Sarah has been pretending to be a couple of different animals lately.
First she was a dog named Princess and I was her mother and our dog, Parker, was her father.
(She announces these things to me and then gets irritated when I can’t remember her name.)
Next it was, “Mom, I’m your cheetah and my name is Star.”
This last one has been going on for several days, I’m getting kind of used to her name being Star now.
I love how she naturally includes me in her land of make-believe, always. Always her mother.
We took the kids out to dinner last night and then Rich wanted to go in the Apple store so I went into Gap Kids and came across the perfect shirt for my cheetah daughter named Star.
Isn’t she beautiful? Today is her birthday and now she is five years old.
{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
The weekend was full of ups and one very downish down.
First was the prom for Jacob and Ethan.
Then was a rare and lovely overnight visit from Rich’s Dad and step mom. We went for walks, we had a campfire with hotdogs and marshmallows, we planted a family tree together, we went to the diner for breakfast. We skipped church so we could soak up every minute and then waved goodbye as they drove slowly away on Sunday afternoon.
Monday morning I found out that the night before our dear Billy-Cat had been hit and killed in the road. I went outside to where Jacob had lovingly put him and stroked his beautiful fur. When I saw the ants I stumbled into the house. Rich gathered me into his lap and held me as I sobbed.
We buried him where he lay and put a nice rock at the top for Jacob to paint Billy’s name on. The children all grieved in their own way and losing our cat cast a melancholy mood on the whole day.
Later that morning we took them downtown for the Memorial Day parade. Grace marched as a music student, David and Caleb, who looked like typical American Little League boys….fresh and energetic, marched with their baseball teams.
Sarah and Seth were so surprised when the candy started being thrown right at them by the parade marchers.
I wore sunglasses to hide the tears…tears for my cat, tears for loss, tears for all the nice people of our town who marched by us, throwing candy, the ones who serve us, the ones representing the sacrifices of the past.
Yesterday Rich left for work and I am home alone carrying the load of the family, not in my own strength, but by the grace of God. Ethan had a game last night, Jacob threw a PR in Javelin during a big meet and won forth place despite an empty stomach, Seth had his very first concert performance, we were home and in bed later than usual.
This morning I got the kids to school, carried water to my plants, loaded the dishwasher.
There is a homemade card on the counter that Seth brought home, which is propped up against a vase of flowers. In Kindergarten handwriting are the words, “I’m sorry Billy Cat died.” It’s bothering all of us that it is there.
I’m tired. Deep, deep tired. I made a list of things that must be done today. David has an orthodontist appointment at 1:30. Ethan has a home game at 3:30 and it’s a big one so I need to be there. David and Caleb need to be at their field by 5:30 and Jacob has to be at driving school at 6:15. Grace is being inducted into the Thespian Society at 6. I will do the best I can for my children….in the meantime….it’s only 9:30 in the morning……and I’m sleepy and don’t want to move.
Sarah took a break from playing and came to stand by me half an hour ago. I was half asleep, arms and legs limp as I cuddled into the couch cushions. She was trying to get me to turn on a movie. When that didn’t work, she leaned in close and said, “Mom. God said something to me last night.”
I perked up slightly. These were the words of God. I opened my eyes, ready to receive them.
“He told me that in the morning I needed to take a bath.”
I roused myself.
“Well, you had better obey.”
This is how Sarah got her bath this morning and how I have come to sit crossed legged on the floor of the bathroom to write this little story of living….
Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! Psalm 113:2
O how He loves you and me, O how he loves you and me, He gave His life, what more could He give? O how He loves you, O how He loves me, O how he loves you and me.
“We planted a tree and it grew up,
While it reached for the sky and the sun. . . .” Diane Muldrow
“I used to take every new day for granted. Now I realize that each new day is a gift of God’s grace; and it is this day I need to focus on. It is full of possibilities – not just responsibilities – for relationships and for surprises.”
pinxter bushes in bloom, (Seth and I went for a walk yesterday and brought back some for a vase)
lady slippers, (Joanna sent me a picture)
baltimore orioles, (I saw one this weekend, finally)
and the P R O M…….
Just a few short years ago (October, 2006 to be exact) Jacob and Ethan looked like this::
On Friday……..they looked like this (in the same location- the rock they were sitting on is on the far right of the picture):::
Of course I had to take a ton of pictures of them looking sharp in their tuxes. They looked quite handsome, my mama heart was just bursting with pride.
These two boys are one grade apart at school. Jacob is Senior and Ethan is a Junior. Jacob’s girlfriend is in Ethan’s grade and she invited Jacob to Jr.Prom, which is how the two boys were both attending together.
