Author: amylynw

Golgi Tendon Organ

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I’m not sure what the golgi tendon organ is exactly, but it’s scratched in Matthew’s familiar handwriting on a flashcard beside me.  Tonight the kids went with Matthew to church while I stayed home with Betty who’s sporting a fever.  I write this in our new “office” which is also just the corner of our bedroom.  There are flashcards full of anatomy and physiology terminology lying around, and tonight I’ve surprised Matthew by carrying up the comfy chair from the living room into our room so he can be cozy to read and study.  This week has been our adjusting week, keeping our communication open about expectations, and all of us learning to stay out of closed doors when Daddy is studying.  It was fun to see Matthew play in his first soccer game, and he was the only white boy in a field of Spanish and Caribbean boys.

The kids switched between watching him and playing on the playground.

The kids had their end of the year homeschool evaluations yesterday and finished well!  I’ve been busy getting next year’s affidavit and list of objectives all written out so I can file it with the school district.  During the summer we will work on Math drills and read, read, read.  It is such a satisfying feeling to accomplish something, and this school year was a positive accomplishment for us.  We all learned so much!

Thanks for all of your encouraging notes to us and words of affirmation about what God is doing in our lives.  We cherish your prayers for continued guidance, provision, and blessing as we walk this new path.  New for us, but already planned out and scoped ahead of time by our Heavenly Father.

Expecting Big Changes!

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So today is pretty significant on our list of “big days”.  Matthew is finishing up his last day of carpentry employment and then we turn the page and look at a huge blank sheet of paper.  Let me back up a bit.  For many years we’ve known that carpentry was just a means to an end, or at least a paycheck.  It has been a blessing, but we’ve recently felt the whispers of the Holy Spirit telling us to step out of the boat.  Leap off the cliff.  Cross that bridge that we can’t see but know is there.  You get the picture.  It’s not an easy task, but God never told us we wouldn’t feel afraid, He just said to be strong and courageous.  He said that He will never leave us.  He said that He’s completely trustworthy and knows the days of our book before any pages were even written.  He is a mighty refuge and a strong tower; we run to Him and are safe.  When all of those things are true (and they are!) we have nothing to fear, though I’ve already felt twinges of it creeping into my heart and mind when I don’t let the peace of God stand guard against it.

After today, what is our plan?  We can tell you roughly, but in reality our steps are ordered by God, so our lives are really like blank slates waiting for Him to fill in the details.  Matthew will be pursuing His life-long dream of teaching the Bible and doing pastoral work.  He will be hanging out with the fabulous pastors at our own local church, studying on his own, and teaching in the future.  He also wants to pursue becoming a personal trainer, so he will be studying intensely for the next couple of weeks to take a test to become certified.  His two passions of sports and people were perfectly meshed together on Sunday.  He came home from “checking out” a soccer game in town with a huge smile on his face and a soccer uniform in his hand.  For the next couple of months he will be playing for Mexico and polishing his Spanish skills alongside his soccer skills!

So, as far as the how and when our future will “fall into place”, we wait on the Lord to direct our steps to the right people, the right circumstances, and the perfect things he has in store for us to do and experience.  We live in the now.  I love the lyrics to this Michael Card song:

There is a joy in the journey
There’s a light we can love on the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
And freedom for those who obey.

Dreaming in Horse-Colored Glasses

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So, when the boys play outside, they get their imagination helmets on… or goggles; whichever you prefer.  They have a fort in the backyard, tucked between the alley way fence and the pine trees.  They have it decked out with old car mats (trash-picked from a neighbor) and other special treasures.

Here they stand, on either side of the fence, working on the burglar trap.  Not sure how it works, but Jack is testing its effectiveness.

There is so much to consider and laugh about when building a fort.

Nadine has been taking horseback riding lessons for a few weeks now.  She is in her element while touching any animal, especially horses.  Her teacher is terrific, and Nadine loves to tell us everything she has learned.

Last week we had so much fun watching her in the ring.  Elsie entertained herself by doing things like jumping from heights and picking dandelions.

Betty was thrilled to have her Daddy close-by.

There is nothing cuter than a father-daughter conversation on a bench.  It is exciting to watch them imagine, learn, and enjoy doing what they love to do.  It is so satisfying to do what you have been created to do.  Speaking of, in the near future we have many changes coming to our family… no, I’m not pregnant, and I will share more soon.  For now I must go and do something I’ve been created to do: fold laundry!

Experiencing Joy

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Experiencing new life never gets old.  Today I had the privilege of walking the hospital halls with my friend as she bravely faced the painful journey of bringing their baby into this world.  Every contraction just deepened my respect of her, of women, and of the amazing ability God has given us to manage excruciating pain.  The mind and body are amazing things!

 

I was so proud of my friend, Kelly, today.  Her courage was rewarded with this beautiful bundle of joy!  Elliott Joy to be exact!  8lbs 8oz on the 8th.  Thank you, Lord.

Bits for Jack

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Bits of memories from Jack’s boyhood cover the latest memory blanket.  He wanted a gun, so the camo gun was traced underneath his new cowboy pistol.  “My Dad is THE MAN!” was an orange shirt that he wore about every other day ever since he was four.  He was actually wearing it two days ago, when I peeled it off of him and told him how fun it would be to be a part of his memory blanket.  He was cool with the idea, and I felt a twinge of sadness, cutting his favorite shirt and knowing I would never see it come through the laundry room again.  The turtle was a baby shirt he wore in Belize, and the tiger shirt was his favorite shirt when he was two and three, before the other orange shirt became his favorite.  The camo pocket and “K” were from another shirt, worn the other days of the week the orange one was not.  I exaggerate, but only a little.  The bottom strip was from the rim of my favorite baby hat had he had.  It only fit him for a very short while.

