I heard this song for the first time today and loved it.
When I get Home…..what wonderful words, what a wonderful thought.
when I get home
1
tiny music maker
Lately I’ve been feeling blessed by family in so many ways.
Look who came to visit Aunt Shanda today!
The three of us sisters sat and visited over tea.
And then I took the baby to the piano and showed her the keys and what they did.
She figured it out easily.
It was a beautiful moment, to see these tiny baby hands making baby music.
She absolutely loved it, and so did we, as we watched her delight.
We played a few hymns, including Jesus Loves Me.
Then we took her out to the livingroom and ate cookies (she couldn’t eat one so she had some milk) and then she fell into a sound and happy asleep. She had an exciting morning.
milk-drunk
We also put her hair in a pony tail.
Ah it’s such fun to play with real live baby dolls!
Thanks Amanda and Cassandra and Elena for visiting me today!
just because (sarah portraits)
thank you for letting mama take your pictures, I love you Sarah
good things
“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of your wonderful deeds.”
Tuesday morning
listening to music
staring out the window, the eaves are dripping, dripping, dripping (in time to the music)
lots of photos to share;
((for the people I love))
On Friday night we were watching the Incredibles 2
I was sitting weary but happy at my favorite spot at the table when Seth came by and said “I want to sit on you” and he sat on my lap. I couldn’t see the movie very well after that but I put my nose in the back of his hair now and then and breathed in this boy of mine. I gave that look across the room to Rich that he knows means, “Take a picture!”
The very next morning, he was 10 and opening his big bag of gifts with some of his best friends watching curiously.
He was given Dude Perfect things to play with, a new outfit, a stuffed animal dog that breathes thanks to a battery (he named it Oliver), and other little things.
I mixed up his requested birthday cake, which was Red Velvet, and then off we went to the wrestling tournament at our High School. Rich is the head coach and hadn’t slept a wink the night before in all the excitement……
Here he is, opening up the day of wrestling.
Meanwhile, the birthday boy had a good friend with him all day and they (along with other boys) had the greatest time in the gym and also in the wrestling room nearby, playing football and running around. They came to me now and then, mostly to get money so Seth could buy himself stuff in the cafeteria. Since it was his birthday I didn’t say things like, “Don’t get candy with this” like I normally would.
David with his friend Tristan. Best boys in the world (the whole team is awesome)
There is so much sitting around and waiting at these tournaments. David stayed bundled in his warm ups until it was time to wrestle.
I found myself a spot at the top of the bleachers so I could rest my back against the wall. Sarah stayed nearby and we played cards and she also had a book and her DS. I was able to chat with another wrestling mom which was fun, her name was Shannon.
Dave after a win, going to the center to take off his ankle strap and get his hand raised.
“Mom, can I have your phone?”
“Only if you sit over here and have your picture taken with me, birthday boy!”
David getting set up to pin.
My wonderful son.
Another wonderful son (Caleb)…..watching one of our guys wrestle.
Later on that night (what a long day, also Dave got 4th place in his bracket), Seth blew out his birthday candles and we ate the cake. I had been concerned that it wasn’t going to be perfect……..but it was. (in all humility)
Isn’t it just so pretty on a Shamrock fiesta plate? By the way, the newest color is another shade of green and they named it “Meadow” and I cannot wait to get a piece of it!!!!
(((Walter pictures))) This cat is adored! He’s sitting on the floor staring at me as I type, too, it’s quite funny.
Well, and then on Sunday we all know what day it was. Superbowl number 53 and my team was in the game. Every time my husband flies into L.A. he gets me merchandise so I was all set to wear Rams stuff from head to toe.
We cleaned and pushed furniture around, plowed the driveway, ordered pizza and wings, and prepared for a houseful of friends all day long!
I was tired out so around 4 I went to bed to rest. I was highly amused by the frequent visitors I had……
Seth even stole my hat!
Isaac was the first to arrive and pretty much the first thing he said after taking off his coat and hugging me was “is that a red velvet cake?” and he ate 2 pieces. 🙂
I sat right in between my sis and my bro and it was a delight. It was also a delight to see our girlies play and have fun. Naomi braided Sarah’s hair and then they made batch after batch of slime upstairs. They didn’t even make that big of a mess….I just had to vacuum the next morning what with all the glitter and foam beads everywhere.
This picture makes me so so so so happy! Rich invited his wrestlers to come watch the game and we had some parents stay, too. Our friends Chris and Carolyn came again this year (they have in the past as well) and it was great to see them and catch up. We had TON of food to enjoy. I’m just so thankful and happy to have good friends through our community. Look at Seth and John standing on the bookshelf behind the couch. And Sarah sitting with her Uncle Isaac. And sweet Naomi sitting between me and her mama. I really need to print this and put it on my fridge. I’ll smile all day.