They are only 14 months apart and very close. They have done everything together, every step of the way, except now Jacob has entered the land of romantic love, leaving Ethan rolling his eyes and getting used to Jacob spending every spare minute with Emily.
Jacob
Ethan, wearing his class ring.
Me, with E
Me with Jacob
I love this one of the boys with their Dad.
Rich took this one with his phone, it’s quite terrible quality, but great because I’m with my boys.
They were using the windows as mirrors. They were feeling mighty good about their looks.
Emily’s beautiful corsage was made by a florist in town.
After I took the pictures in the driveway of our house, Emily’s mom came and picked up Ethan and Jacob. Grace was with Emily and some other girls, helping them to get ready. Emily’s mom picked up the girls, too, while Rich and I drove to the Gazebo to meet them. The Gazebo is the traditional place for the students to take pictures before traveling on to the prom venue.
We found Ethan first, and Grace jumped in for a photo with her dear brother.
They looked so stiff and formal I requested that he put his arm around his sister.
And now I just sit and stare at this picture which is probably one of my all time favorites. Grace is one step down in age from Ethan. They are a little less than 2 years apart but Grace is a Sophomore in High School because she started school when she was 4.
And then we saw Jacob walking toward us with his beautiful date……
Emily was so excited, she wanted a picture with everyone.
Here she is with Sarah:
With Caleb:
with Ethan:
with her Mom:
with me:
I’m not going to post the one with Seth because it ended up too bright. And there is no picture with David because he ran and hid.
Here is the one with Rich and Grace:
I kinda wish I had thought of taking a picture of the entire gazebo, but I did get some nice shots of them inside of it. Ethan did not take a date, but one of the girls from their group was also going along single so they did end up with an even number of friends to eat and dance with all night. Jacob and Emily, Ethan, Bridgette, Marissa and Tom.
I told them I wanted to see their pretty shoes and got quite a surprise….
Emily wasn’t wearing any.
pretty pretty eyes
Grace with the big brother she adores.
Seth hung around watching everyone, and Sarah kept seeing princesses everywhere.
Jacob, Ethan, and Emily walked away to mingle and get ready to go eat. Rich and I left with backward glances with the other children and headed home, happy to know that our dear boys were going to have a most wonderful time. The next morning we heard all about it and Ethan was still in a dancing mood.
The Lord is my strength and shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song. Psalm 28:7
{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
He is a born again Believer, a natural leader, calm, easy going, sincere, strong, glad-hearted, friendly.
I remember him getting into trouble as a small thing in Kindergarten or first grade because he would not.stop.humming.songs during class time.
Yesterday I was smiling all over the house as he took a long shower after school, he was singing with such gusto up there in the bathroom.
Always has music in his heart.
He is on my mind a lot lately because he is my firstborn, he is 18, he is at the end of his childhood days and about to begin the rest of his life on his own….be his own man, make his own decisions, and hopefully do his own laundry, cooking, and cleaning, too.
He and Emily are a sweet loving couple. I wonder what the future holds for them? They already speak of marriage. They get along so well, it’s the best thing in the world to watch them together. (He reads books to her!) If I find a love note on his bedside table I read it and wipe away little tears.
He is all set to attend a community college in the fall.
He still loves to talk to me and his Dad all about his experiences. Last Friday was his Senior picnic and he had a grand time all day long….rock climbing, playing football, eating lots of food, all free “I only had to pay 20 dollars!” at a wonderful park in Connecticut.
When he talks to me I see glimpses of his baby face within the man’s.
Oh what it is to be a mother. I never really knew. I dare say I still have no idea how much my heart can take.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
A sense of humor is more valuable for a busy woman than all the latest inventions for making housekeeping easy. The patent dish-washer, the self-feeding and self-shaking range, the washing-machine, the bread-mixer and the egg beater all put together will not help “mother” through Saturday morning so well as the ability to laugh long and heartily.
Unfortunately, there is no school where this accomplishment can be learned. The giggling girl is not so sure to grow up a laughing woman. She may regard herself and her own affairs with a portentous seriousness. Egotism is fatal to a true sense of humor. So is a lack of imagination. So is that morbid conscientiousness which is our least desirable inheritance from Puritanism.
That family is fortunate indeed where the mother is first to see a joke and to lead the mirth. In too many homes her sole share in merriment is her dismal “I’m sure I don’t see what you’re laughing about!” The mother, an invalid for years, who could answer an inquiry about her health with a quizzical smile and a quick “Sick abed, and worse up!” was not a burden but a joy to the children who found her room “the jolliest place in the house.”
