joining soulemama for another {this moment} post.
“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.”
a simply wonderful life
(listen as you read)
It’s a beautiful Saturday. The door keeps opening and slamming shut again as the children take turns running in and out for what specific reasons I don’t always know. What I do know is that they’re busy, it’s summer, and these are perfect days to enjoy their childhood. The windows are open and I can hear wind chimes blowing musically in the breeze. When my husband comes in I will ask him to make me a cup of coffee (he likes to). My eyes are sleepy from reading this afternoon, outside in the sun by the pond, with friend/daughter Grace contentedly by my side. Our little boys Seth and Caleb swam for a while and then ate popsicles. It’s good to sit and type, thinking about my family and how thankful I am for these days.
Yesterday was a very rainy fourth of July and we did NOTHING patriotic. (Wait, is grilling hot dogs patriotic?) I was exhausted and filled with determination to reorganize the downstairs boys’ room, and we did it. Ahh, it feels so good. I threw away several bags of garbage and old toys. I also weeded through their bookshelves and added another couple of bags to the pile to donate. The boys now have a lovely clean room.
Ironically, today was the annual library book sale. We all went, in two vehicles because Rich had to take our old broken freezer to the dump. After leaving behind three bags, and taking a new box of books, we went to the diner for lunch, and then I read outside on a blanket with Grace.
NEW BOOKS!! HAPPY DAY!!
My children will have memories of coming home with bags of used books, carefully chosen from the laden tables at our local library.
I was so happy to find another old C.W. Anderson “Blaze” book, the children love them.
I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people
who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen
(my personal stack)
(playing a card game) I love seeing the siblings pair off and do things together. They are forming such wonderful bonds for life. Grace and Jacob get along so well, and of course Jacob and Ethan are practically like twins with the way they’ve grown up together. David does well with Ethan, too. Caleb, Seth, and Sarah play together all day long, riding bikes and swimming. This is probably the best part of having lots of children, there’s always someone to spend time with and someone else to spend time with when the first person gets boring. 🙂
(clawing another’s face)
(spying)
(wondering)
(reading) That red book is my journal in which I write the titles and reactions to the books I read, along with dates and sometimes a quote or two.
(sunning)
I was looking down into my flower beds from the porch and spotted Billy sleeping.
He didn’t come. I sent Caleb out with a message for his dad that I would like a cup of coffee please. Two minutes later Rich stomped serenely through the house to get ice and a towel for his hand….”what did you do?!?”……. “oh, I burned my hand on that motor what kind of coffee am I making?”
I love my husband.
*****
glorious summer days
“Then I said softly to myself—-
‘That must have been the Sun!”
Emily Dickenson
Five or so years ago, one of Rich’s coworkers gave him two used basketball hoops that he didn’t want any longer. They were the kind that were free standing and had to be held down in place with a sand filled bottom. Eventually we found that they needed small boulders around the bottoms, too. These basketball hoops were great fun for the family, but over the years the backboards broke, and the nets ripped off. The children didn’t complain (that I know of) but when they went out to play, or had friends over, it was sort of sad to see them shooting hoops with this less than ideal set up.
There came a day, two weeks ago, when Rich had the time and energy to do something about the basketball hoops. He took Ethan with him and drove to the nearest sporting goods store, only to discover than there were none in stock. Nothing daunted, he got back in the truck with E and they drove another hour away to the only store that stocked what they needed.
For the rest of the day, Rich dug and dug, with Ethan by his side the entire time. The hole needed to be a certain depth and width to properly sink the pole for the new hoop. He did most of the digging, but after a while, when it was time to mix and pour the cement, Jacob and Ethan worked just as hard. They ran out of cement and without a word to me, Rich drove back out to Home Depot (it was dark by this time) to buy some more…….leaving the boys to work by themselves until he returned.
Rich had Jacob take a picture of Caleb in the hole before they started pouring cement.
After getting the cement poured, and the beginnings of the base inserted, they had to wait for it to thoroughly dry. They were excited, and would have finished the project sooner, but Rich was away for four days last week on a business trip. He returned on Thursday night, and on Saturday morning he went outside to finish the job, with all the boys around him. They played loud music and worked, reading the instructions carefully, and doing each step the best they could possibly do, under Rich’s leadership.
He’s a leader first and foremost, in the home.
Jacob and Ethan had a party to go to and were gone most of the day, but Rich had plenty of children left to shoot hoops with.
Here he is, with Grace:
The pole can adjust up and down so that the little boys can play, too.
When Rich played with the boys yesterday he played (as Ethan said) PHYSICAL. He has no mercy on the older ones. He plays rough on the teens, but in gentleness with the five year old (Seth was on his team) *when he remembered that Seth was there*. After they were all tired out, Jacob went to change his shirt because it was covered in his Dad’s sweat. They had a great time.
Especially the Dad.
When Rich takes his shirt off outside, Seth immediately takes his off, too.
It stopped me in my tracks to see their two shirts left behind: Rich threw his up on the side of his truck, so Seth put his there, too.
It’s important to marry a good man, because the children will almost certainly, and naturally, follow his lead.
That truth wasn’t in my head when I said yes to Rich’s marriage proposal, so I am all the more thankful on my knees to God, for giving me this good man for my husband and for the father of our children.