Well, alas, I was disappointed in how the game turned out. My team lost to my son’s favorite team and Caleb has such a sweet heart that he felt bad and just stood next to me in silence as we watched the Patriots celebrate after the clock ticked down and the game was over. “You can be happy, Caleb!” said Rich, but Caleb didn’t have it in him. I had to go get groceries the next morning so I thought I would see if I could get Caleb a shirt to show him I was a good sport. 😉
I took this photo at 6:20 this morning!!!!
By the way, when you have wrestlers in the house they’re gonna wrestle. Caleb got a huge goose-egg on his forehead and another boy hurt his thumb (Rich even wonders if it’s broken). That shadowy spot on Caleb’s head is The Bruise.
I went for a nice walk yesterday again, the temps reached 60 which felt so nice after days and days of frigid temperatures. I even saw a Robin taking a bath in a stream in the woods. The birds were happy, too.
(after a long day) we were texting Michael and the kids and laughing on the couch.
Pictures from this morning. (see Walter?) Grace, David got the ink pot unstuck from the table finally.
I sang him a song about a Handsome Handsome Cat.
I praised the sunrise.
And a few minutes later, the morning golden glow.
“Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for all mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”
amazing
It had been a long while since I had gone to the woods by myself so I practically ran.
I spent so much time over the holidays inside malls, inside the house, inside the car, doing, doing, doing. It was time to just “be”.
I took all of these photos on Friday.
First stop was the chicken coop where I found some eggs. Walter begged and begged to go on the walk with me but I said “no” right away because I knew (from what Grace had told me) that all he would do is feel lost and scared and meow a lot. Therefore, I put the eggs and the cat in the house.
I’m so thankful to live close to running water. In fact, I was outside again yesterday in the cold sun, laying back on the frozen ground with my eyes shut, listening to the sound of it.
The tree I hugged.
self-portrait
funny icicles hanging down from a fallen pine tree
Looks like snow or styrafoam, but it’s really some kind of fungus.
more pretty pretty fungus on a fallen tree
The sunshine was really lovely to see on this walk, after several gloomy days.
I am an admirer of ice.
In fact, I ate a bite of it. It tasted good, like pine, but later on when I gave some to Sarah she spit it out and said it “tasted like the stench of the forest.”
As I made my way around to the stream again (the same stream from near our house, only deeper in the woods) I found that it had flooded the day before, well beyond its banks. Then, it froze overnight and the next morning when the water started to recede, it left its coat of ice spreading across the ground.
I stood up on a bank to take this photo, looking down across the ice. I closed my eyes and could hear it falling and cracking. It almost sounded like someone else walking throught it in the distance, but I was alone.
I got as close as I could to the water and sat on a frozen moss covered boulder for a while.
(A good thinking spot.)
I didn’t see any birds but the closer I got to the field the more I could hear them.
The trees had sheets of ice hanging off their lower branches. Sometimes a wind would blow gently through and shake the ice enough to make a sound like soothing wind chimes.
It was all such a delight and my face was pleasantly cold. It felt good to BREATHE.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say over and over again. Everytime I go outside for a walk I get surprised (and smile a lot) over something in God’s big beautiful world. Which is why I always take my camera along.
My heart, mind, and soul go back home refreshed.
“If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much.”
~Mary Oliver
permitted
We left at 8:15 this morning to drive through rush hour traffic to go to the DMV testing center. The weather was astounding; pounding rain and in the 50’s after days when everything was frozen solid and not even 10 degrees. We drove through it together, my hands on the steering wheel, his hands clutching the laptop on which the driver’s manual was displayed.
Neither one of us slept much last night for whatever reason.
When I tried to make conversation he said, eyes on the computer screen, “Shhhhh, stop” and so I just reached over and patted his shoulder with a laugh. I’m glad he’s safe and comfortable enough with me to be true.
We arrived 15 minutes before the doors would be unlocked and Dave thought it was just way too long of a wait. He was nervous.
Just as I knew he would, he passed easily.
“That was incredibly nerve wracking.”
“My hands were shaking the whole time.”
“Okay now I gotta do my History homework.”
And that’s what he did.
We also got Dunkin Donuts coffees and listened to music.
Me and my buddy Dave. How I love him.
I dropped him off at school and then got groceries…and very wet…..came home, and crashed on the couch. I didn’t do a thing for the past 2 hours but watch TV and snooze with a cat on my lap.
When Caleb got home from school, he joined us.
This is the view from here.
Happy Thursday, friends.
smart bird
In the early part of winter I had cut a big armful of winterberry branches from the side of the stream and put them out by the birdfeeders. Actually, I had originally put them in the house for a natural Christmas decoration but the cats wouldn’t leave them alone so I ended up putting them outside. They looked pretty out there and I’ve enjoyed seeing them each time I looked out the window; delightful bright red berries.