A nonsense rhyme, a droll conundrum, a lively repartee, a story of misadventure may all serve as sauce for a dull day. The appetite for fun may be coaxed to grow by what it feeds on, until the mature woman, laden with responsibilities, can smile at her own small trials and help others to follow her example. She will learn first not to cry over spilt milk, and later will master an even more useful accomplishment, and will laugh over it.
Youths Companion, 1903
We laugh a lot at our house. I mean, honestly, there are gloomy times as well like just yesterday when they (not I) decided upon the idea of going to Subway for lunch after church…ordering subs for 11 people and overtaxing the employees can put a damper on any joyous attitude.
However, in general, we are constantly laughing over things…like, for instance, the funny things that the little ones say. Yesterday Sarah was riding in the backseat with her brothers. They were playing with toy animals when we overheard her little voice saying pleadingly, “Will you please give my ear a little nibble?”
We read humorous stories from the latest Reader’s Digest out loud on the way to church.
We love watching funny movies.
Sparing back and forth with my husband…we get ourselves laughing and happy to be together. Like last week when I had to use the bathroom twice in the first half hour of church…as I pressed myself past him during a song he said sarcastically, “What did you do, drink a gallon of water before church today?”
I make up funny songs and sing them to the kids…like this morning when Sarah was trying so hard to look sad because she hasn’t seen a baby calf and I sang, “Sarah looks sad but her Mother think she’s funny!”
After the initial shock, we even laughed about the applesauce.
“Sauce for a Dull Day”
The other day, Seth wanted some applesauce so he brought me a new plastic tub of it from the pantry. I was busy making dinner with several children around me underfoot. “Seth, we already have one open, go put that back.” I told him rather impatiently, only to hear a loud crash when he went to do it.
“What was that?” I cried as I left my dinner preparations to walk to the pantry. I met Seth on his way out with a very messy jar of opened sauce. “What did you do?”
“I threw it in the air and didn’t catch it,” he explained with no remorse.
There was applesauce across the floor, into the cat food dish, and on the front of the freezer. A couple of days later I happened to look up and there was some dried to the ceiling, too.
Emily helped me make him clean it up, I was silently seething, but by the time we got done with the mess I had found my sense of humor again.
“Now, what was I doing before my son decided to throw applesauce into the air?” I asked, as Emily pretended to throw her own imaginary jar of it, sky high. We laughed together at our crazy little boy who is so impulsive. Later on when Rich was home, I took Seth to him and said, “Seth, tell Dad what you learned today. About applesauce.”
“I learned not to throw applesauce too high or it will ‘splode.”
(six words too long of an answer)
I believe in happy people, happy Christians…joyful hearts…giggling in church…life is hard and dreadful at times, so we need to laugh as much as we can…it’s the best medicine in life!
*******
I put the morning’s egg collection in Sarah’s bike while she played and I gathered rocks to surround a flower bed down by the woods near the long pond. (thinking of Aunt Carol as I did so).
This is what the baby toads look like now. Growing so fast, they spend their days swimming.
Violets as delicate as purple tissue paper.
Strawberry blossom.
More violets…our property is overrun by them, to my delight.
We decided to go for a little walk with Dave, who was home from school with a stomach ache. While Sarah hesitated on the other side of our makeshift bridge, David dissevered a baby lizard in the water (unphotographable) and……………
a small snapping turtle!
He picked it up carefully by the tail. It’s little arms and legs spun around and around in fierce anger. His neck stretched out so that he could face his foe:
Oh he wanted a piece of Dave so bad. David left for home with his prize while Sarah and I continued on our walk.
I wanted to see the violet patch in the field by the edge of the forest. There were thousands of them blooming all at once.
There were also a great number of bright dandelions, fully opened with nice thick stems. I taught Sarah how to make a dandelion chain with them and she had no trouble making me a wreath for my hair, as I made one for her, too.
You can see that she was smelling them..her little nose is yellow. I tucked an apple blossom into her wreath, and some violets, too. She looked so pretty.
When we got back home, Sarah wanted to see Dave’s turtle so bad. Dave had put it in a bucket by the pond so we ran down to look inside. It was gone, completely gone, David’s head turned this way and that in disbelief. When we told Jacob later on he spoke with experience, “Oh snapping turtles always escape from buckets, every turtle I ever put in a bucket got out. You can’t keep them unless you put a lid over it.” And we wondered. How can a turtle climb out of a bucket?? And now that snapper is no doubt in the pond waiting to bite off the toes of my children this summer as they swim.