Often, the thing we are most gifted at is also the thing that gets annoying to our loved ones. Rich always has to have things to do, and rarely just sits around. After being gone all week it was hard for him to just stop and sit by the wife on the couch. On Saturday evening, after all that basketball playing, he had the nerve to say (right next to me!) that he was BORED. (I’m smiling as I type). Personally, I was tired, and with little Sarah sick with the stomach bug I was not going anywhere. It was my suggestion that he take the children out to pizza (in this way, I didn’t have to think about what to serve for dinner) and he did. At 7:00 pm, when I would have been thinking “It’s almost bedtime for the youngsters!” he loaded them up and headed to the pizza place.
He sent me the picture. I look at it and think, “KIDS WITH THEIR DAD”. I love it. Rich loves pizza and so do all the children.
It’s easy to be a good dad. Just do what you want to do, what you enjoy doing, and, with a loving heart, take the kids along for the ride.
The loving heart part is the key. Rich doesn’t TALK about his love as much as he shows it, and he shows it in ways that I remember and hold close in my heart. Like when he gets sad because the older ones are almost grown up and will leave him soon. Like when it bothers him more that it bother me, that Jacob has a girlfriend, because it’s another sign that his children are getting older………
Sarah was sick yesterday, and Grace was at Baccalaureate, so I took a few pictures in honor of Father’s day, of just Rich and his sons. I like pictures in which the children wear what they like to wear….my only requirement was that the boys turn their shirts around because they each had words on the front. Jacob is wearing socks because he hates going barefoot. It might look funny in the photo, but to me it is beautiful because that’s the way he is.
“To be honest, to be kind–to earn
a little and to spend a little less, to make
upon the whole a family happier for his presence…….”
Robert Lous Stevenson
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.
at the end of the day.
I love you.
***
You and I have settled down in our relationship, into something that is steady and true. We know each other. I know that you will say and do things that shock me at times; like that time you bought a motorcycle without saying a word to me about it. I found it in the garage one day. And that other time when you traded in the Lexus for a truck. I still really miss that car, but I have to admit the truck is more “you”.
You have stayed in the insurance business for the last 16 years but you have never let go of your dreams….you’ve done it all in your dreams….police officer, football player, race car driver, evangelist, homesteader, farmer, truck driver, there is still so much to do.
I’ll never forget the time you came home from work looking a lot more dazed than usual. You were the first on the scene of a horrible accident and had to pull a trapped man from a burning vehicle; he had already been terribly burned. You stayed with him until help came. The man died but he died in a hospital bed and not in a burning vehicle, because of your bravery.
You cry during sad movies.
You love your children deeply, in ways I am just beginning to understand as I see the genuine heartache and tears at the thought of our oldest boy soon to leave the nest.
You are an excellent father.
You are disciplined and like to see things done right.
You respect the men in your family; grandfather, uncles, father, are so important to you. You try to make them proud and I know that they are so very proud of who you have become.
You love the Lord and are passionate about teaching and preaching the Bible. In the last few years I have seen you grow and develop in ways I never thought I would see; as a missionary in Jamaica, and as a helper at the teen camp this past fall. You teach Bible study and Sunday School. You preach sermons. I’ve never seen you work so hard as when you have a message to say about God. You study all night in order to prepare.
You are teaching Ethan to drive.
You stocked the pond with fish for our boys.
You are building a treehouse with them.
You have learned to fix your little daughters’ hair.
You love to run. (you are downstairs running on the treadmill as I type this, I can hear the pounding rhythm of your feet)
Another favorite memory is from when we were first married and you couldn’t get the coal fire started downstairs as fast as you’d like; so you poured gasoline on it. The boom from upstairs startled me in the kitchen, and the look on your face when you walked into the room! You looked like someone who had a narrow escape from death, and the hair on and around your face was all twisted up and burnt.
More recently was when you blew up the kids’ basketball so hard that as soon as you touched it it exploded and tore your fingernail right backwards. That was another loud sound from your direction.
You’ve gotten your fair share of speeding tickets.
It seems you do things in big ways; big family, big job, big dreams, big home projects……..I LOVE YOU……
I love how you sometimes kiss my feet because you love me so much.
You’re an honest lover.
You hang my pictures on the wall for me.
You are generous with your money and never complain about my shopping trips, and you send me away on adventures with joy. (oh, wait a sec’…LOL)
You are the one who has the heart to heart talks with our older children, because you have the wisdom and words necessary for the task.
You are worthy of my respect and love; and you have it, with all my heart.
We are one.
It was fun to have babies with you and watch you with them as they grew.
You make me laugh.
You are silent most of the time. You take forever to answer a simple question. Sometimes I say “SPEAK!!!” and then you let out a little “woof” just to make me laugh.
I have a carrot cake in the oven for you because that is what you requested.
You leave your hat on the top of the lamp in our room and it used to bother me; but now I just leave it. I have come to love the sight of it there.
You have twice as many pairs of shoes that I do; but you also wear them out faster. You have things to do and places to go and miles to run~
Thank you for letting me have cats and chickens.
Thank you for overlooking my own many faults.
Thank you for being a good man, not a perfect man, but a good one, with strong character and a hard work ethic.
Thank you for being a provider.
Thank you for keeping yourself in good shape.
Thank you for leading.
Thank you for being fun.
Thank you for marrying me.
Thank you for never keeping your hands to yourself and making me laugh.
Thank you for telling me I am beautiful.
Thank you for who you are.
Happy Birthday, husband.
{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.
{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.
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.
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.
Even in the little things, he’s a good dad. 
I was 17 years old when we first fell in love…….and today is our 17th wedding anniversary.
I’m a very thankful woman, happily married to a good man.
Good to be Home 