Look what came to visit yesterday! I was on the couch minding my own business when out of the corner of my eye I saw it fly to the tree by the bird feeder. I said, “What in the world?” I’ve never had a Robin come to the feeders as they don’t eat seed, much less a Robin in the dead of winter on the most coldest of days. I thought maybe it was a curious, sociable Robin and was trying to see what all the other neighborhood birds were doing on my porch.
But it really came to eat the berries.
Smart bird.
..the dark sacred night..
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Good morning, it’s -5 outside, ice coating everything, sunshine lighting up the trees so they look all-over silver. The most beautiful world outside, do the little wild animals in the woods enjoy it, too?
My heart is overflowing with joy.
I stayed up last night taking photos of the moon. This morning I woke up to the children being so charming; Sarah already outside with her hair yellow and glowing down her back, Caleb and Seth laughing and fooling around together downstairs, David trying to make a fire using foil and batteries (“it only made smoke”). Sports Center blaring on the TV, cats eager to be fed, and a movie playing on the small TV in the addition with no one around to watch it.
Good morning texts on the phone from my beloved sister and brother. Today is Weston’s birthday, I can’t believe my little nephew is eleven today.
I couldn’t wait to look at my moon photos.
Dear Joanna watched it with me, way way faraway in Pennslyvania. My family all fell asleep.
The magical moon.
It was so cold that I went out the front door, said hello, took a few photos, and then went back inside to warm up for another 10 minutes or so.
I didn’t bother with a tripod. I just tried my best to get the settings on my camera correct and then *didn’t fiddle around* simply because it was too cold and I had no mittens on my hands.
It really does look as if it’s hanging in the sky.
I have needs and hopes and wishes and wants and complaints. But last night when I was standing under an inky black sky, under a beautiful moon, in my slippers on top of a cold hard snow and my nose was freezing and my hands were freezing, and I was wearing a coat and a robe and a hoodie, I thought to myself………..
God is 1,000,000,000 bigger than any of my petty problems.
Vast, immeasurable, mighty, and……. and amazingly…….He loves & cares for you and me!
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us–none can compare to You–if I would proclaim and declare of them, they are more than could be numbered. Psalm 40:5
yesterday
Rich took Seth and Caleb to their wrestling tournament and I took the others to church. When we were leaving church David told me, “Mom. I’m craving a jelly donut for some reason.” “Oh, really Dave?” was my reply, and we went to Wendy’s drive-thru for lunch and started the half hour drive home.
*****
Five minutes from home, I pulled into our local Dunkin’ Donuts saying, “I’m craving a jelly donut for some reason.”
It was fun to see his smile.
I found his cookies
David came home from practice yesterday, made a protein shake in the blender, took a shower, and then wandered back into the kitchen and said in his morose-sounding Eeyore voice, “I think I want to make chocolate chip cookies.” “Do it!” we all cried.
“Mom, where’s your recipe.”
“I just use the one on the bag but add more flour.”
“Okay.”
He wanted walnuts in them but couldn’t find them. I knew this by the loud moans and groans, so I ran to the kitchen to pull out a stool to help him look. When I found them I sang a happy celebration song, sort of bragging, until he said, “Okay, stop.” in his dry way.
David is charming to me. I used to blog about him the way he was when he was a little boy and all the interesting things he would do….catch birds with homemade traps, catch turtles, draw comics, fish, swim in his underwear, read interesting books, make crafts, say interesting things as only he can say them.
I still blog about him the way he is, with his shirt off, now 16 years old, working on cookies, trying to take a 8 minute nap on the couch as each tray bakes, and suddenly noticing “Mom has the camera out.”
“I think I feel sick,” he admitted. “Too much cookie dough.”
****
Sarah started watching him.
“Dave? What kind of cookies are you making? If you answer me now, I won’t ask you again later!”
“Sarah go away.”
“Dave, how can you be so mean, I never heard her ask a question so sweetly!”
“I know! She’s being FAKE. I can’t STAND FAKE WOMEN.”
She’s not even nine yet.
*****
“Just so everyone knows, these are MY cookies, I’m going to hide them and save them for rewards.”
He has to watch his weight for wrestling so I think this is smart.
He likes to put cookies in the toaster to warm them up.
He doesn’t wear an apron, he doesn’t need to, because skin is easy to clean.
He tidied up his mess somewhat, but this morning when he was gone at school I scrubbed the cookie sheets with hot soapy water and put them away. I also got to eat the one solitary remaining cookie for breakfast, dunking it into my coffee. Thinking about my son. The walnuts and chocolate tasted so good.
Later on, when I wasn’t thinking about him at all, I found his cookies.
Good to be Home 