There was a box on the porch from a friend…with beautiful fiesta dinner plates contained inside! And an encouraging note and card: thank you Jami, from the bottom of my heart. God bless you.
ex library books…beautiful books…library bindings, hard covers, oldish copies of good, wholesome, living stories for my own collection of the best books for my children and someday grandchildren. all for a song at the thrift store. TWO DOLLARS!
Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, by Tomie DePaola
Such a heart warming, sentimental story that David was very touched by that day he was on the couch with the stomach ache and I made him read all the books.
A wonderful story: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by Steig
and a funny one : ANIMALS SHOULD DEFINITELY NOT WEAR CLOTHING
“because it might make life hard for a hen”
Happy Monday, my friends! Hope you have a great day with lots of belly laughs.
We love to laugh Loud and long and clear We love to laugh So everybody can hear
The more you laugh The more you fill with glee And the more the glee The more we’re a merrier we.
{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
“I’m sure I shall always feel like a child again in the woods.” L.M. Montgomery
Isn’t this a really cool picture? David, my 12 year old, caught a couple of these frogs so far this spring and both times brought it to the house to show me and wonder what it was. I said, “Take a picture of it and we’ll research”. Turns out it’s a spring peeper. He catches them down by the stream. He put it in a glass to take the picture…
Seth was using his Dad’s golf club which was way too big for him. He and the boys really enjoy hitting golf balls lately. I found a shopping bag (yellow in the pic) of balls at a tag sale, used, for only one dollar!
Oh Sarah. She’s just thrilled to “take a bath” in the pond, which is what she calls “swimming”. She’s a little more brave this year and will walk out to her waist in water. She is still bragging that she knows how to float (with a life jacket, mind you).
Do you remember that I got 30 new baby chicks almost 2 weeks ago? One of them started ailing and unfortunately died the other day, which was so sad, but the remaining 29 are growing so fast…eating and drinking like little machines.
One day Sarah played on a rock while I read a book. She loves making up little games and stories with her plastic animals.
I found a profusion of tiny fragrant white violets down in the yard by the stream. There are hundreds of them.
One evening last week, I went for a walk with Grace, Dave, and Seth. We went to a part of the stream that spreads out more like a very small shallow pond. David had fun walking around in the water catching toads.
The sun was going down, and I think the way the sunshine is glowing behind the trees is so beautiful. We had such a nice time on our walk, enjoying everything we saw. We even got to eat some wild onion stalks that I found.
Grace with the hems of her jeans wet from wading. As soon as she got home she found tweezers and worked on getting slivers from the soles of her feet, which are tender from winter.
There is an old beaver lodge there and we noticed that it was covered with downy feathers. I wondered if something had caught a bird and ate it. But then, we saw that there was an egg about 8 feet away, along with the remains of two other eggs, just the shells cleaned completely out. Perhaps licked?
David was thrilled with the egg. He picked it up and said, “Grace! I have a baby!”
We carried it home and found out it was a wild Canadian Goose egg. Their nest must have been vandalized by predator. Since Canadian Geese are as common as the cold, we felt bad, but not too bad, about the loss of their descendants. David blew the egg out and carried it to school the next day in a shoebox to show his Science teacher.
Marsh Marigold: Cowslip Caltha palustris
“The flowers of this showy spring plant resemble those of large buttercups rather than true marigolds, of the aster family. The leaves are sometimes used a potherbs but require several short boilings with changes of water between; they should not be eaten raw.” ~ National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers
Bluets carpeting the lawn next to the pond.
My son’s girlfriend Emily babysat David, Caleb, Seth, and Sarah for us on Monday while we went to Grace’s Spring Music Concert. Later on that night after everyone was home again, she texted me these pictures from a walk they went on.
Pretending to be Knights, and a Princess
“….be still and listen….the earth is singing….”
“And at the end of the day your feet should be dirty, your hair messy, and your eyes sparkling.” ~Shanti
Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
~George Cooper
“I wish you were here so you could make pancakes for us,” I teased my Mom yesterday morning when I called her.
“Guess what I’m doing right now?” she replied, “Making pancakes for Isaac! Did you know he came out?” We laughed, and I knew she was having a great mother’s day already because she got to cook breakfast for one of her boys (she has three of them, and two girls–one of whom is me). We had a nice little chat talking of the children and the gardens and then hung up so she could go eat some pancakes with Isaac. I don’t get to see my Mom as much as I would like, but I think of her constantly, especially while I am busy in the kitchen, or in the garden planting peas and flowers.
