says.




















Praying the other night Jack was really rowdy. Part way through I realized he was fiddling with Lulu and saying in his best big brother voice, "Pray, Lulu. Pray! Pray Lulu.." Didn't help that she totally doesn't get the idea of closing her eyes, which is the universal sign of, "I'm praying!"