Jack isn’t so little anymore.  He lost his first tooth this week, and was brave and matter-of-fact about pulling it out and tasting blood in his mouth.  He’s picking up more and more with reading.  He continues to perform death-defying acts on the trampoline, including a stunt which involved jumping from the peach tree and doing a front flip to land on his feet.  Yes, I video-taped it, and then I told him he couldn’t do it anymore.  He is boy, through and through, and whenever I hear the house shake, it’s usually just Jack, jumping from the top of his bunk onto the floor.  Last night he cleared a spot on his wall for his memory blanket.  Love that boy!

Bits for Betty

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This idea has been floating around in my head.  I’ve seen versions of projects like this and wanted to give it a shot!  So, out came the sewing machine last night, and I painfully made the first cut into Betty’s old clothes.  Each thing on this hanging is from a favorite baby outfit of hers, and the backing is one of the fluffy blankets Grandma gave her.  Now, instead of a useless pile of favorite outfits cluttering up a bin in our basement, we can see them!  When she’s older, we can giggle together about how cute her bottom looked when the big flower was on those brown pants she wore.

Monday Meditation

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What confidence is this in which you trust? I read that yesterday in 2 Kings 18:19 and mulled  it over all day.  I’ve been wondering if my life reflects confidence in God.

We’ve all been asked to do hard things. Things that don’t make sense. I’m learning more and more that life isn’t about doing what is comfortable. Life is about doing what has been written beforehand for us to do. My life doesn’t always have to make sense. In fact, it shouldn’t make sense to the majority of the world. This earth is not my home. Thirty-two years ago I was given my first breath of oxygen, and God hasn’t ever once given me permission to get comfy on this earth and do what’s easy. Eternity gets dimmed when I get into the rut of being comfortable. I want to long for heaven, and the only way to long for something is to want everything else less.

What confidence is this in which you trust? When great and troubling things are all around us. When difficult decisions stand like a fork in the road and we wonder which path to take. When death threatens to sting us. When loneliness seems to overwhelm us. If I didn’t know that all of my days were written before any of them came to be, then I wouldn’t have the confidence to wake up tomorrow. If I didn’t know that I’ve been promised to never be left alone, I would be afraid to go one more day.

What confidence is this in which you trust? My answer comes in Isaiah 25:9.

Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This the LORD; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. This is my confidence in which I trust.  For You have been a strength to the poor. A strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat.

Sweet Six

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Jack Attack turned six last weekend.

We had a relaxed family day at Grandma Weldon’s.  While the rain poured outside, we enjoyed chocolate cupcakes and a warm fire.

A new game of Perfection made us laugh, with its power to startle every single time it exploded.

Betty loves to give kisses, and who is better to love than Daddy?

So now we have a six-year-old in the house.  Even though he’s still patiently waiting for his first tooth to fall out, he’s growing up.  He’s my own personal body guard and he’s my sweet little boy.    I do hope he always dreams big, like his walls that are covered in taped up wishes and dreams.  Pages of lego magazines and cars and toys.  Drawings he has made.  Cockeyed static stickers.  He has so many dreams of being a man.  One day he will be just that, and I pray that his heart will always be tender towards others.  I know that one day he won’t have playing cards duct-taped to his bicycle wheels to make it sounds like a motorbike.  He won’t always wear his shirts backwards or forget to put on his underwear.   He will no longer have a shelf full of shiny rocks, bottle caps, lego men, old keys, and special memories.  Or, maybe he will.

There is Always a Song

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She asked me if the word “flower” started with an “L”.  I said, No, it starts with an “F”, and then went back to what I was doing.  A minute later, she brought me the paper she had been working on and showed me the word “flower” written across it in neat four-year-old handwriting.  My jaw dropped.  Something clicked in that little brain of hers, and this week she started to read sentences like, I am Sam, and Mat sat.  Yesterday she was singing her ABC’s opera-style.  Infact, she sings more than half of her day away.  Her words tell stories, feelings, and funnies.  She recently hurt her big toe and I overheard her telling Nadine about it.  She was saying how her owie was “right on my big pinky.  It was SO much bleeding.  Mommy put a bandaid on it.  It’s a kitty bandaid.  It’s pink.  I like them.  Where did you get the hello kitty  bandaids, Mommy?  Wegmans?  I like that store.”  And on she goes until she falls asleep at night.  Even then, Nadine informs me she talks in her sleep.  Elsie, last night you said, ‘I want crackers!’ in your sleep!  When I told her to drink some more water she said, I’m going to lose my heart if I do that!  When we were outside, she was looking at her shadow and said, Look at the statue of my hair!  Her little pony tails were sticking out.   

This morning she told me, Mom, I want to go skydiving for our date.  When we’re driving, the inside volume of our car is usually on the higher decibel level.  If you can imagine two or three conversations going on, complete with sound effects, sometimes a baby squawking in the midst, and then to top it all off, Elsie is usually singing.  Songs about life.  Songs about Jesus.  Songs about her family.  It is so out of place sometimes.  Usually I just hear lots of noise.  Then when I separate the sounds, I can hear her little sweet song, oblivious to the cacophony around her, singing from her heart.  Oh, Elsie Rose.  What a beautiful song you bring to our lives.