We went to church yesterday morning and had a great service listening to Wally give a missions presentation and then Gary preach the Word. After church I said, “Since it’s Mother’s Day, all I want is one nice picture with you children.” Rich happily agreed to take the photo in front of a very cool black car that he and the boys loved……. and you would think I would have learned by now that what I end up is not quite what I was hoping for or picturing in my mind.
This was pretty good, however we are all missing our feet…..but it was hot and we left to get some lunch. Everyone was hungry and everyone had an opinion about where we should go. The Chinese Buffet? Crackerbarrel? Again I brought up Mother’s Day so I could stay out of it. I would sit and just wait to see where Rich (who was silent through the discussions by the children) would take me, the mother of his precious, well-taken care of children.
I held my breath as we pulled gently into…..MCDONALDS.
“Rich you’re just trying to make me scream but I’m not going to.”
“What?? They have a really great burger here that I loved. I wanted you to try it.” (laughing)
“Right, because I eat carbs!” (NOT screaming)
Lots of laughter ensued as he had the audacity to park the car. Roll with it, I decided, roll with it with humor. Then I realized, wait… no drive thru?
“We get to go in?” Now I became slightly sarcastic. “It’s Mother’s Day so we get to go IN to eat, children!”
You have to understand as a family of nine, we rarely eat inside of any fast food place. And if we do, it’s usually Wendy’s……not mcdonald’s. Also understand that we have a Mcdonalds in our hometown so I am there several times a week to get something for one or two of the children as we rush off to go to sports events and such. It’s “old hat” that place, basically one step up from going back home to eat leftovers from the fridge.
Yesterday we had an extra kid with us, so we were a family of 10. The sun was shining, the sun was hot, and we all were fooling around as we trooped inside……. MCDONALDS….was this a dream? 🙂
Turns out McDonalds is pretty awesome for a Mother’s Day luncheon because…..no one is there!
We spent 72 dollars on food! Rich almost died and I laugh when I remember what his face looked like as he studied the receipt to make sure it was right.
I sat across from Sarah and Rich, Grace was down sitting in a booth with David and Caleb. Jacob and Ethan were sitting with Zac.
Meanwhile, Mr. Highly Independent sat away from us, over at his own table. He sat there the whole time, working away at eating his lunch and paying no attention to us. Rich and I kept saying to each other, “Look at Seth. He’s so so cute.”
Poor Rich was the last to get settled and eat, but had to get up yet again to get himself some ketchup for his fries. Jacob, who was already eating away at his nuggets and is 18 years old, asked his Dad to get him some ketchup to which Rich replied impatiently, “GET IT YOURSELF!” He was feeling a bit frazzled.
The soda and food started kicking in. I ate my burger while carefully peeling off the bun as I went along. Soon I was left with a box of bun bits. “Does anyone want the rest of my burger?” I asked, just to be funny. Rich carefully selected a piece and threw it behind him to hit one of the boys. He did this several times.
Grace took this selfie of us. I was busy straining and trying to open Sarah’s toy.
“Okay, times up, let’s go!” Rich announced after most of us were done eating. “The bus is here!” Jacob replied, which caused all the school kids to get up, throw away their garbage and hustle out to the car (bus).
On the way home Rich said something that accidentally hurt Ethan’s feelings and Jacob said, “Don’t worry, E, I know what you can do to get back at him……”
“Ask him to get you ketchup!” I interrupted, and we all laughed again.
(Incidentally, I cannot handle caffeine lately. I drank a very small bottle of coke a week or so ago at about 7:30 pm and I didn’t sleep that night until 2. Then, yesterday I drank half of my small diet coke and got all nervous and jittery from it. So now I’ve decided I won’t drink it anymore and I will only drink half-caf coffee.)
Well, we got home and I asked Rich if he could take one more picture of me and the kids and this time to please not cut the feet off.
So I get this:
Seriously! I got my phone back and there were about 35 pictures of just our legs and then this one:
We went in the house…home, finally home…it was like 2 at this point. Rich and I crashed into bed not meaning to actually take a nap, but we did and it was glorious.
When we got up we had to take the boys to the mall.
IN ORDER TO CHOOSE TUXES FOR THE PROM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jacob is going with Emily, who is a Jr. (it’s the JR prom, our school doesn’t have a SR prom)
Ethan is going single. Oh they are going to be so handsome in their tuxes. Stay tuned!
Good to be Home 